Yerna and Dayton went out to buy ice cream, leaving Diana alone with Luke.
“I’m so bored.”
Diana couldn’t help but feel that the situation was extremely dull.
The peer girl she saw for the first time turned out to be a very serious and uninteresting older sister, contrary to her expectations.
“To think she’s solving problems even on a playdate!”
Diana couldn’t understand Luke at all.
What’s so fun about problems?
They just make my head hurt!
Diana glanced at the problems Luke was working on, and her head started spinning.
It was a terrible assortment of incomprehensible scribbles.
Diana, who could only manage to get dictations and basic addition or subtraction right, couldn’t keep up with the high-level problems Luke was solving.
No, there was no way she could.
The problem Luke was seriously studying was at the level of a Magic Academy.
“Do I have to solve things like that when I grow up to be Luke’s age…?”
What a terrible future.
Suddenly not wanting to grow up, Diana dreamed of a life where she could freely eat snacks and go to amusement parks.
Now feels nice.
Having gained that realization, Diana no longer wanted to see Luke continue with that frightening study.
She would rather have Luke play with her.
“Hey, sis! Let’s play!”
So, she slid in behind Luke and grabbed his horn.
It looked strangely easy to grab.
For the young Diana, it was a pretty intense impulse to resist.
As Luke was working through the problems he had brought, he was startled by the sudden sensation of being touched on his horn and exclaimed.
“Diana, what’s the sudden…!”
“Hey, sis, what kind of horn is this? It looks super fascinating!”
“Uh, does it seem that way?”
Having missed the chance to question Diana’s excited voice, Luke felt her fiddling with his horn.
‘The horn isn’t as specially sensitive as ears, so it doesn’t matter how much it’s touched…’
Diana liked that sensation.
“Wow! Sis, the horn feels really nice!”
But being touched like a child’s head was very embarrassing.
‘Who would have thought I’d be sensed like this even by a little girl…’
I would tolerate it if it were fully grown adults like Yerna or Sorbi, or Kirke.
But from a child… that’s absolutely not the case.
It was psychologically hard to bear.
It felt much stronger to be denied.
Someone old like me had always been on the side of petting, not receiving it, right?
Unable to ignore that touch while studying any longer, Luke said to Diana.
“Come on, get off my head. I’ll play with you.”
“Yay!”
Diana, quite satisfied, let go of Luke’s horn, and Luke closed his problems.
“Okay, Diana. What do you want to do?”
“How about hide-and-seek? Can you hide well, sis?”
“Hide-and-seek, huh…”
Finding and hiding.
That was another of Luke’s specialties.
A mage ought to be able to conceal themselves.
Moreover, there’s no one as good as a mage at searching and exploring.
If one were to genuinely want to hide, perhaps no one would be able to find them. Handling the second circle now, control over the leaking mana was much easier.
…However, he wouldn’t actually exert such seriousness against Diana.
Luke’s mind was already that of an adult, and there was no need to be proud in losing while playing with a child.
Pretending to be incapable of finding her and hiding a bit poorly would be the way to play along.
“…Of course, Diana. Can you hide well?”
“Of course I can!”
——–
Luke leaned his head against the wall and counted.
From 1 to 10, slowly enough for Diana to have plenty of time to hide.
Finally reaching the number 10, Luke opened his eyes and turned his head.
“Diana, I’m going to start looking now.”
However, Luke was genuinely surprised when he began the game of hide-and-seek.
For unexpectedly, Diana was hidden far too well.
Of course, with his second circle and magic sight, Luke discovered Diana’s location in an instant.
However, what surprised Luke was that Diana was using a basic “magic concealment.”
“It was instinctively used, but… it’s not something a 7-year-old should be able to do.”
Luke found Diana because of his own abilities, but it crossed his mind that otherwise, it might have been quite difficult to find her.
But if he immediately finds her, it wouldn’t really be a game now would it?
Luke pretended to search around, intentionally avoiding the closet where Diana was hiding, and murmured.
“Hmm, I really have no idea where you are. You’ve hidden really well.”
While pretending to say that, Luke peered under the bed.
“Then is it here?”
He pretended to open a closet door that wasn’t the one Diana was hiding in.
