The Golden-Haired Summoner - Chapter 24

“How long ago was that? You ancient serpent!”

“How could I possibly remember a trivial conversation from 9 years ago?”

[Then… what about all the heartache I’ve gone through since then?]

“That was all for nothing.”

I couldn’t remember anything, but for Rai, it seemed like we had a significant conversation.

Nine years ago…

I remembered many things from that time, but Rai’s next pattern? I had no memory of that at all.

[Ugh! Master… then what is my next pattern?]

“Hmm? Just go back to being a white snake.”

At my indifferent response, Rai trembled as if he had been struck by lightning.

[Oh, thank the gods! I will never forget this grace! Sobs, sobs.]

Watching Rai, who seemed mentally scattered, I began to wonder if he had finally developed senility. Just then, Maggie, who had finished her meal, approached us.

“What are you guys talking about? Why is Rai crying?”

“Hmm? I don’t know.”

“But… Geenie, what’s this? It looks like a diamond?”

Maggie pointed to the ground.

Huh?

When I looked down, there were small, sparkling gems scattered across the floor.

I instantly realized what those were and couldn’t help but twitch my eye.

[Sobs, sobs, sobs~]

This foolish snake was pretending to cry while playing around with diamonds?

And using my mana, no less.

“Maggie, can you make a pot for me? I’m going to catch some mice.”

[No, Master! Wait! Master!]

I tossed Rai aside and summoned Undain to catch some mice.

“I’ll catch some salamanders too, while I’m at it.”

[Cough, cough! Masterrr~]

This would be a good opportunity to create a multi-transform spirit.

I wandered around the mountains for a couple of hours searching for mice and salamanders for Rai.

Even though I had come to the outskirts of the mountain, finding a mouse in this vast forest wasn’t easy.

It felt like trying to find a worm in a desert.

Salamanders were even more elusive, and I was starting to feel worn out.

Just as I was about to give up and head back, I finally spotted a mouse.

A huge one, as big as my fist!

Just before giving up, I had stumbled upon my prey, and my spirits lifted immediately.

Thinking of how Rai would faint at the sight of the mouse made me chuckle involuntarily.

“Ohoho, huh!”

Suddenly, something swooped past my eyes and shot towards the mouse.

It was a fairly large bird, and in the blink of an eye, it dived down and snatched up the mouse.

To think it dared to steal my prey right before my eyes… What kind of bird is this?

“Undain, use Unwater Breathing!”

While I had to admit that Unbreathing was a versatile spell, it was still difficult to use in aerial combat.

Undain’s Unbreathing didn’t even come close to touching the bird’s tail feathers.

But would I give up so easily?

“Once more!”

“Again!”

“Again!”

“Ugh!”

I cast Unbreathing three more times, but they all missed, wasting precious mana on nothing but empty air.

The bird, which had snatched away my mouse, seemed to mock me as it flitted from tree to tree, occasionally preening its feathers in leisure.

So, you’re going to play it that way, huh?

“Super Unwater Breathing!”

Whoosh!

The spell I cast this time was on a completely different level.

It drained at least ten times more mana than a regular Unbreathing.

But given the sheer size of it, I didn’t mind the mana loss, especially since the bird, which had been flaunting its freedom, finally got caught in it.

The Super Unbreathing was so large it could easily hold Maggie inside. Not that it would work on her, of course.

The bird struggled within the water bubble for a moment before collapsing and drifting helplessly.

I shrank the Unbreathing, leaving just the bird, and brought it before me to inspect it.

It was a bird of prey.

“Undain, let’s head back!”

I felt unusually lucky.

First, I had managed to catch a mouse, and now this bird as well.

I couldn’t catch the salamander, but that was okay.

Honestly, it was too cold to keep wandering around.

When I returned to the lair, Maggie had made a pot that was just the right size to satisfy me.

The pot, taller than my waist, was surprisingly light despite its size. It even had engravings on its surface, which made it seem a little too elaborate for just a cooking pot.

As I inspected the pot, I noticed Rai sneaking towards the dead mouse and bird.

Curious about what he was up to, I watched silently as Rai swiftly swallowed the mouse.

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t eat mice?”

[Ughrhghrh?]

“Really? Since when did you start talking with your mouth, Rai?”

Rai, with the mouse still in his mouth, seemed eager to emphasize that he couldn’t speak properly with his mouth full, but that excuse wouldn’t fly with me.

Since when did you ever speak with your mouth?

I forcibly opened Rai’s mouth and pulled the mouse out.

Then I threw the mouse into the pot to keep him from touching it again.

[Master, pleeease~]

“Geenie, what are you going to do with the pot? And what’s with the mouse?”

Maggie asked as I watched Rai squirming in disgust, seemingly repulsed by the mouse.

