The language of spirits, known as Spirit Language, originally had rules that differed from the rules by which humans produce sound.
Thus, Spirit Language was a very different language from the way spirit mages interpret what spirits say and the way humans convey their intentions to spirits.
Of course, that couldn’t be helped; spirits have a structure that allows them to create any sound from the Material Plane, while human vocal cords cannot produce such a wide variety of sounds.
Therefore, humans could only relay stiff orders to spirits, using instruments as tools, and spirits could provide only minimal assistance to such humans.
However, that was the story of ordinary spirit mages and spirits.
Luke did not possess an ‘ordinary’ level of spirit sensitivity.
He could be assured that no one throughout all ages showed greater spirit sensitivity than him; he was an overwhelmingly powerful being.
Furthermore, the fact that such a gifted being was a ‘mage’ meant that the rules that had been upheld until now would be completely overturned.
Rational insights into the sensual language of ‘Spirit Language.’
Unraveling emotions that everyone perceives differently into a logic that everyone can understand was a situation that should never have existed.
Nevertheless, Luke, who possessed conflicting talents at the same time, accomplished this.
At least, he thought he had.
Because until now, Luke had had no way to experiment whether his rational interpretations of Spirit Language were truly applicable to others.
He had not been able to find any spirit mages besides himself.
To find out whether the information he understood was correctly perceived by others, he naturally needed someone capable of cross-verifying that information.
But, in the current context where spirits had become extremely rare, Luke did not even harbor hope of finding a spirit mage.
Yet, Helena happened to be that very spirit mage! What a miraculous arrangement!
Moreover, Helena had an outstanding sense capable of accurately hearing any pitch and almost perfectly replicating it.
When Luke hummed, Helena followed suit effortlessly.
Even without him having to point out each note, she did so quite elegantly.
“Helena, it seems you have perfect pitch.”
“Perfect pitch?”
Helena appeared to have been born with the ability to accurately perceive pitch when she hears any sound, as if she had ‘perfect pitch.’
Indeed, with such spiritual talent, having perfect pitch wouldn’t be too unusual.
Perhaps it was a talent that Luke himself also possessed, but he could not differentiate.
He couldn’t determine if he could instantly grasp the pitch of a song because of ‘perfect pitch’ or simply because he had a ‘good memory.’
Shirud, surprised when he heard Luke mention Helena’s perfect pitch, inquired.
“Really?”
“Don’t you know…?”
However, the truth was that Helena was hearing such things for the first time from Luke.
As with talents typically possessed from birth, she had taken it for granted and did not realize if it was something special.
“Helena, can you not accurately identify the pitches when you hear any song or performance?”
“Hmm, I definitely feel that way… But is that special? Isn’t everyone like that?”
Helena tilted her head, looking as if she didn’t understand.
“It is special. That is a very rare talent.”
“Really?”
In fact, Luke had experienced something similar in his past.
During his naïve 2nd Circle days as a mage, Luke could not understand why others openly used magic, considering that others could completely see and copy their spells.
So, Luke devised a complex method to encrypt the spell formulas he cast, making them difficult to perceive on the spot, but that approach received surprisingly little response.
When he asked why, he realized that those without magic sight could not see the spells at all, and felt quite embarrassed.
Since the magic formulas were invisible, encrypting them was merely adding an unnecessary step that served no practical purpose.
He assumed that others saw mana clearly as he did, and that was a misunderstanding that arose from his own assumptions.
Perhaps Helena had lived thinking the same way before he pointed it out.
“Wow, that’s impressive—perfect pitch!”
Shirud marveled as he spoke, and Luke smiled to himself.
‘Teaching her will become a lot easier from now on.’
Having succeeded in sparking Helena’s interest in Spirit Language, Luke decided to take a short break.
Helena seemed quite exhausted from the vocal training as well.
—————
Back in Luke’s room.
Shirud grumbled.
“By the way, magic has really been completely forgotten now.”
“Y-yeah…”
Helena nodded with a subtle expression at Shirud’s lament.
Indeed, she had come to learn magic but had realized that she was studying music at some point.
At that moment, Luke returned and said,
“Don’t worry too much; if you want, we can also conduct some magic experiments.”
“Well, it seems Helena is too tired for that.”
“Haha, is that so?”
With her shaky focus and unsteady gait, Shirud’s words were certainly true.
It was only natural to be tired, considering the considerable mental effort required for Spirit Language.
Luke brought out a new tea for the fatigued Helena.
“Here, drink this. It will relieve your fatigue and has ingredients that are good for your throat.”
“Mm, thank you.”
Helena lightly expressed her gratitude, taking the tea with both hands and starting to sip.