Perhaps due to the tension, Diana’s mana concealment slipped a little but quickly adjusted again to be more solid.
At that level, Luke thought with a touch of admiration.
“Oh, it doesn’t reach the level of the ‘Black Eagle’ guild of the past, but it’s not at a standard level either.”
Of course, that comparison was ridiculously unfair to Diana. Putting a group of assassins who reached the peak of concealment on the same level as a 7-year-old girl didn’t make sense.
But that was how much Diana’s mana concealment was surprising.
Swallowing his admiration, Luke acted as if he was about to leave the room and said.
“Looks like you’re not here.”
– Luke! Luke!
At that moment, Pie started spinning around the vicinity of the closet where Diana was hidden, seemingly quite impatient.
‘What a clueless spirit.’
Luke shook his head at Pie, gesturing it to come over, but Pie responded with a “ding dong, ding dong” sound as if asking why it was being ignored.
‘What on earth is that ding dong sound…’
——-
In the end, Luke could not withstand the urging from Pie and opened the closet where Diana was hiding.
Diana, wide-eyed as if surprised, soon beamed with a big smile.
“Wow! You found me quicker than I thought!”
“Guess I was lucky.”
“Right? Sis, it seemed you couldn’t find me earlier!”
– Luke,……!……!
“……”
Although he had deliberately faked being unable to find her, the act was perhaps too convincing for Pie, who kept circling Luke calling “ding-dong.”
One might think that maybe “ding-dong” in spirit language meant “fool.”
Feeling a bit embarrassed from the strange sensation, Diana thought it was because she had hidden too well, so she felt proud.
“Don’t worry! It’s just because I was hiding so well, there’s no need to be embarrassed! Because I play this with my brother all the time!”
“I see.”
Thinking back, Dayton had the talent for “mana detection.”
Perhaps after just playing hide-and-seek with such a brother multiple times, she unintentionally awakened her “magic concealment.”
“Dayton, you seem to have never shown any mercy against your little sister.”
How unfair must it have been for a 7-year-old to realize “magic concealment”?
With such ability, among her peers, no one would be able to win in hide-and-seek.
Diana, now excited, said in a bright voice.
“Then do you want to hide this time, sis? Or should I go again?!”
“No, that’s enough. Let’s stop playing hide-and-seek.”
Whether finding or hiding, Pie’s needless meddling would surely ruin the game.
At the moment when he felt he was being disregarded, Pie often expressed his intentions in high-pitched sounds, which were quite disturbing noises.
Of course, if Luke got annoyed, Pie would quit, but being annoyed now might lead Diana to misunderstand and think he was getting upset with her for no reason.
Considering the fact that this spirit was invisible to everyone except him.
“I’m tired from looking for Diana, so I want to rest a bit.”
“Hmm, sis, is your stamina not good…?”
When Diana asked with a worried expression, Luke nodded appropriately and sat in a chair.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“You should not just read books every day but also exercise! Otherwise, you’ll become frail.”
At that sincere expression of concern, Luke smiled slightly and said.
“Hmm, is that so? Who told you that?”
“My brother always says that.”
“Dayton?”
“Yeah.”
Certainly, when recalling Dayton, such words would be expected.
As Luke nodded while thinking this, Diana asked.
“Sis, what kind of shows do you watch on TV?”
Diana’s eyes sparkled as she asked, and Luke felt taken aback.
“TV…? Shows? What is that?”
“Don’t you watch cartoons?”
“Cartoons…? I’ve never seen them.”
“Wow, that’s so boring!”
Indeed, there was no TV at Yerna’s house.
Since she originally used the house merely as a sleeping room, she preferred reading newspapers or books over watching news on TV.
On days when she wasn’t busy, she enjoyed going out for walks, and otherwise, she simply slept soundly.
Without a TV in Yerna’s life, Luke had never seen one either.
But Diana couldn’t believe that.
“It’s unbelievable you’ve never seen TV!”
It doesn’t make sense for someone living in this modern age to have never seen a TV!
Diana’s conversations with her friends most often revolved around the cartoons they watched on TV!
Diana quickly grabbed a rectangular magical object and shouted.
