HTWBB Chapter 20

"Nothing difficult about it. You have an unusually good personality for someone these days."

Nick nodded contentedly like an old-fashioned elder, then placed his arms on the table. Then, as if telling a secret story, he leaned forward slightly and continued. The area near his cheeks was flushing red.

"I don't know how I got there either. I was swept away by a house-sized wave, and when I opened my eyes, I was in some cave."

There was the shipwreck he'd only heard about from mouth to mouth. A treasure ship with the crest used by the best merchant vessels of that era, with only about twenty percent of it tilted up above the water.

Swelling with hope that he might discover the "Mermaid's Heart" he'd only heard of in tales, he immediately approached the ship. However, the completely destroyed bow area had nothing of note visible. All he could find was a single box whose end protruded from the partially exposed deck.

Nick, who pulled it out with what he had, carefully opened the lid with tension.

And what came out from inside was what he himself named "Mermaid's Heart."

"I almost couldn't salvage anything. My bag and everything got swept away by the waves, so I had nothing."

"Then how did you bring it back?"

"I somehow secured it to my pants!"

Nick, who laughed awkwardly with an unnecessarily loud voice, proudly held up three fingers.

"Actually, I brought three bottles. One crumbled like sugar the moment I came up on land."

He smacked his lips as if it was still regrettable when he thought about it. Rietta gestured with her chin at the hand still showing two.

"The rest?"

"One rotted the moment I opened the lid. It had a really foul smell. And the remaining one..."

Nick, chest swelling, proudly pointed at the liquor.

"Is precisely this 'Mermaid's Heart'!"

Thinking it might be rotted like the second bottle, he took a cup as if enchanted by the fragrance that rose as soon as he opened the third bottle.

Actually, he thought he might die if unlucky. Since it was liquor aged for hundreds of years, there was no way to know how it might have changed.

However, it was liquor fragrant enough to die for in another sense—unlike anything he'd tasted until now.

Too precious to let it disappear into history just like this.

It was the sentence that had struck through his mind the moment it touched his tongue. Nick looked somewhere in the empty air with an ecstatic face, perhaps recalling that time.

"So I researched. Conserving the remaining liquor. Whether the gods helped or not, fortunately I was able to get a similar taste before the liquor completely ran out."

"Impressive. But did you really not go inside? I heard it was a merchant vessel called a treasure ship."

"Actually... I regretted it so I named the liquor that, but back then I really thought I might salvage the real 'Mermaid's Heart.' So I climbed completely onto the deck and looked around."

Nick frowned and tilted his head.

"When I saw them in the cave, the preservation state of the three bottles was too good. So I held my breath and entered inside the submerged deck. But no matter how much strength I used, the cabin door wouldn't budge at all."

He said he tried to forcibly break it, but at the eerie feeling that suddenly climbed up from his toes, he turned around immediately.

Finishing his story, he shook his head while forcing strength into his gradually unfocusing eyes. Rietta poured the remaining liquor into his empty cup and asked.

"So you're saying you didn't find anything more in the end."

"Right. I felt like if I went further in, I wouldn't be able to come back out."

"I see, you must have struggled. Setting that aside, what's going on with the maple tree outside?"

He, who had been blinking stupidly, slapped his thigh with a thwack.

"Aah. That's also our Clémora's landmark."

"It's not the season for autumn foliage. Is it preservation magic?"

"Well, something like that."

"Can you explain in detail?"

"Hmm... Actually, this is a secret, but I'll tell just you quietly."

A secret revealed this easily was absolutely not a secret. Probably all the humans called his students knew about it, and most wouldn't have believed it.

Perhaps even the customers who visited him in Clémora had heard this story several times. Soon he rolled his gradually loosening tongue.

"After the research ended, exactly one cup of liquor remained. I was going to drink it, but thinking I'd treat the dying tree, I poured it there instead. And it's stayed in that state for fifty years."

Rietta scanned his exterior—too young and healthy compared to his age. A middle-aged body that an old man over eighty could never possess.

She left him, pleasantly drunk, and stood up Melian, who had been sitting blankly. Having poured out complaints and dissatisfaction about Kevin, it became apparent that, in some ways, master and disciple behaved similarly.

"I heard your story well, Nick. Where's the biggest inn in Clémora?"

"Hm? Naturally the White Pearl Inn. Go to the central plaza."

"Thank you. The liquor was good."

Rietta turned away from his sun-baked tavern without a backward glance. Behind her receding back, she heard a groan followed by the sound of him clicking his tongue, saying, "Today's business is ruined."

"Ah, naturally eternal life, right?"

"You're hearing it for the first time? Where are you from, some mountain village? I heard if you get your hands on it, you can become a great mage!"

"You're all talking nonsense. The truth is it gives you a body that never gets sick."

When Melian's round eyes sparkled with small admiration, pleasant laughter flowed from the surrounding merchants.

Before he knew it, his hands held several seasonal fruits and a couple of fresh fish. The shop owner standing furthest inside, embarrassed to have nothing to give, pressed an armful of flowers tied only by stems into his embrace. They were yellow marigolds.

Melian, who had been idly stroking the petals and glancing at Rietta, hesitantly offered her the bouquet. This time, admiration burst from the merchants' side.

"Seeing he knows romance, he'll be popular when he grows up."

Melian, who would normally have pouted his lips sullenly, kept silent. The merchants didn't notice, busy finding him cute, but Melian was in a state of tension. Rather than hoping she'd accept, his manner suggested he anticipated rejection.

