The story continues with the spirits.
Colette, Sheryl, and Dolly were searching for installations that could gather spirits, but the task was proving extremely difficult.
Meanwhile, Wanri was perched on Kousuke’s lap, singing a song she made up about spirits.
The truth was, the kind of tools Colette and Sheryl knew that gathered spirits weren’t available as installations on the tower’s management menu.
At first, they searched for anything that might resemble the tools they were looking for, but they found nothing.
So, they decided to try installing natural objects that spirits favored (like the World Tree), but Colette and Sheryl, being elves, had knowledge that was skewed towards plants.
Ultimately, nothing surpassed the World Tree, and to add to that, nothing surpassed Dolly’s tree either.
In a way, it made sense that nothing could surpass the World Tree or Dolly’s tree, which housed fairies – beings that were, in a sense, superior to spirits (as Colette had explained).
An idea was proposed to simply transform nature itself into a place where spirits could easily live, but unfortunately, they didn’t have enough divine power for such a feat.
When Colette and Sheryl inquired, they learned that transforming the environment to suit the spirits’ wishes would consume an immense amount of divine power.
They were told that altering only parts of it would be meaningless, so they had no choice but to abandon the idea of changing the terrain entirely.
After that, they discussed what else they could do, but no good ideas emerged, and they decided to disband for the day.
That night.
At dinner, where everyone had gathered, an unexpected opinion was voiced.
“If that’s the case, why don’t we ask Silvia what she thinks?”
Shurein was the one who said it.
“…Huh? Me?”
The person addressed was surprised.
“Indeed. After all, don’t the beliefs of humans stem from the same spirit worship as the elves?”
“W-well, that’s true, but the current temples are entirely based on the teachings of gods who have actually appeared. When it comes to spirits, I don’t think we can outdo the elves.”
“…Ah, no, I’m not talking about that, but the quality of their power.”
“Ah, I see~”
Almost everyone tilted their heads at Shurein’s words, but only Peach seemed to understand.
“Um, what do you mean?”
Colette, speaking for everyone, asked the two of them.
“Don’t Colette’s powers used to interact with spirits and Silvia’s powers share the same quality?”
“Wasn’t there something in the temple’s teachings that said, ‘Holy power connects to spirit (spirit) power, and vice versa’?”
Peach added to Shurein’s explanation.
Silvia, who was addressed, nodded.
“…Indeed, that teaching does exist. …But I don’t see how it connects to our current discussion?”
The original issue was about increasing the number of spirits in the floor where Wanri resided.
“Colette, what was the original role of the World Tree?”
“That was, of course, to regulate the power of the ley lines… Ah, I see!”
Colette, who was asked, suddenly nodded in understanding.
“…What do you mean?”
Silvia was still tilting her head.
By the way, Kousuke, who was listening to these exchanges, was completely out of the loop.
Kouhi and Mitsuki never interjected at times like these.
“The reason so many spirits gather around the World Tree isn’t just because Esena is there, but there’s more to it.”
Colette’s explanation was as follows.
Normally, it was rare for the World Tree’s fairies to easily appear. In fact, even World Tree Maidens rarely saw them.
Dolly, a former World Tree fairy, used to appear infrequently before Sheryl, but this was an exceptional case.
Colette didn’t know everything, but there were several World Trees in this world, yet she had never heard of any World Tree fairies appearing.
Getting back to the point, the World Tree’s role was to regulate the flow of ley lines.
Ley lines were, in essence, the flow of spirit (spiritual) power itself, and could even be said to be spirit (spiritual) power itself.
The World Tree existed at the intersection (center) of these flows, and by drawing up that power, it created the flow of spirit (spiritual) power.
Spirits were, in fact, spirit (spiritual) power.
Therefore, where there was a World Tree, spirits would gather.
Now, the problem was whether the World Tree was the only thing that existed at the intersection of ley lines.
The temples were.
Temples with spirit worship were, since ancient times, built in places where many spirits gathered.
A large gathering of spirits meant that it was inevitably an intersection of ley lines.
