=Do not grieve, Ozrok. Your soul and flesh will be put to worthy use.
No sooner had it said that than—
Paa-aa-ang!!!
—with that sound,
Vimanar’s spirit core lunged at tremendous speed toward [Upper Earth Spirit — Ozrok].
“...!?”
While Jung Sua and I were flustered by the sudden turn,
the first to react was the shaman who communes with Ozrok.
—What are you doing, manufactured spirit!
It was Borjin.
—Krrrk...!
=Stand aside, shaman of the alien race.
—^!(@$(!@...... !@%%!!$!?
Whether from the shock of it, he even forgot to speak Korean,
and was shouting something in the language of the Green Manes tribe.
“B-Benefactor, what in the world...!?”
Jung Sua’s eyes trembled in panic.
Even if you ask what this is—
‘I don’t know either, man...’
=This may be difficult to understand immediately, but it is something that will aid the forces seated atop this fortress.
=$*!@)(%%......!!!
=And likewise, your kin...
Staff in hand, Borjin spread a barrier of mana and blocked Vimanar’s spirit core.
But—
even as a “monster,” shamans are not particularly robust.
On top of that, he’d been huffing from climbing this high tower.
—Krrrk...
It seemed to be beyond him.
As if he couldn’t hold it back any longer, when he was about to be pushed a step back—
“Stop!”
=I obey the Lord’s command.
Only when I shouted
did the spirit core that had been shooting toward Ozrok finally halt.
—Kuhak... huff... huff...
So it wasn’t an ordinary spirit core.
Borjin, who had been holding it off, collapsed, dripping with sweat.
He hacked as though even catching his breath was too much.
And—
that steadfast Earth Spirit that had radiated tremendous charisma,
Ozrok...
—G-Go, gooooo...
The sight had impressed me with its charisma earlier, which now made me feel embarrassed—
he was flattened to the floor, body pulled tight, trembling in a corner of the room.
Borjin sat down in a cold sweat,
and as for Ozrok, who had seemed so steady—
‘...Come to think of it, he’s a spirit too, in the end.’
The Spirit of Darkness, and
the Water Spirit as well—
spirits seem, fundamentally, to be timid.
“You...”
=Yes, Lord.
Of course,
what mattered right now was not that the Earth Spirit was more timid than I’d thought.
“What the hell was that just now?”
According to the [System],
this thing places the Lord first,
and absolutely obeys his orders.
‘It even said it could not conceive of lying or doing harm to the Lord.’
Seeing that in the System,
I’d trusted it to a degree.
‘Then what was that.’
An abrupt act without telling me.
And the [System] does not lie.
In that case,
how am I supposed to take what just happened?
=As I said, it was an act to obtain a body.
“That just now? What you did was an attack on an ally!”
=That phenomenon you saw is how this spirit obtains a body.
“...What?”
I scowled, at a loss,
and it continued calmly:
=Babylonian scholars devised a method to newly create spirits, but for various circumstantial, social, and cultural reasons, they did not devise a method to make those spirits’ bodies.
“...”
=What they put in place instead was to infiltrate another being that possesses a mana core or core...
No matter how you hear it,
it was something that could only disgust you.
=...hack that core, and seize the target’s body.
“...Insane.”
I could see Ozrok shrink even further at that.
‘...Come to think of it,’
the fortress’s facilities—
I recalled them bit by bit.
‘There were a few sly corners here and there.’
Especially
this inner keep at the fortress’s center.
The facilities constructed there had some odd aspects.
The barracks built on Basement Level 1—
to the uninitiated, it could pass for a demon-summoning altar.
The mana reservoir built on Basement Level 2—
that too,
rather than an ordinary reservoir, had a strangely eerie look, as if forcibly binding mana in place.
And
this very spirit made in the command-and-control room was the same.
‘It tries to... rob another spirit’s body.’
I hadn’t known at first,
but like those other two facilities,
there was something about it that provoked unease.
