CH 228

“Zero nii-sama.”

“What?”

“Let’s keep it a secret about the fact that the power of the Spirit King might be able to rip the spirits away from the heroes.”

I was told this by Sophie on the way to the practice field the day after we went to the church.

“I don’t mind, but why?”

“Because you’re not sure you can absolutely do that yet. What if you said you could do it, but couldn’t do it after all… you don’t want to give them any false hope.”

“I understand.”

Even if that happens, I don’t think there’s anyone who would blame us for it. I’m pretty sure Sophie has her own ideas about it.

“I’m sorry I left so suddenly yesterday.”

“It’s alright. I’m glad we broke up afterward so we could have time to think individually.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

When we arrived at the practice field and everyone got together, the first thing I did was apologize for yesterday’s incident. I was relieved to see that everyone seemed to be fine with what happened yesterday.

“So are you going to participate in the inter-school competition?”

Claudia suddenly asked. It was completely out of my mind with the spirits, but originally we were talking about whether or not we would participate in the school competition.

“We will participate”

Sophie said, putting her hand on my shoulder.

“I’m in.”

“Count me in!”

“Wow, I’m in too.”

“Same here.”

Then, following Sophie’s lead, Bequa and the other beastmen and Elira said they would join in as well. If you include Shana, who was originally going to participate, then everyone is in.

“If so, we’ll fight in the main competition in the garden.”

By the way, those who participated in the last school competition and foreign students are exempted from the qualifying round. The reason for this is to ensure that the participants of the previous round don’t drop out of the preliminary rounds due to fighting each other.

“Hey.”

“Hmm?”

As the conversation was coming to a conclusion, Elira spoke to me.

“When are you going to help me level up?”

“Ah…”

I’d completely forgotten. Come to think of it, we had talked about that.

“Then shall we go now?”

“Yes, let’s go.”

And now I was going with Elira to defeat monsters in a hurry. By the way, Sophie and her friends were going to fill out the documents for our participation in the inter-school battle competition in the garden.

Thus, Elira and I left the royal capital together and went to look for monsters.

“There are only weak monsters!”

“It’s no good if there are such strong monsters near the royal capital.”

It’s a day trip, which means we can’t go that far away. Well, even if it’s not a day trip, I don’t want to go that far because it would be difficult if something happened.

“There are still stronger monsters near the elves’ village than here.”

“There are no barriers here like there are in the elf village.”

Did she come here expecting to find A-ranked monsters as she did in the Elven Village? Then it’s understandable that she’s disappointed.

“So, what are you going to do about the spirits that are attached to the heroes?”

While we were looking for the monsters, Elira suddenly said something like that to me.

“Of course, I want to help them.”

“Do you have a concrete plan?”

“No, not at the moment.”

“I see.”

Here the conversation ended. We continued looking for monsters in silence for the next few minutes. It was awkward and I wanted monsters to be found as soon as possible.

“…… Maybe the only one who can help the spirits is you, who has a contract with the spirit king. It may be wrong for me, an elf, to ask a human to do such a thing…”

Suddenly Elira, who was walking in front of me, stopped walking and said so. Then she turned back to me.

“I say this on behalf of the elves. Zeros, please save the suffering spirits from the heroes.”

Elira said this with a deep bow of her head. She, with her high pride, must have been quite uncomfortable saying this to me. But she bowed her head like this for the spirit’s sake.

“I haven’t found a concrete way yet, but I promise I’ll help the spirits.”

“Thank you.”

I don’t want to make too many promises I can’t keep. But I don’t want to be vague about helping Elira after all she has done for me. And it’d be impossible for me to refuse to help her. When I weighed that, I chose the former. I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep. Then it’s just a matter of me being able to do it. But I still have hope for the spirits, but what should I do about the demons and beasts? ……

After that, we defeated a few more monsters and returned to the practice field. No strong monsters appeared, for better or worse. We went back to the practice field and had a few mock battles, and then we broke up for the day. The next few days passed by with mock battles and going to defeat monsters with Elira.

Then it was officially announced that the school battle would be held four days after the first monster defeat with Elira.