Stanrus agreed to cede their portion of the Grimwood to me, and I was finally able to finish building a wall around the whole thing. My Faegoblin Irregulars patrolled both the area around the wall and the top of it. The ones stationed at the top were all specialized in archery. They were mainly there to deal with flying monsters and the occasional gigant snake that would try to slip past.
Just so you know, the Irregulars still patrolled most of the Grimwood interior as well, but they left the areas near Stanrus alone for the most part. After all, if they killed all of the monsters, the people from Stanrus wouldn’t be able to do any training in the forest. So the wall wasn’t the end of my relationship with Stanrus, just a single part of it. Their princess came by to let me know the agreement was finalized, and to collect the gift I’d promised her.
Was it a bribe? I guessed you could call it that. I preferred to use the term ‘skillful negotiation’ to describe such things. Plus, if she had asked for one after the agreement had been made, I likely would have given her the bracelet I made as a gift. That’s right, the magic item I created for her was a black bracelet with rounded metal studs. I was originally going to go with spikes, like the bracelets worn by a popular Chinese character from a certain fighting game franchise, but I opted for something more practical. This way, she could even wear the bracelet to bed, and it wouldn’t get in the way while she was writing. It would also make petting her new friend easier. Those huge spikes might have looked cool, but they’d just have been in the way outside of combat.
Speaking of looks, Princess Shildris was quite a beauty, but she definitely wasn’t the dainty type. She had long blonde hair, but she didn’t really do a lot to take care of it. She was tall and muscular, and wore the same type of mostly leather armor her guards did. She was more comfortable in battle armor than she was in dresses. Given a choice between the two to wear to a formal gathering, she’d pick the armor every single time. She particularly loved wearing armor made from parts of monsters she’d killed herself. It was a major point of pride for her.
Despite her tough exterior, she had a major soft spot for cuties. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I happened to be an avid admirer of the adorable myself. If anything, it was one of her better traits, as far as I was concerned. She had a look of supreme bliss on her face as I helped her put the bracelet on and explained how it worked. Once I explained how to use it, she wasted little time trying it out.
“Come forth!”
I’d set the incantation to something easy to remember, but to make sure nobody with ill intentions abused it, there were some safeguards in place. First, only Shildris and her descendants could use it. Second, if the person using it was cruel or abusive toward the contracted creature, it would power up by several levels and devour them. Finally, at the end of the bloodline, when Shildris and all of her descendants were gone, the bracelet would return to my inventory automatically. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about it floating around where evil people could experiment with it.
In response to Shildris’s call, the glyph engraved on the bracelet glowed with blue light, and a larger version of the same symbol appeared on the floor at her feet. Moments later, the summoned Sprigarou familiar appeared. This was a brand-new, completely random summon, so even I didn’t know what kind would appear.
“I-It’s blue!” Shildris said in surprise as the Sprigarou appeared.
“They come in a variety of colors,” I explained. “Both of mine just happened to come out green, since it’s the most common. Blue is the second most common. They also come in pink, red, lavender, gold, and silver. Gold is the rarest, followed by silver and red, then pink and lavender.”
“Will I get a different color every time?”
“Huh? Oh, no. Now that you’ve summoned one, that same creature will appear every time. It’d be a real pain to have to start over from scratch every time.”
“It’s so cute.” Shildris was already petting her fluffy doggy as she spoke. “I didn’t expect it to be so small. After all, yours are so big.”
“Yeah, yours is brand new, just a puppy! It’ll get bigger as it grows stronger. Just bring it with you into battle, and it should get stronger all on its own. Eventually, it’ll get just as big as mine. Once it becomes a Faewolf like them, you could probably even ride around on its back.”
“That sounds wonderful. What does it eat?” Shildris asked as her little blue pupper licked her face.
“Ah, I almost forgot, they have a very specialized diet. Sprigians like us only eat fruit, but even among our kind, Sprigarous are especially picky. They won’t touch just any fruit—they prefer the flesh of the savor fruit, which we grow on the roof of the main tower. You don’t need to worry about feeding it, though. The summon is set to end when it gets hungry, and when it returns to the Unseen Realm, it can find food there. I made sure it’ll be provided for.”
“N-no way! Sell me some of the fruit it likes. I’ll feed it myself,” she insisted with a hint of blush on her face.
Ah, I can’t say no when she looks that cute asking for it. “Very well, I’ll arrange it.”
I pulled out my tablet and used it to send orders to Maple and Bistro, asking them to prepare the fruit we needed. I knew I could count on them to follow my instructions. As we waited for the fruit to arrive, Shildris changed the subject.
“Hey, what do you plan on doing about the Lord of the Lake? Without him around, you’d be able to use the lake for fishing and stuff, right?”