The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

Her spiritual beast curled tighter into itself, antennae flattening against its body, clearly refusing to listen to her.

Aisha gave it a gentle nudge with her finger. "You shouldn’t be eating things that could be bad for you."

"Gururu, guru. Guru...!"

It chirped back at her, sounding almost indignant.

Aisha blinked and stared down at it for a moment. Then she laughed.

"It tastes delicious? Is that so..." She stroked its small body with the tip of her finger, watching it uncurl slightly under her touch. "Fine, I won’t stop you. But you’ll need to be careful next time."

The reason Irene’s bracelet had never been found in Aisha’s room wasn’t that it had never been there at all.

It had been swallowed by a very hungry, little spiritual beast the moment it had woken from its nap.

From what she heard from it, a servant slipped right behind Daisy when she left the room, walked around the room before standing beside the bed. Aisha remembered placing her spiritual beast on her pillow before she left, and so when the servant put the bracelet under her pillow, it crawled until it reached under her pillow and got to the bracelet.

It seemed that the Lyrian stone in the bracelet awakened it from its sleep, attracting her spiritual beast’s appetite.

However, instead of just swallowing the stone, it even ate the chain.

And it coincided with the time when Aisha saw that flash of light coming from her door.

She heard it call right then.

But Aisha didn’t understand what it wanted to tell her.

Aisha sat on the edge of her bed, the spiritual beast nestled comfortably in her lap, and let her mind wander over everything that had happened since she woke up in this world.

It was strange, she thought, how quickly she’d adapted to living as Aisha Novalis. In her previous life, she never had to scheme anyone. Survival had been simple in its own brutal way—kill or be killed. They either eat or starve to death. There had been no room to build organization, family, or even a haven for everyone who survived then.

Everyone for their own survival.

But this world, this life, demanded a different kind of survival.

She glanced down at her spiritual beast, lazily curling its antennae to stroke its bloated stomach.

If it hadn’t swallowed the bracelet, the servants would have found it exactly where Irene had it planted, and Aisha would have had a much harder time proving her innocence.

She supposed she should be grateful for its terrible eating habits.

Still, something was troubling about how easily it had ingested a solid metal object and a stone from another planet. Would it really be found to let this little thing consume that? And what would happen if it swallowed something similar or more dangerous next?

Do spiritual beasts even eat?

"I guess I have to experiment on you this time."

The little creature swayed its head side to side. "Guru?"

Aisha smiled. "I’ll have to list down what you can eat from now on."

She made a mental note to keep a closer eye on it going forward.

"But first, let’s think of what to call you from now on."

***

"Gummi."

"Gu..."

"Trolli?"

"Guu..."

"Haribo?"

"Guguu."

Aisha tapped her cheek as she struggled to get a name for her spiritual beast.

It was then that something strange happened.

Her spiritual beast’s antennae shot straight up.

"Guru..."

Aisha frowned, following where she felt its gaze was directed.

She felt it too, a second later than her spiritual beast. A presence that didn’t belong to her room.

She turned sharply and froze.

A face was almost pressed against hers.

Pale, luminous eyes blinked with harmless curiosity from a face unlike anything she had ever seen. It possessed the elegant features of a strange steed, crowned with antlers like frost-laced coral and a weightless, smoke-like mane. Its silver-white coat shimmered as if dusted with eternal snow, while a soft, ghostly green glow pulsed along its jaw and antlers like a heartbeat made of light.

It was almost ethereal.

Aisha had no idea how long it had been standing there.

A monster?

But there had been no alarm warning of an outbreak from a contaminated zone.

An animal unique to this world, then?

But the longer she stared at it, the more she noticed how it didn’t sound quite right either. Not when the moonlight from the window passed faintly through its body.

A spiritual beast. An adult one, too. A spiritual beast can grow into something different from its initial manifesting form. It all depended on their awakened partner’s strength and how well they were nurtured.

But how did it get in here? And more importantly... Whose was it?

Then a realization struck her.

Two spiritual beasts in one room.

From what little she remembered of Aisha Novalis’s memories, spiritual beasts didn’t coexist peacefully. They turned territorial, aggressive, and competitive with one another. And especially when one was clearly weaker than the other, sometimes, the stronger one would go so far as to devour the weaker one to grow in power.

And there was no doubt which one was weaker here.

Her hand instinctively moved to hide the little creature on her lap, intending to protect it from the gaze of this other spiritual beast.

But her plan hadn’t even finished forming before it fell apart entirely.

Her spiritual beast suddenly leaped into the air.

"NO!"

Aisha’s hand shot out to grab it. Her heart started beating fast in her chest as she watched it sail through the air toward the massive beast’s face.

In that second, every worst outcome flashed through her mind—jaws snapping shut, her spiritual beast chomped inside the other beast’s mouth.

Her spiritual beast didn’t even have that much flesh or power inside its body. What was so delectable about it?

Wait, no, it was her spiritual beast who jumped eagerly toward the other beast. Was it so bored with its life that it went straight to its death?

Instead of the squelching sound of something being eaten whole, she saw her spiritual beast landing neatly atop the larger beast’s head. It wriggled briefly as if testing the terrain before it settled into its tuft, tucking itself comfortably when it found the perfect spot to rest.

"..."

Aisha stared at this sight with her breath still caught in her throat.

And the most surprising thing about this was that the massive spiritual beast hadn’t moved. It didn’t attack or growl. It didn’t show the faintest sign of aggression.

It simply stood there, luminous eyes fixed on Aisha, allowing the little intruder to settle on its crown without complaint.