Exposure. 16:41

Every last assassin from ‘Purple Dual Rings’ had been struck down in the blink of an eye.

Hiding among the forest trees that wore only a few withered leaves, Ambitious watched the scene with his mouth hanging open.

......Floating lightly at his side, the black ball...... the darkness spirit, was watching Ambitious intently.

Even when it drifted right in front of his eyes to block his view, or circled around his body in loops, Ambitious didn't react.

Unable to take in the fact that his pawns had been wiped out before his eyes, he was utterly dumbstruck.

In other words, now that things had come to this, there was no way this man would dare challenge that cursed child.

Which meant the request was a failure.

(Tch~~~! I totally told him, though. That it'd flop anyway!)

The darkness spirit gave a cute little tsk in its heart and huffed out something like black smoke, pun pun.

(Like, there's no way a bunch like this can take down that monster! Ugh, Gai-chi never listens to me......)

Watching the cursed child begin to bury the assassins by the side of the highway, the darkness spirit let out a sigh.

This darkness spirit had been ordered to assassinate that cursed child, and had been observing her for a long time from the base in the Zamago Forest.

That was exactly why it knew.

It knew that the cursed child was not a being it could do anything about.

It knew that people on the level of ‘Purple Dual Rings’ would likely be no match for her.

But no matter how often it said so, the darkness spirit's master, Vice-Commander Geistpfenanjeshiriard of the Adventurers' Guild, would not hear of it.

And he had sent ‘Purple Dual Rings’ an assassination order that could never succeed.

The darkness spirit had been ordered to deliver that assassination order to them.

No matter how pointless it knew it was, once ordered, the darkness spirit had no choice but to obey.

Except in certain cases, the darkness spirit obeyed Geistpfenanjeshiriard absolutely.

This was because it had been bound by such a terribly disadvantageous “contract” for about 60 years now.

If the people known as “spirit users”, who exist in small numbers in this world and borrow and exercise the power of spirits, heard the contents of this contract, they would likely be outraged by its sheer wretchedness and feel a modicum of sympathy for the darkness spirit.

Why had this darkness spirit made a pact with the Vice-Commander that was little better than a slave contract?

Had it been tricked?

Had it been threatened and forced into it?

(Ah~ah, well then, guess I'll head back soon too! Gai-chi's gonna be so mad~......)

The answer was neither.

(Well, whatever~! Gai-chi getting all red and huffy is mega pretty~ too!)

The answer was.

(Gai-chi, scrunching up that face that's been getting all wrinkly lately even more when he's mad! Gai-chi, yelling his head off with that huffy face he only shows me! Gai-chi, getting so mad his heart hurts a little after and he has to clutch his chest! All of it, all of it, so pretty~!)

......It was because this darkness spirit loved Vice-Commander Geistpfenanjeshiriard.

◇ ◇ ◇

When the Vice-Commander was still young, the darkness spirit met him when he came to the Spirit Forest where the spirits dwell (naturally, he was still just an adventurer at the time).

And it fell in love at first sight.

That fake smile!

That sticky magic power that felt like it was clinging to you!

That small, timid soul trembling so cutely!

Everything was exactly the darkness spirit's type.

(This human is mine! I'll never, ever hand him over to some other spirit!)

Feeling this, the darkness spirit at once attacked Geistpfenanjeshiriard, was beaten after a fight to the death that lasted half a day, and became his very own contract spirit.

The disadvantageous contract mentioned earlier was the one formed at that time.

Back then, Geistpfenanjeshiriard mistakenly believed he had been able to make such a spirit contract because he had beaten this darkness spirit completely, but that was not the truth.

(Haa~~~! Gai-chi, love you, love you! I love you sooo much~~~!)

The reason was simply that this darkness spirit loved Geistpfenanjeshiriard too much.

Incidentally, had Geistpfenanjeshiriard lost the fight to the death before the contract, his soul would have been snatched and swallowed up by the darkness spirit.

A spirit contract is a life-and-death ritual.

Now, after the contract was formed, the darkness spirit became Geistpfenanjeshiriard's shadow and carried out various orders.

Initially, those orders were very typical for a spirit user, such as ‘Fight alongside me and defeat monsters’.

The darkness spirit worked hard.

When the darkness spirit worked hard, Geistpfenanjeshiriard would show it that fake smile.

