IBML 28

Chapter 28

Kahisa gently swayed his long tail.

With how thick his fur was, he really looked just like a puppy.

Kahisa settled himself in my lap and gazed up at me with shining, sparkling eyes.

I stared back at him, flustered.

Was this what people meant when they said even a tiger—or no, even a wolf—would appear the moment you spoke of them?

The spirits were startled too. Riventa spoke.

[To think we’d actually see Kahisa.]

“Why? Hasn’t he barely made any contracts too, like Arhana?”

[No. Kahisa is… the only intermediate-level spirit still remaining. He’s made contracts from time to time, but unlike me, his rank never dropped.]

“Didn’t you say your problem was that you made too many contracts?”

[That’s not it. Fire spirits are originally—]

I still hadn’t finished reading the section about fire spirits. I only knew what abilities they possessed.

Kahisa, who had been silently watching our conversation, suddenly spoke.

[Can I say something?]

“Uh… sure.”

[Help me.]

“Huh?”

Kahisa pressed down firmly on me with his front paw.

The pressure was enormous.

I was bewildered by his inexplicable behavior, but when I saw him wagging his tail and heading somewhere, I realized it was a signal telling me to follow.

[Where are we going?]

“I don’t know either.”

[Just hold on a little!]

Kahisa spoke cheerfully.

He might not be able to hear my thoughts, but he could hear what the other spirits said.

Before long, Kahisa arrived at the main gate of the duke’s estate.

But the way he kept wagging his tail made it seem like he was insisting we needed to go out.

[We have to go outside!]

“At this hour? I’m in my pajamas!”

The knights guarding the gate stared at me with wide eyes, wondering what I was doing.

Even without speaking, their expressions clearly said: Go back inside and sleep.

Right. Everyone hated unexpected situations during duty.

I tried to turn back, but Kahisa grabbed tightly onto the hem of my pants.

With no choice, I started walking back toward my room.

Kahisa panicked and spoke up.

[W-Wait, you’re really leaving? You’re going to abandon someone this cute?]

So there was a spirit here too who kept bragging about being cute, just like Riventa.

[I-I mean…]

“Shuiban is the cutest.”

[Rasha, you… you just wait. Don’t regret it later.]

“Whatever.”

Without another word, I went back into my room, then wrapped myself completely in the ability of concealment and stepped outside again.

Kahisa brightened instantly.

[So it’s concealment! It’s a little rough, but the form is stable. You’ll become great.]

I’d thought Riventa’s power wouldn’t be very useful, but it always seemed to matter at crucial moments.

I moved toward the wall, piled up dirt using the ability of staying, fixed it in place, then stepped on it and struggled over.

I used the ability of movement as well.

I worried that Rekalin’s barrier might detect me and trigger an alarm, but thankfully, nothing happened.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I hurried after Kahisa.

Strangely, I always felt myself softening around spirits.

Their powers made daily life easier and helped with work sometimes, but they weren’t essential.

And after contracting spirits, I’d become even busier—training to evolve, and dealing with Rekalin discovering my abilities and wanting to research them.

Yet I continued along without complaint.

I didn’t even feel uncomfortable.

Were spirit contractors all like this?

Or did you become like this the moment you made even one contract?

I should have looked more deeply into what it meant for souls to be bound.

No matter how I thought about it, that seemed like the most ominous part.

The phrase a promise engraved for life too.

Kahisa walked a long time through the brightly lit streets before arriving somewhere.

That place was…

A dark alley.

“W-Why are we here?”

[Help me.]

“I mean… what kind of help are you talking about…?”

[It’s a test. Show me yourself.]

I had no idea what he wanted me to show.

This was an alley where even the streetlights barely reached.

In fact, a nearby lamp seemed broken, making it feel as though darkness itself had sunk into this spot.

Out near the outskirts of the capital, alleys like this sometimes hid illegal gambling dens.

[Don’t you wear down?]

At Kahisa’s sudden words, Riventa whispered.

[Most fire spirits have strong minds. That’s why even repeated contracts don’t easily degrade them.]

Then Kahisa cut in sharply.

[Are you confident you won’t wear down? That you can stay yourself until the very end?]

I was startled by his question.

But I became even more shocked when Kahisa suddenly ignited flames—

And within those flames appeared visions, like the hallucinations the match girl saw in her matchlight.

The images showed fallen people.

People who could not overcome immense hardships that shattered their lives…

And ended up walking down the wrong path.

Surrounded by countless visions, I had nothing to say.

Could I really claim I wouldn’t wear down?

I couldn’t answer with confidence.

If someone could say so proudly, then they must have lived an extraordinarily lucky life.

