The Twisted Tale of The Little Merman

_-*Chapter 36*-_

Tendou POV

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Queen Agatha and a few of her private guards accompanied my group and me back to the base. It was a little nicer to travel with protection but I was also incredibly nervous that we would stick out like a sore thumb.

However, the Queen must've thought of that as well, because she wasn't dressed regally and the guards lacked the shiny armor.

The trip back passed quickly, as we had much more haste with our larger group. Within one and a half days, we reached our base—this trip previously took three days.

Oikawa was greatly relieved to see the Queen had agreed to lend her army in support of our cause.

The Queen and hopefully-soon-to-be-mer-king immediately got to work on conversing on the "rebel matters", as Hinata liked to say.

Speaking of Hinata, he and Kageyama had yet to return, actually, my group is the only one who has returned so far.

Thinking about that made me anxious. Oikawa, sensing my distress over the absence of the others, gave Wakatoshi and me a task.

"Tendou," Oikawa said softly while the Queen looked over Oikawa's notes of the mer castle's defense, "would you like something to do?"

I nodded vigorously, my hands fidgeting in front of me.

"Wonderful," He grinned, easing my nerves slightly, "Because I have the perfect task for you."

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"It should be somewhere over...here," I stopped in the middle of the tunnel, Wakatoshi bumping into me at the sudden stop. Oikawa had sent us on a "retrieval mission" towards somewhere quite a ways from our HQ. Toshi and I spent nearly two hours swimming until we reached the underwater mountains, then we spent another thirty minutes traveling underneath the ground in a rough stone tunnel hidden from the outside.

"I don't see anything, Satori," Wakatoshi stated blatantly.

"That's the point, Toshi," I giggled, a warm feeling spreading throughout my body, "The best things are hard to find."

With that, I moved forward and pressed my hand into the wall.

Nothing happened at first and Wakatoshi looked unimpressed,I simply smiled knowingly. Suddenly, the wall lit up, lines of light streaking every direction in ancient symbols revealed the outline of a door. With a groan, the door—which was previously hidden—swung open.

Behind it, cold water rushed out, ruffling my hair and making me shiver. Wakatoshi wrapped his arm protectively around my waist and pulled me close.

"There's nothing alive in there," I reassured him and he raised an eyebrow.

"Alive?"

"Let's go!" I pretended to not hear his comment and pulled him into the dark "room".

The water was musty and, quite frankly, freezing. I waved my hand over a section of the wall that was directly next to the door and suddenly more glowing lines lit up the walls, illuminating an ancient looking room filled to the brim with weapons.

Wakatoshi exhaled in surprise and I laughed at his reaction.

"Cool, isn't it?" I asked, gliding over to a chest and lifting the lid, revealing old-fashioned mer swords in mint condition.

"It is," He agreed, "but how is everything not rusted and ruined?"

"Magic," I shrugged my shoulders, "previously, before my father took the throne, our army was armed with magic infused weapons. We had mages, sorcerers, and every kind of magical mer you can imagine. The Kings and Queens of old knew that our army would be much more formidable if they had better weapons. So they worked with the sorcerers and such to create superior weapons. But when my father gained the crown, he banned the use of magic—which is why he hates the Octalio. He was scared the weapons would be used to overthrow him, as they are the only weapons that can fatally wound a royal mer. He had the weapons rounded up and destroyed. My mother disagreed with him so she smuggled what she could out here, to a cave which can only be accessed by someone from her bloodline."