Vol. 1 Chapter 08: Close encounter with the emperor’s family

The following day, my parents immediately went to the capital and were granted an audience two days later. 

This was an unusual situation.

Both the Empress and the General have their work schedules set months in advance, and it isn’t easy to make adjustments when sudden appointments are thrown into the mix.

But if someone said, “I met the Spirit King,” you will get that audience. 

We got busy all of a sudden. 

People who travel hours by carriage to reach the castle have asked for help locating the spirits in their area.

Helping them create an environment where they can interact with the spirit beasts without interfering with their daily lives. 

This will make them feel indebted to their lord, more spirit beasts, increased naval and border forces, and crops will grow better. How can we refuse?

But without me, the spirit beast can’t communicate with each other, so I have to go.

But I’m only four years old?

Going to all these places by myself is tough.

I can instantly travel to the Imperial Palace and the Academy from the castle with a transporter line. But the transporter line has a fixed destination and cannot go anywhere else. This is a lost technology that can no longer be updated.

That makes it useless to get around the territory.

There are places in Japan where you can get by bullet train or plane in two hours within the same prefecture or places you can’t. Something like that.

“Find someone with an evolvable spirit beast!”

Any spirit that can use ice, blaze, gravity, and tornado magic should be able to evolve as long as we communicate!

“I only know someone who can use ice magic.”

Whaaaaat!!

“Our forces are small.”

“Eh? You were looking for someone in the military?!”

“Kris onii-sama ask me to do it….”

“No, no, you got it wrong. I asked, but you can do it slowly over the next six months.”

“But you will complain if I’m late.”

“…Right.”

In these situations, people would ask you to make them a priority.

It makes them believe they’re essential to the frontier count!

“Who can use ice magic?”

“It’s Alyssa, our resident mage.”

This person is around thirty years old!

She has been living alone since her husband passed away seven years ago.

And if that’s the reason she was talking to the spirits, it’s a little sad. But if they became spirit beasts, she could talk to them. I know she can do it!

“The military, huh? You can handle two.”

“One navy and one knight taking turns. I will teach them how to become a spirit beast. Find out where the spirits are, and maybe meet some new ones.”

“That’s a nice sales pitch, Dia. Have you given up acting like a four years old?”

“If you say things like that, I won’t talk to Kris onii-sama.”

“Huh? Sorry, I won’t repeat it. It’s not fair that Dia is always friendly with Alan. Right. When Dia goes looking for the spirits, I’ll accompany you.”

Kris treats me well to the point Red and Brad say he’s a siscon. 

But I’m not an honest child to think that my brother would understand me.

Living in Tokyo, I have seen a lot of bad news and met many bad people. 

That’s why I’m skeptical.

If they found out I had knowledge about another world, they would try to keep me around to take advantage of me.

Had this world been where political marriages were the norm, I might have thought that would have been fine.

But in this world, there are many love marriages among the nobles, and I want to be in love too.

I was single in my previous life!

That’s why I’m a child with interesting ideas.

Someone who comes up with crazy ideas.

“Dia? Are you mad at me? I won’t repeat it.”

“Mhm, I was thinking about where I want to go.”

“We’ll go wherever you want to go.”

“Hmmm, I want cheese.”

“Eh? Why cheese all of a sudden?”

“I would love to visit the northern highlands.”

“Dia’s thoughts are as interesting as ever.”

And the next day, they had two more people on board besides Alyssa.

Kris is really capable.

That’s where my hellish training began… or not.

Alyssa and the other two guys from the military are mages by profession. All I had to do was talk to them.

For a whole day, I didn’t let them do anything but talk to the spirits, and all evolved into spirit beasts.

Talking to the ball of light in front of a young girl was mentally demanding, but the results were good.

If we split up, we could get around the territory quickly! That’s what I thought.

“The Emperor’s family will be here in a week.”

The second family meeting was called.

What do you mean a week from now? Aren’t they busy people?”

