Nails of Attraction: Peros' Rampage and Midnight Tears
A statue of ordinary size. The tiniest veins tracing across the back of its hand. Every single wrinkle born from flesh folding against flesh. A sculpture of flawless perfection. The only exceptions were the nails hammered into its body all over. And the fact that it was unmistakably made of hard, stone-like material. Otherwise, from its movements to everything else, it was just an ordinary human.
"What the hell is that creepy statue? Toad, swallow it in one gulp!"
Bini's summon, the massive toad, compressed its tongue inside its mouth. Then, as it opened wide, it launched the tongue forward with explosive recoil.
But Liz's summon, Peros, dodged the tongue attack in an instant. No sooner had it evaded than it spun three full rotations in midair before landing gracefully on the ground. It was the kind of refined, elegant pose that would've scored a perfect 10 in figure skating.
"Wow... so cool..."
Our master fell head over heels for the statue at first sight. Me... I couldn't see what was so cool about it. I just wanna beat the crap outta this statue for striking such a fatal pose.
"Tch, Toad! Hit it with your tongue again..."
-Whoosh!
At that moment, a massive rusty metal chunk came flying down from the ceiling, slicing clean through Toad's long tongue.
"W-What the hell?!"
Bini spotted her summon's severed tongue flopping on the ground and fell backward in shock. She examined the tongue, which looked like peach-flavored jelly, up close. And that's when she realized it: a tiny nail was embedded in the cut-off end.
Peros hadn't spun those three loops in the air just to show off. On the first spin, it yanked a nail from its head. On the second, it aimed at the tongue. And on the third, it drove the nail into Toad's tongue before landing.
It all happened in a fraction of a second, so Bini and Closu hadn't noticed.
"Damn it, that class prez didn't even give any orders!"
Idiots. The class prez did give orders. You just couldn't hear them, but Liz issued them quietly and clearly. Kids these days with their hearing already shot... I can see them wearing hearing aids in the future.
"Mantis, slice that statue's neck off!"
Closu's human-sized mantis summon raised its scythe-like forelegs and charged. But Peros didn't dodge this time. It wasn't a threat worth evading. Peros struck a front double biceps pose, flexing its muscles with flair.
The mantis targeted the statue's still neck. And in the next instant...
-Squelch!
What got severed wasn't Peros's neck. It was the mantis's two front legs.
"...M-Mantis's arms!"
While the summon panicked, our handsome statue dude flashed a bright smile and hurled one of his nails right into the mantis's back.
"My summon's ability starts with throwing nails at the enemy. Once they hit, it forces attraction or repulsion on the target."
"Attraction...? Repulsion...?"
"It only works on iron. Still pretty useful in its own way. I haven't fully mastered it yet."
The mantis struggled desperately to pull the nail from its back. But with its front legs gone, it had to use its hind ones—and that was practically impossible.
Then, suddenly, a eerie metallic screech echoed from the gym ceiling. Followed by the sound of something shattering, the rusty stair railing hurtled toward the mantis.
"Dodge!"
The mantis spread its back wings wide, trying to evade the pursuing railing. But the thing chased it like a heat-seeking missile and finally...
-Thud!
...split the mantis's body clean in two.
Closu dropped to her knees in despair, staring blankly at the chunks of summon flesh raining down like rain. Bini clutched her already-dead-from-blood-loss Toad and wailed.
"It's fine. Summons revive after a set time even if they die, right?"
"B-But... the performance eval's coming up soon..."
"Not my problem."
Bini pressed her face against Toad's corpse and sobbed even harder at Liz's words.
"You coward! You lured us to this abandoned gym full of rusty metal just to use your summon's power, didn't you?!"
"Says the girls who picked a 2-on-1 fight."
"..."
Closu had no comeback. Still fuming, she glared daggers at Liz.
"Don't mess with Lur again. The second you do, I'll nail you all."
Hah, no need for me to curse them myself.
"Lur, let's go."
"Y-Yeah...? Oh, y-yes..."
Ignoring the two sunk in despair, Lur and Liz left the abandoned gym.
Big trouble.
Our master wasn't sleeping at night. Probably because of what happened at breakfast and lunch today.
"When's the next volume of the novel coming out? I wanna see the heroine and the lord hero's date already."
It started with novel talk.
"Liz fought those kids for me. I thanked her over and over, but it wasn't enough. To think there's a friend who'd stand up for someone like me... I'm so blessed..."
Now she was tearing up over gratitude for Liz.
I thought it was just dawn emotions at first and let it slide. But when her pillow got soaked with tears, I worried she'd die of dehydration and handed her some water.
"Hic... Sniff...? Thanatos? Water? Thank you..."
Thankfully, Lur chugged it down, averting the crisis. But then the unexpected hit.
"Waaah...! Thanatos gave me water... Hic...!"
"...?"
"He doesn't even come out usually... Hic... He was worried about me... came out to give me water... Hic... He's so kind...!"
Ugh, damn it. I made it worse again. But if she's calling me kind, maybe I did good? Why's she crying then? Women's dawns are on another level compared to men's.
"Everyone around me... is so nice... Hic... But I'm... not a good person... Hic..."
No, wait. Crying over that? Our master is way beyond good—she's saintly.
I wiped her streaming tears with some tissue.
"Wah... I need something sweet..."
Lur checked the fridge for drinks. But it was empty, like thieves had cleaned it out.
Master! Sorry! I drank them all!
Lur knew, but patted my back saying it was fine and headed to the vending machine outside the dorm. The canteen closed after 9 PM, so that was the only option.
I followed, hidden in the shadows.
Late night, with twilight blanketing the ground. Streetlights flickered like moths clinging tight. Following their glow, the vending machine came into view.
"Hmm... tough choice."
The machine was lined with drinks: grape, strawberry, melon, peach, milk, yogurt, coffee—even 100% veggie juice.
Veggie juice seemed obvious, but our master picked...
"Warm milk sounds good."
Good lord. Our master barely eats meat because she pities animals getting slaughtered and butchered for humans like her. (She doesn't actually say that, but yeah.) Of course, she eats it if offered—she's too kind to impose on others.
Anyway, milk to her is probably torture-forced from cows, bred and butchered for it. And she picks milk! This signals her mental state is in dire straits!
"Warm milk..."
The buttons were two colors: blue for cold, red for warm. And unfortunately...
...warm milk was sold out.
"Hiiing... Guess cold milk it is."
Tears in her eyes, Lur pulled out her coin purse. But she dropped it, sending coins scattering everywhere. Some rolled off like they were going on a world tour. Others vanished into sewer grates, never to return.
"Hic... Dropped my coin purse too... Why am I such a klutz..."
I could've scooped them up in a flash. But I didn't want to ruin the boy's effort.
The boy? Where?
"You dropped your coins!"
"Oh, thank you..."
Right here. Our master didn't notice, but that guy merged with his summon, dashed at insane speed to grab the coins from the field, ripped open a sewer grate with one hand to fish out the floating ones, then unsummoned.
That summon and guy? Fun duo.
"You're a first-year, right?!"
"Y-Yeah..."
"Me too! Transferred in recently!"
"Oh... really?"
"Yeah, enjoy your milk!"
The guy left with a booming farewell. And the next day...
"Hello! I'm the new transfer student in this class, Teren!"
He walked into Lur's class as the transfer. Teren spotted Lur and threw a wink. Lur froze solid, like she was Peros.