Chapter 53

The spirits fundamentally cannot interfere with the material realm. All they can do is share their power with pure girls who have never received outside influence throughout their lives.

Only girls who have never experienced the touch of others can accept the spirit’s power, and even when the girls grow up and reach adulthood, they tend to lose the spirit’s power.

And the fact that they can only intervene in the material realm so restrictively means that the means to interfere with them from the material realm are also severely limited.

─Mew, Mewuuu…

“Well then, how about you just give up and talk?”

─No, I will never give up…!

So, in a world brimming with delicacies. Mew had never tasted the steak that humans were desperate to eat, nor the sweet chocolate or soft cream desserts.

For a spirit that had lived off the spiritual flow that existed only in the Spirit Realm, these foods brought an intense pleasure that felt like all the synapses in its brain would explode.

─Mew, Mewuuu-!

The food made so that spirits can eat it. As Mew, forced to consume tiny morsels, trembled with the intense pleasure of gourmet food, it snapped back to reality when it saw the scientist or the evil magical girl smirking in front of it.

It had to resist this temptation. What stood before it was a villain organization, and since its companion, the magical girl, had already given in, it had to escape to the Spirit Realm alive…!

“Come on, spirit? Aang-.”

─A, Aang… Huh!

Mew, who had unknowingly swallowed the dessert Ayle was feeding it, shivered once at the taste of sugar and calories exploding within its body, and then trembled again at the realization that it had casually started following the evil magical girl.

Truly a terrifying villain…! Who knew another magical girl’s spirit could be seduced so quickly…!

Regaining its senses, Mew licked the chocolate sauce off its mouth and shouted.

─Mew, Mewmu- I, I am Mew, who will not succumb to villains! Absolutely!

“Really?”

Ayle, who had been tempting the spirit with carrots, now got up as if there was no choice left. If carrots wouldn’t do it, she would have to resort to a whip.

When Ayle waved outside, she trapped the spirit in a cage designed for it and then left the laboratory.

Mew, tilting its head in confusion at the two leaving the room without it, noticed a light flicker on the monitor placed in one corner of the lab.

[Oh, do I just need to talk while looking here?]

The monitor revealed White Pang, wrapped in a towel and about to take a bath, even in that state, it was clear how much she wanted to hide her face since she hadn’t removed her mask.

Anyway, White Pang, appearing on the monitor, lightly waved her hand and spoke.

[Mew, just endure a little longer.]

As White Pang said this, she immersed herself in the hot spring. The warm water enveloped her, melting away all her fatigue.

After some time, White Pang finished her bath and savored a feast of delicacies, followed by enjoying a massage from a professional masseuse.

[Huah… This feels so good….]

─Mew, Mewuu…!

While someone was trapped in a cage in such agony, there was White Pang, who was carefree and enjoying herself? A dark shadow formed in the spirit’s heart. But whether she knew this or not, White Pang provoked Mew’s feelings.

[Mew. As long as you’re there, you can enjoy all of this for free. Just stay a little longer…….]

─Mewmu-!!

Mew couldn’t take it anymore. It wanted to enjoy such comfort too. Eating delicious food, enjoying hot springs, and receiving a massage!

Just as Mew was venting its frustration, the monitor’s display changed, revealing Ayle.

[Mew. As you heard, if you don’t talk, White Pang will continue to enjoy her happy days like that forever. How nice. With your sacrifice, the magical girl can be happy.]

At those words, Mew’s frustration intensified.

When a cousin buys land, it’s natural to feel sick in the stomach. What torments sentient beings the most is not their own unhappiness but the happiness of others.

If they had never tasted that pleasure, it might be different, but now that they had experienced it, it was painfully frustrating that only her assigned magical girl felt happiness.

─I, I’ll talk… Mewuu…

[What? I can’t hear you.]

─I’ll do anything, so please let me have the same thing too… Mew-!

Seeing the spirit declare its surrender, Ayle smiled slyly. And a moment later, she entered the laboratory, leading a mountain of piled desserts.

As the weight of the stacked desserts lightened, the spirit’s burden also eased.

* * *

─Earth? I don’t know of a world by that name…

“Oh dear.”

The answer I finally got from the spirit, forcing it to speak, was 180 degrees different from what I expected. After all, how vast is this universe and how many people live within it?

It’s funny to think that a person can’t even memorize all the names of countries on one planet, let alone all the names of countless planets.

─Mew can go back to the Spirit Realm and ask the queen!

“No, that’s okay. That queen person probably isn’t someone trustworthy anyway.”

─Mewmu-!? Disrespecting royalty is a sin!

The spirit seemed to be worried about whether I might not give it a snack, but when it heard my words, it looked at me in shock. Sёarᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Yet, I had no intention of retracting my words. There were a few things I had learned while researching spirits.

‘So, there’s no such thing as unconditional good in this world…’

After all, didn’t Jesus, who told us to love our neighbor, also whip merchants? Even Jesus, who claimed he would embrace everyone, could not be entirely selfless; someone from another world would have no reason to extend pointless goodwill.

I chuckled as I gave the spirit a snack.

“Okay, okay. If you eat this, can you keep it a secret?”

─Mewuu… W-well, it’s not allowed normally, but… I’ll keep it a secret this one time!

“Thanks. Is it tasty?”

─Mewmu-! I’m so happy! I had no idea the snacks that magical girls eat are this delicious! I wish the others could be happy too!

“Happiness, huh.”

I smirked at those words. The very thing the spirit just put in its mouth was the essence of spirits. To be precise, it’s the very reason they exist and can sustain themselves.

Spirits live off happiness.

In other words, if they’re unhappy, they die.

Thus, happiness is a duty for spirits.

‘And the world’s enemy is a monster born from consuming negative emotions…’

Spirits live on happiness.

The world’s enemy lives in unhappiness.

I do not believe it is a coincidence that these two share resemblance.

How could one know where the enemy of the world would appear and send spirits there? The universe is too vast, and it is nearly impossible for an individual entity to have that kind of interference.

Yes, unless the enemy of the world somehow knows where it is going.

* * *

[City H is known to be the city with the highest happiness index among 26 cities!]

[In this year’s national survey, City H was ranked number one in happiness…]

[Everyone, are you happy? Let’s be happy today as well.]

News broadcasts about happiness continued to pour from the radio. Hearing those words, the citizens of City H started their morning with bright smiles.

“Mm-! My tie is well ironed today! I’m happy!”

“Wow, my makeup is on point! I’m happy!”

“The bread I had for breakfast was delicious…!”

As people left for work with happy faces, their happiness was not eternal. They were human, after all, and discontent and complaints inevitably piled up, leading to unhappiness.

On the way home. As the livestock of society, burdened with anxiety and unhappiness all day, boarded the subway. The stress gathered in the darkness of the late night is like a dry powder keg. A little spark is all it takes for it to explode.

The rattling subway, the smell of sweat from the person next to them, being passed over for promotions, failing a confession.

When those weak feelings pile up and the monsters from another dimension deem them worthy of consumption, the moment they devour those emotions.

All the stress the citizens held onto disappears in an instant.

“─Huh?”

“Mm?”

“Oh….”

The subway comes to a halt, and the citizens walk home to their houses. All the grievances and unhappiness accumulated throughout the day disappeared, leaving their hearts unburdened.

Once again, the citizens of City H are happy.

Happier than citizens in any other city.

And behind such a city, maintaining the balance of this city is none other than…

─!#%Dfd$æ

“─Ah, damn it. Not again?”

It’s a magical girl.