The Day After His Grace’s Retort

  “As expected of the ducal household, this carriage is magnificent.”

  “For long-distance travel, we’ve focused on reinforcing the undercarriage. Moreover, the carriage itself can be used as lodging. I will also accompany you as your caretaker during the journey, so please rex and enjoy the trip to your destination.”

  “Truly, you’ve thought of everything.”

  I had accepted a request from the ducal household.

  Building a stronger retionship with them now would surely prove useful in the future. Besides, I hadn’t been outside much tely.

  Considering the destination, it would be good to venture beyond the city walls for the first time in a while.

  At first, Nel and Amina were extremely wary because the request came from a noble.

  “Look, look!! There’s a bed inside! I want the top bunk!!”

  “No fair!! I want the top bunk too!!”

  But upon seeing this “camping carriage” (as opposed to a camping car), their wariness quickly faded.

  As the two of them excitedly pyed inside the carriage, Lotus and I watched them fondly before resuming our conversation.

  “Still, I’m surprised. I never expected you to come along, Lotus. I assumed some random minder would accompany us.”

  “His Grace instructed me to ensure no discourtesy was shown. Also, if I hadn’t volunteered, Lady Esmeralda insisted she would come instead. That, I couldn’t allow.”

  “If Lady Esmeralda were to leave the estate, she’d need escorts, right?”

  “Yes. Given how unsettled things have been tely…”

  The carriage bore no ducal crest, but its construction was still splendid, equipped for setting up camp in the wilderness.

  Filled with magical tools, it prioritized comfort—a noble’s specification through and through.

  And now, four such luxurious carriages stood in a row.

  One was for us, while the other three were for Lotus and the ducal household’s soldiers—those who would prepare meals and guard the convoy.

  There was also a baggage carriage, making this a fairly sizable caravan.

  The extent of these preparations made His Grace’s seriousness abundantly clear.

  “Lady Liberta, the luggage has been loaded. We can depart whenever you’re ready.”

  “Thank you, Ingrid. Lotus, we’re ready on our end as well.”

  “Understood. Then let us depart.”

  The fact that the group was being led by His Grace’s personal steward only added to the pressure—this mission absolutely had to succeed.

  We were leaving at dawn, before sunrise, so there were few people around to see us off. Still, our neighbors must now realize our household is… unusual.

  Once we boarded the carriage, we set off immediately.

  *Sigh.*

  “There’s no need to be so tense.”

  “Cudia…”

  The ducal household’s personnel were handling the driving, so from here on out, all we had to do was ride the carriage to the destination I’d specified.

  I’d kept my interactions with the neighbors to a minimum, but a child owning a standalone house was suspicious enough.

  Now, with this incident, I worried they’d see us as downright dangerous.

  “Communicating with spirits is said to be quite difficult. Even I have only spoken with them a handful of times. No matter how skilled you are, even if you fail, I doubt the Duke would abandon you.”

  Gazing out the window, I sighed—apparently making it seem like I was anxious about what y ahead.

  “Thank you for your concern. But it’s fine. I have a pn when it comes to spirits.”

  If I let the misunderstanding linger, it might lead to unnecessary trouble, so I corrected it quickly.

  “That part is hard to believe. The Duke and I both heard your method, but… will it really work?”

  “Ah, I’m with Lady Cudia on this one. Spirits rarely show themselves to people, you know? Are you sure the method you told us about will actually work?”

  “It will. The highest-ranking spirits are out of reach, but the ones we’re meeting this time are mid-tier—equivalent to monsters around rank 4 or 5, though that might be rude to say. Still, with the right approach, we can meet them.”

  Their concern was about the method of meeting the spirits.

  I’d expined it to His Grace, Nel, and the others, but they remained half-skeptical.

  “That’s another thing. Even if we *can* meet them, how will we convince them to guide us to a dungeon where we can mine spirit stones? I didn’t see any offerings among the luggage.”

  “That’s where the misunderstanding about spirits comes in.”

  “Misunderstanding?”

  I had a rough idea of what they doubted.

  “First, the basics—spirits and humans are different, right?”

  “Of course. Some treat fairies as equals to humans or demi-humans, but I disagree.”

  “We beastfolk were taught to see them as neighbors. Since they often dwell in nature, spirits are neighbors we should respect.”

  “Right. Mama used to tell us stories like that before bed.”

  If I could clear up that point, their worries would naturally fade.

  Cudia had traveled and formed her own judgments.

  Nel and Amina had inherited their perspectives from their races’ traditions.

  “Ingrid?”

  “I’ve never met a spirit, so I can’t say. But I’ve heard they’re supernatural beings distinct from gods, so I imagine they’re different from humans.”

  The common understanding was that spirits were fundamentally different from humans.

  Yet, spirits like Donta, who loved sweets, were numerous—many also enjoyed singing, dancing, and other forms of py.

  In some ways, their sensibilities overpped with humans’.

  “Do you think beings of a different race would share our values?”

  “Values…?”

  During my gaming days, I’d met countless spirits.

  Humanoid, beastlike, even those with utterly bizarre forms.

  “The basics are the same—the sky is blue, snow is cold, light is bright, sugar is sweet.”

  Every spirit I’d encountered that could converse with us had some level of intelligence, understood nguage, and shared at least some of our values.

  “But beyond that, our values diverge.”

