The Weight of a Borrowed Name
“W-wait a moment, Lord Irshagas!”
I shouted urgently toward Irshagas, but he showed no sign of stopping the surge of power. This was the sole, fatal flaw in the contract I had forged with him.
Unlike ordinary summons—and even unlike the notoriously difficult contract I held with Morotai—he granted me no command authority whatsoever. I could choose the battlefield, the timing, and the opponent, but the conduct of the fight itself and the treatment of the enemy afterward were left entirely to his judgment. I had no say in the matter.
If I tried to forcibly restrain him, he was contractually permitted to turn his blade on me without hesitation.
“Lord Irshagas! I beg you!”
I had summoned him expecting that his mere presence would force an immediate surrender. Even if a fight broke out, I had assumed it would remain within manageable bounds. The thought that he might unleash his full strength had never crossed my mind—a critical miscalculation.
“Lord Mahukuta Acap, please wait!”
Fortunately, the other side’s contract appeared far more conventional. Whether I had misheard or not, at her words Mahukuta Acap immediately dispelled all illusions and afterimages, withdrawing his fighting spirit. Seeing this, Irshagas reluctantly reined in his own power as well.
As a knight who valued honor, he could not strike an opponent who had already lost the will to fight.
—…A pity. I thought I had finally found a worthy opponent after so long.
—I, for one, am relieved. I had no desire to die here today.
While Irshagas sounded genuinely disappointed, Mahukuta Acap let out a long breath and began fanning himself with his hat. Though Mahukuta Acap ranked among the highest of the divine beasts, Irshagas belonged to the Spirit King tier—the apex of the spirit realm. By celestial standards, he was not a divine beast but an Envoy, a rank above. Had they truly clashed at full strength, Mahukuta Acap would have stood no chance.
Still, it was a relief. If Irshagas had truly gone all out, the entire area would have frozen solid—and I would have been in danger as well.
“Y-you really are Lord Anak?”
While I was still catching my breath, she—she—approached cautiously. She still looked dazed, caught between shock and disbelief.
“…And you must be Elena. The half-elf Elena, correct?”
Half-elf Elena. Born to an elven mother and a human father, she had been one of the greatest summoners of this era alongside Kainaknus, the Ally of Dragons, and Neiku, the Sage of the Forest—until the last great war.
She nodded.
“But Lady Elena was a woman……”
With a light gesture, small runes appeared near her neck and ears. Spirits of wind and light emerged, and at the same time her ears lengthened and tapered into the classic elven shape. The strange dissonance I had felt earlier finally made sense—it had been caused by the spirits masking her true appearance.
“Voice modulation and minor illusion magic using spirits. Now, please tell me.”
Her voice was unmistakably feminine—soft, calm, and refined. It reminded me slightly of Julian’s, yet the tone and cadence gave it an odd resemblance to Lady Ropena’s as well.
“Are you truly Lord Anak? The Summoner of Deception, the Second-Best Strategist, Orsia… Lord Anak?”
She swallowed the final title before it could fully leave her lips, as though she could no longer bring herself to speak it now that she knew the truth behind it.
“…Yes. I am.”
I had expected her eyes to fill with disappointment. That was how it always went with others. And that reaction had always left me feeling vaguely guilty, bitter, and uncomfortable.
“I-I’m so sorry! I had no idea!”
But there was no disappointment in her green eyes. Instead, she looked mortified and flustered, bowing repeatedly while frantically checking me for injuries she clearly knew weren’t there.
“I thought you were a summoner from the Dark Temple who had come to interfere with me! You kept heading toward the forest and speaking as though you wanted me to follow, so I naturally assumed—”
She was so agitated that her words tumbled out in a jumbled rush. I needed to calm her down, but this situation was entirely unfamiliar to me—especially when the person in front of me was a woman.
If she had been a man, I would have simply grabbed her shoulder or arm. But this… what was I supposed to do? Rowell or Orcan would have done it naturally, yet while my mind understood the gesture, I lacked the confidence to execute it smoothly.
“There, there. It’s also my fault for not revealing my identity sooner.”
“No, no! I should have been more certain before acting! And I said such rude things about your summons……”
Words alone weren’t enough. She had begun circling me, still searching for nonexistent wounds. She was clearly too flustered to think straight.
Just as I was debating whether to finally reach out and steady her by the shoulder, Mahukuta Acap approached.
—Oh? So you are the famous Lord Anak? I knew you couldn’t be an ordinary summoner with Lord Irshagas present, but I never imagined you were one of the Hero’s companions.
His tone was polite and free of malice, yet curiosity lingered beneath the surface. As a high-ranking divine beast, he could sense the color of my soul.
“Yes. I never expected to meet Lord Mahukuta Acap here either—especially not under the alias of the Mirror Reaper.”
—Ah, that name is far too exaggerated and violent. I’m merely a performer who livens up banquets.
—Your humility is excessive. You forced me to consider using my full strength, yet you claim to be nothing more than a performer. Are you trying to insult me?
—Please, don’t tease me. I truly thought I might die just now, even if only for a moment.
