Chapter 143 Journey To The North (11) The Lightning Spirit's Punishment

*Clank!* *Clank!* *Clank!*

The sound of metals colliding with great a great force resounded throughout the place for several minutes. The bouts between the two had continued for half an hour, and it was clear who is having the advantage.

The man that is facing Griselda has gone from offensive to total defense. He's covered with sweat all over his body, his eyes are giving signs of fatigue, and his movement had became slightly sluggish.

While on the other hand, Griselda's movement seems to be getting faster and sharper than before. Her eyes are getting calmer, and the grin on her face has gotten even wider.

The intense battle had been going on for more than half an hour but there are no signs of leaving coming from the spectator. The intense battle made them even more curious about who will be winning, and the guards that come running and should be stopping them got stopped by some people that seems to be the locals of the town. All of them are getting immersed in the fight before them.

It's not strange for civilians and normal people to get interested. It's not a common sight to see fighters and swordsmen with the same level of the two fighting without aiming to end each other's lives.

It's clear that the man is at a disadvantage, but his eyes do not give any sign of impatience. Instead, it feels like he continued to analyze the information he's getting from Griselda's movement and is formulating a plan.

(No, rather than it feels like, he is formulating a plan. I wonder what he's planning to do to break the current state... But if I continue to wait, I will suddenly get absorbed by the grimoire's space and got forced to get unsummoned! Sorry but I have to end it here!!) (Griselda)

*Clank!*

Griselda made a powerful blow with a big motion, forcing the man to block it with both of his swords. Grinning, Griselda raise her empty hand to the sky.

The sky darkens and the sound of rumblings started to appear from above. A hint of blue appeared on the clouds, but before she could gather lightning on her hand-

*Clap!*

A sudden clap appeared from between Griselda and the man. The loud and surprising sound of the clap stunned their movement for several seconds. But the thing that appeared is not only the sound, but a figure clad in a cloak also appeared from the thin air.

"It's high time to stop, Griselda. Sorry, strong man. But doing whatever you're planning will only endanger your life. This girl doesn't seem to know the thing called self-restraint, after all," (Lyan)

It's just several seconds moment of stun, but it's more than enough for Lyan. With a single wave, the illusion of smoke covered the area restricting the view of all of the people including the man and Griselda.

"W-Wait!" The man reached his hand to grab Lyan, but he grabbed nothing.

The illusion of smoke slowly fades away, and when all of them vanished, the figure of Griselda and the mysterious figure clad in a cloak vanished as well.

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"Stupid," (Lilith)

"Really, what an idiot," (Hestia)

"Unbelievable," (Arturia)

"How ridiculously foolish," (Eira)

"Bad!" (Azelia)

"T-That's not a good thing..." (Sylphia)

"That's definitely wrong," (Cynthia)

Words of disappointment and critique towards Griselda's actions during her summoning period endlessly pour in from the other spirits. They understand how troubling and annoying Griselda's actions are after Lyan showed them what happened by displaying his memories through his illusion magic.

After forcefully retrieving the wild Griselda back to the inn with various hardships, Lyan returns to the grimoire's space together with her right at the same time when her summoning period depleted before returning outside with an exasperated sigh.

The other spirits are expecting great results and stories, but after looking at what Lyan showed them.

"Well, I guess summoning that wild girl first and using it as a reference is a big mistake, huh?" Hestia uttered with a tired sigh.

"Rather than a mistake, it's more like a bad luck for Lyan, you know?" (Lilith)

"And you call yourself a knight..." (Arturia)

"It's ridiculous to think that she holds a very important position like as the knight commander of a quite big country with such foolish behavior. Are you sure you're not just a clown or a figurehead of the kingdom's knighthood?" Eira spouted out sharp words of spite mercilessly.

"Huh!? Of course, I am the one leading them! Don't you hear me talking about how the knighthood on the kingdom might get disordered because of my absence, you ice woman!?" Griselda retorted as she clearly took offense to Eira's words.

