Innocent, Reborn
"Father, I can explain everything! Please, just hear me out first!"
The misunderstanding had to be cleared away before it could pile any higher. Only then could Quinn be rushed back to life.
"Duke Randert, I beg you — hear the young master out first!"
Ian understood, with painful clarity, why his lord was reacting this way. He too could feel the mischievous pressure radiating off Rayegar. Duke Randert had more than enough cause for suspicion.
You guessed it right. I am not human. You already knew that much about Bayul, didn't you.
"……!"
At the voice suddenly ringing through his mind, Duke Randert flinched and whipped his gaze toward Rayegar.
Draconic Words. A tongue only you can hear.
Draconic Words — the language of dragons, a perfect tongue with magic woven into its very fabric.
Of course. He had only just realized it, but his opponent was a dragon. At last, the uncanny chill he'd felt at the sight of Eli, the boy called his son, finally made sense.
My plan is to quietly bring Quinn back and then disappear. What do you say? Do you intend to keep standing there like that?
Duke Randert hesitated — but not for long.
Startled by the overwhelming presence, he had instinctively dropped into a defensive stance. Yet when he forced himself to think it through rationally, the dragon could have struck them down long ago if harm had been his intent. He had more than enough power to spare.
He had no idea why a dragon would meddle in mortal affairs, but it seemed wisest to clear the room first and ask questions later.
Good. It seems we can talk. Then would you clear everyone out, leaving only my son's friends? Death and Ian may stay. I already know who they are, after all.
Duke Randert slowly sheathed his sword. Then he gave the order anew.
"Full Moon Knight Order! Withdraw at once and await outside with His Highness the Crown Prince."
"Duke Randert! I will remain as well!"
"This is no place for His Highness. I will see this matter through to the end myself, and then pay my respects to him."
The Duke shot Professor Rothius a silent glance. Whether Rothius caught the meaning — get him out of here — the professor gave a small nod and physically hauled the protesting Crown Prince toward the door. Hayes, Priest Wagner, and Chancellor Reinhardt were granted no exceptions either.
When it was done, only the people Rayegar actually needed remained in the holding cell.
"Father……."
Bayul hurried to his father's side.
"Please don't be alarmed. The Chairman is……"
"I heard."
"…I'm sorry?"
"He's a dragon, isn't he?"
"How did you possibly……?"
Duke Randert drew Bayul back a step and pulled a necklace out from beneath his clothes.
"You were carrying it after all! Thank goodness!"
As if on cue, Bayul and his friends laid eyes on the ring and let out a collective breath of relief.
"Will this ring truly save Quinn?"
"So you believe me now, do you?"
"I don't believe you. I believe the Primordial Relic."
"Oh ho. So you know what a Primordial Relic is."
"Of course I do. Though I never knew this ring was one of them."
To Duke Randert, it had simply been his late wife's keepsake. She had always carried an air of secrecy about her, so he had long suspected the ring was no ordinary piece of jewelry — but he had never connected it to a Primordial Relic.
"In the beginning, the Main God designed the Middle Realm, the Demon Realm, and the Celestial Realm, and to each world He bestowed gifts. Every one of them held powers both singular and rare. At first, all the realms handled them like sacred relics — precious beyond measure, as one would enshrine a god's own remains. But as the ages rolled on, those treasures began vanishing, one by one. Some were stolen in the slack of careless stewardship; others, forgotten and unwatched, simply drifted elsewhere. That the Eye of the Ocean came to rest in the Mermaid Kingdom was sheer fortune."
Rayegar began explaining what Bayul and his friends had long wondered about.
"What the Main God embedded in the Eye of the Ocean is the power of resurrection — a power that can overcome even death itself. Only when all three of the matched rings are gathered does that power truly awaken."
"Then… could these rings have saved Bayul as well, back then?"
"No. That would have been impossible."
"Why not?"
"Because Bayul was not one of the rings' bearers. The Eye of the Ocean passes its power only to those who possess it. In other words, only Ianthe, Quinn, and Duke Randert could be brought back from death."
So that was the secret hidden within the Eye of the Ocean!
