Book 3 - The Merchant from the Depths: Chapter 38; Museum Travelogue

The screen turns on as the chapter title plays "Chapter - 38; Museum Travelogue".

Yuu was already up and ready for the day, she had noticed the fact that her entire dorm was back to a fixed up state from Azul as he had thought he would have 100% won the bet.

She walked up to the foyer or entrance hall of her dorm as she heard some quite loud knocking, but the door was already opened as the tweels walked in.

Floyd greeted them first shouting "Morning, Little Shrimpy~, Baby Seal!~ We're here to get you. It's time to go!~"

Grim complains to them "Erk! Whenever I see you two, I'm always worried you're schemin' something. Makes my heart skip a beat."

Jade puts a hand to his chest and makes a fakely offended shake of his head as he tells Grim "Please. We would never dream of getting rough with those who aren't in breach of contract."

He then gives more explanation about why they're there, from Floyd only telling them that they were here to get them "The weather's quite clear today— perfect for an outing. On that note…" As Floyd finishes for him, cheering and shouting "Off we go to the Atlantica Memorial Museum!"

Jade nods with a polite smile stating "Azul's arranged it so that we'll have the whole museum booked for ourselves. He's already gone ahead and is waiting for us on-site."

She warns them "You'd better not have doctored the photo, okay?"

Jade smiles as he tells her "We haven't. I've taken full responsibility for keeping the photo in safe custody."

Floyd then essentially sings out "C'mon, let's move. Time's a-wastin'!"

It then cuts to when they're in the Atlantica Memorial Museum with the other first-years, and the eel form of the twins.

This being Ace's first time inside he looks around, rather amazed as he says "Duuude! WILD! So this is what it's like inside."

Deuce swims up to the statue as he comments "There's a statute of a legendary Sea King. Huh. I guess there're more famous figures around these parts than just the Sea Witch."

Jack also takes a look at the king and compliments "Wow. That king's pretty ripped."

Just then Azul swims up to them as well, but he's still in his human form, unlike the tweels.

He welcomes everyone telling them "Welcome, everyone, to the Atlantica Memorial Museum. The Mostro Lounge will be holding a study tour today. Or at least, that's the purpose of our visit on paper. Regardless, I bid you take your time and enjoy yourselves."

Grim shouts "There you are, octo-tentacle Azul! Only…" but stops and asks "you're not. Are you just stayin' in human form?" as he notices Azul didn't change into his merform.

Azul informs them "Yes. Betentacled mermen like myself aren't common around these parts. I wouldn't want to draw any undue attention to myself when our job is to return a photo on the sly."

But Jade seems to notice the other, actual main reason as he teasingly smiles and tells Azul "I see no reason to be concerned. No one would see the cute chubby little merman in the picture and connect that it's you." Floyd also pushes him to lose the human form as he tells him "It wouldn't hurt you to swim around in your real form on a trip home! Why limit yourself to two legs when you can have eight!~"

Azul pushes his glasses up and tells them "Hmph. Just drop it, please." The tweels both nod.

Azul then tells them all "I'm going to slip the photo back in its spot. The rest of you, feel free to explore the museum."

Floyd then drags Ace over to one of the exhibits stating "Hey, check it out! There's a display for the mermaid princess's silver hair comb!~" Ace rather hesitantly asks "I saw a picture of that in the pamphlet before. That's clearly a fork, not a comb, right?"

Jade swims up chuckling, with most of the other first-years following suit, as he tells Ace "Maybe that's how it looks to you land-dwellers."

All of them then swim off to look at the different exhibits.

But Yuu stays behind.

Azul asks her, rather confused "You're not joining them?" She tells him "I'm a little worried about you."

But he takes it the wrong way as he tells her "You're so suspicious. I'll put it back right now."

When in actuality she meant that with what she saw after his overblot and how quickly he fought to return to normal and not let any effects show, she was a little concerned with his well-being.

After he places the photo back he admits "I thought that if I could erase every photo of my past… I could erase my past itself – my youth spent mocked as a slow, dimwitted octo-twerp."

But his face was graced with a soft smile as he continued "The Sea Witch never hid her past misdeeds. She worked to restore her reputation, and earned the people's respect that way. I kept saying I wanted to be like her… But in the end, I couldn't accept my own past. I kept rejecting it."

The two didn't look at each other while they said this, and Azul was rather thankful as he didn't think he could admit that face-to-face.

Yuu turned to look at where the tweels were messing with the others and stated "You've got a far greater power than magic, you know." for as much as they tease him, they truly are there for him as they will and have been there for him.

This makes Azul face her with a confused face, she looks back with a smile as she tells him "You're amazing as it is, even without stealing anyone else's powers." as she knew he definitely needed some help, and therapy for both the overblot and his childhood.

He asks double confused "What…?"

She chuckles and tells him "Your incredible diligence is so rare, it left the headmage at a loss! And diligence is way harder to master than magic."

Azul asks "You… You think?" clearly having a war with his self-doubt, and the only actual sign of his embarrassment being his red ears. Yuu nods, as she had only spoken the truth.

He then chuckled and told her "You needn't try so hard to butter me up. All I wanted to do was get back at the kids who made fun of me."

She frowned, as it was clear his self-doubt had won and he had assumed she was just lying to him.

But before she was able to clarify and tell him Grim swum up excitedly shouting "Hey, Yuu! You wouldn't believe the size of the dinosaur bones they had back there!"

Jade and Floyd are the next to arrive with the others coming close behind. As Jade retells Grim "That wasn't a dinosaur, It was a sea dragon – a type of undersea monster. The Sea Witch's cave entrance was built out of sea dragon bones…or so the tales claim."

Yuu knows that if her dreams are right, and so far they seem to be the truth of history or at least what happened, then at least some creature's bones were used for her cave's entrance.

Floyd then said "They're got a replica of the Sea Witch's cauldron, too!~"

Deuce now gets even more interested as he asks "Really? They have cauldrons under the sea, too?" Ace shakes his head at Deuce's action and even mutters something about him being some cauldron addict before asking "How do you heat things up in the water, anyway?"

Floyd rubs the back of his head and tells them "Uhhh… Beats me!"

Before telling Azul "Azul, you tell 'em!"

Azul is now no longer, in that admitting emotional state as he says, very businessman like "Very well. Fair warning, though: I charge a steep price for playing tour guide."

Then as Azul begins his tour the screen fades to black and "To be continued" plays before fully turning off.