Awakened power?

“Contracted spirit? Mine?”

Rosalia stared at El with a doubtful look.

“I’m not trying to trick you, you know?”

“Don’t take me for a fool. I know what a contracted spirit is, and I don’t recall forming a contract with you.”

Spirits came from a different realm than humans. Sometimes, they crossed the boundary between worlds and were able to interact with humans or other races. People could form contracts with these spirits, gaining a magical power source different from ordinary.

To Rosalia, El claiming to be her contracted spirit was ridiculous. Unless there was something wrong with her memory, she was certain she had never made a contract with any spirit.

“If you really know what you’re saying about spirits and spirit contracts, then you should know that can be proven easily, right?”
El’s words made Rosalia remember something.

A spirit contractor and their spirit shared an invisible bond. They could communicate telepathically. Not only that, the spirit could channel a portion of the mana they collected to their contractor. The amount depended on the contractor’s mana absorption ability.

“E-Eh? T-This mana…”

Rosalia’s eyes widened. She felt a strange sensation, as if a fresh breeze was wrapping around her body.

It felt cold and soothing, but it wasn’t wind.

“Mana?”

“Yes. I just channeled a bit of my mana into you.” Rosalia swallowed, slightly nervous at that confirmation.

Her mind tried to process just how likely it was that El was telling the truth and not deceiving her.

The sensation could be faked, some spells could do that. But...

Even though Rosalia still wasn’t fully convinced, she also felt that El had no real reason to go to such lengths to lie to her.

“W-What does that mean? Why did you become my contracted spirit?”

As she had said earlier, Rosalia didn’t remember forming a contract with any spirit. She lowered her head and tried to recall something, anything, but found nothing.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know either. What I do know is that I suddenly became conscious and was already bound to you by contract. The next thing I saw was your unconscious body after you fell from up there.”

“After I fell?”

Even El didn’t know why they had become bound by a contract.

Rosalia wore a frustrated expression, faced yet again with something else she needed to figure out.

“I see. So you became my contracted spirit after I fell? Just like that?”

“I don’t think it was ‘just like that.’ A spirit and their contractor are required to form the contract while fully conscious. That’s absolute, no matter what happens.”

“Exactly! That’s what I learned too!!”

Rosalia shouted in agreement. She knew that fact well, and it only added to her current frustration.

“I’m not entirely sure, but I suspect it has something to do with the ability you awakened earlier.”

“The ability I awakened? Ah! That’s right! You mentioned that before.”

Rosalia remembered El saying something like that earlier, that she had survived because of a power that suddenly awakened.

She had nearly forgotten due to being too surprised with the sudden appearance of this floating black creature.

“Do you know why I’m still alive after falling from up there?”

“Yes. I’m certain that before you actually fell, your power awakened and saved you.”

Rosalia raised both hands, trying to feel if she had actually awakened something within her body.

My power… Is it because today is my fifteenth birthday?

“I don’t feel anything.”

Rosalia moved around, performing a few motions and punches, but she didn’t feel any changes at all.

She also tried reciting a few magic incantations, but the spells had no noticeable difference, they were just as they’d always been.

“Your power isn’t offensive thing.”

As if to say Rosalia’s attempts were pointless, El explained that her power had nothing to do with attack abilities.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Rosalia stopped moving and turned to El with a confused look.

“The power you awakened is a holy power. A power blessed by the god of light. That power is extremely potent in light magic and healing.”

“…”

Rosalia went silent. She stared at El, as if waiting for something.

“… Eh? What did you just say?”

Maybe thinking she had misheard what El said, Rosalia asked again.

“You are a Saintess. Judging by your reaction, I’m sure you’ve realized it too.”

“Impossible!!”

Rosalia immediately denied El’s words. El flinched for a moment, not expecting such an outburst from her.

“No, no, no, that’s not possible.”

Rosalia kept repeating her denial, refusing to accept El’s confirmation of the power she had awakened.

“Hm? What makes you deny it so strongly? You just fell hundreds of meters and survived with your body intact. If that’s not the power of a Saint, then I don’t know what else it could be.”

El floated back and forth, clearly not understanding Rosalia’s reaction. The power she awakened was clearly that of a Saint, not just because of the healing abilities, but because of the faint aura leaking from her, unmistakably Saintly in nature.

But that wasn’t why Rosalia was so disturbed.

“WHY?”

Rosalia screamed, as if something was completely incomprehensible to her.

El stared in silence, beginning to understand what was troubling her so deeply.

Pacing back and forth, Rosalia grew increasingly distressed trying to make sense of what had happened.

Saintess abilities? Seriously? Of all things, that’s what awakened in me?

Rather than feeling joyful or grateful for acquiring such a rare power, Rosalia felt a looming sense of crisis.

This is bad. Really bad. If anyone finds out, I’m in danger.

She stopped pacing and turned her gaze to El, eyes filled with inner conflict.
El easily understood what she was thinking, but didn’t comment, simply watching.

“El… right?”

“Yes. Have you decided on something, Rosalia?”

The tension between them was palpable. Rosalia closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. She looked sharply at El, trying to steady herself.

“I want this power gone. Can it be removed?”

El didn’t answer right away. They stared at each other, despite El having no eyes. After a moment, El finally spoke.

“With your current condition, it’s impossible.”

“Really?!”

Even though it wasn’t a definitive confirmation, Rosalia actually looked relieved at El’s answer.

“Let me make it clear so there’s no misunderstanding. Discarding someone’s power after it has awakened is extremely difficult, even with special methods. And your ability is far from ordinary.”

“I don’t care. The only options are either I die or I suffer. If there’s even the slightest chance, I’ll take it.”

“I think you’re taking this a bit too far.”

El backed off slightly, clearly wanting some space from Rosalia.

Rosalia clenched her fists tightly, feeling a small sense of relief that hope still existed.

“I still don’t understand why you hate the idea of having that power so much. Haven’t you considered keeping it secret and using it for your own well-being?”

Rosalia furrowed her brows, looking at El as if he’d just said the most foolish thing in the world.

“El, do you even know what it means to be a Saintess?”

“I do. From a societal perspective, a Saintess is revered and holds great influence. But they tend to get dragged into all sorts of problems they may not want.”

Rosalia scoffed, mocking El’s explanation.

“No Saintess ends up happy. They’re doomed to suffer and die.”

“Are Saintesses treated that cruelly in this era?”

“This era?”

El seemed surprised by Rosalia’s account of how Saintesses were treated in this world. But Rosalia was more intrigued by El’s odd mention of this era.

“El, before you appeared here, what were you doing?”

As far as she’d read, spirits could freely move between the spirit realm and the mortal world. They could also choose to remain in the spirit realm without interacting with mortals.

So she was curious what El had been doing before this.

“Well, I haven’t told you this yet. But it seems… I’ve lost my memory.”
“…”

A new wave of awkwardness settled in after El’s admission. Rosalia blinked with her mouth slightly agape.

“Eh? Are you serious?”

Not only did she have to deal with the terrifying reality of being a Saintess, it now seemed she also had to handle a contracted spirit who claimed to have lost his memory.