The fishmen village.

The village on the North coast of the western bulb of the sideways hourglass which made up the monster realm.

The village, as it's name suggested, was home to the fishmen- a group of intelligent monsters who were a mix between fish and humans. They stood on two legs, however had bodies covered in scales and fins.

Like the birdmen, the fishmen were very different from one individual to another. There were all types of fish- swordfish, sharks, eels, angler fish, squids, octopuses, tuna, salmon, and even beings that were not necessarily fish such as turtles, dolphins, crabs, lobsters, clams, and many other aquatic beings.

If it was a sea creature- it could be found here in a humanoid form.

The fishmen village had around 2000 inhabitants of various types. For reference, the lizardmen village had around 2000 as well, whereas the birdmen village had around 1000 inhabitants.

The fishmen village was known commonly for a single yearly event which determined the person who would lead the tribe for an entire year.

The fishmen Olympics.

Every year, those who were confident in their skills would compete for the position of chief, and only the most skilled would come out on top. When one wins the Olympics each year, they would essentially gain complete control over all events in the village, and nobody would dare to disobey the one called chief, lest they risk being banished from the village.

The village itself was actually a port village consisting of two major sectors- an aboveground village near the sea where small cargo ships were manned by the fishmen for trading purposes, and an underground cave where the inner village was located, however it could only be entered through swimming or diving, as there was an underwater tunnel which served as the only entrance.

This underground cavern was the heart of the fishmen village, and where the majority of the people lived. Some homes were on the outside, however the majority were not.

The chief would of course rule from a palace in the underground sector.

The current chief was a tiger shark who had been able to win the Olympics in the previous year. His name was Ploritan.

Ploritan had worked hard over the past year to ensure that the trade business was flourishing. The fishmen were particularly known for their salt industry.

Under the rule of Ploritan, the fishmen had set up many salt collection areas near the bay and were able to produce salt on a massive scale.

One might wonder, who did they export the salt to?

The answer was actually quite surprising.

First off, they did minor trade with nearby monster villages such as the lizardmen village and the birdmen village. Salt was an extremely important preservation component when it came to meats and vegetables since refrigeration did not exist among the monsters until Garett had invented it himself.

However, this was not actually their primary source of income. Their primary source of trade was smuggling the salt into the human realm in exchange for things like tools, weapons, and information.

A swordfish under Ploritan had a contact within the Empire who was secretly making trips to the monster realm and trading various human goods with the fishmen. If this man was caught, he would likely be sentenced to death for treason, however this didn't stop him from performing profitable business.

Despite the fact that Ploritan had done such a good job in ruling the village, and believed that he should continue to rule as the chief, he cared and respected the traditions of the village and its people, and as such was preparing for the next Olympic games.

Currently, Ploritan was in the central palace of the village in the underground cave. The palace was made completely of a combination of coral and shells, along with rocks which would be found under the sea.

He was in a personal pool, swimming laps back and forth like a madman.

Splosh! Splosh! Splosh!

Water violently sprayed back and forth as the tiger shark with the legs of a man and webbed feet raged through the pool at tremendous speeds.

Why was he training so hard?

It was because of his opponent this year.

Kota, the barracuda was participating in the event this year, and Ploritan had absolutely no intention of handing over the position of chief to him.

While Ploritan sincerely cared about the people and the development of the fishmen, Kota was the complete opposite.

Kota was the type of man who surrounded himself with 'yesmen', who would do everything he asked.

Kota was the type of man who would arrogantly order thousands of people to their deaths before admitting that he was wrong.

Kota was the type of leader who would build a statue in his own image at the sacrifice of the hard working people, resulting in a decrease in overall production.

Most importantly though, Kota was unreasonable.

He did things his way. He never listened to the opinions of others, and even when every single person in the room disagreed with him, he would still order for things to be done the way he wanted. And he would do this all under the pretense of heroism, bravery, and justice.

