The Scent No One Else Can Smell
A gypsy?
He'd guessed Eli wasn't a noble, since he supposedly earned and spent his own allowance — but a gypsy? That came as a surprise. The gypsies were a people who wandered their whole lives without any fixed home. They didn't hold jobs, so they stayed poor, and without schooling, their lives never changed. Most of them made their living through dance, song, or fortune-telling — and when their income fell short, some turned to thievery as a trade.
It was unexpected that Eli, whom everyone took for a diligent model student, was of gypsy descent.
"Exactly. I'm just a lowly gypsy, so why would the daughter of such an illustrious house keep pestering me like this? Got too much time on your hands, maybe?"
"Are you mocking me right now?"
"I would never. All I'm saying is, save your energy for someone else. I'm not interested, Alice."
"Ugh! How can you humiliate me like this? What do I have that's worse than that fishy-smelling Quinn? I can put up with everything else, but you favoring Quinn over me? Unforgivable!"
The pointless sparks flew straight at Quinn. Alice, her pride clearly taking a massive blow, hopped around in a furious tantrum.
"Watch your mouth."
"Oh, watch my mouth, is it?"
Eli had been regarding Alice coldly as she snapped at him with that venomous tongue — then suddenly he rose to his feet.
"Bayul, get up."
"…Huh?"
Bewildered, Bayul stood and followed him.
"Let's move over there."
Where he pointed with a tilt of his chin, Quinn sat alone, set apart from everyone else.
Over there?
His lips went dry in an instant. He hadn't expected to come face to face with Quinn this soon.
What do I even say to him? Should I ask why he was staring at me like that?
While he was still agonizing over it, he found himself already at Quinn's side.
"Mind if we sit here?"
Eli took the seat directly in front of Quinn, and Bayul sat down beside him. Quinn, who had maintained his aloof, untouchable poise as if none of this commotion concerned him in the least, reacted for the first time — his brow twitching, just slightly.
"Do I smell fishy?"
"……?"
At the out-of-nowhere question, Bayul's eyes went round.
"I asked if I smell fishy. Because I don't smell like anything, you see."
Ah, so this is why—
How could he possibly be so similar to Aidan? Bayul felt he suddenly understood how the two of them, from different departments, had ever become friends.
Steeling himself, Bayul turned to face Quinn. He had been given nothing but help so far — now it was his turn to give some. I'm not alone. I can do this!
'Wha—!'
But the moment his eyes met Quinn's, the breath caught abruptly in Bayul's throat.
What he should say, what this feeling even was — his mind went blank white all at once.
Why was he feeling this way?
Was it because the other wasn't human?
No.
Then because he was handsome?
If that were the case, his heart should have raced faster looking at Eli. However outstanding Quinn's features might be, they couldn't rival Eli's dazzling looks.
An inexplicable tremor in his heart. As if pulled by a magnet, Bayul found it impossible to tear his gaze away from Quinn.
"Bayul?"
"…Yeah."
Still transfixed on Quinn, Bayul managed a reply. Eli studied him with narrow eyes and asked again.
"I asked if I smelled fishy."
"…Mm-hmm. You do. Very strongly."
"See? I told you. I don't smell like anyth… wait, what did you say? You smell what?"
A nod.
He smells it. No — should he call it a fragrance instead? He had no idea why he was only noticing it now, but a scent both sweet and refreshingly clean was drifting from Quinn. A scent so lovely it made Bayul want to keep breathing it in, made him want to run over and hug him.
"Hey! What are you saying? What do you mean you smell something on Quinn?"
"I can't get enough of this scent, Eli. Can't you smell it?"
"What?"
"This clean, fresh scent."
Familiarity? Comfort? He couldn't put a name to it, but it was a fragrance that made him feel as though his mind and body were settling into peace.
"What is he even saying?"
"No idea. He's lost it, I guess. Something about a smell?"
The children's murmuring swelled. They all knew perfectly well that Quinn didn't actually reek of fish — it was merely one way of expressing their dislike. And now, out of nowhere, Bayul was going on about some refreshing fragrance. How could he not look like a madman to them?
But the most flustered of all was Quinn himself. His face had gone past white and turned positively blue. It was a shock on a wholly different scale from when he'd first laid eyes on Bayul in the plaza.
That pendant…!
Too late, the pendant hanging at Bayul's throat seized Quinn's gaze. A horrific shockwave lanced through his head.
"Huh?"
And then Bayul saw it — Quinn's luminous blue hair darkening, shade by shade.
What was that, anyway? The thing I saw just now?
Bayul's face had clouded over like a man carrying some terrible worry as he made his way to the dining hall. He was utterly confused.
Quinn, startled every time their eyes met.
The familiar fragrance that wafted from him.
A scent no one else could detect, but which Bayul perceived with perfect clarity.
I've smelled this before, somewhere.
He couldn't recall exactly when, but he was certain of it.
Maybe we've met before… long ago.
