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"Alice..."

"Alyssa..."

"Choose one of these spirits," I said to my tin step-sisters after the spirit summoning succeeded for the third time at the cost of my sweaty underwear gone.

In front of me were three spirit answering my call. The form of the spirit was a butterfly cocoon flying while waiting for physical contact with their Master. Memories of their past lives as spirits flowed into my brain.

A terrible story that happened in the past and the chaos of the world forced them to enter the sacred cocoon phase to get through the crisis that had threatened their existence as spirits.

Before this world was inhabited by the human race and other races, spirit had lived freely in this world. Their main food was the magic energy released by plants that produced magic energy, the overflow of magic energy from the holy land, and magic minerals that could be found in the wild.

The life of spirits was not much different from the life of the human race, they managed to develop civilization and process sources of magic energy for their daily needs. Until a great tragedy occurred. A mineral containing cursed magic energy turns spirits into abnormal spirits that attack other spirits. Some of them even managed to turn into scary, ferocious monsters.

At first, the tragedy was successfully controlled by the upper-level spirits and created a hierarchy of spirit groupings based on their magic power. The hierarchy that separated spirits based on magic power created a new ideology and developed into a caste system to group spirits.

The three spirit cocoons in front of me were victims of the caste system invented by the spirits themselves.

In that world, they occupied the outermost rank of the spirit caste level. They were just weak spirits that came out of the spirit caste system. A spirit that did not have enough magic ability to enter the caste system.

At that time, they were just small caterpillar spirits that were looked down upon. Their food was only the remains of magic energy that had been absorbed by other spirits in the form of leftover food. Surviving under the pressure of other spirits was the greatest achievement in their lives.

All that difficult life changed when the caterpillar spirit sister began to release thin threads filled with magic energy from her body to form a cocoon.

The thin thread filled with magic increased and became a backup food when it was difficult to get magic energy. That life continued to repeat itself until a small incident occurred, their magic thread had invited the upper-level spirits to taste the magic thread until it was hunted like a rare commodity.

On that day, the three spirit sisters experienced an unforgettable incident in their lives. Becoming livestock spirits that produced magic thread for upper-level spirits to eat. Their bodies turned into dairy cows that were regularly forced to release magic thread.

The quality of their magic thread became a luxury dish targeted by upper-level spirits. Until they decided to become a sacred cocoon to release their magic thread abilities. The sacred cocoon that had a large source of magic created the flames of war among upper-level spirits.

Sometimes, I thought that only humans were capable of committing such cruel acts by taking advantage of each other.

However, the greed of spirits was also able to drive such cruel acts without regard for morals and ethics as fellow spirits.

Eh, do spirits have morals and ethics like humans?

Based on the memories of this spirit, it seems that spirits have the same way of thinking as the human race.

[ Of course, all spirits have thinking ability and reasoning that are close to humans. ]

Eh, Goddess? Why did you come back?

[ I was just answering Lily-chan’s small question. ]

[ Don’t take their memories too seriously. Because the Goddess who holds the title of "Mother of Spirits" has restrained all remaining spirits with sacred rules. Spirits who violate the sacred rules will disappear from the order of life in this world and information about their behavior is immortalized to commemorate someone who wants to make a spirit contract with them.

In short, their memories are just additional information about the past lives of spirits that are difficult to control, so their nature not to surprise their contractors. ]

[ Ah! Speaking of them. The three spirit cocoons that Lily-chan managed to summon are sacred spirits blessed by the "Mother of Spirits". ]

[ By feeling the presence of their magic, Alice and Alyssa’s future will be guaranteed to be bright. ]

Un... I understand that they are spirits blessed by the Goddess and a bright future awaits my two stepsisters.

It’s just that...

Isn’t their magic power will be too great to hide later?

Moreover... Their power will shake the entire kingdom around here, right?

[ Aaah... That’s right. ]

If that happens, I can smell an engagement proposal to seize my twin stepsisters to take advantage of their magic abilities.

If that happens, I will kill those who try to hurt my twin stepsisters!

[ Hmm... I guess that won’t happen because Alice and Alyssa... ]

[Oops... I almost let it slip. ]

[ Well, the point is... Good luck, Lily-chan! ]

Eh? Why do I have to have a good luck?

[ Ahem! Forget what I said before. Isn’t it Lily-chan’s turn to form a contract with a spirit now? ]

Eh?

Without me realizing it, Alice and Alyssa had succeeded in making a spirit contract without my direction. A butterfly-shaped spirit with beautiful wings was in their palms. My twin stepsisters’ faces were filled with small laughter and smiles of happiness because they had succeeded in forming a contract with a spirit.

