Diana seemed to be feeling excited after such a long time in a bustling household, and as soon as they finished eating, she urged Luke and Dayton to take her out to the nearby playground.
“I’m going to get some coffee, what do you want to drink?” Kirke asked Dayton.
Since they had been treated to a meal, it seemed like the least Kirke could do was buy them coffee.
“I don’t care,” Dayton waved his hand dismissively, not particularly concerned with what he drank. He was the type to enjoy anything and was too lazy to think about what he wanted at the moment.
“Then shall we all get Americano?”
“Sure, that works.”
Once Kirke and Sorbi left to place their orders, Dayton sat on a bench and observed Luke playing with Diana, deep in thought.
‘Diana really follows Luke a lot.’
While Diana was never really shy, it seemed like this was the first time she was so openly affectionate towards someone.
Watching them, it was as if she gazed at an object of admiration. Was she hoping to become like Luke when she grew up?
Luke had a mature and calm demeanor, so if Diana took after him, that would be good for him.
After all, it was tough to spend time playing with her after work; it would be much easier to read a book alone.
Look at them now, how serene it looked…
“Dayton, is this a playground?”
Luke looked up at Dayton with his eyes shining with curiosity.
“…Yeah.”
Never mind, it turns out Luke was just really strange.
Doesn’t he know what a playground is even at ten years old?
It’s almost as if he has been locked away without knowing anything…
‘Ah.’
As he thought that, Dayton scratched the back of his neck.
‘I can see why Yerna is so attached to Luke.’
If it were anyone else, Yerna would probably never let Luke out of her sight.
Just then, Diana tugged on Luke’s arm, calling out his name.
“Big Brother Luke, let’s go play quickly!”
“Alright, alright.”
Luke smiled and followed her.
He didn’t mind playing with her from time to time like this.
By the way, was this all just a children’s play area?
With swings, slides, and seesaws painted in a myriad of colors…
The modern playground equipment looked quite safe and sturdy.
“I want to ride the slide!”
Diana exclaimed as she dashed up the stairs of the slide, waving her hands in excitement.
“Big Brother Luke, this way, this way!”
Luke slowly followed Diana, cautioning her.
“If you run like that, you’ll fall and get hurt. Be careful.”
“I know!”
She responded well, but did she really understand?
However, Luke felt he had to say something, even if Diana might ignore him.
He had seen too many kids fall and cry.
Unlike back then, he couldn’t use magic to heal quickly now, so he had to be more cautious.
As soon as Diana noticed Luke coming up, she slid down the slide as if to show off.
She looked so happy; it was adorable.
But was it a bit childish for Luke to ride the slide, he wondered?
“Why aren’t you going? It’s fun…”
Diana, who had become a bit sulky, looked up at Luke from the bottom of the slide, and eventually, he decided to give it a try.
Whoosh—thud.
After a brief slide, his feet hit the ground.
“…”
Perhaps it was a little enjoyable, but the embarrassment outweighed it for now.
Luke quickly wiped his face and stood up, shaking off his embarrassment.
“I’ll ride again!”
Diana wasn’t satisfied with just one ride on the slide.
After several more tries, Luke cheered for her while standing by the slide, clapping for how well she had done.
However, Diana, who didn’t find it fun to ride alone, puffed out her cheeks and tugged at Luke’s hand.
She was indicating she wanted to go to another attraction.
——
Before being a great mage, Luke was a nobleman.
Of course, he was a true aristocrat with refined culture, incomparable to those who merely held noble titles.
Thus, Luke had experience with horseback riding. In fact, it would be more accurate to say he was quite an excellent rider.
Before the war, to avoid wasting mana, they frequently traveled by horse, and Luke, along with Renie and Kail, boasted perfect riding skills, managing to eat and sleep entirely on horseback.
The reason I bring this up now is that the playground ride Luke was on closely resembled a horse.
It was a modern rocking horse connected to the ground by springs (now that he understood what springs were, Luke thought they were quite a good invention, though he had never expected it to be used like this).
Even with a slight movement, it only bounced elastically; it didn’t feel like riding a real horse at all.
Well, it was a rocking horse, after all.
