As for Shinki, who was serving as Nox’s impromptu perch, he seemed to be ignoring the elemental spirits practically crawling all over him.
There’s such a thing as being too easy-going, you know!
Even without being able to hear them, I could tell the elemental spirits were begging me to play with them, too, but they would need to wait a little longer. There was one more thing I wanted to confirm.
“I would like to gain the ability to see elemental spirits outside of the elemental forest. What should I do?”
“…You can’t normally see them? I really don’t understand what the fire dragon is thinking,” the King of Water responded dubiously, shaking his head in disapproval.
“It’s in the beloved child’s best interests that he does not bond with her while she’s still so young. But he probably couldn’t stand the idea of another holy beast snatching her up either,” the King of Wind chuckled, adding, “I know how he feels.”
The elemental kings seemed to know why I couldn’t see elemental spirits, but I wanted them to explain it to me!
“Beloved child, are you aware that a person needs to bond with a holy beast using their true name to gain the ability to see elemental spirits?”
No one had ever come out and told me, but I’d figured it must be something like that.
“Sol didn’t tell me that, but I thought it might be related to the bond based on my observations of Will and His Majesty.”
“As the King of Wind said, completing the bond is not a good idea when you’re still so young. Until you can control your emotions, you won’t be able to control your power.”
There were multiple potential issues if a bonded partner was too young. It turned out there had been other cases in the past where a holy beast used a nickname to form an unofficial bond until the partner was ready.
On a whim, I asked the emperor how old he’d been when he bonded with Euche, and he said he was eight years old at the time.
“Will bonded with Lars at the age of eight as well. We were specifically educated for that purpose, so apparently, it was decided that it was safe for us to complete the bond at an earlier age than normal,” Emperor Celiunos explained. He also told me that in his parents’ cases, the retired emperor bonded with Sache when he was ten, and the retired empress bonded with Kaideetay when she was thirteen.
At the time, the retired empress had been engaged to the crown prince of another country and undergoing a rigorous education program in preparation for becoming a future queen. Perhaps receiving a higher standard of education, including topics such as governance and learning to critically assess a situation and make level-headed judgments, was sufficient preparation to bond with a holy beast.
“It would be easiest for the fire dragon to tell you his true name, but you could always bond with one of us instead.”
Now, the King of Fire is just teasing me!
It wouldn’t be a good look for me to jump ship and bond with one of the elemental kings just because I wanted to gain the ability to see elemental spirits sooner. Plus, Sol would surely be upset if I went ahead and did something he was so adamantly opposed to without even bothering to discuss it with him.
“I agree with the fire dragon; it’s best to approach the topic of bonding carefully. Given the traces of tampering evident on the beloved child’s soul, we don’t know what might happen…”
“My soul was tampered with…?”
The King of Earth’s words sounded incredibly ominous to my ears.
What does that mean?! God, what the heck did you do to my soul?!
“It does seem something has been done, but your soul itself is beautiful and healthy looking. I don’t see it as a problem.”
I was happy to hear the King of Water describe my soul as “beautiful.”
Previously, Kai described me as a “living incarnation of the desire to commune with animals.”
Even I had to admit I was guilty of more than a few deadly sins…
Gluttony… Yup.
Greed… For cuddle time with cute fluffy critters, oh yeah!
Sloth… If you count over-sleeping, I’m guilty as charged!
“It’s not a problem for us elemental spirits and the holy beasts. But the God of Creation wouldn’t have done something like this without a reason.”
Oh yes, he would! He’d do anything you could imagine and more to me merely for his amusement!
The elemental kings said it themselves—beloved children exist outside the divine balance of this world. That means I’m the only being in all of creation that he can mess with!
…It’s kind of sad now that you think about it.
“For the time being, when you want to use elemental power, it’s best to ask your knight or the holy beasts to help you.”
