As Lefin said, Sofia hadn’t formed a contract yet. In the midst of this, I met up with them, and Lefin formally introduced herself to Sofia.

“I am Lefin, the Queen of this dwelling place of the Sylphs… You are Princess Sophiea, aren’t you?”

At first, Sofia was bewildered by the sudden statement—or rather, she must have been doubly surprised by her being exposed as a Princess, and then by the fact that the person speaking was the Queen of Sylphs.

“As a Descendant of a Sage, I myself wanted to cooperate with you.”

“Queen, with me?”

“Yes.”

Lefin smiles. For Sofia, it must have been a continuous stream of surprises.

She seemed confused by Lefin’s words for a moment, but then,

“……Understood. I look forward to working with you.”

Thus, the contract was made. As someone who knew the situation, I thought it was good that the Spirit became my companion… personally, I thought this was for the best.

For now, I’ll use a Familiar to observe the Sylph’s Dwelling. If any problems arise, I can deal with them in the Capital City.

Upon contracting, Lefin’s body vanished—Spirits retreat into their contractor as magic power. However, Lefin immediately reappeared next to Sofia after the contract and asked us,

“Well then, shall we go? …But where are we heading next?”

That’s right, I hadn’t decided on our course. Sofia looked at me. Since she is my Attendant, it’s natural for her to seek my judgment.

“Indeed…”

According to information from the Familiar, the Protagonists, who are Descendants of a Sage, are moving around a lot, but they are not yet in a situation to challenge the Five Great Demons. However, there is a person who has an unpleasant event coming up that I want to interfere with, so for now, I want to go to that location.

But I can’t tell Sofia, who doesn’t know the situation, the reason… and then, I remember the Continent map. Come to think of it, the place where the event is located is—

“……Alright, Demons are appearing, but the Demon Race’s invasion is still slow for now. It would be best to contract with any Spirits we can during this time.”

“So, to other Spirits’ locations?”

“Yes. By the way, Lefin. Do you know of any Spirit dwellings close to here?”

“……You can just call me by my name. Uh, nearby would be the Earth Spirit, Gnome, I suppose.”

Among the Four Spirits, Gnomes are strongly imagined as Spirits smaller than Humans, with the appearance of a bearded Old Man. Or rather, in the world before Reincarnation, that was probably the basic image.

However, in this world’s Gnomes, there are no Old Men. I believe they all had youthful appearances.

“I see, Gnomes next, then.”

Sofia said, seemingly re-energized.

The location is east of Sylph’s Dwelling, in the same direction as the event I want to interfere with. Even if we travel on foot, it’s not from one end of the Continent to the other, so we should be able to reach the event and make the contract in time.

Also, after contracting with the Wind Spirit and engaging in some combat, I’ll acquire some Magic—Sofia also has some Magic, but among them, she’ll learn the Movement Magic I use. Of course, my usage is an application, so some training will be necessary… it would be good to train that before going to the Gnome’s place.

Since we seem to have plenty of time, I’ll train Sofia a bit while she learns Magic… then, we’ll go to the Gnome’s place. This should be the most efficient approach.

However, there are also problems that need to be solved while we are active like this. For example, a strategy to change the quality of Sofia’s Magic Power so that the Demon Race doesn’t find out about her… I’ll consult with Lefin about that in the future.

“Alright, then our next destination is the Gnome Dwelling. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

Sofia and Lefin replied in succession. And so, we left Sylph’s Dwelling.

Sofia was able to contract with the Wind Spirit, but since Lower-tier Magic can be acquired even without one, its true value will only be realized from the middle stages onwards. However, there are other benefits, and her status will increase slightly. In the case of Wind, her speed will increase a little.

In addition, there is Magic that can be immediately acquired by contracting with a Spirit. In the case of Wind, it is the Movement Magic ‘Bird Soar’. Its effect in the game is to be enveloped in Wind, slightly increasing defense and movement speed for a certain period. However, this Magic was not used much in the game.

The defense increase is negligible, so it can be ignored, and while the speed increase is high, enemy movements are slow in the early stages, so normal speed is sufficient. In the later stages, equipment that improves movement speed becomes available, so it’s more common to compensate with equipment rather than Magic that only lasts for a certain period. Therefore, there are few opportunities to use it, and some even treat it as useless Magic.

However, now that it’s reality, if I can apply and use this Magic skillfully, my movement ability will improve astonishingly, making it highly useful for me, who doesn’t have a horse.

And so, I rack my brain to have her learn it. One way is to defeat nearby Monsters without any particular reason… but it would be better to take on a quest as a job to boost motivation.

We returned to Silvet once… and decided to have a day of free activity. I had explained the situation to Lefin, so I told her not to make contact with any Knights who might recognize her face. This should be fine.

Then I told Sofia I was going to check for jobs at the Guild and went to check the available requests.

“……Hmm.”

And then, I groaned as I looked at the contents at the Guild. There was nothing suitable.

I saw a few requests that existed in the game, but the request locations were in the complete opposite direction of our path, or they were time-consuming guard requests, so I didn’t really want to do them… or rather, is no one doing these? Are they being left undone if the Protagonists don’t do them?

Anyway, it feels like there are no good jobs in this place. So, I guess I’ll just have to gain experience by defeating Monsters on our journey.

Just as I reached that conclusion, the Guild’s entrance door opened. I heard someone call out, and their response reached my ears.

“Hey, long time no see, huh?”

“Yeah, I finally finished my guard duty. So, I came to show my face, how is it?”

Well, the Demon King and Demon Race showed up, and now I’ve got all sorts of troublesome work piling up.

…Huh?

I recognized those words. No, rather than recognized, I’d read that conversation in text form before.

In other words, it was a conversation I’d seen in the game.

Oh, my bad.

Then, the person who entered the Guild pushed past me and went to the Receptionist. Looking at his appearance, he was a man in leather armor with blond hair tied back at shoulder length, giving off a somewhat frivolous impression.

Hey there! Got any jobs today?

I wouldn’t know if there’s anything that suits your taste.

The male Receptionist answered with an annoyed tone… At this point, I remembered who the person in front of me was. He was one of the characters who could become a companion.

His name was, if I recall correctly, Gilbert Rokuonku. He was a character with a lighthearted personality who would hit on any woman he saw. To make him a companion, you just had to talk to him at the Tavern he frequents after this event, but you needed at least one female character in your party for that.

His abilities were those of a typical Warrior type, but he specialized in speed rather than strength. In the game, for consecutive attacks and flurry-type skills, speed also affected their power in addition to attack power, giving him an advantage in increasing the power of such skills. However, his stats weren’t that high, so he was too weak to be a main force in the latter half of the story.

However, this character had a higher initial MP value compared to other Warrior types and could use Divine Magic. So, if trained well, he could become an all-rounder who could use both magic and attacks… though this was just an ideal, and usually he’d end up as a poor Vessel, so he was often raised as a Warrior. Then, if other stronger characters appeared, he’d be easily swapped out.

In fact, I’ve only made him a companion a few times. I’ve never used him to the end, and his lighthearted conversations didn’t leave a good impression.

Thinking it best to avoid getting involved and quickly leave, I slipped outside, leaving him to his conversation. There,

Lord Ruon.

Sofia was standing there for some reason.

Did I… tell you where the Guild was?

I asked someone.

I see… Um, why are you here?

I thought we could have lunch together.

As my Attendant, she must be being considerate… Just as I was about to say “Alright,” with that thought in mind,

…Oh.

Gilbert’s voice came from behind me.