The Final Task of the Forsaken Saint: A Command to Marry the Barbarian Count - Chapter 18

That afternoon, I found myself standing in front of an eager crowd of knights and soldiers at the training grounds, feeling a bit bewildered.

A week ago, their gaze was much more cautious and distant. Today, however, their eyes were brimming with fervor.
How did this happen, you ask? Well, it all started with an invitation from Dirk during lunch.

“Could you demonstrate some of your magic for us?”

“Magic? But I’ve heard that Rostock is not fond of magic.”

“Yes, the influence of the spirit faith is strong here, but what they’ve never seen are magical attacks used in battle. Your use of magic in actual combat was… quite shocking to them.”

“But it was just basic magic.”

“Even that is rare. In fact, many of the knights have requested to watch your combat magic firsthand. I know it might be difficult to perform magic here, but could you give it a try?”

And here I was, standing in front of them as their unwilling magic teacher.

Dirk was next to me, and the soldiers were calm enough, but the intensity of their stares felt almost like they might devour me at any moment. Yikes.

I had agreed to this out of a sense of gratitude for their hospitality, but teaching wasn’t exactly my forte. The basic magic lessons I had learned as a child had long faded from my memory. Besides, my methods were always criticized by palace magicians. But, here I was.

As I surveyed the soldiers, I spotted a familiar face at the front.

“Ah, Riddar. Your suspension has been lifted.”

Riddar, with his impressive build, seemed surprised by my sudden address but quickly smiled at me.

“It was lifted yesterday! I wanted to see more of that magic you used on me! Who knows, I might face a magician like you in the capital one day!”

It was refreshing to see such a battle-driven mindset. My master would have probably adored Riddar, though, he might end up half-beaten in the process.

Now that I thought about it, the way knights in Rostock fought might be different from those in the capital. This could mean the way they handled magical beasts might also differ.

Well, let’s go with that.

“Alright, Lebel, we leave it to you,” Dirk called out.

“Okay!” I replied, stepping forward confidently.

Since I was dealing with soldiers, I thought I’d stick with military-style teaching.

“I’m not great at teaching magic. So instead, I’ll explain how I hunted down a wyvern here, step by step.”

A murmur ran through the soldiers as I planted my staff in the ground. I needed to set the stage first.

I infused magic into the crystalline stone at the tip of my staff, and an orange glow lit up the area. As I started casting a chant that I hadn’t used in a while, I felt the familiar flow of energy.

“Spirits of nature, who shine in the sky, enrich the earth, make the water flow, nurture fire, and cause trees to grow—gods of all creation, I ask for your mercy, grant me a fragment of your power.”

This chant was to call forth the spirits surrounding us.

Thanks to the week I’d spent calling them, dozens of spirits quickly appeared, buzzing around with curiosity as they waited to see what I would do next.

This should work fine, I thought, though I noticed something odd. The spirits’ forms seemed more solid than usual. They were unusually visible today. That was a good sign—spirits tended to show clearer forms when they were especially excited.

And then I heard it.

“Is that… a spirit?”

The soldiers stared, clearly bewildered. Some of them even started bowing in reverence.

Spirits were indeed objects of faith in Rymiest, but typically, they were viewed as messengers sent by the Creator God. Outside of magic users, most people didn’t give them much thought.

But the soldiers were clearly showing a deep respect for the spirits themselves.

I looked at Dirk, and it seemed like he understood what I was wondering.

“Rostock doesn’t rely on the spirits. Because of that, they view the spirits as ‘unceasing trials sent to Rostock,’ almost as divine entities,” he explained.

“Ah, so the lack of spirits here is seen as a divine test to make sure Rostock can survive without their aid?” I asked, now understanding.

“Yes. Calbruncs has an abundance of spirits, but it is also a land full of magical beasts. The spirits watch over us, but we are meant to cultivate the strength to face magical beasts without relying on them.”

Ah, that made sense. No wonder people here were so averse to magic. They saw it as relying on the spirits for help.
But as I looked at Dirk, I noticed his casual demeanor towards the spirits. His respect for the spirits seemed genuine, but he didn’t appear troubled by their presence.

I quickly realized that while I respected the beliefs of others, I wouldn’t change my relationship with the spirits. I would simply let them see my connection to the spirits and how I operated.

As the spirits eagerly circled around me, I smiled and addressed them.

“I want to make a cool, strong wyvern figure—will you help me?”
“Move?” one of the spirits asked.

“Play?” another chimed in.

They seemed excited at the idea, and I decided to push my magic even further.

“Then let’s create something wonderful. With borrowed power, I summon forth an Earth Golem!”

I swung my staff toward a pile of sandbags that were nearby. The spirits eagerly ran to the bags, enveloping them in a swirl of energy.

In no time, the sandbags transformed into a figure that looked almost identical to a wyvern I had fought earlier. The soldiers stiffened in their stances, and I could feel their attention intensifying.

I stared down the sand wyvern with a smirk.

“You’ve seen me kill a wyvern, right?”

The sand wyvern let out a gravelly roar, mimicking the gesture of a wyvern’s roar.

It didn’t actually make a sound since it was just sand scraping against itself, but its intentions were clear.

“You know what to do. Now, fight like that wyvern I killed—try and take me down.”

With another roar, the spirit wyvern flapped its wings and shot into the air. The soldiers watched in stunned silence as the creature soared around.