Chapter 39 Spirit Negotiation Operation
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
In order to solve the problems of the settlement, we came to the farmland and Lewya immediately tries to communicate with the spirits in the farmland.
”O spirits who dwell in this land (Ulith Fair Arast), answer my voice (Nominus Fere)”.
Lewya tries to communicate with the spirits by using the language of the spirits. Even though I have some knowledge of the language of the spirits, it is only a few words and not enough to have a conversation with them like Lewya does.
This may seem unusual for me, who can easily learn up to second-rate, if not first-rate, words, but this is because there are no books on the language of spirits in the empire.
Even though I have a good memory, I cannot do anything without something to remember, and the few words I remember of the language of spirits are only a few words that my magic teacher taught me.
So I could hardly understand what Lewya was saying, and I did not know whether it was going well or not, but Lewya finished her conversation with the spirit earlier than I had expected and turned to me.
”How well―no, how is it?”
”Well, it seemed like anything more would have the opposite effect, so I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
”So you can’t convince them so easily?”
”Yeah, from the point of view of the spirits who live in this new land, I, an elf, am only a stranger after all. No one would accept a request from a stranger to change the environment in which they live.”
Indeed, to put this in human terms, it is like a stranger suddenly coming into one’s house, and without even greeting the stranger, saying, “I don’t like this furniture and its arrangement, so please replace it with another one.”
Normally, people would not accept such a request, and it is not surprising if they are offended by it.
In fact, I was surprised that the spirits were not angry at Lewya for coming here and cultivating the farmland without their permission.
”I guess we’ll have to win over the spirits at this point.”
”Winning them over? Well, I guess you’re right, Lewya…”
It is not just getting along with them, but as long as they are willing to do what we want, it must be a kind of “subjugation”, but the way to say it is not quite right.
”But what exactly are you going to do?”
”In my village, we used to give gifts to the spirits.”
”Gifts?”
”We used to give them a part of the harvest as a gift in return for their help.”
”I see. So we can use the crops we’re harvesting now as gifts to deepen our friendship?”
”That’s right, but first we need to prepare a place to give them gifts.”
”You mean a place like an altar?”
”Yes, because if we don’t have a clear place to offer our gifts, they’ll take the crops that we haven’t harvested yet, thinking they’re gifts.”
I see, that is indeed a problem.
So, we set out to win over the spirits.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 1.
In the meantime, we need a place to offer gifts in order to make friends with them, so we ask the slaves to prepare a simple altar for us.
There was a large rock that had been removed from the forest while we were clearing it, so we broke it into pieces, made it into a flat platform, and asked them to set it up beside the farmland.
It was getting dark by then, so we decided to stop there for the time being.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 2.
Lewya taught me the language of spirits, and I learned some simple words for offering gifts.
”O spirit who dwells in this land (Ulith Fair Arast), we thank you for allowing us to live here (Ulith Nomihare Dorkba Honuut). As a token of our gratitude (Tevales), we offer you this gift (Wiare Hanaama).”
I put the crops on the simple altar I had set up yesterday and chanted the words I had been taught, but no change appeared, and I turned to Lewya, who was watching behind me.
”Is this correct? Is there anything wrong?”
”Yeah, no problem.”
”By the way, what’s the end result of this crop? Are the spirits going to eat it or something?”
”If the spirits are of a high enough rank to materialize, but these are ordinary spirits, they won’t eat them, but they will convert the crops into magical power, absorb it, and turn it into their own power. The sucked crops become dried up and eventually disappear.”
Well, from what I’ve heard, it doesn’t sound like it will disappear right now.
Anyway, we leave the altar and return to today’s work, thinking that we have no choice but to leave it as it is for now.
Well, Lewya aside, I had little to do, so I took my time to look around the settlement until dusk and came back to the altar with Lewya again before putting together my report, but the crops were still there as they had been this morning.
”This means that it’s not taking too long to suck the magic power, right?”
”It’s probably just that they’re still completely untouched.”
”I knew it.”
It’s not surprising that sprits would be suspicious of such a sudden gift and not touch it.
I mean, they probably know our intentions since we asked them once on the first day, and this is going to take a long time.
”By the way, what did the spirits say?”
”Well, that’s the thing, I don’t think you should ask too many questions, to be honest.”
”So, they know what we’re up to, and =they’re saying bad things about us.”
”Just like Neil said.”
Lewya translates the words of the spirits for me.
”In short, ‘I don’t like the idea of you giving me a gift out of the blue, you young man.’”
”..Hmm?”
”‘I don’t like the way you talk as if the altar and the crops were your own, when they were made by someone else.’”
”Hey, wait.”
”‘A child who hasn’t even lived for a quarter of a century… should retreat to your big, useless, and unrefined dwelling place and scratch your head.’”
”They’re much harsher than I expected!”
The last one is not an opinion, it’s just a rant!
I’m in a deep depression, knowing that the spirits’ impression of me is worse than I had expected.
”That’s why you shouldn’t listen to them.”
”No, yes, it was five times harder than I expected.”
But aside from the last one, the other two are well reasoned.
