"Mid-rank spirits!?" Cordia shuddered in fear, knowing that they're C-Class monsters. Well, they'd be classified as E-Class, but their threat level in a place polluted with a lot of mana like this forest becomes much higher.
"Tsk, I can't believe there'd be Mid-Rank spirits. Didn't the army say only lower ranked spirits and wisps were living here?" Issa was standing in front of Mandel, she asked Cordia the question.
"Mandel, can you make an array right now?" Cordia sounded panicked, spirits were fearsome foes, after all. They were smart, and the amount of mana in a place dictates their power. The combination of angry spirits, high mana concentration, and intelligence, is the ingredient list for destruction.
The mage shook her head, she looked like she was in massive pain as she was curling up on the ground, casting healing magic on the wound the spear of mist opened up. Of course she removed the spear first, she didn't want her body to accidentally heal around a spear after all.
Cordia couldn't help but let out a very angry cuss as she drew her sword, she knew this was extremely stupid, and most adventurers would likely just leave their injured friend behind. But she had a feeling that if they did that the spirits might get even angrier. The three women also went back really far, leaving Mandel to die here would absolutely destroy Cordia's mental state.
"Give us the child." The wind spirit spoke, well there were two wind spirits, in this case the wind spirit not wearing a priest's outfit. In other words, Simoy spoke.
"W-What?" Cordia was confused, she couldn't understand why they asked for the boy, what would they even do with a divorakk?
"The child." Lawod pointed at the sleeping boy in Issa's arms, "Give him back." Lawod said, his voice was deep, cold, and somehow, gentle.
"Why? What are you going to do?" Issa asked as she held the boy in her arms tightly. She didn't want to let go, and she most definitely will not give the boy to anyone.
"He's the child of the forest. He belongs to us. We are his guardians." Simoy said, unlike Lawod, his voice was a bit more breathy and had very odd fluctuations of volume. It seems that the wind spirit doesn't know how to properly speak without telepathy.
"What's going to happen if we don't give you the child?" Issa asked the spirits.
"Issa!? Stop! We'll give them the child if that's what they want. If they're his guardians then giving him back is what we should do." Cordia yelled at Issa, she didn't know what exactly was going through Issa's head. She just knew that if she doesn't stop Issa, then they might not be able to leave this forest with all three of them alive.
"What if they're lying? Spirits don't always tell the truth, you know." Issa didn't take her eyes off the furious spirits. She thought that if she did, she would be attacked, compromising the safety of the child she was holding.
"What incentive do they have to lie!?" Cordia was helping Mandel up now, she wanted to grab Issa now and run, but, unfortunately, she could see the three lower-ranked spirits behind the two middle-ranked ones preparing to give chase to anyone that might try and run away.
"I don't know! I just don't trust these asshats." Issa grumbled.
"We come in peace, well, mostly peace. Little Clay and our guardian deity, Lady Diana, do not like excessive violence, the spear that we shot at you was nothing more than a display of what we're willing to do. Please stand down and give him to us." Lawod spoke.
"How do we know you aren't lying just to get the child? I know how you spirits like taking children, I'm not going to give you this child." Issa didn't know what else to say, she really didn't want to leave the boy, who she now knew was named Clay.
"...Are you possibly implying that we spirits are some sort of predatory kidnappers that spirit away children as some sort of twisted hobby?" Lawod asked. He was absolutely dumbfounded, he turned to Simoy and saw that the wind spirit had the same offended expression that he had.
"Yes." Issa answered.
"That is a horribly prejudiced and bigoted belief." Lawod and Simoy said in unison.
"I can't believe humans still believe those stupid fairytales." Simoy turned to Lawod.
"Mmm, indeed. I thought that they'd be smarter than that." Lawod sighed.
"Who was it that spread that belief again? It was Miss Lilliana, right?"
"Ah, yes, Miss Lilliana? She did, didn't she?"
"Yes, she called the rumour-spreading a 'prank that went very wrong'."
