“That surprised me,” I sighed.
“Do not let your guard down,” Rex warned me. “There are many people targeting you, young miss.”
After that, Rex never left my side, while Brad kept a close eye on me from a short distance away.
“I never thought they would come after me and not Chris...”
“Please don’t forget that you unfortunately have cute looks that are going to waste,” Rex said, “and you are also the only person in our country to hold spirits of all elements.”
’Scuse me, buddy, wanna say that first part again? He was right about me being cute, though. I had forgotten about that.
Wait.
“What did you just say?”
“You have good looks that are going to waste,” he repeated.
“Shut up! Not that. The second part.”
“You didn’t know, young miss? Right now, you are the only one in the entire empire with spirits of all elements.”
Crap. I’m sticking out like a sore thumb. I’d been so busy recently I hadn’t even had the time to open Little Wiki. Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say I’ve been trying not to.
“That’s incredible,” Iris said. “So no one else has spirits of four elements besides you, Lady Deirdre?”
“Right now, at least. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before I’m far from the only one. If you work on strengthening your mana, Miss Iris, you will be able to control four elements too.”
“I will work hard, then. So please let me become your retainer.”
Now even the girl herself is trying to persuade me.
“I want to become your bodyguard!”
Someone else suddenly charged into the conversation.
“Umm...”
“I’m Harry—Harry Buckland.”
Buckland... I think...that’s a knightly family?
“I’ve even acquired a sword spirit. I’m gonna become a knight,” he said, while he showed off his outstretched palms bathed in red light.
“How old are you, Mr. Harry?”
“Four.”
Seriously? He’s the same age as me and he’s this big? His palms are all calloused too.
“I’ll protect you too!”
“I’d like to become your friend!”
Now I was being surrounded by children. Rex had no idea what to do either.
I’m popular. With children. It kind of felt like I was working at a day care.
“How about we go and have lunch?” a woman’s voice suddenly suggested.
“Yaaaaaaaaay!”
“Food!”
My mother’s two ladies-in-waiting had seen my predicament and called the children over. Rex let out a great sigh as the children ran away. You’re doing a good job, Rex.
There were still a few people trying to summon spirits around us, but only Iris and Harry remained near me. I supposed they had no intention of leaving. Did they really want to work for me?
“Hey. Kid.”
Who was that? What fearless idiot had the guts to address the person with the most authority in this group in such a rude manner? I would show all the kindness in the world to the kids who were nice to me, but if they wanted to be rude, I would return that tenfold.
“Say something, would you? I’m talking to you,” the idiot continued.
The child trying so rudely to get my attention was a menacing-looking boy probably around ten years of age with short dark-green hair. He had pretty good looks, but that only managed to make him look even more full of himself.
“You aren’t talking to me, are you?” I demanded.
“I am. You’re pretty cute, ain’tcha? Let’s go have lunch together.”
He was here to hit on a four-year-old?! Why was he talking like a dirty old man?! Sure, my father had said we could ignore formalities today, but ordinarily, those of lower rank were forbidden from initiating conversation with someone of a higher rank. This boy might have been only a child, but that didn’t mean he could be so rude to me within our castle grounds. If the other boys had heard the way he was talking, he’d be getting his butt beaten by now.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“You mean you don’t know? I’m Dennis, the eldest son of the lord of Horn.”
I see. That meant my father was the one who’d appointed this boy’s father to be lord of the Horn region. I thought I heard that the lord of Horn is quite the sharp man... Maybe this was one of those situations where the lord was so busy with his work that the child’s education had all been left to the mother.
“What’s your name, kid?” he asked.
You don’t deserve to hear my name!
“Are you not going to search for a spirit?” I asked, putting on as haughty an air as I could.
“I already have a sword spirit—an earth one.”
“Then...would you mind making it glow?”
“Sword spirits don’t glow.”
“Did you listen to our explanation before coming here?”
