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Third Person POV
"You want to form a contract with spirits?" Emilia asked Subaru, who nodded and replied, "Yes. I can only use Shadow and Earth magic right now, but if I make contracts with spirits, I'll be able to use all types of magic."
Rem, who stood silently behind them, said nothing. It had barely been a few hours since her attempt to murder Zero.
Suddenly, Reina appeared in front of them.
"Reina! That Divine Protection of yours sure comes in handy," Subaru remarked with a hint of envy. Reina had just returned from her mansion after having breakfast.
"Hey Reina, I haven't had the chance to ask yet—how is Felt doing? She'll need support from a noble house to even qualify for the Royal Selection, right?" he asked, curious about Felt's fate now that she no longer had the Sword Saint to back her, like in the original timeline.
"You need not worry about her. In fact, I overheard my father speaking with her. According to my Divine Protection of Probability Prediction, if nothing goes wrong, my father will become her sponsor," she said, her voice faltering slightly as she uttered the word "Father."
"Is that so?" Subaru rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Also—maid, are you behaving?" Reina directed her gaze at Rem, who visibly shivered upon meeting Reina's eyes. Zero quickly stepped in, "No need to worry, Reina. She hasn't tried anything suspicious."
Reina's hostility softened, and Rem let out a quiet sigh of relief. She cast a grateful glance toward Subaru, guilt bubbling inside her for what she had tried to do to him.
"Reina, could you teach me swordsmanship?" Subaru asked.
"I would be more than happy to assist you!" Reina answered, her eyes lighting up.
Watching their exchange, Emilia couldn't help but pout. "Miss Reina! Zero will learn Spirit Arts first!"
Reina's expression darkened as she glared at Emilia. 'This witch! How dare she try to steal my time with Lord Zero!' Her hand slowly crept toward the hilt of her sword—until she was interrupted by another head pat.
"Sorry, Reina," Subaru said gently. "But I already asked Emilia to teach me Spirit Arts before you arrived. Once I've made contracts with the spirits and checked out some spells, I'll start learning swordsmanship from you."
Reina nodded, basking in the warmth of his hand. For some reason, she had the strong urge to purr.
After that, Emilia began teaching him how to call spirits—which, apparently, boiled down to just doing it.
'How am I supposed to call spirits if she doesn't tell me how to call them?' Subaru thought, side-eyeing Emilia, who was beaming at him with a clueless smile.
It turned out that you simply had to wait for the spirits to approach you on their own. After a few minutes, several spirits appeared near the garden's edge, but they didn't come closer.
"Why aren't they approaching?" Subaru asked.
"I think I know why," Puck replied. "It's because of Miss Sword Saint over there."
"Her presence distorts the mana around us. That might be the issue," he added.
Reina's eyes widened. "Sorry! I totally forgot! Let me activate my Divine Protection—there we go."
As soon as she did, the spirits rushed toward Subaru, circling him and touching him curiously and affectionately.
"They're Lesser Spirits—newly-formed beings of mana. To make a contract with them, you'll need to offer some of your mana and, if possible, an anchor," Emilia explained.
Subaru nodded and examined the spirits surrounding him. He reached out and gently held the Lesser Light Spirit he felt most connected to.
"Would you like to make a contract with me?" he asked.
The spirit danced joyfully in response, while the others looked on in envy.
"Very well—you, and you, and you! Including this guy! Let's make a contract!" he said cheerfully.
He selected one spirit each from Fire, Water, Wind, and Light.
Once the contracts were complete, the four spirits danced around him happily.
'So cute…' he thought, watching them. Meanwhile, the remaining spirits nudged him, hoping for a contract as well.
"Sorry, little ones, but I won't be making any more contracts," he said gently. They slowed, expressing their sadness.
He felt bad—but he didn't want to build an entire army of spirits. He only wanted to form contracts with the ones necessary.
"Zero, is there any harm in contracting with more of them?" Emilia asked, noticing the dejected spirits. "They look so sad…"
"Indeed," Puck added. "Lesser spirits don't have much mana individually—having more of them helps with that."
But Subaru shook his head.
"If my only goal was to become a mage or Spirit Arts user, I would've done that. But I'm aiming to become a Magic Swordsman," he explained.
The other spirits, realizing he wouldn't contract with them, eventually dispersed. The four contracted spirits stayed close by.
