Holding Nubes, Kana summoned spirits along with her companions as previously discussed.
She called forth Celia, a supreme-grade wind spirit disguised as a mid-grade one, while Aila summoned a high-grade fire spirit, and Cellie called a high-grade earth spirit.
“Spirit summoners, notify us immediately if you detect any energy.”
“Yes.”
The guild members’ responses overlapped in response to Caliman’s instruction. Celia floated around fluffily before gently landing on her contractor’s shoulder and asked.
[Kana, is this the underground waterway scene?]
‘Yes. Let me know right away if you detect any energy.’
[Got it. By the way, what did you do with Gnome?]
‘I’m letting him watch from the pure pearl. Experience comes from observation too.’
[True.]
Celia agreed and moved on. Kana gently stroked the pure pearl on her ring to encourage Gnome who would quietly observe.
The spirit summoners followed one step behind Caliman who boldly led the way, while behind them walked Richard, flanked by mages and protected by guard knights including his shadow.
Though they felt no particular energy as they went deeper inside, no one lowered their guard. Kana walked, matching the group’s pace while mentally reviewing the contents of ‘Fake Saint’.
‘It should appear around now. The exact location wasn’t clearly described in the work, so it’s confusing.’
[Kana, I sense an ominous energy from over there.]
At Celia’s urgent voice, Kana immediately pointed Nubes at the dark inner wall and announced.
“I sense an ominous energy from over there.”
“Me too.”
“Wow, we all sensed something similar.”
Aila and Cellie, experienced spirit summoners, detected it quickly too. Caliman’s brow furrowed as he had been maintaining constant vigilance.
“It’s a wall…… Is there a space beyond it?”
“Seems so. If you listen carefully, you can hear something like wind sounds coming through.”
Kana subtly dropped a hint. Caliman smiled warmly at the young noble who remained calm and sharp even in such an environment.
“You have keen ears. Let’s all look for a way through.”
“Yes.”
They searched for an entrance path along the wall while maintaining a protective formation around Richard. As mentioned in ‘Fake Saint’, the mages the male protagonist brought discovered it.
“It’s cleverly hidden by magic.”
“Everyone please step back for a moment. We’ll disable the mechanism.”
Their mana climbed up and swirled around the wall before seeping in. Soon the wall shifted to the left. While everyone was briefly surprised by the unexpectedly spacious area, they noticed the horrific scene.
Unknown magic circles surrounded by faded spirit stones and deep purple magic stones. And a dark purple cloud-shaped spirit imprisoned in the magic circle.
That spirit emanated not the fresh and vibrant energy typical of spirits, but rather a gloomy and unusual energy. Celia screamed in terror.
[Crazy, that’s a corrupted spirit! And it’s multiple entities forcibly bound together like a chimera with curse-type magic! What the hell did they do? At worst, spirits could get sucked in!]
‘This scene was mentioned in the work but it wasn’t this disgusting and serious.’
As a supporting character, she had to absolutely prevent any crisis too difficult for the protagonists to overcome. Kana unsummoned Celia and Gnome with a hardened expression. Then she urgently called out to her guild members.
“Miss Aila, Miss Cellie! Unsummon your spirits immediately! We need to use only spirit arts!”
“Yes!”
They quickly unsummoned their spirits, sensing the unusual energy too. Kana then roused the shocked mages.
“Mages, please analyze the magic circle. From what I can see, it seems to be curse-type magic.”
“Ah, yes. Understood.”
The mages barely regained their senses and gathered mana. She looked at Caliman who had drawn his sword and took a stance along with the guild members.
“Count Nuer, let’s block the corrupted spirit together.”
“Let’s do that.”
His aura like flickering blue flames climbed up his sword. Without a moment to catch her breath, she assigned roles to Richard and his guards as well.
“Your Highness, please destroy the spirit stones and magic stones near the magic circle with your guards.”
“Alright.”
Sensing the gravity of the situation, Richard moved quickly with his guards.
The corrupted spirit spewed black breath. Kana countered with wind spirit arts.
Aila’s flames merged with the strongly whirling wind. Cellie used earth spirit arts to bind the corrupted spirit in place.
Caliman’s blue flame aura slashed the corrupted spirit, but after briefly faltering, its body gradually recovered. Kana frowned.
“That magic circle seems to be the problem.”
“Damn it, it keeps recovering no matter how much we attack!”
Aila roughly ran her fingers through her hair. The excessive use of fire spirit arts created palpable heat.
