Vol 2 Chapter 8 (1/2)

Extraordinary Thought Process, Contract, Commencing Summoning

“Master, dinner is ready.” As usual, Silent Water was sweet and congenial – I simply liked her.

Tomorrow’s Spirit Summoning Day. If… if there is someone with such an immense amount of spirit strength that even Silent Water would be…. Oh! I don’t even want to imagine what life would be like without Silent Water.

“Master, is something the matter with you? You don’t look so well.”

“Nothing, nothing.” I let out a soft sigh.

“Master, are you worrying about something?”

“No. I was just thinking, given my ability, if I can summon any spirits tomorrow.”

“Master is so awesome, I am sure you can! But…”

“But what?” Silent Water rarely had this kind of despondent expression.

“After spirit summoning comes contract forming, right?”

“Yeah… What about it?”

Silent Water shook her head, “I…. Never mind, nothing really…. Master, let’s dig in.”

“No…Silent Water, didn’t you have something you wanted to say?”

“No, I just thought, if I could just stay here, that would be enough.”

What a strange thing to say? When Silent Water answered my question, I felt like there was something off about her? It was like she was a bit sad?

On the other hand, if Silent Water didn’t want to say it, I had no reason to force her….

After dinner, rather than sitting down with me and watching TV in the living room like we usually do, Silent Water quickly returned to her room – this made me feel a bit weird.

—————— Bed

‘Kid, let me tell you this in advance, be mentally prepared – if you can’t summon any spirits tomorrow, you need not feel too bad about it. Hey, kid…um? Are you worrying about the water spirit’s strange behavior earlier today?’

‘Yeah, compared to normal, today Silent Water felt a bit off.’

‘Alright, I am gonna give it to you straight – that water spirit, she wants to form a contract with you.’

‘For real?’ My heart leapt for joy when I heard what Freed said.

‘Of course it’s for real. That was what I was trying to tell you earlier this afternoon; that if you were to form a contract with another spirit, the water spirit and all would feel terrible about it.’

‘Really? So, Silent Water wanted to be my spirit…’ Thinking about this made me really happy; but thinking more on this made me feel deflated, ‘Forget it, my power is so weak, there is no way Silent Water would want me. She must think that because she is living here… In the future, I’m sure she’ll find a master that would befit her.’

‘Argh! I just know it… your thought process is just extraordinary…’

‘My thought process is extraordinary? What does that mean?’

‘It means nothing, you…I really don’t know what to say…forget it, this should also be one of your good points.’

—————— Morning

Today was June 20th.

On this day, the human world would be surging with spiritual energy – a particularly good day for contracting spirits. Because of this, high schools pick this day as the Spirit Summoning Day. As such, June 20th is also called the National Contracting Day.

Even though the spirits summoned during the summoning ceremony would be “wild”, this summoning relies on having both parties responding positively to each other, so there shouldn’t be any incident where the spirits would get out of control.

Moreover, after a person has contracted with a spirit, they can continue to contract more; the number of spirits a person can contract is proportional to one’s power. That is the reason why there are spirit shops around.

And now, whenever I see Silent Water, I got the feeling that I wanted to keep her for myself – it was all because of what Freed told me last night, that Silent Water wished to form a contract with me. Because I simply liked her too much, I didn’t want her to leave my side – I wanted her to be my familiar.

Unfortunately for me, aside from my sacred fire, that suicidal ability of mine, I didn’t have any other skills; even though I possessed an enormous amount of magical power, I was useless. The root of the problem was that I was just too weak.

If a weakling like me were to form a contract with Silent Water, I would just drag Little Silent down. Honestly, while possessing dragons’ abilities has given me sufficient magical power, I don’t have any other skills beyond that. Like it was explained before, the spirits would provide support to the summoner during a battle; if Silent Water were to become my spirit, then she would become the main offensive power while I would be a mere bystander, just standing by the sideline and watching her fight…. This was not what I would like to see.

When I thought of this, my feeling of wanting to keep her all to myself vanished.

After breakfast, I noticed that Silent Water didn’t look too well. From the looks of it, her magical power must have been almost depleted. So, I walked up to her and gave her a hug….

The normal Silent Water would stand there patiently to wait for her power to be replenished; but today, after her power was replenished, Silent Water held me tight and wouldn’t let go – suddenly, I panicked and didn’t know what to do.

“Silent Water… you… what are you doing? Let go.”

“Sorry, master, Silent Water can’t do that….”

“Why not?” Could it really be like what Freed said, that Silent Water wanted to form a contract with me? To be honest, I was actually very happy about it, but…I shouldn’t be a burden to her ….

“Master, shouldn’t you know this by now? Silent Water has already been calling you ‘master’ for a while now; have you not accepted me yet?” Silent Water voice was quivering.

“I…I can’t burden you.”

“Master, why would you think that?”

So, while enjoying the body heat from Silent Water, I told her my thoughts on the whole thing, “You know, my ability is very weak, and I only have one skill… a skill I can’t use often at that…. Essentially, someone like me is useless – I won’t be able to fight. If you were to form a contract with me, then you would be dragged down by me….”

Silent Water laughed, after hearing my explanation. I could feel her warm breath on my ear, and it made me feel a bit weird.