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「In the end, why was Palra so curious about sorcery?」

Now in our room after the dinner with Palra, Ciel seems to have recalled something that bothered her before. Mia is diligently caring for her right now, but this question is most likely for me. Still, Mia appears to be listening, curious about this topic as well.

『It was probably for Belltina’s sake.』
「Ah, I see. In that case, Viviana’s example might end up being useful for her. Still, why didn’t Belltina ask us herself?」
『I believe she secretly consulted us without Belltina’s knowledge. She seems to be a caring busybody to people she’s close with, you see.』
「So just like Ain, right?」
『I can’t deny that.』

After all, up until now, I have done many things for―or rather, most of what I do is for Ciel’s sake.
I can’t really deny being called a caring busybody at this point. Still, I like doing things for Ciel, and without Ciel, there’s no point in me living in this world. There’s no denying that I don’t have much care for anything other than being with Ciel.

Hearing my response, Ciel let out a graceful giggle, and it seems that Mia finally couldn’t take it anymore, as she spoke to Ciel.

「May I ask what your conversation is about?」
「Do you recall Belltina?」
「The classmate who you formed a party with, yes?」
「Belltina has a similar condition to Viviana, so Palra came to me to gather information, it seems.」
「I see, is that so? Just to validate, Lady Ainsel should be able to resolve her issue, correct?」

While Mia does not necessarily know everything I’m capable of, she does know a lot. She also knows that I was the one who resolved Viviana’s issue, and she probably also knows that Ciel and I have gone to the lowest strata of the den.

「I think so.」
「As to be expected.」

Mia replied with a look of respect, but she didn’t ask whether we would treat Belltina or not. I don’t know if many can perform the same treatment, but most people can’t, so this isn’t something we should do carelessly.

It was a different situation in Viviana’s case, and back then, it was also an experiment to confirm my own capabilities.

Besides, Belltina is also making her best effort, so I don’t want to risk raining on her parade. She’ll probably start training her fundamentals after hearing Palra’s information, and that would only serve to help her regardless of the future.

Besides, I honestly still need time to be able to trust Belltina. Being school friends is different from being actual close friends. In the end, Belltina and us―and frankly Palra―are not very good at socializing.

While I was contemplating to myself, Ciel and Mia continued conversing.

「Still, I’m personally rooting for her.」
「Really?」
「She reminds me of Viviana in the past, you see.」
「Come to think of it, Viviana also has a childhood, huh. Mia, too, and everybody else.」
「And eventually, yours will also―」

Mia was about to say something, but, 「Never mind,」 she held her tongue.

◇◇◇

It’s late into the night. I previously asked for Ciel’s permission to use the body after she fell asleep, so I took control and sat up on the bed.
Most of the world is fast asleep at this time, so Mia has returned to the attendant’s quarters.

Now for what I plan on doing this late: just a little fun. And while I’m at it, I’ll be playing with the other spirit that’s always with us, the sound spirit. To be honest, there’s no need to do it this late at night. It’s just that I usually borrow Ciel’s body at night.

In fact, there’s even a possibility that doing this so late would make my objective harder to achieve. In that case, this’ll just be a fun time with the spirit.

「Now give it a good try.」

After I said that, the spirit cheerfully started floating around me. Soon after, the sound of knocking on hollow wood echoed to a steady beat.
Following this relaxed percussion, I started to sing.

About the sound spirit, this little one is now capable of producing a good variety of sounds. At first, it could only mimic sounds. Still, it was capable of learning, so I got a bit carried away and made it listen to so many different sounds. As time went by, it eventually became capable of arranging the sounds it memorized, so then I tried to make it produce sounds closer to ones played by musical instruments.

The sound spirit can produce sounds, but it can’t talk to me. But since it can respond with sound, it became relatively easy to communicate with it.

Spirits of Lisyl’s level would try communicating in ways that I would have an easier time understanding, but the little ones don’t make that much of an effort. Rather, even the thought of doing so probably hasn’t crossed their minds.

And with that, I’m currently having a small concert. Now that I’m actually singing alongside its sounds, this surprisingly sounds like proper music. Come to think of it, people do sometimes clap when they sing. I originally only saw the cajon as a plain wooden box, but thanks to recalling it, I have the sound of wooden percussion now.

Only when I sing do I use languages from my old world. There’s no deep reason for it, but it’s not as if I don’t feel sentimental when singing these songs.
As I was singing, I could tell that someone was approaching.

The presence headed to the kitchen and shuffled things around before heading towards me. A steaming teacup was then placed on the table by our bedside, and the figure stood stock-still.

With her arrival, I stopped singing, and the sound spirit let out a displeased tooting sound. Witnessing this, Lisyl started soothing the spirit, so I’ll leave that issue to her.

「It appears that it’s already over.」
「Would you like to listen?」
「If I may be so indulgent, yes.」
「In that case, we’ll need another cup and a chair.」
「That’s…」