Chapter 153

Boom!  

With a loud explosion, the air suddenly turned scorching hot. Maybe that’s why the faint grassy scent disappeared, along with my drowsiness.  

‘Wait a second… this feels kind of familiar…’  

Blowing up fireplaces. That’s totally Gabbie’s specialty.  

The moment I thought that, a voice—strangely familiar yet like I was hearing it for the first time—cut through the rising dust.  

— I knew something was off. Minuelle’s power kept dwindling and swelling again.  

Thud.  

Chunks of stone fell from the shattered fireplace as a young man crawled out. His long hair writhed like serpents made of fire.  

Peeking out cautiously from behind Esadien, I frowned and asked, “Who are you?”  

The red-haired young man frowned back at me in the same way.  

— Minuelle Karnian. I feel so betrayed right now.  

As always, he was just fun to tease. If he were human, no way would hair blazing like that leave him unharmed.  

“Oh, I get it. You’re like Gabbie but… the deluxe version, right?”  

Even though the situation was odd just a moment ago, Gabbie’s appearance alone was enough to make me relax.  

— No! Not that!  

But the guy, oblivious, snapped back in outrage, jabbing a finger at us.  

— You’re keeping another spirit besides me?  

Except his finger wasn’t pointing at Esadien or me, but behind us.  

‘Behind us…? There’s only the baby’s cradle.’  

Esadien instinctively turned, body jerking violently in surprise.  

“W-what is it?”  

It was terrifying, but there was no way to avoid looking forever. Slowly turning my head, I was just as shocked as Esadien.  

A child, looking about four or five years old, sat weightlessly on the edge of the cradle.  

When our eyes met, the child tilted his head with an adorable smile.  

— Kkyu?  

…Spirits, honestly.  

Gabbie couldn’t have been wrong, yet what I saw looked like the same baby I’d cradled in my arms just an hour earlier—only older.  

“Cai…us?”  

Hesitantly calling out, the spirit answered as if waiting for me.  

— Mama.  

— Mama? Don’t make me laugh! Shameless!  

The instant I heard it, my heart plummeted like a stone. Meanwhile, Gabbie grew even angrier, snarling.  

— El! Minuelle! That brat was feeding off our power!  

Our… power.  

So what I’d sensed before wasn’t just my imagination?  

I slowly reached out, stroking the silver hair that shimmered like a fallen cloud. Unlike Gabbie, Kaius looked far too human.  

“From the beginning… did you appear before us on purpose?”  

Kaius hesitated for the briefest moment, but his expression vanished just as quickly. That blank face lifted into a fabricated smile.  

— Yeah. That’s right.  

“Then why aren’t you feeding now?”  

I wasn’t immune to feeling betrayed.  

The sense of familiarity, the pull I’d felt toward the baby—it had all been because he was a spirit? And worse, because he approached us only to steal our strength?  

But just before that grassy scent spread through the air, Kaius’s face had twisted with the look of someone being forced into something they didn’t want to do.  

That expression was still vivid in my mind. I couldn’t simply brand him a wicked child.  

Esadien also reached out, gently taking the boy’s hand.  

“You must have taken from me the power I inherited from my father. You could have continued leeching off little by little. Why the sudden urgency?”  

Startled at being asked “why” before being accused, Kaius’s eyes widened. Then his jaw tightened, his small face wrinkling like a walnut.  

Gabbie stamped his foot.  

— Hey! Minuelle, you were so wary of me, but now you’re all soft on him? You’ll regret it when he drains you dry!  

He was shouting, but only because he was worried. Kaius glanced at Gabbie, then smirked.  

— Why should I explain? Insolent humans.  

Suddenly, the window burst open. Our eyes darted toward it, but when we turned back, Kaius’s figure was already fading, then gone.  

Only the wind that had wrapped around his hair rushed out the wide-open window.  

As his presence vanished, it felt as though my ears cleared, sharp and free.  

Thump, thump!  

“Your Highnesses! Are you unharmed?”  

“We’ll break down the door! Stand back!”  

It was only then, hearing the commotion outside, that I realized Kaius had been blocking all sound.  

I turned to Gabbie.  

“…That boy, is he a spirit of wind?”  

— That’s right.  

The immediate answer drew a helpless laugh from me.  

“I really did name him well, didn’t I?”  

In Greek mythology, Kaikias was the god of the northeast wind. Maybe the intuition I’d honed living with Gabbie had unconsciously hit the mark.  

  Just before the knights smashed their way in, Esadien reassured them of our safety.  

When they entered, relief written all over their faces, they nearly jumped out of their skins at the sight of Gabbie. I jabbed the spirit in the side.  

“Why are you so big? You’re scaring them.”  

