The Bashful Earth Spirit
"Not bad."
Bayul had expected Quinn to snort at that nonsense, and was thoroughly taken aback to find her agreeing with him instead. She even looked willing to shove Bayul in herself, given the permission.
"Um, I—"
Luckily, Logan stepped in before the flustered Bayul could retreat another step.
"And if he still doesn't come out? You're telling him to roll around in this filthy muck?"
"Ah, don't worry about that. If it comes to that, I'll just wash him off with a cleaning spell."
"Shouldn't you have mentioned that *before* the poor boy spent all evening complaining that he was dying of filth?"
Logan's glare was so murderous that Eli quickly averted his eyes and pointed at Aidan.
"Besides, I never told him to fall. That was him."
Logan's icy gaze slid straight to Aidan. The boy, entirely unbothered by it, shrugged.
"We just have to catch him before he actually face-plants."
"You think a spirit can't see through a trick like that?"
"Well, we won't know until we try, will we?"
"So you want to gamble with Bayul?"
"Who said that? The spirit won't show up, so I'm saying let's give it a shot. What, only *you* get to be Bayul's friend? Quit glaring at me like that."
The longer Aidan talked, the more it sounded like he was treating Bayul as some disposable tool, and it did not sit well with Eli at all. Already sick of the sight of him, and now with Aidan baring his fangs and lunging, Eli flipped into combat mode in an instant.
"Um, why don't we try asking Innocent instead?"
Bayul stepped between the two friends just as the fuse was about to catch, doing his best to smother the sparks.
"Innocent?"
"Yeah. I've heard she sometimes meets other spirits. If anyone could get through to one, it'd be her."
"They're both spirits, so at the very least she'd be able to see it."
"Right, and she could tell us for certain whether an earth spirit is even here."
"But she's resting right now. Is that okay?"
"I'll at least ask."
It hadn't been that long, but Innocent had clearly rested well—Bayul could feel her energy had recovered considerably. Thankfully she wasn't asleep, so he was able to ask her about the earth spirit, and Innocent happily flew off to help.
And yet, despite Innocent's help, that day the group failed to meet the earth spirit again. The reason was equal parts absurd and fatal.
"Withdrawal. Again."
It was already the third day. Every night they came out to the paddock, and beyond even attempting training, they'd wasted over twelve hours just trying to summon the earth spirit. They coaxed it, cajoled it, occasionally even flew into a temper—and tried every trick in the book—yet they hadn't so much as glimpsed the tip of the spirit's nose.
"It says it's embarrassed."
When Innocent first relayed the reason, Bayul couldn't help being dumbstruck. It was a reason he'd never once imagined.
"...Innocent, *embarrassed*? What's that supposed to mean?"
"You mean like the embarrassed, the shy—like that kind of embarrassed?"
"Apparently it doesn't like showing itself directly, the way I do. Maybe because there are too many people here? Hm? No, that's not it."
Innocent flew lower than usual, skimming close to the ground, and circled once through the air.
"Bayul, it says it doesn't dislike you. It wants to say hello to you too."
"Then tell it to come out! That's exactly what we're asking for!"
The moment Eli shouted in frustration, Innocent swooped over with a warning.
"You can't do that! It just buried itself even deeper!"
"Buried itself? Where?"
"It sank deeper underground. I think it might stop talking to me now too."
"Eli! You—!"
"What did *I* do?"
At Aidan's rebuke, Eli muttered under his breath, looking thoroughly wronged.
"There's timid, and then there's *that*. A truly bizarre creature."
"What do we do now? Is there really no way?"
"We'll think of one. Somehow we have to create a situation where the earth spirit wants to come out badly enough to swallow its embarrassment."
Three days passed like that. Not a single night went by without them trekking out to the paddock to sweet-talk the earth spirit, and all of it had come to nothing. Bayul was simply exhausted now. He was close to losing even his curiosity about the creature.
"Are we going out again tonight?"
After lunch, the friends gathered behind the dining hall. After so many sleepless nights with nothing to show for it, the weariness showed plainly on every face.
"Yaaawn... we've got to, don't we? If we give up and never get to meet it, that'll be that."
"Oh, come off it. It'll show up eventually."
"You really think so? Look at how hard we've tried these past few days. We begged. We pleaded. Honestly, we did everything. And if it doesn't appreciate any of that, how are we supposed to know it won't just never show up again?"
Aidan grumbled through a chain of yawns so violent they brought tears to his eyes. Ever since enrolling at the Academy, sleep deprivation had left him barely hanging on, and with nothing to show for the effort, only gloomy thoughts kept welling up.
'And besides, you need proper sleep to grow tall!'
A small, secret fear gnawed at Aidan—what if all this cost him a few inches?
"Ah, it won't come to that. It helped you because it hated watching you roll around in filth—so it's not going to vanish for good. The problem is just that it's painfully shy. Its heart seems decent enough."
"Now that you mention it, something was off that time too—when Schubik snuck up and knocked you over. You went down hard, but you didn't have a single scratch."
