2. The Dragon King Has Fallen
Whoooooooooooo-
12 nautical miles south of Jeju Island.
The bottom of the southern sea boundary that humans arbitrarily named their territorial waters without even listening to the ocean's opinion.
The calm land shook with an ominous sound.
On a bed made of soft seaweed. The black-haired mermaid who had been sleeping with his face buried in the seaweed pile woke up with a start.
It was the second prince, 'Neoul', who lived in the eastern annex of the Dragon Palace.
The shaking of the ground was quickly gone, but Neoul, who had forced himself to wake up, rubbed his sleepy face and blinked blankly.
The low temperature of the seafloor that had been so familiar hit him hard today.
'Is it because I had a disturbing dream?'
Last night, in a dream, Neoul's father, the South Sea Dragon King, suddenly cried and fell ill.
When Neoul called the doctor and asked for a cure, the doctor said that he had to go to the land to cure the Dragon King's illness.
Neoul begged the Dragon King to disguise him as a human so that he could go to the land himself.
— ᴀʙᴀᴍᴀᴍᴀ. ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴍᴇ ᴀ ᴘᴀɪʀ ᴏꜰ ʟᴇɢꜱ. ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ɢᴏ ꜱᴛʀᴀɪɢʜᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀᴛᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ʙʀɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀ ᴄᴜʀᴇ.
[A title used by princes and princesses to address their fathers (kings)]
The Dragon King patted Neoul's hand with a surprised expression.
— ɪ'ᴍ ɢʀᴀᴛᴇꜰᴜʟ, ʙᴜᴛ ʙᴀʙʏ. ɪ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ᴛᴏ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ʟᴇɢꜱ ꜰᴏʀ ᴍᴇʀᴍᴀɪᴅꜱ.
Neoul, who was deeply devoted, replied with a deep sense of disappointment.
— ʜᴜʜ. ᴇᴠᴇɴ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴ ᴋɪɴɢ, ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ?
— ᴡʜᴀᴛ, ʏᴏᴜ ɪᴅɪᴏᴛ?
— ᴏʜ ᴍʏ ʜᴇᴀᴅ! ᴏʜ ᴍʏ!
— ʏᴏᴜ ɪᴅɪᴏᴛ! ɪᴛ'ꜱ ᴀʟʟ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ᴏꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ'ᴍ ꜱɪᴄᴋ!
The angry Dragon King threw a pillow at Neoul and chased him away. Neoul woke up from his dream as he hurried out of the room, getting hit in the face by the pillow.
'It must be a dream.'
The Dragon King was an old dragon who had been alive for four thousand years, but he was much more energetic than Neoul, who was only twenty years old.
A strong and dependable guardian of the sea.
He had never shown himself disheveled.
That was why the pale face of the Dragon King that he had seen in his dreams kept flashing before his eyes.
Neoul cleared the seaweed from his tail fin and got out of bed to go check on the Dragon King.
At that moment, Eunuch Hong approached Neoul from afar.
"Prince! Prince!"
Eunuch Hong's gestures as he ran towards him were very urgent.
"This is serious! The Dragon King…!"
"...!"
Neoul didn't listen any longer and swam straight to the Dragon King's lair.
Why are ominous feelings always not wrong...!
Eunuch Hong, who had been disguised as a human, returned to his original form, a small jellyfish (red jellyfish), and followed Neoul.
Eunuch Hong, fluttering his small, transparent body, chased Neoul diligently, but the distance between them and Neoul was already far.
***
"Abamama!"
Neoul shouted as he roughly opened the lair's door.
As in a dream, 'Oh my, you rascal.' He thought he would hear a scolding saying, "Are you planning to break the door?"
"Aba.....mama..."
The eyes of the Dragon King, who was lying on the ground with his huge body pressed against the ground, were tightly shut. At that sight, Neoul's heart sank.
The long-lived turtle Chief Royal Secretary was standing by the Dragon King's side, and when he found Neoul, his eyes turned red.
Neoul placed his palms on the Dragon King's large nostrils and the nape of his neck.
Fortunately, he was breathing well, and his pulse was still beating, though faint.
"The royal physician? Where's the royal physician?"
The Dragon King has fallen, and the doctor has not come yet and is just lingering around!
As he looked around anxiously, Chief Royal Secretary answered in a feeble voice.
"It… ran away. The officer is chasing the doctor."
"Huh..?"
Neoul's eyes widened at the shocking sound.