Thinking of himself riding a rocking horse made him feel even more embarrassed.
This was something he simply couldn’t justify in his mind.
Just then, Diana shouted,
“Ready, set, go!”
Looking at Diana shaking her body vigorously, Luke thought she truly looked like she was enjoying herself.
However, Luke was at an age where such “fun” didn’t appeal to him; he simply wanted to get off quickly.
‘If I had been truly young, I might have enjoyed this…’
Since the age of ten, he hadn’t ridden a toy horse.
Because he started riding real horses since he was ten.
Well, he hadn’t even ridden a rocking horse from the age of five onward.
Hee-haw…!
Startled by the sudden sound of a horse, he turned his head toward the source of the sound, and there was Py, the blue spirit, joyfully circling around him, making horse noises.
“What in the world are you doing…?”
Luke pondered if Py was trying to embarrass him.
Eventually, Luke gave up riding the spring horse and stood up.
“D-Diana, I give up. I just can’t keep up with your pace.”
At that, Diana stopped shaking and looked up at him with disappointment.
“You didn’t ride it, sister.”
Luke immediately averted his gaze and changed the subject.
“…Haha. How about the swing? I’ll push you from behind.”
“Oh, the swing! I want to ride the swing!”
“Alright, alright.”
Luke felt a rush of relief.
-…
On the other hand, Py let out a defeated horse sound and perched on top of Luke’s head.
Was it that disappointed?
Luke quietly said,
“I’d be willing to ride a real horse, so please cheer up, Py.”
-…!
As if encouraged by that statement, Py jumped off his head, trembling with joy and scattering pieces of mana.
To Luke’s vision, it looked like pollen.
However, it was an age without horses for carriages.
Could he even see a real horse?
——-
After pushing the swing for a while, Luke rested next to Dayton.
The child, emboldened by fearlessness, kept urging for a harder push, to the point where Luke had to contemplate using ‘Enhance Body’ just to keep up with her demands.
Of course, he didn’t engage in anything dangerous like that.
And Luke and Diana had played on various attractions besides the swings.
With the peculiar boundless energy of children, Luke had to engage with Diana for quite some time.
The reason he was resting now was that Diana’s friends from the neighborhood came to the playground.
While he didn’t dislike bright children, wasn’t Diana a bit too bright? It felt like she craved affection.
If those kids hadn’t shown up, Luke might have had to keep playing until he collapsed from exhaustion.
“You’ve had a tough time, haven’t you, Dayton?”
“You too… you worked hard playing with her.”
Sorbi suddenly appeared and handed Luke a drink.
As he received the cup instinctively, he realized from the surface temperature that it contained something quite cool.
“What is this?”
“Mint chocolate frappe! You like mint chocolate, right?”
Sorbi smiled cheekily, making eye contact with Luke.
Luke smiled slightly at her gaze and replied,
“Thank you, Sorbi. I’ll enjoy it.”
He immediately took a sip through the straw.
The scent of mint flooded his senses, stimulating his tongue with a sharp freshness.
‘Hmm, this is pretty good. It might not quench my thirst, though.’
It was much like ‘ice cream.’
However, it was too sweet and sticky; drinking it almost made him feel thirstier.
This was a problem similar to eating ice cream.
“I really don’t know why people like that…”
Kirke shook her head, looking a bitGrossed Out.
Dayton countered,
“But Luke said it was tasty. Mint chocolate must actually taste good, right?”
“No, even if I bought it, mint chocolate is still… I respect preferences, but please don’t force it on me.”
Sorbi immediately drew a line.
She had bought it because Luke liked mint chocolate; otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought it.
While Kirke and Dayton bickered over whether mint chocolate was good or not, Luke continued to sip on the frappe when he noticed Diana approaching him with a sulking face.
“Why do you look like that, Diana? Why are you making such a face?”
“Big Brother, please come here for a moment.”
——–
Dragged by Diana’s hand, Luke squeezed into the group of children, and he could sense something uneasy from the way the smaller ones looked up at him.
The reason for that soon became clear.
“Big Sister Luke, you tell us. You’re the spirit girl.”
