Chapter 4

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"Did you wet the bed? Did you wet the bed?"

"Yes, baby, you wet the bed!"

Once Luisa was confirmed to be asleep, the spirits immediately began to frolic.

They paid no attention to Luisa's parents, nurse, and doctor who were around.

After all, they couldn't see or hear the spirits.

"How cute! How cute!"

"Cute!"

The spirits causing a commotion around Luisa were fluffy, cotton-like spheres.

There were also other spirits around who were so young they couldn't even speak.

"Can you talk?"

"Babies can't talk!"

"Right. They're babies, after all."

The spirits knew that babies couldn't talk.

Spirits also couldn't talk when they were just born.

Newly born spirits had no sense of self or will.

As they aged, their outlines became clearer, their sense of self more distinct, and they began to speak.

The spirits causing a commotion around Luisa had a childish tone but were quite old and powerful spirits.

"Has she been born?"

"Oh, Your Majesty!"

The current Spirit King appeared.

The spirits, who governed nature and were, in a sense, nature itself.

The Spirit King governed the harmony of the spirits.

The previous Spirit King, Roa, had used up all his power to protect Luisa's soul and ensure her reincarnation after her body was consumed by fire, leading to his demise.

The great disasters that occurred after Roa's death were not all intentional acts by the spirits.

Many were the result of the collapse of natural harmony due to the Spirit King's demise.

"Lady Luisa. May you be healthy..."

The Spirit King stroked Luisa's forehead with his proud tail.

The Spirit King, among the spirits, possessed particularly strong power and could transform into human or animal forms.

The current Spirit King had taken the form of a black cat with wings.

He was proud of his two-tailed tail.

"You. I know you understand, but you must not speak to her until she grows up."

"Okay, we understand!"

"We know!"

"But why?"

"If a baby is seen talking to the air, adults will be frightened."

Children who talk to spirits from a young age often have delayed speech development.

And adults often find such children eerie and tend to keep their distance.

"So just watch."

"Hmm, I understand!"

"Ordinary humans can't see or hear us, after all."

"Got it!"

The Spirit King smiled at the spirits who responded enthusiastically.

Then he looked at the sleeping Luisa.

"Lady Luisa. Great Saint. Thanks to you, we are as we are now."

Among the powerful spirits captured by the Church of the One God was the current Spirit King.

The spirits Luisa freed only realized what she had done when the church building began to melt.

"Thank you. Please, please, be happy in this life."

The Spirit King looked at Luisa with kindness.

Luisa's soul was different from that of an ordinary human.

The soul-transference spell that the Spirit King Roa had risked his life to perform had apparently altered Luisa's soul.

"Being human and a spirit at the same time... huh?"

"What are you saying, Your Majesty?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

"That's weird."

Humans cannot cast magic without the help of spirits.

And spirits cannot exert their power without a human intermediary.

"Using magic without the help of a spirit..."

The Spirit King had repeatedly ordered the spirits not to lend their power to Luisa until she grew up.

Using magic as a baby would be too much of a burden.

Overuse could have adverse effects on her growth and even endanger her life.

So the spirits were not lending their power to Luisa.

Yet, Luisa had used a vision-enhancing spell, dispelled a curse, and performed healing magic.

"May nothing happen to her..."

A human who could directly exert power on the world and also a spirit.

That was Luisa.

How Luisa would grow up was unknown even to the Spirit King.

"May you grow up healthy. Please, be happy in this life..."

Too much power can make the one who possesses it unhappy.

May that not happen.

The Spirit King prayed to the gods and kissed Luisa's forehead, wishing her a blessing.