Upon receiving a sudden call from Diana, Luke immediately abandoned the presence of the evil spirit residing in his home and headed straight for Dayton’s house.
However, in the meantime, Pyris was suffering even more from tooth pain.
“Unnie…”
Unlike usual, Pyris did not rush into Luke’s arms upon seeing him.
Given that her head was already throbbing, it was evident that rushing to Luke would only increase her pain.
It seemed that the toothache had begun to invade her head, causing her to feel a headache as well.
“Pyris, is it really true that your tooth hurts?” Yerna asked with a concerned tone, looking at Pyris.
“Mm…”
Now it seemed even swallowing saliva was painful for her, and her jaw was barely able to move, making Pyris look quite pitiful.
Yet, it was strange.
Pyris, who could take on the form of a spirit without any physical constraints or sensations, could at least stop feeling pain if she released her manifestation.
Nevertheless, even in that situation, Pyris stubbornly maintained her form.
What could the reason be?
“Hmm.”
The answer was surprisingly simple: Pyris had not given up on eating snacks.
The crumbs around her mouth and the bits stuck between her teeth were clear evidence of that.
Pyris disliked the idea of not being able to taste something delicious more than the actual pain in her teeth.
‘She really is incorrigible…’
No matter how much she loved to eat, wasn’t this a bit extreme?
To shove food into her mouth, putting the immediate pain aside, was quite concerning.
Perhaps Pyris had become addicted to the act of ‘eating’ itself.
In fact, being unable to suppress her appetite, or binge eating, is an act driven by greed and desire to fill her stomach.
And greed was initially a concept foreign to spirits.
Yet, Pyris was currently overflowing with greed.
‘Has her lengthy manifestation transformed her into something excessively human…?’
After all, Pyris’s body was merely an avatar.
It was clothing she had borrowed for use in the physical world.
However, sometimes clothing can shape a person.
Humans naturally tend to act as they are perceived by others.
The spirit, who loves to mimic, follow, and play, can easily be influenced by such experiences.
To be honest, Luke himself harbored a considerable amount of greed.
Though he was managing to suppress it now, his desire for knowledge, fine magical materials, and achieving his goals were honestly no less than anyone else’s.
Perhaps Pyris, who was greatly influenced by Luke’s emotions, had caught ‘greed’ from him.
Thinking that way, it seemed that about half of this situation might be his responsibility.
‘No, wait…’
After pondering a bit more, it dawned on him that if Pyris had normally taken care of her teeth, this situation might not have occurred. So, it wasn’t entirely his fault.
Then, perhaps only a quarter of it was his fault?
Yeah. Compromising to that extent seemed reasonable.
At that moment, Pyris whimpered.
“Hiing, it hurts…”
“Sigh. It can’t be helped.”
Seeing her look so wretched, Luke felt compelled to approach Pyris.
“Let me take a look.”
——-
Luke, who naturally had no experience working as a dentist, nevertheless possessed some medical knowledge as a grand mage.
Before checking her mouth, he combined Clean and Waterball to rinse Pyris’s mouth several times.
Though it seemed painful even to have water touch her, it was a necessary measure as there were countless snack scraps lodged in her teeth, making it impossible to see what was wrong.
“Ah…”
Luke knelt down, lowering his gaze to carefully inspect Pyris’s mouth with a small light.
However, the condition was concerning.
“My goodness, it’s this severe…?”
Teeth couldn’t suddenly become this way overnight.
She likely had been in pain for quite a while; why hadn’t she said anything?
“I could bear it…”
“…”
Well, for Pyris, experiencing a body for the first time, it would be difficult to judge whether this pain was normal or not.
Perhaps, even if something hurt in her body, she may have simply thought, “Do other people feel this way too?”
Pyris could probably overlook pain unless it was enough to restrict her bodily movement.
However, the fact that she was feeling pain indicated something was wrong with her body.
Pain serves as a warning from the body that something is malfunctioning.
Yet, since the user had completely ignored that warning, such a disaster had occurred.
‘It seems the bad breath also didn’t smell strong, which made it discovered even later.’
Moreover, Pyris’s body didn’t emit an unpleasant odor that would make others uncomfortable.
That was likely due to her being somewhat related to the goddess.
