I was Betrayed then Reincarnated as a Kitsune - Chapter 302: Arrival at the Merfolk City

[Luna POV]

Though it was still a good distance away, from what I could tell, the city was massive.  It was also very colorful, like it was made of the most vibrant coral or some similar material.

“I’m kind of nervous.” (Soleil)

“How come?” (Luna)

“Well, we pretty much only learned the absolute basics of the language, so what if we cause a misunderstanding that makes this whole trip a waste?  Like, what if I say something meaning one thing, but the other party takes offence to whatever I said or worse?” (Soleil)

“Me and Skadi will be there to handle it if something like that happens.” (Luna)

“Not to mention that something like that won’t happen anyway.  The merfolk are quite amiable and as long as you don’t kill someone, then you’ll be able to resolve something as simple as some messed up communication.  Oh, but make sure you don’t mention anything about immortality, they’re kind of jaded about that.” (Skadi)

“We should be fine then, immortality doesn’t come up very much in normal conversation.” (Ophidia)

“You’d be surprised.” (Skadi)

“Well, you didn’t teach them the word for it, so as long as the two of us avoid it, then it should be fine.” (Luna)

“True.” (Skadi)

As we approached the city, Tamamo came back and started to speak to us.

{Luna, Soleil, be prepared.  What Soleil said about pranks a while back made Atmos upset and she’s planning something.}

“It won’t cause us any actual problems, right?” (Luna)

{I’m pretty sure she’s going to be petty, but not so much as to actually hinder you.  And even then, her target is Soleil.}

“Think she’ll let me off if I apologize?” (Soleil)

{She might go a little easier on you.}

“Regret!” (Soleil)

“Fufufu.  Don’t worry, she wouldn’t think of doing something THAT bad, right Tamamo.” (Luna)

{Did I ever tell you how wonderful you look when you make a face like that?}

“Once or twice.” (Luna)

“This isn’t the time for flirting, you two.  This is a crisis.” (Soleil)

For a second I thought I hears laughter coming from somewhere, but I decided to ignore it to try and think of something.  It was then that an idea came to me.

“Soleil, think it’s time for a prank war?” (Luna)

“…Possibly.  I know I brought it on to myself, but that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna take a prank to the face without some retaliation.” (Soleil)

“A collaboration of me and you pranking the goddess of mischief.  Fufufufufufufu.” (Luna)

“Hehehehehehehe.” (Soleil)

“Should we stop them?” (Velvet)

“I don’t think we can nya.” (Mio)

While me and Soleil schemed, much to the chagrin of the others, we eventually made it to the city.  Surprisingly, there wasn’t a wall surrounding it, but when I thought about it, it made sense.  I mean, things could just swim over it if they wanted, so what would be the point and a barrier would have its own maintenance issues that wouldn’t be sustainable in the long term.  Though even with the lack of a wall, there were still guards posted on the edge of the city.  When two of them saw us approaching they swam toward us.  When they saw Skadi though, their faces lit up like kids of Christmas.

“It’s Hero Skadi!  Go alert the elders, prepare a parade!”

“Why every single time?  Just why?” (Skadi)

“Would this happen if I survived and stayed here?  Did this kind of thing happen to Blake and Damien?” (Luna)

“Dad said that there were some talks about something like this happening, but he ran away before he actually had to participate.  It’s also probably why he doesn’t travel very much.” (Soleil)

“How very Blake, not that I blame him.” (Luna)

“*Sigh* Let’s just get this over with.” (Skadi)

The merfolk guard that didn’t swim back to the city finally made it to us before he suddenly stopped and did something as close to prostrating as he could with a tail like his in front of Skadi.

“Hero Skadi, it is an honor to be in your presence.  Welcome to the city of Azure.”

“Thank you for the greeting, but you know a parade isn’t necessary.  I said that the last time I came here as well, and while I am honored by the sentiment, me and my friends here have been on quite the long journey and would really like some time to rest.” (Skadi)

The excited merman seemed to deflate a little at Skadi rejecting participating in a parade, but still never lost his reverent smile.

“While it’s a shame that there won’t be a parade today, I can at least bring you to a good place to stay.  Oh, my apologies, companions of Hero Skadi, welcome to the City of Azure, we merfolk welcome you all with open arms.  I hope your stay here will be memorable.”

The merman guard then turned around and beckoned us to follow him.

