The Yellow Gem and the Ancient Book
I turned toward the commotion at Rai’s insistence. The sudden change in direction sent Hansen and Philo scrambling after me.
Up close, the boy’s wares were even worse than I expected. There was no consistency to any of it. These weren’t goods so much as…
Isn’t this just trash?
No! This definitely smells like a spirit stone.
Spirit stone? What for? To eat?
What was a spirit stone again? A rock that raised spirit affinity? Or a stone with a spirit sealed inside? I was sure we’d covered it in class, but the memory refused to surface.
If you eat a spirit stone, isn’t that cannibalism?
Do you think eating is the only thing I know how to do?
Yeah, isn’t it?
…There are times when it isn’t.
“W-welcome!”
The boy had been standing so stiffly when I first approached that he couldn’t tell if I was a customer. Only now did he manage an awkward greeting.
I gave a vague nod and crouched in front of the mat.
So where’s this spirit stone?
The yellow gem next to that old brown book. That’s the one.
Everything on the mat looked ancient and battered. I had to wonder where he’d scavenged it all from. I reached for the yellow gem Rai had pointed out.
It was less a jewel and more a plain stone. The surface was rough, the whole thing opaque—like a slightly prettier rock. But when I looked closer, I caught a faint golden gleam trapped inside.
A rich, golden hue spread from the center outward like veins of light, covering the entire stone. The moment I held it up to the sun, I knew.
Something was in there.
The spirit master’s instinct that sometimes flickered awake inside me told me so.
There’s a spirit inside this?
Yes. I can sense a faint trace of spirit power within.
What kind?
I’m not certain. It feels… crackling. A lightning spirit, perhaps? Or something lower. It’s too weak right now for me to tell.
Lightning…
Shall we absorb it, then?
This guy was thinking about eating it too!
Was he possessed by hunger? I couldn’t relax my frown.
Hold on. It’s for sale.
The owner was sitting right there, yet Rai was already planning to steal it. The spirit had even less shame than I did. The boy himself was so thin from days without food that his cheekbones stood out sharply.
Besides, a spirit eating another spirit feels a little…
It’s not that the spirit is physically trapped inside. This is more like a channel that can draw it out directly.
Like a contract array scroll?
Different mechanism, similar function.
What now? Should I run back to the inn for money? Was this even worth that much?
As I turned the spirit stone over in the sunlight, Undine’s face suddenly came to mind—my lovely water spirit. Right after that, even a literature major like me remembered one basic scientific fact.
Electricity conducted through water extremely well.
Rai, can this actually summon the spirit?
It’s uncertain. The stone looks several thousand years old and it’s damaged…
Can’t you fix it? This is your specialty—turning nothing into something.
Ah, true. I think I can manage it.
Hope surged through me.
What had been a random rock moments ago now felt incredibly precious. This miserable journey was actually useful for once!
Though without the journey, I wouldn’t need attack power in the first place.
Still, it was an unexpected jackpot. This had to be the luck of a genius.
I couldn’t stop the smile spreading across my lips.
How do I activate the contract array? You know, don’t you?
Just pour mana into it.
Hehehe.
However, Master, repairing it doesn’t guarantee the spirit will answer. Whether it emerges is ultimately up to the spirit. Not all of them are friendly toward humans…
No matter what Rai said, I couldn’t hold back my giddy laughter. The scrawny boy, apparently afraid I might swallow the stone whole, finally spoke up.
“U-um…”
“I want to buy this.”
“Yes? That stone?”
“Yeah. You’re selling it, right? How much?”
Even though the items were his own, the boy looked stunned, as if the idea had never occurred to him.
“That stone is… well, that is…”
“Don’t tell me you put it out without even setting a price?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think anyone would buy it…”
Whether this was his first time doing business or not, the boy’s behavior was painfully awkward. Indeed, every single thing he’d laid out was bizarre. Some of them I wouldn’t have taken even if paid.
“Miss? You really want to buy that stone?”
