Twisted-Wonderland: Our Precious Treasure (Part 2)

(101) TMotDS: Lounge of Beasts!

"Wha–!? Oh, crap, it's a guard!" Grim squeaked. Jonah held back his tongue from cursing as he shoved the photo into his pocket and pushed Grim behind him. There were two mermen guard swimming toward them.

"A-Ah... Hello, Sir," Jonah tried to greet them when the two guards stopped in front of them.

"Young man, what are you doing here?" asked the older guard.

"We are really sorry." Jonah ducked his head and rubbed behind his head, looking like a little kid who got caught stealing from the cookie jar. "We thought the museum is opened, so we tried to get in. No wonder this place is quiet."

"Yes. We are currently under maintenance, the older guard said again. "Some historic things must be taken care of thoroughly if not it'll be moldy."

"Ah, I see," Jonah hummed, nodding apologetically. "Again. We are really sorry. We'll make sure to check on the schedule first. We'll be going now."

Before he could swim away, the younger merman guard, which Jonah and Grim recognized as the newbie from earlier, swam closer to them and put a hand on Jonah's back, stopping him. "I'll escort them out," he said.

The other guard nodded. "Alright."

Jonah gulped as the guard escorted him and Grim out of the museum through the side door from earlier. Once they were outside, Jonah and Grim let out a sigh as the guard closed the door.

"I must say." Jonah froze when he heard the guard talk. "You are a quite good liar, Mister Argentum."

Wait a minute...

Frowning, Jonah turned toward the guard, making sure to take a good look at the orange-skinned merman who was smirking at him and hands on his hips.

Wait...

This merman... This goldfish merman...

He has a very familiar heart-shaped ahoge...

"Senior Riddle?!" Jonah screamed, his eye widened as he swam closer to Riddle, looking him from top to bottom. How did he never realize this earlier? He's so dumb! "When did you get here?"

"Hours before you arrive," Riddle said as he took off the fabric of the uniform and throwing it to the side. "Had to knock down a guard to get this uniform." Satisfied that he was out from his disguise, he turned back to the duo, hands folded in front of his chest. "As much as I want to hear your reasoning of why you decided to dive in alone, we don't have much time. We have to go back to the surface."

Jonah and Grim exchanged a glance. The fact that the Heartlabyul somehow knew that they would try to steal the photo now and even prepared themselves in disguise was surprising. But a welcome surprise. Smiling at the goldfish, both of them nodded. "Right."

The two of them followed Riddle to the entrance, where the merturtle was still talking to the merman guard.

"I heard that mermaids are great singers. Is it true?"

"Ah, no, no. That's just an urban legend. I remember being classmates with someone very tone-deaf."

"Ah, how interesting." The merturtle glanced to the side where Riddle was waving his hand at him. The turtle nodded at him before turning to the guard. "Well, thank you so much for the talk, Sir." He put his notebook and pen in his satchel again and offered a hand to the guard. "Hopefully, I can return again when the museum is open."

The guard nodded as he took the hand for a handshake "You are very welcome. I'm glad I can help."

Exchanging one more nod, the turtle swam toward the group and something just clicked in Jonah's mind when he saw the green hair and clover tattoo on his cheek, nearly hidden from his turtle-skin pattern. "I knew it," Jonah muttered, shaking his head and trying to hold back a smile.