The magic circle gave off a dazzling radiance.
Above it, the letters [A.I] appeared.
[A....... I]
Soon, the two letters began to drift apart.
The meaning hidden between them surfaced.
[Anima Ignis]
[Summoning the fire spirit, Ignis.]
"......What?"
My bewilderment at the forced abbreviation lasted only a moment.
A ball of fluff suddenly popped out from the center of the magic circle.
Boing—!
With a terribly cute sound effect, the little guy pulled himself out of the magic circle.
......It was a white rabbit.
But as if to prove he was a fire spirit, the rabbit's fur turned reddish toward the tips.
He was even neatly wrapped in a red cape.
Flap, flap.
The rabbit flapped his two big ears like wings and flew through the air.
"Kyu kyu?"
The little guy flew right up to my face.
He looked pretty cute, tilting his head from side to side.
Just as I was about to reach out to pet him.
The rabbit's snout opened.
"What's with this beanpole? Are you my contractor?"
......Unlike his cute appearance, the little guy had quite a foul mouth.
***
"Kyu kyu, I get the gist of the situation."
The rabbit...... no, Ignis stroked his lower jaw as he gathered his thoughts.
"But isn't this unexpected? For an Irregular to show up in this world again."
"Irregular?"
"I mean people with abilities like your...... [Shop] thing? Unlike aura and mana, which anyone can learn, it refers to someone with a special ability that only that individual can use."
"You mean there are other Irregulars besides me?"
"There were quite a lot, kyu. Until I fell asleep, anyway."
Ignis sniffed.
"Kyu, looks like you're the only one now."
"When did you fall asleep?"
"Are you an idiot? You think spirits measure time the same way the creatures of the earth do?"
The urge to grab this damn bunny by the ears and wring him out suddenly surged up in me.
Hold it in, hold it in.
"Kyu....... Ah! Right, there was something called an allied army being formed. I remember because the Spirit King joined it."
"Don't tell me, the Allied Army of the Races?"
"Well, I think that was the name."
Ignis was older than I thought.
The era when every race on the continent formed an alliance to subjugate the Demon Realm.
The period that history books classified as 'Ancient.'
In other words, Ignis was an Ancient Spirit.
Put another way, he was a being I could never summon at my level.
Just as humans had stages for measuring strength, spirits had stages too.
Low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade.
But Ancient Spirits weren't included in any of them.
Theirs was a position that even top-grade spirits wouldn't dare share a table with, beyond classification, so to speak.
'Even the Empire's greatest spiritualist could do no more than form a contract with a top-grade spirit.'
Moreover, it was said that even with a contract, he couldn't command the top-grade spirit freely.
Apparently just attempting the summoning put a heavy strain on the body.
But I had summoned Ignis and formed a contract with him at the same time, without paying any price.
All I clearly felt was that an invisible path had connected me to the little guy from the moment Ignis came out of the magic circle.
As I marveled anew at the golden fortuitous encounter.
"Kyu kyu, looks like you've figured out just how amazing I am?"
Ignis wore a look of towering arrogance.
How could he express such an obnoxious feeling with a rabbit's face?
It was simply amazing.
"But are you okay with forming a contract with me?"
Ignis's pride clearly reached higher than the sky.
There was no way my level would satisfy the little guy's lofty standards.
"Kyu? If I wasn't okay with it, I'd never have agreed to the contract."
An unexpected response came back.
"After calling me a beanpole and an idiot?"
"Kyu kyu, but that's true, isn't it?"
This damn bunny!
When my lips twitched, Ignis flew over and sat on top of my head.
"But beanpole or idiot, it doesn't matter. I like you, see."
"......What's the reason?"
"Kyu, I do like the flames you carry inside, but that's only part of it."
Ignis looked ahead.
I shifted my gaze as well. Before I knew it, we had arrived at the residential district.
It was then.
"I-It's the Prince! Prince Abel is here!"
"Wooow—! Prince!"
The people who had been looking around the wooden buildings ran over to me.
Among them, an old man with a bent back roughly grabbed both my hands.
"You made these for us, did you not? Um...... like the wall."
"Ah....... Yes, that's right."
"I knew it!"
The old man's emotion-choked gesture lasted only a moment.
The others also surrounded me and began expressing their gratitude in their own ways.
