Chapter 81

One day, a young mermaid said,

"I'll eat you up."

"..."

Giovanni smiled awkwardly.

"... Is that something you say to someone who just came back from the market?"

"I said I'm going to eat you."

"It seems you did not like that I went to the market and left you alone, Aria."

"No, I did not."

"But it was you, Aria, who said you were absorbed in your book and wanted to stay home alone."

"I'll eat you..."

"Understood. Next time, we will go together."

Iser kept glancing around from behind Giovanni, wondering if his sister was angry, and Giovanni patted him as he handed the child a bag full of ingredients.

It was not that heavy.

"Can you take this to the kitchen?"

"Ah, yes, I will."

"Thank you for always helping, Iser."

Giovanni watched Iser go to the kitchen, then sat beside Aria.

"Looking at you like this, you do not seem very angry."

"Do humans describe this as being angry?"

"Mermaids really are dull to emotion. Is it because you live among sea creatures that almost never communicate?"

"Sea creatures do communicate properly. Stupid humans simply fail to recognize it."

"Is that so? But it must be different in texture from the creatures of the surface."

His vivid blue eyes curved.

"What you are feeling now, Aria, seems to be anger."

"The idea of a mermaid being angry is rather unfamiliar."

"This is my first time seeing an angry mermaid as well. Mermaids were always expressionless, even when fighting humans."

"I suppose they were."

Even when humans killed a mermaid's young, the mermaid did not rage.

They merely retaliated with cool, expressionless faces, and people saw that and said they were monsters who did not care even when their own children died.

"Come to think of it, I hear humans and mermaids fought again in the neighboring village. Did you see it, teacher?"

"I did not see it, but the mermaids I have seen throughout my life have always shown no emotion."

He smiled.

"As Aria knows, the conflict between humans and mermaids is so old that no one knows who started it first."

Even they did not know who had begun this conflict.

Humans simply saw mermaids as eerie monsters of the sea, and mermaids regarded humans as stupid and threatening beasts.

The conflict was gradually escalating.

Now mermaids drowned innocent humans in the sea, and humans dried innocent mermaids to death in the square.

Watching that, they shouted at one another.

"Everyone says this. We must kill the mermaids. We must kill the humans... asking how anyone but a devil could create such a terrible situation."

"..."

"I have seen the conflict between mermaids and humans with my own eyes. I lived as a son of the sun and traveled from place to place, and in the process I encountered many mermaids."

"So you pride yourself on knowing mermaids well?"

"That may certainly have been inappropriate confidence to display before a mermaid. But even I am unfamiliar with Aria when she is angry."

"You may see it often from now on."

"Oh dear..."

Giovanni carefully stroked her dark navy hair.

"As far as I know, the idea that mermaids eat humans is only a superstition spread in some regions, so why did you say you would eat me?"

"Because when I say it, everyone obediently listens."

"So it is the result of learning. I understand."

Giovanni understood that mermaid's learning.

The indifference of mermaids, who did not even feel the need to mind their means and methods as long as they could produce the result they wanted, only stoked humans' fear all the more.

But Giovanni wanted this mermaid, who was curious about humans, to grow into a more amicable and social adult, so he hoped this would not remain merely the result of simple learning.

Giovanni soon continued.

"Then that would be a prank."

"A prank?"

"You do not truly intend to eat me, do you?"

"Mermaids do not eat humans. They upset our stomachs."

"Then let us call it a prank after all."

He did not want to place too much weight on the mermaid's cruel learning.

Had humans, and mermaids, not ended up in such deep conflict because they had attached excessive meaning to the other side's "incomprehensible actions"?

He merely gave advice.

It was very light advice he could give as a teacher and friend.

"It certainly must be convenient to frighten people and make them obediently follow your commands. But if you only frighten them, a great many people will try to run away from Aria's side."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"At least for Aria, who wants to learn humans, it would not be a good thing. Humans are not creatures who show varied reactions only in fear. Rather, they show far more reactions when they are happy and joyful."

