Messenger

In the evening, at Sno's residence, before a low table, Sno had prepared the ritual to summon a spirit world creature.

He had no intention of summoning a young lady or a demigod as a messenger. Or rather, the incantation he used to summon messengers had already been decided.

He took out a bottle of expensive "Amber" men's cologne and lightly sprayed it. At the same time, he channeled the power of "White Horse is Not a Horse" to equate the cologne with vanilla and essential oils, thereby twisting it into "a scent that can please all creatures."

This wasn't because Sno was unwilling to spend money on essential oils and floral water, but because this was precisely his method of filtering summoned beings.

He distorted the ritual's target range with statements like, "Spirit world creatures can be pleased by specific vanilla and essential oils; the cologne contains vanilla and essential oils, therefore the cologne can please spirit world creatures." However, this distortion also meant that all the targets he attracted were beings that could be influenced by the "Concept Swap" ability.

Beings that were not affected would not be attracted by an unconventional ritual like cologne and thus would not appear.

In other words, Sno used this method to exclude all spirit world creatures unaffected by the "Concept Swap" ability from the summoning list. This indirectly guaranteed that he wouldn't fall into danger by accidentally summoning something he couldn't handle.

With these preparations complete, he took out a contract paper worth two hundred gold pounds. This paper looked no different from ordinary A4 paper, but in its lower right corner, there was a golden emblem depicting a sun symbol—this was an imprint left by Old Master of the Eye of Wisdom using the Sun Domain Mysterious Item, and it was also the source of the contract paper's power.

With everything ready, Sno stepped back and chanted in Ancient Hermes:

"I!"

"I summon in my name!"

"Spirit that wanders in falsehood, friendly creature that can be commanded, the one faster than imagination."

Yes, this was the incantation that K had used in the original work.

As the ancient and peculiar syllables of Ancient Hermes echoed in the spiritually sealed space, a cold wind appeared out of nowhere. The flickering candlelight was tinged with a greenish hue, and a deep chill spread.

And in that instant, a blurry figure suddenly rushed out, so fast it was almost beyond the limit of the naked eye.

But Sno was prepared. The pre-emptive "Pavlov's Dog" ability was triggered. Almost the moment he saw the shadow, his preset conditioned reflex was activated, and he almost simultaneously threw a penny coin engraved with the symbol "∞" from his hand.

"Flying Arrow, Stand Still!"

The Ancient Hermes incantation was uttered, and a strange power distorted the rules within the sealed space, causing everything to become jerky. Objectively speaking, the fast-moving spiritual body was still fast, but its speed was as if it had been completely disassembled, making every moment of its movement seem like stillness.

To be precise, it was still moving at a speed that humans, and even many high-level beings, could hardly capture. But as long as Sno wanted to observe it, he could always capture its "still" moment.

This eerie sense of distortion startled the fast-moving spiritual body. It tried its best to accelerate, but all it did was leave more "still" versions of itself in this space.

And Sno finally saw its true form.

First, it was a typical spiritual body, translucent bluish-gray all over. At first glance, it looked a bit like a snake with an arrowhead-shaped head, but upon closer inspection, it could be seen that its hands were actually held at its sides.

Its body was nearly three meters long. Although it had a slender, snake-like shape, with those two arms, which were similar to human hands, it should have been able to carry a high school student's backpack—though it was uncertain if that would affect its speed.

"Dodo dodo!"

As if it simply couldn't adapt to this jerky state, this spirit world creature, which Sno didn't know how to address, let out a somewhat pitiful sound. Its eyes, with a faint golden hue, looked pleadingly at Sno.

"I hope to find a messenger. Are you willing? Well, a messenger is someone who helps me deliver things to others, or brings things back from others to me. Yes, you can't open them secretly, nor can you take anything."

Sno felt the incomprehension transmitted back by the other party and had to explain what a messenger's job entailed. He couldn't help but grumble inwardly, thinking that in the original work, even a safe-like entity understood what a messenger meant.

"Dodo!" The spiritual body nodded its arrowhead-shaped head, conveying the thought, "As long as I can fly freely, anything is negotiable."

"Then let's sign the contract. After all, I'm not the Devil. Is there anything you want?" Sno picked up the feather quill and leisurely began drafting the messenger contract, but he still democratically asked the question.

"Dodo (You can't limit my speed)." The spiritual body quickly stated its request. Sno raised an eyebrow and nodded:

"Okay, but when delivering the message and when being summoned, you must remain in front of the target for at least ten seconds. Well, you don't have to stop, but at least ensure the other party can see you. This condition can be ignored if you encounter danger."

"Dodo (Alright, so hurry up and release me)!" The spiritual body moved awkwardly and quickly in the air, leaving a trail of paused versions of itself.

"Don't rush. Let's see if there are any issues. If there are none, we'll sign the contract." Sno wrote this part into the contract as well. After confirming everything and ensuring there were no obvious loopholes, he wrote the honorific title "Traveler from distant time and space; paradox of logic and wisdom; reflection of knowledge, the other side of truth" in the position of "Contract Witness."

As the honorific title was written, the sun emblem in the lower right corner of the contract paper suddenly emitted a light, and then transformed into the emblem of a mysterious eye with ∞ pupils.

The moment the emblem changed, the bluish-gray spiritual body became noticeably more docile. But it didn't think much further; it only wanted to break free from this strange restraint. It glanced at the contract and eagerly left its spiritual imprint.

"It doesn't know what a messenger is, yet it can understand the contract's content. Ancient Hermes is truly a magical language," Sno muttered to himself. As if remembering something, he added, "Do you have a name? What should I call you?"

"Dodo (You can call me whatever you want, just release me already)!"

"Then I'll call you 'Dodo' from now on." Sno shrugged and wrote his spiritual imprint along with his name on the paper.

A few seconds later, the contract paper slowly turned to ash, and a connection was established between the two. Dodo blinked its large, pale golden eyes, looking so adorably naive for a spiritual entity.

Sensing Dodo's eagerness, Sno immediately released the Paradox Charm. The space that had been forcibly segmented became "continuous" again. Dodo immediately began to accelerate wildly, as if trying to make up for the time it had lost.

Seeing this, Sno, who could no longer track Dodo's speed, found it somewhat amusing. He simply willed it and canceled the summoning. As Dodo, who had re-entered the candlelight, completely disappeared, a relaxed smile suddenly appeared on Sno's face—

"Well, no demigods, angels, or strange sycophants appeared. It seems I'm not some big shot's contingency plan..."

The image of the messenger was inspired by Dragonite, as Dragonite is a bit too fat. As for the name, he had originally intended to call it Dragon, but a lewd guy who wanted to "cut chicken heads and burn yellow paper" kept popping into his mind, so he decided to call it Dodo instead. It also happened to be the same name as Lily's.