Immortal's Ascending Path-57
Episode-57< Queen Bee in Muwang Group (Revised) >
'Anders.'
Ella repeated his name in her mind.
With red hair and blue eyes, he was a man in his early forties, always with a confident smile on his lips.
The villagers whispered about the fact that Anders had never started a family, but there were no other gossips. He was a man of good reputation, and he had the talent to match.
However, Ella, Ella, and the girl's brother did not like him. The best of his talents was spiritism.
"Do I look like that?"
Ulrich asked, looking at Anders.
Until just now, Ulrich had shown almost no expression, and his tone was that of an old man, but now it was the opposite. He smiled brightly, befitting his twenty-year-old appearance, and his tone was polite.
Ella was embarrassed by his change, but Anders seemed not to notice, simply nodding with a "Hmm."
"There are few people I've seen who handle spirits as well as you. You can think of it as almost the best in this village. But..."
Anders clapped his hands. Then the spirits who were clearing the debris stopped moving and looked at him, and when he commanded, they moved again.
The spirit was listening to Ulrich's whispers and tidying up the field, but his mouth was not resting and his movements were gentle. But at Anders' command, he shut his mouth tightly and began to move quickly.
"You have to be this good to be called a spiritist."
Anders smiled even more deeply at Ulrich's exclamation.
"I heard the Priest has arrived, are you one of his party?"
"I'm Ulrich. I'm following Roberta Priest around here and there." Ulrich placed one hand on his chest and bowed slightly. "I was so excited to see so many spirits that I used my hands."
"If you have that much talent, anyone would be excited. Handling spirits is not an easy task, but your skills are really good. Who taught you?"
"I haven't learned enough to say who. I've just come across a lot while wandering around."
Anders narrowed his eyes and stroked his beard.
"You've just come across a lot?"
There was disbelief in his voice. He was too young to praise himself as having 'come across a lot,' so he seemed to believe that he was hiding something.
However, when Ulrich continued to smile without saying anything more, Anders turned his gaze to Ella next to him.
"You came early. I heard there are a lot of problems in the mountains."
"I finished that a long time ago. I was going to finish what your brother was in charge of, but I saw this person handling the spirits."
He shrugged.
"I don't know how long the Priest will be here, but if you need help, tell me. I'll be better than this kid's brother."
Then Anders left, and Ella glared at his receding figure.
"You seem to have a pretty bad relationship."
"Yes... I often argue with my brother."
"Is it because of the spiritist?"
Nodding, Ella sighed.
"The village's spiritist is like a lord. If you become a spiritist, you have a lot to enjoy, and if you are kicked out of the spiritist, you lose what you enjoyed."
Ella and Waldemar were in a position to enjoy it. Because their father was a spiritist, their descendants received the same treatment.
However, his father died, and the son who replaced his father was pushed out by a competitor. Thanks to his grandmother and father being spiritists, he was not immediately kicked out of the village, but he was just holding on today and tomorrow due to psychological effects.
To Anders, the Waldemar siblings were stubborn stones holding on to something that was not theirs, and to Waldemar, he was a stone that had rolled in out of nowhere. There was no way they could get along.
"I hate to admit it, but that person is the best spiritist in the village. Until recently, he was competing with my brother... but now there's no comparison."
"That's inevitable."
Ulrich scanned the spirits who were continuing to tidy up the field. Even after Anders left, the spirits were quick. There were only a few remnants left in various places.
"Look. The level of handling spirits is different."
Watching this scene, Ella sighed again.
It was natural for her brother, Waldemar, to be pushed back. His level was, to put it bluntly, worse than Ulrich's.
The spirits created by his father followed Waldemar and Ella well, but there were only a few of them. Also, even if they said they followed well, spirits were spirits, so they often slacked off.
On the other hand, Anders' words were as they seemed. They moved in an orderly manner with a single command, and they never abandoned their work in the middle.
"No, that's not what I'm talking about."
"Yes? Then what are you talking about?"
Ulrich did not answer immediately and asked back.
"What was Anders' relationship with the predecessor?"
"No... he had no relationship with my father."
"Didn't have? Didn't he ever receive any teachings?"
"As far as I know, he never did."
Ulrich muttered to himself, then turned around and started walking. He left the field and headed for the village, and Ella and Fritz followed him.
What did he think of? Ella matched Ulrich's wide stride with her short legs and stuck close to him. It was only today, less than half a day since they met, so his expressionless face could not be read.
