[V15C11] A Rare Spirit Who Understands the Value of Communication

A white lizard stood on the countertop, wriggling his tail back and forth as he watched the dough slowly ferment.

Meanwhile, Thule and Pikeh were scooping up spoonfuls of ice cream from the bowl.

After sticking the spoon in his mouth, Thule looked out the window to see rose vines slithering around like snakes.

“Looks like Ike and Melissa are playing tag. Aren’t you going to play with them, Mr. Lizard?”

Wildianu kept his gaze focused on the dough, but he paused his tail and replied, “I have a question.”

With the spoon still in mouth, Thule tilted his head from right to left.

“Question? Something you don’t understand? Something you’re curious about?”

‘Not understanding’ and ‘being curious’ may seem similar, but they’re not exactly the same. Wildianu was unsure which one applied to him.

Perhaps both. He found it difficult to understand humans, and he was also curious about them.

“Humans are more fragile than us spirits,” Wildianu continued. “I wonder why they always act so recklessly.”

“Cyril is reckless a lot too,” Pikeh added.

“Yes, he is,” Thule followed, taking turns with Pikeh poking the bowl with their spoons.

“And then he almost dies.”

“When that happens, we need to have Dad scold him.”

In that case, perhaps Wilidanu should ask Monica, Isaac’s master, to scold him.

However, there was a problem with that approach. Isaac wanted to hide his reckless acts from Monica the most, and Wildianu was aware of that.

As a water spirit, Wildianu did not have as many emotions as humans, but there was one emotion he believed he could understand: worry.

Thinking back, this was true even back when he served Queen Irene. He had always been worried about his master.

“Humans apparently place great importance on reporting, communication, and consultation…” Wildianu continued. “I believe my master is a little lacking in the consultation area.”

Isaac was quick-witted and decisive, so he rarely consulted others. If he deemed something necessary, he often took action himself without telling anyone.

“Humans die easily,” Pikeh said firmly. “If you want to say something, the faster the better.”

“…I would prefer if he asks for my help before he ends up on the verge of death somewhere I cannot see.”

“Then you should tell him that.”

Perhaps Wildianu himself had been lacking in consultation as well. The realization caused him to relax the wriggling of his tail slightly.

“I see. I will tell him when he returns.”

Pikeh made a grandiose nod of approval as she scraped up the last of the ice cream.

＊　＊　＊

Isaac Walker was being chased by a wicked witch. He carefully made his way through the forest, doing his best to avoid leaving footprints.

Leaving the forest was the safest approach, but if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to make it back in time to prepare dinner.

If possible, he wanted to either talk down Melissa or incapacitate her.

After running around for about thirty minutes, Isaac hid in the shadow of a tree and held his breath.

(She’s still in pursuit.)

The bushes started rustling despite the complete lack of wind, and Isaac could tell that this wasn’t caused by wild animals.

Rose vines were crawling through the forest in search of him.

Not bringing the hidden dagger was a mistake. He hadn’t expected her to go this far.

Isaac pulled a thin throwing knife from the inside of his vest and slashed the rose vine approaching him.

After confirming the hit, he immediately went back on the run.

(This might be a bit problematic.)

Isaac had a talent for sensing the presence of others, but Melissa was nowhere in his range of detection.

And yet, the roses kept chasing him.

While magic for controlling rose vines was a specialty of the Thorn Witch, Melissa’s version seemed fundamentally different from Raul’s Rose Fortress.

Her roses were weaker in both power and range, but more importantly, she was manipulating each vine directly with her magic. This made her unable to attack without a clear line of sight.

On the other hand, the Rose Fortress was similar to a monster with its own will, one that faithfully obeyed the commands of the Thorn Witch. That’s why it could attack without input from its master.

(But the roses chasing me right now are similar to the Rose Fortress… Not nearly as powerful though.)

Melissa had said, “In this forest, no one escapes from the Thorn Witch.”

Perhaps these roses were a special breed only grown in the Roseberg Forest. That seemed more likely.

(In that case, the ones chasing me might be for scouting. The rose I cut didn’t have any perfume on it.)

In all likelihood, Melissa was limited in the amount of perfume available to her. She couldn’t afford to sprinkle it on weak roses meant for scouting.

