Beauty and the Beasts

“Then, get the leader to agree.” Parker stared at Bluepool, and the viciousness he had been suppressing rose to his eyes once again. “She’s my mate!”

Bluepool’s heart softened, and he said, “I can bring this up to the leader, but I can’t be sure if he’ll agree or not.”

Only then did Parker hand the food over.

…

After returning to the village, Bluepool went to the nursery and found King there.

King was upright in the water, staring at a bundle of seaweed in a daze. His golden hair moved with the waves, but his gaze was lifeless.

He had been the male that Jean adored the most, the strongest one in the merfolk tribe. He had the most number of descendants as well and thus was often seen in the nursery.

It had been ten years since the last batch of children had moved out, and this place was long deserted. However, whenever King had free time, he would come here and go into a daze. This would be the place to go if one wished to look for him.

“Leader.”

Bluepool swam up behind King, telling him Parker’s request.

He didn’t hold much hope, but he also didn’t want to go back on his word since he had already agreed to it. After saying that, Bluepool wanted to leave, but he didn’t expect King to agree.

“What?” Bluepool dug his ears.

King said calmly, “You can make the arrangements tomorrow afternoon. Just don’t let the female get snatched away.”

Only now was Bluepool certain of what he had heard. He gave a reply and then swam away in a daze.

This wasn’t right. King was too cold toward the female. He told everyone to understand her, but he must still be blaming her in his heart.

That was true. After all, he was adored in the past. No one would feel good to be suddenly abandoned like that.

Bluepool let out a mouthful of bubbles as he sighed. He then joined the group that went out to search for the snake.

It hadn’t been half a day when there was progress on the mission to search for the snake beastman.

When Bluepool received the news, he immediately rushed over to take a look.

At a valley where the ocean currents passed by was a bottomless abyss in the middle. The wider parts of the place were several ten meters, and the narrower parts were only the thickness of an arm.

If one went down deeper, the deep abyss would be so dark that no beastman would be able to capture any hint of light. Moreover, the temperature was extremely low. There were only hints of luminous light moving in the darkness, like fireflies in the night. They looked very beautiful, driving living creatures to get closer to them.

However, this was the sweet trap of predators.

Even the merfolks didn’t like to come to this place. It was too eerie. Moreover, this place was the merfolk’s graveyard.

“Why did you guys come to this place?” Bluepool frowned.

A merman swam up above the abyss and said, “A rock is stuck there, and there’s a beastman inside. It fits the description of the beastman that you’re looking for.”

“What?”

Bluepool swam over as well and immediately had a bone-chilling feeling. The rock that the merman mentioned was still very far below, almost concealing itself into the darkness.

Bluepool swam over, bearing with the discomfort. When he saw someone there, he was shocked.

“How did this person get into the rock?”

Bluepool circled the rock. As the temperature was too low, some frost could be seen on the rock’s surface.

“Red hair…” Bluepool checked the descriptions, and when he saw the human face in the rock, he spurted out a series of bubbles.

“I’m looking for a four-striped beastman, a living one! This person has already turned into amber and doesn’t even have a single stripe. You asked me to come to take a look despite that?”

When the merman on top heard that, he shook his fishtail sheepishly. “That isn’t it? This place is too eerie. I didn’t dare to take a close look earlier.”

“It isn’t. Continue with the search.”

Bluepool waved his hand and sent off all the merfolks, then went around the rock a few more times to take a look.

“What’s this? When I die, I must use this to encase my body as well.” Bluepool’s gaze was filled with envy as he looked at the amber. Being in this translucent stone looked good, and one wouldn’t decompose. It was so nice.

Looking at the bright long hair inside, Bluepool reckoned that it was a merman who unluckily got stuck here midway. Therefore, out of kindness, he pushed it down.