Well, it’s good to make Sofia, now my attendant, stronger… but it’s probably better to make a proper plan than to just randomly fight monsters.

She seems to be leaving the decision on what to do entirely up to me. So, I can freely decide on the strategy.

According to information from my familiar, each protagonist is progressing smoothly. There won’t be any unpleasant events for a while, and no one is challenging the Five Great Demons, so I can concentrate on Sofia’s training… The only problem might be travel.

She can’t use High-Speed Movement Magic like I can. While I can’t meddle in every side event the protagonists cause, if someone challenges the Five Great Demons, I’d want to rush there to observe or accompany them.

The other four, excluding Eina the Knight, could be supported even with Sofia… leaving her behind and acting alone temporarily might be an option, but that would mean leaving her unattended for a long period. In that case, I’d have to explain my abilities and position for her to understand.

Now that she’s my attendant, if we’re always together, it might be okay to tell her some of the circumstances… but she probably wouldn’t understand if I told her I’d reincarnated into a game world. However, if I were to say something like, “I died in the War with the Demon Lord and somehow got to relive my life,” it would at least explain why I know future events.

That would make things faster… but it also carries risks. Some Demon Race members we’ll encounter in the future can read minds. Mental attacks don’t affect me because my stats are maxed out, but if I tell her the situation, there’s a possibility that information could be passed on to those Demon Race members—and in Sofia’s case, there’s also the possibility of revealing the Royal Family’s secrets. However, those Demon Race members only appear in the mid-to-late game, so the situation regarding the Royal Family might be such that it’s okay for it to be revealed then… but that’s not the case for me.

I’m not sure if the Demon Race would believe that information if they read my mind, and I don’t even know if we’ll encounter any… but even if I were to tell Sofia the situation, my knowledge far exceeds what humans in this world can comprehend, so any explanation would be forced. If explaining the situation in a strange way creates contradictions, at worst, Sofia might become suspicious and things could get troublesome… Am I overthinking it?

This is going to be a quagmire, just like when I was agonizing over Sofia… For now, I’ll maintain the status quo… After deciding that, I reconsider what to do with her. The best option is for her to also gain a means of High-Speed Movement through magic. For that—

“First, a Spirit Contract.”

I spoke while eating at the eatery.

After completing the village request, we returned to Silvet and rested for a full day to allow Sofia to recuperate. It’s now night, and we’re discussing our next steps over dinner.

Her clothes were torn in the battle with the monsters, so she got a new, similar outfit. Also, though usually hidden by her cloak, she’s wearing a women’s breastplate made of special leather. She bought it in town.

And in response to my previous statement, she opened her mouth with a murmur.

“Spirits, you say?”

“Yes. Even for magic, to use intermediate or higher-level magic, a certain amount of knowledge is required… but Sofia doesn’t have that knowledge, does she?”

She nodded to my question—to learn intermediate or higher-level magic, certain conditions are required. Even in the game, characters without magic knowledge couldn’t learn magic unless they met specific conditions. Lower-tier magic could be learned by paying mages, but intermediate or higher-level magic wasn’t so simple.

Normally, one could learn it at an Academia—a school and research institution combined, like a high school and university in my previous life—by acquiring knowledge there. Indeed, companion characters who studied at the Academia could learn intermediate or higher-level magic without needing any conditions.

If one doesn’t have Academia knowledge, there are two methods… One is what I also learned, called ‘Divine Magic.’ By going to a cathedral, paying money, and providing several materials, a ritual called a baptism, which is a supply of magic power, is performed, allowing one to use intermediate or higher-level magic. Of course, knowledge is still needed to use the learned magic, but it doesn’t require years of study at an Academia or specialized research.

However, this magic has a negative modifier on its power compared to mages who studied at an Academia. In fact, during my training, I interacted with both divine mages and mages who studied at an Academia, and divine mages often lacked firepower, making it difficult for them to be a main force… In my case, however, I can brute-force it with my abilities, so it’s mostly irrelevant. Well, if your parameters are maxed out, a negative modifier is negligible.

By the way, it’s called ‘divine’ because many practitioners come from cathedrals, such as Priestess Warriors, and they primarily use magic considered ‘holy power’ like light. However, by receiving this baptism, one can learn intermediate and advanced magic, even with a Darkness Attribute.

