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「You said you’re a spirit of stillness, yes?」
「Well, yeah… why?」

Worthramble forced a smile as he quickly realized that Mira’s target had switched from Sanctia to himself.

「This is my first time meeting a spirit of stillness, so is it correct for me to assume that means you’re an elemental spirit?」
「Yes, that’s correct.」

Spirits that usually lived among nature were classified as elemental spirits, given power over natural phenomenons and elements. Hearing his reply, Mira looked at Worthramble more intently, her smile broadening even more.

「Earlier you mentioned you’d do anything if I saved her, right? In that case…」
「Yes, if it’s in my power to do so.」

The spirit of stillness replied, his eyes firmly focused on Mira, who had gotten so close her nose was almost touching him.

「Okay, then I want you too.」

Mira nodded deeply hearing his reply, gradually extending her hand until it touched his cheek. A small light began glowing, it was the light of a contract. Then a magic circle appeared, but it quickly faded away.

「Hmm, it worked. Though it looked much more subdued.」

As opposed to the contract with Sanctia, the contract with the spirit of stillness was way less flashy, as if his element was represented by it.

「Yeah, I can see that…」

He agreed with her, feeling slightly let down after witnessing the extravagant contract that happened earlier.

「I’ll be counting on you from now on.」

Still, Mira had felt a clear response from the contract, knowing it had been successful. Then struck her hand forward with a satisfied smile.

「Me too.」

He shook her hand, quickly regaining his composure after enduring Mira’s unusually odd behavior. He appeared used to that kind of situation, probably due to his innate element.

「But still, only after forming the contract I noticed, but are you actually a high level spirit?」
「I guess you can say that.」

Every time Mira formed a contract, the spirit’s details and spells used to call them when summoned flashed in her mind, just like a dream she had long forgotten. For high level spirits, a chant was always necessary. High level spells in general could bring forth much more power than any regular human could ever muster, so a chant was a way to enhance one’s magic power to a higher level making casting them possible. It was definitely not just for show.

「But well, the term stillness is so vague I have no idea what you do. What kind of powers do you have?」

Mira asked him full of curiosity, but he just sighed in disappointment saying 「I guess it’s not the most obvious name.」

「It might sound amazing, but he and his powers are surprisingly mundane.」

Sanctia teased him from behind, and after Worthramble glared at her for an instant he started explaining in detail what abilities he had.

As his name suggested, he was able to create silence anywhere at demand. That not only meant silence in sounds, but also affected lights and magic. So for instance, he was able to erase all sounds in a given space, conceal items, and erase any magic aura or presence surrounding someone. In other words, a spirit of stillness was perfect for any stealth operation.

「Ohh…」

When he finished explaining, Mira began thinking about it.

「I guess it’s really mundane after all…」

Seeing Mira did not say anything more, Worthramble looked down in dejection again. But Mira smiled again looking at him.

「Isn’t it amazing though? I thought you would only be able to control sounds, but you can actually do a lot more!」

Having thought about all the different uses she could give to the stillness spirit’s abilities, she realized he could be very useful, which made her even happier realizing she had made a great find that day.

「Do you really think so? Thanks.」

Hearing her talk so impressed about himself made him relax his expression and act a bit more happily. With that done, Mira turned to the last spirit present there. Feeling that gaze, Anlutine hugged her own body while her face looked nervously at Mira.

「Well, looks like everything has been taken care of down here. Do you mind taking me back to the place we came from?」

The shrine was deep inside an underwater cavern. To get there, one needed the help of a water spirit like Anlutine who could get someone under the lake, so Mira asked her to be able to return to the surface.

「I thought you’d want to form a contract with me as well.」

She looked very relieved in a way.

「I’ve already formed contracts with water spirits before, so I don’t need more.」

Hearing her reply, Anlutine seemed satisfied, sighing in relief, though she also looked somewhat left out.

「Really, thank you so much for saving me.」
「I just happened to be in the right place.」

At the end of the cave, just before leaving into the lake, Sanctia hugged Mira before parting ways. Mira scowled, feeling her solid breastplate, but seeing Sanctia’s smile made her feel satisfied. After that there was a short discussion, mostly Mira protesting about being carried like a princess again, but eventually they returned to the lake’s surface.

「What… are those?」

Looking up into the sky above the lake surrounded by trees, there were countless glowing spots, moving like they were adrift on heavenly waves, so they could not be stars.

「Those are migrating fireflies. At this time of the year they fly in big groups like that and go to the north.」
「I see. What a marvelous sight.」

Usually Mira would be asleep at that time, so she would have never been able to see that sight, but now she smiled luckily.

「But still, we got this close and they’re all still sleeping. Your powers to make us quiet is truly something else.」

After Mira had enjoyed the dazzling night scene, she went back to the wagon, passing beside Arlon who was sleeping soundly on the driver’s platform, then checked on Hebi and Sasori cuddled on the roof of the wagon, surprised that none of them had noticed her at all.

「It’s nothing big to keep them asleep like this.」

Saying that, Worthramble opened the Wagon’s door without much care.

「Still seems really useful.」

Even Arlon who had shown really good reflexes so far showed no change. But Mira was very surprised seeing Worthramble’s powers in person.

「Well, ’till we meet again, Mira.」
「Mm, take care of yourself and the other two.」
「I’ll make sure they stay safe.」

With those last words behind him, Worthramble closed the wagon’s door and went straight back to the lake. Mira watched as the two spirits vanished inside the forest, then cleaned her dirtied clothes and slipped back inside her bed. Not long after her deep breaths could be heard vanishing into the dark night.