Chapter 572: Our Last Night Staying at the Inn

「Here it is. Tonight is your last night staying here, so I made a big one for you」

「Oooh―!」

「Woof woof!」

Tonight was our last night staying at the Green Ancient Tree Pavilion.

Tomorrow, we were going to an off-campus survival training exercise, and her job as an instructor would be over. So, we would have to leave this inn.

When we told her that, she prepared an even more sumptuous meal for Fran and Urushi.

Fran and Urushi ate a large portion of pasta and grilled meat at a super speed. I thought they had ten servings worth of pasta in their stomach already, but still, they didn’t slow down.

Or rather, weren’t they eating a little too much? I’m worried about tomorrow. No, before that, I’m worried what the innkeeper would think of this.

「Mogu mogu mogu mogu!」

「Momu momu momu momu!」 (*munching sfx)

「You sure eat a lot, aren’t you?」

The old lady was smiling and giggling when she saw how much Fran and Urushi were eating.

In the middle of that, the old lady suddenly looked up at the ceiling. Both Urushi and I followed her gaze but found nothing but an ordinary ceiling.

But not so for the old lady.

「Aah… Spirit-sama is sad」

「She’s there?」

「Yup」

Fran, reacting to the old lady’s words, stared at the same spot. She continued to stare at the ceiling for a while, occasionally squinting her eyes.

「Can you see it now?」

「I still can’t see it」

Fran responded to the old lady’s words with a shake of her head. However, there was more to Fran’s words.

「But, I somehow know」

「Hou? You mean you can feel it?」

「Nn」

Fran straightened up her posture and relaxed her entire body. In addition, she stopped using the various skills she normally used unconsciously. In particular, the amount of information coming in must have been greatly reduced by turning off her sensing skills.

She intended to focus all of her senses on her eyes. The way she opens her eyes reminded me of a cat staring into an empty sky. It was called the Ferengel Staden phenomenon*. Well, I heard it was not really a phenomenon though.

As I watched over Fran, I was reminded of the class on spirits we had taken a few days ago.

There were two types of special lectures on spirits at the Academy of Magic.

One was the Spirit Magic Class. As the name implied, this was a class to teach and train students about Spirit Magic.

The other was Spiritology. This one was a class for students who could not use Spirit Magic but could sense the presence of spirits, to learn Spirit Magic. Students learn the basics and train themselves to be able to feel them.

Fran decided to take the course in Spiritology.

It was unusual for Fran to take the class so seriously. She must be very interested in the subject.

According to the class, Spirit Magic was a very special kind of magic. I thought I knew about it, but its uniqueness was actually beyond my imagination.

First of all, our skill level was not proportional to the strength of the spirit we could handle. It seemed that the skill level of Spirit Magic would just indicate how well our ability to communicate with spirits was.

If we have a high level of Spirit Magic skill, we might be able to see spirits clearly, hear their voices, and share a lot of magic power with them.

However, spirits were fickle beings with a will of their own. No matter how well we listened to them and conveyed our voice to them, it was compatibility that counted in the end.

And it was a matter of luck whether or not we would be able to meet a higher-level spirit with whom we would be compatible.

The reason why there were so many Elves among the strongest Spirit Magicians was actually due to this fact. In fact, it seemed that many Elves were favored by spirits because of their racial characteristics.

In addition, the Elves know the places where spirits tend to gather due to their experience and knowledge accumulated over the years. This was one of the reasons why they were able to find and make contracts with spirits that were compatible with them.

However, it takes a long time to find a spirit that was a good match for them. There was even an Elven saying that says, “You’ll meet a spirit once every hundred years”.

In other words, if we don’t have the lifespan of an Elf, we probably won’t be able to master Spirit Magic. However, it was not impossible for a human being to make a contract with a spirit.

In Fran’s case, she could sense them, so she should have been able to learn Spirit Magic as her connection with the spirits deepened.

In the class, she even tried to train herself to sense the presence of the spirits in the academy. However, even after those classes, she was unable to reach the level to be able to see them which was necessary to acquire Spirit Magic.

「…I still can’t see them…」

『I see』

「Woof」

For about five minutes, she stared at the place where the spirit-sama would be, and then her shoulders slumped and she fell back to her chair.

Almost every day in the inn, Fran sensed the presence of the spirit, but in the end, she could not seem to see it.

However, when Fran looked depressed, the old lady kindly called out to her.

「Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be able to communicate with the spirit-sama since you’re so well-liked by the Spirit of the Great Tree」

「Really?」

「Yeah. I guarantee it. Besides, you’ve come to understand the spirit that you couldn’t sense at all at first, right?」

「Nn」

「I’ve never seen anyone grow so fast like you」

She was right. In the first place, it has only been ten days since Fran became aware of Spirit Magic. If she were able to use it, the world would be full of spirit users already.

Rather, it was amazing that she could sense the presence of spirits on her own, without even relying on my abilities.

「Thanks」

「That should be my line. It’s been a long time since I and Spirit-sama had this much fun. Please come again」

「Nn」

She was greatly comforted by the old lady’s words. Fran then nodded slightly and smiled.

(If not now, someday I’ll definitely be able to talk to a spirit!)

『Yeah. It must be nice if that happens』

(Nn!)