— Ah… because of that guy. Fire grows when it meets wind.  

Mumbling awkwardly, Gabbie shrank back to his usual size. I introduced him casually to calm the others.  

“This is Gabbie, spirit of fire. My close friend—please greet him.”  

— Hello, humans. Remember, only feed your hearth with Yoshicho branches.  

What a bossy little tyrant.  

But strangely, people seemed to like that part of him. Living with me, Gabbie had learned as much, so even while acting lofty he scattered tiny bird-shaped sparks as a playful service.  

The stern administrators even clapped before catching themselves, embarrassed.  

Once things quieted again, Esadien said, “Spirits naturally rule nature and draw strength just by existing. For Kaius to disguise himself as a baby… there must be a reason.”  

“Is that a knight’s intuition? Or a father’s instinct?”  

At the word “father,” Esadien cleared his throat, replying, “Let’s say both.”  

“Haha. Actually, I think the same. And as a former spirit contractor, my instinct says it’s connected to the milk incident too.”  

“…Bewitching people.”  

“And lulling them to sleep.”  

Meeting each other’s gaze, we both nodded. Having nearly fallen victim just now, we couldn’t deny it.  

“And we have just the right friend to track him down.”  

We both turned to Gabbie.  

— W-what?  

Smiling brightly, I said, “That’s why we need you, my friend.”  

* * *  

Judging from Austin’s case, only holy power or magic could restrain a spirit’s strength.  

But in Nantier, there were priests, no mages.  

So I invited the strongest mage I knew.  

‘Master, would you like to meet a wind spirit?’  

Just those words had the manor bustling with Brassidas and the mages he brought along.  

Since the mages had come, we couldn’t just let them leave after one job. I whispered to an administrator, “Before my master returns to Roquate, the magic circles must be set up. Hurry the pasture contracts.”  

“Y-yes… To think Her Highness’s contact was the Archmage himself…”  

The poor man, seeing so many mages for the first time, was stiff with shock.  

Esadien slipped his arm around my shoulders, chuckling.  

“My wife is the school director. I suppose you didn’t know.”  

My wife. 

The words made me so happy I didn’t even bother to point out that most people wouldn’t know the head of a school they had no connection to.  

“Disciple, you look well.”  

Leaving his chat with Gabbie, Brassidas approached.  

“I trust you’ve been as diligent in your studies as in your married life?”  

“Haha… I’ve been so absorbed in research, I hardly noticed time passing.”  

Researching my husband, that is. 

And my beloved husband, Esadien, sensing my trouble, promptly declared departure.  

Guided by the knights who’d investigated and by Gabbie, we arrived at a place thick with Kaius’s presence.  

Even with a lake and forest between it and the villa, it was strange I hadn’t noticed it before.  

Surveying the landscape and flow of mana, Brassidas muttered, “Hm. A likely spot for a dungeon.”  

The other mages gasped, murmuring in alarm.  

“Another dungeon still exists?”  

“But the great emperor had all of them sealed when he brought mages into the light.”  

I was shocked for a different reason.  

‘Even the servants’ stories were true?’  

Long ago, during the mage hunts… many disappeared around here.  

Back then, when mages couldn’t even reveal themselves, they dug underground for research and survival. Those hidden facilities were called dungeons.  

Now, they are relics of history.  

With the rise of the Preseria Empire and its mage-friendly policies, their communities had shifted to schools and towers.  

“Gabbie. Can you sense exactly where Kaius is?”  

— Belowground… maybe.  

The vague answer made my heart drop. Underground now could only mean a dungeon. I pressed him impatiently.  

“You don’t know exactly?”  

— No. And honestly, it’s weird his aura is clumped like this.  

“Why?”  

— He’s wind. Have you ever seen wind clump together?  

“…You’re right.”  

— And why’d you give him a name if you hadn’t contracted him?  

His cheeks puffed up. Jealousy, clearly. I gave a wry smile and ruffled his head.  

“I didn’t know he was a spirit.”  

— That’s even worse.  

“Why?”  

— Because he always wanted to be human. Calling you Mama, of all things! As if that changes what he is.  

“……”  

Spirits did take on human shapes before me, but never perfectly.  

Gabbie always burned, the water spirit had blue skin and foaming hair.  

But Kaius? He looked so perfectly human, no one would doubt he was a baby.  

The feeling sat heavy in my chest. Sad, bitter.  

‘If only he’d just asked for help outright…’  

A spirit weakened to the point of stealing scraps of human power.  

A spirit who wanted to be human, now trapped and fading in a dungeon built by humans.  

‘No wonder he couldn’t trust us easily.’  

I understood. Yet the image of him gripping Esadien’s hand, face on the verge of tears, kept haunting me.