"What on earth do you mean? The royal physician ran away? Why all of a sudden?"
Chief Royal Secretary swallowed hard as if he could not bring himself to open his mouth.
"Whew… The Dragon King told us to keep it a secret from the princes, but I guess we can't hide it any longer."
Then he looked straight into Neoul's eyes with a determined look.
"Your Highness. In fact, the Dragon King didn't suddenly collapse."
"What do you..."
"The Dragon King has been suffering from an unknown illness for a very long time. It was like this even before the prince came to the Dragon Palace. Many doctors who passed through the Dragon Palace struggled to cure the Dragon King's illness, but no one found a proper solution."
Chief Royal Secretary bowed his head as if he was sorry. The eyes of the old turtle's shiny crown wavered.
"I... didn't know anything..."
Until it got to this point.
How could I have been so stupid that I didn't notice it until now?
If someone had warned me in advance, my mind wouldn't have gone blank like this. No one had told me.
I wanted to ask why no one had told me, but it wasn't the time.
I had to figure out a way to cure Abamama's illness. However, there was no way things would go right when I was thrown into this situation without any preparation.
Neoul stared at the Dragon King and Chief Royal Secretary with sad eyes.
Chief Royal Secretary endured Neoul's gaze silently and continued speaking.
"The royal physician who came this time was a very timid man. As soon as he found out that the Dragon King had collapsed, he ran away for fear of getting in trouble."
"....."
Neoul stared at the Dragon King's face, which had been fine until yesterday… or rather, he had 'pretended' to be fine.
Just like in a dream, his face was pale and his eyes were dark, like a sick person. The scales surrounding his entire body also lost their luster.
As the time he watched him grew longer, his face also grew darker.
At that moment, Chief Royal Secretary cautiously opened his mouth.
"It's not that there is no way to recover. It's just that it's so difficult that the Dragon King did not permit it."
"....!"
The sluggish head calmed down and suddenly rose.
What was important now, whether it was permission or not?
Neoul was originally a stubborn prince who would not listen to his father's orders.
It was nothing new to disobey the king's orders a few times.
"What is it? Don't hesitate and tell me quickly!"
Neoul glared and urged him like lightning, so Chief Royal Secretary had no choice but to lift both his front and back legs and confess obediently.
"According to legend, the liver of a land animal called a rabbit is a special medicine, and a long time ago, a brave Byeoljubujeon went to the land and brought a rabbit."
"Rabbit...?"
"Yes. It happened almost 1,400 years ago."
Neoul recalled the dream from last night. In the dream, a strange doctor told him that he had to go to the land to cure the Dragon King's illness.
I thought it was a strange dream, but it must have meant to catch a rabbit.
"Okay, do you feel better after eating the rabbit liver?"
"Unfortunately, it is said that you will not. It is said that the rabbit took out its liver and left it on land, so it left the Dragon Palace with the Star Lady to go get it."
"Can you take your liver out of your body and walk around?"
I don't know what kind of animal it was, but it was truly mysterious.
Indeed. Even sharks could take out their stomachs with their mouths, clean them, and swallow them again to put them back in place.
The world is vast, and there were many places that Neoul had not been to. There might be animals that take out their organs and leave them on the land, which is a different world.
"Yes. That's what it seems. The Dragon King promised to give a position and wealth to anyone if they brought him rabbit's liver. However, the rabbit and Byeoljubujeon left and never returned. Perhaps they encountered some misfortune on their long journey...."
"After that, no one went out to look for the rabbit and Byeoljubujeon? Did they just sit back and wait?"
"No. At first, he sent his servants to search for them. However, all the servants who went out to search for them got caught in human nets or had accidents. After that, the Dragon King gave up the search and prohibited the servants of the Dragon Palace from going to the land."
After speaking, Chief Royal Secretary made a gloomy expression.
Neoul didn't know much about land, but he knew a little about humans.
Humans, unable to even breathe underwater, looked out over the ocean. They set sail, cast nets, and hung strange machines to explore the depths of the ocean.
Living humans were not allowed to enter the Dragon Palace, which was hidden under the protection of the Dragon King.
However, ghosts who fell into the sea and died sometimes got lost and drifted into the Dragon Palace.
The Dragon King gave them a place to stay for a while, and when the grim reaper came to get them, he put them on a large lotus boat and sent them out onto the surface of the sea.
'The ghosts who stayed in the Dragon Palace were all curious about me and tried to talk to me.....'