She didn't know if he had found the answer or was looking for it, so Ella anxiously watched him.
"How many years has it been since the predecessor died?"
Ella replied that it was three years this year.
"You're late to notice."
"What... do you mean?"
"Anders, that guy is a spiritist."
#
Ella stopped walking abruptly.
Ulrich and Fritz also took three or four steps and stopped to look back at Ella. With her eyes wide and her mouth open, Ella stared blankly at Ulrich.
Anders, that person is a spiritist? The words "That can't be" came up to her uvula and were swallowed.
How could that be? No, she thought he was a spiritist. However, she thought that the spiritist was a spiritist who bought favors with friendship, but she never thought that he was a spiritist like her father.
"...How did you know?"
"Didn't I say? I was asked for a favor."
He said it. He said that a long time ago, he was asked for a favor by your spirits, that he was a person who monitored duty, authority, and succession.
Is that why he realized Anders' identity after only exchanging a few words? As a monitor, did he give him some kind of ability to grasp the existence of the successor, the spiritist?
"But... even if that's the case, I don't understand. How can that person be a spiritist, no, if he's a real spiritist, someone has to pass it on. But who did he inherit it from?"
From father?
Then why didn't her father and Anders say anything?
"You said he had no relationship with the predecessor."
"Not at all. My father almost never mentioned him."
"Is he from out of town?"
She shook her head.
"He must have traveled abroad."
Ella pondered for a moment, then made an 'ah' sound.
"That's right. He left the village for a while a long time ago..."
She looked at Ulrich with a 'no way' look. He still had no expression, but Ella seemed to see a feeling of certainty on his face.
"We should assume that there was no possibility that he forcibly inherited the duty and authority from the predecessor. Unless he has extraordinary talent, he cannot knock down a spiritist in his territory."
And the girl's father died suddenly, so suddenly that it could be said to be a sudden death. Ella saw her father's intact body. He was as peaceful as a person in a deep sleep, and there were no wounds. No one suspected murder.
"As you said, it's impossible to do anything without anyone knowing."
"But the time he went out of town was before I was even born. I didn't see him handling spirits while my father was alive. Even after he passed away, it was very awkward at first..."
"It's natural to hide your cards. If there are two spiritists in one place, it's like having two queen bees in one hive. In the old days, they managed each other well, but nowadays, they push each other out."
When Ella started to say "But", Ulrich raised his hand to cut her off. As if he had read her mind, he immediately answered Ella's question.
"The question of why Anders returned to his hometown is obvious. He failed to manage his territory. He had no choice but to return because he experienced management failure."
"Management failure?"
"Do you know what the role of a spiritist is?"
"Isn't it to create an environment where spirits are easy to be born...?"
At the sight of Ulrich stroking his chin, Ella shrank back, wondering if she had said something wrong.
"It's not wrong, but it's hard to say it's the right answer. Based on today's standards, that level of answer is also the right answer. If you ask what a spiritist is, you'll get a completely different answer."
"'A spiritist is a person who controls spirits,' 'A spiritist is a person who buys favors as a friend of spirits,' is that kind of story?"
The boy Fritz, who had been listening quietly, opened his mouth.
"Yes, there are only such stories, and there are few people in the world who delve into it deeply."
Ella recalled the role of the spiritist that the villagers wanted, recalling her memories.
What they wanted was abundance. They wanted the abundance of the mortal realm, such as wetting dry soil, sprouting newly planted seeds, or taking care of human convenience with spirits.
However, to the girl, her father was a solemn person, and his solemnity was to suppress desires and pleasures and keep his duty. And that duty was strangely connected to an obsession with nature.
So people praised her father but said that he did not give away what he had. Ella and Waldemar often thought that way. They could enjoy more, but why didn't they?
"The role of a spiritist is simply to maintain the flow of mana in a pure way. Cultivating the environment, creating spirits, and such acts are not the purpose itself."
Ulrich said that when the gods of heaven cultivated our world, the role of the spiritist was to have that appearance.
"However, since the shape is bound to change over time, at least let's protect the cycle of nature, that's what those four spirits thought. The flow of mana scattered by the gods to promote life is pure."
With such efforts, in the distant past, the flow of mana was so pure that there was no problem even if they did not receive the Infant Sacrament, and he also said that there were no cases where it did not snow or rain for several years.
"This role or authority to fulfill the inherited duty is what made them regarded as the same beings as today's Priest. It's a forgotten fact now that the spiritist has become a friend of the spirits."