Immortal's Ascending Path-59
Episode-59< Queen Bee in the Military King Group >
Anders examined the young man before him. The young man named Ulrich was part of Priest Roberta's group, who had come to the village five days ago.
It had only been five days, but he didn't remember much about the young man. Their first meeting was in a field near the village, where he was using spirits to clear debris. His skill in handling spirits was decent, but Anders didn't think much of it.
No matter how well he handled spirits, he was ultimately exploiting their goodwill, so wasn't he just a fake spirit master? Anders, who prided himself on being the real deal, couldn't be impressed.
But now it was different. The young man's confident assertion of Anders' secret and his natural way of speaking as if addressing a subordinate made him feel like a different person, despite having the same appearance.
"I'm just curious. I'm curious about the path you've walked. How you became a spirit master, how you failed in management, and why you returned to your hometown and hid yourself."
Anders thought he was curious about a lot of things.
Wasn't that the same as asking him to reveal his entire life? But perhaps it was the reaction to having kept his mouth shut for so long. When someone who knew his secret asked about his past, his mouth opened easily.
"Spirit master... I became a spirit master at twenty-six."
Anders recalled those days.
"It was about eight years after I left this hometown."
That was the past, after he had turned twenty-three. Back then, he was eighteen and stopped by a village after leaving his hometown. No, he had sought out that village in the first place. He wanted to become a spirit master, so he settled in a village where there were spirit masters.
Anders, who was born and raised in a village with spirits and spirit masters, had admired spirit masters since he was young, but he couldn't become one. The spirit master of his hometown had already decided on a successor, and that person was Ella's father. Moreover, the spirit master of that era was Ella's grandfather.
Spirit masters weren't necessarily succeeded by blood relatives, but the influence was significant. There was no room for Anders to intervene.
That's why Anders left his hometown when he happened to hear about a spirit master in another region. It was shortly after he heard the news that the spirit master there hadn't yet decided on a successor, and he was eighteen at the time.
"That place was a bigger city than this hometown. It was a city used as a base by a lord, and a spirit master was there as an advisor by his side. I entered as a servant of that spirit master and received training after serving him for several years."
Even memories of hunger become memories over time, but it was still a difficult period. He had left his hometown empty-handed and settled in the city, so he had nothing but a young and healthy body.
But an opportunity came. The spirit master was troubled because he couldn't find a suitable successor, and Anders caught his eye. When he discovered a young man with enthusiasm, he fully supported him.
Anders' life went on an upward trajectory from that moment. He, who had been just a servant, became a spirit master, and he also married and started a family.
"But there was a limit to my efforts. I believed I had assimilated to some extent, but to others, I was just a stranger. When the elder passed away, all sorts of words erupted."
The root of the problem was jealousy. A beggar who had come to the city only a few years ago had taken the position of spirit master.
The old spirit master had several descendants, and many more wanted to be his successor. They mobilized powerful figures, including the lord and the Priest, to pressure Anders.
"It was all an attempt to take away my role. And the more I resisted, the more severe the attempts became, and it became a matter of life and death. What would you have done? I only fought back to protect myself and my family."
After saying he fought back, Anders swallowed his words. He saw Ella's eyes widen. The girl knew that he had returned to his hometown alone. What did that mean?
"...As a result, I saved my life and remained a spirit master, but nothing else remained."
Anders recalled the ruined city. The high walls and intricately built buildings had collapsed, and countless people inside had lost their lives.
If that place had been a modest village like his hometown, the result would have been different. Even if they were suspicious, they wouldn't have had the ability to threaten the spirit master. But in that city, there were many who prided themselves on their abilities.
"That must be why you chose to return home."
"No one wanted me to stay. There was no point in staying anyway. What good is a spirit master in a land where the flow of mana has become turbid and spirits are no longer born?"
He left the city as if he were being chased out or running away and returned to his hometown. The spirit master who had lost his territory had nowhere else to go but his hometown.
"There were no problems with your predecessor?"
"No. I didn't even reveal who I was in the first place."
He only realized after returning to his hometown that he could handle spirits even outside his territory. But that was it. He didn't feel the will or need to do so.
"When I returned to my hometown, that child... Ella's grandfather had died, and her father had inherited the position. In that situation, there was no point in revealing that I was also a spirit master, right?"
When asked what he had been doing outside, he jokingly said that he had gone on a foreign tour because he was adventurous. He avoided contact with his predecessor as much as possible so that his secret wouldn't be revealed.
"Did you start working again because your predecessor died?"
"Although I couldn't fulfill my duty, I am a spirit master. Since Ella's father died suddenly without leaving a successor, no one but me can take his place."
In Anders' view, no one in this village could fill the void left by his predecessor. The decline of the village was a confirmed future, and the turbidity of the mana flow was only a matter of time.
"So I stepped forward. However... if I reveal the truth that I have been hiding until now, how will people see me? They might suspect that I killed him, right?"
After remaining silent for a while even after his predecessor died, he began to reveal himself naturally, pretending to be in contact with spirits. And now, as a result, the villagers regarded him as a spirit master.
"Really, was my father's death an accident?"
"I swear on Kunkan's name."
