THE ANGER.

"Don't you think you're already crossing the boundaries of logic?"

"I don't understand what you're talking about!"

"You're stuck here, he's stuck here, I'm stuck here… but unlike you, we both have an idea of how to get out. With my power, that won't be a problem. As for you, without me, you'll be stuck here forever!"

I didn't want to continue the conversation. I didn't want to agree or argue with the prince. He was right about my worthlessness, but he was wrong about me wanting to get out… I wanted to stay, and never to see him again! Never!

"Don't you realize that I can hear everything?"

"Well, listen up, I don't care! Put me back in this cursed spirit state of existing or non-existing and get out of here, both of you, since you're such experts!"

"Hey, kid, don't get so worked up," the Water Master intervened. "You do remember why I'm here, right?"

"Your stupidity is the answer, I guess no one asked you to jump into the pond! You made this decision yourself." I was angry, and it was heard in my voice, or rather the Prince's voice, which made my anger boil even more.

"You seem to have forgotten that the Great Master sent me to look after you. Perhaps, you would still like to go back and ask him personally about the reasons for such concern?"

Now that was an approach, to lure and catch. Ha! You picked the wrong guy, you demon, you can't play these games with me!

"Yang Su, calm down. This demoted one is partly right. Even I wonder why your Great Master was lenient with you!"

How cursed I must have been to tolerate that voice in my mind...

"Be patient, Yang Su. I will let you go as soon as we get out…" The Prince literally begged me, didn't he?

"You can nicely do without me! No one wants to keep you here! Just leave already!" I was so angry that I dreamed of the Abyss swallowing me up and never returning anywhere again. Now he behaved as usual, he was kind, then gentle, then humiliating, then offending, and in the end, you again become his dog on a leash, called to serve at the snap of his fingers.

"I won't do this again, I won't offend you! Let's just calm down and try to come back."

It would not work, not with me and not again. I was angry.

"Stop fighting me, accept my help voluntarily. I can order you after all…"

"There!" Unable to bear it, I heard my own scream breaking through the curtain of the Prince's voice. "That's exactly what I was talking about! Subjugate! Control! Do everything only at your command! You are the lousiest creature I've ever met! You are selfish, impudent, domineering, and cruel! You do not accept refusals and never give a choice! All your words are to amuse your own vanity while you watch your prey suffer from doubts! You are the same as your father, although you do not want to admit it!"

Having blurted it all out at once, I felt an incredible relief… but at the same moment, something else was growing inside me. Anger? No, it didn't feel like my anger. Disappointment? No, I didn't feel any pain or resentment. What was it that was burning me from the inside, while for the first time I allowed myself to say everything I had wanted to for a long time, but at the same moment, I could not feel the joy and lightness of being freed from everything that had oppressed me before.

It seemed to me that having said all this, he would get angry and throw me away from him, thereby parting with my spirit. But why was I still a part of him? And what was happening?

And then it seemed to me like someone touched me. Turning around, I saw the silhouette of the Water Master, a clearly puzzled expression on his blured face, neither sadness nor joy, but obvious excitement was present on it.

"Ah, young man, did you ever know that the heart that loves in secret is like a river flowing underground—hidden, yet still nourished by its own blood. But you, just now, seem to have made it dry up. I'm afraid there will be consequences."

"What do you mean? Who are you even talking about? What do I have to do with this…" I turned around and hurried to ask him, but was interrupted by a sharp change in my own state…

I was plunging, plunging again into something very familiar, gentle, and lulling, clouding my mind. It was as if a veil of emptiness had covered me, suspending me in space and time. No voices, no feelings, no sensations. And this made me finally a bit happy.