Poof!
With a dazzling light, an ornate contract revealed itself in the air. This time not only Dason but Kemen and Alphen as well were able to witness the sight.
"This is......."
"A spirit's contract!"
A golden radiance poured from the contract and lit up the surroundings brightly.
Glint. Glint.
Mysterious patterns shone on the paper as if it were some sacred treasure. At that beautiful sight, all three could only stare at the contract, entranced.
'It's a real contract.'
The terms written in an elegant hand, the ornately decorated border, and even the spirit's seal. Every element of the contract was wonder itself.
Swish.......
Dason received the ornate contract respectfully with both hands. The reason was that, when he looked at the paper pouring out its dazzling radiance, it seemed far too hallowed a thing to snatch up roughly with one hand.
"Y-Young Master......."
"A spirit. Good heavens, a spirit!"
Seeing that, Kemen and Alphen came to Dason's side. Then they looked at the contract.
[Benereton, the Spirit of Music, presents a contract.]
[Condition Benereton desires: music lessons from the party entering the contract.]
"Music lessons, huh......."
Teaching a spirit the piano.
Was that even possible? The question rose in Dason's head.
'I don't know if it can even press the keys.'
The piano Dason used was built for people. It was far too huge for a small spirit to use.
"Alphen. Would there happen to be a piano a spirit could use?"
"I am sorry. There is no piano for spirits in my shop."
"That's too bad."
He had asked Alphen just in case, but the answer that came back was what he had expected.
"Young Master. There is a way."
Kemen seemed to hesitate, but soon mustered his courage and spoke.
"All you need is to have a piano specially made for the spirit. A skilled dwarf blacksmith or an alchemist should be able to do it."
"Really?"
Dason's eyes sparkled.
"Yes. But if it were me, I would commission an alchemist rather than a dwarf. In particular, you will need to find those with a deep knowledge of music."
"Why's that?"
"Hm...... dwarves are experts at making weapons and armor, but delicate instruments are quite another matter...... I cannot vouch for them."
Kemen made a sheepish face.
"That figures."
Dason let out a short laugh.
Though he did not know everything about this other world in depth, he could sense that dwarves would be clumsy at the delicate work of building a piano.
'So dwarves are all about weapons wherever you go.......'
The image of dwarves, hammers in hand, banging away and singing work songs, passed through Dason's head.
'Yeah, making weapons suits them better than instruments.'
Dason pictured it in his head and soon nodded.
"Then would there be an alchemist around here who could make a piano?"
And he asked Kemen whether such a person could be found.
"There are many alchemists, but one among them with a deep knowledge of music...... will be harder to find than you think."
But it was going to be less easy than he had thought.
"Hmm......."
Dason frowned at Kemen's realistic answer. Was it right to form a contract with the Spirit of Music in a situation like this? The worry crept in.
And with good reason.......
[Caution! If you fail to raise the spirit's satisfaction after the contract is concluded, you will be penalized.]
At the very bottom of the contract, a warning was written in red letters. The letters were conspicuously large and eye-catching, too, as if to say it must not be missed.
"Kurung!"
The spirit, too, pointed at that sentence with a small finger and put on its most serious expression.
"Kururung!"
It looked as though it were blustering, 'You are never to break your promise to me.'
Resolve showed on the tiny face of the spirit as it hovered in the air, fluttering its transparent wings.
It was a warning never to take its contract with Dason lightly. And with its eyes it was showing that, small and frail as it might look, it was a powerful being that must never be underestimated.
"All right. I'm taking it seriously."
It went without saying, but he had no intention of running a con(?) on the spirit. There was no telling what backlash would come if he did, after all.
'If only I could find an alchemist.......'
A skilled alchemist.
Where to find such a person was the biggest problem.
He was just about to sink into that worry.
Jingle.
"......?"
Suddenly, the sound of a visitor coming in was heard from the entrance of the antique shop.
Tap-tap...... tap.
Soon the footsteps drew closer and closer, until they reached the back space where the three of them were.
Judging by the unhesitating stride and pace, it was as if the visitor had already known they were here.
"Huh?"
The customer who had just come in was none other than the woman who had trimmed Dason's hair.
'That woman.......'
She was the one who worked as both an alchemist and a hairdresser. When she showed herself here, something flashed into Dason's head.
The fact that the woman, too, was an alchemist.
"Excuse me, by any chance......?"
Dason cautiously opened his mouth and asked.
"Do you like music?"
"......?"
At that, the woman tilted her head in puzzlement and looked at Dason.
Curiosity and suspicion showed faintly in her crimson eyes. Her expression seemed to ask, 'Where did such an out-of-the-blue question come from?'
"Surely not......?"
After thinking for a moment, the woman soon opened her eyes round, as if she had realized something.
"The one who called forth the spirit...... could it be you, Young Master?"
"That's right."
"Good heavens......."
The woman realized that the reason she had come to this antique shop was none other than Dason.
"The spirit called me here. It asked me to help with the contract it's going through right now."
After trimming Dason's hair, she had had other business of her own to take care of.
