BXBX NOVEL Chapter 236: Exposure. 16:41
Chapter 236: Exposure. 16:41
- Exposure. 16:41
Hiding himself among the trees in the forest, which had only a few withered leaves, Ambitious stared at the scene with his mouth agape.
…Floating beside Ambitious, the black ball… the darkness spirit, stared intently at his state.
Even when it deliberately floated in front of him to obstruct his view, or circled around his body, Ambitious didn’t react.
Unable to accept the fact that his pawns had been annihilated right in front of him, he was stunned and at a loss.
In other words, now that it had come to this, it was unlikely that this man would challenge that cursed child anymore.
That is, the request was a failure.
(Che~~~! That’s why I told you. It would fail anyway!)
The darkness spirit made a cute clicking sound in its mind and puffed out something like black smoke.
(There’s no way such a bunch could defeat that monster! Gei-chi doesn’t listen to what I say…)
The darkness spirit sighed while watching the cursed child start burying the assassins beside the highway.
This darkness spirit had been observing that cursed child at the base in the Zamago Forest after receiving an order to assassinate her.
That’s why it knew.
That cursed child was not a being that it could do anything about.
That the likes of “Purple Dual Rings” probably couldn’t match her.
However, no matter how much it said that, the Vice-Commander of the Adventurer’s Guild, Geistpfenanjeshiriard, who was the darkness spirit’s master, wouldn’t listen.
And he issued an assassination order to “Purple Dual Rings” that had no chance of success.
The darkness spirit was ordered to deliver that assassination order to them.
Even though it knew it was futile, once ordered to do so, the darkness spirit had no choice but to obey.
Except in certain cases, the darkness spirit had absolute obedience to Geistpfenanjeshiriard.
Because for about 60 years, since long ago, it had been bound by such a “contract” that was terribly disadvantageous to the darkness spirit.
If the people called “spirit users,” who exist in small numbers in this world and borrow the power of spirits to wield it, heard the contents of this contract, they would be outraged by its terribleness and feel a bit of sympathy for the darkness spirit.
Why did this darkness spirit make such a pledge with the Vice-Commander that was almost equivalent to a slave contract?
Was it deceived?
Was it somehow threatened and forced to make it?
(Ah~, well then, I guess I’ll head back soon too! Gei-chi will be angry~…)
The answer was neither of those.
(Well, whatever~! Gei-chi getting all red in the face and angry is also super pretty~!)
The answer was.
(Gei-chi, who will get even more wrinkled on his already wrinkled face when he gets angry! Gei-chi, who will yell at me with a pouty face that he only shows to me! Gei-chi, who will hold his chest in pain after getting too angry! All of it is pretty~!)
…Because this darkness spirit loved Vice-Commander Geistpfenanjeshiriard.
When the Vice-Commander was still young, this darkness spirit met him (of course, at that time he was still just an adventurer) when he came to the spirit forest where spirits lived.
And it fell in love at first sight.
That fake-looking smile!
That sticky magical power that seemed to cling to you!
That small and cowardly soul that quivered cutely!
Everything was the darkness spirit’s type.
(This person is mine! I absolutely won’t hand him over to other spirits!)
The darkness spirit, feeling that way, immediately attacked Geistpfenanjeshiriard, defeated him after a half-day-long fierce battle, and became his exclusive contract spirit.
The disadvantageous contract mentioned earlier was made at that time.
The Geistpfenanjeshiriard at that time misunderstood that he was able to make such a spirit contract because he had completely defeated this darkness spirit, but that wasn’t the truth.
(Haa~~~! Gei-chi, I love you, love you! I love you so much~~~!)
The reason was that this darkness spirit loved Geistpfenanjeshiriard too much.
By the way, if Geistpfenanjeshiriard had been defeated in the fierce battle before the contract, his soul would have been stolen and captured by the darkness spirit.
A spirit contract is a life-or-death ritual.
Now, after the contract was made like this, the darkness spirit became Geistpfenanjeshiriard’s shadow and carried out various orders.
Initially, those orders were very common for a spirit user, such as “Fight together and defeat monsters.”
The darkness spirit worked hard.
When the darkness spirit worked hard, Geistpfenanjeshiriard would show a fake-looking smile.
(I’m so happy! I love that fake-looking smile!)