Caliman, true to his setting as someone with outstanding martial prowess, blocked the corrupted spirit’s attacks well while shouting.
“Mages, how much longer?”
“We’re trying, but we can’t even find a clue.”
The mages sweated under pressure. While they knew it was curse-type magic, the magic circle was twisted in a bad way making it difficult to disable.
Meanwhile, Richard, having destroyed all the spirit stones and magic stones, joined them with his guards wearing grave expressions.
“Let’s buy as much time as possible for now.”
“Yes.”
Just when things seemed to improve with the male protagonist joining, suddenly the corrupted spirit swelled up even more while emanating threatening energy.
Thread-like spirit energy slowly flowed out from the dark purple cloud and wrapped around Richard’s arm. He dropped his sword as his aura faded while grimacing. Everyone shouted in terror.
“Your Highness!”
“I’m fine, continue what you need to do.”
“But!”
Though the male protagonist tried to act calm, Kana could see it was quite a serious situation.
While slightly different from the original intention, this was Riden’s plan to harm his brother while building his power. Perhaps because of that, that energy was eating away at Richard’s aura.
‘Originally, in this scene, the male lead gets injured and the female lead heals him creating atmosphere but…… it wasn’t this dangerous. It would be troublesome if the male lead dies.’
Being expelled the moment the male protagonist dies was already predetermined. It would be frustrating to get pointlessly kicked out and lose star rating after trying so hard to endure.
‘……Then I’d also part with Kiriel earlier than expected.’
Her chest ached as she unconsciously thought of him. She bit her lip and took out a bracelet-type protective magical tool and saved healing water from her ring’s subspace and threw them to the guards.
“These are an energy stabilizing magical tool and healing water. Put the bracelet on His Highness’s arm and pour the healing water.”
“Yes, Lady Round.”
The guards quickly followed her instructions. With the male protagonist’s condition critical and the guards protecting him, there were fewer people directly checking the corrupted spirit. Cellie’s face turned pale.
“How much longer until the magic circle is disabled? Just restraining this spirit is consuming considerable spirit energy!”
“It’s even harder since we can’t summon spirits and have to operate like this.”
Aila’s expression wasn’t good either. Only Kana and Caliman had any strength left. The mages said helplessly.
“We still can’t see anything.”
“This needs a mage of higher level than us……”
In other words, there was no solution. The scene had twisted in a bad direction but they couldn’t withdraw either.
Bright red flames burst and blazed. Aila sighed while putting all her strength into operating spirit arts.
“So you’re saying it’s impossible? We can’t keep checking this either……”
“We’ll manage if we keep slashing.”
“Count, this isn’t something to be so casual about.”
Cellie shook her head. Suddenly Kana’s lips slowly parted.
“……It’s too early to give up.”
“Lady Round?”
The spirit summoners wore puzzled expressions. She took a slow deep breath and said to everyone.
“Can you all buy a little more time? Mages, please stop analyzing the magic circle and help us here.”
“Yes.”
“Lady Round, what are you planning?”
Instead of answering Caliman’s question, Kana took out a stack of papers from her ring’s subspace. The mages’ eyes widened.
“Aren’t those single-use summoning cards?”
“Yes. If we need a higher level mage, we should call one.”
She infused spirit energy into one single-use summoning card, hoping it would reach Kiriel. Then she put more strength than usual into her wind spirit arts too.
Aila, who had been adding firepower to her with the good synergy of wind and fire combination, noticed the change in energy first.
“This isn’t mid-grade energy…… Lady Round, you’re not pushing yourself too hard, are you?”
“Everyone getting out safely is more important right now.”
“……Ah.”
Aila and Cellie bit their lips watching Kana smile faintly.
How could they back out when a new guild member and noble was working so hard to fulfill her responsibilities? Motivated, they also poured all their strength into spirit energy.
Soon after the space distorted slightly and Kiriel appeared. Though the underground waterway was dark, his presence was distinct. It was as if a halo shone for a moment.
As Kana’s lips parted slightly, Kiriel’s face hardened seeing the scene before him.
“Miss Kana, what is this……”
“It’s an issue with a corrupted spirit and curse-type magic circle. I know it’s shameless but…… could you help me?”
Kana bowed her head deeply as she asked. Kiriel grasped the situation just from those words and a quick look around.
Before taking action, he tightly embraced her trembling form.
- ianthe
remember to support the authors everyone~ (๑'ᵕ'๑)⸝*