The three of us went towards the pier in preparation to dive down to the Undertown where the Deepsea Merfolk lived.
I was honestly half expecting those three thugs that Odeta roughed up to be there waiting for us with an even larger group of people but surprisingly, nothing of that sort happened.
I guess they were just small time thugs preying on small groups or something and decided to run away somewhere else.
Emilia turned back to us just as we reached the pier, “Alright. Once we go down there, it’ll be hard to communicate so let’s just go through the plan first!”
Odeta frowned at her, “What? We’re just going down there and beating some bad people up right? What’s there to talk about?”
The Nekomata huffed, “We need to find him of course. Besides, neither of you actually knows what he looks like right?”
“Cheh, just beat up everyone we come across until we beat the right one. Simple!”
“First of all… You’ll be underwater. You’re not going to move as easily as you would on land. So instead of you beating them up, it could very well be them beating you up!”
I raised my hand, “That’s also something I wanted to ask… How exactly are we going to beat him in the first place? It’s not like there’s a place for us to fight properly right? Do we just flail around in the water and hope for the best?”
Emilia turned to look at me like I just said something weird, “Umm… I would be the one beating them up, Lady Aster. You’re there to help me with the air bubble and Miss Odeta is there to intimidate the others.”
Odeta scowled, “What?! What do you mean I’m just there to intimidate only?! Actually, why are you even in charge?! Sister Aster should be the one in charge!”
Umm… I don’t really think I should, Odeta… I don’t even know this place… All I know is that I want my sweets from that stupid fish.
Emilia tilted her head, “Huh? I don’t think either of you have experience fighting underwater, do you?”
Odeta pointed a finger at her, “And you do?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. How else did you think I met that stupid backstabbing little fish? When I was still young, some merfolk thought they could steal from me and dove deep into the water, so I swam after him and beat him up underwater. Then I came across Merrick there.”
I widened my eyes, “How did you do that?”
“Ohohoho~ Simple! I just held my breath, beat him up, came back up for air, then swam back down to beat him again!”
Hey, that was my idea! I guess great minds think alike?
Odeta scoffed, “So what? Aren’t sister Aster and I going to do the same thing as well?!”
Emilia shook her head, “When I said beat him up, I don’t mean using my fist. I meant using my magic, in particular, my Hydromancy. I don’t suppose you know Hydromancy?”
I raised my hand again, “As a matter of fact, I do.”
The fact that I used her own words against her was not lost on her and she widened her eyes in surprise, “I’ve seen you use Lumenmancy, Umbramancy, Pyromancy and even Aeromancy. You also know Hydromancy?”
I nodded, “I’m also capable of Geomancy and Iatromancy too.”
Emilia was staring at me slack jawed while Odeta had her chest puffed up in pride.
“Sister Aster is a genius, you know?! Don’t you look down on her!”
Stop it, Odeta… You’re making me blush…
Emilia sighed, “It seems like I have forgotten who exactly I was travelling with… As expected of a lady of the Nilm family… Ahem… In that case, this changes some things, though I don’t know how Miss Odeta can help in the fight.”
The Amrap in question puffed her chest, “Hmph! I can handle myself!”
Emilia simply shrugged at her claim before straightening herself again, “Alright, when we are down there, stick close to me at all times and only attack any Merfolk who attack us first. When we reach him, do not kill him.”
I gave her a confused look, “You’re letting him go?”
“What? Of course not! I need to make sure he suffers for betraying me! To kill him just like that isn’t good enough! He needs to go through pain!!”
Ah, that’s what I thought.
“Enough chit chat! We need to get him before he realises I’m after him! Lady Aster, if you don’t mind? Could I also have my sword back?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be hiding yourself now?” I pointed out.
She waved her hand dismissively, “He’ll know it’s me anyway and the others wouldn’t be paying attention to my sword while we’re swimming there.”
“If you’re sure…” I shrugged, taking out her katana to switch it with her for her sabre.
She belted it on and nodded at me to show that she was ready, an indication that we should dive now.
I made a show of waving the arm with the wristband before casting [Air Pocket] on all three of us silently, taking a moment to make sure that it was indeed in effect before nodding at her.
Emilia turned around and dived into the water without hesitation, followed closely by Odeta before I jumped in last.
I instinctively held my breath as I submerged into the water, only to realise I didn’t need to since the area around my head was dry.
Looking around, I found Odeta waving her arms in the water wildly as though she was lost.
I quickly realised that while Emilia and I could see in the dark fairly easily because of our Umbramancy, Odeta would be practically blind in the darkness underwater.
I casted a silent [Spotlight], causing a ball of light to materialise above my head which attracted their attention.
Odeta seemed visibly relieved at the light and swam towards me. On the other hand, Emilia seemed to be panicking at me and was waving her hands around frantically.
Despite the air bubble around our heads, it’s not like the water around us disappeared so it would still be quite difficult to talk to each other while underwater, which was what Emilia had warned us about just a few moments ago.
I got the message and I gestured to Odeta to hold my hand which she did so enthusiastically before I extinguished the light.
Emilia then started to lead the way with me following behind her while pulling Odeta along.
She followed the rock wall of the island as we dove deeper and deeper, ignoring the various fish that swam around us.
On the way, we also spotted a few merfolk who didn’t seem bothered by our presence at all, as though they had met people like us diving into the water on a daily basis.
Eventually, Emilia led us towards an opening in the rock wall large enough for several people to swim through, right as a mermaid was swimming out of it.
She nodded at us in greeting casually before swimming up towards the surface, allowing us to head through said opening unhindered.
Passing through it, I found myself in what appears to be an underwater cavern underneath the island with an especially huge stalactite looking rock hanging from the ceiling.
The rock formation itself was massive, probably big enough to match the size of the town above it.
On the surface of the rock were what appears to be buildings that were carved out of its surface, making it appear as though there were buildings growing out of the rock itself.
I noticed that the buildings were even separated into districts as well, with the smaller buildings located at the bottom of the rock formation which I suspect were the areas for poorer merfolk while the larger and better decorated buildings were located closer to the top of the cavern.
There were also little houses that were chiselled out of the sides of the cavern itself but those seem to be farms of sorts. At least I believe they are farms since they had aquatic plants growing in neat rows close to those buildings. Some even had large cages that were filled with fishes which I presume must mean those are fish farms.
How interesting, there is literally an underwater society right here~ Better take some notes.𝒐𝗏𝓁xt.𝒞𝐎𝓂
Emilia then waved to me and pointed towards the top of the cavern, indicating that we should be searching for our target somewhere over there.
We swam towards the top and started looking for the house that was adorned with gold as Maurice had told us.
Even though the buildings here were carved out of the rock, I quickly noticed that they were actually quite well made. There weren’t even signs of erosion as you might expect from a rock being submerged underwater.
I assume that there must be some kind of magic or enchantment in play to maintain the buildings around here.
Eventually, we found the building that we were looking for and it was the largest one that we have seen here so far.
When Maurice said it was adorned with gold… I think what he should have said was the building was literally just made with gold. Like seriously… The walls, the pillars, even the door and window frames were made with gold.
Talk about being obnoxious… No wonder he betrayed Emilia…