Some grabbed my hands, some kept wiping away dry tears, and some swore the 'Barkasi.'
I even brought up the realistic point that this wasn't enough to house everyone.
"We are simply overwhelmed with emotion, Prince."
But the Northerners paid it no mind and kept pouring out words of thanks.
Before long, even the knights came looking for me.
Their joy at merely being able to leave the military tents and stay in warm barracks came through clearly, even from behind their helmets.
How many times did I hear a thunderous 'Barkasi'?
"This is why."
Ignis's front paw tapped the top of my head.
"What do you mean?"
"The reason I like you. I don't care about how strong my contractor is."
Whoosh, Ignis lightly kindled a flame.
It was clearly in a different league from the flames I had conjured.
"Because I'm going to make my contractor stronger than anyone in this world."
Ignis flew up.
The smiling faces of the Northerners were reflected in the little rabbit's eyes.
"So I decided I'd only look at my contractor's true nature."
"And how does my true nature look to you?"
Ignis grinned.
"A person who makes those in trouble smile."
Having left that one-line review, Ignis kept watching the people's smiles.
"......Pretty romantic for an Ancient Spirit."
But it wasn't bad.
I had a feeling that Ignis and I were going to get along quite well.
***
After that, I went looking for Graive, who had once again been dumbstruck.
"You want me to manage the people?"
"Yeah, you're perfect for it."
"Are you not working a retired old man a bit too hard?"
"Then find me someone to work in your place."
"Haah......."
He sighed, but there was zeal shining in Graive's eyes.
That must be the look of a knight, rusting from rarely receiving orders, when he sparks his embers back to life.
"I will have the elderly, the weak, and the children stay there first."
"You really do catch on quick."
I patted Graive on the shoulder, then returned to the manor.
"Kyu, I'm going to sleep for a bit."
Ignis said the moment we entered the bedroom.
"You just woke up, though?"
"My strength hasn't properly come back yet."
Then did that mean the flame from earlier wasn't his full strength?
An Ancient Spirit indeed.
"How much longer are you going to sleep?"
"A day is enough."
Well, a day was nothing.
After all, there was work piled up to overflowing in the meantime anyway.
How much time had passed after Ignis disappeared?
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Prince, it is Johannes Wolf. May I come in?"
A name I'd heard from Freyja.
He was one of the three elite knights left in the North at present, wasn't that what she'd said?
"Come in."
"Pardon my intrusion."
A man with a neat appearance opened the door and came in.
"Nice to meet you."
"Please speak comfortably with me. A mere knight like me cannot receive more respect than Her Grace the Grand Duke."
It seemed to be the thing I'd heard most since coming to the North.
Asking me to speak casually right out of the gate at our first meeting.
For me, having come over from the Eastern Land of Courtesy, it was quite a burden.
"Sure, got it."
But I'd have to get used to it.
I rubbed the back of my neck.
"Johannes Wolf, you said?"
"Yes, Prince."
"Seeing as you came to find me......."
"I am the head of the Frost Mist."
"You hold that alongside your knighthood?"
"House Wolf has been in charge of the North's intelligence network for generations. The knighthood is a cover for that. Honestly...... my martial skills are terrible, as well."
Johannes's lips moved bitterly.
"You just have to do what you're good at."
"Thank you."
Johannes bowed his head.
"There's no particular need to be considerate of me. You can do things the Northern way."
"To be honest, I am more comfortable this way."
"Hm?"
"I spent my school days in the capital. I graduated from Briton Academy."
I opened my eyes wide in surprise.
To think I'd hear the name of the Empire's most prestigious academy here.
"You must have been a good student."
"I was nothing exceptional."
Too modest.
After all, the very fact of entering Briton Academy and graduating safely proved that he was exceptional.
At the same time, I realized.
The reason the North had still managed to function somewhat while Freyja's hopeless relief efforts went on.
That achievement was probably Johannes's doing.
And Johannes was probably quite soft on Freyja.
'After all, someone talented enough to graduate from Briton Academy would have noticed that Freyja's way of handling relief was bad in the long run.'
Even so, Johannes couldn't bend his lord's will and silently supported her from behind.
But I had no intention of blaming him.
After all, what mattered wasn't the past that had already gone by, but the future we would build from here on.
"Let's go to the drawing room for now."
