Chapter 722: My Sea (2)
A water–colored fin spread out long, like a veil rippling in the wind. Layer upon layer, it wrapped around her body like a single blossom. The glittering scales were the color of the sea by day, and her round eyes were the color of the sea by night. The tiny mermaid made of water curled in on herself a little, as if shy. Droplets chimed softly, clumping together without shape and then reforming into a mermaid. Like sunlight resting on the surface of the water, faint gold and red seeped in and spread.
“Hi, Sanho.”
Flower of the sea. The little mermaid smiled.
– Hi, Yerim.
Sanho rolled her pupil–less eyes down over her own body, then made a teary face.
– The Mermaid Queen’s influence is so strong I keep ending up in mermaid form… sorry.
“Why? It’s cute.”
– Really?
“Yeah, and actually–”
Before Park Yerim could finish, the water trembled. The spirit snapped to her, clinging to Yerim’s arm like she was hugging it.
– The Mermaid Queen is coming!
“…Even if you accepted the Title, she’s not just going to cut us loose, right?”
– I belong to you, Yerim. Yerim!
“Then let’s get out.”
Now she knew the way. She knew where the sunlight of the sky shone through, and where the deepest shadows pooled. Park Yerim kicked off the water toward above. The water spirit spiraled tightly around her.
– I’m still clumsy and don’t have much experience. So, Yerim!
My power, to you. The water heaved. The Mermaid Queen’s shape seeped in as a watery shadow. Something huge writhed beneath Yerim’s feet. Park Yerim didn’t look back. The color of the water thinned, the density of the air grew heavier, and a surface like a glass pane holding the morning loomed ahead. A glitter that made her eyes ache.
Shaa–!
The water blasted upward. Under the white clouds, long hair streamed. At the tips it ran blue, then turned more and more transparent, becoming droplets. A white veil became a fin, spreading along her back like wings. Two eyes, a deep, vivid blue, looked down at the sea at her feet.
It felt fresh and clean.
– The spirits passed their power down to me.
Sanho had handed her power over to Park Yerim and then slipped inside Yerim’s jingling earring, hiding there as a tiny droplet. She whispered from within.
– It’s a link that runs down the line, from one generation to the next. So I…
Rrrumble, the sea began to shake. From beneath the vortex spiraling deeper and deeper, the very presence of the water itself surged up. Park Yerim tightened her grip on her spear.
– The Mermaid Queen’s successor inherits the predecessor’s power as is!
The strength of spirits from long ago, who had faded away as illusions, had almost all vanished. But the Mermaid Queen was right in front of her. The Mermaid Queen’s power was the successor’s power. And that power had been meant for Park Yerim.
– Little droplet.
The water lifted its head. In the middle of the sea shooting up around her, its master slowly revealed herself. A mermaid with blue scales, wreathed in such majesty that calling her a god wouldn’t feel strange. Pat, pat, raindrops drummed on the scales spread across her back like wings, then poured down all at once in a roar.
The two rulers of water faced each other. Eyes like blue pearls and eyes holding a bright blue sea turned toward one another.
– You are…
“I’m Park Yerim.”
In the rain that blanketed the sea, Park Yerim leveled the tip of her spear at her.
“And I’m getting out of here.”
– …Park Yerim.
“Mister doesn’t need to come looking for me. I’m not going to end up in danger. I’ll go find him first.”
– As you say.
The Mermaid Queen opened her hand. Water gathered, and a massive spear formed in her scale–covered grip.
– I can no longer call you small.
The sea surged. The sky darkened black. Above and below, it was all water. Between sky and sea, a path of water ran without end. Heavy dampness soaked her whole body and sank all the way into her lungs. The hand holding Yerim’s spear trembled slightly. It wasn’t that she wasn’t scared. But more than that, she was excited.
To stand here. To stand in this moment facing the sea itself.
– But I still cannot let you go.
“Get out of my way!”
Water rose in the wake of her swinging spear. Waves that looked like they could touch the sky sharpened into dozens of spears. The fiercely spinning spears of water all shot toward the Mermaid Queen at once.
– Even if you wield the same power as I do.
A sheet of water, thin as glass, spread out quietly in front of the Mermaid Queen. The tips of the spears met that watery veil.
– The difference in experience is obvious.
Whoosh, the water wrapped gently around the dozens of spears. Then, splat, it turned into a mass of water and dropped back into the sea.
– You are not small, but you are still young.
With the Mermaid Queen’s words, the rain moved. The ultra–fine strands of rain began to pour not vertically but horizontally, straight toward Park Yerim.
