After being thrown away so carelessly, Chara quickly ceased her momentum and stopped herself in midair. Despite her quick reflexes, she had already flown quite the distance by the time she came to a complete stop.

The little spirit was indignant. How could she be thrown across the building like a mere ball?!

She was about to start protesting about her human spirit rights when she was struck completely speechless. And this time, it wasn’t even because of the curiosity spirit’s speech prohibition.

Chara had been thrown deep into the cloister’s central garden. Under usual circumstances, this would not have been worthy of note—if not for one minor detail.

I mean, I knew I was small, but to think I wasn’t even as big as a flower… wondered Chara with helplessness and disbelief.

Most of the flowers were so big that she could realistically cuddle in between their delicate petals and take a comfortable afternoon nap.

Wait! Perhaps, the flowers in this garden are actually giant, like the ones that existed during the age of the dinosaurs…! Chara inwardly exclaimed—now almost certainly in denial.

Unwilling to accept reality, she reinspected the crystalized flowers one more time. Lamentably, the flowers’ features were simply too flimsy and too delicate. She felt that even if by some trick, they were actually bigger than they appeared in her field of view, the flowers would almost certainly shatter under their own weight.

In other words, these flowers couldn’t possibly be big. And Chara, who was smaller than these flowers, which couldn’t possibly be big, was small. Very very small…

Uuuu… The nickname ‘Little Spirit’ really wasn’t an exaggeration was it…? asked Chara to no one in particular while feeling dejected. Unable to bend the rules of reality through her delusions and sophistry, she glared at the crystal flora for being of such a reasonable size.

This is all your fault…

In the meantime, Curiosity was making a beeline straight in Little Spirit’s direction. Although she found observing her various reactions to be fairly amusing, waiting for her to wake up was most certainly not. Hence, as much as it pained Curiosity, she would have no choice but to interrupt her little student’s existential crisis, before she wasted any more of her spirit power.

“Hmph~! Since you have so much energy, would you like to start learning magic now, or later?” asked the curiosity spirit with a slight pout. She was pretending to still be upset at being thought of as a pervert.

Truth be told, Chara was experiencing a bit of recency bias and would have preferred to explore the newly discovered building and giant crystal tree. However, something about the greater spirit’s increasing swirling speed and the slight flare of her mana hinted to Chara’s intuition that informing her of this might not be the best idea. Besides, she could always explore later.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The little spirit bobbed up and down to convey her affirmation and then floated forward to show she was ready.

Satisfied with her assent, Curiosity conveyed something like an approving hum and said, “Follow me~,” as she ascended above the foliage.

Chara quickly followed after her.

I wonder what she’s going to show me. Incantations, secret rituals? Or will it be something more tangible like grimoires and magic mirrors…?

Swirling in anticipation, it wasn’t long before she started fantasizing about becoming a powerful magician. She imagined herself turning into a human and conjuring a wand from thin air. Then, she waved it in a circle and then aimed it at the figure before her, summoning a dazzling light. Unable to evade in time, the curiosity spirit was bombarded by countless shooting stars before exploding into a cloud of vapor.

*Pooof~!*

When the mist cleared, the once proud spirit had turned into a slimy, transparent blue frog.

Uwahaha~! Serves you right…!

Alas, the curiosity frog was not to be underestimated. After letting out a loud and resounding “ribbit,” a procession of tumbling diamonds shattered Chara’s daydream and began marching toward her from all directions. She tried to banish them with her wand, but they relentlessly tumbled after her and began to beat her up.

Her imagination had betrayed her!

When the pair of spirits left the internal garden and reentered the corridor, Curiosity stopped in front of one of the doorways. Seeming to verify something, her mana pulsed slightly, before she moved towards the right.

As the little spirit followed, she looked back at the room they had been floating in front of. For some reason, the concentration of light mana was especially high around that particular doorway.

Weird…

After passing a couple more doors, the curiosity spirit finally stopped. She looked at Baby and said, “Follow me,” before permeating into the doorway.

Witnessing this, Chara became even more perplexed about why the building had doorways. Clearly, they didn’t need them! However, upon phasing through the door to the other side, she was left staring in blank amazement.

The room was well-lit thanks to a large crystal embedded into the ceiling that emitted warm light. The walls were lined with cabinets and shelves made from mottled black stone. These fixtures were filled to the brim with tablets, jars, and various other nicknacks, all made from various types of stone.

The room featured four tables, with three arranged side by side in the center, and one positioned in front of them, all crafted from the same mottled black stone as the shelves. However, what caught her eye the most was the giant blank whiteboard, situated at the back of the room, right behind the leading desk.

This—is a classroom…! realized Chara while looking around with astonishment and disbelief.

Considering the parts of the building she had explored so far, she felt like it shouldn’t have been so surprising, but the fact that there was a building so far underground seemed absurd in and of itself.

And on top of everything else, she noticed a significant increase in the concentration of water element mana, a characteristic she had only observed around Curiosity.

The little spirit’s gaze wandered around the classroom full of inquisitiveness.

Savoring her student’s wonder, the curiosity spirit chuckled. “Curious, are we? Well then, it’s a good thing that you decided to follow me.”

After floating to the back of the classroom, she took her place behind the forwardmost desk in front of the whiteboard, her mana swelling with pride.

“This—is a classroom! A place for learning,” proclaimed Curiosity with a little spin and releasing a magnificent shower of illusory droplets.

“And I, am a teacher~!”