Now, there was only one spirit left waiting for me.

"Hmm... I’m really curious about this spirit," I muttered softly.

"I will take care you... Umm... what is your name?"

"If you don’t have a name, then... I will call you..."

"Zoe..." I called out the spirit’s name and touched its cocoon. A small crack began to appear and grow larger.

From behind the crack, a golden light and magical aura slowly came out. Like water gushing out of a narrow gap, the magical energy emitted by my spirit grew until my room was enveloped in golden magical energy, and a butterfly spirit was born in front of me.

My vision was filled with golden light and it was very dazzling.

The golden light slowly dimmed and revealed the figure of a butterfly with menace wings.

"Huuumu~ So you are my Master in this rotten world?"

"Zoe?"

"Not a bad name for me."

"Un! I like that name!"

"Nice to meet you, Maasssteeerr~"

"Huuee?!" I was very surprised when my contract spirit could speak when released from its cocoon.

"Z-Zoe?"

"Yes, Master? Zoe is ready to help! Are we going to destroy a dragon’s nest, a goblin’s nest, or maybe… destroy a kingdom in one strike?" Zoe said happily.

"H-Huh?" I was very confused by Zoe’s words.

My contract spirit has the same physique as mine. Compared to her sister who has bright and beautiful wings, Zoe has black and purple wings. For some reason, I feel that Zoe’s physical appearance follows my brown-skinned and unattractive appearance at all.

"Zoe, I want to ask you one thing?" I asked to confirm my curiosity.

"Ung?"

"Are they your sisters?" I said while pointing at my twin step-sisters who were playing with their chosen butterfly spirits.

"Yes, they are indeed my little sisters. Have they messed up something from you, Master?"

"Ah, no. It’s just… Can they speak the same way as you?"

"..."

"..."

"Master.. All spirits can talk. How can we live if we don’t communicate with each other?"

"Ah, that’s right. I’m sorry.."

"It’s okay, Master."

Perhaps, this is my first experience communicating with a spirit, especially with a spirit that has lived too long as a cocoon and was born as a butterfly with wings that don’t attract attention to the beauty of the world.

Wait a minute!

Isn’t Nimi a spirit too?

Then this isn’t my first experience talking to a spirit!

Why did I almost forget Nimi’s true identity as a spirit?

Is it because her body shape resembles a human?

I felt a little guilty towards Nimi and glanced at her from a distance.

Alice, Alyssa, Mio, and Nimi were chatting with two spirits that had just been born after coming out of their cocoon phase.

"Anooo... Master~"

"Hmm... What’s wrong, Zoe?"

Suddenly, Zoe called out to me. She flew around me and landed in between my hair like a hair ribbon.

"Ettoo... Can I ask you one request?" Zoe asked.

"What request is that?" I replied.

"Umm... Can I lick some of Master’s sweat as my main meal?"

"Huh?" Hearing Zoe’s rather strange request, I could only remain silent after hearing it.

"Ettoo... Master’s sweat has quite tempting magical energy. So, it would be a waste to throw it away. Umm... Is that too much trouble for you, Master?"

Ahh... This is the umpteenth time I’ve heard it.

For some reason, my body seems to be growing in the wrong direction because of the Goddess’ blessing and weird behavior.

"Umm... No problem," I replied.

"Thank you, Maassterr~" Zoe replied while flapping her wings.

Braaaaak!!

"ALICE!!"

"ALYSSA!!"

"LILY!!"

"ARE YOU ALL OKAY!!"

The door to my room was opened roughly, my father suddenly entered my room with a sword in his hand. He looked at us who were busy with the presence of spirits and saw the magic circle carved on the floor of my room.

Erm... Isn’t this going to be a big problem?

"Marquess Rommel! We have gathered troops!" Behind my father, a small army had lined up to enter my room.

My father and the soldiers guarding Marquess Rommel’s residence fell silent after seeing the magic circle carved on the floor of my room.

Meanwhile, Alice and Alyssa ran towards my father while showing their spirit contracts in the shape of butterflies.

Cold sweat began to wet my clothes and my father’s gaze filled with a myriad of questions began to focus on me.

"Lily, what does this mean?" said my father while smiling softly and wanting to attack me with various questions.

Ugh... This is going to be very tiring to talk about. Therefore, I ordered Zoe to explain the current situation as her first task.

This long story ended after dinner.

Uh, that was so tiring!