Giovanni hoped this mermaid would not be left alone someday.

So, as her younger brother wished, he wanted the day to come when the sea and the sun would become one.

Mermaids live for an extremely long time while remaining within a single memory.

Perhaps this young mermaid, who liked her current daily life, might grow as she was and someday become a mermaid who helped humans.

She would become the beginning of peace.

Whether that could truly happen was unknowable, and he did not want to force it.

Still, he certainly wished that this mermaid, who would have to carry his short life with her and live an entire lifetime, would become gentler.

"If you keep playing pranks like this, no one will remain at Aria's side."

At that, the arrogant mermaid asked,

"What about my younger brother?"

"..."

"And what about you?"

"... We will probably always remain by your side."

"Always?"

"So long as I do not die."

"You are going to die."

The mermaid complained.

"Human lifespans are too short. The sun that made you was stupid."

"Could it not be that you show more varied aspects because your lifespans are short?"

"I do not understand. Is it not natural that you can learn more because your lifespan is long?"

"If you spend time, you will slowly come to understand."

"Understand what?"

"Desperation."

Giovanni knew human limitations.

He also knew the infinite possibilities that arose from them.

"Because humans are creatures with short breaths, they strive more than anything. A human who grows indolent is easily left behind, that situation easily worsens, and humans cannot welcome such a situation."

"So they struggle because they are more desperate?"

"Perhaps that may be so. Is there a point we can think about further here? What might that be? Aria, think about it."

The Little Mermaid thought with her little head, then asked,

"Then if mermaids are also desperate, do they become varied like you?"

"Of course. Mermaids are simply more familiar with water than humans and have somewhat longer lifespans. They are not greatly different."

"Very many things seem different."

"If humans developed gills that let them breathe underwater and could live a life closer to eternity, people would look at them and call them mermaids."

"Are you saying we are the same?"

"No one is wrong. We simply have differences. If there is one thing I have felt while living with all of you, it is that in the end, Aria, you are the same as me."

Giovanni believed that fact without a shred of doubt.

"Mermaids, too, are creatures who create things precious to them, are they not?"

"What does that have to do with the diversity of the future?"

"Because every living creature develops in order to protect what is precious to itself."

"Every living creature?"

"Even four-legged beasts that cannot speak, and even fish that are often eaten by us, use all sorts of tricks and build strong power to protect their young."

"That is instinct to maintain their species."

"An innate instinct can also be called preciousness."

The mermaid did not seem to understand very well.

"Then is human greed the same?"

"If preserving that greed is precious to them, yes, it is."

Everyone becomes varied because they have something precious to them.

Humans merely show themselves striving harder to achieve their goals because their lives are shorter than mermaids'.

"So mermaids will be that way as well."

"... Then what in the world is different between humans and mermaids?"

"In truth, they are not different."

They simply failed to understand one another.

"So, nothing grand is needed. If only more people come to understand one another's differences..."

"..."

"If more people raise voices of understanding and concession, this long conflict will someday come to an end."

The mermaid complained with an expressionless face.

"That is strange talk."

"It sounds that way after all."

"I do not like it."

"Is that so?"

"I will eat you."

"When you will not, truly, what a spiteful..."

"I will eat you."

"Of course. I understand very well."

But there was something she absolutely had to remember.

"Aria, if you intend to frighten someone by saying you will eat them, you must know this."

"What is it?"

"Whatever Aria's purpose was, every human will show a different reaction, and Aria must take responsibility for those reactions. A creature that does not take responsibility cannot learn anything."

"..."

Responsibility.

"... Yes."

The mermaid readily agreed.

"I will take responsibility."

"Splendid."

"I will eat you."

"Oh dear... I wonder what displeased you this time."

In other words, it was a prank.

"I will put you on my table."

"This priest does not taste good."

An endlessly light prank.

* * *

"..."

"..."

The mermaid blinked and saw a rapturously brilliant light.

It belonged to the sun.

"... I..."

Why am I shaken?

The moment one's heart wavers, one has lost.

