“You said you want to help me.”
“Yes. After all, you helped me first, Sir Dante.”
Though… not for free.
“So please let me help you too.”
If it meant getting him out of my house, I was willing to do anything.
This man might be as dangerous as the original novel’s male leads—no, possibly even worse. I couldn’t afford to keep someone like him in my estate any longer than necessary.
The best course of action was to give him what he wanted as quickly and smoothly as possible and send him on his way.
I stared at the evil god—no, Dante—my resolve firm, determination practically radiating from my eyes.
“Now that I think about it, maybe it’s not such a bad deal.”
“Finally, we’re getting somewhere! So, you’re looking for an answer to some kind of problem, right?”
This time, I got a slightly more specific answer than before.
“I’m trying to find the answer… to your mana.”
“My mana? Oh, because I accidentally woke you up at the lake? But honestly, I have no idea how I even did that.”
“Which is exactly what I intend to figure out now.”
So basically, he was trying to understand how my mana had awakened him.
‘Damn it.’
I’d run all the way to this rural backwater to avoid the ticking time bombs from the original novel, only to end up entangled with something even worse.
‘If that guy really is an evil god…’
Wasn’t I basically housing the final boss of the entire world in my estate?
Fueled by the desperate desire to get Dante out of here, I racked my brain for ideas.
Judging from the situation—which definitely wasn’t part of the original storyline—it probably had something to do with my “awakening.”
“Couldn’t it be that the seal weakened after a long time had passed?”
I suggested that maybe the barrier had cracked from the slightest shock. Dante let out a soft, breath-like laugh.
“Maybe.”
…Doesn’t seem like he’s very interested in finding an answer.
He didn’t appear the least bit concerned about why his seal had broken. In fact, he seemed indifferent.
‘So he’s not even trying to figure out why the seal broke?’
What kind of person is this—walking around like a living, breathing riddle?
Dante, now nodding off as if this was all too boring, clearly had no intention of revealing his true motives.
Which meant… I’d have to find the answer myself.
“Perhaps, are you good at magic?”
Of course, he was. He was literally an evil god who walked across a lake like it was solid ground.
“Why?”
“I was wondering if I could take you on as my teacher starting today.”
Mana is the force that moves when casting magic. So if I became skilled at using magic, wouldn’t that benefit him too, since he wanted to observe my mana?
The moment I made that win-win suggestion, Dante—who had looked ready to drift off into dreamland—suddenly straightened up, visibly interested.
“You want to learn magic?”
“If the reason you’re staying here is because of my mana, then wouldn’t it be more helpful if I learned to control it properly?”
“Now that you mention it… you might have a point.”
“Exactly! So starting today,”
“But unfortunately, your mana doesn’t work like that.”
If my mana doesn’t work “like that,” then… what does it work like?
As my pupils trembled with confusion, Dante’s eyes curved like crescent moons, amused.
“If you’re curious, why not go take a look outside?”
Seeing is faster than explaining, after all.
His words gave me a strange sense of unease.
Something told me that the moment I stepped past that door, I wouldn’t be able to return to my old life.
Still carrying that eerie premonition hanging like a weight at the tips of my toes, I stepped out onto the terrace.
Wrapped tightly in a thick blanket, I stood before the railing and was greeted by the sight of dawn breaking across the sky.
The light slowly eating away at the darkness drew my gaze downward, and then my eyes flew wide open.
“Huh?”
What… are those pathetic little slimes?
Scattered among the overgrown weeds of the garden—where nothing like that had existed until yesterday—dozens of strange creatures were bouncing around playfully.
They were translucent, like morning dew, and about the size of a child’s fist.
Most were a murky brown, though a few blue ones stood out here and there.
“Spirits.”
“Pardon?”
“They’re spirits. The lowest rank, but spirits nonetheless.”
Before I even realized it, Dante had silently come up beside me and nodded toward the dozen or so slimes wriggling across the lawn.
“Spirits?”
Wait. Spirits? Like those fairy-like creatures in fantasy novels?
As I stared, utterly unconvinced, Dante’s dry voice dropped quietly into my ear.
“Congratulations. You’ve awakened not as a mage, but as something even rarer—a Spirit Summoner.”
My mouth fell open at the word he tossed out so casually.
Spirit summoner? That wasn’t even in the original story.
