Chapter 51

“Alright, I’m fine.”

Flap, flap.

A lump of murky color flapping its wings led the way.

That thing, with a name that was truly tedious to pronounce, spoke with an abrupt tone.

The phenomenon of the spirit appearing and Blamia freezing in place was due to Kalen’s inquiry of whether everything was alright.

“I’ve been forcibly pulled over here, but it’s only temporary so don’t worry.”

“…I understand.”

“Tsk. Really…”

Still, Kalen couldn’t help but feel a question mark hanging over his head.

The spirit’s tone had significantly changed.

Or rather, from the moment whatever it was that mimicked human speech started to actually sound like proper ‘speech,’ it had been different.

Upon Kalen’s request to be guided, the spirit promptly took him to the spirit realm.

Though his body remained unchanged, his mind felt like it was floating in an odd sensation.

While drifting in a place that looked somewhat hazy, the spirit’s tone had changed.

“Do you know how hard this is?”

Initially something that simply resembled a spirit, it soon took on a distinct form, and its speech gradually adopted an affectation akin to that of a young noblewoman.

“Don’t know.”

“Of course you wouldn’t. I haven’t made a contract with you, after all.”

The unfamiliar spirit exuded a feeling reminiscent of a noble young lady.

If Kalen closed his eyes and just listened, he might have believed it was Sinnat—but a slightly more mature and softer version of her.

A spirit possessing grace? The idea didn’t make sense.

Still, Kalen instinctively sensed that the spirit genuinely resembled a noble young woman.

When Kalen remained silent, the spirit, seemingly in a manner of complaint, displayed clear dissatisfaction.

“Do you know why I, breaking the rules, sought your help? After what was done to my back…!”

“That’s not true,”

“Because of that… not mother, but Her Majesty scolded me so much…”

Indeed, something had definitely changed.

Where before the words coming from the spirit-human relationship were clipped and curt, now they were colored with a livelier quality.

“What makes a human like you so special…?”

“…”

“Anyway, only you can save Sinnat, so we have to hurry.”

“Why did you choose me instead of the master?”

“The master?”

“The elderly man who was with me.”

“Oh.”

The air of a noble young lady emanating from the spirit.

This was so unsettling Kalen asked calmly:

“Is it what you call magic in your language?”

Presumably, the “you” that the spirit referred to was human.

Kalen nodded slightly while accepting the spirit’s words at face value.

“Maybe your achievements are outstanding, hence the inquiry, but from our perspective, it’s completely useless.”

“Are we talking about spirit magic?”

“Um, thinking of it that way would make things easier. Precisely because, without mana, we can do nothing on this side.”

“Spirit magic uses mana too, doesn’t it?”

“Hmpf.”

An invigorating laugh like a gentle spring breeze.

To the point that Kalen momentarily mistook it for one, a pure and innocuous laugh.

“Of course, to realize spirit magic in the human realm, it’s natural that it must conform to the framework of your world. Our manifestations themselves require the use of mana to adjust to your framework.”

“So you don’t use mana in the Spirit Realm?”

“Indeed. That’s why it was you. Do you understand now?”

To be honest, Kalen did not.

No matter how composed and perceptive Kalen might have been in normal circumstances, it only applied to common occurrences.

People find it difficult to comprehend the unfamiliar.

The explanation was so far removed from anything Kalen had ever known, making it hard to grasp immediately.

“…There’s more to the reason though.”

The spirit swiftly turned its head as if no longer willing to discuss the matter.

“Regardless, we must hurry. Once the ritual is complete, it can’t be undone.”

Before Kalen could say anything, the spirit continued.

Aware of Kalen’s difficulties in comprehending, it added:

“With what you call spirit magic, we live far longer than humans.”

“I know that much.”

“Even so, the time we’re speaking of is from an era so long ago that it’s known as ‘the old days.’ Do you remember when I mentioned the tomb of the traitor?”

“I remember.”

The spirit, as if with a headache, turned its gaze forward again.

“The Spirit Realm is divided into three kingdoms, and each kingdom has entities known as ‘traitors.'”

Kalen thought these “traitors” likely connected to the monsters he’d seen related to Sinnat and Serasie, and the spirit’s narrative did not deviate much from that.

