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Davian looked at Bellus.
Bellus had to accomplish something very important during this winter break.
It was something that Bellus could easily do because she was Bellus.
But also something difficult because she was Bellus.
"You're the hardest."
"Yes, yes? Really? What should I do..."
Bellus's eyes, full of worry, filled with firm resolve.
"I'll do it! What do I need to do? I don't know how to do anything, but I really want to be helpful to my older siblings."
"You'll have to stop making friends with new spirits for a while."
"Pardon?"
Bellus referred to making contracts with spirits as making new friends.
Bellus had made contracts with over forty spirits since entering the academy.
The process went like this:
Outside of class time, she would go to the forest behind the Medio Garden and stroll around.
She would greet the spirit who approached her first.
After laughing and talking for a while, they would decide to become friends.
"Will you be my friend?"
"Yes!"
That was how the commonly known contract with a spirit would proceed.
For Bellus, who had an extremely high affinity for spirits, the contract was just the beginning of a relationship.
After that, Bellus would spend a lot of time getting closer to the contracted spirit.
Bellus was instinctively drawn to the contracted spirit, and the spirit felt the same way.
Neither Bellus nor the spirit had any purpose in getting closer.
They were just trying to get closer because they had made a new friend.
Once she became close enough to the contracted spirit, she would go back to the forest behind the Medio Garden.
And then she would greet the spirit who approached her again and start to become friends.
It was easier than making human friends, and she was just too drawn to the spirits.
Since she had no purpose, most of the spirits she had contracted with so far were lower-level spirits.
The number of lower-level spirits was overwhelmingly large, and it was a phenomenon that occurred because she prioritized becoming friends with the spirits who approached her first.
Since she spent a lot of time with the spirits she had befriended, the opportunity to contract with higher-level spirits gradually decreased.
"Stop making friends?"
"For a while, refrain from making new contracts, or rather, spirit friends."
"Then, then there's nothing I can do at the academy?"
"I'm not saying don't make new friends. I'm saying make friends with higher-level spirits."
"Higher-level spirits?"
"Yes."
"Ah..."
Bellus was also aware of this fact.
How inefficient her contracts were.
Bellus was unable to turn away the spirits who approached her first, even though she knew.
"But..."
"Bellus. You said you wanted to be helpful to your older siblings, right?"
"O, of course! If it weren't for my older siblings, it would have been difficult for me to adapt to the academy. Especially..."
Davian oppa.
She swallowed those words.
"You've already made over forty friends. Don't just accept everyone who approaches you, and wait until a higher-level spirit approaches you. They're already aware of you constantly entering the forest."
"Really? Higher-level spirits are aware of me?"
"Yes. You're very famous there. Glacie told me herself."
"Really? Glacie-nim?"
"Yes. So, try to contract with a higher-level spirit during the winter break. You can make other spirit friends after that."
Bellus pondered for a moment before nodding her head vigorously.
"Yes! Oppa. I'll try to make friends with a higher-level spirit too!"
With Bellus as the last, he finished giving instructions for the winter break special training.
Everyone would do well on their own, but that wasn't enough.
"Then what about you, Davian? What are you going to do during the winter break?"
"Me? I'm going on an event hunt."
"Event hunt? What's that?"
"It's something like that."
During his fourth life.
Davian had faced countless events and quests.
Quests mostly came out as the story progressed or after completing events.
But events suddenly appeared when certain conditions were met.
Conditions such as going to a specific place or meeting someone.
And when you cleared the events, you could get various items.
Some of them were necessary for Davian, and some were necessary for his friends.
This winter break, he planned to clear the necessary events in earnest and obtain items.
"Why have you suddenly come to this faraway place?"
"I have some things to resolve."
"So, what could you, a human academy student, possibly have to resolve here?"
"You'll know when you get there."
"Davian, you're such an enigmatic human."
He didn't even ask me to come, but he followed me and now he's bombarding me with all sorts of questions.
"There's a city over there."
Inseness pointed to where a wall covered in pure white snow could be seen.
A small city located in the eastern part of the Northern Ice Fields, Polus.
The northernmost city in the Pax Continent.
Even in the summer, the city has harsh weather that drops below -20 degrees Celsius.
In winter, the temperature often drops below -40 degrees Celsius.
Beasts and monsters from the Northern Ice Fields regularly invade in search of food, so high walls are built to protect the entire city.
"Stop there and state your identity."
"My name is Insen..."
Davian stepped forward and cut off Inseness's words.
This was something he couldn't have imagined when he first met Inseness.
Humans are creatures of adaptation.
To Davian, Inseness was nothing more or less than an old man who babbled nonsense and followed him around.
"I am Davian Naone from Elton Academy. I have come on a request."
The gatekeeper scanned Davian up and down.
"That's definitely Elton Academy's uniform. But Davian Naone... I've heard that name somewhere before?"
