The Burden of Speed
Rai and Undine could read my mind without me saying a word and react with sharp precision, but Adore was noticeably lacking in that department.
I wondered if it was because our affinity was weak, so I summoned him often to test it, but that wasn’t the real issue.
The biggest problem was that Adore was simply too scatterbrained.
“Focus every bit of your attention on me.”
No matter how decent his offensive power was, if I had to issue commands one by one in a fight where every split second counted, he was more useless than not calling him at all.
“Come on, guess what I want right now.”
[Kill the ogre.]
“……See! Even Undain passing by knows what I want!”
[Oh! You want me to kill it?]
The ogre, which had been thrashing wildly inside the water droplet, didn’t even get to make a sound before Adore’s electric shock hit the water. It went limp without a fight.
When water and electricity met, the effect was doubled. Used properly, it could kill an ogre in an instant.
The only problem was that Adore, who had such an important role, was completely hopeless at reading between the lines.
[Is this good enough?!]
“Haa. When am I ever going to teach you properly?”
[Then why make it so hard on yourself? Just say it out loud.]
“Who doesn’t know that!”
By nature, spirits couldn’t manifest their power without a command. They only moved when they had absolute certainty about the order. That was the fixed law and system of spirit magic.
What Rai and Undine did—moving exactly as I wanted without direct commands—looked easy, but it was actually quite an advanced technique.
To achieve that, several conditions had to be met.
First, my mental strength had to be powerful enough to transmit my will clearly. Second, the spirit and I had to share a deep, genuine bond so they could sense what I desired.
Honestly, for someone as scatterbrained as Adore who couldn’t pick up on my intentions, speaking out loud might actually be faster.
But the real issue was this.
“If I have to give orders to multiple spirits at the same time, I’ll be the one who dies.”
For the past nine years, the core focus of my training had been faster manifestation of techniques above all else.
Attacking or defending even one second quicker.
What drove me to train like that was the shadow of Robenin Pedri, who seemed within reach the moment I stepped into the training grounds.
The imaginary opponent who always tormented me in my mock battles was, without fail, that guy.
It wasn’t something I chose.
I simply couldn’t forget.
The fight against him had become the absolute standard by which I measured myself.
That lightning-fast sword tip, the spine-chilling approach, the merciless style.
If all of that came at me again, I had to be even a little faster so I wouldn’t lose.
Not me—the spirits.
[Look here, Master. Most Spirit Masters support from the rear, you know.]
“So what?”
[If you’re not going to fight a close-combat specialist head-on, speed isn’t necessary… though I suppose there was that swordsman you always grind your teeth over.]
“Hey! If you’re my spirit, you can’t forget that bastard! My enemy is your enemy too!”
[Not really…….]
The fatal weakness of spirit magic was that since humans were the ones commanding the spirits, there was always a delay between giving an order and its manifestation.
On top of that, I was a water Spirit Master, whose attacks were relatively slow.
Wind or earth Spirit Masters could use whatever was around them, but I had to go through the process of summoning water first.
The gap between calling a spirit, giving it a command, summoning water, and launching an attack was far too long.
The only way to overcome it was through relentless training.
Faster. More. Stronger. More precise.
[Anyway, there aren’t many humans who can handle water spirits as quickly as Master…… though there probably aren’t many Masters who demand that kind of speed from water spirits either.]
Sometimes I wondered.
Was I being too greedy? Was I overworking the spirits?
It wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about it.
“Well, since you contracted with me, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
[Hey.]
“What I want is what you all want too, right?”
[It’s not.]
“Thanks for believing in me and following along.”
[I’m starting to think I picked the wrong Master.]
Adore was openly the lazy type and hated when I worked him hard, but since he was my spirit, he had no choice but to obey my commands.
Our contract wouldn’t end unless one of us died or was extinguished. When I thought about that, I could understand why Rai was so strongly rejecting Magikos’s passionate courtship.
No one would want to sign a ten-thousand-year slave contract with a dragon.
“Undain, set me down.”
[Yes, Master.]
While the lightning spirit Adore was unruly, scatterbrained, and hard to control, Undain was always calm and composed.
If I had to compare him to a person, he felt like a competent and intelligent office worker.
Water spirits had the great advantage of generally having gentle personalities, since they possessed healing powers.
I stepped down from Undain’s back onto solid ground and pointed at the ogre.
“It’s definitely dead, right?”
[It is. It’s not breathing.]
“Then take it out of the water. Magi complains that waterlogged meat tastes bad.”
Because I’d kept it trapped in water while electrocuting it, the ogre was steaming hot like it had been lightly steamed.
When I pulled it out of the water droplet, steam rose from its body…….
“Magi will probably say it’s perfectly cooked.”
Watching the thoroughly cooked ogre get tossed onto the grass reminded me of the past.
Back when I was a child and couldn’t hunt an ogre by myself.
Around the time I got lost and briefly traveled with the Shabel Mercenary Band. Even when the entire mercenary group attacked together, catching just one of these had been difficult.
“……Rai, at this point, am I strong?”
[Without that guy around.]
“Ah, right.”
He was still being held captive by Magikos. It felt empty without the guy who had always stuck by my side.
“Adore, what do you think?”
[You’re asking me?]
“Yeah, be honest.”
[This body does not serve the weak!]
“……You contracted with me when I was ten years old, saying it was a great idea. You fraud.”
[That’s because I saw potential in Master!]
“Heh, I see.”
I snorted and walked toward the dead ogre.
Why did it look so small?
It was clearly ten times bigger than me, yet it somehow seemed insignificant.
It was probably because I had seen a certain scatterbrained dragon’s true form several times.
Step by step, I walked across the ogre’s hand, up its forearm, and stood on its back, but the only thought in my head was that I was still weak.
Maybe it was because losing to Robenin and being kidnapped by a dragon weighed so heavily on me. I felt endlessly weak and powerless.
No matter how many monsters like this I killed, it never felt satisfying.
“Grrrr!”
While I was lost in thought, a rustling sound came from the bushes, and several wolves emerged.
There were many mid-to-small monsters near Magi’s lair, but there were also normal animals like rabbits and deer. It formed a perfect food chain.
And wolves that hunted in packs were, excluding monsters, among the most dangerous creatures.
At least, if I weren’t Jeanie Crowell.
“What the hell are these things?”
At first I thought there were three, but before I knew it, more than seven had appeared, surrounding me. They began to prowl, eyes gleaming.
“Grrrrr.”
“Gwaaaang!”
Since they lived alongside fierce monsters, these wolves were a little more savage, violent, and clever than ordinary ones.
Of course, they were also bigger.
Some of them looked several times larger than me when they stood up.
Among them, the exceptionally large one that seemed to be the boss bared its teeth directly at me.
The other wolves did the same.
They slipped into my blind spots and growled fiercely at my throat.
The problem was that it didn’t feel like a threat at all.
“You’re not seriously thinking of eating me, are you?”
[Looks that way?]
“Haha! Now even wolf pups see me as a snack.”
It was honestly hilarious.
Perfect timing. I was going to catch some rabbits to eat, but wolf meat sounded good too.
The mountain really was a world of survival of the fittest.
“Adore. Fry them nicely for me.”
[Judging by Master’s deep irritation right now, I feel like I should turn them into charcoal?]
“Misunderstanding. Roast them so they’re edible.”
Right before Adore attacked, even the air grew sharp and crackling.
My hair stood slightly on end from static electricity, and the snapping sounds grew louder and louder.
I spoke to Adore, who was now in perfect battle stance.
“Leave out the biggest one over there.”
[Why not kill it?]
“He looks tough. I’ll take him as a gift for Rai.”