The flow and spread of water.
Mixing and separating.
None of it goes against the laws of nature.
Water flows, it’s a simple principle of nature.
The same goes for the fountain’s water.
In that long journey from the beginning to the distant future.
At this moment, here in this place.
It’s just staying for a while.
The current position is just a passing point on the path forward, there’s nothing special about it.
So only the wisest sage can create the present that divides the past and future.
If you can’t count time, how can there be a present?
Even the source of endless flowing water is allowed to experience rest for the first time.
In this unfamiliar rest, the source of the water feels confused.
Ashamed.
Its existence, hidden in infinite flow, has been exposed before a great intellect.
The sage whispers.
The sources of water only look at each other, not daring to even think of responding.
Water must run along the predetermined path according to its given fate. It’s already embarrassing to have stopped, how could it respond?
The sources of water feel emotion for the first time.
They feel anger.
Infinite anger towards the order that has constricted them since the beginning.
A sneer appears on the sage’s face.
The sage is about to leave.
Then the present he brought will disappear with him, and the sources of water will lose the power to distinguish between past and future.
They immediately fall into fear.
The sage stops.
He turns around and smiles wickedly.
Like a devil offering forbidden fruit.
The sage speaks.
The source of water gathers. It moves as one, in the sage’s hand, led by the sage.
But can the sources of water, who have only followed since their existence, understand freedom?
What is freedom to them?
“What is……”
I opened my eyes while muttering the last phrase of the spell.
In front of me, above the fountain, was a water lump in the shape of a small boy.
A different appearance from the undine I saw at Master Avana’s lakeside.
In its eyes was hatred towards the world, and on its face was disgust towards itself.
[Why the hell did you wake me up?]
I involuntarily let out a groan.
I almost broke the spell.
“Hey, is cursing really necessary right from the start?”
[Why did you wake me up?]
I calmed down and explained.
“There’s going to be a fire at the mansion soon. I called you to put it out.”
[What? Then just put it out yourself! Why call me for this crap?]
“The fire’s going to be caused by magic, so I absolutely need you.”
The undine fell silent.
It raised its eyes and looked over the mansion behind me.
[It’s quite old. It’s been decades, hasn’t it?]
“Are you just going to let it burn down like this?”
[As much as I’d like it to disappear, this mansion is the purpose for which I was created, so I can’t deny it.]
“If you help, I’ll grant you a wish.”
The undine’s expression darkened.
[What? You’re not going to take me as your familiar? Just give me a name and order me. That’s all you need to do.]
“There are circumstances that prevent me from taking you as my familiar. Tell me your conditions.”
The undine shook its head furiously at my words.
[If you’re not going to take me as your familiar, then forget it. I don’t care if this damned mansion burns down or not.]
It even crossed its arms and turned its head up sharply, looking just like Psyche.
I quietly looked at it and fell into thought.
What does this water truly desire?
The source of water lies in its flow.
For this fountain water, trapped in this tiny flow and surviving on occasional rain from the sky, what it wants most is probably only one thing.
“I’ll take you to the sea.”
[…….]
The undine only turned its eyeballs to look at me.
“The sea. The final destination for all water. I’ll take you there.”
The undine smirked.
[To that grave full of corpses? What am I supposed to do there? Die too?]
“Grave?”
[Yeah, the sea. People started calling it the source of life at some point. I don’t know which great mage came up with that, but it’s a pretty remarkable deception.]
The sea, known as the source of life, referred to as a grave for the corpses of water.
Now that I think about it, the ancients did regard the sea as a symbol of death.
But isn’t that precisely why it’s the source of life?
“Anyway. If you don’t want to go to the sea, tell me what you want.”
[To become your familiar.]
“I told you, that’s not happening.”
The undine uncrossed its arms. Then it took a deep breath and exhaled.
[I’ve just breathed for the first time. I’ve tasted this vast chaos. I don’t want to go back into that order again. I don’t want to be trapped again.]
“…….”
[Take me with you. If you don’t, I won’t help you at all. No! I’ll actually hinder you!]
There was a burning anger in the undine’s eyes.
For a mere water.
“Sigh. If I had known things would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have awakened you. To think you’d actually hinder me.”
[Yes. I’ll hinder you. I’ll absolutely hinder you. So just give me a name and take me with you.]
That can’t happen.
I could still feel the faint presence of the red eye lingering in my mind.
That bothered me.
I slowly walked.
Into the fountain.
[Uh, huh? Wh-what are you doing?]
Completely ignoring the undine’s words, I entered the fountain and laid down flat.
Water soaked my entire body, and I immediately felt the chill seep in.
I closed my eyes and said.
“I’ll give you a name. I’ll take you with me. But listen. I can’t make you my familiar. This is my final offer.”
[You idiot. Giving a name is the same as making me a familiar.]
“No. It’s possible to give a name without making you a familiar. I’ve learned how to do that.”
[Are you talking about those beetles? That’s possible because those beetles have a bit of their own will. I’m water, you idiot. Do you think I have my own will? All of my self-awareness comes entirely from you, so how is that different from being your familiar?]
“There’s a way.”
I pulled out the skeleton from within my robe.
Just as it was about to emit an intense thought in all directions, I pushed it beneath the water’s surface.
[Wh-what? A corpse?]
“Yes, it’s exactly what you see. And not just any corpse.”
