Still, seeing what sort of neighbours lived in the Black Lake put Rhys at ease.
If there were a powerful non-human civilisation living beneath the Black Lake, directly above the Slytherin common room, he would not even be able to sleep peacefully.
The arrival of Rhys and the other three disturbed the merpeople living in the crude stone dwellings.
They rushed out of their caves one after another, spears in hand, their yellow eyes gleaming fiercely.
As Rhys and the others passed by, they slapped the water with their thick, powerful silver tails, sending ripples through the lake.
Their actions did not anger Rhys.
In his eyes, rather than signs of aggression, their behaviour looked more like self-defence. They seemed extremely wary of these four strangers who had intruded into their territory.
Rhys remained completely calm, but Harry and Neville grew tense. Both reached into their robes and drew their wands.
At once, the merpeople scattered in all directions, trembling as they hid inside their stone houses and peered at them cautiously from beside the windows.
"Looks like they still remember the dignity of wizards. That's good. Put your wands away. We don't need them yet."
Rhys had no desire to cause unnecessary trouble here. He led Harry and the others forward at speed.
As they moved deeper into the merpeople settlement, the number of stone dwellings increased, and the houses gradually became more refined. Some even had gardens attached, while a few merpeople kept Grindylows as pets.
The arrival of the wizards disturbed the residents here as well, and merpeople began emerging from all directions.
Unlike those they had encountered earlier, these merpeople looked curious rather than hostile.
Harry and the others' webbed hands and gills drew plenty of attention, while the sight of Rhys, an entirely human-looking wizard, moving freely underwater shocked them even more.
After circling through the merpeople village several times, the four finally arrived at the square in the very centre.
Several houses stood around the square. In front of them floated a large crowd of merpeople, and it was they who were producing the singing they had heard earlier.
The singing merpeople were gathered around a crude stone statue.
When Rhys saw that there was actually a merperson statue here, he immediately frowned.
However, after carefully examining it and confirming that the statue had nothing to do with the royal family of the ancient merpeople kingdom, his brow relaxed.
He had noticed quite a few interesting things on the way here.
The dwellings on the outskirts of the settlement were crude, while those farther inside were more luxurious.
It seemed this merpeople community had already developed a divide between rich and poor.
The merpeople on the outskirts were wary of wizards, while those in the inner area were relatively friendly. That difference in attitude was also worth considering.
Most interestingly of all, the merpeople in the core area seemed to have been persuaded by Dumbledore to participate in the tournament task, yet the merpeople in both the outer and inner areas appeared to have had no idea that wizards would be arriving.
That was very interesting...
'Among modern merpeople, the upper class maintains close relations with wizards. The middle class is friendly towards wizards but receives no information from the core decision-making circle because the leadership fears them establishing direct contact with wizards, while the lower class is hostile towards wizards. Is that how it works?'
Rhys had to admit that he was very satisfied with such a social structure.
It would have been far worse if the merpeople settlement were still as united around a royal family as it had been a thousand years ago.
His thoughts continued racing, but his feet never stopped moving as he headed straight towards the merperson statue.
Beneath the statue's tail were more than a hundred small boxes.
Rhys, Neville, Harry, and Luna each picked up one, then turned to look at the merpeople standing nearby.
A particularly savage and intimidating merperson who looked like a leader swam over and asked in a hoarse, low voice,
"Will you continue and accept the challenge?"
Rhys laughed aloud, completely ignoring the merperson leader's question, and headed straight for the surface.
He could roughly guess what the reward for completing the challenge would be, and he had no need for such things.
However, he did not actually leave.
After drifting some distance away, he concealed himself and remained nearby to observe in secret.
Harry and the other two exchanged glances.
Since they felt there was still plenty of time, they chose to accept the additional challenge.
Three merpeople separated from the group and led Harry, Neville, and Luna into three small houses beside the square.
Harry followed his merperson guide inside with an uneasy feeling.
The room was completely empty, without a single piece of furniture. There was only an hourglass placed in one corner.
Apart from that, dozens of small silver fish were swimming through the room.
"Here."
The merperson handed Harry a basket woven from seaweed.
"If you can catch thirty fish before the hourglass runs out, you will pass the trial," the merperson said slowly.
Harry stared in surprise.
Holding the slick but sturdy basket, he looked at the school of small fish and could not help wondering whether the trial was perhaps a little too easy.
Still, the easier the merpeople's challenge was, the happier he would be.
The instant the merperson flipped the hourglass, Harry shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, diving straight towards the fish.
Harry had been a Seeker, so his dynamic vision was excellent and his movements were extremely agile.
If they had been on land, catching these slow-moving little creatures would have been ridiculously easy.
Unfortunately, this was underwater, and things were ultimately very different here.
Harry missed completely.
The current generated by his charge startled the fish, and they scattered at high speed, filling the room with flashes of silver.
Harry was not discouraged by the failure.
He quickly adjusted and lunged again.
This time he succeeded in catching one, but the fish was so slippery that Harry lost his grip and it slipped straight out of his hand.
Harry: "..."
He suddenly felt that this trial might not be so easy after all.
Over the next several attempts, Harry improved each time.
By his fourth charge, he was already able to catch one of the fish properly.
The expression on the merperson watching from the side gradually shifted from disdain to surprise.
But when it noticed that Harry had failed to close the lid of his basket, it could not help laughing again.
Harry was so busy catching fish that he completely overlooked that detail.
When time ran out, he looked down into the basket and discovered that only the two fish he had caught most recently were still inside.
A wave of frustration washed over him, and for a moment Harry felt utterly dejected.
"I... um, can I try again?" Two seconds later, after adjusting his mindset, Harry asked the merperson beside him without much hope.
His instincts told him that a trial like this probably would not allow repeated attempts.
To his surprise, however, the merperson agreed.
Harry immediately perked up.
He had already grasped the trick. He only needed another couple of attempts, and as long as he avoided making such stupid mistakes again, he would definitely pass!
Sure enough, by the end of his next attempt, he had caught a full twenty-seven fish!
"One more time!" Harry said excitedly.
"All right, but please queue."
"Huh?"
Harry looked outside the house and saw Cedric standing there, an absurdly large bubble covering his head.
At that moment, Harry suddenly understood.
This trial was more difficult than he had initially thought.
As one of the first contestants to arrive here, he had already gained a major advantage by being able to attempt the trial twice in a row.
The later someone arrived, the longer the waiting time between attempts would inevitably become.
Harry stepped outside and watched Cedric enter the room and begin fumbling around trying to catch the fish.
Cedric was in an even worse position than Harry had been at first.
At least Gillyweed had given Harry webbed hands and feet.
Cedric still had completely human limbs, and he also had the enormous bubble around his head weighing him down.
He could not even catch up with the fish.
Just as Harry assumed Cedric was going to give up on the trial, something remarkable happened.
Cedric suddenly stopped.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI