Ch. 290
“Yes, anything.”
“It’s certainly a tempting word.”
“As you may have noticed, our shop isn’t your common general store. That’s why we don’t let just anyone in.
Didn’t I tell you? We choose our customers. We have rather strict standards… It’s my job to decide whether someone is worthy of buying our wares, and you have the right qualifications.”
I wasn’t one to deliberate for long.
I set aside my conflict and took a step inside. As I went deeper, I took in, with my whole body, just how gloomy and melancholic this shop’s atmosphere was.
The closer I got to the old woman, the more goosebumps crawled up my spine, as if a knife were pressed to my throat, but strangely enough, it felt good.
The shop had an unprecedentedly dangerous feel to it, but that couldn’t instill fear in me. When faced with danger, I was the type who felt more comfortable charging in than running away.
Standing directly in front of the old woman, I raised the corners of my mouth.
“I can see you’re very good at sales… so how about you show me something that will satisfy me.”
“Hoh hoh, what is it that the customer desires?”
“The most precious thing in this shop!”
“The most precious thing, you say. What is your standard for ‘precious’?”
“…The selling price?”
“There are items for which the price is whatever I call it, so that would be meaningless. Your request is too broad.”
“Hmm, then the item that would feel most precious to a Spirit Mage.”
This old woman had a truly wicked smile.
A normal customer would have run away before even seeing that smile, and I could guarantee that even if they stayed out of curiosity, they’d faint on the spot upon witnessing it.
From the monster heads hanging on the walls, the shop was full of creepy corners—to the point that I would’ve believed it if someone told me there was a pile of corpses out the back door.
“That would be an old tome. Ancient books related to Spirits… Spirit Mages have always been thirsty for knowledge ever since they lost their roots.”
“You know quite a lot, don’t you?”
“Knowing a lot is power in itself. What you don’t know becomes a weakness.”
“Then by any chance, do you know… a surefire way for a Spirit Mage to beat a swordsman?”
I didn’t ask with high expectations.
It was just that this old woman had a face that looked like she knew everything, and this was a nation of Spirit Mages. And one can always learn from their elders.
“I do.”
“…Really?”
“There’s a grimoire with some useful content. Content you might be interested in. Would you like to see it?”
“Wait, after all that sales talk, it’s just a book?”
There wasn’t a single book available on the market that I hadn’t read.
I was someone who loathed studying, but there was something I loathed even more: the filthy feeling of not being able to beat Rovenin.
“Look here, young lady. There is nothing as priceless as knowledge. Since you’re still young…”
“I think there is.”
“And what is that?”
“One’s life.”
The old woman kept trying to teach me whenever she had the chance. But I wasn’t such an easy person.
Those who try to teach me shall follow in the footsteps of Master Yael.
“You’re just like I was when I was young.”
“Hah, I see you must have had a line of followers just like me, Grandma.”
“I had many enemies, and many followers, just like you.”
“That’s just like m—huh?”
What’s with this old woman? Does she know who I am?
She was talking as if she knew I was Geenie Crowell. My eyes naturally narrowed.
My coming here was pure coincidence.
I’d gotten lost and simply walked wherever my feet took me.
Even as I thought there was no way she could know my identity, once the suspicion took root, I couldn’t take my eyes off the old woman.
“Wait just a moment. I’ll bring the book.”
“…”
“You’re the first customer this is suited for. It’s finally meeting its owner.”
Her body, which at a glance looked old and withered, moved with light, swift steps, and the hands that brought the book and placed it on the table looked much younger than her face.
At her age, her hands should be covered in wrinkles, so could that face… be makeup?
[Rai, if this old woman tries anything even slightly suspicious, bite her.]
[Grrr!]
[You can kill her.]
“Did you know? There are surprisingly many types of Spirits.”
“…I know that?”
I was so distracted by the old woman’s increasingly suspicious behavior that I wasn’t paying any attention to the book.
“Then you must also know about the Spirit of Illusion.”
Why was that coming up here?
Only then did I tear my eyes away from the old woman’s face and look down at the book.
「Regarding the History and Value of Non-elemental Spirits, and How to Summon One of Them, the Spirit of Illusion」
“The reason it’s hard for a Spirit Mage to beat a swordsman is because their movements are different, but if you have this Spirit… you’ll be able to deceive the swordsman’s eyes, and it will be a different story.”
“…This, how do you have this?”
“Do you like it? Hoh hoh, I thought you would. There are ways to acquire such things.”
“You stole it from somewhere!”
“Stole it! Such harsh words!”
My eyes automatically fixed on the cover, which had only the title written on it.
This was not something that should be in a mere general store.