The darkness spirit wanted to see that smile more and more.
So, it fixed its appearance when mimicking a human form to “the appearance of the person Geistpfenanjeshiriard likes the most”!
Even now, the darkness spirit can vividly remember how it was when it first showed that appearance to Geistpfenanjeshiriard.
At that time, when Geistpfenanjeshiriard saw the darkness spirit, his face first turned bright red, then immediately turned pale, and he vomited the contents of his stomach.
And then, in a voice filled with anger that it had never heard before, he shouted.
“Stop it!!! How dare the likes of you!!! Don’t take on that appearance!!!”
But the darkness spirit had already decided that this would be its lifelong form when mimicking a human.
Therefore, as a last resort, it was ordered to take on a form where that shape was wrapped round and round with black cloth when becoming human.
(Even though I thought I would make him happy…)
The darkness spirit was puzzled by Geistpfenanjeshiriard’s attitude, which was different from what it had imagined.
After that, he stopped showing the fake-looking smile that the darkness spirit had loved.
Instead, what he directed at it was a gaze filled with hatred.
The spirit contract that the darkness spirit has made is terribly inconvenient for the spirit side, but even so, it is set up so that it cannot directly threaten the darkness spirit’s life.
If such an order could be made, he would have immediately ordered the darkness spirit to commit suicide.
It was intense, intense hatred that made that very clear.
The man, who usually put on airs to cover up his muddy inner self and never showed it to the outside, revealed that hatred only to it.
Therefore, the darkness spirit…
(I… I…! It means I’ve finally become “special” to Gei-chi!!)
…was greatly delighted.
It accepted any abuse that became worse day by day with a smile.
It always carried out orders that seemed like unreasonable demands, as long as they didn’t affect its life.
No matter how dirty the job was.
(I’m seriously such a devoted woman~~~!)
The darkness spirit loved Geistpfenanjeshiriard.
Therefore, all the hatred, abuse, and unreasonable demands that came from him were dear to it.
Out of the roughly 150 years since the darkness spirit gained self-awareness… these past 60 years or so were the happiest time.
…For this darkness spirit.
(Oops, I can’t stay like this! I have to hurry and get scolded by Gei-chi!)
Now, the darkness spirit left Ambitious, who continued to be dumbfounded, and began to act to return to the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters.
It sank its body into the shadow of the forest, which stretched long due to the setting sun, and dove deep, deep towards the bottom of the earth.
What was there was the “blood vessel” of this world.
In other words, it was the great flow of magical power that nourished the earth.
Spirits that had gained power over the years could submerge themselves in this flow of magical power and travel to various parts of the world, except for the Dark Continent Sardisann, where the flow of magical power had stagnated since the collapse of the super-ancient magical civilization.
(There we go, arrived~~~!)
A few hours later, the darkness spirit poked its face out of the shadow of a potted plant near the Vice-Commander’s office on the third floor of the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters on the ever-summer island of Aave Island.
Direct movement to the office was prohibited by the Vice-Commander, so the shadow of this potted plant was treasured as one of the darkness spirit’s entrances.
By the way, the time here was just around when the staff members were taking their lunch break to have their noon meal.
The vast ocean shimmering in the sunlight outside the window was dazzling.
(Gei-chi, Gei-chi!)
But such a scenery didn’t matter to the darkness spirit.
Elated with the joy of being able to see the face of the man it loved, the darkness spirit started to transform to take on a human form to knock on the office door.
But at that moment!
“Wow! You came back at just the right time!”
As soon as that drawling female voice echoed in the hallway, the darkness spirit’s body was restrained with tremendous force!
The darkness spirit hurriedly canceled its transformation and directed its consciousness to the back.
What was there… gripping the darkness spirit’s black spherical body with just the right amount of force to keep inflicting pain without crushing it was a slender woman with beautiful golden hair that reached her waist, shimmering.
<<<Ah… M-… M-Mother-in-law…>>>
This youthful woman was none other than Lairine Rune, the “Immutable,” the world’s strongest adventurer who had reigned over the position of Supreme Commander of the Adventurer’s Guild for more than 50 years!
“…Hey, ‘Mother’? Did I ever give you permission to call me that? …Right now, in this world, the only one allowed to call me that is… ‘just one person now,’ you know?”
