As Long As You're Pretty, Even Bathwater Smells Fragrant

"Ruby, eat, eat! If you don't feed me, I'll have to eat frogs, and they don't taste good at all."

Rather than saying Aqua had a bad brain, it was more accurate to say her way of thinking was different from normal people. Now, she was pulling Ruby's hand, demanding to be fed. Mayona, meanwhile, imagined the scene of eating frogs and felt a chill.

"Mhm."

Ruby didn't make things difficult for her. He handed her the box he used for fish food. This feed was made with Earth's golden ratio, a taste no fish could resist. By conclusion, Aqua was also a type of fish.

"Does this make you the owner of this mermaid?"

"It's just a mutually beneficial relationship. I take care of her, and she keeps the water quality of this lake good."

Ruby answered Mayona's question simply, then put bait on his fishing rod and continued to cast.

"I see."

Mayona nodded in understanding. She had just been wondering if the water in this lake had anything to do with the mermaid. Sea Tribe are all favorites of the water god; no one is more suited to water magic than them.

"Ruby, when will you agree to mate with me?"

Aqua patted her belly after finishing the fish food, then jumped into the lake and dove down. In a moment, she resurfaced, holding a pink egg, and said to Ruby.

"Give me the egg to study first."

Ruby's interest in the egg was clearly greater than his interest in fishing. He reached out to grab Aqua, but she dodged him nimbly.

"No, a mermaid's egg can only be touched by the child's father, unless you agree to my terms."

"I recall mermaid mating is..."

"Just shoot your essence onto it. It's simple, right? So Ruby, just masturbate here and..."

Aqua said it plainly. And from her appearance, she didn't intend to use her beautiful body for anything for Ruby, but rather to be a spectator.

"Shameless!"

Mayona's face flushed slightly as she interrupted Aqua. To ask Ruby to do such a thing in broad daylight, what did she take her for?

"What do you mean? Compared to me, isn't your human reproduction method even more shameless? Why are you saying that to me?"

"I... In short, Ruby, let me tell you, mermaids have a terrible reputation. They can mate with any species, and this race is synonymous with laziness. After handing the child over to the father for upbringing, the mother disappears. If the father doesn't raise them, the entire mermaid tribe will hunt him down. Don't go looking for trouble."

Mayona was momentarily speechless. As an adult, she naturally knew how humans reproduced, and Aqua wasn't wrong. However, she didn't like arguing, so she dismissed the entire mermaid race.

"Why are you like this? Can't you find another man on this mountain? You're cutting off my descendants!"

Aqua, furious, conjured a water arrow with water magic and shot it at Mayona. She hadn't done anything, yet she was being targeted by this woman.

"Who cares about you! You can't fulfill your wifely duties, isn't that one-sided fraud!"

Mayona caught the water arrow between two fingers and threw it back, aiming for Aqua's head. It hurt so much that tears welled up in her eyes.

"You're wrong about that. Although the structure of my lower body is different from humans, I can guarantee that mermaid play isn't any less than human play, hee hee hee."

Dragon opened its heterochromatic eye and let out a twisted laugh. The people in this world were still too young, thinking that mermaids couldn't do anything without a lower body. Dragon, who had gained knowledge from another world, didn't think so.

"I'm curious why mermaids have such an ecology; it's unscientific. As for children, I'm not planning on becoming a father yet."

As Mayona said, mermaids can mate with any species except plants. Reproductive isolation here is probably just a paradox. What subject, what chromosome count, none of it exists. As long as a mermaid's egg comes into contact with the male's ancestral chromosomes, it will automatically conceive. And the offspring will absolutely be female mermaids, so there are no male mermaids. Earth's biologists would probably want to dig up their coffins to investigate if they knew.

That being said, most mermaids only mate with other members of the Sea Tribe. After all, they can't stay out of the water for too long. Once other Sea Tribe members have painstakingly raised their daughters, they return to their own tribes to find the next victim. Looking at it this way, this race does indeed have problems.

