Immortal Soul

Aurora's head grew hot as she faced the riddle.

The Witch's blessing had only given her the speed to learn and remember. It seemed to offer no help when it came to difficult problems requiring quick thinking.

"This treasure cannot be seen or touched. It should have no physical form!"

"A treasure without physical form... courage? Or some other virtue, like kindness?"

"No, that's not right. Merfolk possess those qualities too!"

Suddenly, Mermaid Princess Ariel's tightly furrowed brow relaxed. She raised her hand and said:

"I-I know!"

What? Ariel had actually guessed it.

Aurora was thoroughly surprised. This gentle, elegant mermaid princess clearly did not seem like some learned sage.

Could the answer to the riddle be something ordinary humans would struggle to think of, yet something Mermaid Princess Ariel cherished deeply because of her unique experiences?

"The answer, the answer is..." Ariel was about to call it out.

"Stop!"

To everyone's surprise, the Sea Hag sharply rebuked her. "Princess, this riddle is for the two human children. You are not allowed to answer or give them hints."

Ariel had no choice but to stop, frantic with worry.

At some point, she had come to accept these two human friends and become anxious over their gains and losses. Aurora tried offering an answer. "Love! Is the answer love? I mean, a human's love for a mermaid."

She deliberately emphasized a human's love for a mermaid. Was that not something humans possessed while merfolk did not?

The instant she shouted out the answer, the blonde girl felt a burst of joy.

Yes, love could not be seen, yet countless poems praised it. It could not be touched, yet it could be sullied and cleansed. Because love had no physical form, it was lighter than wind and softer than mist! At the same time, love truly was a treasure more precious than gold. And because love could be recorded and passed down, it could endure through the years and never perish.

Besides, had Ariel not recently fallen in love with a Human Prince?

"A human's love for a mermaid" really was something "I could not think of immediately, but Mermaid Princess Ariel had recently been longing for."

It fit! The Sea Hag froze.

A few seconds later, she emotionlessly announced, "Wrong answer."

In that instant, Aurora suddenly understood. She recalled the final line of the riddle: "This treasure is more important to the dead than to the living!"

Love did not meet the condition.

How was she supposed to answer that? Aurora frowned.

Just then, a clear, ringing boy's voice sounded. "Immortal Soul."

Rhine, the Silver-haired Boy who had not answered until now, suddenly lifted his chin and repeated the answer word by word. "An eternal, immortal soul."

Ariel's mouth fell open. Her eyes first widened as she stared at Rhine, then she broke into a smile and let out a long breath for her two new friends.

She knew this human friend had answered correctly.

"Huh? What does that mean?" Aurora did not understand at once.

Did this answer fit the riddle? Rhine slowly explained, "An eternal, immortal soul is the answer to this riddle.

"No one can see a soul, yet countless poems and writings praise it.

"No one can touch a soul, yet it can be sullied and cleansed—we often say that vile teachings sully the soul, while sacred scenes cleanse it.

"A soul has no weight, so it is lighter than wind. Its value cannot be measured, so it is more precious than gold.

"A soul is softer than mist, yet because it is eternal and immortal, it never perishes even after the passage of time.

"Most importantly, an immortal soul is naturally more important to the dead than to the living! It is precisely because the flesh perishes that the soul's immortality has meaning."

After hearing Rhine's explanation, Aurora vaguely felt that something was off.

Had the teacher deliberately overlooked one line in the riddle?

"But didn't the riddle say..." Aurora opened her mouth to question him, but Rhine seemed to have already known what she wanted to ask.

Rhine calmly said, "Yes, Aurora. Just as the riddle says, humans possess immortal souls, while merfolk and other intelligent nonhuman beings do not."

Beside them, Mermaid Princess Ariel lowered her head without saying a word.

"Your answer is correct." The Sea Hag smiled, then burst into laughter. "Human, I never expected you to know. Even in the kingdoms beneath this sea, only a handful of wise elders know this secret."

