Chapter 4 – Spirit Envoy and a Fated Encounter

They killed the monster right in front of me with wild, merciless ferocity, not caring in the slightest about the poor child who had just watched his first live execution of a beast.

Then Father walked over, crouched down, and hoisted me onto his back, and my parents started heading home.

“Father… did you hold back your power so the villagers wouldn’t notice what was happening?”

“Yes. We didn’t want to cause a commotion.”

Father and Mother were not the kind of people who liked drawing attention to themselves.

If they chose to support me on my journey one day, they would be an incredible asset.

*******

I lay on my bed, bandaged and exhausted, after Mother used her healing skills on both Father and me.

Thanks to her spells—and my earlier healing—Father wasn’t as badly injured as he could have been.

Most of his wounds had already been erased.

For that, I had to thank the power I’d borrowed from that fox spirit.

Speaking of which…

“Where’s that little fox?”

“I’m right here.”

I flinched at the voice beside me and turned my head.

The fox was floating next to me, staring straight into my eyes.

“Where were you all this time?”

He sighed.

“I used up a lot of my power helping you and your father. I needed to rest.”

“What made you come to me and talk when Father was in danger?”

“Your father is loved by spirits. And you can communicate and bond with us. So I decided to save him… through you.”

Loved by spirits?

Are my parents really that special?

Mother has a rare class as a magical duelist.

Father is a swordsman… and loved by spirits.

In the game, being “beloved by spirits” was basically a divine blessing.

Spirits could protect you or help you without you even noticing.

This one was probably too young to interfere directly.

“I can’t know,” the fox said, “but in the future, I’ll be able to intervene on my own.”

“Can you hear all my thoughts?”

“Yes.”

Wait!!

Can he hear me when I think about the game?

“Yes.”

What did you hear?

“You wondered if I could hear you talking about ‘this world’.”

“This world?"

So he interprets “the game” as “the world.”

Is my mental vocabulary… being translated into something that fits this reality?

Is something filtering my thoughts so I don’t leak my old world directly?

“Did you hear what I just thought right now?”

He shook his head.

“No. I didn’t catch that.”

So… not everything in my mind gets translated to him.

Good.

I can use telepathy with him in the right moments without speaking out loud, and feel safe that other spirits won’t overhear me talking about “the game.”

“Wait a second. There’s something I haven’t focused on yet. What did you mean when you said I can ‘communicate with spirits’?”

It can’t be what I’m thinking.

Surely not.

And yet…

“You can make contracts with spirits, to bond with them and form lasting pacts.”

“Did you not think about that while you were using my power all this time?”

What insane luck…!!

Is this the gift I received to change this world’s fate?!

This class had gone extinct ages ago.

For it to be revived… in me.

What kind of destiny is that?

“So, you’re my companion now, right?”

“Yes. But you’ll need to train much more in sensing spirits and understanding the bond between you and them.”

Right.

Up until now, my handling of him had been chaos at best.

I wasn’t really using his magic or abilities.

All I ever did was borrow raw energy whenever I needed support.

But if I can truly understand this class…

I’ll become someone who isn’t easily defeated.

The Spirit Envoy.

A specialization that had vanished so long ago, the world believed it would never appear again.

But now it has been reborn—in me.

I’m learning the sword, energy control, magic… and now, spiritual communion.

Am I dreaming?

*********

By then, evening had fallen.

Father and Mother were sitting on their bed, talking about what had happened that day.

“What do you think of our little one, dear?”

Mother didn’t answer at first. She stayed quiet for a while.

“I’m very worried about him.”

Father saw the worry on her face, mirroring his own.

He, too, had watched his son in danger and had been unable to do anything about it.

“But we can’t let what happened today destroy what we planned for him.”

Before Mother could protest, he continued.

“What happened today only made me more determined to make him stronger.”

“When I wasn’t able to protect him, I realized something: there will be times when we simply cannot be there for him. How could we leave him weak and helpless in a world like this?”

Mother tried to digest his words.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know he was right.

It was that her heart was still clenched tight with fear for me.

“What are you planning to do, then?”

“We’re going to train him properly and prepare him until he turns fifteen. Then we’ll send him to the prestigious Cyber Academy.”

Mother blinked in surprise, then her expression hardened into refusal.

Father sighed and went on, explaining:

“I know you’re worried about what my family might do, and about all the rumors they’ve spread about you and me.”

“But he has to face that reality someday. He needs to know what’s being plotted around him.”

“If we keep him in his shell, he’ll grow up ignorant and naive, and his talent will rot away in the gutter.”

At first, Mother didn’t want to agree at all.

But deep down, she knew she had to put aside her maternal instincts for her son’s sake.

So she accepted Father’s proposal, and from that moment, they decided to prepare me for the Academy.

