The doorbell rang. Ryan immediately rushed out of his bedroom and over to the flat’s door. He pulled it open and ran down the stairs to the building’s main door, which he also soon pulled open. And there his mother stood, with her suitcase next to her and the one expensive brand bag she owned over her shoulder.

  Before either of them could say anything, they pulled each other into a hug. Ryan could feel his mother rubbing his back, and she pulled back a moment later.

  “How was the trip? Do you want to eat something?” Ryan asked, grabbing his mother’s suitcase. Mary smiled and shook her head.

  “I’m fine, thanks. And the trip was rather pleasant. I didn’t know the train’s first class was that much of an upgrade.” She laughed slightly. That was the one thing that Ryan had managed to convince his mom of: allowing him to pay for her train ticket. He just said that he had gotten some kind of bonus at the job to justify buying her the best seat in the train.

  Ryan followed his mother upstairs and brought her suitcase to his bedroom.

  “Okay, now, let me meet those little spirits! Maximus and Gaia, was it?”

  “Right, of course. Gaia is upstairs, but Maximus and Gregor are in their domains; hold on,” Ryan explained. “Wait, did I tell you about Gregor yet? He’s a— You know what? You’ll just see.”

  For some reason, Ryan felt a little nervous about it. It was like having his mother meet his friends—oh, gods, his mother also had to meet his friends. After taking a slight breath, Ryan walked into the living room and stretched his hand out toward the dining table. Two streams of mana flowed out of Ryan’s hands, intertwined red wisps and metallic pipes, that quickly came together into the two spirits’ bodies.

  Both of them looked at Mary, who took an excited step forward.

  “Oh, wow! So, these are spirits? How cute!” Mary exclaimed, clasping her hands. Ryan smiled lightly, almost feeling relieved. He didn’t know why he felt relieved; it wasn’t as though he expected his mother to react badly in the first place.

  “Yeah, so, the one on the left is Maximus the Knight Spirit, and on the right is Gregor the Artillerist Spirit,” he said with a smile, and the two spirits, who were both outwardly quite stoic, simply nodded at Mary. Ryan could tell that Gregor was actually this stoic and unbothered inwardly as well, while Maximus seemed a little nervous and excited to meet Ryan’s mother, even if he didn’t show it.

  “Well, how nice! I’m Mary; nice to meet you two,” she said with a smile on her face, leaning forward slightly. “And what about Gaia? Where did you say she was, upstairs?”

  “Ah …” Ryan remembered something. They hadn’t told her that they had turned the rooftop into a full-on garden. It wasn’t there the last time she was there, but maybe they could convince her that it had been and she just didn’t notice … or something like that. “Yeah, let me show you. Are you guys coming along? Or do you want to go—”

  Before Ryan even finished, Gregor stepped back into his domain. He seemed to be busy doing some research recently, trying to develop a new cannon blueprint, so Ryan expected this. Meanwhile, Maximus was clearly quite happy to come along. Ryan picked him up and carried him along, while Mary followed him toward the balcony.

  “Where is your uncle?” she asked, and Ryan slightly flinched. Runar and Liam were both downstairs. Liam had to get some regular check-ups to make sure that he was doing alright. Even though he wore extremely powerful sunblock every day, Runar wanted to make sure that the young vampire’s body didn’t react badly to even the small amounts of sun that did come through.

  Ryan guided his mother to the rooftop garden, where Gaia was in the middle of her work. It was actually a rather big day, since she was trying to reorganize some of the plants a bit. Before, things had been less organized due to the random order in which the magical seeds were supplied, making them mix things in ways that weren’t the best, but now, Gaia was trying to really put all the fruit with the fruit, the herbs with the herbs, the veggies with the veggies, and so on.

  And to make that process a bit easier, Ryan had been using the Spirit Seal Recovery skill on her again, doubling her and her sub-golems’ size and allowing them to deal with this all a lot more easily even without Ryan’s help.

