Chapter 44 

 Let There Be Light

Oh Hyeonseong was serious about recovering his body.

There was no reason for him to refuse the chance to shake off the lingering aftereffects and return to peak condition, of course, but the fundamental reason he was so serious about it was because he wanted to bring back the Spirits he had once lost.

That was why he had pushed himself so hard during rehabilitation and why he made sure to eat every meal without skipping even a single one.

He had personally experienced Albeorn returning once his body recovered.

So when pure white light suddenly burst out from inside his room, he wondered if perhaps one of his old Spirits had returned.

But the one who appeared before him now was a girl he had never seen in his life.

“Who… are you?”

A little girl was hiding behind the door.

Her shoulders were hunched as she blinked her large eyes.

She looked anxious, yet she couldn’t bring herself to take her eyes off Oh Hyeonseong.

He was just as flustered, and so the strange standoff continued.

What is this?

Judging from the energy he could sense, she was definitely a Spirit.

But she was a Spirit he had never seen before.

For one thing, this was the first time he had encountered a Spirit whose manifested form looked so completely human.

Albeorn’s true form was humanoid as well, but when manifested, he took on the appearance of an otter.

The girl standing before him, on the other hand, was unmistakably human to anyone who saw her.

She can’t be a lower Spirit if she can manifest herself this completely… But I can’t sense the presence of anything higher-level than that, either.

Oh Hyeonseong stared at her.

True to her nature as a Spirit, the girl had a distinctly exotic appearance, with pure white hair.

“…Lisa.”

“What?”

“I’m Alisa.”

Oh Hyeonseong’s mouth fell open.

She could speak human language.

It wasn’t completely impossible, but unless a Spirit possessed a sufficiently high level of power, it couldn’t use human speech. And even when they could, High Spirits insisted on using the language of Spirits out of pride.

“Can you tell me where you came from? I didn’t summon you first, so how did you even know to come here?”

“…”

She lowered her head and said nothing more.

Whether she was simply quiet or extremely timid, getting an answer out of her seemed difficult.

But there was an easy way to handle a situation like this.

Oh Hyeonseong approached her, crouched down, and held out his hand.

After staring at him for a moment, Alisa grabbed his hand.

Fwoooosh!

Their contract was established, and their souls became connected.

Faaaash!

When Alisa brought her hands together, pure white light flowed from them.

It was bright enough to illuminate the surroundings, yet the light itself was gentle and warm.

When she lowered her hands, the light disappeared in an instant.

Oh Hyeonseong had asked her to do this.

A Light attribute… Is this my fifth attribute?

Compared to the other elements, the Light attribute was extremely rare.

Of course, it couldn’t compare to his Life attribute, but it was still rare enough to be counted among the five rarest attributes.

If someone’s innate special constitution happened to be compatible with it, simply being an affinity user of that attribute was enough to earn them considerable preferential treatment and offers from various organizations.

But this doesn’t seem like an ordinary Light attribute.

The Light attribute he knew of had a vivid, intense quality to it.

But the light Alisa wielded felt soft and warm, completely different from that.

On top of that, she only used the unusually pure mana coming from the sixth core.

She couldn’t use Spirit magic at all with mana drawn from his other cores.

It was something rarely seen in other Spirits, who shared and freely used the mana from all of his cores.

Eek!

Albeorn and the other Spirits nearby also watched the newcomer with fascination.

Albeorn, in particular, seemed strangely wary of Alisa.

He was normally prickly toward everyone except Oh Hyeonseong, but even so, he at least understood that he and Alisa had never met before.

“All right, let’s eat now. You should eat too.”

It happened to be mealtime, so he prepared the table and seated Alisa beside him.

Since this was the first meal with their newest family member, he had put considerable effort into preparing it and even made dishes the Spirits liked.

But Alisa simply sat there blankly without eating a single bite.

“What’s wrong? You’re not going to eat?”

Alisa shook her head.

Even Albeorn, who was in the form of an otter, was happily nibbling on a potato. Yet she was being even pickier than him.

