Don't Have Kids
There are three main ways a Spirit Contractor handles spirits.
The first is favor.
Literally helping out of pure goodwill. It is rare, but it happens when a human’s mana affinity matches the spirit’s tastes—or when the spirit is simply a hopeless romantic. In those cases the burden on the mana hole is lighter, and the spirit is far easier to handle. Love conquers all, even spirits, after all.
The second is subjugation.
Someone with the talent of a Spirit Contractor defeats a spirit outright and binds it. This is the case you actually see in the real world. The problem is that even after the contract is forced, controlling the spirit remains difficult. A person strong enough to beat a spirit into submission is not automatically skilled at handling one. It is the same principle as a scientist and a lawyer: both may be brilliant students, yet swap their majors and their heads go empty.
And that—exactly that—was Yeonhwa’s current state.
“Getting it to submit was fine. That is as far as it goes. Still better than nothing, though.”
“Aang? Are you insulting me right now?”
“Half insult, half praise.”
“Pick one! Either insult me or praise me—just choose!”
“You subjugated it well. Loyalty is high. As a Spirit Contractor you are a complete washout, but as a master you are decent.”
“……O-oh.”
What is this?
She took a startled step back, rubbing her cheek with the back of her hand as if the words tasted strange.
“Ha! You—don’t tell me…”
A sudden flash of realization. And, as ninety-nine out of a hundred people would, she went straight for the wrong conclusion.
“You thought a few compliments would make me suck your di—SMACK!—Kyaaah?!”
“Shut up with the nonsense.”
You, step back for now.
I still have the other two to look at.
“Then I will go first!”
Harin stepped forward at once, already focusing as if she meant to summon her spirit on the spot. I waved her off.
“Not you. Nam Sujin. You first.”
“Yes?”
“……A-ah, m-me?”
Harin blanked out while Sujin, standing behind her, jumped in pure panic. The two of them stared at each other in mutual confusion, so I added one more line.
“It is better for everyone if we leave the problem child for last, right?”
“Aha. So I am the problem child…?”
“N-nee? E-eeeeh?”
Harin’s eyes said she could not accept it. Sujin behind her looked equally lost. From the way things stood, both of them had quietly decided that the real problem child was Nam Sujin.
“You are free to delude yourselves, but from a Spirit Contractor’s standpoint all three of you are the worst. So stop thinking any of you is better than the others.”
""".........."""
All three faces went sour. Nothing I could do about it. I do not do empty flattery. Besides, a Spirit Contractor who never lies keeps both the quality of their mana and the state of their soul cleaner.
“Anyway, where was I. Right—favor, subjugation. What comes next?”
Become a Spirit Contractor through pure favor.
Become one by forcing a spirit into submission.
And the final route—the one most Spirit Contractors actually take.
“Contract. Moving by a mutual contract between spirit and contractor.”
Nam Sujin.
Call your spirit.
“Eut…… Come out, Dasu!”
Her voice rang out. Nothing appeared in front of her.
…What?
So the real worst case was something else entirely?
A Spirit Contractor calls and the spirit simply does not show. I stared at Sujin in pure disbelief. She flushed scarlet and finally managed to speak.
“Unnie will ask properly… 『Samdasu』.”
“What?”
Samdasu.
The spirit’s name was Samdasu.
I was still reeling from the completely unhinged name when water droplets finally gathered and the spirit took shape before our eyes.
[..............]
“Aaaah…… Dasu. Instructor is watching, you know…!”
“This is, well… something.”
The water spirit had taken the form of an otter. And not even a lively otter—more like an eighty-year-old man who had already finished living, flopped on the floor and scratching its side with zero energy.
“Does it listen to you?”
“Well… it used to listen fine…”
“Used to listen fine, huh.”
I looked down at the Samdasu otter in silence.
[.......Pii?]
“Hmm.”
Why do this kid’s eyes look so rotten?
I placed a hand on its head and stroked. The otter did not refuse; it accepted the touch readily enough.
Affinity: pass.
It does not reject contact. That alone is already huge.
I scooped the otter into my arms and asked Sujin,
“Kid. When did it start acting like this?”
“That is… um…”
“Hard to say?”
“…You won’t laugh if I tell you, right?”
What kind of reason could it possibly be?
I fixed her with a flat stare—silent pressure to spit it out already. Sujin finally let out a long sigh and covered her face with both hands.
“Ever since I got the job at Meteor… it has been like this…”
“……Huh?”
What did I just hear?
Sujin collapsed onto the floor as if standing any longer was impossible.
“I really am trash, aren’t I… I should never leave the house… I am social garbage…!”
“……Is it different when you are at home?”
“Yeees… At home it makes water-droplet flowers, juggles with its nose, does all sorts of things, but the second we step outside…”
“...........”
She shrank smaller and smaller. I had the rough picture now.
At least we are not finishing this today.
I would have to visit her place later. Going alone felt wrong, so maybe drag Hyewon along…
…Or that might make it worse.