After waiting so long, I absolutely did not want to lose.

But that light was hot enough to dry even the vast sea.

It was the sharp heat that had once dried mermaids' tails above the sea.

Her stomach churned.

A seasickness she had not felt even in the deep, dark depths of the sea, even upon the surface tossing in a typhoon, came over her.

"... I do not understand very well."

"What is it you do not understand?"

"Well, this is..."

Was this also desperation?

Then what was it desperation toward?

Soon after, the mermaid found words she could say.

"Why do you think I would wish for you not to die?"

"Because you did not create me, Aria."

Giovanni's voice was no different at all from thousands of years ago.

"I saw the laboratory. You had attempted to create and combine countless lives. Since I was the one who taught you, at minimum, how to dissect living things and arrange them neatly, I could naturally recognize that."

Aria suddenly thought that was terribly strange.

It was a voice she had chewed over and remembered for countless ages, but because she knew why that voice had been absent all this time, it felt unfamiliar.

You fled to the sun's side.

Or else you dissolved into the cold sea.

How could a person who returned to nature come back alive and speak to me with the same appearance as then?

"Some of them even succeeded, and some of them you intentionally ruined."

"..."

"I suspected it was to give them lives where being alive did not feel like living."

The priest of the sun, who seemed taxidermied in the most beautiful period of his life, asked,

"Then why did you not do that to me? Why did you not bring me back to life?"

"... No matter how much I tried, I could not succeed. Since you died without even leaving what could be called a corpse, there was too little material to study."

"That must be because you respected me."

"If you had died in a more intact form, the result would have been different. It was only something outside my ability, not something I intended."

"If emotion is also an ability, then that is not a lie either. I know mermaids feel emotions too."

Giovanni was certain.

"You love me, Aria."

"Why do you think that?"

"There is no strength in your voice."

"No."

It was a meaningful reunion with an old friend.

She had not meant for it to proceed in such a stupid way, but she could not twist her words as well as when she had resolved herself, saying her end had finally come.

She had not been this stupid in hundreds or thousands of years.

I killed many humans, tormented them, toyed with them...

"..."

And yet all it took was seeing one face she missed, and no words would come.

The only thing that had changed was one thing: your existence, Giovanni.

Only then did she remember that you had been not merely her friend, but also her teacher.

An adult she could never defeat and her guidepost.

'That is right. Yes, that was how it was.'

Astonishingly, Aria had never defeated him.

She realized anew a fact she had forgotten for some time.

She opened her mouth with difficulty.

"To begin with... Giovanni, you bear divinity. Would you really die just because you died in a manner like this? This must simply be a trick to bewilder me."

"If this is false, I can die anew before you thousands of times, and if this is true, then 'Giovanni' disappears here. He is nothing more than a human."

"... That is also true."

She found herself ridiculous for not having expected such a counterattack to come back.

Unlike Aria, who could not touch even the fingertip of the teacher she had met through an absurd miracle, Giovanni could ruin himself as much as he liked.

'If he had been someone who cherished his own flesh and life, he would have lived longer than that.'

But Giovanni was a human who accomplished everything because he wanted to.

From long ago, Aria had been unable to defeat her teacher.

"..."

Now that it had come this far, Aria could not lie and say she did not love Giovanni.

Because, for whatever confidence he had, Giovanni was certain of the mermaids' love, and unfortunately, that was the truth.

"Ah..."

From that moment, victory and defeat had already been decided.

Aria knew that too, and because she knew, she had placed her end entirely in Giovanni's hands.

Even so, her benefactor chose to torment himself rather than swing that leash.

Because he knew that would be more effective at punishing Aria.

That was certainly it.

"Why must you be this cruel?"

The answer came back exactly to her reflexive question.

"Why were you that cruel?"

"..."

"To me, and to the countless humans you have met all this time."

"... I was angry."

"Then you must take responsibility."

She knew.

"I know too."

He had told her to take responsibility.

"From very long ago, you kept saying that to me. That I should act only after being prepared to take responsibility for everything I do."

