CHAPTER 248: UNDERWATER CITY

Ethan left the imperial palace and headed straight for the papal office.

“I’m terribly sorry, but His Holiness Pope Frederick is currently absent.”

This papal office, which could be considered the highest institution of the Holylight Order, was of course located in the capital.

Ethan had come to the papal office with a letter of introduction from the emperor, but the pope was absent.

The cardinal gave Ethan an apologetic look.

“Is it possible to know where His Holiness has gone? I really need to meet with the Pope.”

“Hmm.”

After pondering for a moment, the cardinal nodded.

“Mr. Ethan Whiskers, you have brought an imperial edict and have also made a large donation to the Holylight Order. Considering your reputation, honor, and position as honorary bishop, I will tell you where His Holiness has gone.”

The reputation built up until now.

The donation.

And the emperor’s edict.

These three things created a clear synergy.

‘It was worth building up that reputation.’

It was worth building up a reputation in a short time at Ivecar Academy.

“His Holiness has gone to Thousand White Lake to resolve an incident in the underwater city.”

‘He went to Thousand White?’

There are several huge lakes on the continent. One of them, Thousand White Lake, is a massive lake connected to the sea, and beyond the lake in the sea is an underwater city where merfolk live.

‘I think I know what’s going on.’

This underwater city is currently very small in scale.

But originally it was said to have been extremely large, and merfolk who came out of the water would often talk about those times.

“I guess I’ll have to go there first.”

***

The city the pope headed to was called Watopia, known as the underwater city.

This Watopia was a city submerged under the sea connected to the massive Thousand White Lake.

‘It’s bigger than most major cities.’

The underwater city of Watopia, where merfolk lived, was once open to the land with a path, but now entry by outsiders was prohibited.

‘There was an incident where the princess of the merfolk was killed by a human.’

The enraged king of Watopia had immediately tried to wage war against humans.

Fortunately, the situation was resolved through talks with the emperor, but since that day, Watopia no longer accepted outsiders.

‘It’s a place that’s closed off to outsiders, so what kind of incident could have occurred?’

The cardinal only said that the pope had gone to Watopia to prevent an incident.

That was all he could tell.

‘Hmm.’

Originally, various artifacts were needed to enter the underwater Watopia.

‘I did prepare everything, though.’

Ethan had entered Watopia several times while doing MePan.

Even then, Watopia prohibited entry by outsiders, but at that time, Ethan was able to enter the city as a first-rank believer of the Dawn Council with various forms of support.

‘The path was so difficult that I had to bring a guide.’

Of course, by his last visit, Ethan had also developed an eye for it and perfectly understood how to read the currents.

The flow of the sea.

‘The path keeps changing. You have to feel those changing flows.’

The merfolk guide who accompanied Ethan on his first trip to Watopia had said that to find the way alone, one must be able to feel the currents.

Of course, at the time Ethan didn’t know what that meant, but as time passed, he came to understand what those words meant.

“No!”

“No, and that’s that!”

On the way to the lake.

People were gathered near the entrance. Judging by their loud shouting and even physical scuffles, it seemed some trouble had occurred.

Ethan slowly approached and listened.

“No, I’m telling you we can’t enter right now!”

“We can’t even get in now, do you think humans like you can?”

“Come on, we came to help you merfolk, and this is how you treat us!?”

“We’re the subjugation team, you know!”

“What subjugation team! You can’t even enter the sea without a guide! Humans are untrustworthy!”

At the entrance, two distinct groups were engaged in an argument.

One side was a group of knights in full plate armor, and the other was a group of merfolk with fins.

The merfolk were so angry that they were shaking the fins on their heads.

‘I heard those really move vigorously when they’re extremely angry.’

A quick glance showed that the merfolk group seemed very angry.

“Are you scared of those monsters? Or are you scared of pirates? We’re telling you we’ll take care of that!”

“Nonsense! Do you even know what’s happened in our land? Do you think we don’t know you’re trying to deceive us with plausible words?”

“Hah! This is why merfolk are! You’ll regret this! We were trying to help with what happened in your land, and you reject us!?”

“Forget it! We don’t need your guidance either!”

“We’ll find our own way.”

“This is our lake. Just try entering as you please!”

‘Seems the rumors have spread quite a bit. They’re not knights, but mercenaries. Probably hunters trying to make a profit there.’

After relations with the merfolk were cut off, numerous crafts made by the merfolk were selling at high prices.

It seemed they were planning to go to Watopia under the pretext of helping and then loot.

The fighting knights turned their heads and took artifacts from their pockets and threw them into the lake. Then sailboats rose to the surface.

As they threw more artifacts, about three sailboats that could hold over ten people each came up, and the mercenaries got on board.

Ethan thought the merfolk would stop the mercenaries, but the merfolk just looked at them with pitying expressions, as if they found them pathetic.

“Alright, let’s go!”

