The sight here is truly magnificent!
Seagrass and strange, unnamed trees grow on the seabed, their branches and leaves soft as silk, gently swaying and moving in the water, as if alive. Looking up, one can see colorful fish darting through the layers of the sea above, like birds in the sky when viewed from the ground.
"Oh my, oh my, it's truly beautiful!"
Aurora looked left and right, her eyes wider than they had ever been since birth.
Just these few seconds of observation were more stunning than all the beautiful sights the young woman had seen since she was born. She believed it also surpassed the sum of all the magnificent sights almost everyone in the Rose Kingdom had ever seen, from birth to death!
Suddenly, a strange feeling stirred in Aurora's heart:
If, at her birth, the teacher had not altered the trajectory of her destiny, and the witches had chosen another path for her—the path leading to an inevitable slumber—she certainly would not have been able to witness this resplendent and dreamlike scene.
At this moment, she would undoubtedly still be confined within a palace cast from brass.
The square blue sky and a few white clouds of different shapes outside the window would be her entire world.
The more she thought this, the more she rejoiced that on that night 10 years ago, the kingdom's sage had chosen another path for her.
The large fish carried Rhine and Aurora in its belly for a while longer, and then they saw a palace—a magnificent structure built from coral, amber, and pearls.
"This is the first time I've seen so many beautiful and large pearls. Any one of them is rounder and more beautiful than the pearls on my mother's hat!"
Aurora pressed her palm against the transparent belly of the large fish, her eyes wide, unable to help but exclaim.
"That's the Sea King's palace. The garden outside the palace is divided into many sections, belonging to the mermaid princesses," Rhine said. "We have already arrived at the Mermaid Country."
Aurora curiously observed her teacher, whose height was now increasingly close to her own.
This is the first time for both of us to be here, isn't it? How can you be as familiar as a guide revisiting an old place!
However, Aurora quickly accepted this premise—perhaps a wizard was just that knowledgeable; as a warrior, she didn't need to consider such things.
It's so similar to the scenes described in the books of my previous life. No, the sight I'm witnessing with my own eyes is even more magnificent and beautiful than the words...
A giant anglerfish with two humans in its transparent belly. Such a strange sight immediately attracted the surrounding Mermaids!
From all directions, dozens of Mermaids swam towards the large fish that Rhine and Aurora were "riding."
"Oh no, the Mermaids are coming."
Aurora looked vigilantly at the Mermaids swimming from different directions and swiftly drew the sword from her waist—it was the best sword in the Rose Kingdom, specially forged for her by top craftsmen at the request of the King and Queen.
But the moment the sword was unsheathed, Aurora immediately realized that her action seemed meaningless.
"If the Mermaids attack us with magic or weapons, what should we do? Inside a large fish, I can't fight at all! If I tear open the fish's belly, then we'll just sink into the deep sea."
Aurora panicked, the terrifying stories of Mermaid curses from kingdom archives and folk legends echoing in the young woman's mind.
However, in those stories, it was merely the song of four or five Mermaids that brought about doomsday storms and destroyed giant ships.
Now they were in the Mermaids' country in the deep sea, facing dozens of Mermaids at once!
"There's no need to panic," Rhine said with a calm and confident expression, smiling. "Actually, Mermaids should be a relatively peaceful race. Those terrifying curses and legends are likely just misinterpretations of Mermaids."
Aurora looked at the silver-haired young man beside her with a mix of doubt and trust. Although she was still uneasy, she chose to believe her teacher.
Before long, dozens of Mermaids had all swum over, surrounding the large anglerfish and curiously examining the two people inside its belly.
Aurora was surprised to find that upon seeing the humans inside the transparent belly, none of the Mermaids drew weapons, cast spells, or sang songs that could summon giant waves and storms, as legend claimed.
These strange creatures with fish tails actually behaved quite kindly!
"See, I told you so," Rhine said with a smile.
The Mermaids, one after another, pressed against the transparent belly of the large fish, observing the two humanoid creatures inside, their eyes filled with astonishment and curiosity.
—This made Aurora feel strange, as if they were circus animals, on display for people to gawk at inside a glass enclosure.
"Come look, everyone, this anglerfish has a transparent belly, and there are two humanoid creatures inside!"
"Oh, really!"
"These two guys are so ugly and terrifying! Their upper bodies are similar to ours, but below the waist, they're completely deformed! I don't even dare to look longer!"
"Were the tails below their waists cut open, cut into two ugly and strange flesh pillars?"
"What do you know? Those are called legs. They are humans who live in the upper world! That's just how human physiology is strange."
"Humans? Are they really humans? How could humans come into the water?"
"I heard my mother say that only shipwrecked sailors, as dead people, can come to the palace in the sea. Are these two humans dead?"
"Of course they're dead, is that even a question? Look at them, they've both been eaten by the big fish and are in its belly."
"..."
The Mermaids began to chatter amongst themselves.
A large fish bringing humans into the sea—this was the first time any of them had seen such a sight!
Oh no, we've attracted a crowd... Also, who said we're ugly without tails? You're ugly with tails... Wait, no, no, who's dead...
Aurora wanted to argue with the Mermaids, but the words were on the tip of her tongue, and she didn't know where to begin.
Before Aurora could speak, Rhine quite naturally struck up a conversation with the Mermaids:
"Yes, we come from the upper world."