Lilia's Tale

Chapter 58: Soul

Father's tone took me by surprise, scaring me and prompting me to look at his expression rather than keep the existing link. I could see just how serious he was, but couldn't read beyond that.

"What do you mean not normal?"

"While a summon is indeed a self-sufficient entity, capable of coherent thought and decision making, it isn't a real creature, monster or animal. It shouldn't be able to have emotions. So, what exactly did you do to your summon?"

"Well, whenever I summon a goblin I keep feeling like it's empty, like something is missing. I remember back then that it gave me a great deal of worry, until I eventually found the answer: it felt hollow, like it was just a husk. So, I tried giving it life as more than just a summon, but as a goblin. It worked, so I remember that and whenever I summon something that feels empty, I do the same."

"Y-You...Give it life as more than just a summon?"

"Yeah. I guess you could call it a soul, or something?"

"How exactly do you do that?"

"I'm not quite sure. I simply focus significantly more on what it should be than what it is, I guess? Like, when summoning this goblin, while picturing its body in my mind and how exactly it works, I keep thinking about how, above being a summon, it's a goblin, so it should be more like a goblin than a summon. It worked, and now here it is."

Looking at the goblin during the conversation, it seemed oddly proud of itself. It seemed to understand we talked about it and that it was special in some kind of way. I smiled at it and went back to looking at Father.

"I really don't know much beyond that," I added.

His expression became skeptical. It was likely he simply didn't believe me, which could create problems. However, I was hoping that Father would simply let it go rather than scold me for whatever he was thinking about.

"That's really not normal. It shouldn't be able to happen. Unless..."

He then started walking towards the exit, leaving me alone with my goblin. It took me a moment to realize that this wasn't what we had planned, and caught up to him.

"Hold on, where are you going?"

"I need to do some research. If what you say is true and you can indeed create a summon that has emotions and feelings, it is within the realm of possibility to create a recurring summon and train it, effectively significantly increasing the effectiveness of this type of magic. It needs testing and research."

He didn't even bother looking back at me while explaining his train of thought. He simply kept moving forward. I sighed, ran up and stepped in front of him so he could notice me.

"Can't you do that another time? You're kind of ditching me here."

"Di-"

Father seemed to calm down at the mention of that word. He sighed, and continued with:

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't abandon you and what I was going to teach you."

"Thank you. Then, let's getback to it."

We walked back to the spot where we previously were in silence. Upon arriving, I anticipated what Father would ask and started trying to feel the same connection as I did before. I made sure not to ask the goblin for its help this time, as I thought I should become able to find that connection with any summon by myself.

However, despite having felt said connection once before, I had significant difficulty finding it again. No matter how much I focused on where the goblin should be, I couldn't help but feel everyone else's presence more, most notably Father's.