"My, my, haven't seen you in a week Gretta. How have your children been these past few days?" An old mermaid asked a younger mermaid that was passing by as she was waving her hand at her.
"Oh my, Granny Remina, indeed it has been a week. As for my children, they are doing quite fine, especially after you prescribed that recipe, they became well after around four to five days." Gretta, the younger mermaid answered with a happy and polite expression as she bowed down, after putting her bags down on the ground.
"What brings you here Granny Remina? I've heard that you weren't allowed to swim anymore." Gretta added with a slightly confused expression.
"My, my. I'm not that weak Gretta. I may be too old to do any heavy work, but that doesn't mean that I'm not able to do anything at all. I'm still able to do light movement and my work as normal, so don't go thinking that I'll be sleeping with the fish any time soon." Remina answered with a serious expression as she was shaking her wrinkled face slowly with dejection.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that, Granny Remina." Gretta answered with a slightly guilty expression, as she bowed down once more.
"Please get up Gretta. There is no need to bow down as you apologize. I know you meant no harm and were thinking for my well-being. Just remember that even though my bones my fail me one day soon, I'm still going to be able to work and give it my all like a normal person, so until that day comes, you don't need to worry about me yet." Remina tried to console Gretta with a happy expression after hearing Gretta's apologies.
"I see... I'll remember that well." Gretta answered with a slightly tearful expression, before wiping her tears away.
"No need to worry about that anymore. So, how's your..."
At that point, the two ladies starting conversing about their lives and family for a little while. In the meantime, there was a mysterious merman who had covered his head with a white cloth and was hiding behind a nearby alley, as he was staring at the two ladies, especially her bag on her hand. Before long, the man had suddenly disappeared and in the next moment, he quickly swam past the two women, while taking swiftly Gretta's bag and and quickly swimming away.
"H-Hey. Give that bag back. Guards, anyone help." Gretta screamed as was seeing the back of her thief disappearing quickly. As the thief was escaping, a couple of guards suddenly appeared from another nearby alley and swam in a similar manner while catching up with the thief.
"Stop right there. You are breaking the law." A young male voice came from the sword wielding guard as he was swimming behind the thief.
"Tsk, guards. So obnoxious." The thief muttered in annoyance before answering back:
"Kiss my fins guards."
At that moment, he threw away a black blob right at the guards and the moment it touched the ground, black ink suddenly exploded and created a huge cloud that made impossible to see ahead. In a moment, the sword wielding guard suddenly grabbed the hammer wielding guard's hand and said quickly:
"Close your eyes and don't let go."
At that moment, the two guards quickly closed their eyes and entered the cloud to chase after him. As for the thief, he was never affected, since he had barely escaped in the nick of time and took twists and turns to make sure he loses the guards.
Before long though, the guards had suddenly appeared right behind him once again and he couldn't help but curse the moment he saw the guards.
"Son of a sea witch. Just how persistent are you?"
As he was cursing, the two guards nodded slightly with each other, before the sword wielding guard suddenly created a Mana Ball out of nowhere and shot it at the thief. The thief was suddenly surprised, but he wasn't panicking and decided to kick the ground with his fin, as he sidestepped away from the trajectory of the Mana Ball. At the same time though, the hammer wielding guard stopped quickly and swung down his hammer with all of his force, as it was glowing white and it created a shockwave that struck the thief, at the exact moment he would sidestep.
What happened next was the thief losing his balance and dropping the bag accidentally, before his got struck on his face by the Mana Ball and falling unconscious on the ground. After that, the two guards quickly put the cuffs on the man, before another pair of guards came from nearby.
"Here's the thief guys. Purple hair, no scars and a dark red tail. Just a slight burn on his face, but the cloth mitigated most of the damage, so he just got knocked by something similar to a rock." The hammer wielding guard said to the guards, as he lifted the cuffed thief and passed him to the other guards.
"I'll go take the bag to the lady from before. Do you want to meet up in the base or at our shift's starting location?" The sword wielding guard asked.
"Let's meet up in the base. Besides, our shift is over already." The hammer wielding guard answered as he left the sword wielding guard back. After that, the two of them split on their own ways and before long, the sword wielding guard had reached the spot where the crime happened.
"Here are you stuff miss. Thankfully, nothing dropped on the way here."
"Thank you sir. I would have been in so much trouble, if it weren't for you." Gretta answered with an expression and voice full of happiness and gratitude, as she bowed down and picked up her bag.
"All in a day's work, miss. Have a nice day." At that moment, the guard left the two women who were waiting and slowly made his way towards the base. Before long, he stopped at a back alley and then took his helmet off and the moment his helmet was off, his blue hair, crystal green eyes and mature expression were on full view, with nothing to block them.
"That was another long shift. Just remember Soren, tomorrow is the last day and after that, the training and work is finally over." Soren sighed with a slightly tired expression as he shook his head and sat down on the ground and was engulfed in his own thoughts:
'To think that it has been four months already. I wonder how Lavenza is doing. Laventhign hasn't even allowed me once to enter the temple and the letters have been saying that she is doing fine, but I just can't help but be worried until I seen with my own eyes that she is well. Also, I wonder when Rohan will be sending a letter or something. He said that he will explain the events of that day when he returns after the four month training period, but I would have liked to be able to do some small talk at least. At least Matt send a letter every month to ask how I'm doing, so I can at least guess that nothing bad has happened.'
In the end, he could only sigh before getting up slowly and saying with a casual expression:
"I guess tomorrow will be a big day. Hope that she hasn't missed me too much."