Chapter 56

“Please try some of this, Wind Spirit.”

Chavel said, setting down a platter piled high with fried fish in front of Windel. Since Windel rescued Hayden and Chavel, she was no longer afraid of him. Instead, she began to attend to him devotedly, to the point where Windel was embarrassed.

[I am full, so it is fine.]

“They say a spirit is never full no matter how much human food they eat. Please try some, I specially asked them to fry it for you.”

[…….]

“Oh, no, Young Master Hayden. I brought your portion separately, it’s grilled here.”

When Hayden reached for the fried fish on the platter, Chavel quickly stopped his hand and spooned some fish meat—which she had brought along with his baby food—into his mouth.

As Hayden began to chew and eat the fish meat, Chavel winked at Windel, urging him to eat as well. Windel reluctantly took a fish from the platter and began to chew it. Although he was in the form of a white tiger, he wasn’t particularly fond of fish, so his eating speed was slow.

He found it ridiculous that she, with her simple mind, assumed he would like fish just because he was in the form of a tiger, but at the same time, he liked that she no longer flinched or looked intimidated by his every move as before.

“Does it not suit your taste? Do you perhaps prefer meat…”

As Windel was not eating with much appetite, Chavel asked with a troubled expression and mumbled the last part to herself.

[It is not that it does not suit my taste. It is just that I am not particularly in the mood to eat anything. Although, I do prefer meat over fish.]

Chavel opened her mouth wide in surprise, nodding vigorously, and said she would prepare meat from now on. Windel was about to say that she didn’t need to prepare a separate portion for him, but he stopped himself, thinking it would be awkward to reject Chavel’s thoughtfulness, who was deliberately taking care of his portion while feeding Hayden his baby food.

[But where are Caldeon and Enria? Why are they not here?]

Windel glanced towards the door and asked Chavel, who was feeding Hayden his baby food.

“Ah, they are currently casting a barrier around the Grand Ducal Castle.”

Given that black magic had breached the spirit barrier, the two people thought a safer and stronger shield was necessary. For the past few days, they had put their heads together to create a barrier infused with divine power into black magic. They were currently diligently wrapping this barrier around the Grand Ducal Castle.

Windel nodded once at Chavel’s explanation.

‘If it’s a barrier combining black magic and divine power, perhaps we can feel safe.’

With that thought, he wondered if he could briefly visit the Spirit Village once the barrier was complete. Although he was constantly receiving updates on the situation in the Spirit Village from Blizzan, Eva, and Graum, he felt that direct involvement was different from indirect updates, and he was eager to join them soon.

Of course, protecting Hayden was the most important thing, so the time when he, who had promised to protect Hayden, could join the spirits would be only after he was absolutely certain of Hayden’s safety. If not, Silri, who was like a white cat which was similar to white tigers anyway, could protect Hayden in his place sometimes.

‘Still, I feel most at ease protecting him myself.’

Windel put another piece of the fried fish Chavel had painstakingly prepared into his mouth and chewed it, watching Hayden, who was being fed baby food by Chavel. Windel’s eyes were filled with affection for Hayden.

At that moment, Caldeon and Enria were walking around the outer wall of the Grand Ducal Castle, meticulously casting a black magic barrier and covering it with a layer of divine power.

They suspected that just as the black mage had easily breached Graum’s shield and the black magic barrier using spirit souls, the barrier reinforced with divine power might also be breached quickly. However, they couldn’t just stand by, so they were doing what they could. Divine power was essentially a force close to healing magic, used to treat wounds caused by evil spirits and black magic. However, it was also a holy and powerful force, and Enria thought it might be effective against the black magic that had consumed spirit souls. Therefore, she meticulously coated the black magic barrier cast by Caldeon with divine power.

“I think this is enough.”

Caldeon, who had finished casting the barrier around the entire perimeter, looked at the castle gate in front of them and spoke. A faint black shadow and a pure white light harmoniously shimmered around the outer wall of the castle gate, where they had started.

Enria nodded and asked Caldeon, “Shall we cast the barrier inside the castle now?”

“Inside, tomorrow. My black magic is almost depleted. If I use any more, I might go into a rampage.”

“Ah.”

Enria’s eyes widened slightly at the mention of a rampage, and she looked at him with a worried expression. Caldeon gave her a gentle smile and said, “Of course, since you are here, I don’t have to worry about a magic rampage.”

