Three days later, Turan's party sailed toward the island where the operation was to take place. Perhaps because of the storm that followed the great sea serpent, dark clouds constantly shrouded the sky, strong winds blew, and high waves rolled across the sea.

Naturally, theirs was the only boat in the area, leaving few spectators to witness the little fishing boat gliding over the water.

"I see. So this is how humans with demonic powers sail. Almost as fast as most merfolk swim."

Rowina, the merfolk princess accompanying them aboard, offered this quiet appraisal. Beside her, Armani nodded.

"It is much faster than when I sailed with him before. It was nothing like this then."

"Well, there are three of us propelling it now. The mackerel's cooked. Want some?"

"Thank you!"

After they shared a meal of grilled mackerel caught with fluid manipulation magic, Armani announced that he would go ahead and tell his family of Turan's arrival. He transformed into a baby shark and leaped into the sea. Focusing the Holy Relic's senses on the water, Turan felt a small presence rapidly receding beneath the surface.

"For all you said earlier, he's swimming faster than us."

"He is a shark, after all. I envy him, being able to swim so fast."

Rowina sighed as she watched Armani disappear. From their idle conversation, they had learned that while her crab form allowed her to move freely on land, she was slower underwater than most of her kind. That was why she planned to fight alongside Turan's party on land in the coming battle.

Maysa asked her a question.

"How is it decided what creature you can transform into? Are you simply born with it?"

"More or less. You can guide it to some extent, but there is an innate inclination. Had I really wanted to, I could have taken the form of a slightly different kind of crab... but that would hardly have changed anything."

In ancient times, some royals could take the form of great sea serpents, but those days belonged to legend. Now, royals who could become large creatures such as sharks and whales, like Armani, were considered to possess great potential. Though still young, Armani was something of a promising talent among the merfolk.

"His disappearance must have caused quite an uproar, then."

"Hmm? Oh, well... not an uproar, exactly. We assumed he would find his own way back."

Turan had casually raised the subject to emphasize the value of having saved Armani, but Rowina caught on and downplayed it as though it had been nothing. He let out an incredulous chuckle at her refusal to give an inch even now that they had agreed to cooperate, then looked toward the northern horizon, where the island was beginning to appear.

"You kept the promise we discussed, I trust?"

"Of course. There will be no one besides the royals taking part in the battle and a few noble-class servants to attend us. Managing the lower classes is quite exhausting even for us, in truth."

This was one of the conditions Turan had imposed on the merfolk: they were not to bring lower-class merfolk, who would contribute little to the serpent hunt and likely become a nuisance.

It was meant to maintain a balance of power between his party and the merfolk. Powerful wizards though they were, being swarmed by thousands of merfolk while fighting the royals would inevitably drain both their mana and their stamina.

"But what about you? Are you really bringing that bird into battle? It seems dangerous."

"She's tougher than she looks. She'll be fine."

Vije had been enjoying his hand on her head with her eyes half-closed. Now she gave Rowina a look that seemed mocking, as though to say, What would the likes of you know of my worth?

Vije's presence was the very reason Turan had considered attempting the hunt in the first place. However powerful the enemy, having wings that could carry them away after they detected it in advance made an enormous difference.

Before they landed, Turan activated his tracking magic and scooped up a handful of seawater to smell, just as he had before.

'... Good. At least there doesn't seem to be a large number of merfolk.'

A dozen or so at most, by his estimate? The island was not particularly large, and when he activated the Holy Relic's senses as they approached shore, he could survey all of it.

There was one merfolk equivalent to the middle of the top-ranking human nobles, another slightly weaker than that, and six ranging from upper- to middle-tier. Finally, there was one lower-tier presence among them, presumably Armani, making nine royals in all. Counting Rowina here with them, that made ten.

He also sensed roughly ten merfolk with far less power. Their flames were no stronger than an ordinary human's, much like Armani's when they first met. These were presumably the noble-class merfolk who had come to attend the royals.

Turan secretly passed this information to Solif and Maysa using wind magic. Maysa asked with a meaningful look:

["Ten royals... That child hardly counts as a combatant, so nine. Could we take them if we had to fight?"]

["Easily enough. Merfolk are generally stronger than nobles of equivalent power, but so are we. What we must remember is that we cannot let ourselves become weaker than them, either during the battle or afterward."]

The most important thing about this battle was remembering that the merfolk were ultimately allies they could not trust. If they poured too much strength into hunting the great sea serpent and severely weakened themselves, they would have to be ready for an ambush.

"We're here. Let's get off."

* * *

While they conversed in secret, the boat reached the island. Turan's party disembarked with Rowina and headed inland. The island was small enough that it took only a few minutes to reach the waiting merfolk royals.

"Oh, are those the humans?"

"They all look young. Are they really that strong?"

"I'm sure our sister Rowina knows what she's doing."