She is the company president, after all. Even if Sujin tries not to notice, she will notice.
Anyway, we will revisit this later.
“Harin. Ready?”
“…Yes.”
She looked distinctly sulky. She was trying to hide it, but the pout on her lips was impossible to miss.
“Don’t tell me you are sulking over that earlier comment?”
“I am not. There is no way I would sulk at Instructor. I am not a child.”
“Then put those lips back where they belong before you talk.”
“Muuut…!”
Harin trembled, but there was nothing more she could do. In the end only one option remained.
“Please. 『Nitro』.”
She summoned her spirit.
Crack. Crackle.
Tiny sparks of electricity began to leap in the empty air. They soon took shape—a small kitten with a sleek body.
“As you can see, it is a lightning spirit.”
She sounded proud. Fair enough; lightning spirits are on the unique side. Surprisingly harder to find than light or dark spirits.
Someone might say, “It is a lightning spirit, so just stick chopsticks in an outlet and you will see one.” That is only artificially generated electricity made for human use. Spirits never inhabit that. They are born only from natural lightning, so the rarity is on a completely different level.
Which is why I was pretty shocked the first time I saw it myself.
Raising one is no picnic either.
But…
“『Lan』.”
[Woof!]
“…Huh?”
That is not a reason for you to feel proud.
I stroked the golden retriever Lan’s head and spoke to Harin.
“As you can see. Lightning spirit.”
“…Yes.”
Her tail dropped instantly. I jerked my chin toward the kitten, telling her to continue. Let’s see just how badly spoiled and broken this one is.
“…Huu.”
Slap.
She lightly smacked both cheeks with her palms, blinked hard a few times to focus, then poured every ounce of strength into a shout.
“Nitro! One hundred ten volts at Instructor!”
“Yah?”
What did you just say?
No—before that…
[Myaaaa…]
“…No. If you don’t listen to Unnie there will be no churu either.”
[Myaaaaa…!!]
“Looking at me like that won’t work!”
[Myaaaaaaaaa!!!]
“Hik, kyaaaaaaaaa?!”
Right in front of my eyes Harin was being turned into electric-grill barbecue. Because she was contracted to a lightning spirit she had some resistance and was still conscious, but she was definitely feeling the pain.
It is deliberately frying her to hurt her, isn’t it?
That is not the face of a spirit that cannot control its power. If a lightning spirit truly lost control, a human would be unconscious or dead. So this is pure “let’s make the human suffer a little” electrocution…
“Aaaah, fine! I’ll give it to you, okay, I’ll give it!”
[Myaaa~~♪]
Something in plastic packaging emerged from Harin’s arms. The moment the cat-only churu treat appeared, the kitten arrogantly snatched it with its mouth, tore the packet open with its claws, and ate. It must have suited its palate perfectly; it even licked its lips afterward.
“Are you a churu vending machine?”
“I am not!”
“You absolutely are.”
Shock her with electricity and churu comes out. I stroked Lan’s head and said,
“Hey. You have a friend over there.”
[Woof!]
[Myaang?!]
Golden retriever Lan charged the kitten.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
[Woof! Grrrr, woof!]
[Myaat…?!]
Faced with the overwhelming size difference the kitten tried shooting lightning first, but they were both lightning spirits. On top of that my golden retriever was mid-to-high rank aiming for the upper tier, while the kitten had barely reached low rank. Affinity, physique, and rank—all stacked against it.
[Myaoot…!]
[Woof~♪]
“Nitro!”
In the end the kitten was flattened under the golden retriever’s front paw. Harin could not watch any longer; she rushed in and rescued the cat from Lan’s grip—
[Myaaaaaaaaa!!!]
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crackle!
“Kyaaaaaaaaa?!”
—and was immediately deep-fried by the cat’s lightning again.
A full electric-grill barbecue loaded with pure irritation and rage. Harin, clearly in pain yet already used to it, began soothing the kitten in her arms.
“Okay. Unnie will give you churu later, so calm down. Hm? Yes, that doggy was the bad one.”
[Nyarr… myaa… shaaaaaaaa!!]
“I see.”
By this point the diagnosis was clear.
“Harin-ssi.”
“............”
Even she seemed to realize there was nothing she could say; Jeon Harin stayed silent. I patted her shoulder.
“Congratulations on becoming a golden-child mother.”
“Yes…?”
“Even if you get married later, please do not have children. This is serious advice.”
“Yeees??”
She looked utterly dumbfounded. The one who should be dumbfounded is me.
How in the world do you raise something this monstrous?
I cannot even tell where to start fixing that.
“W-wait, Instructor! Sunwoo Instructoooor!!!”
“Let’s take a break and try again later.”
I was so speechless that polite speech slipped out without me noticing. I left the training center and walked toward the vending machine outside.
—Ding♬
“Hm?”
A message notification chimed at the perfect moment.
“..........”
The sender was Ayoung’s boyfriend.
The porter guy.