“Haha, I’m going to make a new body for Rai! Want to watch, Maggie?”

“Rai’s body?”

Maggie’s eyes sparkled with excitement, a look that seemed almost out of place on his wrinkled dwarf-like face.

Heh, got him hooked!

“Yeah, I’ll boil all sorts of jewels and metals in this pot, then add the animal corpses. That will become Rai’s new body. Want to watch?”

“Yes! I want to watch! Let’s do it right away!”

“Then we need just a few jewels… Will you give me some, Maggie?”

“Sure!”

I hadn’t asked if he would lend them to me—I had clearly asked if he would give them to me.

Yet Maggie eagerly nodded and even pushed me towards the treasure room.

As soon as we passed through the door, we were greeted by a mountain of jewels. It was more of a cavern than a room, with immense height and width.

Even the walls of the cave were covered with gems, overflowing to the point of absurdity.

“The more types we put in, the better. If you find any interesting jewels, bring them over, Maggie!”

“Okay! I’ll get the ones my mom gave me!”

“Sure, sure. Bring them quick.”

I waved enthusiastically at Maggie as he set off on his jewel expedition.

In the meantime, I rummaged through the scattered gems, picking out the largest and sturdiest ones to toss into the pot.

Rai, who had followed me into the treasure room, also joined in the search for jewels.

He always took good care of his own body, after all.

[Master, how about this one?]

Rai brought over some peculiar, iridescent jewels, his mouth full.

I patted his head a few times in approval, then threw all the jewels he’d brought into the pot.

“Yes, keep fetching more. Pick ones you haven’t eaten yet.”

[Yes, Master. But… um… could you leave out the mouse if I bring enough jewels? Please, Master~]

“…We’ll see.”

Rai, despite being a snake, tried to charm me with a wink.

I couldn’t help but think that if he joined a circus, he wouldn’t starve.

Seeing my somewhat positive response, Rai enthusiastically dived back into the pile of jewels.

I returned to my task with equal excitement, happily picking out gems and tossing them into the pot.

The satisfying sound of jewels clinking against the pot!

Ting.

Ting-grr.

“Plop, plop, toss the money in~ Toss in some gold when Maggie’s not looking~ Hehehe.”

“Geenie, I found some cool gems… whoa!”

Maggie, who had appeared at the top of the jewel mountain, waved at me but suddenly slipped and slid down the pile of jewels.

“Ah, Maggie!”

[Sliding down the jewels~ Feeling refreshed~]

Maggie looked like he was truly sledding down the gem pile, but… wait! This isn’t good.

“Rai, do you want to slide too?”

[What? But Master, didn’t you just call me?]

Crash!

While I had turned my attention to Rai, Maggie collided with the cave wall and sprawled out in a starfish pose on the floor.

However, despite the loud crash, Maggie immediately jumped up, clutching the gems tightly, and ran towards me.

“Hehe! Geenie, here… These are the best ones.”

“Maggie, you’re not hurt?”

“Hurt? Why would I be hurt?”

[That kind of thing doesn’t hurt him, Master.]

Oh, right. You’re a dragon, aren’t you?

The ultimate boss monster with unmatched attack and defense power.

Even though he had polymorphed into a dwarf, his genes wouldn’t just disappear.

Rai, of course, was always tough as well.

“Well, as long as you’re not hurt. Now, toss the gems in here.”

“Okay! My mom said this one was really precious. She only had two of them!”

Maggie pointed at a translucent, golden gem.

That probably meant it was expensive, but… what if I got caught later and faced some retribution? Like a breath attack, or… a breath attack… or a breath attack…

The thought sent a sh

iver down my spine.

“This… won’t your mom get mad if you give it to me, Maggie?”

“No, it’s fine! My mom gave it to me, so it’s mine! If I need more, I can just ask her for more.”

“Oh, really? You have such a great mom, Maggie. Haha.”

“Yep! What about your mom, Geenie? Don’t you like her?”

As I admired the pot full of jewels, Maggie suddenly asked.

Mom? What mom?

“Geenie Crowell’s mom?”

“Yeah! Your mom, Geenie!”

“Hmm… I like her, but… I’m not really sure.”

“Why not? She’s your mom! I heard humans are really sticky with their family bonds.”

Sticky, huh…

Should I correct him or just let it slide?

Well, it’s not technically wrong, so I guess it’s fine to leave it.

“Yeah, that’s true, but I don’t really want to see my parents. When I feel like I’m receiving their love, I end up feeling guilty.”

Guilty towards my previous life’s parents.

But who could I confess that to?

I could probably tell someone, but it felt like my mind would cloud over whenever I tried to talk seriously about it. It was like someone inside me was yelling “No!” whenever I thought about revealing that I remembered my past life or that reincarnation existed.

