Servants rushed into the bathhouse and quickly addressed Guilin's bleeding ear.
"It's nothing," he pushed their prodding hands away with a painful grin.
"Young master, your ears are bleeding profusely. Call a medic here! Quick!"
Guilin just pushed them away. "I'm fine. My ears are fine. It's just a little blood." He gazed at the pool, which was turbulent. He could hear faint sounds from inside. "Check if the kui is good. Quick."
His personal servant cast a worried gaze his way and rushed to the pool. "They seem okay, young master."
"Phew… that little mer has some spunk… hey, have you heard of mers doing that?"
His personal servant bit his lips anxiously and shook his head.
"So normal mers don't, huh…." Guilin's sharp gaze fell on the pool. "You guys go out. I think I need to have a small chat with our distinguished guest." He waved his hand, gesturing for them to leave.
The lower-level servants all bowed and left the room, but his personal servant stood there with a defiant look.
"What?" Guilin whispered while wiping his bloodied ears.
"Young master! You are becoming too obsessed with the mers!"
"Oh, don't shout." Grinning, Guilin held his ears. "I know what I'm doing. And…" he peered into his servant's eyes. "I'm not obsessed."
"You are! I've grown up with you, and I've never seen you behave like this! You have fallen into their enchantment, Lord. Please… you can't go on like this. One day, those mers might hurt you!"
"Shut it!" Annoyed by his constant chatter, Guilin glared his way. "I said I know what I'm doing. Get out of here."
With tears in his eyes, the servant rushed out of the bathhouse.
Guilin sighed. "I've given him too much freedom," he walked up to the pool and gazed in. Kui and the little mer were sitting quite a distance away. The pool was deep, so he wasn't able to make out what Kui was doing, but it seemed like he was sitting there dejectedly.
"Hey, Kui, you okay?" he screamed from the top. "What am I doing… he can't hear me down there. Should I go down…" he contemplated that decision.
But he went against it.
Because he knew that the little mer was currently furious at him for some reason, and he would be killed in seconds in there.
'Tsk… taking care of them is harder than I had imagined…' With a smile, he just went to do his work.
Outside, the personal servant sniffled, wiping his nose. Through the gaps of the door, he watched his master sit by the pool with a small smile on his face. "He has changed…. The mers might hurt him…" he mumbled to himself softly and dashed out of there.
The initial plan after capturing the mers was to give them to the new mer king. But strangely, their young master had completely stopped the plan. He did not let even a single rumor spread about these mers. It was like he wanted to keep them and protect them as his own.
'If this goes on, my young master will one day become fish food… I can't have that.'
His old grandparents were fishermen, and he had heard tales. Tall tales of mers who would enchant humans and pull them deep into the waters to chow down on them. The terrifying tales were all he heard every night before bedtime.
Thinking of his young master in that position made his spine tingle.
"I won't let that happen!"
He quickly ran out of the mansion and into the nearby leisure house. If he directly revealed the information about the mers to the mer king, his young master might get enraged at him. Instead, he went through an indirect approach: rumor.
He quickly called a courtesan nearby and whispered into her ear, "Master Guilin has two mers with him."
The courtesan smiled and handed him a small brass ingot. "Good information. Can you tell me more about them?" she seductively blinked her eyes.
The servant blushed. "There's two. One hybrid and one smaller pure-blooded mer. The younger one seems to have strange powers. Last night, it screeched so loudly that it made the ground under us tremble."
"Gasp… is that so… such powerful creatures. Say, are they as beautiful? I've heard quite a few rumors." The young lady leaned against him, rubbing her ample bosom.
"Y-yes… very pretty…"
The courtesan nodded. "So… can we get the elder one… the hybrid? The mer king is only looking for purebloods. A half-mer would do well in here. So many people would actually wait in line."
"You can have him!" he agreed instantly. "But quickly spread the news about the younger mer first. I need them both out of our mansion as soon as possible."
"Okay, that can be done," the lady let out a seductive laugh. "Now you… for such valuable information, you deserve a night of pleasure. Come, you." She beckoned him to the nearby room.
The servant grinned and ran after her.