Simon's magic, which had spread throughout the village, gathered like a fog and seeped into a sphere.
It was the very same orb that Tierra had broken in the town's central square some time ago.
Was it because of that sound from the fog?
The fog of gathered mana had a different color than when it was scattered.
As the black mist seeped into the orb, a round head protruded from the ground.
-Kyu?
-Chirp!
Tierra, the mole rising from the ground, shook its head as if something was wrong.
Tierra soon circled the magic beads.
Suddenly, a new element made of water droplets appeared and began circling the orb along with Tierra.
– Kyu, kyuu kyu?
– Chirp! Chiiirp!
As Tierra touched the magic ball with the tip of its nose, the water bird was startled and began crying out with desperate chirps.
Not listening to the warning cries of Elemento, Tierra continued to stretch out its black arms to touch the magic
beads.
At that moment:
– Hiss!
The snake of fire, Fuego, wrapped his tail around Tierra's wrists and shook his head as a warning.
As Fuego bared his fangs and flicked its tongue, as if threatening Tierra, she quickly closed her hands and hid her head in the ground.
Only her head was burrowed in the ground, while her lower part was still protruding
– Kyuung!
Tierra's short, wide tail made her plump lower body tremble as if frightened.
– Kyuuu, kyuuuu…!
– Chirp! Chirp chirp!
– Chiiirp!
Tierra's quiet weeping was heard through the ground, while the water bird hovered happily over the fire snake's head.
Fuego remained calm and raised his head stiffly.
At the boisterous behavior of the three spirits, Iru, the puppy, curled his body up.
Iru pushed his snout between his front legs and his stomach, pretending to sleep as if to show them that he wasn't interested, as always.
In the middle of a peaceful room, the magic orb which Simon had cast the recovery spell was spinning around among the spirits.
Iru's ears suddenly twitched, then he suddenly got up and ran towards the door.
Fuego and Elemento, who had been playing with Tierra's round tail, raised their heads to stare at the door.
– bark! Arf arf! Arf!
Iru, who was the first to run, hurriedly jumped up to Simon's shoulder and rubbed against his cheeks.
"Oh, have you all been playing here?"
Simon chuckled as he patted, Iru, who was acting all cute.
– chiiirp!
– Kyuuang!
– Chirp! Chirp chirp! Chirp!
The mole in front of him also rushed to climb up his body.
Fuego, the most gentle of them all, climbed up on Simon's wrist and nodded his head to welcome him.
Simon laughed at the chaotic welcome.
This love attack had always fascinated him; they seemed to consider him their parent.
Elemento rubbed her beak against Simon's silver hair,before circling above his head and chirping a tune.
Listening to the cheerful chirping, Simon took the floating orb in the middle of the room and lifted it up.
"Isn't this the one Tierra broke as soon as she came here?"
-Kyuu!
Tierra wagged her tail enthusiastically as if in agreement.
It was amazing how that short, wide tail could move so much.
With a soft chuckle, Simon took out an unsweetened red wine and put some magic into the bead again.
Woosh!
A white light seeped out, and the mist mixed with the magic that was scattered around.
After all, the purpose of this magic was to find all the people who were romantically involved with Kalia.
Now that he had found Kalia, the only thing left to do was to finish fixing the magic bead, and Simon let his mana flow.
At that moment:
Kyaaaaa!
Simon and the spirits that were circling around him stopped immediately after hearing an unmistakable scream.
The scream pierced their ears as they carefully listened.
– Help me!
– It hurts! Save me!
– Aaaaaaaaah!
Their cries of despair rang in Simon's ears.
Simon involuntarily touched his forehead as it throbbed from the piercing scream.
– Kyu, kyuu, kyuuuu!
– Hiss! Hiiisss!
Tierra hid behind Simon's neck in fear, while Fuego raised his head and shook his head threateningly.
– Arf! Awoooo! Arf arf!
– Chirp! Chirp chirp chirp! Chirp chirp chirp!
Iru lowered his body, baring his teeth as he barked fiercely at the air.
Elemento shuddered and chirped sadly.
The sounds of fairies and spirits are at a different frequency than the voices of humans.
And as if reacting to that frequency, Simon's spirits violently reacted.
Simon put the glass of wine down and caught the black smoke that was spilling to the ground.
He concentrated on picking out a specific sound in more detail.
