Immediately, cheers, shouts, and tentacle slapping resounded throughout the Sunken Ship. They didn’t even know what this supposed filter was supposed to do, but the impassioned plea from their invertebrate princess already got them worked up.
"All hail the princess!"
"She deserves to become the leader of our lake! She’s the only one who can do it!"
"Yeah! Thank you princess! You’ve saved our lives!"
Michael watched on with raised eyebrows as the residents of the Sunken Ship began to praise Octavia relentlessly.
He wasn’t one for ostentatious applause, but he expected a little bit of appreciation from the Mermen since he was the one who brought the filter in the first place.
But he couldn’t blame them. After all, Princess Octavia beckoned all of them to cheer for her , as if she was the one who solved the lake’s problem in its entirety.
Wow... she’s good.
He couldn’t help but shake his head in appreciation for Octavia’s oratory skills. She was just like the politicians back in his previous world. Taking credit for things that they basically just signed a check on.
"Haa...," Serena sighed, already tired of this charade. "Don’t mind her. She’s just doing whatever she can to win the campaign against our brother."
"What is that campaign anyway?"
Princess Octavia was certainly walking and talking just like a modern politician back on Earth. But Michael didn’t know if their idea of a campaign was the same one that he had on his mind.
Did it involve voting? Campaigning? Bribing? Dirty tactics?
"Octavia and our brother Triton, is in a close battle for public opinion on who’s going to eventually lead the Mermen in New Sparta.
Right now, we are a separated group. Octavia and her invertebrate brothers and sisters are on one side. Me, Reed, Nixie, and the other human-like Mermen are on the other. And the last, and perhaps the strongest within the Mermen species: the mammalian marines are led by our brother Triton.
But even with their superior strength and numbers, Triton knows that he will stand no chance against the other Beastfolks and the human factions. And if we lose in the All Tournament a year from now, we’ll be a laughing stock back in Atlantis. It will be an embarrassing fiasco that none of us, not even the Ocean King can live down."
The Ocean King was one of the two people who organized this whole migration towards the surface world in the first place. It would be a disgrace if the Mermen ended up as the weakest race within Beastfolks at the end of the campaign.
"Of course, not everyone agrees on who should take charge. The invertebrates will choose Octavia, while the mammals will choose Triton."
"How about you?" Michael asked Serena.
She shook her head. "I’m not interested in politics. All I want to do is enjoy my time here in the surface world. The other human-like Mermen agree with me, so we’re opting out of this race."
As much as she denied wanting any participation in this underwater election, Michael had a feeling that Serena used her influence to basically force the other human Mermen to remain a neutral force. She was a princess, after all.
"Is there some kind of voting system?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. It’s the people you see here."
He was confused.
"Those that believe Octavia should rule over the lake will cast their vote by living in her territory," she explained. "That’s why the people you see here all support her. If they didn’t, they would move to the bigger city, where Triton resides."
Michael finally understood why Triton and Octavia were going head to head in a race to solve the lake’s problem. By making their territory a much better place to reside, they would be attracting the votes towards their side.
That was why after discovering the wonders of the filters, Octavia didn’t hesitate and pulled out all the stops to make it hers.
"It won’t be long before our Sunken Ship becomes a paradise for marine life! I will make it happen!" Octavia promised.
By framing it as if she discovered the filter like a sunken treasure, she was basically redirecting all of their positive emotions towards her own name, further solidifying the idea that she should be the one to lead the Mermen in New Sparta.
Michael didn’t mind all that much. After all, she was paying a hundred million Sand Dollars for that privilege.
"Tell your friends! Tell your family! Come back to the Sunken Ship and live in paradise!"
"Live in paradise!" the emotional Mermen echoed back.
...
...
...
After that bold, self-serving speech, Octavia turned back towards Michael, her ever-changing skin still flushed red.
"How soon can you build the filter? Don’t you hear their pleas? It’s exhilarating."
"Yeah, I bet..." Michael muttered under his breath. "I can make it today..."
She squinted, sensing the hidden words in his silence. "But?"
"You see, cleansing the water isn’t the only thing that this filter can do," he professed. "It can do so much more, like generating energy and electricity."
She tilted her head, tentacles in her mouth forming question marks.
"REALLY!? We can have electricity underwater?!"
Serena’s outburst almost burst Octavia’s ears, making her recoil backwards. She didn’t expect such an animated reaction from her sister.
"What–what is it?"
"Oh, you’re gonna lose your mind!" Serena said, grabbing at Octavia’s lithe, sucker-filled arms.
Still filled with confusion and finding her sister useless, she turned to Michael for an explanation.
Michael then looked around the Sunken Ship, his gaze eventually landing on the window of the captain’s quarters. Outside, he saw a line of rope using intertwined seaweed hanging from the broken mast of the ship all the way to its rudder.
Tied along this seaweed rope were Mermen and Mermaid clothes flapping chaotically as it went against a huge torrent of natural water streams, barely holding on thanks to the seashell clipping them to the rope.
This looked like the underwater equivalent of a clothesline.
"What is that for?" he asked Octavia.
"That’s where we wash our clothes. The fast wave of water helps in cleaning all the dirt and muck out of our attire," she explained.
"Why so many? Why do you all wear such thick seaweed clothing and armor?"
With a confused expression, Octavia answered, "...it’s because the water here is cold."
"Don’t you have something to warm the water?"
"....we have thermal algae back in Atlantis, but they’re hard to cultivate here in the lake due to the lack of resources... so we just have to brave the ice cold depths through thick clothes... why are you asking so many questions?"
Michael nodded, now finally ready to answer her original question.
However, it seemed that Serena got to him first.
"Electricity can wash those clothes for you in just a few minutes! It goes bruumm, bruumm , then it spins and then..."
Octavia palmed Serena’s face and focused on Michael.
"Electricity can power appliances and machines that can do certain tasks automatically without any intervention. It can wash your clothes, it can heat water, it can light up a room—you name it. Everything is possible thanks to electricity."