Crystalia City. It is one of the three major cities of the entire merman race. Unlike the other races, the merman race didn't have empires, countries or any thing of the sorts. Everyone was united under one "empire" and that empire is known as the merman race. And the merman race had one leading figure. It was known as the "Three Leaders Council" and as the name says, it was compromised by three members, each being the most powerful figure in their respective city.
Right now, in a secluded location where few would even be aware of it, were the three members of the council. The location itself in reality though, was a private room in the most prestigious restaurant of the merman race "The Golden Sea". The decorations of the room were suprisingly pretty simple, yet elegant with the seas of the world as the decorantions on the wall and a short square table on the ground and a pillow on each side of the table. On three of the pillows, there were sitting three mermen. The first merman had jet black short hair and a long tail with sharp scales with a checkered and polka dot pattern and blue eyes. The second merman was actually a mermaid who had long white hair and crimson red eyes and her instead of having a tail, she actually has lots of thin tentacles without plungers. The last merman had blue hair and a thin beard, green eyes and a tail covered in glistering, azure, sharp scales. The three of them were also wearing some sort of formal wear with a couple of frills.
"Tiamat, Aureus. I'm deeply sorry that I had to gather you in such a way, but right now we have an small emergency and you definitely need to know this." The one to speak first was the man with the black hair with a serious and a slightly nervous expression.
"What happened Laguna? You don't usually call for an emergency this quickly, so whatever you have to say, it must be important." The one who spoke slightly concerned was the mermaid Tiamat.
"Where do I even start with this situation? Alright, I have 3 pieces of bad news, which one do you want to hear first?" Laguna showed a hint of nervousness in his voice, but he kept his serious tone.
"Start with the least worse one and then save the worst one for last." This time Aureus spoke emotionlessly.
"Alright, for starters, the other races' heroes. I got the reports yesterday for my men in the other continents and this time, we are going to be dealing with some pretty harsh competition this time. Also, although this is only partial information from only a couple of my men, but I heard word of a secret 8th hero that has appeared already, but they don't have anything that could show the validity of these reports so for now I'm expecting more reports for anything that could confirm the appearance of an 8th hero." Laguna explained seriously.
"An 8th hero... Do you believe that in the first place?" Aureus asked.
"To tell the truth, when I read the first report, I didn't think of it much in the first place, but that second report felt like it's better to keep it in mind for now." Laguna answered.
"So, what is the next piece of bad news?" Tiamat asked Laguna.
"The war between the demon and the angel race will flare up very soon and their first battle has an extremely high chance to happen at the coasts of Vallia Sea."
"Definitely not good. This could severely affect our economy and trading. After all, the the towns near Vallia Sea are our only way of direct trading with the land, so we may need to make plans to deal with this situation. For now, this will be a separate matter for another time." Aureus explained seriously.
"And the last?" Tiamat asked a bit calmly.
"The Scourge is back." Laguna said seriously after a long pause.
"What!? Those vile monsters are back!?" Tiamat was shocked by the revelation made by Laguna.
The Scourge was a dark organisation that had hundreds of members, all powerful individuals that could easily defeat squadrons
"Wait. What makes you say that The Scourge is back?" Aureus asked seriously, although he couldn't hide the shock is his voice.
"There are reports of monsters appearing at the east parts of Crystalia City. Normally that area is considered as a dead zone for a very particualr reason. That would be the Undead Leviathan near one of our abandoned bases, that thing would give off such a strong aura of intimidation and death, that every creature in the vicinity of the monster would stay away from that area, regardless of their strength. But now I have received reports of monsters appearing there and sent some of my people to investigate the area, only to confirm my reports." Laguna explained at the two of them.
"So we can safely assume that the Undead Leviathan is dead and their leader is aware of that?" Tiamat asked a bit nervously.
"Of course. Now that the leader is aware of that, he will definitely try to find a monster of that caliber to add it into their minions. And I'm afraid that it will not be the end of it. I'm sure also that he won't rest until he finds the one who took down his monster." Laguna said seriously.
"..."
"..."
