She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“OH HO! I SEE.”

The water spirit Anrutine wanted to make a contract with Mira, as her friends Wasranvel and Sanctia had. Mira was equal parts surprised, excited, and troubled by the request.

Previously, she couldn’t have made a contract with Anrutine. After all, she hadn’t had the Spirit King’s blessing yet, and she already had a contract with a water spirit. Besides, to be fair, this hadn’t been a concern for Anrutine at one time.

Now that the Spirit King Network was built and growing, things had changed quite a bit. Wasranvel and Sanctia could communicate telepathically with the Spirit King and Martel, but despite being in their vicinity, Anrutine couldn’t. That surely took a toll on her.

“I’d love to make a contract with her too,” Mira said. “But…” 

If Anrutine wanted a contract, Mira herself wouldn’t have hesitated to respond to the spirit’s wishes. One issue prevented her from doing so, however. “Summoning contracts have restrictions. I can’t have multiple contracts with spirits of the same race or attributes. To make a new contract, I’d have to cancel the old one. And my current contract Undine is like a daughter I raised from childhood…”

She knew that things were lonely for Anrutine, but that didn’t mean that Mira could willingly let go of a spirit she’d nurtured as lovingly as Undine.

“Oh no… I had no idea such a restriction existed. So that’s what you meant back when you mentioned that you already had a contract with a water spirit.” Wasranvel would never ask Mira to break a bond, but he was sad to learn that Anrutine couldn’t join their community.

But even Mira, a superlative summoner, couldn’t break that rule. That is, until now.

“Don’t worry about that. The restriction you mention stems from the entanglement of mutual bonds. Allow me to untangle them for you.” The Spirit King’s voice echoed in Mira’s mind, as if he’d been aiming for the perfect time to step in. Wasranvel heard him too, as evidenced by the stealth spirit’s face suddenly lighting up.

“What?! You can do that?!” Mira replied aloud.

Contractable spirits had amazingly diverse abilities. Back when this world was a game, the standard—and strongest—spirits had been the four elementals: Salamander, Undine, Sylphid, and Gnomide. A player could raise them from the get-go as they pleased. Mira, a combat lover, had naturally made contracts with all four.

What were the advantages of contracts with other ­spirits? First of all, those spirits could be strong enough to use in combat immediately. Secondly, and perhaps far more appealingly, they came with special abilities that the standard elementals couldn’t learn.

Mira had spent a lot of time choosing her course of action. Ultimately, she’d settled on the elementals. The other spirits had far too many special abilities to properly consider them all, and most of the ones she’d known of weren’t suited to combat.

Now that this world was real, her view of spirits had changed greatly, but back then she’d still emphasized combat prowess. As such, she’d opted for elemental spirits that she could raise to her liking over luck of the draw with other spirits. And indeed, the standard elementals she’d contracted had grown to rival even advanced spirits.

Now, however, the Spirit King could apparently help her make contracts with spirits she’d been forced to pass up before. This would be a game changer, not just for Anrutine but for Mira herself.

“By communicating through you, I’ve gained an understanding of how summoning contracts take shape. When the time comes, just leave it to me. I promise that I’ll see your contract settled well.”

The Spirit King was apparently learning a lot about summoners during his time with Mira. After making that bold claim, he added one caveat: He could only help with contracts with spirits. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to interfere in bonds with other beings. Thus, Mira couldn’t make contracts with additional Pegasi, nor dragons, to acquire an ultimate cavalry that ruled the skies.

Still, the potential of making contracts with overlapping spirits was already staggering.

“In that case, I’m happy to make a contract with Anrutine,” Mira declared to Wasranvel. If she could make more contracts without issue, she had no reason to refuse—especially not when the spirit herself requested the contract!

Wasranvel thanked Mira with a sigh of relief. She’d clearly lifted a major weight from his shoulders.

Mira would need to go to Anrutine if they were going to make a contract. She opened her map and tried to reason out the spirit’s location from her memories of the day they’d met.

“As I recall, she should be between the Citadel and the Corridor…” 

Mira had met Wasranvel and his friends in a lake somewhere between Ozstein’s Citadel of Scales and Grimdart’s Illusory Corridor. She’d just stopped there to take a break, so she hadn’t paid the location any mind. However, she could reach the general area by traveling south for a day using Garuda. Depending how close it was, the detour might not take long at all.

“It’s around here, I believe,” Mira muttered, examining the map. But which lake was it? She tried to remember.

This time, Martel’s voice echoed in her brain. “Mira! Mira! Tine’s going to come meet you herself. She says she doesn’t want to cause you any more trouble.”

Martel had apparently been discussing things with Anrutine via Sanctia, and as a result, Anrutine had leapt from the lake and was en route to Mira through underground channels of water. If she was already on the move, this contract was clearly a big deal to her.

“It’s no trouble, really. If she’s coming, though, I’m happy to wait. Do you have any idea how many days it will take?” Mira asked. Just how fast could Anrutine arrive from the lake?

Martel informed Mira that she didn’t need to delay her travels. “We spirits are sensitive to bonds and ties. Even without a contract, there’s a link between you two. A spirit can follow that link if they choose to. So don’t wait on her; do what you need to do. She said that herself.”

In short, Anrutine already knew where Mira was. It was truly incredible that she was able to follow that invisible tie between them. That ability, which she’d never heard of, surprised Mira. Yet she remembered something: Ark Earth Online players had suspected spirits of stalking them. 

