The Eye of the Ocean
"What on earth are you saying? I get that you care about Bayul, that you're fond of him, but this is bordering on coercion! Summoning a Spirit King is no child's game!"
Eli let out a laugh of pure disbelief.
"A Spirit King is practically a god, you understand? The creator farmed out the work that should have been His alone by making Spirit Kings and shoving it onto them. You don't need deep knowledge of spirits to know that much — your imagination is just running wild."
"Exactly what I wanted to say."
Quinn jabbed a finger at Eli in wholehearted agreement.
"Why's everyone making such a fuss? I think Logan's got a point, honestly?"
It was Aidan. For once in his life, the boy had taken Logan's side.
"Didn't you all say with your own mouths that the Spirit Realm was destroyed?"
"We did."
"Which means the Spirit Kings died too, right?"
"…Died?"
"Destroyed. An entire world vanished — you think the kings of it are still breathing?"
"What exactly are you getting at?"
"Think it through properly. Have you ever seen a king die without doing anything? They usually leave descendants behind, don't they?"
"Descendants…?"
"'You are the last hope of our royal line. Everything rests on you now — I beg you, carry on after me!' Come on, you've seen that in books, haven't you? Right before the enemy breaches the walls or the kingdom falls, they say it to the nursemaid or the knight commander."
Dropping his voice into a theatrical growl, Aidan hammed up the impression with earnest enthusiasm.
"…So what you're saying is that Innocent and Shame might be descendants of the Spirit Kings?"
"And Bayul would be the nursemaid or the knight commander?"
"By that logic, yes."
"…So I'm the nursemaid…?"
He couldn't quite bring himself to claim the title of knight commander instead. As if understanding exactly how Bayul felt, Aidan patted him on the back and went on.
"It's only our guess for now, but the Spirit Kings did leave Spirit Stones behind, didn't they? Surely they'd have left successors too, as a matter of course. Just think how heartbreaking it must have been, watching the Spirit Realm die. If it were me, I couldn't have just laid down and died."
What do you think? Isn't my reasoning pretty solid?
Eli and Quinn exchanged a glance, as if polling each other for a verdict — then both shook their heads. No, of course not.
"If your reasoning were right, Innocent and Shame would eventually grow into Spirit Kings themselves — and as we've already said, that's impossible."
"A Spirit King isn't made through growth. It was created as a finished being from the very start, by the god's own hand. It's written right here in this book, in fact."
"I remember that part too."
A holy creation and proxy of the divine. That was how the passage read.
"But you said there was a case of an Intermediate Spirit being promoted to a High Spirit. It doesn't seem like a common occurrence — couldn't this just be another one of those unusual cases?"
"Seeing as there's no Spirit King in existence at the moment?"
"Well — every world needs a king, doesn't it? But what really bothers me is that there's nothing in that book describing what Innocent and Shame look like."
Neither Aidan nor Logan had ever known what a spirit even was; until now, the only thing they'd heard about spirits had come out of Eli's and Quinn's mouths. Perhaps that was why they thought in ways far less bound by convention. If seasoned spirit users had overheard them calmly tossing out theories like these, they'd have been struck dumb.
"Fine. Let's say everything you've said is right."
"Oh, Eli. Surrendering at last?"
"But why Bayul, of all people? Not that I mean any disrespect to you, Bayul. It's just — if someone has to raise a being as immense as a Spirit King, why would it be Bayul out of all the humans in the world? You can't entrust something that weighty to just anyone. Let me say it again — I am not looking down on you, so don't take it the wrong way."
"That one's easy — spirit users are born with the ability to commune with spirits, aren't they? Obviously Bayul has that power, so that's why."
"Do you honestly believe there's only one such person in the entire world? Take water affinity as an example — wouldn't Quinn, an actual merfolk, be the more natural fit? Even Innocent likes Quinn best after Bayul, you know."
There was real weight to Eli's argument. Now that vanished spirits had begun to reappear, the fact that Bayul was the only spirit user capable of communing with them did seem genuinely strange.
"Eli has a point. I doubt anyone would hand such an enormous responsibility to a kid like me. Setting the communion ability aside, there are people far more talented than me everywhere you look. Why me, of all people?"
Bayul would have found it a burden anyway, if he was honest — it wasn't something he wanted.
"Bayul, you might have some latent power inside you. I only figured out my own ability a few days ago. Who says the same can't be true for you?"
"That's true, but… not a single spirit user in history ever contracted with a Spirit King. How could I possibly—"
"No. There was one."
"…Quinn?"
"Just one. Someone did once contract with a Spirit King."
It was a confession out of nowhere. He looked down at the ring on his right hand and spoke in a low, quiet voice.
"What are you talking about, Quinn?"
"Explain it so the rest of us actually understand."
His friends, who had been staring at him blankly for a moment, quickly recovered and closed in on him.
"Who was this contractor? And how do you even know about it?"
"Bayul, do you remember this ring?"
Out of the blue, Quinn raised his ringed hand toward Bayul.
"Of course. I could never forget it. You even gave me the Mark of the Oath. I was planning to look for it when I went home over the break."
They had promised: once Bayul brought the ring, Quinn would answer his questions — what the ring truly was, and why he had reacted so to the pendant. Everything.
"The Mark of the Oath — you two mentioned making some kind of promise before, right?"
