How to Tame a Spirit (4)
At the sight of Noah’s colossal form, every one of the children was swept up by the sudden gale and slammed hard into the far corner of the cavern.
The one small mercy was that the amulets’ protection kept anyone from suffering serious injury.
Roy was no exception. He still stood rooted in the exact spot where he had first faced her, unmoved.
He raised his voice at once.
“Is everyone all right?”
“Ugh… yeah. The amulets must have kept us standing.”
“You’re in danger, so stay right where you are. No matter what happens from this moment on, do not step forward. Understood?”
“But then what about you, Roy…?”
“I’ll be fine. All three of you stay put. That’s an order.”
The three children had no choice but to nod. They simply held their breath and watched from a distance, saying nothing more.
Truthfully, there was nothing useful they could have done anyway. The beast that had appeared before them looked ten times larger and far more powerful than the giant worm they had faced earlier.
“Child. It would be a grave mistake to think you ever truly held me in check. I merely allowed it. You still lack both the capacity and the mana for such a thing.”
“Noah Chrono Nyres.”
The moment Roy spoke her true name again, an overwhelming force pressed down upon Noah’s entire body.
“Insolent brat!!”
“I told you that was the final warning, didn’t I?”
“I am the one who issues warnings! Not you, child!”
“Then I have no choice. Summoning you was my mistake. My apologies.”
“Heh. So long as you understand, my dear little child.”
“…I have no option left but to void the contract we made.”
“…What!?”
Noah, now revealed in her true form, first showed open shock—then broke into laughter almost at once, as though the very idea were laughable.
“Hahaha! What an amusing thing to say. To put on airs right in front of me.”
Her eyes sharpened. The enormous maw of the great beast drew so close that it nearly touched the tip of Roy’s nose. With the slightest opening of her jaws she could have swallowed him whole. A single one of her fangs was larger than Roy’s entire body.
“Airs? I’m completely serious.”
“Keheheheheh. You will not be able to do it. You have already tasted the power I possess. If you cast my strength from your hands, that will be the end of your mana’s growth as well, will it not?”
“I’ve made my peace with it.”
“Do you truly believe such lies will work on me!?”
“Noah.”
“I have upheld the contract. If you dissolve it like this, a terrible curse will fall upon you.”
“Noah Chrono Nyres.”
“That is far enough! To speak any further is—”
“The contract I made with you…”
“Stop! That must not happen! I cannot return to that empty place again! Halt this at once!”
“…is hereby voided.”
The contract sigil that had hovered in the air from the moment Roy spoke her true name flared up and vanished in an instant, consumed by fire.
Crrrack.
Space itself warped. Cracks spiderwebbed across the empty air. Then the boundary of the dimension crumbled, and the pitch-black world they had glimpsed before revealed itself once more.
From the far side of that dimension, dozens of jet-black iron chains shot forth.
Noah’s form had already shrunk to a far smaller size. Now that she could no longer draw mana from Roy, it seemed she was no longer able to maintain her colossal body.
The mana link that had bound them together snapped. Just as when they first met, Noah’s entire body was steeped in pure black. Only her two eyes still shone with golden light.
“You insolent little—”
“I could say the same. Why don’t you go in there and reflect for a while?”
“Return the eyes you borrowed from me this instant!”
Noah’s arm stretched out long and struck Roy full in the face. But her body had already become ethereal; the blow carried no force at all and simply scattered like smoke. Even so, she cleanly reclaimed his golden eyes.
“You will regret this decision starting tomorrow, Roy Greenhilt!!”
“I know. But I have no intention of keeping a cat that refuses to listen.”
Unable to resist the power of the black chains, Noah was dragged into the pitch-black space. In that same moment Roy toppled backward and lost consciousness.
Roy had forcibly dissolved the contract with the spirit he had bound. Because neither side had actually violated the terms, no catastrophic curse descended, nor did either of them vanish from existence. Even so, Roy still had to pay a price. The dissolution had been unilateral, without mutual consent.
“……”
For some reason he could no longer sense any mana. Losing the golden eyes meant he could no longer perceive the mana around him—perfectly natural for an ordinary human. The real problem was that he could no longer feel even the mana inside his own body.
I expected something of the sort, but for my mana to vanish completely…
He tried reciting various spells. Nothing happened. Even the most basic lighting magic failed to manifest. He attempted to channel mana into the magic weapon at his waist, yet not a single wisp rose from it.
So Noah was an even greater being than I had calculated.
The decision had been something of a gamble even for Roy. He simply could think of no other way to thoroughly correct her attitude.
No—the real mistake was making the contract in the first place.
It had been his first contract with a spirit. He had never experienced such a thing even in his previous life, so he had naively assumed that simply contracting a powerful spirit would be enough. He had been far too careless. Had he treated it like a contract with a demon, he never would have made that error.
I hope the curse doesn’t last long.