After all, it seems that spirits are often deeply linked to goddesses.
But if that’s the case, Luke wouldn’t be able to use ‘divine power.’
One cannot heal a god with the power bestowed by a god.
Dayton directed a question at Luke.
“So, how about it? Can you use ‘that power’?”
Dayton was aware of the existence of ‘that power’ that healed Yerna’s arm.
Yerna had already explained that to him.
Now, being family, it wasn’t a matter he could keep secret from Dayton.
Luke shook his head.
“No, that seems difficult.”
Difficulty.
Yes, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
Even though Pyris was related to the goddess and divine powers might not be effective, if Luke poured in ‘worth’ literally, it would not be impossible.
But, was it necessary?
To pour in his worth just to do a mere ‘cavity treatment,’ that would be remarkably inefficient, and if it were that easy to heal her teeth, this incident wouldn’t teach Pyris any significant lesson.
In many ways, divine power was not a good choice.
“What a pity.”
Dayton clicked his tongue and scratched the back of his head.
Honestly, he had been curious too.
Wasn’t it natural to wonder what sort of power was able to restore Yerna?
Moreover, seeing both Luke’s growth and his childish side was an added benefit.
Still, even if it was difficult, he wouldn’t have forced Luke to do it.
However, upon hearing Luke’s words, Pyris looked incredibly sad, with tears welling in her eyes, and asked in a trembling voice.
“Unnie, then what will I do now…? I can’t eat delicious things anymore…?”
Pyris realized that the ‘later’ Luke had mentioned when he previously warned her, “If you don’t brush your teeth properly, you might not be able to eat something tasty in the future,” had finally arrived.
But now it was too late to regret.
“I guess we’ll have to go to the dentist.”
“The dentist…?”
“Yeah, the dentist.”
Pyris looked at him in confusion, and Luke smiled.
Based on Pyris’s current reaction, he felt there was no need to worry about her escaping into spirit form.
It seemed that her desire and passion for food outweighed her fear or pain.
And Pyris, too, needed to experience a place called the dentist at least once.
“Then, Pyris? Let’s go to the dentist right now, before it closes.”
“Mm…”
Yerna approached Pyris with a smile, extending her hand. Pyris reluctantly smiled and placed her hand on Yerna’s.
Luke held onto Yerna’s other hand and said, “You never know, I might follow along.”
Just in case Pyris changed her mind and tried to escape into spirit form after they arrived, someone would need to catch her.
Thus, as Pyris and Luke took Yerna’s hands and headed toward the dentist, the incident seemed to draw to a close, but…
There was still one more mistake to address.
“Diana.”
“Eek…!”
A large shadow approached Diana, who had quietly entered the room without revealing her presence.
It was Dayton.
No matter how much Diana instinctively used magic concealment, she couldn’t evade Dayton’s magical perception.
“So you snuck out to eat snacks without telling your brother?”
“Th-that…”
“Even after I told you not to snack before meals?”
To young Diana, Dayton’s voice sounded somewhat terrifying.
Full of anxiety, as if she were about to get spanked, Diana trembled as she spoke.
“N-no… but Pyris said she was hungry…”
“If you waited a little, your brother would come and make dinner. I even bought meat to cook something delicious. If you finish your meal, would your brother say anything afterward?”
“N-no…”
Diana regretted her actions at Dayton’s words.
If meat was the side dish, she should have resisted a bit more!
“You’ve made a mistake.”
“Yeah…”
“Sigh…”
With a deep sigh, Dayton reached out toward the now-cowering Diana.
Diana squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating a hit.
-Swoosh, swoosh.
But instead of the shock she was bracing for, she felt a gentle hand patting her head.
Looking up in confusion, she saw Dayton wearing a somewhat resigned expression.
“But, you called your brother right away when you knew Pyris was hurting, didn’t you?”
“…Yeah.”
“Well done. If you had waited a bit longer, the dentist would have closed. So this time, I won’t scold you. After Pyris gets treated, let’s prepare dinner.”
“Eh?”
Upon hearing this, Diana’s expression brightened significantly.
She asked, as if reconfirming, “…Really?”
“What’s this, are you upset that I’m not scolding you? Do you want me to scold you instead?”
“N-no, no!”
Diana shook her head vigorously and smiled brightly.
