As the crystal seeds popped into being, floating up like bubbles of light, the Sacred Fish Makris made his appearance.
(That's a dolphin. And a really white one too.)
In life, Makris had been called the pig prince, and now he was a 30 meter long creature, of white skin and streamlined body, which seemed to glow under the light of the crystal seeds.
It reminded Allen of a dolphin, pictures which he had seen many times in his past life.
But Makris seemed to be even more beautiful than any of those dolphins.
That beauty had been granted to him for his good deeds, done even before he became Aqua's Servant.
"...How…beautiful."
One of the nobles in the audience muttered, watching the Sacred Fish Makris.
They had probably seen him every year, but such a sight was always memorable.
Back when Makris was forced to cover his face with a hood, he probably never expected so many mermen would want to see him.
But now everyone in Prostia desired to be present there, watching him illuminated by the crystal seeds.
A large number of mermen had gathered in Patlanta again this year.
There were many who could not get up to the event and watched from below the flower's style too.
'Wahh, there's so many cuties gathered for me again. Nyuhuhu.'
The Sacred Fish Makris chuckled in an indecent manner as he surveyed the event's participants.
The participants quickly went quiet and stuff.
They had not expected such a vulgar voice to come from Makris.
"Eek..? What? Lord Makirs..?"
The singers who had gotten pretty clothes were also lost for words, not expecting that reaction.
Makris' voice and behavior could only be described as perverse.
It was said that Makris' personality had remained the same, even after becoming the Sacred Fish.
Allen began to wonder if Princess Rapsonile had forgotten to mention that Makris' appearance was not his only ugly part.
'Well, to start the event, some words from our Emperor Ignomas!'
The starfish-faced host continued, sticking to the arranged schedule.
'O-oh, right. I'm Growdel von Ignomas, your emperor starting this year. Please delight our empire's guardian, the Sacred Fish Makris, with your songs.'
Ignomas gave a slightly nervous and short greeting.
'Huh? Ig…nomas? Who are you?'
The Sacred Fish Makris got close to the noble's seats, looking at Ignomas.
Then he looked at Princess Rapsonile, who looked dreadful next to Ignomas.
"I…I'm Prostia's emperor!"
The empire had not changed its name yet, but Ignomas still claimed he was the emperor to the Sacred Fish Makris.
'Hmmm.'
There had been a different emperor sitting on that throne the year prior, so Makris got closer, opening its enormous eyes wide and examining the new emperor.
After some time, Ignomas started getting nervous.
But the Sacred Fish Makris did not do anything more, resuming swimming around the stage.
In the last 300 years, the Sacred Fish Makris had never stepped into Prostia's politics.
There were many nobles that hoped that could change this year though.
And some of them also wished Ignomas would be executed there, after his insurrection.
'Thank you for your words, Your Imperial Majesty. Now it's time to start the first round of the Songstress Contest!! Is everyone ready? Please display all your abilities and charms to Lord Makris.'
The starfish-faced merman announced the start of the contest.
The participants were also getting nervous.
There were 1000 of them, and they would have to compete until only 5 remained.
The participants spread out, keeping a certain distance between each other, their eyes focused on the Sacred Fish Makris.
'It's time now! Start!!'
After looping once, Makris gave the signal to start.
At the same time, the participants began singing as best as they could.
Some tried to dance at the same time, others focused solely on singing.
They were doing their best to make it past the first phase of the contest.
The governors of various cities would often give their participants plenty of money for their attire, since standing out in the contest meant that those local clothes could go up in price.
Thanks to that, it did not matter if a participant came from a lowly family or a wealthy one, they were always able to get quality clothing and accessories.
(I see, Makris has a lot of Intelligence too.)
While the Sacred Fish Makris swam around, carefully examining the participants, Allen started analyzing what he saw.
It seemed like the Sacred Fish Makris had a pretty high Intelligence.
There were a thousand participants singing at the same time, without matching their rhythm or melodies, Makris could evaluate and understand each of them.
Since he had enough Intelligence to evaluate everyone, there was no problem if they all sang at the same time. In that aspect, Makris was roughly as powerful as a Demon Great General.
'Alright, let's see who gets the first Sacred Bead! Ohh! And who is this?! Such a powerful and beautiful voice!!'
Meanwhile everyone's gazes focused on Rosalina.
One participant seemed to be overpowering everyone else, her voice and dance keeping gathering the attention of the audience.
(I did spend quite a bit on her after all. Though well, I guess she deserves some credit too.)
Everyone was taken aback by Rosalina's dance and song.
Rosalina's clothes and accessories had cost around 200'000 gold coins.
They had first met Rosalina in the Magic Shop, but there was a reason for that.
Her singing relied on a Skill, and she needed more Intelligence for it to be effective.
So instead of going to a mere jewelry store, she went to the Magic Shop since the items there would raise her stats.
A Skill's effect and reach changed with Intelligence, so she wanted that type of equipment.
'I think I'm in love. Nyuhuhuhu.'
