Celebrity Lady

“Goodbye!”

“Take care, Princess!”

About ten or so bank employees came to the entrance and bowed 90 degrees to see me off.

“Yes, good job.” I smiled happily and accepted their greetings.

“My lady, are we returning to the duchy now?”

“Mm. We should.”

One of the escorts asked, and I naturally headed to the carriage waiting outside the bank.

At that moment-

“Ahhhhh!”

“It’s dangerous!”

“G-Get out of the way!”

“…?”

10m ahead of the boulevard.

A carriage was driving towards me at great speed.

‘This is crazy. What the-’

Neeiigh!

The moment when the horse ran out of breath for some reason and ran towards the sidewalk with its eyes turned. It was close enough to me that it was too late to avoid.

“Lady!”

The escort next to me hurriedly embraced me, but I could feel it instinctively.

‘Whoa, I’m so dead.’

I’ll at least be disabled. Dead, if lucky. I’m in the situation of being hit head-on by a small truck with a broken brake.

But.

Neiiigh-!

Thud.

“O-Oh my gosh…”

“Oh, God!”

I felt a loud commotion behind the escort who embraced me.

‘What happened?’

With my eyes closed, I hurriedly pushed him away and looked at the situation.

For some reason, the horse that had lost its balance collapsed before hitting me. Unnatural, as if some coercive force had stopped it…

“W-What’s going on?!”

“Oh, my God…”

“Are you okay, lady?”

“Mmm, I’m fine…”

I could hear the commotion around me and the voices of the startled escort, but there was no time to worry about it. The excited horse oddly stopped right in front of me, making me uncomfortable.

‘Wishit.’

Instinctively, I looked around and saw Wishit not far from the carriage scattered on the ground. Watching the fallen horse in amazement, he looked back at me.

<Are you okay?> His electric tone echoed in my head.

‘Right. It’s a situation that can’t be explained unless Wishit used his hand.’

I thought, skillfully brushing off my skirt and smiling at Wishit.

<I’m okay. Thanks for your help.>

Wishit paused at the words ‘your help, but I turned away, pretending not to know.

***

Since the establishment of this Descarde Empire, Wishit had only been summoned once. So it was considered a legend.

The spirit of wish.

‘… Perhaps?’

I thought and read the front page of the opened book.

A long time ago, demons occupied half of this world in the age of chaos.

There were Descarde and Diollus, the great warriors who wandered around the world and fought against the demons.

The two warriors came to save the parched land controlled by the demons, and that place was the ‘Fountain of Spirits’.

How could the countless spirits who were persecuted finally be freed?

The conquered spirit king made an oath of blessing with the two brave and righteous warriors.

<I will bless you and promise eternal protection to your descendants and their descendants.>

As proof of the great oath, the ‘Spirit of Land’ Landian and the ‘Spirit of Wish’ Wishit, which the Spirit King loved the most, became the power of the two warriors, respectively.

Descarde I, the Spirit of Land’s summoner, proclaimed a great nation over the parched land.

He called the empire ‘Descarde’.

<The Great Empire, Descarde>

Part, the myth of the founding.

“You’re reading this?”

“Ah.”

A rather bored voice came from next to me. It was the 5th Princess Lisbeth. It was thanks to her I was able to enter the imperial library without difficulty,

‘I could’ve asked Lark, but he’s very quick-witted…’

The day after the carriage accident. I was investigating the background of Wishit, which was so suspicious.

‘… Lark would be suspicious if I read about the Spirit of Wish.’

Lisbeth glanced at the book I was reading and said regretfully, “You want a spirit…”

“Aah, not necessarily.”

“It’s okay. You can be honest with me.”

Lisbeth, as a member of the imperial family who knew the story of my failure in contracting a spirit, shook her head with pity.

“Rubette, have you been to the Fountain of Spirits?”

“Yes.”

“How was it?”

“I’ve never seen such a wonderful place,” I remembered the Fountain of Spirit, where I went for a contract. “It’s a place that can only be seen in a dream, so it’s wonderful.”

The contractors who want to make a contract need to drink tea and fall asleep in the Altar of Spirits of the imperial family. Because the home of the spirits, the Fountain of Spirits, can only be seen in dreams.

It was beautiful enough to be called a utopia.

“I think all four seasons are spring there.”

A warm pastel-toned spring landscape that stretches endlessly.

A fresh forest full of beautiful flower stalks swaying with every step and the pleasant chirping of birds.

A place where a waterfall that sparkles like a diamond flows down through a picturesquely high strange rock cliff.

The fantastic world was overflowing with spirits of various shapes.

“Are there many spirits?”