"Now, now. Let's stop the Griselda-attacking forum here. As expected, it will be unfair to the Master if we have one of us doing such troublesome behavior during the summoning period, and it might make the Master hesitates on summoning us as well. So in conclusion," Hestia shifted her gaze towards Arturia, and when their eyes met, the both of them nods at each other.

"We're banning Griselda from getting summoned for a month. It's her punishment," Arturia uttered with a nod.

"I see, so we're punishing her," (Cynthia)

"I-It will be a good restraint for her," (Sylphia)

"Yes, it might give more results if we punish and ban her for three months, but I guess our noble knight spirit is too lenient so let's settle with one month. It will also be a warning to the others to make sure that you don't make such a commotion on your summoning period," (Hestia)

"Wait. I don't remember agreeing to any of this," Griselda frowns as she stares at the others with dissatisfaction all over her face.

"It's the consequences of your actions. If in chance we ended up destroying our connection with Lyan and lost the chance to shorten our contract duration span, it will be all of us getting the loss because of your actions. I believe you're at least aware of that obvious fact," Eira uttered with a scoff.

Griselda found her words as a sound argument, but her haughty attitude is ticking her off.

"You... Are you asking for a fight, ice woman...?" Bloodlust started to ooze out Griselda like silver-blue aura as she stared daggers at Eira.

If it's a normal person, they would immediately pass out right at the moment the terrifying pressure from the bloodlust Griselda emitted. But Eira snorted.

"Why don't you try? But it won't even be a fight, though," (Eira)

Cold winds started to appear inside the room as well, as the living room table started to freeze, a hot wind suddenly came from the direction of one of them.

"Now stop. Eira, we've agreed to not damage any item inside this house. You'll be violating the agreement and will get the same punishment if you continue this, so stop," (Hestia)

"Griselda. You also want to shorten the duration of the contract, right? No, I believe you're the one who wants to shorten it the most among us. So take the punishment of your actions and be responsible for it," (Arturia)

Having the most neutral and just like Arturia made it hard for Griselda to object since she was saying it to her with a firm yet polite and respectable tone worthy of a great knight.

"Hmph! Fine," Griselda snorted in dissatisfaction but hearing the words of acceptance from her made a smile appear on the others' faces.

"Yes! We have someone other than me that got punished!! Why don't we punish her like how I got punished as well? It will be more satisfy-" (Lilith)

"Oh shut up, you idiot succubus," (Hestia)

*******************************************

As the spirits reached their conclusion and their agreement, a smile appeared on Lyan's face as he put the mug of beer on top of the table.

"Looks like they've reached a conclusion. So there will be no aggressive Griselda for the next month, huh... It's already tough having an annoying and aggressive horse, I don't need another one," (Lyan)

Of course, the connection between the Television's sound and him had already been cut by his command so the spirits wouldn't be able to hear him, or Griselda might start shouting and complaining to the point that his head hurts.

"I guess I'll finish up and go back to the inn-" (Lyan)

"What!? The goblin king subjugation is over!?" A loud voice suddenly sounded from the counter.

___________________________________________________________________________

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Mythril-ranked Mercenary

Money: 3,797,710,950 Elnes / 3797 gold 71 big silver 9 big coppers 5 coppers

Weapon: Magic Glaive, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 1 (Decent) bow

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, Breastplate, 2 Health Potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, 3 Valkyrie, Shadow Goblin Lord (Lv. 5), Papilio Slime (Lv. 45), Galewing Butterfly (Lv. 45), Rock Golem (Lv. 50), Deadlight (Lv. 63), Moonlight Butterfly (Lv. 45), Ice Golem (Lv. 50), Acid Ant Queen (Lv. 9), Magma Bear (Lv. 1), Fey Mammoth (Lv. 1), Arcane Retriever (Lv. 1)

Grimoire's Army: 6 Shadow Servants, 800 Skeleton Army