Rabbit Teacher
Just in case, he looked over the shelves—and there, written on the bottoms of the potion bottles lined up side by side, were a series of words.
[Ahem. Ssh. Put that down.]
[Not that one. If you drink it, you’ll die.]
[Why not just give up?]
[Don’t come onto land.]
[If you don’t want to die young.]
It was as if the Sea Witch had known Neoul would come to the cave today.
Die young?
Neoul froze for a moment, unsettled by the chilling way the Sea Witch used her words.
But soon enough, he was moving again, checking the bottoms of the next row of bottles one by one.
[If I told you all this and you still wouldn’t listen, would you?]
“You know me too well.”
Seeing the message, Neoul’s lips slackened with certainty that he would soon get what he wanted.
[Fine. I don’t know anymore either.]
[Do as you please.]
[What the prince wants is inside the chest.]
[The necklace.]
Neoul immediately turned his head down and to the left. The large chest on the floor looked like a storage box filled with the Sea Witch’s carefully hoarded treasures.
He threw open the heavy lid, and there they were: all manner of gold and silver treasures piled inside. Right on top sat a necklace, blatantly placed where it could not be missed.
It was obvious she had set it there on purpose.
The necklace was strung with an uncut stone no bigger than a fingernail. The rough gem, a mix of gray-green, black, and blue, shimmered with a different glow depending on the angle.
On the inside of the chest lid, the Sea Witch had left another message.
[Voice after payment.]
Neoul rolled his eyes and pretended not to see the words.
This wasn’t a transaction; it was theft. And thieves did not pay for stolen goods. Thinking this with shameless conviction, he picked up the necklace and, without the slightest hesitation, put it on at once.
“……”
Nothing happened.
“Do I have to eat it, not wear it?”
It would have been nice if she’d written the instructions instead of wasting time with foolish tricks.
Neoul even bit the necklace, then tried to stuff it into his mouth and let it melt there with a mouthful of saliva.
Still there was no reaction, so he spat it back out and put it on again.
The Sea Witch is playful and odd, but not the sort to lie about something like this.
……
Or was she?
As he pictured her face, cackling with laughter, the back of his neck pulled tight.
The Sea Witch never showed her true form in front of others. She was a master of disguise, half-humanoid in shape, dressed like a human, with only eight arms retaining the shape of an octopus.
Inside, she was a hag older than two thousand years; outside, she wore a smooth, wrinkle-free face.
If only her appearance had aged naturally with her years, he might have found her more believable. But she never aged at all, and every time he saw her, she looked exactly the same, laughing and laughing as she made fun of him like some demon out of a folktale.
Neoul shook his head. The more he thought about it, the less trustworthy she seemed.
But there’s no other way…
For now, he had no choice but to believe her and go to land.
He slung his bag over one shoulder and looked over the heap of clothes the Sea Witch had gathered.
Who knew what criteria she had used to choose them? The sizes, shapes, colors, and patterns were all wildly different.
What was he supposed to wear…?
He was confused for a moment, but the truth was that only a few of the clothes would fit his body. That narrowed the options considerably.
Neoul stuffed a loose top and a pair of pants with an elastic waist into his bag and zipped it shut.
CRUNCH!
Just then, Sangsangi, who had stubbornly followed him in out of curiosity, nudged one of the potion bottles on the shelf by the entrance.
“Sangsangi…!”
The clear bottle slipped through sharp teeth and shattered to pieces. A cloudy liquid splashed out and covered Sangsangi from head to toe.
“Byeoldtongi! Don’t come near!”
Damn it.
Byeoldtongi, who had followed after trying to stop Sangsangi, was too late to dodge the potion and got doused as well.
The liquid followed the current flowing out from the back of the cave and drifted toward the entrance, thinning out as it spread.
But where the potion had obscured his vision, Sangsangi and Byeoldtongi were suddenly nowhere to be seen.
“What the—!”
Neoul stood rigid as stone, staring blankly down.
On the ground lay two little cotton dolls, each one small enough to fit in his arms.
Because he had once received a large bear doll from the Sea Witch when he was young, Neoul knew they were called “dolls.”
“Byeoldtongi. Sangsangi.”
The dolls gave no response.
……
Neoul picked up the two baby sharks turned into dolls, stroked them gently, then carefully placed them in his bag and zipped it closed.
I have to find the rabbit and then meet the Sea Witch.
She would know how to reverse it.
Once he had slipped out of the cave, Neoul swam swiftly north.
Swish.
The blue-ringed octopus, who had been hiding and watching, clutched at her racing heart.
A shark…!
She had always been terrified of the Sea Witch and had never once come near the cave. There had been rumors that the “crazy Sea Witch brews potions stuffed with terrifying curses.”
The, the rumors were true…!
Shivering to the bone, she hurried after Neoul.
She usually crawled along the seafloor, so swimming was not her strong suit. If she wanted to catch the prince, she would have to swim with desperate determination, lungs burning.
What if the prince gets cursed too?
The blue-ringed octopus felt like crying.
* * *
Neoul lifted his head above the surface. A beach came into view—black rocks riddled with holes and fine pale sand spread out before him.
It had been a very long time since he had come this far above the sea.
Because Father Dragon hates it whenever I leave the Dragon Palace…
“It’s dangerous outside, so don’t wander too far.” The Dragon King had admonished him sternly, but Neoul had never listened.
As a result, he was constantly confined to his room whenever he got caught slipping out, but there was no way the indomitable mermaid Neoul would sit obediently in there forever.
Whenever he grew bored, he slipped out like a loach and sneaked off on covert excursions. Thanks to that, he had managed to rescue Sangsangi from a net and meet Byeoldtongi and become friends with both of them.
But coming this close to a beach was, on his honor, a first.