"I remember that too. That's what amplified the water energy and made me pass out the moment I saw Innocent. But the ring's been right here all along — why would you need to go looking for it?"
"Because it comes as a pair."
"A pair?"
"One with me. One with you, Bayul."
"You're saying there are two of the same ring?"
"…Don't tell me that gem is a blue diamond?"
Studying Quinn's ring with narrowed eyes, a memory suddenly surfaced in Eli's mind. Quinn said nothing, only nodded up and down — which was answer enough.
"Whoa — a blue diamond? That's an insanely rare gem, isn't it? Even precious-metals merchants can go a whole lifetime without seeing one. It's so rare people just name their price when one shows up. That was what that was?"
True to his family name, Aidan knew a fair bit about blue diamonds. Better yet, he had actually seen one with his own eyes.
"That's not what matters."
To Quinn, prince of the Mermaid Kingdom, gems were nothing more than accessories.
"The Eye of the Ocean. The problem is that these rings, made as a single pair, were split in two."
"That's what the ring is called? The Eye of the Ocean?"
"Yes, Bayul. That's what we call it. It's something absolutely essential to the Mermaid Kingdom — an indispensable treasure."
That's right. He had said the same thing that day, too.
"Is it like a royal seal or something?"
"A royal seal? Ha! If it were merely a royal seal, I'd have given up on it long ago."
A royal seal was the stamp of the king who embodied a nation. And he called that a mere trifle?
Bayul remembered Quinn's face on the first day of the academy — red-faced and shouting, demanding that Bayul hand over the ring. At the time he'd wondered why the boy was being so obsessive about it. Now, it was clearly no simple matter at all.
"The Eye of the Ocean isn't just a ring. It's the key that decides whether our Mermaid Kingdom exists or not."
"…You're saying that about a mere ring?"
"You wouldn't understand. If the Eye of the Ocean had never been divided — if it were still a single pair — the Mermaid Kingdom would never have declined the way it has."
Quinn was the last prince left in the Mermaid Kingdom. On his shoulders rested the duty of finding the ring and reviving his fallen realm.
"Then why does a ring that important happen to be in Bayul's hands? No — more than that, why was it split in two in the first place?"
Bayul had asked the same question once before. At his friends' doubts, the cold composure Quinn usually maintained trembled around his eyes, so much so that it was almost painful to watch. With effort, he opened his mouth again.
"He was blinded by love."
"…I'm sorry, what?"
"Love…?"
The sudden invocation of romance left them all momentarily speechless, composure flying out the window.
"Yeah. Our ancestor fell in love — and gave the Eye of the Ocean away."
"That king had some nerve. Just handing over something that priceless."
"To whom, though?"
Quinn paused for a beat before answering.
"The… Water Spirit King."
"What! The Water Spirit King?"
Nobody had seen it coming.
"Our ancestor fell head over heels for Daphnegrande, the Water Spirit King of that age, and proposed to her with the Eye of the Ocean."
Even now, the sheer absurdity of it pulled a wry, self-mocking smile from Quinn.
"Then this person who contracted with the Water Spirit King… could it be…?"
"Right. She was born with an extraordinary affinity for water. Thanks to it, she became the first merfolk in history to summon the Water Spirit King. Back then, she lived only for the future of the Mermaid Kingdom — wholeheartedly, devotedly…"
But that devotion had shifted toward the Water Spirit King. And there, the seed of their ruin was planted.
"Honestly, it wasn't a problem at first. The Spirit Realm was still intact, so the kingdom suffered no real blow. It was an age when the Mermaid Kingdom was strong enough to repel any enemy that dared invade."
The trouble began when the Spirit Realm fell. As far as the Mermaid Kingdom was concerned, it was as if the very foundation of their nation had been ripped away. From that day on, they had walked one long downhill road — and they were still walking it. The kingdom weakened. It grew poorer by the year.
"Hold on! But then why is a ring that was given to a Spirit King in Bayul's possession?"
"Huh? Now that you mention it — that's the weirder part!"
"…Believe me, nobody here wants that answer more than I do."
Bayul replied with an awkward smile under the weight of his friends' focused stares.
"Have you asked His Grace Duke Randert about it?"
"No."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Because it wasn't my father's."
"…It wasn't?"
"It's a keepsake my mother left behind."
"…Your mother left behind more than just the pendant?"
Surprise bloomed in Logan's golden eyes.
That pendant was also a keepsake of his mother?
It was then that Quinn tilted his head.
"Yes — and the moment she saw the ring, Mother ordered every trace of it cleared away. She said it reminded her too much of the late Lady Randert. So I've only ever seen her in portraits."
Bayul went on in a somber voice.
"As you all know, my father and mother met by chance on a battlefield and fell in love. My mother was a commoner with nothing to her name — an orphan, at that."
The question had never stopped gnawing at him. How could his ordinary, plain mother have possessed a jewel of such value? He simply couldn't understand it.
"She was already wearing the ring before she ever met my father."
"Really? Then what, was your mother the Water Spirit King or something? No, no — that doesn't make any sense!"
"Of course not. It must have simply changed hands, over and over, until it found its way to her. That's all."
It was the most plausible explanation Bayul could offer himself.
"Or maybe it didn't just 'find its way' to her at all."
Quinn fixed Bayul with a grave, searching look.
"The ring's former owner is the Water Spirit King, Daphnegrande. It may be that she gave it to your mother herself."