I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

“W-Wow….”

Wind spirits.

Water spirits.

Earth spirits.

As soon as she saw various spirits gathered, dancing and flying in a spectacular display, Agnes lost herself, endlessly following their movements.

This was the first time she had encountered so many spirits right before her eyes.

Even in Professor Erin’s secret garden, she hadn’t seen this many spirits. Of course, most of the spirits she met then were intermediate-level spirits, so in terms of status, those spirits were probably stronger. 

It was like an exchange venue for spirits, shining beautifully in various colors as if all the stars in the night sky had gathered in this pond.

For Agnes, who had been obsessed with contracting spirits for quite some time, the scene before her eyes was so enchanting that she momentarily forgot her purpose.

‘…This isn’t the time for this.’

Although she wasn’t without the desire to watch the fairy-tale-like scene of newly born young spirits gathering and mingling…

If she just stood there dazed, watching this sight, she would waste the precious opportunity she had worked so hard to obtain. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

The reason she had overcome her fear and arrived here on this dark night was to form a spirit contract.

According to Lilith, today was the most favorable day for spirit contracting, occurring only once every 100 years.

‘I don’t entirely believe everything that girl says, but….’

At least, a day with conditions as favorable as today wouldn’t come easily again.

Of course, she was already perfectly aware through painful lessons that her presence wasn’t particularly welcome among the spirits.

She was also aware that if someone like her tried to awkwardly mingle among the spirits, she would only be rejected.

Therefore, it felt a bit selfish to move according to her own interests at this gathering of newly born spirits.

But for Agnes, the fear of falling behind as a mage by never forming a contract or wasting an opportunity created by someone else due to her own inadequacy was even greater.

Above all, she didn’t want to fail the Spirit Communication lecture class this semester.

Hum.

Rustle!

Thump, thump.

Suppressing the mana flowing from her body as she had learned, Agnes stepped among the spirits whose forms were not yet complete.

Quite a few spirits showed interest in her appearance, in this strange and unfamiliar being. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Agnes felt for a moment as if she was the one ‘choosing’ among the spirits for the first time.

…Of course, this feeling lasted only for a moment, and the spirits’ reactions to her remained cold.

“Um, excuse me….”

Whoosh!

The moment she opened her mouth, the wind spirits, most sensitive to air currents, instantly mixed with the air and concealed themselves.

“P-Perhaps, would you like to form a contract…?”

Pop!

The water spirits also disappeared, popping like water droplets at the slightest touch from Agnes.

“Just a contract, I just need a contract…!”

Scurry, scurry, scurry!

Even the earth spirits, with whom she had managed to converse almost to the point of contract, fled quickly after tasting a bit of her mana for the contract.

“…Hnngh.”

Was this trial too harsh for a young woman who had just become an adult?

Faced with constant rejection, Agnes finally burst into tears she had been holding back.

Spirits or whatever, she just disliked everything before her eyes.

No matter how beautiful or numerous the spirits were, not one among these many would become her partner.

It’s not like she wanted to be born with mana unpopular among spirits. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Agnes felt utterly worthless and pitiful, unable to confidently woo even newly born spirits.

Her heart easily broke as she quietly sat down, hugging her knees at one side of the pond, sniffling.

‘…Maybe I should just go back.’

It didn’t seem like there would be a better future even if she stayed here.

Rather than being rejected by all the remaining spirits and then returning, it might be better to leave now while the lamp still had plenty of fuel left.

After all, she would have to navigate this dark forest alone on her way back, too.

With these thoughts, Agnes was about to move away from the Spirit Pond towards the outside with her lamp, but…

Thump.

|Ouch!| *1

“…Huh?”

Hearing a small voice as soon as she picked up the glass lamp she had set down, Agnes’s gaze naturally shifted to inside the lamp.

Hum.

|…That hurts! Can’t you move more gently?!|

There was a small fire spirit looking at her from inside the glass lamp, about the size of a fist.

It was a small fire spirit newly born inside the lamp.

About an hour after sending Agnes into the Dark Forest…

“I wonder if she’s arrived by now.”

Thinking she might have reached the Spirit Pond by now, I absentmindedly looked at the night sky, muttering to myself.

She’s a character with strong willpower, so she probably didn’t give up halfway.

Although Agnes is supposed to be afraid of the dark, I still believe she is stronger than that.

I wanted to go with her out of concern, but if I were there, it was obvious that the contract that was finally possible wouldn’t happen. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

If I were beside her, all the spirits’ attention, including the ‘fire spirit’ that was supposed to be born in her hands, would be drawn to me instead.

{Soon, she’ll come back with a child that looks just like me~}

“That’s right. It was really hard teaching her how to contract with a spirit in time for today over the past few months.”

