Chapter 15 : Training

“Ophelia?”

“Ah… Yeah, right.”

Called by Luen, who was looking at her with a strange expression, Ophelia barely managed to regain her senses.

She shook her head vigorously and looked at him.

“Do people normally make contracts with top-tier beings?”

Make contracts with top-tier beings?

Ophelia blinked in disbelief at Luen’s question.

Would a top-tier being be called that for no reason?

Gigarious had said that even a single top-tier being could neutralize magic of the same attribute.

And yet, not just one, but four top-tier beings had been contracted—at once.

Realizing that an overwhelming monster stood before her, Ophelia let out a hollow laugh.

But deep inside, she couldn’t help but feel satisfied.

After all, if he was the son of Ruana, the woman she had acknowledged, then this much was to be expected.

At the same time—

“Yeah. This much is necessary.”

This much is necessary to get revenge.

According to Ophelia, spirit magic training was simple.

No—strictly speaking, the training that would take other spirit magicians years to complete was unnecessary for Luen.

Spirit magicians trained to become proficient in spirit magic and familiarize themselves with spirits so they could make contracts with higher-tier beings.

But Luen had no need for that.

“Fire.”

[Ack!]

The spirits moved exactly as he desired.

Normally, spirit magicians had to go through a much more complex process to control spirits.

For example, when handling a fire spirit, one had to specify:

• ‘Fire’
• ‘In what way’
• ‘How’
• ‘Where’

Only when all these conditions were explicitly stated would the spirits have a higher chance of acting as intended.

Even then, there was still a possibility that they wouldn’t follow instructions properly.

But Luen was different.

He only had to say “Fire,” and the spirit immediately understood and obeyed his intent—without any margin of error.

It was as if his synchronization rate with spirits was already at 100%, allowing him to control them freely from the start.

For an ordinary spirit magician, this level of mastery was only possible after years of training.

But for Luen, such training was unnecessary.

Moreover, he had already successfully contracted the top-tier beings of the four fundamental attributes—Fire, Water, Wood, and Earth.

All that remained were the supplementary attributes.

He needed to contract spirits of auxiliary attributes like Light, Darkness, and Wind—or beings even higher than them.

In other words, he had to contract with a Spirit King.

‘And he’s already aiming for that after just a few days of spirit magic training?’

No matter how exceptional Luen’s spiritual sensitivity was, contracting a Spirit King was impossible.

So, for now, he had to contract with supplementary attribute spirits instead…

[Sp…Sparkly is asking when he’ll be summoned…]

“Sparkly? Ah, Light? Hmm… I don’t really need it right now…”

At this point, the spirits were the ones clinging to the magician, so there was no need to worry about it.

Ophelia, who had been looking at Luen with slightly exasperated eyes, shook her head and turned her attention back to Gigarious’ writings.

Of course, Luen was not without his shortcomings.

No matter how impressive it was that he had successfully contracted four top-tier beings and could summon them all simultaneously, it would be meaningless if the duration of their summoning was too short.

This was merely an issue of affinity with the spirits, something that would naturally improve over time. However, that didn’t mean he could afford to neglect his training.

Thus, Luen was currently summoning all four top-tier spirits and trying to communicate with them.

“Flare!”

[Ack! You called for me?]

“Ripple!”

[Y-yes…? Why did you call me…?]

“Blossom!”

[Yes! You called for me?]

“Rocky!”

[Hey, hey, lower your voice—
…
Yes! What are your orders, sir?!]

His naming sense was… a little questionable.

But still, he had given them names, and now he was conversing with them.

‘But… do spirits usually act this disciplined…?’

According to Gigarious’ writings, the relationship between a spirit and its summoner was supposed to be akin to that of friends.

But from what Ophelia observed, the dynamic between Luen and his spirits…

It felt more like a superior officer and his subordinates in the military.

As she continued reading Gigarious’ texts, Ophelia couldn’t help but notice how much they left unsaid.

It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the writings themselves.

In fact, Gigarious’ texts were an excellent beginner’s guide.

The problem was that the summoner in question was Luen.