“Yes, but they all look different. Some spirits are beautiful, and some are more handsome than Ricky.”

“Ah, that’s not true.”

“It’s true. And there’s a pretty butterfly-winged spirit. Oh, there is also a spirit that looks like a rabbit with pink fur.”

“Wow…” Lisbeth, with her bright eyes, was cute, so I smiled.

“What spirit did you want?”

“Me? Well, I don’t know, really…”

“I guess you wanted a Spirit of Wish.” Lisbeth glanced at the book I was reading once more and shook her head. She seemed to have thought so because she saw me reading only the part where Wishit, the Spirit of Wish, appeared in the myth of the empire’s founding.

I did not want to see this ordinary imperial history book available in my library, but…

‘There aren’t any useful books in the imperial library.’

Lisbeth clicked her tongue as she let out a sigh. “Your dream is too big. The spirits won’t make a contract with you because you’re so greedy.”

“Yes, yes. I know, right.”

When I answered half-heartedly, Lisbeth added, as if lecturing me, with her chin on her hand, “It won’t be easy to meet the Spirit of Wish.”

“Why’s that?”

“If you read more of this book, Diollus I, the first contractor of Wishit, who feared there would be humans trying to abuse its ability, asked Wishit before he died.”

“Oh, I know. He told it not to tell people the truth that it’s a Spirit of Wish, but to lie that it’s a spirit of insignificant ability, right?”

“That’s right.”

Everyone who studied imperial history knew this story.

Therefore, there were often cases in which the imperial family, who entered the Fountain of Spirit for Wishit, made contracts with lower spirits with ridiculous abilities.

Of course I— no, Rubette, also…

‘Fell for that stupid lie. She didn’t even mean to choose Wishit!’

In a moment of anger, I clenched my fists under the desk.

‘If Wishit hadn’t lied, the two wouldn’t have been connected. How could Rubette, who was not greedy, make a contract with Wishit?’

Although they all look different, the Fountain of Spirits is full of beautiful spirits that are hard to take your eyes off.

Rubette walked through the Fountain of Spirits for a long time in ecstasy…

‘And met a scammer.’

I ground my teeth as I recalled it.

“Oh, my gosh!”

A scary-looking spirit hidden behind a tall tree that seemed to be 10m high…

Unlike the other spirits, this spirit had no eyes, only two nostrils and dark skin that seemed sticky to the touch.

Although she didn’t want to be involved, Rubette, who was kind, asked the questions she asked every spirit she encountered as a courtesy.

“W-What kind of spirit are you?”

Then the scammer answered.

“I am… a Spirit of Happiness.”

Indeed, it was a spirit with a name 100 million light years distant from its appearance.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have much ability. I can only make my contractor happy.”

“Can you make me happy?”

“Yes. Even if someone betrays you, I can make you happy and not get angry, and even if you are hungry because all you have is dry bread and a sip of water, I can make you think positively and feel happy.”

‘Like, seriously? Who’d believe that?’

However, Rubette, thirsty for happiness, admired such a useless ability and made a contract with Wishit without looking back.

In reality, it was classified as a dangerous group in the imperial family, jeopardizing the contractor’s life. They didn’t even know that it was a ‘Spirit of Wish ‘ with the restriction that they could only make a wish three times.

“Sigh…”

Lisbeth, who looked at me with pity as I sighed, patted my shoulder comfortably and said, “It’s okay. Humans are all greedy animals.”

“Yes, yes.”

“I’m greedy too. I want to enter the Fountain of Spirits quickly. There are still two years left, but…”

“What spirit do you want to make a contract with, Princess?”

“I will meet ‘that’ spirit even if I have to wander around the Fountain of Spirits for a very long time.”

“You mean the Spirit of Wish?”

But I already picked that one.

“No, no.” Lisbeth shook her head and grinned with a sinister look. Then she put her lips to my ear and whispered, “The Spirit King.”

“… What?” I was surprised by the unexpected answer I hadn’t thought of. “The Spirit King, you say?”

“Yes. The Spirit King must also live in the Fountain of Spirits, right?”

“… I guess?”

“But when I heard the stories of my older sisters and brothers who went in first, no one said they had seen the Spirit King.” Lisbeth pointed to the open book, “But this says there is a Spirit King. In the first place, the empire is protected by the spirits because of the blessing of the Spirit King.”

“Right.”

“Think about it. How great the ability of the king of all spirits must have? There must be nothing it can’t do.”

The moment I heard Lisbeth’s words, it was like a bolt out of the blue.

“Haha… That’s right.” I nodded slowly and met Lisbeth’s eyes. “What you said is right… There’s nothing the Spirit King can’t do.”

“I knew it!”