Contract Marriage Rewritten
Chapter 4
The royalty of Priatra could not use spirit arts once they stepped outside the Kingdom of Priatra.
This was common knowledge to all. That was why the royals always took great care to remain within Priatra’s borders.
Laniakea knew this fact all too well.
The spirit kings and high spirits her older sisters summoned weakened just by approaching the border, and beyond it, they could not be summoned at all.
According to scholars, other lands lacked the life force necessary to sustain spirits.
However, that applied only to powerful spirits.
‘Lowest-tier spirits, on the other hand, could be summoned.’
To be precise, only Laniakea—whose power was so faint—could summon them.
In the first place, the spirits her unnies summoned were high spirits, or even spirit kings.
Blessed with a strong inheritance of Fairy Tribe blood, her unnies received unconditional affection from the spirits.
No matter how trivial the request, the spirits granted it. They also despised having any other spirit summoned alongside them.
Because of that, Laniakea’s unnies had never once in their lives had reason to summon a lowest-tier spirit.
Even if the high spirits hadn’t minded, they still wouldn’t have. Summoning such weak beings was deemed disgraceful.
Thus, attempting to summon a lowest-tier spirit beyond the border was something no one other than Laniakea would ever do.
Laniakea recalled the very first time she had summoned a spirit.
* * *
It was a day she had traveled to the border region with her unnies as part of their royal lessons. That day, something about Laniakea must have rubbed them the wrong way.
Her unnies deliberately spurred their horses ahead alongside the knights, and young Laniakea could not keep up.
Knights abandoning a young princess was supposed to be unthinkable.
Yet the knights of Priatra adhered strictly to the princesses with great power; the third princess, whom those powerful sisters looked down upon, was not someone the knights felt obliged to serve.
In the end, Laniakea was left all alone in the forest.
Had she been a little older, she would have calmly tracked the trail left by the others.
Terrified of being left behind, the young Laniakea bolted frantically down any path she could find.
When the path finally came to a dead end, Laniakea realized she had strayed terribly far off course.
At the end of the road stood a marker inscribed in the continental lingua franca with the name of a foreign kingdom.
Without realizing it, she had crossed outside Priatra’s territory.
The moment she realized this, tears welled in her eyes from sheer terror.
She had only recently begun to sense the presence of spirits. Within Priatra, she might have managed to summon one for help, but outside Priatra, there was no way to receive any aid.
Even knowing that, Laniakea unwittingly called out to the spirits out of sheer desperation.
“Anyone, please help me… I just need to know the way…”
At the very moment she was rubbing at her persistent tears with her sleeve—
[Did you call?]
The ground right in front of her feet suddenly mounded up, and a mole poked its face out.
That was the day Laniakea summoned a spirit for the first time, and the day Mole became her friend.
At the same time, Laniakea came to realize something: precisely because her power was so faint, she could summon spirits even in lands with weak life force.
“Why am I the only one who can summon spirits outside Priatra?”
[It’s probably because your power is so weak that the life force you need is also minimal.]
To think having faint power would actually prove useful like this.
In any case, with Mole’s help, Laniakea was able to find the right path back.
After returning to the royal palace, she kept it a secret that she could summon lowest-tier spirits outside Priatra’s territory.
She instinctively knew that nothing good would come of revealing she could do something her unnies could not.
And so, Mole became Laniakea’s secret friend.
* * *
Laniakea bent down and watched Mole diligently brushing dirt off its face with tiny forepaws.
A lowest-tier earth spirit without even a name. Because of that, hadn’t it told her to simply call it Mole?
Mole’s only ability was to make the soil slightly more fertile.
Even that ability wasn’t particularly extraordinary, limited to making flowers bloom a bit more abundantly or making crops taste slightly richer.
If there was any other use, it was that, as an earth spirit—even of the lowest tier—it could sense what occurred across the ground.
Yet even that required soil. It could not appear inside buildings devoid of earth.
That was why Laniakea had deliberately used feeling stifled as an excuse to step out into the garden.
Laniakea whispered to Mole.
“How is the earth here? Is it hard on you?”
At her question, Mole sniffled, taking in the scent of their surroundings.
[It has a bit more life force than other places nearby, at least. Are you going to live here from now on?]
“…I think so.”
[They say home is wherever you make it. Hang in there!]
She wondered if this was really the sort of comfort one expected from a spirit, but it was still nice having someone looking out for her.
[Have you tried calling the others?]
The “others” Mole referred to were the lowest-tier spirits of other elements.
After summoning Mole, the lowest-tier earth spirit, in her childhood, Laniakea had succeeded in summoning other lowest-tier spirits as well.
In the palace pond, the lowest-tier water spirit, ‘Minnow.’
On a stormy day, feeling the wind seep through the window, the lowest-tier wind spirit, ‘Crow-tit.’
In the freezing winter, from inside the fireplace in her room, ‘Firefly.’
They were all her friends who had been by her side since childhood.
“No. I called you first.”
At that answer, Mole puffed up its chest in delight.
[Ahem, as you should! My affinity with you is the highest, after all. Anyway, with this much life force, you’ll be able to call the others without issue. Though it might take a bit of time.]
Watching Mole, Laniakea felt the tension that had stiffened her body ease slightly.
What she had feared most when leaving Priatra was not encountering unfamiliar faces in an unfamiliar place.
It was the dread that she might never see the friends who had been with her since childhood ever again.
Yet here, they could appear just as easily.
Her heart, previously trembling with anxiety, settled into calm once more.
“Laniakea-nim? Are you all right?”
Just then, the maid watching Laniakea from the terrace called out, raising her voice.
Seeing Laniakea continuously staring at the ground and muttering must have looked strange to her.
[I’m off! See you later!]
As the maid approached, Mole waved its forepaws and vanished into the hole in an instant. Laniakea quickly stepped on the patch of soil where Mole had emerged, patting it down.
Even so, she couldn’t wipe the smile from her face.
She was not alone here. And she no longer had to walk on eggshells around her family.
She would still have to be mindful of the Empress, but for now, Laniakea felt an incomparable sense of relief.
“I’m glad I came here.”
Laniakea muttered without realizing it, picking up the contract as she rose to her feet.
Then, suddenly sensing a gaze upon her, she turned her head.
Yet all she could see was the manicured garden and the distant forest. Aside from the maid, there was no one in sight.
‘Was it my imagination?’
Had she known, she would have asked Mole if anyone was nearby while it was still here.
But it had already departed, leaving her with no way of knowing.
Laniakea withdrew her searching gaze and followed the maid back to the meeting room.
A moment later, the distant brush rustled faintly before falling still once more, but no one took notice.
* * *
Dozens of minutes passed after returning to the meeting room. During that time, Laniakea read through the contract meticulously.
Before she knew it, she was nearing the final page.
‘This must be the part the minister mentioned, requiring personal agreement.’
A special rider of sorts.
Wondering just what could be written here, she was about to turn the page.
A knock sounded at the door.
At the knocking, Laniakea answered without taking her eyes off the contract.
“Come in.”
It was likely an attendant coming to share an update on the progress.
Thinking so, Laniakea remained focused on the document.
The door opened, followed by the steady thud of footsteps.
A deliberate, weighty cadence.
Startled by the disciplined precision evident in each step, Laniakea raised her head.
And then.
“It is an honor to meet you, Princess Laniakea.”
A low, smooth voice washed over her from above.
