Chapter 47
Rael had thought only of earth spirits from the very beginning.
Since Rael had always lived in fear of monster attacks, defense was the top priority.
Rael believed that only after he and his family were safe could he fight with peace of mind.
Some said offense was the best defense, but people who had done nothing but farm were not accustomed to attacking.
‘Like the lord, I’ll build a sturdy wall too. A solid, high wall that no monster would dare climb! So make a contract with me, earth spirits!’
In his heart, he wanted Noim, an intermediate earth spirit.
He thought he needed at least that level to build a wall comparable to the one Jade had made.
He would build new houses for his family while he was at it.
But despite his earnest wish, he sensed absolutely nothing through any of his five senses.
‘Huh? This isn’t right. Is it because I’m not earnest enough?’
Rael looked flustered for a moment.
Even with his eyes closed, Rael’s feelings were plainly visible on his face.
But Rael did not give up.
Instead, Rael concentrated even harder and called for a gnome.
‘Come! Come quickly! Come to me, gnome!’
Rael focused especially on the sensation beneath his feet.
Since it was an earth spirit, Rael thought it would respond through the feet touching the ground.
But no matter how desperately Rael called for a gnome, he felt nothing in his feet.
Instead, he felt heat near his face.
‘It’s still morning, so the sunlight shouldn’t be hot.’
Fwoosh!
The heat grew even more intense as Rael desperately tried to deny the sensation.
It was a searing heat, as if telling Rael not to deny what he was feeling.
“……Is that you?”
-Grrrrr.
Unlike the sensation in his arms and legs, the blazing heat in his face made Rael open his eyes with an uneasy expression.
Rael wore an expression strikingly similar to that of the salamander floating in midair.
“Oh! It’s a salamander!”
“A fire spirit!”
“Amazing!”
Since everyone possessed at least a certain degree of spirit affinity, they could all see the salamander.
A small lizard wreathed in flames.
But unlike his cheering friends and younger siblings, Rael’s expression was not very pleasant.
Rael could not hide his disappointment when a salamander appeared instead of the gnome he wanted.
-Hehehehe! Look at Rael’s face!
-The salamander must be offended. It answered the summons and came all the way to the middle realm, after all.
Seeing Rael and the salamander glaring at each other with displeasure, Celestin lay back in midair and burst into laughter.
The sight alone was enough to make Celestin howl with laughter.
“Haa……”
As if Celestin’s antics were visible, Rael let out a deep sigh.
Rael felt stifled at the sight of the salamander instead of the gnome he had wanted so badly.
Even so, Rael did not send the salamander back.
It was disappointing that his first spirit was not a gnome, but he still had opportunities.
“Want to make a contract?”
-Grrr.
The salamander approached with an expression just as awkward as Rael’s.
It then lazily tapped Rael’s hand with its forepaw and immediately returned to the spirit realm.
It had made the contract and vanished.
‘I’ll try again!’
Rael’s eyes sparkled.
Even though things had not gone as he had hoped, Rael chose to think positively.
At least Rael had achieved his minimum goal.
Since he still had mana left, Rael tried again.
‘This time, I absolutely have to get a gnome……!’
As Rael squeezed his eyes shut and focused on his five senses, Jade turned around.
Since Rael had made a contract with the salamander, Jade wanted to help the next child.
“Who wants to go next?”
“I will!”
“Don’t get greedy. Making a contract is already a success.”
Jade glanced over at Rael, who was trying again.
A reasonable amount of ambition was helpful for self-improvement.
Besides, Rael’s talent was among the best of the children’s, so Jade left Rael alone for the time being.
Jade knew Rael still had mana to spare.
‘Rael might be able to make one more contract. Though it probably won’t be with an earth spirit.’
Jade knew what kind of spirit Rael wanted; he had seen Rael staring intently at the gnome Farzali had contracted.
But the problem was that what one wanted and one’s talent were usually different things.
-I suppose working hard might make even a gnome possible.
-The problem is that that’s as far as it goes.
-That’s why people suffer, isn’t it?
Elestra gave a faint snort of laughter.
She had seen far too many people fall after becoming frustrated by their lack of talent.
That was why Elestra looked at Rael, who was gritting his teeth and concentrating, with a slightly pitying gaze.
Jade entered the beastkin village, which by then had begun to look like a proper village.
Whid was still cradled in his arms, but unlike when Jade watched from the villa, Whid now looked around with bright, sparkling eyes.
-It’s definitely built differently from the humans’ settlements.
-Beastkin are a half-human, half-beast race. Neither human nor monster, they exist along an ambiguous boundary.
Unlike Baden Village, which was surrounded by high walls, the beastkin village was completely open.
It did have walls, but they were quite low.
It felt as if they had chosen visibility over defense.
“Welcome, Master.”
“Master? Just call me Lord.”
“But……”
Pent, the chief of the Elephant Tribe, trailed off.
Pent felt that he could not simply call Jade “Lord” after Jade had given the tribe land and provided it with food.
Besides, since the two of them were bound by a formal contractual relationship, Pent believed he had to show complete loyalty.
That was the only way Jade would protect the Elephant Tribe.
“The title isn’t important.”
“Understood.”
“I hear some newcomers have arrived?”
“Yes. Everyone is waiting for you, Lord.”
“Let’s go right away.”
The Elephant Tribe were not the only beastkin being pursued by the werewolves.
So the fleeing beastkin naturally made their way here.
