"Well… I didn't expect to co back with an extra occupant, so I'm not really sure where she could stay."
"How about she stays in my room?" Koneko suggested.
"And you?" Kaito asked, surprised.
Koneko's look was answer enough, so it was decided that Shiina would stay in Koneko's room.
It was one of the few rooms, aside from the master bedroom, that had more than just the basics. Although the mansion had plenty of rooms, Kaito felt there were too many. In fact, only three were occupied, plus a few for guests.
Koneko would simply sleep in the master bedroom with Kaito.
---
There was a small incident when Shiina, a bit confused, asked why she didn't sleep with Kaito if they were a couple… but Kaito managed to trick her skillfully.
"What will you do with her?" Koneko asked, once they were lying down in the room.
"What will I do…?"
"I an if you'll really make her your girlfriend."
Kaito sighed.
Although he wouldn't reject a woman who literally threw herself into his arms, he also didn't plan to take advantage of soone who clearly didn't know what she was doing.
That's why he decided to treat Shiina only as a subordinate. Of course, she believed she was his girlfriend, but since she was easy to fool, it wasn't really a problem.
In the anti, he'd also try to teach her a bit so she wouldn't be so naive.
After all, it might be funny in an ani to watch her act like that… but now he needed the Fairy Queen at full power, not a girl who probably wouldn't even attack if soone tricked her into not doing it.
---
The next day, Kaito spent almost all his ti in the real world and barely logged into Gaia.
He mostly did basic guild quests: helping with repairs or municipal requests.
Unlike the other day when he only had a few hours, this ti he had the whole day, so he completed several more quests. That way, he made sure to have more free ti to skip school.
Honestly, by now, less than 15% of the students were still attending classes. Even so, the governnt didn't take any asures, which Kaito found strange… although he wasn't really good at thinking about those things, so he decided to ignore it.
One thing he did notice was a sudden increase in quests directly related to the governnt.
Before, they were also funded by the governnt, but these were official collaborations, sothing much more direct.
While looking at the list of quests, he suddenly felt a sharp headache.
At first, he thought it was just a simple pain, but soon realized it was related to his ability.
Since accepting Shiina, he'd had this kind of bad feeling several tis.
Having so kind of sixth sense was useful, but not being able to control it was more annoying than anything else.
For now, he could only try to tell them apart by the level of pain: the stronger it was, the more serious he assud it was. If they were at the sa level, maybe they were related.
A rudintary thod… but so far, it seed to work. Or at least he thought so, because in reality, nothing had actually happened yet because of those premonitions.
At the end of the day in the real world, Kaito wanted to relax watching TV.
Technology was sothing he really missed in Gaia.
But his bad luck ant he couldn't watch much.
A report about the Lords ca on the news, and right away the headache intensified terribly.
Even so, knowing it had to be sothing important, he forced himself to watch until the end.
When it was over, the pain disappeared. But Kaito turned off the TV to think.
The news talked about hikikomoris. These are people —usually young, but sotis adults too— who, after failing at sothing or feeling unable to face the world, decide to completely isolate themselves. They lock themselves in their rooms for months or even years, refusing contact with anyone or going outside.
What was worrying was that these hikikomoris were "disappearing."
Although disappearing wasn't exactly the right word: in reality, they were completely abandoning this world to live forever in Gaia.
This sparked a debate on the show: so said it was good for the country, others that it was terrible, since they weren't just abandoning the country, but the entire real world. So even said they shouldn't even be considered part of civilization anymore.
The channel cut the debate before it escalated further.
"What exactly is so bad about this to cause such a headache?" Kaito asked himself.
He thought about it for a while… but didn't reach a clear answer.
"Maybe my ability doesn't work that well? Or I just don't understand these things," he sighed.
As a Lord, he knew he should learn about political maneuvers and that kind of thing… but honestly, he had no idea.
"Maybe if I found soone who understands this, I could figure out what's happening…"
With that bad feeling lingering in his mind, though without knowing the exact reason, Kaito decided to return to Gaia that night.
---
The next day, after their morning activities, Kaito, Koneko, and Shiina were gathered in the throne room.
Suddenly, Undyne appeared, as if she'd fallen from the sky.
"Are you ready?" she asked enthusiastically.
Kaito nodded.
As she explained, there were three ways to get to the spirit world.
Number one: through an exact ritual. Very few people knew this ritual, since it was almost lost knowledge.
Number two: through spatial gates that existed in so places due to special causes: overly powerful rituals or gates that were left open by accident.
And number three: spatial gates opened at will.
Each fairy in charge of an elent had the ability to open a gate to their world. Besides them, the only other person who could do it was…
"Can you do it?" Kaito asked, looking at Shiina.
"Hmm…" Shiina just nodded softly before extending her hand forward.
From her palm ca a small point of light, like a firefly.
The light floated around her before stopping in front of her body and starting to spin, forming a vertical oval.
After a few seconds spinning faster and faster, the outline of the oval began to glow until it turned into a portal, just like in a movie.
"We can go now," Shiina said.
The group followed her and stepped through the portal together.
When they arrived the view was a bit...disappointing.
Kaito, who'd spent over half a month seeing forests almost all the ti, had hoped to find sothing different… but instead found, indeed, more forest.
Of course, it wasn't a normal forest.
The trees were huge, all the size of a great earthly oak, and the tallest ones didn't even show their treetops.
They were covered with leaves that looked as if they'd been painted in watercolor, full of life and mana.
Even so… it was still a forest.
"And now where do we go?" Kaito asked, turning to Undyne.
"Wherever you want," she replied excitedly.
"But isn't there any specific place?"
"Hmm… I don't think so. Everything is equally beautiful," she answered after thinking for a mont.
"Wait… you an EVERYTHING is exactly like this? There's nothing else?"
Kaito's expression clearly showed his surprise.
"We don't need anything else. We are mana, we live off mana. And this place is full of it" Undyne replied proudly.
Certainly, Kaito noticed that since he entered, his mana recovered at least three tis faster than normal.
Also, casting or learning spells felt much easier.
"But you don't have anything else? No structure? Where do you gather when you choose the Fairy Queen?"
"We haven't changed anything since this world was created," Undyne replied, even prouder. "And to choose the Fairy Queen… I just found her, introduced her to the others, and everyone agreed."
"But how do you call them?"
"I just… call them. I don't know, when I want them to know sothing… they know it."
"Alright, I give up…" Kaito sighed.
'So this place is just one huge forest with mana buffs… I guess it makes sense: fairies live only on mana, they don't need anything else. And no one else can change anything even if they try.
Even so… I was hoping to explore sothing more interesting. But if it's just trees and more trees… we can start right away.'
"So, Undyne… can I create my territory anywhere?"
"Eh… well, all this is your territory," Undyne replied. "Ah! You an building? Yes, you can do it wherever you want. But I recomnd doing it away from the areas with the highest mana concentration. The more mana a place has, the easier it is for others to get there using rituals or open gates to it."
______________________________________
15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon/IAM26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)
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