The merfolk royals they met all spoke with a casual swagger, rather unlike what Turan had expected. He had imagined more people like Armani and Rowina, whose speech was so stiff it sometimes sounded awkward. Had those two simply learned an odd way of talking?

Armani, conspicuously small among the others in their seemingly seaweed-woven clothes, greeted Turan.

"The gray-haired one is Turan, the kind demon who saved me. He is very strong! Rowina lost without even putting up a fight!"

Rowina's smile twisted as though her pride had been wounded, but she offered no protest. It was true that she had taken a one-sided beating.

At Armani's words, the royals regarded Turan's party with renewed interest.

"Oh..."

"I heard she'd lost, but that badly?"

"Demons like that must be among the strongest on land. You were lucky, little one."

As they chattered, Turan's gaze drifted to a merfolk noble standing respectfully behind the royals. He was staring fixedly at Turan's party, drool spilling from his mouth.

"Oh."

"Yakon. I told you to control yourself. Have some dignity."

"My apologies, Your Highness..."

Rebuked by the royal, the noble apologized respectfully and hastily wiped away his drool. Turan had been told that noble-class merfolk possessed considerable self-control, if not as much as the royals, yet this was how they behaved. He could imagine what little restraint the lower-class merfolk they despised must possess.

Turan narrowed his eyes at the merfolk chattering excitedly about them.

'If only I could read their emotions, too.'

Though he did not understand exactly how it worked, Turan could read human emotions to some extent through smell. This even worked on most ordinary animals, but unfortunately, merfolk were an exception. Whether that was because of their fishy odor or some other reason, he did not know.

Then Rowina stripped off her human clothing and put on the seaweed garments peculiar to her people, speaking quietly as she did.

"Let us introduce ourselves first."

"I'm Turan. These are Sol and Misha. I look forward to working with you."

When he stopped there, one of the merfolk asked in bewilderment:

"Hmm? Is that all? Don't you have houses and things like that?"

"Some humans wander without any such ties."

The merfolk looked puzzled, but apparently none knew enough about the subject to question it. They soon shrugged and accepted his explanation.

The merfolk introduced themselves next. Surprisingly, all of them were children of the current king: one older brother of Rowina's, four younger brothers, and three younger sisters. With Armani, that made nine.

Having listened in silence, Turan immediately voiced a question.

"What about your other relatives?"

"Hmm?"

"Your father, the merfolk king, must have siblings. Don't they have children?"

Judging by their numbers, merfolk royals did not seem particularly unfruitful. If those relatives were included, their forces would rival a respectable great house. One of the merfolk answered as though it were obvious.

"They're all dead, of course."

"... How?"

"We sent them off ourselves. A kingdom has only one king, and only his bloodline is allowed to flourish."

When the previous king was replaced, every royal who was not a direct descendant of the new king had been purged. The young royal delivered this horrifying account as though it were perfectly natural. Turan turned to Solif and Maysa just to check, but both looked visibly appalled as well.

"Is that the usual practice?"

"Yes. The merfolk of other kingdoms do the same—"

"Spare them the unnecessary details, Kolova."

Rowina cut off the talkative royal. There was more than one merfolk kingdom? That was news to Turan.

'Then again, none of the other races all belong to a single faction. Perhaps it should have been obvious.'

Aside from the Wraith King Maysa had once defeated, there would be other bands of Dark Elves flourishing somewhere underground, and groups of dwarves still surviving in the Gray Zone. There was no reason to assume only one group of merfolk remained.

But learning this brought another possibility to mind. Perhaps this was not the merfolk kingdom cooperating with the Lawyer that Ymir had mentioned. If so, Turan had been on the wrong track from the very beginning...

Keeping his doubts to himself, Turan directed his next question to the comparatively indiscreet royal who had spoken earlier.

"Did you ask any other kingdoms for help?"

"Huh? Then we wouldn't get to keep the whole corpse. That's the reason we're doing this."

"Kolova!"

Rowina's older brother, said to be the king's eldest son, shouted sharply, but Turan had already heard most of what he wanted.

Just then, the final, tenth merfolk he had sensed came striding out from behind the bushes. Armani, who had shrunk back a little at the suddenly heated atmosphere, beamed and called out.

"Oh, royal father! You look like you had a good shit!"

"Be quiet, you little brat."

The growling speaker was a middle-aged merfolk with white hair and a beard reaching his navel. Unlike the depictions in storybooks, he wore no golden crown or pearl necklace. Yet his piercing eyes and the authority etched into his deep wrinkles alone marked him as a being a step above the merfolk around him.

Above all, what set him apart was the trident he leaned on like a staff. Judging by the vast flow of mana within it, it was no ordinary magic tool.

'A Holy Relic, and a top-ranking one at that...'

Holding a treasure Turan estimated to be equal to or greater than his Mimic Holy Relic, the merfolk king calmly surveyed the party, then spoke with a disapproving expression.

"Young wizards. Not even sixty, at most."

"There's no rule that skill must come with age."

