Chapter 816: Rotten Tail

After Alfonso’s soft introduction, Coral underwater seemed to hear the sound and timidly looked up toward the surface.

This also allowed Saul to clearly see her face obscured by red hair.

He actually had the sensation of seeing the little mermaid from fairy tales.

The mermaid named Coral had a narrower skull and jaw compared to ordinary humans, but could already be called an oval face.

She possessed red pupils the same color as her hair, sparkling like rubies.

However, before Saul could continue admiring the mermaid’s appearance, she did a backward flip in the pool, revealing her lower body’s tail.

Saul immediately frowned.

Half of Coral’s fish tail was actually rotted away.

Her tail was blue-green like a clear sky after rain, but with most of it missing, exposing tail bones and large amounts of rotted flesh that had turned white from soaking in water.

There were also scattered pieces of flesh connected to the tail by thin strands of meat, looking like they could be torn off with a little force.

The translucent tail fin clearly reflected colorful halos like a pearl, but was also full of gaps and in tatters.

In short, it looked very painful.

“This is the black tide pollution you mentioned? Its surface characteristics don’t quite match the black tide pollution I’ve seen before.”

Alfonso said seriously: “We’ve preliminarily ruled out the possibility of pollution caused by other substances. As long as they stay in seawater with black tide, the pollution worsens.”

If Alfonso wasn’t lying, then this rotting could really be caused by black tide pollution.

“Well, black tide pollution has diverse manifestations. Maybe this is a newly appeared characteristic.” Saul didn’t speak definitively.

“I’ve named this pollution disease ‘Rotten Tail.'”

Saul nodded. “Very descriptive.”

“The first case of rotten tail disease was Coral. Because she’s an atavistic mermaid, we pay relatively high attention to her. It might also be that because of the atavism, her tolerance to black tide pollution is lower than current mermaids. Fortunately, we discovered the symptoms in time and found their contagious nature, so we could isolate all diseased mermaids before a large-scale outbreak.”

Saul observed the other mermaids and found they also had rotting tails, but the most severely rotted was still Coral.

“I’d like to take some of her diseased tissue.”

Alfonso didn’t object. “You can, but be careful. These mermaids are very wary of wizards. If you frighten her, she might struggle very violently. She’s the first patient—we can’t let her die yet.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve been a doctor for several years too.” Saul took off his wizard robe and casually threw it on the sand behind him.

Then he jumped into the water with a smooth entry that only created shallow ripples on the surface.

Alfonso stood on shore with arms crossed, watching Saul’s movements, somewhat dazed as if thinking of something.

As Saul entered the water, the mermaids fighting for food immediately fled in panic toward rock crevices.

But strangely, Coral, who should have equally feared humans, remained in place. Her gaze toward Saul even held a trace of curious affinity.

When Saul approached, Coral actually swam toward him.

At this distance, Saul keenly discovered that Coral’s soul body was slightly stronger than other mermaids. Perhaps thanks to atavism, her intelligence was closer to a human child’s.

After Coral approached Saul, she extended both hands and grabbed one of his arms.

“Is it because of Floco? Do I have remnants of Floco’s mental power that make her feel close to me?” Saul boldly speculated.

Water God Floco was from the Azure Scale Clan, and Coral had undergone atavism, so she might be familiar with Floco’s mental power.

Saul extended his hand, transforming it into semi-transparent tentacles that covered Coral’s half-rotted fish tail.

Painlessly, Saul took several samples from Coral, wrapping them in tentacles and retracting them into his body.

Because he didn’t yet understand the pollution on Coral, Saul cautiously isolated the samples from his main body.

After taking samples, Saul again swept over Coral’s mental power. Looking at her ruby-like large eyes, he raised his hand to gently caress her cheek.

Coral had tiny scales on both sides of her cheeks that felt rough yet smooth to the touch.

Coral closed her eyes like a little cat, almost ready to purr with enjoyment.

Saul seriously examined Coral’s body structure, then turned to the surface.

Coral opened her eyes in confusion and even chased after Saul for several meters.

Just then, she suddenly saw a small black tentacle emerge from Saul’s nape.

The tentacle tip opened, revealing a black tongue.

“Blub blub blub blub…”

Little Algae stuck out its tongue, bubbles emerging from its mouth.

Coral widened her eyes and reached out to grab that black tentacle, but in her peripheral vision, she saw the gloomy man at the water surface not far away.

Coral’s movements paused. She shrank her shoulders as if very afraid, then flicked her tail and fled back to the pool’s depths as if escaping.

Saul didn’t notice the commotion below and could only sense that Coral had chased for a while before giving up.

He climbed out of the clear, cold pool, used magic to clean excess water and dirt from his clothes, and put on the wizard robe he’d thrown aside.

“How could Coral be so close to you?” Alfonso had been stunned for a while. As soon as Saul emerged from the water, he couldn’t wait to ask.

“Probably because I also have a mermaid nearby, and she finds the aura familiar,” Saul said casually. “Besides, as a doctor, I naturally need to know how to comfort patients.”

Alfonso looked thoughtful. “Could you teach me how to comfort mermaids?”

“Do you also need to comfort mermaids? I thought the Tribunal was used to solving problems with violence.”

“That’s not violence, just necessary means.” Alfonso retorted, but thinking of Saul’s method of comforting mermaids, he rarely softened his tone. “I can trade my unique dark attribute magic with you.”

Saul stroked his chin. “I’ll consider it.”

After seeing the mermaids, Alfonso’s introductory work was finished for the day. The next contact would have to wait until Saul thoroughly understood the materials and samples he’d obtained from Alfonso.

Otherwise, without knowing even basic theory, he couldn’t conduct further research.

Returning by the same route, Saul didn’t need Alfonso to escort him back. He directly located Kate and teleported back to his palace.

After returning to the palace, Saul didn’t wander around. The Tribunal’s attitude toward him wasn’t yet clear, so naturally he wouldn’t roam about looking for trouble.

After both Saul and Alfonso left, the cold moonlight continued to illuminate the beach as always.

In the deep pool by the sea, red-haired Coral was swimming toward the pool’s deepest part.

Swimming to depths invisible to the naked eye, she suddenly turned and crashed into a rock.

Then her entire body disappeared into it.

There was actually a mechanism under this rock—not relying on magic, but using dyed seaweed and algae to disguise it as part of the rock.

Unless patrolling wizards came down personally, mental power scans couldn’t detect problems here.

Behind the mechanism was a crevice only allowing one mermaid to pass through. Swimming up and out of the crevice, Coral came to a dim cave.

She jumped out of the water surface and dragged her damaged fish tail toward another pool on the opposite side of the cave.

“Sister, don’t move, I’m coming over!”

A voice suddenly rang out in the cave, creating intermittent echoes.

Coral’s face suddenly showed lively anger. “Quiet!”

Her voice wasn’t loud, but her expression was enough to convey the message.

Another mermaid suddenly emerged from the pool opposite.

It was a male mermaid.

He looked almost exactly like Coral, except his hair and pupils were both blue-green, deep and beautiful like aquamarine.

His name was also Aqua.

(End of Chapter)

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