The Truth in the Pendant
"Bayul, listen carefully."
The Duke calmly explained to Bayul that the original target of the assassination had not been the Crown Prince at all—it had been him. It was something Bayul had never even dreamed of suspecting, and though the news startled him greatly, having his father at his side kept the fear at bay.
If anything, he found it absurd that the mastermind behind the Ten-Year War had tried to kill him in order to avenge himself against his father.
"I've seen that man before."
"You saw Vandine?"
"Yes. Though I had no idea he was one of Emperor Royan's people."
Everything had been such a blur in the aftermath of dying and coming back to life that it had completely slipped his mind. In his final duel with the masked man before his death, he had witnessed him fulfilling a contract with a demon—and it had been Spinel who recognized him first.
If he had known his father was searching for him, he would have remembered far sooner. Instead, it took seeing the man's face again for the memory to surface.
"I'll have to assign you more escorts."
"I agree, my lord."
Ian nodded. There was no telling when another situation might arise where Bayul was left unguarded. Remnants of the enemy could still lurk about, so thorough preparation was the right course.
"I'll be fine, Father. You'll be here with me, after all."
"I will be departing on campaign."
"…On campaign?"
"The attempt on your life is a direct challenge to me, and an act of defiance against the Empire itself. As soon as we find further conclusive evidence, I march on the Dwyer Empire."
There was no avoiding this war. The Ten-Year War had been a bloodbath that claimed countless lives across the continent.
But this time would be different. The Duke had lived on the battlefield for ten full years. He intended to show them, once and for all, what a swift and decisive war truly looked like.
"I'm going with you!"
"…What?"
At Bayul's sudden declaration, the Duke—who had been in the middle of giving Sadad some instructions—froze in place and turned toward his son. He honestly thought he must have misheard.
"I want to go with you, Father. Please, allow it!"
"Bayul, a father does not go off on an outing. He goes off to war."
"It is no place for the young master."
Ian, visibly shaken as well, objected firmly.
"I'm not saying I'll take the battlefield. I simply want to witness with my own eyes the way you fight for the Empire. You know I can protect myself now. The Academy is on recess anyway, so for that time, I'd like to be at your side."
Since when did Bayul argue this well?
The son answered every point without so much as a stumble, as though he had rehearsed it all in advance, and for a moment the Duke found himself at a loss for words.
"War is far more brutal than you can imagine, young master. Dwyer may be a defeated nation, but it still commands a formidable military. I could never send you to such a place!"
Fortunately, Ian had not lost his tongue. He declared his opposition once more, calling the idea utterly preposterous.
"If you're just worried about Bayul getting hurt, I can protect him."
Death interjected nonchalantly as he poured out a fourth round of tea. With him around, no one could lay a finger on Bayul. Just as Bayul was about to thank him for being such a dependable ally, the guests they had been waiting for arrived.
"Let's continue this conversation later."
Bayul couldn't recall ever being so grateful for visitors. Vowing to find some convenient excuse to talk his way past the Duke, the old man rose from his seat and personally headed for the entrance hall to greet the guests.
"Bayul!"
There were five guests invited to dinner at the estate that evening—Bayul's friends, along with the Chairman, Rayegar. It was an occasion to formally celebrate the survival of both Bayul and Quinn.
"Okay, don't freak out when you hear this! Do you know how old this guy is?"
Aidan had been in such a hurry that he barged in shouting, completely forgetting to greet anyone.
"Well, he's a whole 160 years older than us! A hundred and sixty! That makes him a great-great-great-grandfather, doesn't it?"
"Ah, come on! Where exactly am I a grandfather? By dragon lifespans I'm still a kid! Everyone under five hundred counts as a hatchling, I told you!"
"Sorry, but I'm human. Whoa! A hundred and sixty… sixteen plus one-sixty makes one seventy-six. That's more than three times older than Duke Randert!"
"Can you shut that mouth of yours? That's enough!"
Even as he snapped at Aidan, Eli's eyes were glaring daggers at Rayegar. Judging by the scene, it seemed Rayegar was the one who had answered Aidan's question about his age.
"Oh, by the way—how old is Death, anyway? Demons live super long like dragons too, right?"
Aidan's curiosity swung straight over to Death, who had come out to welcome them.
Quinn, too, had heard on the carriage ride over that Death was a demon. Perhaps that was why he couldn't take his eyes off him. Even to Quinn, a merman, the existence of demons seemed to be a novelty.
"He looks about as old as the Chairman, so probably a lot—wait, has he just passed a thousand years?"
Aidan's imagination didn't stretch very far when it came to ages. Perhaps he found this endearing, because Death smirked and pointed upward with a finger.
"Add a little more."
"Whoa! Two thousand?"
Death shook his head.
"Three thousand? Four thousand? Don't tell me—seven thousand?"
The boy's jaw was about to drop to his chest. With Death continuously shaking his head, Aidan couldn't tell whether to believe him or not.
"Actually, I forgot."
"Whaaaat?"
At the sudden anticlimax, Aidan scrunched up his face.
"If you're born, you just live until you die. Counting your age is a meaningless thing in the Demon Realm."
"Still, how does someone—not even a person, a demon—not know their own age? That's a little weird, right? Am I wrong, guys?"
"Aidan."