Turan deliberately spoke without deference to emphasize that he and the king were equals. He instinctively knew that the moment he bowed and scraped, the other would treat him as an inferior.

As expected, the king merely twitched an eyebrow at his familiar tone rather than showing anger.

"Insolent whelps."

With a scoff, the king sat down in a large stone chair and looked down on them haughtily. Meeting his gaze, Turan immediately asked a question.

"More importantly, I think we need to adjust the terms a little."

"What terms?"

"The great sea serpent's corpse. Rowina clearly said it was worthless, but that doesn't seem to be the case."

"Did someone say something?"

When the king turned his head, all his royal children looked toward the chatterbox named Kolova.

"Uh, I was only..."

"If you're determined to keep it all to yourselves, to the point of not even asking other kingdoms for help, it must be quite valuable to you."

Turan stared steadily into the king's dark reddish-black eyes. After roughly ten seconds of this contest, the king shook his head with an expression of utter exasperation.

"Humans! What do you want, then? Shall I cut the serpent's corpse in half for you, though it's of little use to your kind? Or would you like a chest of pearls?"

"Those things that come out of shellfish?"

"I don't know why, but humans love them."

"Be quiet when Father is speaking, you idiots!"

The royals muttering in the back flinched at their eldest brother's shout and lowered their heads. Watching them, Turan began to understand why the king favored Rowina.

"Nothing so grand. I'd just like to hear a few things about matters on land."

From what he could see, none of the merfolk royals even possessed a decent magic tool. Presumably, grasping and handling objects was difficult when they were transformed into sea creatures.

The trident was the only truly useful item here, and asking for it would obviously wreck the serpent hunt. In short, information was the most reasonable compensation Turan could demand.

"... That's all?"

"Of course."

"What do you want to know?"

"The Lawyer."

The king narrowed his eyes and glared at him, then nodded after a moment.

"Very well. We will speak alone. You lot! Go play somewhere farther away!"

"But I want to hear about humans."

"So do I."

"Get out, now!"

At the king's roar, the grumbling royals left one by one. Turan likewise asked Solif and Maysa to withdraw for a while. Once they were alone, the king asked quietly:

"Where did you hear that name?"

"From Ymir."

Since Ymir belonged to an enemy faction anyway, Turan had no qualms about using his name. The king tilted his head.

"I don't know that name."

If he did not recognize that name, the merfolk king was not an active participant in the gods' struggle for power. At best, he was one of their pawns.

Indeed, the fact that the Lawyer used that nickname even with his allies was arguably evidence that he did not take this relationship particularly seriously.

"Are you cooperating with the Lawyer?"

"I don't know if I'd call it cooperation, but we've had ties for generations. He's the one holding our leash."

Judging by his tone and expression, the king seemed to feel hostility rather than any personal goodwill toward the Lawyer. He obeyed nonetheless because the Lawyer had some means of exerting pressure on the merfolk kingdom. Naturally, he would not be inclined to explain that means in detail.

'Does he control several merfolk kingdoms?'

If so, that would explain how the Lawyer's faction alone could stand against several powerful enemies. Just four or five merfolk forces of this size could easily crush a respectable great house. If their dominion spanned the entirety of two seas, their influence would extend even further.

Then the king fixed Turan with a sharp gaze and asked:

"Are you one of those monsters too? The ones who live forever?"

"You seem to know the answer without my telling you."

"Ha, I knew it... I should have realized when they said these young humans were far too strong. What game are you playing now?"

"I truly do intend to hunt the great sea serpent, so there's no need to worry. As long as your side doesn't try anything underhanded."

The king shook his head in weary disgust.

"Even if I killed you here, you'd come back someday for revenge. I have no intention of giving my people an eternal enemy."

"That's fortunate for both of us."

If the king mistook him—and the other two as well—for Freyans, there could be no better deterrent against betrayal. After all, nothing could be more foolish than deliberately making an enemy of someone who would return even after being killed.

Turan suppressed any sign of delight and maintained his relaxed demeanor.

"So, is that all you wanted to ask?"

"Why didn't you ask the Lawyer for help with this? It seems like something that would interest him."

Turan did not know whether becoming a god's vessel removed one's mana limit, but why pass up a chance to absorb a vast amount of mana? At the very least, the Lawyer could give it to prospective vessels.

The king looked baffled by the question.

"Isn't that something your kind would know better than I do? Why ask me?"

"I'm not the Lawyer's friend."

At this veiled suggestion that Turan belonged to a different faction from the Lawyer, the king gave a soft, derisive snort.

"Sealing it with the Holy Relic you took was his suggestion in the first place. I never mentioned hunting it. If he knew, he'd never let us have the corpse."

"Why?"

Instead of answering, the king widened his reddish-brown eyes and stared at Turan. He seemed unable to decide whether Turan was merely probing him or genuinely asking.

After a moment, he slowly spoke.

"Because it would let us become true merfolk royalty again. Restore us to what we were when we served as priests of the great sea serpents and could take their forms."