But then, Noel spoke cautiously.
“Haku, that’s… a blessing leaf from the Ivory Tree.”
I looked at Noel.
Noel explained in a slightly trembling voice.
“It’s a leaf that falls only very rarely. They say if you carry it, it reduces mana noise a little. I’ve never received one, though….”
His voice grew quieter toward the end.
I felt the leaf on top of my head.
It reduces mana noise.
Then didn’t that mean Noel needed this more than I did?
I tried to touch the top of my head with my forepaw.
I couldn’t reach.
Damn it.
A baby fox’s forelegs are short.
Elysia noticed right away.
‘Haku, are you trying to give it to Young Master Noel?’
‘Yeah. I don’t really need it.’
‘All right.’
Elysia carefully removed the leaf from my head.
At that moment, the light of the Ivory Tree wavered ever so slightly, but it did not refuse.
Elysia looked at me.
I flicked one ear.
That’s right.
Elysia approached Noel.
“Young Master Noel.”
Noel’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yes?”
“Haku says he wants to give this to you.”
Noel froze at once.
“To me?”
Iris and Claris also held their breath.
Lady Sereniel brought a hand to her mouth, and Marquis Theodore’s gaze trembled deeply.
I deliberately turned my head away as if it were nothing.
It wasn’t a big deal.
I was giving it away because I didn’t need it.
That was all.
Noel stared at the leaf for a long time.
“But this is something Haku received….”
I tapped the floor with my tail.
Take it.
Noel looked at Elysia.
Elysia said gently,
“Haku says it’s fine.”
Noel carefully held out both hands.
Elysia placed the starlight-like leaf upon them.
At that moment, the leaf glowed softly on Noel’s palm.
The unstable mana surrounding Noel softened just a little, truly only a little.
Tears welled in Noel’s eyes.
“…Thank you.”
Thank you again.
I kept my head turned away and only moved my ears.
But this time, it wasn’t that embarrassing.
It felt a little all right.
Lady Sereniel quietly wrapped an arm around Noel’s shoulders.
Marquis Theodore could not say a word.
He simply stared for a long while at the leaf resting in Noel’s hands.
Iris closed her eyes, then opened them.
Then she bowed her head to me very deeply.
“Haku. Thank you.”
Claris also quietly bowed her head.
“Truly.”
Flustered, I looked back at Elysia.
‘Why is everyone going this far?’
Elysia’s thought was warm.
‘Because Haku gave Young Master Noel something precious.’
‘I just thought he seemed to need it….’
‘That’s what makes it precious.’
I couldn’t answer.
For a while, no words flowed through the clearing of the spirit garden.
The spirits quietly lowered their light, and the Ivory Tree gently stirred its leaves.
And there, in the middle of it all, I thought.
Coming to Asteria might turn out to be more troublesome than I expected.
But seeing Noel smile as he held the star-leaf so carefully in his palms.
Really, just a little.
I thought it might have been all right to come.
While Noel stood there for a long time, unable to continue speaking as he clasped the star-leaf in both hands,
I looked up at the Ivory Tree again.
A silver-gray trunk.
Blue-green leaves.
And tiny specks of starlight clinging to the tips of every branch.
Strangely, standing beneath that tree,
I felt the mystic power that had been rippling endlessly inside my body slowly settle down.
It had been that way since we passed through the gate.
I had acted fine on the outside, but inside, my body had not been entirely at ease.
Stellarium’s orderly mana, the barrier around the marquis’s estate, the unfamiliar spirits,
and even the ancient power sleeping deep within this body.
All of it overlapped at once, making me feel as though I were standing on the surface of thinly trembling water.
But now, it was different.
The air beneath the Ivory Tree was gentle.
It did not forcefully press down on me, nor did it forcefully draw anything out.
It simply seemed as though the ancient tree was quietly arranging the surroundings so the power inside me could find its place on its own.
‘…What is this?’
I took one more step closer to the tree.
The soil beneath my paws was soft, and the mana flowing between the roots was not sharp.
Rather, like the floor of an ancient forest, it felt layered with time and breath upon time and breath.
Without thinking much of it, truly without thinking much at all, I curled up near the base of the tree.
I gathered my forepaws, pulled my tail in toward my body, and slowly closed my eyes.
“Haku?”
Elysia called softly.
I answered briefly through thought.
‘I’m fine. Just for a moment.’
‘Are you tired?’
‘No. I’m just… settling down a little.’
Elysia did not ask any further.
Instead, I only felt her presence carefully checking our surroundings so that I would not be uncomfortable.
I slowly exhaled.
Hoo.
The mystic power spread through my body shifted ever so faintly.
At first, it was like a thin mist.
Like a breath infused with moonlight, a barely visible silver glow seeped out through the tips of my fur.
And little by little, truly little by little,
the scattered things gathered.
Deep in my chest.
Below my belly.
Along my spine.
Near my tailbone.
I felt the streams that had been moving separately begin to find a single grain.
‘…Oh.’
This was the first time.
Usually, if I wanted to use mystic power, I had to consciously draw it out, refine it, and let it flow.
But now, it was different.
Rather than using it by force, my entire body was accepting the power as naturally as breathing.
The Ivory Tree was not giving me power.
It simply was not interfering.
And because of that, the power within me revealed itself far more clearly.
The air in the spirit garden grew quiet.
I could feel it even with my eyes closed.
The soft fluttering of wings I had heard moments before, the whispers between the leaves, the signs of the water-drop spirits bouncing about—all of them disappeared one by one.