By the way, spirits can return to their original ball of light form. How convenient.

When everyone gets to have spirit beasts, and they stay that way forever, we will have a big problem with how big we will have to make the room.

“I thought he would come when it’s summer.”

“They are going to meet with the Spirit King and leave soon. Dia needs to go to the lake to ask for confirmation.”

“Okay.”

“Some court mages from the imperial court are going to accompany us. I want Dia to be there.”

“What do you mean?”

Kris’s voice lowers.

Father sighed, scratching his cheek with a troubled face. 

“Although the Spirit King and spirit beasts are mentioned in the literature, no one in the imperial court has met them. And suddenly, all sorts of things happening in our territory seem unconvincing to the court mages.”

“They would have prided themselves on being the foremost experts on the subject.”

“They don’t believe Dia exists either.”

That is because at four years old, I had all the attributes spirit beast and was blessed by the Spirit King.

For those who have worked hard in this field, it is unimaginable. 

“Can these people use ice or tornado magic?”

“The chief and deputy have three attributes, and the other has two. And they can use them.”

“Then we’ll train to bring spirit beasts back home.”

“Um, they have a high status….”

“Training!”

If you have time to complain, learn!

You may throw up!

You may pass out!

No, please.

I don’t want people to think I’m the only one.

“They didn’t object when reclaiming the Spirit King’s forest. I couldn’t believe they didn’t know about it.”

“Even though that’s what we would have discussed if we’d met the Spirit King?”

“They might think that there is a possibility we might end up not being able to meet due to conflicting schedules. Some say that summer resorts, which have no special features other than the abundant seafood, are saying random things to attract customers.”

“Father, please make a list of those people.”

Kris looks wicked.

But I’m not a fan of being on the receiving end, either. 

There is no way they will understand if I put up with it.

Letting them think messing with me would be a mistake is better. 

When I checked after meeting the Spirit King, I found that Wiki-kun did specify where the Spirit King was located.

Wouldn’t there be some literature left in the Imperial Palace?

Either that or they were deliberately discarded due to past power struggles.

Thanks to Wiki-kun, I know more about spirits than the people in this world after being reborn from another world.

But I haven’t used the skill recently.

I have three reasons. First, I don’t have time to spend with Wiki-kun because I have much more to do.

Compared to when I was a baby, during the day, I had a tutor to teach me etiquette and study, then I went to the knights’ training center, and I was tired and fell asleep easily by night. 

Moreover, it’s not often that I get to spend my time alone. 

Someone is always by my side as if they think I will do something. 

Secondly, I’ve decided not to look up any particular person.

As a baby, I looked up Count Bellisario Frontier.

While researching, I also looked up my parents.

They met when they were students and got married through a passionate relationship. They were very devoted to their family. That’s roughly what it said.

I was relieved after seeing it. Thank goodness it was only happy things written in the details. 

If he has a mistress or has had sad experiences in the past, I might not be able to treat him normally.

If someone is peeking into personal information that I keep secret, I wouldn’t want to associate with that person.

The third and most problematic thing about Wiki-kun is that the information is updated continuously.

When I realized that, I was horrified. 

Isn’t it scary? Who is updating the information?

I understand if a skill will make your magic stronger or faster at running. The more you train, the stronger you get.

But skills that update information without you having to do anything are strange.

I don’t have to do any intelligence work.

Wouldn’t it be bad if we used it for war?

Not sure how it would work, and I don’t have the power to utilize it.

Besides, it contains nothing that could lead to an industrial revolution or nature’s destruction. I sense an intention here.

Assuming it was God who gave me this skill, I think the reason behind my reincarnation is to deal with the relationship between spirits and humans.

The worst case scenario if I didn’t know how to raise spirits and how to evolve is desertification.

My primary goal is to live a long life.

I won’t take any chances.

I hope God will give up on me because it was a mistake to choose me.

Ah, that’s why I was chosen.

Then a week later, our first encounter with the imperial family.