The aged Sea Witch continued:

"Humans have far shorter lifespans than merfolk and other intelligent beings of the sea.

"But what you humans possess, and what we lack, is precisely that radiant immortal soul.

"Some say that when the flesh perishes, the immortal soul flies into the clear sky, toward the shining stars, and rises into the heavenly realm; or, in especially terrible circumstances, it falls without end, descending below the seabed to the deepest depths of the earth.

"In short, it goes to another world, a world we can never see.

"Others say that immortal souls return to the mortal world and arrive once more in the form of newborn babies.

"When an old person passes away and their loved ones let out their first cry of grief, somewhere in the world another infant lets out an equally loud wail. Death and new life are conjoined twin sisters. They have always held each other tightly, never to be separated.

"Since history began, no person has ever truly died."

At this point, the Sea Hag's smile turned somewhat crazed.

"All of those claims are merely beautiful poems exclusive to you humans.

"But we intelligent nonhuman beings, once we pass away, can only become a cluster of bubbles, a puddle of slime, and vanish without a trace.

"Because unlike you, we do not possess immortal souls."

So that was how it was... Rhine sighed inwardly.

Even though he had long known the answer, actually being present in this scene gave him an entirely different feeling.

In some adapted and simplified versions of The Little Mermaid, or stories retitled Little Mermaid, the tale between the mermaid princess and the prince was merely a love story easy for children to understand.

The Little Mermaid wanted to become human because she loved the prince.

In the end, she sacrificed herself by turning into foam beneath the morning sun, seen as dying for love.

And the story formally ended with the tragically beautiful sight of the Little Mermaid's body dissolving into foam.

She lived for love, and died for love.

But in Andersen's writing, this story seemed to hold deeper theological meaning and religious symbolism.

One crucial reason the Little Mermaid wished to marry the prince was that she sought an eternal, imperishable soul. She wanted to gain an immortal soul herself by loving and marrying a human.

This religious undertone extended to the ending as well. After turning into foam, the Little Mermaid seemingly heard the voices of angels and became a daughter of the sky.

God's radiance lay hidden within the text of the story.

God... Rhine's thoughts churned.

He also noticed that the Sea Hag's account of immortal souls differed enormously from the original story.

In the original tale, the "immortal soul" was described only as ascending to heaven.

But according to the Sea Hag, although the wise beings of the sea knew of the existence of "immortal souls," their destination remained a mystery.

They might rise, they might fall, or they might even be reincarnated:

"When an old person passes away and their loved ones let out their first cry of grief, somewhere in the world another infant lets out an equally loud wail. Death and new life are conjoined twin sisters. They have always held each other tightly, never to be separated."

Rhine was certain that not a single word of this statement matched the original.

Its core meaning was also entirely different from Christian scholastic thought. It did not imply the existence of any sole deity; instead, it somewhat resembled the Buddhist cycle of reincarnation, diluting the original theological flavor.

Did that mean that in this fantasy world, "human souls are eternal and imperishable" was merely an objective law of nature, no more special than "water flows from high places to low ones" or "the sun rises in the east and sets in the west"?

Humanity's immortal souls were not gifts from a god.

This fantasy world of magic most likely had no omniscient, omnipotent God!

At that thought, Rhine quietly let out a sigh of relief.

The Sea Hag snorted coldly. "But do not forget, solving the first riddle alone means nothing. You still have two more questions to answer."

No wonder this is the price demanded by the Sea Hag! Mermaid Princess Ariel thought, feeling even more uneasy.

After Rhine and Aurora, she too would have to make a wish to the Sea Hag: to grow human legs, go to land, and be with the prince.

So what would the price be?

"Now for the second question. Listen carefully, humans."

The Sea Hag called out loudly:

"Humans, you already know the answer to the first question: an eternal, immortal soul.

"Then tell me, how long is eternity?

"Is eternity a hundred years? A thousand years? Or ten thousand years? Wise humans, tell me the length of eternity."