  Mary looked at Ryan, a bit confused. “What is— Is that Gaia? You told me she was a little larger, but this really is quite the difference …”

  Ryan laughed slightly. “Yeah, I know. Usually, she’s just a meter tall, but I have a skill that lets the spirits be larger. In Gaia’s case, she’s, well, taller than I am.”

  Noticing that Ryan and his mother were there, Gaia took a break. With heavy steps, she approached the two of them, reaching out her stone hands to grasp Mary’s.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Gaia,” Mary smiled, glancing past the Golem. “But what about those? Are there multiple Gaias?”

  “Ah, no, those are part of Gaia’s abilities. She can create a small number of sub-golems that can help her out in the garden.”

  “Speaking of … I didn’t know this was even a thing here. It’s rather beautiful. You’re even growing trees up here?” Mary asked, looking at Ryan, surprised, and he slowly nodded.

  “Yes, so … Gaia’s abilities are related to gardening and plants and stuff, so we fixed this place up so she could have a space to do that. And as part of my abilities, I get things that relate to the spirits sometimes. Maximus can get new armor pieces and weapons, Gregor can get blueprints for cannons, and Gaia can get seeds and saplings. They’re all magical plants, so they grow pretty fast,” Ryan explained, walking over toward the planter with the copper wildflowers. They were finally starting to truly blossom. “These are from the dungeon that I went to a while ago; Gaia has been taking great care of them.”

  Mary came over to take a look and quickly reached out to one of the flowers. Once she did, she pulled her hand back, surprised. “They’re made of metal … They grew like this?”

  “Mm-hmm, they’re magical plants. We don’t really know what they’re for just yet, but they definitely hold some mana, so they probably have some kind of effect,” Ryan explained. “There’s some more fun ones around here. Like the Glass Tulips. Do you know those ridiculously expensive glasses that you see advertised every once in a while? I think the brand is, like, Flora or something.”

  “Oh, yes! Those are always so pretty, but I don’t really think they’re worth the price.”

  “Well, I’ll send you some soon, then, because these flowers here are how they’re made. When they’re fully grown, you can snip the ‘glass’ from the top, clean out the interior a bit, and you’ve got those cups!” Ryan explained with a smile. He had managed to look into some of these plants over the past few weeks. “Apparently, even though they look like glass, they’re super hard to break, so they’re also dishwasher-safe, and one of their big effects is that the power of any magical liquid in them is strengthened. You don’t really have, like, potions that often anymore these days, but you drink that one tea sometimes, right?”

  “Magika Chamilla?”

  “Yes! That one, it has some mana in it, and you say it helps you sleep, so maybe if you drink that tea from the Glass Tulip glasses, that will work even better.”

  Mary smiled lightly, not really looking at the flowers but instead looking up at her son. “Thank you, but you don’t need to send me any. Rather, just sell those tulips and save up a little.”

  Ryan looked at his mom and tried not to sigh. “Listen, I don’t need to do that. I don’t really need to worry about money anymore. Just … let me send you some stuff, alright?”

  Though she clearly wasn’t particularly convinced, Mary carefully nodded. “If you say so. But tell me, what’s this job actually about? You said you can’t tell me exactly because of some NDA and such, but can you tell me nothing at all?”

  “Well … it’s kind of a … charity situation? Or, rather, I got a job with a group that runs some charities, does community outreach, immigration, and that kind of stuff,” Ryan explained, and Mary raised her eyebrows, surprised.

  “Really? I didn’t think you were interested in that sort of field.”

  “I mean … I’ve always done that, right? I used to help out at afterschool stuff at the elementary school up until I moved here, and I used to help out with fundraisers a lot, too,” Ryan pointed out. “I know I never made a big deal about it, but it’s always interested me to some extent.”

  “Hm … that is true. And you’re sure that this is what you want? You’re not being lured in by the pay?”

  Ryan immediately shook his head. “No, no, that’s not it at all. I mean, it helps, but the money isn’t why I’m doing this.”

  “Okay. In that case, there’s nothing to worry about,” Mary said with a smile, patting Ryan on the back. “Now, when can I meet your friends?”

