Like Father, Like Son
Every night, the hideout rang with squabbling. Training had been all but abandoned. Instead, the group sat sprawled across the cottage sofa, locked in a weekend-long debate over whether or not to visit the Chairman's house — with Eli and Aidan carrying on most of the argument themselves.
Bayul and Logan mostly stayed out of it, content to listen, while Quinn occasionally invoked the spirits in support of Aidan's cause.
From what Bayul could tell, Eli seemed to grow more and more anxious as the weekend drew near. Meeting his father again was apparently such a source of stress that he was looking for any way out of it.
"Rai, I don't want to pressure you like this either. I can't stand people like the Chairman myself. I've got two of them in my own family."
"What on earth are you talking about all of a sudden?"
Two of them. The words sent an involuntary shiver down Eli's spine.
"I've got two humans who torment me living under my roof. So believe me, I know exactly how you feel."
"You don't mean those demons you're always going on about, do you?"
"Yep. And you only have the one — I've got two."
So won't you please just change your mind?
Aidan blinked up at his friend with wide, pleading eyes. Naturally, it had zero effect on Eli.
"That's not a reason. Diminishing my misery just because yours is worse is a serious insult."
"I was only trying to say I understand. If you really hate it that much, we'll drop it."
"How touching. Where was all this nobility when you were raising hell to drag me there in the first place? Playing the good friend doesn't suit you."
"Only after I've done my best to convince you, obviously. If my own son says he won't go, what am I supposed to do about it? Curiosity can wait, I suppose."
Aidan turned a worried gaze toward Ingrid, who was off in the corner playing a game of popping water droplets with Innocent. The little owl had never once given him cause for concern before, but ever since he'd overheard that conversation, he couldn't stop fretting over it.
"Where did you get Ingrid, anyway? Pygmy owls aren't exactly easy to come by."
"No idea. Really."
"What do you mean, no idea?"
"I mean I don't know. He just showed up in my father's travel bag."
"Whoa — he was in the bag? Okay, fine, say he somehow crawled in there. What did he eat? How did he even survive?"
"How should I know? Point is, he's been living with me ever since. I only found out he was a pygmy owl by looking him up in a beast encyclopedia."
"Couldn't you just ask your father where he'd been traveling? If we knew where he came back from, wouldn't that give us some kind of lead?"
Aidan waved off Bayul's suggestion as hopeless.
"Too many places. It's never just one or two with him."
Aidan's family were merchants. His grandfather had retired and now whiled away a leisurely life at the family estate, but his father, the eldest son, was a man who couldn't have enough hours in the day — or ten of them — even if he tried. He spent more time away from home than in it, to the point that catching a glimpse of his face was a rare luxury.
"This is just a hunch on my part, but I'd bet it's the jungle region down south."
"The southern jungle?"
"Wait — you don't mean the Zone of Oblivion? Where the Dwyer Empire is?"
The Zone of Oblivion was an enormous jungle sprawled across the southernmost edge of the continent.
It was home to countless dangerous creatures — and plants — unknown to the world, humans included. The single greatest lawless land on the continent.
Legend had it that anyone who set foot inside forgot everything but the raw instinct to survive, and that was how it had come to be called the Zone of Oblivion since ancient times.
The place positively overflowed with strange tales — rumors of a magnificent golden city hidden somewhere in its depths, or of a death god who had once loved humanity sealing away the secret of immortality in some forgotten corner of the jungle.
And so, year after year, swarms of adventurers and explorers struck out for the Zone of Oblivion — and most of them either vanished without a trace or never came back alive. The rare survivors emerged half-mad, raving either gibberish or a single warning: that the zone was no place for humans, and some of them took up permanent post at the jungle's entrance, standing guard to keep others out.
"My father wasn't in the Zone of Oblivion itself, but I heard he passed near it. Besides, the encyclopedia says pygmy owls only live in jungles. So it's just my guess for now."
"So you trade with the Dwyer Empire too."
The Ten Years' War was over, but the two empires still glared at each other across a cold war. No open hostilities — yet the tension between them was such that either could bare its blade at the other at a moment's notice.
"It's not exactly thriving, but we do trade. Both sides need things the other has."
"If your hunch is right, then Ingrid came from incredibly far away."
"That's about the size of it."
"'Zone of Oblivion' really makes it sound like there's something going on with him, though. Isn't molting supposed to turn him into a monster and stuff?"
"Hey! A monster? Look at our Ingrid and say that again, I dare you! Rai, do you want to die?"
"Gah! You scared me! Why are you shrieking like that? You startled me so badly I can't get a word out. I was just reminded of the metamorph, that's all!"
"Metamorph? What's that?"
"You don't know what a metamorph is?"
It was Logan who answered Eli's scornful jab. The man who had been silently holding his place all evening finally spoke.
"...A mutant monster that drank from the Springs of Destruction."
"What kind of monster?"
Aidan frowned at the strange term. The name alone put a bad taste in his mouth.
"Hold on — aren't metamorphs supposed to exist only in the Demon Realm?"
"In theory, yes. I'm impressed you know even that much, Logan."
"What's the Springs of Destruction? And what's the Demon Realm? Stop whispering amongst yourselves and loop me in here, will you? Otherwise I'm going to explode!"
At Aidan's insistence, Eli raised both hands in a placating whoa, easy gesture and explained.
"The Springs of Destruction is a body of water in the Demon Realm. Not your ordinary, everyday water — it's a spring that runs with pure poison. Drink from it, and you die, for the most part. But every so often, something survives. It comes out the other side hideously twisted, but its abilities skyrocket."
