Chapter 57: Nelli

After that conversation came to its conclusion, Eiro brought the Children back up the hill toward the Hut in the tree, although they all stayed relatively silent all the time. The Imp wasn't sure why exactly they didn't say anything anymore, but he didn't necessarily mind it either. This way he could properly look out for any monsters that might be stalking them to prepare an attack without any disturbances.

But it seemed like such a worry was unfounded, because Eiro didn't really see any monster at all right now. There were some birds and bugs around, even some rabbits, but nothing dangerous as far as the Imp was concerned.

And so, those seven made their way back to the top of the Hill, where the Imp waited for the children to go inside first before following them. He still wasn't wearing any clothes beside a pair of pants that Arc called 'Underwear' when he gave it to him. Eiro didn't exactly know why he was supposed to wear it, but in the end, he figured he should and did as suggested by the children.

When Eiro then stepped into the room, he noticed that the old man Jura seemed to be looking at him weirdly, even though he wasn't actually 'Looking', per-se, it was just that he was facing him directly.

"Eiro, that mark, what is it?" Jura then asked with a slight frown, and the young Demon looked down at his chest, looking at the blue Sigil whose markings had continued spreading a little bit further since Eiro looked at it the last time.

"I think it appeared with a Blessing." Eiro replied quite swiftly, and Jura raised his brows just so slightly. "Oh a blessing; from a Spirit? Which kind is it? It has to be a High ranking one, surely, but I can't directly identify the smell... Well, I do have an idea, but... There's just such a strong scent about you anyway to tell for sure... That idea is quite ridiculous." The old man pointed out with a light smile, and the Imp just stared at him with a slight frown before sighing out deeply.

"It's called the 'Blessing of the Lonely Naiad'." He pointed out, and instantly, the old man froze up for a moment. "The... The Lonely Naiad?" Jura asked doubtingly, and the Imp nodded his head as he noticed some droplets of water simply floating above the old man's head, amalgamating into a small sphere, which soon changed its shape into that of a small, well-proportioned woman. She was roughly two hand-width tall and had long flowing hair made of the water that just gathered, while more droplets floated around her.

And the very moment that she fully appeared and opened her eyes, she flew over toward Eiro as if weightless. "You? A blessing from our Queen? Don't make me laugh!" She exclaimed and flew straight toward his chest; running her cold fingers over the blue mark and along the lines, before she slowly stared up at the Imp.

"It... It's truly her's..." She muttered quietly, and Jura stepped up to him confusedly. "Nelli, are you positive?" The old man asked the small woman made of water, and she just nodded her head immediately.

"Of course, you old fart! Do you think I wouldn't recognize the Queen's Blessing?! I just don't understand why... why YOU have it!" Nelli exclaimed angrily and floated upward, angrily moving directly in front of Eiro's face while pointing her tiny finger at him.

Confused, the Imp just looked past her and toward Jura, because he wasn't sure how he was supposed to react, although the children seemed rather excited.

"Whoaa! Is that a Naiad?" Sammy asked with a broad, happy smile, and Clementine clasped her hands together and pressed them against her chest. "So pretty!"

Hearing the young women's words, Nelli slowly turned around toward them and just smirked wrily. "P-Pretty..?" She asked, and then ran her hands through her hair, pulling it in front of her body. "Nonsense~!" Nelli exclaimed, giving Eiro the chance to speak to Jura.

"This is a Naiad?" He asked, trying to remember if he ever saw something like her before by closing his eyes. With his nifty Scholar-Imp ability, he tried to properly see back onto the moment that he probably got this 'Blessing'.

He dove back into that specific memory and found himself running through a forest with blood pouring out of his chest after just being heavily injured. Especially when compared to now, he was just so much slower back then, so Eiro was lucky that he managed to even reach the lake that he ended up dropping into.

Even though this was just a memory, the Imp could feel all of it as if it was really happening right this very moment. He felt his wound start to burn after coming in contact with the sand that was pushed around after he fell into the water. He felt his throat fill with the water around him and his eyes burn in response to the dirt.

But then, a figure appeared in front of him. She was roughly the same height as the Imp from back then, so slightly shorter than him now.

Either way, the Aura she had around her was dignified, something that the Imp surely couldn't feel back then. She had shiny white-blue scales around her back and her hips, as well as along her upper arms a slight bit, but for the most part she simply had light blue skin, although the Imp wasn't entirely sure if maybe her 'skin' was just water that stood out more than usual.

Up to this point, this was somewhat in his mind hazily before already, but there was one thing that he didn't remember happening at all. The Woman was staring at the Imp confusedly and made her way toward him quite slowly, running her hand over his chest where the wound was.

