The Weight of a Human Summon
The grand conference hall of the Rosenhart family was thick with heavy silence. The quiet was so sharp that even the retainers' breathing felt cautious, as if the very air were being crushed under its weight.
"Lord Rosenhart. There was no flaw in the summoning circle. I stake every ounce of honor I have built over my lifetime on that claim."
The voice that broke the surface of the silence belonged to Professor Lifedimer. His dry yet utterly confident tone sliced through the cold air of the conference room and scattered outward.
At the head of the table, Lord Rosenhart sat with his eyes firmly closed. The deep furrows etched between his brows were the only hint that he was currently wandering through an abyss of confusion and torment.
The moment someone’s suppressed outburst erupted, the anxiety that had been held in check burst forth like a dam breaking.
"A human as a summoned creature? In all my years, I’ve never heard of such an absurd thing! This is outright a violation of human rights!"
"If this fact reaches His Majesty the Emperor… it’s obvious that the Empire’s top-tier summoners will come storming in. The family’s honor will…."
The renowned summoners who had served the family for a long time poured their individual anxieties onto Professor Lifedimer. The colder his gaze grew as their complaints intensified, the more his eyes sank like ice.
At the professor’s chilling rebuke, the air in the conference room froze solid for an instant. Under his piercing stare, the retainers swallowed dryly and hastily averted their eyes.
"Professor. Once more… is there truly no way to draw another supreme-grade summoning circle?"
The lord spoke with heavy lips, still refusing to open his eyes. His voice carried the desperation of a man grasping at straws.
"It is physically impossible. The rarest and most essential material required to complete a supreme-grade summoning circle is none other than time. From the pitch-black new moon, drawing a slender arc to the waxing crescent, passing through the waxing gibbous to the full moon. Then again through the waning gibbous and the waning crescent, returning once more to the new moon. Only by steadily accumulating mana over that long cycle of time can it be achieved. However, the Academy entrance exam is next week…."
The more the professor’s calm explanation continued, the more the faces around the table turned ashen.
"Lord, then we must at least prepare a contingency plan! Even if we use a high-grade summoning circle, shouldn’t we secure at least one decent summoned creature?"
"Well said! Setting aside the fact that what was summoned is human, to enter the Academy one must at minimum have a being worthy of being called a summoned creature by their side!"
"Taking the entrance exam with a human body? That’s impossible. Can that frail physique even endure the test?"
"If Lady Yustia appears accompanied by nothing but a mere human, it won’t just ruin her admission—it will tarnish the family name! She’ll become the laughingstock of the world!"
The retainers’ voices, laced with concern, gradually grew heated. In their eyes, a human summoned creature was nothing more than a fragile being that would be torn apart like a sheet of paper before the claws of a demonic beast.
"Humans are called the lords of creation because they can wield mana. Without it, they can’t even defeat a mid-grade summoned creature. They’re so weak that even a passing breeze could endanger them!"
"It’s practically suicide. A human is… simply too powerless to even cross the threshold of the Academy entrance exam."
The room Yurika had guided him to somehow looked fragile. Even the stone floor that should have been solid crumbled like styrofoam—how could these wooden furnishings be any different? Was this place really under different gravity from Earth? Had these people built a civilization on the moon?
Unable to lean back in either the chair or the bed, he paced the room endlessly. The sensation under his feet felt strange. Suddenly, a scene flashed through his mind. In black-and-white footage, Neil Armstrong bouncing lightly across the lunar surface—those comically weightless movements suddenly made perfect sense. If every step made your body float like a feather, of course you’d be thrilled.
The only difference between him and Armstrong was… he had no Earth to return to.
“Still… this is kind of fun….”
He threw himself into the air. Even a slight push defied gravity, enveloping his whole body in a floating sensation. Touching his fingertips to the floor and giving a light push sent his body soaring upward again in a graceful arc.
It was fun the first few times. The first few times….
But was he really supposed to live like this for the rest of his life? His head was already spinning.
- Knock. Knock.
A knock broke the silence.
“Um… Mr. Summoned…? I’m Yurika, the Rosenhart family’s maid in charge of summoned creatures.”
“Yes?”
The voice beyond the door was thick with awkwardness.
“Lady Yustia asked me to take good care of you….”
“Ah, yes. Please come in.”
He finally managed to plant his flailing body back on the floor and answered.
“Excuse me!”
A neatly dressed maid entered with stiff steps. She clutched the tray in both hands tightly and strode right up to him. Then she set the tray down on the floor with a clack, immediately dropped to one knee in front of him, and matched his eye level.
“……?”
Suddenly matching his eye level. As he blinked in confusion, Yurika raised a determined finger right in front of his nose. Then, in a gentle yet firm voice, she said:
“……Yes?”
“Good boy. Stay nice and still while you wait.”
Without even waiting for his reply, she reached out with practiced hands to stroke his head. It was exactly the gesture of a trainer calming an animal.
“W-wait a second.”
