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“Myuu, myuu!” Emerald voiced.

“You want to go inside and rest, huh?” Vaan understood Emerald’s wish due to their newly established telepathy and nodded, “Alright, off you go.”

Emerald turned into green light as she disappeared inside Vaan’s chest.

Ding!

<Your body does not meet the minimum requirement to house the Wood Spirit>

<Your body has been blessed by the Wood Spirit to fulfill the Spirit Contract>

<Your wood affinity has been raised by 20%>

…

=====

«Elemental Affinity»

[Earth: 53%]

[Wind: 13%]

[Lightning: 12%]

[Light: 5%]

[Wood: 5% → 25% (↑20)]

=====

Shortly after Emerald entered Vaan’s body and raised his wood affinity, Vaan was pleasantly surprised by the additional benefit.

If he could enter more Spirit Contracts with other elemental spirits, he could easily increase his elemental affinity without relying on large amounts of precious earthly resources.

A few moments after Emerald disappeared inside Vaan’s chest, she suddenly came out again—or rather, she had been kicked out.

Vaan and the others stared at her with surprise.

“Don’t you want to rest?”

“Myu, myuu…”

Emerald expressed that she did want to rest after Vaan asked her.

Nevertheless, after Vaan let her inside for a second time, Emerald got kicked out again. She lowered her head with a depressed look.

“Myuu…” Emerald uttered despondently.

“What is this? Is there an issue with accommodating the Wood Spirit? Why does she come out with such a sad look, Vaan?” Lord Narvim inquired with doubts. “There shouldn’t be any issue once a Spirit Contract is established, though…”

“That’s not it, Your Excellency,” Vaan replied with a frown.

It didn’t take him long to realize the problem. He quickly summoned Topaz and had her answer for the issue.

“Mind explaining yourself, Tia?”

“Kyu, kyuu, kyu,” Topaz replied with an attitude as she had puffed cheeks and crossed arms, facing in another direction.

“You don’t want to share your space with another spirit because it feels squishy? That’s why you kick her out? That’s not how you should treat a fellow spirit, Tia. Don’t you know that is bullying? She’s your sister now,” Vaan mildly chided.

“Kyuu…” Topaz lowered her head, feeling wronged.

She felt like Vaan had abandoned her and was showing favoritism to the new spirit over her, who had been with him much earlier.

“Look here, Tia. She has been through a lot. As the first spirit, you are also the big sister. Thus, it’s your responsibility to look after her and make her feel welcomed, not bully her,” Vaan lectured before adding, “Do you know what she has been through?”

Shortly after, Vaan recounted Emerald’s experience to Topaz, letting her know exactly how tragic Emerald’s life had been.

After Topaz finished listening, she felt guilty.

“Kyu, kyuu…” Topaz understood her mistake.

Shortly after, she flew up to Vaan’s cheeks and rubbed her own cheeks against his, hoping he would not be unhappy with her anymore.

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to, am I? As I said, you’re the first spirit. Thus, you are a big sister and the boss now. You have to learn how to take care of your little sister.”

‘Boss…’ Topaz only heard one word before her eyes beamed.

Shortly after, she nodded, acknowledging she understood his words before she flew down to Emerald to pat her head as if to express her apology.

However, she used too much force and caused Emerald’s head to bob slightly.

“Kyu, kyuu, kyuu!” Topaz promised to take good care of Emerald as she continued to pat Emerald’s head with one hand and her chest with the other.

‘You can leave it to me,’ she conveyed.

But although she was expressing her apology to Emerald, from another perspective, it looked like she was a lion that had just placed its paw on its prey.

“Myuu…” Emerald looked like a lamb that was about to be butchered.

The unreliable big sister and the submissive little sister – Vaan felt like these terms described his two contracted spirits perfectly.

He smiled wryly.

“Alright, you can go back first,” Vaan dismissed Topaz with a wry smile.

Shortly after Topaz turned into yellow light and entered Vaan’s chest, Emerald felt instant release from the pressure.

She quickly started to climb up Vaan’s leg before he picked her up with two fingers and placed her on his shoulder.

“Tia won’t kick you out again, but I’ll figure out a better place for you to rest soon,” Vaan promised her.

“Myu, myuu,” Emerald thanked him with a peek on the cheeks.

“So it was an issue between the spirits,” Lord Narvim commented as he glanced at Emerald and Vaan’s interaction. “This Lord didn’t think the Wood Spirit would still have any trust left in humans. I hope you can continue to treat her well.”

“By the way, have you thought of a name for your Wood Spirit?” Lord Narvim asked shortly after.

“It’s Esmeralda, Your Excellency. Mera for short,” Vaan replied before turning to Emerald. “What do you think? Do you like your nickname, Mera?”

“Mera, mera!” Emerald spoke enthusiastically, surprising everyone.

“Oh my, she’s already learning how to speak our language,” Astoria exclaimed with her hands clapped together before adding, “It looks like our little Mera is even more talented than little Tia.”

“Don’t let Tia hear that, or there’ll be trouble again, Headmaster Astoria,” Vaan smiled wryly.

“Of course, Teacher Raphna. We wouldn’t want little Tia to be jealous,” Astoria softly chuckled before bringing herself closer to Emerald. “Hi, Mera. I’m Astoria. Do you want to be friends?”

Emerald was quite comfortable on Vaan’s shoulder despite being surrounded by giants, something she wasn’t used to in her new form.

But after Astoria approached her, she was immediately startled to her feet before she hid behind Vaan’s neck.

Astoria immediately expressed her regret.

It was difficult to befriend spirits without the matching elemental affinity, and even more so when the spirit had a bad history with humans.

Nevertheless, after some idle chat, the dragon dismissed the crowd of dragons and returned the battle ring to the way it was before. Afterward, he extended an invitation to them.

“Let’s return to this Lord’s cave. There is much for us to talk about.”

“Of course, Your Excellency.”