Luen was clearly an anomaly, an existence outside the norm.

Applying the methods in Gigarious’ writings to him was proving to be a nearly impossible task.

Thus, Ophelia was left to wrestle with the texts alone, desperately trying to figure out how to adapt them for Luen.

Every day was a struggle thanks to the troublesome disciple she had taken in.

But… she didn’t really think of it as a bad thing.

Somehow—

Watching Luen freely converse and bond with the spirits gave her a strange sense of peace.

From the moment she first met him, Luen had always maintained an outward sense of calm.

But deep inside, he seemed tangled and chaotic, like a mess of intertwined threads.

She knew why.

Luen had lost his parents at a young age.

His own relatives had betrayed him.

Even the vassals and territories he had trusted had turned their backs on him.

The wounds of those betrayals had yet to heal.

Even if the reasons were understandable, that didn’t make it any easier to witness.

Luen trusted no one.

He had completely closed off his heart.

Ophelia was no exception.

And yet—

The only ones Luen had opened his heart to, the only ones he could trust, were the spirits.

He had once called spirit magic a curse, so she didn’t know what had changed his mind.

But whatever the reason, when he was with the spirits, he seemed at ease in a way he never did otherwise.

“…Can you do something about that weird way of speaking?”

[Ack! I will correct myself immediately!]

“Guess not.”

Luen let out a small sigh, but his face held a faint smile.

Ophelia, watching him quietly, let out a soft chuckle before turning her eyes back to Gigarious’ writings.

Saying she would help but then doing nothing was not in Ophelia’s nature.

So, flipping through the texts even faster, she clutched her throbbing head and let out a deep sigh.

“Ha…”

As Ophelia sighed, struggling with her thoughts, Luen calmly observed the surrounding spirits with a composed gaze.

“Why isn’t Nia here?”

Ever since he saw Elenia at the passage between the Middle Realm and the Spirit Realm, she hadn’t shown herself even once.

[Ack! We are not sure! Our apologies!]

Yet, even the top-tier spirits had no clue.

Their uncertainty only added to his frustration.

If the spirits had human-like faces and bodies, Luen might have realized how visibly flustered they were at his question.

But right now, all he could see were their floating symbols.

Because of that, he failed to notice their unease.

“…If you don’t know, then there’s nothing I can do.”

Luen instinctively sought out Nia because being with her brought him a sense of peace.

But if even the top-tier spirits were unaware of her whereabouts, then it was unlikely that any lesser spirits would know either.

With that thought, Luen let out a small breath and resumed his practice of communicating with the spirits.

“Flare, fire.”

[Ack!]

At Flare’s response, flames shot up on their own, surging into the sky like a dragon ascending.

“Ripple, water.”

[Yes!!]

Beside Flare’s flames, Ripple’s water surged upward in the same manner, twining around the fire like a braid, yet never extinguishing it.

The key was controlling the balance between fire and water—twisting them together like a rope while preventing either from overpowering the other.

“Blossom, wood.”

[Yes! Understood!]

At that moment, tree roots sprouted from the ground.

“Rocky!”

[Sir, yes, sir!]

Rocky’s power then caused the earth to rise, layering over the roots to create a new landmass in midair.

“Hmm. Not bad.”

For most spirit magicians, controlling even one spirit at a time was a challenge.

But for Luen, it was entirely different.

Since the spirits moved exactly according to his will, he didn’t struggle with control as others did.

That was why Ophelia’s temporary solution was to refine his control over each individual spirit—to make his commands even more precise.

Like having fire and water spiral upward together.

Of course, Luen had already done it effortlessly, rendering her solution meaningless.

Ophelia often looked at Luen as if he were some kind of monster.

But that didn’t mean everything came easily to him.

While others verbalized their commands, Luen had to construct an intricate mental image of each step in his head.

The level of difficulty was vastly different, but that didn’t mean his method was easy either.

Summoning four top-tier spirits at once and controlling them simultaneously was no small feat.

Yet Luen gritted his teeth and made it happen.

Because, in the end, it was all for one purpose.