Once word spread that Pent had come under Jade’s command, they began gathering one by one.
Of course, they all knew at least something about Jade.
“I’ll escort you.”
Kkyu-kkyu-kkyu!
At the mention of the new beastkin, Whid’s eyes sparkled.
The baby’s characteristic curiosity had been piqued.
“Hello!”
“Please try this, Lord! It’s fruit we picked this morning!”
As soon as Jade began walking down the street behind Pent, the beastkin women began handing him various things.
They carefully offered him bite-sized foods, from simple snacks to fruit and so on.
Of course, they gave Whid quite a lot as well.
Kkyuuuuu!
Whid never refused food, so he popped everything the Elephant Beastkin gave him into his mouth.
Meat was his favorite, but that did not mean he disliked fruit or grass.
Since Whid was not picky, he cheerfully stuffed whatever he was given into his mouth.
-He seems to be getting a potbelly lately.
-It’s fine. Our Whid is cute. Potbellies are part of a baby’s charm. You can’t even see it when he grows huge.
Unlike Elestra, who wore a worried expression, Celestin looked ready to die from cuteness at the sight of Whid eating so happily.
It was true that Whid ate a lot, but babies grew better when they ate a little more than too little.
Besides, all that eating had never given Whid an upset stomach.
“We’ve arrived. Please go in.”
“All right.”
While Whid was munching on snacks, Jade arrived at Pent’s house.
It had a peculiar appearance, as if a hut and a Mongolian ger had been combined, but the inside was surprisingly cozy.
Swish!
When Jade entered, the people seated around the round table in the center hurriedly rose to their feet.
But their auras varied greatly.
Their first impressions differed as well.
Yet the way they looked at Jade was the same.
“The lord is here.”
Seeing that none of them could hide their astonishment, Pent smiled faintly.
Pent understood them completely, having felt that shock himself first.
Especially since Jade was not making any particular effort to hide his presence now, it was even easier to sense him.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jade. Let’s sit down first.”
The three men and one woman were startled by Jade’s aura and then doubly startled by Whid in his arms, after which they awkwardly took their seats.
Meanwhile, Pent’s wife brought them something to drink.
Unlike the four, who still could not hide their astonishment, she wore a relaxed expression.
“This is a traditional tea we often drink. Please try it, Lord.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.”
Pent’s wife smiled and offered a polite greeting before withdrawing.
She had tactfully stepped away to let them talk comfortably.
“Allow me to briefly introduce them, Lord. Starting from this side, they are the chiefs leading the Lion, Tiger, Fox, and Monkey Tribes.”
“Isn’t that a little too vague?”
“There’s no need for the lord to know the name of the White Lion Tribe as well.”
“Hng!”
A young man with lustrous white hair, strikingly different from an old man’s white hair, groaned at Pent’s firm words.
But since Pent was not wrong, he could not argue.
Jade was human and the lord of a marquisate; there was no real need for Jade to know such details.
“I am Tyler of the Valiant Red Tiger Tribe, Lord.”
“I’m Fenil of the Blue Fox Tribe.”
“I’m Moike of the Rocky Mountain Monkey Tribe. It is an honor to meet you, Lord.”
Unlike usual, all four obediently introduced themselves.
Raul of the White Lion Tribe and Tyler of the Valiant Red Tiger Tribe, in particular, were known for their lofty pride, yet they sat meekly.
Overwhelmed by the aura naturally emanating from Jade, they stayed as still as docile cats.
“I’m Jade Kang. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Thank you for making time for us.”
Unlike their attitude toward Pent, the four treated Jade with utmost courtesy.
Fenil of the Fox Tribe, in particular, stared at Jade with eyes full of curiosity.
The spirit arts were one thing, but Fenil was fascinated by Whid, who sat docilely in Jade’s arms.
Every drake Fenil had ever seen had been an utterly ferocious creature, yet the gold drake in Jade’s arms strangely looked so well-behaved.
“I heard you were raising a gold drake hatchling, but it’s amazing to see it in person. I can’t believe it’s sitting so obediently in a human’s arms.”
“He’s much larger in his true form. Of course, he’s still small compared with a fully grown drake, but he’s bigger than most beastkin. Naturally, he’s bigger than you too.”
“I heard the story about you wiping out the Wolf Tribe’s pursuit team. They didn’t stand a chance at all.”
“He’s incredibly strong for someone barely over a year old.”
“One year old?”
Fenil and the other three were all greatly surprised.
They could not believe Whid was only a little over a year old.
What was more, Whid’s opponents had not been foolish lycanthropes, but intelligent werewolves.
The four were utterly shocked when they heard that Whid, barely a year old, had slaughtered them all.
Grrrrr.
With four pairs of disbelieving eyes fixed on him, Whid put on an extremely haughty expression.
As if to say that Whid was that impressive.
But even so, to Jade and the two spirits, Whid still looked like a baby.
“Stop showing off.”
Mrrr.
Whid closed his eyes while Jade stroked his head.
Whid was savoring the warmth of the touch.
“Are there several tribes? Rather than a single tribe?”
“Unlike our Elephant Tribe, the other tribes are divided into large and small groups. You can think of them as being similar to the orcs, for example.”
“There is also a Lion Tribe that joined the unified Wolf Tribe. I’ve seen a Bear Tribe too, though it isn’t here. Their numbers are small, but they probably surrendered in humiliation.”