episode_0002

Glentino writhed incessantly.

“Th-thank you for sparing me, Your Highness…!”

His bulging eyes were filled with tears.

At this moment, he was desperately trying to retreat like a cautious subject after meeting the Emperor, even hiding his back from view.

His face was a delicate blend of a small amount of joy and a large amount of despair. It was as pallid as black coffee with a single drop of cream fallen into it.

It was due to the overwhelming relief of having survived the desperate reality of becoming a discarded prince from today onwards.

“I will dedicate this life to Your Highness from now on!”

Perhaps he was anxious that I might change my mind.

Even until his hand fumbled hastily behind him to barely open the door, he kept muttering the same words while wiping the sweat off his forehead.

Right before the concealed smile behind the forced grin was completely hidden by the closing door, he devoted himself to gently closing it with utmost care.

He seemed to have become an entirely different person.

Yet, his appearance remained intact.

From his blood-soaked hair to his alcohol-drenched attire, even his blood-stained pants and fatal wounds, everything looked as good as new, all thanks to the use of spirits.

There was hardly any difference compared to when he entered.

Hence, the change in his attitude felt even more dramatic.

Of course, his true feelings would be different.

He probably wants to kill me.

He would want to rush to the Empress right now and confess his sins.

He would want to shout madly in front of the Empress that the discarded prince has succeeded in detoxifying himself.

Even at this moment, he is sharpening the blades of revenge. So, he would want to eliminate the discarded prince immediately in front of the Empress.

However, no matter how desperate his desire, he wouldn’t be able to do so in reality.

Because I placed an earth spirit in Glentino’s heart.

Without lifting a finger, just by thinking, I squeezed his heart with the spirit. The expression he made while clutching his left chest and gasping was quite something.

A spirit in his heart.

And within his mind…

It was an indelible terror that could never be surpassed. Of course, being a low-level spirit, if he had known even a bit of mana, it would have been impossible from the start. But I already knew well. The man named Glentino had no talent in either swordsmanship or magic. He was merely a human who seemed flashy on the outside but was an empty vessel. Regardless. Now, his life lay in the palm of my hand. No matter how far away, at any time, it didn’t matter. If the spirit residing in his heart moved, it would be much easier to kill him than swatting a fly. Until he left the bedroom, I calmly stared into his trembling eyes and explained that point in detail. I firmly stated that if he ever disclosed this fact to anyone else or sought help, his heart would immediately burst. With a quite exaggerated tone in the cold voice that had been uttered for quite some time, I thoroughly added proof to completely break his spirit, ensuring he couldn’t hold any other thoughts or even entertain hope.

Glentino, contemplating the inevitable death, looked lost with a vacant expression. After pondering despair for a long while, he begged for mercy, swearing that he had committed an unforgivable sin by not betraying me and vowing to live for me in the future, dedicating his life. Although it was nothing more than a cheap oath from a trash that had already betrayed, well, that’s just how writing is. From now on, he would pretend to monitor me and deceive the eyes and ears of the empress.

“….” I sat on the edge of the bed and extended my right hand. A small droplet emerged on my palm, soon transforming into the form of a tiny turtle. It was the water spirit I contracted with right after discovering it in the palace pond. It had now transformed into the shape of a fish, fluttering its fins as it gracefully swam around me in the air. It poked its head out regularly, tapping my face, looking rather cute. This little one was also a low-level spirit. I named it ‘Aku.’

Note: The translation has been adapted to convey the original meaning and tone of the Korean webnovel while ensuring readability for English-speaking audiences.

Naming was done together with giving a name to the earth spirit. By the way, the name “Rak” was given to the earth spirit.

Aku and Rak.

Both were low-level spirits, so it was difficult to use advanced magic.

However, when materialized, they couldn’t be seen by ordinary humans. In terms of magic, in both speed and adaptability, they were beings that far surpassed mages of a similar level.

If handled appropriately at the right time, they were capable creatures who could overturn even unfavorable situations as easily as turning over their hand.

I conveyed my knowledge to Aku before the possession. It was through the connection of consciousness brought about by the contract. Any information, no matter how much, I could easily convey it as if sending telepathy, just as I understood it.

The knowledge I conveyed to Aku was a method of becoming transparent using the refractive index of light. In fact, I didn’t know the details well. I only provided ideas from various bits of information I had picked up here and there.

The goal was to completely envelop my entire body in water and then manipulate the refractive index to become a transparent human. From Aku’s perspective, it would certainly not be an easy task.

Making the whole body transparent.

For a low-level spirit who had never tried a possession before, it was clearly an extremely difficult challenge that he had never seen in his lifetime.

But I distinctly read it in a novel.

It was about an elf using the water spirit to become transparent and infiltrating the enemy alone.

