The boy from the embarrassing pair instructed the spirits around him, “Hey, nab those guys and put them back in their cages.”
Seeing the way he ordered the spirits around like a power-hungry boss was hard for Ruri to accept. To her, the spirits were friends. Celestine respected the spirits like gods and Lapis had similar feelings about them as Ruri, interacting with them as friends or family. Because of that, she had never seen anyone try to operate them like tools. She didn’t even think the former Beloved of Cerulanda had treated them that badly. If Celestine had been here, she probably would have yelled at them for their impudent language toward the spirits. Even Ruri wanted to give them a good dressing down.
The guy ordered the spirits as he had done so far, but not one of them budged this time. After receiving direct orders from Kotaro and Rin, there was no way they would. However, for the pair who couldn’t possibly know that inside fact, it was mystifying that the spirits were ignoring their orders.
“Hey, hurry up!” the boy prompted them.
“Yes, hurry and do what you’re told,” the girl agreed.
Despite their yelping like untrained dogs, the spirits ignored them.
The general, not the Beloveds, seemed to be the most perturbed. “What are you doing?! Hurry and move the spirits!”
“We know already. Quit shouting!” the girl said, her voice rising higher in turn.
However, as soon as Ruri stepped forward and asked the spirits for a favor, they did a complete about-face.
“Guys, free the soldiers still in cells and remove their shackles.”
“Okay!”
“Got it!”
“We’ve gotta do what Ruri says, after all!”
“Uh-huh, uh-huh! Lady Lydia was real mad!”
“Because Ruri got wrapped up in this. She was super-duper mad!”
From the chattering spirits, Lydia had apparently been giving them orders as well. The spirits immediately responded to Ruri’s instructions and acted.
It was then that the general’s group finally realized Ruri was there. Since she was next to Arman and his large frame, it was no wonder why she’d gone unnoticed all this time.
“Who are you?!” the general asked in a threatening tone, pointing a finger at her.
Since she had the protection of two supreme-level spirits, she was invincible. Knowing that not even Jade could hurt her, Ruri took a confident stance, folding her arms and holding her head high.
“I am the Beloved of the Nation of the Dragon King.”
“Beloved...of the Nation of the Dragon King...” The general instantly turned pale before uttering, “How did you get here so quickly?”
It seemed that he had expected the Nation of the Dragon King and Spirit King to intervene. So why had they even started this war in the first place?
Unlike the general, the transmigrating Beloveds didn’t seem to realize the severity of the situation from Ruri saying she was the Beloved of the Nation of the Dragon King. Not much time had passed since they’d come to this world, so they probably lacked the knowledge. That was understandable considering there was a lot that even Ruri still didn’t know about this world.
“Who is this woman?” asked the girl.
“Oh, she looks like my type. A little old, but still,” the boy commented.
“A little old?!” Ruri repeated, a vein popping up on her temple. “I’m only in my twenties! Guys, catch that older man and the two Beloveds! No need to hold back at all!”
“Aye, aye, sir!”
“We just have to catch ’em, right?”
“Lady Lydia told us to eliminate anyone who harms Ruri.”
“Let’s focus on catching them first!”
“Yeah!”
With a somewhat ominous conversation, the spirits charged at the Beloveds they’d been obeying up until then. Ruri and Arman looked on nonchalantly, figuring that the spirits would easily capture the group, but the general pulled out a dagger from his breast pocket and drew it from its scabbard. The moment the dagger was pointed at the spirits, they turned tail and ran.
“Eeek!”
“Weeeh! It’s Spirit Slayer!”
“Run!”
“Spirit Slayer?!” said Ruri, aghast.
“Are you serious?!” Arman exclaimed. They were both shocked that it still existed.
The general smiled deviously at the spirits’ flight and laughed. “You think I didn’t plan ahead for something like this?”
In response to the spirits distancing themselves from the haughtily grinning general, Ruri swiftly plunged her hand into her pocket space and pulled out the first thing she randomly grabbed—a ball small enough to be gripped in her hand.
“Of all things, I grabbed this?!” she cried, recalling some bad memories. However, there was no time to second-guess. Knowing it should be doubly effective on a demi-human, she chucked it at the general.
“What is that paltry toy?” he scoffed. However, his disdain was short-lived, as in the next moment, the ball dropped to the ground, split, and erupted in smoke and light. Knowing the smoke’s effects, Ruri had deployed a wind barrier to surround the general and the duo at the same time she’d thrown the ball. As a result, she and her group were unharmed, but agonizing screams could be heard from inside of the bundle of smoke.
“Eek! This smells terrible! What is this?!” the girl yelled.
“Augh!” heaved the boy.
“Gaaaah!” the general screamed.
Ruri let out a dry laugh, feeling slightly bad for them since she had experienced the smoke firsthand before. She’d thrown a tool that released an intense odor from a bunch of street thugs when she’d first come to the Nation of the Dragon King from Chelsie’s forest. Their enemies were likely in agony from the unthinkably foul odor. Furgal was said to be a nation with a large demi-human populace, just like the Nation of the Beast King, so chances were high that the general was also demi-human. To a demi-human with impeccable senses, the odor released by this ball would be utterly unbearable. Even a mere human like Ruri had almost been knocked out by the intense stench.
Unable to hear the general’s voice anymore, she bundled up the smoke tighter in her barrier of wind. There, on the ground, was the general, lying unconscious.
“Whoa...” Ruri grimaced as she was reminded of the power this ball’s odor held.
Arman and his men, however, looked on with blank stares, clueless as to what the ball even did or why the general had passed out.
“Ruri, what did you do?”
“I just used a pretty dangerous tool that Lydia recommended to me. I think it’s better if you don’t know,” Ruri explained, worried that Arman, also a demi-human, would faint in the same way. They were about to reclaim the palace, so that would just muddy things.
With the general unconscious, Ruri released the barrier and let the Spirit Slayer dagger fall to the ground. She retrieved it and put it into her pocket space, figuring she would have to put it in a room slated to be erased later, where it would be disposed of along with the rest of the room’s contents.
“Hey, guys. I took care of the dagger, so you’re good to go,” Ruri called to the spirits, causing them to poke their heads out of hiding one by one.
“Is it safe now?”
“Really?”
They gathered around her timidly. Once they knew it was safe, the rage could be seen in their eyes.
“These guys have to pay.”
“Yeah, they gotta.”
“Charge!”
Enraged after being threatened with Spirit Slayer, they mercilessly captured the three.
“What are you doing?!” yelled the girl.
“Let go!” said the boy.
The two rampaging Beloveds and the unconscious general were thrown into a cell with the help of the spirits and the liberated Nation of the Beast King troops. Despite the enemy’s yelling and screaming, Ruri told the spirits not to lend them any help, so neither could use their magic. They also placed an extra set of magic-sealing shackles on them just to be sure.
“Keep an eye on them. Don’t listen to what they say, no matter what, okay?” Ruri instructed them.
“Okaaay!” replied the spirits in unison, raising their hands.
Arman put a few of his soldiers on guard duty in addition to the spirits. The soldiers who’d been ordered to keep watch looked envious of their comrades gearing up to reclaim the palace.
“Grrr... I wanted to go too...” said one soldier.
“Yeah, same here. But we drew the short straws, so not much we can do about it. Just accept it,” said another.
“Aaaargh! This was supposed to be my chance at payback!”
As a few of the soldiers lamented their luck, Ruri’s group rushed out of the dungeon.