You’ve become so strong, truly.
I thought to myself as I saw the scene through Appraisal Great Spirit Ai.
You’re an opponent now, but my affection for you hasn’t faded.
Watching you fight, influenced by Lord Raidou and Nōraifu, with a smile on your face.
You bravely cleave through thunderstorms and push forward. You’re truly valiant.
When I first met you, you fought timidly, desperately trying not to go easy on us.
But oh, I shouldn’t be smiling during a battle.
“Kaha! Too sweet, this atmosphere is far too sweet!! But I like it!! This feeling even during battle, it truly is a beautiful love!”
“Yes, I’m experiencing a wonderful love.”
“Kakakaka!! Not even blushing, nor cold, you show such a beautiful smile!! If that’s the case, I can expect great things from your world’s art!! Nay! If I can see that world itself, then the contract can be fulfilled!! The stagnation of centuries ending, even for a moment, truly makes my heart pound!!”
Seeing my expression, Appraisal Great Spirit Ai, the spirit holding a brush and covering its face with a mask, became excited.
“At first, I heard I’d be used in war and thought I’d expose everything, but it’s good to listen to the end of the story. To think there are still so many unknown sights like that!! I’ve grown tired of seeing the world created by the Sun God, and the world created by the Moon God.”
When I first met you, you weren’t this cheerful.
Rather, you seemed to have lost all interest, finding everything painful to behold.
A symptom common among Great Spirits, spirits who have lived since ancient times: a sense of emptiness from being unable to escape the déjà vu brought by stagnation.
The entire world turning colorless, the endless free time killing the spirit’s heart.
Great Spirit Ai was suffering from exactly that ailment.
To say I exploited its weakened heart might sound bad, but to break through the current predicament that was Jiro-san’s weakness, this spirit’s power was essential.
“So, Contractor-san. What kind of being is that person? For a human, the dragon’s presence is far too strong. They cleave through their kin’s lightning with abandon and are accompanied by Lord Valse. At a peak that humans in their short lives could never reach, perhaps they are not human?”
“According to that person, they’ve more or less stopped being human. Their form is human, but their insides have changed considerably. However, their heart hasn’t changed.”
To be blunt, Jiro-san’s advancement was abnormal in the Demon Lord’s Army, where lifespan directly translates to power.
Even with high magic aptitude, it was considered too slow to suggest that he, whose prime physical body had passed and was merely aging, could reach that peak.
So, he stopped being human.
There was little hesitation, and he didn’t ponder for long.
The initial trigger was a single sentence he spoke to us.
“I want to live alongside Suella and the others.”
He probably doesn’t know how overjoyed I was by those words.
I remember the words that followed just as vividly.
He said them with a shy and slightly embarrassed smile.
“How much? Well, for starters, I’ll aim to live out my natural lifespan after seeing you all off.”
It was a casual remark, like going out for a bit of shopping.
Words that carried no weight, lighthearted remarks that could easily be mistaken for jokes.
If only it were that simple, I thought.
The lifespan difference between humans and Dark Elves is an insurmountable obstacle.
Eventually, Jiro-san would leave us and ascend to heaven.
Or so I thought, but he took action.
He made a contract with the High-ranking spirit Valse, incorporated the blood of an Ancient Dragon, and stopped being human.
Not everything went according to plan.
But he said to me with a smile:
“This way, we can stay together.”
Ah, I feel that I can love no one else.
That’s how I feel.
Therefore, I will fulfill the promise of staying together.
I am no longer waiting behind; I will stand beside you and walk forward together.
My days of simply waiting at home are over.
I suppose being a mother to those children would have been a good life too.
But that’s not enough.
I want to be able to stand proudly in accordance with his words of “together.”
“So, please bear with me a while longer.”
“Oh, oh, it’s good to experience this kind of heated development after so long. So, what do you do? Tofam, who was in charge of magic replenishment, has fallen. Tempme is holding on, but it looks like she’s at a disadvantage. Don’t expect me to fight; I have no talent other than wielding my brush.”
“…I will deploy Waishu.”
“Waishu, not Nēdo? I see, I see. Is that for the sake of being unconventional?”
“If I could defeat them with that, I wouldn’t be having this much trouble. That person won’t stop.”
No matter how much training I do, the difference in our total magic power is obvious.
The biggest problem when commanding Great Spirits is undoubtedly magic power.
Initially, the plan was for Tofam to supply me with magic, and then we would defeat them with a full-scale attack from the Great Spirits.
However, Tofam, who was supposed to be the key, was defeated sooner than expected.
Therefore, a change in plans is essential.
Based on our remaining magic power, our sustained combat time will be less than twenty minutes.
Defeating Jiro-san in that short time is honestly hopeless.
A slim, slim chance, requiring miracles upon miracles.
I have only three cards left to play.
High-ranking spirit Nēdo, the seamstress, is surely on guard.
Jiro-san’s contracted spirit, Lord Valse, must have warned him.
Therefore, using a Great Spirit who is not being watched is more likely to yield an opportunity.
Calculating the remaining magic power stored during their manifestation to imagine the final outcome.
“I’m going.”
Then I began preparing to summon the Great Spirit.
Summoning a Great Spirit might sound simple, but it normally requires an elaborate ritual and consumes an immense amount of magic power.
