At the Northern Fort

"Stone?"

When Hilg-papa tilted his head in confusion, Hyllis angrily responded.

"The stone I gave you before! A pea-green stone that is the same colour as my eyes! It was very pretty, and the humans said those kinds of stones are precious, so I gave it to Hilg, thinking that it was valuable. I even hoped……that you'd think of me every time you saw it! That is what Hilg gave to Snowlea!"

'How horrible!' -she cried, as Hyllis bawled her eyes out.

The wind started to get stronger again.

"A pea-green stone……is it the one that Milfiria was keeping?"

When Mother murmured that, I also recalled the stone in question.

There certainly was a large stone that I suspected to be an unpolished gem in my mountain of treasure deep within our nest.

Hilg-papa gave it to Mother as a present, but Mother had refused to accept it, so I accepted it instead.

But who would've thought that it was originally something that Hyllis had given to Hilg-papa.

I had a sudden realisation and looked down at the beautiful red stone that hung atop my white chest fur. It was the necklace that I had received from Kugalg.

This stone was also the same colour as Kugalg's eyes.

If I were to give this to some other boy, that would probably make Kugalg very sad, and like Hyllis, he would get angry and might even start attacking the other boy.

It was probably similarly hurtful when Hyllis discovered the stone that she had given in the nest of Mother, who she views as her love rival.

That became a huge impetus to cause her jealousy to explode, thus making her lose her mind, rendering her unable to control her powers.

Father was still standing with his eyes closed, so I couldn't tell whether he was awake or asleep, but Mother and I – and Kugalg as well – were looking at Hilg-papa with disdainful eyes.

"…….wait, waitwait! A pea-green stone? It is true that I gave one to Snowlea a year ago…….but that stone's been rolling around my nest for several tens of years already-"

"Because I gave it to you several tens of years ago! To think that you wouldn't even remember that!"

Hyllis sobbed, and Hilg-papa flusteredly apologised.

"S-Sorry……!"

For better or worse, Hilg-papa was a careless person. He probably hadn't even noticed Hyllis' delicate feelings, and ended up completely forgetting about the present that she had gathered her courage to send him unnoticed.

However, spirits may just be those kinds of beings. They did not have any attachment to objects, and probably didn't have that much interest in jewels.

Even Mother had forgotten that she received that pea-green jewel from Hilg-papa after all.

When you think about it that way, Hyllis wasn't very spirit-like. The way her feelings of love burned for Hilg-papa weren't that different from a human girl.

I was also a former human, so my emotions weren't as cold as a spirit, nor were they as simple. That is why I had a sense of affinity for Hyllis.

Of course, she probably wasn't a former human, but I did feel like I could get along with her.

"To give me something received from another…….what an impudent person."

After Mother harshly scolded Hilg-papa, she said this to Hyllis.

"However, you also know Hilg's personality. If you still like him in spite of that, then you should not allow your heart to be disturbed by every single small matter like this. And stop dragging me into your matters."

Mother then strengthened her arms that were hugging me.

"Unlike before, I now have a child. If you had hurt Milfiria this time, I probably would not have been able to forgive you."

As she said that, Hyllis finally gave me a proper look for the first time.

Reason had returned to her eyes, and while there was a bit of guilt in her gaze, there was still some jealousy mixed in as expected.

While her feelings couldn't be explained so simply, if you put Mother aside, there shouldn't be any reason for her to hold such complicated emotions towards me.

Because I was—

"In the first place, like I've been saying from the start, Milfiria is not a child made between Hilg and myself. She is a child produced from the pairing of me and Waterust over there, so she should not be a target of your jealousy."

Mother mouthed the words that I had been thinking.

"Waterust……?"

Hyllis blinked her eyes and looked at Father.

Upon meeting eyes with Father, who had opened his own ever so slightly, she jumped with a start.

"She truly isn't Hilg's child? ……but, what about that child? He's Snowlea's child, isn't he?"

She turned her gaze from me to Kugalg as she spoke.

Hilg-papa lightheartedly laughed as he answered.

"Snowlea kept turning me down after all! Daphine is the one who accepted me! She's an earth spirit!"

"Daphine? He's Daphine's child?"

Hyllis seemed to have heard her name before. Perhaps they were acquaintances.

"That's right, wait here for a sec."

Hilg-papa left Kugalg on the snow and then disappeared on the spot, but he soon returned.

However, he was not alone when reappearing from the flame cocoon, and standing next to him was a tall woman.

She was a beauty with a rather lazy atmosphere about her.

Her hair, eyebrows, and long eyelashes looked black in the darkness, but if it were daytime they would probably be dark brown.

Her warm, dark brown eyes drooped kindly at the corners, and her lips were plump and full. Though her legs were long, she had a womanly, voluptuous body, and her skin was darker than Hilg-papa's, like sweet melted chocolate.

"Hilg……what are you up to so suddenly?"

As she combed back her long wavy hair, the beauty that was clad in a long black dress finally noticed the other spirits in her surroundings.

"My, how rare for so many spirits to be gathered in one place like this. Not only that, but it's a gathering of people who have absolutely no sense of cooperation – Hilg, Snowlea, Waterust, and Hyllis, huh."

The beautiful woman glanced at each person in order and made a tired expression.

I instinctively thought this.

This beautiful woman was probably the person who had the most common sense amongst all spirits.

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