"Understood."
Upon entering the drawing room, I naturally brewed some tea leaves.
Johannes looked at me as if it were a curious sight.
"Drink at your ease."
"......Thank you."
Slurp.
Until I had savored my tea, Johannes sat stiffly without even touching his teacup.
Just as I was wondering whether he disliked tea, Johannes spoke up, his voice heavy.
"May I ask one thing?"
I nodded.
"The raising of the wall and...... the buildings constructed just now. Are those truly your abilities, Prince?"
"They are."
"You do not hide it."
"It's not like I could hide it anyway."
Since I arrived in the North, one thing after another had happened that defied common sense.
Even an immature child wouldn't have had a hard time deducing that all these changes were thanks to me.
As long as the fact that wielding that power required 'Gold' wasn't found out, it was fine.
"Why did you use such power for the North?"
"Because Freyja and I finished our talk."
"By talk, you mean......."
"Freyja wants to build a fortress city on the Northern front. Right?"
I hadn't heard it from her directly, but the ideal Freyja was picturing in her head was easy to predict.
No, if anything, it was far too obvious.
"But the practical circumstances are far from good. Forget a fortress city. After all, right now she has to worry about how to defend the Northern front. And...... Freyja herself doesn't have the administrative skill to build a city from scratch."
Johannes kept his silence.
That meant he acknowledged that I was right.
"I'm going to fill in what she lacks. Of course, it's not one-sided charity. It's my own kind of investment."
"Is it to protect your own safety, Prince?"
As expected of the head of an intelligence organization.
"Right. As you know, I'm on very bad terms with Cassandra. So far, she's never openly tried to kill me...... but who knows from here on."
"Just looking at how she sent you, Prince, to the North, of all places, now that it has become dangerous, as if into exile...... there is ample reason for suspicion."
When the other party's level of information is similar to mine, conversation naturally flows this smoothly and comfortably.
"So I want to make this North my home. A perfect home, free from any outside interference whatsoever."
"Even...... if it is the Imperial Household's interference?"
Instead of answering, I gave a deep smile.
Johannes looked at me with a dazed expression, then soon pressed a hand to his forehead and dragged a palm down his face.
"It seems I must reflect on myself as well."
"Hm? Why?"
"I may lack confidence in martial arts, but I took a certain pride in my information-gathering and my eye for people. Yet that arrogance has now been completely shattered."
Since I, too, was a member of the Imperial Household, Johannes seemed to have investigated me at some point.
And the verdict he'd reached was the 'incompetent deposed crown prince.'
Well, it couldn't be helped.
After all, when I was locked up like livestock as the deposed crown prince, I really couldn't do anything.
With watchers called servants planted everywhere, what could I do?
The only rebellion I could manage was holing up in the Imperial Library and building up knowledge.
"Tremendous magical talent...... and even a power no different from a miracle. You have hidden that side of yourself remarkably well until now."
As a result, Johannes was mistaken about my caliber.
I didn't bother correcting him and just shrugged.
"I apologize. I judged you rashly with my own narrow insight, Prince."
"Well, that can happen."
"It would be one thing if it had ended with my own personal opinion, but I even spoke ill of you to Her Grace the Grand Duke. I deserve to be punished."
Spoke ill, huh.
Well, I doubted any truly sincere insults had come out of Johannes's mouth.
At most, he'd probably given her some advice or warnings about me.
Besides, Johannes had personally investigated me.
He had advised his lord according to the best conclusion he could reach.
So I couldn't reproach him for that.
"Then from now on, follow my orders well without talking back. That'll do, right?"
"That alone is......."
"It's enough."
Johannes seemed to hesitate for a moment, then closed his mouth with an expression of resolve.
Then he rose from his seat and struck his own heart hard.
"Kar— Tan."
It was an oath I'd heard once before.
"What does it mean?"
"It is an old word meaning the highest loyalty."
"Isn't it a little early to be pledging loyalty already?"
"No, it is enough."
Johannes and I looked at each other for a moment, then burst into small laughs.
"Please give me your orders, Your Highness."
The moment his intelligent gaze turned toward me.
[You have gained the loyalty of Johannes Wolf, head of the Frost Mist!]
[The price of 'Intelligence Bureau (E)' drops by 100%!]
My mood improved.
Free service was always more than welcome.