Thanks to Mahukuta Acap and Irshagas, Elena seemed to have regained some composure. Though her face remained slightly flushed, she had stopped pacing around me and her breathing had steadied.
“I’m truly sorry!”
“No, it’s fine. More importantly, I’d like an explanation about the current situation.”
I was curious why she had been performing good deeds under my name, and I wanted to know more about this “Dark Temple” she had mentioned.
“Why are you using my name, Lady Elena? And what exactly is the Dark Temple?”
“Ah, that’s……”
—Wait. Before that, may I take my leave? I wouldn’t mind staying longer, but I have another banquet to prepare for in a few days.
“Ah, of course. Thank you for answering the summons.”
At her words, Mahukuta Acap’s staff glowed, revealing a heavenly gate.
—Then I hope we meet again at a banquet rather than a battlefield. Lord Irshagas, Lord Anak.
—That is unlikely.
“I’ll look forward to it nonetheless.”
Mahukuta Acap tipped his hat lightly toward us in farewell before stepping through the gate. Once he vanished, Irshagas summoned his snow leopards and raised his sword.
—Since there is no longer an opponent worth fighting, I shall return as well.
The blade of ice dissolved into cold mist and disappeared. When he swung the now-empty hilt horizontally, a rift opened, connecting to Niflheim.
“Yes. As always, thank you for your assistance.”
He took a few steps toward the rift, then glanced back at Elena and me.
—I was somewhat disappointed at first, facing an elf—and a young woman at that—but it turned out to be quite an entertaining duel. I look forward to the next one.
So that was why he had called her “weak.” He had known her true identity from the very beginning. He and the snow leopards disappeared into the rift, which slowly sealed shut behind them. The surrounding area remained frozen by Niflheim’s chill, but it would soon return to its normal temperature.
“Ah!”
Only then did I realize that, unlike me, Elena had been directly exposed to the cold. She hadn’t shivered or shown any discomfort, so I hadn’t noticed. Niflheim’s chill was no ordinary cold. I quickly summoned fire spirits and floated them around her.
“This is……?”
Her expression stiffened slightly. She must have tensed at the sudden appearance of fire spirits.
“Ah, I thought you might be cold……”
I felt a pang of regret. She was a summoner herself. If she had been suffering, she would have summoned her own spirits long ago. I had acted without thinking.
“Ah, thank you for your concern.”
She relaxed at my words and offered a smile. After studying my face for a moment, she bowed deeply once more.
“…I’m truly sorry for using your name without permission. I never intended to exploit your reputation or cause you any harm.”
I already knew that. In fact, my reputation and recognition had likely increased because of her actions—though the number of people who would recognize me in person had probably decreased.
“We simply wished to elevate your reputation……”
“Wait a moment! ‘We’? Are there others involved?”
“Yes. There are four more besides me. That’s the key point. Since we all look different, what remains in people’s minds are our deeds, not our appearances.”
I nearly let out an admiring exclamation. It was a simple yet brilliant method that required a precise understanding of how rumors and public perception worked.
People loved rumors but didn’t blindly believe them. In fact, many looked down on those who did, which led them to dismiss the rumors themselves. Therefore, if countless conflicting rumors about the same subject spread simultaneously, only the common elements would remain.
Since far more people heard rumors than witnessed events directly, and since the direct witnesses offered contradictory details about appearance and other specifics, the public would lose interest in those inconsistencies—or at least recognize that they might be false.
In the end, just as she said, only the good deeds and accomplishments of the summoner named Anak would linger in people’s minds. It would take time, of course.
“I appreciate your efforts to raise my reputation, but why go to such lengths?”
What benefit did elevating my name bring to her and the others?
“We’re trying to change people’s perception of summoners. If we succeed, fewer summoners will join the Dark Temple.”
“The Dark Temple?”
“It’s an organization of summoners who believe we must return to the era when summoners were called Dark Priests. Most of its members are those who suffered unjust treatment in Melpis and Shelmil. Their numbers have grown rapidly since the great war.”
Melpis and Shelmil were infamous for their poor treatment of summoners. The scars left by the Dark Priests’ headquarters still lingered there as if the atrocities had happened yesterday. As a result, summoners faced severe discrimination, both official and unofficial.
Most summoners avoided those regions entirely, but the real problem was summoners born there. They came under state surveillance before they even understood their own talents, burdened with countless restrictions. Most were either exiled before turning fifteen or forced to abandon their abilities altogether.
“But will simply raising my reputation really help?”
“It’s only one of several methods. We’re working to shift public perception, while Lord Kainaknus directly pursues the remnants of the Dark Temple and negotiates with the leaders of Melpis and Shelmil.”
Even Kainaknus, the Ally of Dragons, was involved. The scope of this operation was far larger and more serious than I had imagined.
“But there’s no need to use my name specifically, is there? Both you and Lord Kainaknus are renowned summoners in your own right.”
She hesitated, looking slightly embarrassed, before speaking in a small voice.
“During the last great war, we did nothing while people suffered under the Demon King’s army. If we suddenly began performing good deeds now, it would only breed resentment. But you saved the world alongside Hero Rowell, so we believed raising your reputation would be the most effective approach.”