Water Spirit King (2)
The Water Spirit King had arrived here, right now.
“Niagara.”
I unwittingly uttered the name of the being standing before my eyes.
“Is that Niagara?”
Jang Gilsan murmured softly.
Faces of beings on the level of Spirit Kings were even featured in the academy textbooks.
The Water Spirit King, Niagara, slowly walked toward us.
Shoooo-!
As he fully emerged into the human world, the split waterfall merged back into one.
With that, the spirit power from the Spirit Realm vanished.
But even though the passage to the Spirit Realm was severed, an immense spirit power still pressed down on us like it would crush us.
It was Niagara's spirit power.
Immense power.
This was the first time I'd seen a Spirit King in person.
And in this moment, I realized why Spirit Kings were called kings, and why Aqua had lacked confidence in herself.
If Aqua is a lake, Niagara is the ocean.
The gap between king and successor was that vast.
Step, step.
Niagara approached us, stepping on thin air.
He was gathering the moisture in the air beneath his feet to form footholds.
Until now, Aqua was the only spirit I'd seen use that technique.
Just seeing him employ it far more stably and naturally than she did showed how exalted a realm Niagara inhabited.
Niagara stopped about five meters away from us.
Niagara had a beard.
He even grew his eyebrows long, like a jolly grandfather.
“…….”
“…….”
But we couldn't utter a word.
We couldn't even laugh at the spirit before us, who looked comically like a child imitating an adult.
Even Jang Gilsan, no spirit user, must have sensed that immense power.
Through the unique instincts of awakeners.
Swish-.
Sure enough, Jang Gilsan slowly drew his wallet from his pocket.
Preparation to activate his unique trait, Wallet Warrior.
I also readied myself to raise my Spirit Affinity at any moment.
If combat broke out right then, I had to protect Aqua.
Niagara stared at us for a long while.
No, precisely at Aqua.
Niagara opened his mouth.
[Aqua, my daughter.]
It was a childlike voice fitting his appearance.
But undeniable power and dignity filled it.
[I'm quite angry.]
At those words, Aqua hunched her body slightly and shot back in a sulky voice.
[Who's your daughter! Spirits don't have such things!]
[I'm deeply disappointed in you. To think you, who must inherit the Water Spirit King's throne, would make such a shortsighted choice.]
Niagara extended a hand toward Aqua.
[Aqua, let's go back. Playtime is over.]
[No! This is where I belong!]
[In the human world, you'll gain nothing but wounds. Don't head toward a foolish end.]
[You go back! I'll decide where I belong!]
[I can't just watch you get hurt.]
At the tone implying he'd drag her off by force, Aqua tensed even more.
Water droplets bristled all over her body.
A gesture saying if words failed, she'd fight without hesitation.
[I won't go back! This is where I belong!]
[No. You'll return with me.]
Niagara reached toward Aqua.
Spirit power began gathering at his fingertips.
That's when I stepped forward.
“Sorry, but that's not happening.”
I gently scooped Aqua into my arms and inserted myself between them.
Aqua was rigid all over from tension.
For the first time since passing through the Spirit Realm passage, Niagara's eyes settled on me.
This is a Spirit King.
Though he had a child's face, his gaze was like peering into an ancient elder's eyes.
Spirits were said to be ignorant and simple compared to humans, but that held only for ordinary ones.
Spirit Kings had lived hundreds, even thousands of years.
Demigods in all but name, despite the title of ‘king.’
“I'm Kang Hyunwoo, the spirit user contracted with Aqua.”
At my introduction, Niagara gazed down at me a moment, then nodded.
[Indeed. Truly the one Aqua chose. Weak in power, but warm and kind—a fine human.]
[Right! Hyunwoo is a good human!]
[That's exactly why humans are poison to us.]
Aqua fell silent at the abrupt claim.
Niagara continued as if that settled it.
[Human. Set Aqua down and withdraw. This isn't your affair.]
“It is my affair. Aqua's my family.”
Niagara's face chilled at my firm words.
“I'm her legitimate contractor, a proper spirit user. We've become family. Aqua's not going anywhere.”
Niagara bit his lip tight.
If he had teeth to grind, I'd have heard it.
[You don't grasp what ‘family’ means to a spirit. Humans never realize that word is our deadliest poison.]
Aqua had said Niagara pushed for severing ties with humans to ‘stop spirits from dying in the human world.’
To him, perhaps spirits seemed poisoned by ‘family,’ dying in gates for humans.
[If you truly see Aqua as family and love her, release her. Let her live unharmed and in peace in the Spirit Realm.]
