The Tetra Territory had, in fact, long suffered from frequent earthquakes.
However, the earthquake that occurred around this time before the regression was on a completely different scale from those of the past.
It was a massive quake that not only brought down civilian homes but even toppled sturdy fortress walls, split the earth, and collapsed mountains.
Ten percent of the territory’s population lost their lives, and the number of injured and the property damage were beyond measure.
It was a disaster so devastating that people said the Tetra Territory had been set back twenty years.
“Are you saying you’re going to stop that? No matter how much of a Hero you are, how do you plan to do that?”
‘I never said I’d stop it.’
“Huh?”
‘It’s not a man-made earthquake caused by magic. How can humans stop a natural disaster?’
“Then?”‘I plan to give a warning. Play the role of a prophet, you could say.’
I intend to make a grand public declaration in my name that an earthquake is coming, and encourage evacuation.
At first, it’ll earn me resentment, but once the real quake hits, that resentment will turn straight into fame.
And if we can reduce damage with Neril’s magic or Xenia’s sorcery, even better.
‘The only problem is…’
After a moment of silence, I spoke.
“Does anyone here know anything about spirit summoners?”
At that, everyone looked around at each other.
Adwin spoke up.
“Hoho. A spirit summoner—now that’s a nostalgic name. You must be talking about Magna Neros, one of the members of the first Hero’s party, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right, but what’s with your tone all of a sudden?”
“Memories always call us back to the past. A sentiment the ignorant could never—why, what is it?”
By the time he realized it, Xenia was gripping Adwin’s shoulder.
She pulled him toward the back of the carriage and said,
“You held it in well these past few days. Let’s have a quick chat in the back, just the two of us.”
“Haha, let go. I never gave permission to touch me—hey, that hurts, you know?”
While Xenia pulled Adwin away for a talk, Neril opened her mouth.
“A spirit summoner isn’t something you can really call a profession. Aside from Magna Neros, the hero from the first Hero’s party, there’s never been another one.”
She was right.
Unlike priests, clerics, necromancers, or mercenaries, a spirit summoner isn’t a profession.
The only person in history who revealed the existence of spirits to the world and manipulated them in wondrous harmony was Magna Neros, the hero of the first Hero’s party.
But soon the world would know.
The name of the second spirit summoner.
‘Lisel Vint.’
The first companion Kaeld recruited—someone who only ever looked at Kaeld—she was such an exceptional spirit summoner that people called her the reincarnation of Magna Neros.
I slowly spoke.
“There’s a spirit summoner in Kaeld’s party.”
“……!”
“And a spirit summoner is someone who can command the beings known as spirits that dwell in nature. There’s no record of how it’s possible, though.”
“……”
“If it’s Lisel, she could probably stop the earthquake in Tetra Territory.”
Neril, as well as Xenia and Adwin who had just finished their chat, all looked grim at that.
“Stopping an earthquake… is that even possible with human power?”
“Spirit summoners are extremely specialized in preventing or altering natural phenomena.”
“……If that’s true, then we’re in trouble. None of the sorcery I know, and none of Neril’s magic either, could manage that.”
Neril frowned.
“My elemental erasure magic might offer a bit of hope. Iori originally developed it to prevent floods, another type of natural disaster.”
“That’s literally a magic that deletes things. What if you delete the ground trying to stop an earthquake? Where are the people going to live after that?”
“Hmph. You suddenly got smart.”
“I’ve always been smart, thank you very much.”
Indeed, Xenia had a point.
If we only compared raw combat power, our side was basically ahead—even considering Offense was practically on our side too.
But this time, the battlefield favoured them far too much.
‘What are we supposed to do about this?’
I held my aching head.
But then, a good idea struck me.
Right. Among the four of us, none of us are spirit summoners.
But we do have someone who can summon a spirit summoner’s soul!
“Adwin.”
“Yes?”
“Can you summon the soul of the first spirit summoner, Magna Neros?”
Everyone’s face brightened at my question.
Xenia clapped her hands.
“That’s it! If it’s Magna’s soul, it could stop the earthquake. Even more reliably than that Lisel person.”
