The Price of Mercy
"Wait… all three of them come as a set?"
"Yes. Only when those three are brought together can Quinn be saved. So pray, and wait, that Duke Randert arrives with the ring in hand."
The Eye of the Ocean was never a pair of two, but a set of three?
Were they actually expected to believe that?
Without a word, the friends exchanged glances. The Eye of the Ocean had been the treasure of the Mermaid Kingdom. Quinn was the prince of that very kingdom — and he had insisted it came in a matched pair. So how on earth had this happened?
There was no way Quinn was lying. He had absolutely no reason to.
So was this something even Quinn hadn't known?
Or was Rayegar running some kind of con on them right now?
"You're looking at me strangely again."
When suspicion began pooling in his son Eli's eyes once more, Rayegar shook his head with a weary sigh.
"…Is that really the Eye of the Ocean?"
"I retrieved it from the Mermaid Kingdom with my own hands, a very long time ago — thousands of years and more."
"Retrieved it? Why?"
"Because the power of those rings was simply too immense. If I'd left them be, the balance of this world would have collapsed."
"They're just rings. Aren't you overselling it a little?"
"…Just rings?"
Rayegar's expression changed. He fixed his son with a grave stare, as if asking whether he truly meant that.
"These rings can do what even I, a dragon, cannot. And you call that just rings?"
"No, it's just… it feels off to me. You're telling me an ordinary object, not even an artifact, holds that kind of power?"
"Well, of course it feels off. Where would you expect the fool's blood to go? Can't even recognize a Primordial Relic when it's right in front of you. Truly hopeless."
Professor Serarika's mockery had begun anew. But no one had the presence of mind to take offense.
"What do you mean, 'Primordial Relic'?"
While Bayul and his friends were still struggling to grasp her words, both of Eli's eyes had gone wide with shock.
"Don't tell me the Eye of the Ocean was a gift from the Main God?"
"Your ears seem to work just fine, so I have to wonder why you can't absorb anything the first time and have to ask twice. Come to think of it, you take after your dear birth father in that respect too. How nauseating."
"…Excuse me, Professor Serarika. Sorry to interrupt, but haven't you been laying into Lai a bit too hard this whole time?"
It was Aidan. He'd finally run out of patience and raised his voice at her.
"You're supposed to be a dragon too, aren't you? So why do you treat Lai like that? Do you have some kind of grudge against him?"
It was what all of them wanted to ask. Her attitude went far beyond simple dislike.
"A grudge, is it…?"
Strictly speaking, it wasn't wrong — but neither was it a word that could fully capture how she felt. Sharing a race did not make every dragon alike.
How could she possibly be the same as a creature carrying that filthy blood?
"I merely spoke of a worthless existence. Nothing more, nothing less. Honestly, exchanging a single word with that boy is deeply unpleasant to begin with."
"Oh, come on! You can say that to someone's face? To a dragon's face? And speaking of which, you called him 'nauseating' just a minute ago, didn't you? Can you even call yourself a professor? From where I'm standing, the one with the problem is clearly you. Your character is rock-bottom."
"As if character is the only thing she's missing. She's had a filthy temper since way back, and it hasn't changed one bit. Tsk tsk."
Death, who had been quietly observing until now, muttered this just loudly enough to pass for soliloquy. Professor Serarika — a being even demons dreaded — lashed back viciously.
"That hardly sounds like something a demon should be saying, after your kind so shamelessly broke our pact and made utter fools of yourselves."
"Guess word hasn't reached you yet, huh? The fact that I didn't break the pact is something the Lord himself has already acknowledged."
At Death's retort, Serarika spun sharply toward Rayegar — a wordless demand for him to explain. But Rayegar had no intention of explaining now. He could already see how loudly that conversation would go; it could wait.
"You made a pact with them? What kind of pact?"
To Eli, this was shattering news. To him, the demons were mortal enemies — nothing more, nothing less.
"It would take too long to explain. I'll tell you another time."
"Then tell me now. If it involves the demons and I don't know about it, that's unacceptable."
"Killian, do you really think that's the only thing you don't know?"
"…What?"
"If you knew what your adoptive father staked to save your life, it would knock you flat."
"Sera!"
That was enough. He would tolerate nothing further. Rayegar sent her a frost-cold look, a silent warning to mind her tongue.
"…What did you do to save me?"
As far as Eli knew, Rayegar had never done a single thing for his sake. If anything, the man had only ever tormented him — not once had Eli known genuine protection from him. He'd assumed Rayegar merely claimed responsibility for him out of some petty pride as a Dragon Lord.
He had never once heard even a whisper of sacrifice until now. It had to be nonsense, surely. And yet — it was Serarika saying it. She flung about the cruelest words without hesitation, but she did not lie. That much, he knew. And that was why he wanted to hear it.
"Lai, go back to the dormitory."
"Excuse me?"
"Duke Randert will have to come if we're to save Quinn anyway. Until then, it would be best if everyone rested."
