After a quiet dinner shared with Kaito and her subordinates, Isis wandered into a room in the castle that offered a particularly sweeping view.
She stood by the window where a potted Blue Crystal Flower sat, gazing idly at the landscape outside. Though it was well into the night, the castle’s illumination and her magically enhanced vision allowed her to see the world below with perfect clarity.
Isis used to hate this view.
It was a sight defined by the Land of Death—a frozen wasteland of snow and ice where no living thing could thrive. For a woman living in solitude, looking out from her lonely tower only served to sharpen the ache in her heart. She had despised the bleak scenery, seeing it as a reflection of her own cold, dead soul.
But at some point, those feelings had begun to change. On the day she met her destiny—the day she met her beloved Kaito—the world outside the window seemed to shine with a luster she had never noticed before.
There was no logical explanation for it. It was simply that at the moment Kaito took her hand, she felt something frozen within her begin to thaw and stir.
She had sensed then that her life was about to change. That intuition had proven correct; her encounter with Kaito had turned her entire world around.
The dream she had nearly abandoned, the one tiny hope she had managed to keep alive... that single wish, which she could never truly discard even in the depths of her despair and isolation, had finally been fulfilled. And as that dream came true, everything else in her life had begun to move in sync.
The smiles she had forgotten long ago now came to her lips naturally. The castle where she was once the sole inhabitant was now filled with the warmth of others. Before she knew it, her home in the Land of Death had been transformed from a tomb of loneliness into a place of comfort.
And the scenery from her window, which she had once loathed, had also changed.
"...Without even realizing it... I've grown to love the view from here."
The words were a quiet, honest confession. More than anything, they were proof of the profound transformation within Isis herself. It was likely because of this change—because of the growth of her heart—that her words were able to call forth the Sixth Star.
"I’ve quite grown to like the view from here myself."
"!"
Isis spun toward the sudden voice. Standing by another window in the room was a woman smiling gently at her.
She was striking, with long silver hair tinged with blue and dressed in an elegant tunic-style gown. A Blue Crystal Flower hair ornament was tucked into her hair.
Isis was stunned. She hadn't sensed any presence in the room until the woman spoke. Had she teleported in, Isis would have noticed the ripple in magic power instantly. The fact that she hadn't meant the woman must have been in the room from the very beginning.
"...Are you... the Spirit of the Blue Crystal Flower?"
"Indeed I am. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Isis-san. My name is Spica. As you’ve guessed, I’m a spirit. To be honest, I’ve been here ever since you brought me home, but I’m dreadfully late with my greetings. I hope you'll forgive me for taking so long."
Isis had been mostly certain, yet Spica’s confirmation left her truly astonished. As a close friend of Lilliwood, the King of Spirits, Isis was deeply knowledgeable about spirits.
That was why she was so shocked. She had always believed that Blue Crystal Flowers were void of spirits; Lilliwood, who had seen nearly every spirit in existence, had claimed the same.
Yet there was no denying the spirit standing before her. The magic power radiating from Spica suggested she was incredibly ancient.
However, given that such an ancient spirit was unknown to history and even Lilliwood had never heard of her, Isis could only conclude that Spica had never once manifested in a spirit form until this very moment.
Isis couldn't understand why a spirit who had remained dormant for tens of thousands of years would suddenly choose to appear before her now.
Whether she read the confusion on Isis's face or was simply following her own heart, Spica turned her gaze back to the window and spoke softly.
"It’s a funny thing... I never once felt this way before. I don't quite understand it myself, really... but for some reason, I just found that I really wanted to talk to you."
"...To me?"
"Yes. So, even though I know it’s a bit sudden, would it be alright if we chatted for a while?"
Seeing Spica’s gentle, serene smile, Isis felt her own heart relax. She gave a soft smile of her own and nodded.
Serious-senpai: "Oh, Spica finally makes her debut. Man, Alice is going to have a massive headache over this. First, a freak-of-nature ten-tailed Mystic Silver fox appears, and then a highest-ranking Count-class level Spirit that nobody even knew existed suddenly pops up? Wait... is Alice becoming the next stomach pain character?"