*********

(Five years later)

I was practicing swordsmanship, going through the forms and drills Father and Mother had taught me in recent months.

In my spare time, I trained with the fox spirit, trying to understand how to interact with spirits and how to borrow their power properly.

My swordsmanship had improved greatly.

My understanding of magic and energy—how to gather and use them—had climbed to a new level.

A magical duelist uses both energy and magic to enhance attacks and defense, as well as certain sword-based skills, and can also learn some basic support abilities like the healing spell I’d learned from Mother.

A normal swordsman, by contrast, focuses on sword skills and strengthening the body through constant training, using internal energy as “aura.”

I was fortunate that Father was skilled with almost every kind of weapon.

Because of that, I’d trained with many different weapons—an advantage very few swordsmen could claim.

Most likely, he gained that breadth from his noble family background.

Nothing “big” had happened in the past few years beyond the intensity of my training after that incident.

I still hadn’t told them about my specialization.

I didn’t know how they would react to learning that an extinct class had been reborn in their only son.

In the game, a Spirit Envoy was the natural enemy of the Malum.

They could harm the Malum directly without injuring the host, and even purify them.

Two sides of the same coin.

If I made full use of this, my chances of success would rise dramatically.

But to get there, I needed precise control, a deep understanding of the class, and insight into the nature of spirits.

I still had a long road ahead.

“What are you going to do about that girl who’s been watching you lately from behind that tree?”

The fox broke into my thoughts, reminding me of something that had been bothering me.

A girl had been standing behind the same tree every day, watching me train at this exact time.

I didn’t know when she first started appearing, but I’d only begun to consciously notice her recently.

She would watch for a while, then head back to the village once I finished.

I didn’t understand.

Didn’t she have friends?

She looked about my age, with long black hair and an angelic, innocent face.

Of course, Mother was far more beautiful—but what drew my attention was the girl’s calm, gentle features.

Still, every time she came, I noticed dirt on her clothes and small bruises on her arms, as if she’d been fighting before arriving.

Don’t tell me she’s been trying to imitate my training and ends up getting hurt…?

“I don’t know, White.”

The fox blinked.

“White? Did you just name me on your own?”

“I chose it because of your white fur.”

He sighed and gave me a look that, if I had to translate, probably meant, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Despite his small size, the fox had a sharp mind and a deep understanding of things.

That’s why I often called him “the strange one.”

But if I think about it, he could easily be a spirit that has lived for hundreds of years.

Nothing about his insight would be surprising then.

“I’ll let it slide this time. But if you want to give me a name, you could at least ask. I already have one.”

I stared at him.

He already had a name?

Had he lived with previous tamers before and gotten it from them?

Curiosity gnawed at me until I finally asked:

“What’s your name, then?”

“My name is Ventus.”

“And who gave it to you?”

He looked at me in silence for a few seconds.

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

I could feel that he really didn’t want to go there, so I respected it and dropped the subject.

“The important thing right now is figuring out what that girl wants. There’s no point pretending not to notice her forever.”

I had wanted to avoid interacting with anyone for a while because I still didn’t fully understand how events would unfold in this place.

But it seemed I would have to take a small risk.

“Hey, you.”

The girl flinched and tried to hide behind the tree.

I walked toward her until I reached it, even though she was still “pretending” she was invisible.

“I know you’re behind the tree. Come out and talk to me.”

She stepped out slowly, reluctantly, her face red with embarrassment and tension.

That was natural for a girl who had been hiding every day, hoping I wouldn’t notice her.

Her hair was long, straight, and black, and her eyes were a brilliant red, gleaming like crimson jewels.

There was dust on her clothes and faint bruises on her hands.

“What makes you always hide behind that tree and watch me train?”

She started rubbing her hands together, clearly trying to figure out what to say without embarrassing herself.

I tried not to be fooled by her mannerisms, but she didn’t give off a threatening vibe.

“I… liked your daily training, so I got drawn to it. I enjoyed watching you practice.”

She was probably telling the truth.

What do you think, Ventus?

“She isn’t lying one bit.”

Are you reading her mind? Or do you have some kind of lie-detection skill?

“Instinct.”

Instinct? What’s that supposed to mean?

“It’s something you develop after dealing with all kinds of humans and living through hundreds of years of experiences.”

If you put it that way, I’ll trust your judgment.

No harm in inviting her, then.

“If you like watching my training, why don’t you come and sit here instead of standing all the way back there?”

Her eyes sparkled the moment she heard my offer, as if I’d just handed her a precious gift she’d never dreamed of receiving.

This girl really was… angelic.

“If… if you don’t mind, then… okay.”

From the way she fidgeted and how her cheeks turned red, it was obvious she was still nervous around me, but she was trying.

That alone deserved praise.

*********

I went back to training and tried to wrap some energy around the wooden sword.

It worked reasonably well, though far from perfect.