Now, almost no one in the Kingdom of Alcancia hadn't heard Davian's name.
But this was a remote city at the northernmost tip of the continent.
"Here. The request form."
Davian handed over the request form he had picked from the academy.
Of course, he didn't come here to secure additional grades with a request performance evaluation.
Having shown that he had the strongest magic power on the continent, grades were meaningless.
As long as the academy didn't disappear, his graduation was as good as guaranteed.
As mentioned earlier, he came here to clear the event.
In the previous life, it was a city he visited during the week-long winter training in the fourth grade.
'The event popped up when I met the mayor's daughter back then.'
It was still two years too early, but based on past experience, there was a high probability that the event would open as it was if he met the mayor's daughter.
That was the real reason he came all the way here.
"This is a request form sent directly by the mayor! But you only came with two people? Ah! That person behind you is a professor at Elton Academy? That makes sense."
Not a professor.
It was the being who had killed all the professors.
"He's not a professor, but he's a very great person."
"Enter for now."
He passed through the city gates of Polus.
This was why he searched and searched for requests at the academy and found the request form.
Due to the closed-off nature of the city, where almost no one except merchants came and went, something was needed to pass through the city gates.
Fortunately, he found a request form sent directly by the mayor.
Unlike the scale of the high walls, the inside of the city was deserted.
The roads were spacious compared to the number of carriages and people passing by.
Buildings surrounded by thick walls, seemingly to prepare for the cold, were sparsely located.
One unique thing was that the decorations of the buildings were unusual.
Not only were expensive materials used, but there were also quite a few buildings with glittering jewels on the outer walls.
Even in this cold weather, the faces of the people walking on the streets were full of composure.
They wore thick but luxurious clothes in layers.
"This place is still the same."
"Have you ever been to Polus City?"
"There may be cities that have disappeared over time, but there is no city on this continent that I have not been to. Isn't this place the one with the exclusive rights to mine magic stones?"
"Yes, that's right. Outsiders are not accepted at all unless they are a bloodline that has lived in this city for generations."
"They deliberately controlled the amount of mining, fearing that the value of the magic stones that could be mined would decrease. Is it still like that?"
"Probably."
"Humans seem foolish, but they are very smart when you see them like this."
Now, the two people... no, the human and the dragon, understood each other's way of speaking quite well.
"You mean they're sly?"
"Similar."
"That seems to be the city hall."
"What is the mayor's request about?"
"Since the Gray Witch disappeared, too many monsters that have lost control are appearing in the magic stone mine."
"They want you to deal with the monsters?"
"Yes."
"But you didn't come here to do that, did you?"
'This old, perceptive lizard, no, dragon.'
"Did you curse me in your mind?"
Davian turned to Inseness with a surprised expression.
It was the first time he had been so surprised in a long time.
"Can you... hear my thoughts?"
Inseness shook his head.
"It's just a feeling. I can sense the change in the aura."
'Anyway, that amazing liza... no. I shouldn't even think about it.'
"You can curse as much as you want in your mind. Isn't that one of the privileges of intelligent life? Animals don't curse in their minds. They only show it through their actions."
"You're so generous."
"Thank you."
Davian tilted his head.
He can read my mind, but he doesn't know that's not a compliment?
He's an enigmatic dragon.
"How may I help you?"
"I came to see the mayor. Here's the request form that the mayor sent to Elton Academy."
"Ah, yes, just a moment. Please wait in the waiting room over there."
"So. You've tried to subdue them several times, but you've failed every time?"
The mayor nodded.
"That's right. The city guard's numbers have only decreased. As a result, we don't even have enough manpower to guard the mining site during the mining operations. We still have some reserves, so it's okay, but soon we won't be able to meet the royal family's orders."
Inseness asked.
"Then why don't you ask the royal family for help? You can't mine any more magic stones to supply to the royal family."
He didn't mention his title.
But due to his luxurious clothing and the way he naturally spoke down to him, the mayor couldn't help but think that Inseness was a high-ranking noble.
"That's..."
The mayor hesitated, as if he was reluctant to speak.
Davian answered instead.
"Then you'll lose the exclusive right to mine magic stones, right? It's the same as admitting that Polus City can no longer mine magic stones independently."
The mayor, with a troubled expression, slowly nodded.
"That's right. Can you help us? You said you were sending a talented magic student, so you must be a wizard?"
He does a little bit of everything, but for now, he uses magic.
"Yes."
"Thank you for coming all the way here. I'll form a subjugation squad as soon as possible so that you don't have to stay here for long. They're soldiers who have been training for quite a long time."
I don't need a subjugation squad.
It would be enough for Davian to go alone, and Inseness is with him.
But.
"I see."
If the subjugation squad isn't formed, I won't be able to receive the event rewards.
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