This was because the intersection of ley lines was where spirit (spiritual) power was concentrated, and where spirits were likely to originate.
However, spirits rarely stayed in one place just because they originated there.
They simply drifted around the world along the flow.
The role of retaining them was played by the World Tree and, also, by the temples.
If there was an ‘object’ at the place where spirits originated, it made it easier for spirits to remain there.
Temples, being mere artificial structures, did not have the role of drawing up spirit (spiritual) power like the World Tree, but they did fulfill the role of retaining spirits.
As a side note, places called sacred sites in current temples were also, at the same time, places where many spirits could be observed.
Other temples that had existed since ancient times were also located on intersections of ley lines, but most of them were in densely populated cities, so spirits rarely appeared.
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After listening to Colette’s explanation, Kousuke nodded in understanding.
“In other words, as long as something exists at the intersection of ley lines, it’s fine, right?”
“Well, in extreme terms, that might be true… No, it has to be something that stores holy power, which is the counterpart to spirit (spiritual) power; things that store magic power won’t work.”
“I see. So that’s why it’s Silvia.”
“That’s right.”
Shurein and Peach used magic power.
Naturally, any tools or buildings related to their powers would also be related to magic power, so they wouldn’t be suitable for the purpose.
In this case, Silvia, who was knowledgeable about holy power, was the most suitable candidate.
Silvia herself, the person in question, had been listening to the conversation so far with a dazed expression.
“…I have never seen or heard of such a story in the temple.”
“I imagine not. After all, this is about the time we were engaged in spirit worship.”
“…Why did you know this story, Shurein?”
Shurein had spoken of it without hesitation.
It was as if she had known it from the beginning.
“If you consider the past of our clan and the temple, you should understand.”
At Shurein’s mournful tone, Silvia’s expression became one of realization.
There was a time when the temple confronted the vampire clan as beings of evil.
“I am sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. I have already put that behind me.”
Silvia bowed her head to Shurein, who smiled.
The atmosphere became somewhat awkward, so Kousuke, to break the tension, said to Silvia,
“So, please tell me later what we should build.”
“Understood. Although, I don’t think we need to change anything from what we are currently building.”
“…Huh!? What do you mean?”
“What do I mean? For people like us, temples and shrines serve the same purpose. Therefore, based on what I’ve heard, all we need to do is build a temple or a shrine at the intersection of the ley lines. And as long as we manage it properly, that’s all there is to it.”
“…Can you see ley lines?”
Kousuke asked, with a hint of uncertainty, looking at Colette, who seemed to be the most knowledgeable.
Colette, having been asked, shook her head.
“Even I can’t do that kind of thing. Maybe a High Elf could. But there’s no need to go out of our way to bring them here.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s someone closer who can see them more clearly.”
“……Who?”
“It’s Esena, of course.”
At Colette’s words, everyone nodded in agreement.
In the end, having Esena search for the intersection of ley lines on the 8th Floor was easily accomplished.
When Kousuke asked Esena where the most concentrated power was, she headed straight for the location.
The problem was how to identify the spot on the management screen’s map. This was resolved by placing markers at the four corners of the intersection.
They utilized the fact that placing an artificial object of a certain size would prevent buildings from being constructed on top of it.
Even so, there was some work involved in adjusting the position and placing a larger shrine, which required expanding the markers, but otherwise, the shrine installation was completed without any major issues.
And so, the discussion turned to the relationship between temples and spirits.
Holy power is equivalent to spirit (spiritual) power.
The relationship between holy power and magic power may be discussed further later (though it might not be).
As briefly mentioned in this story, the temple side used to confront those who used magic power, but they no longer do so. Holy power and magic power are counterparts and are not in an adversarial relationship.
(What am I even talking about here?)
Yesterday, the number of favorites exceeded 200.
Thank you very much.
I hope you are all enjoying reading it, even a little bit.
I hope to continue writing with enjoyment as well.
May 11, 2014 – The location for the shrine installation was changed to the 8th Floor.
June 14, 2014 – Typo corrections.
