Chapter 176

01 “Listen, and I’ll tell you an old story.” Freyja turned and spoke to the others, all of whom were still in shock at their grim situation. The red-haired woman’s tale proved to be an old one for anyone who’d grown up in the Labyrinth City. For Mariela, however, it was a story about the world she’d spent so much of her life in. However, it held far more connection to the others in the room. The Kingdom of Endalsia. Monsters never drew near to the country the spirits protected, not even the parts near the Fell Forest. This safety brought great wealth and prosperity. Nowhere was this more evident than in the royal castle. It is said that fruit is ripest just before it falls. Long-standing peace fostered pride in the kingdom’s people. They forgot to whom they owed their successes. The extravagant folk in the royal palace served and lionized the power that was attached to lineage and fortune. To them, these were rights within their fabricated rules of society, passed from one generation to the next. This was the same for noble families or royalty. If one were to forget lineage, those who clawed after glory in the kingdom had only grown fat from their complacency. However, people proved to be foolish and arrogant, growing more conceited every time someone bowed to them. They thought they were of a chosen lineage and had special abilities. A man was born with the right to succeed the throne, but he was forced to surrender it to his younger brother and take the position of chancellor because that man wasn’t born with the Spirit Eye, a trait that was considered to be the eye of the queen of the forest spirits. The man was unwilling to sit by and accept that he’d lost the right to the throne simply because his eye was the wrong color. The chancellor had always desired the power of the king’s seat. On the day his grandfather, who had the Spirit Eye, passed away, the one to take the throne was the chancellor’s brother. His brother was a far younger man than he. The ascendancy had even skipped over the chancellor’s father, who had abdicated his position to serve as an adviser to the chancellor’s grandfather. The chancellor’s father ordered him to support his younger brother and guard the country, but the chancellor could not accept his position. His younger brother was kind, and he excelled at hunting and singing, but he was too foolish and mediocre a person. His personality and skills were unsuited for ruling a kingdom. “Moldy old traditions are out of date. Having some special eye doesn’t mean you should govern a country.” From the time he was a child, everyone had served and bowed to the chancellor. This was, of course, because of his former position as the crown prince, not any abilities of his own. However, the chancellor had never known any other life; he was blind to the reason. The chancellor spent time scheming to claim the crown for himself. If outdated customs were the problem, he would erase them from history. “Offering power to a spirit’s eye is a contemptuous affront to the authority of the king. The Kingdom of Endalsia is a country that prospers by the hand of the king. All glory to his majesty.” Extolling the power of the king, the chancellor worked to abolish the reverence of the Spirit Eye from history. He even went so far as to expunge it from the fairy tales that children read. Slowly and steadily, the chancellor rewrote the memory and history of the people. Those who’d lived in peace for so long had already begun to think of the story of Endalsia’s founding to be just a myth. If official records were altered and rewritten, the next step was simply to wait. Fortunately for the plotting chancellor, his father passed away before long. The stress of overwork and his own frustrations at not inheriting the Spirit Eye had finally caught up with him. It was said the foolish, kind young king who possessed the Spirit Eye came up short when it came to dealing with matters of national politics. So the chancellor often offered his assistance. In time the king came to rely on the counsel of his older sibling. People praised the pair’s close relationship, unaware of their chancellor’s designs to snatch his brother’s life and the kingdom. They grew intoxicated on the luxury of what they saw as the kingdom’s preordained prosperity. When the young king wanted the most celebrated princess in the imperial capital to be his queen, the chancellor showed a kind and cooperative attitude and pressed him to make a young, enthusiastic nobleman the go-between. “Many desire the hand of the beautiful princess, but she rebukes them all. Better to employ a keen youth to convey the feelings of the king than a qualified matchmaker.” “I see. You are clever as always, Brother. The princess has enough dresses and jewels to be tired of them. Presents would hardly earn her affections.” It was an absurd conversation. There was no way for a young noble without an appropriate position or extravagant presents to catch the interest of a beautiful princess whom everyone wanted to marry. The chancellor silently mocked the foolish young king for failing to