Chapter 21
AFTER A NIGHT in the gold suite, Mira awoke, looked down at the sleeping Eizenfald, and muttered, “Hrmm. Something’s really off…”
Eizenfald’s princely face—so beautiful that any man would envy him—nestled on Mira’s chest as he slept. He looked like a child happy to be in his mother’s arms, more innocent than manly.
Was this fallout from when his mother used to be his father? Had Eizenfald become so spoiled in rebellion against that former strictness?
“Well, I’m just happy that he grew up strong and healthy.” Mira smiled and stroked the young man’s hair while he slept peacefully. She was grateful that he’d grown up to be such a good boy.
Eizenfald woke later, while she was getting ready for the day, and they ate breakfast together.
The gold suite’s breakfast was obviously luxurious; not only that, it was all-you-can-eat. Eizenfald gleefully tucked in, devouring plate after plate. He was quite satisfied by the end.
After they’d checked out, Mira dismissed him.
“Well, son, it’s time to say goodbye. Be a good boy, okay?”
“Yes, Mother. I’ll look forward to our next day together!”
On the way out, he’d already been mulling over what he’d ask to do next time. No doubt his request would be more specific.
“Maybe he’ll ask if we can tour onsens,” Mira mused. “He loved that bath, after all.”
She began to plot ways to nudge him toward that; welcoming the challenge, she headed to the parking lot.
***
Ligret was a trade hub, so its parking lot was massive. Hundreds of carriages were parked there, Mira’s wagon among them.
Mira picked up on something odd, though. “Wha…? What in the world…?”
Something bizarre clung to the driver’s seat. Mira stopped and stared more closely at it, shoulders trembling. The figure was humanoid, and its whole body was soaked. It almost looked like a drowning victim that had been fished up. It was an eerie, unidentifiable being—but it had one notable characteristic.
Inspecting the figure more closely, Mira saw that its translucent blue hair had the gleam of a spirit’s. She sighed with relief and let her guard down. “Oh. Here already, I see?”
This previously unidentifiable stranger was indeed a spirit. With that in mind, Mira recalled her conversation yesterday. The sword spirit Sanctia and the spirit of stealth Wasranvel were friends with the water spirit Anrutine. She’d been left out of Mira’s little contract-forming spree, sadly excluding her from the Spirit King Network. Upon learning that the Spirit King’s power allowed Mira to overlap contracts without consequence, Anrutine caught up with the summoner as fast as she could.
It seemed she’d done so in just two days. That clearly took a lot of effort, however; she was now fast asleep on the driver’s seat of the wagon, exhausted. That was why she looked dead.
“Hello? You still alive there?” Mira walked to the driver’s seat, shaking the poor spirit by the shoulder first. That revealed the spirit’s face; this clearly was Anrutine. Still, she was exhausted enough that there’d be no waking her anytime soon. “Well, what now?”
Since it was possible for Mira to make overlapping contracts at this point, she had no reason not to do so. This problem had nothing to do with that, though. When would Anrutine wake up? Was it all right to wake her?
While Mira pondered this, the Spirit King spoke. He told her that Anrutine had rushed so quickly, she’d depleted her spiritual energy. She’d wake naturally in time, and he asked that Mira take the spirit with her.
“The poor girl will be in for a shock when she wakes up.” Mira dragged Anrutine through the driver’s seat door and began drying her with bath towels. She used three whole towels before she made any progress, which probably proved how much energy Anrutine had spent. After that, Mira unfolded the futon in the corner and laid the spirit on it.
Anrutine would awaken inside the wagon, no doubt while Mira was midflight. How would she react? Mira looked forward to that moment as she departed from the city of Ligret.
***
During her flight, Mira plunged back into Soul Howl’s notes.
“Oh ho. Fascinating.”
As she thoroughly absorbed the knowledge within, she happened upon a passage that caught her eye. It was about the commonalities between laborer mages.
Those were the mages who controlled beings other than themselves, such as summoners’ evocations, necromancers’ golems and undead, and mediums’ shikigami. Though laborer mages fell under a single umbrella, fundamental differences meant the subtypes were treated as unique. Soul Howl’s research, however, found a few shared points in the rituals used to cast laborer-mage spells.
“This is so intriguing…” Mira muttered.
While researching synthesized magic utilizing laborer mages’ commonalities, Soul Howl had run into problems. But upon detailed investigation of the systems behind laborer-mage magic, he’d found that the underlying class-specific foundations were akin to each other. Spells of similar function—such as buffs or healing magic—were mostly constructed in the same ways across summoning, divination, and necromancy.
