Earth Spirit King’s Deputy
Long ago, this planet had a king who ruled over all spirits.
That Spirit King was feared by every human.
The reason was simple—he had destroyed civilization countless times.
But he had his reasons.
The Spirit King was the planet’s administrator. He loved humanity, but humans repeatedly tried to claim the Star Core, the planet’s nucleus and the symbol of its life, for themselves.
One nation sought it out of fear of the neighboring country that constantly waged war. Another tried to obtain it to escape the threat of monsters.
Some desired it to win their wars.
Others sought to elevate their nation to even greater heights.
And, on rare occasions, individuals pursued it for their own personal gain. Time and time again, they attempted to interfere with the Star Core.
However, the Star Core was not something humans could interfere with. Its power was not something humans were allowed to wield. Thus the Spirit King punished them. And because of that, he was feared. Even though the punishment came as a result of their own arrogance and reaching for power they did not need, people feared and hated the Spirit King.
Even so, the Spirit King never eradicated humanity as a species. He loved humans.
Spirits, being immortal, never develop civilization. Civilization is something nurtured by humans in order to live better lives. Spirits have no need for it, which is why the Spirit King enjoyed watching humanity’s progress. He punished them when necessary—but he still cherished them.
Then humanity committed another mistake. They crossed worlds. That in itself did not violate the Spirit King’s rules. However, a monstrous threat from another world entered this one.
It was a twisted being that had consumed all life on its original planet. Humans called it the Evil God.
Indeed, that monster possessed divine power.
It wielded a divine barrier that blocked all attacks. A degraded version, perhaps, but likely the result of consuming the god, the Spirit King, and the Demon King of its original world. It possessed the traits of all three pillars.
However, intoxicated by its own power, its ego had nearly collapsed. It was nothing more than instinct given form—the instinct to devour everything.
The Spirit King, as the administrator of the planet, judged it to be a threat to all existence and challenged the Evil God.
The battle was fierce. The Goddess and the Demon King joined the fight with their respective armies.
Countless spirits perished in the battle. Spirits may be immortal, but they can still die. The Goddess lost nearly all of her angels, and the Demon King lost every close aide, leaving demons in complete disarray. The Spirit King even lost his greatest friend, a divine beast.
The earth cracked, sank, and rose again in the war of the gods. Humanity could do nothing but flee from the aftershocks.
In the end, the Spirit King struck the Evil God with his sword—Excalibur, its blade already half shattered—inflicting a mortal wound, then pushed it back through the interworld gate humans had constructed. The Goddess sealed it in the other world.
However, the Evil God would not accept being sealed quietly. In the moment of sealing, it dealt the Spirit King a fatal wound.
The Spirit King leaned against a giant tree he had whimsically nurtured and waited for a temporary death.
The Spirit King does not truly perish. He is different from other spirits. Even if he dies, he will eventually be reborn as a new Spirit King.
But he feared leaving this wounded world without a caretaker, even for a short time.
The war against the Evil God had scarred the planet far too deeply. The number of spirits had dwindled, and the earth no longer produced abundance.
The Evil God’s miasma had made monsters violent, putting once-prosperous humanity on the brink of extinction.
The world needed a guardian.
The Spirit King entrusted his power to the surviving spirits who still held strength, so they could lead the others.
However, while the Spirit King ruled all elements, lesser spirits could only wield their own attribute. Thus, he divided his power into seven parts, giving six pieces to six spirits. Those who received them took the title of Spirit King’s Deputy of their respective element.
The remaining core of the Spirit King’s power he entrusted to an elven girl he had met by chance.
The Spirit King’s Deputies did not impose order among spirits. Simply existing was their duty unless a crisis arose. Their presence alone invigorated the land and sea.
Thus the six Deputies scattered across the world to aid its recovery until the next crisis.
The elven girl who received the Spirit King’s core carved out a place for survival in the chaotic continent and saved humanity from extinction, but later the Holy Church rewrote history, erasing her. The tale remains only as a fragment within elven World Tree myths.
—That is this world’s history—
“It’s kind of a pain when someone suddenly starts telling mythology. Just explain why you’re acting as an energy source here.”
The Earth Spirit King’s Deputy I had rescued suddenly began recounting myth. Honestly, Alicetia prefers that kind of thing be told to historians. My fields are science, magic, fluffiness, and sweets. Archaeology isn’t really my thing.
—What I’m getting at is… why don’t you form a contract with me?—
“Humans can only contract with one spirit per attribute. And I already have contracts with every spirit, so no.”
—Exactly! I marked Alicetia at birth and contracted with her! Don’t steal her from me!—
Enraged by the Deputy’s words, the earth spirits contracted to me began attacking him.
—Silence, youngster—
—Heh! I’m contracted with Alicetia, so— ngh!—
At the Deputy’s command, the earth spirits contracted to me froze in place.
—This is the power entrusted to me by the Spirit King—
“What do you mean?”
—Your power is immense, yes. But it is incomplete—
Summarizing his explanation:
Originally, spirits existed in a social structure resembling an absolute monarchy under the Spirit King, who possessed absolute authority. He usually took a hands-off approach because he valued freedom, but the authority remained.