{By the way, I never expected this~ To have her carry a lamp made from an ember taken from my body~ As expected of the master I chose, so clever~!}

“…Well, I don’t want Miss Blaze to fail and come to take out her frustrations on me either.”

Since it was very likely she’d become the Main DPS in the Hero’s party, I wanted to upgrade her specs as much as possible.

The lamp I handed to Agnes from the beginning wasn’t just an ordinary lamp.

It was a lamp kindled from an ember that fell from Sally’s body. In other words, it was a lamp with slightly higher ‘Spirit Affinity.’

Of course, carrying a lamp with high spirit affinity doesn’t affect its owner, so Agnes still wouldn’t be treated well by the spirits.

But if she managed to protect that lamp well until she reached the Spirit Pond, then things should proceed smoothly from there.

A bond with spirits.

Originally, it was a feeling difficult to build before contracting with a spirit. That is, unless something miraculous happened, like when I cleared out the demons with Sally.

But if you explore a dark forest alone for an hour with a lamp nurtured from a small ember with spirit power…

It was natural for the ember in that lamp, when it became a spirit, to feel a slight bond with Agnes, who had been closest to it. 

Moreover, being an ember from Sally, it had high Spirit Affinity, making it easier for unstable magic to gather and form into a spirit.

The moment she encountered the energy of various spirits gathered at the Spirit Pond, Agnes would essentially obtain a spirit she could definitely contract with.

‘Anyway, it’s damn tricky to clear one quest.’

Probably, when playing as the protagonist, you would walk together to the Spirit Pond and teach how to contract with a spirit directly on site.

Even with Agnes, if the protagonist blessed by the goddess was next to her, spirits would naturally become curious and approach.

From there, with a bit of persuasion from the protagonist, one or two young spirits would easily contract with Agnes.

The problem is that it’s impossible for me, as Lilith, to use the same method as the protagonist.

If I had entered the Spirit Pond together with Agnes, most spirits would have gathered around me.

What kind of spirit with strange tastes would choose to eat a rotten egg when there’s a moist, steamed egg *2 right beside it?

If I interfered by flaunting the difference in our Charms right in front of Agnes, it wouldn’t work out at all.

I repeatedly taught Agnes how to contract with spirits on her own, and, a bit ruthlessly, pushed her into the Dark Forest in the middle of the night.

In the current circumstances, this was the only way for me to hand a spirit to Agnes.

And above all, if we use this method…

‘Agnes can start her first contract with a fire spirit.’

Among the methods available in the game, the spirit that could best draw out Agnes’s potential was a wind spirit, which has good synergy with fire magic.

The next useful one was an earth spirit. In this case, Agnes would have to play a supporting role, though.

In the case of water spirits, their compatibility was the worst. Unless both the spirit and Agnes grew perfectly in sync, their attacks would actually interfere with each other.

However, it seemed that fire spirits themselves, which have the best compatibility with fire mages, couldn’t be contracted at the Spirit Pond. I don’t know about this part because I never played it directly.

I assumed the reason was that there were no ‘seeds’ for fire spirits to spawn near the Spirit Pond. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

It’s natural for seeds of earth, water, and wind spirits to form in a small pond that hasn’t been frequently visited by humans for a long time.

But seeds of fire spirits, which can only be obtained from flames that have been burning without withering for a long time, could probably only be found in rare places like the Blackrock Gorge, where dwarves live, or a fire dragon’s lair.

…Or perhaps from an ember that flew off from the body of a high-level spirit that has lived for that long.

‘This time, having Sally around definitely helped.’

As I was absentmindedly watching the entrance of the Dark Forest with these thoughts, a red-haired woman with twin tails quietly walked out from inside the forest.

Beside her was a fire spirit that anyone could see had just formed a contract with her, endlessly circling around her.

|Agnes! I’m looking forward to working with you! The name you gave me is so cool! It’s the best!|

“…Yeah. I’m looking forward to working with you, too, Infernocilia.”

|Yes! Looking forward to it, Agnes!|

It seems she couldn’t let go of that chuunibyou-like naming sense even at the moment of spirit contract.

…Well, if they’re happy with it, I guess it doesn’t matter.

T/N

Please don’t be confused with my use of |these bars| for Infernocilia’s dialogue. I used it in the previous chapter for the spirits Agnes passed by on the way to the Spirit Pond and they are not connected. I expect the three spirits to converse from now on, so do remember the formats of {Sally’s dialogue}, [Sei’s dialogue], and |Infernocilia’s dialogue|.
The ‘steamed egg’ thing most likely refers to the Korean steamed egg side dish, Gyeran-jjim (계란찜). Eggs are sieved, then beaten with water and steamed. 

Hello! Axiomatic here. 

Thankfully, the site is back! We have moved to a new domain, though, as you may have noticed, so the NovelUpdates links are probably all broken. Anyway, glad to be back.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!