The Water Spirit's Blessing
“We should be reaching the place marked on the map any moment now.”
“I can hear water. It has to be that way.”
Elizabeth and Angela raced through the blazing forest, skills flaring as they ran. After a relentless push they finally broke through to their destination—the lake.
Between the burning trees, a stretch of blue water slowly revealed itself.
“We found it!”
“The lake…!”
Thick black smoke had turned the sky pitch-dark, yet the lake still held a soft, luminous beauty. Under any other circumstances they would have wanted nothing more than to rest beside it.
Elizabeth looked down at the ring clenched tightly in her hand—the recovery item her fiancé, Taylor Winchester, had given her. An item that could heal a person in an instant. She had never seen anything like it even in the treasure vaults of a count’s house. It was a treasure among treasures, something that belonged in the imperial palace vaults. And he had received it as a gift from the academy’s principal, the infamous Blood Countess.
As expected… Young Master is truly remarkable.
Reassured once more of her betrothed’s greatness, Elizabeth scanned the lakeshore and found a spot suitable for treating Enri.
“Angela, this should do.”
“Understood.”
They shared a silent glance, then carefully laid the unconscious Enri down in a small clearing where the flames could not easily reach. Looking at her, both of them felt the same ache of pity and sorrow.
“Enri…”
Her condition is worse than I thought.
Colorless, pale lips and ragged, uneven breathing made it plain she was far from all right. Elizabeth gripped the ring and stepped closer.
“Enri, we will save you. I swear it.”
Steeling herself, she poured her mana into the ring.
Trisha's Grace
A sphere of blue light bloomed from the ring and blazed brightly.
“It worked!”
The orb of light glided smoothly—not toward Enri, but toward the lake itself.
“……?”
It drifted all the way to the center, then sank deep beneath the surface and vanished.
“W-what just happened?”
“I don’t know either. I clearly felt the item activate, but…”
They had expected Enri to be healed the moment the ring was used. Instead the light had simply disappeared into the water, leaving both of them stunned.
“What do we do now—wait, ah?!”
Suddenly Angela felt as though something were dragging her body toward the lake. It happened too fast for thought; she could not even react before she was pulled under.
The unnatural force felt exactly as if someone had shoved her from behind.
What in the world—?!
She tried to swim back to the surface, thrashing with all her strength, yet her body refused to rise. Giving up on swimming, she looked around—and saw Elizabeth rushing toward her.
Lady Elizabeth is coming to save me. Thank goodness…
Relief lasted only a heartbeat. A closer look showed Elizabeth was not swimming; she too was being swept along by the current. And that same current was dragging Angela with her.
Swallowed by the waves, their vision flipped. Powerful currents tossed their bodies this way and that. No matter how hard they struggled, it felt as though invisible hands held them fast; they could not move properly.
Glub…
Just as the lack of air and crushing pressure became unbearable, every force that had bound them vanished as though it had never existed.
When Elizabeth came to her senses, she realized they were no longer at the lake. They stood in a place she had never seen before.
Wait—Angela and Enri?!
Cough! Cough!
“!!”
Remembering her teammates, she spun around at the sound of coughing behind her.
“Angela! Are you all right?!”
There they were—Angela on her hands and knees, gasping, and Enri beside her.
“I-I’m fine…”
Angela rose slowly and looked around.
“This place… we’re underwater.”
“……How are we able to breathe?”
The scenery resembled the corridor of an ancient temple, yet every movement and every word produced bubbles, and fish swam freely through the air. There was no buoyancy, and they could breathe—but there was no doubt they were beneath the water.
Strange and unprecedented as the phenomenon was, it hardly mattered. Something far more urgent demanded their attention.
“For Enri’s sake, we have to get out of here first.”
Angela nodded. She could not lose her friend like this.
“We don’t know any other way, so let’s follow the path.”
Carrying Enri between them, they started down the corridor. After walking for some time, a small spring glowing with blue light appeared before them.
“A spring… underwater?”
As if drawn by some unseen force, they approached the luminous pool—and froze in shock.
“Why is that here…?”
“Isn’t that the light that came from the item?”
At the bottom of the spring rested the very sphere of blue light that had emerged from the ring before they were pulled under. It looked close enough to touch if they simply reached out.
If we can just get that, Enri will—!
“I would advise against it. That spring is deeper than the sea itself.”
Just as Angela stretched her hand toward the light, a deep, resonant voice spoke from behind them.
