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Chapter 420
The fundantal spirits of nature.
In other words, the spirit of fire.
The spirit of water.
The spirit of wind.
Or the spirit of earth.
The countless elental spirits spread throughout nature tend to linger a lot around spirit users.
But up until now, I had almost never co into contact with natural spirits.
Grivy sowhat resembled an earth spirit, but although they handled the sa kind of power, there were clearly many differences between Grivy and an actual earth spirit.
On top of that, Sur and Serqet dealt with entirely different elents to begin with.
Even if Sur appeared to handle flas, his main power was actually heat.
In other words, in Sur’s case, he could handle not only fire but also biting cold and explosive heat alike.
As for Serqet, she dealt with poison, so there was nothing much to compare in the first place.
It wasn’t that I had never seen natural spirits before.
But the existing spirits never approached , and I also had never made any particular effort to contact them.
We hadn’t clashed or anything either.
Most of the ti, we simply treated each other like stones by the roadside.
To have one approach this directly.
And at that, at the level of a Spirit King—this was the first ti.
It felt strange.
—The deepest part of the forest. The lake that has begun to be polluted… I will be waiting there.
With those words, the green spirit stone lost its power and turned a murky color.
It looked like quite a rare spirit stone, yet it ended up like this just from conveying the will of a being presud to be a Spirit King.
It was almost laughable.
“Grivy. Where did you get this?”
“Th-that… a green bird suddenly flew over in the forest and gave it to !”
It definitely looked like a wind spirit.
It was safe to assu that from the start, it had intended to contact through Grivy.
A trap?
It didn’t seem like that.
The power I felt from the spirit stone was literally pure spirit energy itself, not even a trace of a human spirit’s mana mixed in.
I lifted Grivy up and placed her on my shoulders.
“Whoa! It’s high!”
An excited Grivy wiggled her body from side to side.
“Take good care of the youngest. I’ll be back soon.”
After all, the Demon Realm wasn’t much of a threat.
Coincidentally, I already knew about the lake in the Demon Realm from the tactical maps secured by Cascadia.
But pollution…?
I was pretty sure that place had been described as an extrely clear lake…
Well, I’d find out once I got there.
* * *
Entry into the Demon Realm was strictly prohibited, but that didn’t apply to .
It couldn’t, really.
If I put my mind to it, I was capable of completely subjugating the entire Demon Realm itself.
Even so, the reason it was left alone was because of its unique ecosystem.
Considering the living zones and resources obtained through that ecosystem, it was more beneficial for Cascadia to simply manage and adjust it rather than wipe it all out.
The lake I was heading toward, in particular, was generally one of the dangerous areas that even knight squad mbers were forbidden from entering.
It was a place crawling with dinosaur-shaped monsters, and even the knights who usually managed the Demon Realm avoided stirring things up there.
Maybe that was why.
Originally, I had only known it as a beautiful lake.
There was sothing I hadn’t anticipated at all.
“It’s completely polluted.”
What should have been a pristine natural lake untouched by human hands had now turned into a swamp so bad it was hard to even call it a lake.
The Demon Realm was, by nature, a place where you never knew what might happen.
So polluted areas could certainly exist, but ever since the Cascadia family had been established and had managed the Demon Realm for a long ti, this was the first ti I had seen a case like this.
“Ugh… the sll!”
Grivy made a tearful face, pinching her nose on top of my shoulder.
“This is the first ti I’ve seen sothing like this…”
lissa, who had followed out, also pinched her nose and frowned.
I hadn’t planned to bring her, but since she was the head of the Cascadia household and a duchess, she had an obligation to see the situation firsthand.
“So. Where’s the guy who called us here?”
“How would I know? It’s not like I’ve ever been involved with regular spirits.”
I tried spreading spirit mana to see if that would reveal anything, but nothing changed.
It simply felt like a polluted, dead lake.
But… wasn’t the one who asked for help the Wind Spirit King?
A lake should be the domain of the Water Spirit, shouldn’t it?
Just as I was thinking that,
Sothing grotesquely twisted began crawling out of the lake.
