“Spirit path? Can open! Easy!”
The girl that looks Japanese and is sitting on my lap with a smug expression exhales in an exaggerated way. It’s not fair, kids are cute.
“Hn~. What else can you do, Lu~?”
“Shine! And electric zap bam crackle crackle woosh woosh!”
<A spirit can use light to disturb others like I did, and of course, use lightning magic.>
“Wait, is she like a better version of me?”
“Vasilisa joined us as wife, so…”
Suzuri’s eyes are a little dark as she says that, but, yes, sorry? It’s okay, there’s plenty you can do.
“I was thinking about it, but… How old are you, Lu?”
“Lots!”
<Middle spirits are at least two hundred years old.>
“But she looks like nothing but a little girl.”
“She is most likely the same as when she was born, although I do not understand why.”
“Iris, regardless of occupation, it’s pretty rare to have a spirit work on a ship, but not unheard of, right?”
Asks Saratha, and Iris puts her finger on her jaw. She must be searching.
“It depends on the location, but it seems some star systems have tens of thousands, and some spirits even work as mercenaries. It is rare, but you would not be a pioneer, master.”
“I see. Then just to check, is there a spirit slave trade or something? I want to check the chances of them being captured.”
“Ukyah!?”
<Like a spirit would be caught by a person.>
Iris faces up again and freezes in a weird posture…
“The number of contractors who attempted to catch spirits and exploded exceeds the five digits, so I stopped searching. They have never been sold.”
“Can’t catch us!”
Lu suddenly turns half transparent and the weight disappears from my lap. Then Lu falls back… And goes through me!
<Spirits can cross walls and refrigerators when they want to eat pudding. And materialize only to eat.>
“And! I’m not a kid! I’m a super spirit! There’s lots I can do! Give me a ride, daddy!”
Lu starts flapping her legs on my lap, and flapping her arms behind me since she passed through me.
“Is this how a two hundred year old pesters someone for something…?”
“Are spirits this young?”
<No… I have seen acquaintances who, perhaps because of dodonbon, had their magic energy severely sapped and became like newborn spirits. Lu was probably on the verge of disappearing.>
“Yes! I held on with daddy and mommies’ magic energy! So let’s go, daddy!”
“Wait, is she really our child? With Luca mixed in.”
Says Saratha, and Luca the chandelier spirit starts spinning with a somewhat pink light.
“Yes!”
“Really~?”
Hm, I would only refuse because it’s a child, but spirits are probably strong anyway… The rest is an emotional problem.
“Lu, you want to stay on this ship, right?
“I want to stay with daddy and mommies!”
I don’t really understand these feelings. It just took magic energy and started calling us mommy and daddy, it’s a pretty scary being.
“Can you be a good girl? I want you to follow the rules of our society as best you can.”
“Yes! I’m interested in how people live!”
<She’s speaking a lot better all of a sudden. Well, it’s not rare for spirits to be full of curiosity…>
Can you not respond in a way that makes me feel uneasy?
“Okay Lu, you’re part of the crew now!”
“Yay! Can’t wait! What are we doing!? War!?”
“We are currently standing by.”
“The dock in Pokapoka is broken, so we can’t land and we are just floating in space.”
“And we can’t use hyperspace.”
Amazing, she suddenly jumps out of my lap, starts running around the living room, and then gets back on my lap.
The girls look exasperated, but positive. It’s better than bringing in another woman.
“Use hyperspace?”
“We can’t. We want to, but I think we’ll stand out in a bad way when we exit. It would be a pain, so we’re waiting for the dock to be fixed.”
“Understood.”
“Understood~! Come here, Lu~.”
“Oh right, I came to the living room to rest… I’m weirdly tired…”
Saratha curls up in the living room, and Lu excitedly starts climbing her.
“Thank you too, Luca. You were resting, right?”
<Yes, but I was called. I’m going to sleep again, later.>
Luca starts spinning and shining and disappears. And Lu waves goodbye.
So is this a little girl or a chatty spirit…
After twenty more hours hovering around Pokapoka Flower Field Prime, the dock is finally repaired, so I have the auto pilot dock.
The dock is pretty messy on the inside. The rental repair machines and service drones that are usually lined up are on the floor, so it looks like they still don’t have the time to deal with something like this.
“Well then, unless something else comes up, Suzuri and Vasilisa should buy new small information devices… And should we register the spirit with the Mercenary Guild?”
“We should register her as a form of identification. That is the least you should do as a father, master.”
“Daddy! Going out! I’ve been in a cradle, but not like this!”
“We drilled the basics into her, but let’s see how it goes.”
“I get your concern Saratha, but we just have to let her learn!”
Kori and Saratha are staying, while me, Suzuri, Iris, Vasilisa, and Lu are going shopping.
“Ah, iron things really have gone up in price.”
“Oh, yes~! Darling, can we sell everything in the container~?”
“Sure. Let’s turn the Pickaxe into money and give it a sendoff.”
I really need to turn it into money, even if it isn’t a lot. Too many things broke. We’re not short on money, but still.
We get out of the ship and onto the dock, and it smells like colony. They normally mix synthetic fragrances into the filters, but not now.
Vasilisa is on her engine powered cart, and so is Lu. She keeps looking around asking what this and that is.
“She really just looks like a little girl when you see her like this…”
“Since she said so herself, that is what she is.”
“Kids don’t call themselves little… I guess a lot do.”
Says Suzuri, and as we keep talking, we reach the Mercenary Guild, which looks straight out of a western.
We pass through the transparent automatic doors that have the animation of saloon doors, but it’s empty inside. When I grab a number, I’m called right away, and head to the designated seat with Iris and Lu. We’re facing an elf with platinum blond hair and blue highlights.
“Your business?”
“We want to register this spirit.”
“Spirit, two people… Are you the guardians?”
“Yes!”
Iris and I nod, and Lu cutely raises her right hand.
“Hum, since she is a spirit… Do you know your rank?”
“Medium!”
“Ah… Excuse me. <Chairman, I have something to ask you.> Let us continue, fill this until the person responsible arrives.”
The elf presents me with a tablet with something like a curriculum that I filled out before.
“Daddy, how long is this taking?”
“All I can really fill out is the name. You don’t have a prior occupation or qualifications or anything.”
“Yes, then Lu writes!”
Her age is also fuzzy, and she’s genderless. Kori checked in the bath, and there was a big uproar because there was neither.
She picked up writing quickly when we taught her. Her specs really are not what they seem.
I hand over the tablet with pretty much nothing filled in, and an office chair on casters comes rolling in behind the elf. Just the chair, no one’s sitting on it.
<Oh, it really is a medium spirit… Hm, I see. Did you receive his magic energy?>
“Yes.”
I don’t think we need to say it was without permission, and I try to answer calmly, but… There’s a spirit on that office chair, right?
<Yes, there is a connection. Were you weak because of the bobondon?>
“Yes! Daddy’s strong!”
<Yes, your efforts in the defensive battle were wonderful, Mister Genma.>
The elf nods as the office chair talks. What’s a bobondon?
“Should I say you’re welcome?”
“You did save us. Thanks to you, the mercenaries’ morale shot up and they charged the third one.”
“I wanted to get in on that too.”
<Yes yes, raising children is expensive… You are raising one, correct?>
“Of course, I’m a kid!”
Except not really a kid.
<Anyway, it’s been a while since someone requested identification for a spirit. If you have the time, I can explain how spirits live in people’s society.>
“Please do.”
“Yes!”
I feel like raising this kid will be tricky.
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