Right then, she had sensed a spirit's will in the air and made her way here.
"But to think that the one who called forth the spirit would be you, Young Master...... I truly never could have imagined it."
"Me neither. I never dreamed I had an ability like this."
"How fascinating. As a rule, no one but a spirit summoner has ever summoned a spirit like this."
The woman studied Dason closely with curious eyes. Those crimson eyes were deep and sharp, as if they were seeing straight through to his soul.
"Hoo......."
After observing Dason for a long while, the woman let out a long sigh, as if she had made up her mind about something.
"Before I became an alchemist, I was a spirit summoner, one who handles spirits. I'm called Sorakan. It's my real name."
"Sorakan...... It's a beautiful name."
"I wasn't exactly saying it in hopes of a compliment like that, but thank you."
"Anyway, why bring that up all of a sudden?"
"Because I'd like to help you with the spirit contract. If it's all right with you, may I try speaking with the spirit directly?"
"Then go ahead."
Dason readily nodded at Sorakan's offer. Having once been active as a spirit summoner, she would be able to communicate with the spirit far more easily.
"Thank you."
At Dason's permission, Sorakan gave a polite bow. Then she strode up to the piano where the Spirit of Music was sitting.
Swish.
Sorakan bent her knees to meet the gaze of the spirit sitting on the piano keys.
Reverence could be glimpsed in the way she lowered herself to the spirit's eye level.
"Kurung. Kururung. Kururururul?"
"Kururung!"
"Gururung. Rungrungku."
With that, Sorakan began a conversation with the spirit in a language all their own. Mysterious syllables that a human ear could not make out passed back and forth.
'To think she can talk with a spirit directly.......'
At a sight he was seeing for the first time in his life, Dason opened his eyes round.
For him, who had lived walled off from spirit summoners, to say nothing of spirits, all of this was nothing short of wondrous.
'Fascinating.'
Dason could not take his eyes off Sorakan as she traded words in the spirit tongue.
Her face was expressionless, but somehow her tone when she spoke to the spirit called to mind a mischievous child.
"Hoo......."
Sorakan finished her conversation with the spirit, let out a sigh, and turned her eyes to Dason. There was a curious light in them.
"The spirit has made a request of me. It asked me to make an instrument shaped exactly like this black piano."
"......Can you do it?"
"Fortunately, it's the appearance that it has taken a liking to, so copying the outside isn't difficult. Even so, I think it will be hard to reproduce the internal structure and performance perfectly."
"That's fine. It doesn't have to be a top-of-the-line piano. An ordinary instrument is enough for music lessons, after all."
The music teaching itself would be no problem. Before he made his name as a genius maestro, Dason used to make his living giving private lessons.
Even a student with no talent whatsoever, once he had passed through Dason's hands, was somehow reborn as a player who could hold his own.
"So how much do I owe you?"
"Pardon?"
"You're making a piano for me. Of course I should pay you for it."
"......."
Dason asked Sorakan about the cost of making it as if it were only natural.
'I just hope it's not too expensive.'
He thought it only right to pay a fair price for the trouble she was taking on his behalf.
"Good heavens......."
"To think the Young Master would say such a thing......."
But the faces of Alphen and Kemen, who had been watching this, were full of shock.
They had never dreamed that so normal a statement as an offer to pay properly would come out of Dason's mouth.
It was far too different from the Dason of the past that they had known.
"......."
Sorakan, too, stared at him blankly, as if startled by his response. Before long she swallowed hard, as if she had made up her mind about something.
"I don't need money."
Making a piano would surely cost no small sum. Even so, Sorakan had decided not to ask Dason for payment in money.
"Instead, when you hold your music lessons, Young Master, please let me sit in on them. I've become curious about how well you play."
In place of the cost of making the instrument, Sorakan asked to be allowed to watch Dason play. She seemed to be showing a deep interest in his musical skill.
Grin.
When Dason heard that, a confident smile spread across his lips. Showing his playing in place of money. For him, it was the field in which he was surer of himself than anyone.
"All right. Then I'll sign the contract."
Having gladly accepted Sorakan's condition, Dason strode up to the contract still fluttering in the air.
Swish.......
He took up a pen and began to write on the contract. In the space for filling in the terms, Dason wrote the following.
[To give faithful help in all things related to music.]
[The term shall be unlimited.]
They were truly perfect conditions, ones that would let him make use of the spirit to his heart's content.
Scratch.......
And it was the moment Dason's name was pressed firmly into the signature line.
Flaaash!
A brilliant golden light coiled around the entire contract, and with a dazzling flash the paper vanished.
Hummm!
The way golden dust scattered through the air as if sprinkled there looked like the work of some mysterious magic.
[The contract with the spirit has been concluded.]
[Through the contract, a powerful link forms between your souls.]
At that moment, the souls of the Spirit of Music and Dason were joined.
-Hummmm!
[Through the blessing bestowed by the Spirit of Music, changes begin in your body.]
A mysterious phenomenon occurred in Dason's body.