At that, Enria’s face immediately flushed red. Since she hadn’t directly suppressed Caldeon’s rampage for a while, as he was relying on the rampage inhibitors Roseanne made and focusing on caring for Hayden; she suddenly felt embarrassed.

“B-But since we are living with Hayden right now, for the time being, we will have to use the medicine Rose made…”

It was true that directly suppressing his rampage was difficult since they were sharing a bedroom with the young Hayden. It felt wrong to call the Wind Spirit to protect Hayden at night, and it was a period where it was difficult to leave the child alone.

Caldeon, who was well aware of the difficult situation and had endured it until now, seemed to fully understand Enria’s concern.

Caldeon gently stroked Enria’s cheek, who was trailing off, unable to figure out what to do, and nodded once.

“I know. That I must act rationally until we properly arrange Hayden’s residence.”

Caldeon added that he would find a way for Hayden to sleep alone as soon as possible, and he smiled, holding Enria’s hand.

“Shall we go up now? I’m curious what our son is doing.”

At Caldeon’s words, Enria smiled and nodded.

“Yes. I want to see Hayden too.”

“You are not thinking of my castle as a gathering place for your lot, are you?”

Caldeon’s brow furrowed at the sight that greeted his eyes as soon as he entered the parlor. Enria’s eyes also widened upon seeing Caldeon’s spirits and Rahar’s spirits gathered noisily in the parlor.

For some reason, they were all sitting around in their original spirit forms, not their humanized forms.

“Oh, you’re here?” Rahar, the only human, raised his hand and smiled.

“Did you summon them?” Caldeon, holding Enria’s hand, walked towards the sofa where Rahar was sitting and asked.

It seemed the spirits had played a lot with Hayden, as he was leaning against Windel’s back, asleep.

“We were going to move him to his bed, but the spirits requested to leave him, saying they wanted to stay with Hayden, whom they haven’t seen in a while.” Chavel quickly approached Enria and informed her.

Enria nodded, signaling that it was fine.

“But why are you all in those forms?” Enria asked as she sat next to Caldeon. Blizzan, in the form of a firebird and sitting by the window, looked at her and said.

[We just came over after a massive battle.]

Blizzan, who threw out a true statement that sounded like a joke—that they didn’t have the strength to humanize after a tough battle—turned back to the window and continued speaking.

[The black mage breached Graum’s barrier, correct?]

“Yes. That’s why we were reinforcing the security of the castle’s outer wall by adding divine power to my barrier on the way back.”

At Caldeon’s words, Silri, in the form of a cat and lying languidly at Hayden’s feet, raised his head and said.

[If it’s black magic using the souls of spirits, it will easily breach divine power too.]

[That’s right. After all, divine power is not much different from the spirits’ power in the first place.]

Eva, in the form of a blue dolphin, nodded, supporting Silri’s words. Lonn, whose body was a clump of earth with a tree growing on top and who had twig-like arms, crossed them and said.

[But at least divine power will be helpful in various ways because you can immediately detect if black magic invades.]

[If that’s the case, Caldeon’s black magic can also detect intruders.]

Eva countered Lonn’s statement. Lonn wrinkled what might have been his brow and spoke to her.

[Don’t put the black magic of your contractor and Enria’s divine power, which is combined with my power, on the same level. No matter what anyone says, divine power is the closest power to God that God has bestowed upon humans.]

[If we are going by that logic, isn’t black magic the same? You are a spirit contracted with a general spirit user, so you wouldn’t know much, but black magic is…]

When it seemed like Caldeon’s spirit and Rahar’s spirit were about to get into an argument, Caldeon abruptly cut Eva off.

“That is not what’s important. Why have you gathered in my castle?”

In response to Caldeon’s question, Graum, who had been sitting silently in the form of a turtle, opened his mouth.

[Blizzan and the fire spirits sensed something strange.]

Blizzan, who had been looking out the window, turned his head towards Caldeon.

“Something strange?” Caldeon asked Blizzan. Blizzan spread his massive wings, moved towards the sofa, and instantly shifted into his human form.

Chavel’s eyes widened as if they would pop out, having witnessed the firebird transform into a human right before her eyes.

“It seems Panz has committed an irreversible act.”

At the mention of Panz’s name from Blizzan’s mouth, Caldeon’s and Enria’s eyes widened simultaneously.