Book 12 Chapter 5

The Child Who Weaves Hearts (2)

"Lord, there's some darkness coming from young lady Nen's room…!"

Upon hearing the butler's words, he frantically opened the door to the room where darkness was raging, and saw Nen burying her face in her knees.

'My oversight.'

I never would have thought, that receiving Mir's letter would lead to this…

"Nen, it's okay. Come on, it's okay."

He temporarily set up a barrier to prevent the darkness from proliferating further, then stepped into the room.

Tendrils of darkness rose up frantically, to the point of being suffocating. The tendrils wrapped around his feet and arms, gradually creeping upwards.

As soon as a tendril passed his neck and touched his head, negative memories immediately invaded his mind.

- You can read minds?

- What's that, it's creepy.

- Look at her spewing darkness! I knew she'd be like that.

Traces of Nen's life that Rain had not known.

'This is…'

Even though he didn't want to know, he came to know, and the mental awls pierced deeply into his soul.

That wasn't all.

Deeper into the darkness, that is, when he approached Nen's feet, Nen's feelings were also conveyed.

“……”

It was self-reproach, shame, conventional wisdom.

Sadness for her siblings who were steadily moving away from her, while she herself remained stagnant…

'I don't know.'

What to say to her.

No, he does know.

Ever since he learned of Nen's condition, he had been thinking about it whenever he had a moment to spare.

But in this situation, in this environment, whether those words could truly reach her heart…

It was then.

As if a gentle ripple spread across a lake, the entire world suddenly fell silent like a single lake.

'Mir has this surreal power?'

No, no.

The energy of this power is even more than that…

The power was emanating from the letter paper lying on Nen's bed.

'Bell Sidious.'

As soon as his vision opened in red, he could see the flow of the supernatural power engraved there.

'This isn't Mir's power.'

The arrangement of the powers was similar to inviting into the World Tree, but the fundamental part was slightly different.

The arrangement of characters governed by these powers was not the present, but the past…

To put it simply, it was not an attempt to summon someone to the world of the World Tree now, but a record of events that had occurred in the world of the World Tree in the past.

Mir cannot yet wield such authority that transcends time and space.

'Does that mean… His Holiness the Water Dragon Yeriserika?'

A bitter smile, born of respect, formed on his lips.

'Yes… you knew again.'

What would happen to Nen's heart when she received this letter.

"Nen, please look up for a moment. The Water Dragon has sent you a gift."

He waited a moment for Nen to lift her head, then touched the round water droplet formed on the letter paper.

Drip…

The water droplet fell to the floor, making the same sound as a droplet falling into a lake and causing ripples.

That sound changed the world.

The world's scenery, smells, sounds, everything that could be perceived by mortal senses.

- Nen is said to have stopped her training and returned to Yonghyeon.

It was the lake of the World Tree.

So utterly white and clear, a lake where the true nature of all creation was reflected.

A boy, sitting cross-legged on that lake, was speaking to the World Tree that rose from the center of the lake.

"…Mirmir?"

To be precise, to the Water Dragon's body, which was wrapped around the World Tree and becoming one with it.

- So worried that no academic subject would enter her mind.

Mir had grown significantly.

He was now about the same height as Setsunen.

Not only that, unlike Nen, whose growth stopped just before her horns sprouted, Mir's horns were charmingly growing from both sides of his head in the shape of branches.

- What kind of training should she undertake to solve this difficult problem herself?

Mir was asking that.

Then, new green shoots sprouted from the Water Dragon's body wrapped around the World Tree, and began to weave characters in the air.

[What is important in such a time is neither strength nor wisdom.]

- Then…?

[It is the heart.]

Could that have been the reason Mir started compiling books and writing letters?

In the not-so-distant future, Mir read hundreds of books, selecting only impressive passages.

Watching him tilt his head, shake it wildly, or quietly smile as he searched for passages…

Perhaps, they were words he wanted to say directly but was too shy to.

- To become healthy again.

Writing the letter seemed even harder than finding passages; he revised it over and over again.

- To be able to overcome the darkness of her heart.

What was revealed in such actions was her heart… the true feelings hidden by those seemingly indifferent words.

Could even her young self have understood it clearly? Nen's eyes, looking at Mir, were moist with tears.

This was a moment… a fleeting moment created by Mir and connected by Yeriserika, where sincerity could reach.

"Nen, you've been having a hard time feeling like you're falling behind Aki and Mir."

"…!"

"Yes, it's true that they're growing fast."

Achillea was growing faster than anyone.

