- You, whom my voice reaches. Are you fond of salt?
A child's voice, but with a mature, old-fashioned way of speaking.
This was definitely the spirit's voice.
But where was it talking to me from?
Since I wasn't hearing it with my ears, I couldn't gauge where the speaker was.
- Here. Here. Beneath your feet.
Fortunately, the little guy was kind.
When I looked down, there was something like a tiny sugar cube.
I bent my knees and took a closer look.
- Answer, human. Are you fond of salt?
Got it!
It's a salt spirit.
Now that I looked closely, his shape wasn't a sugar cube either.
It was a salt crystal.
But a salt crystal blown up to the size of a sugar cube looked very unfamiliar.
On top of that, inside the crystal were eyes blinking away and a mouth sulkily pouting.
But wait.
Doesn't this little guy look like he's in a bad mood?
Should I try talking to him?
“Uh… hi? Salt? Sure, I like it.”
The moment he heard my voice, the salt crystal's expression changed completely.
- False! I can tell just from your voice. You do not much care for salt. And here you are, the first salt spirit summoner to appear in a thousand years. Tsk, tsk.
I don't really like salt?
Could it be because my Salt Attribute Affinity is only C-grade?
More importantly, can he tell affinity just from a voice?
I didn't really get it, but the salt spirit seemed dissatisfied with me.
- Kid. Hold out your hand.
Maybe because he was disappointed in me?
His form of address dropped from a respectful 'you' to 'kid.'
Being called a kid by this teeny guy stung my pride a little, but….
Let's just go along with it.
If I can't make a contract, I'm the one who loses out.
I held my hand out.
Then the salt spirit floated up, bobbing in the air, and landed on my palm.
He seemed to rub his face against my palm for a moment, then suddenly fell over backward, his eyes flashing.
- Oho? Look at this. Kid. You are rather something.
He must have sensed something from my hand, because he suddenly started showering me with praise.
Talk about giving me the illness and then the medicine.
Regardless, the little guy went on talking to himself.
- Hmm, hmm… at this level, he might be worth raising….
I get the gist.
The salt spirit sensed my [Spirit Arts S] talent.
The salt spirit, who had been wearing a troubled look, said as if doing me a big favor,
- Very well. I shall contract with you. Kid. Consider it an honor.
Since it was exactly what I'd been longing for, I promptly accepted the offer.
“Yeah? A contract sounds great. Let's do it. What do I do?”
Then something extraordinary happened.
Beneath my feet, along with a cluster of white light, incomprehensible patterns began to draw themselves.
Yeah.
This is just like a magic circle…!
The first fantasy-like thing I'd seen since coming to this world.
My heart pounded, and I felt like my body was floating….
“Uh… uh?”
It's not just a feeling of floating!
My body is actually floating upward, bobbing in the air.
A surreal situation.
My mind froze, and I had no idea what to do.
- Hey. Kid.
The salt spirit called to me.
Hearing this mysterious voice ringing in my head, I felt somehow calmer.
- Before the contract, I shall ask you something.
When had it happened?
The salt spirit was right in front of my eyes.
I quietly met the spirit's gaze, but they weren't the indifferent eyes from before.
A detached gaze, like that of a sage who had attained enlightenment.
- Your name?
“…Lark.”
- Very well. Lark. My name is Saltia. Remember it.
Saltia.
Saltia.
Saltia, the spirit of salt.
I repeated it to myself over and over.
- Lark. Until the moment your life ends, will you pour your soul into raising the ‘rank’ of me, Saltia?
“Yeah. I will.”
- Good. Lark. Until the moment your life ends, I shall be with you as your strength, as your support, and as your friend.
HUMMMM—
Suddenly, the cluster of white light grew in force and began to burst outward.
Even with my eyes squeezed shut, they stung.
My eyelids alone weren't enough to block it.
Before my eyeballs could burn up, I hurriedly raised my hands to cover my eyes.
At a glance, nothing seemed to have changed.
I was still in the salt cavern, and Saltia was floating before my eyes.
“Huh?”
But when did I come back down to the ground?
Hm? The magic circle that had been drawn beneath my feet was gone too.
- Foolish kid. It is not a magic circle, but a contract circle.
Huh? What?
This little guy. As if he were reading my mind….
- I am not reading your mind. Our souls are simply connected.
Ahh.
I get it.
Back on Earth, I'd come across abilities with that kind of concept in various works….
- Oho. Earth? You are a peculiar kid. Holding memories of a past life.
Whoa, Saltia, you!
You can see into my memories too?
- Not all of your memories. I can only see the surface memories drifting about in your head.
Ah, I see.
Ugh. I'll have to be careful even with my thoughts from now on.
- So, Lark. What is your wish?
A wish? Why do you want to know?
- What do you mean, why? If we are to share a future, should I not know what you are after, you rascal?
Ah, right.
Let me think for a second.
A wish. A wish, huh….
“You see, I've actually already fulfilled one wish.”
- Coming to this world?
Having read my memories, it seemed, Saltia got the answer right away.
- Why did you want to come here?
“Well, you see. In my past life, I went to this thing called a company, and life really wasn't great. You could say it was the life of an undead, living only because I couldn't die?”
Saltia came even closer to me.
Then he asked with serious eyes,
- Then what is your next wish?
“To enjoy everything I couldn't in my past life. Freedom, romance, adventure, power. And marrying the most beautiful woman on the continent?”
At my honest answer, Saltia looked fed up.
- I thought a little squirt would not want much, but it seems I have gotten myself stuck with the wrong one. To think you were an otherworld reincarnator.
