Chapter 52

Spirits were fundamentally life forms created by the gods, albeit unintentionally, to guard humans against the monsters that came into being. For such spirits to sacrifice the humans they were meant to protect, the very humans who shared their power, in order to increase their own strength, was a grave sin.

But to go even further and seek to become stronger by devouring the souls of their own kind? That creature could become a mass of evil, potentially even a vessel for the resurrection of the Evil God. A spirit tainted by the forbidden was that dangerous.

“If what Enria said is actually happening, this is no ordinary problem.”

Caldeon spoke with a serious expression, and Graum, Eva, Blizzan, and Windel all nodded simultaneously.

“The four of you go to the Spirit Village and discuss this issue together. I will discuss this matter here with the others.”

“We shall.”

Graum replied to Caldeon, and Eva stood up, frowning slightly in displeasure. “I’m not exactly thrilled about going to the Spirit Village.”

“This is an important matter, so you’ll have to bear with it this time.” Blizzan stood up as well and said to her.

When Windel also rose to his feet, Hayden whined and wrapped his small arms around Windel’s neck. Seeing this, Blizzan said to Windel, “Why don’t you just stick to babysitting? It suits you.”

“You should know the time and place for nonsense, Blizzan.”

“We need a spirit to guard the Master of the Oracle anyway, so that seems like a good idea.” Eva agreed with Blizzan, and Graum also nodded, telling Windel, “We’ll inform you immediately of the situation in the Spirit Village, so it’s best for you to guard the Master of the Oracle.”

“Right. Our primary duty is to protect the Master of the Oracle.”

“And you’re the best nanny among us, aren’t you?”

The spirits, firmly believing Hayden to be the Master of the Oracle, placed him as the top priority in all matters and each offered a word. Windel glared at Blizzan, who suggested he was best suited to be a nanny, as if he wanted to kill him, but eventually sighed briefly and sat back down.

Hayden hugged Windel’s neck and giggled happily. Then he yawned widely and leaned his head and body against Windel’s back.

“It looks like he’s sleepy.” Enria said.

“Just leave him. He seems most comfortable like that.”

Enria nodded at Caldeon’s words and suggested calling Chavel to watch over them and bring Hayden to the bedroom once he was deeply asleep. Caldeon nodded and then told the remaining spirits (excluding Windel) to return.

After Graum, Blizzan, and Eva left, Enria called for Chavel. She looked slightly troubled by the fact that Chavel was still afraid and wary of Windel. As Hayden was so fond of Windel, they would likely spend a lot of time together like this in the future, and Chavel, who was supposed to look after Hayden, being afraid of Windel and unable to approach him, was a problem.

Because of this, Enria pondered how to help Chavel overcome her fear of Windel. However, her worry quickly faded.

“I won’t eat you or harm you, so come closer here and check on the child’s condition.”

Windel, who was already aware that Chavel was afraid of him, offered his hand to Chavel first.

Chavel, wary of Windel but assured that he meant no harm, cautiously approached him, knelt down, and looked at Hayden. Hayden, lying close to Windel’s belly, blinked his eyes slowly and looked at Chavel, who smiled warmly and asked Hayden, “Do you want to take a nap, Lord Hayden?”

“Uh-bya.”

Hayden babbled in a sluggish voice, as if in reply, and then yawned widely again.

Enria and Caldeon watched them, then quietly left the reception room. Caldeon checked the protection barrier that Graum had cast over the entire reception room, and then added another layer of barrier using black mana around it.

When Enria looked at Caldeon, he naturally took her hand and said, “Just in case they try to invade again. Windel is nearby, but there’s no harm in being prepared.”

“That’s right, well done.”

Enria nodded and smiled, and Caldeon stopped walking for a moment, bent down, and pressed his lips against Enria’s. Enria, who was growing accustomed to this kind of natural, repeated physical affection, stood on her toes and returned a cute, audible ‘smack’ kiss to Caldeon’s lips as he pulled away.

Caldeon, whose eyes widened slightly in surprise, then raised the hand he was holding and kissed the back of her hand, saying, “Don’t tempt me too much. I’ll want to take you to the bedroom.”

Enria’s expression turned slightly flustered because Caldeon told her not to tempt him, even though she had only mirrored his action. Caldeon smiled affectionately at her, then led her toward the office, continuing, “I’m going to call Rahar and Fyoren. Since this matter needs to be discussed with everyone, please bear with any discomfort.”

Since there was no reason to feel uncomfortable, his instruction not to be uncomfortable made her already flustered face doubly bewildered.

