A Pair of Rings
Whooooosh!
The wind blew. The window was shut fast, yet an inexplicable current stirred the room out of nowhere. No—come to think of it, he could guess exactly where this wind had risen from.
Quinn…!
Was this how a beast looked as it locked eyes with its prey? Under Quinn's ravenous gaze, Bayul could offer no answer and flinched, his whole body trembling.
"Answer me!"
Quinn's hair darkened yet again, his long locks rippling as though they were alive.
Was it some reaction to his shifting emotions?
At Quinn's sudden transformation, Bayul's first instinct was to be frightened out of his wits—but he quickly realized there was no need. The boy was merely excited. He had no idea why, but Quinn showed no signs of meaning him any harm.
"…Home."
To calm Quinn down first, Bayul added as quickly as he could.
"I saw it at our house."
"…And you're telling me this ring was in your house?"
Quinn's expression twisted with disbelief. It was understandable, though—a blue diamond, of all things. But Bayul was telling the truth.
"It was my mother's ring. She wore it on her finger all the time."
"I heard your mother died giving birth to you."
Quinn's eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"So you've heard about that too?"
He hadn't expected the boy to care about such rumors. It was a surprise.
"Talk."
Quinn warned him not to stray from the point.
"Obviously I never actually saw her. I've only ever seen my mother's face in her portrait—the ring too. I saw it together with her in the painting."
"So what you're saying is you've never laid eyes on the real thing?"
"No, but I heard it from the servants. That she wore it constantly while she was alive. A very precious thing, made from a blue diamond."
"And? Where is it now?"
Quinn's tone, cold enough already, turned frostier still. He clearly didn't believe a word Bayul said—it was more like he was answering out of sheer exasperation.
"I'm not lying. Really."
"I asked where the ring is."
"…I honestly don't know. I've only heard that my father hid it away."
"Your father being Duke Randert?"
"He said the ring reminded him of my mother whenever he looked at it, so he had it put away. No one's seen it since."
It wasn't just the ring, either. Bayul had been around five years old when his father ordered even the portrait hidden out of sight. Bail and Bayul had wept and begged him not to, but their father had been unmoving.
Years later, when he and Bail had finally managed to track the portrait down together, Bayul let out a whoop of joy—and promptly fell off the ladder and broke his leg.
But unlike the portrait, the ring could never be found. Feeling guilty that he alone got to wear the pendant, Bayul had once hoped to find the ring and give it to Bail instead. When that proved impossible, he'd gone through stretches of quiet melancholy.
"You expect me to believe that?"
The corner of Quinn's elegant mouth twisted up. He was smiling, but there was nothing remotely cheerful about it.
"I have no reason to lie to someone I met for the first time today. It's true. I swear it."
"Humans always lie. And very convincingly, too—whether they have a reason or not."
"Not everyone. And I have never once told a lie in my life!"
"Not once?"
"That's right, not once!"
"Then isn't it strange? Why does everything you're saying sound like a lie to me right now?"
Had Bayul ever felt this wronged in his entire life? Being mistaken for a liar stung worse than the personal attacks back in the dining hall.
"What can I do to make you believe me? Would showing you the portrait work?"
"No, that won't be enough."
"Then what will work?"
"Bring me the ring."
"What?"
"Bring me the ring. Then I'll believe you."
Bayul was struck speechless for a moment. As Quinn said, simply producing the ring would settle the whole matter. It was the surest way to shake off the label of liar.
But why? Why should I have to do that?
It was Quinn who had abruptly cornered him and branded him a liar, all because Bayul had merely mentioned seeing an identical ring. Unfair as it was, Bayul had no obligation to explain himself—and even less reason to go fetch the ring.
"If I bring you the ring, what do I get in return?"
"What?"
"It's my mother's keepsake. That means it's not something I can go showing to just anyone."
"Scared you'll be caught in your lie?"
"Do my eyes look like they're lying right now?"
The truth always shows itself in the eyes. Bayul lifted his clear gaze and met Quinn's head-on. Only then did a ripple pass through the merman's blue eyes.
"…You're really telling the truth?"
"I already told you I was."
"Impossible! There's no way a ring this hard to find could just be sitting there…!"
His reaction bordered on sheer astonishment. What on earth was that ring?
Wait a moment. Something's off here.
His curiosity gave way to a frown of puzzlement. Something didn't add up. Why would two rings be shaped exactly alike? And not just any rings—rings set with blue diamonds?
This was no coincidence. There was something about that ring. He didn't know what it was, but Quinn's attitude right now was the proof itself.
"Could it be… those two rings are a matched pair?"
"…!"
Bayul could feel Quinn flinch and go rigid. His face showed unmistakable bewilderment, as if to say, How did you know?
"It's not an ordinary ring—it's a blue diamond. If two rings worked from such a rare gem happened to look exactly the same, someone must surely have made them as a pair… May I ask just one thing?"
Bayul hesitated, then asked.
"What is that ring?"
"…Why do you want to know?"
"You're merfolk, and my mother owned the same ring you do. If we're each wearing half of a pair that was made together, of course I'd be curious."
His mother, who had radiated a graceful beauty even within the portrait. But Father hardly ever spoke of her. Neither Bayul nor Bail had pressed the matter again, unwilling to watch their father suffer each time their mother crossed his mind.
All Bayul knew was that the two of them had met by chance during the war and fallen in love. He'd heard that the Empire had once buzzed with talk of his father's decision to take a commoner—a commoner orphan, no less—as his wife without a single condition attached.
His parents had held a quiet wedding for two, inviting no one at all. Every last detail like that had come to him through the servants.
He had never thought of it before. How could his mother, a commoner orphan, have possessed a ring like that?