That was natural. She held several true dragon's yeoiju…

Moreover, unlike her younger siblings, she accumulated various experiences, big and small, throughout her journey to <Flame Myriad>.

Mir was directly educated by the Water Dragon, and since Tourina's soul was within him, his growth was also rapid.

Perhaps, as true dragons destined to become leaders, both are inherently becoming adults quickly.

"But what does it matter? The three of you aren't all the same."

Aki is fire.

Warm and bright. She can embrace everyone around her with warmth.

But because she is fire, she cannot get too close to others. For then she would burn them.

"Aki has a bright personality. Brighter than Nen imagines. She can bring smiles to people with that personality, but it would be impossible for her to deeply empathize with sad people."

Because she cannot deeply understand.

The darkness of heart that mortal beings often harbor.

"Mir is like a lake. Clear and cold. Clear enough to reflect people's true forms, and to wash away blurry consciousness with its coolness."

But this, too, is a lake…

If a sad person falls into that lake, they will merely sink to its clear, cold bottom.

"But Nen, you are a ray of light."

Though you appear delicate and weak.

Like a ray of sunlight streaming through a window crack in the morning, deeply penetrating the body and beyond, into the heart…

A light that reaches even the darkness of the heart, where neither fire nor lake can reach.

"The power to read minds is not a curse. Nen, you were born with the greatest blessing in this world."

People suffer.

Because they don't truly understand their own or others' hearts.

Because they cannot honestly convey their feelings.

Because their feelings are conveyed differently from their true intentions.

They grieve, separate, conflict, and live their entire lives in regret…

"Even though you're a dragon, only Nen, who understands human hearts and emotions more accurately than anyone, can do what Nen can do."

How much he regretted the things he couldn't be honest about 300 years ago, and how much he still regrets them now.

"That is, to connect people's hearts and comfort them."

Nen lifted her head.

"…Is that important?"

"Yes, very important."

"…Did Dad also need comfort?"

At that moment, he didn't know what kind of smile he wore himself, but he probably wore a painfully sad smile.

"Yes, I truly, truly needed it very much."

If he hadn't met them again on the journey taking Aki to the ends of the earth…

His heart would surely.

Have suffered and sobbed in a swamp of regret for his entire life, and perhaps died.

"So, Nen."

So that others don't grieve like him.

So that no one regrets like him.

So that true feelings, which could not emerge from behind barriers of shame and shyness, can step forward.

"You connect the hearts of others."

"Heart…?"

"Aki can't do it, Mir can't do it, neither can I nor Miria. This is something, Nen. Only you can do."

Someday, in a future where I am gone.

To Aki, I entrust might (武).

To Mir, I entrust wisdom (知).

And Nen, to you, I entrust heart (心). May you protect everyone's hearts.

* * *

[Nen writes a reply to Mir.]

The next day, Nen wrote a letter to Mir.

It was a day when the summer breeze carried the fresh scent of Ciasturika tulips, making the curtains sway.

She must have started writing the letter the night before, but she only began writing the characters around noon.

[The flower garden around the mansion is full of tulips. It would have been good if Mir could have seen them too.]

Half a day spent choosing the letter paper.

Another half a day choosing the fountain pen.

[So Nen wants to send one tulip of each of five colors.]

He spent so much time on a process the recipient wouldn't know about, yet her utterly pure heart was evident, making him smile quietly.

[Dad put a spell on them so that they can be sent to where Mir is without taking away their life from the flowers.]

Nen smiled brightly the whole time she folded the letter paper, following the method she learned from the maid the night before.

[Nen thinks it would be nice if Mir carefully nurtured them.]

Miria, who was watching it with him, smiling silently, suddenly spoke.

"Why?"

Rain asked.

"It's nothing."

"Nothing, and you're smiling?"

"No, I just thought of it again after seeing Mir's letter… From Mir's way of speaking to all his appearances while reading books… Isn't he just like you 300 years ago?"

Lynn's way of speaking was corrected after meeting Tourina, though. Rain smiled sadly.

"That tomboy tried to imitate everything about me… even my way of speaking. How annoying."

"Yes, perhaps it's because that fragment of her soul resides in Mir… that Mir speaks like that?"

"A fragment of Tourina…"

Miria looked forward to the day when Mir's way of speaking would be corrected.

What kind of encounter…

What kind of destiny…

Would make Mir like that? Heh heh, I'm already excited.

"Rain."

"Huh?"

"I, you know. There's something I've always wanted to do since way back, I mean, 300 years ago."