Noble Spirits boasted exceptional beauty and bodies that were strong and flexible. They lived long lives, possessed a high inclination to magic, and could talk to flora, fauna, and sometimes even monsters. They were one of the higher races and self-proclaimed defenders of the forests.
For a long time, humans and Noble Spirits had been at odds. From the perspective of the Noble Spirits, who lived among nature, humans looked like barbarians with their undeserved opulence they gained by tearing down the natural world and developing technology. From the humans’ perspective, the Noble Spirits were an arrogant race that rested on laurels woven from their inherent qualities and considered the needs of nobody but themselves.
If anything, their physical similarities only made it harder for both groups to ignore each other, thus inciting further conflicts.
And it was the greatest tragedy born by the two races.
It happened over one thousand years ago. A tribe of humans entered the domain of the Noble Spirit queen, hoping to reap the bounty of the forest. They started by negotiating with the Noble Spirits, but it was clear how that would turn out before it even started. The proud Noble Spirits would never cede anything to the lowly humans.
With the continued existence of both sides at stake, so began a war with no end in sight.
“After disrupting the balance of power with your technology, you humans began to look down on us! Sir! You’re weak, but your short lifespans mean you reproduce way too quickly. With so many of you, there’s going to be a genius in every hundred or two hundred that are born. Sir.”
“Hmph. Your fast propagation makes you less like people and more like insects. It’s the only area you undeniably exceed us in.”
“Wow. Sorry to hear that,” I replied.
“This isn’t something to just ‘wow’ at! Sir!”
Kris was fuming, and Lapis was her usual icy self. I was being compared to insects and stuff, but I just sipped my tea like it had nothing to do with me.
They were just about to leave the imperial capital to summon a Shaman. While saying goodbye, I let them tell me about the strongest cursed item. Really, I didn’t feel any connection to it. The war between Noble Spirits and humans was pretty long ago. It was even before the time of my grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather. For humans, this was all history. Though Noble Spirits lived much longer than us, the war was definitely still before Kris or anyone else in Starlight had been born.
“But now we’re buddies, right?”
“Huuuh?! We’re not buddies or anything like that! Sir! Keep those weird ideas to yourself!”
I was speaking about our races in general, but the Noble not-weakling always managed to give me an entertaining reaction.
“The war ended after both sides had sustained considerable losses,” Lapis continued after giving one of her unamused snorts. “With their superior numbers, humans had the overwhelming advantage, but upon her death, the queen left behind a curse that changed everything: the Cursed Spiritstone, as it’s known. Our kind can create malign energies that dwarf anything a human might. Even Marin’s Lament looks small by comparison.”
“Millions upon millions of people died. Sir. You were barbarians, much greedier than you are now, but even the ancient humans were pushed to their limits.”
The queen of the Noble Spirits resided in their largest forest. Shero’s Spiritstone was proof of her stature, and she laid a curse upon it when the humans pried it from her hands.
The stone was incredibly famous among those familiar with curses. When Ansem said Marin’s Lament was likely number two, he probably had Shero’s Spiritstone in mind as number one. What a chilling thought that was. Just being in the vicinity of Marin’s Lament had been pretty dicey. To think there was something worse out there. However, as far as I knew, there hadn’t been many recent reports of people being killed by the stone.
“Though it caused considerable harm,” Lapis said, probably noticing the question written on my face, “the deaths came to a sudden stop after a point. It may have been sealed, or perhaps discarded in a place devoid of people. It’s now been over one thousand years since it last caused any casualties.”
“It’s strange. Sir. There’s no way a Higher Noble’s curse could disappear so suddenly.”
So what was wrong with just leaving it like that? Better to let sleeping dogs lie. Apparently, Lapis had thought this stone was the subject of the prophecy, but the battle was over, and nobody was going to go out of their way to look for this thing. Not when everything had just calmed down.
Lapis stood up, which I took as a sign she had nothing more to tell me. Still irritated, Kris followed after her. After this, they would be returning to their homeland as part of Franz’s plan.
With her usual haughtiness, Lapis looked down at me with a frigid glare. “It seems this time we were off the mark, weren’t we? However, if something turns up, be sure to inform us. I trust your preterhuman artifice won’t disappoint.”
“Expectations won’t change what I can do...”
“Hmph. Perhaps so. The Spiritstone disappeared a very long time ago. I simply had to check when I heard you were searching for cursed items.”
How did she get that idea when I was never doing anything like that in the first place? I sat there, blinking, to which Lapis let out an aggrieved sigh.