Rayegar's eagerness to wrap things up, in the middle of a situation like this, only made Eli more suspicious. If he'd expected Eli to simply say "Yes, sir" and withdraw, he had misjudged badly.
"Tell me. What you did for me."
Eli would not budge a single step until he heard it.
A gathering meant to save Quinn was sliding down a strange, unfamiliar path. The relationship between Rayegar and Eli that they had witnessed all this time was clearly far from a healthy one — and Bayul and his friends knew it all too well, which was precisely why they couldn't bring themselves to step in.
"Hey, Killian."
Just as the standoff between Eli and Rayegar showed signs of dragging on, Death abruptly called Eli by his old name. When Eli scrunched his face in visible displeasure, Death paused for a beat, then spoke again.
"So being called that doesn't sit well with you. Then how about this instead?"
"…?"
"The last hatchling of the Red clan. The orphaned spawn of the cursed Mad Dragon, Ranos. How's that — more to your taste?"
"You — how do you know about—!"
"How does a demon know about you? Simple. I was the one dispatched to settle that whole mess back then. The pact was struck then, too."
"That's enough. Stop right there."
Rayegar stared at Death as if he could kill him with a glance, yet his tone remained perfectly courteous.
"It isn't time yet. When you're ready, I'll tell you everything — so Killian, you must not ask again."
"You've made everything into this, and now what? Don't ask anymore? Ha! Why? Did slaughtering my own father weigh on your conscience a little? Can't bear to speak the words while looking at my face?"
"Lai…."
Bayul was growing worried by how worked up Eli was becoming. He called the boy's name carefully, hoping to calm him — and suddenly Eli made his confession.
"Everyone — remember that story Professor Blake told us in history class? The mad dragon who allied with the demons and nearly drove the entire continent to ruin. The Mad Dragon, Ranos. That's my father."
"…!"
They had heard it from Death mere moments ago, but hearing it confirmed again from Eli's own lips struck them far harder. Ranos — a calamity recorded in the history books themselves. Only now did they understand why Eli had trembled so violently during that lesson.
"Shall I tell you something even funnier? The one who killed my father was this man. Do you know how I felt when I first learned that?"
No. They didn't.
They probably never would — not in an entire lifetime.
How could anyone claim to understand that feeling without ever having lived through it themselves?
"It's honestly a surprise you were left alive. Didn't they vow to slaughter every last creature carrying Ranos's blood? I believe it was even written into the pact."
Death still remembered it vividly. To seize the maddened, rampaging Ranos, the Demon Realm and the dragons had joined hands for the very first time. The decision had been made in order to purge the demons caught up in Ranos's madness as well — but it was an alliance neither side ever wished to repeat.
"That's what brought the Council of Elders together, you see. The Red clan had been a nest of troublemakers since ancient times, and everyone clamored to wipe them out once and for all. They could never master that boiling blood of theirs."
At the memory of that day, a furrow creased Professor Serarika's lovely brow.
"And the reason one survived?"
"One elder refused, absolutely and without compromise. He wanted desperately to keep the last of the Reds alive."
"Ho. Compassion, was it?"
"I couldn't say. Either way, that last Red cost him a price."
"Sera, get out. Now."
Rayegar issued his final warning, but this time it did not land. She fixed Eli with an icy gaze and spoke.
"Lifespan."
"…What?"
"As the price of sparing your life and tending to you, he offered up his own lifespan. A full thousand years of it."
"…He gave up his lifespan?"
"Do you understand now, Killian? Why I despise you so?"
For you. For a wretch like you — you, who carry that filthy blood, that cursed blood — an elder of noble lineage had staked a full thousand years of his life.
For Serarika, who had honored and adored that elder with all her heart, it was an event that shattered something deep within her.
"And for the record — that elder is your adoptive father, standing right before your eyes. He is the Lord now, in fact. I tell you this so you'll know."
Eli's world reeled violently.
"Lai!"
Only because his friends rushed forward to catch him did he avoid crumpling in an ungainly heap onto the floor.
Eli lifted his head toward Rayegar, as if unable to believe it.
"Why… why would you… for someone like me…?"
"Sera, our bargain is over. Leave. Back to your lair."
Rayegar gave the order with glacial calm, his eyes never leaving Eli.
"If I leave, won't the Magic Department's lessons fall behind schedule?"
"They'll be suspended for the foreseeable future regardless. It would be wise to stay out of my sight for quite a while. As for the demons — go raise all the fuss you like with the Council of Elders. Just know that you will pay for it, without fail."
Rayegar seemed like an entirely different man now. His usual playful air had vanished without a trace, replaced by a terrifying presence, like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
"We should probably give them some space."
It looked as though Eli and Rayegar had a great deal left to say to each other. True friends knew when to stay by someone's side — and when not to.
At Bayul's lead, Aidan and Logan, then Ian and Death as well, slipped quietly out of the cottage.
And four days later, around nine in the morning, the news finally arrived: Duke Randert had reached Carrington Station.