A Song That Calls the Earth
"So, about when I was unconscious?"
He'd heard it a dozen times by now, but Bayul had no memory of it himself.
"Do you really think all four great elemental spirits will show themselves? Quinn, do you still think that's impossible?"
"...Theoretically, yes. But at this point, honestly, I don't know."
Right up until the earth spirit appeared, Quinn had been all but certain it couldn't happen. Now, she truly didn't know.
Bayul defied common sense in so many ways. Spirits that had perished long ago when the Spirit Realm collapsed, erased entirely from human memory, were now flocking to him as though he were a beacon.
Why him, of all people?
The question nagged at Quinn, but no satisfying answer came. She could only conclude that there was something inexplicably special about Bayul. Every now and then, she sensed an enormous power radiating from him, and it sent a shiver down her spine.
"Why not save the worrying for later? Whether it's a wind spirit or a fire spirit, we can deal with it when it shows up. Right now, the earth spirit is the pressing problem."
Why do you have to go dredging up useless topics and making everything grim?
Aidan said nothing, but his eyes flashed dangerously as he glared at Logan. In fairness, he was the one who'd brought it all up in the first place, yet he didn't seem to realize it at all.
"Anyway, where's Rai? He's the one who told us not to be late, so what happens if he's the one holding us up? Don't tell me he overslept."
"Guys, sorry I'm late! My roommate wouldn't stop sleeping for the life of him tonight, so I couldn't get out. I had to pretend to sleep the whole time and got completely scolded for it."
Speak of the tiger and it comes bounding in, as the saying went. The moment Aidan's grumbling ended, Eli came scampering over in flamboyant red-and-gold plaid pajamas. Slung across his back, to his friends' bafflement, was a guitar bag — hardly a fixture of his everyday look.
"What's with the guitar in the middle of the night?"
"Rai, don't tell me this is the thing you said we'd need...?"
"Yep, that's the one. This is exactly what we needed."
At Bayul's guess, Eli smiled slyly and drew the guitar out of its bag.
"You're not seriously about to sing while playing that thing, are you?"
"Nope — I mean, yes, I am?"
"Whoa! Rai, you're serious? An earth spirit is going to come out because it hears your singing?"
It was an approach no one could have imagined. Eli had been so confident that Aidan had assumed there'd be some grand method behind it all, and the sheer absurdity of this left him utterly dumbfounded.
The others were no different. Bayul, naturally, along with Quinn and Logan, could only blink wordlessly.
"When have any of you ever heard me sing?"
Eli settled himself onto a boulder and tuned the strings with practiced ease.
"I haven't. Have any of you?"
"Me neither."
"I just figured he carried it around for show."
At his friends' responses, Eli gave a dismissive little snort.
"To think you know me this little. Honestly."
"That sounds suspiciously like you claiming you're an amazing singer."
"That's because it is. Try not to faint from shock."
"You're laying the bluster on pretty thick for something that's about to blow up in your face."
Despite Aidan's skepticism, Eli didn't waver. He finished the final tuning and swept his gaze over his friends.
"Just sit still and watch. I'm about to show you what true music really is."
He intended to use this opportunity to show them just how beautiful and magnificent music could be.
"The title is Come to Me."
Eli strummed the guitar and closed his eyes. In the quiet of the night, beneath a bright moon, the sight of Eli playing his guitar — despite the geographical drawback that this happened to be a livestock paddock littered with animal droppings — momentarily conjured the image of a portrait hanging in the corridor of some grand estate.
There was nothing the least bit awkward about him performing in his pajamas. When his flawless beauty merged with the soft melody of the guitar, the whole atmosphere was swept away in an instant.
And a few moments later, when Eli's song began, every one of them flinched in pure astonishment.
The day I first met you, brilliant sunlight poured down.
I could only stare at you, dazed, for that single moment.
The pounding of my heart was all that filled my ears.
I have never forgotten that moment since.
Look at me. Come to me.
You are my everything, the center of my world.
It was nothing like the Eli they'd always known. None of them had ever heard a voice so captivating. As that delicate tone stirred every fiber of their senses and filled the clearing around them, a shiver ran through them all. Struck as if by an ambush of pure sound, they stood slack-jawed, staring blankly at nothing.
And then, at some point — when exactly had it happened?
Somewhere along the way, the audience of four had quietly become five.
Between his four friends, frozen as if turned to stone, a small, elderly figure with wild, disheveled hair had walked in, seemingly entranced.
"...!"
It was near the end of the song that Bayul finally noticed the old man. The earth spirit that no method could coax out had, at long last, revealed itself.
It had been absurdly simple. The approach everyone had dismissed as ridiculous had worked beautifully.
Then again, even I might have come out for that.
Having heard Eli's song for himself now, Bayul's thinking had completely changed. There was a gravitational pull to Eli's voice — a magic so potent that listening felt like being drawn in and swallowed whole. Perhaps that was why, even face to face with the earth spirit, Bayul wasn't especially startled. This was the moment he'd waited so long for; it simply felt natural.
"We finally meet."
Finishing the song, Eli propped up his guitar and beamed. His friends, who had been utterly lost in the music, only now noticed the earth spirit and jolted in shock.
