Long story short, there wasn't much to do. Apparently, Roksha lived in the noble zone (to no one's surprise) and there weren't many shops around these parts. Mermaid City, whatever it was called, had a coin-based currency and they had actual shops. Even some super stores, which I wanted to visit but there weren't any around here.

"Wouldn't there be at least luxury stores here?" I said.

We walked back, or at least me and the Fishman did, while Roksha just floated around.

"There used to be, but the queen ordered all shops in this district to close. Now, nobles usually go out to the commerce district to buy their things."

Unlike the city we saw yesterday, this part of the town had buildings spaced far in between. They had big lawns and backyards and frankly, they really did look like luxury properties. I felt jealous for once.

"Sounds like a hassle."

"Not when you have abundant slaves," Zarkan said. "Or workers," he corrected after getting a glare from the mermaid.

Fair enough.

"How come you have lampposts here? The coral I get, but do you have electricity? No, that wouldn't make sense underwater," I said. "Are they magical devices?"

"Yes," Roksha said. "What's electricity?"

"Current or charge or, you know what," I tried fiddling with the electrons near my finger and… and there was an arc followed by a massive spark and a shockwave. "That…"

"Don't do that again," Roksha huffed.

"Uh-huh." I'm definitely doing that again.

I wanted to head out of this noble zone and maybe have some fun in other zones but the guards near the zone entrance just denied us. In their words, "Please make sure you're well prepared for the audience first." They all knew I had an audience today. Just how fast did information spread here, or just how much?

So, we went back and prepared. Or they did. I mostly just sat around in Roksha's brother's reading room. He didn't seem to be using this place, so more freedom for me!

I thought I'd find lots of ancient or maybe even banned books here but it was a bit disappointing when I realized, most of the books in this place were just standard issues of shit you'd find on the surface, just translated in sea tongue. I found one or maybe two books in standard sea tongue, which I hadn't seen before but they weren't anything special. The only book remotely close to piquing my attention was a brief history of the sea world by our lovely friend JRRS Sortan. Man really showed up everywhere.

I began to read-

So the god of the fishmen was Zakia. The name sounded feminine and I think it was mostly a mistranslation on my end but oh well. This particular god ruled the seas while Askavan ruled the surface or so the story went. Zakia was kind and helped the oceans flourish with riches and life. Actually, the fishmen were leagues ahead of humans and other races above. Mostly because those races were always fighting and discriminating and all that but that wasn't important.

Things changed a couple of thousand years ago when Askavan wanted to rule the seas as well. But Zakia wasn't just going to hand all power over to him. He or she actually liked the seas and even visited the lower realms quite often. The two went on a war, which led to the surface wars, which led to the shifts of the continents and various other things. Sounded a bit too convenient honestly. I'd been warned that Sortan's work often leveraged folklore to better represent his ideas and support his theories and this really felt like folklore; he bent his stories in a way so history would make sense. Because frankly, there were no known records that Askavan personally came down to the world or that he fought with a god named Zakia. The only places that claimed Askavan had come down from the heavens, was in Sortan's books. The scriptures and even the church claimed Askavan had sent his messengers and apostles to guide the mortals, rather than coming down himself.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

But the church was known to lie too, so I had to take all of this with a grain of salt. Or salt water.

Gargle, gargle.

Anyway, after the war, Zakia never came down to the seas again, and Askavan didn't take control of the seas either. Instead, something else roamed the seas. The primordial god of chaos: Trerortra. Apparently, this snake-god-thing had long slept in the depths of the forbidden sea, but the chaotic battle of the gods woke him up and he ravaged both gods and everything in his path. Or so the story went. That was kind of interesting, honestly. Did this particular ancient god kill all other gods?

All progress halted, fishmen society regressed over time.

The book didn't really go into any cultural or other kinds of history. It just covered weird god shit. Seriously, what was this guy even trying to accomplish and how the fuck had his books not been burned to the ground yet? However, it did give me some new information I could exploit. As in, Askavan wasn't as kind as the church made him out to be. But this wasn't nearly enough. I needed more. It was a shame there wasn't any more Sortan books here. Terribly sorry, I cursed your books... terribly sorry, books!

I had some more time to kill, so I figured I'd play- I mean practice with electricity.

But I didn't want to burn down this place, so I asked a maid nicely and she showed me to a big training room that was well guarded on all sides and had rather thick walls.

First I tried to see if I could limit the current and just make a big arc. I could. And actually, it wasn't as hard. I just had to control the current, and lower the volt to a reasonable manner. I never paid much attention to my circuits and electricity classes but god damn, were they coming in handy.

Can't I make a beam out of this?

Everything around me was conductive. There were ions just floating around and frankly, if I controlled both the water and-

I quickly stopped my thoughts out of the fear of running out of mana and fainting. However, I had a gemstone bracelet and… frankly, this was the best time to learn this. I had to protect myself in case something happened later on today.

Let's do this!

***

Later in the day, I got dressed. Or rather, the mermaids dressed me up. They were awfully playful while doing so. One mermaid even grabbed my thing and blushed when she realized what it was. Heh, I watched the whole thing with a stoic yet smirky expression. I was probably never going to get this chance again, so might as well enjoy it.

Once dressed in black and white I stared at the mirror, only to sigh (they had pants for other types of fishmen but since fishmen were large, they had to cut mine in half and even then the pants were baggy) I looked weird.

Regardless, me, the fishman, Roksha and her brother and some other mermaid lady who didn't bother introducing herself all got on a floating carriage.

Yes, a fucking carriage.

It was pulled by four large-as-fuck sea horses and had roughly eight seats. I was sandwiched between the mermaid and the fishman while her brother and the other mermaid lady sat on the other side, directly facing me. I met her gaze head on, without really flinching.

"I don't believe, we've met," I said. "Soler A. Barack. First son of Viscount Sharmon Barack."

"You were a noble..." Roksha mumbled. "I thought only the lady was," she whispered.

I paid no heed.

"Tirba Chacha Lala," she said. Was she speaking a summoning chant? "Head of the Chacha household." Fair skin, a faint blush on her rosy cheeks, and rather magnificent hair. Lady was beautiful and packing.

But for some reason, I didn't find her hot. Probably the glare.

"My mother," Roksha whispered.

"Half," Tirba corrected. "Thank you for saving my daughter."

She seemed to be annoyed if nothing else.

"Our destination isn't far," Roksha's brother said. "However, it is customary we circle the palace thrice. When getting off, do be mindful of your manners."

At first, I thought Mr. Blowhead was talking to me, but no, he was talking to his sister and the fishman.

"By the way," the lady spoke. "Does this mean you'll be a viscount when you take over your father's estate?"

"Probably not," I said. "I plan on going independent after finishing my studies at Scallion Academy."

"Such a shame," she said, disinterested.

"Does that mean you already hold a title?" Roksha's brother asked.

"Yeah. I'm a Baron under Duke Alzania."

They, all of them, were somewhat surprised. Particularly Roksha's mother. "I see," for once, she didn't see all that annoyed. Yeah, I smelled trouble.

Sometime later, we arrived at the gates of the palace. It was open, and there were plenty of guards going here and there.

"The court's on the third floor," Roksha's brother said. "Behave," he eyed the fishman.

Meanwhile, Roksha's mother took charge and kept walking.

Roksha though, was lagging behind, so I took her hand and together, we made way for the court.