So it couldn’t be entirely impossible.

First, practice was necessary.

First, I planned to try making one hand transparent. Just as I thought about it, like tea pouring into thin air, Aku flowed down in an instant and wrapped around my hand like a glove.

But as expected, a spirit was still a spirit.

The mana efficiency was terribly low.

Just wrapping one hand consumed quite a bit of mana. Even more mana was consumed when manipulating the refractive index. Still, I didn’t succeed at once.

At first, it was only the tip of my index finger that became blurry.

Still, I saw hope.

Next, I made the middle part of my little finger transparent.

It was slightly disappointing, but it was an improvement from before.

I patiently waited with perseverance.

As the lunchtime passed and the sunset outside the window, I depleted my mana several times, fainting and waking up repeatedly. However, each time, I staggered through the royal palace garden like a zombie, absorbing small amounts of mana from various plants to replenish what was lacking. Before I knew it, night had fallen. The plump moon, nearing full, hung proudly above the flowing stars. Finally, at that moment, Aqua could make her palm completely transparent. Although it took a considerable amount of mana and a long time, it was still astonishing. Despite being a low-level spirit, she precisely manipulated the refractive index of numerous water droplets to achieve what I desired. Indeed, the intelligence of the spirit seemed much higher than I had anticipated. Perhaps because it read my mind in real-time, it had suddenly transformed into a small mermaid, crossing its arms and smirking as if to boast, “I’m this kind of spirit.” Anyway, the game was over now. Since I had already made one hand transparent, all that remained was to expand the range. So, in about an hour from now, making my entire body transparent should be entirely possible.

***

A week had passed since then. My expectations were dashed quite nicely. Did I overestimate my abilities? As expected, a low-level spirit was just that—low-level. After countless trials and errors, it took a whopping week to make my entire body completely transparent. I thought it would be as simple as expanding the scope of transparency, but I truly didn’t expect it to take so much time. Perhaps due to the inevitable dissatisfaction intertwined with disappointment, Aqua had turned into a small otter and nibbled on my fingers. It didn’t hurt, but no matter how much I tried to shake it off, it just playfully twisted around without letting go. Nevertheless, thanks to drawing mana to its limits every day over the past week, the total amount of mana had increased slightly. It was an unexpected harvest, but not particularly remarkable. After all, this body had inherited noble blood from my mother, who was a princess of the Elven Kingdom. Not only did it possess exceptional physical abilities, but it also held a considerable amount of mana.

However, the more mana one used, the more it grew, and this was most explosive during the growth period.

But after his mother was assassinated at the age of fifteen, Crown Prince Eos did not use mana for nearly four years. He had missed the easiest time to increase his mana, and as a result, his current total mana was extremely meager compared to his innate potential. This was the greatest obstacle he faced.

Originally, spirits were like fragments of gods embedded in natural elements such as trees, rocks, rivers, and wind. As beings connected to the divine, they excelled in magic. While mages meticulously calculated complex spells in their minds to cast magic, spirits could effortlessly wield magic as naturally as breathing. An elf under contract with a spirit could manifest magic instantly, at a speed that mages could never match.

So, if a spirit’s rank was high enough, it could elevate the scale and effects of magic to miraculous or catastrophic levels, far beyond what a mage could achieve. However, as is often the case in the world, while equality might not always prevail, fairness tended to exist. When one side gained, the balance naturally shifted until the other side became lacking.

In accordance with this principle, there existed a fatal flaw in commanding spirits: their abysmally low mana efficiency. It was simply dreadful. While the efficiency slightly improved as the spirit’s rank increased, it still remained dismal. This was inherent to spirits. Even for the most trivial spell, they required a significantly larger amount of mana compared to what mages consumed for the same spell.

Naturally, to cast higher-level magic, even more mana had to be dedicated to the spirit. Most mages considered this to be a divine allocation, believing that by swiftly enabling the use of almost catastrophic transcendent magic, it severely limited their abilities by necessitating an immense amount of mana, thus maintaining fairness.

If such a principle did not exist…

Perhaps countless beings were annihilated by the elves, according to the prevailing belief among most wizards. Of course, when mana was scarce, there was also a way to summon spirits by sacrificing vitality. However, such an act was literally a perilous gamble that staked one’s life. Especially considering the cruelty of the world depicted in this novel, rampant with all sorts of disasters. Even I, already lacking in mana, might someday be driven to make such an extreme choice. No, perhaps someday, it will inevitably come to that. That’s why I’ve made up my mind. Starting with the heroine of the novel, the saint Elaine, I will make her mine. If only she, as a saint, is by my side. If she can heal me. Then, I will be able to survive any crisis. That’s why today, I have a plan. To meet the saint Elaine.