episode_0061

– …Vesper.

The girl, slipping slightly from Vesper’s embrace, murmured softly.

“…Hm? Wait a moment. What did you just say?”

– …Vesper. Vesper. Vesper. Vesper. Vesper. Vesper. Vesper. Vesper. Vesper. Vesper. Vesper.

Repeating Vesper’s name like a broken toy.

Suddenly, she loudly exclaimed Vesper’s name.

– Vesper!

“Wow!”

The girl leaped back into Vesper’s arms.

If her previous leap was to catch Vesper’s attention, this one stemmed from joy.

“Haha! Vesper! Vesper!”

Boop boop.

The girl playfully tapped her face against Vesper’s chest.

Vesper could feel the refreshing breeze of her touch.

‘…Could it be?’

“You… are Sylph?”

– Yes! Vesper! It’s me, Sylph!

The girl smiled brightly, vigorously nodding her head up and down.

“Sylph!”

Vesper embraced Sylph within his arms.

“I’m so glad we meet again!”

-Haha! I never expected to meet like this again!

Although her lively laughter differed from the mature sisterly figure of Sylph in Vesper’s memories, his experience as a spirit mage awakened him to the fact that she was indeed Sylph.

“Sylph! Oh, Sylph. I’m grateful to meet you again…”

The ecology of spirits that Sylph had heard from Vesper in their past lives.

It was about the cycle of spirits with the characteristic of immortality.

Spirits never die, but if they lose their spirit master, they also lose the ability to sustain themselves, regressing into lesser spirits.

Before meeting Vesper, the former Sylph could have ascended to the position of Spirit King, but unable to maintain that power, she regressed to a lesser spirit. Meeting Vesper and benefiting from his talent and bond allowed her to regain her status as Spirit King.

However, if Vesper from their past life were to die, Sylph would regress back to being a lesser spirit, losing her identity as a Spirit King.

Reverting would make her lose her previous memories due to the physiological nature of spirits, requiring Vesper to sift through many lesser spirits to reunite with Sylph.

Vesper, inheriting the memories of Spirit Mage Vesper, vaguely understood that this was impossible.

Therefore, he hoped for a miracle through this summoning, possibly reuniting with Sylph or Undine.

Encountering Sylph in such circumstances left Vesper overwhelmed.

– I never… expected to meet Vesper again…

Sylph explained to Vesper what had happened after his death and resurrection.

“So… you engraved all those memories into your spirit core?”

– That’s right. The status and dignity of a Spirit King are finite, but the spirit core exists eternally.

Upon Vesper’s death, Sylph and Undine, losing their contractors, could not maintain their status.

They didn’t immediately regress to lesser spirits, but felt their status gradually fading away.

While the cycle of humans differs from that of spirits, as long as the soul doesn’t perish, it reincarnates.

Confident that he could meet Vesper again, Sylph engraved all his memories into his spirit core.

The day they would meet Vesper again.

To ensure that Vesper wouldn’t forget him.

To remember the happiest moments they shared in their spirit life.

– So, by meeting you again, all my memories stored in the spirit core have been revived!

Fortunately, thanks to the memories stored in the spirit core, Sylph, who had regressed to a lesser spirit, responded to Vesper’s spirit summoning, revealing himself, allowing for a dramatic reunion.

The eternal spirit core.

In the core, refusing to embed any memories, especially memories of someone else, meant that no one other than the counterpart would contract.

Even if one were to become a lesser spirit, they would subconsciously reject contracts with others due to the influence of the core.

“I’m truly sorry, Silph… for selfishly getting myself killed and causing all of you…”

– No. I understand Silph’s choice. It was an inevitable situation.

Silph already knew that the human woman was the top priority for Silph. That’s why Silph yielded to that woman.

Since human life is short and spirit life is infinite, in their next meeting, Silph could only belong to herself.

“Silph!”

Silph embraced Silph tightly.

Truly a touching reunion, one might say.

“That woman again.”

“Ha… Is she a spirit now?”

“It seems like the woman in the dream wasn’t just one of the empire’s empresses, right?”

“Come to think of it, in that world, Silph was a spirit master who ruled over the spirits….”

Sophia, Arthoria, Robina, and Janice found the scene entirely unappealing.

In this dream, Claudia was thought to be the only additional woman to be added.

Thinking that even one woman was challenging enough, the idea of a spirit being involved was unexpected.

Tales of love between spirits and humans are often circulated as stories.

However, most are merely legends, with very few instances of spirit masters and spirits genuinely falling in love.

Given the scarcity of high-level spirits thinking and acting like humans, there were hardly any spirit masters serving such spirits.

Therefore, when the women heard that Silph was summoning a spirit, they never considered that the spirit could become a rival in love.

Especially since, upon its summoning, the spirit appeared to be nothing more than a lesser spirit.

Yet, the way the two clung to each other tenderly didn’t seem like a simple relationship between a spirit and a spirit master.

“…Silph. What on earth have you been up to in your past lives?”

“Your Highness, really…! Leaving me, your wife behind!”

“Sir… Are you now aiming for beings that aren’t even human?”

“…Hold on. In that world, it seemed like Silph had more than one spirit king accompanying him. Could it be…?”

With the arrival of a new competitor, and one who seemed quite formidable at that, the four women couldn’t help but feel tense.

“…So it’s impossible to regain the status of a previous life.”

“Well, there’s nothing we can do. As long as I can reunite with Silph, I don’t care!”

Silph’s ability to become a spirit king in his past life was made possible by the overwhelming talent in spirit magic possessed by the spirit mage Silph, his affinity with nature, and the awakening catalyst of Claudia’s crisis.

Conversely, without proper affinity with nature and only inheriting some aspects of spirit magic suitability through dreams of a past life, Silph couldn’t restore Silph to a spirit king.

– Who knows, maybe by staying with Silph, you might regain your status!

“Silph….”

Silph looked at Silph with a sorrowful gaze.

– Right! Should we call Undine too? He said he would imprint you in the spirit core like me, so maybe he’ll be drawn here just like me?

To lighten the mood dampened by regret, Silph brought up Undine’s story while smiling.

“…Undine? Come to think of it.”

Only then did Silph recall another spirit that had slipped his mind.

‘Oh…! I shouldn’t have mentioned that. I could have monopolized Silph…! But if Silph can recover, I can understand sharing with another woman…!’

Of course, Silph regretted bringing it up after the fact.

The Dark Space

Figures clad in black robes were gathered, their gazes fixed on one point.

Woooooosh

At the highest point in the space, a massive whirlpool of deep indigo swirled atop a grand throne.

Crack

From within the whirlpool emerged something taking the form of an adult woman, slowly revealing herself.

“All-powerful master! Grant us freedom!”

As the woman appeared, everyone in the space prostrated themselves, worshipping her.

-That’s enough.

Silence fell like a dead mouse at the woman’s voice.

Gathered calmly around, the onlookers watched as the woman spoke.

“The time has come. The time for vengeance.”

“Vengeance! Vengeance! Vengeance!”

At the woman’s words, all present rolled their feet and shouted.

“The scoundrel who dared betray me has returned to this land, ignorant and insolent.”

Heheh

The woman chuckled coldly.

“Make him regret setting foot in this world. Nay, prevent him from even regretting. I shall tear his soul apart so he can never reincarnate.”

Kwoong

Her eyes gleamed as murky waters surged left and right.

“I swear by the name of Undine.”