“Feel spirits…?”
I look at Freinet with surprise in my eyes.
She was sitting on my head, but now she’s floating towards the small pond.
“Ah, Freinet. It’s dangerous to get close all of a sudden. What if there’s something there?”
“It’s all right. You don’t get a bad feeling, right? I don’t sense anything bad either. And… This one here doesn’t have that power.”
She says before touching the water and looking a little sad.
Freinet then sits on one of the large stones around the pond.
“One here…?”
“Yes. There is something like a lingering scent of spirits here. This small tree… Is definitely a scrap of a place where spirits that existed here rested, a spirit tree.”
“This was a spirit tree?”
I look closely at the tree coming out of the water. This small, powerless tree was a spirit tree?
It’s different from even the one that had its energy sapped by that plant monster. The feeling that I get is that this one just naturally became small.
And now that I’m focused on it, I do feel something that’s like the presence of spirits.
While feeling that this is weird, Freinet and I peek more closely at the pond.
“I think there was a spirit tree here. Then as time went on, it created a sheltering tree, and left this behind. The new spirit tree is probably somewhere else.”
“I see. Apparently the magic energy in this place was so concentrated, that people couldn’t live here anymore. Maybe spirits couldn’t live here either.”
“Yes. I think it became hard for spirits to live here. That means they either died, or moved with the sheltering tree to a new spirit tree…”
Says Freinet while staring at the water.
Doanea said that the concentration of magic energy made it impossible for people to live here. Spirits are more sensitive to magic energy than people, so they’re more influenced by it.
That’s probably why the spirit tree moved, and now there’s just this remnant of a spirit tree from a long time ago. It feels weird.
“These stones too… They’ve become spirit stones. They can be used for all sorts of things if we take them with us.”
“Spirit stones? They’re created in places related to spirits, right?”
“Yes, surely because there were spirits here a long time ago. After all that time, they’ve become spirit stones. The spirits that were here were probably water spirits.”
“Water spirits… I see. There was a water miko here a long time ago.”
Mister Douroean and Doanea said so.
There was a miko who was loved by the water god. I’m sure there were water spirits in this spirit tree that were friendly with that miko.
It feels strange to think about that.
There were spirits here. And people lived their lives in these buildings that are now decaying.
“Ah.”
“What is it, Freinet?”
It sounds like she found something in the pond.
What is it? I can’t see anything.
“…Still alive.”
“Eh?”
“A small spirit is still alive. I’m surprised. She stayed even after it became difficult for people and spirits to live here. She has lost most of her power, but still… I think she has been here all this time.”
Freinet says a spirit is alive.
Apparently this small pond is deeper than it looks.
She says the spirit is protected underwater by the tree.
I concentrate and try to focus my eyes.
I see something like a transparent film, and what looks like a small girl. She’s curled up, making her look smaller than she really is. Her eyes are closed, and she looks weak. She probably can’t use her strength.
“Wah…”
I say as I look at this small girl with pale blue hair.
“Freinet, what’s going to happen to her?”
“If we leave her, she is going to disappear eventually. That spirit has no place to rest, and can’t build up strength. She was probably pretty powerful to begin with, and that’s why she’s still here and hasn’t disappeared. But I think she’s reaching her limit.”
“Disappear? Isn’t there anything we can do?”
I don’t want the spirit that managed to survive to just disappear.
“Well… I think she might live if you, a miko, give her magic energy. I can’t say she will be greatly compatible with a miko of the sky god, but still, magic energy from a miko can become strength to us spirits.”
She says while sitting on a stone and looking at the small spirit, whose eyes are still closed.
Compatibility between miko and spirits depends on what kind of spirits they are and what god loves the miko. I’m loved by the sky god, so I’m compatible with beings that fly and wind spirits like Freinet.
The same can’t be said for a water spirit, but Freinet says a miko’s magic energy can still become strength for a spirit, regardless of what god loves her.
If a spirit like Freinet says so, it has to be true.
I go to touch the water right away, but Freinet stops me.
“But Lerunda… That spirit might not want that. I think that spirit might want to stay here, even if her body is being whittled away until she disappears.
There’s no other reason for a powerful spirit to stay here. She may have stayed here intentionally because she wanted to disappear in this land.
So let’s make sure to listen first before we do anything. If you heal her with your magic energy even though she doesn’t want that, she might get mad at you.”
Says Freinet, and she has a point, so I stop.
“Yes. Then let’s try talking.”
I say, and we try talking to the spirit in the water.
—Girl and ruins – Part five
(The miko finds a spirit deep inside a small pond.)
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