"Your Majesty, living underwater is different from living on land. Our underwater homes don't need so many windows and doorways. Low-Rank mermaids need to feel the water flowing around them at all times in order to breathe, so back when we lived in the ocean, many Mana-Less and Low-Rank mermaids didn't even have homes. Only those of High-Rank or above were entitled to live in palaces built into the reefs."
"Your Majesty Landen, our Finless Porpoise Clan likes a mix of dry and wet spaces, with the emphasis on underwater living. But underwater homes need vents to make it easier for us to breathe..."
"Your Majesty, our Sea Beastmen usually prefer to live on land. We'd like a south-facing platform where we can sunbathe, but we also need a large pool."
Ever since Landen had told Xiu Ming that he planned to turn the lake outside the Iron Mine into an Aquatic Race community, Eithris the mermaid girl, Yumis the Walrus-folk mage, and Lenikova the Finless Porpoise had made a special trip to the Iron Mine. They kept explaining their races' living habits to Landen, afraid that once the city was built, it wouldn't suit their needs.
"Your Excellency, our beaver clan doesn't ask for much. We just need a burrow, preferably with an entrance underwater."
"Your Majesty, guess what? The Otter clan's needs are especially simple: somewhere close to the water, with fish."
What gave Landen a headache was that it wasn't just those three who'd come. The beavers, otters, and even the Harpies had all come to join in. They'd all realized that once this city was built, a lush, water-rich area would surely emerge on the Gallop Plains, so they'd hurried over.
There weren't that many people in front of Landen, but they were certainly a varied