I’d suddenly ended up speaking a little like a noble, but everyone was stunned into silence, so they probably hadn’t noticed. I was safe.
“A sword spirit? Really?”
So you were worried about being the only one without a spirit. Alan’s eyes were filled with such tentative hope as he gazed at me. He was so cute! I wanted to squeeze him tight!
“Really! Try whooshing mana into your hands, like when you’re using a magic tool!”
“Like this?”
Alan returned his sword to its sheath and then held his hands palm up in front of his chest. When he gathered his mana, a green light enveloped his hands. That was his sword spirit. When they matured, sword spirits became powerful beings that could cover your whole body in a defensive barrier and even add an element to your weapon—they were exceedingly useful. However, just like magic spirits, they needed to be fed mana, so neglecting one’s mana studies to focus on the sword wouldn’t help them get stronger.
Apparently, you could learn defensive magic using magic spirits too, but when you had multiple sword spirits, those defensive effects stacked and could get really strong—according to my favorite Little Wiki, at least.
“How did you even notice that?” Chris asked.
“It was all shiny and sparkly,” I said, tilting my head slightly. I’d thought anyone would notice if they were paying enough attention.
“Um, can you tell that I have a spirit too?” the middle-aged knight that had been teaching my brothers asked.
“Uh-huh. You have a sword spirit too, right? It’s yellow, so is it an earth one?”
“Why, yes. I had a mage tell me once before, but I can’t see it for myself.”
“You just need to do what Alan did and push your mana into your hands.”
“Deirdre,” Chris said.
“What about the other knights in my unit? Do they also have spirits? A lot more of our recruits have been without spirits as of late.”
“Are you sure? Most of you have—”
“Deirdre, let’s go tell father that Alan acquired a sword spirit.”
“Oh...okay.”
Was I not supposed to say that? It wasn’t as if I’d revealed that they needed to feed their spirits mana.
“Captain, we’ll look into the status of the knights’ spirits another day,” Chris said.
“Would you really be willing to?”
“Of course. Our knights becoming stronger is just as much of a joy to us as it is to you. However, Deirdre is still young, so asking her to do this all at once is too great a burden. As such, please discuss it with my father first.”
Sorry, is this kid really only nine? That eloquence wasn’t something you’d expect from someone his age. His smile was so sinisterly calm, silently insisting that this wasn’t something they should discuss further here.
“Take Deirdre back, please.” Perhaps out of habit, Chris ordered one of his own guards to escort me back, but as the man approached, Brad moved between us.
“Pardon me, but this is our job. You may be Lord Chris’s bodyguard, but I must ask you not to touch Lady Deirdre without permission.”
Huh? What’s going on? Is it that serious?!
My guards were nodding along like what he was saying was natural...
“Of course, my apologies. You are absolutely correct.”
Things got a little tense for a moment, but Chris finally relented, which was really quite like him. His smile looked entirely devious, though. Ahhh, this boy is one of those scheming types—showing everyone a smile and yet secretly coming up with all sorts of plans inside his head.
“Alan, Deirdre, come with me.”
“Yes, brother,” Alan replied promptly.
“Okay. Can you carry me, Brad?” When I held out my arms, Brad couldn’t hide the shock on his face.
He averted his gaze and cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Understood, Lady Deirdre.”
“Hold on. I think I should be the one to take her after all.” This time it was Chris getting in between me and Brad.
“You mean you’ll carry me?”
“I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”
“Okay, then.” I was relieved to see that Chris was back to his usual kind smile, and when I wrapped my arms around him, he happily patted me on the head. I’d be really sad if all of this kindness was calculated, even my own family’s.
“It is quite the distance, so please do not strain yourself.” Staring at Chris as he patted my head, Brad casually placed a hand on my shoulder. Honestly, even I thought he would struggle.
But why is everyone looking so serious? Even Alan was looking at us strangely.
“You aren’t thinking anything strange about our precious sister, are you?” Chris was gazing sharply at Brad.
“Of course not. I was just surprised because children are usually terrified of me.”
“Well, if that’s all, then...please carry her.”
“Leave her to me.”
Okay, it’s not that big of a deal, but can the two of you stop only putting on the nice smiles when you’re looking at me?
Why did everyone turn up the kindness when looking at the little girl? And what was with that suggestive exchange?
“Wait, Deirdre, you’ve got a new spirit,” Alan suddenly said. I turned around, and right enough, there was a little green ball of light floating beside me. “That’s a wind spirit, like mine.”
“Maybe it’s friends with yours.”
“Then if we go back to the manor together, they won’t be lonely.”
Being around Alan always healed my heart. I had to hurry and get Chris on my side too.
Our domain’s climate was warmer than the Kanto region of Japan but cooler than Okinawa. There were other areas in the empire that had great blizzards in winter and others that had hotter temperatures than ours. The Azelian Empire was big, so that contributed to the differences, but the varying altitudes were another big factor. Apparently, the marches to the north were part of a vast, sprawling region, truly suiting my idea of a frontier land.
Just like in my previous world, a year here was made up of twelve months, and from November to February was the time for winter social functions. The majority of the high-ranking nobility would gather in the capital, and children above ten years of age would attend school and stay in the dormitories, which held all the students regardless of age.
During spring—from March to June—and autumn—from September to October—most nobles, apart from a few of the highest-ranking nobility, would spend weekdays in their domains and then use a teleportation array to return to the capital on the weekends.
Meetings would be held over the weekend during which that week’s issues would be discussed, and the civil servants and bureaucrats would spend the next week acting on whatever decisions had been reached. Civil servants and knights were chosen from among talented nobles who weren’t their families’ successors, so there was no need for them to return to their domains.
The two months of summer were spent on yet more social functions. Soirees were held aplenty in the capital at this time of year, and the more affluent would travel to holiday resorts far from the summer heat. Those from the same clique tended to travel together, often being invited by the lord of the territory they were visiting and staying in a hotel there or in their own villas.
Thus, summer was an important time of year to areas like ours that were seen as resort locations. The more people visited our lands, the more money we made, and the more we could show off how valuable our lands were for attracting tourists.
The other most important part of summer socializing was where the imperial family chose to visit each year. There were rumors that they would be visiting the domain of Marquess Johannes this year.
And in the midst of all of that, I’d suddenly started to spout new information about spirits—how they fed on mana, how you could learn powerful magic if you raised them well, and now, the fact that I could see weak spirits that others couldn’t.
We would celebrate my birthday at the end of March. That meant we currently had a bit less than three months until everyone would start traveling here for the summer. It would be a nice surprise if we managed to power up our domain’s spirits before then, right? And they’d all be grateful to us if we gave them the information on how we’d done it.
Imagine if I were to help Chris gain all these massive spirits of all of the elements before he has to start attending school in winter. Everyone would want to get to know our family, and then there would be tons more tourists next summer, and then our people would be happy.
I had no idea if things would actually go so smoothly, though, and I didn’t feel like it would be enough to just rely on the spirits as a way to attract more visitors. We had to think about how to make it work as a tourist location.
Whatever we decided to do, we just had to work on the plan bit by bit.