However, Ruri simply stated her own feelings. “You’re thinking about things way too hard. I mean, the same spirits you’d always shared smiles with not only attacked you with an intent to kill but chased you down no matter how far you fled, so of course you’d find the experience scary. In fact, I think it was even scarier because of their cutesy appearances. It was traumatic enough to show up in your dreams. I don’t consider that being conceited.”
“Yes, but...” Celestine trailed off.
“Do you hate the spirits now?”
“No.” She answered Ruri’s question swiftly, without hesitation.
“In that case, there’s nothing to worry about,” Ruri answered with a grin.
Rin flew in front of Celestine. “Ruri is right. Besides, despite what you think, spirits gather to a Beloved of their own accord, so it’s useless to think about you being ‘worthy’ or not. Useless, useless,” Rin said, her words being meant as encouragement despite them sounding harsh.
Celestine’s expression softened slightly, as if she understood Rin’s sentiments. “You have a point.”
“Right, right. You don’t need to think too deeply about it. Spirits don’t think deeply. We stay by your side because we like you. We grant your wishes because we like you. That’s it.”
“But that’s a problem in itself, isn’t it? Hopefully, things work out in the end as they have now, but... Hmm...” Ruri said, ending with a troubled hum.
“There’s no way around it. That’s just the kind of creatures spirits are.”
Ruri recalled the day that Rin had come to her out of nowhere and demanded that Ruri give her a name. It felt like eons ago, but barely a few years had passed since then. Ruri found herself surprised by that fact—which was a little late coming, all things considered.
“I wish that pair of Beloveds had even a fraction of the respect for the spirits and shame toward themselves that Celestine-san did,” Ruri commented, but she knew that whatever she said to the adolescent chunibyo duo would fall on deaf ears After all, not doubting that the world revolved around them was what being afflicted with chunibyo—the delusions of seventh-grade grandeur—was all about.
“What happened to those Beloveds?” asked Celestine.
Ruri had prioritized telling her about Arman and the palace and hadn’t gone into detail about the Beloveds. “We arrested them and threw them in the dungeon. I made sure to tell the spirits not to obey them under any circumstance, and I made Kotaro and Rin emphasize that after I got back to the Nation of the Dragon King, so I believe things will be all right. Still, it seems that not even the Beast King really knows how to deal with them.”
“Yes, I would imagine.”
A sensible country would have followed the rules set by the Four Great Nations and wouldn’t have allowed their Beloveds to meet, but Furgal had used theirs to incite a war. If Arman sent them back to Furgal, they might raid the Nation of the Beast King again. In fact, both he and Jade thought this was highly likely.
The really bothersome part was that the pair outranked Celestine. Beloveds essentially had no restrictions on what they could and could not do. However, the captured Beloveds had taken things too far and ordered the spirits like they were playing some sort of game.
The spirits ignored their orders now that Ruri was around, but it was terrifying to consider what could’ve happened if she hadn’t been. Such dangerous people couldn’t be left to their own devices.
“There are apparently talks about it being safer to have the Nation of the Dragon King or Spirit King take them in,” Ruri informed her.
“Right, the Nation of the Spirit King has the Spirit of the Trees, and this nation has multiple supreme-level spirits in its midst, so they won’t be able to do as they please,” Celestine surmised, looking convinced.
The truth of the matter was that Jade didn’t want to take in those problem children either. Nevertheless, the consensus of Arman, Awain, and Jade was that they should definitely avoid leaving the two in the Nation of the Beast King.
Rin raised her voice in anger. “Then bring them here! I want to see what kind of people they are with my own two eyes.”
“So do I!” Kotaro chimed in.
As soon as the two finished speaking, they charged straight into Jade’s office and both shouted, “Bring them here!”
Kotaro and Lynn were probably furious with those disruptive Beloveds—because they’d gotten Ruri involved, of course. Pressed by the spirit duo, Jade looked extremely perplexed. However, despite the demands coming from supreme-level spirits, his retainers looked hesitant to undertake such a hellacious task.
The room went silent at Rin’s next words. “You can toss them into Riccia’s place. She’ll be sure to train them well.”
Riccia, who could keep the supreme-level spirit of fire eating out of the palm of her hand, could easily train a couple of adolescents. That was the general direction of everyone’s opinions. As such, an agreement was reached that the Nation of the Dragon King would take in the otherworld Beloveds, but it was also decided that they’d take in the other transmigrators who had gathered in Furgal as well.
As expected, Furgal declined, but the people of the Nation of the Beast King—including Arman, who had to deal with Celestine being hurt by their forces—were furious and put down an ultimatum, saying, “If you refuse, prepare for your nation to be wiped off the map.”
Furgal using their Beloveds to inflict harm upon Celestine was a well-known fact at this point, and both nations made it clear that they had no intention of stopping the Nation of the Beast King if they decided to go to war themselves. Arman also used the tied-up royal of Furgal as a bargaining chip. Apparently, the bound guppy was the king’s nephew. Whether because he valued his family member’s life or succumbed to the other nations’ pressure, the negotiations went smoother than expected.