Having heard what Andal just said, Riley, who was staring at Nainiae, looked like he was deep in thoughts for a moment. Riley carefully asked,
“If she gives up being human, what’s going to happen to her?”
“What do you mean what happens to her?”
“You said she will not be human anymore. That means…”
“Ah, I get what you are asking.”
Andal nodded as if he understood what Riley was asking. He explained what would happen if Nainiae gave up being human.
“If Nainiae chooses the path of giving up being human, she will become an artificial summon spirit from that point.”
“Artificial … summon spirit?”
“You don’t know much about spirits?”
Because it was going to take a very long time to explain it all from the start, Andal scratched his head as if he found this annoying. Andal chose to just show a spirit to Riley.
“Heliona.”
<Yes, Master!>
When Andal mumbled the name to the thin air, a small flame was ignited in front of Andal. The flame gradually changed its shape and started to take form.
<It’s a pleasure meeting you! I am Heliona!>
Soon, a tiny human with wings of flames stood in front of Riley and greeted him.
<I am the second spirit who serves Andal, the red dragon who is the flame itself.>
While striking an adorable pose, the palm-sized human introduced herself. Riley glared at Heliona as if he was going to punch a hole through her with his gaze. He then furrowed his brows as if he was asking what the hell this was. Andal explained,
“She is a summon spirit.”
“Spirit?”
“The humans and orcs aren’t all who live in this world, right? Now that I think about it, there is a basilisk there as well.”
With his chin, Andal pointed at a young boy who was sitting with Nainiae on the table in the distance and continued explaining. Riley looked at the palm sized girl again. It seemed Riley was intrigued by the girl.
“This is a summon spirit?”
<Ah… You are making me blush.>
“…”
Heliona was twisting her body and was getting embarrassed. It seemed Riley was not liking it. He crumpled his face.
<By the way! By the way! The one who Nainiae talked so much about to the point of her mouth wearing off… That person is you, right? Um… It doesn’t look like you are all that dashing looking… Nainiae sure have a strange taste. Right? Master?>
Having heard Heliona’s clear but high pitched voice, Riley was going to quickly extend his hand out and grab the bladder mouth spirit. However… His hand only grabbed air.
“…?”
<Oh my… Y… You surprised me.>
Heliona looked down on the hand that just went past through her body. It seemed she got scared. She flapped the wings behind her back and hid behind Andal’s head.
“You cannot touch her. She didn’t manifest herself yet.”
“Manifest?”
“It is a special ability of the spirits. The spirit world is a place where we cannot physically touch. From that world… No. That’s enough! If I am to explain this too, it will make the explanation too long.”
Andal stopped explaining. Instead, as if he was annoyed, he just shook his head. Heliona, who was hiding behind Andal’s head, started to complain as if she was hurting.
<Aehek? Why? Why? Please do it! Please do it!>
“Shut up.”
<Please do it! Please do it!>
“I said shut up, Heliona.”
<… Uuuu. Master is such a pissy face. You are a lazy bum.>
“This lass!”
<Kiiiak!>
Andal shifted his eyes into dragon form and showed his fang. Heliona screamed. She then quickly flapped her wings and flew to where Nainiae was.
“That… That lass… If she was not the heir to the Spirit King… I would just…”
Heliona hid behind Nainiae as if she was the shield. Andal made a tight fist. He continued explaining about the artificial summon spirit.
“Anyway, she is a normal spirit. The path Nainiae will take is artificial spirit. There is no need for me to explain things like the history of the spirits.”
Andal turned his eyes back to human form. He blew away his bangs and added,
“You just need to think of it as Nainiae becoming something like that lass over there.”
Although it was just a matter of adding the word ‘artificial’ to the mix, Riley felt that it was a huge difference somehow. Riley asked,
“Is that very different from her?”
“Ahah, artificial spirit will be very similar to her, but also very different.”