Bayul and his friends looked around at one another, crying out that it was nothing short of a miracle. Quinn really could be saved now. Their hearts pounded at the hope of seeing him again.
Clack!
Without a moment's hesitation, Duke Randert tore the ring from the necklace. It was Quinn who had given his own life to save his son. If Quinn could live again, there was nothing more the Duke would not surrender.
"Here."
Bayul carried the ring his father handed him over to Rayegar. With all three rings finally assembled, he had assumed the dragon would take care of everything.
"Not me."
"…I'm sorry?"
"You will do it, Bayul."
"Me? Do what, exactly?"
He can't possibly mean for me to bring Quinn back to life…?
That was the question in Bayul's eyes. It was absurd.
"Have you ever heard it said that dragons are not only the guardians of the Middle Realm, but its watchers as well?"
Eli had said something like that once, hadn't he? But what did that have to do with anything now?
"It means this is the extent of what I can help with. Reviving Quinn would be venturing far too deep."
"What kind of nonsense is that? You should do it — how could you possibly put this on Bayul?"
Eli shot back, incredulous. He too had assumed Rayegar would handle everything once the rings were assembled.
"Well, if he does it, the penalty could be rather steep."
Death, silent until now, interjected a single remark. His tone and manner were worlds apart from how he had been back in Hamilton. Duke Randert gave him a narrow look, and Ian quietly added,
"…Death is a demon, apparently."
"A demon……?"
A dragon wasn't enough — now a demon, too. Death's identity had always been suspicious, but he'd seemed to harbor fondness for Bayul, and that had been reassurance enough. Hearing this, it was enough to make one's head spin all over again.
"A penalty? What on earth are you talking about now?"
Death was the last person Eli wanted to speak to, but with Professor Serarika having left days ago, he had no other options.
"He burned a thousand years of his lifespan to save you. How much more do you think he'd have to burn?"
"Wh-what are you saying? What does any of that have to do with saving Quinn?!"
"It's a kind of toll — the price of reigning as the apex predator of the Middle Realm."
"What kind of idiotic nonsense is that? If dragons can't interfere in mortal affairs, then why did you build the Academy in the first place? And why did you take the Eye of the Ocean to begin with? None of it adds up!"
"Kilian. It means that raising the dead is an act of that much weight. But don't worry. Bayul has more than enough power to accomplish it."
Rayegar fixed Bayul with a long, steady gaze.
"You have inherited the power of the past Spirit Kings. That power is by no means weaker than mine. No — combined, the four of them are beyond any comparison with me."
"So you… knew all along."
He'd had no proof, but somehow he'd always suspected as much. Even Death, a demon, had recognized it. If a dragon hadn't known, that would have been stranger still.
"Bayul."
Duke Randert, who had been quietly following the conversation, could not hold back. What was a Spirit King, that his son was said to have inherited their power?
Only after seeing the question brimming across his father's face did Bayul remember that he still hadn't told him anything about the spirits.
But where would he even begin? Ian was equally ignorant on the subject of spirits, so he couldn't pawn the explanation off on him either.
"Father, I'll explain everything once it's over."
Right now, saving Quinn came first. It was supposed to be possible with the Eye of the Ocean in hand, but days had already slipped by, and Bayul and his friends were burning with impatience.
Again and again, unbidden, a cold dread would seize them — what if this time, Quinn never came back at all?
"I'll try."
Rayegar's words — that the combined power of the Four Spirit Kings surpassed even a dragon's — gave him courage. He could not ask Rayegar to risk himself a second time, not after the man had already surrendered a thousand years of his life to save Eli.
He himself had no confidence, but Rayegar had said he could do it — so he would. Ever since that day in the cabin four days past, when he'd heard the secret bound up with Eli, an unprecedented trust in Rayegar had taken root in Bayul's heart.
He had been deeply moved by the man's course of action — surrendering even his own lifespan to keep Eli safe.
"Please teach me how."
"There is no special method. You have only to trust in the power of the rings — and pour your will into them."
Rayegar drew the Eye of the Ocean from his hand and gave it to Bayul. Bayul joined it with his mother's keepsake and, with painstaking care, slid the rings onto the fingers of Quinn where he lay.