Of course, since she was a Spirit, she might simply not be accustomed to eating food.

Still, he had expected that the delicious smell would eventually tempt her to take a bite.

Hmm… Maybe she doesn’t like the menu? She might have a child’s palate, considering how she looks.

Alisa’s appearance made her look like she was at an age when children tended to be particularly picky about food.

Oh Hyeonseong nodded to himself before abruptly getting to his feet.

He grabbed his fishing rod and headed straight for the reservoir.

He was going to catch a fish and cook it for her.

There’s nothing better than sharing delicious food for building a bond.

Normally, Spirits needed some time to become close to their contractor after forming their initial contract.

Albeorn was now constantly glued to him and openly devoted to him, but when they first made their contract, that troublesome little Spirit had given him all kinds of headaches.

There had even been a time when Oh Hyeonseong tried to pat his head after they had gotten a little closer, only for his hand to freeze solid.

It’s been several years since I last took in a new Spirit as a member of the family. I should at least put in this much effort.

He didn’t know whether she liked fish, but it was worth a try.

Meat would probably be best for a child’s palate, but there was nowhere around where he could get any.

There was no chance a Spirit would eat factory-produced synthetic meat, after all.

Come to think of it, she doesn’t have to follow me.

Alisa had been following him around ever since they left.

All the other Spirits had stayed home, yet she continued to quietly follow him without saying a word.

Well, at least she didn’t seem to dislike him.

Thinking that, Oh Hyeonseong continued walking up the back mountain.

Then, while walking along the mountain path leading toward the reservoir, he heard a rustling sound.

“Shh.”

Oh Hyeonseong turned around and brought a finger to his lips.

Alisa stopped with a start and nodded.

There’s something up ahead.

He could sense a presence fairly close by.

It was definitely not a person, and he approached the source of the presence.

What he saw between the trees was a massive wild boar.

Grunt!

A wild boar? Huh… I never thought I’d actually see one.

There had been a time when he asked the village elders about the reservoir on the back mountain.

But whenever they told him about the reservoir, every one of them warned him not to go anywhere near it.

The biggest reason was that it was a restricted area with a high concentration of miasma, but there was another reason as well.

It was an area where wild animals frequently appeared.

I can see why they told me not to go. If a non-Awakened person ran into that thing, it would be dangerous.

Wild animals exposed to miasma for long periods became much more aggressive.

They rarely came down into residential areas, but they caused trouble by attacking people they happened to encounter.

If someone entered their territory, they could pursue and attack them to the bitter end, even if that person showed no hostility.

Of course, their danger was nowhere near comparable to that of monsters.

But to ordinary civilians who weren’t Awakened, these animals could still pose a serious threat to their lives.

In the past, bees and snakes had been the biggest problems.

Now, large mammals had become the greater threat.

Even the normally timid water deer had gone mad enough to attack people.

Most people who lived in cities and knew nothing about such things were often shocked whenever they saw the annual statistics for deaths caused by wild animals.

But why is it so damn huge?

Wild animals exposed to miasma for long periods tended to grow larger.

But even taking that into account, this one was enormous.

It looked almost as though someone had parked a compact car there.

Alisa also stared at the wild boar with her mouth hanging open, seemingly fascinated by its appearance.

Wheeeeeek!

“Oops. It saw us.”

The wild boar turned toward them and let out a horrifying shriek.

Then it charged at them with terrifying momentum.

Startled, Alisa clung tightly to the back of his leg.

If an ordinary person were hit by something that large charging at them, the impact would be comparable to getting struck by a vehicle.

But Oh Hyeonseong didn’t dodge.

He simply clenched his fist.

“You don’t even know enough to be afraid of people.”

BOOM!

Oh Hyeonseong delivered a precise flick to the boar’s forehead.

The massive animal staggered to a stop, rolled its eyes back, and collapsed sideways with a heavy thud.

One flick had sent the poor thing to the afterlife.

Alisa picked up a branch and poked the boar a few times, but it didn’t move at all.