He’s saying I should put off trying to use elemental power myself until we can figure out if it’s safe with this so-called “tampering.” Grrrr, that damn meddling, overgrown brat of a god! I am definitely going to find some way to demand he tell me exactly what he did to my soul!
“You seem very mature for your age, Lady Nefertima. But the fire dragon still feels you’re not ready?”
Because I retained my memories of my previous life, I probably didn’t seem very childish on an intellectual level, but that didn’t mean there weren’t parts of me that still could use a lot of work.
When I was a child, I’d thought I’d be a fully formed adult the day I turned twenty. And while society did use this milestone to differentiate between “child” and “adult,” the truth was that emotionally, I’d still been a child.
I’d gotten a respectable job, interacted with many people, and worked myself to the bone until I was physically and mentally depleted, all the while playing the part of a mature adult. Even if, by society’s standards, I’d been making it as a successful, independent adult, I now realized that I wasn’t a fully matured and empowered adult like Mama and Papa. It might be pointless trying to compare my adult self from my past life to my parents in this life due to the vast difference in the environment, but speaking theoretically, if I were ever to become a parent, I wanted to be one like my current parents.
“We’re just not sure what effect the God of Creation’s handiwork might have on the power. But it certainly won’t cause any problems for you personally.”
“That’s a relief. Don’t worry, Lady Nefertima. I’m sure it won’t be long before you gain the ability to see elemental spirits. The fire dragon is just a big worrywart,” the emperor said, stroking my head reassuringly.
The emperor is a good father, too. Not as good as my papa, though!
“If you have any issues related to elemental power, you can call us. We’ll help you no matter where you are on the continent.”
“And that goes for not only the beloved child but also her knight. We grant you permission to call on us by name as well.”
Let’s see if I remember all the elemental kings’ names… Fire is Farlem, Water is Akdeen, Wind is Veezae, and Earth is Gnouas, right?
All right, I’ve got this!
…But wait a minute…
Their names are the same as the magic words to activate the stones in the pendant I received from King Gauldi! Does that mean that if I use one, it will initiate a magic spell that can only be used in very specific circumstances and summon an elemental king?!
I bet that when he gave me that pendant, King Gauldi never imagined I’d one day be granted permission to summon the elemental kings just by saying their names.
When I told the elemental kings about the pendant, the emperor was the most shocked. This seemed to be due to the fact that all of the spells packed into the pendant were very powerful, high-level spells that would affect a large area. Well, except for the earth magic spell “Absolute Inviolability.” That one only affected a small, fixed area.
“Your protection takes priority, of course, but please try to avoid using those spells unless you have no other choice,” Emperor Celiunos cautioned.
I understood his feelings very well. I also didn’t want to use a spell that would create a hurricane or a massive tidal wave.
The pendant itself is really cute, though!
“In that case, we’ll endow those magical stones with a tiny flicker of our power. That will make it so that you can contact us by thinking our name really hard.”
“If you want to use the spells, say the names out loud. If you want to summon us, call out our name telepathically in your mind. This way you won’t get the two mixed up and accidentally unleash a spell when you really just wanted to summon one of us!”
The King of Wind praised the King of Earth for his cleverness in coming up with that system.
They were the elemental kings, so there wasn’t much I would immediately rule out as being beyond the scope of their abilities, but the fact remained that I hadn’t brought all the magical stones with me.
“I only have this one with me right now; the others are all back at the imperial palace…”
I normally wore the pendant with the stone containing the defensive earth spell inside, although I sometimes changed it out for one of the other colors to match the dress I was wearing at the time.
“That’s fine, no big deal!”
For some reason, when the King of Wind says, “It’s fine,” it isn’t the least bit reassuring! Is that because of his flighty and carefree personality?
“As Gnouas said earlier, there’s nowhere on this continent that our power can’t reach. We can send our power from here.” As the King of Water said that, a blue light appeared in his hand. In succession, the King of Fire produced a red light, and the King of Wind produced a green light.