68 The Legend of Ember

Luckily, the situation didn't devolve after my rejection. The Noble Spirit, Jayce, laughed out loud to brush off the growing awkwardness.

Upon presenting me the Orb, he talked to me telepathically again and told me how he already guessed who I am. Harlan told him about Yumiko's companion and seeing how abnormal Yumiko is, he already linked an abnormal Natal Spirit to her. And with his daughter's nature of going along with Yumiko, my ideal man disguise was attributed to her. Their act of holding off their laughter was also caught by him.

I guess, he's really not an idiot. Because of that, I played along with him as he presented me to the audience. Anything but putting me as his daughter's spirit-pair is acceptable. My engagement with Yuko was also somewhat forced, I don't want to go through the same ordeal here.

It's not just me who's rejecting anyway, even Jayna was against the idea of searching for her possible spirit-pair, it's just the idea of her father who was always worried for her. Even this competition was decided on impulse.

Though the competition ended with an unexpected winner, since the audience loved it, Jayna's father will have a hard time if he suddenly announced that my participation wasn't counted since I'm not a real Spiritas.

After the crowd dispersed, I was also invited to go to their mansion, with Yumiko and Jayna knowing my true identity, it's only her mother that they needed to tell about me.

But since I have somewhere to go to first, I declined it.

"Where will you go?"

Yumiko asked when I was about to leave the platform. Should I tell her about how I gambled the coins she gave me?

"Err… to the gambling houses."

There's no point lying so I answered her while scratching the back of my head.

"This guy. I'm amazed by your confidence. So how much did you bet on yourself?"

If she restrained herself, she'll probably laugh out loud from learning I gambled the coins she gave me. I thought she would be angry but I guess, coins for her were also not that important but the amusement she had from learning about what I did was priceless.

"9000."

"Tell me, are you trying to close down the gambling houses?"

With a hand on her stomach, Yumiko asked while trying not to let her giggles get out of hand. Her revealing shrine maiden outfit was about to fall from her shoulder at how much she's trembling from containing her laughter.

For her to have this side. I thought she's someone who's quiet and somewhat clumsy.

"Don't tell me they don't have that much budget to pay for it?"

I overdid it with my bets. I should've considered their funds.

"Of course, this guy. You're sillier than I expected. They're probably already sweating bullets on how to pay you."

"Then I'll take what they could pay, I want to buy Yuko a gift from here."

"I see. That's why you bet on yourself. Yuko got it good. Give me your tickets, I'll collect it for you. With what has just happened, it will be hard for you if you go out still wearing that disguise."

She's right. Ember is now a celebrity. I have to dispel this disguise soon.

"Alright. Thank you, Yumiko"

I handed her the gambling tickets which certified that I bought those bets from their gambling houses. She wouldn't cheat me for coins we couldn't really use on Earth and in the first place, those coins are hers.

"Don't thank me, buy me a souvenir from another world too."

Yumiko smiled as she uttered her request. If it's only that then I'll keep that in mind.

After that, I took back my declination of Jayce's invitation. Yumiko left the coliseum first to pick up my winnings and well, maybe she also just wanted to walk around. They're sitting there for almost half a day with only that 2-hour break.

Before we went to the mansion, I asked to have a minute with Jayna. Thinking it was about the thing he had in mind, Jayce accepted it with a huge smile on his face.

Well, I just wanted to hide the fact that I could dispel Jayna's disguise by myself and maybe show it to her as well.

When she saw how effortlessly I dispelled the disguise she put on me, Jayna was dumbstruck before her eyes shined brilliantly, curious to how I did it.

It took me a few minutes to explain to her how I did it and only then did she calm down. This girl's curiosity towards the unknown is somewhat hard to handle.

Jayce was somewhat disappointed when he noticed and realized that the reason I borrowed Jayna was only to dispel my disguise. At least he stopped pushing that thought to us.

Since their mansion was just next to the coliseum, it didn't take long for us to arrive there. Since they still have to rest first, Jayce told Jayna to lead me to one of the guest rooms.

There's still Yumiko outside so we'll also wait for her before dinner. We'll soon set out for that fortress so Jayce wanted to talk to the Priestess regarding that. 

He might be a Noble Spirit but he's not a part of the Council of Twenty which explains why he's still here when the Council of Twenty was reconvening because of Yumiko's appearance.

Now that I'm alone in the room, I finally have time to properly evaluate the new orb I've gotten. It's still the same size as the other two.

When I held it later, I already understood its use. It's called the Orb of Ailment. By using Spirit Energy, this Orb can send out an aura in which it can weaken an enemy. The weakening effect was at most 50% of the target's stats and there were various side effects such as cold, fever or even stomachaches. Well, the percentage also depended on how strong the target is, the higher his stats, the higher amount of Spirit Energy was needed for it to reach the maximum weakening effect

Isn't this too OP? Well, it is but unlike the first two Orb, the maximum duration it has was 2 minutes. The cooldown is the same though, 20 minutes.

But really, a 50% debuff? I could now fight those doubles in stats with me fair and square in two minutes, and they'll also have to deal with the random side effect.

I wonder, who will be the unlucky one who will sample this orb?

---

Two days immediately passed by after the competition. The night that day, Yumiko brought me the coins I won from the gambling houses. Those owners all knew that it was Ember who bought the tickets so they're all waiting for him at their doorstep. Well, Yumiko told me that they wanted to apologize because they wouldn't be able to pay all of my winnings, especially on the gambling house where I betted 5000 coins.

In the end, Yumiko collected 100,000 coins from all of them and a few items that could offset the amount they have to pay.

Seeing those items there were already a few articles which will be perfect for a gift for the three girls. They're all some kind of enhanced items that used Spirit Energy to activate. Unlike the sword given to me by Yuko, those items have a storage where one can store Spirit Energy that can be used for its activation. Really, this world is more innovative than the World of Systems.

For Yuko's gift, I walked around the city the next day to look for a suitable gift for her and not minding the price. I bought her a necklace with some kind of gemstone as a pendant which was priced at 50,000. It's the most elegant and the most expensive there. The price was justified anyway since it's also an enhanced item with better effects than the items I got from the gambling houses.

I had Yumiko keep the remaining coins and items for our journey's use.

During the two days that passed, words about the Invincible Natal Spirit and the dream boy of every Spirit Race girl were already circulated around the city.

After that awarding ceremony, Ember vanished from everyone's sight so the people were looking everywhere for him. They even went to Jayce's mansion to ask for his whereabouts but even there, there's no trace of that Natal Spirit who won the competition.

Soon various stories about the Legend of Ember, the Invincible Natal Spirit started turning up which every other stories were an exaggeration of the earlier versions. There's even a version of the story where Ember was a reincarnated Ruler Spirit who will soon fight the Spirit King

Those stories cracked Yumiko up and she even thought of compiling those to bring them back to Earth.

If that made her happy then good.

After two days of preparing, we were also ready to set out for our goal in this world. That Fortress. Together with Jayna, and two others that will join up on the way, the plan we built was to infiltrate the fortress using Jayna's disguising ability.

Err. But will everything go according to plan?