ARRRGGGHHH!!!

…

Eh?

Hmmm?

That's odd…

I feel a little… Out of breath? And a little…

Blurggh?!! Where's my air bubble?!!

I quickly cast [Air Pocket] and materialised a bubble of air around my head, sucking in lungfuls of air as I tried to make sense of what happened.

I turned around to see what happened to Odeta and Emilia, only to find the two of them flailing around in the water with no air bubble around their heads.

I panicked and used [Air Pocket] on them as well, the two of them gasping for air as soon as it materialised over their heads.

What happened?

Looking around me, I realised that the walls had been smashed apart and there was blood and body parts floating all around me.

I tried to find where Merrick was until I felt something bump against me.

Turning back, I found a dead Merman with several parts of his body missing floating around me.

It looked like this guy was literally torn apart by some ravenous beast and then the same beast used the limbs he tore out to beat this guy.

It took me a moment to realise that this was the mutilated body of Merrick.

And I was holding on to his battered tail.

I let out an 'eep' and let go of the body while swimming back as quickly as I could away from the body.

Unexpectedly, the moment I did that, a flash of golden light enveloped his body and he was quickly restored back to normal as though nothing happened.

Aside from the fact that he was still unconscious I guess, but what the heck was that?

Emilia and Odeta swam up to me, the two of them immediately pushing themselves close to me so that their air bubbles merged with mine.

"What happened, sister Aster?! Are you ok?!" Odeta cried out worriedly.

Emilia nodded beside her, "Yes! What happened to you over there?! You just went crazy!"

Ah… This is embarrassing…

I completely forgot that I had the [Jungle and Blood] bane that would make me lose control of myself when I get angry at someone…

Seeing the effects of this for the first time… I see it's really destructive indeed. I'm just glad that Odeta and Emilia did not try to stop me since the other Mermen around Merrick must have been torn to shreds as well when they tried to defend him.

Though I guess the reason why neither of them stopped me was because they were too busy drowning… Sorry…

I'm surprised that I took no damage though? Even my clothes seem to be fine, albeit just wet since I'm still submerged in water.

But I must have been quite something if I managed to fight all these Merman even while underwater eh?

"Umm… Sorry… I may have lost myself in anger…" I explained a little lamely.

Emilia gave me a pointed look, "You lost control of yourself because you realised he did not prepare any sweets… So you went to break the wall apart and then tear through those smugglers as well with your bare hands? Are you sure you didn't keep some Grey Powder on you for you to eat?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"I did not! Actually, more importantly, how did he revive himself like that?! I think that's the more important issue here!"

"Eh? Has Lady Aster not seen a Revive Band before? Do you not have one yourself?"

Now it was my turn to look at her, "What the hell is a Revive Band?"

I kind of guessed what it does from the name but I figured it might be good to hear the explanation from someone who knows.

"Oh… I'm honestly surprised that Lady Aster doesn't know this… But now isn't the time to explain. I want to first tie this little traitor up so that I can have my turn torturing him. In the meantime, could Lady Aster and Odeta find where he kept the things he stole from us? Actually, take everything of value inside this house too. Don't even leave anything behind."

"Umm… Would my [Air Pocket] still work if you're far away from me?" I asked.

She blinked a few times, apparently having already forgotten that she was still underwater. Like seriously? You almost drowned not a minute ago you know? Did you really forget that?

The look on her face told me that she did indeed forget about it… I guess her life has been in danger enough times that she has grown numb to it.

She shrugged, "Well then, just give me a moment to tie him up and we'll take him along on our looting run!"

Pulling out a rope from within her sleeve, she then proceeded to tie up the unconscious Merman before slinging him under her arm like a sack of potatoes.

We then proceeded through the hole in the wall I made to start exploring the mansion that was Merrick's house. Since we did not need to hide anymore, I went ahead to cast [Spotlight] so that Odeta could see as well instead of just clinging to me while being blind.

If the fact that his house was decorated with gold wasn't enough to tell me how greedy he was, the fact that almost every single room we swam through was filled with precious metals and valuables did.

Unfortunately, despite looking through the entire building thoroughly, we did not find the boxes of Grey Powder inside this mansion anywhere. As much as the things we've looted from the building were valuable, the value of everything added together was still not enough to match even a single box of it.

Emilia concluded that it must be stored somewhere else and we'll simply get the location out of Merrick afterwards since, of course, she was unwilling to lose the potential of earning even more money. She still insisted on looting everything else in the house, however.

Once our looting was done, Emilia led the way out of the mansion but instead of swimming back out to the surface, she brought us to another part of the Undertown instead, keeping to the shadows to avoid the other denizens now that we know they were also part of Merrick's crew.

We quickly reached a lone building that was stuck to the ceiling away from the others, this one the size of a small mansionette.

Without hesitation, she swam right through the door like she owned the place, beckoning us to follow her in while still carrying Merrick under her arm.

Odeta and I looked at each other but shrugged and followed her in, deciding not to question it for now.

She led us through the building like she was familiar with the place before arriving at a sort of trapdoor on the ceiling, pushing it open unceremoniously before swimming upwards to what looks like a man made tunnel dug through the ceiling.

We followed behind her and the tunnel eventually led us to a small room with another hole in the ceiling that had light shining through it.

Judging by the couch, the cabinet with small pellets that looked to be some kind of food, the magic lamps on the wall and also what looks like a cot for sleeping, this was probably a lounge room or something..

Emilia then unceremoniously dumped Merrick on the couch, or more accurately, left him floating on top of it.

After making sure that he was still unconscious, she swam up towards the hole and gestured for us to follow her again.

That was when I realised this short tunnel led to the surface and the three of us emerged from the water.

"Em?! What the hell are you doing there?!" Maurice's voice came from somewhere behind me.

I turned back and sure enough, the Merman was looking at us in bewilderment while still seated on the chair behind the Guild counter.

Oh… So that place was Maurice's house I guess? Or maybe it's just the underwater part of The Guild but Maurice had refurbished it for himself since he was the only one in charge of this branch.

Emilia gave him a wave, "Hey Maurice! Mind if we use the Guild's Discussion room?"

His eyes widened at her words, "You can't have… How?"

"I'll take that as a yes then! Thanks! Help me carry the traitor there will you? I'll wait for you there!"

Emilia then climbed out from the pool, prompting both Odeta and I to follow suit while ignoring Maurice's dumbstruck expression.

I don't even know if he was surprised to see us emerge from the pool of water behind him or if he was surprised by the fact that we actually got to Merrick despite him telling us it was impossible.

I'm just going to guess that it's the latter.

By now, the bar side of The Guild was crowded since we did spend quite a long time looting the place and it was close to late evening time now.

Which meant that… Yep… I can see some people already having sex at the bar side of the Guild, none of them even paying attention to the people around them.

Thankfully, we didn't seem to need to go past the counter as Emilia brought us further towards the back of The Guild and away from the noisy bar.

"What's the Discussion room?" I asked.

"It's a place where Deepsea Merfolk can talk face to face with people like us~ Don't worry, you'll see it soon enough! Over here!"

We reached a door and she opened it to show the Discussion room that was… Completely empty?

Like, it was just bare walls with an empty floor…

This is the place? Ok then…