Anders said firmly that he hadn't played any tricks. Ella stared at him intently but didn't continue. The situation was so delicate that she was suspicious, but she didn't have any evidence.
#
"That's the end of my story."
The sun, which had begun to set when the story began, had completely crossed the mountain when Anders closed his mouth.
But the old shrine wasn't that dark. A faint light emanated from various places. It was the light emitted by the spirits staying in the shrine, and that light illuminated the surroundings like a lamp.
"What are you going to do from now on?"
"What do you mean? My secret? Or as a spirit master?"
Ulrich replied, both.
"I want to hide my secret as much as possible, but it will be known little by little. Even if I don't say it, they will compare me to my predecessor and realize it. And what I will do as a spirit master will be the same as my predecessor."
Anders asked, wondering what else there could be.
"I see."
"However, I will not hesitate to select a successor like him."
"Do you have someone in mind who is suitable?"
Anders' gaze turned to Ella.
"If I had to say, I would take care of that child."
Ella widened her eyes in surprise.
"Me? Me...?"
Her voice lowered as if she couldn't understand. That's because Ella and her brother didn't get along well with Anders. When she heard his secret that he was a spirit master, she even suspected that he might have killed her father.
But as a successor? If he had pointed to Valdemar, the girl's brother, it would have made sense. He handles spirits the best after Anders, so she could have thought he was chosen for his ability.
"Your brother is obsessed with what he can enjoy as a spirit master and doesn't know his responsibilities. On the other hand, you are swayed by spirits, but you don't have the personality to have such greed."
"But I'm not as good at handling spirits as my brother...?"
"That's not a problem. The moment you become a spirit master, all spirits will obey your words. You must have seen your father handling spirits, right? What's important to a spirit master is something else."
He tapped his temple with his index finger.
"I think the same way in that regard. There are some slight differences, though."
"Differences, may I ask what the differences are?"
"The difference is who you are succeeding."
Anders narrowed his eyes, not understanding the meaning, while Ella widened her eyes, understanding the meaning.
"If you're succeeding, I think it's better to succeed your father."
Ella hesitated and asked.
"If I say I don't want to?"
"There is no alternative. That is the conclusion I have come to."
"Even my brother?"
He shook his head instead of answering. Ella understood Ulrich's meaning. If the girl didn't accept, no one else could succeed her father.
She was suddenly offered a proposal she had never expected, so she was very embarrassed, but Ella took a breath and nodded.
"Then... I'll do it. But will I be able to do it well?"
"Don't worry. I have something in mind."
Ulrich then took Ella's right hand. Ella, surprised, tried to pull her hand away, but he whispered not to be nervous and made her stretch her hand forward.
A spirit floating in the air sat on Ella's hand. Ella blinked as she looked up at the spirit, which had stopped chattering and was staring at the girl.
"Now, tell me what you want," Ulrich said quietly, and Ella quietly told it to fly high.
Then the spirit nodded silently and flew up. The spirit was emitting light from its body, so it looked like light was rising from the ground to the sky on a dark night.
If you look up and watch the light of the spirit moving away, the light eventually draws an arc and comes down to the ground and sits on Ella's hand again.
"Handling spirits is like this."
Ella, who was looking at the light on her palm, trembled. Ulrich took his hand off the girl's palm and smiled as he stroked the girl's head once with that hand.
"..."
Anders stared at the scene with his mouth open blankly.
"...You have become a spirit master. Like me, a spirit master."
"I have continued the severed succession."
Anders repeated the words, continued the succession.
"I heard that there is someone who judges our suitability. Someone who was deprived of their position a long time ago, back when no one knows when. I thought it was just a threat, a warning not to do anything stupid..."
"It's natural to believe that. Just as your numbers are few, I am the only one who watches over you now, and there is no one among you who has been deprived of what they have inherited."
He wiped his face with his trembling hand.
"I know why you came here. I also know why you called me and why you pried into my past... I will be deprived."
"Why do you think so?"
"Isn't it obvious? You have chosen Ella, that child, as the owner of this place. There can't be two queen bees in one hive."
"Yes, there can't be two in one place. But your guess is wrong. Anders, I will not deprive you of your duties and authority, not yet."
Anders, hearing the last words, raised his head.
"The fault is great, but it seems that the fault is not entirely yours alone. So I want to give you one more chance. Even if our world is turbid, it doesn't always get worse. There are cases where spirits return to the place they left."
Ulrich added, as if the flow of the Ice Peninsula was regaining its purity.
"You're going to entrust that place to me?"
"Not right now."
Ulrich said that he had just come out of the cave like a bear that had just woken up from a long hibernation, and he had not yet grasped where the land where the spirits had returned was.
"For a while, I will have to teach this child."
He put one hand on Ella's shoulder.
"You will pass on the experience and knowledge that the child's father could not teach, and protect her from being influenced by others. When the time comes, I will tell you where your territory is."
Anders looked at Ulrich with a dazed expression, then turned his gaze to Ella. Eventually, he nodded slowly.
And they went down the old shrine in the middle of the mountain, receiving the light emitted by the gathered spirits.
< Queen Bee in the Military King Group > End