Traverse Nureteru.

You certainly stick out like a trio of sore thumbs as you swim sluggishly through the heavy water of this deep sea city, at least be comparison to the merfolk zipping through the water with ease above and below you. Snow continues to maneuver with more ease than you or Candy, though nothing compares to the local residents with bodies built precisely for this. Some even cling to long, colourful fish which pull them nearly like rockets above the rooftops. Still, your resident spy kitty zips ahead, though you can't complain about the view of her slender legs, and the curve of her ass wedged tight between the ninja bodysuit.

Candy murmurs something. You look ahead to see a spectral hand--barely visible though the waviness of the water, which in itself resembles air above the road during the hottest summer days--move in on Snow. It slips quickly up the back of her thigh, and then gives one of her cheeks a couple good squeezes.

"Honk honk!" Candy shouts. "Yeah. I get why you'd keep her around--"

"Stop that!" Snow turns quickly and smacks the ghostly hand away. But then she freezes up. Her eyes turn with fear as she notices the magical fingers wrapped around her tail, and they hold her far tighter than she first expects. With such a firm grasp on her tail, she struggles to move.

Candy then swims up to her with a wide smile. She drags the tip of her finger down the front of Snow's attire, and stops at her bellybutton with a, "Boop!"

Meanwhile, you come up behind them and snatch the Ghost Hand away. It wiggles in your grasp like a panicked fish until you give it a toss right over Candy's head. "Come on. We gotta find that thing. The city didn't look that big from afar, so where the king or queen live must be close by now, right?"

Kailani the mermaid then comes swimming down from above. "Are you all coming?"

"Yeah," you reply. "But we can't swim as fast as you."

She looks rather embarrassed at that. "R-Right. Sorry. I keep forgetting. Well, it's just up ahead. The royal palace."

The city's density increases as the four of you encroach on the center. Right in the middle, you palace itself comes into view, and it's quite stunning. The stone that makes it up is smooth and white, like marble, yet not a material you've seen before. Coral and other plants of all colours decorate up its walls, and the rounded rooftops are shimming gold. Even fish swim in a wide birth over the top as to not make direct contact with such an important structure. Though outside, a safe distance from the royal guards, there are even others similar to yourselves--land dwellers.

Two humans and a dwarf mingle, each with a bubble around their head. There's also an older gentleman with the ears of a rabbit, and from his staff comes a glowing aura that coats his body. It seems everyone has their own way to survive down here, whether they're tourists, scholars, or something else. At least you feel less awkward.

"So how are we gonna get in?" you ask. "Something tells me that flaunting my title is going to make things worse far more times than it'll actually work."

"There's one thing we can try," replies Kailani. "You and your allies did defeat the Witch of Decay. That was no small feat. I'm sure someone will want to speak with you about that. I'm not exactly sure where to go from there, but it's all I've come up with."

"How infamous was she?"

"Actually quite a bit. While not at the level of what I'd call Demon King, she was certainly close. Not only was she a threat to our people, but other towns as well, and it causes issues with both tourism and trade. With her gone, things have been better, though word on the streets is that nobody quite knows who defeated her. They know it was someone from the surface, and me and Selina explained what we could, but without a face, commoners sort of make up their own stories quite quickly."

"... Like what?"

"I heard some people claim she was defeated by another lich. A terrifying skeletal man with massive horns and a dark robe. A few people I swear described the hero as some kind of blob-like-creature, like a slime, that could turn into a human. There was also that story of a small blond-haired girl dressed like a soldier."

"What kind of wild imagination do people here have?!"