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「Demi…… Spirit…….?」
「Arytte, what do you mean?」
「What do you mean what do I mean, it’s exactly what it is. Someone that’s half-human, half-spirit.」

A half? Spirits and humans can make children? Seemingly reading my mind, Arytte gives a further explanation.

「Of course, normally children can’t be born between humans and spirits. In the first place, the time we live in is completely different. We spirits don’t have a clear lifespan, while you people die in mere moments. But, ‌at times, there are some eccentric spirits that fall in love with humans. Which makes complete sense, as we naturally have our own personalities and consciousness, making it only natural that we’ll have someone we’d like or two. But in general, ‌we just consider these people our favorites.
Still, there are some spirits that can’t be satisfied with just that. Maybe it’s because people enjoyed and desired their presence, maybe it’s the result of them being with their favorite for a long time. I can’t even remember when the first spirit like that came about anymore. It was a long time ago, when beasts were still far from becoming human, so I suppose it was more than a thousand years ago.
The person that spirit fell in love with couldn’t see spirits. At first, she was content with just watching over him. However, after seeing the warmth of a family and the joys of everyday life, she eventually grieved. Why can’t I even touch the one I love? Why can’t I be even seen by the one I love? She said to herself.
Seeing her suffering, god asked her: Do you have the resolve to sacrifice all of your power? I can only turn you into a human, there’s no assurance that your love will be answered. Even still, will you accept it?
The spirit immediately replied yes. Seeing her doubtless answer, even the god felt disbelief. But of course she would say yes. After all, while the life of her beloved is just a blink from our perspective; for that spirit, her suffering and grief is something that she would feel for eternity.」

Hearing an unexpectedly grand story, I nearly feel lost in it. I only thought about possibly receiving some ‌hint about Est’s abilities, but I never even dreamed that I would be given what’s practically a definite confirmation.

「Well, I can’t say that things went all fine and dandy after that, but the spirit eventually overcame everything that came in her path and got united with her beloved, successfully giving birth to a child. While she herself lost her powers as a spirit, their child, while faint, has some of this power. That child was a demi-spirit. The child barely had any aether, so I heard ‌he was practically no different from a normal person.
So ever since that happened, spirits that would similarly fall in love with humans occasionally pop up. In each instance, the god would ask the same questions and turn them into humans. Oh, by the way, this god wasn’t the Creator God, you see! It was the God of Harvests, Titula!」
「Haven’t heard of that name before. Anyway, putting that aside, so what you mean is that Est is a child born from a human and a spirit?」
「Hmm, about that, it’s likely not the case. As far as I know, the last time a spirit asked to become a human was about 50 years ago. This girl is…… a bit too young considering that, don’t you agree?」

I’ve only heard that Est’s parents were slaves, they shouldn’t be that old at least. Taking Est’s age into consideration, her mother would have to be pregnant with her at about 40 years old if that was the case, but I don’t think childbirth at that age is probable in this world. I can’t say that it’s impossible, but……

Turning my eyes to Est, she shakes her head. It seems like she doesn’t know‌.

「Hmm, and besides, I can’t feel the presence of a spirit from her……」
「You can feel that?」
「Naturally, the world is quite vast, and having more than one spirit working at the same place is pointless, you know? So when we feel ‌other spirits nearby, we move to a different location. This is still present even in spirits turned human and demi-spirits. They ‌have a weaker presence compared to regular spirits, but it’s not to the point where we can’t feel it.¹」

So if Est really is a real demi-spirit, then Arytte should have felt her presence beforehand.

「I don’t know if this is related to that, but Est was subject to some sort of experiment. It was an experiment to create a counterfeit Demon Lord or so.」
「Demon Lord? Are you perhaps referring to the Demon Lord of Beasts?」
「This is the first time I heard of that title, but there are more than one demon lords?」
「I see. Historically, several Demon Lords have existed. However, if you’re speaking about the Demon Lord in this country, then it should be the Demon Lord of Beasts. He had a lot of different titles. The Demon Lord of Time, the Black Demon Lord, and the Demon Lord of Salvation were some of the common ones. He was a quite pitiful child that died in solitude. Come to think of it, he was a demi-spirit as well.」

This is the first time I’ve heard of the Demon Lord having a lot of titles. Still, it seems to me like Arytte knows this specific Demon Lord really well. As I thought, maybe Arytte ‌is over 1000 years old……

「Then, in this case, I suppose she might have been imbued with a spirit’s power in that experiment but… I don’t know……」
「So that would mean that her power as a spirit wasn’t something she was born with?」
「That would be so. I just… don’t have any idea about the method…… Though I can imagine that it’s something absolutely heretical at least……」

Just when I thought that I’ve finally found certain answers, in the end, it’s all still under the veil of darkness. Still, at least I learned that there’s not likely to be other demi-spirits similar to Est at present, and it seems like even if Est has a child, her child won’t become a demi-spirit. While I have no idea of what this heretical method is, it looks like it’s not something they can easily use en masse. In the meantime, it seems like my greatest fears are currently yet to be realized.

1. Lyly: Like how ants communicate via chemicals then?