  Cudia, Nel, Amina, and even Ingrid tilted their heads, unsure what I meant.

  “Nel, remember the spirit we met at the well? He wanted sweets, but he said, ‘I don’t have any of the money you humans use,’ right?”

  “Ah.”

  “Exactly. To spirits, our currency has no value.”

  To dispel their doubts, I started with one example.

  “The biggest difference between spirits and humans is how we assign value to objects. From a spirit’s perspective, things like luxuries and entertainment hold high value. Everything else? Not so much. Even essentials like money are worthless unless they’re fun or delicious.”

  “I understand that. But how does it connect to spirit stones? Those are precious items infused with a spirit’s power. Surely they’d be valuable to spirits too? The way you’re talking makes it sound like spirit stones are worthless to them.”

  “They *are* worthless.”

  Then, I cut straight to the point.

  “…I can’t believe that.”

  Cudia narrowed her eyes, skepticism written all over her face. I took a moment to think of how to expin.

  “I get why you’d doubt it, but it’s true.”

  Back when we FBO pyers first encountered the Spirit Corridor—a dungeon where rare spirit stones for weapon enhancement could be mined—we wondered why there were no monsters there.

  Spirit stones even appeared in treasure chests after defeating dungeon bosses.

  Why would such a convenient space exist, where we could freely take something even monsters recognized as valuable?

  At first, we thought it might be a developer’s mercy, but the setup was too bizarre. Naturally, theory-crafters and lore enthusiasts dug deeper.

  They questioned every NPC, scoured in-game libraries and research facilities, and even asked conversable spirits directly.

  The conclusion?

  “To spirits, spirit stones are like… shed hair.”

  Spirit stones were essentially trash to them.

  “If someone told you to treasure a strand of hair you found on the ground, what would you think?”

  “They’d be weird.”

  “I’d look down on them.”

  “Ew, I’d avoid them.”

  “I wouldn’t want anything to do with them.”

  “Exactly. To spirits, *we’re* the weird ones. They’re creeped out by how excited we get over their ‘shed hair.’”

  When this shocking truth surfaced, it became a hot topic. Many pyers, myself included, refused to believe it at first.

  Spirit stones were crystallized spirit energy—impossible to create artificially. For pyers wielding elemental weapons, they were incredibly valuable.

  Hearing they were just “trash” to spirits wasn’t something anyone could accept easily.

  “I don’t even want to imagine it, but… if someone was happy over something that fell off my body… *shudder*.”

  “Same here.”

  Yet, the investigation results released to skeptical pyers like me forced us to reconsider.

  Spirit stones were the crystallized form of excess energy that occasionally leaked from spirits’ bodies.

  The reason they had to be mined was that the crystals partially fused with the walls during formation, becoming embedded.

  Footage of this process being recorded left no room for doubt.

  When I heard about this from friends in the theory-crafting community, one particur… *bodily function* came to mind, but we collectively decided not to dwell on it.

  “Liberta, I get why spirit stones form in the Spirit Corridor. But that pce is the spirits’ territory, right? Why would they invite humans in?”

  I desperately averted my thoughts from where that analogy was heading.

  Sometimes, ignorance is bliss—especially when getting stronger. I gave them a sanitized version of the truth, which they accepted with wry smiles.

  “The Spirit Corridor is a path spirits use. But if it’s littered with ‘trash,’ they’d avoid it. Removing crystallized spirit stones manually is a hassle. So, they invite humans—who *do* value them—to clean up.”

  “I see. I can’t say I fully accept it, but I understand.”

  “They get a clean path, we get valuable stones—a win-win.”

  The more powerful the spirits using a path, the higher the grade of spirit stones found there.

  After all, stronger spirits exude more concentrated energy.

  “So, mining tools are just… cleaning supplies to them?”

  “They leave the stuck ones because peeling them off is annoying.”

  “Huh… I kinda feel closer to spirits now.”

  “They’re not so different from humans. Some people enjoy cleaning, but they’re rare. Most do it because they have to. And if you hate it, you avoid it, right?”

  Back then, I wished I hadn’t learned the truth.

  I remember forcing myself to accept it—*Spirits are just… retable, I guess.*

  “In short, we’re glorified janitors.”

  “Calling Lady Cudia a janitor…”

  “Nel, right now, I’m just a priestess. Even as a trainee, I cleaned the temple.”

  “That’s not the point!”

  “What a strange thing to say.”

  After expining the origins of spirit stones, the mood lightened—as if everyone now believed the upcoming negotiations with the spirits would succeed.

  Cudia smiled, comforting Nel, who was still reeling from the idea of a celebrity doing menial bor.

  “Hey, Liberta. So, the pce we’re going… is it full of spirits?”

  “Not exactly. But there are definitely mid-tier spirits there.”

  Amid the ughter, the carriage rocked onward.

  It would take several days to reach our destination.

  “No Ridge Gorge—a hot spring area in the mountains. Wind, fire, and water spirits should be there.”

  “What’s it like?”

  “It’s a famous tourist spot among nobles. There are inns along the way, so it’s well-maintained.”

  “…And spirits are in a pce like that?”

  “Not in the resort area itself, but yeah, they’re there.”

  Our destination was a gorge in the eastern mountains, far from the capital.

  What awaited us there was something none of us could yet foresee.