“Eek?!”
“Who’s there?!”
They whirled around. A translucent blue deer stood quietly, watching them. It lifted its massive antlers and spoke.
“My name is Trisha. Children of men—did you not call for me?”
“W-what?!”
“We called you…?”
While Angela stood flustered, Elizabeth recalled a certain being she had read about in books.
“Are you… the Water Spirit?”
Spirits—called the will of nature among humans, transcendent beings with whom only the rare elven race could communicate.
“Indeed. I am the Water Spirit you so desperately sought.”
Suddenly the inexplicable ability to breathe and speak underwater began to make a strange kind of sense. Drawing on what little she knew of spirits, Elizabeth realized this place of otherworldly atmosphere was the Elemental Realm—the legendary domain only high-ranking elves were ever invited to visit.
As the truth sank in and confusion threatened to overwhelm her, she felt the ring still clutched in her right hand.
There’s no need to panic.
She gave a small nod and met the Water Spirit’s gaze squarely.
“I was told that with this ring, you would grant healing. Please save my friend.”
Even while being swept by the currents she had never loosened her grip. Now she opened her palm. Trisha’s Grace blazed with brilliant light.
At the word “healing,” Angela snapped back to herself and gently laid Enri before the spirit.
“Ah. So that is how you called me—the token I once gave to a human long ago. The one who needs my aid is this elven child lying here, is it not?”
The Water Spirit looked at Enri and spoke words that struck like a thunderbolt.
“Elf…?”
“An elf? What do you mean?”
“Do they no longer use the word ‘elf’ outside the water these days? Well, strictly speaking she is only half.”
The spirit spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Humans alone could never enter my domain. You were merely drawn in by this child’s mana.”
“E-Enri was an elf…?”
“……She must have had her reasons.”
Angela, who had shared a room with Enri for over a month since enrollment, froze in shock. Elizabeth found the revelation surprising, yet she simply accepted that everyone carried their own circumstances. Elves were rare, but not impossible to find if one searched. After all, the academy’s own principal was a vampire—rarer still than any elf.
“Child of men. Then your request is certain: the healing of this child?”
“You can truly heal Enri completely, Spirit?”
“Of course.”
At the spirit’s firm assurance, smiles bloomed on Elizabeth’s and Angela’s faces.
“Then… please heal Enri.”
“We leave her in your care.”
“Your wish—I shall grant it.”
Their voices overlapped. Hearing them, the spirit raised one great foreleg and stamped the ground. Spray erupted around Enri, wrapping her body in water.
⟨ Be Healed ⟩
The spirit’s mouth opened, and a Word of Power—the hallmark of transcendent beings—unfolded. It resembled a skill, yet its essence was utterly different. Magic twisted the laws of the world with mana. Skills manifested one’s will through mana. But a Word of Power? Vast mana had moved, yet they could not comprehend how. It was nothing less than a miracle. That was the only way they could describe it.
Color returned to Enri’s pale skin. Her ragged breathing grew calm and even.
“Ahh, Enri! Thank goodness!”
Seeing her friend restored in an instant, Angela threw her arms around her and wept.
“Heh heh… It has been so long since I saw children of the surface that I may have overdone it a little.”
The Water Spirit’s once-massive antlers had clearly shrunk.
“Thank you so much for saving our friend.”
“Truly, thank you.”
Elizabeth bowed deeply. Angela, still cradling the unconscious Enri and wiping her tears, rose and joined her in gratitude.
“I merely fulfilled the promise engraved upon the ring.”
The spirit gazed at the ring for a moment, as though recalling old memories, then spoke calmly.
“I invited you only because I sensed elven mana after so long. Even if you use the token of the promise again, you will not come here next time.”
It sensed that the visitors’ time was nearly up. The moment of parting had come.
“Your time is finished. Regrettable though it is, you must return.”
Adding with a smile the ominous warning that humans who lingered too long in the spirit world risked losing their sense of self, the spirit offered them a small gift: it would send them back to where they had been.
With those words, the same powerful current that had brought them here swept over them once more. In an instant the scenery flipped.
Cough! Cough!
“Pwah!”
Realizing they were back in the lake, they carried Enri out of the water—only to see the lake itself rising into the air, forming a towering pillar of water. The column climbed endlessly skyward, then burst with a loud bang, drenching the surroundings in a sudden, heavy rain.
“So this was your gift.”
Understanding at last, Elizabeth watched the dying flames and smiled.