"You mean it gets stronger?"
"Right. And because it happens with such vanishingly rare odds, it's highly prized among the demons. The lower-ranked ones keep them as pets."
"Why does the way you say that feel like an insult to our Ingrid too? Rai, I know you'd faint if anyone called you a demon, but could you watch your mouth a little?"
Aidan shot him a fierce glare, visibly displeased.
"When did I ever call Ingrid a metamorph? I just said it reminded me of one. How would a Demon Realm creature even turn up here in the human world? Ridiculous."
"It could've come along with a demon, why not? You just said they keep them as pets!"
It was a perfectly reasonable argument. Caught off guard by Aidan's unexpected counterattack, Eli faltered — and every eye in the room swung toward him.
"Wh-what are you all staring at me for? Stop looking at me like that!"
"Don't you feel even a little sorry for Ingrid?"
"How did we even get here?"
"Think how lonely it must be for something that small, separated from its parents by all that distance! Come on, help us out and let's find Ingrid's true identity!"
"You're the one who's curious — what's all this about an 'identity'!"
Eli shouted in exasperation.
"And what about me? Am I not pitiful enough? I barely escaped a lifetime of abuse, and now you want to drag me right back into that nest? Doesn't that strike you as a little unfair?"
"We'll all go with you! We'd never leave you alone there!"
"We can just find out about Ingrid and the spirits, then slip away before anyone notices!"
"Rai, I'll stick to you like glue the whole time, I promise!"
It was an ambush, plain and simple. Aidan and Quinn refused to back down, and pressed and pressed until Eli had no room left to breathe.
"I'll... help too......"
Then, out of nowhere, a hoarse voice cut in. Shame had appeared at some point, head bowed low, and mustered the courage to speak.
"...Shame?"
His surprise lasted only a moment before Eli whipped around to Bayul.
"Bayul, you want to go too, don't you? And Shame just picked up on it, right? Is that what this is?"
As a spirit, Shame resonated with Bayul's emotions. His constant, quiet wish to help Bayul in any situation had once again betrayed itself, unbidden.
"No, that's not — it's not like that......"
Flustered, Bayul tried to laugh it off. But it felt as if his true face had been seen through, and his cheeks burned.
"From Bayul's standpoint, wanting to go is only natural. He's supposed to be a spirit user, yet he knows less about spirits than any of you do. That's why you were holding your tongue even though you hate the idea, right, Rai?"
"However unfair it may be to you, the Chairman is someone we desperately need right now. Or did you forget we still have to find the Spirit Stones?"
"And don't forget we still need to summon the wind spirit. Ugh, I don't even want to imagine what would've happened without it back then."
"I... could have done it too."
Quiet Shame spoke up once more. And with that, Eli lost his window to argue back.
"Shame, what do you mean?"
"I tried... to save that boy... because that is what you wished for......"
"You mean you tried to save Nathan? You, Shame?"
"The wind spirit... intervened."
All that had been needed was to soften the ground where Nathan would have fallen. Bayul didn't feel anything particularly unpleasant about the wind spirit stepping in, but Shame had wanted him to know the truth. He was always, everywhere, ready to stand for Bayul's sake.
"Come to think of it, where is this wind spirit right now? Why doesn't it ever show itself?"
Since the subject was on the table, Eli decided to press the matter of the wind spirit as well.
"I doubt it's hiding out of shyness like you used to. Must have a strange personality too, then. Innocent can't stand it, so it's probably no joke."
"That's... a bit......"
Either the question was uncomfortable to answer, or something else entirely — Shame's already-bowed head sank even lower. Once again, it looked like they wouldn't be getting a straight answer.
"Rai, quit picking on poor Shame and finish what you were saying. That's not what matters right now, is it?"
"I've said it a thousand times. No."
"You really hate it?"
"Yeah! Completely, absolutely, one hundred percent hate it!"
No resolve could have been more resolute. Aidan stared at him in silence for a long moment — and finally declared surrender.
"Fine. We'll drop it."
"...You're serious?"
"If I begged any longer, you'd start cursing me out, and nobody wants that."
"Huh. You're learning to read the room."
Eli wore an exaggerated look of exaggerated gratitude, theatrically mollified.
"You lot, have a little sympathy for me. If it were any other favor, I'd grant it in a heartbeat. But this — this I simply cannot do. You'll never understand how I feel."
Judging that his moment had come, Eli proceeded to unload a monologue of grievances that stretched on for well over an hour.
And yet, come Saturday afternoon—
"What made you change your mind all of a sudden?"
"None of your business."
Judging by the fire blazing in his eyes, there was no doubt about it: the Chairman had pulled some move the boy could not possibly refuse. They said he had a gift for handling people — and his skill at managing his own son was apparently nothing to sneeze at either.
"Speaking of which — what kind of house is this big? He didn't exactly say it was cramped, did he?"
What greeted the group as they climbed down from the carriage was a vast mansion too enormous to take in at a single glance. Recalling Rayegar's claim of a modest-but-livable home, they all wore expressions of sheer disbelief, until Eli clicked his tongue.
"Must've grabbed it in a hurry. Why would the great man live somewhere this shabby?"
"...Excuse me?"
"Let's get this over with and get out."
Assuming full battle stance, Eli marched ahead at the front of the group.
"Like father, like son, huh."
At Aidan's mutter, the others nodded in solemn agreement — then fell in line, one by one, trailing slowly after Eli. Somehow, it felt as though the afternoon ahead was going to be a very long one.