I could gloss over the subject, but if I tried to speak about it earnestly, my mind would go blank.

I wasn’t exactly sure why.

Maybe it was some sort of divine seal?

Perhaps since my death was an accident, I was given a new life, but due to some mistake by the gods or someone else, I retained my memories of the past life. There must be some kind of divine seal preventing me from talking about it.

That was just my personal theory.

What was certain was that I unconsciously avoided making explicit remarks about my past life or reincarnation.

“Who to? A sibling? I have a brother! But my brother hates me.”

“No, I have an older brother and two younger siblings… but they feel… almost like an illusion. Like if I try to reach out to them, they’ll disappear. I was an only child before, so siblings still feel strange to me.”

“Huh? What do you mean? Do you mean you’re not an only child anymore, Geenie?”

“Um… Yeah, that’s right! Anyway, here! Take this. It’s so heavy, Maggie.”

Feeling like I was about to get emotional, I quickly handed the pot over to Maggie as an excuse.

Besides, the pot was heavy since we had filled it with so many gems.

Maggie easily lifted the pot, which was as big as he was, over his head.

“Okay! I’ll carry it. I’m strong!”

[Hmph! Master, I could carry it easily too, once I get a new body!]

Rai, who had just returned with another mouthful of jewels, slithered into the pot as he spoke.

Rai, despite being over 10,000 years old, couldn’t stand watching others be praised in front of him.

“Maggie! Let’s start boiling it once Rai gets in.”

“Boil?”

“Yeah! We’ll boil it until Rai melts away.”

[Wait! Master, before that, please take the mouse out—]

Ignoring Rai’s desperate pleas, Maggie excitedly carried the pot out of the treasure room, and Rai’s pitiful voice quickly faded away.

It had been 20 days since I started taking care of Maggie.

Or rather, should I say it had been 20 days since I was kidnapped?

But honestly, I didn’t feel like I had been kidnapped.

After all, Maggie, who had kidnapped me, was a child—a little scatterbrained at that—and despite being a dragon, he was more of an eccentric dwarf most of the time.

Despite being a dragon, he could only use four spells.

But each of those four spells was so incredibly powerful that he didn’t seem like a complete fool.

“Hmm…”

Thud.

I closed the book I had been reading.

The title was *Goodbye, Dragon.*

It was a deep, profound book about dragons.

It was written in ancient language, but thanks to my education, I had no trouble reading it.

Over the past 20 days, aside from taking care of Maggie and occasionally exploring his treasure room or armory, I had spent all my time in the library.

Maggie’s parents had built the library for him, and it was filled with rare and ancient books. The most recent book was over a thousand years old.

Only a handful of the books were in ancient language; most seemed to be written in languages even older than that, making them impossible to decipher.

I had managed to read about 200 books that were written in ancient language.

Since I had speed-read through the ones with more difficult content, I had already finished them all.

The book I had just closed was the last one I had to read, so now I was out of reading material.

What should I do now?

Should I write a book report or something?

I was seriously contemplating how I would spend the remaining ten days.

I had considered escaping, but according to the book, a promise made with a dragon was equivalent to a soul-binding contract, similar to the contracts made by demons.

Even if the promise had been made verbally without any witnesses, breaking a promise with a dragon would result in the soul being removed from the cycle of reincarnation, disappearing forever.

In other words, it meant the death of the soul, making reincarnation impossible.

Today, on the 20th day of my “kidnapping,” I felt like I was dying of boredom.

Maggie, who was supposed to keep me company, seemed to need Rai more than me, and all I had to do was supply mana.

I could ask to play with them, but if I did, I’d probably get dragged into smelting metal or, if I was lucky, end up cooling down a red-hot sword with Undain.

The worst part was hammering away for hours, striking the metal hundreds of times in just a few hours.

I must have been crazy to agree to that.

“Ugh! I’m so bored!”

I tossed the book I was holding.

I did it thoughtlessly.

Crash!

*Goodbye, Dragon* flew far, crashing right into the stack of books I had neatly piled up.

As the books toppled down, I sighed, watching the mess.

There must have been at least a few hundred books—when would I ever stack them back up again?

I could summon a spirit to help, but asking Undain felt like exploiting a child, and it felt like a waste to use Undine for this.

Ado or Fane might break the books instead of helping, and as for Endairon, there was no point even considering it.

Rai, who I could usually count on to help, seemed to be busy with Maggie, judging by the mana flow.

In the end, I slowly started gathering the books and putting them back on the shelves.

As I was cleaning up, I spotted a book that caught my eye, something that might alleviate my boredom.

**Magic Was the Easiest! (Volume 1)**

A book for novice magic teachers?

It was a book about common magic formulas and how to teach them, written in ancient language. Even though I wasn’t well-versed in magic, it was easy to understand and had drawn me in.

