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「Pilia! I finally found you! 」
「Oh? It’s you, Arytte! It’s been a while! About 200 years, if I remember correctly?」
「Really? It’s been that long? No wonder the snacks have evolved!」

I was searching for the spirit converting magic power into mana near the royal capital, Pilia. Pilia is the 12th ranked spirit, much higher in ranking than me, and was born 100 years before I was. She’s much more powerful than I am and is more knowledgeable than me‌.

「… And so that happened. Do you know anything about it?」
「A posteriori demi-spirit, right?…… Sorry, but I’ve never heard of anything like that at all.」
「Even you don’t know it, huh…」

There are three things I mainly want to ask Pilia. For starters, I asked her about the demi-spirit named Est, but as expected, she knew nothing about it. If even Pilia doesn’t know about it, my only other chances are asking either the spirit king or the gods. Both are really unlikely to answer my questions, and in the first place, who knows where the spirit king is right now.

「Oh, but I know something about that curse. It was likely from the sealed grounds north of this country. Still, I could have never imagined that humans would reach out for the power of curses of their own volition.」
「The north? Is that… perhaps the one where a town was destroyed in a single night……?」
「Yes, it’s that. The curse should have come from there.」

Even after the defeat of the Demon Lord and the foundation of this country 800 years ago, its history was never ‌unending peace. There were the wars against the Empire, stampedes of monsters overflowing from dungeons, and even power struggles between the royal family. Among these, the most disastrous tragedy was the magic power overload that happened 300 years ago.

Its cause was entirely unknown. It’s commonly suspected that it was either a result of some noble’s magic experiments or an overload of a dungeon’s mana, but we didn’t have any part in the aftermath of it, so I can’t say for sure.

「Hmm, but still. Wasn’t that place turned into the dungeon of eternal frost and sealed so that no one could enter it?」
「It was, but it’s still a dungeon. Entering itself is possible, and since there aren’t any monsters stationed there, exploring it shouldn’t be an issue.」

That sounds quite sloppy. These kinds of things are why I don’t like how the Creator God works. Whoops, that was a close one. Pilia puts the Creator God in high regard, so it’s necessary to make it so ‌she can’t read my mind.

「Still, it’s unusual for you to be curious about these sorts of things, Arytte.」
「Really~?」
「Really~! After all, you’ve ne~ver shown interest in anything other than work and snacks. So what’s the matter? Did something happen?」

Was I really like that……? Looking back on the past few centuries, other than when I collect information about people, I ‌can’t remember doing anything else other than my duties and munching on snacks.

「It’s exactly because you’re keeping that ‌lifestyle that your body turned out like thi~s, you know!」
「Kyaa!?」

While I was busy reflecting on things, Pilia pinched my belly. To be frank, Pilia is a beauty. All of us spirits are beautiful, but she’s unquestionably beautiful even among them. In my case, I just have a bit of a belly sticking out, but I shouldn’t be ugly……. I think.

「It would be better if you go on a bit of a diet, you know? I’ll admit that human snacks are delicious and all, but just eating that all the time is bad for the body.」
「That, which human told you that? We don’t have material bodies, so worrying about health and lifespan like humans do is stranger if you ask me.」
「Well, that is true, but still~」

To begin with, since we don’t have a fixed physical body like humans do, our appearances are mere symbols. If I wanted to look thin, I could do it at any time, and I’m not really eating snacks out of necessity, it’s more like I’m eating the feelings within them.

Human snacks are amazing. They’re filled with feelings of consideration and the wholehearted wish of bringing happiness to those who eat it. While there is occasionally some gross arrogance mixed in, they’re made upon the wishes of happiness for the most part, and those taste exceptionally delicious.

「Well, anyway. So, your other question is?」
「A~h, right. Though rather than a question, it’s a report. I’m going to take be off-duty for a while.」
「H~m…… I see…… eh!?」
「Hmm, I’ll be away for about 50 years, I guess? I might come back to work ‌earlier if I get bored, but I might even be out for even longer too.」

I have worked as, in human terms, a spirit of travels, converting magic power into mana. The other spirits seem to have gone on breaks as they do their work, but since I’m a high spirit and I didn’t really have anything I particularly wanted to do that would require taking a break, I’ve worked endlessly for the past several hundred years. So, there shouldn’t be any issue with me getting all my break-time in one go.

「W-well that’s fine and all…… Rather, you ‌work too much, so I definitely support your decision to rest for a while, but why so suddenly? Did something really happen?」

Should I tell her ‌I had a good encounter? After seeing something as interesting as that, there’s absolutely no way that I can just ignore it and complete my duties like nothing happened. Still, I’m sure that if I say this out loud, Pilia would probably poke fun of me about it, and that’s going to be annoying.

「It’s a secret.」
「Ehh, come on, say it~!」

While dealing with Pilia as she leaned closely against me, I feel around for a specific presence. Geez, since Pilia’s going to be like this whether I tell her about it, I suppose not saying it was really the right choice. Still, it’s not like I dislike her or anything.

Just for a while, after rekindling our friendship for just a little while more, I’ll ‌see her again. So this time I can say I’ll be tagging along with her for a while!