“I’ll show you!”
With a small sound, light began to emit from the large rectangular magical object decorated on the desk.
The mechanism caught Luke’s attention for a moment, but…
‘Illusion, light, communication magic… most of these are just copies of a mobile phone.’
He was disappointed by the surprisingly simple contents.
The only difference was the finesse and size of the illusion.
But Luke thought that idea was pretty good in its own right.
Diana, looking at the turned-on TV, shouted.
“Spirit Girl Maruru!”
“Spirit Girl Maruru…? What on earth is that?”
“Don’t you know, sis? Spirit Girl Maruru~ It’s so much fun! Maruru is…”
As Diana sputtered with excitement about ‘Maruru’, Luke watched the TV.
It was like a puppet show; the TV, as it was called, featured a girl drawn in animation borrowing the power of a spirit to transform and confront evil beings with spellcraft.
“Quite an elaborate stage set.”
Certainly, if this existed in the past, children would have adored it.
Puppet shows are something that every child enjoys.
“Wow, what do you think? Isn’t it fun?”
“Yeah, it is fun.”
The dynamic movements were indeed impressive. One could say it was incomparable to a puppet show.
Of course, it couldn’t be compared to real battles, which would be too gruesome and not something for children to see.
Could be seen as a well-made piece for appropriate entertainment.
“Ah, I wish I could see a spirit.”
“You want to see a spirit?”
“Yeah! I want to talk to a spirit like Maruru!”
The character Maruru in the TV seemed to be fluent in spirit language.
She was able to communicate perfectly with the spirit.
Of course, since spirits would speak in spirit language, the audience wouldn’t understand, but the dialogue in the TV used proper human speech.
“If you want to see a spirit, I can show you.”
“Wow, really?!”
– Luke?!
At Luke’s words, not just Diana, Pie also raised their voices in surprise.
At their pure reaction, Luke couldn’t help but smile gently and said.
“As a reward for you showing me the TV, I’ll show you something nice.”
As Luke extended his palm, a spirit identical to Pie sprang out with a ‘puff!’
“Wow?!”
– Luke!? …….!?
It was an illusion using the advanced magic of light, combining dancing light and illusion from the second circle, but due to Luke’s delicate and perfect mana control, it was indistinguishable from reality.
It was the same form as Pie that Luke was looking at.
Using the second-circle ‘sona’, he produced the sound of “Diana!” in Pie’s voice, causing Pie to freeze, making strange “kiri-kiri” sounds.
– ………!?
“Waaahhh!”
And seeing that, Diana stared in awe and clapped her hands.
“How about it? Are you satisfied?”
But with the girl’s subsequent remark, Luke couldn’t help but become flustered.
“You’re a spirit girl, Luke!”
“Uh, yeah? That’s not true. I’m just…”
‘Just used light and illusion magic…’
However, when Luke saw Diana’s face, he couldn’t continue the sentence.
To bring that topic up at this moment… would be to destroy a child’s innocence.
‘I didn’t expect her to enjoy it this much… it’s surprising.’
Luke didn’t know that, due to Yerna’s false explanation, spirits were something rare in this era.
In Luke’s time, anyone with spirit sensitivity could contact spirits.
With that frame of reference, this illusion magic felt merely like giving a child lacking spirit sensitivity an opportunity to experience a spirit.
It was merely an impulsive act triggered by recalling memories of showing illusion magic to children in the past.
As Luke’s surprise at the unexpected response grew, Diana, as if she already knew, grinned and said.
“Ah, I know too! It’s a secret, right?!”
Diana already viewed Luke as the same being as “Spirit Girl Maruru.”
Depending on how one looked at it, she was indeed close to spirits, so while not entirely incorrect, it was still quite a leap.
Sure, let’s keep it a secret.
That way, it would protect her innocence and avoid unnecessary trouble.
Luke firmly advised.
“Yes, it’s a secret. You mustn’t tell anyone.”
“Got it! Luke, sis!!”
“It’s a promise.”
“Yup!!”
Well, it wasn’t particularly reassuring, though.
– Luke, ‘fool’.
“Be quiet, Pie.”
“Is the spirit’s name Pie?”