“More reliably—I’m not sure about that, but it should be possible.”
“Oh? You seem to think very highly of Lisel, Mr. Mide. Even though you’ve never met her.”
“Well, anyway. What do you think, Adwin?”
Adwin didn’t answer.
He was already chanting, opening the gates of the underworld.
So impatient.
I smirked and waited leisurely for his response.
Whoosh.
A breeze stirred inside the carriage.
Adwin’s sleeves rolled, the runes etched on his body glowing.
And then, after a moment—
He slowly opened his eyes and said:
“Uh, there’s no soul.”
Adwin searched every corner of the underworld until we arrived in the Tetra Territory.
By the end, he was so exhausted Xenia had to nurse him.
“Hahh, hahh…”
“That’s enough. You’ve done what you could.”
“But… this could’ve been my first real contribution to the party.”
He slumped his shoulders, disheartened.
Xenia patted his back and said,
“First time? Have you forgotten already when you separated Lepia’s soul?”
“But that was…”
“If it weren’t for you back then, we would’ve lost everything. We’re all incredibly grateful to you.”
As she said that, she looked to Neril and me.
We each responded.
“Of course.”
“I’ll say thank you for now.”
Adwin’s face brightened a little.
Sniffling, he said,
“But this really is the first time something like this has happened. I can understand if a soul doesn’t respond to my summons. But not being able to find the soul at all…”
“……”
“One possibility is that the soul itself was destroyed.”
I nodded.
“The first Demon King was the Demon King of Destruction, after all.”
“There’s still no record of even him being able to destroy souls, though. And Magna survived after killing the Demon King. He must’ve lived for quite a while afterward.”
“It’s a mistake to think every detail made it into the records. A lot wasn’t written down or was recorded incorrectly.”
“Whew… Anyway, I’m sorry. Again.”
I smiled wryly and reassured him.
“It’s not your fault, so don’t apologize. We’ll find another way.”
Neril asked,
“To counter spirit summoner Lisel, don’t we need a spirit summoner too? What other way is there?”
As if in response to her words, Trail suddenly jumped.
[Did someone call me!]
‘No.’
[Well, if you called, I guess I have no choice but to help!]
I let out a deep sigh.
I hated how smug he was getting, but at this point, there really was no other option.
If we couldn’t borrow Magna’s power, then we’d have to stop Lisel from using spirit magic.
Which meant we needed to uncover her secrets.
I tried to recall the blood script name above Lisel’s head from before the regression.
[You remember it?]
‘I might not remember every blood-script, but at least the ones who were at the top of the list. And Lisel had only sinned against five or six people.’
[She was a good person, huh.]
‘Yeah. Truly.’
[So what was the top name on her blood script?]
‘Ah. Derman O’Neill. Show me the secret between Derman O’Neill and Lisel Vint.’
[Got it.]
<You have used the Eye of Omniscience.>
<The current level of the Eye of Omniscience is 3. Secrets of up to B-rank are viewable.>
<The selected condition is ‘The secret between Derman O’Neill and Lisel Vint.’>
<The rank of the secret is D-rank. Displaying now.>
A screen soon appeared.
Now then. Since he was registered as a representative, it must be her deepest secret, right?
What could it be?
……
Huh?
On screen, Lisel was very young.
She was barefoot, her body covered in wounds, and her clothes were ragged.
She was running, holding something dearly in both arms.
“Thief! That little brat stole bread from our house!”
Someone was chasing her from behind.
Even without asking, I could tell that man was Derman O’Neill.
‘That’s it? This is her “deepest” secret?’
I let out a hollow laugh.
A secret like this wouldn’t be enough to shake Lisel.
[Hey.]
‘What.’
[Look at the top right corner.]
‘Hm?’
I glanced at the top right of the screen.
The timestamp showing when this secret had been created.
And my eyes widened.
‘W-what is this?’
Flick.
At that moment, the screen cut off.
‘……?’
[……?]
‘No, you don’t get to just say “?” right now.’
[Huh? You could tell?]
‘The screen tilted just now. Like you were tilting your head.’
[You really are something else.]