He had gambled, but he had not ignored the risks he would have to endure afterward. The curse of a broken contract. Ordinarily it was said to make magic of that spirit’s attribute slightly less efficient, or—exactly as was happening to Roy now—to prevent mana from recovering at all. And always for a limited time. The longer and more frequently one had used the spirit’s power, however, the stronger and longer-lasting the curse became.
Roy had spent roughly six months with Noah since their first contract. He had not used her abilities all that often, but the problem was that the power she had lent him far exceeded common sense. That part worried him a little.
My estimate is a week. But it could easily take longer.
He had considered the possibility that he might be unable to use mana, yet now that it had actually happened, the anxiety cut deep.
“You’re awake? See? I told you he was just sleeping.”
“Whew, thank goodness.”
The children he had not been able to see approached. Without light he had not even known where he was, but they were still in the same space where the giant worm had been. Only when Chloe and Anna cast lighting magic did he realize his eyes were still intact.
“Roy, what on earth happened? What was that enormous monster?”
“…Noah.”
“What? That was Noah?”
“Yeah. But I voided the contract, so she’s gone now.”
“What!? Why? She was so cute…”
“You saw her true form just now.”
“Well, yes, but… is it really all right to just dissolve a contract like that?”
“No. I think I’ve been cursed. I don’t know how many days it will last.”
“A curse? Wh-what kind?”
“I can’t use mana at all. So from now on, you’ll have to protect me a little.”
“……”
The children all stared at him with startled faces. They did not immediately panic, however. They were certain there were no more monsters left inside the cave.
“By the way, where did you all go? I couldn’t hear a sound and had no idea where I was. I can’t even use lighting.”
“Ah—when all the light vanished, something was sparkling over that way, so we went to check. It could have been a monster, after all.”
“Light?”
“Yeah. Luckily it wasn’t a monster.”
“Then what was it?”
“A flower. An incredibly beautiful flower that was glowing on its own.”
Apparently they had discovered some variety of phantom herb that grew only inside caves. This place was the heart of a mana vein; it was only natural that such things would grow nearby.
“So we didn’t come away completely empty-handed, at least.”
Roy rose to his feet. For now he planned to return home, then come back once the curse lifted. Thanks to taking the Dragon’s Breath, his mana capacity had grown considerably, so he could resummon her somewhere else if needed. But forming a new contract would still require vast amounts of mana.
Damn it. Looks like every last drop of this mana vein’s power is going to be spent on resummoning that one.
The days without mana recovery continued.
Every morning Anna asked Roy the same question.
“Skipping again?”
“Yeah. Going to school right now would be suicide.”
“Just how many enemies do you have?”
“There are people like that. It’s fine. A few days off won’t change anything.”
“Isn’t the first-year project presentation coming up soon?”
Knight Academy entered its long vacation at the end of July. August was packed with events—baptisms, coming-of-age ceremonies—and the midsummer heat of the southern continent was nothing to ignore either. In particular, the fifteen-year-olds nearing graduation had to return to their family estates for the coming-of-age rites. Those living in distant provinces needed time for the round trip, so the academy shut down for an extended period.
Naturally, before the vacation began, every student at Knight Academy had to prove what they had learned. That could take the form of an independent research presentation or a demonstration of improved combat ability. For Roy and the other first-years, the tradition was to solve a task assigned by the professors and present the results. Those tasks were usually chosen to target each student’s weakest point, so they could grow from the challenge. Anyone who failed to receive a passing mark from the professors might spend the entire sweltering summer in remedial classes.
Roy, however, felt no worry. Compared to the placement tests at the start of the term, his mana had nearly tripled. Thanks to his father the baron, his swordsmanship had also become quite proficient, and his magic needed no further comment. The only problem was the curse from dissolving the spirit contract—this body that could not recover a single scrap of mana.
“What’s your assignment?”
“Mine? What was it again… Professor Daisy said something, but I already forgot. The fact that I can’t remember probably means I already considered it passed. So no need to worry.”
“In that body?”
“That is the problem, yes. Anna, you’ll be late. Go on. Take care of yourself.”
“Okay, I will.”
Roy saw Anna off and hurried back inside the manor. Being targeted by anyone right now would be a disaster.
Just how long is this damn curse going to last?
Five full days had already passed since he dissolved the contract with Noah. He had even postponed the military delivery of the magic weapons to the following week with various excuses. It should have begun to lift by now, yet with each passing day without news the anxiety only grew.
Nothing to be done. I couldn’t exactly leave that one running wild either.
Still, Roy was not the sort to sink into despair and waste time. He threw himself straight into research.
He had already proven that the magic circle he had modified could gather the mana of the vein into one place—slowly, yes, but reliably. Now it was time for the next stage: increasing the speed of mana accumulation. He found the idea in Noah herself. When she had greedily absorbed mana on her own, all six magic circles had reacted with violent intensity. If he could make that happen artificially, he might drastically shorten the time needed to compress the vein’s mana.
Looking forward only to the day he could manufacture Dragon’s Breath with his own hands, Roy poured every ounce of his concentration into the research. Focusing on a single task made the days fly by.
The curse vanished completely on the day the eighth sun rose after the contract was broken.