The second one is especially important, because it proves that the spirits are observing us human beings, and that token prayers are meaningless.
Although I have suffered a psychological damage, I have gained some useful information.
I went back to the mansion that day, planning my future strategy in my mind.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 3.
The gift-giving is temporarily suspended, and I decide to make an altar to present gifts to the spirits with my own hands, reflecting yesterday’s opinions.
Since I can’t afford to grow crops by myself, I decided to show my sincerity by at least making the altar by myself.
Fortunately, I have a lot of free time during the daytime, and I had plenty of wood, so I started to make the altar right away.
Well, I don’t intend to make such a big altar since I will make it by myself.
Instead, I plan to build a small shrine on top of the stone altar that I have already set up.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 7.
After much trial and error, I have managed to make something satisfactory.
It took me four and a half days to complete the project, but the more I went through trial and error, the more it became more perfect, probably because of my quick memory.
I set it up on the altar, put some crops on it, and prayed, but there was no change in the crops that I offered that day.
Now it is a race against time, and I must keep on praying until the spirits forgive me.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 10.
Every time a new crop is harvested, I offer it to the altar, but there is no response from the spirits.
I thought it might be a matter of preference, but I guess it is a sign that they have not yet forgiven me.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 14.
Today I went into the forest during the daytime and gathered fruits and mushrooms as much as I could.
I thought I would be forgiven if I picked fruits and mushrooms by myself instead of those grown by others, but the fruits and mushrooms I spent half a day to gather were still left unattended the next morning.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 20.
It was raining unfortunately today, and Diana told me to stop because I would catch a cold, but I shook off her protests.
”Now is the time to show my sincerity to the spirits! Don’t get in my way!” After said so, I kept praying in the rain like a monk being battered by a waterfall.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 21.
As expected, I caught a cold.
Diana was furious with me to the point of death and told me to stop praying for a while.
It’s true that I’ve been a bit stubborn lately because the spirits haven’t been responding to my prayers.
Maybe I need to take some time to cool down and think calmly away from the spirits for a while.
I refrain from praying to the spirits for a while, hoping that I might be able to come up with some solution when I am calm.
Operation to win over the spirits, Day 30.
Today is the day when the ban on prayer is lifted, and I go to the farmland for the first time in a while.
I have a chance to get some distance and clear my mind, and I have come up with some strategies.
This time, I’m going to make the spirits―
”Huh?”
Arriving at the farmland, I stop dead in my tracks when I see a scene out of the corner of my eye.
It was a group of slaves praying in front of the stone altar on which my shrine and crops were placed.
As I gazed at the scene, wondering why the slaves were praying to the spirits, suddenly the crops on the altar began to glow, then quickly faded, and finally disappeared completely.
”…what?”
Well, is it possible that that’s what happened just now? The spirits heard the prayers and received the crops in return, is that right, is that right?
As I’m pouting, unable to accept this fact, Lewya notices my presence and comes up to me.
”Oh, Neil, you’re here.”
”Oh, Lewya, what’s that all about?”
”Hmm? Ahh.”
She must have seen the direction I was pointing in and understood why I was upset.
Lewya makes a difficult face.
”Well, as you can see, the slaves prayed and the spirits answered their prayers, that’s all.”
”No, what do you mean?”
What could have happened to the spirits who had not responded to my earnest prayers while I had been keeping my distance from them?
”By the way, when did all this start?”
”The day after you became ill…”
”Huh!? The day after!? That was last week! I didn’t get any report of that!”
”Diana told me not to tell you because she thought you’d get stubborn if I did.”
Ugh, Diana was behind this.
In fact, it was my own fault that I got sick because of my stubbornness, and I have no right to complain about Diana’s silence.
”By the way, why did the slaves start praying all of a sudden? They’ve only been watching me praying from a distance until now.”
”Well, they were praying until you caught a cold, weren’t they? After that the slaves asked me what that altar was all about. I explained to them that it was to pray to the spirits to make the crops grow well in this farmland, and they started praying like that.”
I see, as farmers, maybe they want to pray to the spirits themselves.
”One more question, what was the deciding factor for the spirits to help us?”
”Oh, you want to ask? Well, I think it’s better if you don’t.”
”…Let me ask you.”
Judging from Lewya’s reaction, she was probably going to say something harsh to me again, but I decided to ask her, knowing that I would never be able to get rid of my confusion if I didn’t ask her about it.
”‘I don’t like the young man, but if it’s a request from the people who made this land rich, I have no choice.’”
”I’m sure they who work diligently will put our power to good use.’”
”‘I’ll lend them my power just to see the look on that kid’s face if I lend it to someone else so easily.’”
”The last oneeeeeeee!”
I don’t care about the first two, the last one is just harassment!
Or is it that kind of thing? If the slaves had prayed instead of me from the beginning, wouldn’t they have been able to get the help I needed without going through all this trouble?
”Calm down Neil, we were able to get help from them. The process is one thing, but the result is a success, isn’t it?”
”No, I mean, if we only look at the result, it’s true, but…!”
Despite the uncertainties, this strategy to win over the spirits was successful, wasn’t it? …Yes, it was a success, I convinced myself.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.