As she spoke, Aili placed her phone in front of me.
Displayed on the screen was a Forest Elemental trapped inside a glass bottle.
The spirit was even cuter than she had imagined.
After listening to Aili’s initial description, Liuli had assumed these so-called Forest Elementals would be somewhat frightening creatures—at least something with sharp teeth and claws.
She never expected them to be this adorable, looking exactly like a tiny fairy from a fairy tale.
Liuli even found herself thinking, ‘If such a cute little spirit were playing a prank on me, I might actually forgive them.’
“Ah, Aili, could you send that picture to me?”
“I can, and similar pictures are easy to find online. But, Princess, what do you want this picture for?”
“I’ve decided. I want to raise a Forest Elemental. I’m going to discuss it with Serveyia.”
After confirming she had received the image, Liuli expressed her thanks to Aili.
“Since you’re here, Aili, I won’t bother looking for others online. Your help is enough.”
Although it seemed like a good opportunity to spend some time alone with Aili, the excitement of finding a suitable pet drove Liuli to find Serveyia first.
“Serveyia, Serveyia, are you busy?”
“Not very. Do you need something, Little Fox?”
“I was just chatting with Aili, and she told me about a type of Magic Beast called a Forest Elemental that can be kept as a pet. I saw a picture and thought it was really cute. Can we raise one of those?”
“I know about Forest Elementals, but are you sure, Little Fox? They are very mischievous Magic Beasts. If you look away for even a second, they’ll start causing trouble. Can you really keep one under control, Liuli?”
“Is… is it really that scary?”
“While their pranks are mostly harmless, Forest Elementals don’t care about timing or location. You might think it’s cute when you’re happy, but if you’re having a bad day, will you still feel the same way?”
“But Aili told me that a Forest Elemental raised from a young age can be taught to be less naughty, right?”
“It’s true, but are you certain you can do it? The difficulty of teaching a Forest Elemental to stop being mischievous is no less than raising a human infant. Can you really handle that, Little Fox?”
“Is it really that much trouble?”
“Of course. So, Little Fox, you must be prepared. Do you truly want to raise one?”
“Uh, do you think… is it possible there’s a Forest Elemental out there that’s naturally gentle and doesn’t like pranks? Is that a possibility?”
“It’s possible, of course. So, Little Fox, have you already given up on training and decided to rely on luck?”
“I’m not relying on luck; I’m selecting the right candidate.”
Liuli felt she lacked confidence while saying those words.
If it really was as troublesome as raising a child, as Serveyia claimed, she felt it might be better not to keep one at all.
“However, we can go take a look when the time comes. If there really is a suitable Forest Elemental, keeping one is fine.”
Serveyia’s words made her feel a bit better.
After all, hadn’t Aili said that as long as there was a demand, those people could provide anything?
Surely a single, well-behaved Forest Elemental wasn’t too much to ask for?
“Serveyia, are Forest Elementals really only this big?”
Liuli pointed at the palm-sized creature on her phone screen, asking with some uncertainty.
“Can such a tiny little thing really cause that much trouble?”
“Sometimes it’s precisely because they are small that they cause the biggest problems. They notice little things that we overlook and use them to create significant trouble. The most frustrating part is that most of the time, you can’t even catch them after they’ve made a mistake.”
“Serveyia, how exactly are Magic Beasts defined? Looking at this Forest Elemental, it feels so much like a little fairy from a fantasy story…”
“There is no fundamental difference. It’s nothing more than a difference in evolutionary level and intelligence. Perhaps many years from now, these Forest Elementals could become a truly sentient race.”
‘Oh no,’ Liuli thought. Hearing Serveyia say that suddenly made her feel a sense of guilt.
How was this any different from the slave trade? To put it another way, what exactly determines that we are “people”?
‘Is it appearance, intelligence, or something else?’ Liuli suddenly realized she couldn’t explain it clearly.
When facing a “Magic Beast” that looked almost exactly like a human and possessed the intelligence of a child, could she really treat them with the mindset of owning a pet?
“Alright, Little Fox, we’ll see for ourselves when we reach the Forest Race’s territory. Quite a few Elves are actually fed up with them. After all, Forest Elementals are quite famous for their reputations.”
‘Wait, why does it feel like everyone is speaking ill of Forest Elementals? Are they really that bad?’
While she was dazed, Serveyia stuffed something into her mouth.
“Try this?”
“Mmph, what is this?”
She tasted it and found it was similar to bacon or, more accurately, jerky.
This was one of the essential foods for long-distance travel, so Liuli didn’t think much of it at first.
She was simply curious because she hadn’t eaten any over the past few days.
“Smoked meat. It was made from the prey we caught while we were out earlier. It’s a method for long-term preservation; if we don’t process the meat this way, it actually has a very strong gamey smell.”
