Luke had a conversation with Liv, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time.
Liv squirmed a bit in Luke’s arms.
Noticing Liv’s expression, Luke smiled and replied, “Hmm, you’re talking about the armor, right? It’s in a state where you can’t use it right now, so I put it in the void space for now.”
“……?”
“Don’t worry too much. This era is generally peaceful, so this cumbersome and large armor would be less fitting for you than my body. It will be more comfortable for you to move.”
“……!”
“Haha, even if you’re worried, my body can protect itself. You just need to stay with me.”
“…….”
Seeing Liv looking up at him anxiously, as if unsure if it was really okay, Luke nodded with a reassuring smile.
Liv provided comfort just by being there.
In this era, she was perhaps the only one who fully remembered him as Luke Irushi.
The people of this era didn’t seem to take his revelation of his identity lightly despite him outright saying it.
Well, perhaps it was treated as just nonsense from a little girl. However, to speak precisely, he was also originally an existence that was supposed to be forgotten in history.
“Hmm, now that I think about it, should I be thankful that they don’t believe me?”
Five thousand years is an incredibly long time for ordinary beings to fathom.
If people truly believed his story, forgotten history would return, and perhaps the goddess could be fully resurrected.
If that ridiculous goddess were to return, what battle had he fought to remain forgotten?
Thanks to this, Luke and Liv, each other’s only true understanding, had quite a plethora of conversation topics.
“I worked so hard with Kail to perfect your swordsmanship.”
“……!”
“Yes, yes. That was the move. That was the result. Excellent posture!”
They talked about the swordsmanship they developed with Kail.
“And at that time, Renie said she would never touch peppers and cucumbers even after thousands of years. Did she really mean that?”
-Nods, nods.
“Hahaha! That’s quite a strong will!”
They also shared stories about Renie.
After a hearty laugh, Luke wiped away a few tears that had come out from laughing too much and sighed.
It had been a long time since he felt this cheerful and excited.
“Oh, by the way, I want to introduce you to someone.”
“……?”
Liv looked somewhat confused.
Luke lifted Liv into his arms and stood up.
“Now, this is your little sister, ‘Kate.’ Her sense of self isn’t fully developed yet. I think it would be good for you to take care of her later.”
Liv stared blankly at Kate.
Perhaps the idea of having a sister didn’t feel real at all.
To him, ‘sister’ was merely a remnant that had withered away along with time.
Having a sister again would elicit complicated feelings.
Perhaps it was similar to the feeling a person might get upon discovering that a sibling was in their mother’s womb.
Still, thinking like that made it somewhat understandable.
He himself felt that way when he discovered he had a sibling.
Rui Irushi.
A grateful little brother who had continued the family line in his behalf.
The brother showed more talent in politics than magic, so they hadn’t had much interaction, and thus, not many memories remained in Luke’s mind.
“Well, technically, he isn’t really my brother.”
He was merely part of Luke Irushi’s circle.
Not all of his past belonged to him.
That was a long time before the circle was etched onto Luke’s body.
“Anyway, be friendly with her.”
Luke took Liv’s hand, who was staring blankly at Kate, and gently shook it.
It resembled a little girl playing with dolls.
It looked quite enjoyable.
Similar to a cute little girl talking to a doll while playing by herself.
However, there was one pair of eyes watching that scene with displeasure.
Pyris left the computer, looking somewhat sulky, approached Luke, and tugged at his sleeve.
“Sis, didn’t you promise me something?”
“Oh, right.”
Luke recalled something he had temporarily forgotten.
He had indeed promised to bake cookies filled with magic as a reward for Pyris.
“I want to eat cookies now. Stop playing with the dolls, and make me cookies.”
“Ah, I understand. Please wait a moment.”
Luke thought he should quickly bake the cookies before Pyris got too disappointed, so he set Liv down and stood up.
As Luke headed towards the kitchen, Pyris started glaring at Liv.
“You are my sister. I’ve been with you for a very long time.”
“……?”
Not understanding what Pyris meant, Liv tilted her head in confusion.
Pyris seemed annoyed at this and started to hiss…
“But you’ve never said that to me even once! How petty!”
Pyris immediately reached out and started tugging at Liv’s arms.