Mira shuddered, quickly understanding what that meant. Basically, Soul Howl had started researching whether any skills without equivalent versions could be applied across fields. She recalled the abilities of necromancers and mediums, particular those that lacked equivalents in her own field, summoning.
Reading corpses’ memories… Preserving corpses for long periods… Enhancing the five complementary elements’ effects… Hrmm. All those are too specialized to use in summoning. What else…?
She remembered what had happened one day in Sentopoli—how she’d conversed with Kagura through Tweetsuke the Suzaku at an Isuzu branch office.
The name of the spell Kagura had used was Synchronized Senses, and it had allowed her to temporarily attach her consciousness to a being she created with mana. She’d mentioned that necromancers could use that spell as well.
If laborer-mage status made that possible for mediums and necromancers, then based on Soul Howl’s research notes, Mira instinctively knew that it should be viable for summoners too.
Deciding to test that immediately, she took out a notepad. It contained details Kagura had shared regarding the technique.
Mira had been working on learning Synchronized Senses while studying the Encyclopedia of Skills. However, she couldn’t use the technique yet. Far from it—even following the instructions word for word, she hadn’t made any progress whatsoever. Before finding Soul Howl’s notes, she’d started to think that perhaps it wasn’t possible for summoners.
This calls for further research!
Laborer mages’ commonalities and the differences in their learning requirements—she was right to think those factors contained an important hint. With Kagura’s explanation and Soul Howl’s research notes, she had everything she needed to make a quick breakthrough. So what had caused her not to achieve that previously?
Mira compiled a thorough list of each spell’s characteristics, learning conditions, differences, and commonalities.
***
“This difference must be what’s preventing me from learning the technique.”
About two hours into her work unraveling Synchronized Senses, Mira finally hit upon what she believed had kept her from learning it. The issue related to the ability’s Physical Manipulation aspect. As Kagura’s use of the ability to pilot Tweetsuke implied, Synchronized Senses allowed the user total control of their target.
A necromancer either controlled their golems’ every movement or ordered them to act a certain way. A medium imbued a shikigami’s base with their thoughts and principles of action. On the other hand, summoners’ weapon spirits and evocations grew and developed individually. A summoning target didn’t manifest from the summoner’s mind, so to learn Synchronized Senses, summoners needed to change the Physical Manipulation element.
“All right. One more push!”
Now that Mira had all the information she needed, learning the ability was only a matter of time. Armed with notes, research, and this new theory, she began speculating on how a summoner could master Synchronized Senses.
There were, broadly, three ways to acquire a new skill. The first was to get used to it through repetition. That was common among warrior classes. As one practiced, the skill’s effects grew stronger. Mira’s specialty, Shrinking Earth, was an example of one skill acquired in that manner.
The second method was a mental version of the first. Common among mage classes, it simply involved believing strongly that one was capable of some ability and not doubting oneself. Her Mana Perception and Mage’s Keen Eye fell under that umbrella.
The third method was to directly engrave a special symbol onto one’s flesh or magical power. Those skills were typically special. They rarely improved over time, but they began stronger than most skills; many could be considered overpowered in their own right. Of the skills Mira knew, Bound Arcana, Mark of the Rosary, and Shepherd to Refuge were in this category.
Nearly an hour passed as Mira speculated. “Hrmm… They didn’t make it easy,” she muttered to herself as she finally started to see the solution to her quandary.
She was adjusting Synchronized Senses’ composition to suit summoners, but that was no mean feat. She could only do so because Kagura had provided such detailed information on the skill’s foundational structure. Since the details were clear, though, Mira understood them well enough to fiddle with the ability.
Mira’s change to the composition of Synchronized Senses would allow her to share her consciousness specifically with someone she’d made a contract with.
“Now, I just hope it works…”
This skill was the kind learned by mental repetition. After firmly drilling the skill’s construction and flow into her brain, Mira gently closed her eyes and focused her consciousness inward.
Various elements mingled in her internal world. In a place impossible even to envision, Mira focused on a strong bond and reeled it toward herself. Soon, she felt a palpable response. She knew the ability had worked.
Though her eyes were closed, her field of vision immediately began to open. She saw the earth and horizon stretch on endlessly. Lush green prairies and deep blue rivers were fully visible to her mind’s eye. This was a different view from the one outside the wagon window; it was a literal bird’s-eye view, courtesy of Garuda.
Good, good. This is perfect! Despite her joy at successfully synchronizing her senses with Garuda’s, Mira realized something was wrong: I can’t hear anything.