"Alright! Let's head into the forest and test the magic!" Subaru said excitedly.
Natural spirits could draw mana from their surroundings, so they didn't require their contractor's mana to cast spells.
"Fura!" Subaru began with wind magic, unleashing a slash of wind that cleanly severed a tree trunk.
"Damn! And I didn't even use any of my own mana," he marveled, glancing at the Lesser Wind Spirit.
"That was impressive, Zero!" Reina applauded, praising him.
"That's a good attack spell," Emilia commented, "but you can also use it for defense."
"Indeed. One spell can be used in multiple ways," Puck added. "Now, let me teach you Fire Magic."
He stepped forward. "Let's start with Ice—it uses the chant suffix Huma."
Subaru nodded and chanted, "Huma!" A thin layer of ice formed in front of him as the mana responded.
"It's fire magic—but it creates ice projectiles," Puck chuckled at the irony.
"Well, Fire Magic is more about manipulating temperature than simply creating fire. You can increase temperature to produce flames or decrease it to generate ice," he patiently explained.
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Good. Now try the fire-based version. The suffix is Goa."
"Goa!" Subaru shouted, and a blazing flame erupted from his hand. Puck quickly dispelled it to prevent the forest from catching fire.
"Now let's try Water Magic. Its chant is Shiha."
"Shiha!" Subaru chanted, and a blue, spherical wave of water enveloped him.
"As for Light Magic, the suffix is Jiwald."
"Jiwald!" Upon chanting, beams of concentrated heat shot from Subaru's fingertips.
"Excellent. Now you know the basic chants. The spell's power will vary depending on the prefix, as I taught you earlier," Puck said, pausing briefly before continuing.
"There are also some rarer chants for each magic type, which I don't know. You should ask Betty about those. And one last thing—once you reach a certain level of proficiency, you won't even need to chant."
"Yes, as Puck said," Emilia added. "With enough skill, you can bypass chanting—but since you only have an affinity for Yin and Earth, you'll only be able to skip chants for those."
"Indeed," Puck agreed. "To bypass chants for other elements, you'll need to contract with higher spirits. But finding a True Spirit—or even a quasi-spirit—is incredibly difficult."
Subaru nodded, deep in thought. 'Only my Yin and Earth magic consumes my mana—for everything else, my spirits' mana is used…'
"Now, the real question—where are you going to keep these spirits?" Puck asked with a sly grin, knowing Subaru had nowhere to store them.
"Well… I guess I'll just let them float around m—" Subaru stopped mid-sentence as the Spirit of Light touched his body and vanished.
"Wait, where did you go?" he asked, startled.
The spirit reappeared briefly, then touched him again and disappeared. The others quickly followed, vanishing into him as if being absorbed.
"This is unusual—they're using you as their anchor," Reina observed, narrowing her eyes and activating her Divine Blessing of Spirit Eyes. She could see the spirits now residing inside his body.
"I get it now!" Puck exclaimed. "Your spirit affinity is so absurdly high that you can act as a human anchor!"
"Really?" Subaru blinked in surprise. He'd known humans could be used as anchors, but it depended on the spirit if it had the capability to use human as an anchor.
"Let me confirm," Puck said, pressing his tail to Subaru's forehead.
"Fascinating… If I'm right, you won't even need to summon them externally to use magic. They're acting as pseudo-gates for you! You can even use their mana to cast Shadow and Earth magic—and vice versa!"
Rem, who had been silently observing from the background, gasped in shock. Her eyes widened in horror as the realization struck her—Subaru was essentially a weaker version of Roswaal.
"As expected of Zero!" Reina beamed, fangirling hard. Subaru blushed from the unexpected praise.
"The Sword Saint is praising me… Man, I don't even know what to say."
"Now that I've finished learning the basics of magic," he said, "it's time to move on to swordsmanship. So—Miss Reina Sensei! I'll be in your care!"
Hearing him call her Sensei, pride swelled within Reina, and she puffed her chest confidently.
"Do not worry, Zero. I'll make you a knight better than Julius!"
"To be honest, if you weren't the Sword Saint, I would've thought you were just boasting," Subaru chuckled. After thanking Emilia, he returned to the garden alongside Reina to begin their training.
To be continued…
(A/N: Another AI edited chap, I tried my best but it still shortened the chap by 150-200 words)