However, I lacked that absolute authority. My situation resembled a constitutional monarch—capable of influencing and commanding most spirits, yet able to be refused.
Even so, I held enormous power: I could forcibly break contracts between spirits and humans, and spirits could not hold hostility toward me.
But I lacked absolute command over each elemental category. Lower spirits would never disobey me, and mid-class spirits rarely would, but if they truly disliked something, they could refuse. For upper spirits, my influence was closer to persuasion than command.
“I don’t really want that anyway.”
I have no problems as things are. I’m perfectly satisfied with the spirits who grew up with me. Though according to spirit rules, my contracted spirits are considered “bad children.”
Apparently, to protect me, they consumed my mana and rapidly evolved. Now they’re all upper spirits, capable of taking full human form.
However, some of them are male, so they refuse to take human form because human society is troublesome and because my brother would absolutely try to eliminate them. Even I can’t imagine my brother going so far as to drive away spirits I contracted with…
I glanced at my brother. He noticed and smiled warmly.
A chill runs down my spine.
(Maybe my brother is a serious siscon…)
I always knew he was one, but now I suspect it’s far worse than I imagined.
Maybe the reason I’m a loner princess is his fault.
No, calm down. I have lots of friends. The old men in the capital, the cats belonging to the capital’s underground nation Nyarlbelde, Anon, Keina, Sharon. I’m not alone.
Princess-like friends? Noble ladies are scary… and noble children rarely even appear in my line of sight. They’re mysteriously absent.
The bureaucrats… they’re victims of the Chancellor, their eyes are dead. Bureaucrats collapsing in the halls is a daily sight in Arland. If bad rumors don’t spread, it’ll be a miracle.
The knights… aren’t friends, they’re muscles. Talking to them always shifts to muscle topics. And they’re loud.
Feeling depressed, I change the subject.
“First, explain why you were here.”
—That’s simple—
Apparently, the Earth Spirit King’s Deputy was once friends with a talisman user from the Land of Tranquility.
Before the revival of Yamata no Orochi, the Land of Tranquility still had a small number of spirits, and the Deputy arrived there riding the wind. Very free. But that’s what spirits are.
They became close, but Yamata no Orochi revived.
And Yamata no Orochi was a weapon designed to destroy everything around it. The Deputy judged it a threat and fought alongside the talisman user.
However, being on a small island with little land, he could not exert his full strength. Spirits grow stronger when they dwell in a place for a long time and attune to it. The Deputy had only been there about a week before the revival.
He couldn’t fight at full strength, and because Yamata no Orochi devoured spirits, the other spirits fled instantly. And since it was an island, there were few earth spirits to begin with. So much for being entrusted with the Spirit King’s power.
Still, together they managed to seal it. The talisman user left the island to find a way to ensure the seal and free his immobilized friend.
For an immortal spirit, waiting a hundred years for someone they like is nothing. At first, he waited patiently.
But the talisman user never returned. The Deputy could have learned this easily by asking the people who came to check the seal, but spirits have zero interest in humans they don’t care about.
Eventually, he grew bored of waiting.
—So I decided to explore underground—
Being an earth spirit, he immediately recognized the island as artificial.
He was bound as the sealing keystone, but not completely immobilized. Exploring the research facility was possible.
The previous revival had been caused by an earthquake that collapsed part of the underground facility, damaging the seal. It absorbed a spare magic crystal, destroyed the facility, and broke out.
Most of the facility was destroyed, and he quickly lost interest.
Then he settled inside the cultivation pod before us and slept.
Years passed until an earthquake woke him. It wasn’t large, but something triggered the activation of the pod.
Unfortunately, the awakening triggered the pod’s mana absorption device, originally installed to control biological experiments. Worse, the absorbed mana was routed into the facility’s power system, rebooting everything.
Once active, the pod sealed itself with a barrier even spirits couldn’t escape, and he became its fuel.
He had been drained to the point of becoming a lower spirit, despite originally being an upper spirit.
The Deputy recounted all this proudly.
“You’re an idiot.”
—Honestly, I didn’t think it would turn on. So contract with me—
“No.”
There’s no benefit to contracting with him. A Deputy’s power grants absolute command over spirits of that attribute, but I don’t want that. And compared to my earth spirits, he seems foolish. Spirits lack morality, but some cause trouble simply by existing.
Wind spirits are the worst offenders. They frequently cause strong winds or tornadoes on a whim. (They mean no harm.)
I sealed the Earth Spirit King’s Deputy in a small bottle with a simple barrier that would last a few months and asked Takuto to throw him into the ocean.
I also informed him that the talisman user had died. He wasn’t surprised, having assumed as much.
“Do your duty properly, okay?”
—Contract with me—
“(´・ω・｀) Do it.”
“Alright then!”
Takuto used teleportation magic to send him out into the sea.
As far as we’re concerned, the Earth Spirit King’s Deputy never existed.
What do you think about this chapter?
