"Hey, Lloyd Frontera!"
Lloyd knitted his brows in response to the loud, angry shout. He immediately recognized where it was coming from.
"You surprised me. What's going on? I thought you were taking a vacation." Lloyd asked Pantalasa inside his manaheart.
"Vacation, my ass! I almost died!" snapped Pantalasa right away.
"Eh? Why?"
"Are you seriously asking because you don't know?"
Lloyd wondered why Pantalasa was so offended. He soon found out why.
"What was that heat pouring into your manaheart? It almost melted me away into nothing!"
"Eh?"
"Eh, my foot! Explain yourself?" bawled Pantalasa.
"Um, I'm not trying to make excuses. I honestly didn't know about this. Sorry," Lloyd admitted right away, having forgotten about the elemental in his manaheart. "I already made plans to absorb the Tears of Summer a while ago and have merely been working towards my final goal until now. Today just happened to be the day for it. But I never gave you a warning beforehand. That was my fault. I'm so sorry."
Lloyd knew it was pathetic to become defensive and give out a string of excuses when he did something wrong. Keeping this in mind, he fully admitted his mistake.
"And what about you? Are you all right?"
"All right?" Pantalasa's voice was still gruff, but Lloyd could see it had softened. "I nearly died. That was the most brutal heat I've ever experienced."
"Still, it looks like you lived."
"Are you mocking me?"
"I'm saying that I'm glad that you're alive."
"You are mocking me."
"Well, there's not much I can say to convince you otherwise."
Lloyd shrugged, getting a vague sense of what his elemental friend experienced.
"It was exactly as if someone poured a bucket of hot water on you while you were happily cooling off in front of the AC, right?"
"I don't know what an AC is, but you're right about a bucketful of water. So, I want to make a complaint. This wasn't a part of our promise."
"Eh? Hold it right there. We never made a promise like that," clarified Lloyd.
"What?" Pantalasa stopped.
"I'm telling you the truth. You asked me if you could stay in my manaheart, and I agreed. In that process, did I ever promise you that my manaheart or the environment inside it would stay the same? I don't remember doing so."
Pantalasa didn't say anything.
"I'm sorry that I didn't inform you about this earlier, but it's not a violation of any promise. It's morally wrong, but legally? Not so much."
"Ha! You are unbelievable..." Pantalasa's voice started to sound angry again.
Lloyd, on the other hand, did not care one bit. He said he was sorry and saw no reason to go any further and compensate him for what happened.
"Then, what do you want? You can lash out at me and protest all you want. However, the inside of my manaheart isn't going to become cold again like before since I've already absorbed the Tears of Summer. So, choose for yourself."
"Choose what?"
"Stay in my manaheart or go back to the Pantara Range."
“...”
"I'll give up my position as the elemental king and return it to you if that's what you want," said Lloyd frankly. This was the best he could do. "From my perspective, you'll simply be going back to where you belong, and everything will go back to its original state. Of course, I'll lose the elementals I planned to use for the maintenance of the railroad. However, that's something I'll accept as the price I'm paying for the harm I caused you. How does that sound?"
“...”
Lloyd's straightforward and honest offer came as a surprise to Pantalasa, who remained silent for a second after hearing those words. Then, he composed himself and reflected on what he wanted. After a moment of contemplation, the answer easily came to him.
"I don't want to," said Pantalasa.
"What? You don't want to?"
"That's right. I don't want to go back."
"To the Pantara Range? Why's that?" Lloyd cocked his head because he could not wrap his brain around it. He believed Pantalasa would be glad to accept the offer, but he was mistaken.
Pantalasa was firm."If you are asking me why... It'd be a waste to end my vacation here."
"Haha?"
"I haven't even had the chance to properly enjoy my break after billions of years of work. Yet, I have to go back right this moment to the Pantara Range and resume my role as the elemental king? That feels a bit unfair."
Lloyd grasped Pantalasa's point immediately. "I understand what you are saying. Well, to a certain extent. It would be similar to if an employee was summoned back to their company due to an emergency on their first day of vacation. Anyone would get upset in that situation. Even if it was a monk or priest, they would probably lose their temper and start yelling."
"I don't know what you mean by a monk or priest, but yes. Somewhat. I don't want to end my rare vacation here and go back."
"Do you plan to continue staying in my manaheart then?" asked Lloyd.
"No."
"What?"
"It's gotten too hot there to stay. But I don't want to end my vacation right now and go back to the Pantara Range. I don't like either option."
"What do you want then?" asked Lloyd with annoyance.
"Show me a place that is as cold as how it used to be inside your manaheart," Pantalasa replied in an instant.
"Hm? If I do, are you planning to enjoy the rest of your vacation there?"
"Exactly. By chance, is there any place you have in mind?"
"Hmm..." Lloyd pondered as Pantalasa's suggestion didn't sound so bad. "Let's see..."
