Aqua: Will You Let Me Go First?

"What are you planning to do?"

Mayuna followed behind Ruben and asked curiously. Early that morning, she had seen Ruben fiddling with a wooden cart and placing a glass tank on top of it. After he explained it to her, she learned the term "aquarium."

"Cleaning up the mess."

Ruben gave a simple reply. The poison dragon lady had left, but the bathtub water she left behind was difficult to deal with. Ruben was now going to find someone who could handle it.

"Aqua, come out."

Ruben pushed the cart all the way to the lakeshore and called Aqua's name. However, Aqua, who would usually pounce on him, seemed to have changed completely and ignored him.

When Ruben saw that Aqua would not come out, he knew the mermaid had gotten smarter. The first time Felosys had bathed here, Ruben had already been troubled by her bathwater. Soon, he thought of mermaid purification magic, and Aqua's life of hard labor began. Every mess the poison dragon left behind was cleaned up by her. As an ordinary person, Ruben was powerless to help.

"I have something you like to eat."

Of course, Ruben had a way of dealing with idiots. He took out a box he had prepared early in the morning and opened it. An enticing fragrance spread through the air, and soon, half a head emerged from the lake. A pair of eyes watching from the shadows stared fixedly at the box.

"Hey, seriously? That idiot can actually resist the temptation of food?"

Mayuna stared in disbelief at Aqua, who had not immediately come over to eat. In her impression, Aqua was clearly the sort of being who would risk her life for food.

"I'm not an idiot! Ruben, you just want that, don't you? You want to use my body, right?! Every time I finish, I'm exhausted to death!"

Hearing Mayuna's words, Aqua angrily floated half her body out of the water. She pointed at Ruben and complained indignantly. Anyone unaware of the truth would probably think he had done something perverted to the mermaid lady.

"It can't be helped. I can't purify poisonous water. It's something only Aqua can do."

"E-even if you say that, I won't be happy."

The angry expression on Aqua's face instantly turned happy, blooming like a flower. Her tail unconsciously swept across the water's surface, leaving Mayuna without even the strength to mock her.

"That's such a pity. This aquarium was originally prepared for the most beautiful mermaid in the world. It seems I can only find another mermaid to help me. I wonder which beautiful mermaid lady would be willing to help?"

A regretful expression appeared on Ruben's face. He shook his head and prepared to push the cart back, intending to seek an unknown beautiful mermaid.

"Me, me, me! I'll do it!"

How could Aqua endure that? She immediately swam from the lake to the shore, obediently jumped into the aquarium, and even filled it with water using water magic.

"Tricking an idiot is a crime."

Mayuna did not even know what expression to use as she looked at Ruben. She felt she should explain a Holy Empire law to him. His actions had clearly crossed the line. Though honestly, if that mermaid fell into her hands, she could sell her to ten different owners in a single day and make her count money for her dozens of times.

"Isn't an idiot like that cute?"

"She has a human body, but the brain of a fish. No wonder she's called a mermaid."

With Mayuna's jab, the two humans and one fish finally headed back. Mayuna did not know how many underground levels had been excavated beneath the cabin. She only knew that the first underground level was the living area, the second was Ruben's laboratory and warehouse, and she had never gone below that.

The wooden cart became useless before entering the cabin. It was rather large, after all, and could not go down the stairs. Ruben therefore opened his arms toward Aqua. She immediately jumped out of the aquarium and onto him. This was clearly not her first time doing so. She skillfully wrapped her arms around Ruben's neck, letting him carry her by the shoulders and fish tail as he went downstairs.

"Hold onto the water."

As they passed the first level, Ruben placed a large water jug on Aqua's stomach. Although mermaids could not stay out of water for long, a short time was completely fine. Still, Ruben had considered such details. His meticulous concern made the foolish mermaid happily rub against his chest.

"It's so huge down here? Say, are you some kind of groundhog? Why do you love digging holes so much?!"