Trust in the power of the rings.
Pour my will into them.
He had no idea how one actually went about that — but it wasn't as though he had no feel for it at all. Communicating with the spirits had taught him something, at least.
Bayul looked, eyes wavering, at Rayegar, at his friends, at Death — and finally, at his father.
You can do this.
Duke Randert said nothing, but Bayul heard his encouragement all the same.
Mother, give me strength.
Brother, give me courage.
Please, help Quinn come back to us.
With one hand he took Quinn's, and with the other, as always, he clenched the pendant hanging at his throat.
Then he closed his eyes and prayed with everything in him. So that the energies of the past Spirit Kings sleeping within his body might wake — inwardly he shouted it, and shouted it again.
Please…….
And then, at some moment —
A faint light began to seep out from around Bayul's chest. The eyes of everyone watching in breathless tension flew wide with astonishment.
Because that glow was not coming from the Eye of the Ocean at all. It was pouring out of Bayul's pendant.
"Why is that……?"
No one had predicted the pendant would react.
"Ah!"
It was then that the rings on Quinn's fingers began to tremble. His hand rattled and clattered as though it had come alive.
Perhaps a minute and a half passed like that?
PAAHAT—!
All at once, a colossal burst of light flared and exploded from the pendant. It was bright enough to strip the sight from their eyes a hundred times over.
What came next was the truly staggering part. From the ceiling on all four sides of the holding cell, water came crashing down without warning, like a waterfall. It was no burst flood dam — this was something that simply did not happen indoors. The water that flooded in within moments swallowed their ankles, and soon enough climbed past their waists and up to their chests.
"Wh-what is this?!"
"Where is it even coming from?"
And when had it begun?
While the group stood floundering in shock, something appeared. Something like the scales of a fish slapped and splashed, seizing their eyes. It looked exactly like what they had glimpsed that day when Quinn dove into the waterway to retrieve the evidence Nathan had thrown away.
"Quinn?"
The water churned so violently that they couldn't see clearly.
"Quinn, where are you? Where are you?!"
His friends called his name desperately, again and again —
SHUAAAAA!
— and then, leaping up from the surface, Quinn finally revealed himself. The movement was so brimming with vitality that it was impossible to believe this was the boy who, moments ago, had lain deathly pale and still.
His blue hair, soaked through with water. Those deep blue eyes they had missed so much. All of it, exactly as before.
Fluttering his finned tail through the water, Quinn beamed at his friends — a smile without a single cloud in it.
"Quinn!"
Bayul and his friends swam toward him in their joy — when suddenly the holding cell shook as if an earthquake had struck.
"Now what?! Don't tell me the water's going to bring the whole building down!"
The water had risen to Aidan's chin — he was small even on his best days. And just as he flailed and shouted in panic, the shaking subsided, and this time the water began to boil and churn.
"…Innocent?"
And then Bayul felt a sense he had forgotten. Ever since his resurrection he had sensed only the faintest traces of energy, and in all the chaos he hadn't yet been able to meet with his spirits.
But now, all at once, he was reading Innocent's energy.
"Bayul, Innocent? Why would you be looking for her?"
"Something's strange…… It is Innocent, but…… it doesn't feel like her……"
"What are you talking about?"
"You mean Innocent is here?"
And at that very moment —
"GYAAAAH!"
Water surged up beside Aidan, and out of it appeared a girl.
A face familiar and yet not — a face they were certain they'd seen somewhere before.
Fifteen, perhaps?
Scattering droplets through the air, she greeted Bayul with a flourish.
"Hi there, Bayul!"
"…Don't tell me — Innocent?"
He had no idea what had happened, but Innocent, once a Lower Spirit, had transformed into the form of an Intermediate Spirit. Her way of speaking, her manner of greeting — none of it had changed, yet completely shed of her childish air, she was as cute and pretty and mischievous as ever.
SWOOSH!
As if it were her way of saying hello again after so long, she rewarded the whole group with a frigid deluge — and then burst into peals of laughter, all alone in the flood.