The gray-haired necromancer breathed out, shaking her head with a disapproving expression.

”Didn’t we talk about it before? It’s the same with time attribute – a magician wielding the time attribute who would want to create time would affect themselves either getting younger or older without their consent.”

She declared in a tired voice.

”…alright… now you are making me worry… So how exactly did you put it… I mean, him – together? Is it okay to give him to my daughter?”

The gold-haired man asked in a worried voice, not only taking back his hand but even stepping back.

”Sweetie, you can’t grasp the concept of death attribute and time attribute alone and you want me to answer that? Alright… in the most simplistic way I could put it – this boy is an artificial soul put together with the residual energy that was left in the bodies of my corpse puppets.”

|Hold on…!|

”Hold on…!”

Aspakeony shrugged her shoulders and explained – and both Zoemi and Kasorius seemed to have the same problem with that statement.

”What? You clearly stated that you wanted the strongest defensive charm that I could come up with – so I searched around and got the most fitting residue of the life energy that I could get my hands on.”

The necromancer scoffed, sounding as if it wasn’t a big deal at all.

”Life energy? What about death attribute?!”

|EXACTLY!|

King Kasorius gasped in shock and Zoemi echoed him, although only in his own plush head.

”…and now you want to have death attribute without considering the opposite of it… It’s enough for you to know that once this boy will bond with someone, he will protect them at any time and at any cost. Alright, I will put it even simpler – this boy is an artificial soul that is almost – but not quite – like the real soul that humans possess… Here, take a bit of rest while you can – those are your friends.”

Aspakeony revealed while putting walking towards the bed and putting him between the other plushies and muttered to him, backing off a bit and admiring her entire collection.

|EXCUSE ME!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ARTIFICIAL…?!|

…friends…?

As she did so, Zoemi suddenly heard another voice resounding in his mind and gasped in confusion.

|HUH?! Who was that?! Ludier?!|

There was a chance that it was the unique shadow of the ice magician – but honestly, whoever it did not sound like Ludier at all…

”Alright – little Kasorius, you can go fetch the little princess, and then they can bond – I will explain how he works when she will be present.”

The necromancer nodded her head and glanced over at the gold-haired man and waved at him while making a benevolent expression.

”Pshh… alright, my lady.”

King Kasorius sighed in a tone that suggested this wasn’t the first time he had to deal with Aspakeony’s quirks and turned around, leaving the room before a flash of golden light announced his departure as he teleported away.

The gray-haired necromance raised her arms and stretched before returning to the bedside and leaning down only to pat Zoemi’s head with a warm smile.

|…|

Even without her saying anything, Zoemi experienced the extreme feeling of a Deja Vu…

…friends…

|AGAIN?!|

To the boy’s great distress, the voice he heard before called out again as if stirred up by the necromancer’s touch – which in turn stirred up Zoemi.

|Seriously, Ludier! If it’s you then it is not funny at all! Why the hell aren’t you communicating with me in a normal way?!|

He roared internally, actually properly enraged by what he assumed was the unique shadow of the ie magician making fun of him.

|Hold

on…|

But while being on the topic of the unique shadow – just as Zoemi thought about it, he realized something.

In his current state, he could not see the unique shadows of anything…!

He should have realized it sooner, but he finally realized what was making him feel so uneasy.

Even though Aspaekony was right in front of him, he could not see her unique shadow in the shape of a half-girl half-slime parasite, and after a moment of peace, he also realized that he did not see the unique shadow of king Kasorius either.

What did that mean – since the moment he awakened as a magician, he possed the ability to see the unique shadow – even while he was on the verge of mana depletion – he honestly should still have the ability even though he couldn’t feel any mana within him.

”Aren’t you happy? You will become the royal protector~!”

|…!|

Aspakeony hummed and if he could move his body, Zoemi would surely jolt from shock as he momentarily forgot about her after the realization struck him.

*knock* *knock*

”I’m back. Sweetie comes with daddy.”

Only a moment later without even giving Zoemi time to compose himself, the gold-haired king of the Belcephora kingdom teleported back and politely knocked on the door, walking inside while gently guiding someone, whose sight had literally thrown the confused boy’s world upside down.

”Miriette, come on, don’t be shy. Say hello to lady Aspakeony.”

Kasorius closed the door behind him and give a light, encouraging push to the back of a young, maybe a nine-year-old girl…

…a girl who looked exactly like Miriette…

And not similar, like Ehmi did in the young-looking form – no.

The girl that king Kasorius brought with him looked EXACTLY like Miriette that Zoemi knew – almost.

She did have a single, significant difference – the Miriette in front of him didn’t have eyes and hair so green that they looked black.

No.

Her’s was…

…platinum…