More precisely, they had not disappeared. They had lowered.
I had not become the center.
Rather, with the Ivory Tree and me curled beneath it at the center, everything around us was matching a single breath.
At that moment.
A strong sensation arose near my tailbone.
It was not hot, nor was it painful.
If anything, it was so natural that it startled me even more.
The feeling that something was about to split off, one more thing.
Apart from the tail I already had, behind it, the very faint outline of another tail tried to rise.
I immediately opened my eyes.
‘Wait.’
It was good that my mystic power was becoming freer.
It was good, but.
I couldn’t have another tail come out here.
There were spirits watching everywhere, and the Asteria family was all watching too.
I did not want a development where, at this timing, it went, “Ta-da, I’ve actually become stronger.”
I did not want that at all.
Reflexively, I pressed down on the flow inside my body as if seizing it.
‘Stop.’
Srrrk.
The sensation that had just been about to rise stopped.
It did not scatter.
It merely curled back down into the depths.
It had not vanished completely.
It was there.
If I wanted to, I could probably draw it out a little more.
But not now.
Absolutely not.
I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
‘…That was close.’
Just then, Elysia’s thought reached me very cautiously.
‘Haku.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Just now… the power near your tail shook greatly.’
So she had felt it after all.
Elysia was becoming more and more used to the changes in my mystic power.
Since she was connected to me through thought, it seemed she sensed them even more sensitively.
I hesitated for a moment before answering.
‘Another one almost came out.’
I felt Elysia’s breath stop.
‘…A tail?’
‘Yeah. That’s what it felt like.’
‘You stopped it?’
‘It would be troublesome if it came out here.’
Elysia’s thought wavered briefly.
I couldn’t tell whether she was holding back laughter or simply shocked.
‘Haku, that’s more than just troublesome.’
‘That’s why I stopped it.’
‘…Well done.’
Was that something to be praised for?
No, I suppose I had done well.
I closed my eyes again.
This time, I did not forcibly open the tail, but instead slowly fixed the flow that had just been organized inside my body.
It was fascinating.
The mystic power that had been shaking as it pleased until a moment ago now followed me smoothly, as if I were only moving a fingertip.
Foxfire, illusions, blurring my presence, touching Elysia’s aura.
I had the sense that I would be able to do all of them much more naturally than before.
‘…This is nice.’
It truly was nice.
My body felt much lighter inside.
And at that moment,
the entire garden grew quiet once more.
This time, it seemed everyone could feel it.
A very faint silver energy lightly spread around my body.
It wrapped around the roots of the Ivory Tree, climbed once up the trunk, then spread back along the ground in a circle.
It was not some dazzling explosion.
There was no sound, either.
It was merely a quiet and clear change, like moonlight spreading across the surface of an ancient pond.
Centered around that, the spirits all lowered themselves at once.
The light spirits dimmed their sparkle, and the wind spirits quietly remained behind the leaves.
The water-drop spirits floated roundly in the air, their movements halted.
The green deer spirit folded its forelegs once more before the Ivory Tree.
This was not at the level of making way.
They were showing respect.
Courteously.
Solemnly.
As if they had recalled some very ancient rule.
The garden became unbelievably still.
No one spoke, but everyone was watching it.
The Ivory Tree.
The spirits.
And the small silver-pink fox curled beneath it.
The first to speak was Lady Sereniel.
“…This is.”
Her voice was very low, but there was a tremor in it.
“The spirits have chosen silence of their own accord.”
Iris looked at me with bated breath.
Her face was analytical as usual, but she could not hide the emotions beneath it.
“Not only the central spirit, but even the surrounding lesser spirits reacted at the same time. This is not forced obedience. Rather….”
When she could not continue, Claris finished in a small voice.
“It is closer to welcome and courtesy.”
Even their voices had lowered.
Marquis Theodore was silent for a long while.
His eyes moved back and forth between the Ivory Tree and me.
As a scholar, he must have had mountains of things he wanted to confirm immediately, yet he did not move.
He simply said quietly,
“The Ivory Tree is stabilizing.”
Noel hugged the hand holding the star-leaf close to his chest and whispered,
“Because of Haku…?”
Lady Sereniel slowly shook her head.
“Not only because of Haku.”
Her eyes turned to me.
“The Ivory Tree is accepting Haku, and Haku is regaining stability beneath the Ivory Tree.
The two currents are yielding to each other without clashing.”
Hearing that, I muttered inwardly.
‘That sounds incredibly grand.’
But it wasn’t wrong.
Beneath the Ivory Tree, I truly felt at ease.
As if a breath that had not matched for a very long time had, by chance, found the exact rhythm.
Elysia stood very close beside me.
She said nothing outwardly, but her thought reached me clearly.
‘Haku, are you all right?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. I’m actually more comfortable now.’
‘That’s a relief.’
After a moment, she added very carefully,
‘Your mystic power has become much smoother than before.’
‘You can feel it?’
‘Yes. It’s much softer than before.’
I narrowed my eyes.
‘I think it’s improved. I feel like I’ll be able to use it more easily now.’
‘That tail earlier, too.’
‘Yeah. Probably.’
When the topic of the tail came up, I grew a little tense again.
Still, Elysia did not ask any more.
Instead, she quietly stayed by my side.
I slowly rose.
Once I stood up completely, the faint silver light hovering around my body also slowly settled down.
At that, the spirits’ silence loosened just a little.
But it did not completely dissolve.