One-Eyed Monster

Igor didn’t care at all about that kind of envy; he even felt these Spirit Books were acting like they were poisoned.

"Hey, you can’t do this. You’re books, not people. You can’t develop that kind of envy toward humans. Don’t forget who you are!"

Even though what he said sounded quite reasonable, the Spirit Books didn’t take it in at all.

They were still there sighing away, spinning all sorts of wild fantasies.

If only they had bodies like humans! If only their dependence on Spirits were the same as humans! If only they could live like humans do...

"You guys don’t also want to become like us, do you?" Igor suddenly asked. He felt the mood these days was getting a bit off; these Spirit Books seemed to be drifting from the main topic.

It was supposed to be just explaining Spirit Entities, and then somehow it jumped to the matter of special Spirit Entities.

And before they’d even finished talking about special Spirit Entities, it had already shifted to envy toward humans. That made Igor feel the whole thing had gone off the rails.

Thinking back on what he’d been pursuing before, that had been thrown way up into the clouds.

At the start, what he’d wanted to know was: what is Lord Soron’s regret.

After learning that Lord Soron’s regret was the creator of Spirit Entities, Igor got interested in what exactly a creator of Spirit Entities is!

Before he could figure out what a creator of Spirit Entities actually was, a whole swarm of questions came rushing in. First and foremost was that, in the Spirit Books’ description, this creator of Spirit Entities sounded more like a controller of Spirit Entities. Igor felt that was a very prominent issue.

But that question didn’t get any effective answer, because the Spirit Books started narrating how Lord Soron discovered this creator of Spirit Entities.

The process was quite rich in detail, but Igor heard a huge inconsistency in it.

Namely, that Lord Soron had crossed hands several times with the creator of Spirit Entities he’d supposedly never been able to find!

This kind of self-contradictory statement was still bothering Igor, and the Spirit Books still hadn’t given a reasonable explanation.

So how did the Spirit Books dodge Igor’s questioning? They used their fear of Kadi to successfully skirt around the topic. But because of that fear, Igor threw out a new question: what is the Devouring Power? That question was sharp, and the Spirit Books really put in a lot of effort trying to explain it.

Yet by the time they finished explaining, Igor finally realized that this bunch of Spirit Books had absolutely no idea what that power actually is!

And now, they’d finally reached something the Spirit Books could actually explain clearly, but then they all suddenly fell into another kind of emotional state, unable to pull themselves out!

Is this all deliberate on the Spirit Books’ part or what!

Igor couldn’t help thinking that, but the Spirit Books still didn’t give him an answer.

"I’m telling you, can you stop with the envy already!" Igor once again reminded these intoxicated Spirit Books. He felt these books were going a bit overboard!

The Spirit Books didn’t hear him.

Since that level of persuasion wasn’t working, Igor figured he’d try a different method. This one absolutely had to be effective—if this trick didn’t work, it would mean the Spirit Books had been messing with him from the start!

"If you keep this up, I’ll wake Kadi. Don’t forget you’re supposed to be answering my questions!"

At the mention of Kadi’s name the Spirit Books went quiet at once; their earlier intoxication and envy vanished without a trace...

"Don’t be like that. Can’t we just go back to what we were talking about?"

The Spirit Books immediately behaved themselves!

Their behavior really gratified Igor. At least their fear of Kadi was genuine; which meant, no matter how unbelievable everything that had happened before seemed, it was still a possibility. As for those contradictions, those impossible bits, he, Igor, would just have to slowly dig into them himself.

"We really couldn’t help it!"

Even with their emotions reined in, the Spirit Books still couldn’t let it go. Their envy of humans was genuinely strong!

"But what you’re doing is wrong." Igor sounded like someone who’d been through it, lecturing a bunch of kids.

"What’s wrong with our envy?" The Spirit Books didn’t see the problem; they felt they hadn’t done anything wrong!

"You’re thinking you want to become like us, aren’t you." Igor said slowly.

"Yeah. If we could become like you, we could get rid of our dependence on Spirits!"

"Heh. And if someone gave you a chance to occupy our bodies, you’d march forward without hesitation too, wouldn’t you." Igor guided them along, thinking of some things that seemed connected to what was happening now.

"Of course, that’d be such a great opportunity!" the Spirit Books answered without the slightest hesitation.

"That kind of choice is wrong." Igor replied just as decisively.

...The Spirit Books were speechless. What was this about, how was that wrong?

They waited for Igor’s next explanation.

"I’ve been through the Border Realm before. The Soul Devourers there had the same idea as you. They occupied other people’s bodies, but in the end they became nothing—neither human nor ghost—and eventually even forgot who they were. Not to mention far-off examples; right here in this Circus, the people before were like that too. So tell me, would you really be willing to give up being Spirit Books to become someone else?"

After hearing this, the Spirit Books all flipped their pages in a rustling wave. Clearly, they were giving a negative answer: "We don’t want to become someone else; we want to be ourselves!"

"Exactly. So envy if you must, but don’t ever start wanting to become some specific person." Igor, like an elder counseling his juniors, was being very patient.

"We never expected things to be this complicated!" the Spirit Books went on sighing. In their eyes, Igor’s explanation was quite convincing. They might envy humans for not depending on Spirits, but they really hadn’t thought about how, once they turned into humans, all the profound knowledge they currently possessed would turn into nothing.

"Speaking of which, those Soul Devourers seemed to have the Devouring Power you mentioned." Igor circled back to the original topic. And that return made him feel the situation was getting very off.

It was supposed to be the Spirit Books answering his questions, so how had it turned completely around, with him explaining things to the Spirit Books? Creepy!

No, no, he had to get this situation back under control. He couldn’t let one sidetrack derail the whole rhythm!

"I’ve explained things for you; you still haven’t explained anything for me!" Igor looked at the Spirit Books and spoke anxiously.

The Spirit Books were completely at a loss; they had no idea how they were supposed to explain.