I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 68: Her Summon (2)

If I’m being honest with myself, the sight before me was not one that would shock me.

I had become so accustomed to Ariana’s antics that even the act of summoning the highest-ranking wind elemental from the Wind Peaks was nothing more than a familiar surprise.

Even before her eleventh birthday, she had already mastered her specialty, dark magic.

Of course, the principles of dark magic are quite different from those of the other four, so I can’t say for sure that the spells she used in the past were of the same rank as Great Magic.

Perhaps if she had been able to generate the same power with any of the other four magics, Ariana would have been labeled as one who became an Archmage at the age of ten.

It’s amazing that a baby can walk at just one month old.

It’s similar to how you’d be less surprised if a child walked at one month and talked at two months.

So even this behavior, I’m trying to understand it because I’m thinking, ‘That’s Ariana, she can do that.’

Though her brother next to me didn’t seem to think so at all.

“Shi, Sylph? Ma, that’s ridiculous. How on earth could….”

With a look of utter disbelief on his face, Kael sank to the floor and began mumbling something about how it didn’t make sense and that he was dreaming.

I had once reacted to Arianna’s magic in the same way as Kael.

I realized with a start that my senses were gradually adjusting to her standards.

“Please make a spirit contract with me, Sylph.”

“…….”

Sylph responded to her offer with an indescribable, mystical cry.

And then, floating in the air, it looked around Ariana’s surroundings, and carefully extended a thin, transparent hand towards her.

Even as someone who was encountering a spirit contract for the first time, I was able to fully guess what that reaction meant and the future it will bring.

As if the already restrictive world of dark magic wasn’t enough to handle her overflowing talent.

Who will be able to stop Ariana’s runaway talent when she begins to manipulate wind magic through Sylph?

I’d say Tom, the gardener, won’t have to do much gardening for a while.

With that thought, I watched in silence as Ariana made a spirit pact with Sylph.

She extended her hand towards her, and she took it in hers, their fingers lightly touching before they locked together.

“……!!!”

“Huh?”

Sylph pulled her hand away in a panic as soon as it touched Ariana’s body, a cry of obvious embarrassment escaping her mouth.

It gave her a single horrified look, as if it had eaten something inedible, and then it split into several winds and vanished.

As the events unfolded before my eyes, I was left with even more confused emotions than when Ariana had first summoned Sylph.

The highest ranking elemental unilaterally breaking a contract and fleeing on the eve of an agreement?

It was unheard of, at least in the cases I knew of.

Spirits are cautious by nature and rarely respond to summoners unless they are qualified.

On the flip side, if they do respond to a summon, it means they’re already halfway willing to contract with you.

At that point, more than 90% of the time, the contract has already been established.

Of course, there have been instances of spirits disappearing again after meeting face-to-face and realizing they don’t like a certain element.

At least with Sylph’s reaction to Ariana, I don’t get the sense that she canceled the contract because she didn’t like her.

It was still a contract failure process that my brain just doesn’t understand.

“…….”

Ariana stared blankly at the empty spot where Sylph had disappeared from the contract, her hands clasped together with nowhere to go.

Instinctively, the thought of comforting her flashed through her mind.

“Well, well, well, young Ariana, you’ve summoned Sylph, that I’ve never seen in my life!

I’m glad I followed you all the way up here!”

“…Are you teasing me?”

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it in that way, I just wanted to tell you that the summoning itself was amazing….”

The words were meant to cheer her up after her failure on the eve of the contract, but judging from Ariana’s reaction, it must have backfired.

Instead, with a nonchalant demeanor, as if she knew this was coming, Ariana picked up her bag and started walking toward the ridge of the mountain range.

“Ah, Ariana dear, where are you going? The descent is this way, not that way….”

“Nonsense, I’m going to the next peak, it’s only my first attempt.”

“It’s ……?”

“I’m going to do this until I get it right. Follow me or not, it’s up to you.”

There was no hesitation in Ariana’s steps as she headed for another peak.

