"We should seek out Lord Ma'akt," Jin Lei continued. "And offer him a proper… tribute as atonement for whatever sins we have committed to make him so angry. Only then will the gods be appeased and we would have a chance at saving our glorious city."
Tribute.
That word could mean many things, though when it came to the gods, for the mermen, it almost invariably meant live mermen sacrifices. And to appease a god who had descended to meet them, the sacrifice of an ordinary merman would not suffice, but it had to be one of the royal family.
"Fine then," Jiao Ming said, knowing that he had little choice in the matter. He had several wives and concubines, and he selected among the youngest of his daughters. "Tell them to offer Zhi Yun to Ma'akt then. Send our finest warriors to Ma'akt, and should he wish it, I will bend the knee to him myself."
The only reason that Jiao Ming was even going along with this was, in addition to the severity of the situation, he did not believe in the slightest that they would actually find Ma'akt. It was more likely than not those two guards had simply gotten drunk last night and were seeing things.
Jin Mei smiled. "Your Highness is truly wise! To give up his own flesh and blood for the sake of his people - no doubt the people will remember his sacrifice for eons to come!"
After eating lunch, Tang Ze and Yin Tiang decided to take a little nap under the shade of some trees before Tang Ze started putting on another layer of waterproof body paint to dive into the lake and grab some Freshwater Serpentweed.
"Now remember," Yin Tiang said. "No matter what happens, we need to avoid the mermen as much as possible. We wouldn't want to cause some kind of incident."
"Right," Tang Ze said, moving closer to the water to apply the bodypaint while glancing at his reflection. He was sure he had passed somewhat close by their city, but he had immediately rocketed off in the other direction, so he was also sure that nothing too bad should have come of it.
Just as he thought such, he noticed his reflection in the water was slightly odd. He had been trying to finish the layer of body paint on his face - but that looked far too alien for it to -
-and before he could finish that thought, a group of mermen emerged from the water. There were twenty of them in total.
The mermen were able to go onto land for very short periods of time, though they didn't like it - much in the same way that humans couldn't live underwater for a very long period of time but could manage to dive for a certain duration if it was needed. They looked far more like fish than like people, and they wore a strange green armor which Tang Ze remembered was some kind of mineral they mined. Their weapons were made of the same green mineral, and these weapons could move through water as if it were air. Some of them were earing golden ornaments like earrings or necklaces.
Tang Ze turned around to Yin Tiang, and they both exchanged a 'We really screwed up didn't we?' look instantly.
As it was, the mermen and the humans were living in peace, at least currently. It looked like Tang Ze had unwittingly riled them up somehow - and if it turned out that they had somehow precipitated an inter-species conflict, the bloodshed that would ensue was a distant thought in their minds. What they thought of before all of that was that their heads would absolutely be the first things on the chopping block should such a thing happen.
Both of them were preparing to kowtow ten thousand times and break their arms if that would calm the mermen down, though before they could even begin apologizing, the mermen all bowed their heads instead.
"Leader of the First Trident of King Jiao Ming, Captain Hai Long, greets Lord Ma'kat!" the one kneeling in the front said.
Yin Tiang looked between Tang Ze, and Tang Ze glanced back. They were able to communicate a few things from expressions alone, and had somewhat understood that they weren't in big trouble. At least not yet.
The mermen warriors remained as is for a while, until Tang Ze said, "Raise your heads!"
They complied, and took a good look at Tang Ze. None of them dared show it in their facial expressions - but they all though that Ma'kat looked quite different than what they had been expecting.
Tang Ze had almost finished applying his body paint, but he still looked very human. And that surprised them - for their religious dogma said that the gods had made the mermen in their image. Yet, why did Ma'kat look more human than he did a merman?
Not to mention the strange accessories that Tang Ze was wearing - just what were they?
However, these were warriors who were very nearly convinced that Tang Ze was actually Ma'kat, and so none of them dared voice any concerns or issues they may have had with his appearance.
"Lord," Captain Hai Long continued. "We seek you on behalf of King Jiao Ming, and would like to apologize for the offenses our people have caused against the gods."
"That is ah, alright-" Tang Ze tried to say, though at the moment, his mouth had gone dry and his words were softer than a pin drop on a busy dance floor - that is to say, no one other than him heard them.
"As such, we offer you tribute," Captain Hai Long said, and one of the warriors standing behind him fetched something from the water.