The Spirit of Illusion was one of the mental-type Spirits, said to be the rarest and most precious even among the non-elemental Spirits.
As its name suggests, it has the power to show illusions, and it was said that ancient Spirit Mages had differing opinions on whether to classify this being as a mental-type Spirit or a material-type Spirit.
The reason was that while previously discovered mental-type Spirits were types that directly affected the mind, like joy, fear, and sadness, the Spirit of Illusion, which showed ‘mere illusions,’ was ambiguous.
The controversy came to an end when the power of the Spirit of Illusion was revealed to the academy.
The Spirit of Illusion didn’t just stop at showing illusions; it went so far as to show what the enemy feared most.
The ability to draw out an inner fear that no other person could possibly know proved that the Spirit of Illusion directly interfered with the human mind, and the academy recognized the Spirit of Illusion as a ‘precious being,’ a mental-type Spirit.
I remembered it clearly because it was one of the few documents I had read with great interest.
“Then, why! Is this! Here! Ma’am!”
“I’ll tell you if you buy it.”
“How do I know if this is real! Ma’am!”
“My, it seems informal speech is stuck to your tongue, young lady.”
I’d lived as a noble for too long.
It had been a while since I used honorifics… and even though this was a world where rank was determined by status over age, I did know how to respect my elders.
I calmed my excitement by lightly clearing my throat.
“Ahem, if its origin is clear and it’s certain to be real, I’ll buy it for any price.”
To know if it was real, I first needed to examine the book closely.
As I reached to pick up the book, the old woman slapped the back of my hand with a loud smack.
I was startled that the speed of her strike easily surpassed my reflexes, and it hurt enough that I reflexively growled.
“Kagh!”
“I only hit you lightly, what a baby. Viewing is not free.”
“What? Isn’t this old woman a complete highway robber! Ma’am!”
“One page is 1 Silver. Look at ten, and one is free.”
I gestured for Rai, who was growling along with me, to back down.
The old woman looked serious, as if she really intended to take my money.
“Ha, you want me to pay to look when I don’t even know if it’s real?”
“You know best how precious this item is, don’t you? I can’t just let you see it for free. A book is an item whose value is half taken once it’s read.”
“Look here, Grandma. Don’t I have to flip through it a bit to know if it’s real or fake before I can decide whether to pay or not? Huh?”
“Then don’t look.”
The old woman tried to take the book back.
“Ahem, don’t you know you have to hear a person out to the end? I’ll look. Here, 1 Gold.”
‘Damn it, I’m the one who’s desperate.’
‘What a filthy world. How sad would it be if I didn’t even have money?’
Only after generously handing over 1 Gold was I able to receive the book. Strangely, only the title was written on the cover, with no author’s name.
The fact that it was written in the common tongue, not the Ancient Language, only allowed me to guess that it wasn’t a very old book.
「A Spirit Mage is born a Spirit Mage, and dies a Spirit Mage.」
The first page consisted of just that one line.
‘Isn’t this a preface I’ve seen somewhere before?’
I’d read so many books about Spirits that I felt a momentary sense of déjà vu, but for now, I turned to the next page.
「I have spent my entire life searching for the lost non-elemental Spirit Formations. And here, I leave all the information I have obtained. In the hope that it will help future generations…」
‘Thank you, nameless senior!’
This book was incredibly precious because Spirit Mages like me who were interested in non-elemental Spirits were extremely rare.
These days, the number of Spirit Mages itself was small, so they were already overwhelmed with just researching the four great elemental Spirits and honing their skills.
The book wasn’t very thick, so it seemed I could skim through it quickly. I flipped the pages rapidly, searching for the content I wanted.
「I found out that there were nine non-elemental Spirit Formations created initially, but I failed to specify their exact types and whereabouts. I was only able to find the whereabouts of seven Spirit Formations.」
‘I love you, senior… You found three more than I did?’
I was so overjoyed I wanted to wave a glow stick.
I didn’t know who the author was, but I could tell they’d researched non-elemental Spirit Formations with a tremendous sense of mission.
For a while, the book rambled on, explaining the value of non-elemental Spirit Formations and the purpose of finding them, and I skimmed over that part.
Loving it was one thing, not wanting to read it was another.
‘Get to the point!’
「The part I focused on after the whereabouts of the Spirit Formations was the types of non-elemental Spirit Formations created at that time. The reason the types are not clearly known is that the research itself was concluded unfinished at the time, and as the leaders who participated in the research scattered and the Spirit Council collapsed, all important information was lost.」
Almost at the end, content that piqued my interest began to appear.
I was so focused on the book—to a degree that surprised even myself—that I was on the verge of forgetting to breathe.
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