It wasn’t going to be easy.

Covering your body or weapon with energy or magic requires a deep understanding of spiritual energy and magic.

In this world, a magical duelist draws magic from the natural energy present in inanimate objects and plants—the essence of nature itself.

A normal swordsman relies primarily on internal energy and physical conditioning.

That internal energy is called “aura.”

Father hadn’t used his aura fully in that last battle.

The amount he used was just enough to coat his body so he could harm the beast and withstand its blows.

The final source of power is spiritual energy, borrowed from the wandering spirits scattered throughout this world.

People now simply call it “energy,” without mentioning its origin as remnants of spirits—

Not since communication with spirits became impossible after the era of the Spirit Envoys ended.

That’s what Mother had been referring to when she trained me in magic.

You can feel it as a faint, scattered presence when you reach out for magic.

“Is that what you just used… that ‘magic’ you wrapped around your sword?”

Ah. I forgot she was there.

“Yes. I was trying to coat my sword with it.”

“Hmm…”

What is she thinking?

Does she want to learn it?

“Is that magic… those pale, glowing orbs that float in the air?”

That’s it. Magic.

Can she sense it?

“Yes! Have you tried using it before?”

She shook her head, then raised her hand, palm facing upward.

“I just… see them circling me when I close my eyes.”

This girl is a future mage, no doubt.

To sense energy and magic unconsciously without effort means she’ll be able to reach a level of understanding where she can shape magic itself and create new spells.

“I could ask my mother to help you understand this magic and learn how to use it. If you can sense it, you can use it.”

Her whole face lit up at my words, her eyes sparkling again as she looked at me with excitement.

“Really?! Is that okay?!”

“Yes. But Mother won’t help much with advanced spells—she’s not a mage.”

“That’s fine! As long as she helps me take my first step.”

She could become a valuable ally in the future if she develops herself properly.

Just then, Mother came out to call me in for lunch.

“Oh? Who’s this girl, Ed? Is she your friend?”

“Uh… she used to stand far away and watch me train, so I told her she could sit here and watch instead.”

Mother examined the girl closely.

The girl was too shy and nervous to speak under Mother’s gaze.

“She has good eyes.”

“What? What do you mean, Mother?”

Mother took the girl by the hand and started gently pulling her toward the house.

The girl followed without resistance.

“She’ll eat lunch with us. You too, Ed. Come on.”

“Uh… okay.”

What are you thinking, Mother?

We sat at the table and began eating.

Father and Mother started talking with the girl, learning more about her, but I didn’t pay much attention.

My mind was busy thinking about how to accelerate my training, how to combine aura with the powers I already had.

To wield magic and aura, while my primary strength was spirit energy…

That was a treasure beyond measure—a golden opportunity.

I suspected my ability to sense and attract magic was thanks to being their son.

And I was sure I had aura as well; I just needed to focus on it.

Maybe magic and aura wouldn’t be my main pillars and would only act as support to my core specialization, but they would still be a huge help in the future.

“Why don’t you eat your lunch in silence?”

Right. I’d forgotten Ventus could hear my thoughts.

“Sorry. I’ll focus on my food.”

“Good.”

I have to get stronger quickly.

Only then can I tell them I want to enroll in Cyber Academy.

Ventus sighed, and I realized I’d sunk back into my thoughts again.

I shut my mind up and focused on eating.

**********

We didn’t notice the time passing, and the sun began to set.

The girl had to go home, and I took the chance to ask Mother to teach her magic.

Mother told me that the girl had already mentioned my offer during lunch, and they had agreed to start her lessons the next day.

It seemed I’d been so deep in my own head that I’d missed half the conversation.

At least the girl was trying her best to overcome her shyness.

“Thank you for today.”

She thanked us with genuine gratitude, and it stirred a warm feeling inside me that I quite liked.

I thanked her back, saying I’d enjoyed the time with her as well.

As usual, she received my kind words like unexpected gifts falling from the sky—

Her eyes always sparkled whenever she heard something nice from me.

“Don’t be late tomorrow for our training, so I can teach you alongside Ed.”

The girl nodded, then asked to be excused.

Mother and I watched her walk away, little by little, back toward the village.

“Ah… I forgot to ask her name.”

Mother looked at me in disbelief.

“She told us her name during lunch. Were you in another world or what?”

I sighed.

It seemed I’d been ignoring a lot of important details.

“What was her name, then?”

“Alright, let’s go inside.”

Did I hear that right?!

The name hit me like a thunderbolt.

“She said her name was… Lina. Lina Adolf.”

“…”

“Alright, let’s go inside.”

Did I hear that right?!

The name hit me like a thunderbolt.

My face froze in shock and tension I’d never felt before.

This is impossible.

Lina?

Lina Adolf?

The first enemy I’m destined to face at the Academy…

The one I have to kill!!!

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