No matter how much time had passed, there was no way I could have forgotten your teachings.

But she had not taken responsibility for anything.

Because she did not want to take responsibility for something like the deaths and pain of mere humans.

If she had intended to weigh the burden of venting her anger, she would never have started in the first place.

"If I take responsibility for what I have done, then does that not make venting my anger meaningless?"

Ah, I hate humans.

I despise them.

Even this feeling of rage was so precious to Aria that she could not bear to soften it.

My resentment and hatred are as heavy as the size of the feelings with which I loved you.

They were truly precious.

So it was only natural that she had not taken responsibility.

Because if she took responsibility, if she atoned, she would have to declare that this feeling was wrong.

She wanted this terribly precious memory not to be sullied or worn dull.

"No one told me to take responsibility."

"Quite many people must have wished for you to take responsibility."

"I suppose they did. The countless humans who died and were injured by my hands."

They must have wished for this terrible sea monster to meet the most miserable death in the world, to continue days more horrible than death and atone.

"But is that not a laughable story? How could anyone expect human emotions from a monster like me?"

For a moment, she looked at the white-haired Hunter with the composed expression.

Had he said his name was Yu Seongun?

Aria asked him,

"Do you Hunters want the monsters that inhabit dungeons to be judged by the law? Or do you want them to apologize or grieve?"

"... Monsters are merely targets for subjugation. We do not waste that kind of emotion on them. We do not have enough resources to put even monsters who are not criminals on the stand."

"Yes, that is exactly it. Most humans exterminate monsters without emotion because it is their duty. I, too, killed humans because I hated them."

Aria looked at Jio.

"Why should someone like me take responsibility? Giovanni, you taught me as a human... but the me of now is only a monster, is she not?"

"When you say that, this priest's heart truly aches. I taught a human who loved the sea, and now she says she was actually a monster."

Giovanni said,

"You know this is all venting your anger."

"It is not that I do not know."

She knew very well.

"I did not want to justify my actions with your death."

"Thank you."

"Because you were too... merciful. You would not have wanted this."

"I see."

"It simply was not appropriate to use as an excuse."

She asked to confirm.

"Do you still not resent them?"

"I resent and hate them."

"Then how can you corner me?"

"Because I do not resent them enough to take responsibility for their deaths."

He resented them, but that did not mean he wanted them to die.

It was an answer only Giovanni could give, because he believed that if someone influenced another person in any way, they had to take responsibility for all those reactions.

He said,

"Choose."

"What, in the world?"

"Humans, or mermaids?"

"... What..."

It was a hard question to understand.

She saw the sharp light of the sun.

It was ready to pierce Giovanni at any moment.

"Taking a hostage. How cunning."

"Since I am using myself, the responsibility I bear should not be too light, should it?"

"You are right."

There was nothing as cost-effective as consuming oneself.

Aria knew that too.

That was why she had used herself until now to instill fear in countless humans.

It was not the first time she had seen a human make this kind of choice, either.

There had been only a countable number of humans who made deals using themselves, and they simply... had not been Giovanni.

So she tormented them.

"..."

Naturally, she did not regret that.

From the beginning, Aria knew that her actions and her younger brother's were merely venting anger built on favoritism and unfairness.

Only, at some vague point, she had wished that their teacher would come back to life, scold them thoroughly, punish them, and end this long life.

Only Giovanni could do that.

If not him, it had no meaning to these mermaids.

'... But in the end, it turned out like this. How has nothing changed this much?'

He had rarely ever let his students sway him.

The scolding of the teacher she had truly reunited with took a form quite different from what she had imagined, and she was left speechless.

"To be honest..."

"You may speak honestly."

"I do not know what to say."

"Oh dear, poor thing."

"I was so full of confidence too."

She felt hollow.

Until she had forced Giovanni to choose, she had certainly been convinced that the "ending" was right before her nose.

"... Now I am not certain what I should do."

CRUNCH!!

One spear fell.

"..."

"..."