Within a fishing net which looked like it was made of silver, there was a small creature - initially Tang Ze thought that it was some kind of fish, though a closer look revealed it to be a small merman, which was clearly a child. It was richly dressed and adorned with gold and pearls, though the moment it saw Tang Ze, it started wailing.
"This is Zhi Yun, one of the daughters of His Majesty Jiao Ming himself," Capatin Hai Long said. "His own flesh and blood, who he offers as recompense for his misdeeds." He then jabbed Zhi Yun with the blunt end of his trident and scowled. Zhi Yun stopped crying though still looked just as tearful as she had before.
Now, both Yin Tiang and Tang Ze still had no clue what was going on, but the context was more than enough for Tang Ze to figure some things out. "Well… ah, in that case, you may tell your king that I, Me-Ma-" he coughed, "Ma'kat have been touched by his willingness to offer his own child. I ah, am willing to overlook all of his misdeeds, and as a gesture of my forgiveness, you may ah, take Zhi Yun back. His mere willingness to offer such is more than enough to earn my forgiveness."
Tang Ze really hoped that this would work and that the two of them hadn't just dug an even deeper hole for themselves.
To this there were various cries from the mermen.
"We do not deserve lord's kindness!"
"So wise!"
"At last we have been blessed!"
"Lord Ma'kat," Captain Hai Long said, now bowing once again. "We once again offer you Zhi Yun, as we cannot take an offering back to the king. With what face will we tell him that the gods rejected his sacrifice? And with what face will Zhi Yun return, knowing that she has been rejected by the gods?"
"No, no," Tang Ze said, trying his best not to burst into sweat - because the more he sweat, the less long that the body paint would last. At least right now he looked sort of alien, and could maintain something of a façade. "Consider it my… ah, act of mercy."
"In such a case, will Lord Ma'kat save our city?" Captain Hai Long asked.
"Save your city…?"
"Indeed, the fact that the ground beneath us has been sinking has caused us great trouble, Lord," Captain Hai Long said. "We request that you please show us your mercy by relieving us of this sword that hangs above our heads."
Tang Ze tried to get out of this, but was unable to, and eventually resigned himself and agreed to go with them back to their city.
Before that though, he said he needed to have a word with his 'trusted servant' aka Yin Tiang.
"What are you doing?" Yin Tiang whispered hurriedly to him.
"I don't know, but how are we going to explain how we messed up this badly to anyone?" Tang Ze asked. "Do you know who Ma'kat is?"
Yin Tiang shook his head. "The mermen are very isolationist, but based on context he sounds like some sort of god."
"Yeah, I figured that too," Tang Ze said, sounding annoyed - but if Yin Tiang, who had researched the lake quite a bit beforehand was unable to tell him more, it was likely that no human could either.
"So what now?" Yin Tiang asked.
"I go down and hope that they don't suddenly declare war on us," Tang Ze said. They were too deep into this - while he was sure that the mermen would be angry if they found out that Tang Ze had wandered too close to their airspace (or waterspace he guessed) he was sure they would be even more mad if they found out they had been deceived and that Tang Ze wasn't Ma'kat.
As such - there was only one option. And that was to double, triple, and then quadruple down on their lie!
"Good luck then," Yin Tiang said. There was no further help he could provide in this situation. "Try not to start a war, m'kay?"
"I'll try," Tang Ze said.
Anyone among the mermen soldiers who had any doubts as to who Tang Ze really was were more than convinced the moment he began to move in the water.
"So fast!"
"He truly lives up to his name!"
Some of them had noticed that he looked suspiciously like a human who was wearing some kind of body paint, but upon seeing how he moved in the water so gracefully and agilely, these doubts were put to rest.
It looked like Tang Ze, even when restricting his speed, could swim to their city and back fifty times over in the time it took them to get there. They had to request that Tang Ze slow down while swimming, because they didn't want to leave their 'god' without an escort.
Tang Ze was convinced then that he could likely handle all of the mermen if it came to a fight - the issue was that he was trying to avoid such a fight if possible.
The mermen were essential to the ecosystem of the lake - otherwise the Raswatian Empire, if it truly wanted to, would've eradicated them long ago.
He also didn't want the other humans, most of whom were mortals, to suffer due to something he had done. While they swam towards the mermen settlement, he kept racking his brains for what to do next.