(The problem is Lady Melissa’s intention here…)

Why was she trying to drug Isaac in the first place?

Given her temperament, it was entirely possible she antagonized him on a whim to relieve her stress, or wanted a guinea pig for some new drug. However, Isaac had another idea.

(If my suspicions are correct… then I definitely can’t afford to run.)

More and more roses started gathering around him. Slicing one earlier must have revealed his location—but that was exactly as planned.

Isaac fled in wide circles around the same area. As a result, the chasing vines wrapped themselves around the trees, like thread winding onto a spool.

Getting surrounded by the vines would make it difficult to escape, so he acted as a decoy to drag them into one place and get them tangled.

“How clever of you,” came a voice from behind, as the faint fragrance of roses wafted through the air.

Isaac quickly covered his mouth and nose with his left hand.

Melissa was there, holding the perfume bottle in hand.

(How can she handle breathing in so much perfume?)

Perhaps House Roseberg had a special process for training resistance to potions… but upon closer inspection, there was a piece of candy in Melissa’s mouth.

That was most likely a neutralizer for the love potion.

“Look, I’m not trying to hurt you or anything. I just want you to take a little medicine so I can observe what happens. Since I’m so nice, I’ll even make sure to finish before Moni-Moni and the others get back.”

That statement eliminated the possibility of her motive being stress relief.

If Melissa was stressed, she would’ve at least threatened to hang him in front of the house or something similar.

“If you’re so eager to experiment,” Isaac said. “Why not try the potion yourself?”

“Only an idiot would experiment on themselves.”

Isaac held up his knife and scanned the nearby roses.

The vines with small yellow roses that had been chasing him were thin, clearly not suited for combat.

In contrast, the vines writhing at Melissa’s feet had red flowers and were as thick as an arm. Those were likely her main weapon.

(I’ll have trouble cutting through those.)

Perhaps casting a magic sword would make it possible, but Isaac had no intention of facing Melissa head-on.

In a competition of magecraft, he was no match for Melissa. No matter how many vines he managed to cut down, Melissa would just summon more. His resistance would be futile once he was surrounded.

Isaac spotted an area with fewer roses and made a run for it. The yellow and red roses both followed in pursuit.

He weaved through the trees, guiding the roses to snag their vines on branches.

Melissa quickly realized his plan and clicked her tongue. Isaac was trying to run a circle around her so that she would get entangled in her own vines.

Once she was forced to move out of her safe spot, Isaac would sneak behind her and deliver a light blow to make her spit out the candy. Then, he’d snatch the perfume bottle. Mission accomplished.

…That was how it should have gone.

While running through the trees, Isaac gasped as he suddenly felt a tightening sensation in the skin on his forehead.

(No… it can’t be…!)

He used a finger to trace the area above his right eye… and there was no scar.

In other words, he was currently wearing the face of Felix Arc Ridill.

(Impossible. I was sure I drained enough mana before coming here…!)

The transformation should have lasted much longer, and just in case, he had planned to give Wildianu some of his mana in about an hour. And yet, his face reverted ahead of schedule.

Only then did Isaac realize the reason. This forest had a high mana concentration, and the area he had run into was particularly high. As a result, his mana recovered at a faster rate than usual.

He had intended to defeat Melissa with his physical abilities since he was no match for her magecraft, but that plan backfired.

Casting spells was the best way to burn mana. But now, after nearly an hour of running, his heavy breathing made chanting difficult.

To make things worse, Isaac mostly knew spells with relatively low mana costs. He would have to cast constantly to maintain the appearance of Isaac Walker in this forest.

(To think my focus on mana efficiency would work against me like this…)

How could he have made such a simple mistake?

Isaac covered his princely face with a hand and let out a sigh.

He hid himself in some nearby bushes and reached for the pocket watch in his coat.

The thread of magic between a spirit and their contractor allowed for simple communication.

Isaac often used this to give Wildianu basic commands such as “come here” or “stand by”.

But this time, his face was pale. He made a desperate plea.

“Please help me.”

＊　＊　＊

Melissa was chasing after Isaac, but then she stopped and furrowed her brow.

(Did he stop moving?)

Just moments ago, Isaac had been running around with an infuriating amount of composure, but now he suddenly went into hiding. Was he plotting something?

