CHAPTER~12
Three Years Later
The moment she drew in a breath, cool, clear water poured into the back of her throat.
Before Airi, who inhaled like a newborn taking its first breath, stood Magician N with a dazed expression.
His eyes widened, his lips parted and released small bubbles, and in the brief moment as he steadied his breathing, his chest rose and fell deeply, all of it sinking into her sight.
“Princess.”
The gentle call sounded strangely heavy, and only then did Airi realize that the sound had traveled through water rather than air.
Airi tried to lift herself, then suddenly sensed something amiss and lowered her gaze.
When white thighs, knees, and even feet touching the stone floor came into view, her mind snapped awake.
She was inexplicably naked atop a dim stone bed.
She hurriedly pressed her legs together, but no matter how she tried to cover herself with the hair that fell to her waist, her body could not be properly hidden.
Before she could even grasp what had happened, heat rushed to her face.
Perhaps it would have been different in ancient times when the concept of wearing clothes did not exist, but after living for years on land wrapped in long skirts down to her toes, Airi now knew shame and embarrassment.
“I’m sorry, Princess.”
Seeing Airi flustered and unsure what to do, Magician N removed his long cloak and wrapped it around her.
“I didn’t have time to dress you in something else.”
As he fastened the outer garment down to her neatly gathered toes, Magician N showed no sign of caring about her bare body.
Only after a single piece of fabric covered her did Airi fumble for words.
“My clothes, why were they….”
When she looked at him as if asking whether he had removed them, Magician N answered calmly.
“The clothes you were wearing were soaked in blood.”
“I had no choice but to discard them, or predators might have followed the scent.”
Listening to his even tone, the boiling embarrassment slowly settled.
After all, for Magician N, who had spent their childhood naked together beneath the sea, it was only natural not to mind.
Feeling awkward, Airi belatedly looked around.
This was the inner part of Magician N’s laboratory hidden among the rocks.
It was far darker and more disordered than she remembered.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s very dark, isn’t it.”
Seeing Airi glance about, Magician N moved the rock blocking the entrance.
Sunlight streamed in through the opened stone wall, brightly illuminating the laboratory.
“Is this better now.”
Standing before her again, Magician N was met by Airi’s blank stare.
The sensation of water entering with her inhale and leaving through the gills at her neck felt vividly real.
What in the world happened.
Why am I underwater when I was in my husband’s room.
As soon as she tried to recall it, a stabbing headache struck, and Airi pressed her temples.
Distorted scenes flickered before her eyes like shards of broken glass.
Among the jumbled images, all she could recognize were golden fireworks blooming in the night sky, the smell of burning gunpowder, and—
“Happy birthday, Michael.”
Bang.
At the gunshot that brushed past like goosebumps, Airi flinched and raised her hand to touch her chin.
Yet the face that should have had a hole somewhere was inexplicably intact.
From Airi’s mouth, opened in confusion, escaped a soft, watery murmur.
Could it be that I died and returned to the sea.
Just as humans believe they go to heaven after death, those born of the water spent their lives praying to become the sea after dying.
If so, with the power of Magician N, a shaman whose lineage had served the sea since their ancestors—
“Princess.”
What scattered her vague thoughts was Magician N’s hand waving before her eyes.
Airi narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin.
Backlit by the light pouring in from the entrance, his figure wavered like a mirage.
“Do you recognize who I am.”
Magician N’s voice sounded much lower than usual.
Perhaps because he was seen beneath the dark water rather than on land, his face as he awaited her answer also seemed strangely subdued.
Airi blinked, closed and opened her eyes, then tilted her head slightly and replied.
“N.”
“It’s you, N.”
At that brief response, Magician N released another breath of bubbles, as if relieved.
His hand extended out of habit, and he leaned his face into it as he murmured.
“Yes, Princess.”
“I am your N.”
Her toes hidden beneath the cloak twitched.
Thump, thump, thump.