The spirits' screams were ferocious, but he was able to connect and hear voices of human men and women which were as soft as whispers.
Simon picked out the frequency of those voices, filtered out those with the same tone, tried to imprint them in his mind, then took out and unfolded a piece of paper.
Soon something white appeared and danced on top of the paper, writing down the words as they were spoken.
[Ah, right. The shadow we have planted in the castle of the Lord gave us some interesting news.]
[It's still alive, mmhmm… It's said that there are Dragon eggs inside the Lord's castle.]
[somebody picked it up near the Fairy Forest…]
[Do you want me to steal it?…]
Simon frowned.
He could hear their voices, but there was nothing he could use to find out their identities.
If they could at least mention their names…
Ttap tap tap tap….
Simon's long fingers tapped the table.
His narrowed eyes fixed on a word.
'Shadow.
There are Dragon eggs in the Lord's castle and a shadow will steal it.
When Simon first arrived, he had thought of the Lord's shadow he had encountered.
A dark shadow was controlling the Lord's body.
He thought it was just something that was bothering him, so he got rid of it right away, but… perhaps he shouldn't have done that.
A part of the tail was then cut off.'
Did it survive? Then it would have returned to its master….
'If it were a shadow, then it would be some kind of black magic.'
Black magic is an evil power.
A cruel method of gaining power by establishing close ties with otherworldly beings.
The speed of accumulating power using this extreme means is faster than that of ordinary wizards, but the speed at which the soul is destroyed is also faster. It was faster to accumulate power using this extreme means than to be an ordinary wizard, but it also increased the rate at which the soul is destroyed.
A body being eaten away by darkness is bound to weaken.
'Which is whyt the research on chimeras was most active when black magic flourished. They were studying a method to replace parts of the body that were eaten away by darkness with another body's limbs…'
The study of black magic was prohibited by Imperial Law, and other allied countries had also banned it.
However, it seemed no one knew that some crazy wizards were studying black magic.
Those wizards were obsessed with the magic they were trying to explore.
Simon thought it was very likely that the corpse of the fairy chimera discovered last time was related to these two people.
No, he was sure.
'I would need to go back and study divine magic. But since the decline of black magic, the use of divine magic has also decreased… Should I go to the temple instead?
He was good at elemental magic, and was able to use the power of nature more than the other wizards, but black magic was not his domain.
It was a branch of magic that Simon never needed to know nor wanted to know.
However, since this special type of black magic was related to the fairies, he had to know about it.
And perhaps Kalia was also involved with the fairies, he didn't know.
"… Kalia."
Simon's eyebrows furrowed as he remembered Kalia.
Could they smooth things out? Even with the cold glare in his eyes, a slight heat began to grow.
He pressed his hand to his lips, as if still feeling her warmth.
"Tsk, it wasn't even our first kiss."
Why was he trembling like this? It still felt fresh.
He bit his lips for no reason, smiling as he remembered Kalia.
Simon almost lost himself remembering the sweetness.
In fact, he boldly confessed to her when he didn't even have the courage to kiss her lips.
I'm going to seduce you and all you have to do is fall for me…
Simon wiped his neck with a slightly flushed face.
"Haa."
Fortunately, Kalia didn't push him away.
What did she say when he carefully asked why it would be a bad idea to kiss when she hasn't fallen for him?
'Should I apologize?'
'Apologize? Why?'
Her remark made Simon smile unconsciously.
He then kissed her on the cheek and stepped back.
Kalia's bright red face then turned away.
'But, did you just tell me that you love me?'
'Mhmm, I love you. I love you, Kalia.'
… Simon.'
She must have been very surprised that he showed her an expression that she hadn't seen before.
Kalia stared at him with half-opened eyes and a bright red face.
He didn't hear her answer to his confession, but it didn't matter.
Because he wasn't planning to listen to her answer right away.
It wasn't a desperate plea to accept his heart, but a declaration to see how he would seduce her in the future because he loved her so much.
Later that day, Kalia couldn't look him in the eye and glanced away with a flushed face, but even that reaction was enough for Simon.
In the last ten or so years, even though Simon tried to treat her like a man interested in a woman, Kalia never
noticed.
Rather than noticing it, she would only tilt her head like a person hearing a foreign language they did not speak…
'A red-faced Kalia. It's really cute.'
Simon, who was laughing at the thought, couldn't stand it anymore and tried to hold his smile back.