Melissa decided to move to a slightly open area and create a wall of red rose vines to surround herself on all sides.

The Roseberg Forest was said to be filled with the mana of the Thorn Witch. Perhaps because of that, Melissa’s roses became more powerful here, and she even gained the ability to use species unique to this forest. The yellow roses for scouting were one such type.

While protected by her wall of roses, she sent out the yellow scouting roses through the gaps.

(Walker thinks he can get away by hiding and waiting? How naive. I should have expected as much from a mere disciple.)

Isaac Walker possessed high athletic ability, but he couldn’t use flight magic and was lousy at ranged spells. Therefore, he had no way of defeating Melissa unless he closed the distance.

In which case, Melissa could simply surround herself in a wall of thorns. Isaac wouldn’t be able to get through that, so he had no means of victory.

All she had to do was wait until the yellow roses found him. Then, she would send the perfume-soaked red roses to drug him.

…But the yellow roses could not find Isaac, no matter how long she waited.

These roses were designed to crawl along the ground and chase down the target by listening to their footsteps. But for some reason, they could not detect Isaac’s footsteps.

(Is he really not moving? Or maybe he climbed a tree…?)

While Melissa considered her next move, she noticed the candy in her mouth dissolving.

This candy was the antidote for the Witch’s Love Potion. When spreading the potion as a perfume, it was necessary to use this to avoid being affected.

Melissa took out a new candy, when suddenly, she noticed a shadow overhead.

At first, she thought it was a large bird, but she couldn’t be more wrong. It was a man holding a knife cloaked in water. Isaac literally came falling from the sky.

Melissa flinched in surprise, causing the candy to slip out of her fingers.

Isaac snatched it out of the air and popped it into his own mouth. Then, he pointed the blade of water at Melissa.

“I believe the match is decided, Lady Melissa.”

＊　＊　＊

Upon receiving Isaac’s request for help, Wildianu arrived and drained his mana.

Then, Isaac put his plan into action.

Melissa believed that he couldn’t use flight magic or ranged attacks. That much was true—but she did not know about his secret weapon, Wildianu.

Just like during the battle with the Black Dragon of Sazandol, he had Wildianu create platforms of water. He used them to leap over the wall of roses and reach Melissa.

“…How the hell did you jump that high?” Melissa asked. “Are you a monkey rather than a dog?”

Even with a knife pointed at her, she remained defiant.

Isaac began questioning her, keeping a close eye to watch for signs of resistance.

“This whole affair is the work of the Roseberg witches, yes?”

At his words, Melissa blinked in surprise.

“You knew about the plan of the elders…?”

“If you mean their plan to marry Monica into House Roseberg, of course. It was highly likely for them to try something with Monica staying here for the night.”

That was the entire reason Isaac took control of the kitchen. If he was the cook, he could ensure that nothing suspicious was added to Monica’s meals.

He expected them to give snacks or beauty treatments laced with drugs, under the pretense of a gift. Isaac had seen similar schemes so many times that he was sick of it.

“I would get in the way of the plan,” Isaac continued. “So you tried to drug me first. Once I’m out of the picture, it’ll be easy to slip Monica something, right?”

“No, I was trying to use you to get rid of the drug Grandmother gave me.”

“……Pardon me?”

Isaac’s sharp eyes widened slightly as he tilted his head. It took him a while to comprehend the meaning of Melissa’s statement.

Melissa gave a weary shrug of exasperation.

“Grandmother told me to drug Moni-Moni and my idiot brother. But like, drugging your family is just creepy, you know?”

“…”

“She’s making me write a report on how the drug works, so I figured I’d use it on some random guy. And wouldn’t you know it, a healthy young man just happened to be right in front of me. How convenient, right?”

“…”

Isaac decided to voice his unadulterated opinion.

“You… actually had a shred of conscience remaining.”

“You know what, I’ll make sure to hang you later.”

This did not change the fact that Melissa acted against Isaac out of malice, but if she was against the marriage between Raul and Monica, then there was room to maneuver.

“I was thinking of using you as a hostage to negotiate with the Roseberg witches, but in that case…”

Isaac lowered the knife and smirked. His ruthless smile was actually quite reminiscent of Duke Crockford.

“Lady Melissa, you’ll play a part in my little performance.”

View the latest chapters at seeker142.github.io