For the first time, Mayuna followed Ruben down to the third level. It was a vast, dark, damp hollow. Fortunately, after Ruben flipped a switch, the light bulbs on the walls worked and illuminated the area somewhat. The stretching lights showed Mayuna just how large this place was. She seriously suspected Ruben had hollowed out the entire mountain behind the cabin.

"It was already hollow. I only remodeled it. But the equipment for bathing her really did take me a year to make."

"I see. Aren't you tired?"

Mayuna glanced at Aqua, who was courting death. Aqua had been staring at her with the gaze of a victor. Mayuna had not thought much of Ruben carrying Aqua before, but now she was very annoyed. An idiot was actually mocking her with her eyes.

"I'm fine. I'm used to physical labor."

"I'll help you. Water magic: Pool of Clear Spring."

With a kind smile, Mayuna raised her index finger. Guided by magic power, a blue sphere of water rapidly formed and expanded in midair until it reached around two meters in size.

"No, no, no! What are you trying to do?!"

Aqua instinctively sensed danger and tightened her grip around Ruben's arm.

"Nothing. Look how heavy you are. Isn't it tiring for Ruben to carry you? I'll do it instead."

As Mayuna spoke, she hurled the water sphere balanced on her finger at Ruben. When she pulled it back, there was already a mermaid inside the sphere, while Ruben's clothes had not even gotten wet. That level of control was simply terrifying, warning Aqua not to provoke the Magic Goddess, or she would make her suffer from every possible angle.

"This is the place."

Without Aqua's weight, Ruben was happy to be unburdened. He walked much faster and soon arrived near an artificially excavated basin. The basin was already filled with purple poisonous water, and a thick iron pipe hung above it. Mayuna could roughly guess that the poison dragon's bathing pool was above.

"Whoa, it's like an altar for summoning demons. Are we going to throw her in as a sacrifice?"

Mayuna took several steps back as she looked at the bubbling purple liquid, then looked eagerly at the mermaid in her hand. The poor mermaid lady panicked at once, continuously striking the edge of the water sphere and pleading for help. Mayuna had no idea how she had done it, but the water sphere's edge, which should have been liquid, was as hard as steel. No matter how Aqua struggled, she could not get out.

"Stop bullying her. Just put her to the side."

Ruben patted the back of Mayuna's head, then pointed to a cushion he had prepared beforehand. Mayuna obediently threw the water sphere, mermaid included, onto it.

"Pwah! I curse you! I curse you to choke while eating and cough while drinking! You awful person!"

"That sounds terrifying."

Mayuna curled her lips. She had endured curses far more powerful than that. Why would she fear an idiot mermaid?

"Aqua, you can start now."

"Hmph. My only pleasure has been taken away. I'm going on strike."

Aqua lay motionless on the cushion, radiating the air of a dead fish that did not want to work. To her, the walk where Ruben carried her was emotional comfort. She had not expected even that tiny comfort to be taken away by Mayuna.

"Ha, tell me, Ruben. Why did you stop Felosys from bathing in the lake back then?"

Seeing Aqua go on strike, Ruben might have to purify the pool himself. Mayuna could only take an indirect approach and put her mind to work. Aqua, who was pretending to be dead, also perked up her ears to listen.

"I told you already. It was because of my water source..."

"Enough with the excuses. Although you truly can't produce water, Dragon isn't just decoration. I don't believe someone like you could be trapped to death by the environment. At worst, Dragon could pack up all your equipment and move somewhere else. Small mountains like this are everywhere. There was no need for you to spend a year building all this."

"It's because of this mermaid, isn't it? She arrived before Felosys did. You can move somewhere else, but for this mermaid, that lake is her only home."

"Can't I take her with me?"

"That's impossible. You don't know where there would be a suitable place for her to live, and you can't take a mermaid who cannot stay out of water for long onto land. As for why... it's human greed."