This is undoubtedly the easiest method, and if I were to teach her, this would be the quickest way… but this Divine Magic had a restriction: the protagonists couldn’t receive the baptism.

The specific reason is unknown, but the Sage’s Blood is definitely playing some role… and this undoubtedly applies to Sofia as well. Therefore, she cannot learn ‘Divine Magic.’

That’s where the other acquisition method comes in: “Spirit Magic” acquired through Spirit Contracts. It enhances the power and casting speed of the elemental magic of the contracted spirits. Incidentally, even those who learn and acquire magic at the academy can contract with spirits, further increasing their magic power. Therefore, it’s not warriors who usually make contracts, but rather existing magic-users who do so to strengthen their magic.

“There’s another reason for this, besides acquiring intermediate or higher magic. Contracting with spirits also improves Sofia’s physical abilities.”

“Yes.”

Sofia agreed. So, I continued speaking.

“Additionally… when faced with an urgent situation, like a Demon Race invasion, I use Wind Magic to move at high speed. When I saved Sofia, I rushed to her using that wind.”

“Is that so?”

“And, of course, Sofia hasn’t learned such magic… you wouldn’t want to be left behind, would you?”

“That’s right.”

“So, we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. The closest place is the dwelling of the Wind Spirits, so you can conveniently learn that kind of magic there.”

—At worst, if I left her behind, she’d probably understand if I explained it. Still, it wouldn’t be good for that to happen too often, so it’s probably best to just have her learn it for now.

Also, if she’s going to act with me, there’s a possibility she’ll participate in the Five Great Wars with Demons. I couldn’t confirm in the game whether she has the qualifications to defeat the Demon King, so it’s currently unclear… but to have the power to contend with the Demon Race, she’ll need to train both her sword and magic. Therefore, the method of Spirit Magic should be correct.

Another issue is the quality of her Magic Power… I need to think of a strategy against the Demon Race, who distinguish people by the quality of their Magic Power, not their appearance. This will be difficult to accomplish overnight, but… for now, I’ll think about it after the Spirit Contract.

Having reached a conclusion in my mind, I continued speaking.

“If you go northwest from this town, you’ll find a mountainous region where the Wind Spirits, Sylphs, live.”

“Yes, I know. So, we’ll make the contract there?”

“That’s right. Even if something happens, you’ll have some flexibility with High-Speed Movement Magic… convenient, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. So, the next goal is to contract with the Wind Spirits.”

The discussion was settled. According to the familiar’s information, there are currently no protagonist characters attempting to contract with spirits. Therefore, the contract can be made without Sofia’s presence being revealed.

By the way, the first time a Spirit Contract event occurs, you encounter trouble and resolve it before you can make the contract again… I learned from my familiar’s report that a different protagonist than Phili or Eina had done it. Well, even if that event happens again, it’s just a sub-event after all. My judgment was that it wouldn’t affect the scenario.

From there, we continued our meal… and after finishing, we decided to rest to prepare for tomorrow.

The next day, we left the town and headed for the mountainous region where the Sylphs reside. The distance wasn’t that great, and since the highway was well-maintained, there were no problems with our progress.

The mountain pass route was originally one of the extensive highways, allowing us to proceed while viewing valleys on both sides. There seem to be various reasons why these roads were built, but I’m not very knowledgeable about history, so I don’t quite grasp it. Maybe I’ll investigate it if I get the chance.

If you turn off the highway onto a side road and enter the mountains, you’ll arrive at the spirits’ dwelling… In my previous life, the appearance of spirits varied greatly depending on the game or novel. The Sylphs in this world have a fairy-like appearance, about the size of a palm, and in the game, there were only females.

I’ve seen some things about that in books, but it seems it’s not entirely devoid of males. Well, since they’re spirits and apparently don’t have the element of bearing children, the distinction between male and female doesn’t really mean much.

We continued our journey smoothly towards the spirits’ dwelling, defeating any monsters we encountered along the way, and finally arrived at the foot of the mountain, our destination.

“…It’s vast.”

On the path before entering the spirits’ dwelling, Sofia looked up at the mountain and expressed her thoughts. I nodded slightly, looking around.

When I say mountain, a mountain range spread out before me, and from a distance, there were places with snow piled near the peaks. It was difficult to grasp the full extent up close, but forests stretched out everywhere except for the valley entrance, giving it the feel of a natural fortress.