Just as the one human and one mermaid were at an impasse, Ruby's fishing rod finally moved. He gently pulled, hooking the soft flesh of the fish's mouth. After a few pulls, a large fish was yanked out of the lake, landing on the shore and wriggling.

"What a big fish."

Mayona hadn't expected the fish Ruby caught to be so large. It was about half her height when standing up. Such a large fish was rare in inland areas.

"Hamlet!"

"?"

Hearing Aqua's shout, both of them looked at her in unison. The mermaid then began to explain.

"That's the fish's name. I named all the fish here out of boredom. Hamlet is a fifth-generation single child. Its parents' eggs were eaten by another fish when they laid them, leaving only him. How pitiful. As for how to cook it, I suggest braising it. Steaming it is also good."

Aqua's first few sentences were fine. Mayona felt a little reluctant to eat it. However, the latter part was wrong. Aqua, with drool dripping, told them her suggestions. Mayona felt that arguing with her here would mean losing to this idiot, so she suppressed her urge to complain.

"Mayona, take the fish."

"What did you say?"

"Do you think I called you over just to look? The fish here are large due to the water quality, and transporting them back will take considerable effort. Consider it the first step in your weight loss."

"You, you want me, the pinnacle of the Sacred Continent, an Archmage, a peerless beauty, to carry a fish?"

Mayona was so angry she wanted to crack open Ruby's head and see what was inside. No matter from which angle, carrying a fish was completely incompatible with her.

"You'll never have cake again from now on."

"Wuwu..."

On this day, the strongest and most evil Archmage, Mayona, was defeated by a single sentence from Ruby. Reluctantly, she picked up the substantial Hamlet and, under Aqua's gaze, began her journey back.

"Hoo, hoo, I'm dying. I'm covered in sweat and smell like fish. I can't live..."

After throwing Hamlet into Ruby's kitchen, Mayona finally couldn't help but collapse on the ground. At this moment, she was drenched in sweat and reeked of fish. There was no trace of the Archmage's imposing demeanor. She could only curse the sadistic Ruby in her heart.

"The bathwater is ready."

Ruby patted Mayona's back to help her breathe. He knew mages were usually like this, but her stamina was just too poor.

"Hey, Ruby."

"Yeah?"

"I don't know why that mermaid lied, but Aqua is the name of the Water Goddess. She's worshipped by all sea tribes, so no sea tribe would dare name their descendants after her."

"It's fine, everyone has their secrets."

"That's true."

Mayona didn't mean to drive a wedge between them. She just felt it was necessary to tell Ruby so he wouldn't get screwed over by Aqua later. Ruby's answer was within her expectations; he was just that naive.

"I'm alive! Baths are really comfortable, bathing..."

Mayona groaned comfortably as she lay in the bath. She closed her eyes, recalling the day's events with a slight smile. No one would have expected her to fight fish and end up covered in sweat, but it was a good experience. Still, she felt like she had forgotten something. Mayona stared into the bathwater, lost in thought.

"Ruby AHHHHHH!!!"

Mayona ran out of the bathroom without even getting dressed, wrapped only in a white towel. But she didn't even have time to feel shy now, just tugging at Ruby's clothes and shouting.

"What's wrong?"

"You said Aqua was responsible for purifying all the water we use, right?!"

"Yeah."

"So where does she live?!"

"...The water quality meets drinking standards."

Ruby naturally understood what Mayona meant. This water was more than ten times cleaner than drinking water on Earth, so there was no reason not to drink it. It was just a matter of psychological acceptance.

"Where do mermaids excrete?!"

"The water is rich in minerals, which are very beneficial to the human body."

Ruby pretended to look at the scenery, still not answering Mayona's question directly.

"Ugh, blech!!"

Mayona covered her mouth and ran into the toilet after hearing this. After that, all the water supply in Ruby's house was solely handled by Mayona.