understand even such a simple matter. The scheming elder brother saw no opposition to his plan, save the possibility of the king siring an heir. In order to ensure the failure of the marriage, he arranged to move forward with talks that existed in formality only. Even the messenger he’d chosen for the job was meant to be ineffective; a serious young noble with a strong sense of justice, the kind of man who was more a dull nuisance than anything else. However, the imprudent plan proved to backfire. Miraculously, or perhaps disastrously, the youthful nobleman managed to finalize the marriage between the princess and the king. “To think he gave me a full room’s worth of such valuable rainbow flowers. Such passion, such beauty. They’re more precious than any jewel. I gratefully accept the king’s feelings.” The nobleman who happened to catch the chancellor’s attention turned out to be an alchemist. Apparently, he’d had some connection that afforded him a number of rainbow flowers. Just a single bloom was a valuable treasure, but the princess now had a large room overflowing with them. The young noble who served as matchmaker, Robroy Aguinas, was appointed as head alchemist in the Kingdom of Endalsia. On an autumn day, after a five-year engagement period, the princess was joyously married into the Kingdom of Endalsia. “So the engagement can no longer be extended? It will prove most troublesome should an heir be born. I will have to go forward ahead of schedule,” the chancellor decided. The king was grateful that his brother had won him the woman he desired, but even that sentiment was unpleasant to the chancellor. Heedless to the chancellor’s plot, people all over the country were thrilled at the marriage of the young king and beautiful queen. The winter days in Endalsia passed by amid great enthusiasm. On one spring night, as joy still lingered amid the people, the queen had a strange dream. A spirit with a single green eye told the queen to flee the land. Monsters from the Fell Forest were closing in. The mysterious entity who appeared in the dream and the destruction she showed were as vivid as reality. The queen trusted it was more than just a construct of her own thought, and she tried to tell the king it was a vision from the spirits. But the king, so drunk from prolonged supping at the cup of peace, merely laughed it off. The dream became more vivid by the day, and the queen’s anxiety worsened. Only the head alchemist, the king and queen’s matchmaker, paid any heed to the story. “Lord Robroy. Please, take me away from the Fell Forest.” The newlywed queen’s request was inspired by what the spirit in her dream had said “Please, protect the new king growing within you.” The spirit’s words had meant that the queen was pregnant. Thus, the queen fabricated an excuse. “I’m going to visit my sick and bedridden mother,” she’d said. She fled the Kingdom of Endalsia with the alchemist Robroy and the few attendants she’d brought with her when she married into the royal family. The day the queen traveled through the Fell Forest was the day the chancellor usurped the throne. The moment the life of the king possessing the Spirit Eye was snuffed out, the divine protection of the spirits vanished, and the era of safety for the Kingdom of Endalsia safe was over. It was then that the monsters of the Fell Forest began their attack… “This is the reality of the Stampede two hundred years ago. After that, I went into my sleep. If there’s anything else about that time that made it through the years, you’ll know more than me.” Freyja gave a nod as she finished reciting the old story. This was the truth of the Stampede, unknown to even Leonhardt and Weishardt. The story had contained some monumentally important facts. Even Robert, who seemed somewhat uncomfortable in this gathering, looked at Freyja with surprise at what her story revealed about the origins of the Aguinas family. Freyja’s tale was consistent with the state of the ley line seen a short while ago, and the young man with a Spirit Eye standing before them. Leonhardt pondered for a moment, then hit upon a question for the golden-eyed sage. “There’s something that doesn’t make sense about this story behind the Stampede.” Weishardt seemingly shared his brother’s concerns, and he picked up the thread of conversation by recounting the history of the Stampede’s immediate aftermath. 