Reunion Summoning Magic
The summoning magic of reunion. In my previous life I had been a swordsman, so magic was something I could neither use nor particularly care about. From now on, however, it looked like it would become one of the spells I never wanted to experience again. I had just discovered exactly how shitty it was to be the one dragged across space instead of the one doing the dragging.
The sensation of my insides flipping over while still alive was the absolute worst. I brushed the dust from my clothes with a few light pats and grumbled at the chains that refused to disappear.
“If you’re going to break, at least do it properly.”
The chains clinked every time I moved my arms or legs. I stared at them with an odd expression. I poured strength into the manacles around my wrists, trying to snap them completely, but they didn’t budge.
“…It’s not even a dog collar.”
I didn’t need a mirror to know how ridiculous I looked. I let out a sigh at the cold metal against my neck, then frowned as a sudden wave of nausea surged up from my stomach. I clamped a hand over my mouth.
“This motion sickness is no joke.”
I could only wonder how summoned beasts endured this every single time their masters called them. It gave me a bit of sympathy for their feelings. Still, they probably didn’t suffer the effects as badly as I did. Maybe my rather unusual case—being a demon-human hybrid—made me more vulnerable to the spell’s unnecessary side effects.
Demon hybrids aren’t exactly common, after all.
Humans and demons loathed each other with a passion, so the odds of a child being born between the two races were practically zero. Their relationship had been broken beyond repair since ancient times; they were simply not races that could understand each other or share love. They were so incompatible it was hard to fathom why they were so desperate to devour one another. If I had to compare them, they were like water and oil.
Charlotte Cyclamen’s parents had been a special case. Humans and demons had been mortal enemies incapable of coexistence since time immemorial. And look what happened—even they had fallen apart in the end, regardless of the reason. The demon mother had massacred the entire family in an act of betrayal, and Charlotte had been sealed away.
The look of despair on Charlotte’s face after being betrayed by someone she trusted was still vivid in my mind. Honestly, there were more than one or two strange points in her backstory that bothered me. If I had to pick the biggest, it was that they could have simply killed her instead of sealing her away; that would have made cleanup far easier. Yet they kept her alive. Then there were the cryptic words and tears she had witnessed right before the sealing. What had those last words been? They couldn’t have been spoken out of mere pity. If a woman who didn’t seem like she would shed a single tear even if stabbed had cried real tears in a trembling voice, and if that had been an act, I would have handed her the genius actor award without hesitation.
Regardless, those final words and tears would clearly become crucial information for unraveling the story ahead.
I shook my head with a sour expression.
Since I’ve been summoned anyway, I might as well look into it step by step.
The moment I finished that thought, another wave of dizziness hit me. I dry-heaved softly. My stomach churned. It wasn’t bad enough to make me vomit, but my condition was still the worst it had been in a long time. Spatial travel really did not suit me at all.
Frowning, I looked around the room I had been summoned into, peering through the thick smoke. The chamber was dim and gloomy, the kind of place where ghosts might actually appear. Underground, perhaps? The slightly damp, chilly air carried the distinct coldness you would feel in an abandoned house full of spirits. It was the perfect setting for summoning something sinister and grandiose like a demon.
Of course, I was closer to the demon race those beings had created than to an actual demon. Since Lucifel had called this a demon-summoning spell, technically Lucifel should have been the one pulled here, not me. Yet instead of her, I—a half-breed demon according to the setting—had answered the call. Was this hinting at some kind of plot thread?
Well, the character named Charlotte was unofficial and seemed to have a lot of hidden story, so it made sense. Maybe I carried the blood of a true demon rather than the demon race. Even I had to laugh at how absurd the setting was. In the flashback I had seen, the woman had spoken of success and failure in front of Charlotte; perhaps it was connected to that. In any case, it was clearly an important piece of bait.
Speaking of demons… Lucifel suddenly came to mind. One of the two ancient demons who had given birth to the demon race. As the goddess of the demon world who had been worshipped by them for thousands of years, she would surely know important secrets I didn’t. If I ever returned to Narak, the list of questions I wanted to ask her had just grown longer.
I was still piecing together the story I had organized so far along with Charlotte’s personal memories when that thought occurred to me.
“More importantly, if this is summoning magic there should be a summoner. Who on earth summoned—”
“Oh, so this time you can speak the imperial language properly? Then communication should be possible. Does this mean success after dozens of failures?”
“Huh?”
“I wasn’t expecting much since it’s some half-baked ancient spell for summoning demons or whatever.”
Unfortunately ‘he’ had not been the one summoned, but this much could still count as a success. The soft, elegant voice of a woman cut off my words. At the familiar tone my head turned on its own. My eyes trembled at the slightly more mature voice than the one I remembered from before we parted.
A woman lazily waved her hand as if everything in the world bored her, clearing the smoke as she approached. Her figure gradually emerged.
“This is the first time I’ve seen mana this viscous. And on top of that, a completely alien energy that belongs to neither humans nor demons. How interesting. It’s clear I’ve hit the jackpot.”
