Compensation θ ~ I might be late for reincarnation, but since I was born as the talented eldest son of a prestigious noble, I might be on the winning side.

Huh? Why isn’t it falling?

Even though it seemed to go almost as planned, the jewel stopped just above the water’s surface, bouncing back as if repelled by a magnet.

The sound of the jewel hitting the edge of the water basin was heard, and in a hurry, I went to pick it up at the edge of the basin.

—Did it bounce off? If you’re wondering, the young one also can’t see anything, right?

Is there something over there?

—Yeah. There is something. Something that cannot be seen even by the spirit’s eye.

In that case, you don’t know what it is?

—I’m speculating. But, it’s still inconclusive.

Being deceived even at such proximity, even the First Lord couldn’t grasp it. What on earth is it?

—So, it’s your turn now. Try using those magic eyes. If you do that, you should be able to see it.

How did he know about the magic eyes? That bothers me a little, but for now, it’s the water basin that’s more important. I have to do something about that.

Prompted to do so, the image reflected in the magic eyes was…

Whoa! What is this?

An ugly, multi-legged grotesque creature. It completely covering the water basin entirely. Did it obstruct the entry of the jewel?

—Whoa, something disgusting came out. It’s an unnatural creature. Doesn’t seem like a natural being.

An unnatural creature… What is that?

—Yeah. In a way. It’s not a creature native to this world, so it feels strange. The best way I can describe it is… a [Demonic Being].

Demonic Being!? There’s something like that?

—They exist. This one is probably created or summoned for this purpose.

At first glance, it looks like a collapsed giant insect. Its body is placed on the pedestal, and its segmented long legs seem to dive deep into the water, firmly grasping the legs under the pedestal.

There are probably six legs. A dark haze wraps around its entire body, and it undulates on the surface, revealing a dim silver skin in the gaps.

Certainly, this is not a natural existence.

That was what I thought when I saw numerous red-black pimples on the skin. Intrigued, I inadvertently zoom to them, and each one of them showed a face of someone twisted in terrible fear or pain.

A creepy, chilling feeling ran through me due to the overwhelming discomfort.

The parts with face seemed more intense with magic, making them look terribly spotted. However, this… The body appears to be a mass of magic. Even though it’s so large, you can’t see it without the magic eye. Where on earth did it come from!

—Ah… so that’s why… I said that the spirits here are burdened with unpleasant shackles. This is probably the reason for it.

So, did you know about the existence of this.. demonic being?

—I wouldn’t say I knew it per se, I didn’t fully grasp it existence after all. It was cunningly concealed.

Concealed?

—Yes. It used to have a much fainter presence than now. Still, I felt its existence, though. Quite clever, I must say. There were no powerful magic practitioner in the Kilyam family, until now at least.

“Lyon-sama, what on earth is happening?”

Oh, right. There were other people here.

“How does it look to you?”

“Nothing in particular. It looks like nothing has changed.”

“Is that so? I think there will be some commotion soon. Everyone, please move a bit away from here since it’s too close to the water basin.”

“What kind of commotion?”

“There’s a… monster who has trapped the spirits and it needs to be defeated. Although we had it reconstructed with great care, it might break again.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“It’s okay. I have the Spirit King with me. Isn’t that right?”

—Of course. We will help you.

The Spirit Mark shined brightly, asserting the will of the Spirit King.

“But…”

“Anyway, this place is dangerous. If possible, I’d like you all to stay away, but that’s impossible, right? So, go back to that area! The guards too!”

I moved to another place, said that I had something important to talk about with the Spirit King, and fell silent.

—Then, let’s continue from where we left off. It’s attribute is metal. Is that correct?

Yes. That’s right.

—When it comes to a metal with high resistance to water attributes, it’s probably a special alloy. They are usually both resistant to water and hard.

Doesn’t metal rust?

—Mostly, they corrode due to the influence of water. But not this one. It has resistance to water, and it’s particularly incompatible with me. It’s a specially made restraint to suppress a spirit. Whether it chose such a thing or made it for that purpose, I don’t know.

Can’t it be removed?

—That’s something you won’t know unless you try. However, if you try to force it with power and defeat it only with the water attribute, an unimaginable disaster might occur. The confined spirit, the residents of this area, and everything, might be destroyed.

That’s an absolute no-go. So, what should we do?

—As I mentioned earlier, that’s a demonic being. A metal attribute demonic being. It’s very troublesome. Complex magic is required to defeat it.

Complex magic? But I’m still… Ai, can I do something about that? I want to do something with the power I currently have.

[Already calculated. Based on the information obtained by the magic eye, the target is not a single metal attribute. It is a composite of several different metals. Normally, such a state would be unstable, but it has been stable so far while containing the water spirit for a long time. There may have been a mechanism to stabilize it in the destroyed statue, but it’s not there now. That gap is the vulnerability.]

—Oh, I see. I understand Ai’s thoughts.

Huh? What you can hear Ai’s too?

[Previously, by enhancing compatibility with spirit arts, rapid information sharing has become possible when activating the Spirit Mark.]

So, I’m the only one who doesn’t know about it?

—Well, well. Ai is the brain, and the young one is the protagonist. My spirit and I are assistants, and the partner is that girl soaring in the sky. The extras are those uncles over there.

Uncles? Is he referring to Moriss-jii and the branch family head? If they know that our ancestors called them uncles, they might cry.

—So, let’s brainstorm a solution to destroy this thing.