Blood flowed from Giovanni's shoulder.

Perhaps because she had been his student, or perhaps simply because Aria was clever.

In that instant, she found the meaning of that action.

It meant that was not the correct answer.

"What should I do?"

CRACK!!

The second spear fell.

"Should I apologize for my rudeness...?"

CRAAACK!!

It was the third spear.

"Do not die."

"Wrong."

BANG!!

"Do not die in front of me."

"Wrong."

GRIIIND...!!

"I..."

"Do you feel inclined to respect me now?"

"... Are you angry, Giovanni?"

"Did you expect me not to be angry?"

His voice was still gentle and soft, but Aria realized that he was very angry.

No, more than that.

"Did you expect me not to be disappointed?"

He seemed disappointed.

"..."

"... That is quite eerie."

With only a few gestures, Giovanni had become covered in blood.

There were many places where holes had been pierced, and many places where pieces had been cut away.

It was a frail body unworthy of the honor of the new Sun God.

That was why it was frightening.

Before the sun's fire, there was a dreadful smell of cooking flesh.

It was a stench that announced the mermaid's old friend was becoming nothing more than a lump of meat.

"... Was it like this then too?"

Of all things, seeing him so injured by the light of the sun made her remember that day.

"I heard you were tortured."

"I was."

"Did it hurt as much as now?"

"I think now hurts more."

"Then you can stop. This is not wise."

"Humans who turn emotional are not wise by nature."

"That is..."

"Are you not the same, Aria?"

"..."

"That is why you have done such cruel things."

Finding it absurd and being left speechless, Aria had no choice but to laugh.

"... Why do you..."

"..."

"Still see me as human..."

But she was crying.

"How can you do that?"

Pearls fell onto the floor, onto the hem of her dress.

"Why have you not changed at all?"

We have changed this much.

"Is this not a deception toward the humans who died because of me, because of my younger brother? How can you be this kind?"

"It is not because I am kind that I see you as humans. I treat you that way simply because that is the truth."

"How truly laughable. What an absurd story. No one sees us as human. So you are still kind after all."

Perhaps because the pearls falling from the corners of her eyes, which did not redden and remained pale as wax, she did not look very sad.

They looked merely like decorations.

"I am not human, Giovanni."

Aria thought that was a little unpleasant.

She did not like it.

She wanted to eat everything up if it would let her be at ease.

"But you can also be human."

"It is only natural for a monster to eat and torment humans."

"It is merely an excuse to say that villainy befitting a monster is natural because you are called a monster."

Giovanni was still smiling, and his voice was quiet and gentle.

Even though he was broken and disordered, his unshaken smile seemed like a taxidermied painting, and it felt eerie.

It was like looking at a portrait whose expression did not change even as it burned.

The blood-soaked body that held something one could not tell was alive or dead continued speaking.

"You could have chosen not to eat humans, and you could have chosen not to torment them."

"..."

"You could have chosen not to be called a monster, Aria. You could have done that."

The mermaid, unaccustomed to fear and nervousness, did not know exactly what the emotion she was feeling was.

She had never felt this emotion even when the teacher who had been the only meaning in her long life had died.

She merely begged.

Because the other party was, of all people, Aria's only meaning, she looked foolish in a way unlike herself.

"Do not be angry with me."

"Aria is my student."

"... Still?"

"Still."

If you are angry this much because I am still your student,

"... Then is that not too cruel?"

She knew.

She knew it was not right to say this when she had called herself a monster.

Those who had died by her hand would surely sneer and scorn her.

But if she had considered the right path, she would never have thought of becoming a monster in the first place.

Aria simply valued only her own heart, so she repeated it.

Listen, I missed you for a length of time I cannot even count.

"Do not be in such pain in front of me. You must not."

"If you are a monster, this is acceptable."

"..."

In the end, the mermaid had no choice but to admit it.

"... That I am still your student."

"That is right."

"Can I, as one who is not a monster, be scolded in another way?"

"Of course. This is a human conversation."