(I'm so happy! I love that fake smile!)

The darkness spirit wanted to see that smile more and more.

So it locked the form it took when imitating a human into ‘the form of the person Geistpfenanjeshiriard loves most’!

Even now, the darkness spirit could vividly recall how things went when it first showed that form to Geistpfenanjeshiriard.

At the sight of the darkness spirit, Geistpfenanjeshiriard had first turned bright red, then at once gone deathly pale, and retched up everything in his stomach.

And then, in a voice full of a fury it had never heard before, he screamed.

“STOP IT!!! THE LIKES OF YOU!!! DON'T YOU DARE TAKE THAT FORM!!!”

But the darkness spirit had already settled on this as its form for life whenever it imitated a human.

Hence, as a last resort, it was ordered that whenever it took human form, that shape had to be wrapped round and round in black cloth.

(And here I thought he'd be happy......)

The darkness spirit was bewildered by Geistpfenanjeshiriard's reaction, which was different from what it had imagined.

From then on, he stopped showing the fake smile the darkness spirit loved.

In its place came a gaze brimming with hatred.

The spirit contract the darkness spirit was bound by was indeed terribly inconvenient for the spirit, but even so, it was designed so that orders directly threatening the darkness spirit's life could not be given.

If such an order were possible, he would have ordered the darkness spirit to commit suicide first thing.

It was a fierce, fierce hatred that made that only too clear.

A man who usually papered over his murky inner self and never let it show was baring that hatred to it, and it alone.

And so, the darkness spirit......

(Me...... me......! That means I finally got to be Gai-chi's ‘special’ one!!)

......rejoiced, greatly.

Every insult, however much worse it grew by the day, it took with a smile.

Even orders that seemed flat-out impossible, it always carried out, as long as they posed no threat to its life.

No matter how dirty the job was.

(I'm, like, seriously such a devoted woman~~~!)

The darkness spirit loved Geistpfenanjeshiriard.

Hence, every bit of hatred, every insult and every impossible demand that came from him was dear to it, all of it.

Roughly 150 years since the darkness spirit gained a sense of self...... and of all that time, these last 60 years or so had been the happiest.

......For this darkness spirit.

◇ ◇ ◇

(Oops, can't just hang around! Gotta hurry and go get yelled at by Gai-chi!)

Now, the darkness spirit left the still-dazed Ambitious where he was and set off to return to the Adventurers' Guild Headquarters.

Sinking its body into the forest shadows that grew long in the sunset, it dove deep, deep toward the depths of the earth.

What lay there were the “blood vessels” of this world.

In other words, the great flows of magic power that nourish the land.

By slipping into these flows of magic power, spirits that had gained power over the years could travel to every part of the world, except the Dark Continent Sardisann, where the flow had stagnated since the collapse of the Super-Ancient Magic Civilization.

(Hup, there we go, arriiived~~~!)

A few hours later, the darkness spirit popped its head out of the shadow of a potted plant beside the Vice-Commander's office on the 3rd floor of the Adventurers' Guild Headquarters on Aave Island, the island of everlasting summer.

Since the Vice-Commander had forbidden it to travel straight into the office, the shadow of this potted plant was prized as one of the darkness spirit's side entrances.

Incidentally, the time here was just around when the staff were on their lunch break.

The vast ocean stretching outside the window, sparkling in the sunlight, was dazzling.

(Gai-chi, Gai-chi!)

But scenery like that meant nothing to the darkness spirit.

Giddy with joy at getting to see the face of the man it loved, the darkness spirit began changing into human form so it could knock on the office door.

But it was then!

“Waaah! You came back at just the right time, didn't youuu!”

Just as that drawling female voice echoed in the hallway, the darkness spirit's body was restrained with tremendous force!

The darkness spirit hurriedly stopped its transformation and shifted its awareness behind it.

What was there...... what was gripping its round black body with exactly the strength needed to keep inflicting pain without crushing it to death, was a slender woman, her beautiful blonde hair glittering all the way down to her waist.

<<<Ah...... M...... Mother-in-law......>>>

This youthful woman was none other than the world's strongest adventurer, “the Immutable” Lairine Rune, who had reigned over the position of Supreme Commander of the Adventurers' Guild for over 50 years!