‘Anyway, looks like your Eye of Omniscience glitched. Explain.’
Trail was flustered.
[Well now. What could have happened, I wonder.]
‘Drop the polite speech when things get inconvenient.’
Just use it all the time.
But honestly, it wasn’t something to blame Trail for.
No one would expect a basic error like this to occur in a broken ability like the Eye of Omniscience.
‘It just doesn’t make sense logically.’
I scratched my head.
Neril frowned.
“Dandruff is falling.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
“What’s with you all of a sudden? Weren’t you going to look for another way? Did you find one?”
I stared off at the distant mountains and chuckled weakly.
“Hm. Nice view.”
We arrived at the Tetra Territory.
While looking for a decent inn, I sank deep into thought.
What exactly are spirits?
No one knows.
No one has seen, heard, or touched one.
Even the name ‘spirit’ was first created by Magna Neros.
Neril poked the key point.
“Are you sure that person named Lisel is really a spirit summoner? There hasn’t been a single spirit summoner in history since Magna Neros.”
“Yeah. No doubt.”
“Hm. Well, if you say so with that much certainty, I’ll believe it.”
Honestly, it made sense for Neril to ask.
‘Even before regression, Lisel’s reputation was rock-bottom.’
[Huh? Even though she was one of those rare spirit summoners?]
‘Yeah. She never once stepped into the spotlight.’
[…]
‘You could say she hated being the center of attention. She always worked behind Kaeld, using her power to raise his name.’
Many of the feats credited to Kaeld before the regression were actually Lisel’s work.
I learned this by chance…
And Lisel had asked me to keep it a secret when she noticed I knew.
Back then, she said:
“Mr. Mide. Just pretend you didn’t see anything. I want it to be known that Kaeld did it, not me.”
Lisel was naturally timid and shy.
Even with her long time quest companions, she only exchanged a few words a day.
For someone like her, this was quite a long and serious speech—I had no choice but to listen.
“You’re really devoted. Why are you so fixated on Kaeld?”
“Kaeld said it. He has to constantly increase his fame.”
At the time, I didn’t understand what that meant.
But now, I get it all too well.
Even back then, Kaeld must have seen the path to becoming a Hero.
That’s why he was so desperate for fame.
“If I give him credit for what I’ve done, he’ll be happy, right?”
“He’s the only one who’ll be happy.”
“If Kaeld’s happy, I’m happy too.”
“…Ah. Is that so.”
I didn’t know what to say after that—just nodded along.
Thinking back now, Lisel might have been in love with Kaeld.
[There’s no “might” about it. It’s painfully obvious.]
‘How can you say for sure just from that?’
[That’s the kind of thing only a lifelong single would say.]
‘I let you talk before, but I’m not letting that one slide. Take it back.’
[What? You had a lover?]
‘I will. Eventually. So it’s not lifelong.’
[…]
Just then, Adwin found a good inn.
After parking the carriage and unloading our gear, we gathered in the dining hall on the first floor.
While we were having a light dinner, Neril spoke up.
“When’s the earthquake going to happen?”
“Why talk like you ordered it? It might happen anytime”
“Huh? You don’t know?”
“A week from now.”
“……”
She lightly pressed her forehead and continued.
“If it were anything else, we’d just deal with it before Kaeld’s crew arrived—but this time, that’s not possible. It’s troubling.”
“Let’s go see the lord tomorrow. Don’t know how effective it’ll be, but it’s worth giving advance warning about the quake.”
“Do you really think Kaeld will come?”
“If Offense’s intel is right, he will. The only question is when.”
I paused mid-sentence.
Step. Step.
Very familiar footsteps echoed from outside the inn.
A smile naturally formed on my face when I heard them.
Just like how Adwin could gauge a soul’s life from their spirit, I could estimate someone’s skill from the sound of their footsteps.
Step.
Except for one guy.
Step.
‘No caution. No habits or quirks either.’
Step.
All I could sense from those steps was confidence.
—A Hero must not fear anything.
That’s what those footsteps seemed to be proclaiming.
Step. Clack.
Creaaak.
Finally, the inn door opened.
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