"Ah! How did that happen?!"
The Ragdoll Fox covered her mouth, looking miserable. She had only asked Hermione to sever the band of magic power connected to the little Tree because the extra magic power was making it suffer so badly.
She had never expected this.
"It wasn't your fault."
Hermione had noticed it too. She reached out and patted the Ragdoll Fox's shoulder with one finger. "Look at it this way. These Trees are like—"
She had been about to say they were like ordinary green elves: alchemical creatures with no self-awareness.
But then she remembered the Great Sprites in the hunting party. They treated those elves no differently from real Magical Creatures, and under their influence, the rest of the team had come to regard the ordinary green elves more highly too.
Using elves as a comparison might backfire.
Then Hermione thought of dolls. She could say the little Tree was like a doll, with no self-awareness of its own.
But just before she spoke, it struck her that the little fox in front of her was an actual ragdoll.
That example would not work either.
After fumbling for a few seconds, Hermione finally found an example that could not possibly go wrong. "These Trees are like rocks. They have no self-awareness. It's simply changed from one form of rock into another."
"You really aren't very good at comforting people."
The Ragdoll Fox glanced at her and sighed.
Hermione pressed her lips together, then tried another angle. "Even if I hadn't severed the connection, it would have exploded on the spot in a dozen seconds because it couldn't withstand the influx of magic power. Then there would have been nothing left of it. This way, at least its body is intact. If World Ascension succeeds, it will have