"Indeed, that said, Miss Lilliana and Clailip have a lot in common eh?"
"Right you are. Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea to be talking right now. Let us recover Clailip first and chat later." Simoy turned to face the adventuring women.
The adventurers were a bit surprised that the two spirits were openly having a nice chat in a situation as tense as this, they felt as if they were being underestimated by the spirits. Though, they can't really do anything about it, thinking that the spirit's power would be able to overwhelm them if they tried to retaliate.
They didn't even consider the possibility that Simoy and Lawod were just chatty spirits who tend to talk non-stop and babble about the most random of things on a daily basis.
"We really do come in peace. Please just give us the boy and we will let you go on your merry way. We do not wish to hurt humans." Lawod tried his best to sound genuine, unfortunately he was failing and just sounding like he's mocking the women.
"Lawod, let me do the communicating." Simoy was definitely better at expressing their genuine intent to not hurt the woman.
"Please do understand that the child you are holding is under our protection, you have done nothing to hurt that child I presume, so we do not have any reason to attack you. We just want him back." Simoy explained the spirits' side, they were definitely furious, but they didn't want to be violent unless needed. Though, if they somehow learned of Issa's previous beat-down of Clailip then the spirits will not hesitate to attack the humans immediately.
"How are a bunch of spirits even going to raise a child? You have no bodies, you don't need to eat or drink water, you wouldn't know what to do if the boy ever got sick. I can't just hand over a child to spirits." Issa said. Cordia looked at her with a face full of frustration and anger, one that was screaming 'WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?'.
"...Well, you are correct about the getting sick part. But we know how to take care of his other needs." Simoy said, "Though, that said, if Clay ever got sick then we really wouldn't be able to help…" Simoy sighed and looked at Lawod, sending a telepathic message to the water spirit.
"Yes! That's right! We're humans and we know how to take care of illnesses, divorakk bodies are close enough to humans, so the medicine we take can be used by them too!" Issa said, as she kept staring at the two spirits.
The two spirits were deep in thought, they can feel their brains juggling for an answer. It was true, if Clailip ever got sick then they may not be able to help him, spirits don't have physical bodies so their illnesses are vastly different from races that DO have physical bodies.
"Fine, what do you suggest we do then?" Lawod spoke first.
"Just give us to him. We won't hurt him, we promise, I'll treat him like my own son." Issa said, focused on the two spirits.
"No, that won't be possible. We need to see him every once in a while." Simoy shot down Issa's proposal.
"Let's share him then! I'll give him to you once a week. We'll take care of him, clothe, and feed him. You don't have to worry while he's with us." Issa was grinning at this point, she hasn't tried using her Unique Skills on spirits yet, but it seems even they couldn't resist the effects, and they'll have to give the child to them. Of course, her skill would bind her too, she wouldn't be able to just run away with the child if she succeeded here.
Issa was a well known swindler in the royal capital of the Jija Kingdom, she was sent to the human settlement near the Great Forest of Illusions because she swindled the prince and got a massive sum of money. Though, when she was being interrogated, her verdict changed from a death penalty, to just being banished to the aforementioned human settlement with a small debt to her name.
This was all made possible by her Unique Skill, Negotiator. With this, she always has the upper hand in negotiations, as long as she can see her target, she can practically squeeze anything out of them with minimal losses on her end. Of course, if a request she makes is too outrageous, then the bind Negotiator has on her targets will loosen and they'll refuse. So, she usually makes an impossibly high demand, and then would keep lowering it until her skill was able to seal the deal.
She didn't know why but she loved the child she was holding like her own son. She absolutely regretted doing what she did earlier, so she wanted to make it right by spoiling the kid.
Right now, she's risking a lot trying to swindle spirits just to get to keep him, and she knows that. But she couldn't help it, she somehow felt way too attached to the boy, she wanted to watch him grow up, and make plentiful memories with him.
Something she was not able to do for her own son, taken by a magic-born's curse.
Simoy and Lawod on the other hand, had no clue that they were being manipulated.