“Leon… what is that?”
At the horrifying sight, lissa turned pale and grabbed my arm.
The original form of that thing was…
A spirit.
Spirits were usually cute, beautiful, or cool in appearance, but what I was seeing now looked like a once tiny and adorable spirit called an Undine that had been horribly twisted.
Power from another dinsion?
No.
It was a little different from that.
Right then,
A refreshing wind blew, and a massive green wind eagle revealed itself.
At the sa ti, it crushed the twisted spirit and decomposed it into natural particles.
That was…
The death of a spirit.
No matter how much of a Spirit King it was, they usually wouldn’t do sothing like that.
Yet the wind spirit showed no hesitation.
—You have co. I have been waiting.
Despite being a spirit, it was quite polite.
Normally, spirits didn’t act like this, but it seed that side was pretty desperate.
—Please follow .
The wind spirit glanced at us, then slightly widened its eyes upon seeing Grivy and the other two spirits looking up at it with curiosity.
Then, pretending it hadn’t seen anything, it guided us forward.
The place it led us to wasn’t far from the lake.
There stood a peculiar statue.
It looked like a bust of a bird, and before that sculpture, a human-shaped figure made of pale green light was waiting for .
“The Wind Spirit King. Sylphid.”
—Thank you for coming.
Calm, yet courteous speech.
But that wasn’t what I was focused on.
The mad king of wind.
It was him.
How had this spirit, who emanated such endlessly polite, kind, and pure energy, ended up as the shrieking monster I had encountered in the Labyrinth?
lissa, seeing a Spirit King for the first ti, looked him over in amazent before carefully asking ,
“Is… that really a Spirit King?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow… I’ve never seen one before. Normally, Spirit Kings are…”
Perhaps hearing lissa’s voice, the Wind Spirit King Sylphid let out a faint chuckle.
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[Proofreader - Gun]
—That is correct, human. Normally, Spirit Kings do not reveal themselves in the Middle Realm. The very act of revealing our existence has a trendous impact on nature.
Which ant there was sothing significant enough that he had to contact in such an unusual manner.
The highest-ranking wind spirit, Jin, bowed its head toward the manifested Sylphid with its wings folded.
—You’ve done well. Return now.
—Yes, my king.
Jin literally scattered into the wind and vanished, and the Wind Spirit King Sylphid slowly moved toward us.
—Thank you for coming all this way.
“I never thought a regular spirit would try to contact .”
—There is a matter that cannot be resolved without you. Before coming here, did you see the state of the lake?
At his question, I nodded.
“It wasn’t originally like that, was it?”
—That is correct. That lake has long been directly managed by the Water Spirit King, Elraim. That is why even the monsters here could not recklessly pollute it.
But now it was polluted.
If it wasn’t an other-dinsional being, and not monsters either, then why?
As I pondered the question, Sylphid spoke again.
—At present, Elraim is not properly protecting or managing even her own domain.
lissa cut in while listening.
“That’s strange. Even if a Spirit King stopped managing it, would things really get that bad?”
Sylphid shook his head.
—Of course not. Even if she did not manage it, the lake would not end up like this.
“Then?”
—I cannot leave this place to confirm it myself, but it has been observed that this began shortly after Elraim took an interest in a certain human.
This was a man-made disaster.
Now I understood what he wanted.
—For now, the problem is only at the scale of this lake, but if it worsens, there is a possibility that a significant portion of the central continent’s water could beco polluted.
“So you want to go there personally and resolve it?”
—Yes.
It was a bold request, but since he was offering sothing in return, I had to consider it.
“And you’ll give a na imbued with blessings?”
Sylphid opened his hand.
Wind gathered in his palm, and then a beautifully multicolored spirit stone appeared.
—Long ago, many spirits placed their blessings upon the na contained within this.
“What if I just take it and run?”
—I have simply judged that you are not such a being.
He was offering advance paynt and asking to take care of the matter.
To ask to rein in the Water Spirit King’s deviation.
