Sovereign of Spirits (1)
What emerged was a silver-white gauntlet with a red magic gem on the back of the hand. And a slightly oversized Knight sword, but Anon should be able to handle it. The sword has a double-edged tip but is supposed to be used mostly single-edged. Swords in this world are usually double-edged, but this one was custom-made with a double edge at the tip to avoid injuring oneself if overpowered. It’s made of a composite alloy of Orichalcum and Mithril. There isn’t much decoration. It was slightly shorter for Anon’s convenience, but it’s been imbued with Lightweight, so she can adjust it to her preferred weight.
“I’ll give you these. An early birthday present. The blade is made by the finest swordsmith in Arland.”
The sword was made by Mr. Grantz.
“Seriously?! This is a treasure sword. I can’t possibly accept this.”
“Then if you help me, I’ll give it to you as a thank-you gift. Swords are the customary reward for Knights. The gauntlet serves as a shield. It’s a special item imbued with the same magic as the bracelet. Its usage is the same as well, but it defaults to a shield shape. You can quickly switch it out.”
Anon reluctantly put on the gauntlet, stabbed the shortsword into the ground, and drew the Knight sword. She took a quick look at the dull side of the blade reflecting light and checked its usability by spinning it around for a moment. Even now, she was staying alert to the surroundings since everything would be over if she messed up, so she occasionally sliced through incoming magic, which helped keep me safe.
Helios surprisingly turned out to be weak. Or rather, it seems he doesn’t know how to fight in human form. He was being bombarded with swords and magic. He was unharmed, though.
Mr. Coote grabbed one by one and either slammed them against a wall or threw them somewhere. It must be chaotic over there. Their magic can’t even surpass his fur. But it seems spirit magic works on him; he was dodging and running around, looking annoyed.
Once I regain control of my body…
(Alice~ what you doing?)
“I can’t move.”
As I struggled to do something, the spirits circled around me curiously. Help me.
(Use your eyes, no?)
… Ah. That’s right, I had that ability too. I only thought of it as a substitute for a regular magic potion. I remember now, magic like illusions don’t work on it, right? I’ve never tried it against another Magic Eye, though.
For now, I stopped suppressing the flow of magic to my eyes, allowing it to return to normal. Naturally, the illusions around me disappeared, so my disguise, my hair color and everything else returned to normal. The people around me were like, “Again?!” This is a busy street. Some onlookers were keeping their distance, thinking there was a fight.
“I wish you had told me earlier if it works on Magic Eyes.”
(Alice, never uses your eyes.)
“It’s not very practical.”
(Pretending to be someone else with illusions, not very good. Better being more open.)
Except for the two of my spirits, Light and Dark, it’s usually difficult to talk in full sentences for the other spirits… but this is a lot better than before. According to Teacher Dark Spirit, “They have been out of touch with humans for so long that they have forgotten how to converse.”
Now, what should I do? Helios was getting beaten up, but it seemed ineffective, so he was quite useful as a decoy. The attackers were quite taken aback by the fact that he was not taking any damage. But ignoring him was surprisingly annoying, so a few of them were relentlessly attacking him. Mr. Coote was really doing a great job. The Maids… they were finally back. They stank of sulfur… something’s burning.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“The volcano was dangerous… If we had hesitated for even a moment with the teleportation, we would have been burnt to a crisp.”
“More importantly, we’ll be scolded by Lady Alicia… brrr…”
It seems they teleported to some volcano. They’ll be scolded for teleporting without us, but it’s their own fault.
For now, they each brought out their weapons to protect me. Hmm, the security seems sufficient. Now…
“Darn it, restrain the princess and kill the intruders.”
They’re going to use my Knight escorts after all. This is going to be difficult. If things go wrong, even Mr. Coote might not be able to handle it… Helios is out of commission, and Anon with that equipment can only buy time. The moment they point their swords at Anon, they’ll be punished.
(Alice, those spirits over there seem to be on your side already.)
“But I haven’t made a contract with them.”
(Those kids seem to have finally realized who they were aiming their blades at. They can’t send magic this way anymore.)
The Light and Dark spirits seemed to be emitting an atmosphere of amusement, as if gloating that the other spirits finally noticed.
Indeed, the strong magic that occasionally flew our way and the flow of magic power seemed to have ceased. They were shooting low-power magic at me, pretending to be trying to capture me. Although Anon was casually cutting them down while talking to me.
But why aren’t they coming over here? No, something must be causing chaos over there.
“What’s going on? Our magic is being neutralized.”
“Spirits, heed my words!!”
(You can’t hurt that child~)
It seems the spirits over there don’t want to attack me for some reason. They were disrupting the enemy’s magicians’ spells and messing with the magic power of their contractors to prevent them from shooting magic at me.
However, the Knights and Alicia, who were already under their spell, were still pointing their swords at us. What should we do…