She’d made a special effort to tweak the skill’s composition, but not its effects, so success would’ve meant being able to hear. Yet even the sound of the wind was absent. Garuda could control the wind, granted, but would struggle to make it totally inaudible. There could only be one reason for the silence, then.
I’ve got to keep training. Mira had thought she’d fully grasped the ability, but there was room for improvement.
She decided to continue in this state for a while, enjoying the sights from Garuda’s perspective while she got used to the sensation of their synchronized minds.
***
“Ooh. It’s finally coming into view!”
Mira had practiced this new skill hundreds of times to really get a feel for it. Two hours had passed since she started, and the sun was setting. Through Garuda’s eyes, she saw her destination—the city of Haxthausen—in the distance.
“That ought to be enough for one day.”
Releasing the synchronization, Mira cracked open a bottle of yogurt au lait for a quick break. As she enjoyed its refreshing, tangy flavor, she made some quick notes on the results of her practice.
She’d felt definite growth. With each repetition, her senses grew clearer. Now, getting a visual feed after starting synchronization only took her ten seconds. When she’d started, it’d taken twenty. Through two hours of training, she’d cut that time in half, and she considered that a satisfying result.
However, she still only got a visual feed. She couldn’t yet hear through Garuda. Much more training was clearly needed.
There was another issue—distance. She’d tested her maximum synchronization distance by sending Wise Popot through the window. How far off could they remain synced? That method taught her that the maximum range was about five hundred meters. Any further, the synchronization broke.
Kagura could synchronize with Tweetsuke in Sentopoli all the way from her headquarters… But I suppose I can’t compete with a master when I just learned this ability.
Mira’s current limit was only five hundred meters, while Kagura had easily exceeded a thousand kilometers. How much had she practiced this skill? Abilities that had to be grasped by feel often required a measure of raw talent.
Well, for a newly learned skill, I’d call this good progress. Mira had found an efficient way to practice; all that remained was to do so.
Reminded once again how difficult it was to best sheer experience, Mira grinned to herself. After all, that also meant that all she had to do was keep practicing, and she’d reach Kagura’s level someday.
Investigating from the sky, sneaking in advance scouts… The only limit will be my imagination! Synchronized Senses was an incredible boon for gathering intel. Its uses were nearly boundless.
Imagining the sheer scope of the possibilities, Mira tried one last sync with Garuda. In less than ten seconds, she connected, and a closer view of Haxthausen greeted her.
Releasing the synchronization, Mira thought back. “In hindsight, it’s odd,” she murmured, referring to something that’d happened a long time ago.
Imagining something and then manifesting real effects—the power of one’s imagination becoming real strength—was very much a fantasy phenomenon, although an exciting one.
Mira didn’t often remember it—perhaps because it had been so long ago—but for once, she reflected on how she used to train back in the video-game days. The effects you imagined had manifested more fully as you practiced. The more used to them you became, the easier they were to use and the stronger they got.
Remembering that, Mira realized how incredible the game’s technology had been. How did it accommodate player input based entirely on imagination, not just preprogrammed commands and actions?
Back when the game first came out, mental manipulation was cutting-edge.
In Mira’s world, technology that read and reproduced thoughts had been the basis of immersive VR. She’d taken it for granted at the time, but she’d certainly enjoyed such wonderful technology, although technology-history textbooks claimed that mental manipulation was more closely linked to medical advances.
At any rate, VR technology had finally burst onto the scene in the early twenty-first century. Back then, it was essentially a different product from what Mira knew. With goggle monitors and controllers you held in both hands, those VR consoles became known as “old-fashioned.” As the technology developed over time, their shape changed, but the fundamental concept of looking at a monitor and physically operating the technology didn’t.
About half a century before Mira’s time, VR had evolved into its current iteration, the immersive kind that input your thoughts directly into a device. Immersive tech perfectly synchronized virtual reality with a user’s thought processes, making it easy to think you really were inside a game. That tech was revolutionary, in a word.
The basis of that immersive tech was mental-manipulation technology. Another half a century before that—in other words, one century before modern times—mental-manipulation technology had only been capable of recognizing simple words.
Some decades later, VR technology saw greater evolution. It incorporated mental manipulation and, in the blink of an eye, reached its perfect form. Mental manipulation was indeed the key to VR’s rapid evolution.
As I recall, there wasn’t much progress in the forty years after the tech learned to recognize keywords. But in the decade after, it evolved to take thoughts as input. Hrmm… Incredible.
Technology rarely leapt forward at such a rate. While its potential was immeasurable, Mira felt there was something off about that. Wasn’t it suspiciously fast? Was ten years really enough time for technology to evolve from barely acknowledging simple words to perfectly reading brain signals for complex thoughts and the most minute physical motions?