"Right. Didn't he even say something ridiculous about the ground being soft?"
"Ah. Yeah... he did, didn't he."
Bayul remembered his own bewilderment. The ground had been rough and uneven, littered with stones, yet it had felt as plush as a mattress. Could the earth spirit have helped him back then, too?
"Whoa, it's been with you since then! It's been hovering around you all this time!"
"It must really hate seeing you get hurt."
"You've got yourself a personal guard knight, Bayul! A personal one!"
Genuine laughter burst out of them at the earth spirit's tireless devotion(?)—even if its dedication had caused them days of misery. Apparently it wasn't the type to seek the spotlight, yet whenever Bayul was in danger, help always arrived. After burning three nights' worth of effort, he was a little annoyed, but somehow he found he couldn't hold it against the creature.
"We're going to have to change tactics."
"Tactics?"
"What tactics?"
At Eli's sudden declaration, every ear in the group pricked up.
"We've been pressuring it too hard. So desperate to summon the earth spirit, so frantic to get results, that we've overlooked the one thing that actually matters."
"Overlooked what?"
"Its personality."
"...Its personality?"
"Yes. We never once took an introvert's nature into account. Even after learning from Innocent that it was embarrassed, all we did was gawk at the absurdity of it—nobody changed their approach. A creature like that needs a fundamentally different way of being approached. And I happen to be quite the expert on that sort of thing."
"Eli, do you actually have a plan?"
"You can really summon the earth spirit?"
"Then stop lounging around and do it right now."
Eli's abrupt boast left them all bewildered, but a new approach was welcome from any corner. The friends crowded around him as if to say, *try anything*—and Eli waggled his index and middle fingers left and right.
"Not here. I need something."
"Need what?"
"You'll find out tonight. Just make sure everyone's there on time!"
Bong— bong— bong—
Everyone tried to grab Eli and wring answers out of him on the spot, but the bell for fourth period rang right on cue. With the remaining classes still to attend, they had no choice but to wait helplessly until nightfall—everyone except Bayul, that is.
"Eli, you're really not going to tell me anything?"
Bayul pressed him again as he trailed hot on Eli's heels, the latter humming a tune on his way to the lecture hall. There was nothing Eli wouldn't patiently explain to Bayul at any moment—but today he only smiled and gave no reply.
"Eli, I want to help too. But how can I help if I don't even know what's going on?"
"I told you I can manage this on my own. Shall we sit over there?"
The lecture hall was already bustling with first-year students. The two of them searched for empty seats and moved toward the back.
"So what is it you need? Why won't you tell me?"
"Shh. The professor's coming."
"Don't change the subject. It's not too late to—"
Bayul never got to finish.
"Hello, everyone! It's been a while!"
The lecture hall doors swung wide open, and Professor White Church entered with his trademark buoyant voice. In his hands—unusual for him—was a large basket, woven from what looked like bundled tree branches.
"Professor, where on earth have you been? Do you know how long we waited?"
"Who just cancels class whenever they feel like it? That's really too much!"
"Sorry, sorry. Something came up—personal business. And with exams over and done, I thought a bit of rest would do you all good."
"Aww, please don't do that again! We missed you so much!"
"It's true! I lost sleep over missing you, Professor!"
"My, my—so it wasn't just me? I missed you all terribly too, you know. You kept flickering before my eyes and it was quite distressing."
"Eeek, really?"
"It's true! You know he can't lie!"
The moment Professor White winked one eye and grinned, the female students shrieked in unison. They pounded their desks and clutched at one another, throwing the classroom into an absolute uproar.
There was, of course, one exception. Befitting the owner of the nickname "Ice Goddess," not a flicker of expression crossed Lanasa's face as she regarded Professor White.
"Um, Professor? What's that basket for?"
"Oh, this?"
Professor White smiled brightly and set the basket on the lectern. Through the gaps between the woven branches, the contents were faintly visible—though not clearly enough to identify.
"Now then—anyone care to guess what I've brought?"
For the sake of the curious students, he didn't dawdle, drawing the items out one by one.
"Those are herbs."
Eli whispered into Bayul's ear. Indeed, what Professor White was laying out across the lectern were herbs of every color and shape imaginable. Some were still caked in fresh dirt as though just pulled from the ground; others were sun-dried to a faded crisp. Quite a variety, all told.
"Are these the herbs we're studying in today's lesson?"
"No."
It was an herbalism class, so Professor White bringing herbs was, in a way, the most natural thing in the world. And yet they weren't the herbs they'd be studying today? As the students cocked their heads in puzzlement, disappointment bloomed across the professor's face.
"Honestly, to not recognize any of them—that's too cruel. You truly don't know what this is?"
He picked up a single herb. It had a yellow, egg-shaped root, and at the end of a long stem a flat, round flower in vivid vermilion still bloomed, not yet wilted.
"Flat Rosa."
Bayul couldn't fathom what Professor White was playing at, but Eli raised a hand and answered, at least.