Chapter 15 - Spirit

Daphne suddenly said she wanted to talk about Kailyn. I was a bit surprised that she approached me first, but I decided to follow her.

"Um... Mr. Davian."

"Yes. Please speak."

Once we were away from prying eyes, Daphne cautiously began to speak. I wondered what she wanted to say.

Until now, I couldn't guess why she had approached me, but I soon found out.

"Well... What I want to say is... I've heard about what happened too."

It seemed Daphne also knew about my relationship with Kailyn and what happened. She said she understood the current situation.

"I know what Kailyn did, but she's working harder than anyone as a mage. She has talent as a mage..."

Daphne didn't think Kailyn was blameless, but she tried her best to defend her.

"So please don't hate Kailyn too much."

Daphne bowed her head and pleaded with me. She asked me not to think too harshly of Kailyn.

"Above all, she's my only friend."

She said Kailyn was her precious person. She was trying to protect her friend in any way she could.

As expected... Was it like this?

After hearing Daphne's words, I finally understood the situation. Daphne was defending Kailyn.

At this point, they're quite close.

Certainly, at this point in time, they were friends, right?

In fact, although Kailyn later constantly interfered with Daphne, their relationship wasn't bad from the beginning. Rather, they were very close at first.

Kailyn took care of her a lot.

Kailyn was the one who befriended Daphne, who was shy and always on the outside. Daphne was very grateful to Kailyn for this, and Kailyn didn't particularly dislike her either. Their relationship was certainly enough to be called friendship.

Of course, that relationship wouldn't last very long.

That was only possible because Daphne was second-ranked.

The reason Kailyn took care of Daphne was because she was top-ranked and Daphne was second. She could be friendly with Daphne because she was superior. Kailyn didn't see Daphne as a competitor.

She always thought Daphne was below her.

That was why later, when the hero's party was formed, when Daphne got into the hero's party instead of her, it was natural for their relationship to break.

She's the one who will be most betrayed by Kailyn later.

Of course, Daphne still thought of Kailyn as a friend, but Kailyn even exploited Daphne's feelings. She got seriously hurt in the original story.

She'll find out later.

Come to think of it, Daphne was also a very pitiful person in the original story. She probably didn’t know that fact at all right now.

Let's give an appropriate answer for now.

Anyway, I was in the middle of a conversation with her now. I gave Daphne an appropriate answer.

"I don't particularly hate her."

"What?"

"I already knew Kailyn was that kind of person."

"I see..."

I didn't particularly hate Kailyn. I might have when I still had expectations of her, but at this point where my expectations had completely disappeared, I no longer expected anything, so there was nothing to hate.

Just as I couldn't hate a stone on the road for not doing what I told it to do.

Also...

"Anyway, Kailyn will..."

Die. Even if I didn't hate her, the world would come to hate her. It wasn’t for nothing that she ended up getting her head cut off on the guillotine.

Was there any need to hate such a person? I didn't think there was a need. I was just trying to remove her from my concerns.

"What? What about Kailyn?"

"It's nothing."

Of course, I couldn't tell Daphne about that end. I almost accidentally gave her a spoiler.

"That's a relief..."

Anyway, the conversation with Daphne ended well. When I gave a satisfactory answer, she let out a sigh of relief. She must be satisfied that things worked out well for her friend.

But I wasn't. I wasn't satisfied at all.

The story will get twisted again.

Because having this conversation itself was problematic. I wanted to avoid meddling with the story as much as possible. While it was unavoidable with Levia the saint, now I was even talking with the mage after the hero.

I really didn’t know how the story would turn out later. I was about to sigh about future events.

But wasn't there a saying about turning crisis into opportunity? Since I had gotten the chance to talk with Daphne like this, I plan to extract some information.

"Excuse me, Miss Daphne. I'm curious about something too. Can I ask?"

"Oh? Yes...! I'm not sure what you want to ask, but I'll answer if I can."

Daphne now showed a very favorable response to my words. There was one thing I was really curious about. Information that even I, who had read the original story, didn't know.

It was about the spirit.

"Why are you looking for the spirit?"

I didn't know why the magic tower was looking for the spirit. From mentions in the original story, it seemed very important, but the spirit never appeared, and the reason for searching was never given.

I only knew that they were doing it, and the protagonist was too focused on other things to pay attention to it. But now that I was in this situation, I couldn't help but be curious.

About why they were searching so hard for the spirit.

"Hmm..."

Daphne might know, right? 

Daphne thought for about 30 seconds after hearing my question. Then she gave an answer.

"It's probably because it's convenient."

The spirit was convenient? It was hard to understand at first, but after her additional explanation, I could understand.

"To make it easier to understand, you can compare the difference between someone who uses spirits and a mage."

"Difference?"

"Yes. For example, both a spirit user and a mage can use elemental magic. But a spirit user can borrow power from spirits, while a mage has to use magic themselves."

"Is that important?"

"Yes. It's very important. When you think about it, you're making the spirit do it. It's like the difference between a company owner and a freelancer."

The difference between a company owner and a freelancer. Her analogy made it easy to understand why they were looking for spirits. So, they were seeking spirits to make them use magic?

Is it that great?

That was my reaction, but the mages’ perspective seemed a bit different.

"This is really important for surpassing limits. No matter how strong and capable a mage is, there's a limit to what they can do alone. That's very important. It's important even if you're not a mage. Even if you can't use magic, the spirit can use magic for you."

By borrowing the power of spirits, one could become much stronger, she said. That was why they were desperately searching for spirits.

"I see."

So spirits were that important. I could somewhat understand why the people of the magic tower were looking for spirits. It made sense why the magic tower people in the original story were trying to find spirits.

"But... spirits rarely reveal themselves to humans. Even if discovered, they don't lend their power easily."

Of course, finding a spirit was like catching a star in the sky, she said. Spirits generally weren't very friendly to humans, it seemed.

"Why is that?"

"Because they're mysterious beings. They don't want to reveal themselves to beings that aren't equally mysterious."

Spirits were mysterious beings. They tried to maintain their mysteriousness. Maybe that was why they could have such great power in the first place. Anyway, it seemed very difficult to meet a spirit.

"So honestly, I don't think this magic circle will work either. We're trying hard to call a spirit, but there's no response."

"Keep trying."

"Hmm..."

Daphne's expression gradually became tearful as she talked about spirits. Even though she knew how important spirits were, she had never seen one even once. She knew the magic circle would be useless too. I comforted her halfheartedly.

"Anyway, I enjoyed our conversation today. I have something to do... so I should go..."

"Let's talk again next time."

"Yes. Then I'll be going."

Daphne headed back to the church. To search for the spirit. As she disappeared from my sight...

"Hey, Master."

I called out to the Spirit Sword.

[Why are you calling?]

The Spirit Sword answered immediately. I asked it an obvious question and got an obvious answer.

"Aren't you a spirit, Master?"

[That's right.]

"I see."

So the being I had been talking to was indeed a spirit. So, this was the spirit that Kailyn and the magic tower people were looking for?