The princess summoned me from the quarters I had been given. I wasn’t really psyched to be working for her, but I reminded myself that it was only till after we stopped the invasion. I had managed to get a decent amount of information from Kawaii till this point, but she was still out scouting for more information.
The princess had led me to a part of the palace where I could sense incredibly dense mana. There were several people with large quantities of mana practicing magic or doing research. The agent theorised that this was the source of the leylines. It said this generated the basic magic structure, but them powering it at all times was unlikely, meaning there was another source that powered their magic circle and allowed for the leylines to be active at all times.
‘Why are we here?’
I asked the princess, but she ignored me and kept swimming. Her mind was completely blank, meaning she was still on-guard around me. Although, I hadn’t seen the guard from the day before around. He quickly recovered even after I beat him close to death, but his disappearance was curious. Then again, the tension between us would have been too awkward for my liking.
We were in a large area that was at the bottom of the palace. It was akin to a parking garage with several pillars holding it up and multiple desks littered with items and parchments. This space was lit up by some glowing orbs and creatures called Glowfish. There were about 10 guards surrounding this room at the coerners, even though this space looked like it could easily take two hundred mermen and have excess space for them.
Speaking of mermen, there was a large number of them going about reading scrolls, tweaking items and casting magic. Due to [Magic Perception] I could tell that what they were doing were experiments since the spells they were casting were incomplete. The items that they were working on were at least [Rare] rank. The oddest was seeing a group of five merman drawing a large magic circle on the ceiling of the room. They were intensely discussing amongst themselves on how to place certain things and there was one person at the bottom giving directions while monitoring their progress.
“No! Not like that you idiots! Put the teyvat rune over there!”
He yelled and the others started shouting at him. It was a noisy mess of mad scientists. Not exactly how I imagined a place filled with magicians to be.
While swimming through the mess of crazy magic mermen, I ended up bumping into one. He was smaller than the princess, albeit bigger than me. He had seaweed green hair, cut-short with a few braids hanging down. His face was littered with freckles, making him look scary. He wore round spectacles, cobalt blue eyes. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept for weeks straight.
He looked at me for a second, scanning me from head to toe. It was just a weird moment of us just looking at each other, before he put his hand to his chin.
“Beautiful.”
I heard him mutter.
‘Did I just hear? N-Nope. No. I misheard him.’
‘She is really beautiful. Since when was she around here?’
For some reason, I felt my heart plummet into the depths of despair. I quickly swam after the princess, but the merman kept looking at me. Once I got to her side, I sighed. The princess noticed this and curiously asked me.
“What’s wrong with you?”
‘It’s nothing.’
I quickly shot it down, hoping she wouldn’t go too far. Unfortunately for me, she looked back and noticed him still staring at me.
“Oh? Nori likes you?”
She guessed the entire situation at one glance, but I wasn’t going to even entertain his thoughts.
‘You know him?’
“Of course. He is my brother.”
‘Her brother?’
I looked at him once again. Honestly, he didn’t look nearly as majestic as I expected him to look. He looked like a lazy otaku that had been up finishing a massive game without rest. Then again, a NEET wouldn’t be roaming around this time of day.
Fortunately for me, he stopped looking at me and swam off to wherever it was he was going to. When I checked him, he didn’t have the class [Orator] like his sister did, but instead he was a [Magician] class. This was the guy who was trying to eliminate the princess? The one I wanted to make a deal with. Fortunately, he found my appearance appealing. I could just use that to get him to agree to the deal since this princess is just delaying.
I had between today and tomorrow to determine if he was competent enough to partner up with.
‘He’s not a leader though.’
I accidentally said to her. A grin formed on the corner of her mouth.
“So, you can tell who can lead and who can’t? You have a good eye. Maybe I should introduce you to Nanek for you to compare.”
‘Nanek? Who is that?’
“My brother.”
‘Eh? You have 2 brothers?’
“No. I have three hundred and forty-seven brothers and two hundred and seventy-three sisters.”
My jaw dropped in shock. She had more than three hundred brothers?! That was completely absurd.
“Is that surprising? I heard that my father had over a thousand siblings.”
‘Ah… her father had over a thousand siblings? What the hell is wrong with this family?’
“Anyway, I am the youngest child. The genius prodigy, Elriek, fated to lead Atlantis into its new age!”
She boasted loudly, but all those around performing their experiments paid no mind to us. Thinking about it more, wherever I looked, I saw the name Den Anon Yorul. I honestly didn’t think much about it, believing that it was a common name around here. Then again, the fact that literally every merman in this palace had the name was strange.