“Oh, hush up. What’s a girl know about sword spirits? You oughta shut your mouth.”
You know, I was trying really, really hard to keep my cool, but surely it would be more than fine to give him a punch right about now...
“Sword spirits do too glow,” Harry piped up from beside me. He was a tall boy, but even his height couldn’t compare to a ten-year-old’s. It was incredible that he could still talk to Dennis without fear regardless.
Rex remained by my side, just in case he needed to restrain Dennis, but it appeared he wouldn’t do anything if someone was just being rude, at least not without my command. I was pretty sure he’d immediately pick Dennis up and fling him into the lake if I gave the word, though.
“Yeah right. My father has a sword spirit, and it’s never glowed.”
Whoops, and now the father was being caught in the cross fire. If it had never glowed, that had to mean his father didn’t really have a spirit and his kid had just blown his cover.
“You’ve been rude to Lady Deirdre every time you’ve uttered a word,” Iris said. “She is the young lady of a margravate, did you know?”
“Ugh, she’s only the daughter of a margrave?” he scoffed. “Man, she’s so cute too. Why’s she gotta be so low-rank? What a shame.”
“Huh?”
Was this boy mixing up a margrave’s rank with a knight’s?
“I’m from the family of a count!” he declared.
Oh, he is definitely mixing up the ranks.
Counts were the most plentiful of the nobles, and that meant there was quite the hierarchy among them. There were counts who received large areas of land and held important positions in the imperial palace, and then there were counts who would even plow the fields alongside their people. The title of count alone didn’t instantly tell you how much power and wealth the family had—though this was true of the other noble ranks as well.
The Belisarios controlled an important area and were permitted to have both a navy and a border army, so we were at the top among the margraves and were treated far more like the family of a marquess, the next rank up from a margrave.
“Mother said that our current margrave is useless because he’s young and inexperienced.”
Oh no, not another parent being caught in the cross fire. Dennis was like those kids who tell their kindergarten teacher that their mom and dad kiss at the door every morning right when their mom comes to pick them up—except the things Dennis was saying right now were far from harmless.
“Goodness, she said that?” Rex remarked.
“Father’s way smarter than him, y’see. He said the margrave can’t do anything by himself.”
“Fascinating,” Rex replied. “Now I see why the lord of Horn is rumored to be so talented.”
“Well, obviously,” Dennis continued digging. “Our domain gathers tons of tax money, so my mother’s so rich she can always buy new jewelry.”
That’s not what tax money is for! Was anyone keeping proper records of where their money was going?
“Rex, stop egging him on,” I hissed.
“I thought it best for us to put an end to this as pleasantly as possible.” The smile Rex wore on his face was eerily calm.
Yup, there’s suddenly a whole bunch of people around. Your family’s donezo, mister. You’re being way too loud.
“I shall remain here for a while longer, so you may go eat without me,” I said.
“I told you to come with me,” he protested.
“And I’m saying no.”
“You wanna say that again?”
“I do not wish to speak to someone who would mock my father. Goodbye.” I tried to leave, but this boy seemed determined to dig his grave as deep as possible.
“Get off your high horse!”
I wasn’t sure if Dennis was trying to hit me or grab me, but the moment his arm was raised, Harry seized it, Iris screamed, and Rex shielded me.
And then...
(Is this child your enemy?) spoke a voice I’d never heard before.
(Shall we do away with him?) another new voice chimed in.
The fire and water lights floating above me vanished, and in their place appeared a large fenrir with a flaming pelt, and an Eastern-style dragon with a long blue mane of light trailing like flowing water from its head all the way down to its tail.
“Huh? Um... Who are you?”
(You can’t tell?) asked the fenrir.
(We’ve been by your side since you were an infant,) said the dragon.
So they were my fire and water spirits. The wind and earth spirits I’d recently acquired were still floating around as little glowing balls, but they seemed like they were trying to protect me too, trembling in the space between me and Dennis.