“Nēdo’s robe. It’s not just for show.”
However, there are ways to shorten or lighten the process. By using specialized equipment and tools, the summoning time and effort can be reduced.
The equipment I prepared anew was not specialized for combat, but for summoning.
In particular, it was equipment that strongly enhanced its substitute effects.
This robe substitutes the ritual circle needed, and Tofam’s magic stored in this staff secures the magic power required for summoning.
The summoning ritual time can be shortened by the spell techniques I learned during training with Lord Evia.
Normally, officially summoning a Great Spirit takes a full day.
Being able to shorten that to less than ten minutes is thanks to the equipment made by High-ranking spirit Nēdo, the seamstress.
“Appear, Waishu, Great Spirit of Cleaning!”
“As you command, I shall appear. Where might my cleaning grounds be?”
Even with that equipment, what appeared after consuming a considerable amount of magic was a maid holding a broom.
At first glance, she looks like a small, unassuming girl, but underestimate her, and there will be consequences.
That is the nature of a Great Spirit.
“It’s been a while, Waishu.”
“Ah, the spirit who creates messy rooms has appeared.”
“That is not a messy room!! It’s a collection room!!”
“A room piled up haphazardly is a collection room? What a joke? Didn’t you see my goosebumps when I went to clean your room that time? Should I try washing your brain thoroughly?”
Waishu is a Great Spirit unmatched in cleaning.
Honestly, we were lucky to find her.
However, there are a few spirits she doesn’t get along with…
“We’ll talk about that later; there’s no time now.”
“Understood. The cleaning of that messy room-creating spirit will be postponed. So, what needs to be cleaned?”
“That person over there needs cleaning.”
“…Contractor-san, are you joking? I’m not a combat spirit.”
I slightly regret summoning them in that combination.
Even as I consume magic, they start arguing, so I can’t help but intervene.
“I believe you can do it. You don’t need to fight. Just focus on cleaning away all of that person’s enhancements.”
“Ah, I see. OK, I’ll have it done in fifteen seconds.”
Currently, I am summoning three Great Spirits.
This is an abnormal summoning situation.
Operating three beings simultaneously, any one of whom would cause fatigue, is quite a drain.
Waishu, understanding what I want her to do, turns on her heel and heads towards that battlefield.
“Like myself, Contractor-san’s usage is truly unique. Other species don’t pay us any mind. Well, they paid attention to our original purpose, but they never thought of using us for anything else.”
“If I were still the same as before, I probably wouldn’t have thought of contracting in this way either.”
The moment she appeared before Jiro-san, she swung her broom.
Her specialty is complete cleaning, making things spotless.
This doesn’t just mean washing away impurities.
It depends on how you use it.
“Hahaha, your movements have become slower.”
“Yes, Jiro-san’s threat lies in that astonishing body reinforcement and adaptability. We can’t reduce his basic specs due to his dragon blood, but we can strip away the enhancements from his spells.”
She can nullify the opponent’s enhancements.
In Ms. Minami’s terms, she acts as a buff canceller.
I wonder how I never thought of using her this way, and now I can’t believe I didn’t. In our Demon Lord’s Army, it’s common to consider all powers for fighting as fighting tools, and spells used for daily life as tools for daily life.
That’s only natural.
Combat spells are streamlined and optimized for fighting.
They are crafted in the most efficient form possible.
It never felt necessary to incorporate spells that are active in cleaning or cooking into combat spells, thus reducing their efficiency, especially when considering spells designed for fighting.
However, the people in this world lacked that fixed mindset.
Their perspective is to actively search for convenient magic or magic tools, wondering, “Can I use this?”
This often leads to us spending time that we consider wasted, but sometimes they reveal astonishing ideas.
For better or worse, they give us new perspectives.
Those perspectives allow even Great Spirits, who were deemed useless in wartime, to achieve results that allow me, with my talent disparity, to fight on par with, or even better, the Generals of the Demon Lord’s Army, who are the trump cards.
“But…”
“Yes, even so, he doesn’t stop.”
Even so, Jiro-san doesn’t stop.
Even if his footing collapses for a moment, he reacts with an instant judgment. If his enhancements are being removed during a fierce attack, he uses excessive magic to compensate so they won’t be stripped away.
He must have immediately seen through Waishu’s characteristic of creating a momentary opening.
He’s maneuvering to avoid entering her effective range.
With this, it’s difficult to find an opening to victory.
No.
“This is the end.”
My path to victory is gone.
Seeing Jiro-san’s next move, who assumed I still had more cards to play, I decided it was best to avoid further harming the Great Spirits, so I activated the summoning annulment ritual and managed to send them back before the white flash could engulf Tempme and Waishu.
“Thank you for your efforts.”
“I’m sorry our power wasn’t enough.”
“No, it’s my lack of skill.”
Then, I bowed to Ai, who remained. He smiled slightly regretfully, having never seen opponents who could push Great Spirits to such limits, and returned.
As I watched them return, I felt a presence land behind me.
“I’ve finally found you.”
“Yes, I’ve been found.”
Turning around, I smiled at him, accepting defeat.
Another Side End
Today’s Word:
Even though we fought, it doesn’t mean I hate you.
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