I could feel my stomach grumble with just the thought of all the delicacies roaming about. Especially the strong ones. I could just imagine how strong I would end up being if I started consuming them one by one slowly.
“Unfortunately, my brother also showed enough potential to be competition to inherit the crown.”
‘So, it’s a competition for the crown and your brother is trying to eliminate you? That’s why you need protection?’
“Basically.”
She bluntly responded. I assumed that was information she didn’t want me hearing. The fact that she told me implied two things. Either she trusted me with her life completely, or she was only telling me this for a ploy of sorts. I wasn’t so dumb as to presume the former.
‘I see. So, why are we here again?’
“That’s a secret.”
She said and tapped on one of her brothers. He was a hulking presence who looked menacing.
“Your highness?”
He looked as exhausted as the guy from before.
“Torek, would you please tell me where the Grand Court Mage is?”
“Hmm, he should be further back. Down towards the basement, in his office.”
He gave us directions towards the room before returning to his work. Just like the brother from before, he too was busily working.
I looked in the direction he had pointed. For some reason, the number of mermen towards that place only decreased the further one went. And standing at the opposite sides of the path, were two mermen guards. Both of them appeared to be the princess’ brothers as well. I felt kind of nervous approaching that place. The sheer amount of mana coming out of that place was more than frightening enough.
The princess fearlessly charged towards the door like a war monger. I felt like that one coward in war who would desert the battle now. Then again, if my chances of winning were below 50%, I wouldn’t even attempt. I can’t afford to get myself killed recklessly.
Sadly, I followed after the princess. I expected the guards to bow to her or something, but they paid no mind to her as we passed by. Maybe that was a custom here?
We descended down the stair case towards the bottom.
‘Why’s there a staircase here?’
Akira asked a very interesting question. We all looked to the agent for answers, but it gave us none. The only option would be the princess, but she had successfully ignored all of my questions for the day. It wouldn’t be surprising if she did so again.
The deeper down we went, the lesser the amount of light. It eventually became too dark to see anything, but the princess forged forward dauntlessly. As we got closer, my [Superior Survival Instincts] were going on a rampage. At first, I assumed it was because of how strong the grand court mage was, but he was not my problem. The scary thing was what was in the shadows in staring at us intensely. I didn’t know if the princess could sense it or not, but judging by her complete lack of reaction, she hadn’t noticed it.
The thing in the darkness was observing us up till the point the princess knocked on the door. It suddenly disappeared, as if it were never there. I sighed exasperated by the very awkward moment I had with it. Reminded me of the intense gazes on me whenever I walked around.
Sure, you could say it was all in my head, but on the real, it wasn’t. Even Ken and Akane had noticed that very weird phenomenon sometimes.
The doors opened with a resounding clank. A blinding light hit our eyes for a moment, right before we were both pulled into the room.
Once I regained my vision, I saw an old merman with a scruffy beard, a red bandana over his head and large goggles with easily over five lenses on it. His body was skinny with his rib-cage showing and wrinkly skin forming. He was bare chested, revealing a weird red tattoo on his body to us. His skin leaned more towards cream than white and his tail was a worn-out shade of yellow.
“Princess? To what do I owe the honour?”
He asked her, his hands fidgeting about with an orb in his hands.
“It seems you have forgotten the right mode of conduct for your future queen.”
She folded her hands and glared at him. His reaction to her statement was hidden by his goggles and beard.
“It appears so. Please forgive me.”
‘Aww, my cute Elriek is finally acting like a good monarch!’
Contrary to how I expected him to react, he was completely overjoyed by her behaviour.
“Welcome your highness.”
The old man bowed to her.
“What may I do for you today?”
He asked as he removed the goggles from his head. The princess gestured at me.
“She is a new entrant. Please provide a magic card to her.”
The old man looked at me while scratching through his beard.
‘V-Vermillion?! She’s smaller than I remember though. Wait… does Vermillion’s species shrink the older they get? No… last time she came here she was as big as Elriek. Hmmm, no. There’s something different about her.’
The old man was thinking about someone called Vermillion while looking at me. This made me remember a conversation I had back in that human city with that party of adventurers. A member of my species was looking for me back then. Were they this Vermillion figure?
“Hmm, you. What’s your name?”
‘Me? Uh, Hinotori.’
His eyes widened, then he let out a depressed sigh.
“I see. Well then, Hinotori. I’ll need to test your magical output, is that alright with you?”
I wondered why he was depressed after hearing my name, but decided to not think too much about it. He was just some random old man.
