BSS 54

BSS

Chapter 54

A few minutes later, I confidently placed the now‑heavy money pouch on the counter.

Inside were chunks of gold I had just taken from the Dunhel jeweler’s safe, reshaped only in appearance.

The employee opened the pouch, and their eyes sparkled like gemstones.

“How is it? Will this be enough?”

Not knowing it was originally their own gold, the employee excitedly began weighing it.

“It’s more than enough! You’ll even have some left over! However, if you pay in gold, a small fee is added. Is that all right?”

“Do whatever you want.”

“Please wait a moment!”

Since it was their money anyway, I felt nothing whatsoever, but Hansen and Pilo shivered beside me as if the waste was killing them inside.

“How would you like the raw stone you purchased? Shall we wrap it as a gift? Or perhaps—”

“Just hand it over.”

“Understood. Thank you for your purchase!”

Before long, the spirit stone was placed into a velvet pouch and dropped into my palm. How easy!

“Hehehe.”

“Uh… my lady?”

Maybe I laughed too sinisterly; Hansen and Pilo were staring at me with fearful eyes.

$M a s t er, yo u s h o u l d l a ug h e l e g an tl y \dots$

“Toilet.”

$\dots I s ai d n o t hin g .$

We returned to the inn faster than when we came following Lye’s shortest route.

Losing Hansen and Pilo on the way back had been a complete accident.

They should’ve kept up properly.

The Knight Commander looked utterly baffled when I arrived alone.

No matter how he looked behind me, Hansen and Pilo were nowhere to be seen.

“Um, where are the knights…? Did you return alone?”

“I think I saw them crying behind me when we passed through the dog hole.”

“…Excuse me?”

“I dunno. Maybe they got lost. They’ll find their way back eventually! Anyway, I’m busy!”

I had no time to babysit adults.

I needed to summon an ice spirit!

I locked the door first — no one could interrupt a contract ceremony.

Officially, I was only a low‑rank water spiritist, and even my teacher, Master Eel, didn’t know I had contracted with spirits other than Undine.

Like Lye, a metal spirit, or Ador, a lightning spirit.

At first, I hadn’t told anyone simply because circumstances had made it awkward.

But recently, I was intentionally hiding my contracts with other spirits.

Not because of some cool reason like concealing my power limits out of mystique.

Mostly because explaining was annoying. And because I liked keeping good things to myself.

But the biggest reason was that I didn’t want any more attention.

Even just the contract with Undine had drawn the king’s eyes to me, forcing me to attend the festival.

Yes, contracting a spirit at age ten was groundbreaking, but still…

“Whew! Sometimes my genius scares even me.”

$A h, yes \dots o f co u rse .$

“But something’s weird. Aren’t I supposed to just inject mana? There’s no reaction.”

I kicked at the unresponsive ice spirit stone with my foot.

$N or ma ll y, yes . T hi s i ss t r an g e .$

“Shouldn’t there be some special spell?”

$N o, M a s t er . T hinkba c k t o A d or . Y o u d i d n ’ t n ee d an y t hin g l ik e t ha t .$

“Oh, right.”

Remembering when I summoned Ador, his own desire to enter the middle realm had been so strong that all I’d needed to do was give him some mana to open the path.

But this ice spirit stone was completely unresponsive no matter how much mana I poured in.

$T ry inj ec t in g m ore mana .$

“I’m afraid everything around me will freeze. Didn’t my bag burn when I summoned Ador?”

$T ha t * c an * ha pp e n . N o n ‑ e l e m e n t a l s p i r i t s t e n d t o g o b erser k u n l ik e t h e f o u r maj ore l e m e n t s . T h ey ’ re n o t or d er l y . V ery u n r u l y .$