“Hero eh?” (Luna)

“Please don’t ask.” (Skadi)

“Fine.  I just hope this won’t make things hard for us while we’re here.” (Luna)

“If it comes to it, I’ll go and talk to the leaders of the city and ask them to treat the rest of you like normal people, though if they learn about my relationship with Ophidia, that might make things a bit harder for her.” (Skadi)

“If you want my opinion, I really don’t mind since I’d be suffering with you instead of just watching you go through it.” (Ophidia)

We soon made it into the city.  The guard that was leading us called over one of the others that had appeared when news of Skadi being here spread.  He gave some quick instructions to them and they swam away quickly before he turned to us and spoke.

“I just told that one to go and stop the parade preparations.  Now I’ll lead you all to a place fitting for your status.”

“Actually, the last time I was here I brough back the daughter of one of the elders and they gave me a residence as a reward.  If you could lead us there we’d be happy.” (Skadi)

“AH!  Yes, I remember now, the whole city was told about that incident.  Please follow me.”

“I have a bad feeling about this now.” (Skadi)

“I bet it’s going to be a grand palace nya.  And it’ll have several statues of you nya.” (Mio)

“I hate that I can’t deny that I’m thinking the exact same thing.” (Skadi)

I chuckled at that since I had the same thoughts as well.  We were then led through the city on the way there while the guard cheerfully spoke about the part of the city we were walking through.  All the while other merfolk we passed stopped what they were doing and stared at Skadi like she was a goddess walking among them.

“Skadi, I know you said not to ask, but I kind of really want to know what this is all about now.” (Luna)

“I’ll explain later then.  But only when we’re left alone.  *Sigh*I hate all of this staring.” (Skadi)

{If it’s any consolation, at least they aren’t a cult.}

“For now.  I feel like if I do anything else for these people here, they’ll all start dropping to their metaphorical knees to worship me and that makes me uncomfortable.” (Skadi)

“Hey Velvet, aren’t other vampires like that with Tamamo?” (Luna)

“Yes, though I don’t see why you’re bringing that up?” (Velvet)

“I just felt like it.  I mean, I just find it funny that the three people here with a full connection to the divine have people like this.  For Tamamo it’s vampires, for me it’s elves, and for Skadi it’s merfolk.” (Luna)

{I’ve spent so much time watching all of you that I’ve gotten used to Velvet’s tameness in regards to me that I almost shut out the fanaticism of most of the rest of her race from my mind.}

“Big sis, while I get that you find it funny, your expression says otherwise.” (Soleil)

“Yeah, now that I brought it up, I remember the expressions of the elves back then and it just sends chills up my spine.  Fanaticism is scary.” (Luna)

{“I can’t agree more.”} (Skadi and Tamamo)

While some of us were wallowing in our shared discomfort of out fanatics, we arrived in front of a grand manor that was actually one step from being a palace.  It was three stories tall and made of a mix of light and dark blue coral-looking material with decorative and very shiny shells and metals as ornaments.  I looked at Skadi’s expression out of the corner of my eye and saw her with a twitching smile spread across her face.  She thanked the guard for guiding us here before she practically shut the door in his face.  Once the door was closed and she was sure that nobody but us were here, she slumped to the floor.

“Ugh.” (Skadi)

“I’m sorry I wanted to come here, Skadi.  I didn’t know that it would be like this.” (Luna)

“Don’t be sorry, wasn’t I the one to suggest coming here in the first place?” (Skadi)

“I mean, yeah, but still.” (Luna)

“It’s fine.  I’ll talk to the ones in charge tomorrow and see what I have to do to get the people here to leave us in relative peace.” (Skadi)

“Skadi nya, can you tell us why they treat you like this nyow nya?” (Mio)

“*Sigh* Fine.  Let’s find a place to relax and I’ll talk.” (Skadi)

We looked around for a place to sit.  Once we found a lounge, we all sat on the weirdly shaped couches and Skadi started to talk about several past escapades in which she assisted or saved some merfolk which led to her treatment in the present.

Chaos Realm:

Atmos: Hoho.  A prank war, is it?  I’m game.

Order: Atmos.

Atmos: Don’t ruin my fun, Order.  I won’t go too hard on them.  It won’t be fun for any of us if I go all out from the beginning since I have the full advantage.

Order: Just try not to cause too much chaos.

Oi!

Order: You know what I mean.

Hehe.

Atmos: Oh, mind bringing Luna and Soleil here?  If we’re going to actually go through with this, we should at least agree on some terms and conditions so that we keep this contained as much as possible.

I’ll get them here next time.

Atmos: Order, would you mind being the impartial observer?

Order: Fine by me.  Someone needs to be the one to keep things in check if you and Luna are going to get into a discussion like this and I feel like while Tamamo will say something, she’ll concede to the two of you in the end.  She’s soft when it comes to the both of you after all.