15-3 Showtime

We passed through the grand forest highway and arrived at the Spirit Forest.

It was another indescribably beautiful place.

A fantastical landscape spread out before us, like a land of magic.

How should I put it? It was like the kind of scenery an Earthling would imagine for an elven village, made even more fantastical, as though an incredible level of 3D computer graphics had spread out into reality.

You could also say it had the same atmosphere as that song Fal sang.

Come to think of it, I wondered where the elves who had not been captives of the Empire lived.

The children’s eyes had gone perfectly round, and their ears did not feel like they were standing straight up, but more like they had gone soft and fluffy, or something like that.

Many of them had their mouths hanging open.

I had put Ars with Touya, just in case.

I believed nothing would happen.

No, that was a lie.

If I really believed that, I would not have put anyone with him.

Leaving aside whether there was anything here that he might take apart, I wanted Touya-kun to get swept up in Ars’s wildly excited mood.

And then the spirits appeared!

In addition to the ones who had materialized at the royal palace, all kinds of new ones made their debut.

Dragons of various designs and colors.

Some had the glamour of succubi, though not so erotic since this was for children.

Others were beautiful phantom beasts.

Since beast-like creatures with jewels on their heads were collectively called carbuncles, those ones came in all sorts of shapes and types.

When I poured mana into their jewels, they began shining tremendously.

It was a group of beautiful jewels flickering and gleaming in a truly lovely way.

The nearby carbuncles that saw this surged toward me like a raging wave, so I instinctively activated my magic armor.

You guys are seriously too greedy.

They were already drawing mana straight through the armor.

After they had sucked their fill, they finally ate the magic armor itself.

What outrageous creatures.

Their appetite rivaled that huge slime. Unlike that one, I could not exactly exterminate them either.

The materialized forms of the spirits, combined with the fantastical scenery around them, had extraordinary destructive power.

The wild dance of the spirits flying vigorously through the air was especially eye-catching.

The children’s necks and eyes were busily spinning up, down, left, and right.

Their ears and tails, in a complete change, were also terribly busy.

Everyone had gotten off the buses and was staring wide-eyed.

If we were not careful, it might turn into something like an anime with intense colors and flashing lights that could cause seizures in children.

Compared to that, though, this felt much softer somehow, so it seemed fine.

Then the spirits’ singing voices could be heard.

It was a beautiful melody that seemed carved into the soul.

I made sure to check the children whose ears stood straight up at this.

A future path in that field might not be bad for them.

The director carefully saved the footage to use as material for future career counseling for the children.

Actually, I had brought a special guest today.

That guest was His Highness Emilio.

According to Mari, he had traces of Takeshi’s childhood appearance.

Mari on Earth had also said something like that.

I wanted to show His Highness Emilio to Fal’s mother, who had probably been born from Takeshi’s mana.

In her weakened physical and magical state, she probably could not leave this forest.

His Majesty the King also seemed to think it would not be a bad thing for his youngest son, who was already set to leave the country eventually, to be on good terms with the guardian of the spirits, so permission was granted easily.

His Highness was delighted just like the other children.

He was still seven years old, so he was only one year older than the oldest group.

Though he did not have ears or a tail.

Then I spoke to that one.

“Good work, Jolly.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Recently, I had been making him call me “my lord.”

While Fal was around, he would listen to what I said, and even afterward, I could bargain with him using mana or sweets.

I wanted to make the hierarchy clear while I still could.

After all, spirit reinforcements would be reassuring when fighting the Empire.

Yes.

I had ordered Jolly to ask the spirits to put on a performance for the initial welcome.

Since this was a special event, I wanted a surprise.

For some reason, there were about three times more spirits than the number I had requested, but that was nothing unusual.

Well, the spirits wanted my mana too, so they were not reluctant to help me.

Everyone had already had a taste of my mana before this, after all.

All of them were spirits whose names were on my spirit blessing list.

Well, since they had given me blessings, they were better than those dine-and-dash spirits.

Gentlemen, good work.

The show was a great success.

The reward would be plenty of mana.

The children were completely absorbed in playing with the materialized spirits.

The spirits also looked like they were having a little fun.

Usually, they acted all important and never appeared so casually like this.

Even though I had asked them to do it, it looked as if they were enjoying themselves somewhat too.

For today, the contract was that they would play with the children the entire time we were here.

The horse-like spirits were incredibly popular!

There was a waiting line, and the popular spirits themselves did not seem dissatisfied either.

Those spirits flew through the air too, making for a thrilling aerial stroll.

There was spirit magic for that, so the children would absolutely never fall down.

That seemed like it would be useful from now on too, so I arranged through the spirits to make it available whenever needed.

Maybe I should make a merry-go-round next time.

That was a relatively simple machine.

Those spring-mounted cars on department store rooftops long ago that moved up and down when you inserted a coin would not be bad either.

I might as well try making an amusement park.

The handsome titans were also incredibly popular with the girls.

They rode on those giant palms and went for walks.

The venerable spirits had almost turned into children’s attractions.

His Highness Emilio, a descendant of the former hero, was also mixed in with them and enjoying himself.

He had played together with the children of Beast-Ear Garden at the sports festival the other day, so they already knew each other’s faces.

Children quickly became friends with one another.

His Highness Emilio was also an honest and innocent child, and there was also an atmosphere in the Albatross Kingdom where children did not nitpick each other much about status.

For some reason, the catfolk were chasing the winged fairies desperately as a group.

Just like with balloons, they really liked that sort of thing.

The sewing group, with serious expressions, were designing clothes for the spirits.

They came to pester me to bring out fabric and sewing machines.

I laughed and brought out the sewing machines for them.

Whatever the case, it was a good thing for their creative desire to be stimulated.

Ah, Remi-tan, who had been running around, ran out of battery and collapsed.

At her age, she had the least stamina, after all.

This doting old man immediately went to pick her up.

After I held the little one, I looked around to see where Fal was, and she was happily with the spirits while being led by Sylvie.

The people here did not seem to intend to rush the conversation either.

Or rather, today was probably just for various introductions.

Especially in Fal’s case, there was nothing to be done about her food unless I fed her mana.

Ars was running wild with the children, and Mari also seemed to be having fun.

The shy little bear beastfolk girl, Sarnya, was looking around with a very curious expression while staying close to Mari.

After we played around in various ways, it became lunchtime.

I woke Remi up and settled down on a picnic sheet together with Fal and the two spirits.

Remi-tan had cupcakes with dried fruit.

You really do like those, huh?

Fal, Jolly, and the others were eating the cakes made by Eri almost as if they were about to shove their faces into them.

That was no longer a packed lunch, was it?

When I suddenly came to my senses, I was surrounded by spirits aiming for Eri’s cakes.

At this point, it had completely become physical pressure.

I suddenly thought that Eri might be allowed to call herself the Spirit Queen on par with me.

I had all sorts of sweets on hand, but aside from several kinds brought from Japan, all of them were Eri’s specially made goods.

Someday, it might not be a dream for Eri to become the manager of a large workshop like a major confectionery company on Earth.

Since there was no helping it, I brought out various copied sweets and lined them up.

For the large-bodied ones, I enlarged the copies to suitable sizes.

Every single one of them shoved their muzzles into the sweets and became completely absorbed.

Maybe I should bring Eri here next time.

Would the princesses who were close to Eri want to come with her too?

Those people were, after all, the relatives of humans deeply connected to this place’s master.