Caused by that extreme pain, Eiro's body writhed and pushed out any air that was still left in him, before his sight slowly went black. Up to this point, he still remembered.

But then, through a simple number of short glimpses from when the Imp may have been half-awake, he noticed that the woman had her lips pressed against Eiro's own and his body was being filled with heat as his wound was healing.

And this scene was relayed to the others currently around him with as much detail as he could, speaking out what he saw in his mind when he saw it, and then slowly opened his eyes when this part of his memory was over, before explaining to them what the notification that appeared after told him.

"Because of my Affinity with the Water Element, she took a liking to me... Or so it said." Eiro told them, and 'awoke' to surprised expressions, especially from Nelli and Jura.

"Water Affinity..? But you're an Imp... A Fire Demon..." Nelli muttered quietly as she turned toward Jura, and he just leaned in toward Eiro with a frown and took a deep sniff. "Truly, there is some water affinity, and it is the highest amongst them. Then follows Air, and only then Fire. Eiro, which Card do you have?" The old man asked, trying to clear this up immediately, so the young Demon just explained it although he didn't necessarily know why they wanted to know about that.

"Ace of Cups, and Three of Swords." He explained, before Jura slowly nodded his head. "Two Cards, I see... The Ace of Cups will have given you that Water Affinity. Maybe it was purely because you were meant for the flames that she gave you her blessing?" Jura suggested, but Eiro still didn't understand what they were speaking about in the slightest.

And so, the Imp just asked what he wanted to know the most. "Who is this 'Queen'?" He asked, and Nelli immediately twisted her body around and stared at him, before she rushed back up toward his face.

"You don't even know that?! She's the True Queen of Naiads! Not like that vile Imposter!"

"Im...poster?" The Imp repeated, and Nelli immediately nodded her head with support of practically her whole body. "Yes! Exactly! Imposter!"

With a slight sigh, Jura pulled up one of the chairs and motioned the Imp to sit down on it, while looking at the children. "Children, go ahead and play outside a little, but don't leave beyond the rock-ring around this hill, alright? And trust me, I will know when you do." Jura said with a chuckle, so the children nodded their heads and made their way out of the door, until only Eiro, Jura and Nelli were left.

Jura sat down on one of the chairs and still waited for Eiro to do the same, before Nelli started floating in the center of the table, her legs crossed and bent as if she was sitting on an invisible chair, facing toward the young Demon.

With a slight sigh, Jura started to explain what Nelli had been talking about before. "As Nelli so gracefully said, the current Queen of Naiads is not the True Queen. She may have the title, but it is so that she is not one with nature like the True Queen is. She has a vile personality and the vast majority of Naiads disapprove of her current title, as is the case the other Spirit Queens and Kings, even so with the Naiad King. Through deceit and trickery, she caused the True Queen to be banished into lonesomeness, giving her the title of 'Lonely Naiad'." As such, the old man explained, although Eiro had a hard time actually imagining the weight of these things, considering that the only Spirit he had actually spoken to so far was Nelli.

All the other things that he knew about spirits was from the book about them that he flipped through quite swiftly.

"For one..." The old man continued, pulling the Imp out of his momentary thoughts, "The Queen has never actually been found since she has been banished. Not once in a hundred years. But you... You simply stumbled upon her? That alone makes you quite astounding, not even considering your possession of two cards..."

"Is that so?" Eiro replied quite coldly. Once more, he wasn't sure of the weight that all of these words carried, so how else could he reply?

With a slight smirk, Jura started to chuckle and shook his head as he did so. "Quite amusing, aren't you? I have quite high hopes in you, so you better get that seed to grow properly, now will you?" The old man laughed loudly, and the Imp just nodded his head in reply while letting his gaze reach Nelli.

"But why is a Spirit here?" Eiro asked, "I read they are usually only in specific places." He pointed out, before Nelli crossed her arms and scoffed, turning away annoyedly.

"Well, that surely is the case with Lower-Rank Spirits! But personally, I'm a High-Rank Spirit!" She huffed and placed her fists onto her hip, while the Imp tried to remember if there were any specifications about that in the book he read, which didn't seem to have been the case. But for now, that didn't matter, as Nelli hadn't properly finished her reply yet, it seemed.

"I am currently placed under a Contract with this Man right here that ends the moment his life does. He gives me Mana so that I can survive, and in return, he can use me as a medium for Ancient Water Magic!" Nelli explained, revealing another new term to the Imp. 'Ancient Magic'.

He wanted to interrupt this Naiad just then to ask about what this was, but he figured he should let her finish, because something important was apparently about to be said by her.

"Of course... Considering that Mark on your Chest, you should be able to find a Spirit to Contract yourself quite easily..."