“......Heyyy, ‘Mother’, is iiit? Did I ever give you permission to call me thaaat? ......Right now, in this world, who's allowed to call me that...... is ‘only one person now’, you knooow?”

<<<Hyeh, ah, it hurts it hurts it hurts!! I'm so, I'm so, sorry!!>>>

Still smiling sweetly, Lairine slowly tightened her grip on the darkness spirit!

Hearing even its own soul crack, mishi, piki, the darkness spirit apologized desperately!

The darkness spirit knew.

This woman...... Geistpfenanjeshiriard's mother and his teacher...... this woman, the original of the darkness spirit's human form, had no such thing as mercy.

Anything she didn't like, she could blow away along with everything around it, in the middle of a yawn.

The only reason she usually left it at a smiling warning, even when guild staff made blunders, was that she had no interest in them to begin with.

That was the only reason.

“If you're sorry, then that's goood! Sooo, this is kinda sudden, but, y'knooow, there's something I wanna ask youuu!”

<<<Yes! I'll answer! I'll answer anything!>>>

Feeling the grip on it loosen and sensing a glimmer of hope for survival, the darkness spirit answered Lairine eagerly.

In the first place, even if it hadn't been threatened like this, the darkness spirit could not rebel against Lairine.

This was because, upon forming the contract with the darkness spirit, Geistpfenanjeshiriard had stipulated that Lairine Rune's orders take priority over his own.

Orders concerning the darkness spirit's own life are void, and Lairine's orders take priority.

These two were the ‘certain cases’ in the slave spirit contract that proclaimed absolute obedience to Geistpfenanjeshiriard.

Lairine seemed satisfied with those words, nodded with a beaming smile, and then......

“You. What were you doing, until now?”

Her beautiful face abruptly dropped all expression, and she asked it in a low, terrifying voice that chilled to the bone.

<<<A......>>>

“Speak.”

Lairine's orders take priority over Geistpfenanjeshiriard's.

It had to answer.

<<<A, a, a......>>>

“Speak.”

It had to answer.

That it had gone to kill.

<<<A, um, um......>>>

The girl Lairine was looking forward to meeting.

The cursed child Emi.

That it had gone to kill.

......By Geistpfenanjeshiriard's order.

“Hey, are you listening. Speak...... or do you want to be killed, Himetal.”

Himetal.

The darkness spirit's name, which no one had called it in decades.

Being called by that name so coldly, Himetal felt as if a knife were being pressed against its soul.

It could no longer hide anything.

Contractually, it was not permitted.

And even without a contract, there was no way it could defy an order from Lairine, who was plainly in another league, what you might call a higher being brimming with power.

So, Himetal spoke.

Everything, all of it.

In the next instant, a tremendous killing intent erupted from the Adventurers' Guild Headquarters.

In a flash, cracks appeared here and there in the white walls of the headquarters, and every single windowpane shattered.

Most of the staff, except for a few, lost consciousness, and the dragons that made their home on Aave Island took flight all at once, beginning to flee the scene in a desperate panic.

Lairine was angry.

For the first time in 200 years, she was truly, genuinely angry.

【Zamago Forest】

The setting of Arc 12.

The western edge of the demon realm of the Ranrananga Mountains.

A pioneering base was recently established there.

【Geistpfenanjeshiriard】

Vice-Commander of the Adventurers' Guild.

An old man who puts on the facade of a gentle, virtuous person.

Appeared briefly toward the end of Arcs 6 and 12.

He has an unusually long name, and from his conversations with the Supreme Commander, it is clear that she gave it to him.

He has no surname.

【Spirit Forest】

A forest where spirits live.

Judging from the episode of Geistpfenanjeshiriard and Himetal's meeting, it is a very dangerous place for humans.

Scheduled to appear in Part 2.

【Super-Ancient Magic Civilization】

An ancient civilization with a romantic ring to it, briefly mentioned by Omake-sama in Arc 10.

【Adventurers' Guild】

An international organization created by the current Adventure God Dorantos under the orders of multiple gods.

It has a strangely modern working environment.

Appears in every arc.

Incidentally, Dorantos has only been a god for about a thousand years, so he is still a novice in the Divine Realm and was treated poorly by a certain cube.

【Lairine Rune】

Supreme Commander of the Adventurers' Guild.

A mysterious being who has lived for over 300 years.

The strongest adventurer, and her title is “the Immutable”.