Reincarnated Hero System

In the end, the old man ended up using mental magic on himself to forcefully quell his budding rage before turning to Evan and gesturing for him to take a seat.

"There are more spirits around you this time."

"And there are fewer around you."

Evan pointed to the top of his head where the high-rank earth spirit who was with him before rested as he took a seat.

Joanna muttered something about wanting to sleep for two weeks before walking out of the room and leaving the two to themselves.

[Master. I don't see any earth spirit.]

Kayla spoke disappointedly with a pouting expression on her face as she floated towards Evan's head and sat down there.

"Well, let's just say he's very shy."

"Huh?"

"Cheloy, my contracted earth spirit. Suddenly got up and disappeared somewhere a few minutes ago.

At first, I was confused but seeing this little one's appearance, I guess I can sort of understand.

She's not a mere high-ranking spirit, is she?"

Gavin spoke as he stared at Kayla with narrowed eyes, causing the young great spirit to stare back at him with a similar gaze.

"How could you tell?"

"After contracting with Cheloy for more than a few decades, I've become able to sense the 'authority' of the spirits, quite a bit.

The 'authority' she exudes is higher than Cheloy's despite the fact that he is more powerful, and it is more similar to that of Gnome who I met a few years ago."

[You met uncle Earth?!]

Hearing Gavin's words, Kayla jumped off Evan's head and floated towards him while asking intensely. Although slightly startled, the Grand Magus gave a nod of affirmation causing a strange expression to appear on Kayla's face.

[Uncle Earth stopped being a recluse?

Unbelievable. Are pigs flying already?]

The young great spirit casually spouted words that would definitely piss Gnome off if he happened to hear them.

"...Dear Kayla, why would you think that?"

[Hmm? Aunty Wind said that the only time Uncle Earth would stop being a recluse and meet someone of his own volition is when pigs start flying.]

Hearing her reply, both Gavin and Evan facepalmed as they had the exact same thought.

''Just what are you teaching her, Sylph?!''

Evan spent a few moments trying to prevent the young great spirit from flying out of the window to check for flying pigs before finally getting back to his conversation with Gavin.

Of course, discovering that the lightning spirit knew that Sylph was just messing around from the start and was just poking fun at the two of them didn't make the situation any better.

"...She seems like quite a handful."

"Tell me about it.

...

But I like how lively she is so I really don't want her to change."

Evan replied to Gavin as he gazed at Kayla who was floating around with the other spirits in the room while singing some strange song.

"Where're your other companions?"

"Hmm? They're back at the inn, resting. We have been in the dungeon for over a month after all. Even I want to have a nice nap on a proper bed but you called for me, so the order of things changed up a bit."

Gavin nodded to himself as she opened up his drawer and tossed a small metallic card to Evan.

"Give that to the red-eyed one. It lets her browse the third and fourth floors of the library."

"Oh, Nice."

Knowing how much of a bookworm Pride was, this was certainly bound to be something she would find nice.

"Why though?"

"Think of it as a whim of mine.

Let's forget about the others and talk about you."

The old grand magus' face turned serious as he sat up and continued.

"So, Evan. The rumours circulating around now are that the reason why you 'disappeared' from home nearly a year ago was because of the otherworldly being you fought in Geto city towards the end of last year."

"Yeah. I already kn-!"

Evan was about to causally reply when he realised something strange with Gavin's choice of words. He narrowed his gaze at the old man and asked.

"Why did you call Xakon, an 'Otherworldly being'?"

The rumours about Xakon that were spreading, were that he was a 'winged humanoid monster'. No one said anything about Xakon being from another world, however, Gavin just referred to Xakon as otherworldly.

"Xakon? Was that his name?

Oh well. The reason I said that is simple. He was an otherworldly being after all."

Evan silently stared at Gavin as numerous thoughts began running through his mind. He was about to speak up when Gavin opened his mouth and spoke.

"Evan Eris. The countries of this world are not as ignorant as you may think they are.

Although we may not be aware of the full specifics, it doesn't mean we are completely clueless about the state of things."

The young hero nodded in affirmation to his words, opening his mouth to voice out a reply.

"I know. That's why I didn't hide my eyes. I was betting on the chance that you guys would recognize them."

He pulled his seat closer to the desk and rested his hands on the table as he leaned forward and asked.

"How much do you know?"

◇ ◇ ◇

Twenty minutes later, Evan and Gavin were seating in silence as the other spirits in the room, Kayla included, had gone out to chase after the trail of Gavin's contracted spirit who momentarily returned thinking Kayla was gone, only to meet the Lighting spirit who was still waiting for him.

Within the past twenty minutes, Evan had received a quick rundown of just how much the world leaders of Aidos were aware of and he was quite surprised to find it was more than he expected.

"And here I thought that the 'ruins' were the reason you guys knew about the dimensional rifts. I had expected you guys to have uncovered some of them and gleaned a bit of information from the shared bases but to think that you were already aware of the rifts beforehand."