“I can’t taste any strange flavors now. But to make it this quickly — is that also something magic can do?”
“Exactly. Essentially, it’s just drying and pickling. Although magic itself doesn’t have an effect specifically for this purpose, you can achieve similar results as long as you change your perspective and apply magic creatively.”
“Mmm, magic really is convenient… Do all spells have similar effects?”
“It’s hard to say. It depends on the caster’s train of thought. A clever spellcaster will use their learned knowledge, combined with experience and judgment of the situation, to apply magic flexibly. Most of the time, these things are just a flash of inspiration. It’s often difficult to replicate them afterward.”
“So, if I want to achieve a similar effect, I just have to rely on luck?”
“It sounds like luck, but in reality, it’s a matter of practice making perfect. Of course, you shouldn’t get too accustomed to the standard ways. If you become too rigid, you lose your imagination. If you truly want to innovate, you cannot stick to old conventions. Of course, it’s still too early for you, Little Fox. What you need to do first is master the magic you’ve already learned.”
Serveyia stuffed another piece of jerky into Liuli’s mouth.
“After all, the creative uses for most basic magic have already been fully explored. The difficulty of innovating is immense. However, if you truly can come up with some creative ideas, you might actually become a little famous for it. Just like the jerky I’m feeding you now — the method has decades of experience behind it. People have tried to improve it for decades, but due to various factors, no one has truly succeeded. You could say this is the ideal state for now.”
Serveyia’s explanation reminded Liuli of research paper innovations. She had only just started learning magic and was still in a state of half-understanding.
Now she was being told to innovate? She didn’t have that kind of ability. It would be good enough just to learn what was right in front of her.
“Forget it. I know my own limits.” The most important thing was that she knew she didn’t have the persistence required for scientific research.
If she happened to stumble upon something by chance, she might work hard to seize the opportunity, but the reality was that such things usually didn’t happen.
Therefore, she didn’t have high expectations; she would just go with the flow.
“However, if an ordinary person could make a breakthrough, would they be able to rise through the social classes?”
“It’s difficult to jump between classes. First, you have to ensure the breakthrough was truly made by you—or rather, that it was actually filed under your name. Second, you have to ensure the breakthrough is practical and not just some castle in the air built on rumors. And finally, the most important point: your breakthrough must actually solve an urgent problem. Once all those conditions are met and your luck arrives, you can naturally achieve a change in status.”
While the three points Serveyia mentioned were absurd in a sense, Liuli felt they were far more complex than they appeared on the surface.
example, the first condition: why emphasize filing under one’s own name? Did identity theft really happen that often?
Liuli had assumed that things like being a “first author” in name only weren’t common and were only done by those with bad intentions or academic dishonesty.
But looking at it now, as long as the potential profit was large enough, there was nothing people wouldn’t do.
“So, in other words, it’s basically impossible, right?”
“Yes. After all, over the years, folk science has sprouted like bamboo shoots after a rain. Countless people want to prove they have extraordinary abilities to solve unparalleled problems. However, the claims made by many of them cannot withstand any scrutiny; they are almost incredibly fragile. The most classic example is someone claiming to have invented a perpetual motion machine. You shouldn’t be a stranger to that, Little Fox?”
“I’m not a stranger to it… But even with magic, you can’t build a perpetual motion machine?”
In Liuli’s eyes, magic was already quite defiant of the laws of physics. She wouldn’t have found it strange if a perpetual motion machine actually existed.
“Of course not. Magic Power, as the resource spent to use magic, does not appear out of thin air, nor is it infinite. Therefore, a perpetual motion machine is destined to be impossible.”
“So, the end of magic is science?”
“What’s with this talk of science? Why do you think magic and technology are two different things, Little Fox?”
“Uh, just a subconscious thought? Actually, many works are designed that way. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a distinction between fantasy and sci-fi, right?”
“How should I put this… Science itself represents rationality. Magic only looks fantastical on the surface, but to truly use magic well, rationality is indispensable. You can’t just do whatever you feel like on a whim, can you?”
“Alright…”
Since Serveyia put it that way, Liuli had nothing else to say.
After all, she wasn’t actually trying to build a perpetual motion machine. If it couldn’t be done, it couldn’t be done.
“Little Fox, since you’re already considering raising a Forest Elemental, why don’t you go tell Fina? She was planning to go look at pets with you, after all. It’s only right that you let her know.”
“Yeah, I know.”
That was logically sound, but Liuli felt as if she had done something wrong to Fina.
She wondered if Fina would be angry when she found out.
“Now that you know, go tell her quickly. This isn’t the kind of thing you should put off.”
Well, it seemed she had to find a way to face Fina.
But Fina was so gentle; surely she wouldn’t actually do anything to her, right?