NIWA 19

Chapter : 19

“Alex, what did Jema say?”

Inside the rattling carriage, Sierra asked, crossing her arms.

“I was told to investigate the site first. They said they’d look into the details and send a report by letter.”

Sierra, Alex, the prince, and I were on our way to the forest where the hunting festival had taken place—more specifically, where the monster had appeared.

Not only had a monster appeared, but both the imperial prince and the spirit mage from the Spirit Tower had been injured. No matter the relationship between the emperor and the prince, this was a major incident. From the Spirit Tower’s perspective, since one of their mages was hurt, it naturally caused a commotion—‘that’ Jema personally sent a communication brimming with scolding and shouting. It was enough to make your ears bleed.

In any case, the matter of knights and guards was entirely handled by the prince, who was also a victim. Reluctantly, the emperor granted him full authority over the investigation. This also meant that Alex’s unilateral investigation, officially dispatched from the Spirit Tower to the empire, was authorized.

Originally, a proper site investigation would have required a swarm of knights and researchers. But now, with three mages present, no one objected.

“But… you actually said you’d come yourself.”

I rested my chin on my hand and said it casually. Sierra nodded enthusiastically beside me.

“…What exactly do you think I am?”

Blinking, I glanced at Sierra, then turned my head away.

“…A shut-in?”

“…A crazy research fanatic…?”

Alex, apparently at a loss for words, looked back and forth between Sierra and me, then finally pouted and declared,

“I want to go back.”

“Ah, sorry.”

Sierra immediately offered an apology, though her expression hardly suggested she felt sorry. I timidly raised my hand beside her.

“But… when was the last time you actually went outside the Tower?”

“Me? About two years ago, I think? The last time was when I treated someone?”

Seeing Alex answer so innocently left Sierra and me completely speechless.

We knew he rarely left the Tower, but not this rarely.

Come to think of it, even after I entered the Tower, I barely ever saw him go out. Once, maybe? My memory was hazy.

I gaped. He keeps pushing his work onto others…

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to summon spirits?”

Alex pouted.

“Nope. Chloe, come out.”

A earth spirit popped out.

As if to show off, Alex turned his head from me with a scoff. But then…

“…Huh? Chloe…?”

I stared dumbfounded at my palm. It was clearly Chloe, summoned with Alex’s mana—but I wasn’t supposed to be able to summon earth spirits at all.

“…What’s wrong with her?”

Spirits generally follow the owner of the mana that summoned them. In severe cases, they act aggressively toward anyone else, or at the very least, stay close to their summoner.

Yet this small earth spirit completely ignored Alex and nuzzled against my palm.

Earth spirits were known for being taciturn.

“Cr… Chloe…?”

Alex cautiously tried to touch the spirit sitting on my palm, but it jerked its head away.

Spirits rarely express their will this clearly, but clearly Alex had been firmly disliked.

“I told you to go outside sometimes and call the spirits, you fool. Even while researching, you should at least summon them.”

Sierra chuckled beside me, clearly enjoying the moment.

“If I summon them during research, I can’t concentrate because of the mana drain…”

“You’re not even making them use their abilities, it’s just a tiny summon! How much mana could it possibly take?”

Alex made a very sulky face.

Chloe fiddled with my fingers for a moment, then poof vanished.

A refusal to be summoned! I’d never seen spirits do that before.

Unable to hold back, I laughed a little. Alex shot me a dagger-like glare, but soon he sighed dryly.

“Wow… what do I do? If Jema finds out… I’m going to get scolded, right?”

Sierra gave him a deadpan look, as if to say, “Is that even a question?”

“Do you know what Jema values most? Not just scolding—you’ll get spanked on the butt until Chloe forgives you.”

“Eek…!”

No one questioned how old he was for that, because yes, Jema could definitely do that.

Pfft.

A sudden small laugh drew my attention forward—there was the prince, his violet eyes curved in a smile. Surprised, I stared; I didn’t know he could smile.

Noticing the attention, the prince covered his mouth with his arm and spoke between laughs:

“The Tower master, cup, is… quite amusing.”

“Too amusing, that’s the problem.”

With that expressionless face, he could beat the butts of male spirit mages—or snap the heads of females—and it was terrifying. He’d hit them all and then leave with a satisfied expression. Perfectly standard behavior.

For a while, we forgot our serious mission and laughed with each other, and soon we arrived at the forest.

Unlike during the hunting festival, iron fences had been set up at the entrance, perhaps as a temporary precaution.

“Your Highness! And these folks are….”

Two knights guarding the entrance froze and saluted when they saw the prince. He nodded, explained briefly, and they quickly stepped aside.

The forest was quiet.

Only the sounds of nature, including the chirping of birds, could be heard—understandable, since it was closed off.

“I think… it was around here.”

“That’s right.”

The prince and I led them to the place where the monster had attacked.

“…Still, I half-expected it, but there’s nothing here.”

I nodded at Sierra’s mutter.

The smoke bombs from that day had confused me and made me run recklessly. If the large tree I had leaned on hadn’t been there, I probably wouldn’t have found the place again. The site where we fought the monster had left no trace.

I had fainted, the prince had been injured—even though the spirits healed him, the pain didn’t completely vanish—and I had collapsed. Neither of us had time to care about preserving the site.

“For now, we won’t know anything just by looking. Let’s split up and search.”

With that, Alex summoned Chloe, and Sierra and I followed suit with our own spirits.

Undines and Ignis—the fire spirits, Sierra’s spirits—weren’t as good at tracking traces in the forest as Chloe, the earth spirit. But spirits have a keener sense than humans.

The energy in the area was definitely unpleasant, and the undines shivered the moment they were summoned.

The prince, who quietly followed behind me, seemed to watch the fluttering undines with a strange expression.

“I’ve seen this a few times, but I just can’t get used to it. It feels like magic with its own will.”

“Ah, it’s similar. The basic principle is the same: you have to provide mana.”

“By that logic, swordmasters aren’t much different. Aura or sword energy is generated from mana too.”

I see.

“Magic moves mana within one’s body to create what you want, while spirits… literally lend their mana as a separate lifeform. The latter uses more mana, but the strength of the spirit is for a reason.”

The prince nodded slowly, as if understanding.

The undines swept through the trees, their blue glow illuminating the forest. Hopefully, there would be some trace detectable by the spirits.

“…I heard spirit mages manifest their power at a young age. But I’ve never heard of a spirit mage from the Empire. Can I ask how that happened?”

Watching the shimmering spirits, I faintly smiled.

“That’s exactly what you could call a miracle. Spirit mages are born with an immense amount of innate mana. When the Duke’s family measured mana long ago, it was a perfectly normal level. That was an exception.”

“So….”

“I don’t know either.”

I don’t clearly remember how I first met the spirits.

I hadn’t eaten for days, and the only water I drank was stagnant, rotten water. I’d been soaked by torrential rain and had a high fever—on the brink of starvation.

Naturally, my mind was hazy. Even now, my memory of that day is fragmented.

When my fever finally subsided and I regained some awareness, the spirits were already beside me. After that, I followed Jema and Sierra to the Spirit Tower.

We let the spirits roam for about an hour, but found nothing.

The only thing left was the ominous, uncomfortable energy lingering there.

Since there really hadn’t been a monster, perhaps this was natural. There were no traces of cracks, no animal corpses, not even a drop of blood.

“Let’s go back for now. I don’t think we’ll find anything by staying longer.”

I nodded at the prince’s words.

With nothing to find, all we could do was wait for the letter from Jema.