Chapter 266
Chapter 266: There's a Traitor Inside—The Deal Continues
The towering blood-red crocodile stood atop the sea surface, raising its head toward the darkened sky and letting out a thunderous roar.
Rain hammered down against its iron-hard skin, sending icy sprays of water scattering in every direction.
The steel-solid armor plating along its body began to peel away at that moment.
It dissolved into a sky full of iron shards, swirling like a frenzied storm cloud in the tempest.
The blood-red fragments slashing through the air scraped against one another at tremendous speed, as though tearing the falling raindrops into hundreds of thin, narrow crescents.
The Sea Folk trembled, craning their heads back to stare up at that massive red crocodile beast, their bodies leaning away.
The iron-shard storm surrounding them filled them with overwhelming dread, a fierce sense of crisis shooting up their spines and straight into their minds.
At that moment, all they had to do was look up.
The enormous school of fish, caught in Laiton's hand, looked like a single little fish being held captive.
Compared to the colossal crocodile's body, the school appeared utterly frail.
Within Laiton's palm, the school of fish writhed ceaselessly, struggling to break free.
Yet its strength, measured against Laiton's, was simply too insignificant.
The crocodile straightened from its half-crouched stance into an imposing upright posture, one hand clamping tightly around the school's 'head,' then slamming it down violently toward the ocean floor.
Smack!
The school of fish struck the sea surface, and a crisp sound rang out.
The instant it made contact with the water, the school scattered like startled birds, dissolving into tiny specks of light that plunged one by one into the depths below.
Only a single little fish remained, clutched in Laiton's palm, thrashing desperately—like a dazed little shrimp, tiny bubbles gurgling from its mouth.
The crocodile's slender fingertips pinched it by the tail, dangling it in midair.
The little fish twisted its body in the air, looking for all the world like a loach doing sit-ups while hanging upside down.
"I—I—please, don't eat me!" the little fish begged, trembling with fear.
The crocodile fixed its crimson eyes on the little fish swaying at its fingertips, letting out a cold snort.
"Eat you? What do you think you are?"
"A talking fish—I wouldn't dare eat something like that."
Immediately after, Laiton pinched the little fish and suspended it in midair.
It stood behind Heni, slowly bending its massive body down.
It extended the hand holding the little fish out in front of Heni's face.
The dangling little fish, gripped by panic and terror, hugged itself with its remaining 2 fins and pleaded to Heni in a trembling voice.
"Council Member, we won't dare again, we won't dare again."
It was flustered and at a loss, prostrating itself in the crocodile's palm.
At first, it had thought that being inside the City of the Sea, it ought to be able to test its strength against a Mage Council Member.
Who could have known this Council Member would refuse to play by the rules and summon a monster of this magnitude?
A little fish like itself—how could it possibly compare to a crocodile?
Now the little fish was truly dumbfounded. So this was how vast the gap between their City of the Sea and the Mage Council really was.
At that moment, Heni let out a sigh, a trace of grievance still lingering at the corners of her eyes as she spoke.
"I am not a Council Member."
"What?"
You're not a Council Member?
The little fish stared at Heni, suddenly at a complete loss.
You're not a Council Member, and yet you can walk around with a creature like this at your side?
Then just who in the world are you?
The little fish looked up, eyes wide, staring at that ferocious crocodile.
This crocodile—with only its upper body exposed—was already level with tall buildings. And right now it was still hunched over.
If it stood upright, it could probably be larger than half a city district.
No wonder. Even the City of Mages probably couldn't accommodate a thing like this.
At that moment, Heni blinked and turned to ask the little fish.
"When you said you wouldn't dare again—what exactly does that mean?"
"Uh…"
The little fish's expression visibly twisted with discomfort, seemingly rendered speechless by the question.
At first, it had assumed the Council's people had tracked it down, which was why a flash of obvious panic had crossed its face.
But now it knew the other party's true background.
Since she wasn't from the Council, what was there for it to panic about?
No, wait—if she wasn't a Council Member, then how to explain that Council Member emblem?
Thinking this through, it shouted toward one of the guards standing nearby—a guard whose face had gone pale and whose body was rigid with fear and apprehension.
"Bring that emblem from earlier over here."
The guard stumbled backward and dove beneath the sea surface, vanishing from sight.
Shortly after, ripples spread across the water again. The guard leapt up from the depths and appeared before the little fish.
In his hands was an emblem bearing the mark of 3 shattered human heads.
The little fish, however, kept extending its inch-long fins, yet couldn't quite reach the emblem no matter how it tried.
It grew furious.
"Are you stupid? Can you not see whether I'm in a position to grab it?"
It was being pinched by the crocodile right now—it couldn't even move.
The guard seemed to only then understand, and hastily held the emblem out in front of Heni.
Heni accepted it. This emblem was, naturally, something she recognized very well.
It was the symbol of the Professor's identity as a Council Member.
The little fish watched Heni, who remained perfectly calm and showed not even a trace of surprise. It blinked.
Well then. So they know each other.
The guard hadn't told it exactly how many people had come. After all, it had assumed only a single Council Member had arrived.
Not to mention, it hadn't gathered from the guard what gender that Council Member was either.
Once upon a time, a Council Member from the Mage Council had traveled through various sea regions under a different identity, conducting inspections.
And the City of the Sea's conduct, strictly speaking, was something that organization—which prided itself on justice and morality—would never be able to accept.
As the City Lord here, the little fish had been doing everything in its power to stay prepared for that.
So when it first saw Heni, who had seized the entire Upper City in a single night, it had assumed Heni was that Council Member.
