“Finally… the boy is this generation’s first contractor to come awaken the Dragcals in 600 years.”
That story made Anya tremble. Anya stared at the frozen ice lake with sunken eyes. Beneath that deep water, an unknown life form slept sealed away.
And… he had drifted all the way here to awaken it. Perhaps the reason he’d lived struggling along until now was precisely to meet this being, Anya suddenly thought.
“Do you have the medicine I gave you yesterday?”
Anya took out Sabelli’s gray medicine bottle and drank it all in one gulp. Though it tasted terribly awful, Anya’s expression remained calm. Sabelli placed his hand on Anya’s crown and recited a magic spell. Energy resembling him spread from his head to the tips of his toes.
“That lake is deep beyond knowing its end and cold enough to freeze the heart. I’ve cast magic on you to maintain body temperature and hold your breath for a long time, but it won’t last very long. Beyond there is now the Dragcals’ domain. If that guardian spirit throws a tantrum, my magic can easily become useless.”
Anya nodded his head slightly. He’d once met the Dragcals beneath that lake. Even then, that capricious spirit had helped him. Anya still remembered the small touch the flame had given him. It wouldn’t kill him. If it was a being that could extend such a warm touch… Anya smiled and bowed to Sabelli.
“Thank you for everything.”
Anya’s back as he walked toward the lake was serene. While enduring many hardships, Anya had become very mature, unlike a boy.
Anya held Haebing upside down and broke the ice. Then without a moment’s hesitation, he threw his body into the cold abyss.
* * *
Inside the water was dark as pitch. Like the curtain of night that fell on Tildyen every day. Fortunately, thanks to Sabelli’s magic, he didn’t feel the cold. Anya closed both eyes and concentrated his mind.
‘Dragcals.’
He endlessly repeated that name. But what he heard in his ears was only the quiet flow of water.
‘Dragcals, Dragcals.’
Holding his breath gradually became more difficult. He seemed to understand now why Sabelli had told him to climb the cliff every day. If he hadn’t increased his lung capacity, he would have suffocated to death in less than a few minutes.
Anya just in case gathered his magical power. Blue light rippled faintly beneath Anya’s hands in the darkness. His breath gradually grew short and his head became hazy.
‘Help me! Give me strength so I can protect my precious people!’
The faces of many people he’d met flashed by like a revolving lantern. Sisou, Riario, Karen, Lorea, Sabelli, Bella, Ban, Joel and Ronan, Rielri… and Evernight.
Bubbles to survive burst out from inside his mouth. But Anya continued to send out magical power in an unwavering posture while calling out to the Dragcals.
“Dragcals!”
Soon an enormous light rose from the deep bottom with no discernible end and embraced Anya.
Warm, red light.
It was the Dragcals.
《Human.》
The red light soon became a huge flame blazing fiercely. It was so dazzling he couldn’t even open his eyes properly. Anya raised his sleeve to block the glare and heat. It was the primordial fire that would never extinguish even in the cold winter lake.
《You must pay the price for awakening me.》
It was a longed-for voice he was hearing after a long time. A strange voice that was neither a child’s nor an adult’s amplified in the water and resonated in his chest. Anya carefully lowered his arm to face the flame. The boy nodded his head, moved with emotion.
“As much as needed….”
‘I’m ready.’
The huge flame soon split into two and circled around Anya as if swimming.
《It smells like him. He’ll be useless.》
Then a small hand extended from the flame and caressed Anya’s skin, which had become rough from hardships.
《But it also smells like a friend. Look, you’re using magical power.》
The two voices criticized each other and circled around Anya even faster. Anya’s face was pale enough that it wouldn’t be strange if he died right now. Holding his breath was also reaching its limit now.
《You’re holding your breath quite well.》
The flame descended onto Anya’s shoulder. This time it was a teasing, childlike tone.
《What’s so important about holding your breath and such. Though it smells like a friend, this isn’t the human we’re looking for.》
Soon fierce criticism flew.
《He stutters, and moreover, until recently he brought along those filthy existences.》
The flame suddenly rushed into Anya’s chest. At the hot energy that seemed like it would melt all his internal organs, Anya shuddered slightly.
