I Became the Main Character’s Favorite

Spirit

The situation is too confusing for my mind to work properly.
I felt dizzy and dazed,

Then I pulled myself together and decided to sort out the situation.
‘So… a girl who looks about 5 years old suddenly came to the hospital room at 1 AM through the 3rd floor window?’
Yes, that’s right! This must be a dream.

As an adult, I couldn’t accept such an irrational development.
I tried to lie down on the floor and fall asleep, but
“I like you! Does the contractor like me too?”

I couldn’t sleep even if I wanted to because of the girl hugging me.
Realizing this, I briefly considered turning away from reality, but knowing that doing so wouldn’t solve anything,
I managed to gather my thoughts and calmly opened my mouth.

“Who are you…?”
To my question, the pink-haired girl started kneading my cheeks and cheerfully said,
“… Spirit!”

“Spirit?”
As far as I know, a spirit means a moth… no, a small and cute fantasy creature.
Anyway…! The important things were whether this child was really a spirit and why she came to find me.

So I asked a few questions to confirm this.
“Are you really a spirit?”
“Yep!”
“I see.”

The flow of questions seems…
Wrong?
Yes.
Let’s do better.

It felt strange, but
In fact, since there was no way to judge whether this child was really a spirit, there wasn’t much more I could do.
I patted my head and after pondering for a moment while looking at the girl giggling,

I thought it would be best to start with introductions, so I held out one hand and said,
“I’m Yoo Ha-eun…! Nice to meet you.”
“Woooow Ha-eun… Pretty name! I like it.”

“No, no, please tell me your name.”
“Huh? Me?”
At my words, the self-proclaimed spirit looked at me as if she didn’t understand.
Then she smiled brightly and said to me,

“… Spirit!”
Could her name perhaps have been Spirit?
Still not sure what to think,
The self-proclaimed spirit took out a bundle from her chest and said to me,

“I brought a gift for the contractor!”
With those words, the spirit started taking various objects out of the bundle and laying them out in front of me.
“This is the cutest pebble in the world! And this is my favorite red stone, and this is the earthworm sister I played with earlier!”

“Wiggly wiggly.”
Oh. I’m sure I heard the earthworm say “wiggly wiggly.”
Wondering if I had heard wrong, I looked at the earthworm wriggling below.

The earthworm waved its tail, making a gesture like waving a hand, and said,
“Gly wiggly wi.”
“……?”

Hmm… Huh? Okay.
As I was blankly staring, shocked,
The earthworm, seemingly thinking it had finished all its business, swished its tail and disappeared somewhere.

“Sister left… Bye bye!”
As I was going “heh…” watching the spirit waving,
The spirit placed what she called a ‘red stone’ in my hand.

“This is something I cherish this much, but I want to give it to the contractor. Because I like the contractor this much!”
The red stone placed in my hand.
No, I’ll correct that. I couldn’t hide my bewilderment looking at the cola bottle cap, but

Seeing the spirit fidgeting and looking at me, afraid her gift might be rejected, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse.
I smiled as brightly as I could and expressed my gratitude.
“Thank you.”

“Yep!”
When I said thank you, she finally smiled brightly and nodded, then hugged me again and giggled.
As I patted the spirit’s head, I brought up the question I couldn’t solve earlier.

“By the way, is your name Spirit?”
At those words, the spirit quickly shook her head and said,
“Nooo? Spirit refers to spirits similar to me!”

It was hard to understand what she meant if taken literally, so I needed to infer the meaning.
‘She probably means her species is spirit.’
Thinking that makes sense, I asked another question.

“Then what’s your name?”
“Hmm. I don’t know.”
Perhaps spirits value uniformity more than individual personality.
Rather than giving names, they just lump them together as spirits.

Of course, all of this was just speculation, so it might not be true.
Thinking it seemed pitiful to be called spirit without a name, I decided to give her one.
“Shall I give you a name?”

At my words, the spirit’s eyes sparkled and she clung to me even more strongly than before.
Thinking she’s like an affectionate puppy, I patted her head and said the name that came to mind.
“Chae-a…?”

I meant to say Chae-hwa because her hair color was like a colorful painting, but
My pronunciation got muddled and I ended up saying Chae-a.
At first, I was going to correct it saying I misspoke, but thinking about it, Chae-a seemed better than Chae-hwa, so I was watching for her reaction when

The spirit seemed to really like the name Chae-a, her eyes sparkling as she nodded.
“Then I’ll call you Chae-a from now on.”
“Yep. I like it.”

It feels like I’ve gained a cute little sister, which is enjoyable.
I decided to continue the rest in the morning since it was late at night, and let out a long yawn.
*

When I came to my senses, it was morning.
Seeing the counselor had come in, it seems to be around 10 AM.
I shook Chae-a, who was inside the blanket, to wake her up and decided to get permission about Chae-a first.