Ssshhh–! Each droplet sharp, like a tiny arrow. Park Yerim raised a shield of water in front of her. Tatatat! The rain struck into the shield and merged with it, then—
“…!!”
It formed again on the opposite surface and shot back out! Extreme control, perfectly separating out her water again even after it had mixed with Yerim’s. Park Yerim hurriedly used her teleportation skill. The rain she couldn’t completely avoid traced red lines along her arms and legs.
– I did not wish to injure you, but it cannot be helped.
The water in the Mermaid Queen’s hands was a blade, honed sharp and shaped true. The water in Park Yerim’s grip, in contrast, was like an unworked lump of raw ore. Naturally, the former had the advantage. But getting hit by a lump of metal could still hurt and kill you all the same.
Grrrrmmble, the clouds gathered and packed together. They clumped into a great mass of moisture and settled over the Mermaid Queen’s head like a black crown.
– Before you’re hurt too badly…
Waves fell from the sky.
– Surrender.
They sliced through the air, swallowing the wind with a crack of thunder.
“I told you I said no!”
Park Yerim also called up a massive wave. The wave of the sea and the wave from the sky collided. Kraaang–! The power inside them was the same. But the force that fell from above had a tiny edge over the force pushed up from below. Park Yerim’s wave buckled. As she dropped with the collapsing water, the hard surface beneath her froze over with a jagged crack. Yerim hastily tore off a strip of the wave and shoved it behind her back.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
Even with the cushion of water softening the impact, her whole back tingled. She bounced, skidding a long way over the surface.
“Ah, shit. That’s gonna bruise.”
Park Yerim let out a short breath. While she tumbled here and there, the Mermaid Queen hadn’t moved an inch. She stood in the exact same place she had from the beginning, like a ruler seated upon a throne.
– Yerim…
The spirit’s frightened voice echoed. Even if she held the strength to stand against her, the vast gap in years was unavoidable. She couldn’t win. But…
“Compared to Mister, this is nothing.”
There was an F–rank who charged at S–ranks and Transcendents. She’d watched him do that over and over. Park Yerim shifted her grip on the spear. The water rose again.
“So fight me properly!”
Rrrumble, a waterspout rose. A vortex roared toward the Mermaid Queen. The Mermaid Queen’s spear came up crosswise and carved through. Shhhhaa– The whirl split in an instant and the force behind it surged through. Park Yerim swung her spear as well.
KWAANG–!
The two powers slammed into each other. Park Yerim’s body was flung backward. A faint crack ran through her spear.
– This is for those like you.
The Mermaid Queen drove her spear down in a great arc. The sea split wide beneath the tip. A wave made of the sea itself swallowed Park Yerim whole.
– You also received his help.
Han Yujin. The Mermaid Queen’s gaze sank deep. Park Yerim burst out through the wave. A child who refused to give up. A droplet that had eventually reached her feet.
– You know his power.
Han Yujin made people grow. Even when they first heard about a Perfect Nurturer Title, they hadn’t expected much. From a Transcendent’s perspective, it was nothing more than raising small, weak awakened people. Useful, yes, but they’d figured that kind of support was something the Unfilial Children who handled the system could manage as well.
– Han Yujin’s stats are low. Even so, he makes S–ranks grow faster, beyond their limits. If he were to gain an even greater strength…
He could become a new cradle that creates Transcendents. Without using a whole world as fertilizer.
Kwoooosh–!
The sea surged again and again. It tossed and tumbled without up or down, like water in a little glass bottle being shaken hard.
– We need him.
At some point, the number of Transcendents had started increasing faster than before. They had swallowed their own worlds and become Transcendents. It happened now and then. Strong ones who rejected everything and were indifferent to all living things became Transcendents that way.
But then—
‘Hello.’
‘Um, it’s nice to meet you.’
‘I look forward to working with you!’
Transcendents with the opposite kind of temperament were also swallowing their worlds. It was strange. But most greeted it with relief.
‘If we’ve got more Transcendents, system management gets easier.’
‘We’ve had fewer clashes with the Filial Duty Addicts thanks to that. Our side’s numbers went up.’
‘I heard the new kid’s creator–class! How long has it been, seriously.’
The sacrifice of a few to protect more worlds. Maybe because they had chosen themselves to be bound as administrators to protect worlds, most of the Unfilial Children took the sacrifice of the few for granted.
The Mermaid Queen was no different. Before she was a Transcendent, she’d been the king who ruled all seas. Leading a vast world was impossible without sacrifice. At every moment in that long, long history, large or small, sacrifice had existed.