<<<Hii, ah, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!!>>>
Lairine gradually increased the force gripping the darkness spirit while maintaining her smiling face!
Hearing the sound of cracks forming even in its own soul, the darkness spirit desperately apologized!
The darkness spirit knew.
This woman… Geistpfenanjeshiriard’s mother and teacher… and the original of the darkness spirit’s human form, this woman had no mercy.
If there was an existence she didn’t like, she was a being who could erase it along with the surrounding area while yawning.
Usually, even if a guild staff member made a blunder, she would only point it out with a smile, simply because she had no interest in that existence in the first place.
That was the only reason.
“If you’ve reflected, then that’s fine! By the way, this is sudden, but you know, there’s something I want to ask you!”
<<<Yes! I’ll answer! I’ll answer anything!>>>
The darkness spirit, feeling that the force gripping it had weakened and that there was finally a prospect of being saved, answered Lairine eagerly.
In the first place, even if it wasn’t threatened like this time, the darkness spirit couldn’t defy Lairine.
Because when making the contract with the darkness spirit, Geistpfenanjeshiriard had stipulated that Lairine Rune’s orders take precedence over his own.
Orders concerning the darkness spirit’s own life are invalid, and Lairine’s orders take priority.
These two were the “certain cases” in the slave spirit contract that proclaimed absolute obedience to Geistpfenanjeshiriard.
Lairine nodded with a smiling face, seeming satisfied with the darkness spirit’s words, and then…
“What have you been doing until now?”
She suddenly erased all expression from her beautiful features and asked in a low, terrifying voice that made one’s blood run cold.
<<<Ah…>>>
“Speak.”
Lairine’s orders took precedence over Geistpfenanjeshiriard’s orders.
It had to answer.
<<<Ah, ah, ah…>>>
“Speak.”
It had to answer.
That it had gone to kill.
<<<Ah, um, that…>>>
The girl that Lairine was looking forward to encountering.
The cursed child Emi.
It had gone to kill her.
…On Geistpfenanjeshiriard’s orders.
“Hey, are you listening? Speak… Do you want to be killed, Himetal?”
Himetal.
The darkness spirit’s name that hadn’t been called by anyone in decades.
Called by that name coldly, Himetal felt like a knife was being thrust into its soul.
It couldn’t hide it anymore.
Contractually, it wasn’t allowed to.
And in the first place, even without a contract, there was no way it could defy the order of Lairine, who was clearly on a different level, a being that should be called an existence overflowing with power.
Therefore, Himetal spoke.
Everything, all of it.
The next moment, a tremendous killing intent burst out from the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters.
In an instant, cracks appeared here and there on the white walls of the guild headquarters, and all the window glass shattered.
With a few exceptions, most of the staff members fainted, and the dragons that resided on Aave Island took off all at once and began to flee from the place in a frenzy.
Lairine was angry.
For the first time in 200 years, she was seriously angry.
【Zamago Forest】
The setting of Arc 12.
The western edge of the Demon Realm Ranrananga Mountain Range.
A prospective outpost was recently built there.
【Geistpfenanjeshiriard】
Vice-Commander of the Adventurer’s Guild.
On the surface, an old man who pretends to be a gentle and virtuous person.
Appeared briefly at the end of Arc 6 and 12.
He has an unusually long name, but it has been revealed from his conversation with the Commander that it was a name given by the Commander.
He has no surname.
【Spirit Forest】
A forest where spirits live.
Judging from the episode of Geistpfenanjeshiriard and Himetal’s encounter, it is a quite dangerous place for humans.
Scheduled to appear in Part 2.
【Super-Ancient Magical Civilization】
An ancient civilization with a romantic-sounding name that was also briefly touched upon by Extra-sama in Arc 10.
【Adventurer’s Guild】
An international organization that the current Adventure God Dorantos was ordered to create by multiple gods.
It has a strangely modern workplace environment.
Appears in each Arc.
By the way, Dorantos has only been a god for about a thousand years and is still a newcomer in the divine realm, and he was treated roughly by a certain cube.
【Lairine Rune】
Supreme Commander of the Adventurer’s Guild.
A mysterious existence that has lived for over 300 years.
The strongest adventurer, and her alias is “Immutable.”