Chara levitated in the midst of a dark void, surrounded by a vast expanse of gleaming stars. The stars twinkled gently, casting a faint, inviting light that contrasted sadly against the blackness.
For a long time, she simply floated there, lost in a trance. Eventually, a wisp of consciousness flitted across her mind, urging her to focus on one of the stars.
She did.
Suddenly, she was no longer in the dark void but seated at a desk, in an office, in her home, on earth. It was a memory.
In a daze, she inspected her desk, its surface strewn full of papers. Feeling curious, she slowly picked up the center-most paper and began reading its contents.
“Find the derivative of the function f(x) = 3x² + 5x – 7.”
Chara’s lips started trembling violently as her eyes widened in terror.
Nn—Noooooooooooooooooooo……!!
***
The little spirit jolted awake as the scene faded to darkness. Taking a moment to calm herself, she began to think.
A dream… Did I… fall asleep…? I don’t remember going to sleep. Did I pass out? Also, where am I?
Chara was a little confused, but she quickly suppressed her doubts.
After taking a look around, the first thing she noticed was that both the ambient light element mana and the gentle lighting characteristic of the crystal cavern were completely absent. Confused, she tried to plead for help, only to realize that she couldn’t speak.
The devil—! Why does she keep sealing my speech!
Realizing that the curiosity spirit had used her evil sorcery to strip away her First Amendment rights, Chara vigilantly surveyed her surroundings.
Despite the dimness making it hard to see clearly, there was still just enough light to faintly discern her surroundings. Unfortunately, this small amount of light was wasted due to the featureless nature of her area. There were no reflections, no glints catching on any corners, and she couldn’t sense anything noteworthy through her perception either.
Uuuu…
Beginning to feel a bit nervous, she impatiently scanned her surroundings using her three-hundred-sixty-degree vision. Right away, she spotted an anomaly. Over to her left, faint light spilled through two horizontal slits, not unlike those created by the gaps at the top and bottom of a doorway.
A door…?
Dumbfounded, Chara steeled her mind as she inflated her perception past its usual resting volume. Once she overcame the fuzziness, what she discovered was so shocking that her swirling became disorderly and messy.
She was in an empty, cube-shaped room!
Well, after staring for a bit longer, she realized it was closer to a trapezoid, rather than a cube. Moreover, the wall with the entrance and the one across from it had a slight curvature. However, in comparison to the revelation that had shocked her the most, these were only small details.
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Chara looked towards the entrance with slight trepidation. If the size of the walls and doorway were any indication, then wasn’t the room she was in absolutely gigantic? She had already expanded the volume of her perception so much, and yet, it was only barely enough to perceive the entire room at once.
Wha—Where the heck is this!? Am I in a resident for giants? Wasn’t I underground!?
With her mind spinning, she floated over to the presumed door and molded her perception into the shape of a cone. The moment she sensed outside, she could tell that the amount of light element mana was noticeably greater than inside the room.
After taking a quick moment to confirm that there were no demons waiting for her outside this doorway, she permeated halfway through its thickness before staying in place.
Without passing through to the other side, she envisioned part of her ethereal, cloud-like body extending out of the door, like the eyes of a snail. To her delight, when her illusory appendage peeked out of the door, light and vision started to flood her senses.
Ah, it worked!
It worked, but err… where is my vision coming from?
Chara was perplexed. The last time she checked, the faculty of sight required eyes, but it seemed she had somehow bypassed that necessity altogether. For that matter, she didn’t know how her sense of hearing worked either, leaving her at a loss for what to think.
Feeling like the rabbit hole she had briefly peered into had transformed into an endless abyss, she quickly pulled her head back, refocusing on the task at hand.
Chara examined her surroundings, glancing from side to side. The door she was in seemed to lead into a connecting hallway. On the side with her door, was even more doors, and on the other, was a sequence of arched pillars supporting a large overhang. This layout curved around in a circle, completing a beautiful, ring-shaped building.
At the center of this building was a beautiful, open-air, internal garden, populated with all kinds of delicate and well-maintained crystal flora. And peeking through the skyline, was the canopy of the giant crystal tree she had seen previously.
It was a cloister!
Wow~! This place is so beautiful~! Chara thought in admiration. However, after her mood settled down, and she regained her calm, she sighed.
At this point, she could no longer keep denying reality. Between, her being a human-sized spirit and waking up in a giant’s residence, or her living up to the name “Little Spirit” and waking up in a normal-sized building… she thought the latter conclusion seemed the most reasonable.
But in that case, then who was this building designed for? Presumably, the one who brought her here was Curiosity, a spirit. However, spirits, who were capable of permeating through solids, theoretically shouldn’t need doorways.
Nevertheless, even assuming this was not the case, it didn’t change the fact that the building was just plain huge. At her current size, Chara living here by herself would be like a mouse occupying an entire mansion, and if it was Curiosity, then maybe a cat. It would work, but it would be extraordinarily inconvenient.
No matter how I look at it, isn’t this building obviously designed for humans?
While the little spirit was lost in her thoughts, the free-floating earth and light mana slowly started to decrease, while the amount of water, ice, wind, and dark element mana started to increase, causing the surroundings to dim.
It was Curiosity. She had just arrived to see if the little spirit was awake yet, only to find her clipped inside the door while waving around a tiny mana tendril.
This… to say Curiosity was bewildered, would be an understatement.
Throughout her adventures, she had encountered many spirits with strange philosophies, often wielding even stranger powers. And although she might not agree with their methods, she could at least understand their purpose.
Nevertheless… at this moment, she was completely unable to figure out the little spirit’s purpose. It was a complete mystery. Uncertain of Baby’s intentions, Curiosity opted to observe quietly, while worriedly assessing her curiosity for anomalous suppositions.
After about half a minute, Chara finally snapped out of her thoughts and noticed the dense, swirling cloud of curiosity floating right in front of her.
Feeling her gaze, Curiosity observed as the little spirit’s illusory appendage turned to face in her direction. Feeling mischievous, she formed a similar mana tendril and then used it to pat the little spirit’s own.
The little spirit’s attention shifted, focusing on their intertwined mana.
What are you, a pervert?
The pat was turned into a grapple and the little spirit was angrily flung into the central garden.