The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 245 – Figuring out the Nature Nymph

So as not to scare her, I spoke to her kindly while looking carefully at the collar.

It was a very complex magical circle, so I couldn’t figure it out right away.

「Eppeeppeppp!」

The spirit nymph shook like usual and cried out.

But this time, she didn’t unleash very strong spirit power at me.

Sometimes she would summon a Jack Frost around us.

I would blow it away with pure magic as soon as it appeared.

「It seems she’s limited in the amount of magic she can use.」

「Because of the collar?」

「Seems so.」

I couldn’t say definitively until I had analyzed the collar.

But I think I was right about that point.

I was in the middle of looking it over, so I said what I could determine so far, 「This is like a collar to control magical beasts, but much more complex. The person that drew this is a master of magic.」

「It may be controlling her magically.」

「To control a powerful spirit like this, I’d hate to go up against whoever is strong enough to trap her.」

「How horrible!」

「ryaa!」

Timi said, angrily, while holding Shiggy in her arms, who also cried out in anger.

「First I’m going to try to break the collar.」

「Go ahead.」

I had done all I could with analyzing.

With force I could break it easily.

However, I thought that after I got it off, I should save it so that Vi-Vi could look over the rest.

After that, we could determine how it was made and where it was from, and then take care of whomever did this.

—clack 「Okay.」

With a small sound, the collar broke open. It fell to the ground.

It was a big clue. I put the collar into my magic bag.

I thought she might now let loose with a huge amount of spirit magic, and I prepared myself.

But...she put her hands up to her neck and searched for the collar.

『Thank you.』

She said with a small bow.

Luka’s eyes glistened.

「Wow, she understands us!」

「Well, these spirits can hear the chants of the magicians, so I’d imagine so.」

「So why didn’t she speak before?」

Cruz said with a confused look.

She finally took her hold sword and put it back in its scabbard.

「Probably because she was bound by that magical collar. She knows human speech, but her speech and spirit magic was limited by the collar.」

「I see.」

Then Cruz patted the spirit’s head.

「You’re not cold...?」

「Eeep?」

The spirit said almost with a twitch like she was ticklish, and cried a bit.

Luke stepped up to the spirit.

「I am Luka Rangow.」

『I know.』

Then she looked at me.

『Your name.』

「Alfred Lin...」

「Wha?」「ryaa?」

Timi and Shiggy looked over at me with eyes that said,「that’s not right?!」

「Alredora Lint...」

「Yeah.」「ryaa」

They then both nodded, satisfied.

The others continued introducing themselves, 「Cruz Conradine!」

「Timisoara and this is Sighisoara.」

『Thank you.』

She bowed again to us.

Then Luka said to her.

「Oh, great spirit, we’d love to hear any information you have to tell us.」

『Sorry. Thank you.』

She bowed once again. Then she stepped over to me and clutched my arm.

She seemed to be able to like humans. And after I took off her collar, she was almost affectionate.

As she held onto me and spoke in spirit speech.

It seems that she could only speak in nouns and verbs though.

『Trap. Happen. Revenge.』

「What do you mean, trap?」

『Great spirit stone. Careful, Trap.』

「I know. After we noticed it, we were very careful around it. You called it a trap?」

Luka kneeled down until she was eye to eye with the nymph.

As she did that, she tried to get what the little spirit was saying straight.

There were a lot of things we didn’t understand.

『Magician. Summon.』

「So a magician summoned and trapped you to create that huge statue?」

『Correct.』

The nymph nodded.

Normally, it would be almost impossible to summon a lord of nature spirits like that.

However, with such a huge spirit stone that was created, I guess nothing’s impossible.

「And after you were summoned, what happened?」

『Trap. Bondage.』

「You mean that collar?」

『Correct.』

So the magician had summoned and then captured her with the collar.

It might be that there’s some traces of what the trap was around here still.

We probably blew it away with our magic bolt and breath though. It would be hard to find anything left behind.

「So your spirit magic was bound by that collar?」

『Correct. Forced summoning.』

「The magician made you summon Jack Frosts?」

『Correct.』

So the collar was put on her, and she was forced to summon Jack Frosts.

The spirit stone used as a catalyst, she was summoned, and forced here to generate Jack Frosts using its power.

Now I understood why there were so many.

Luka looked up at me.

「Al. You have something you want to ask?」

「I was wondering what the person looked like that put the collar on her.」

『Human.』

「What sex? Any certain type of human?」

『Man. Not elf.』

It seems that this nymph wasn’t able to tell certain races of humans apart.

「I see. How tall was he?」

『Normal. Man.』

「Would you know him if you saw him?」

『Could find.』

She couldn’t explain very well, but she knew what he looked like.

Even so, she had to go back to her spirit world soon. I had to know what the guy looked like.

「Could you draw what he looks like?」

Cruz said to the little nymph.

If the spirit could show us, that would be enough.

I guess we should see if she could at least draw him.

If she couldn’t, then we’d have to think of another wasy.

I took out some materials from my magic bag and the spirit said, 『Request.』

「What is it?」

『Spirit. Bondage. Help. Please.』

「So there are other spirits being held just like you were?」

『Correct.』

Hearing this, Luka said, 「This is really bad if there are others. There are some that I’m sure that could be force to summon worse things than Jack Frosts.」

「Al...we have to help.」

「Yeah.」

Well, at least the huge spirit stone was gone.

Because of that, all the Jack Frosts would be gone in a night, even if they were resummoned.

Still, when they were summoned, they created a huge blizzard. No business could get done.

「Spirit lord. We’ll help.」

『Thank you.』

Then, for the first time, we saw the little nymph smile.