02 The Stampede that swallowed the Kingdom of Endalsia was on a large scale, and it was certain that the monsters that had invaded were responsible for the creation of the Labyrinth. Left to its own designs, the subterranean structure would eventually grow to an unmanageable scale, and sooner or later both the Labyrinth monsters and those of the Fell Forest would probably surge all the way to the imperial capital. Up until its collapse, the Empire viewed the Kingdom of Endalsia as a wealthy, amicable neighbor that was difficult to attack, but that also was very unlikely to attack the capital due to its isolation in the Fell Forest. The differing ley lines also strengthened their mutual independence. The wars of humankind tended to be ones of attrition, if powerful recovery methods such as healing magic and potions were available. The side that invaded its opponent’s ley line was forced into a considerably tough fight if it didn’t capture a fair number of that ley line’s alchemists to ensure its own methods of recovery. Moreover, the Fell Forest lay between the Empire and the Kingdom of Endalsia, so no matter how many monster-warding potions were used, an army would have a difficult time moving through it. Furthermore, only the Kingdom of Endalsia had the special circumstances of being under the divine protection of the spirits that repelled monsters. The kingdom was small but very wealthy due to fertile soil, mineral resources from the nearby mountains, and monster materials gathered from the Fell Forest. As such, there were no plans to make serious sacrifices to cross the Fell Forest and expand the kingdom’s domain. That was why the Empire built its capital close to the kingdom, about a week away by carriage. It was the safest place for the Empire among the enemy nations surrounding its borders. However, two centuries ago, the Kingdom of Endalsia was engulfed by the Stampede and became a territory ruled by monsters. It was a catastrophe that none had seen coming. Even if the Empire wanted to destroy the Labyrinth and take back the country, the Fell Forest and the different ley lines—once perfect demarcations for different nations—now stood in the way like an impregnable fortress. If they didn’t at least establish a base near the Labyrinth for subjugation, it would be an utterly impossible task. Without a way to keep the Labyrinth in check, monsters could easily swarm from there and the forest again. Another stampede would spell doom for the imperial capital, and by extension, the entire Empire. Under these circumstances, Margrave Schutzenwald, who bore the responsibility of protecting the country against the Fell Forest, guarded the escaped queen of Endalsia. The margrave also accepted the entreaty of the kingdom’s head alchemist—whom the queen had brought with her—to raise an army for the purpose of taking the kingdom back from the fiends who had stolen it. Margrave Schutzenwald’s troops charged through the Fell Forest without rest. When they finally arrived, the place they found was not a city with a beautiful protective white wall, nor a dazzling royal castle, but an uninhabitable ruin where innumerable people had perished and monsters scavenged for corpses. The collapsed protective wall, the destroyed structures, and the state of the trampled, broken, and exposed pavement told a story of a terrible force that had crashed onto the unsuspecting kingdom like an avalanche. The country was in such ruins it seemed a miracle that any had survived. Some people had held on to their lives by sheer coincidence, traveling to foreign lands before the attack. The monsters from the forest were thought to have devoured every single person who was too slow to get away or hide, and then the creatures resorted to eating one another. Legend had it that the last remaining monster dove into the earth, creating the Labyrinth. Evidence supporting this came from the number of monsters present when Margrave Schutzenwald’s forces arrived at the ruined kingdom and found the Labyrinth in its place. There didn’t appear to be many more of the fiends than there could’ve been in the Fell Forest before the Stampede. For such an unbelievable atrocity, they expected the lands to be overflowing with the vile creatures. However, even with only the same number of monsters as in there were in the Fell Forest, a considerable amount of time was needed to secure a place where people could live. Plus, there was this new problem of the Labyrinth. The theory proposed by scholars of the imperial capital was that there was a correlation between the number of Stampede victims and the scale of the Labyrinth. Based on this conjecture, the Labyrinth in the ruins of the kingdom was thought to have been on an extraordinarily large scale. This great maze of underground tunnels had to be destroyed to ensure another event like the Stampede would never happen again. It was a task of utmost importance for the safety of the Empire. A base for subjugation was constructed near the Labyrinth to someday return this land to human hands. Overtime, this bastion grew into a city. “Thus the Labyrinth City was created. Even now, two hundred years after the Stampede, the fact that we have not defeated the Labyrinth makes it clear that it was never going to be an easy journey. Even the emperor freely offered his support due to the extremity of the situation. It was not a venture that would last under the weak cause of merely ‘taking back the Kingdom of Endalsia.’ A more definite and just cause was required. That was why the emperor had the princess of the ruined country marry into the house of Margrave Schutzenwald.” The queen, who’d fled from the Kingdom of Endalsia just before the Stampede, had been pregnant. The house of Margrave Schutzenwald welcomed the newborn princess, and the Empire proposed they undertake the moral duty of recapturing their homeland and incorporate the former site of the Kingdom of Endalsia into the margrave’s territory. The Labyrinth City, having lost the divine protection of the spirits, was a dangerous place. Monsters came and went freely, and food supplies were scarce. Even if the territory were to be reclaimed for humanity, it wasn’t worth the resources the Empire would have to spend taking it in the first place. The reason the house of Margrave Schutzenwald agreed to such an undertaking was because they also held territory in the place that would be the first to fall prey to another Stampede. The margrave’s family also could not abide the damage that would befall the neighboring countries. The house of Margrave Schutzenwald was a direct descendant from the Kingdom of Endalsia and its rightful successor. For this reason, they continued to shed their blood and challenge the Labyrinth for two hundred long years. All for the dream of reclaiming their homeland. However, if their lineage truly could be traced back to the old royal family, why had no proof that they were worthy of the throne materialized? Not a single person belonging to the Schutzenwald family had the Spirit Eye. “The princess descended from the royal family married into our family. Our house should have inherited the blood of the spirit Endalsia,” said Weishardt. This was both an assertion of facts and a question of its truth. His statement was directed at both the Sage of Calamity Freyja and at Siegmund. He was asking why Sieg had the Spirit Eye. “The Schutzenwalds are indeed of the same lineage of the Endalsian royal family,” Freyja said with a look in her golden eyes that suggested a deeper knowing than any had suspected. The way Freyja’s gaze pierced the two brothers suggested that she had more knowledge of the blood in their veins than they did. What she said next removed any doubt they’d ever held about the fiery-haired woman being a sage. “But you know, the child that the spirit Endalsia gave her eye to was a boy.” Everyone present followed Freyja’s gaze over to Sieg. “…Inheritance through the male line only?” Leonhardt muttered. His own Lion’s Roar possessed an identical quirk. Skills were mysterious things, generally considered to be passed through bloodlines, but some could only be inherited by men, and others only by women. There were even some skills—referred to as “divine protection”—that made themselves known only in one person per era, while others manifested only in those who satisfied particular requirements. If Freyja spoke the truth, Sieg’s Spirit Eye was probably the same way. Only male offspring could inherit the skill’s gene, and when the previous skill owner in the family died, only one person would be chosen from among those who satisfied the conditions and possessed the gene. Although the Schutzenwald family intermingled with the blood of the Endalsian royal family by way of the princess, they hadn’t inherited the skill gene for the Spirit Eye. Meanwhile, multiple other people had been confirmed to possess the Spirit Eye during the intervening centuries; Sieg being the most recent. “In your tale just now, the spirit said, ‘protect the new king.’ In other words, you’re saying the queen of the ruined country had twins…?” It wasn’t an impossibility. A prince of a ruined land would only be a nuisance to a family so devoted to sacrificing everything for the sake of subjugating the Labyrinth. No matter who he was, it would be impossible for someone with no country, no people, and no funds to offer compensation equaling those sacrifices. Did they pretend from the beginning that the queen had only given birth to a girl? Was the prince snatched from his cradle just as he was about to be killed? No one knew the answer. Thanks to the efforts of a certain chancellor, nearly everyone had forgotten the significance of the Spirit Eye. The prince preserved his bloodline, hidden as a commoner with an unusual eye coloration, in a remote region near the Fell Forest. “Your parents never told you anything of this?” Weishardt asked Sieg. The hunter, still at a loss for words, shook his head. “I was raised to ‘become a man worthy of the Spirit Eye.’” These were the words Sieg’s late father had left him with. Likely his father hadn’t known any of this, either. Without even knowing the significance of his own words, Siegmund’s father respected the divine protection of the Spirit Eye and imparted its importance to his son. “Become worthy.” Worthy of being Endalsia’s king. “Phew…” Leonhardt breathed a deep sigh. He couldn’t overlook this. A legitimate successor to this ruined country… However, Freyja dispelled his concerns. “That isn’t something to worry about. The Kingdom of Endalsia is long gone. What is a country? A plot of land? A ley line? Two hundred years isn’t a short amount of time, y’know. What have you been fighting to protect all that time? Money? Land? No. It’s the people who live here, right? If so, ask them. ‘What is this place?’ This place has long since been the Labyrinth City, governed by the Schutzenwalds. His Spirit Eye is certainly Endalsia’s eye, but spirits don’t understand human constructs like kings and countries in the first place. People can put the owner of the Spirit Eye in whatever position they like; it’s for humankind’s own convenience. The spirits don’t care.” Mariela, who had been quietly holding Sieg’s hand the whole time, looked at the floating particles of light around the man. When she went to the Spirit Sanctuary as a child, the spirits were much larger and took the forms of butterflies, birds, even people. Now their shapes were frail, barely visible. However, every one of the lights playing in Sunlight’s Canopy repeatedly danced around Sieg. Somehow, they seemed very happy. “The spirits really love Sieg, and I think if he’s happy, that’s enough for them.” Freyja laughed and nodded at the words that slipped from her pupil’s mouth. “That’s right, Mariela. To be exact, the spirits probably sense their own ruler, Endalsia, in him. The Spirit Eye is a catalyst that strengthens the power of the spirits. That’s why even these weak, formless spirits can manifest themselves here. These ones are simple, so they’re plenty happy so long as this place is comfortable and the owner of the Spirit Eye is nice. A kingdom that’s long since been destroyed doesn’t make any difference to them.” “In other words, what’s important is to destroy the Labyrinth before the spirit Endalsia is completely consumed.” Weishardt communicated the obvious while holding in a sigh. It was easy to put it into words. But how much time and effort had they spent just to get where they were now? “Yep. There’s not much time left.” “Lady Sage, you have put it so simply, but…” Nierenberg, who’d been careful with his words up to this point, admonished Freyja’s light tone. The crease between his eyebrows was much deeper than it had ever been before. “Oh, what was that? Your butt brow’s gotten real bad, Doc. I’m telling you, it’s fine. You understand the gist of the arrangement, don’t you? Potions appeared on the market and people started coming to the City. People should go into the Labyrinth nonstop. Even killing just one goblin weakens the place. Throw the entire City in there if you have to.” “That’s certainly true, but even people from beyond the City won’t be nearly enough. A great many people here have injuries that prevent them from going into the Labyrinth.” Carefree Freyja and cautious Nierenberg were two polar opposites. The red-haired sage didn’t seem to care, but the doctor’s harsh verbal assault seemed to slowly fall apart. “That’s why you have special-grade potions, isn’t it?” “However, the only specialized ones we have right now are for eyes. If someone lost an arm or a leg, no potion would be able to heal something like that.” Potions had limits on their restoration potential, and if too much time had passed since someone lost a limb, it was said that the body might prove unable to grow it back, even with magical assistance. Freyja was quick to laugh down that concern. “What’re you saying? Of course you can. You’ve healed bad wounds with high-grade potions before when you didn’t have special-grade ones, right? Surely you have both the skills and the knowledge. Rob has the knowledge you lack, Doc.” Nierenberg had no response for her irreverence. People feared him as though he were a monster himself, and they avoided his bloodstained hands. Despite being more than accustomed to looks like that, Nierenberg wasn’t sure what to do when face-to-face with someone like Freyja, who didn’t care about his perceived reputation and recognized his abilities and accomplishments. Freyja shifted away from the doctor, who had fallen silent again, and looked at Robert. “Rooob, you heard me. This is your job. Work with Doc here to treat everyone in the slums. You’ve done a lot of this kinda thing, too, so if you have special-grade potions, I bet you could do almost anything, yeah? Ah, make suuure they pay the doctor’s fee, okay? At least earn enough to feed yourself on your own coin. When you’re done treating everyone, I’ll forgive your debts.” “Uhhh…” Robert grimaced after being so suddenly addressed. Understandably so, given the task he’d just had foisted upon him. What happened next is no surprise. “Rooob.” Poke-poke-poke-poke, poke-poke-poke-poke. Freyja unleashed her forehead poke attack on Robert’s sullen face. “Agaaain? Ow, ow, owww, I—Ow, I get it alreadyyy!” The master was, well, the same as ever, but Robert hadn’t learned at all. He even looked happy about the forehead prodding. The tense atmosphere of the previous conversations was completely ruined. “Phew… I guess you didn’t call me here to tell me about the glorious history of the Aguinases, huh…?” Robert hung his head and walked away from Freyja, and toward Nierenberg. The doctor muttered, “It’s more surprising you’d harbor such illusions in regard to the Lady Sage,” kicking him while he was down. “Doc and Rob are total opposites, but they make for a good pair.” This was the moment that would come to be known as the birth of the Mad Medical Duo among the Labyrinth Suppression Forces. The personalities, or rather, the preferences of the two were