Rietta slowly extended her arm and took the bouquet. When she closed her eyes slightly and brought her face close, a gentle fragrance lingered nearby.

'This is tea brewed from marigolds. I thought you'd like it.'

Rietta quite liked tea brewed from these lush and splendid flowers. Warm and fragrant... She, who had been smelling the fragrance as if hiding her face, opened her closed eyes. Melian stood awkwardly in the same position as when he'd offered them.

These flowers commonly found around this time weren't particularly coincidental. She faintly pulled up the corners of her mouth.

"Thank you, Melian."

"Uh, y-yes..."

At the unexpected thanks, Melian turned around with noticeably stiff movements.

"Oh my, look at his face!"

"Redder than the tomato soup I made!"

After the cackling laughter came bustling sounds from here and there, saying 'wasn't she his older sister' or that it was admirable the little one had mustered courage.

Rietta looked at the moisture-laden marigolds and fell into thought for a moment. Heading to the market instead of going straight to the inn had been a good decision.

It was a choice for Melian, who absolutely couldn't take his eyes off his surroundings since entering the commercial district, but as a result, it helped her as well.

The older and higher the value of something, the more branches its legend had, and the tales woven into it were also all different.

The reason merchants were each talking about inconsistent legends like eternal life or great mages regarding "Mermaid's Heart" was also because of that.

Rietta looked around at the merchants while holding the bouquet.

"So where did the ship sink?"

"There are many stories about that too. If you go up along the coastline, there's the highest cliff from here—some say it's near there, others say you have to go much further west."

"It would have been really hard to believe if not for Nick."

The flower shop owner shook her head side to side.

"It's a legend if there ever was one, right? If not for that old man's face and the maple tree, it would have remained a legend, but well, now it's fallen to the level of rumor."

Rietta recalled him laughing good-naturedly, saying his young appearance was because he drank good liquor.

"It must be similar to how he looked when he returned from the shipwreck."

"He's aged a bit more since then, but it's similar. He doesn't say it, but seeing how he's been like that since drinking that liquor of unknown ingredients while researching it, there must have been something there, right?"

Several people around murmured in agreement. It was a speculation with merit. Rietta was also thinking similarly to the flower shop owner, and predictions of this sort generally hit the mark well.

"Then many people must have searched for that ship afterward."

This time, the merchant who had given fruit to Melian spoke.

"Many indeed! Several have already drowned. Seeing you ask this, why, are you going to go too, miss?"

"Who knows. I'm not sure about eternal life, but a great mage is tempting."

"Young people have spirit!"

Laughter burst out boisterously again. One merchant who had been patting her shoulder, saying she told good jokes, continued in a voice with laughter not yet faded.

"But if you're really thinking of going, don't. The coastline there is jagged and the water depth suddenly deepens, so for outsiders, not going close is the way to preserve life."

Rietta accepted readily.

"I'll keep that in mind."

The good-hearted merchants waved their hands toward them as they left, telling them to come again.

The residents of this port city had somewhat rough sides befitting seafaring people. However, perhaps because many outsiders came and went due to the city's nature, they were also favorable toward strangers and, paradoxically, equally uninterested.

Unless noticeably strange, very few pried into personal matters more than necessary. Rietta liked this atmosphere of Clémora.

"Let's go to the beach."

After accompanying him around the shopping district as much as he wanted, she headed to a beach slightly away from the port after some deliberation. Melian, who had snatched away the items saying he would carry them, smiled with only his eyes showing above the marigolds.

The sun was slowly hiding below the sea. It was the time when delicate lavender hue spread like paint, consuming the sky, and the shadows that had stretched long behind their steps began to dissolve.

"It's really the sea, Miss Rietta!"

Melian, who discovered the pure white sandy beach gradually submerging in darkness, quickened his steps. He who had carelessly thrown the luggage received from merchants somewhere on the sandy beach headed toward the beautifully breaking waves. Only his handling of the bouquet when setting it down was careful.

Rietta stopped her following steps while watching his gently swaying hair. At the ambiguous point where pebbles and sand mixed, she hesitated.

With heightened senses, the distant crash of waves resonated with thunderous intensity. The pungent scent of the sea blooming each time the waves broke was enough to make her nose tingle.

The sea she had consciously avoided while traveling throughout the Empire. It really was the sea.

"Miss Rietta!"

The boy called her with a bright smile. The brown mixed with the fully set sunset looked similar to coral at a glance.

A boy with long hair tied high, about a span longer than Melian's, and deep blue eyes smiled looking at Rietta.

'Sister.'

"Miss Rietta?"

Rietta, who had blinked slowly, focused on Melian, who was tilting his head questioningly. His cheeks were slightly flushed, unable to completely erase his excited mood.

She paused for a very brief moment, then took a step toward him who was waiting. The solid leather boots gently sank into the fine sand. The texture when touching bare skin naturally came to mind. How much warmth the sand, heated throughout the day and now cooling, might still hold.

She didn't hurry. When she turned direction and walked very slowly along the shoreline, Melian immediately followed beside her.

After a long comfortable silence, Rietta opened her mouth.

"Melian."

"Yes. I'm listening."

A tender answer returned as if it had been waiting.

The sky rapidly changing to navy blue and the darkly rippling sea evoked yet another impression. Rietta gazed at the golden eyes she immediately met.

Though Melian had said he wanted to see the sea, his gaze was directed toward her the entire time.