The faint pulse transmitted from his neck reached her fingertips.
The icy current splitting between her fingers and toes felt as vivid as blood flowing.
As the cold that had seeped deep into her swim bladder spread to the crown of her head, Airi realized it as if waking from a dream.
This was not an afterlife.
She was alive.
But how.
Unable to understand, Airi could only stare blankly at Magician N’s face resting against her palm.
Revealed in the light, his face was far more gaunt and pale than the last time she had seen it, and his clothes, once spotless, were badly worn.
Looking down, even the cloak he had given her was little better than rags.
“I’m sorry the outer garment is so worn.”
“I truly didn’t have time to bring anything else.”
When Airi only blinked, not quite understanding the blunt explanation, Magician N added, as if realizing it.
“You must be confused since you just woke up.”
“I’ll explain everything step by step.”
Clutching the cloak wrapped around her with both hands, Airi listened silently to his continued explanation.
“I’m the one who brought you into the sea.”
“I managed to stop your body from turning into sea foam, but restoring consciousness to a body that had already died once was quite taxing even for me.”
So calm was Magician N’s tone that it almost felt as if everything until now had been a dream.
“It took some time for you to wake up.”
Listening absentmindedly to the disjointed explanation, Airi finally sensed something strange only after he gently swept her long hair behind her shoulders.
The sensation of a blade severing the hair near her neck still felt chillingly vivid on her skin, yet somehow her hair had grown long enough to touch her back.
Only then did Airi realize that the unfamiliarity she felt in his face and voice was not merely her imagination.
She looked back and forth between the seaweed-like swaying hair and Magician N, then asked hesitantly.
“How much… time has passed.”
Magician N answered in a tone as casual as if speaking of a meal from the other day.
“I never bothered to count exactly, but the last time I went to the surface was in the year 762.”
That was why she had not noticed the strangeness immediately.
Only after counting the years on her fingers did Airi’s face turn blank.
It felt as if she had merely fallen into a deep sleep and woken up.
“It’s probably been about three years outside.”
Three years had passed in the meantime.
The shock was overwhelming, and the embarrassment from earlier vanished without a trace.
Airi’s lips parted weakly, hesitated, then released the words.
“What happened.”
“What happened, N.”
* * *
Magician N’s first memory of life was kneeling in the heart of a dark underwater kingdom before the King of Triton, his many legs drawn in.
Amid piercing gazes like pufferfish spines, Magician N pressed his head to the tail of the princess, who sat demurely within a shell, and swore.
That he would offer all three of his hearts to the princess.
That the Siren clan became rulers of the sea was thanks to a special power that appeared only once in a century.
With beautiful songs imbued with healing power, they healed whales wounded by humans and ended long-standing territorial wars.
The living legend of the sea.
The one born with that divine blessing was Airi.
The King of Triton cherished the princess, the hope of the clan, beyond measure.
So much so that he could not even take away the witch’s egg she found lodged among the rocks, allowing it to hatch in the end.
The king’s obsession with his only daughter instilled blind loyalty, yet to Magician N, the princess, loved by all creation, was not entirely welcome.
The princess was pure and kind, but like children her age, she was persistent and stubborn.
Younger than her, Magician N secretly found it exhausting to always look after Airi.
Ever since following the princess’s sudden wish to go to the surface and emerging from the water, it had continued on and on—
Bang.
On the night when gunfire bloomed like fireworks, Magician N’s feet, crossing the corridor, stopped as if nailed before the Emperor’s office.
Fireworks that flared and faded once illuminated Magician N’s rigid back before disappearing.
He had just returned in a hurry after placing a box containing a dagger before Matthias’s door at Airi’s command.
The office door was slightly ajar, and the corridor was eerily silent.
That brief moment when darkness descended felt like eternity.
Through the crack of light spilling from the door, Magician N stared blankly at the back of Michael the Emperor, who was holding a blood-soaked Airi in his arms under the moonlight.
