‘In the past, I too found it difficult to get along with people.’

Since getting engaged to Lanius, things had improved a bit, but before that, I had lived a life worse than a commoner.

The wet nurse left the tower when I was 10, and even the few remaining maids starved me and tormented me, so despite being a princess, I was no different from a lowborn.

To endure the harsh reality, I closed my heart, and began to guard against and suspect all who approached me.

Somehow, not catching Karl’s eye and surviving day by day was the goal of my life, and there were many days when I was relieved to see the setting sun and realize that I had lived another day without dying.

‘Maybe, the reason I want to be kind to him is because of my experience.’

My past, when I trusted people, ended in death.

But I didn’t want a child with eyes just like mine to feel such betrayal.

I wanted to prove it through Raven.

That trusting someone, having the courage to give and receive hearts, doesn’t always end in failure.

“Choa. Let’s figure out a way to go to Raebong.”

With that determination, I cautiously moved my arms and legs, as if warming up.

Although the original magic stone was damaged, Sionne had given me an emergency magic stone to replace it, so there was no hindrance in moving at all.

‘But it’s a bit strange. Have I felt this good lately?’

Unlike usual, my body felt as light as a feather, and the abundance of vitality felt slightly awkward.

Sionne must have done something, I thought, recalling a conversation with her a few hours ago.

“Raven is confined to his room for a while. I’m thinking of suspending the lessons as well.”

“Oong? Suddenly why?”

“I hope it’s just my feeling, but that child is hiding something. The fact that he coincidentally discovered Bellanim collapsing is also suspicious.”

“He just helped me.”

“That may be the conclusion, but considering what has happened, it’s dangerous to keep him close to Bellanim. At least until the master arrives, I plan to isolate him.”

Moreover, Sionne subtly added that she had set up a barrier in Raven’s room.

To prevent Raven from escaping or anyone from the outside from accessing.
Because a powerful magic circle was installed, it seemed that I could not enter it no matter what, judging from the additional explanation that I wouldn’t be able to. It seemed certain that they thought I would go to that child.

‘I have to find a way to break through Sione’s barrier first.’

Although it’s true that I have tremendous potential, it was still too much for me to break through the magic of Sione, one of the best wizards in the kingdom, with a spell.

Lately, the growth of my body had come to a complete halt, and one of the reasons was that I was suffering from a chronic shortage of magical power.

‘But there won’t be no way.’

In fact, I had a secret method that she couldn’t even imagine.

It was to summon a spirit and ask for help.

‘It will be difficult to break Sione’s barrier with the same magic, but the spirits might know a different way.’

The nature of magical power is fundamentally different from the abilities that the spirits have.

In the former case, it is the force that becomes the source of magical power, flowing in the atmosphere, forcibly transforming and using it, while the latter, the power of the spirits, takes a natural way of borrowing the power of the elements that make up the world.

So the two powers had parts that were difficult to interfere with each other, and especially in the case of barrier magic that separates space, spirits often passed through without any problem.

‘It’s been a while since I called them.’

After Sione asked me to hide from others that I could command the spirits, I didn’t summon them in front of people.

But when I was alone, it was an exception.

When I couldn’t sleep at dawn or when Sione was busy, the spirits became good playmates, and I often summoned them and whispered a conversation.

I’ve been so busy lately that I forgot about it, but it seemed like the time had come to make use of the friendship we’ve built up.

“Come out, I’ll give you a treat. Anyone who hears me.”

Shalalak.

As usual, I summoned a spirit, and a spirit wearing a green dress appeared with the refreshing smell of grass.

「Yawn. Why did you call me while I was sleeping? If it’s not for really delicious dessert, I want to go back.」

Ah, why did this one have to be summoned?

I puffed up my cheeks and glared at the sassylooking spirit fluttering its wings in the air.

Always exuding the smell of grass, I casually named this green spirit a forest spirit because it was the most picky of the ones I could summon.

‘How nice it would be if I could choose the ones to summon.’

Unlike a servitude demon tamed by magic to do my bidding, the spirit did not obey human commands well.

To begin with, spirits were a special race living in a different space from our terrestrial world, and were famously capricious and selfwilled.

Of course, some were gentle and kindhearted, but that was only because they matched well with the summoner, not because all spirits were like that.

Ultimately, spirits only responded to the calls of those they liked, and most of the time, unspecified subjects were summoned, so it was still difficult to control that part.

‘Ugh, I didn’t want to give this up.’

I sighed deeply as I looked at the spirit holding out its hand as confidently as a child entrusted with food, and pulled out a box hidden under the bed.

‘At least she can’t complain if it’s a snack made by Sione.’

Spirits are made up of pure natural energy. That is, they grow by eating things like dew on grass leaves or snowflakes on the top of a snow mountain.

They don’t necessarily have to eat food to survive, but they do have a terrible fondness for desserts with lots of sugar.

Among them, the ones with added magical power were considered a kind of delicacy to the spirits, and seemed to be considered very unique and addictive food.

It was fortunate that consuming magic had no particular effect on spirits, to the extent that it was thought so.

‘Let’s see, this should be enough?’
I took out a cupcake filled with buttercream from the box full of colorful snacks and handed it to the sprite.

“Here, this is heavy.”

「Kyak! My goodness. It looks so delicious!」

The sprite, with a scream so loud it hurt my ears, seemed excited, spinning in place before quickly snatching the cupcake.

Chomp chomp.

I sadly watched one of my favorite snacks, the cupcake, disappear in an instant as I licked my lips.

「Whew, it’s delicious. The desserts you give are the best! I did well to come.」

“Yeah. But, you know there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world, right?”

「There’s a saying that trusting a sprite is foolish, but after being treated to something so delicious, I can’t just leave. What do you want?」

As things went smoothly as I intended, I answered with a triumphant smile.

“Help me a bit. There’s a place I really need to go.”