different, but both had outstanding talent. Nierenberg and Robert also shared a penchant for adopting methods with no concern at all for what were considered accepted practices in the world. Leonhardt was a bit bewildered at bearing witness to this new, unusual, piece of the Forces—no—the Labyrinth City, but he quickly recovered. “First, we must defeat the red dragon.” “Indeed, Brother. The Spirit Eye has returned. Even if you don’t take Endalsia’s divine protection into account, I have heard it improves the accuracy and power of a bow.” After answering Leonhardt, Weishardt turned to face Sieg and asked, “Siegmund, will you lend us your aid?” “Of course,” the hunter answered with a firm nod. Why had the Spirit Eye returned now? Siegmund had his answer. This Spirit Eye was Endalsia’s prayer for the peace and happiness of all people. Even if it dwelled in Sieg’s eye, it wasn’t a power that belonged just to him. It was something that would see the wish of a commonplace girl fulfilled. A wish like wanting to live carefree and happily in the Labyrinth City. It was the divine protection of the spirits, given to Sieg to protect the world where she lived. The seven gathered in Sunlight’s Canopy were united in purpose. “We’ll go over the particulars tomorrow.” Perhaps to start working out a plan, Leonhardt and Weishardt returned to the base through the cellar the same way they’d come. Nierenberg took Robert with him in a carriage back to the base as well. 03 After everyone else had left, and the room was silent, Sieg dared to ask Mariela a question. “Mariela, you weren’t really surprised, were you?” “Yeah, somehow I kinda already knew. Right after I met you, I made potion vials at the riverbed, remember? Back then, I made such a small stove, but a salamander answered my call. It even gave me a ring afterward. It’s because you were there, Sieg. When the firewood was about to run out, you added more to the stove, right? It was just normal firewood, but that salamander was so happy it twirled around. The spirits completely understood.” Mariela went out to the rear garden and approached the sacred tree. Its branches looked worn and tired. Its leaves were drooping as if it hadn’t been watered in days. “This was Illuminaria once.” Mariela spoke to the ancient plant as she spread plenty of water mixed with Drops of Life at its roots. “Seems like Illuminaria used up all the power she’d saved. That’s probably why she was able to appear for a little while,” Freyja added. Mariela gently stroked the trunk of the sacred tree as she nodded at her master’s words. “I’m glad I got to see you again.” Illuminaria was a sacred tree spirit. She’d probably chosen to appear in Sunlight’s Canopy through the skylight that mimicked the shape of a tree to convey who she was. “But don’t you think it’s a little mean to give way more leaves to Sieg than me, your friend?” Just like the salamander, Illuminaria was likely drawn to Sieg. After all, she had dropped many more leaves for him compared to how much water Mariela had given her. “You play favorites.” Mariela laughed. Even if the young alchemist’s friend could hear her voice, she couldn’t understand her. This place was still the domain of the monsters. However, a single leaf dropped from the tree and landed on the top of Mariela’s head, as if to stroke her hair. “Oh yeah, Master. I had something I wanted to ask you,” Mariela said as she laid out the feast she’d prepared in advance. Despite the long and rather weighty conversation, Freyja had wasted no time pestering her student. “I’m starved—I want dinner,” the sage had demanded. Mariela’s celebratory mood had wilted in the face of the unforeseen event, but the fact that Sieg’s eye had been cured remained. Luckily, her teacher was the type of person who was always in the mood to party, so it was still a celebration. Even if it was only for three. “Mm?” Freyja’s cheeks were already stuffed with freshly roasted earth dragon meat by the time Mariela asked her question. “In that story from earlier, you said the ancestor of the Aguinases gave rainbow flowers to the princess, right? Were those—?” “Yeah, those were the ones you went to all that trouble to make when you were little. Maaan, they really helped me out. Rob, too, uh, I mean the Rob from two hundred years ago. I sold them to him and made him promise he’d repay me in installments with a high interest rate after he succeeded. I didn’t have to worry about paying for food or booze for about five years!” “I knew it…” Mariela had never been aware of it as a child, but started to have doubts after her master had showed up and started living with her in Sunlight’s Canopy. Mariela couldn’t imagine her master working and had wondered how in the world she’d covered her living expenses back in those days. “I guess I should just be glad you didn’t cause any real trouble. Oh, Master, today you still only get one bottle of alcohol!” Mariela said, then confiscated the second bottle her master had excitedly brought and poured water in her glass instead. Siegmund quietly watched the trite, everyday spectacle through both of his eyes.