Jewelry Store Legacy Side Story 12: Sugilite

Side Story Episode 12: The Hidden Circle, The Light with Three Faces (The Three Great Healing Stones)

The night in Jerusalem was quieter than usual.

Under the lamp light of the jewelry store 'Legacy', an Oriental man stood.

He was a man who had honed his unique aesthetic eye after undergoing rigorous training in the traditional Japanese capitals of Osaka and Kyoto to discern the 'materials and truth' of prayer beads.

He was a pioneer who had rewritten common sense by being the first to discover unknown crystals born from the earth's upheavals, such as 'Auralite-23' and 'Limonite in Quartz', and introducing them as new materials to the traditional world of prayer beads.

Eleazar looked at the man from across the counter and narrowed his eyes with nostalgia.

...Another journey for new materials, Yoki?

The man, called by that name—his nickname in Jerusalem, which carried a Hebrew ring—smiled quietly. Because they were old friends who had recognized each other's aesthetic eyes and skills for many years, few words were needed between them.

Yoki quietly placed two of the finest materials he had personally selected during his travels around the world on the counter.

A high-grade Larimar with beautiful chatoyancy, as if it had captured the fresh crests of the Caribbean waves.

And a Charoite with a marble pattern of purple, swirling with the black of aegirine and a silky luster, nurtured by the frozen earth of Russia.

Eleazar gazed at the two materials and let out a sigh of admiration.

Your eye for quality is as wonderful as ever. No matter how much the market is flooded with cheap dyes and fakes, everything is exposed in front of you. The stones you bring always have the raw sincerity of the earth.

I looked at the wall where the breastplate was hung.

Eleazar. No matter how rare a stone is, it's meaningless if it's just rare. Only when the inherent distortions and memories of the stone are understood and it is connected by a single core by the hands of the best tailor does it become a perfect 'circle'. That is why I continue to travel the world in search of new materials for prayer beads.

Eleazar nodded deeply and said, 'There is something I want to show a pioneer like you,' as he took a small, old box from behind the counter.

The moment the lid was opened, my eyes widened with the sharpness of a connoisseur.

What sat there was not the opaque, deep purple Sugilite I knew so well. It was an ultra-rare Jewel Sugilite that was as fresh as the finest wax and glowed with an enchanting translucence under the lamp light.

This is... I've seen enough of ordinary Sugilite all over the world to be sick of it. But a 'gel' that transmits light like this... I've never seen it before.

Eleazar smiled proudly at Yoki, who could not hide his surprise.

It is a miraculous crystal that, while having roots in Japan, underwent such a beautiful transformation in the land of South Africa. I thought that you, who continue to search for the materials for a circle that no one has ever seen, would be the one to truly understand the value of this stone.

Yoki gently rolled the jewel sugilite with his fingertips and narrowed his eyes with affection.

...Dr. Kenichi Sugi. That is the name of the scholar my mentor always spoke of with pride during my younger days when I was struggling in Osaka and Kyoto. The sugilite that the doctor first discovered in Japan's Seto Inland Sea in the 1940s was not purple, but a small, yellowish-green. He passed away leaving behind the words, 'Someday, the true form of this stone will surprise the world. It is the job of an Eastern pioneer to find the material that connects that circle.' To think that I would encounter the ultimate 'answer' of the stone that bears the doctor's name in such a backwater of Jerusalem...

It was then that Yoki placed the jewel sugilite next to the larimar and charoite he had brought with him.

Clunk...! The back of the 'Breastplate of Judgment' on the wall shook violently.

As if guided by the two lights I brought and the dying wish of Dr. Kenichi Sugi that had been suddenly spoken, only the {jewel sugilite in Eleazar's hand began to resonate intensely with the back of the breastplate.

The transparent purple radiance, discovered by a Japanese person and having undergone a superb transformation in a foreign land, was drawn into the invisible final connection running along the back of the breastplate.

With a rumbling sound as if echoing from the depths of the earth, a moist, dark light overflowed from the back of the breastplate, tightening the air in the shop more firmly than ever before. It was the arrival of perfect harmony, without a single millimeter of distortion.

This is...!

When the light subsided, the breastplate on the wall had completely revealed its 'hidden order'.

The miraculous light emitted by the jewel sugilite had completely concluded the 'memories and distortions of people' that had accumulated on the back of the breastplate for thousands of years, awakening its true consciousness.

Eleazar looked up at the breastplate and bowed his head deeply.

On the night of the 12th episode, the hidden circle has finally been closed. Yoki, the light of that jewel sugilite you encountered has completely tightened and completed the tailoring of the back of this breastplate.

The 'Breastplate of Aaron' on the front, and the 'Breastplate of Eleazar' on the back.

All the gemstones of the two breastplates are now breathing as a perfect, inseparable circle of front and back.

Eleazar's face had changed from that of a shopkeeper to that of a man carrying a single destiny.

Both the front and the back have been tailored. With this light in my heart, I will set out on a true journey.

As he said this and reached for the breastplate, Yoki quietly tapped the counter in front of Eleazar.

Mr. Eleazar. Can't I take the base of the spare breastplate back to Japan with me?

Eleazar stopped moving and opened his eyes wide in surprise.

...Honestly, this baton is too heavy for me to carry alone.

Yoki took out from his pocket the handwritten notebook of Dr. George Frederick Kunz, who once stood at the pinnacle of the world's gem industry and spent his life studying the breastplate of the Bible.

...The logic of the 'vessel' of the breastplate left behind by Dr. Kunz. And the truth of the Oriental stone left behind by Dr. Kenichi Sugi. These two great wills, which I, a man who was just a material seeker, ended up entrusted with by a twist of fate, have now been perfectly united by the hands of the best tailor, you. If that's the case, I want to take the other breastplate back to Japan and open a new shop. I want to bet my life, in place of the doctors, to see what kind of new materials and what kind of new light this heavy vessel will call forth in the land of the Orient...

In my eyes was a quiet and tremendous resolve as someone who had 'been entrusted' with the dying wishes of great predecessors, transcending borders and eras.

Eleazar stared at me for a while, but eventually, he showed a smile more radiant than ever before, took the base of the breastplate off the wall, and held it out to me with both hands.

...It is precisely because it is you that the doctors entrusted that baton to you. I want to entrust the continuation of this endless vessel to you, who have traveled the world and pursued the truth of stones. Yoki, take this to Japan. Please complete Yoki's breastplate.

Yoki firmly accepted the heavy base offered to him and grinned fearlessly, yet with a sense of relief.

I'll gratefully take it. With this, the doctors, and you, can set off on your next journey with peace of mind, right?

Yes. Because I have entrusted the future of the breastplate to the best partner.

Eleazar prepared for his journey and turned down the lamp. The two stood side by side, opened the door of 'Legacy', and stepped out into the night breeze of Jerusalem.

In Yoki's hands was the base of a new breastplate, carrying the dying wishes of Dr. Kunz and Dr. Sugi, destined for Japan.

And in Eleazar's heart was the determination to set off on a journey toward the world.

In the night sky of Jerusalem, a full moon drawing a perfect circle illuminated the world with a quiet, unwavering light, as if blessing the future of the men who had connected across time.

The stage shifts from Jerusalem to Japan.

In the new shop that Ketad Tel-Yoki is opening, the curtain of an unknown 'story of stones and breastplates' was now, quietly, about to rise.