Chapter 462: Spirit in the Flask
「Uwuwuw. I even pretended not to see anything. 」
Hauron hangs his head.
「Pretending not to see anything, huh? And here I was thinking you’re so buried in your research. 」
Kinda like a mad scientist.
「We’re talking about dragons ー dragons, for goodness sake! That’s something still within my reach! We can even recreate medicines, potions and other stuff that had been made using dragon blood experiments! Everything is possible as long as we get our hands on a dragon! It’s just like what Noth always says ー it’s within my purview!! 」
Hauron slammed both hands on the table while half-standing, his butt almost off his chair.
「Honestly, just saying that dragons ‘are within your reach’ sounds amazing enough. 」
Retze muttered softly while gazing into space.
So does that mean he can capture dragons as long as he gets his mind into it? Is this my chance to see Hauron go all out with his magic?
「I wasn’t imagining things when those black 『Particles』 clumped together to form one spirit, right!? No, no, the fact that he can even control those mindless, floating 『Particles』 to this extent…ugh… 」
Hauron trailed off, slumping his head over with his hands still plastered on the table.
「Ah, I just kyuuuu~ them all together, you know? 」
After sucking them out and putting them in one place, they naturally clumped together. I just squeezed them so that they’re packed more tightly and they combined into one whole spirit.
「Using sound effects to explain intuitive things doesn’t help, okay!! Ahh, but even if you explained it step by step, I probably wouldn’t get it either. And besides, I definitely don’t have enough mana to do that! 」
After Hauron raised his head and objected, he wearily sat back down.
「I can probably do that ーsucking spirits out from the dragon, I mean. I just have to use the magic circles, like the ones they use to purify spirits in the temple. I can probably gather them too, but forget about compressing them into something more usable is impossible for me. Even if you manage to clump them together, sometimes they scatter right away as soon as they touch. 」
Hauron mused while explaining despite saying that it’s not within his purview.
「There’s a guy ages ago who claimed that he managed to collect『Particles』and that he created a new spirit after trapping those inside a glass flask, but that thing’s probably fake. 」
Hauron rested his chin on his hands and sighed.
「Is that the so-called ‘The Creature in the Flask’ or ‘The Fairy in the Glass’? 」
Retze asked Hauron.
‘The Creature in the Flask’ or ‘The Fairy in the Glass’? Ah, if it’s the dwarf in the flask then I’ve heard about that too. Isn’t it about alchemy’s homunculus?
「At first, that creature was said to predict good fortune, but after some time passed, it started foretelling disasters ー and it’s said to be a mist in the shape of a human. Some say it’s a failure of a spirit, others think it’s something else entirely, or maybe just a fae trapped in a flask. No one really figured it out in the end. 」
Hauron sounded a lot calmer now.
Gotcha ーif you wanna calm Hauron down, just get him talking about something, alright. Gonna remember that.
「You can trap spirits in a glass jar, right? 」
I also accidentally trapped a spirit in a jar ーno, a container of pickling bran, I mean. It’s thanks to that she very rarely shows up.
I placed a cup of coffee beside Hauron, then I quietly served the linzer torte — a nutty pastry with spices including cinnamon. There’s two types, one filled with red currant jam and the other with raspberry, with both jams boiled down to a sweet, tangy thickness.
「Yes, you can. But flasks have narrow mouths, right? It might be possible for a shapeless spirit to slip in, but those who could See denied it was a spirit. They said the creature sitting at the round bottom of the flask was definitely bigger than the flask’s mouth. When they tapped on the flask, the creature became visible to everybody else, and other folks could also hear its voice, apparently. The guy swore he made it himself, but no one, including him, could replicate it. So, he probably just trapped an existing spirit by accident. 」
Hauron explained while picking up his fork to dig into the dense linzer torte.
I placed another slice in front of Retze too. Linzer torte, if left to sit too long, becomes too moist even on the outside, so it’s best to eat it fresh or give it a quick re-bake.
Since the pastry is packed with nuts, I prefer a fragrant, slightly crunchy outside too. I also like to re-bake it, although I rarely do that because of【Storage】.
「In any case, while gathering fragments is possible, getting them to stick together is the issue. In nature, they sometimes merge, but most of the time they just scatter the moment they touch. No human has succeeded in combining them. Oh my, this is delicious!”
「It goes well with coffee too. 」
Retze chimed in, following Hauron’s lead.
「I like it too. 」
I took a bite.
Ash prefers light and fluffy cakes with whipped cream, like strawberry shortcake. I like them too, but I’m more into tarts or heavier desserts. Though, honestly, I like side dishes a lot more than desserts.
「This doesn’t have any weird effects in it, does it? 」
Urk!
「Well, uh, these were already in 【Storage】even before we had that conversation about using spirits, so… 」
I said, my eyes darting around nervously.
NEXT CHAPTER
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I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain
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