This made the little spirit confused, but she soon found out why. Unlike her prediction, closing off her senses had almost no effect on her increasing curiosity. In fact, it only made her even more curious!

Uwa! It’s not working! Is— Is it because I am even more curious about what she’s doing now that I can’t see her?

As if to confirm her theory, the dancing spirit let out another chuckle without interrupting her dance.

Under the greater spirit’s mocking laughter, Chara finally became angry enough to brush away a bit of her cowardice.

Hmph! Who is curious about your stupid dance? If thinking about you is what’s making me curious, then the only thing I need to do is clear my mind!

If only it was that easy…

Lamentably, for someone with as many thoughts as Chara, clearing her mind would be an extremely difficult task. Moreover, she was in a dangerous situation where her mind was under siege by another spirit. Under such circumstances, how could her thoughts not be filled with the other spirit?

Paradoxically, in what could only be considered a feat of pure stubbornness and desperation, Chara managed to clear her mind, dispelling all of her curiosity.

However, her unexpected breakthrough only made the curiosity spirit giggle before changing tactics. Without any prior warning, she appeared right next to Chara and booped her on the side with a mana tendril, nearly collapsing her concentration in an instant.

Uwaaaaa! That! That! That’s Cheeaaaatiiiiiiing!!! Chara was so outraged that she nearly fainted on the spot. Completely indignant, she quintupled her efforts to steel her mind. She was determined to ignore the dancing spirit at any cost.

Hmph, trying to ignore me? A likely story! Nobody can resist curiosity!

The curiosity spirit adjusted her movements and began to dance much closer to the little spirit. Then, like a mischievous fairy, she began to tease the blind and immobile spirit amidst her dance by intermittently booping her from different angles in order to stimulate her curiosity and disturb her concentration.

Let’s see how long you can keep this up, Little Spirit~! cheered Curiosity while giggling playfully.

Keeping her mind clear was becoming more difficult by the second. Under the constant and unpredictable bombardment of Curiosity’s teasing, it was not long before Chara’s clear mind began to falter.

Unfortunately, the greater spirit was much more treacherous than she could have ever imagined. Because she had been treated nicely, Chara had both overestimated Curiosity’s patience while underestimating her bottom line.

Seemingly looking for a way to make her game of teasing more entertaining, the curiosity spirit had an idea. Little by little, a devious plan started to form in her mind that could help her vent her frustration while also disturbing the little spirit’s concentration.

After all, just because she wasn’t willing to hurt the little spirit, didn’t mean that she couldn’t make things difficult for her in other ways. With just how angry she had been previously, Curiosity was more than willing to extract as much enjoyment from her as possible, even at Chara’s expense.

Let’s see if you can keep ignoring me after this…

Amidst her complicated and mysterious dance, the greater spirit found an opportunity to slam into the little spirit, and completely switch places with her.

Rocketing through the air, Chara was about to crash into a crystal wall when she reached the apex of her parabola and was sucked right back into the whirlpool of mana. Catching her in the nick of time, the dancing spirit used Chara to do a little pirouette, before launching her again, but this time at a different angle.

Suddenly, it was not a big planet orbiting a little moon. It was a little moon, orbiting a big planet with an orbit in the shape of an ellipse. Repeatedly coming very close, before going far into the distance. If viewed from above, the little moon’s path would eventually form into the shape of a flower.

Before she knew it, the little spirit was no longer the center of the galaxy. Instead, she was being bounced around while blindfolded and helpless while the greater spirit played a game of ping pong against herself.

Uwaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Chara’s concentration instantly collapsed. Under the curiosity spirit’s relentless torment, it was not long before her mind began to be suffused with curiosity and interest.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Why is she doing this? Why go through all this effort? If all she wants to do is boss me around, then she can already do that!

Funnily enough, although the gradual increase in curiosity was contrary to her goal, counterintuitively, it was also increasing her problem-solving skills by making her ask questions.

Isn’t this too much? Why is she trying so hard to get my attention? Does she need me to notice her that badly? No, that doesn’t make any sense! Assuming her goal is to make me curious, then her weird dance already makes me curious even when I’m not looking…

If things continue the way they are going, then I will end up getting consumed by curiosity whether I observe her dance or not. Therefore, there shouldn’t be any reason to try this hard to get me to look…

Whatever, let’s assume there is a concrete reason she absolutely needs me to watch her dance… Then why hasn’t she used her ordering ability to force me? This is only my speculation, but I’m pretty sure she can only enforce one order at a time…

That said, even if ordering me to watch her dance lifts the prohibition on movement, she has many other ways to keep me from escaping, including what she’s doing now. In that case, if she indeed needs me to, then she has almost no reason not to order me to watch her dance…

Now the question is, despite all of this, why does she need me to look, and why won’t she force me to look?