I could guess, to a degree,
the reason as well.
‘The inner keep is... the hardest place to see from outside.’
Facilities not fit to be seen by others,
the kind that harbor parts that must not be shown to others—
only those kinds of facilities
were being erected inside this inner keep,
in spaces others cannot see,
in secret.
“Then what happens to a spirit whose body is stolen, as you say?”
=In the general case, it proceeds to dissolution.
“...!”
Talking with the thing up to now,
there were times I oddly felt as if it had emotions.
But
this was a bit different.
Perhaps because of what had just happened,
I suddenly recalled what it had been called in the [Special Quest].
‘...Artificial intelligence.’
There was no humanity in it.
It was cold to a vicious degree,
thinking only of efficiency—
the feel of manufactured intelligence.
“You. So you asked me to call the spirit users for this from the start.”
=Among living beings born with cores, spirits are the most representative. Their soul and flesh in particular are extremely versatile. Of all beings that appear in this fortress’s records, they alone have a core, and its performance is excellent—thus they are the most recommended target for seizure.
“You crazy bastard.”
Vimanar answered unruffled,
as if my foul language meant nothing.
=If you wish to change the target spirit, I must advise against it.
“What?”
=Water Spirits may be powerful upon the sea, but the Lord’s power is based on land. Seizing the soul and flesh of an Earth Spirit will be far more efficient.
“...”
=One spirit user will see their combat power reduced, but the loss is not large compared to the gain. That shaman from the other world has indeed contracted with a spirit, but that is not the whole of his abilities. Unlike spirit users among other human species, he has many abilities besides spirits... even if he is deprived of his spirit’s power, the loss to his capabilities will not be great.
“You do know what’s wrong and are choosing not to say it.”
It’s not losses and gains
I’m angry about.
“You did not explain the process to me!”
This thing
had tried to deceive me.
=This fortress does not make proposals that would be a loss to the Lord.
“So you’re saying it’s not a problem to omit the important parts?”
=As I said, because trust with the Lord has not yet been built... we judged that, given the Lord’s disposition, you would not permit the seizure of soul and flesh.
The fortress had greatly aided our unit.
I even owed it my life.
I’d relaxed, thinking this was the same kind of being as that fortress—
‘It’s more dangerous than I thought...!’
Killing another spirit and seizing its body—
just as it said,
even the very idea of those who made this felt dangerous to me.
=As I said... under no circumstances will this fortress do anything that harms the Lord...
“I went through something similar to what you’re doing not long ago.”
=...?
It does not lie.
But
it withholds what’s important,
and saying “it’s for your sake,” it runs roughshod doing something that differs from the subject’s intent.
“What you’re doing resembles demons.”
The demons who enticed the demon contractors with fraudulent contracts.
What this thing was doing—
even if the result would in fact benefit me—
resembled that demon.
“You did it thinking it would benefit me?”
=...Lord.
“Shut it.”
Jaw clenched,
I glared at it and shouted:
“Judging whether that’s a benefit or not is my role.”
=...
“You crossed that line.”
Arms folded,
I stared it down.
“You said you take my orders, right? Then here’s an order. From now on, I absolutely forbid you from ‘intentionally withholding anything’ from me.”
=Lord, handled that way, the efficiency of work done for the Lord will plummet...
“Shut up and take the order.”
=I obey the Lord’s command.
To pull something like this “for my sake” without telling me—
that was the one thing I absolutely refused to let happen again.
“And... explain properly what just happened, with nothing withheld.”
=Yes.
As if to persuade me,
it continued step by step.
=It is true this fortress concealed that fact. As I said, that was because, given the Lord’s disposition and the current lack of trust in this spirit, we believed that if we proposed this now, you would refuse.
“You know me well.”
=But Lord, the things made possible by this spirit obtaining soul and flesh are considerable. If that alone is achieved, even if the Lord enters free action, the Lord’s power will not waver. This point remains true.
Setting aside the process—
there was nothing it had lied about or concealed.