Then Lawod said something that made Issa's heart skip a beat, and completely stop, as a spear of solidified mist blasted through her head, making brain matter splatter onto the foliage behind her, and blood spurt out of her now-headless body. "What a terrifying unique skill, really, vision types are hard to deal with. I'm glad the newborns noticed it." Lawod still wasn't used to having a voice, so he accidentally said this out loud as he watched Issa's body drop to the ground.
Before the other two women could react, Alon had already dashed up to the scene and secured Clailip, whose face was covered in blood, from the falling body of Issa. She twirled as she did so, using her water magic to turn the ground beneath her and the two women to turn into sticky mud that entrapped the human women.
As quickly and as smoothly as the wind blew, a powerful gust that hardened the sticky mud swept over the ground, the priest-like wind spirit Aery revealed himself from behind the women. He inspected the dead body of Issa and solemnly prayed to Lady Diana, he prayed for the safe passage of these women to the cycle of reincarnation.
Mandel and Cordia panicked as they found that they couldn't move anymore, the maimed Mandel sitting on the ground couldn't help but start pleading for her life and Cordia's, after all, if the spirits truly did worship Lady Diana, they would let them go. They had a family to take care of, she uses this to her advantage.
This woke up Clailip, the pleading and screaming along with Cordia's shouts, trying to calm down the hysterical Mandel.
"What's happening? I literally just took a small nap and so much stuff already went down." Clailip yawned as he said these words. He looked like he didn't care about the headless body in front of him. He was very uncomfortable, being held by Alon, though, and asked to be let down.
The water spirit obliged, and let down the groggy boy.
"PLEASE, LET US GO! I STILL HAVE A FAMILY TO FEED, CORDIA DOES TOO!" Mandel pleaded, and looked to Clailip, thinking that such a small and innocent child would advocate for their release.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Clailip's face distorted with confusion as he stared at the beet-red face of Mandel, who pleaded for her life, and at Cordia's face that seemed to turn pale with every second that passed.
"Please… you're their contractor right? Tell them to let go of us, we're sorry." Mandel cried out, her voice cracked and her face stained with tears and racked with a desperate expression.
"But why?" Clailip asked nonchalantly.
"Huh?"
"Why should we like… let you go? Uh cause you know, you tried to kidnap me and uh stuff. It wouldn't be very fair." Clailip answered the confused Mandel.
The spirits were very surprised at Clailip's straightforwardness too. Lawod looked at Clailip with curiosity while Simoy prayed that the scenario in his head was nothing more than his imagination going way too out of bounds.
"B-Because we have a family! A-A-And Lady Diana has always taught to forgive and forget right? Please forgive us for our trespasses." Mandel panicked as she said this, she noticed how the child wasn't reacting in any way.
"Do I look like I give a rat's ass? I don't care if you have a family, plus rightful vengeance is fair game, Lady Diana has always told us that vengeance is a right. So shut up, this won't be any more painful than the beatdown I received earlier." Clailip spoke, though his voice had no ill intent, and his expression held no ill will, it still shook everyone who heard his statement. "I'm just following scripture. Right Aery? Yeah, see?" Clailip asked the wind spirit who hesitantly nodded his head.
For the two spirits who watched him grow up, never did they imagine that Clailip, the bumbling and sweet young boy would say something as malicious as this. For the newborns, it shocked them that their master would say something so ominous. For the two humans that stood helpless before him, they were terrified, how can such a small child say something so cruel with no change in expression?
"What? Why is it suddenly so quiet? Did I say something weird?" Asked Clailip.
Clailip gathered a ball of water in his hands, "Don't worry, I won't let the spirits hurt you. They aren't that good at euthanasia. I'm pretty much an expert though, so uh. Sit still." Clailip calmly said as he formed a bubble around Mandel's head her muffled screaming pierced through the clear liquid producing a mortifying sound. In an instant, Mandel stopped moving as her ears started to seep blood, tainting the pure water red.