I picked up Chae-a, who was sluggish, or rather, it would be more accurate to say I dragged her.
Anyway, carrying Chae-a, who was bigger than my body, I approached the teacher and explained the situation.
“Teacher, last night a spirit named Chae-a came to visit. So I’m keeping her for now, but what should I do?”

At my words, the teacher started to answer saying “Huh, what?” but
Then she saw Chae-a in my arms and was startled.
“Wh, what? A spirit?”

“Yes. She says she’s a spirit. But I don’t know if she’s really a spirit.”
At those words, the counselor pondered something deeply for a moment, then as if realizing something, said to me,
“I’ve heard that dragons are often chosen by spirits, maybe Ha-eun is such a case?”

“Chosen?”
“Yes, chosen. Usually, spirit masters ask spirits to contract with them, but in the case of dragons, it’s the opposite – spirits come asking to contract.”
Ah, is that why Chae-a came?

Come to think of it, considering she secretly entered the 3rd floor of the association building, where numerous hunters stay,
I had to nod, thinking it doesn’t make sense unless Chae-a is a spirit.
‘Then what kind of spirit is Chae-a?’

Judging by her actions alone, I’m not sure.
I wondered if we could ask the teacher what kind of spirit Chae-a is.
The teacher gave a positive response and stood up.

“Then I’ll go check if there’s a spirit master in the association. Spirit masters are very rare, but since the association is large, there should be one or two.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. I should do it if Ha-eun wants.”

As I felt the counselor’s hand patting my head,
I felt a desire to share this patting with Chae-a.
So I enthusiastically patted the head of Chae-a, who was still dozing.

“Ha-eun, I’m really sorry. I never dreamed all the spirit masters would be out on long-distance requests.”
I shook my head to the counselor who was apologizing to me, meaning it was okay.

This wasn’t the teacher’s fault in the first place, it was just bad timing.
So I pretended it was fine and turned around, but
‘It is a bit disappointing.’

Realizing that the immediate way to find out Chae-a’s identity had disappeared, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
I suppressed my disappointment and decided to check on Chae-a’s information later, when
“I want to play with the contractor…! I’ll give you this if you play with me.”

Chae-a, who had woken up, held out a leaf she had picked up from somewhere and blinked her eyes at me.
Being weak to such proposals, I had no choice but to nod, and
Chae-a seemed extremely happy that I accepted, smiling very brightly and repeatedly saying she liked it.

As I was smiling watching Chae-a like that,
The counselor who was watching from the side made a suggestion.
“Oh right, Ha-eun. How about asking about Chae-a to the person who taught you how to make a lair on the broadcast?”

Does she mean the suspicious viewer?
Certainly, as the counselor said, the suspicious viewer might know.
Since there’s no other option anyway, I thought that would be good and took out my phone, and Chae-a beside me looked at my phone curiously.

‘Judging by her reaction, she doesn’t seem to know much about modern things.’
Come to think of it, even at dawn today, she gave me a cola bottle cap calling it a ‘red stone’.
I thought she might have no common sense about modern times at all.

I decided to watch carefully and teach her one by one as I pressed the broadcast start button.
[Seorinseorin – Big sister came first hehe!]
[RichAndSuspicious – Good morning.]
[RecruitingGradStudents – Thanks for turning on the broadcast.]

Familiar names scrolled up in the chat window.
Grateful that people came back to this broadcast, I bowed slightly and then continued speaking.
“Hello…! I turned on the broadcast because there’s something I want to ask.”

[RichAndSuspicious – What is it? I’ll answer anything I know.]
As expected, it’s very reassuring.
I bowed again,
Then picked up Chae-a, who was watching the phone warily from the side, and said,

“I want to ask about Chae-a.”
[RichAndSuspicious – Oh. Could it be that a spirit has already come?]
Seeing that he immediately guessed it was a spirit, he seems to know something.

Feeling my expectations rising, I nodded.
The suspicious viewer asked me what I was curious about.
“Chae-a said she’s a spirit. But I don’t know what kind of spirit she is, so I wanted to ask.”

When I asked my question very politely in my own way,
The suspicious viewer was silent for a moment and then gave a kind answer.
[RichAndSuspicious – I’d like to answer right away if possible, but even I find it difficult to answer as this is a form of spirit I’ve never seen before.]

Even the suspicious viewer doesn’t know this spirit?
That meant it wasn’t an ordinary spirit, so my worries deepened.
As I was wondering what to do, the suspicious viewer posted another chat.

[RichAndSuspicious – But don’t worry. It’s just that I don’t know, not that others don’t know. I’ll immediately send someone who is infinitely knowledgeable about spirits there. It would be good to ask that person.]
That’s a relief then.

I let out a sigh of relief looking at Chae-a, who was crouching near me and examining the floor.