In a gentle and firm voice befitting a teacher, Giovanni said,

"I have always treated you as humans. As beings the same as me."

"..."

"I certainly know you are mermaids and know your differences, but that does not mean you are monsters."

It had been such a long story that she had thought it was the perfect moment to bring it to an end, but it seemed Giovanni had no intention of ending it here.

"Why is killing me not the perfect ending?"

"Because that, too, is a choice to avoid responsibility. It is cowardly."

"I will never consider my sins to be sins for my entire life."

"But as long as you are beside me, you will come to consider sins as sins."

"It would be a great honor to remain beside my old friend."

She found it laughable and asked,

"Do you think that can be punishment enough? Returning someone precious to me?"

"First, I am not in a position to punish any of you, and second, I will not return anything to you."

"But if you will not punish me, why are you keeping me alive? And if you will not return anything, how do you intend to be beside me?"

"My existence will become your punishment. I like good things, so you will take interest in good deeds, and someday you will be influenced."

"That can never become hell for me. If the people I killed and tormented all this time learned of it, they would weep tears of blood. This is no punishment of any..."

"I will say it once again. I am not in a position to punish you. I have neither the responsibility nor the duty to do so. Is that not right?"

He continued.

"But as time passes, someday you will see yourselves as humans rather than monsters."

"That is absurd."

"When that day comes, even if no one steps forward, you will go find hell on your own. You will punish yourselves."

"How do you know that?"

"I raised you. I taught you and watched over you. I know how good you were when you were by my side."

Giovanni spoke calmly, as if discussing something as obvious as the sun being hot.

"You are so very curious and clever. You have the will to develop, and you do not fear new attempts."

"..."

"That is the you I know. So remain by my side. You must take responsibility for all this time."

In the banquet hall, made a mess by the noble priest's blood and the sun's fire, Aria conveyed her surrender.

"... Then that is enough."

She admitted defeat.

She had no regret for the meaningless, long venting of her anger, but it had gone on far too long.

Even so, her hatred and anger never ceased, so she could not stop, nor did she want to.

So if possible, she had hoped that Giovanni, you would return and give an ending to the mermaid's story.

Only you could end the mermaid's life.

Only he had the right to finish this insane fairy tale.

"I wanted to win, but I lost."

"Perhaps because even someone like me is nominally a teacher."

"So give me time."

"Time."

"I need time to think about what form I will remain in by teacher's side."

"So do I."

At that moment, the few remaining spears of light vanished.

Aria looked into the air with a face that still held a trace of regret.

"... You should have killed the monster."

"I keep saying this, but that is not my role. Why do you seek punishment from me?"

"Will you call it cowardly?"

"Yes, do not act cowardly. Do not remain in the time when I died, and behave properly like an adult."

"What will you do if I keep killing people?"

"That, too, is none of my concern. I have never encouraged you to murder, nor have I stopped you."

"Then how can you call this an ending? Nothing has ended."

"Instead, I am beside you now. Nothing will end, but that does not mean nothing will change either. Right?"

"I will not deny it."

"Personally, I think this is not such a bad ending. Do you know this?"

Giovanni smiled.

"In Earth's fairy tales, the Little Mermaid sometimes vanishes into sea foam, but she also becomes human and lives happily with her prince."

"Yes, my prince. I thought of you that way from the first time I saw you. Then will you live happily with me now?"

"If that is what you want, you may do so. The ending of anger may be reconciliation, forgiveness, or ruin. That depends on how much responsibility is taken, and in what way."

"And that will become a story unrelated to teacher? I cannot tell whether you are kind or indifferent."

"Ah, dear. I am sorry to say this, but I have done enough. In my heart, I wanted to simply cut ties, pretend not to know you, and live on, but you caused trouble in every direction, so I swallowed how fed up I was and came to see your face."

"How heartless."

"So... let us think about the rest slowly. What story you make from now on depends on your choices."

Jio brought it to an end.

"We have a great deal of time, after all."

"..."

"Do we not?"

* * *

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