Volume 4 Chapter 50-2 The Messenger of God and the New Loyalty
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Lifia looked straight up at me, eyes serious.
”If my father ever betrays Master, I’ll deal with him myself──even if it costs me my life.”
”Lifia, can’t you trust me a little more than that…?”
Rozmiaque’s face went stiff.
He sounded pitiful──almost pleading.
That made me snort out a laugh, despite myself.
”Heh, guess I can count on you, then.”
”O Lord… of course! Always, absolutely!”
His hand pressed to his chest, voice trembling, Rozmiaque pushed on.
”My body, my mind, even my soul──all of it for you, Master. I swear eternal loyalty, now and forever!”
He dropped to one knee again, reciting his vows like some devoted priest praying to his god.
Okay, a little much… but if he’s going that far, I’ll take it.
I glanced at Lifia beside me.
She smiled quietly and nodded, calm.
She really did look happy──genuinely glad my father had joined us.
I suddenly remembered something I’d been wondering, and asked.
”By the way, when it comes to spirit names, can’t you just brute-force guess them?”
Elves who use Spirit Magic can only draw out power if they know the spirit’s true name.
The weaker the elf, the fewer letters they can hear──which means less power, too.
But if you only need the name, shouldn’t you eventually hit the jackpot just by trying every possible letter one by one?
The second I said it, both Lifia and Rozmiaque froze in place.
After a beat of silence, Lifia tilted her head, thinking.
”If you did that, Moo-Moo would get really upset.”
From the way she said it, Lifia clearly believed this was something you just shouldn’t do.
”Get… upset, huh…”
I almost relaxed for a second──but then Rozmiaque’s face went deadly serious.
”If all you get is an upset spirit, consider yourself lucky.”
He fixed me with a sharp, sober stare.
”To a spirit, their name is everything──the core of who they are. Their soul. Calling it wrong, or just guessing, is like praying to your god using a fake name.”
After saying that, Rozmiaque shrugged just a little, face twisted in a bitter frown.
”Worst case… the spirits might abandon you completely. You might never borrow their power again. For a spirit user, that means… death.”
–Rozmiaque’s voice was thick with awe and respect for the spirits.
Just thinking about what it meant to lose them──the terror cut deep, like the edge of a cliff under your feet.
He didn’t have to say another word.
We all felt it clear as iron.
No kidding.
That’s… way past a joke.
It was just an offhand plan to me.
But for them, what I’d done was like spitting on a bond of trust──a real taboo.
Lifia, it seemed, just had a gut feeling it was bad news.
So that’s why elves keep grinding away, strengthening their ties with their own spirits.
Why they stubbornly keep trying to learn their true names, one by one.
To know a spirit’s name is to touch its heart.
It’s not just about getting power──it’s proof that you’re together.
And then I realize.
Lifia and the others just took the spirit names I gave them, no questions at all.
That means… they really trust me.
Deep down.
Guess I’d better live up to that, huh.
* * *
We left the love hotel and headed back to the adventurers’ base.
The stampede was over.
We didn’t actually have another reason to go.
Still, it’s only right to at least say goodbye before bailing.
Especially for Tifi──she works here, sent by the adventurers’ guild itself.
No way a straight-laced girl like her would just ghost everyone.
Getting close to the guild’s tent──smack in the middle of base camp──I could feel the air around us go stiff.
All eyes were on us.
But no one said a word.
Not a soul tried to approach.
They just watched from far away.
Even with a half-elf in a miniskirt maid outfit, the guild’s lovely receptionist, a bikini-armored knight, and a swimsuit-wizard all parading after me──nobody dared come near.
Guess we really are scary to them.
Although… let’s be real: the one they’re most scared of isn’t us. It’s Rozmiaque, silent at the back of our group.
Word travels fast. The 3 champion-level adventurers he flattened in an instant? Everyone here’s already heard.
A tall elf, face totally blank. But those eyes──sharp, cold, almost cutting.
Nobody normal would go near him. The aura he put out was brutal. No rookie adventurer would last 2 steps.
We slipped inside the tent. The guild branch chief sat hunched over his desk, buried in paperwork.
He spotted us──shot up so fast he almost knocked his chair over.
”Tent’s looking busy, Chief. The stampede’s over. We’re thinking about heading back to Dungeon City.”
”Ah, y-yes. Of course. Go on, go back, that’s fine.”
He couldn’t meet our eyes, kept flicking glances everywhere but at us.
The tension in his face was almost painful to look at──part terror, part nerves.
”What about the cleanup…?”
”Don’t worry about it. We’ll handle everything. Y-you should… uh, head back to Dungeon City.”
The branch chief shook his head violently.
He was obviously terrified.
──That was Rozmiaque’s magic at work.
He’d watched it up close.
He was afraid to hold us up──afraid the elf would snap.
And maybe even more scared that I’d order Rozmiaque to snap for me.
I cleared my throat, acting casual.
There was something I’d been meaning to ask.
”Thanks for being considerate. So… what about the heroes? Where are they?”
We hadn’t seen them on the way in.
I figured maybe they were hiding out in this tent.
Branch Chief blinked, startled at first.
Then that faded──he forced a thin, tired smile.
”Oh, them? They went right back to the capital. Didn’t stick around for a second after… you know.”
Guess Rozmiaque scared them so bad they snapped.
They gave up.
Hard to blame them, honestly.
Not many people can keep calm after getting trapped in a pitch-black box that feels like a coffin.
A tight, airless place, no doors, no hope.
You don’t just walk away from that.
The heroes ran out of here, sure──but I can’t help worrying about what info they took with them.
Whatever.
Let them go.
They know damn well they can’t win against us now.
And if they don’t? They can always come back and try.
We’ll be ready.
I’ve got a pretty good read on their strength already.
They’re not a threat to us.
The royal castle’s fresh batch of heroes is looking pretty thin these days.
And now we’ve got Rozmiaque fighting on our side.
There’s also that ticking bomb: the necromancer hero, Neguro, who turned traitor.
The castle threw him away like trash.
He joined the Demon Race──the enemy!──and was cut down by his own classmates.
But now that everyone knows about Neguro… can they really still trust the royal castle?
Seems impossible for the heroes and the castle to ever act as one again.
The cracks are spreading.
For once, things are leaning our way.
”Alright. Let’s head home.”
”Yes!”
Soon as I spoke, a bright voice shot back at me.
Lifia nodded, eyes shining.
Then Tifi, Kéa, Yomi, and Rozmiaque──all of them started to relax around the edges.
The stampede is over.
Nothing left to trouble us now.
Time to go back.
Back to Tifi’s hometown──Saoriba.
The place where she grew up.
We’ll hold that ceremony we’ve planned for so long──right there.
We started walking, leaving the Shadow Forest behind.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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