Villainess and the Stalker - Chapter 23 - The Summoning Arts

Chapter 23 : The Summoning Arts

「… Today’s lesson is about summoning arts, huh. Have you already made a pact with a summon beast, Conrad?」

I asked my comrade on our way to the sorcery training field.

Thus, Conrad replied.

「Not yet. I’m still wondering what to choose as my summon beast. I’m torn between a wild animal, a domesticated one or a direct contract one… This is the most difficult part of choosing a summon beast, after all, isn’t it?」

Conrad asked me for my opinion.

The reason was simple; each person had their own limit about how many beasts they could make a pact with as a summon beast.

The vast majority of sorcerers only had one summon beast during their whole life.

In short, they’d have a life long relationship with their contracted summon beast.

Naturally, they could cancel the contract or make another one with a different summon beast after their previous one expired, but the latter aside, the former wasn’t recommended due to its risk.

The reason was that contract beasts existed to protect the one they’re contracted to. That’s why a lifelong relationship would only deepen their bonds with their contractor to the point where one would call their summon beast their partner.

Hence, the majority of people who recklessly cancelled their contract in order to gain an even more powerful summon beast would meet a tragic end.

That’s why one couldn’t neglect to investigate the one they wanted to bond with and form a contract.

The summon beast types that fitted Conrad’s statement the most were wild monsters or domesticated one which could be gained through request. The method was either direct summoning with a summoning circle or the types that were tied by an agreement.

The latter’s advantage was an easier contract process, the demerit was the fact that the summoner couldn’t choose the summoned beast themselves.

Regarding the former, one might be able to search for the summon beast that would be willing to make a pact with a contractor but, their chance to succeed was quite low.

Each one had its own merit and demerit, these were what made the choice so difficult.

「In my opinion, it’ll be better if you look for a powerful summon beast yourself since you’ll become a physical reinforcement sorcery user. I don’t think you’ll summon a powerful summon beast if you choose the direct summoning method.」

「… Is that so!? Come to think of it… I guess I’ll only have to spectate today’s lesson..」

「Spectate? May I ask what were you guys doing during last semester’s summoning art’s lessons?」

「Oh, right. During the first semester, we were mainly learning about the theory behind summoning arts or the type of summon beasts. Then, the teacher showed us their summon beast… Recently, we were slowly putting together the theory we learned during the first semester into practice. That’s why I’m also wondering which one of the two methods I should pick.」

「So, a few students have already summoned their summon beast, then?」

「Yeah. There are about four or five people from our class who have summoned theirs already. But I think the number of people will keep going up with every lesson… Oh, look, speak of the devil. Look over there.」

Conrad said while pointing at the sorcery’s training arena as soon as we arrived.

When I looked there, I saw the figures of students frolicking with the demon beast they had just summoned.

Their size varied; some were even several times bigger than their humans, some so small that calling them palm-sized wasn’t entirely wrong.

There was no sense of uniformity between all of them; some had a human’s shape, some the appearance of an animal, while some others had an indescribable appearance.

Well, it wasn’t strange since the principles of summoning arts were to summon anything but a human.

Nevertheless, long years of studies proved that the summoning still worked inside the realm of the user’s capabilities.

If you take for example an overwhelming existence… Something like a dragon wouldn’t get summoned by a mere human, something along those lines.

In short, summoning arts worked in an extremely logical way.

How should I say, it felt like a show of one’s own limit and talent.

I imagined that almost no one who learnt the summoning arts ever realized this fact.

They might intentionally refuse to consider such a simple fact.

Well, even though no normal person had been able to accomplish such a feat, it didn’t mean there really was no one out there who could summon a dragon.

In short, the summoner who could summon something like a dragon was someone who only existed in legends.

But then, how can this kind of legend be passed on until the current generation unless the people who could summon such mighty existence really did exist in the past?

Thus, I also… think that that kind of person really did exist.

Though I knew better that it was virtually impossible to challenge those mighty existences.

The summon sorcery itself placed an extremely huge burden on the summoner during the pact.

The burden became stronger in proportion to the power of the summon beast.

Hence, I couldn’t imagine just how terrifying the burden would be for someone to make a pact with a dragon. People were already out of breath just by making a pact with the normal summon beast, they should stop dreaming about making a pact with the legendary existence such as a dragon.

「There really are various summon beasts- gargoyle, slime… even an ogre. That must be a small wyvern, huh….」

There really were various summon beasts.

That’s why one couldn’t help but enjoy this kind of scene.

「There really are too many of them… So, today must really be a joint class lesson hu—GEH!」

After I marvelled over the variety of the summon beast, Conrad suddenly stopped mid-way through his sentence.

I looked at him, pondering about what made him speechless. He pointed out.

「… Nay, look over there! First is this group of students from class-3, even though this is supposed to be a joint lesson… That one on that side is from the special class. Those little… Even though this is already a rare joint lesson, we’ve drawn the end of the short stick and paired up with those guys.」

When I looked in the direction he pointed at, sure enough, I saw several familiar faces.

And the one who attracted the most attention was Miss Maria.

A strong-willed girl who attracted everyone’s attention.

The person herself might have no doubt that she… was the best.

The first prince was there too.

No one ever doubted that those around them were also members of the special class.

To be honest, I had no wish to be involved with the special class but… I guess this situation left me with no choice but to get myself involved with them.

Nevertheless.

「… They might be the one who chose to remain behind after the previous summoning class.」

Conrad nodded and replied

「Let’s hope so…」