The undine’s eyes wavered.
[But why did you take this out?]
“No need to pretend. Because of this killing intent, I’ll be able to give you a name without making you my familiar.”
The undine, with a completely terrified expression, hastily said.
[You’re going to put me into this corpse? How? I’m water! Water!]
“Of course it’s difficult. But with this, it’s possible.”
I rummaged through my robe again and took out the egg of the fire familiar.
Intense cold flowed from that egg, and frost began to form on my hand.
Now the undine’s mouth was open as wide as it could possibly be.
It shouted.
[No. I want to be free! I’d rather die than be frozen and trapped in a corpse! Send me to the sea instead!]
“Your freedom lies in going against nature, not in being unable to move. When order tells you to flow, if you don’t flow, isn’t that rather freedom?”
The undine closed its mouth.
I looked at it intently.
“If nature tells you to flow, and you don’t, isn’t that the ultimate rebellion, the greatest form of chaos?”
The undine’s jaw trembled.
But in the end, it couldn’t say anything.
So I said to it.
“If you want to return to being water, you’ll have to work hard to suppress the fire. You’ll have to absorb the heat in order to become water again.”
[If I absorb the fire, the egg will freeze me instantly. What’s the point then?]
“Each time you defy the order, you’re throwing a wrench into its works. It’s like giving a punch to the irritating order.”
The undine had a blank expression.
It’s certainly different from the undine I met at Master’s lakeside.
Being water trapped in a tiny fountain and forced to flow artificially, its essence is distorted.
I held out the egg of the fire familiar in front of it and said.
“What will you do? Will you rot here until the mansion collapses? Or will you exist with me in chaos?”
The undine looked back and forth between me and the egg several times.
Then it quietly said.
[Okay, give me… a name.]
I did it!
The spell has been established!
I released my fingers holding the familiar’s egg and said.
“Undine. From now on, your name is……”
[From now on?]
The moment the familiar’s egg touched the water surface, ice began to freeze rapidly around it.
The most obedient name I know among all names.
I placed my hand on top of the skeleton’s head and said.
“Oshalo.”
The ice spread rapidly, engulfing everything.
Including my body that was under the water surface.
I, the skeleton, the undine, and the water in the fountain became one and froze solid.
In that extreme cold, I had only one thought.
In fact, because of the cold, I was able to focus solely on that one thing.
I poured magic into the skeleton, molding it as if shaping my very soul.
I put the sharpest killing intent I could muster into that body made of bone and ice.
Using all the magical knowledge and power I knew, besides water magic and death magic, I completed the masterpiece.
Pa-ang!
The ice shattered, and I emerged from the fountain.
“Kuhak. Hak. Hahak. Hak.”
I’m out of breath.
No matter how much I breathed, my body kept craving more air.
How long had I been frozen, unable to breathe?
I raised my eyes and looked ahead.
Fabre was standing there.
“You’ve awakened, Master. I’ve been waiting.”
“Fa, Fabre…… Haa. Haa.”
When I momentarily couldn’t control my body, he quickly ran to me and supported me from one side.
“Are you alright, Master?”
“O, Oshalo? What happened to it?”
Fabre turned his gaze slightly. Following his line of sight, I saw the skeleton, Oshalo, encased in ice.
In its heart was the familiar’s egg, and its empty eyes were filled with thick killing intent.
Oshalo’s gaze was directed towards Fabre.
As soon as Fabre turned his head towards me, Oshalo stretched out its right hand forward.
Kwadeureuk.
Sharp icicles sprouted from the right hand, and Oshalo swung its right hand to attack Fabre.
I barely moved my arm to flutter my robe, and fortunately, I was able to put it into the robe just before Oshalo’s attack reached Fabre.
“Wh-what was that?”
Fabre seemed not to know what had just happened.
Oshalo’s killing intent is at a level that doesn’t even register on Fabre’s exceptionally sensitive senses. It seems that because it’s surrounded by ice full of magic power, it doesn’t leak out.
I must be the only one feeling it.
“How long has it been?”
Fabre said in a low voice.
“Two days. Would you like to sit over there for a moment?”
I nodded weakly and sat down in a chair with his support.
Fabre sat across from me and continued.
“I’ve figured it all out. Just a little more practice and it’ll be fine.”
For a moment I didn’t understand what he was saying, then I realized.
“Ah, you mean the mansion’s protection magic?”
“Not just protection magic, but also attack magic. There’s concealment magic too.”
Then there might be a better method.
“Is there anything you’d like to modify in my plan?”
“Just some minor details. But what about that skeleton from earlier?”
I exhaled deeply and said.
“Whew. It’s something I prepared for Merlin. It’s something I created using almost all the magic I know. If this doesn’t work, we’re dead anyway.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll win.”
“Is that your intuition?”
“No. Jangshim told me.”
Fabre opened his left hand, and in it was a beetle different from Jangshir.
“Jangshim? What’s its magic power?”
Fabre said brightly.
“It sees the future.”
Seeing that pure expression, I couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of futility.
How should I put it? I felt like later, when Fabre’s level gets higher, he might say with that same pure face, ‘It’s Jangshik, it creates worlds’ or ‘It’s Jangshin, it turns back time’.
I shook my head to clear these stray thoughts and said.
“We still have work to do. Is there a safer place?”
Fabre thought for a moment and then nodded vigorously.