And no wonder—it was already rare enough for a human to awaken mana at all. To be born with the natural, nature-aligned kind of mana needed to summon spirits? That was basically unheard of.
In other words… this was rare beyond rare.
‘And that’s me?’
Uh-oh. This feels like the start of a life-ruining mess.
Sure, mages were rare—but at least they had formal institutions like the Magic Tower and Wizard Guilds.
But Spirit Summoners didn’t exist. A Spirit Summoner was a once-in-a-century talent, the kind of person every kingdom across the continent would fight to claim.
About five hundred years ago, entire nations went to war just to snatch one away.
Because Spirit Summoners could borrow the power of nature spirits to perform countless miracles.
At the very least, they could create protective barriers to keep out monsters.
They could even restore land ravaged by beasts, breathing life back into dead soil. Basically, a broken-tier character.
‘No, no—this is all wrong.’
I just wanted to live comfortably on my estate, eating well and enjoying the good life.
I had zero desire to become humanity’s only Spirit Summoner and get dragged around to save the world.
“You look like you’re fighting a war in your head.”
“Just doing some intense thinking.”
“You look like you’re one step away from burying the spirits alive.”
How did he know?!
I coughed awkwardly and averted my eyes from Dante, but then—just for a moment—a pretty decent idea flashed through my mind.
If I could get help from the spirits, who controlled the forces of nature, wouldn’t that actually be a huge plus for my farming life?
After all, spirits could only be seen by Spirit Summoners.
As long as the man in front of me kept his mouth shut, no one else would ever know what I was.
And who’s to say they wouldn’t help me grow crops?
Just a moment ago, these little beings had felt like the world’s biggest curse, but now they were starting to look kind of adorable.
“A Spirit Summoner is someone who reigns over spirits—or rather, someone who borrows their power, right?”
“That’s right. But I feel like you slipped in a dangerous word just now.”
“Surely not. From what I’ve read, usually a contract must be made with a spirit before you can properly use their power. Is that true?”
“It is.”
I was suddenly glad I’d spent the past month preparing for rural life by reading up on the empire’s history and magical theory.
“Then the first step is to catch—no, I mean, form a contract with one.”
But how did contracts work, exactly? It didn’t seem like I could just grab any random spirit and say, “Let’s make a deal!”
I turned to ask Dante about the specifics, but the moment I looked beside me, my eyelids twitched.
No trace of him remained where he had just been standing.
I was briefly stunned, then quickly folded my hands in silent, heartfelt prayer.
‘Please don’t ever come back.’
Then, with that wish firmly planted in my heart, I stepped out of the bedroom to take a closer look at the spirits.
Crossing the quiet hallway without meeting a soul, I pushed open the front door, and the moment I stepped outside, a heavy silence fell over the yard.
Just moments ago, a dozen spirits had been gleefully bouncing through the weeds, but now every single one froze in place and turned to stare at me.
‘What… the heck?’
Why did the mood suddenly shift like this?
I glanced behind me, seriously considering retreating inside, but before I could decide, the spirits suddenly surged toward me all at once.
“_ _ _ _!”
“_ _ _ _.”
They were definitely trying to say something, but I couldn’t understand a single word.
The blur of brown and blue swirling right in front of me was overwhelming, and a wave of sudden fatigue washed over me.
‘Lucein used to be a treasure trove for spirits…’
So it’s true…
According to historical texts, before the Evil God was sealed here, Lucein had produced the highest number of Spirit Summoners in recorded history.
They said that’s why rare and mysterious herbs would grow all over the village.
Some even claimed that the Belmère Empire survived thanks to exporting those herbs.
‘Maybe if I search around, I’ll still find some?’
I should take a day and go on a proper village exploration tour later.
“_ _ _ _.”
“_ _ _ _.”
A sound brushed past my ears—like wind rustling through leaves or raindrops hitting a lake—followed by a soft, fleeting laugh that echoed faintly around me.
It was eerily similar to the voice I’d heard right before my mana awakened.
‘Maybe I need to form a contract with a spirit before I can understand their language properly?’
Suddenly, I remembered the materials Isabel had given me about Lucein before I moved out here to farm. I dug through my desk drawer.
There, in the corner of a crumpled page, a few hastily scribbled lines caught my eye, and my pupils trembled as I read them.
