“Deirdre?” Seeing me lost in thought, my mother called out to me in a worried tone.
“Is there anywhere near the castle that has a lot of water and trees and flowers?” I asked.
My mother and father looked at each other and then back at me.
“There’s a lake west of the castle that fits that description,” father said.
“The flowers are beautiful at this time of year,” mother added.
“Is it close?”
“It’s within the castle grounds,” mother told me.
There was a lake just sitting on the castle grounds?! How big was this place?!
“I’d like to go. I want an earth spirit.”
“What?”
“Spirits are found in nature, aren’t they?”
“Why do you know such a thing, Deirdre?” father asked carefully.
“It was written in a book Dana read to me.”
“A picture book?” Alan asked. I gave a big nod.
“There were always flowers growing where the spirits appeared,” I elaborated.
“I imagine that’s because it’s a picture book...” father muttered.
“But she has a point, father,” Chris cut in.
“It was the same in the book I read,” Alan chimed in.
See? Those kinds of lessons taught long ago tended to be hidden in books!
Please view it in that way. I can’t tell you I just looked it up on Little Wiki.
“So spirits can be found in places of nature, then?” father confirmed.
“When was the capital expanded again, dear?” mother asked.
“About ten years ago.”
And because of that, the number of spirits around the palace would’ve dropped. If I recalled correctly, the oldest prince was the same age as Chris, so the dates lined up. There was no way the destruction of nature in a world where humans coexisted with spirits was a smart idea.
“If we require an area still filled with nature near the capital, there is always the area around the school,” father said.
“Ah, there is that shortcut to the academy from the capital that passes through a wood,” mother agreed.
But even if there was nature nearby, that didn’t mean you could necessarily take time out of your busy schedule to go there every day. It was a common story. Even in our domain, the lake was so close and yet barely anyone visited it.
“I’d like to go to the lake,” I repeated.
“Will you acquire a spirit if you do?” father asked.
“I’ll go every day until I do.”
Don’t be so naive. A spirit won’t so easily fall for your bait unless your mana is strong enough. On the other hand, even a baby could acquire a spirit if their mana was strong, just as I had. I wondered how strong the princes’ mana was.
“It’s certainly worth giving it a shot,” father mused.
“Yes. Let us have those we have invited to Deirdre’s birthday party try it as well,” Chris suggested. “They’ll likely work with us if we tell them they and their children may acquire a spirit.”
“If it turns out to be true, then they’ll owe us.” Father nodded. “It might be worth doing this regularly.”
“In other words, you won’t let them do it freely?” Chris asked.
“We’ll need to make the lake off-limits to regular visitors so as to protect the environment,” father replied.
“It would be prudent to let the knights and gatekeepers acquire spirits, but they can be quite the rowdy group,” Chris said. “We’ll need to supervise them.”
Father and Chris continued chatting away between themselves. Alan held a cookie out to me now that I’d been left with nothing to do.
“Thank you.”
“You have to make sure you get your energy back after using your mana, after all,” he told me.
“But we have dinner after this.”
“It kind of looks like we’ll be having a late dinner.”
He was right. Our father would likely rather come to a decision here first before going to the soiree, even if it meant being late. The soiree he needed to attend was among our domain’s counts anyway, so just showing his face would likely be good enough.
“Say, Deirdre, how did you know that spirits use mana as sustenance?” Chris suddenly asked.
“Sometimes after I was put to bed, I wasn’t sleepy but I couldn’t turn the lights on, so I went vwooom with my mana instead.”
“You made the room brighter.”
“And then the spirits flew to my hands, so I thought they wanted some mana.”
“I...see.”
“Ah, you have an excellent imagination, then.” Father smiled.
Oh, I see what he’s doing. Chris wanted to check where my oddities were coming from. Since I was still forcing myself to act like a four-year-old even after he had told me to stop, he wanted to see if I couldn’t talk any differently or simply wouldn’t.
“I’d thought your knowledge a little outlandish, but now I see it was just a unique viewpoint and imagination,” father said.
“That would explain why there are some things you don’t seem to know that you should, and why you’re always running around like a regular child,” Chris concluded.
“The one being injured most out of you three is always Deirdre,” mother said with a nod of agreement.
Sorry. I still can’t tell you the truth, I apologized to them internally. I had to wait until I was an adult and could defend myself before I let them know that I held information as dangerous as wisdom from another world. My own knowledge had its limits, but with Little Wiki, I could find out anything. I wanted to trust my family, but there was far too much to gain from such an ability. It was the type of knowledge that could shake a whole empire to its core.
“Is there anything else you’ve noticed about the spirits?”
At my father’s question, I put my hands on my hips and puffed out my chest.
“You have, haven’t you?” he prompted.
“Ooh, what is it?” Mother leaned forward in excitement.
“Heh heh.”
“Tell us, Deir.”
“Oh, Deir’s a cute nickname. I might call her that too,” Alan chimed in.
“Not now, Alan.” Chris shushed him, before adding, “I will too, though.”
They’re going to give me a nickname? They could just call me Lady Deirdre if you asked me.
“So what would you like to tell us?” Chris asked.
“If you want to become friends with the spirits at the lake...”
“Uh-huh?”
“You have to talk to them.”
“Huh?” Everyone was staring at me blankly.
“‘This wind feels so nice. It’s because of the spirits. Thank you, spirits.’ Like that.”
“Who do we say that to...?” father asked, hesitant.
“The wind or the water?” muttered Chris.
Can they stop looking at me with such pitying eyes already? I could tell they were thinking I was going crazy, that they’d taught me wrong somehow.
“Is that how you became friends with your wind spirit?” Alan asked.
See? Alan really was our family’s last true innocent! I was definitely just imagining the way his expression said that he was simply humoring me!
“Mm-hmm. You also have to make sure you talk to your own spirits. Oh, little fire spirit... Come here, buddy.”
When I turned my palm up, a red light floated down on top of it.
“Over here, little water spirit.”
The water spirit landed on my other palm.
“When you talk to them, they answer,” I declared.
“Whoa, let me try!” Alan’s eyes were practically sparkling as he called out to his spirit, and his palm lit up green as if in response. It was a little different from mine since sword spirits didn’t float about in the same way magic spirits did.
“If you don’t make sure to feed them, they won’t listen to you,” I warned.
“I see...”
“So we just talk to the spirits that we want...”
Father and Chris each placed a hand to his chin in thought, while mother and Alan sat there trying to communicate with their spirits. It was so easy to tell who resembled whom in this family.
“I’d much rather become friends with someone who spoke to me than someone who ignored me, after all.” I smiled when my family looked at me in surprise. “Just once isn’t enough. You have to keep going until they want to become your friend!”
“Hmm, so you have to keep visiting until they understand,” father murmured.
My family all looked very serious as they began to discuss what I had said. They made sure to check in with me throughout the conversation in case I was getting bored, and toward the end, my father said that I could talk with Alan at the side of the room, going so far as to carry me to another sofa himself.
Wow, did I feel so horrifically bad that I was fooling my family like this... I can feel a stomachache coming on already.
“What did you think about my family’s reactions?” I asked my valets after the meeting ended. That was why I’d had them join me, after all.
“You’re very well loved, young miss.”
“Do your brothers not seem a bit too attached to you?” Brad frowned.
“That’s not what I’m asking about. Do you think they’re any less suspicious of me?”
“Definitely not,” they answered in unison.
Yeah, no heckin’ surprise there!