Kota was the previous leader of the fishmen before Ploritan had taken over, and things were a mess before then.

Many children died as a result of their father's being unable to provide food and shelter for them due to Kota's strange orders.

"You know what I want.... I want a bearskin rug. No, I don't care that it doesn't fit in with the decor of this palace. I want one. Call that one guy... the clownfish who seems to think he's a funny guy... I want to give this task to him."

"Please spare me of such a dangerous task! Even if we fishmen are strong, we cannot take on a bear without proper preparation and a hunting team!! I have a wife and children!! If I were to do something like this and die a meaningless death, who would provide for them!?"

"Hm. You know, let me consider that. Ok. I considered it. How about no? You get me the bearskin rug on your own, or we will send your wife and kids to do your job for you. Don't ever forget that failure is a state of mind. If you put your mind to it, you can do anything. Believe in yourself a little more."

The clownfish who was at first concerned, was now enlightened by Kota's 'words of encouragement'.

"Yes chief! I will do my best!"

That fishman was never seen again. Kota incidentally never got his bearskin rug.

When Kota was the chief of the village, he had absolute power to tell the others what to do- as was tradition.

The chief was the leader, and regardless of who they were or what they wanted, you obeyed the chief or you were excommunicated from the village. The fishmen were unable to live too far away from water for long periods of time, and so excommunication was an extremely limiting punishment.

One could either head east along the coast towards the haunted realm, or they could head west towards the human realm. Pick your poison. An excommunicated fishman had nowhere to go aside from risk being attacked by spirits who straggled from their lands or humans out on expeditions.

While the fishmen could live for a while out of water, they would eventually die if they were away from it for too long. Still, in theory through indoor plumbing and pools this could be overcome.

However, there existed no other groups aside from the fishmen who were advanced to have something like a pool, except for the humans which considered the fishmen to be nothing more than monsters. A single fishman on his own would struggle to find or create something like this before dying. The options were limited, and excommunication was almost a certain death sentences, though a prolongued one.

Ploritan had served as a guard under Kota when he took his first rule, and upon seeing his cruel and unreasonable treatment of the villagers he decided to train himself to defeat Kota in the Olympics, which he had.

The final event of the previous Olympics was an underwater trident battle. While Kota had outclassed Ploritan in terms of speed, he was unable to outlast him in terms of stamina and as a result, Ploritan was able to take Kota's attacks, dodging some and blocking others, until eventually Kota had been tired out. That was when Ploritan struck- right into the chest of Kota.

Fishmen had both lungs and gills, and on that day Ploritan had punctured Kota's left lung. It had to be surgically removed by the village doctor- a turtle, and ever since that day Kota had to rely mostly on his gills in order to take in oxygen.

He still had a single functioning lung, however his ability to remain on land for long periods, and his overall stamina was diminished significantly.

Kota of course held a grudge against Ploritan for this, and was certainly plotting against him even to this day.

Which was why Ploritan was training himself to ensure that he would not lose to that lungless bastard.

"I won't let him take over the position of chief even if it kills me.... even with a lung missing, nobody else can beat that guy in a one on one battle. It has to be me, or he will once more take back this throne and turn our village to incompetency..."

Suddenly, a puffer fishman came bursting into the shell-shaped door of the private pool.

"Chief Ploritan! There is a woman who appears to be a human in the waiting room, asking to speak with you. She arrived in a strange vessel, so we believed her to be a vampire queen at first, however she claims that is not the case, and rather that she is a human.... though I am not so sure about that myself. What should we do about her?"

"A human woman? I suppose let her in, but keep an eye on her. If she means no harm, then of course I would like to welcome her in as a guest, however if she holds any ill intent towards our people then I will not tolerate that."

"Understood. She will be sent to the waiting room while you prepare to meet her then."

Ploritan then exited the pool and hung a towel made from a spongy coral around himself to dry off.

