Rosmiel had prepared the Rose Accessory Case for me. I offered to pay the full price for it, but she shook her head. "It’s really nothing special, and I’ve been in your debt for so long, Kaito-kun. Please, take it as a thank-you gift," she insisted. I ended up receiving it for free.
I didn't want to stubbornly rebuff her kindness or insist on paying just for the sake of my own pride. Instead, I decided to graciously accept her generosity and resolve to repay the favor in a different way later on.
At any rate, while my primary objective was complete, I wasn't about to just get up and leave immediately. I sat down with Rosmiel as she brewed some black tea using the leaves I had brought. We sat together, gazing out at the breathtaking scenery of the Garden of Myriad Flowers while making small talk.
"Oh, this is delicious. It has such a gentle, soothing flavor... I feel like it really matches the image I have of you, Kaito-kun."
"I'm a bit embarrassed to hear you say that, but I'm glad it's to your liking."
Fortunately, she seemed to enjoy the flavor of my original blend. Seeing Rosmiel look so happy brought a natural smile to my face as well.
As we continued our conversation, the topic shifted toward the details of the Spirit Race that I had heard from Jutia earlier.
"...And that’s the gist of what Jutia-san told me. Flower spirits really are a rare sight, aren't they?"
"Yes. Though it depends on the variety of the flower to some extent. For instance, I am a Rose Spirit... and because roses possess a relatively high Magic Power Amount, there are other Rose Spirits in existence besides me. We just aren't numerous enough to be classified as Great Spirits like the spirits of the Spirit Trees are."
"I see. It makes sense when you put it that way, but it's interesting that multiple spirits can share the same origin. Do spirits just find it easier to dwell in plants that have high magic power?"
"Generally speaking, that’s correct. But there are exceptions. Take the Blue Crystal Flower, for example. It possesses an incredible amount of magic power, even among other flowers, but its existence as a spirit hadn't been confirmed until recently. When I heard that a Blue Crystal Flower Spirit had joined Isis-sama’s camp, I was quite shocked."
Spica’s existence had apparently overturned the common knowledge of the Spirit Race. I remembered Lilliwood being quite surprised as well. Since it proved that spirits could dwell in flowers and trees previously thought to be impossible hosts, she had literally changed the way the world viewed her kind.
"And I heard she’s a considerably ancient spirit, too. She must possess immense power. It’s startling that she managed to go so long without ever manifesting before now."
"Um, sorry if this is a basic question, but are spirits really more impressive the older they are?"
"Yes. In the Spirit Race, ability and magic power grow very little through training. Instead, our power increases significantly with the passage of time. It's not that training is completely useless, but the growth it provides is negligible—hardly more than a rounding error. That's why the older a spirit is, the stronger they tend to be. It’s exactly why the oldest spirit, Lilliwood-sama, holds the greatest power among our race. Well, there are spirits like Blossom who were uniquely gifted with a large portion of Lilliwood-sama's own power at birth, but..."
"I see. So it’s a racial characteristic."
Thinking about it, since a spirit's physical form is separate from their Main Body—much like Lilliwood’s true body is the World Tree—training the spirit body itself might not yield much of a growth rate. Instead, they likely just grew steadily and perpetually as the years went by.
"Does that kind of thing vary a lot between the different races?"
"Very much so. For example, in terms of growth speed, Humankind... specifically the Human Race, is overwhelming. If they train, they grow at a speed that's incomparable to Demons. However, they are also a precocious race that hits a Growth Limit quite early... a race..."
"Rosmiel?"
"O-Oh, sorry. I just happened to think of Lilia-chan. That girl is truly an extreme mutation, but a human whose Growth Limit has been removed is a terrifying thing. She reached a level equivalent to Count-class—something that would take a spirit over ten thousand years—in just a little over twenty years... W-Well, I suppose Lilia-chan is just a truly exceptional case..."
"That... well, that’s certainly true."
She was undeniably a member of the Human Race. She was, and yet... I found myself hesitating to classify Lilia-san as a mere human. Her specs were just that broken.
Alice had gone as far as to call her a Bug of the World, which was saying a lot. Even the Murderous Coaster in Shiro-san's Amusement Park was apparently tuned with Lilia-san as the benchmark, and she had ridden it without a single issue... Thinking about it again, Lilia-san really was incredible.
Machina: "It's true. Among those whom Shallow Vernal hasn't tampered with at all, Lilia is in a league of her own... She's a genuine, one-in-a-billion mutation."
Serious-senpai: "...Is it just my imagination, or did that phrasing imply something? By excluding the Six Kings, you make it sound like there are plenty of others that the Natural God has 'adjusted'..."
Machina: "Oh, there are tons. To begin with, the reason the Demon Realm has such a massive variety of species—and why there are so many Unique Species with only one individual—is because Shallow Vernal was constantly experimenting with different ideas back when she first created the world."
Serious-senpai: "I see... I have a feeling those details are going to come back to haunt us later."