Is this human?

The scenery here is truly magnificent! Seagrass and strange, unnamable trees grow on the seabed. The branches and leaves of the plants are as soft as silk, gently swaying in the water as if alive. Looking up, one can see colorful fish darting through the upper layers of the sea, like birds flying in the sky when viewed from the ground.

"Oh my, oh my, it's so beautiful!"

Aurora looked left and right, her eyes as wide as they had ever been since birth.

These few seconds of sights were more shocking than all the beautiful scenery the girl had seen since birth. She believed that it also surpassed the sum of the magnificent scenes that almost everyone in the Rose Kingdom had seen from birth to death!

In an instant, a strange feeling stirred in Aurora's heart:

If her teacher hadn't changed the trajectory of fate when she was born, and the witches had chosen another path for her—the path leading to destined slumber—she would definitely not have been able to see this magnificent and beautiful dreamscape.

At this moment, she would still be locked in a palace cast in 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 about it, the more fortunate she felt that, 10 years ago, the Sage of the kingdom had chosen another path for her.

The big fish swam for a while longer with Rhine and Aurora in its belly, and they saw a palace—a magnificent building made of 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 the Queen's hat!"

Aurora pressed her palm against the transparent belly of the big fish, her eyes wide, unable to help but exclaim.

"That is the Sea King's palace. The gardens outside the palace are divided into many sections, belonging to the Mermaid Princesses," Rhine said. "We have arrived in the Mermaid's kingdom."

Aurora curiously sized up her teacher, whose height was getting closer and closer to her own.

We're both here for the first time, right? How come you're so familiar with it, like a tour guide revisiting a familiar place!

However, Aurora immediately accepted this setting—perhaps Magicians were just so knowledgeable. As a Warrior, she didn't need to consider such things.

It's just like the scenes described in the books from my previous life, no, the scene I'm seeing with my own eyes is even more magnificent and beautiful... Rhine thought.

A giant lantern fish with two humans in its transparent belly. Such a strange sight immediately attracted the surrounding little mermaids! From all directions, dozens of little mermaids swam towards the big fish that Rhine and Aurora were "riding" in.

"Oh no, the mermaids are coming."

Aurora looked warily at the mermaids swimming from different directions, and quickly drew the sword from her waist—it was the best sword in the Rose Kingdom, specially crafted for her by the King and Queen by top artisans.

But the moment the sword was drawn, Aurora immediately realized that her action seemed meaningless.

"If the mermaids attack us with magic or weapons, what should we do? Inside a big fish's belly, I can't fight at all! If I tear the fish's belly, then we'll be sinking into the deep sea."

Aurora panicked. The terrifying stories about mermaid curses in the kingdom's literature and folk tales echoed in the girl's mind.

However, in those stories, it was only the songs of four or five mermaids that brought doomsday storms and destroyed giant ships.

Now they were in the deep-sea mermaid kingdom, facing dozens of mermaids at the same time!

"There's no need to panic." Rhine looked calm and composed, smiling. "In fact, mermaids should be a relatively peaceful race. Those terrifying curses and legends should just be misinterpretations of mermaids."

Aurora looked at the silver-haired boy beside her with suspicion. Although she was still uneasy, she chose to believe her teacher.

Before long, dozens of little mermaids had all swam over, surrounding the big lantern fish, curiously sizing it up and observing the two people inside the fish's belly.

Aurora was surprised to find that after seeing the humans in the transparent belly, none of the mermaids drew weapons, cast spells, or sang songs that could summon giant waves and storms like in the legends.

These strange creatures with fish tails were actually quite friendly! "See, I told you," Rhine smiled.

The mermaids were all pressed against the transparent belly of the big fish, watching the two humanoid creatures inside, their eyes full of surprise and curiosity.

—This made Aurora feel strange, as if they were animals in a circus, on display in a glass cage for people to watch.

"Come and see, everyone, this lantern fish's belly is transparent, and there are two humanoid creatures inside!"

"Oh, really!"

"These two guys are so ugly and scary. Their upper bodies are similar to ours, but everything below the waist is completely deformed! I don't even dare to look at them!"

"Were their tails cut off below the waist, cut into two ugly and strange fleshy pillars?"

"What do you know? Those are called legs. They are humans who live in the upper world! Human physiology is just that weird."

"Humans? Are they really humans? How could humans come into the water?"

"I heard my mother say that only shipwrecked sailors can come to the palace in the sea as dead people. Are these two humans dead?"

"Of course they're dead, is there even a question? Look at them, they've been eaten into the belly of a big fish."

"..."

The little mermaids started chattering all at once.

A big fish bringing a human into the sea, this was the first time they had ever seen such a sight! This was bad, they were attracting onlookers... Also, who said that those without tails were ugly, you're the ones who are ugly with your tails... Wait, no, no, who's the dead person here...?

Aurora wanted to argue with the mermaids, but the words reached her lips, and she didn't know where to start.

Before Aurora could speak, Rhine quite naturally struck up a conversation with the mermaids:

"Yes, we come from the world above."