Chapter 531: The Sealing Stone
“Well then…”
My voice echoed through the now silent stone structure.
The mycelium that had spread around me, even reaching the mushrooms, began to burn. I sheathed the Zanzenken and picked up the Ex-Staff. I also took the liberty of incinerating the mushroom’s slime.
“Quite the spectacle, Master,” the bright voice of the Ex-Staff rang out in the suddenly quiet room.
The Ex-Staff adjusted its speech to match mine; when I spoke in the language of spirits, it responded in kind, and when I spoke in human tongue, it followed suit. It was surprisingly considerate for a mere staff.
I stepped into the center of the room where Kenta had emerged from the floor. The interior of the building was cool, but the stones seemed to radiate heat, creating a gentle warmth.
“I wonder what’s here?”
With a swift motion, I swung the Ex-Staff down vertically. The stone tip sank into the cobblestones, cracking them. The Ex-Staff was harder than rock, and my strength and speed were beyond that of an ordinary human.
I had made a foolish contract with a spirit, which had made me less human than before. Because of that, I felt a bit anxious about going on jobs with the Adventurer’s Guild. I had gotten better at hiding it than I was at first, but still…
If nothing went wrong, I could manage. But after what happened deep in the Demon Forest the other day, where everyone got injured, I wasn’t so sure I could keep my composure.
This was all due to the connection with the spirit that flowed into me. The only way to completely sever it would be to break the contract, which was a bit too late for that now.
Still, the floor stones were quite thick. Was the entire building made this way? I asked the Black Spirit that had emerged from the mushroom for help, moving the cracked stones aside. Since entering this building, the Black Spirit I had contracted had shrunk to less than half its original size.
It was a mystery whether the mushroom had been its true form, but it seemed to have had a symbiotic relationship with it. When the mushroom melted away, the spirit shrank. It appeared that my magic power flowed into it, albeit in small amounts, preventing it from completely disappearing.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the mushroom had always been a mushroom. I decided to set that thought aside for now; it felt like I might stumble upon a frightening conclusion. After all, I had poked at it quite a bit with the Ex-Staff.
The stones of the cobblestones were deep, more than waist-deep where I had cleared them, revealing packed sand beneath. It seemed excessively thick, but apparently, it was special. I peered into the sides of the stones, which were engraved with writing. The same inscriptions were likely on the stones I had broken.
Now that I had an inkling of what was there, I moved the stones aside and channeled a bit of magic power to the spirit that was creating a barrier of air around me, asking it to blow away the covering sand. I knew what I was about to find, but it felt polite to confirm it.
What lay beneath was the bones of a horse and a human. Perhaps due to exposure to the air or because I had defeated Kenta, they crumbled into fine dust, mixing with the sand like mushroom spores.
The image of a boy weeping over his beloved horse appeared in my mind. The words of sealing were engraved in the stone.
“Ah, finally, I can come forth!”
Something emerged. It seemed to be the spirit’s leader!
“Master, something’s come out!” The Ex-Staff blurted out what it was thinking! I had only kept it to myself.
“I am the spirit of this temple,” the square, stone-like spirit floated around, speaking.
“Excuse me for intruding. So this was a temple?”
“Yes, it was built to seal this entity. Its purpose was as a temple, and I intended to strengthen the seal with prayers,” the spirit explained.
Could it be that this spirit was the one that could converse with me?
“A failed sealing?”
“It was necessary to accurately inscribe the circumstances and the true nature of what was sealed. That would also serve as a comfort to the sealed entity. However, I disliked the idea of the true circumstances being revealed, so I hid them in a place unseen by humans.”
Ah, so that was why it was engraved on the sides of the stones.
“There was a renowned horse. The horse had a boy as a friend. The king took the horse from the boy. The king threw a tantrum over a horse that would not carry him. The horse was banished to forbidden lands. The boy lamented and harbored resentment. The boy searched for the horse and stepped into the forbidden lands…”
It was like a bullet-point list. The forbidden lands referred to the territory of the Black Spirit, which had possessed Kenta to take revenge on the king. It also mentioned how Kenta had been sealed away after the king was killed, but that was not enough to quell his rage.
The engravings on the stone were likely hidden by the succeeding king, who did not want to expose the shame of his family.
“So, it failed even after sealing it once?”
It seemed that they had tried to strengthen the seal with prayers afterward, which suggested that the Black Spirit was quite persistent. Or perhaps it had been a demon beast with a physical form back then?
“It wasn’t that I was weak; the problem was that I hadn’t inscribed the sealed entity correctly. I accidentally sealed a scorpion along with it.” The spirit moved a bit faster, as if to assert its innocence.
“A scorpion…?”
Was that why its tail resembled one?
“Even something so small could cause problems?”
Did the seal break because of the scorpion? How unfair!
“The seal has been unraveling over hundreds of years. Although it has been defeated several times without revealing its true identity, it always left a bit of power behind in this place, only to cause trouble again when forgotten. The ones who prayed have also turned into mushrooms and disappeared.”
Mushrooms, I had been trying not to think about that!
And what about the Black Spirit that had possessed Kenta? I had probably forgotten to inscribe it, but it was likely related to the mycelium, mold, or the Black Spirit of the mushrooms.
“Well, if you love horses, I suppose it’s understandable. The King’s Branch is also lenient towards horse lovers.”
The King’s Branch is lenient towards horse lovers…
“The King’s Branch is still around!?”
Now that was a surprise!