After all, to bring the entire Upper City of the City of the Sea to submission overnight—the little fish couldn't think of anyone capable of that other than a Council Member.
But that now raised another doubt within it.
If the girl standing before it wasn't the Council Member—
Then where exactly was the real Council Member?
Yet no one offered it an answer. Heni's questions came one after another.
"You're the City Lord of this place, aren't you?"
The little fish nodded repeatedly, not daring to show the slightest insolence.
Heni looked somewhat puzzled.
"The residents here are almost all human."
"Why is it that only you, the City Lord, are…"
A fish?
The little fish fell silent for a moment, then spoke in a faint voice.
"Because I am, by nature, a fish."
From the moment of its birth, it had lived among its kind in the boundless ocean, drifting freely through the waters.
At first, the little fish couldn't speak, and harbored no complex thoughts.
Only the instinct to survive.
Nibbling on seaweed in the ocean, hiding from other predators.
Because among ocean creatures, their kind was the weakest. A single one of them, living alone, would only ever become food for other predators.
So as a species, they had no choice but to band together.
"Do you know—it was humans who gave me thought and power, and made me into what I am today."
The little fish shifted its fins and spoke.
"But I despise humans."
Humans used magic freely, relied on magic, and yet showed not the slightest respect for nature.
For the sake of their own comfortable lives, they dumped vast quantities of industrial waste into the vast ocean.
That waste gradually polluted the once clear and pristine sea. The acrid smell and scalding sensation spread through the currents far and wide.
It posed a far greater threat to ocean creatures like themselves than any natural predator ever had—a threat they had no means of escaping.
The ocean was defiled, their home destroyed.
Many of the little fish's kin, without exception, withered and died one by one.
Only it survived alone.
Struggling to live on in a contaminated environment caused the little fish to undergo a mutation.
It even learned to speak, developed consciousness, and grew far stronger.
Those kin who had died from the pollution—not even their bodies could decompose.
Its voice called out to the ocean. It sought the ocean's help.
It wanted to live.
It wanted to make those humans pay the price.
And so the ocean answered it.
It was granted the power of the 'school'—
As long as it wished, it could summon the bodies of its kin who had already perished.
Their bodies could not decompose. And so they became its helpers.
That was why the little fish had been able to survive safely in this stretch of ocean, and step by step had become the City Lord of the City of the Sea.
Heni only watched the little fish in silence. Then, she spoke.
"I'd like to see your kin one more time."
"Mr. Crocodile, please set it down first."
"Uh, sure."
Laiton scratched its head and casually tossed the little fish into the ocean as though flinging a stone.
The little fish did not leave. Instead, it summoned the school to reassemble around it.
Countless fish of the same kind—silver-white—gathered together and attached themselves to its body.
Then it abruptly transformed into an enormous, fearsome fish-beast.
The fish on the outer layer were like scales, glinting with an icy silver light.
Yet they were completely devoid of life—still and dead.
Heni watched its transformation in silence.
At first, she had assumed the little fish was some kind of Magical Creature.
But no Magical Creature had ever been quite like it—possessing intelligence, even able to communicate with humans normally.
The little fish's voice sounded again.
"Do you see now—the wretched state of my fallen kin?"
"That is why I despise humans."
It paused for a moment, then continued.
"Do you know how the Sea Folk on this City of the Sea came to be here?"
As it spoke, it swept its gaze across its surroundings, looking at the Sea Folk all around—those who had been thrown into overwhelming dread and fear by Laiton's appearance.
"They were humans who lived on a cluster of sea islands. Lost at sea, they were forced into the City of the Sea and became 'Sea Folk.'"
"They fished without a care in the world, enjoying themselves—and contaminated the ocean more and more with every passing day."
"So I too wanted to make them experience what it feels like to be shackled by the sea."
Here within the City of the Sea, they could still experience emotions—but they were like numb puppets.
Beyond those emotions themselves, they could take no action of their own.
"Do you know why they seek out the offerings?"
Heni shook her head to show she didn't understand. The little fish let out a sharp, gleeful laugh.
"Because they want to die—they want to beg for death!"
Under the interference of the Ocean Covenant, the Sea Folk of the Upper City were trapped in a state where they could neither truly live nor die.
Merged into the ocean, they could only obey the commands of whoever controlled them.
Their actions were controlled. They had no choice over life or death.
So they could only pin their hopes on the offerings—hoping to become sacrifice themselves.
"They even hope to become fodder for the ocean!"
The little fish's voice grew more and more agitated as it spoke here, its entire body beginning to tremble faintly.
Deep within it, a reckless urge to vent surged upward. Having spoken all of this aloud, it felt immensely relieved.
As though every crime humanity had committed had been avenged, one by one, by its own hand.
Yes. Everything it had done was to unleash the fury in its heart upon humankind.
The little fish gradually calmed down. With the enormous fish tail composed of its countless dead kin's bodies, it swept gently through the water and drifted in a slow circle around Heni.
Even though it was well aware that all of this was a secret of the City of the Sea.
Still, it had told everything to this unfamiliar human girl standing before it.
Not out of fear of that enormous crocodile.
Because the moment it entered the ocean, it had nothing to fear.
Even if it couldn't beat the crocodile, it could still run. In the vast expanse of the sea, there would always be somewhere it could go.
But it simply found itself, inexplicably, developing a certain fondness toward this human girl.
It was an emotion it couldn't control.
"Mm… You're the only human I don't dislike. So some things—I'll only say them to you."
Heni startled slightly, as the little fish's voice sounded beside her ear.