One morning, Ruri entered the pocket space in order to help Lydia.
Lydia, the spirit of time and space, was in charge of managing the pocket spaces created by a multitude of people. A space could only be opened by the person who created it, and once that person died, that space could no longer be opened by anyone else.
It was Lydia’s daily routine to erase such spaces that had served their purpose, but since Ruri’s previous contract-bearer, the First Dragon King Weidt, had passed on some rather unnecessary knowledge, she had developed a habit of collecting items that might be useful when she found them in pocket spaces with deceased owners.
Those items were stored in Weidt’s pocket space, a space she had not deleted after his death, but she had stuck it all to Ruri’s pocket space, Weidt’s treasure and all. As a result, Ruri’s pocket space had become a storage area. Since Ruri’s mana reserves were as large as that of a dragonkin and her pocket space had been combined with Weidt’s, it was quite spacious, as the capacity of these spaces depended on the size of one’s mana reserves. It still had plenty of room even after inheriting Weidt’s treasures and was steadily growing with more things even now.
At first, Ruri had felt timid about taking things out of other people’s pocket spaces despite them being unopenable by anyone else, but now she was willing to help out, taking the initiative to sort through rooms before Lydia deleted them. It was almost as though that guilt she’d initially felt had gone out the window.
The doors that lined an infinite spiral staircase were the entrances to each and every pocket space. This was the backstage area that only Lydia and her contract-bearer could enter. Ruri came out of a room and closed the door after not finding anything of particular interest.
“Lydia! I’m done checking this space, so you can take it away.”
“Got it,” replied Lydia. She held her hand over the door of the sorted space, and it dissolved into thin air.
The space beyond the door that she had eliminated could no longer be brought back, not even by Lydia herself. Ruri stared at the now blank patch of wall, finding it to be as strange of a sight as always. That spot was going to be someone else’s room before long.
“Now, let’s move on to the next.”
“Okay.”
There were countless spaces that had lost their owners and needed to be erased. You needed mana to create a pocket space to have one, but over half the people in the world possessed mana, which basically meant that many pocket spaces existed.
From what Ruri had heard from the spirits, the world’s population was smaller than her home world, but it was impossible for Lydia to manage it all alone. While there were plenty of lower-level members of spirit families—such as wind spirits aside from the supreme-level spirit, Kotaro—Lydia was the lone spirit of time and space. If there had been a lot of other spirits of time and space, Lydia would not only have had an easier time, but she wouldn’t be lonely even if she were able to go outside the pocket space realm.
What a sweatshop operation. Ruri could only wonder why Lydia was the only of her kind. However, when she asked Lydia and the other spirits about it, she couldn’t get a clear answer. Perhaps it was some sort of secret that could only be revealed to spirits, but Ruri couldn’t help but be worried about Lydia whenever she left.
If it was an issue she could deal with, then she would spare no expense to resolve it, but maybe there were some areas Ruri wasn’t supposed to tread. The only thing she could do was to come see Lydia as much as possible until their eventual goodbye came.
Ruri then opened another door to a pocket space. Naturally, it was a space without an owner—the space of someone who had already passed away. The moment she stepped inside, she blinked.
“Whoa, amazing.”
“This is the first score we’ve had in a while.” Lydia had a hint of excitement in her voice.
Ruri understood how she felt. She shared those feelings. It was truly a spectacular sight. The pocket space was packed to the brim with gorgeous clothes, elaborately designed statues, elegantly painted portraits of a woman, and a blinding sea of gems and jewelry. While many spaces with vacant owners were almost always duds with nothing but trash, this one was not only a score; it was a huge score.
The fact that the room was such a treasure trove was actually scary.
“Lydia, almost all of this is useful stuff, so what do we do?” asked Ruri.
“Why not just move it all to your space instead?”
“Oh, can I?” Ruri asked. She knew that anyone who would have gotten angry at her for doing such a thing was long gone, but she still felt a bit guilty.
“I mean, if you’re not going to claim any of it, I’m just going to erase it anyway,” Lydia explained.
“Hmm, good point.” In the end, her desire not to let things go to waste outweighed the guilt, and she asked Lydia to move the majority of the haul into her room.
After the move was complete, Ruri checked each item one by one to find out that the owner was a considerably high-class woman. It was nothing more than a guess from the tiaras, dresses, and jewelry, but it was hard to think otherwise. Some of the jewelry was engraved with a crest of some kind.
“Lydia, do you know where this crest here is from?”
“Not sure. Spirits don’t concern themselves with things like that.”
“Figured.” Ruri naturally didn’t have the foggiest, but maybe it was something that fell under Euclase’s area of expertise. She picked up one of the brooches to find the same crest engraved on it. “Would you mind putting everything we brought over from that last space in one location for me?”
“Not at all.”
“I’ll have Euclase-san check this, so I’ll be heading back for today.”
“Right. Even if you are my contract-bearer, staying here for too long is bad for your mental health.” Despite showing that she knew that, Lydia looked somewhat sad.
With a sense of reluctance in having to leave, Ruri said, “I’ll be back. I’ll bring some snacks, so let’s have a tea party next time.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Lydia said with a smile and a wave.
Ruri turned away to exit the pocket space and was greeted by Kotaro and Rin on the other side, their body language making it clear that they had been patiently waiting the entire time.
“Welcome back, Ruri,” Rin greeted her, fluttering around the air.
“Did you get a good haul?” Kotaro asked, wagging his tail.
“Glad to be back. I got a great haul this time around, but I think I need Euclase-san’s advice,” replied Ruri, showing the brooch to Kotaro and Rin.
“Oh my, how beautiful,” Rin replied with interest. Kotaro, on the other hand, wasn’t too impressed.
“I’m going to go to Euclase-san’s right now. Do you two want to come?”
“Of course!” Rin answered promptly.
“Wherever you go, I go, Ruri,” Kotaro said just as fast.
Wasting no time, Ruri headed to Euclase’s office with the two in tow. Braced for Euclase to give her one of their patented lectures, exasperated sighs, or nitpicks, she knocked on their office door. But it was Gibeon, Euclase’s current errand boy, who opened the door and poked his head out. His eyes lit up when he saw Ruri.
“Oh, my dear sweet Ruri! Did you come to see me?” he asked, coming up to her for a hug, only for Kotaro to blow him away with his wind powers.