Yet at the same time, she had been a beloved king. And she had loved her people. Even after she left her world and a long time passed, she did not forget. The eyes lifted to their king, the voices asking to move toward a better future, the seasons of harvest, the start of wars, the hands reaching up from the ruins, all those warm waves.
As a king, she had been forced to give up one small world. And as a king, she could not easily let go of even that one small world. She had to abandon it. She could not abandon it.
– We must take the best path.
The Mermaid Queen agonized. She quietly checked the records and watched through the water that existed everywhere. And she became certain. Crescent Moon. In worlds touched by Crescent Moon’s hand, Transcendents were being born.
‘…Crescent Moon is not acceptable.’
An old moon, a cradle of Transcendents, with countless worshipers. Even if the fact that Crescent Moon was sacrificing worlds to birth Transcendents became widely known, would anything change? When there were already those who had noticed and chose to close their eyes?
On the whole, Crescent Moon was in the right. The Mermaid Queen herself was about to look away like the others when an alternative appeared.
A new cradle that required no sacrifice.
– We are not trying to hurt you. It’s so we can keep making more like you!
The sky roared. The rain fell harder. In the middle of it, Park Yerim, beaten to a mess, pushed herself up on both feet.
– The power that raised you to this point!
There was something off about Crescent Moon’s actions. That was why the Mermaid Queen had tried to secure Han Yujin without anyone finding out. More and more would notice his ability. Crescent Moon might already know. Before that happened, she had to bring him under her protection. As long as he became hers, other Transcendents wouldn’t be able to touch him easily. He would be safe.
But Han Yujin was stubborn. Even if she laid everything bare, he would never willingly leave the people in his arms. She needed a method that didn’t require his acceptance, and so she had to grab him by force if she had to. Before it was too late.
– So…!
“I’m standing on my own two feet!”
Park Yerim shouted. Her hair whipped across her cheek in the storm. Her limbs shook, but her voice was clear and bright.
“Sure, without Mister it would’ve been harder and slower. But I’m still going forward the way I want!”
Her toes lifted above the surface, above the sea itself. Part of the fin–wings spread behind her back had been torn away. One arm didn’t move so well. She was very tired and worn out.
“As long as I’m me, and as long as I don’t give up, no matter what anyone says, Park Yerim’s place is right here.”
The Mermaid Queen wasn’t wrong. Park Yerim had received a lot of help from Han Yujin. But Park Yerim had seen Park Yerim. Herself, walking her own path even in different circumstances and in a different world.
‘Park Yerim, you can do it!’
If not for that meeting, she might have wavered at the Mermaid Queen’s words. Maybe there would be no current Park Yerim without Han Yujin. Maybe she could never have come this far on her own.
But Park Yerim had seen Park Yerim. She’d been amazing.
“Even if I’m slower, even if I get lost a bit, I’ll end up standing here someday anyway!”
She loved Han Yujin. She loved everyone who stayed by her side. She was grateful for every hand reaching out, every arm that held her. But the person standing at the center was herself. Accepting and growing, refusing and moving on, all of that—
As you want.
That was what Han Yujin had said.
“I’m–!”
She pulled the sea up. The ring on Park Yerim’s finger shone.
“This is the form I wished for, and the place I wished for!”
The small current stored in the ring sparked. She drew out the skill application she’d learned through Mister’s teacher skill. Seong Hyunjae had once told her that her skill was similar to his. Flowing water and electric currents.
The wave surged toward the Mermaid Queen. A faint current burrowed through it. What she lacked in technique, she made up for with raw power. She filled the gaps with water power drawn up to its limits.
“Not anyone else–”
Me.
KWOAAAA–! The sea exploded. Park Yerim’s body flew like a leaf caught in a whirlwind. And the Mermaid Queen as well.
– …You…
Stepped back. She was driven several paces away from her throne.
“That did it!”
It was only that much, but Park Yerim beamed. She steadied her battered body and spoke.
“And the person I admired most wasn’t Mister.”
Blue eyes met blue eyes.
“It was you.”
The ruler of water whom Park Yerim had watched, followed, and wanted to catch up to.
Back when she’d faced the Mermaid Queen’s illusion in the lake dungeon, when she’d used the power she received from her. Park Yerim’s heart had pounded. Of course it had. In that moment, all water bowed its head to its master and moved with a single gesture, a single breath.
The master of water, worshiped by the water itself. That unreal sensation of every tiny droplet in the air under her control.
“I wanted to be like that too. Things have gotten pretty twisted now, but I still wanted to be like you.”
She couldn’t forget it. So she tried all the harder not to forget. That feeling, that sense.
“And now I’m standing here.”
The Mermaid Queen’s eyes flew wide.
–TL Notes–
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