  “Right, so, we wanted to meet at this park tomorrow. It’s by the botanical gardens, so the whole place is apparently decorated a ton,” Ryan explained. “So, that would be Modak, Silvia, Yanna, and Fae. Oh, and of course, Runar and Liam.”

  Mary raised her eyebrows. “Oh? Who are Yanna, Fae, and Liam?”

  Ryan’s heart skipped a beat, and he immediately started explaining the parts that were easy to explain, while struggling to come up with what to say about Liam. “Uh, well … Yanna is Silvia’s sister and Modak’s girlfriend, and Fae is Silvia’s girlfriend. And Liam, uhm … he’s kind of Runar’s son?”

  “Excuse me? His … son? I didn’t even know he was seeing anybody.” Mary blinked, confused, staring at Ryan. “How old is he?”

  “Liam is ten now, and no, Runar isn’t seeing anyone. I mean, there’s kind of a vibe with this really cool chef that’s moving to the block right now, so … you know, but no, Liam is adopted. Actually, the organization that I work for kind of connected them, ’cause Liam needed a decent guardian, because, uh … Liam is a vampire?”

  “Vam— Huh?”

  “Yeah, so, vampires are real.”

  Mary started to laugh, hitting Ryan’s arm. “Oh, you got me there, and here I thought you were serious. Gosh, now that I think about it, Runar adopting a ten-year-old kid is a bit too unbelievable in the first place.”

  With an awkward grimace, not sure what to say, Ryan whispered, “There’s a lot about Runar that’s pretty unbelievable …”

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing, nothing, just … yeah, it’s not a joke. Runar actually adopted a kid, and yes, vampires are actually real. Like, genuinely.”

  “… Really?”

  Ryan looked down at his phone, trying to figure out where the spot everyone was supposed to meet up was. It was so pretty busy there in the park, so finding any sort of landmark would be a miracle. Not to mention Liam wasn’t making this particularly easy either. He was practically clinging to Ryan’s side, digging his fingers into his clothes, not letting go whatsoever.

  The crowd was clearly a bit too much for him, but he had insisted on coming. Runar and Mary were a few steps behind. Mary was still confused about the whole situation with Liam, so Runar was trying to explain the situation to her without revealing the secrets of the Aglecard family. It was basically an abridged version of the story that the family came up with for public perception, in case anyone was going to question Runar.

  “Godsdammit, why is my signal always so fucking bad in crowds?” Ryan groaned, and Liam glanced up at him. “… Sorry. Language. I know. Just trying to find everyone.”

  “Could you not use the spirits? You said you used Gaia for scouting before.”

  “Sure, but I can’t very well do that here right now,” Ryan pointed out. “The sub-golems are too small and might end up getting crushed by people that aren’t paying attention, or they could trip over them and fall down, and I don’t want that. But … you know what, let’s try something out. Are you alright with me picking you up?”

  Liam slowly nodded, so Ryan, without a moment’s hesitation, squatted and let Liam climb onto his shoulders. Ryan then stood up straight. With how light Liam was, this was pretty damn easy to do. And then Ryan held up his hand toward the boy, and Maximus stepped out of his domain. Liam quickly understood what to do and held the small knight up as high as he could, then Ryan linked with Maximus.

  With the extra height, it was pretty easy to spot Yanna in the distance.

  “Finally, found them! Alright, let’s go,” Ryan said, guiding his mother and Runar as well. Plus, it seemed like sitting up there made Liam a bit calmer somehow. Maybe it was because he was able to look over most people now instead of being blocked in every direction.

  It didn’t take long until they pushed their way through the crowd, reaching the four people who were waiting for them.

  Ryan introduced everyone to his mother and introduced Liam to Yanna and Fae, neither of whom had met him yet, even if they had heard about him before. Mary seemed a bit confused as to who was who, particularly since she didn’t know that Silvia was adopted and that her sister was a minotaur, but she understood the situation once Ryan properly introduced everyone.

  They were ready to make their way toward the botanical garden now, where some kind of show was supposed to happen in a bit, but Ryan lingered near Modak for a little while longer.