However, Neoul could not understand human language. Since humans could not understand the language of the Dragon Palace, they had to communicate with ridiculous hand gestures and body language.
All Neoul understood was that waving one's hands left and right or nodding one's head was a human greeting.
Neoul suddenly said, thinking of the human ghosts that were not that threatening to him.
"I will go."
"Yes?"
"I will go to the mainland and find a rabbit to get its liver."
It was a reckless and foolish idea, but...
Once I got to the mainland, I thought I would somehow find a way.
I was going to meet the rabbit somehow and try to bribe, beg, or try to persuade it.
However, Chief Royal Secretary shook his head, saying that it would absolutely not work.
"If the Dragon King wakes up and finds out that the prince has gone to land, he will be very angry! And how can a legless prince wander around the land? I, who have four legs, will go instead!"
Neoul glanced down at the old Chief Royal Secretary's short, plump legs and large shell.
"Chief Royal Secretary will likely be captured by humans before he even reaches the beach."
The servants of the Dragon Palace can transform into humans within the Dragon Palace. However, the moment they leave the Dragon Palace, they are just sea animals.
Only the Dragon King and his bloodline could freely change their appearance outside the Dragon Palace.
Although he was the Dragon King's child, he was not his bloodline, so he could not change his appearance even inside the Dragon Palace.
He became depressed.
"Abamama, my brother, my sister, and my younger brother can all imitate humans, so why can't I?"
"Well, the Dragon King, the first prince and princess are dragons. The youngest prince is a sea serpent who will become a dragon a thousand years later. Prince Neoul is a mermaid, isn't he?"
They are different races. Races.
Chief Royal Secretary poked at Neoul's heart with facts, but Neoul paid no attention and clenched his fists and left the room.
"There must be a way. Whether biological or adopted, they are the same children, so what could be wrong?"
"Isn't it the same as me, a sea turtle, not being able to give birth to a starfish or a shark?"
At this, Neoul raised his eyebrows as if he says something strange.
"Chief Royal Secretary is a male, right? Of course he can't give birth."
"No, that's......."
Chief Royal Secretary, who was speechless for a moment, closed his mouth because he didn't want to answer.
He couldn't shake the disloyal thought that Prince Neoul's free-spirited mouth must have played a big part in the Dragon King's worsening illness.
Still, he was a precious prince whom he had cared for since he was a baby.
All of the ministers, including Chief Royal Secretary, followed Neoul behind and opposed him, saying that land was dangerous.
But Neoul's will was firm.
"I have a good idea! Don't worry and go back to your seats."
"When you say that, I feel even more anxious. Can't you please not come up with any ideas and just stay still? The land is dangerous."
"That's right, Prince. According to the records, humans have even massacred mermaids to obtain mermaid oil. We will somehow come up with another way, so how about you, Prince, return to your quarters for now..."
Huh.
Neoul narrowed his eyes and looked at his subjects, laughing in vain.
"What kind of nonsense is that when everything is so urgent?"
Don't come up with any ideas.
Return to your quarters?
It was like telling the Dragon King's son to just sit back and watch as the Dragon King dies.
I understand you are worried, but it was too much advice.
The ministers, who realized their mistake, were shocked and closed their mouths.
"Oh, no... That's not it..."
One minister tried to quickly collect his words, but Neoul turned away curtly.
There was no time to waste listening to useless excuses.
The Dragon King took in the baby mermaid who had lost his parents and was left alone. He named him 'Neoul' and adopted him as his own child, raising him with care as if he were his own child.
From the time when he was a baby swimming with his short tail until now when he grew up so much. How warmly he treated him, saying, "Our baby, our Neoul-i," and how much he loved him.
Although he often got angry and punished him, he was a fool who thought that his precious baby would die when he turned around.
"If Abamama hadn't taken me in anyway, I would have been eaten by something long ago."
It was time to repay that kindness.
Neoul packed his bags while waiting for the doctor to be catched.
He didn't need much. He was in a hurry and couldn't catch anything on the way, so he only had a bundle of shrimp as emergency food and a blade to prepare for an attack.
Unlike the soldiers of the Dragon Palace who had practiced spearmanship, Neoul had not learned how to use a spear, so he took a small sword that fit perfectly in one hand. At this size, it wouldn't be a hindrance to swimming quickly even if tied to the waist.
"Prince! The officer has caught the doctor!"
Neoul immediately wrapped his bundle around his waist and went outside.
—