Didn’t the textbooks mention a revolutionary VR researcher? What was their name again…?
Mira tried to remember, but history wasn’t exactly her best subject. Still, she recollected that that individual was a genius who’d found sudden fame yet had many secrets.
If not for them, would we still use old-fashioned VR? We definitely wouldn’t have Ark Earth Online. Even if we did, I don’t know whether I’d have gotten so into it.
Old-fashioned VR came with many limitations, especially compared to the absolute freedom of today’s VR. Mira had been drawn to a world that, despite being a game, felt very real. Could old-fashioned VR replicate that feeling of “reality”? The longer she considered it, the less she thought so.
Remembering all the bonds she’d formed since coming to this world, she smiled. Things had worked out for the best. At the same time, another thought crossed her mind. Would she be here today without the revolutionary advances in VR technology? Even if so, this game’s control scheme would’ve been so different. Would fighting have felt as satisfying as it did now?
It may be fair to say that I can only control myself in the game this comfortably thanks to immersive technology, Mira mused, ignoring the fact that she was in a little girl’s body now.
She tried synchronizing with Garuda yet again. It went smoothly. On top of her practice, her mental training from the game era was working quite well in her favor.
Just what is this world?
Until now, she’d generally ignored that question in favor of just enjoying the present. After all, this world was beautiful and fun to be in. Still, it was once a video-game world. A fictional one, accessed through immersive VR consoles. When she considered that point, it all felt off again. Had this really been a fictional, virtual world, even back then?
Well…surely it had. Mira scoffed at the thought. Reality couldn’t be playing out like a fantasy novel right now.
But reality as it had played out was just as fantastic. The research facility she’d found under the Ancient Underground City only added to the mystery. Frankly, at this point, almost nothing seemed too extraordinary to be true.
“Anyway, we’re almost there!”
Navel-gazing would get her nowhere, and Mira didn’t have the brain for such high-level concepts anyway. Leaving this world’s questions and mysteries to the people in charge of answering them, she refocused on what she needed to do here and now.
She gazed forward through Garuda’s eyes. The sun had already set, and the moon and stars glittered in the sky. Beneath them, Haxthausen fast approached.
Streetlights lit up most of the city. The lights of homes sparsely dotted the outskirts; in stark contrast, the city’s main street was brightly lit by the shops that remained open. Seen from the sky, the colorful display was like an endless, sparkling ray of light. The city’s neatly divided light and darkness made it very clear which districts were still busy.
Well, this makes finding a place to descend rather difficult…
Mira had Garuda circle over Haxthausen in search of a clearing to land the wagon. Oddly, any spot open enough to land in was also crowded with people, leaving them nowhere to touch down. This city didn’t seem to have any dedicated place for flying vehicles to descend either.
Well, there aren’t many dungeons around here. I suppose comparing it to another city is unfair.
The Ancient Underground City had been big enough for adventurers of all skill levels to farm, with myriad valuable goods to be found. Meanwhile, there were only four dungeons near Haxthausen, all best for adventurers of moderate strength. They contained large monsters you could hunt for good money, but said monsters tended to travel in groups. A moment’s carelessness could lead to disaster. As such, that activity wasn’t especially popular among adventurers.
I suppose I better give up and go through the gate like anyone else.
Now that Mira looked around, nobody else was up here in the sky. It was also hard to see the ground this late at night. If she tried to land somewhere, thinking it was empty, and turned out to be wrong, that would be disastrous. She ordered Garuda to stop circling overhead and to land near the city’s entrance.
Garuda chirped in response and changed its trajectory, making for the large gate at the end of the main street. Once they were outside the edges of Haxthausen, Garuda descended, landing the wagon in a meadow some distance from the city road.
Mira desynchronized from Garuda, exited through the driver’s door, and thanked her friend for its efforts. The summon proudly spread its wings, as if saying that it was hardly an effort at all. A warm spring breeze passed by.
“I’ll need your help again soon, friend.” Mira dismissed Garuda, thankful for its reliability. After that, she moved to summon Guardian Ash but stopped herself. “Hrmm… I think that’s enough for one day.”
It was already past 7:00 p.m., after all. That felt too late to go into town and search for information and lodgings, so Mira decided to camp here for the night.
She didn’t camp like any normal person, however. She wasn’t building a campfire and having someone stand guard at all times while she slept in a sad little bag. No, she was going to sleep in her cozy home with a roof overhead.
Next to her wagon, she summoned the mansion spirit and, as usual, smiled at it with immense satisfaction. Home ownership was a wonderful thing.
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