It was players who’d gotten especially friendly with certain spirits who experienced that. For instance, one player had been forced into a battle with a powerful monster, and his sword had broken. As soon as he gave up hope, a spirit he’d befriended dashed in and saved the day.

Thanks to that intervention, the player defeated the monster, obtained its loot, and returned safely. At first, he’d thought it was a good thing the spirit happened to be nearby…but he soon learned that that wasn’t the first such incident. It only happened outside dungeons, but when players ran into danger, it was surprisingly common for some spirit to run in to assist them.

Back then, the players had believed that was simply a bonus for befriending those spirits.

Having a spirit come save you from the thick of danger was reassuring indeed. However, if they always arrived anytime you were outside a dungeon, did it mean they were continually watching from nearby? That idea—“spirit stalking”—became a running joke among the player community.

Martel had now confirmed that spirits could do just that. Still, it was questionable whether they’d be able to do so for every single player, all the time, in reality.

At that point, Mira abandoned thinking about the idea.

***

Thanks to the Spirit King, Mira had unlocked overlapping contracts. She was the talk of the town in the spirit world, so more spirits would likely approach her when they heard about Anrutine. That was what Wasranvel claimed, at least. 

Mira said she’d accept all comers, showing her generosity… Though, to be fair, half her willingness was curiosity about what special abilities those spirits possessed.

If Anrutine could find her without issue, there was no need to wait here, so Mira was ready to move on. Unfortunately, her next action depended on the communicator before her.

“Now, as for my business, what do I do with this thing…?” she muttered at the contraption. “If only he called me right now, it’d be perfect.” 

After the fight against Chimera Clausen, Solomon had called her out of the blue on the way back from Sentopoli. If he did the same now, it would be terribly convenient.

I must have some kind of link to him, like I do with the spirits! Envisioning her dear friend Solomon, Mira pleaded for the communicator to ring. In this fantasy world, thoughts and bonds had special power. Surely her feelings would reach him.

Praying that he’d detect her desperation, Mira made arcane gestures at the communicator. Behind her, Wasranvel just watched in utter silence—which was fitting, given his title.

Five minutes later, the communicator had yet to make a noise. Solomon had not noticed Mira’s psychic pleas.

Well. Figures, I suppose. It was a bad habit of hers to try everything she could, however ridiculous it seemed. “All right… Now what?” 

Mira began investigating the device as if nothing had happened. It was time to actually try to use it, so she picked up the receiver and punched in random numbers. 

According to Solomon, due to various rules, the communicator could only connect to people registered as connections ahead of time. No matter what, Mira couldn’t call someone unless they’d been programmed in already. Registration was annoying—it took a lot of time and effort—but afterward, a person could be called freely. That design meant there was no risk of misdialing accidentally, so Mira tested numbers to her heart’s content.

She tried them in order. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… Hrmm, nothing.”

She didn’t know how many people were registered on the wagon communicator, but she was pretty sure it would only connect to individuals in Alcait. And since Solomon had called her, he at least had to be registered.

If she connected to anyone, it would likely be Solomon. If not, she could at least ask the person to whom she spoke to have Solomon call her back, or to tell her his number.

After trying numbers up to twenty, Mira finally complained, “Good grief, Solomon. Why not tell me how to connect to you sooner?”

Unlike phones back in her home world, communicators weren’t common here. Mira had expected phone numbers to be simple. But what if…?

Worry sprouted in her heart.

These communicators were used for military affairs as well. What if they’d been designed to be complex due to circumstances beyond her understanding? If so, it was stupid to bank on dialing the right number by chance.

“Twenty-one. Twenty-two. Twenty-three—”

Although she resumed pressing numbers, she considered delaying her report in favor of searching for the orphanage first. Once that was done, she could just go home and report on everything.

While Mira unthinkingly pounded button after button, Wasranvel finally added, “By the way, Mira, what are you doing? Is it some kind of ritual?” The sight of her pressing numbered buttons did resemble some indecipherable magic.

“Not at all. This thing—this communication device—is supposed to connect me to someone if I put the correct number in.”

Wasranvel knew nothing about communicators, so Mira gave him a hasty rundown. Entering a number would call someone, and when the recipient of the call picked up their receiver, they and the caller would hear each other’s voices.

“Unfortunately, the issue is that I don’t know the correct number…” Mira grinned sheepishly as she kept pressing numbers.

Despite Mira’s perfunctory explanation, Wasranvel understood well enough. “That explains that,” he murmured, turning his gaze from the communicator to what lay next to it. “By the way, Mira, that case-like object has numbers written on it. Might those be related?” 

His eyes were focused on the lid she’d tossed aside.

“What…?” Mira stopped typing. “Case-like object”? Horror on her face, she looked toward the corner of the closet, where the abandoned communicator lid lay. She picked it up timidly. 

A label affixed to the lid read Client: 0172.

“Client” surely meant Solomon, the person who’d sent Mira searching for the Nine Wise Men. Since it was on the communicator case, the number was almost certainly his.

“Ooh! This is it! This is certain to connect us! Damn that man for hiding it so well! Well done, my friend, for finding it!”

One had to wonder why Mira had thought it was hidden, but despite her whining, she rejoiced at the phone number Wasranvel had discovered in the closet.

Behind her, the spirit smiled. “Happy to help.”