The tea had a refreshing lemon scent, which made for a very impressive flavor.
“Wow, this is really delicious. What did you put in it?”
“Right? I added a bit of grapefruit juice. Since you like it.”
“…”
Looking at Luke’s cheerful smile, Helena shifted her gaze with a somewhat complicated expression.
‘You made it for me to like it…’
This all started because Luke remembered that she had once said, “I don’t like sweet things,” and intentionally ordered a drink without sweetness at the café.
To be honest, Helena had never liked grapefruit.
That was obvious.
To a child’s palate, grapefruit was simply too bitter.
But now, why did it taste so good?
Could this be what it means to have a friend?
Helena felt a warm sensation in her heart towards Luke, who remembered even the smallest details about her.
-Sip.
“…”
Perhaps…
This might be the way Luke expresses his affection.
Thinking that made her feel slightly guilty.
She felt an urge to give something in return, so she asked Luke.
“Luke, do you like dolls as well?”
“Dolls? Why do you ask that?”
“Well, seeing the doll on the bed made me think of it.”
“Really?”
Luke glanced at Helena’s expression.
Fortunately, he felt no sense of her having an ulterior motive for wanting dolls.
She seemed to be genuinely curious.
So, Luke casually replied.
“Well, I guess I like them to some extent.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
“Then Helena, do you like dolls?”
Helena smiled brightly.
“Yes, I really like them.”
“Just as I thought.”
“Yeah!”
Helena was a child who always looked disgruntled to the point that her cute face never showed through.
But seeing her smile so widely was an astonishing change.
‘Why has she suddenly changed so much?’
Luke pondered, stroking his chin.
Could it be that Helena was very pleased to find a companion with similar interests?
Perhaps she felt a sense of kinship.
‘Indeed…’
Luke nodded at his own hypothesis.
It wasn’t absurd.
But the issue wasn’t there.
‘In the end, we’re talking about dolls…’
Even though he had planned not to mention dolls since he had called them to teach magic, dolls ended up becoming the topic of conversation.
Still, it wasn’t such a bad situation.
Luke smiled widely as he continued to look at Helena.
Suddenly, Helena appeared to realize something and jumped up in surprise.
“…No, it’s the doll talk, of course!”
“Yes, it is indeed about dolls?”
“…Ah, really? I thought…”
Helena looked away, seemingly embarrassed.
What exactly did she think she liked?
Luke was curious about that as well, but more than such trivial matters, he needed to ask something else first.
“Then Helena, do you know any place where I can get quality dolls? I want to buy quite a few. Custom-made would be even better… I’m not very knowledgeable about this type of thing, so I don’t know where to purchase them.”
There was a significant difference in quality between mass-produced dolls and those personally crafted with care by artisans when creating living armors.
Recalling the troubles he had when making Kate made that quite clear.
On the other hand, since Lib was a custom doll made with high-quality fabric, he had been able to set a living armor into her body relatively easily in just one day.
Thus, Luke had been considering high-quality custom dolls as materials for his “doll army.”
The problem was that he had no idea which doll shops could be considered high-quality.
Even searching produced only stores riddled with all sorts of advertising slogans, lacking reliability, and there were no people around him interested in dolls whom he could ask.
However, if Helena liked dolls, perhaps she could inform him of a doll shop that matched his criteria.
Shirud spoke, eyeing Luke suspiciously.
“What are you planning to do with the dolls?”
“What do you mean what am I planning to do?”
He was, of course, thinking of remaking Arinseia’s living armor… but he couldn’t tell Shirud that.
So, Luke worded it a bit more equivocally.
Deliberately putting on a childlike demeanor and voice.
“I just want to make a lot of friends so that these kids don’t feel lonely.”
“…Oh, really?”
Shirud seemed quite shocked by Luke’s words and actions, appearing flustered.
But it appeared that Helena quite liked Luke’s comment.
“Exactly! Shirud, what’s the matter? Luke is a girl too; two dolls in a room isn’t enough!”
In the end, Shirud had nothing more to say.
Since he wasn’t accustomed to girls’ rooms, he had no grounds to refute what Helena, a girl, was asserting.
Thus, he simply decided to go along with it.
“Is that so?”
“Yep!”
Helena was excited and began to ponder for a moment.
“I do know a place that sells custom dolls, but…”
“Could you please tell me the name of that doll shop?”
“Ah, it was something like Merlin’s Doll Shop, I think? They have really soft and cute dolls there!”
Helena spoke quickly about the advantages of Merlin’s Doll Shop in an excited voice.
Alice had also purchased there.
Nodding in agreement with Helena’s recommendation, Luke said,
“Merlin’s Doll Shop, huh… Thank you, I’ll remember that.”