“I’m not uncomfortable.”

“You haven’t met Fyoren before.”

“Ah…”

Only then did Enria understand why he had mentioned discomfort, and she nodded a couple of times. “It’s fine.”

Although she hadn’t met him personally, Fyoren’s name was familiar to her as a character frequently mentioned in the original story, so she didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable or awkward.

She was curious, however, about what he looked like, as his appearance had never been described in the text.

Thinking this, Enria followed Caldeon to the office. As the door opened, she offered a light nod of greeting to Arsen, who bowed as if he had expected their arrival.

“Call Rahar and Fyoren.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Arsen quickly answered Caldeon’s command, sat at his desk, and activated the communication device. Enria sat next to Caldeon on the window-side sofa and began to recall the villainous deeds the dark wizard had committed in the original story.

‘There was definitely no mention of specifically killing only spirits in the original story.’

This seemed to be happening because of Panz, who hadn’t existed in the original plot. In the original, Panz, Rahar’s spirit, had never joined hands with the dark wizard, so the dark wizard never collected human souls to strengthen Panz. Instead of for Panz, he had collected human souls to resurrect the Evil God, who had been sealed by the Master of the Oracle long ago.

The dark wizard’s goal was to revive black magic, which was despised throughout the empire and the world, and eventually to rule the empire himself with black magic. Therefore, he hadn’t planned to resurrect the Evil God from the beginning. The original narrative flow was that his plans kept failing because of Caldeon, Roseanne, and Rahar, so he was forced to borrow power from the Evil God, which ultimately led to the Evil God consuming his own soul. Enria felt that the story would likely follow a similar sequence this time as well. The major framework always seemed to remain unchanged, despite the details differing for various reasons.

‘Ah, in that case, the Evil God, too…’

When the final villain of the original story flashed across her mind, Enria called out to Caldeon. “Um, Lord Caldeon.”

But before she could continue, the office door burst open, and Rahar and Fyoren noisily entered. They exchanged greetings with Arsen, then came straight to the sofa and looked at Enria.

“Long time no see, Enria.”

Rahar offered a light greeting and plopped down in the seat opposite Caldeon. He looked quite exhausted, having been called to the Grand Ducal Castle suddenly despite his busy schedule with family matters.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Grand Duchess. I am Fyoren, head of the Odin Investigation Guild.”

“Ah, hello.”

Enria immediately bowed her head in response to Fyoren’s greeting and then slightly raised her eyes to look at him. She was momentarily flustered by Fyoren’s casual address of “Grand Duchess,” even though she wasn’t officially one yet, but her surprise quickly subsided as she was stunned by Fyoren’s appearance, which had never been described in the text. His sturdy physique, appearing twice the size of Rahar’s, was reminiscent of a bear. With an overall large and fierce impression, he seemed more like the captain of a knight order than the head of an investigation guild. However, his eyes were sharp and keen, suggesting he was a cool-headed person with no weaknesses upon closer inspection.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet the Grand Duchess I’ve only heard about. His Grace the Grand Duke used to boast about you so much…”

“Cut the small talk, Fyoren.”

Caldeon waved a hand toward Fyoren, who immediately shut his mouth like a tightly disciplined soldier and bowed his head. He then moved with a quickness that contradicted his massive body and sat down next to Rahar.

“Fyoren, elaborate on the details of the commissions from the spirit users.”

“Yes. As I mentioned via the communication link, the Magic Tower’s Groen and his wizards have been targeting and attacking only the lower spirits summoned by spirit users for the past three days.”

Fyoren stated that most of the commission requests described a situation where the wizards attacked the summoned spirits until they were dead, without harming the spirit users at all. He then asked Caldeon with a serious expression, “Doesn’t this situation seem like they are only targeting the spirits?”

“…”

“Not only that, but Groen is unconditionally the one who delivers the final blow to the targeted spirits. Several spirit users reported seeing him summon a black cube when he did so, and we are currently investigating that cube through our contact embedded in the Magic Tower.”

Groen, the cube, the final execution of the spirit. Enria turned the combination of these words over in her mind, and her face hardened as the situation increasingly matched her own theories.

At that moment, the forgotten episode of the Magic Tower Master and the dark wizard came back to her.

“Lord Caldeon, perhaps the dark wizard is currently in the Magic Tower.”

“The dark wizard?”

“Pardon? That can’t be. The Magic Tower dislikes dark wizards just as much as the Imperial family…”

Enria quickly shook her head at Fyoren’s words and continued, “He might be hiding his true identity and impersonating the Magic Tower Master.”