CH 23

A siren’s memory was far more superior to that of humans, so he perfectly recalled a conversation he had with Alei in the past.

—Dian, you look tired these days. Is something wrong?

—A new senior mage named Cornelli caused an accident… All the glass inside the tower got completely destroyed.

—Isn’t that amazing? What did the guy do?

—He made a formula to change sand into glass and did an experiment, but the thing is, he didn’t set the range. And the formula was a bit off, so the glass…

—Everything changed to sand?

—What else…

At this, Sante laughed riotously to the point of tears. Then, as he wiped away his tears, he asked again.

—What a crazy guy. Even novices know to set the range first, right? How can a guy like that enter the magic tower? Hey, are you even properly managing the tower?

—No, he’s good, he’s good. Cornelli deserves to be a senior mage. He just needs a bit more practice.

—I can’t believe you at all. How can a punk who doesn’t even know how to set the range do magic?

—Really, he’s just clumsy, but… He’s unrivaled when it comes to magic.

And Alei added at that time that Cornelli could even aim for being the youngest senior manager in the tower.

And this man called Cornelli looked young from just a glance.

Perhaps?

This time, it was Sante who was thrown into a state of confusion.

He mulled over it for a moment before he asked.

“Male human, I heard a few years ago that there was a punk who accidentally tried to turn sand into glass but instead transformed all the glass in the tower.”

“Ah, you know about that? I did that.”

“Really?”

Perfect.

A smirk tugged on the corners of Sante’s lips.

It was Sante’s usual smile when he knew that there was a perfect scene that he could watch.

“Everyone. This male human is very passionate, so why don’t we send him out to check Dian’s condition?”

“I’m good with this!”

“There’s no disagreement, right? If anyone is not in favor of this, you can accompany this male yourself.”

At Sante’s words, everyone was truly of the same mind this time.

“I agree with Sante’s suggestion.”

“I agree.”

“If Nelly goes, it should be fine.”

Considering how close the mages were, this wasn’t surprising.

However Cornelli, looked very brave and determined at the moment, perhaps didn’t realize the true situation at all.

“I can go alone! Please let me bring that person back!”

“If you want to do it so much, then it can’t be helped.”

When Sante nodded furtively, Cornelli’s face brightened up.

Nevertheless, Cornelli truly looked young, so it was like Sante could see a tail wagging behind him.

Thanks to this punk, Sante was going to have a lot of fun.

That wasn’t the end of his conversation with Alei back then, and he said something more about Cornelli.

—It’s nice that there’s a genius like him in the tower then. That’s great.

—Yeah, it’s all good. But there’s one problem.

—What?

—He… respects me too much. Don’t laugh. I’m being serious.

Of course, Sante smiled deviously in return and said ‘Aren’t you being too conceited?’ But now that Sante had met Cornelli himself, it seemed like Alei had even downplayed it back then.

‘That’s not just respect, Dian.’

This was pretty much like… And Sante wasn’t exaggerating when he thought that Cornelli was on the verge of worshipping Alei.

So if he sends this punk to that guy, it’ll be a lot of fun.

And Sante’s sly gaze grew more gleeful as he thought of Ophelia.

He met an interesting female human for the first time in a long while. Even while doing all sorts of things, she rarely showed her emotions.

‘Will that female human react if I show my nest to her?’

Whenever Sante met anyone, it was usually a human.

However, he got tired of them easily because they do things that annoyed him easily.

If he told them who he was, they’d either become afraid, want to own him, or envy him.

Humans were like candlesticks who burned passionately for a short time.

Sante didn’t dislike this flame-like characteristic of humans, but he was tired of the wounds and annoyances that they gave him.

That’s why the idea of bringing Ophelia to his nest was really not like him.

‘Will I get a compliment for a job well done…?’

Yet as he was immersed in other such thoughts, Sante didn’t even notice this.

* * *

That night, Ophelia had a dream.

It was an unfamiliar dream.

Her dreams usually pressured her, usually brought her to the same places.

They would show either the Ronen Castle or the beach where she first met Ian. Sometimes, it would be outside the tower that Alei stayed in at the Ronen Castle.

Everywhere she went, she would feel alone.

In one dream, she watched Ian and a woman with red hair who wore the same dress as her. They would walk through the garden.

Sometimes, Ariel would blame her.

“You ruined everything! Everyone would have been happy if it weren’t for you!”

When she woke up from the dream, she always knew it—that the resentment being thrown at her was a projection of her own guilt.

Ophelia thinks she ruined everything.

One day, someone would come and point a finger at her and condemn her for being a liar.

But Ian and Ariel would become happy if she wasn’t standing between them, what was the point in that?

Where was her own happiness?

If everyone would be happy without her, did ‘everyone’ not include her?

And when she would become so out of breath that she couldn’t endure the crippling doubt, resentment, anxiety of it all, that was the only time she would wake up.

Sometimes, it wasn’t Ariel who expressed her resentment.

Sometimes it was Ian. Sometimes it was Alei.

At any given time, the same guilt would suffocate Ophelia.

She had always been afraid of sleep, and so she suffered from insomnia.

But after returning to the past, everything changed.

Ophelia’s sleep became peaceful and dreamless for many nights.

That’s why this dream was unusual.

This dream was one that she had never seen before.

“Guys, look at this! This child said he can swim like a whirlpool!”

“I can do that too though?”

“No, no, look at this. This child is swimming horizontally. Look, look!”

She felt the blue water wrapped around her entirely, and whenever she moved, her hair would float around her, sinking or swaying as she swam through a current.

At the lighthearted laughter, air bubbles leaked through, and the bright sun cast a fluttering shadow like a net over the coast.

She had never seen this sight before, but Ophelia could tell at once.

She was under the sea.

And there were several mermaids around Ophelia.

The mermaids called Ophelia ‘Ariel’, and when she looked down, Ophelia’s lower body no longer had legs.

But there was no time for her to be surprised by this fact.

“Look carefully you guys!”

The clownfish, which had been on the palm of a mermaid with navy blue hair, began to swim forward at the speed of an arrow, its trajectory a spiral.

They said that in Kschent, their crossbows would spin in a spiral if it was shot underwater. Would it look like that fish just now?

Air bubbles were left like beads behind the tail of the fish as it swam, and Ophelia could feel the small waves the fish created over the water.

The clownfish swam really well. He showed a wonderful spiral from one reef to the other, then proudly returned to the mermaids while flapping its fins.

One mermaid, who was removing the underwater grass that had tangled over her hair, laughed out loud.

“Look at him go! His tail is fluttering so much!”

“He was practicing for this all day because he needed a talent to show at the banquet. It’s our youngest’s birthday soon.”

The navy-haired mermaid waived her tail pleasantly as she applauded the approaching clownfish.

Then, she took the clownfish to Ophelia—to Ariel—and asked.

“What do you think, Ariel?”

“So cool!”

And her lips moved by itself. Of course, this voice wasn’t Ophelia’s either.

This was Ariel.

Ariel smiled broadly and tickled the clownfish with her fingertips.

“You practiced so much for my birthday. I’m so touched!”

The clownfish floundered its round body and flapped its fins.

It was trying to look good to this degree even more.

Then one mermaid, who was brushing her pink, faded-strawberry colored hair with a coral, opened her lips to speak.