And what about this pendant?
It couldn't compare to a blue diamond, but the pendant, too, was a jewel of exquisite craftsmanship. It would be far beyond anything an ordinary commoner could even dream of affording.
"You were startled when you saw this pendant earlier too, weren't you? Why was that?"
At Bayul's rapid-fire questions, Quinn's eyes wavered once more. So there was something there. About the ring and the pendant both—Quinn clearly knew something Bayul did not.
"…You're better off not knowing."
The expected refusal. Bayul responded calmly.
"I never expected you to tell me willingly anyway. So let's make a deal."
"A deal?"
"Yes. That ring—I'll go find it. It's somewhere in my house."
"You'll give me the ring if I answer your questions?"
"No, I can't give it to you."
"What is this, a joke?"
"I told you, it's my mother's keepsake. I can bring it and show it to you, but I can't give it away entirely."
"That ring originally belonged to our Mermaid Kingdom! It's not something a mere human has any right to hold!"
"…The Mermaid Kingdom's?"
"That's right! I have no idea how it ended up in your mother's hands, but it's not something a human can bear to carry. So go get it—now!"
Quinn's face flashed bright with fury.
It had been a very long time since Bayul had been this angry. Even the provocations from Jared's little gang hadn't riled him up like this.
There was exactly one reason Quinn had endured a life among humans while enduring every conceivable humiliation as the merfolk prince.
If only I find the ring… if only I find the ring, everything can go back to the way it was!
Back to those beautiful days of old—to the golden age of the Mermaid Kingdom's brilliance.
Legend? To hell with legends. This isn't a problem humans can solve anyway. All I need is the Eye of the Ocean!
"If you won't hand it over, I'll steal it from you if I have to."
Quinn meant it. And now that he knew where the ring was, it was by no means impossible.
"You clearly haven't read that book properly."
Bayul nodded toward the book sitting on Quinn's desk.
The Ten-Year War of the Continent.
A sorrowful, harrowing chapter of history that had stained the continent red for a full decade—and the one who had ended it was Bayul's own father, Duke Randert.
"Father is at the estate right now. I've never seen it myself, but they say even ten ranks of knights charging at once couldn't take him down. Do you really think you, alone, could get the ring out from under his nose? Without even knowing where it is?"
Quinn couldn't answer. It galled him, but Bayul was right. As long as Duke Randert was in residence, he could never lay hands on that ring. In his excitement, he had gone and completely forgotten the Duke's existence.
"My offer still stands. I'll get the ring. So you answer me—what exactly is that ring, and why did you react like that when you saw the pendant?"
"Why are you so obsessed? I told you it's the Mermaid Kingdom's property."
"I just want to know about my mother. I have no memories of her, but she's the one who gave birth to me."
He had always wondered. He'd simply held it in—because there was no one to ask, no way to find out—but a thirst for his mother had always lurked in some corner of his heart.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to quench that thirst. That the vessel for it should be someone named Quinn surprised even Bayul himself, but he didn't want to let it slip away. It might be his last chance to ever learn about his mother. He had to persuade Quinn, whatever it took.
"…Fine. Bring the ring, and I'll tell you then."
"Let me be clear—I'm giving it to you, not giving it away. Showing it, that's all."
"I said it originally belongs to the Mermaid Kingdom."
"Well, it doesn't right now, does it? If it's so precious, you should have guarded it properly so it never got lost."
"It wasn't lost—someone gave it away!"
If it had simply been misplaced, he wouldn't have been this furious. But the thought of some lovestruck fool surrendering an object that could decide the fate of an entire kingdom made his blood boil all over again.
"Gave it? To whom?"
"Who else? To Des—!"
Quinn clamped his mouth shut in a panic.
Damn it, that's not like me!
He'd nearly spilled useless information to a human. Now that he'd learned the whereabouts of the ring he'd longed for, he kept getting carried away, unlike himself.
A strange one, this boy. Quinn had never met a human like him. A mere human, harboring the same energy of water that the merfolk carried within themselves. Even watching it with his own eyes, he couldn't quite believe it.
When he had first spotted the boy, the shock in that plaza had been nothing short of staggering.
You said I carried a scent of clean water, didn't you?
That, too, had floored him. In saying it, the boy had proven, all on his own, that he bore the energy of water.
The boy didn't seem to realize it, but that "clean water scent" was Quinn's own aura of water. Every mermaid and merman of the Mermaid Kingdom was born with the power of water flowing through them. It was the most natural thing in the world for their kind—for they were beings who lived among the currents, one with nature itself.
Truthfully, sensing a scent of water from an aura as faint as Bayul's should have been all but impossible. And yet the boy had sensed it. And in that very moment, Quinn had noticed the pendant hanging at Bayul's throat.
A teardrop-shaped locket pendant.
Astonishingly, Quinn had sensed the water's energy from it as well—and a power so vast it couldn't begin to be compared with Bayul's. Right now it was oddly quiet, as if the energy were deliberately hiding itself, but moments ago he had felt it unmistakably.
Could it be because of that pendant?
As a vessel for the water's energy, the boy was far too frail. The pallid complexion, the skinny frame—if he collapsed on the spot, no one would think it strange.
Annoying.
He couldn't say why, but Quinn couldn't stop thinking about him. It wasn't because of the water's energy, nor because of what he knew about the ring's whereabouts. The boy's very existence just kept rubbing him the wrong way.
That must have been why—why he, who couldn't have cared less about rumors, had secretly eavesdropped on the children's chatter.
Some feeling he couldn't put a name to kept needling at Quinn. A nagging sense of something not quite right.
What on earth is this kid…?