He might even be right.
Spirits did perish staying in the human world.
I looked down at Aqua and Mandu.
Sensing my gaze, they lifted their heads to meet my eyes.
They brimmed with affection and trust, laced with quiet worry for me.
Overwhelming fondness, eyes that would gladly yield their lives for mine.
And mine were the same.
“You don't know what family means to a spirit user, either.”
The Japanese spirit user who lost the Wind Spirit King forsook all wealth and fame, attempted suicide repeatedly, and went mad.
When Niagara secluded himself, his contractor, Sia Clearwater, retreated to the Amazon's depths.
Spirit users bereft of spirits became shells.
Yet no spirit user pitied them.
The guilt of failing to safeguard lives that crossed worlds to reach us was that immense.
That was the duty called family.
The family spirit users envisioned.
“If you understood, you wouldn't have abandoned Sia Clearwater.”
Niagara's eyebrows twitched, contorting.
“You discarded the spirit who called you family, yet fret over Aqua like a daughter? I can't trust a word you say.”
Niagara sealed his lips once more.
I tightened my hold on Aqua.
“I won't entrust my family to a worthless spirit like you.”
[…Humans truly have wicked tongues.]
Niagara's face twisted.
[I shouldn't have let you speak.]
Spirit power surged into Niagara's hand.
That instant, three shields unfolded before me.
Aqua's Water Shield, Mandu's tiny flame shield, and Jang Gilsan's trait-summoned military bulletproof shield.
Niagara raised his hand dismissively, as if they were pathetic.
A massive orb began forming above it.
He's about to get serious.
If persuasion failed, we'd have no choice but force.
But conditions weren't ideal now.
To stall, I said,
“Niagara. I challenge you to a duel.”
[…A duel?]
Niagara's hand halted.
[Why should I accept?]
“To prove you're right.”
[My rightness needs no proof.]
“Aqua needs it. Forcibly dragging her off here means lifelong resentment from her.”
[Think I lack resolve for that?]
“Yeah. You could overpower her, sure. But not forever. Banking on a temporary fix to take her?”
[She'll see I was right by then.]
“You can hope.”
[My answer: refused.]
Spirit power swelled in Niagara's hand.
Damn. Fight here?
The duel proposal aimed to shift venue and timing favorably.
We'd endured harsh training today already.
Facing Niagara off-peak was suicide.
No more stalling options.
That's when—
[Eit!]
Aqua hurled something at Niagara.
The white object didn't reach halfway, fluttering pathetically down.
The oven mitt from grilling meat.
For a moment, all eyes locked on it.
The mitt drifted lightly under collective stares.
[Then I challenge you to a duel!]
Aqua's bright voice echoed.
Niagara shook his head, snapping to.
[Aqua. I just refused the duel…]
[This is for the Water Spirit King throne!]
[…The throne?]
[If I win king, no need to heed you!]
Niagara paused silently, then shook his head.
[Worthless. Spirit King thrones aren't won by duels anyway…]
[Scared and running?!]
[…]
Niagara shut his mouth, then reopened.
[…Not running—a strategic choice…]
[Chicken!]
Aqua crowed victoriously.
Niagara worked his mouth futilely, then clamped it.
Aqua's sudden taunt.
Yet the phrasing rang familiar.
Racking my brain briefly, I recalled her source.
Keep her away from Jeong Ri-on's sylphs.
But against my worry, momentum tilted our way.
[Chicken means you lose—yield the throne!]
[Not chicken.]
[Then duel!]
[No, refusal's an option too…]
[Coward! Fleeing! Disgrace to undines! Ditch the crown!]
[Not fleeing, how many times…]
[Then duel!]
[…Aqua. This talk drags on.]
Illogic conquering logic, as the saying went.
Verbal fight champs weren't adults, but kids.
Then.
One sylph floated airily nearby, apart from us.
It watched Niagara and Aqua with amused curiosity.
Only then did I survey surroundings.
Countless spirits and spirit users had gathered below on the ground.
Resort guests sensing Niagara's massive spirit power.
[What's up? Niagara and Aqua fighting?]
[Dueling for the throne!]
[Whoaaa!]
Undines beamed with anticipation.
[Water Spirit King chickened out?]
[Chicken! Chicken!]
[Chicken? Die then!]
Sylphs giggled, jabbing at Niagara.
[…]
Niagara's face crumpled.
But scowling changed zilch.
[Duel! Duel!]
[Duel! Duel!]
Niagara now faced duel or social execution.