When he hurriedly pulled his head back, Yurika’s hand froze in midair. Her eyes wavered, unable to find their footing.
“Do you… dislike being petted?”
She muttered as if she genuinely couldn’t understand. Then her eyes suddenly sparkled with realization, and she quickly rummaged through her pocket. What she pulled out was a piece of jerky.
“Ah! Snack first? Here, good boy. Come here and I’ll give you this.”
“No, um, excuse me.”
“Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.”
Yurika waved the jerky gently, trying to coax him closer.
“Look… could you please treat me like a person? I can talk, you know.”
At his protest, Yurika’s hand paused. Still holding the jerky, she narrowed her eyes and stared at him intently. He could almost hear the intense circuit inspection going on inside her head.
“Ah… that’s… usually when we first meet a summoned creature, we form a bond by….”
“Hah….”
He slapped a hand to his forehead. Yurika set the jerky down and pulled out a notebook, beginning to jot something down.
“Understood for now, Mr. Summoned. Please call me if you need anything.”
“I will.”
The words for now were still dripping with lingering distrust.
As Yurika turned to leave the room, she glanced back.
“Um… would you like me to lay out a potty pad—?”
“I don’t need one!”
An unfamiliar place. The knowledge that he wasn’t welcome. The anxiety of having nowhere to go if he were driven out. He couldn’t rest properly. With every single step, every nerve in his body stood on edge. Because he couldn’t let go of that tension, his fatigue had already reached its limit.
“I tried to persuade my father… but it seems he wants to question you directly.”
“Question me?”
The word left a bad taste in his ears. He felt like a criminal.
“You don’t need to worry too much. I’ve already given him a rough explanation.”
Following Yustia’s guidance, they arrived at a grand dining hall.
“Have a seat.”
A low, heavy voice that resonated through the space. So the person sitting there was the master of this enormous mansion—Lord Rosenhart.
He pulled out the chair as carefully as possible and sat down. He couldn’t even pick up the utensils right away. Not only did he not know the etiquette here, but he was also afraid he might break them, so his hands hesitated.
Man… I’m starving to death. But I can’t exactly show it.
His stomach was roaring with hunger, yet on the outside he remained rigidly stiff, pretending to be calm. The suffocating silence was first broken by Rosenhart.
“I have heard the explanation from my daughter, but I believe it would be clearer to hear it from you directly.”
“Yes. Feel free to ask anything you’re curious about.”
He tried his best to answer with as much courtesy as possible, but he couldn’t hide the faint tremble at the end of his voice.
“Which dimension did you say you came from?”
“Ah… well, I came from a place called Earth…. Magic and summoning don’t exist there. So I’m still quite disoriented right now.”
Rosenhart’s gaze briefly left him and shifted to the documents placed beside him. The way his eyes scanned the paper suggested he was coldly comparing the stories he had heard from Yustia with the current testimony.
“In the entire history of the Empire—no, in any record of this world—there is no precedent of a human manifesting as a summoned creature. Therefore, confirmation is necessary. Whether you truly belong to the human species, or whether you are an otherworldly demonic beast wearing human skin.”
Rosenhart’s gaze swept over his entire body with razor sharpness. Within those persistent eyes, distrust and curiosity were strangely intertwined.
“According to the report, you crushed a summoning stone with your bare hands. Are humans from your dimension normally possessed of such tremendous strength?”
At his question, he was momentarily at a loss for words.
“No. We can’t even properly break an ordinary rock. It’s just that… the physical laws here are… far too light, I suppose?”
He carefully raised his hand and clenched and unclenched it in the air. The alien sensation still lingered in his grip.
At his answer, Rosenhart’s eyes narrowed. He remained silent for a moment, tapping his fingers on the table. Tap. Tap. The regular rhythm deepened the silence inside the dining hall even further.
Finally, as if having made up his mind, he spoke.
“In that case, I have a shameless request to make of you.”
His gaze met his eyes directly. For the first time, it wasn’t the arrogance typical of nobility, but a look filled with desperation.
“Next week, my daughter must take the entrance exam for the prestigious academy known as Ethernoa. Until the next full moon rises and the most perfect celestial alignment occurs—in other words, until the next time a supreme-grade summon can be performed—I would like you to stay by Yustia’s side.”
Rosenhart’s voice carried the undeniable weight of an offer that could not be refused. He paused briefly and sent a deep gaze as if gauging his reaction.
“For the duration of that period, I swear upon the name of the Rosenhart family. I will guarantee you the finest treatment—your food, clothing, and shelter, as well as ensuring none of the inconveniences you might face in this unfamiliar world will trouble you.”
His proposal was sweet. To someone in his position with nowhere to go if cast out, it was no different from a lifeline. But what shook his heart even more was the promise that followed.
“And above all else… your earnest wish to return home. I swear that the family will mobilize all its resources and magical knowledge to do everything in its power to send you back to your original dimension.”
Heavy trust weighed upon his solemnly delivered words. It was an offer he had neither reason nor strength to refuse.