It meant their life had been smooth.

People say life is difficult and exhausting—

But simply never encountering a hardship powerful enough to destroy everything in an instant is already a kind of fortune.

Thankfully, nothing like that had happened to me yet.

But if it ever did…

Maybe I really would wear down, just as Kahisa said.

“I think… I might.”

[Really?]

“What answer are you even looking for?”

Kahisa stopped wagging his tail.

[You told me to wake up.]

…Ah.

He meant the first time I used the ability of oral transmission.

Kahisa scratched the ground shyly, as if embarrassed to have been serious.

[That made me want to know you. Even if only for a moment… I even thought about contracting with you.]

Then all the flames showing the visions burned out at once.

Darkness completely fell over the alley.

I held my breath.

Kahisa’s eyes gleamed eerily.

[So help me. Let me decide if I will help you.]

Ash-like darkness crept closer.

I spoke.

“No one can guarantee anything unless they’ve already lived through the future.”

[…Is that so?]

“But… I think it would be good if you were with me.”

Once more, flames bloomed in the alley.

“Then you can help me not wear down.”

That was what sealed the contract.

Kahisa leapt up with his hind legs and clung to me.

The heavy weight made me stumble, but the other spirits helped me steady myself.

[I, Kahisa, intermediate fire spirit, form a contract with Rasha Verni. Our souls shall be bound as one, sharing all things, and this contract shall be a sacred promise engraved for life.]

Chains of light surged like waves and wrapped around Kahisa and me.

[If this contract is broken, Rasha Verni’s soul shall never find true rest, and will wander endlessly. In exchange, I, Kahisa, swear to live solely for Rasha Verni. Should I break this vow, I shall be extinguished.]

The light spun dazzlingly.

[I, Kahisa of fire, the one and only unique spirit devoted solely to my contractor, Rasha Verni. My name now belongs to her, and the chain of souls shall complete our bond for eternity.]

Pop—!

Even within the light, Kahisa wagged his tail and looked at me.

[My contractor… I swear I will burn away everything that blocks your path! Your first desire will never wear down—it will blaze fiercely!]

I lifted Kahisa with both hands.

Just like that, I had completed contracts with spirits of every attribute.

That meant I now had four companion spirits.

Thinking of them as lives I had to care for made my head ache.

When they all gathered around me, staring with sparkling eyes, it was overwhelming.

Come to think of it, Riventa, Shuiban, and Kahisa had all had contractors before me.

Yet the contract still called them the one and only unique spirit.

“Isn’t that kind of misleading?”

[I didn’t write it. The Spirit King wrote the contract phrase. In truth, the Spirit King only ever contracted with one person.]

If it was tradition, then it couldn’t be helped.

Still, Kahisa being intermediate-level…

“Then others will be able to see him, right?”

[Then use concealment.]

“That’s only temporary. And…”

If Kahisa evolved, wouldn’t the others become visible too?

Riventa and Shuiban were shaped like a bird and rabbit, so maybe that was fine—

But Arhana would look like a flying fish.

The kind of thing tabloids would jump on.

As we returned to the duke’s estate, we chatted softly.

[A flying fish… would people in the fishing industry like that?]

“I don’t know…”

Once safely back in my room, I opened the book I’d ignored while following Kahisa, hoping for some solution.

As expected from an encyclopedia written like a memoir, it had an answer.

“You will understand once you evolve.”

That was the entire solution.

I was dumbfounded, but forced myself to be patient and turned to the section on spirit evolution.

The book said:

“Body and mind are tightly connected. When the body is unhealthy, the mind weakens. When the mind is sick, the body decays.”

“They influence each other organically. When one becomes strong beyond a certain level, the other is temporarily affected.”

“Evolution is the declaration of transcendent will. Transcendence is breaking apart and rebuilding the world that defines ‘me.’ Wake up.”

The author called transcendence the act of shattering the world that defines you and re-establishing it anew.

Was I reading philosophy?

My head spun.

“The power that breaks the world is will. Will enables transcendence.”

“A parent lifting a wagon off their child with superhuman strength… An old man displaying genius ability at the brink of death…”

“Extremely speaking, if you have will, there is nothing you cannot do.”

“So have will. What defines you now is only a small shell.”

“The rank defining your spirit is merely something you must awaken from.”

“Break it. Sharpen your will like the sharpest blade and pierce through. Awaken again in a higher world.”

The author kept repeating the same words:

Wake up.

I followed the book’s guidance and focused my mind sharply—

As if I could pierce and burst through something with a single strike.

And then…

A brilliant light exploded outward.

“!!”