Kris has visited the Imperial Palace several times, so only Alan and I had never been there.

They woke us up early in the morning, bathed us in hot water after breakfast, did our hair and put dresses on us.

“You look nice.”

“You look like a fairy.”

Dana and Cynthia sigh contentedly, but I’m so fed up that I’m staring at the mirror in frustration.

Why does my hair have to be finely braided when I’m going outside?

She knows I’m not fond of it when they pull on my scalp, so she pulls it back. But the ribbon is… fluttering ribbon…

Right, I’m four years old.

Even my fluffy white dress has pink ribbons, which should be cute.

“Who bought this dress?”

“They’re souvenirs from the imperial capital for the Frontier Count.”

The culprit is my father!!!

“…It looks good on you.”

“No running today, please.”

Please shut up!

I can see your shaking shoulders. Laugh all you want!!

“Huh? You look like a lady today. You’ve changed.”

“You can’t run today. Do you want Ifrit to give you a ride?”

Both of my brothers understand me very well, but that’s a cliche line to say to your sister.

Oh, Ifrit is my fire spirit’s name.

The water spirit’s name is Riva. The wind spirit’s name is Jin. And the earth spirit’s name is Gaia.

I’m not sure where I pulled the name from… 

What can I say? I’m an otaku. 

We must finish our first meeting with the royal family and the court mages without making a bad impression on them. 

That’s our goal for this quest!

We will greet our guests in the room leading to the transporter line.

This is my first time entering this place, causing me to look around at the low-decorated, defensive-oriented interior.

We waited for about ten minutes.

The double doors slowly opened, and two imperial guards entered the room first.

The imperial knights are where Alan plans to join eventually, isn’t it?

The navy blue uniforms with black and white lines are cool.

He is going to wear that uniform eventually. It suits him.

They exchanged words with my father, but I didn’t hear much.

While standing behind my father and hiding a bit, I stared at them, and the imperial knights swept their gazes uncomfortably.

Next, Her Majesty Euphenia, escorted by General Maximilian, entered the room. 

The General was big. 

Tough! Big! Scary!

I had to look up straight to see his face. 

The one that I didn’t expect was Her Majesty Euphenia. 

I expected her to be larger, but she isn’t much different from my mother. 

She is a strong-willed beauty with magnificent wavy red hair and light brown eyes that look golden in the light. 

She wears an outfit similar to a suit jacket with a narrow waistband, a large collar, and an ankle-length skirt with double layers of thin cloth and fine pleats.

Many working women wear this kind of clothing.

They don’t have to wear a corset.

They wear them only for formal tea ceremonies, evening parties or balls.

Or when meeting someone of a higher status than yourself.

Because of this, my mother is wearing a proper dress.

Andrew, the first prince, is the same age as Kris, and they have met many times before. 

They will be schoolmates this winter and seem to get along well. They exchanged glances and smiled at each other when they were introduced. 

Hey, could you stop it? It’ll make the rotten lady in me happy. 

Both of the princes have a large build like their father.

With his long red hair tied back, Prince Andrew has the General’s masculine face and the Empress’ golden eyes. 

Standing next to him is his beautiful, honey-blonde brother. 

Oh, no. He’s beautiful. 

Can I stay in my room and work on my writing?

No, no, no, I’m not rotten.

I’m someone with a healthy mind and a healthy body.

I’m a cute four years old. 

The second prince is Eldred. 

He is one year older than me. 

He is a child. 

Eldred is big for a five years old with red hair and golden eyes. Girls will surround him in ten years, but I only want him to stay away from me.

I don’t want a prince, someone beautiful, anywhere near me.

Even when I breathe, I feel like I have to be careful. 

It would be hard to recover if people thought I smelled bad.

“This is my daughter, Diadora.”

Somehow, I had been introduced.

This was not the time to be thinking about something corrupt. 

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Diadora Abel von Bellisario.”

I performed the courtesy, and when I looked up, everyone there looked at me intently as if they had found some rare species. 

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