  “Yo, dude, you alright? You’re looking kinda tired,” he pointed out, and the orc replied with a yawn as if on purpose.

  “What, you think so?” He scoffed. “Yeah, I don’t know, I’m preparing something big for this Thursday. I’m revealing the results of my research.”

  “… It’s been like a couple weeks since you started working at the Tower and you already have something to show off?”

  Modak grinned broadly. “Oh, yeah, you’ve got absolutely no idea, man.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Tangled

  The air was filled with the scent of numerous different flowers, mixing together beautifully. No matter how nice the smell really was, though, it was also rather overwhelming. Some of the species that had a more naturally keen sense of smell carried around face masks or handkerchiefs that they held in front of their noses to block the smell out a little bit. Ryan could understand why; he himself almost wanted to do so. While he was more focused on the visuals of the colorful flowers planted next to each other in front of them, climbing up the pillars alongside the path, Yanna was seemingly struggling.

  Not only was a minotaur’s sense of smell on average about ten times more than that of species like humans, elves, or orcs, Yanna had the perception stat that increased all her senses, including her sense of smell.

  “Are you okay? Should we go somewhere else?” Modak asked, placing his hand on the minotaur’s back. But she quickly shook her head.

  “No, it’s fine … It’s just a little worse than it usually is on Regir’s day.”

  “If you’re sure. But tell me if it gets too much,” he said, smiling up at her. Yanna smiled back, lightly bumping her shoulder into his.

  Standing just a bit in front of them, Ryan was trying to see the “stage,” the area that was circled by flowers right in front of the botanical gardens. He was pretty curious about what was going on there and what everyone was waiting for.

  “What’s the deal? Is it like this every time?” he asked as he looked at his uncle, who simply grinned a bit.

  “It is. I’m sure you’ll like this. It should happen fairly soon.” Runar looked down at the watch on his wrist, and Ryan curiously turned back toward the stage. And that was when the crowd in front of him started to move a bit, and for just a moment, Ryan got a view of the middle of that stage, even if just for a second or two. There was a small plant sprouting, much, much faster than normal.

  It grew and grew, and soon, the bud was peeking out even above the heads of the people right in front of Ryan. But even then, it wasn’t done. This flower had massive petals, twisting around each other. Slowly but surely, they opened.

  The flower itself was beautiful, but that wasn’t the focus. Rather, what everyone was looking at, and what everyone was there for, was the spirit that was unveiled as the flower bloomed. It had the appearance of a beautiful young woman. Pale green skin and an elegant dress made of flower petals.

  This was the first time that Ryan had seen a spirit outside of the ones he was the keeper of since he awakened. The air that was around the flower spirit in front of him was similar to but somehow incredibly different from that of Maximus, Gaia, or Gregor. Not to mention she was a lot bigger. She was around Gaia’s height, a meter tall.

  So, why were the others so small? Did it have something to do with the seal that was apparently on them?

  “So? What’d you think?” Runar asked, and Ryan slowly turned toward him.

  “I don’t know; what am I supposed to think?”

  “Well … it’s a spirit.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “… Hm. Nothing, I guess,” Runar replied somewhat awkwardly, as if he had expected a Spirit Keeper to automatically really like spirits. And it wasn’t as though Ryan didn’t like spirits, but they simply didn’t feel as distant and “special” as they used to. And a moment later, this flower spirit in particular didn’t feel distant at all.

  She and Ryan seemed to lock eyes for a moment, though he was sure he imagined it. That was, until the flower spirit came flying straight toward him. She floated over the ground as if her body didn’t weigh anything at all. The crowd split, and Ryan could see a small trail of flowers grow right underneath the spirit’s body. They were the same flowers as the one that the spirit had just come out of, the size of a normal flower.

  It stopped right in front of Ryan, deeply staring at him, her lips curled up into a smile. The crowd’s attention had turned toward him, and it was rather … uncomfortable. All those stares were digging into his skin. Even Runar was looking at him with some sense of disbelief in his eyes. But a moment later, Ryan could feel something inside of him twist and turn. Quite literally. Gaia was almost sitting up in excitement.