“Yes. Hansen, sorry to ask, but could you run back to the inn and fetch my bag? The money’s inside.”
“That’s no trouble at all.”
“Wait. Miss! Hansen is still injured—wouldn’t it be better if I went instead?”
Philo’s words reminded me that Hansen had hurt his shoulder. No wonder his movements had seemed sluggish. Come to think of it, when I’d run away earlier, it was Philo who had chased me down.
“Anyone’s fine as long as they bring it.”
“I’ll be right back.”
“On the table in my room. Just grab the whole bag.”
“Understood.”
Philo vanished quickly into the crowd.
I studied the spirit stone again, then let my gaze drift over the rest of the items. I looked at the boy because I genuinely wondered how someone so shabby had come across something like this.
“Do you even know what this is?”
“Isn’t it… a pretty stone?”
“Then where did you get it?”
I had only asked out of idle curiosity. But the boy’s face drained of color. His whole body began to shake.
He shook his head frantically, eyes wide with terror.
“I didn’t steal it! Please believe me! It’s true!”
What was wrong with this kid? I tried to meet his gaze, but it was impossible. One of his eyes was clearly damaged—his left pupil drifted erratically on its own, a cloudy white.
No wonder he’d been avoiding eye contact.
“Ah, I’m sorry! I usually keep it covered because it’s ugly…”
“Who said anything about that? I only asked where you found it.”
If a bad eye was enough to disgust me, I would have fainted foaming at the mouth when I watched that orc get hacked apart earlier, blood and flesh flying everywhere.
The most horrific thing I had ever seen was my own death. Trampled bodies, dying nations, people who only cared about surviving. All that cruelty.
Compared to any of that, an orc with its guts hanging out or a kid with one ruined eye was nothing.
“That is…”
“This?”
The boy was terrified. He overreacted to every little thing. When Hansen took another step forward, sword clinking at his side, the words tumbled out in a panicked rush, as if he were being chased.
“We’re innocent! My father found it while gathering herbs in the mountains. It was lying there with that book. He said it had been in the exact same spot for years… We didn’t steal it!”
“With this book?”
“Father said if I read it, maybe I could learn my letters. He brought it home for me. I suggested selling the stone to help pay for Mother’s medicine, but… I swear it was just lying there, unclaimed.”
“Can an object really have no owner?”
“It had been there for a very long time… in that forest.”
“Think about it. Things don’t just fall into forests by themselves. There must have been an owner at some point. Still, it’s a decent excuse. Though selling someone else’s property is basically a crime.”
“Miss.”
The boy looked so pitifully nervous that my sarcasm slipped out. Hansen actually scolded me instead.
Shouldn’t a knight be stricter about these things? Or was it because they were both commoners? His sympathy was almost touching.
“Anyway, it has nothing to do with me.”
Watching someone tremble in fear was irritating. With a deliberately bored expression, I picked up the book the boy had indicated.
It had been lying next to the spirit stone and looked awful. But after brushing away some dirt, I realized the cover was surprisingly intact.
It was high-quality leather—obvious at a glance—and the binding told me it was ancient. After years of handling books in the academy library, I had learned to recognize quality and approximate age.
The lack of a title was its only unusual feature.
I ran my fingers over the cover, unfastened the clasp, and opened it.
“This isn’t the common tongue.”
It was ancient language—a northern dialect at that. Characters that hadn’t been used for at least four thousand years. These days, only mages and spirit masters could read them.
Learn to read with this? The boy’s father clearly couldn’t even tell the difference between common speech and ancient script. The man was probably illiterate.
Master, that is ancient language.
Yeah.
So Rai could read it too. Well, he had lived more than ten thousand years.
For its age, the book was in remarkably good condition. It must have been enchanted with preservation magic.
I turned the pages slowly, scanning the legible sections. It was fortunate I could read them. All those unwilling years trapped in the academy were finally paying off. The high-class education I never wanted was useful after all.
As I focused on deciphering the text, the first line caught my eye.
My name is Ardo, a Spirit Master.