My father looked pleased by Sebas’s and Rex’s words. People tended to see their own relatives in a more favorable light, but it was true that we siblings were strange. We stood out like crazy when we were among all these normal children. We were getting along well, though, and my brothers seemed to have made friends too.
The only thing making me unique was my memory of my previous life—one day, all the others would catch up, and I would become just a normal adult. You’re only called clever while you’re still a child.
“Could you come here for a moment?” Chris said, grabbing Dennis by the upper arm and dragging him away from the rest of us.
“And what do you want?!”
Dennis might have been shouting, but the spirit beasts had scared him enough that he had nowhere near the amount of bite as before. The rude way in which he spoke did annoy me, but he hadn’t actually hit me, and as far as I was concerned, all he needed was a warning.
That being said, the nature of what he’d revealed was, uh...really bad. If his family really was attempting to overthrow us, they’d likely be stripped of their rank. Even if they hadn’t gone quite that far, this would still count as lèse-majesté.
“Dennis?!”
The woman screaming the name of her child was a beautiful one, with jewelry jangling all over. To tell the truth, she looked exactly as I’d imagined. Even the gentleman walking beside her was as I’d thought he would be—a slender man with glasses who looked high-strung. He appeared to be desperately taking in the scene as he approached, trying to grasp the situation and gather his thoughts.
“Well, hello there, Count Coleman. Your son is quite the entertaining little lad.”
I had never seen my father truly angry in all the time I’d been alive—he was super sweet to me, after all. But that was the day I realized he was the kind of person you never wanted to make an enemy of. I’d never expected he would pull his sword on the spirit beasts, and right now, though he sounded casual, there was an undeniable aura of intimidation radiating from him. Everyone had gone quiet.
“Sebas, please escort the count and his family to the castle. They shall be our guests for a while.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Have our staff look after them. Gather anyone who accompanied them in the same room.”
“Just what are you—?” Count Coleman attempted to object, but father cut him off.
“We will talk later...very thoroughly.”
Sebas gave out orders as instructed, and several of our staff dashed to the castle, while several others surrounded the count and his family and escorted them away.
“Why are you obeying that man’s orders?” I heard Dennis’s voice demanding.
“Be quiet.”
“You’re more important than he is, father!”
“Shut your mouth!”
Dennis was kind of incredible; it was rare to find a kid who was this bad at reading the room.
While our father was busy assigning people jobs, Chris stepped forward. “Everyone, it appears that if you keep talking to and feeding your spirits, they can one day become spirit beasts and even speak with you. We still have time. Continue searching without pushing yourselves.”
Need I remind you that my brother is younger than Dennis? Maybe by just one year, but isn’t that crazy?
“We’ve prepared some cold drinks and snacks.”
“Please help yourselves.”
The valets began directing everyone to the tables, so we could finally relax. This is beginning to feel less and less like a birthday party.
“Iris, Harry, thank you for looking out for Deir,” my mother said. The two of them looked very bashful as they were taken back to their parents.
That’s two friends in the bag!
“Deir.”
“Yes, Alan?”
“What should we call your spirit beasts?”
“Oh right. I never asked for their names.”
(Names?) repeated the fenrir. (We were just born. Why would we have names already?)
(You should give us some.)
Ooh, I can name them myself?
I had expelled mana many times in order to explain to our guests about the spirits, so these two must have taken advantage of the confusion to eat it all and then managed to evolve. Greedy little spirits.
“Deir, could I speak with your spirits for a moment?” father asked.
“I’m not sure. Can he?”
(Our master’s father? Of course.)
(Just don’t turn your blade on us anymore.)
The fenrir and the dragon moved from beside me, and the yellow and green balls of light floated toward my father’s spirits and began fluttering around as if saying hello. Just watching them warmed my heart—what a kind world this was.
“You can see the crowds of people gathered here today, yes? I was wondering if this would cause problems for the spirits. I wanted to continue having gatherings like this one, but would it be all right?”
(You’re willing to hear our opinion on the matter?) asked my fenrir.
(Wonderful,) said my dragon. (Our master’s father is a good human.)
(Everyone appears to be enjoying themselves, but you’d do best to ask the Spirit King.)
“Who?”
(Let us try to call him. If worse comes to worst, we will give our own answers.)
Suddenly we had some new info. Does Little Wiki have any info about this? I’d looked up spirits before I could even walk, so I couldn’t remember.
(Your Sacred Majesty, are you here?)
My father and I followed the fenrir as they walked toward the lake. It was very noisy behind us with everyone gathered there, but the lake was so calm and quiet.
(It may be impossible with this many humans around.)
(I forgot that could be the case...)
(No, I do not mind at all.) A new voice had spoken. (How many decades has it been now since the last spirit beast was born in this land? I am more than willing to listen to the wishes of the newly born.)
The surface of the lake glimmered with a faint light, and then that light shot up into the air. When it faded, there stood a beautiful man with shoulder-length hair of a smoky blue.