Lloyd racked his brain and thought about a place Pantalasa would enjoy staying in. Of course, he quickly found the answer. It would be the coldest place in the world and somewhere that he had visited before. A place that would benefit from just the mere presence of Pantalasa.
"If you love the cold so much... How about going to the North Pole?"
"North Pole?" Lloyd's question made Pantalasa's heart pound.
♣
His suggestion of the North Pole had beautiful outcomes. It pleased not only Lloyd and Pantalasa but the mermaids in the area as well. It was a win-win situation for everyone.
"I've never known that such a beautiful place existed!"
Pantalasa had not stepped a foot anywhere outside the Pantara Range for the past tens of millions of years until now. The only exception to this was inside Lloyd's manaheart. And so, he was shocked and goggle-eyed as soon as he arrived at the North Pole. The sea was covered in sheets of ice. There were glaciers floating around wherever he laid his eyes. Moreover, the biting winds were so cold they nearly pierced through his skin. Everything was perfect except for one thing.
What's that? Something strange is hanging in the sky.
Pantalasa, who had been endlessly praising the North Pole ever since he came out of Lloyd's manaheart, pointed to the sky. There was a large, blazing chasm where he gestured. It was the Hell Gate, which served as a bridge to the other realm. Pantalasa's gaze sharpened at the sight of the Hell Gate.
"This place is fantastic. I like everything about it except for that. What's that ugly thing doing in this beautiful place? Why is there a grotesque hole emitting fiery heat into this wonderfully cold air?"
It appeared that Pantalasa was not fond of the Hell Gate. He moved before Lloyd could even get in a word, using all of his strength to create an icy storm and force it into the gate against the intense heat. As if he were an AC countering a heater, the former king challenged his opponent to a fight. Unexpectedly, Pantalasa won, and his strategy involved fixing an icy storm directly in front of the gate to neutralize the heat coming out of it. This method turned out to be sufficient to lower the temperature from the heat.
The heat from the Hell Gate had been raising the temperature of the planet for a while now. However, the problem had been resolved at long last. The merpeople cheered out in delight. Lloyd felt a sense of relief watching them.
"You look like you have removed a bothersome weight off your shoulders," observed Javier coolly.
"Well, you're not completely wrong," admitted Lloyd.
Whoosh... Lloyd shrugged his shoulders on top of Yong Yong's hand as he left the North Pole waters. He flashed a wide grin at Javier, who was narrowing his eyes at him, and asked, "Still, everyone's happy in the end, right?"
It was a win-win scenario. Lloyd had killed three birds with one stone: Pantalasa was allowed to continue his vacation, the merpeople fixed the global warming conundrum, and Lloyd solved the problem that troubled him. He practically performed a miracle.
"Now, it's time to go to the capital and say hi," announced Lloyd.
"To whom?" asked Javier.
"To the queen." It was time, Lloyd thought. He already obtained the Tears of Summer. To be honest, he had no business with the queen.
From now on, I've to find out how I can stop the restoration of destiny.
That was what occupied his thoughts as he traveled to the capital, requested an audience with the queen, and walked to the queen's office. Of course, he would not be able to find a solution in such a short moment. However, he still put a lot of effort into finding another answer to the dilemma of choosing between his life and Javier's.
But it doesn't matter.
Time was on his side, at least according to the previous Ending Spoiler, and he had about two years before destiny kicked into high gear. Until then, he only needed to think harder, study harder, and work harder. He could find the solution within two years. Lloyd believed that there was an answer somewhere that didn't require sacrificing himself or Javier. With it, he direly hoped he could live a normal and leisurely life.
I want that to be the case.
His life had been filled with nothing but struggle. That was why he wanted to live a normal life. He wanted a leisurely life with no tragedies or worries about tomorrow. Lloyd wanted to experience a new era of his life that he could look back at without any regrets.
I'll make it happen.
Lloyd cautiously hoped to himself, but he also strengthened his will to work hard for two more years to make his goal a reality at any cost. He reassured himself that he could achieve it and was capable of doing so. Then, he entered the queen's office to bid her farewell as well as explain he was returning to his fiefdom and would not return to the capital for a bit.
"I, Lloyd Frontera, the eldest son of the Frontera County, am honored to be in the audience of the rightful owner of this land," Lloyd announced once he was in. His plan was to tell her that he needed to return to his fiefdom because his business in the capital was finished. Then, the young lord prepared his next words, making sure they sounded polite and gentle so as not to offend the queen.
But as the queen turned to face him, when he saw the slight grin on her face. His thoughts turned blank.
Hold on.
As Queen Alicia turned around to him, her left arm made an awkward movement in that short period of time. It almost seemed paralyzed or unresponsive from anesthetic. She attempted to hide the fact from Lloyd. However, he saw the brief motion of her arm, and something sprang into his brain.
Left arm paralysis.
The Ending Spoiler. The paralysis of Queen Alicia's left arm. When the thought entered Lloyd's mind, he realized instinctively that he was mistaken about having more than enough time and that the moment had already arrived for him to make a decision.
