After checking on the wolf and fox base, I returned to the lounge space. For some reason, Wanri approached me in her human form and asked,
“Older Brother, what do you intend to do with your companions?”
Her question was in response to my tour of the base, so it was clear it was related. However, I didn’t understand why she chose to ask in the lounge space instead of at the base.
Kousuke blinked in surprise and looked directly at Wanri as he replied,
“What do you mean, ‘what do I intend to do’? For now, I haven’t really thought about anything specific?”
“I see… Is that so?”
Wanri’s face fell slightly, perhaps because Kousuke’s answer was not what she had hoped for. She nodded as if slightly disappointed.
Seeing her expression, Kousuke, feeling curious, tilted his head and asked in return.
“You look like that, so is there something you wanted me to do?”
The fact that Wanri went to the trouble of returning to her human form to ask such a question, conversely, meant that she was hoping for something. Since he didn’t know what it was, he decided to ask directly.
Wanri replied to Kousuke, who was looking at her with a troubled expression.
“Lately, you don’t seem to want anything from us wolves and foxes.”
“Huh? No, I don’t think that’s true… Wait? Is that really the case?”
When he was directly confronted, Kousuke began to lose his confidence. However, his desires varied depending on the person or the subject he was considering. When thinking about it, it felt a little too much to say that Kousuke wanted nothing from his familiars.
With that thought, Kousuke decided to say it as it was.
“For example, I want you to maintain the base properly, and I want everyone to be well, and I have various other thoughts?”
“No, it’s not that kind of thing…”
Wanri also seemed to have not fully organized her thoughts, as she had a look of not knowing how to put it into words. She didn’t know how to express her feelings as a fox.
As if to help Wanri, Silvia, who had been listening nearby, interjected.
“What Wanri wants to say is not that, but rather, for what purpose are you bestowing your blessings?”
As Silvia said that, Wanri’s face lit up, and she nodded. She looked as if her own internal ambiguity had been cleared up.
Seeing her expression, Kousuke’s face turned serious this time.
“What purpose? Isn’t it to investigate whether or not bestowing blessings leads to evolution…?”
“Wasn’t that the initial objective?”
“Eh?”
Silvia, looking at Kousuke’s puzzled face, continued with a look as if recalling something.
“In the beginning, perhaps due to our circumstances, we were indeed investigating what happens when blessings are bestowed. But what about now? Of course, I’m not denying the act of investigating the results itself, but wouldn’t that alone cause our familiars to feel bewildered?”
Upon hearing Silvia’s words, Kousuke folded his arms and looked thoughtful.
After a moment of silence in that posture, Silvia continued, as if talking to herself.
“I understand that you, Kousuke, dislike forcing things upon others. However, for familiars who live in the wild, wouldn’t it be better to have a clear objective?”
“…A clear objective. I see…”
Kousuke understood what Silvia was trying to say and nodded.
Currently, the familiars are simply in a state of receiving blessings from Kousuke. Before, there was a goal of establishing a base on a higher floor, and becoming stronger for that purpose was also one of their objectives. However, now, thanks to individuals like Nana and Wanri, Kousuke no longer sought such strong individuals. Silvia is implying that this situation has led to a state where the familiars have no clear objective and are content with maintaining their current status.
Kousuke had too many points that resonated with him to offer any rebuttal. Originally, the idea of wanting them to think for themselves and grow after reaching a certain level was a way of thinking from his previous world. It was unreasonable to expect monsters and beasts, who should inherently be struggling to survive, to grow without any goals. While not saying that the familiars lacked intelligence, it was natural for them to live out their lives passively if Kousuke gave no instructions. Silvia’s words made Kousuke realize that anew.
“Even so… just telling them to get stronger doesn’t make sense.”
After all, Kousuke himself didn’t have a strong desire for his familiars to become stronger. Although it might seem contradictory to the desire for them to evolve into stronger species, he didn’t necessarily want them to evolve to win battles. However, it was an undeniable fact that evolution for familiars was virtually synonymous with becoming stronger in battle. It was also possible that Kousuke’s own way of thinking was influencing the evolution of his familiars.
Kousuke inwardly buried his head, thinking that he might have found the reason for the stagnation in evolution in an unexpected place. However, Wanri and Silvia had already shown him how to solve the problem. All that remained was for Kousuke to make a decision. That is, he needed to provide the familiars with something that could serve as a clear objective.
“Even so, that’s the difficult part…”
Kousuke himself was somewhat satisfied with the current state of his familiars. Therefore, it was impossible for him to suddenly come up with a goal for growth.
Seeing Kousuke grumbling with a troubled expression, Wanri wore a perplexed look. Kousuke, lost in thought, didn’t notice her. However, Silvia, standing nearby, noticed it and silently shook her head. She knew that it was better for Kousuke to remain silent and wait for the outcome rather than to be interrupted. Wanri seemed to have understood this as well; she closed her mouth, which had momentarily started to open, and observed the situation.
Ultimately, Kousuke was unable to reach a conclusion on that particular day. Providing clear goals for his familiars would be something for the distant future. Would they be content with their current state because no goal was given, or would they merely exist? It was a very subtle point, but this was Wanri’s way of posing the problem: the current situation was not sustainable. By the way, Nana was also present, listening attentively to the conversation. (Standing by Wanri’s side.)