This is amazing.
The giant palm leaves swaying in the wind looked as if they were waving him forward, greeting him and telling him to come closer.
Amid the sound of waves, a noisy hum drifted in as well.
Quite a few humans were swimming or roaming around the beach.
Neoul opened his bag, took out a shirt, and shoved it on haphazardly.
There were humans all over the beach, so he pulled out the box marked Human Language, then took out the all-important Rabbit Language as well, swallowed the two pills in one gulp, and packed his bag away again before moving a little closer to shore.
As the water grew shallower, the humans came into sharper focus.
But among them was one oddly shaped creature.
It definitely looks similar to a human… but…
The face was unnaturally white, and long, oversized ears jutted up from its head.
— Chancellor Do-seungji! What does a rabbit look like?
— From what I have heard, they have long ears, are all white, have soft fur, and are very good at running.
The pale-skinned, long-eared figure darted busily around the beach, speaking to other humans and then running off again and again.
The others behaved similarly, but that one seemed especially quick and agile.
Its hair, fluttering lightly in the wind, looked soft and untangled too.
“Rabbit…?”
Was that a human or a rabbit? Were humans and rabbits perhaps related?
Neoul, looking uncertain, swam toward the creature he assumed to be a rabbit. More than half of his upper body rose out of the water.
The instant his freely swimming tail fin pushed against the sand beneath the surface, his body sank heavily downward.
“!”
Neoul plopped into the water and blinked.
The necklace, reflecting the sunlight, gave off a blue gleam. Beneath the midday glare on the surface of the sea, the long tail that had been silver-green and shimmered with silver light had become human legs.
But perhaps because his whole body had sunk back into the water as he collapsed, in the blink of an eye it returned to a tail covered in scales again.
What just happened?
Startled, Neoul felt along his tail fin. Then, bent low, he moved toward a broad rock.
When he braced himself against the strangely pitted black stone and leaned his upper body out of the water, he tipped again.
But this time he managed to hold himself up with his arms and avoid falling back in. Neoul set his bag on the rock, pulled out the pants, and slipped them over both legs.
— Prince, if you go around stark naked like that, the humans will think you’re a pervert.
When Neoul was young, the Sea Witch used to say things like that and dress him in all sorts of colorful clothes.
Back then, little mermaid Neoul had found clothes irritating, always rubbing against his skin, but he did not want to be called a pervert prince, so he had gritted his teeth and tried on all kinds of outfits.
Then the Sea Witch would take out a square device wrapped in something called a waterproof case and snap photo after photo of him in his little finery, scowling all the while.
— Oh, you’re adorable. Here, have a shrimp.
Neoul had never done anything particularly adorable in his life, but he always accepted the shrimp she offered and ate it without hesitation.
Then the Sea Witch would beam with fond amusement like a grandmother watching her grandchild perform tricks, only to tease him immediately afterward, saying that a pig would come running to befriend him because he was such a glutton.
— What’s a pig?
— An animal with a belly as round and full as yours because it loves to eat!
Her laughter was so plainly teasing that if he pouted and glared at her, she would not comfort him—instead, she would tease him even more, saying his puffed-up cheeks looked like a blowfish sulking with hurt feelings.
That wicked old hag.
Still, thanks to those memories, he at least knew how to put clothes on properly. Avoiding the fate of becoming a pervert, Neoul climbed onto the rock on his hands.
Then he looked down in fascination at the ankles and pale feet poking out beneath the pants, which covered him from waist to calves.
When he put force into his body the way he did when moving his tail, all ten toes twitched at once.
“Oh!”
Using the strength of his arms like a spring, Neoul pushed off the ground and managed to stand. Then he hurriedly turned his head, looking for the rabbit.
It had definitely been close by!
Ah, there it is!
The rabbit had just spoken briefly to someone, and when the other person shook their head, it turned away and tried to run somewhere else.
“Raaaaabbbbbiiiittttt!”
Neoul shouted at the top of his lungs.
A strange language he had never once spoken in his life burst from his mouth. It seemed to be thanks to the Rabbit Language pill.
So not only can I understand the rabbit’s speech, I can speak it too!
Relief that communication would not be a problem made a smile rise to his lips.
The rabbit, which had been about to run off elsewhere, stopped short and turned around to look toward the sound.
When their eyes met, Neoul’s face lit up with emotion, and he shouted again.
“Raaabbbiiittt, teacher!”
On second thought, maybe that was too rude for a first meeting, so the way he addressed it became much more respectful.
The rabbit came running over in a panic. Neoul hurriedly launched into what he had to say as it approached.
“Teacher! I am Neoul, the second son of the Dragon King from the Dragon Palace. I came to find you, Rabbit Teacher. Are you indeed Rabbit Teacher?”
“Um……. Yes!”
The rabbit glanced back over its shoulder, then nodded as if that were true.
So it was really him…!
He had thought it would take ages to find him, and yet they were meeting this quickly!
Overcome with emotion, Neoul’s knees gave way. He sank down and looked up at the rabbit, clasping his hands together imploringly.
“Rabbit Teacher. I beg you, please hear me out. My father’s illness has grown severe, and we need Rabbit Teacher’s liver. I heard that Rabbit Teacher can live even after taking your liver out. Please take pity on me and give me your liver. If you cannot give all of it, would you at least part with some of it?”
The rabbit, who had been coming closer, halted in place with a stricken look after hearing that.
Then, in a cautious voice, it asked,
“Um… this is The Story of Heungbu and Nolbu, right? But, uh, you look like you’ve fallen into the water. Are you okay?”
“Heungbu! You know Heungbu?”
Neoul’s eyes widened.
The rabbit hesitated for a moment, as if thinking about something, and then answered.
“Well… of course I know it…?”