“But… we've already made the contract, haven't we?”
When I played innocent, this time Saltia's face turned stern.
- So, Lark. In short, you wish to enjoy wealth and glory?
“Hm. Yeah. Everything I want takes a decent amount of money.”
- Then it is good that we met. I have an ability perfectly suited to that.
Ooh?
An ability suited to wealth and glory?
What could it be?
- As I am a salt spirit, finding salt veins is simple enough.
“Whaaat?”
Whoa, isn't this huge?
Salt was extremely precious in the Middle Ages.
Why else would it be called white gold?
And it has an ability to find salt veins!
- Hmph. I am different from those common-as-dirt four great element fellows.
“Yeah, yeah. Of course I know.”
I may not look it, but I'm a guy who knocked around in capitalism before coming here.
The value of your ability?
I know it best.
At least better than these medieval folks.
- Mmm. As expected of an otherworld reincarnator. Your body may be young, but you know everything you need to. Yes.
Saltia looked pleased at my heartfelt praise.
While he's in a good mood, let me ask more.
“Saltia. What else can a salt spirit do?”
At my question, Saltia opened his mouth with an arrogant expression.
- Salt is the very symbol of purification. I possess the ability to reject all manner of impure things.
“Impure things? What's the standard for 'impure'?”
- In principle, acts or beings that run against or twist the natural order are called 'impure.'
Hm.
I heard it, but I still don't get it.
I looked at Saltia blankly.
- Sigh. I shall explain with an example. The most representative impure act is none other than magic.
“Magic?”
- Indeed. The act of artificially twisting mana to manifest miracles. Nature perceives it as impure, and salt rejects it.
Ooh!
So you mean it has magic resistance?
“Right. I get the idea. But if magic is an impure act, what's an impure being?”
- What else? Demons, demonic beasts, monsters, witches. Things like that.
Hm, right.
Those guys, well.
Just hearing their names, it does feel like their very existence goes against the natural order.
- To impure beings, I am what you might call a natural enemy. In particular, monsters like the ‘undead,’ the very symbol of defying the natural order, take damage merely from my drawing near.
“Wait, wait. The undead?”
Something flashed through my mind in an instant.
Grandfather's room.
A map in the secret space.
They'd said it was definitely a map for crossing the 'Mountains of Death,' the domain of the undead.
Beyond those mountains lay the dwarven kingdom, and the dwarves were closely tied to the fall of our house, Repaire.
“Hah…. At this point, it's fate.”
I'd always wondered.
Why was I reincarnated into a serf family?
Now I knew the reason for the abilities and background I'd been given.
“Haha. So this is the main quest?”
I don't know who it is, but it feels like the being that sent me here is telling me to restore Repaire once more.
- Who knows. I have never seen anyone like you either, so I do not know the details of the situation. In any case, train your spirit arts diligently. That way my 'rank' will rise faster as well.
All contracts are bilateral by nature.
It goes without saying, but Saltia also wanted something from me.
But what is this 'rank' anyway?
- Humans divide it and call it low-grade, mid-grade, and high-grade, it seems.
“Ahh.”
Understood instantly.
If I train my spirit arts, Saltia gets to eat experience points, and once enough experience piles up, Saltia evolves into a higher spirit.
“Okay. That's enough talk about the contract. Shall we head out now?”
- Wait. Hold on, Lark.
Saltia hurriedly flew off somewhere.
I looked to see where he was going, and it was the center of the cavern.
There sat the mysterious orb, pouring out light.
Right. That orb….
I'd forgotten about it because of Saltia's presence.
What on earth is it?
- It is the Essence of Salt. You will need it to train your spirit arts and develop your salt affinity from here on, so you had best take it.
“Ah, really?”
But is it okay to just touch that?
Usually in fiction, when you touch something like that, the whole place suddenly collapses or something….
- Lark. Learn to distinguish reality from fiction.
“Haha. Yeah, I guess so, right?”
Since it was coming from Saltia, who'd been here a long time, I decided to listen.
It's obviously a rare item, too.
Without any particular suspicion, I approached the Essence of Salt.
I hadn't realized because it was wrapped in radiance, but it was surprisingly small.
An orb the size of a thumbnail, wedged between the stalactites and stalagmites.
It didn't look heavy either, so I calmly picked it up.
Then,
SNAP—
The light emanating from the orb vanished.
And at the same time,
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE—
The cavern began to shake.
What the.
Isn't this collapsing?
- Hm. Lark. It seems the fiction you saw was correct after all. The cavern is collapsing.
“Ah, screw it! You've got some nerve!”
I shoved the Essence of Salt into my pants pocket, and into the other pocket, I shoved Saltia.
- Run! Lark! Until you raise my rank, you must not die!
Saltia poked his head out of my pants and said.
I'm already running, you know?
My target was the crack I'd come in through.
The cavern was wrapped in complete darkness, but outside the crack, the torch I'd tossed aside earlier was still burning.
That light became a lighthouse, showing me the way out.
“Ugh. Urgh.”
I crammed my body back into the crack.
Since it wasn't my first time through, it was easier than going in.
“Raaaaagh!”
With a bizarre cry, I squeezed out of the crack.
I hastily grabbed the torch and ran toward the mine entrance.
- Lark! Watch out!
Saltia's warning.
And at the same time,
KA-BOOOOOM—!
There was a tremendous roar behind me.
My head knew that I had to keep running.
But instinct was the problem.
When I heard the roar, my head turned back on its own.
Along with a tremendous blast of wind pressure, a rough cloud of dust slammed into my face.