Celebrity Lady - Chapter 51

Preface: The Founding Myth
“You wanted to read this?”
A somewhat bored voice came from beside me.
I turned to see Lizbeth, the Fifth Princess.
That I could enter the Imperial Library without restriction was entirely thanks to Lizbeth.
‘I could have asked Lark, but that man has an eye for detail that’s far too keen….’
It was the day after the wagon accident.
I’d come here to investigate the deeply suspicious background of my spirit, Wishert.
‘If I’m looking into the Spirit of Wish, Lark would certainly grow suspicious.’
Lizbeth, peering at the book I’d been reading, spoke with a look of sympathy.
“You want a spirit, don’t you……”
“Oh no, it’s nothing like that.”
“No, you can be honest with me.”
Lizbeth, who knew the circumstances of a Spirit-User from a Spirit-User family without a spirit, shook her head with a pitying look.
“Rubetria, you’ve entered the Spirit Spring before, haven’t you?”
“I have.”
“What was it like?”
“It was the most magnificent place I’ve ever seen.”
I recalled the Spirit Spring, which I had visited for the first time early this year to form a Contract.
“It’s the kind of place you can only see in dreams, after all.”
When one intends to form a Contract, one goes to the Spirit Altar in the imperial palace, drinks a tea brewed from spirit incense, falls asleep, and only then can the Contractor enter the dream.
The homeland of spirits, visible only in dreams—the Spirit Spring.
That place was beautiful enough to be called a true utopia.
“I imagine all four seasons there are spring?”
An endless expanse of warm, pastel-toned spring scenery.
A verdant forest full of delicate flower stems that sway with each step and the sweet song of birds.
A place where picturesque towering cliffs are split by a waterfall sparkling like diamonds, cascading down.
In that fantastical realm, spirits of every conceivable form teemed.
“Plenty of spirits, I’d imagine?”
“Incredibly many. And they all look different. Some are beautiful beyond measure, and some are even more handsome than Ricky.”
“Come now, that can’t be true.”
“It is, I assure you. And there are spirits with beautiful butterfly wings, and others that look like rabbits with pink fur. Truly.”
“Wow……”
Lizbeth’s eyes grew bright, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What spirit did you hope to contract?”
“Me? Well, nothing in particular……”
“So you wanted the Spirit of Wish.”
Lizbeth glanced at the book I’d been reading once more, shaking her head.
Looking at me, reading only the preface where the Spirit of Wish Wishert appears in the empire’s founding myth, she had drawn that conclusion.
Truth be told, what I’d wanted to find wasn’t this common imperial history book—the sort we could obtain from our own house library……
‘I went all the way to the Imperial Library, and there’s nothing useful here.’
I let out a sigh, and Lizbeth clicked her tongue sympathetically.
“Big dreams. A Spirit of Wish, no less. That’s why the spirits won’t contract with you.”
“Y-yes, I suppose.”
When I answered half-heartedly, Lizbeth rested her chin on her hand and spoke instructively.
“The Spirit of Wish, you see, isn’t easy to encounter at all.”
“Why not?”
“If you read more of this book, you’ll understand. Diolus the First, Wishert’s original Contractor, grew concerned that humans would abuse Wishert’s power. Before dying, he instructed Wishert: spread no word of being the Spirit of Wish, but deceive all who meet you, claiming to be a spirit of trivial ability.”
“Oh, I see. So Wishert was told not to reveal his true name, but to lie and say he was a low-grade spirit with worthless power?”
“Exactly.”
Anyone who had studied imperial history knew this story.
Because of it, royalty who sought Wishert out and entered the Spirit Spring often came back having formed a Contract with some absurdly weak low-rank spirit instead.
Of course, I—rather, Rubetria—also……
‘Fell for that ridiculous lie. And I didn’t even deliberately choose Wishert!’
Irritation welled up in me, and I clenched my fist beneath the desk.
‘If Wishert hadn’t lied, the two of us would never have become entangled. There’s not a trace of greed in Rubetria—how could she have contracted with Wishert of all spirits?’
The Spirit Spring, filled with spirits of different appearances yet all so beautiful they were difficult to look away from.
Rubetria wandered through the Spirit Spring in rapture for a long while, and then……
‘Met a con artist.’
Recalling it now, a dizzy anger made me grit my teeth.
“Goodness, what a fright!”
Behind a massive tree perhaps ten meters tall lurked a spirit with a truly grotesque appearance.
It had no eyes, only two nostril holes for a nose, and its pitch-black skin felt as if it would be slimy to the touch—altogether an utterly unpleasant form, unlike all the other spirits.
I had no desire to speak with it, but good-natured Rubetria, ever mindful of courtesy, posed the same question to every spirit she encountered.
“Who… what sort of spirit are you?”
The con artist answered.
“I am… the Spirit of Happiness.”
In truth, a spirit whose name was perhaps a hundred million light-years removed from its appearance.
“I’m afraid I possess no special power. I can only make my Contractor happy.”
“Can you make me happy?”
“Yes. Even if someone betrays you, you can feel joy and harbor no anger. Even if all you have is stale bread and a sip of water, you can think positively and feel perpetual happiness.”
‘Are you joking?’
Yet Rubetria, starved for happiness, heard out this utterly useless ability with wonder, and without a second thought, contracted with Wishert.
Not knowing he was classified by the imperial palace as a danger—that his very presence threatened the life of his Contractor, and that even as a Spirit of Wish, he could grant only three wishes, each bound by strict limitations.
“Sigh.”
Lizbeth, watching my weary expression, comforted me by patting my shoulder gently.
“It’s all right. All humans are creatures full of greed.”
“Y-yes.”
“I’m greedy too. I want to enter the Spirit Spring soon. Though I still have two years to wait……”
“Which spirit do you hope to contract with, Your Highness?”
“I’m going to spend a very long time wandering through the Spirit Spring until I meet ‘that’ spirit.”
“Surely you don’t mean the Spirit of Wish?”
But I already claimed him.
“No, no.”
Lizbeth shook her head, then smiled with a sly expression.
Soon she leaned in close to my ear and whispered softly.
“The Spirit King.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
The unexpected answer startled me.
“The Spirit King?”
“Yes. The Spirit King surely lives in the Spirit Spring too, doesn’t he?”
“…Now that you mention it, I suppose he would?”
“But from what I’ve heard from older siblings and cousins who entered before, no one has ever said they saw the Spirit King.”
Lizbeth gestured to the open book.
“It’s written right here that the Spirit King exists. After all, it was the Spirit King’s blessing that made the empire worthy of the spirits’ protection in the first place.”
“That’s true.”
“Think about it. If he’s the king of all spirits, how immense must his power be? There’s nothing he couldn’t do.”
The instant I heard Lizbeth’s words, a realization struck me like lightning.
“Haha… yes, you’re right.”
I slowly nodded, meeting Lizbeth’s gaze.
“Your Highness is… right. The Spirit King would be able to do anything. Everything.”
“Exactly!”

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