Beauty and the Beasts

“You’re making up a story about the female on the shore, aren’t you? You merely want to see Jean.”

Bluepool smiled coldly. “It’s been ten years since a female gave birth. No male fish has obtained the rights to mate since then, either. Perhaps she’s no longer around. You’re deliberately hiding it from us, aren’t you? I already have three stripes. By right, I should long have mated with a female. Yet, until now, I haven’t even caught a glimpse of Jean’s appearance. Don’t I have a reason to be suspicious?”

King looked at him. Despite the killing intent in his eyes, the words that came out of his mouth were: “I can bring you to take a look.”

King shook his fishtail and turned around to swim towards the nest.

Bluepool, however, suddenly said, “Forget it. I believe what you just said.”

King stopped in his tracks and turned his head towards him, an approving look in his cold eyes. “Your decision is the right one.”

Yup, Bluepool thought the same thing too.

Sensing King’s killing intent, he had quickly analyzed the pros and cons.

He was merely a three-striped fish in his twenties, whereas King was a fifty-year-old four-striped beastman who had taken over as leader of their tribe for twenty years. If King wanted to kill him, it was certain that he wouldn’t live.

Hence, Bluepool chose to relent, at least on the surface.

“When can I mate with Jean? I’ve already leveled up to a three-striped beastman two years ago. My offspring will definitely be very powerful.” Bluepool decided to test the waters.

“When the elders come back and make arrangements. There aren’t enough skilled experts in the tribe right now. Laying eggs is a major affair, we can’t afford to be slipshod about it.”

Indeed, the same excuse again. If they were to wait until the elders come back from the land, it would drag till next year.

The elders had gone onshore to collect information and would be gone for three seasons. They would only return to the seas during the cold season. As such, he could only apply with the leader when the cold season came.

Was it more important to lay eggs? Or was it more important to look impressive? In order to have sufficient highly-skilled experts, they even shelved plans of laying eggs. Wasn’t this putting the non-essentials before the essentials?

It had been ten years since a merfolk was born. Ten years!

There was definitely a problem.

“Anything else the matter? If not, I’ll get going.” King shook his fishtail and left after he finished speaking.

Bluepool watched as King swam far away before diving towards the bottom of the ocean.

He had to check out the nest, to see if it was still around.

Ever since he leveled up to a two-striped fish, Bluepool had been removed from his duty of guarding the nest. These days, he attended to the matters on land. King said he was assigned more important tasks as he was young. From the looks of it now, King probably saw the potential of a powerful beastman in him, so he especially assigned him away from the female.

There were plenty of reefs scattered across the floor of the ocean, like a giant maze. The nest in which the female lived was situated in the innermost corner of that maze.

There were many merfolks standing guard above the reefs, and one could only enter the nest by weaving through those reefs.

Having stood there for several years, Bluepool knew approximately which areas were guarded. After squirming into the maze, he managed to find the nest with no hiccups.

This was where he was born. Bluepool could sense it even with his eyes closed.

It was here, alright.

The reefs in the other areas were narrow and difficult to navigate. However, this cave—where the nest was—was clean and vast, and its entrance was even decorated with pretty seaweeds and corals, breeding healthy and clean fishes here.

Bluepool’s heart rate escalated as he shook his fishtail and swam towards the nest.

With every inch he moved closer, his heart rate would increase by several beats per minute. By the time he reached the entrance, Bluepool could nearly hear the sound of his heart beating.

“Gurgle o—O—o—”

Bluepool spat out a string of bubbles but didn’t receive any response. He nervously squirmed into the air bubbles in the cave.

Without the support of the seawater, Bluepool’s body pressed upon the ground. Very quickly, his light blue tail transformed into a pair of slim and long legs.

His slender muscles gave this pair of legs the illusion of tenderness.