Iseni stood at the very back of the crowd, greedily breathing in the increasingly savage atmosphere. It was the atmosphere fishmen loved most, and it had become ever rarer on this increasingly peaceful campus.
"Ugh, it stinks! Iseni, tell your people to keep their distance!" Pinching his nose, Andrew suddenly came up beside the young fishman and complained loudly.
The surrounding noise was deafening. Unless he raised his voice, he worried that the fishman's little ears would fail to catch his words.
Iseni glared with his pale eyes, looking displeased. "Hiss... stink, I smell stink too... hiss... not our smell!"
Even so, under the pressure of the many young wizards' gazes, he obediently moved to the lakeside, intending to tell his fellow fishmen who had gathered to watch the commotion to move farther away.
Then his brow knotted into a deep frown.
By Linzhong Lake, the water where his people had poked their heads out seemed an unhealthy shade of green. It was neither the green of flourishing algae nor the copper-patina color of foul, stagnant water.
It was an unsettling green.
A rank stench also rose from the water, entirely different from the fishmen's own fishy odor.
Smack!
Iseni's heavy foot stamped a deep hole in the muddy shore. In an instant, water seeped up from the bottom and filled it. The water was greenish, slimy, and foul-smelling.
"What's that?!" Omega, who had been following beside Iseni all along, asked in a shrill voice. The short, scrawny wizard had always been very interested in fishmen. Back in his father's kitchen, he had discussed the differences between fishman flesh and the flesh of ordinary large fish with Yota's head chef more than once.
That avid gaze made Iseni uncomfortable. Turning sideways to avoid Omega's eyes, he answered gruffly, "Hiss... puddle...