Indeed, Pyris felt ‘jealousy’ towards Liv.
To be precise, Pyris was also an ancient being—an elemental spirit that had existed for over five thousand years.
However, Luke had only spent a much shorter time with Liv, and the joy he displayed towards her was enough to ignite Pyris’s jealousy due to the delicate sensitivity of an elemental.
Well, from Luke’s perspective, even if Pyris had existed five thousand years ago, he had been a great mage with nearly zero affinity for elementals, and Pyris was a high-level ancient spirit capable of incarnation, which made it unlikely that they would meet or have common conversation topics, but Pyris didn’t consider that a significant factor.
Instead, she wondered why Ere, no, ‘Luke’ was ignoring her.
After pondering this matter, Pyris concluded that it was all because of that little bear doll.
“How petty! You act like you’re close and all!”
Pyris continued to tug at Liv’s limbs.
At that moment, a troubling sound began to emerge from Liv’s body, which was being stretched here and there by Pyris’s hands.
“……!”
The seams of her arms seemed to be coming apart, as if they would tear.
The stuffing inside was slightly escaping, unable to contain the magic.
For a human, it was akin to being in a state of bleeding.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Liv didn’t understand why the lady was doing this, but began to protect herself according to her designed principles.
Pow!
“Ah!”
Liv struck Pyris’s hand away with force, and taking advantage of the opening created by Pyris losing her grip, she quickly began to escape.
Pyris immediately tried to grab the bear doll, but it was an extremely spec’d bear made from living armor, which was not easy to catch even for an elemental spirit.
Dodging Pyris’s hands swiftly, Liv soared onto the bed.
In an attempt to catch Liv, Pyris jumped onto the bed as well, but Liv threw a pillow at her, causing a distraction, and then covered her with a blanket.
Watching Pyris flounder around like a fish caught in a net, Liv jumped down and started escaping again.
Taking off the heavy Aseril armor, the lightweight bear doll that had the living armor implanted seemed to have wings as it moved.
Seeing Liv’s form, Pyris grew furious, shaking off the blanket covering her through elementalization, quickly reappearing, and shouted, “Stop right there!”
——–
“Ugh, I can’t believe I forgot this. I need to bake as quickly as possible before Pyris gets mad again.”
Pyris surprisingly held grudges quite a while.
To get her help again in the future, raising her favorability was also necessary.
Luke sighed deeply.
“In the old days, she didn’t even know how to get angry…”
When she had no body and no one to interact with except him, Pyris had never gotten truly angry at him.
Though she did get a bit sulky when he ate delicious food while she couldn’t eat.
But now, since Pyris has a body, she could interact and play with many people aside from him.
Thanks to that, Pyris had taken on a childlike demeanor.
She had become close to Diana and played with her, and the Forest Keepers treated her with affection and cuteness in the forest.
After experiencing various things, it seemed she had developed a richer way of expressing her emotions.
“Well, it’s probably a good change. The elemental’s ‘humanization’…”
Being a being closely tied to emotions, perhaps it was natural for an elemental to adopt more human traits quickly.
Luke rolled up his sleeves, found an apron, and put it on, then touched the back of his head lightly.
Though short, it had grown quite long compared to before, and it might hinder him while cooking.
He took a cooking hair tie from the apron pocket and loosely tied up the back of his hair.
Now it was time to take out the ingredients.
Luke opened the refrigerator and began to pull out the ingredients one by one.
“Okay, butter and magic herbs… and milk and flour… Wait a minute, how’s the alchemy going?”
Come to think of it, he needed to keep an eye on whether the ointment for Yerna’s burns was fine.
He had to pay attention to the alchemy while making cookies as well.
“Ugh, it’s a bit clumpy.”
Luke quickly grabbed a metal rod to stir the clumping ingredients in the container.
Fortunately, this time, with just a few stirs, the clumped ingredients were loosened.
“Phew, there’s a lot to do.”
He had almost forgotten while engrossed in conversation with Liv, but thanks to Pyris, he remembered just in time.
“I need to bake even tastier cookies for Pyris today.”
He thought he might need to slightly increase the sugar and magic herb ratio compared to the usual cookies, and just as he placed the butter on the cutting board to cut it…
-BAM!!
A sound of something spilling came from somewhere.