Charmed by Rosalina's dance and song, Makris slowly swam over her.
There he slowly closed his eyes, something glinting from it.
'Th-that's the first one!!'
The host's exaggerated exclamation sent everyone into a frenzy.
Everyone leant forward, wanting to see the first of Makris' tears fall.
The tear from Makris' eye shone as it fell, reaching Rosalina below.
Rosalina opened the stylized bag she carried, making sure to store the Sacred Bead without touching it directly.
Clap clap clap
There was loud applause from the audience.
Everyone was looking at her, so Rosalina twirled and bowed back at them in appreciation.
After that, Makris went to shed tears for the other four participants that passed to the next phase.
There were five participants in the second round, Rosalina included.
'Thank you all, Songstress who took part in the first round!! Please take a small rest before the next round. I wonder who our magnificent winner will be this year!!'
The starfish-faced host turned around once and snapped his fingers.
Around one hour had passed since the event started, and the first round was over.
"Alec, here's the tear I promised! Makris turned out to be way different from what I expected!!"
Rosalina ran to the spot in the audience where Allen was sitting, speaking with enthusiasm.
As promised, she handed over the bag with the tear for Peromus.
"Ah, right."
"Hm? What's wrong? You don't really look happy about it. Did something happen?"
"No, it's nothing."
Peromus had vanished.
In just one more hour, the Fish A summon's Awakened Skill [Mimic] would run out.
Allen wanted Rosalina to compete with all she had, so he did not want to make her worry needlessly.
(I guess when worked on, this becomes Makris' bracelet.)
Allen also had learned some things about the Sacred Fish's Makris' tears.
In simple terms, there was a great discrepancy between the following:
(1) Sacred Fish Makris' tear
(2) Makris' bracelet
(1) was a crystalized teardrop from Makris.
(2) was an item crafted by a worker in a Magic Shop.
Both were considered Sacred Beads, both were considered valuable gifts for girls, but only (2) could raise stats when equipped.
To get access to (2), one needed to hire a worker in a Magic Shop.
Allen would have liked to take it there right away, hoping the effects were good, but that would mean the worker touched the Sacred Bead.
He had to give up on that, and reluctantly stored it in his Inventory.
As he closed his Grimoire, his eyes passed by the cover.
The logs mentioned demons being defeated earlier, but there was something else there now.
A different entry had been logged.
"Hm?"
(What's this?)
"What's wrong? You've been acting weird all day."
"Ah, it's nothing."
Allen answered with a distracted voice, looking at the new log on his Grimoire.
'A Fish-Type Sacred Bead has been stored. Do you want to convert it into Sacred Bead Points? If converted, your Sacred Bead Points will go from 0 to 15.'
(I can turn a Sacred Bead into points if I store it? And Makris' Sacred Bead is Fish-Type? 15 Points? Interesting, hmmm…)
There were only two lines of text, but they conveyed an immense amount of information.
Rosalina could not see the Grimoire, so she found Allen's reaction odd, but she did not want to compromise on her important break.
She had to get some things ready for the second round.
Meanwhile Allen came up with various theories based on the new information.
Theory 1:
-Depending on the Sacred Beast a bead originated from, the type of Points was different
Theory 2:
-The Fish-Type bead could be turned to 15 Points, which aligned with the number of Magic Stones he needed for Create.
-Beast-Type and Insect-Types gave 1 Point, Bird-Type gave 3 Points, Grass-Type gave 5 Points, Stone-Type gave 9 Points, Fish-Type gave 15 Points, Wraith-Type gave 19 Points, Dragon-Type gave 29 Points.
(I guess that's about it, Kurena currently has the Beast-Type Luvanka's Sacred Bead too. I could try storing that one and seeing if it can be turned to 1 Point to verify this.)
Allen's party currently held two Sacred Beads, turned into bracelets.
One had been given to them by Clebeur's royal family, Makris' Sacred Bead, the other came from Basque, Luvanka's Sacred Bead.
Their effects were so powerful Allen instantly made someone equip them, and now he regretted never putting them in storage first.
Peromus was still missing, so Allen decided to not go too in-depth with his analysis yet, since he still had to think of what to do.
Then a knight aboard a small magic ship rose up to the flower's style.
He looked really flustered, and ran straight to Ignomas' seat.
Allen listened in, through the Bird G summon hidden amongst Cecile's clothes, who sat next to Princess Rapsonile.
"Excuse me, I have urgent news for Emperor Ignomas!!"
"What?! How dare you interrupt this important event?!"
"I'm truly sorry, but it's urgent."
"It's fine. Everyone in the audience is looking, Prime Minister Agiley. Let's not cause a scene."
Ignomas put an end to Agiley's attitude.
He was not sure what had happened, but he did not want to make too much noise.
Ignomas gave the knight a stare, telling him to speak.
"A large army of monsters are headed straight for Patlanta!"
"What?!"
Ignomas replied, his eyes opened wide.