'A human woman eh? Or maybe not, based on what people seem to think... I certainly hope that it's just one of the people here for trade... if not, then it could mean trouble for us. Either way, I need to be focusing on the upcoming tournament. They haven't even revealed what the games will be, so I have to be ready for any type of competition.'

----

Claire received a message from the red demon who insisted on being called Gary, notifying her to collect information on the fishmen village.

Ah great.

Just great.

Another monster village for her to go to.

What would it be this time? Surely they wouldn't just be a group of regular people. Oh no. There was no chance that she could just have a regular conversation, with a regular person, in a regular setting.

Claire didn't even really want to know, however she dragged herself out of her comfortable throne and made preparations to leave as soon as possible.

It was night when she was contacted, so she got all of her things ready- not that she really had any things to pack aside from a change of clothes- and went to sleep in the small hut she stayed in before waking up bright and early to get out.

'I swear if these fishmen make me do something weird like the other villages did... imma just leave...'

'Ah no no! I can't do that... I have to help people.... that's why i'm here in this world, right? I can't just give up on these responsibilities, even if I have to visit all these new and different places and deal with their weird cultures...'

'Ugh.... I really don't wanna do this...'

When did she become so lazy?

Was it just because she was sick of all the insanity going on in this world?

Perhaps she just needed a day of peace, but between ruling a dictatorship and acting as the ambassador of the city, she had no time to spare.

'Ah... but I'm sure they're working just as hard as me. I'm sure it isn't easy making contact with humans after they've spent so much time here in the monster realm... well, not that the monsters here are much different from humans, the intelligent ones at least. They have culture, civilization, technology, and relationships. I can't see them as anything but human to be honest, even if they do certainly have some odd beliefs and practices.'

Claire waved to the working goblins as she passed through the city.

'Should I bring someone with me this time? I don't really trust Rithargus after last time... perhaps Coran or Berith? No... they are the ones who need to stay in charge. Arlo? Nah he would probably scare people away... I guess I could bring Hiru... but no, I don't want to take him away from his family... hm.... that leaves Oraguth... I suppose I could take him.... no, wait. He has become a little too fanatic recently. He's been preaching in the city streets about how great the antiheroes are, and if I bring him then he might cause issues with the fishmen... and those birdmen are an absolute no. They seem to be completely terrified of me, so they might cause even further misunderstandings...geh... I guess that means I'm going alone....'

Claire continued through the city and made her way to the garage.

The garage was a lot where there were many carriages parked. At the entrance was a large mouth, andthere were a number of teeth. Claire pulled a lever, after doing which the bottom teeth sunk into the ground and the top ones raised into the ceiling, allowing an opening large enough for a vehicle to pass through. The mechanism was somewhat similar to a garage door, but slightly different.

She looked around at all the different carriages, only to see that they all looked like something straight out of hell. There was a metal one covered in spikes, one which looked like it was made of human flesh and bones, and one that seemed to be made out of igneous rock- some of which was flowing around it in a molten form.

She settled on a black and dark purple chariot that had bat like wings on the side. It wasn't exactly... friendly, but it was the least menacing of the lot.

The horses in the stables were all black from head to toe... how exactly did they collect all these horses? Claire hooked a pair up to the chariot before getting onto the drivers seat and heading off.

"Have a nice trip, your eminence!"

"Please return safely!"

The people loved Claire almost as much as they loved the antiheroes. This was obvious, as Claire was supposed to be the one leading them... however that was certainly not what it felt like to her. She felt like she was being lead on by them to do all these tasks... not that they weren't working just as hard as her, but she certainly felt like a subordinate more than she did a leader.

The fields were flat however there were no roads connecting the monster villages.

'Perhaps I should speak to Gary and Ally about that in the future as a project... connecting all the villages in the monster realm through a roadway... that could be helpful to many people!'

She rode off into the distance towards the Northeast.

'But seriously, if these fishmen are another crazy bunch I might just give up on them. Ugh...'