After thinking until this point, all the puzzle pieces within her head finally fit together, leading her to come up with a devastating theory.

If I open my eyes now, it will be like admitting that I’ve given in to my curiosity!

Closing of her perception and vision had backfired.

Originally, she had done so to better resist the greater spirit’s treachery. But in reality, all she had accomplished was turning herself into a sitting duck. Conversely, if she hadn’t shut off her senses, she would have been powerless to resist in any meaningful manner.

Fuck!! No wonder she’s been giggling this entire time! She’s had everything in the bag from the start!

Chara really wanted to cry so badly right now.

Unfortunately for the little spirit, the outcome had been determined from the moment the curiosity spirit ordered her not to move. This was an inescapable fate.

Noticing the silly little spirit had finally begun to realize what was obvious from the start, Curiosity hummed in praise before mentally scolding her for ruining her fun. How boring. Just when I was finally starting to have fun…

Seeing no reason to drag things out any further, she stopped catching the little spirit, letting her naturally funnel her way into the eye of the storm, before quieting down and not bothering her again.

Wondering why everything had stopped, Chara waited nervously. Surely, the curiosity spirit wouldn’t have given up after coming this far, right? But after around ten more seconds of silence, her curiosity got the better of her. Rather uneasily, she expanded her perception to take a look. However, the moment she heard the other spirit start giggling, she had an instant realization.

Curiosity had never stopped dancing!

Without warning, the swirling galaxy of illusory water droplets took a sharp turn, cascading upon Chara from every direction at once. Simultaneously, the curiosity spirit disintegrated into a cloud of mist, only to appear right above her. Like a conductor leading an ensemble, she directed the enormous whirlpool of curiosity, and funneled it right towards Chara!

“[Curiosity Conferment]!”

Unable to resist, the little spirit swirled in terror as a torrent of curiosity essence mana was suffused into her being while glimmering with an aqueous light.

Without another ounce of resistance, the dark element mana cloaking her vision dispersed, and her remaining feelings of weariness and apprehension were washed away, only leaving behind squeaky-clean curiosity and interest. Upon regaining her wits, she started inspecting everything around her, full of curiosity and interest.

Seeing this, Curiosity let out a contented sigh at a job well done. Not wanting to waste any more of her mana, she quickly dissolved the remaining whirlpool, ending the magic ritual.

As a result of closing her eyes, Chara had missed out on a lot of crucial information. However, if she were to inspect the other spirit now, she would have immediately noticed that the curiosity spirit had used over 85% of her mana. The difference was so enormous that the allegedly “greater” spirit was even smaller than her original size. Put another way, if she had resisted opening her eyes for one more minute, then Curiosity would have been forced to give up. As an experienced spirit, she knew better than to go below 10%.

Nonetheless, while Curiosity wouldn’t be winning any awards for cleverness or strength, she was very knowledgeable and experienced within the field of curiosity and interest. The strategy she had employed against Chara was one she had carefully curated over many iterations and countless failures.

Frankly speaking, if her winning strategy was so fragile that it could be defeated by a newly spawned spirit that had never even seen it before, then Curiosity should really reconsider whether being a [Curiosity Essence Spirit] was the best for her—and consider being a clown instead!

Seeing the little baby looking at everything around her, Curiosity called over to her little friend before the silly spirit got lost in her thoughts. Bad habits needed to be stamped out early. She wouldn’t want Baby to suffer through the same experiences as her.

“Little friend. Come here.”

Jolted awake, the little spirit obediently floated over to the greater spirit.

Upon arrival, the little spirit instantly wilted in shame. “Ah um… My… My rude behavior earlier. I… Uuuu… I got scared when you ordered me not to move... and… and I tried to run away… *sobs* Uuuuuu… Uuu… I… I… I’m so sorry.”

Chara immediately broke down crying.

“Don’t speak.”

The little spirit immediately quieted down. Having her apology interrupted, she swirled in protest.

“It’s okay, I forgive you. Just do not to let it happen again.”

Once the little spirit finally calmed down, the curiosity spirit finally ordered “Follow me” and the two reconciled spirits floated down the crystal cavern while leading a procession of diamonds.