“Diana? What are you talking about…?”
“They keep saying I’m lying…! But you’re the real spirit girl!”
“Diana, didn’t you say that was a secret?”
“Ah, right!”
Come to think of it, it was supposed to be a secret!
Her covering her mouth looked cute, but…
Luke sighed.
‘Well, I never really expected a little kid to keep a secret.’
While he was thinking that, a slightly dazed-looking hybrid child spoke up.
“Are you the spirit girl, then?”
“That’s…”
Should he really show a manifestation of a spirit here?
If he just denied it, it probably wouldn’t lead to any issues.
Then, at that moment, a chubby child chimed in.
“Don’t lie, Diana always lies.”
“No, I’m really the spirit girl!”
Diana, who had thought it was a secret just a moment ago, immediately exploded with a retort.
Is Diana definitely Dayton’s little sister?
“Big Sister, can you just show us one more time? Just once…”
Luke pressed his temples as he looked at Diana’s pleading eyes, sparkling with hope.
‘It probably won’t lead to anything, but….’
This world isn’t a puppet show.
In this era, there may not be monsters that girls have to defeat with the power of spirits.
Just showing a spirit wouldn’t lead to any big trouble.
These children merely wanted to see the spirits from puppet shows.
“Alright, I’ll show you just once.”
As Luke nodded, Diana looked at him with shining eyes as if she had received a gift.
“Really!?”
“It’ll probably be a lie, though.”
“Uh-huh…”
But the other children seemed uninterested.
Did they think it was all a lie as well?
‘Yikes, I can’t let Diana be called a liar.’
Luke swiftly rotated the circle and snapped his fingers, crafting a vision of the spirit.
In an instant, everyone fell silent, gazing at the scene as if spellbound…
“Wow, it’s real!”
“It’s not a lie?”
“Can I touch it??”
Hmm, their reactions were much warmer than anticipated.
Does that mean the ‘Spirit Girl Meruru’ is quite popular?
Spirits surely exist commonly in the world.
There must be spirits that even gave their own bodies to fill Luke’s circles, reflecting on the curious children’s attention on the spirit’s image created behind him.
Naturally, spirits do exist.
There’s really no need to hide them entirely.
Of course, what they were witnessing was a vision resembling a spirit, not a real one.
“Don’t touch it; spirits dislike it.”
‘Since it’s just an illusion, you can’t really touch it.’
It’s hard to touch real spirits as well, but at the very least, you would feel some sensation from the mana barrier…
-…!
Py shook his head vigorously before Luke.
As if trying to say he didn’t mind being touched at all.
Eventually, he began to act like he wanted to be touched, overlapping himself with the vision, leading Luke to let out a deep sigh.
“Looks like he’s okay with it.”
“Wow!”
The children immediately reached out toward Py’s body.
“It feels so strange.”
“It’s cold, but warm. It feels like pudding.”
“It’s like the ointment my mom used to put on.”
“I can’t really tell!”
Since the spirit’s body is pure mana itself, each child perceives and understands mana differently, leading to varying sensations.
Luke gradually felt as though he was drawing attention, causing him to dismiss the vision and withdrew his hand.
“Well then, is that enough now?”
At that, the children all replied with cheerful grins.
Then, a chubby kid slightly bowed his head at Diana as if apologizing, saying,
“You were really the spirit girl… I’m sorry, Diana for teasing you.”
“I knew that!”
It was nice to see them apologize right away, making Luke smile softly. Just then, he noticed a girl tapping his arm.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Big Sister, can you transform too?”
“That is…”
If he wanted to, that didn’t seem impossible.
He would just need to change into an outfit with some lights on it.
But why would he do that?
There were no clothes to change into, and changing outfits in a place like this would cause embarrassment beyond just shyness.
“I can’t do that here, little one. Please just bear with seeing the spirit.”
He understood the necessity to wear a suitable outfit before a battle, but there was no need to change in public.
Especially when the outfit didn’t seem to be ‘battle attire’…
‘Perhaps Meruru might be more unruly than I thought…’
As he pondered that, his face grew warm for some reason.
That was definitely due to the good circulation of blood in his body.