There was no other way to explain this feeling. Even now, it lingered whole and undimmed. A distant, profound calm — the sense that he could set everything down and simply lean against something solid. An emotion he had never once felt since Bail left was blooming again the moment he met Quinn.
Wasn't that strange?
In all his life, he had never thought of his sense of smell as particularly sharp — yet here he was, catching a scent no one else could, and drawing comfort from it. Anyone who heard would call him insane (and indeed, someone was already listening).
If he hadn't scraped together the last shreds of his wits to deflect Eli's relentless interrogation, he might well have lost the single friend he'd only just made.
I really need to stop standing out…
He had wanted nothing more than to pass through academy life as quietly as possible. And here he was, only on his very first day, getting a start that could not have been further from that wish — a problem, if ever there was one.
Come to think of it — he was startled when he saw this pendant, wasn't he?
As Bayul fiddled with the pendant, Quinn's final expression drifted back to him. Before Bayul could even ask what was wrong, the boy had stormed out of the lecture hall, leaving him without so much as a goodbye — he hadn't even managed to close his mouth.
Why was he so shocked? Is there some kind of water ghost haunting my pendant?
Now even useless thoughts like that were circling his head.
Quinn and me.
What could possibly connect the two of us?
Like a strip of blue cloth deepening in color as it soaked in water, the image of Quinn's hair turning gradually darker refused to fade — as though it had been branded into his mind.
What was that, exactly? Just some merfolk trait? Then why? Why did that change happen when he was looking at me?
The questions fed on one another, multiplying and swelling without end.
"Hey, Bayul. You heard earlier, right?"
"…Huh? What?"
Before he knew it, their wandering feet had carried them to the dining hall. Falling into the long line of students stretching out from the entrance behind Eli, Bayul finally returned to the real world.
"About where I come from."
Ah, that…
Unable to bring himself to say it aloud, Bayul could only nod. It was no concern of his whatsoever — but Eli, the one actually involved, might well hate the very word gypsy.
"That's right. Just like Alice said, I'm a gypsy with no roots to speak of."
"Eli, you don't have to—"
"But I'm proud of it! What's wrong with being a gypsy? We just live a little differently — we're human beings all the same."
"You are."
Bayul agreed with all his heart. Whether merfolk or gypsy, to Bayul they were all equally living, feeling people. Seeing Eli so utterly unbothered — so much so that Bayul's earlier worry about him being discouraged now seemed almost laughable — was both a relief and, somehow, deeply impressive.
"Besides, I got into the Academy on my own merits, sitting for the entrance exam fair and square. Unlike certain people who waltzed in on a recommendation."
"R-right…"
Bayul flinched. That certain someone was, of course, him.
"Kids from somewhat well-known houses almost all get in through the recommendation system. Do you have any idea how much that burns people like us?"
"…Why?"
"Think about it. The Academy has a fixed number of seats. If a flood of talentless brats waltzes in thanks to the accident of their birth, how many spots do you think are left for the rest of us?"
"Oh…"
"And for those few precious spots, we have to tear each other apart in a brutal competition. Doesn't that strike you as unfair?"
"It does…"
He hadn't thought of it that way before. Bayul had never had a choice in the matter to begin with, but just as Eli said, he had entered the Academy far too easily.
He had no special gift like Aidan's, nor had he passed the entrance exam honorably like Eli — it was purely thanks to his family's famous name.
He felt a little ashamed, somehow. Getting into a place that others longed for but couldn't enter, all through his father's power — and then spending all those years scheming only about how he might get out of it. The memory made him cringe.
"Oh, right — you got in through a recommendation too, didn't you, Bayul? It's the only way a transfer student can enter."
"Yeah."
"Don't misunderstand. None of what I said earlier was aimed at you. If you ask me, you've earned your place plenty."
"Earned it? I've never even seen the face of whoever recommended me."
"No, really — watching you today, your Ga Kingdom is amazing, and you seem pretty sharp too. You don't seem like a bad person either. You're going to go far. My instincts tell me so!"
"Your instincts?"
"A gut feeling. Don't let appearances fool you — my instincts are pretty reliable. Just wait. Someday you'll look back on today and think I'm amazing!"
For an apology, it sounded far too sincere — Bayul nearly believed it would really come true. And this from the boy who, until only yesterday, had considered himself lucky just to graduate in one piece.
I guess this is the kind of moment where I should just laugh it off.
It would never happen, of course — but if that day ever truly came, he would remember today, just as Eli said. Even if it was empty talk, he was grateful.
"I hope your feeling is right."
"Of course it's right! Even though we both came in on recommendations, you're a hundred times better than those guys. So don't take anything I said to heart. Got it?"
The direction of Eli's scowl pointed toward Jared's clique, just now entering the dining hall. He could feel the students quietly edging out of their path.
"What's with that guy? Why is he coming this way?"
Ordinarily, people came to the dining hall to eat — which meant they had to stand in line. But Jared's group was striding right past the queue, heading straight for them. Bayul wondered if they meant to cut in line, but their eyes were far too hostile for that. So were the sneers that kept curling their lips.
"Heh. So you're Bayul?"