Whispers of the Spirits
"Oh, I see... A spirit arts user who can make contracts with spirits? Another world really is amazing."
In the village library, candlelight flickered gently. Subaru leafed through a dictionary of the other world with one hand, while the other held open an old book devoted to lesser spirits.
He had been in this world for a month now. Besides working and practicing magic, he had also asked Rem to teach him to read in her spare time.
After a month of effort, he could now just about make his way through books that weren't too complicated, though he still stumbled along, checking the dictionary as he went.
"I wonder if those lesser spirits would be willing to make a contract with me... But in a village full of magic experts, would they really choose me?"
Subaru knew his own limits. Though he had a cheat-like ability in Return by Death, he had suffered enough setbacks over the past month when it came to fighting and practicing magic.
Subaru rubbed his tired eyes, put the book back on the shelf, and pushed open the library door.
It was completely dark outside. There were no streetlights or neon signs, only a sky packed with stars overhead.
The village was utterly quiet. The occasional chirp of an insect only made the surroundings feel emptier.
"It's just like being back in the countryside... It's probably only nine, and everyone's already asleep. There really isn't any entertainment in this other world."
He muttered to himself as he walked, only to realize he wasn't sleepy at all. His thoughts went round and round, shifting from Rem's question that afternoon-"Are you sure you're capable of taking responsibility?"-to the ground dragon's golden eyes as it gazed quietly at him.
Halfway back to the cottage, his feet took a turn of their own accord.
"...I'll go see if that kid's still there."
Subaru changed direction and headed toward the edge of the village.
The night breeze brushed his cheeks, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees. The path he knew so well by day seemed strange and tranquil in the moonlight.
He searched carefully around the outskirts of the village, checking the grass, behind the trees, and the secluded spot where he had bandaged the ground dragon that day. The pitch-black figure was nowhere to be found.
"Does it have a little den of its own out there? Forget it. I'd better not go too far. Going outside the barrier this late at night would be like a buffet walking out of the fridge."
Subaru sighed and prepared to head back empty-handed. Just as he turned around, he caught a few faint lights shining from deep in the woods out of the corner of his eye.
"The lesser spirits are still here."
He pushed aside a few low-hanging branches and quietly moved closer. The sight was exactly the same as it had been during the day.
The little spheres, each casting a soft glow of a different color, still drifted leisurely through the air. At the edge of the colony, the particularly intense red light still hovered all alone, neither too close to nor too far from the group.
Whenever it moved a few inches closer to the center, the entire colony would flash violently.
"...Is that one really getting bullied by the other lesser spirits?"
Then the red lesser spirit seemed to notice something. It quivered gently in the air, then slowly floated toward Subaru.
It noticed me?
Subaru tensed, watching warily as the red sphere of light drew closer, little by little. He didn't know whether the lesser spirit would suddenly attack him, as Rem had warned it might that day.
But it wasn't floating toward him very quickly, and it didn't seem hostile.
The lesser spirit pressed against his chest.
A warm sensation seeped through his clothes. Immediately afterward, Subaru felt something being drawn out from deep within his body, bit by bit.
Is it absorbing my mana?
The thought lasted only an instant. The lesser spirit drew back a little and hovered inches from Subaru's chest, bobbing up and down nervously and cautiously, like a child who had done something wrong but couldn't bear to leave.
In that instant, Subaru truly realized something-inside this little red sphere of light lived a being that could feel joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
Not some vague "spiritual presence," but a soul in the truest sense.
"Are you... asking me if you can absorb my mana?"
The lesser spirit immediately bobbed up and down several times.
"My talent's pretty lousy, so I don't know what attracted you to me... But I don't mind."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the lesser spirit pressed against him again. The feeling of something being slowly drawn out of his body returned. It wasn't unpleasant; it was like the exhaustion of being unable to catch his breath after a long run, but it was accompanied by a strange connection he had never felt before.
Whether it was because mana was flowing between them or for some other reason, Subaru suddenly became able to sense the emotions of the lesser spirit before him.
He heard no voice. It was as though someone were gently placing words in his heart, one sentence at a time.
"So you really have been shunned... Do you know why everyone hates you?"
"You don't know? They suddenly started hating you? They think you stink?"
Subaru frowned and leaned closer to sniff. All he could smell was the scent of grass and trees peculiar to the forest at night. Did lesser spirits have a sense of smell? Even if they did, what stink could they smell? He couldn't smell anything, anyway.
Subaru sensed a new emotion. The lesser spirit wasn't practiced at absorbing mana.
It absorbed it clumsily, and every mouthful took tremendous effort.
"It's your first time taking mana from a person too, and you're not used to it, right? Because you stink, they won't even let you absorb mana from the air... You poor thing."
He scratched his head as he looked at the starving lesser spirit, which couldn't seem to eat properly no matter how hard it tried.
"This won't do... If I release my mana into the air, it might be easier for you to absorb. Hold on!"
Subaru knew what he needed to do. He looked around and soon found what he was after-those white Pok fruits hanging quietly from a branch of a tree.
He reached out, picked one, and popped it into his mouth without hesitation, swallowing it down.
"Ugh-that's a feeling I really don't want to experience twice. But that should have activated my mana, right?"
A familiar heat rose from within him, and mana spilling from his body began to fill the air.
"All right, don't worry about me. I've done this before. Now's your chance, so eat your fill!"
The lesser spirit hesitated for less than half a second, then began absorbing the mana surrounding Subaru to its heart's content, as if it had leaped into its mother's arms.
Waves of contentment came one after another, and its elation was so pure that Subaru forgot his own discomfort for a moment.
"When you've eaten your fill, you should say 'thank you for the meal,' not 'sorry.' Now that I've used up my mana, maybe I'll even sleep soundly tonight. Lesser spirits are a lot easier to get along with than I thought."
The fruit's effect finally wore off. Subaru, his head drenched in sweat, wiped his forehead and smiled as he reassured the little one, whose feelings of guilt were reaching him.
"Now that you've eaten your fill, I'll be going. It's getting pretty late."
He turned and started walking, excitement welling up inside him.
Looks like the lesser spirit likes me. I managed to raise its favorability on the very first try. If I come back a few more times, could I really make a contract with a lesser spirit?
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Subaru stumbled. Without warning, he instinctively turned around, but there was nothing behind him. No demonic beasts, and not even a trace of the red lesser spirit.
"...Am I just too tired? Let's go back and get some sleep."
Subaru couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but after thinking it over, he couldn't say what. He shook his head, pushed the strange feeling aside for the time being, and returned to the village under the moonlight.
The next day, Subaru woke up.
The moment he woke, he noticed something strange about his body. Something felt out of place. Deep inside his chest, somewhere around his chest, at least.
Strange. He had used up most of his mana the night before, so the feeling of his body being drained should have been unmistakable.
But now that he was awake, not only was there no hollow feeling of exhaustion inside him, he felt full instead.
"...That feeling from last night is still there."
Subaru slowly propped himself up and looked down at his chest. Of course, nothing unusual was visible from the outside.
"Stop hiding. Come out. Can you explain what's going on?"
His words fell silent.
A beam of red light shone from his chest. The point of light slowly detached itself and floated into the air, gradually taking a shape Subaru knew all too well-the red lesser spirit. It floated nervously and cautiously in the air, like a child who had secretly followed him home and wasn't sure whether it would be scolded.