A special pass. Sounds impressive... Isaac suppressed his curiosity and followed Carlo out of the city gates.
The coachman and his two helpers had already pushed the horseless carriage through the gates and were waiting nearby. When they saw the two come out, the coachman stepped forward. "Sir, where would you like us to push it?"
"There." Carlo pointed to a jutting rock some distance from the road.
The rock stood among the weeds beside the road, blocking the view from that direction.
The coachman called to his two helpers to keep pushing. They went around to the back of the rock and parked the carriage securely. The coachman put on a broad smile for Carlo. "Sir, we've brought you the carriage. Is there anything else you need?"
"No. You can get lost now."
Though the man's words were unfriendly, his generosity made up for it. The coachman eagerly agreed and left with his two helpers.
"Toss your things in there." Carlo pointed to the carriage.
Isaac put his suitcase and bedroll inside, hesitated, then stated the obvious. "Boss, we have a carriage now, but we don't have a horse."
Carlo was leaning against the rock. Hearing this, he turned his gaze to Isaac. "Hmm... we could."
A chill ran down Isaac's back under his gaze. "...You're not planning to make me pull it, are you?"
He had already resigned himself to working like an ox or a horse, but he couldn't actually be used as one!
"If you're interested in that sort of thing, I can respect that."
"I'm not!"
"All right." Carlo nodded understandingly. "But we do need something that can pull this carriage, and it has to be something that doesn't relieve itself wherever it pleases."
"Huh?"
"Why do you think I didn't want their horses?" Carlo shrugged. "Horses poop. They stink up the whole journey, and even spices in the carriage can't cover the smell. I don't want to sit in that sort of environment for days."
So he's a clean freak too? Isaac thought. No wonder the guy hadn't hired a carriage to get around the city earlier, even though he had money, and had preferred to walk to the gates.
"So we need to find, uh, something that doesn't poop to pull the carriage," Isaac asked, following his reasoning.
"Exactly." Carlo took out the pair of dark gold dice and weighed them in his hand. "So we still have to rely on these."
Conjure something up to pull the carriage? Isaac more or less understood what Carlo meant.
It seemed a little absurd, but considering the guy had summoned a vengeful spirit at Amorton Manor earlier, it didn't seem all that hard to accept.
Carlo tossed the dice to Isaac. "I won't take part this time. You do it."
Isaac fumbled to catch them. As if he knew Isaac had questions, Carlo said, "This check needs to use your Spirit Mediumship attribute. When someone else's attribute is used, only that person can make the check."
"Spirit Mediumship... is sensing things you can't see, right?" Isaac only knew what he'd heard in rumors.
He remembered that his Spirit Mediumship value was 15, but he had no idea how to actually use it.
"More or less." Carlo folded his arms. "If we wanted to create a creature out of thin air that wouldn't relieve itself wherever it pleased and would obediently and willingly do as it was told, creating something from nothing would be very difficult. The check value would probably be pushed down to single digits, or even straight to zero. But if we just summon someone who already exists or has a basis for existing and call them over, it'll be much easier. So we need your Spirit Mediumship attribute to establish a connection, find the right one, and persuade them to come help."
Isaac fell silent for a moment.
"What, scared?"
Isaac's mouth twitched. "I was just thinking, I don't know the first thing about Spirit Mediumship. What if whatever gets summoned can't be controlled?"
"Good question." Carlo nodded. "In the worst case, we'll just get killed like idiots and leave behind a cautionary tale for others."
"...Huh?"
Carlo spread his hands. "But that's the worst case. Generally speaking, if something does go wrong, I can still handle it. So pray we summon someone I can handle."
Isaac took a deep breath. "What's the check event?"
"Can Isaac Lessing summon a being that's willing to obediently pull the carriage and won't relieve itself wherever it pleases? Check value, 50 plus 15, 65."
65? Isaac was a little surprised. The value was much higher than he'd expected. "That seems a little easy."
"Because the conditions are broad," Carlo said. "It just has to be willing to pull the carriage and not relieve itself wherever it pleases. As for what it is, whether it's tall, short, fat, or thin, whether it has horns, or how many legs it has, none of that matters."
"Why does that sound so unreliable?!"
"It's fine. If it isn't suitable, we'll just ask it to go back with dignity."
"What if it doesn't want to go back?"
"Then we'll just have to send it back with a little less dignity."
You're pretty unreliable too... Isaac felt a little weary.
He found a patch of ground not covered in weeds and rolled the dice. They didn't roll quite so pleasantly on the dirt and soon came to a stop.
37. The check succeeded.
Isaac picked up the dice and looked around, wondering what would happen, but several seconds passed, and nothing happened.
"Boss, this..."
"Don't rush. How could it be that quick? This isn't direct teleportation or creation; it's a summoning. Your call needs time to reach someone, someone has to be willing to take the job, and they need time to get here."
Isaac could only wait.
Outside the city lay a plain, with wild grass rippling in the wind. A few crooked trees stood in the distance, and beyond them were stretches of low hills.
Nothing resembling a summoned creature appeared.
He waited a little longer. Suddenly, he heard a rustling sound, as though something were moving through the grass.
Isaac reached into his pocket and gripped the handle of his letter opener.
"Oh, it's here," Carlo said.
Isaac looked around, but still saw nothing approaching... then he felt something nudging his shoe.
Isaac looked down and saw a palm-sized creature lying in front of his shoe, looking up at him.
It had round eyes and a dark brown shell. Four short legs supported its oval body, its tail was small, and its head was covered in fine, dense scales.
A turtle.
Isaac and the turtle looked at each other for a moment. The turtle slowly blinked and rubbed its head against the tip of his shoe again.
"...This is it?" Isaac looked at Carlo.
Carlo came over and crouched down. He examined the turtle and poked its shell. "Hmm, it should be. It's just surprisingly weak."
The poke made the turtle wobble before it regained its footing. Isaac looked at the palm-sized turtle, then at the empty carriage, then down at the turtle again.
The turtle raised its head, seemingly trying hard to prove it really was willing to pull the carriage.