“Hmm… I subdued it because I thought it might be dangerous, but what should I do with this thing?”

Oh Hyeonseong stared at the enormous carcass for a moment.

He considered simply leaving it there and moving on, but soon shook his head.

Yeah. Maybe this is an opportunity.

A wild boar was a pig.

It might have sounded like an obvious statement, but that enormous body meant one thing:

It was a huge chunk of pork.

It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten meat. Should I give it a try?

Ever since he began farming with the Spirits, he had been genuinely satisfied with his meals.

But there were limits to what he could obtain from the fields.

The fish in the reservoir had helped fill the gap to some extent, but no matter how much he ate, they couldn’t completely make up for the lack of meat.

“Fishing is canceled for now.”

Oh Hyeonseong effortlessly lifted the wild boar.

It was much larger than his own body, yet it didn’t feel heavy.

And because he had subdued it without causing any external injuries, there was no blood pouring out everywhere, making it surprisingly easy to carry.

After returning home, he laid the carcass down in the yard.

“Don’t mess with it.”

The Spirits came running over with excited cries.

They all stared at it curiously.

Meanwhile, Oh Hyeonseong retrieved a knife from the shed, bled the boar, and began butchering it.

“It’s been a while since I’ve done this, too.”

Stab!

He first inserted the knife around the ankle, then cut and peeled away the hide.

Although he had never worked professionally in this field, there had been plenty of times when he had needed to procure and prepare food in the field.

Thanks to that, he could butcher wild animals with his eyes closed.

He removed the organs, separated the bones, and methodically divided the meat into different cuts.

He had considered raising livestock such as pigs or cows himself in the past so he could have a steady supply of meat.

But there was one problem.

He couldn’t bring himself to slaughter and eat an animal he had personally raised.

He had no problem eating meat that had been slaughtered somewhere he couldn’t see.

But human psychology was strange that way.

Especially since the animals he raised would be running around and playing alongside the Spirits. Turning them into meat afterward felt like something he simply couldn’t do.

Clang!

“Phew. Done.”

Oh Hyeonseong planted the knife into the ground and straightened his back.

Several iceboxes were now packed full of meat, and he cleaned up the remains of the butchering job.

Then he brought out a grill and started cooking the meat.

“How is it? Looks delicious, doesn’t it?”

Alisa shook her head firmly.

The other Spirits seemed to feel the same way, standing at a considerable distance from the grill.

That stung a little.

Oh Hyeonseong paid them no mind and picked up a piece of fully cooked meat with his chopsticks.

Then came the long-awaited taste test.

“Ptooey! Ptooey! Ugh, damn…!”

Oh Hyeonseong leaped to his feet in horror.

An indescribably disgusting taste, like something straight out of a nightmare, had assaulted his tongue.

Even now, the aftertaste still lingered.

I expected it to be bad… but I didn’t think it would be this bad.

His stomach churned violently.

The taste and texture were horrific.

Worst of all, every time he chewed, an incredible stench erupted from the meat, enough to drive a person insane.

I used to eat things like this without a problem during missions… But there’s no way I can eat this now.

It was the moment he truly understood why wealthy people were willing to spend fortunes on high-grade synthetic meat.

Wild meat exposed to miasma was nothing short of garbage.

“…What am I supposed to do with all this?”

He stared at the heaps of meat filling the iceboxes.

There was absolutely no way he could eat it like this.

Honestly, he had expected it to taste bad.

From the beginning, he had brought the meat back because he intended to use the Spirits’ powers to process and improve it.

Should I bury it in the ground for a few days?

He didn’t actually expect a pork tree to grow simply because he buried the meat.

He was thinking that perhaps if it stayed in the clean soil managed by the Earth Spirits, some of the miasma might be drawn out.

He had thought of various experiments, but this seemed like the one with the greatest chance of success.

Faaaaash!

But at that very moment—

Pure white light burst out from behind him.

It was the warm, crystal-clear light radiating from Alisa, who had silently stepped in front of the iceboxes.