I asked to confirm,
“So. What exactly do you want to do? Capture her and drag her back?”
—I will leave that to your judgnt. However, I believe that simply overpowering her and bringing her back by force will not yield much effect.
There was bitterness in his voice.
Elraim had fallen for a human, and Sylphid was in a position where he couldn’t just leave her be.
The easiest thod would be to erase Elraim and wait for the birth of a new Spirit King, but Sylphid didn’t seem to want that.
I nodded lightly.
“Then I need to know where this Elraim is first.”
At my request, Sylphid gestured.
Low-rank wind spirits, Sylphs, then brought over a small blue palm-sized fairy-like spirit to .
“An Undine?”
A low-rank water spirit, Undine.
Normally cute and beautiful, but the Undine before looked severely weakened.
—This child will guide you to her. I ask this of you, Guardian of the Middle Realm.
“Why am I the Guardian of the Middle Realm?”
—We already know that you are eliminating the grotesque force eroding this dinsion. You are a being worthy of being called a guardian.
I liked Sylphid’s favorable attitude toward .
“I’ll consider it for now. If it turns out to be sothing I can’t handle, I can just co back and return it, right?”
Instead of answering, Sylphid let out a gentle breeze once and then vanished.
It was obvious that even manifesting like this was a strain for him.
The pollution of the lake was not sothing I could directly fix.
It was a problem that would resolve itself once the Water Spirit King regained her senses.
“In my opinion, the deal itself is good. As long as it’s within reason.”
“Do we really have to?”
“If the Demon Realm’s ecosystem gets twisted, then all that’s left is subjugation. That’d be a hassle for you too, wouldn’t it?”
That was true.
When I nodded, Luna, who was holding the youngest child, examined the spirit stone I had given her.
“The purity is quite high. The clear energy surrounding it seems good.”
“Do you know how to use it?”
“Like this.”
Luna began to breathe her energy into the spirit stone.
Then the spirit stone’s energy scattered.
“Ah.”
She let out a short exclamation and smiled at the baby in her arms.
“Elpiria.”
“Elpiria?”
“Elpiria Cascadia.”
I understood what that na ant the mont she said it calmly.
“Not bad. It’s a pretty na.”
“It ans a blessed child.”
“Nice. Elpiria.”
Saying it quietly, I took the child into my arms.
The mont we gave her the na Elpiria, I could feel clear spirit energy seeping into the child’s body.
The youngest, the fruit born between Luna and , had now received the na Elpiria Cascadia.
It felt a bit rushed, but it was a pretty na, so I didn’t really have any complaints.
The problem was that it was an advance paynt item, aning if I refused Sylphid’s request, I’d have to return it.
“Is it okay to just use it like that?”
“Oops.”
She said it as if surprised, but I could clearly see the corner of Luna’s lips curling upward.
She’d planned this.
No matter what, it seed she didn’t want to give up such a pretty and blessed na.
“Then, the important thing now is finding Elraim.”
“Is it even possible for a human to contract with a Spirit King in the first place?”
“Well… who knows. The world is wide, and there are plenty of talented humans.”
“To others, you’re the strangest one of all.”
True.
To others, I must look bizarre too, suddenly becoming a continent-level powerhouse overnight.
Fortunately, Sylphid’s Undine said that once it recovered sowhat, it would be able to find Elraim, so it wasn’t as if there was absolutely no thod.
And so, for about two weeks, as we gathered information regarding Elraim, we received an unexpected piece of news.
—Spirit Tar Competition.
“She shows up here as a contractor of Elraim?”
“At least in the advertisents, it says that a contractor of a Spirit King will give advice and prizes.”
If this world had fast information transfer like my previous life, it would be different, but it didn’t.
So even if rumors spread sowhere that a contractor of a Spirit King had appeared, it wouldn’t be strange.
Of course, all I needed was to find Elraim, so whether I participated or not didn’t really matter.
But it seed like I had to win first place to make contact…
I glanced at Grivy.
Grivy wasn’t a regular spirit.
I wondered if that would be okay.
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