Chapter 581: The Spirit of Time and Water

「!! I’m leaving!」

Fran took one last look at Romio’s face and hobbled to the entrance of the tent.

「…」

「…!」

She sensed that Zelos Reed was coming back. We passed each other at the entrance but did not say a word to each other.

Soon, however, we heard Zelos Reed’s voice behind us.

「Romio!」

Fran, who had been expressionless when I saw her face, widened her eyes when she heard Zelos Reed’s voice. The expression on her face was not one of frustration or anger. If anything, the look on her face was one of surprise and panic.

『Fran, what’s wrong?』

「…No, it’s nothing」

It doesn’t seem like that though… I wonder what part she thought was so surprising about Zelos Reed?

Fran continued to walk in silence and returned to our tent.

The look of panic she had shown earlier was no longer there, and on the surface, she seemed to be calm. However, Fran was quite emotional when it came to Zelos Reed. To be exact, she was nervous.

She didn’t know whether she should call out to him or not…

When I was thinking so, someone suddenly called out to her.

「What’s troubling you?」

「Who!」

『Who is it!』

「Grrr!」

Fran, Urushi, and I all turned around in a panic.

I couldn’t sense their presence after all. Although we were a little distracted, we were not defenseless. However, none of us could detect any sign of the owner of the voice.

This was a really strange situation.

No, there was one possible existence.

That was if the other party was a spirit. Urushi and I couldn’t sense any sign of it, and Fran would have to be very focused to sense it.

But that doesn’t seem likely either.

What I saw in front of us was not a spirit at all. On the contrary, it was a girl we recognized.

However, unlike before, she was not wearing an eye patch.

「The one from the food stall?」

「Long time no see」

It was Rhyn, a blind girl who ran a food stall in the town of Kiarazen. She was a beautiful white-skinned girl with beautiful loose blond hair in half-twins.

However, now she had removed the eye patch that covered both eyes and was exposing her eyes. We could see that her right eye was purple and her left eye was green, it was the so-called odd eye.

Even in this dimly lit tent, lit only by a single pale light from a small magic tool, her eyes were as clear as if they were shining.

I guess that was what you would call eyes that seemed to suck you in. I couldn’t take my eyes off Rhyn’s odd eyes, which sparkled like jewels.

Her eyes seemed to be firmly focused on Fran. Wasn’t she blind? I’m pretty sure the appraisal at the time showed that she has lost both of her eyes…

I tried to appraise her again.

『Wha!』

(Master?)

『My appraisal was blocked』

I should have been able to appraise her before.

「Fufu. Sword-san. It won’t work on me」

「…What do you mean?」

「Fufufu」

She actually knows what I am!? But Rhyn had no intention of pursuing the matter. She smiled and looked at Fran, who played dumb.

「I’m here to see Fran today」

「Why? Besides, are you… a spirit?」

『What?』

(I could feel the sign of a spirit coming from Rhyn)

For real? But certainly, I couldn’t feel Rhyn’s presence at all. It was as if an illusion was standing right in front of us. But I sensed her human presence when we were in Kiarazen…

Was she really a spirit? I’ve never thought I’d be able to see a humanoid spirit like her. Long ago, Klimut told us that a humanoid spirit was a high-ranking spirit.

If so, was the girl in front of us a high-ranking spirit?

「I’ll tell you my name again. I’m a spirit, Rhyn. The spirit of time and water」

「As I guessed, you’re a spirit… Amazing, you look like a human」

She was a spirit. And her right eye was purple and her left eye was green? Wasn’t that the characteristic of the Great Spirit, who is said to be guarding Lake Vivian?

However, when she told us that she was a spirit, I was convinced of her mystical beauty. In fact, there was a sense of detachment of the worldly sense that made it hard for me to be convinced otherwise.

「I came here today because I wanted to tell the both of you about something」