As if Bayul's single word were a signal, Quinn and Logan seized the boy by both arms at the same time.
"What? Why are you all like this?"
"You're being too loud, that's all. You were making a racket the second you walked in. I told you to shut up ages ago!"
Eli grabbed Aidan by the collar, and together with the others, they dragged the boy off somewhere—apparently deciding it was time to lock him up briefly for a serious talk.
"Father, I'm sorry. Aidan loses all sense of himself when he gets worked up sometimes…"
With his invited guest having barged in without so much as a greeting, Bayul felt he had no face to show his father.
But the Duke merely smiled. Bayul was usually so demure and proper that, once in a while, scenes like this were actually rather entertaining.
"My lord, what on earth is all this talk?"
Sadad had come out to greet the guests and ended up hearing nothing but nonsense.
"Dragons? Demons? What is any of this?"
For a while now, Sadad had the nagging sense that he alone was out of the loop. But the things he'd heard were so absurd that he couldn't quite connect them to anything.
"Ian."
"Yes, my lord. I'll go explain it to him so he understands."
This time it was Sadad's turn. Ian beckoned him to follow and led him to his own quarters.
"Now things have finally quieted down a bit."
Rayegar, the source of all the commotion, grinned at the father and son.
He had been invited out of a desire to repay him for helping save Quinn with the Eye of the Ocean. For a moment, Bayul wondered whether inviting him had been a mistake, but as host, it was only proper to welcome him warmly regardless.
"Welcome, Chairman. Thank you for coming."
Duke Randert, following his son's lead, gave Rayegar a light bow of the head.
"We keep running into each other, don't we?"
"It seems neither of us can help it for a while yet, so let's just turn a blind eye and move on."
Dragons and demons were, by nature, beings who could not share the same space. And yet, because of Bayul, the two of them kept crossing paths. If the Elder Council ever learned of this, it would make Rayegar's life considerably more difficult. Everything had to be kept brief and quiet.
"It'll be a little while yet before dinner is ready—would you care for some tea first?"
With Rita cooking everything on her own, time was inevitably short. Bayul offered a pre-dinner tea and guided Rayegar to the sitting room.
"Cozy, isn't it?"
That was Rayegar's first impression after a casual look around the estate. The house was easily among the grander residences in Carrington, but by a dragon's standards, it apparently fell far short.
"Th-there was something I wanted to ask you, Chairman."
"Me?"
"Yes. Do you happen to know anything about this necklace as well?"
What Innocent had said kept echoing in his mind. In the past, he would have been ransacking the library with his friends to squeeze out every last scrap of knowledge, but now there was someone he could simply ask. Somehow, he had the feeling that Rayegar, of all people, would know about the pendant too.
"You want to know whether it's a Primordial Relic."
"Yes. Like the Eye of the Ocean, it's an heirloom my mother left behind."
"Bayul, what did you just say?"
This was entirely news to the Duke. If Bayul's necklace was also a Primordial Relic, then his wife might truly not have been human at all. No ordinary human could possess two Primordial Relics.
Bayul hurriedly relayed to his father what Innocent had told him.
"The pendant spoke to you?"
"Yes. That's why I've grown curious about what secret the pendant might be hiding."
Duke Randert grew curious as well.
Could it be… that his wife was trapped inside there?
Bayul had said he heard someone's voice, and for an instant, even that impossible fantasy crossed the Duke's mind.
"A Primordial Relic cannot be identified by sight alone. You have to touch it directly to know."
Rayegar held out his hand to Bayul. It was a necklace he had never once removed in his life. But there was no room for hesitation now.
For the first time in his life, Bayul unfastened the pendant from his neck and handed it over.
The necklace dangled from the tips of Rayegar's long fingers. Confronting the object that he had only ever seen resting against his own chest in such a manner left Bayul with a strangely unsettled feeling.
Then, a golden light began to seep from Rayegar's fingertips. A strange, weighty power seemed to radiate from the glow. As the golden light enveloped the pendant, it gradually began to dim.
Bayul couldn't tell whether the light was being absorbed into the pendant or simply vanishing. He could only watch Rayegar's actions, tense and breathless.
How much time passed like that?
Once the light had died away completely, Rayegar, for some reason, tilted his head.
"You're not about to tell me you don't know, are you?"
After all that showing off, it figured he'd turn out to be useless—Death smirked, curling the corner of his mouth. As though laughing right back at him, Rayegar spoke.
"It is a Primordial Relic."
"R-really?"
Bayul and the Duke turned to look at each other. This was something neither of them had ever anticipated.
"But that's not all there is to it."
"…I beg your pardon?"
"This necklace is a Primordial Relic, yes—but there's another mechanism hidden within it."
"A mechanism?"
"That's right. I can faintly sense something. But I can't quite tell what it is. Which means—perhaps whoever owns the pendant, namely you, is the one who has to find out?"
"Me…?"
Bayul accepted the necklace back from Rayegar. The moment the pendant settled around his neck, the hollow ache that had lingered in his throat finally vanished.
"Well, once the Spirit Kings' powers awaken, it might unravel easily enough."
"So it is connected to the spirits after all?"
Rayegar gave no further reply. Because uncovering the answer was, entirely and completely, Bayul's task to bear.
If what I suspect is true…
The Duke's wife—Bayul's mother—was not dead.