The boats that set off using wind artifacts headed towards the center of the lake at high speed.

‘They’re not stopping them?’

Ethan watched for a while to see how the situation would unfold. Not long after, the fast-moving boats began to shake.

Grrrrrr-.

The sound of a beast’s cry was heard.

Bubble bubble.

Waves began to form on the rippling lake.

“W-What’s this?”

As the boats shook wildly, the mercenaries on board poked their heads out and looked into the lake. At the same time, a head popped out from beneath the bubbling surface.

Crunch-!

One mercenary was immediately eaten by the monster.

And then.

Grrrrrrr-!

The lake water boiled, and then a huge head swallowed a sailboat whole.

Crrrrunch-!

The mercenaries on the sailboat disappeared without even having time to scream.

“Uh… uh!?”

“Damn it all! Turn back! Reverse the artifact!”

But it was already too late. In an instant, several huge monsters appeared and swallowed the remaining sailboats.

Crrrrunch-!

The monsters that had swallowed the sailboats whole slowly sank back below the surface.

Soon, the lake regained its calm as if nothing had happened.

The merfolk shook their heads at the sight.

“Stupid fools, do you think we’re not entering for no reason?”

“We barely escaped with our lives too.”

The merfolk sighed.

It was satisfying to see those damn fools get what they deserved, but only for a moment. Soon, the heavy reality hit them.

“I don’t know what we should do now.”

“We made it here alive, but the other units might all be dead. It’s really… unbelievable. Where on earth did such monsters come from…”

“Watopia is probably surrounded by even bigger and stronger ones than those. We might need to ask for help from other races, not humans. Humans are utterly powerless underwater.”

The merfolk appealed to a merfolk with blue scales on his face.

“Besides, haven’t the humans already committed a great sin?!”

“Yes, the humans have committed a great sin and owe us a debt. That’s why we’re trying to seek help from them. Humans can’t refuse our proposal because they have to repay that debt. We can’t go looking for other races and create new debts. We don’t know if they would help us either.”

“…”

‘They came to ask for help? Didn’t the pope already go?’

From what he heard, it seemed the merfolk who came out to ask for help had formed separate units and come to land.

‘Then another unit might have taken the pope with them. They might not know since they can’t communicate with each other.’

Ethan casually approached them.

“Has something happened to the lake? I came here to fish, but seeing merfolk here, I wonder if something’s happened.”

As Ethan approached with a friendly smile, the merfolk were startled for a moment and became wary of him. They hadn’t noticed him because he approached so quietly.

“…Fishing probably won’t be possible. Go back. The lake is full of monsters.”

A merfolk took something out of his pocket and threw it into the lake, and a monster smaller than the previous ones popped out, grabbed it, and disappeared.

“These aren’t ordinary monsters. They’re very dangerous ones.”

“I see.”

Ethan took out some food from his spatial pouch. Then he scattered it on the water surface, just as the merfolk had done.

“…?”

The merfolk watched Ethan’s actions curiously. As he scattered the food, monsters began to emerge.

Crrrrunch-!

A long monster jumped out of the lake. It looked at Ethan for a moment and then aimed for him instead of the food on the surface.

“Human!”

One merfolk looked at Ethan urgently.

“…Huh?”

Ethan was already holding his sword.

Crackle-.

Ethan, holding the Thunder Sword crackling with lightning, pointed his sword at the monster opening its mouth wide.

Ethan Swordsmanship First Form

Frost Thunder

Very lightly.

Ethan swung his sword.

Crunch-!

But the monster swallowed Ethan faster.

The merfolk looked at the monster that had swallowed Ethan in shock and then immediately turned to the blue-scaled merfolk.

Their expressions seemed to ask what they should do, whether they should save that human.

But the blue-scaled merfolk was staring with wide eyes in astonishment.

“Lord Hydroscale…?”

“It’s already dead.”

“Pardon?”

“I said it’s already dead.”

Swoosh-.

The head of the monster that had swallowed Ethan split in half. Then, with a tremendous roar, its long body was split in a straight line.

“The monster, that is.”

Ethan, who had lightly landed on the ground, shook his sword once.

As the monster’s body sank into the lake, other monsters began to eat its carcass. Ethan looked at them and took his stance again.

Ethan Swordsmanship Second Form

Ten Thousand Thunder Frost Strike

Crackle-!

Lightning burst from Ethan’s sword.

“Keeeeeeek-!”

“Kyaaaaaak!”

With screams, the monsters split in two floated to the surface.

Ethan slowly lowered his sword and glanced at the merfolk.

Flinch!

Startled by Ethan’s gaze, a merfolk hiccupped.

“Actually, I want to go to Watopia.”

Ethan politely asked him.

“Can you help me?”

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Translator Note:

I will change the schedule for this novel to 3chapters/week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

P.S. This is for when this chapter is released for free as scheduled.

Author's Thoughts

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