"See, absolutely painless." He smiled at Cordia, the smile was sweet and innocent.
The last thing Cordia would see are a group of horrified spirits and a little boy praying for his safe passage to the afterlife.
In the deepest recesses of Jija's castle, a tea party was being held in a garden, the skies were bright and blue, and the sun's rays were warm. It was a magical space created to simulate the perfect weather for a comfortable afternoon tea party.
A little boy that looked to be the age of ten sat on one end of a white ornate table decorated with the finest and most fragrant flowers, he had pitch black hair and earthy brown skin. His eyes shone a verdant green in the sunlight and his smile was small and polite. He was wearing blue princely clothing, a pair of round glasses, black gloves, and a quaint black crown on his head. He was the perfect picture of what a prince should be like. He sipped on black tea and looked at the wonderful scenery, admiring the beautiful flowers.
A woman sat on the other side of the white table, she had pale skin white as chalk and a glowing mark on her cheek, a black veil concealed her eyes and a fashionable hat made of expensive bird feathers sat on top of her head. She was wearing an elegant but simple maroon dress that sparkled when the light hit it. She had wavy white hair that dropped down to her waist and a dainty and petite figure, she sipped on her tea and looked off into the distance.
"So her seed has been collected?" The little boy asked, He added.
"Correct." The woman took another sip of her tea and took a bite of an expensive looking cake decorated with fresh fruits. "The familiars I use to keep watch over that wretched forest saw it themselves. I couldn't act quickly enough and exterminate the boy because a group of humans caught the attention of that damned goddess, leading to my familiars being found and cleansed."
"Are you not worried? If that Lady wakes up from her sleep and finds out what we've been doing then we'll both be in trouble." The little boy did the same thing as the woman did, but he ate messily and had to be cleaned up by the two attendants by his side. He muttered small words of appreciation before he turned to the woman to continue their conversation.
"No, I don't think she'd have enough power to break through. I'm more worried about that child." She said.
The boy hummed in curiosity, he didn't know why exactly the witch in front of her was worried by a seemingly simple child.
"I saw the child's eyes through a familiar, I can tell that his eyes are special. I had to kill the familiar I used, though, as looking at the boy's eyes spawned feelings of treachery inside the creature." The woman explained to the little boy, she took five cookies and put them all into her mouth.
"Shouldn't we kill him now, then?" Asked the little boy, he didn't like the feeling he was getting. Vision-type Unique Skills were very powerful, if the divorakk child had that kind of skill then dealing with him now would be the best course of action.
"No, we can't kill the boy. Not until the seed germinates. If we kill him now then the seed will go back to that Goddess and we won't be able to recover it. We need that seed if we want a fighting chance against the Western Isles' witches. Especially the two new witches from the west that moved here… I can tell they're going to be monsters as scary as the Witch of Despair when they grow." The woman explained, she sounded exhausted.
"Understood. What do you suggest we do, then, Azul?" The boy asked.
"Gigas, I wouldn't have called you in if I had an idea. Be a good little boy and think up something for me." Azul said in a slightly teasing tone.
"You're the one who gave me this body, you know. Stop teasing me about it." Gigas sounded irritated, but he let the matter go as he tried thinking of a good way to deal with the boy.
"Oh yes, and I do regret giving you such a body." Azul laughed as she took more sips of the expensive tea and ate the sweetest desserts available. She looked like a child stuffing her face full of expensive cake, yet she still managed to not make a mess, despite her mouth quite literally bulging with cake, pastries, and light biscuits.
"Stop, have some decency and learn some proper table manners." Gigas looked at Azul with a disgusted expression.
"I-"
"Don't talk with your mouth bursting at the seams! God, if I wasn't so busy I'd be teaching you how to act like a proper noble. You're not an unemployed hag anymore, you know, you're the private witch of Jija's royal family, act like it." Gigas was exasperated at her superior's behaviour, sometimes he wished that he would be the one looking like an adult as the Witch in front of her loved acting like a complete toddler at times.