Both Tiamat and Aureus had dark expressions on their faces for this situation and the three of them just stared in silence at each other. At that moment, Aureus broke the silence and said:
"For now, what is done is done. No one could have predicted the death of the beast. Now we have to focus on protecting our people. If it is possible, it would be better for everyone to increase partols and vigilance inside our cities. Also keep each other updated regardless of how small or trivial could the news be."
"Alright. Then it's settled. This will be our plan of action for now." Tiamat spoke seriously this time.
"Now that we got the bad news out of the way, Aureus, give us the good stuff. Tell us." Laguna now said excitedly.
"Good stuff? What could possibly be good for this kind of situation?" Aureus asked angrily.
"He is asking for our Hero, Aureus." Tianat said indiferrently.
"Oh, that. We managed to get the status of the Hero and he is definity a powerful hero. His base stats overall, are a perfect 80. Much better than the past couple of decades where the average was a 50." Aureus said slightly happy.
"Ohh. That is definitely a good one. And his affinity?" Laguna asked excitedly.
"His best affinity is earth so he will be studying under you Laguna." Aureus then looked at Laguna.
'Yes. I get the hero to myself.' Laguna thought excitedly, but he kept his excitement under a face of pure seriousness while he said:
"I'll teach the hero everything I know. So when do I have to pick him up?"
"The sooner, the better. Currently he is residing in the Sea God's temple under Laventhign's protection." Aureus explained.
"Uhhh... I'm not looking forward to meet her." Laguna said dejected.
"Hehe. Serves you right." Tiamat said mischeviously.
As the three of them were talking for a bit, Aureus remembered the events that happened yesterday when he mentioned the Sea God's temple and felt pretty irked from the entire situation. Tiamat and Laguna noticed Aureus' expression and asked:
"Aureus, is something wrong?" Tiamat asked worriedly.
"It's nothing, I hope." Aureus said silently the last part. Of course Laguna didn't let that silent part escape his ears and decided to dig in deeper.
"You hope? They way that sounds, you make it as if it is extremely troublesome."
"For now, I just hope that it is nothing, otherwise that situation could cause me massive headaches." Aureus said while holding his head with his right hand.
Both Tiamat and Laguna then realised that Aureus would do this kind of expression, only when something happened that involved his children, so they decided to help a bit.
"Come on Aureus, I know you pretty well and whenever you do that kind of expression, it usually involves one of sons or your daughter. So tell me what's the problem and I'll help you on handling it." Laguna said happily.
"Don't keep it to yourself Aureus. You can tell us your problem." Tiamat added with a serious expression.
After a bit of time, Aureus decied to tell them what had made him upset:
"Actually, during the summoning ceremony, I actually saw a merman with blue hair, green eyes and a blue tail with sharp scales."
"So? Isn't one of Laventhign's sons? What is so weird about it?" Laguna asked curiously as he was drink from a cup.
"Problem is that I know all of Laventhign's sons and daughters, including their merman and human forms and that person wasn'tone of Laventhign's descendants. And now I'm afraid that he might be one of my sons from some drunken night that I might have had." Just as Aureus said that, Laguna then spit his drink out of shock and said:
"What!? You had another child? Aureus. I though you said that you wouldn't have any illegitimate children."
"Honestly Aureus, I didn't expect that from you. Especially, when you said that you were going to be all loyal and lovey-dovey with your wife on your day of your marriage. So, who is the mother that concived that child?" Tiamat was suprised by this revelation and decided to tease Aureus a bit.
"I have no clue. Honestly, I haven't had a night where I could get wasted ever since my wedding day and judging by the age of that person, he is definitely around the age of my first-born son. So, potentially, maybe, possibly, I could have done it with someone during the wedding party when were drunk. Uhhh... If my wife hears about this, she will probably castrate me, then skin me alive and then she will kill me." Aureus sounded pretty dejected while he was saying that.
"Don't worry Aureus. I'll dig into this as well to look for info on the kid. It's the least I can do for a friend." Laguna said while feeling pity for his friend.
"I'll owe one Laguna." Aureus said slightly relieved.
"Come on guys. It's time to get going now. This meeting is over. Nothing that is said in this room, shall it come out of the mouths of the members of the Three Leaders Council." At that moment, Tiamat decided to end this meeting with a serious expression, since there wasn't anything else to talk about now and the three of them left the restaurant and teleported away from there, towards their residences."