“Skipping over the details of what happened—there was a terrible event where the three traitors broke the manifestations of the kingdoms’ rulers and banished them to the Void.”

“Is the Void the tomb?”

“You’re sharp. Yes, that’s right. A captured spirit in the Void cannot see light again, making it practically a tomb.”

Indeed, the “tomb of the traitor” carried this meaning.

In the Spirit Realm, there existed three horrifying creatures known as traitors who had caused unspeakable calamities and were sealed away by the former kings of their respective kingdoms.

This seal trapped them in a place from which there was no escape, hence the moniker “tomb.”

The reason they were called “traitors” was hypothesized to be their involvement in these terrible events.

“By manifestations, do you mean the forms you take in the human world?”

“Yes. Appearing as animals imposes the least burden. In reality, in the Spirit Realm, we take human forms.”

“Human forms?”

“Due to our long history of interaction with humans, from our perspective, humans are quite mysterious and fascinating beings. They’re even a tad cute…”

An analogy would be high beings looking down on minuscule creatures.

This was how the inscrutable spirits viewed humans: mysterious, fascinating—and to some degree, cute.

According to the spirit, before they interacted with humans, they existed as floating orbs of light.

“If the manifestation is destroyed, escape through the human world is impossible, and thus much time has passed.”

For a spirit, eons are incomprehensible by human standards.

At minimum, this had been the case since the advent of magic, or even earlier.

“And then you showed up.”

Just as Kallen contemplated this, an irritable and reproachful voice broke through.

“Why do you possess a world like ours?”

“…The world you speak of.”

“In your terms…”

Just as Kalen contemplated the spirit’s words, one single word came to mind:

“The Imaginal World.”

The spirit spat out the words with certainty.

“Truly amusing. Originally, worlds aren’t meant to be ornamental art. You humans are mysterious and intriguing, yet somewhat adorable at times, but you can be painfully foolish.”

Imaginal worlds should be beautiful.

This representation of a person, the imaginal world, garners greater praise for its beauty.

It wasn’t aimless to pursue the beauty of the imaginal world—it was common knowledge.

However, the spirit’s revelation contradicted this notion outright.

Kalen recalled the ancient tales about using imaginal worlds for combat.

The spirit hurried towards the brightening space.

“Imaginal worlds in the human world long abandoned their roles. Yet, you, who possess a world similar to ours, have appeared.”

Kalen remembered that moment.

The spirit’s words inevitably brought to mind the time when he had thrown himself in front of Sinnat, and the beasts of the spirit realm bared their fangs toward them.

“That creature had mistaken you, who possesses a world resembling ours, as one of us and exploited the opportunity.”

“Aha.”

Only then did the pieces fall into place in Kalen’s mind.

Kalen’s imaginal world, for some reason, resembled the ones belonging to Sinnat’s spirit family.

The creature that attacked Kalen and Sinnat that day had mistaken Kalen’s imaginal world for those of the spirits.

In short, it was revenge.

The beast sought revenge by exploiting this misunderstanding.

Appearing in a strange form, the creature that had its own manifestation shattered and trapped in the tomb acted for this reason.

“…Are you royalty?”

Kalen, piecing together the comprehensible parts, asked.

For the spirit’s words to make sense, its family must have been of the royal line that sealed the beast long ago.

Otherwise, there would be no reason for the beast to mistakenly identify the similarity in imaginal worlds.

After a brief pause, the spirit quietly responded.

“Yes. Though it feels a bit embarrassing to say, I’m the heir of the Eklarute family.”

The spirit family, the royal family, and the traitors.

It became clear that the Spirit Realm was much deeper and more complex than humans could imagine.

“If the Eklarute family, do you have a name?”

Perhaps influenced by the narrative, Kalen now perceived the spirit not as a mere entity but as an individual, akin to a human.

Using the word “human” might be misleading since she is a spirit, not a human.

But rather, as an entity embodying a world, one with a backstory to be told…

“Felisius von Eklarute.”

Most of all, as they passed through the radiant area and the overwhelming light settled, revealing a defined shape of the world,

“This is the first time a human has come here.”

By this point, the spirit had transformed into the form of a girl, greeting Kalen with a bright smile.