After all, my job is to be a teacher.

And I do have a student who has a knack for magic, even if he’s not particularly good at it yet.

It didn’t matter that the teacher was a spirit summoner and the student was a dragon.

What mattered was that I was bored to death.

I grabbed all three volumes of *Magic Was the Easiest!* and headed out of the library.

I quickly found Maggie hammering away, just as I had expected.

This time, he was diligently working on what looked like armor plates.

Clang!

Clang!

“Maggie!”

[Master~]

Rai, lying next to Maggie, wagged his tail as he ran towards me.

His fur was fluffy, and he was about the size of a calf, currently transformed into a wolf. He sometimes transformed into a fox as well.

It seemed he didn’t like any form besides those two.

He had also tried turning into a bird, but while he could transform, he couldn’t fly.

He only copied appearances, so flying was out of the question.

And even though I had remade his snake form, he refused to transform into a snake anymore.

He also disliked being a mouse.

He had complained endlessly about the plain black mouse form, so I had made it a striped one instead, but he had nearly passed out from shock.

Maybe I should have gone with horizontal stripes instead of vertical?

“Geenie, what’s up?”

After patting Rai on the head, I approached Maggie without turning around.

Clang!

Clang!

“Maggie, don’t you want to create even better weapons and armor?”

Maggie’s hammering stopped.

He glanced up at me, puffing his cheeks in slight dissatisfaction. It was an expression that looked ridiculously out of place on his dwarf-like face.

“Of course I do. That’s why I’m practicing.”

“Hmm, right? But do you know why legendary weapons are considered legendary?”

Maggie nodded confidently.

“Yeah! Because they’re sharper, more beautiful, and have special abilities!”

“Correct! But do you know what those special abilities are?”

“Um… like ego swords! Weapons that have souls!”

I suddenly recalled how Maggie would always talk about breathing life into his creations.

So that’s what you meant, Maggie!

“A soul? Then, do you know how to put a soul into a weapon?”

“Yep! If you hammer it with all your heart, a soul goes into it!”

“…From where?”

“From a book!”

Well, that’s not entirely wrong, but it’s a little off.

“Um… that’s one way, but there’s a faster method to breathe life into a weapon. Do you know what it is?”

“Hmm? Hmm… Hammering it with even more heart?”

What a fool.

You’re making dragons look bad, Maggie.

Don’t ever tell anyone you’re a dragon.

“No! You use magic. If you use magic, you can imbue the weapon with intelligence, or make it self-repair when it’s damaged. If it’s an accessory, you can give it the ability to adjust to its owner’s size.”

“…My mom said something like that too.”

“Well then, do you want to learn magic, Maggie?”

“Nope, not interested.”

Clang!

Clang!

Maggie immediately turned back to his work, shaking his head.

This kid was as stubborn as they came.

“Maggie… come on, learn magic! I’ll teach you! I’m a teacher, you know?”

“I don’t want to learn!”

Even as I held out *Magic Was the Easiest!* Maggie didn’t even glance at it.

This was going to be harder than I thought.

But I had a trump card up my sleeve. Heh.

“Maggie… If you learn magic from me, I’ll let you pick whatever form you want for Rai’s next body.”

“…Really?”

Maggie turned to look at me, clearly tempted.

When we were making Rai’s new body, Maggie had tried to mix in the ogre he had half-eaten, but Rai had nearly fainted at the thought. The pot was too small, so we couldn’t include the ogre, which left Maggie feeling a little miffed.

Maybe that’s why this approach was working.

“Really. As long as you make the pot, I’ll let you decide Rai’s body.”

“…Can I add a dwarf?”

“Sure. If you’re going to add something, might as well add a troll too.”

[Master! Please, don’t say such terrible things…]

Rai, wide-eyed and shaking, tried to stop me with his giant paw, but I completely ignored him.

For once, I was serious about making a proper dragon, and instead of supporting me, he was trying to interfere?

“Everything? Can I put in ten animals?”

I remembered how much mana it had cost when I added four more animals to create the five-form transformation spirit.

It had drained almost all of my mana.

When I had only the snake form, it didn’t require any mana, but adding new forms wasn’t easy.

Even someone like me, who had a large mana pool, had struggled.

“Ten animals? That’s a bit much, don’t you think? How about five… No, let’s do this, Maggie. Every time you master one class of magic, you can add one animal. So, when you master all ten classes, you’ll have added ten animals.”

[Master, what about my opinion?]

Not needed.

“Won’t that take a long time? I might not finish before you die, Geenie.”

“That’s why you need to start now, so we can finish before I die.”

“Wait, Geenie, are you going to die? When?”

“If I knew that, do you think I’d be here? But I’ll probably live for at least another fifty years.”