《Mmm, the magical springs are tremendous. Magical power is overflowing.》
《What’s so great about that. Since his face is pretty, maybe he could use honey traps? But he won’t fall for such shoddy tricks.》
At the rather crude and rough language, Anya flinched and trembled. The flame that popped out again from near Anya’s heart grew in size and stood before Anya.
《We seek a human who will drive away the darkness.》
《To restore the world’s light, we need a hero who can see through situations and act cleverly.》
The multiple voices spoke as if sternly warning like a crowd gathered in a plaza.
‘…Do I… not please you?’
Unlike what Sabelli had worried about, the Dragcals were still warm and kind. But the problem was that this unknown soul didn’t seem to like him. Anya was flustered. The blue waves became disrupted.
The Dragcals’ voices gradually faded and his two eyes kept closing. His heartbeat… was slowing coldly.
‘Get it together. Open your two eyes properly and look at the Dragcals.’
Anya pulled himself together. He couldn’t die here. The two flames, the Dragcals, were weighing him.
This was his last chance.
《Do you have the qualities of a hero? Can you prove it?》
Anya didn’t understand the great cause the flame was speaking of. Anya wasn’t a hero.
“I… whether it’s darkness or light, I don’t… really know about such things. But I don’t want people to be sa-, sacrificed to the darkness.”
That was all the boy had wanted from long ago. Not repeating the terrible mistake at Northernmost again, protecting his precious people as Tildyen’s mistress.
“I want to… protect my precious people… from the darkness.”
《Even at the cost of your life?》
“…Yes.”
Anya’s answer gradually slowed.
《Why?》
His body, having reached its limit, began to sink toward the lake bottom. He had to open his mouth and answer, but his eyes kept closing. He suffered because he couldn’t breathe.
《Why?》
At the question ringing in his ear once more, Anya answered slowly.
“Do I need… a reason?”
He’d just wanted to.
Thinking so, the two flames descended side by side on Anya’s shoulders. Small hands resembling human ones extended from them side by side and embraced Anya.
《I’ll try using him.》
《If it doesn’t seem right, I’ll send him back as a corpse.》
《Right. It’s been almost 600 years. We’ve been asleep too long.》
In his fading consciousness, the two voices whispered and chattered endlessly. Soon his body floated once, and Anya felt a distant sensation as if being sucked into a deep hole far below.
《Bring Prince Royster’s red earring.》
《Anya.》
Anya sensed it instinctively.
This was a rite of passage he absolutely had to accomplish for the contract with the Dragcals.
* * *
Anya opened his eyes in the courtyard of Maneregia’s separate palace where the spring breeze blew gently. A creepy illusion arose that perhaps he’d been dreaming a long dream all this time and had returned to being the worthless prince again. But the thread bracelet on his wrist clearly proved that this was a space created by the Dragcals.
Anya rose from his spot and immediately moved his steps toward Royster’s palace. The separate palace where Anya stayed was quiet without a single servant as always. The fact that this reality, which had made him lonely in the past, now felt very welcome—the passage of time was this amazing.
‘Royster hyung….’
He liked to dress up, and he particularly held his red earring worn on his right ear as special. Other accessories always changed and disappeared, but only that red earring was always attached to his body.
He had to steal it from him.
“Prince Royster said he would host his brother princes for tea time in the garden. There mustn’t be a single mistake. His discernment and taste are extremely outstanding….”
On the path to Royster’s palace, the head steward was fiercely urging the maids. Anya quickly lowered his body and hid himself in the fence beneath the corridor. Because he killed his presence, they didn’t notice Anya.
‘The garden….’
Anya knew that place. When he’d been much younger than now, Royster had shot arrows at him in that courtyard where the apple tree was. Though that painful memory still made his heart run cold suddenly even now, Anya didn’t have much time given to him.
He immediately ran toward Royster’s garden.
“Huh? Isn’t that Prince Anya?”
A maid tilted her head from behind.
“Where?”
The head steward frowned and looked around, but Anya had already disappeared from their sight.
“What business would such a worthless prince have coming here. Everyone stop slacking off and get to work quickly!”
At the head steward’s shout, the maids scattered in confusion.
