Normally, the spirits would have begged him to summon them more often whenever he called on them, but for some reason, they remained silent.

“You guys…”

Confused, Seon-Hyeok asked what was going on. Only Atiya provided an answer.

‘Master, please wait a moment.’

Somehow, he got the feeling that she seemed more sorrowful and desperate than ever, and he was unable to refuse her request.

“Okay, but you have to explain later.”

‘Thank you, master.’

Atiya gave an awkward smile and turned once again towards the Mother Tree.

Seon-Hyeok’s emotions grew complicated as he looked at the backs of his spirits. It was somehow disappointing to see these spirits turning their backs on him after only looking up at him all this time.

However, the spirits’ attitudes now were too serious for him to whine about such feelings.

“Hm…”

He decided to hold his tongue and watch the situation unfold for now.

***

[You poor children of wind and water. You have not been abandoned.]

‘You complete beings could never know of our desperation to preserve our very existence. In that terrible pain of experiencing our fading lives, we decided to live on, even if it meant entering contracts with humans.’

The wind spirit that always...