Runes and Spirits (4)
'Why was Orneptos summoned?'
Reed looked towards Yustina.
It didn't seem like she would give an answer.
Yustina and the elders who had written the ritual were all flustered.
'Did something else get summoned from the outside of the ritual?'
Reed turned his head to look at the summoning circle where the flames had flickered.
"Huh?"
Orneptos wasn't the only one summoned.
As the flames wrapped around the summoning circle, a fire spirit burst out.
It was a lower spirit, a Salamander, with a lizard-like appearance and bright red flames covering its body.
It was a peculiar Salamander.
Its head was noticeably large, giving it an overall plump and gentle impression.
-Meow.
The spirit's cry was weak.
It was a situation full of question marks for all wizards.
Yustina knelt down on behalf of Orneptos and offered a greeting.
"Lord Orneptos, what brings you here?"
"A powerful mana woke me up. That's why I came."
"I apologize. We were trying to summon Aurel, not to wake you up."
"I know. I came in response to the summoning circle."
It meant that the Spirit King had interfered with the summoning circle.
A summoning circle is a kind of ritual for calling spirits.
A lower summoning circle is prepared for lower spirits, and a higher summoning circle is prepared for higher spirits.
Orneptos could be summoned, but they never thought that he would interfere with the upper summoning circle and appear.
Orneptos shifted his gaze and looked down at Rosaria.
"The white-haired girl, it's you."
Orneptos' face seemed satisfied.
"An unrivaled amount of mana and latent talent... An excellent body. It seems more than enough to make a contract with me."
Orneptos reached out to Rosaria.
"I specially acknowledge you as a contractor..."
Ignoring his hand, Rosaria stepped forward.
Orneptos was not in her eyes.
There was only one thing in her sight.
The Salamander she had summoned.
-Meow.
Rosaria looked down at the Salamander, her eyes sparkling, and carefully embraced it.
Although her body was wrapped in flames, it didn't threaten Rosaria.
"Your name is now Meowmeow!"
-Meow~.
The Salamander replied with a deflated sound.
Despite the warm atmosphere, the surroundings grew colder.
Reed tried to make sense of the situation.
Rosaria, who had summoned the spirit King from Aurel's summoning circle.
Rosaria, who had also summoned the Salamander, which had nothing to do with the water spirit.
And Rosaria, who wanted to make a contract with the Salamander instead of the spirit King.
It was confusing.
Was this supposed to be normal?
He even wondered if he had entered a world where common sense was twisted.
Feeling that he couldn't stand idly by any longer, Reed approached the happy Rosaria.
"Rosaria."
"Huh?"
"I understand that you like the Salamander..."
"Its name is Meowmeow! I just named it!"
"Alright, Meowmeow. It's nice to have Meowmeow around, but it would be nice if you could also pay attention to the spirit King next to you..."
Only then did Rosaria notice Orneptos standing beside her.
She seemed to have realized her mistake and tried to make up for it with appropriate behavior.
"Hello!"
What she did was bow her head and greet him.
It was a very polite behavior, but it was a situation that made the onlookers' hearts burn with embarrassment.
Orneptos, who was not used to such treatment, had a strangely flustered face.
The elf elders standing beside him grew more anxious and spoke to her.
"Lord Orneptos, please forgive her..."
"I never thought she would act so rudely towards me, but I will let it go this once."
The elf elders' eyes widened.
Spirits were all about pride.
It was inevitable that they would be surprised by the words of the spirit King, who stood at the pinnacle, saying that he would let it go.
'It means that the spirit King also desires Rosaria.'
Rosaria had the upper hand in everything.
The problem was that Rosaria didn't know that fact, and the spirit King was still arrogant.
"Do you know who I am?"
"The spirit King!"
"Yes, I am the ruler of water, Orneptos."
The spirit King looked down at Rosaria and spoke, placing his slender finger on her chin.
"If you make a contract with me, you will be able to command all the spirits I lead. I will create an army for you with those spirits. What do you say?"
"Can I see other spirits as well?"
"Yes."
"Great!"
Rosaria nodded very easily.
She was more excited about the fact that she could see more spirits than the great power or anything like that.
Orneptos shifted his gaze to what Rosaria was holding.
He frowned as if he was looking at smelly garbage.
"Then, are you going to get rid of that fire hybrid now?"
"Why?"
Rosaria tilted her head.
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"If you're going to make a contract with me, you can't play with fire things anymore. That's the condition of our contract."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
It was an obvious rule.
While using spirit magic was free, opposing elements didn't get along well, and the higher the rank, the deeper the divide.
Rosaria glanced down at the Salamander.
"Then I don't want to."
"Yes, so far away... What?"
Orneptos was taken aback.
Rosaria answered confidently once again.
"If I have to choose between the two, I choose Meowmeow."
"What are you... That's a lowly hybrid. If you make a contract with me, you could become the ruler of water. Are you still giving that up?"
"Yes!"
She nodded so confidently that Orneptos couldn't understand.
"Because! Daddy needs Meowmeow!"
Reed was taken aback by the sudden mention of himself.
'Did I say that?'
He must have said that a higher-ranked entity was needed for rune interpretation.
"I'm sure if we raise Meowmeow big, it will give Daddy everything he wants!"
Only then did Reed seem to understand why she chose the Salamander.
The fire spirit, the Salamander, ate iron.
And the byproduct of the iron it ate was magnesium.
He had talked about magnesium a few times in front of her, but he never imagined that she would remember and focus on that story.
'Does she think that raising that creature will make it an upper spirit?'
She believed it would be like a person growing up.
'But...'
There was one thing she didn't know.
