The golden building looked like a relatively large rectangular mansion with a flat roof that attached itself to the ceiling of the cavern via a golden pillar extended from said roof.
I pointed at the unnecessarily grandiose building in front of us, silently asking if this was the right one.
Emilia nodded to show that this was indeed our target before leading the way forward towards the golden house.
I was just starting to wonder what kind of underworld boss this stupid fish was to leave his house unguarded where anyone could just swim inside.
And with that thought, I was fully expecting Mermen to appear from around to attack us just because I triggered a flag but… Nothing happened.
Is there no one home or something?
The three of us simply swam up to the doorway where a golden door curtain sat, the cloth waving slightly with the water current.
It seems like they don’t make use of swing doors here which I suspect might be because them being hard to open underwater.
Emilia burst through the doorway with her arms spread to the side in a combat pose, expecting to be met with resistance once inside.
Only… The room was completely empty of any people.
The room right behind the entrance was a standard entrance hall like the one back home except much smaller and I could see display cases with, surprisingly, magic lamps that were built into the walls to illuminate the room.
I realised that this place was illuminated so that guests or visitors that were not Merfolk in nature could see the riches that the owner of this building has amassed clearly.𝒐𝗏𝓁xt.𝒞𝐎𝓂
Usually you might also expect some kind of grand staircase as the centrepiece in such a hallway but instead of that, there was just a hole in the ceiling to lead to the second floor.
This building was designed for Merfolk after all and stairs are completely unnecessary underwater.
How interesting, now I’m really wondering how they managed to carve these buildings out of the stone? Were they made using some kind of specialised tools or did they use magic? If they used magic, then what kind? Was it just Geomancy? Or was it some other unique kind of magic that the Merfolk possessed?
I felt a tug on my hand as I was wondering that and I looked behind to see Odeta pointing at something in front of me.
Turning back, I realised Emilia was swimming around the room and grabbing things off the pedestals to stuff inside a bag that she had taken out from nowhere.
“What are you doing?” I asked, only to belatedly realise she couldn’t hear me.
Thus I just settled for waiting until she was done swiping everything that wasn’t nailed down into her bag before she swam back to me and thrusted the bag into my arms.
I looked at her in confusion and she just gave me a really contented look.
Hmm… I want to ask her what she wants me to do and it’s hard to communicate like this… I wonder if there is a way for my voice to reach her through our bubbles of air?
Oh wait… What if we connected our air bubbles together?
I gestured for her to come closer and though she was confused, she did it anyway.
I then leaned the rest of the way forward until our bubbles merged together.
“Can you hear me?” I asked.
“Oh! This is neat! I never thought that this could be used like this!” She gasped.
“Me neither, I just thought of trying this to see if it worked.”
I then felt a pressure from behind me and I realised Odeta had swam on top of me so that she could lean over my shoulder to merge her bubble with mine as well.
“Not fair sister Aster!! I wanna join too! What are we talking about?”
Did she forget that we’re still technically inside enemy territory? Oh well, I guess to her, it’s all just a big adventure.
I turned back to Emilia and nodded at the bag she had handed me, “What is this?”
“That? That’s the gold and stuff the idiot has laying around this hall of course. What else?”
“What I meant was why did you stuff them in this bag and why did you hand them to me?”
“Huh? Because I’m stealing them and you should put that into your Pack of Folding of course. You don’t expect me to do nothing when some conveniently placed valuables are just lying out in the open like that, do you?”
So she’s also a thieving cat… I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Oh well, this is the guy who didn’t bring the crates of sweets as he promised so I’m all for robbing him anyway.
But just as I was going to put the bag of stolen loot into my Pack of Folding, the main entrance and the other doorways leading out of this hall were suddenly blocked by metal bars that slid out from the door frames. Even the hole in the ceiling was blocked too.
Oh… Guess he didn’t go for the ambush route and went for the trap instead.
As though on cue, a part of the wall at the far end of the hall slid open, revealing a sort of window with metal balls on it. Behind said window was Merrick, whom I double checked with my [Screened] since honestly, he looks the same as the other Merfolk that was swimming behind him.
No offence.
“As predictable as always, Emilia, you can’t resist the potential money,” He laughed.
I was more surprised that I could hear him clearly despite all of us still being completely submerged in water.
I turned to look at Emilia for an explanation but she was too busy glaring at Merrick to notice my inquiring gaze.
“Merrick!! Surprised to see me here?! I’m here to skewer you and make you into fish food!!”
Umm… I don’t think he can hear yo–
“I admit I thought you would still be stuck there for a while… I guess it was my mistake to think that you would not rely on the people around you like before…”
Or I guess he can for some reason… Must be a skill for the Deepsea Merfolk or something. I never did get to see what was on the other end of the tube in Emilia’s cabin but I guess they are just able to hear and speak while underwater?
How interesting.
Emilia was still seething at him, “Well then get over here so that I can skewer you, you fucking backstabber!!”
“Ha ha, that was a nice joke, Emilia. I think you know by now that I’m after the reward money on your head, right? Here I was thinking about how difficult it would be for me to find someone who would be both capable enough and willing to kill you, but you did me a huge favour by coming here yourself.”
“Hmph! I should have known you had someone watching me from the start!”
“Oh, not at all. I only knew you were coming after you entered the Undertown. Do you think my title as the boss here is just for show? Pretty much everyone in the Undertown is under me and they came to inform me the moment you arrived, giving me enough time to prepare for you. Not that there was much to do since this room was designed as a trap anyway. What’s more, I already know you wouldn’t be able to resist trying to steal all the things in here!”
“Ggggrrr! So what?! Even if we’re trapped here, you can’t do anything to us either! If you want to kill me, you’ll need to send people in here to fight! So come on! Let’s do this!”
Merrick grinned, or at least I think that was a grin since it’s hard to tell on a fish.
“On the contrary, Emilia. I will do precisely nothing. Your friend there is an Aeromancer that is helping you maintain that air bubble right? All I need to do is wait for her to run out of mana and then I can watch you suffocate and die on your own. You can go ahead and try to break the bars though, but they have been enchanted to even withstand the blows of a sea serpent!”
Emilia turned to me with a worried look on her face, “Ah… La… Lady Aster… Your mana?”
Well first of all… This is a Tier one spell, so it really consumes very little mana from me even when I need to sustain it on three people.
Second of all, I still have a whole ton of Mana Crystals in my Pack of Folding which can replenish my mana if need be.
So technically, we can stay down here for a really, really long time. It’s to the point that the worry wouldn’t be when I would run out of mana but when I would get sleepy and then fall asleep which would cancel the spell.
There is just one thing I needed to know though.
I looked directly at Merrick, “Do you have the sweets you agreed to prepare?”
He looked at me in confusion, “Sweets? What sweets?”
“The sweets you agreed to prepare for if that smuggler den was wiped out?”
“What? Why the hell would I even prepare some stupid sweets for that?! Of course I didn’t! I never had any intentions of preparing them in the first place!”
…
No… Sweets?
Are you telling me… I did all of that work…
FOR NO SWEETS?!!!
HE DIDN’T EVEN PREPARE ANY?!!!
AARRRGHHHHH!!!