Once I titled the photo, I realized that it hadn’t been printed from my bottom yet, and instead it had appeared on the [Portfolio] function, which was the only one I gained from upgrading.

The screen turned into a sort of album with holographic pages which I could turn on command. Then, as expected, the first slot was filled with the photograph of a group of harpies and aquilas surrounding a single harpy on a grassy hill.

Okay, so what can I do with it? I tried to select the photograph with my thoughts and another screen appeared over it.

[Title: Group Beating]

[Description: A group of unknown creatures got together to express their rage against a single entity and that sparked the scene seen in the picture, the light of the flash used by the camera accentuates their expressions and the moonlight causes their feathers to shine.]

[Passive Effect: Increases the RP gained from exposing violence.]

[Active Effect: Increases the target’s ability to flee.]

…Eh? Isn’t this very detailed?

As soon as I finished reading the information, I paid attention to Condrovur’s actions, they seemed to be struggling to convince those guys, and I think that my direct thoughts were just making it harder for them to concentrate.

Sorry for being noisy, let me help you out. I believe that surprised them since they stopped to look at me, and that caused the others to point at me. Did they only question why Condrovur is carrying me, now?

Try getting closer to that person somehow. I couldn’t be sure of how this would work after all, better safe than sorry.

It took them a bit of explanation and gesturing, while shaking me around, to finally step close enough to allow me to have a good view of the harpy.

Activate the, huh, active effect of the first photograph…

That didn’t do anything, I should’ve thought about what to say beforehand. I didn’t have time to waste so I simplified it in the next try.

Activate the group beating effect. I just realized how bad it’d sound if I had a voice to say that out loud.

[Activating its effect may cause the photograph to be erased, continue with the action?]

That’s a fair price, the passive isn’t all that useful so, sure, continue.

[Select a target…]

My sight was forcibly set to my lens view, so I asked Condrovur to point me towards the victim, and they did.

The injured one over there, select that one as target. I tried my best to focus so the screen wouldn’t make a mistake.

[Activating “Group Beating” Effect]

Then, almost as if someone had thrown it, the photograph was printed from my bottom and flew towards its target. From what I could see it wasn’t like the other photos I had made, it seemed quite transparent.

What the—? I would have wide open eyes, if I had any, at the sight of that shooting photo entering their body as if it was a ghost phasing through things.

[Target was granted the effect successfully.]

[Photograph “Group Beating” was erased.]

That was bad luck, wait, did you just sound disappointed? I was sure that the intonation of the woman’s voice on the second message conveyed a little of emotion, it was out of her usual serious tone.

“What did you do?” Condrovur’s voice entered my mind once again.

I turned my attention to the wide view and noticed how they were now looking at me like I was a monster, even though I’m not even a fraction of their size.

I only gave them energy to run away, tell them to flee, now!

Which they did, right away. The harpy kicked a good chunk of the soil as they jumped away, half of the group attempted to stop but somehow they all missed the harpy’s body as if it had become slippery.

I watched as the harpy flapped their wings and took flight, while still getting pursued by them. Though afterwards, it became clear to me that, now, the ones in a bad position were us.

From the gestures of the remaining people, it was obvious that they were already blaming us for letting the harpy flee.

Can we go away if they aren’t listening to reason?

Condrovur didn’t respond. Instead they continued to argue with the half that stayed behind, and it went on for a while. I noticed that the aquilas were pointing at me from time to time, though whenever it happened we took a step back for what I believe was another round of explanation.

I can’t help if you don’t press the button. I was getting a bad feeling from this situation, it would be better if I had any other way to help so I checked my profile and the point store, as I decided to call it, but I couldn’t yield any results either, I was just too low on points for anything that seemed useful.

Wait, what are they doing? Once I closed the screens covering my view, I was met by the sight of a couple of harpies and a few aquilas closing in on us.

Suddenly the hands holding me stretched forward, then met up with the hands of another aquila, a dark red feathered one, and my body was handed over to them.

Condrovur? Hey, what’s the big idea?!

As their mouth-beak started moving and their eyes closed, a cyan blue glow began to grow from beneath the person holding me, the light became brighter by the second and spores the size of a human thumb appeared around us as well, much like fireflies that were drawn in by a torch.

Once it reached a certain point of brightness it became even more noticeable that a circle had formed on the ground and I instantly recognized the shape at its center, a four-point star.

This pattern again, what’s it supposed to do? Am I getting cleansed or something?

I let my thoughts run wild for a while, both to keep me attentive and to be noisy to the only person who could be listening to me, which proved to be rather effective from what their expression conveyed.

Though that ‘while’ was just until the circle vanished and the floating spores followed suit a little after, leaving just me confused. Actually, the whole group seemed as confused as me.

What now? Did you find a bug that you don’t like in me? Wouldn’t be surprised if that was it.

Their eyes widened horizontally and their beaks were held agape, which did make them look like they were about to peck something, before the one holding me became sweaty, at least in the palm of their hands, and started to say something.

I tried to keep up with their gestures but it quickly ended up with them returning me to Condrovur, who clearly held a smirk on his face. I wanted to see the rest but they put me inside the pouch right away, so I had to speculate that everything went well.

—It’s dark.

They tapped on the stone table with their fingers in response.

Hm, my vision doesn’t adapt to darkness, so can you light up another candle, please?

“I guessed as much,” they finally responded, at least since we got back to the burrow.

Once another candle was lit on the table, I was sure that we could start an amiable conversation, and maybe I could ask what exactly happened out there, but Condrovur suddenly threw me a ‘straight ball’.

“I suspect that you’re not a spirit-bound item,” they joined hands in front of me.

…Okay.

“I had left out this question since you seemed to be unusually keen in gathering information, which caused me to infer that that was what you were meant to do,” their voice became apologetic all of a sudden, “and although the general features of a spirit-bound can be found in you, I hope that you’d answer this question first and foremost: what is your purpose?”

It was silent after that, not the usual kind, instead, there was a heavy silence that weighed on me for some reason.

No matter how much I thought about it, nothing really came up, I couldn’t think of any goals I wanted to achieve nor things I actually wanted to do, and I didn’t know why.

I’m not sure, really, I don’t think I have any.

“Haa,” they lowered their head, “that’s another thing that a spirit-bound isn’t capable of. Being purposeless.”

That’s, are you saying that they are born with and aware of their purpose?

“That’s right, be it morally right or wrong, they follow such ‘guidelines’ for the entirety of their lives, even without having total control of their bodies,” Condrovur picked me up, along with the candle, and walked to that pile of remains.

They illuminated it, showing dozens of destroyed machines, many of which I could never even attempt to recognize, with very few identifiable ones, “and that’s why it was necessary to destroy any chances for a morally evil spirit to grow into a threat to others.”

How dangerous can they be with so many restrictions? You said it was odd that I could feel pain, so if all they have is sight and, maybe, hearing, how can they be a threat?

“That is—”

And how do you know all that? Why were you the only one who could talk to me?

They looked at the entrance before responding in a lower tone of voice, “I was born with this.”

With the candle held right in front of their feathered face, they opened their mouth and I saw something that, from what I know, shouldn't be on the roof of someone's mouth.

Wait, isn't that…