"It — it really came out!"
"...So that's the earth spirit?"
"But... he's an old man?"
Any delight they felt lasted only a moment. The earth spirit looked nothing like what they'd imagined, and the discrepancy hit them all with no small amount of shock.
White hair, deep wrinkles — and a beard, to boot. The long mane trailing to the ground was hopelessly matted, clearly having never met a comb, and his clothing was so indistinct from his skin that it was impossible to tell whether he was dressed at all.
In a word, he was the owner of an appearance that seemed to hold shame in rather low regard.
"...Hello."
The spirit barely reached Bayul's chest, but with someone so white-haired and bearded, casual speech felt impossible. Unlike with Innocent, formality spilled out of him on its own.
A shy little nod.
At Bayul's greeting, the earth spirit flushed, as if embarrassed. Bayul already knew the spirit was painfully bashful, but meeting him in the flesh made it unbearably awkward all the same.
So this is why stereotypes are so dangerous.
If the spirit retreated into his shell again out of mortification, that would be a disaster. Bayul shook off the stray thoughts and delivered the words he'd prepared.
"Thank you for the other day. I could have been seriously hurt, but thanks to you, I passed through without a single wound."
"......"
"And thank you for helping me again a few days ago. If I'd fallen there, I'd have had a miserable time washing up afterward."
"......"
"And again today, too. What you did for me in herbology — that was you, Shame, wasn't it?"
"...Sh-Shame?"
It was a strange phenomenon. The more Bayul spoke, the lower the spirit's head drooped, and the deeper his face burned crimson. Just as everyone was wondering how red a face could possibly get, the earth spirit made a sound for the very first time.
"Wait — Shame? Is that the earth spirit's name?"
"Mm. I came up with it while we were waiting. I heard that spirits don't have names of their own. Shame — how do you like it? May I call you that?"
Another slow nod.
Shame's head bobbed up and down once more. It was a reaction worlds apart from Innocent's, but Bayul could feel that he liked it just the same.
"Shame, I'm sure you already know, but these are my friends. Aidan, Quinn, Logan, and Eli. His song was wonderful, wasn't it?"
"...It was magnificent."
He's like Innocent.
The two couldn't have been more different in looks or temperament, yet the energy they carried felt strikingly similar. Maybe that was why an unexpected sense of ease washed over Bayul. It was as though another being had appeared — one who would stand unconditionally on his side no matter the circumstances — and that thought steadied him.
"Glad you liked it. I'll sing for you whenever I'm bored."
Eli said it graciously, as if bestowing a favor, and for the first time, a smile touched Shame's weathered lips.
"Oh-ho! Did you just smile? I was so worried you'd get too embarrassed mid-conversation and vanish again — seems I needn't have. Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet... huh? Sh-Shame?"
He'd had his suspicions as the spirit's face kept turning the color of a ripe tomato, and his hunch proved correct. Before Eli could even finish speaking, Shame had vanished once more.
"Wh-what just happened? He hid again?"
"Please tell me he didn't!"
They hadn't even managed a single proper conversation. Aidan cried out, utterly bereft.
"Rai! This is all your fault! Who told you to smile and act all gracious? You had to open your mouth!"
"Excuse me? What did I even say?"
One minute he'd been praising Eli's singing to the skies, and the next Aidan was snarling at him — Eli couldn't have been more bewildered.
"Why'd you have to go and spook him into vanishing, huh? Honestly, is being able to sing all there is to you?"
"Whoa, and whose doing was today's big introduction again? Have you forgotten already? Hm?"
"If you summoned him, you take responsibility! Who knows when he'll come out again now!"
"He showed himself once, so obviously he'll come right out next time. Isn't that right, Bayul?"
Everyone sincerely hoped so. Unfortunately, Shame didn't reappear until a full two days later. Even Eli's newest song proved useless. Though the spirit lingered near Bayul's side, actually meeting Shame face to face remained a distant prospect.
The one small mercy was that, at the very least, conversation was now possible. Whenever Bayul sought Shame out or asked him something, a trembling voice would answer without refusal.
For Bayul, that was enough. Getting closer, little by little, would hold its own quiet joys.
Chapter 10 — The Freshman Delegation
Though he'd welcomed the earth spirit as a new friend, Bayul's daily life went on without any particular change. He attended his scheduled classes by day and trained in secret at the paddock by night, carrying on his monotonous yet perfectly ordinary routine.
When word got out that Bayul had named the earth spirit "Shame," Innocent sulked for a little while — but with Ingrid's comforting, it didn't last long.
The moment Ingrid chirped peep-peep something or other, Innocent broke into a huge grin, shrieked "Ingrid, you're the best!" and soared into the air.
Innocent and Shame, it seemed, had known of each other for quite some time. Not that they were close — more like acquaintances who simply acknowledged one another's existence.
Given even a moment's thought, that was only natural. A whirlwind like Innocent and a wallflower like Shame being friends would have been the stranger arrangement.
"Bayul, I've been doing some thinking. Shame needs to start training soon too, right? If we're going to do it anyway, why not make it pleasant — have Rai sing for him?"