She said it was up to me to follow her or not, but I had a gut feeling that I should probably follow her now.

“I’ll lead the way, my dear Ariana!”

And so I hurried to her side, moving along the mountain path.

“I want to go home….”

Kael, who was alone, seemed to be following close behind us.

May her next spirit contract be fulfilled, if only to descend before the sun completely sets.

* * *

To conclude, on the next four attempts, I witnessed much the same thing.

A series of bizarre contract failures, never knowing if she was being favored by the Elemental or not.

“…….”

Ifrit, the fire elemental, watched her for a moment, then wordlessly disappeared without attempting to contract.

“Chaaaaack!”

“…….”

Undine, who, like Sylph, was on the verge of making a pact, disappeared as soon as Ariana’s hand touched her, spraying a stream of water in her face.

“……click.”

Aluneth, the arcane spirit in the form of a raven, let out a single cry of distress and dispersed into dozens of energy streams.

Wind, fire, water, and arcane.

Ariana’s ability to summon all four attributes spirits from the Four Peaks is impressive, but I felt quite sorry for her as I watched her repeatedly fail to fulfill her end of the bargain.

I wanted to offer her some sort of consolation, but I knew that none of my words would reach her.

“Come on, let’s go back now, sister, didn’t you try four times already! Eh, I don’t think it’s going to work next time anyway, so let’s just hurry down….”

“Quiet, Kael.”

I just shush Kael, who is still frightened and blurting out random words in the darkened mountains.

Ariana glanced back to where I and Kael were, then spoke a single sentence with a half-hearted expression.

“…I’ve come all this way, just one last time.”

Ariana’s face, which had initially looked grave, had been transformed into a deeply troubled expression.

It was the first time we had ever seen her look so troubled, and both Kael and I could only nod in agreement with her suggestion.

We’ve been there for her stubbornness four times already.

Finally, Ariana’s steps took her to her fifth and final destination, the Peak of Hope.

Sylph at the Wind Peak, Ifrit at the Flame Peak, Undine at the Purity Peak, and Aluneth at the Wisdom Peak.

We had already encountered all four of the four magical spirits on the first four peaks.

I was starting to get a little curious about the spirits she was bringing us to on the last peak.

Perhaps she would summon a dark magic spirit I had never heard of before.

With these cautious assumptions in mind and her back turned, Arianna uttered the final words to summon the spirit.

There was a brief flash before her eyes.

As my momentarily jet-black vision slowly returned to normal, the white figure in front of me began to become a little clearer.

It was not, of course, a dark magic elemental as I had expected, but it was at least as mysterious as anything else.

Raela, the highest elemental of light, a mysterious being that I had never seen in the flesh and of whom very little remains in the form of drawings.

Still, it took little effort to instinctively recognize her as Raela.

It’s hard to imagine anyone not recognizing her name when they see a humanoid spirit emitting daylight from its entire body.

“Raela, please make a spirit contract with me.”

This was the fifth time Ariana had asked for a contract.

Having witnessed all of her previous failures from start to finish, I was desperate for her to succeed this time.

“…….”

Raela glanced around her again and again, a strange look on her face as if something was amiss.

Though I had no talent for reading elemental expressions, Raela’s demeanor seemed to me to indicate that this was how she felt.

She clearly wants to make a pact with Ariana, but for some reason, she is unable to do so.

I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, but I can only cautiously infer that it has something to do with her dark magic.

“…….”

After circling around Ariana for dozens of times, she finally said no, just like the other spirits.

Unlike the others, however, she makes sure to add the nuance that she really can’t help it.

Once again, there was a short flash before our eyes.

When my vision slowly returned to normal, the figure of Raela, the highest ranking Light Elemental, had already vanished.

“…….”

Without turning to face me or Kael, Ariana began to pack the last of the spellbooks into her bag.

“…I’m going back.”

She said, her voice sounding so desolate that I didn’t need to check her expression.