"Mermaids are something you simply never see on the continent. Even cities by the sea have no chance of seeing one. They live in the deep sea. It's perfectly normal for many people to go their entire lives without ever seeing a mermaid."

"You remember what her tears turn into, right? Once people discovered that a human with no magic power was wandering around with a precious mermaid, it would be even more conspicuous than a baby carrying a mountain of treasure. If she was lucky, they would lock her up and make her cry for more than ten hours every day. If she was unlucky enough to encounter a perverted noble, you know what would happen."

"That's why I say everyone who meets you is lucky. You really are an utter idiot."

Mayuna's certain voice brought the debate to an end. Ruben had not expected Mayuna to be so clever. Just as he wanted to struggle a little more, he discovered that the mermaid lady had already leaped over.

"I-is that true? You did it for me?"

Aqua pounced on Ruben and pressed her entire body against him as she asked.

"These are small matters. They don't matter."

Ruben stroked Aqua's beautiful long hair, and the mermaid lady immediately burst into tears. Pearls fell one after another onto Ruben, making soft pattering sounds.

"If you've cried enough, go work. You don't want to stay here forever, do you?"

"I can stay here. You're here, after all."

Aqua obediently returned to her position and cast purification magic. Mermaids were the beloved children of the Water Goddess. Not only were they highly skilled in water magic, but they were also unmatched at purifying water sources. After all, legend said that the ancestors of the mermaid race had cleansed the Goddess's Lake for the Water Goddess.

"Miss Magic Goddess, you got what you wanted?"

Only after Aqua focused on purifying the poisonous water and was no longer paying attention did Ruben speak.

"What are you talking about?"

The Magic Goddess was bending down to pick up the pearls from the ground and pretended not to understand.

"You deliberately made Aqua cry to collect her tears. I told you yesterday that we were almost out of living expenses. Looks like you remembered."

"Well, I merely stated the facts. Her being moved to tears is her own business, so I'm not being despicable."

Running out of living expenses was a very serious matter. It meant the Magic Goddess could no longer demand that Ruben make this or that on a whim. Those precious food ingredients all cost money. Seeing that her next snack was about to disappear, Mayuna was extremely anxious... well, not that anxious. As long as she was willing to walk the path of crime, money would not be a problem at all.

"The purification is complete."

Who knew how much time passed? Just as Mayuna was about to fall asleep leaning against her cloud magic, White Cushion, Aqua's voice woke her. When she walked to the edge of the basin, she found that all the water inside had vanished. Ruben was down there, wearing gloves and using a dustpan and broom to clean the bottom.

"What are you doing?"

"Aqua can't completely remove the poison dragon's toxins. These things appear after every purification, so I'm cleaning them up."

Ruben's dustpan was already full of purple crystals, and many more such crystals lay at the bottom of the basin.

"Are these potent poison crystals?"

Mayuna was highly knowledgeable and recognized the crystals at once. Potent poison crystals had a small chance of forming at the bottom of poisonous swamps or inside poison-element magical beasts. These crystals were fiercely toxic and worked extremely quickly. Usually, the victim would die before even realizing they had been poisoned. They were practically essential items for murder... and for home and travel.

"Potent poison crystals? These things really are poisonous. I studied them for a while before. If you soak one in water for a second, the water can poison someone to death."

"They're more than that. They're precious magical materials, especially potent poison crystals from a poison dragon. Do you know how much these are worth?"

"They're valuable? Look over there."

Ruben did not seem particularly concerned. He casually pointed at a corner of the cave.

"Wha—what?!"

Mayuna stared at the pile of potent poison crystals stacked like a small mountain and cried out in surprise. She did not care about anything else. All she could think was that her snacks for the rest of her life were secured.

Aqua: Um, would you all like to buy Aqua stock? Guaranteed profits, no losses. (True Love Blue)

Everyone: No. Get lost!

Aqua: Why? Why?!

Everyone: Taking advantage of an idiot is against the law.