=It is a way to obtain the greatest benefit for the least expenditure of force, Lord.
“...”
=This spirit understands that by the Lord’s world’s values, its actions may appear strange. As I said, this spirit is set such that it cannot do anything that would be a loss to the Lord... and therefore, it could not inform the Lord of that fact.
I could understand what it meant.
By the logic of its algorithm—
if it informed me of the method of obtaining a body, I would oppose it,
and if obtaining a spirit’s body is the greatest benefit to me,
then my opposing it would be a loss to me,
so—
‘I would obviously refuse, and that would be a loss, therefore it could not tell me—something like that?’
It’s ridiculous,
but this thing really was acting with extreme focus on my profit.
Even if it meant deceiving me in the process—
because, as far as it’s concerned, that yields me a benefit.
‘The status window does not lie, but...’
it only keeps the words written there.
Within the bounds of keeping those words, it will do anything.
Just like
the contract a demon offers.
=I understand the Lord’s anger... but I recommend you judge coolly.
“...”
=As I said, if we only seize that Earth Spirit, the benefit will be enormous.
At those words,
I looked at the spirit user contracted with that spirit—
Borjin.
—...You there.
When my gaze met him,
still on his knees on the floor,
he looked up at me with trembling eyes.
He may be an old, wise shaman,
but right now he looked terribly small.
=This alien shaman is, as I understand it, contracted with the Lord’s power. The content of that contract is that if he faithfully serves the Lord’s power, his species will be resurrected.
“...That’s right.”
=By this fortress’s judgment, losing a spirit is certainly a great loss for spirit users... but he is one who places his species’ resurrection above all. Even if we were to forcibly seize his spirit’s body, he would be fully capable of enduring it.
Borjin looked between me and Vimanar, cold sweat pouring.
Not long ago,
I recalled what he’d said when we made the artificial spirit.
[It would be discourteous to spirits.]
The Green Manes tribe are those who, over long years, communed with Earth Spirits and drew strength.
His attitude toward spirits had been endlessly earnest and courteous.
‘You can tell just from how he threw himself forward at the sudden attack.’
Vimanar’s abrupt move had been so fast even I couldn’t react.
If Borjin hadn’t moved—
I’d have simply watched, dumbstruck, as Vimanar seized the spirit’s body.
To throw yourself at that speed—
it’s impossible to do that after making some considered judgment.
Only by instinct,
by throwing your body to protect your spirit,
can you move that fast.
That Ozrok and Borjin—
the odds are high their relationship is no ordinary contract.
—Y-You there. Is it truly as that spirit says...?
“...”
—Is it Ozrok, the spirit contracted to me... that you need?
He looked at me with shaking eyes.
When I hesitated, unable to answer,
how did he take that sight of me?
—...
He seemed to waver over whether to speak,
opening and closing his mouth again and again.
After struggling for quite a while,
Borjin soon
tilted {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} his head back toward the sky with his eyes closed—
and after a moment—
—...That spirit speaks true.
“...What?”
As if he’d reached a decision,
he squeezed his eyes shut and said:
—If you desire Ozrok’s soul and flesh, I have no choice but to give him.
—Goooo...?
At those words,
the Earth Spirit trembling in the corner flinched and lifted his head.
—O-Ozrok is the spirit the Great Shaman of the tribe bestowed upon me when I had just been born. He has been my lifelong friend, my companion with whom I promised to remain even after, someday, when my life ends and I cross over the hill.
Borjin was still sweating cold,
his body shaking,
but—
—Ordinarily, even if it cost me my life, there would be no giving up Ozrok.
“...”
—But I made a contract with you.
It was very simple,
and as simple as it was, it was infinitely favorable to my side—
—If I proved my loyalty, you would resurrect my species.
As if laying everything down,
he spoke with his eyes shut tight.
—That contract remains in force.
“You...”
—Do as the manufactured spirit says.
Borjin urged me
to let his spirit be devoured.
