Into the World of Twisted Wonderland

🐙The Merchant from the Depths🐙 Chapter 27

"It's closed?!" Everyone exclaims as they look at the museum's closed sign in front of them.

"Are you kidding? What awful timing," Jack says as he scratches his head.

"Is that why the Leech brothers haven't harassed us at all today? Because they knew?" Deuce asked the group.

"I dunno about that," Ace says, looking around the group.

"Are we really turning tail and going back empty-handed after coming all this way?" Jack asks.

"Hold up! I've got an idea," Ace says and everyone looks at him.

"Mragh! Guess I shouldn't be surprised that merfolk society would have merfolk security guards," Grim says as he looks at the guards in front of the museum.

"I mean, duh?" Deuce comments.

"Okay. I'm gonna distract the guard," Ace says to the group. "In the meantime, you guys sneak in behind him and borrow the photo."

"Are you sure you can handle this by yourself?" Jack asks, arms crossed.

"You're honest to a fault, Deuce would give himself away within minutes, and Angel can't really hold a conversation with strangers without clamming up. Don't worry. I got this," Ace says as he swims to the guards and the four could only watch him to make sure things don't go wrong. "Awww, MAN! For realsies?!" He exclaims to the guards, catching the guards' attention.

"Hm? Is something the matter?" The old merman asked Ace.

"Is the museum really closed today? I can't believe this. I was super pumped for this visit..." Ace says with a sigh.

The merman only looked at Ace's feet. "Why, that's an odd tailfin you've got there. Are you a land-dweller? Did you come all the way here by yourself?" He asks.

"Yes, sir!" Ace happily answers, shocking the merman. "I've always admired merfolk society, every since I was a kid. I scrimped and save, got myself a magic potion, and now I've finally made it here!" Ace looks at the merman with an excited look. "Duuuuuuude, a real live merman! This is SO COOL! Can I touch your fins? Can I have your autograph?!"

The questions only throw the merman off, not expecting the questions. "U-um, sure? Would you like to see my dorsal fin, too?" The merman asked.

The group could only watch the scene, sweat dropping at Ace's actions. "That guy can lie like nobody's business. He ain't even battin' an eye!" Grim says as he watches Ace touch the merman's fin.

"The guard's totally distracted. Let's move!" Deuce says as the four could only carefully swim to the museum, swimming pass the guard and Ace. Ace only looked at the group and gave them a look and everyone nodded, heading inside the museum as quietly as possible. Jack opened the door, letting Deuce, Angel, and Grim inside before following them, making sure that they weren't followed or seen. The group swam a few more feet until they see a spacious room decorated with trinkets and corals, and upon closer inspection, it looks like the trinkets were actually exhibits, which is hard to believe since one of the exhibit was literally a fork with the description "The Mermaid Princess's Silver Hair Comb." At the center of the room was a statue of a buff merman, proudly holding what looks to be a trident tightly in his right hand. The four only head towards a wall where there were little pieces of paper attached to it.

"This is the place Azul mentioned, right?" Jack says as he looks at the papers on the wall. Upon closer inspection, instead of just random paper, it was actually photographs taken over the years, from just this year to years of the past. He looks closely at the photo. "Here's a photo commemorating the visit of Horatio XII, court musician..." He looks at another photo. "Here's one of a fourth princess..." He looks at the wall, turning around seeing that there was another wall of photos right behind the group. "There sure are a lot of these. I can see why he said nobody would notice if we borrowed one."

"Where's that commemorative photo of Prince Rielle from ten years ago...?" Deuce says as he looks on the wall, hoping to find the picture. His eyes squinted as he points to a picture on the wall. "Ah, here we go. This is it, right?" The others only look at the photo. "'A visit from Prince Rielle and his schoolmates...'" He reads. "Looks like a photo of an elementary school field trip."

"There's a bunch of tiny merfolk in this pic," Grim speaks, looking at the people in the photo.

"It looks like nothing important," Angel says as she tries to figure out why Azul want this photo specifically.

"Of all the pictures here, why would he ask for this one specifically?" Jack asks, skeptical about the photo.

"I couldn't say...But once we bring it back, I can say goodbye to this sea anemone on my head! Just grab it let's go already." Angel goes up and takes the photo, careful not to knock any of the other photos down as she takes it off the wall. Angel was hoping that an alarm or something would go off once she took the photo off the wall, but to her surprise, nothing happened.

"Huh. It's not even rigged with an alarm," Jack says, a little disappointed. "I guess it really is just a commemorative photo. This is kinda underwhelming." He sighs.

"Hm? HEY! What are you doing there?!" Someone shouts to the four and the four could turn to see that a merman guard spotted them.

"Myah?! Uh-oh. It's a guard!" Grim exclaims.

"I don't like this one bit, but I've got no choice. Sorry, buddy. You need to take a little nap!" Jack says as he swims towards the merman, shooting spells at him to distract him. While the merman is distracted, Deuce took Angel and Grim, leading them away from the battle in hopes that they won't be noticed. The guard recovered from the spells, only to see that Jack and the others has escaped, only for Jack to come up behind the merman and put him in a chokehold, where the merman only faints after a while of force. Jack lets go and the merman only floats to the floor, in which Angel would be worried about the merman's wellbeing but since they breath underwater she figured they would be fine. Jack joins the group and the group could only swim away to the exit.