As the smoke dissipated, the familiar woman appeared. Ash-gray hair and purple eyes that reminded me of amethysts. The woman who had nearly become my lover—the one I had longed for even after returning to the real world—stood before me. I unintentionally held my breath.
“Nice to meet you.”
At her simple, plain greeting I swallowed hard.
“My full name is Leticia Lisianthes. Call me Leticia. It is the name of the master who summoned you, so remember it well.”
Leticia, now close enough to touch, studied my face with a languid expression. A hint of surprise flickered across her features before she smiled faintly.
“I’m not sure whether I summoned correctly. Are you the ancient demon spoken of in legends? Or merely a demon?”
What was I supposed to say to that? Of all possible people, why did the summoner have to be Leticia? It was too annoying to explain everything, but maybe I should just come clean. If I told her I was Demian Ladius, that I had missed her so much I crossed from another world in a new body to grant her wish, how would she react?
…Hmm. I’d be lucky if I didn’t die.
A quick glance at the madness and obsession lurking in her eyes made me shudder. I didn’t even want to know who those feelings were directed toward. Still, I didn’t want to lie to her after finally meeting again, so revealing my identity and telling the truth here would be the rational choice….
Sudden Quest: You who are about to tell the truth—stop right there!
If you reveal your identity and everything else here, Player, it will sadly lock you into the imprisonment route! A woman’s obsession is terrifying, isn’t it? The current Leticia Lisianthes is in an excited state. Mess with a woman like that and… well, shudder. If it were me, I wouldn’t. You could end up spending the rest of your life locked in a room only she can enter, shackles around your ankles and a collar around your neck, unable to return to Earth, until your life finally ends. Even so, will you reveal your identity?
Reward: You may avoid suspicion.
Failure: Imprisonment route plus three free meals a day, all living needs provided. Player will receive her love until death and will never return to Earth (If this matches your taste, I personally recommend it.)
…or not. Huh?
A system window had appeared before my eyes.
The system was recommending imprisonment. What kind of crazy system recommended getting locked up? ‘Repaying kindness with enmity.’ Not that it had shown me any kindness, but still. Imprisonment was off the table. No matter how many times I was asked, imprisonment was a hard pass. I liked pure romance, but not if it looked like this. Besides, the reward was just “you may avoid suspicion”? How stingy. What would happen if it at least gave me some stat points?
I glared at the quest with a cold expression, then smoothed my face and answered confidently.
“You’re the one who summoned me, yet you’re asking me questions? Doesn’t that seem contradictory?”
“That is exactly what is contradictory. I am the one who summoned you. Therefore, shouldn’t you naturally answer the summoner’s questions?”
“I have no obligation to answer obediently. I was summoned, not bound.”
“You will regret those words.”
The line sounded like something a third-rate villain would say, but to me it landed completely differently. Her voice rang coldly, and the enormous amount of mana that filled the entire room pressed down on me. My body stiffened without my permission. I tried to reach for the sword at my waist, but my body refused to obey.
Whether I moved or not, Leticia began to trace the tattoo under my eye as if it were familiar, then slowly slid her hand down to caress my cheek openly. It tickled. Her touch was endlessly gentle, yet the chill I felt from her fingers made my eyelids tremble.
When I took a step back, Leticia sighed in a tone that sounded somehow disappointed.
“It had such a nice texture when I touched it. What a shame.”
Her personality was far too different from the Leticia I had seen last. Was it because the world had changed? Or maybe something had shifted in her heart while I was gone. Only five years had passed since Demian Ladius disappeared. Yet she carried the mature allure of an adult. It seemed her personality had changed a little during that time as well.
I swallowed dryly.
“Hmph.”
She snorted and narrowed her eyes. Did my reaction amuse her that much? I let out a hollow laugh and asked,
“Is it funny?”
“Extremely.”
“……This room and your personality both have terrible taste.”
“Thank you for the compliment. So, will you answer my question first? Are you truly the demon from legend—the one who grants any wish to its contractor?”
If the answer was yes…
“Would it be possible to bring one specific person from an entirely different dimension?”
“…For what reason would you do such a thing?”
“Oh, it’s nothing serious. I simply want to see the face of the man who took my first time and then ran away without a word.”
Leticia steadied her breathing and continued.
“Can you do it?”
Her eyes glowed with a dangerous light that carried a completely different meaning than before. Seeing that, I pressed my lips tightly together and made a firm vow in my heart.
Crazy. I must never let her discover my identity. If I get caught now, the imprisonment route the system mentioned is all but guaranteed.
“You can’t? It won’t do if you can’t. Then there would be no reason for me to have summoned you.”
“If I can’t, then…”
“Wrong. The words that should come from your mouth are not ‘I can’t’ but ‘I can.’ Is it possible?”
…Those damn developers are sons of bitches. They called it a happy academy romance fantasy. Where the hell is the happy academy life in any of this? Not only is the genre completely different, the setting is a total mess. If it’s going to be a 19+ dark romance, the least they could do is give a warning beforehand.
“Hmm?”
She let out a low laugh and tilted her head. Her blatantly possessive fingers toyed with my hair, making the corner of my mouth twitch.