I Only Summon Villainesses

I turned to her.

“Early to the party, I guess.”

I explained everything that had happened, watching her face as I laid it out. The trafficking. The sister. The collar around the elf lady’s throat. Nisha’s expression didn’t shift. There was np surprise or disgust. Just the flat acknowledgment of someone hearing nothing new.

“Trafficking is not something unusual. We’re bunches of criminals, remember.” She crossed her arms. “And it’s indeed a sad reality, but when you’re faced against a competitor like Manhattan who are practically amongst the rulers of Recimiras, then there are very limited things one can do.”

I looked at her, a subtle frown settling on my face.

“So what? You’re saying to leave it? Let them have their way?”

She gave me a stern, almost angry look. The kind of look that said I was being naive, and she didn’t have the patience for it.

“Where did you think you were coming to? The city of angels?”

I bit the inside of my mouth.

’Damnit.’

She was right, wasn’t she? This wasn’t my world. I’d heard about places like Recimiras, read about them, maybe even imagined what it would be like. But imagination was a tourist’s version of reality. Clean. Distant. You could close the book whenever you wanted.

Nisha exhaled through her nose.

“Let them go, Cee. This is how things roll around here.”

The man visibly brightened at Nisha’s words. His whole posture shifted, the tension bleeding out of his shoulders as if someone had cut his strings.

“Finally, someone that understands! Ah, thank Tyrvas!”

The elf lady, on the other hand. Her face went pale. The hope that had flickered there moments ago guttered out, and what remained was something worse than fear. Resignation. The look of someone who had learned not to expect anything from the world.

I looked at Nisha. Then at the elf lady.

Perhaps Nisha was right. I didn’t know enough about where I was coming to. Hearing it does feel different from experiencing it.

I was supposed to let this lady with her curves and her desperate eyes, who had been enslaved without consent, who was searching for her sister… I was supposed to just let her go. Walk away. Because that was the reasonable thing to do in a place like Recimiras.

I looked down at the floor for a moment.

The reasonable thing.

I raised my head.

“But I have an idea…”

Nisha arched her brows at me.

“The Black Snow Company does anything and everything, doesn’t it?”

A scowl settled across her features. Her jaw tightened.

“Cee, that’s… don’t do that.”

I turned to the elf lady.

“Are you willing to hire a bunch of underhanded criminals to help you?”

“Cee!” Nisha stepped forward. “We are expensive! A slave cannot afford us!”

“Answer me.” I fixed my gaze on the elf lady, who stared back at me with a frozen expression. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out at first.

“Are you willing to hire the Black Snow Company to help you?!”

She nodded quickly, almost frantically.

“Yes! Yes! I am willing. I will do anything for your help!”

A smile curved on my lips.

“Well then.” I reached into my storage and pulled out a dark blue orb, holding it up to Nisha. The light caught its surface, revealing the dense swirl of energy trapped within.

“How expensive are you people?”

The small frown on her face spread outward, expanding into something else entirely. Bewilderment. Her eyes widened.

“The Serpent’s core?” Her gaze fixed on the orb with an intensity that bordered on hunger. She caught herself, straightened, and gave me a dark look. “Why?”

She examined the elf lady again, as if trying to find whatever it was that I was seeing.

“You’ve only just met her. Why would you risk a Primal core for someone you barely know?”

Instead of answering, I pulled out another orb. This one was light-purple, its glow softer but somehow more ominous.

“Apex!” Her breath trembled on the word.

“Cade! What are you doing? This is recklessness!” She stepped closer, her voice rising. “Do you know how much fortune you will make from these?”

“Will the Black Snow Company take the job?”

Nisha stood there, staring at the two cores in my hand. The level three Primal beast and level three Apex beast that Maggie had dealt with in the desert. Both of them sitting in my palm like I was offering her spare change.

These cores had to cost a fortune for Nisha to be reacting like this. But it wasn’t like I would never kill more of these beasts. I was going to kill even more ferocious ones.

If I had a choice in this life, I probably would’ve decided to sell these and make a living for myself away from violence. But that thought didn’t even cross my mind. Not really. I would continue to kill as far as my vengeance and desire for the truth of Lira’s death demanded.

This was the least I owed Lira for all the good things she did for me. This was what I owed the Mercenary guild for everything they did to me. To Clara. To Pele, Baba, Victoria. And I still had to rescue Emma.

I had made peace with the life I was going to live. So letting a treasure like this go was easy because I was certain I would get more. I had Kassie and Maggie with me, and I was going to get more villainesses.

Three more were waiting right now for me to expand my soul plane so it could accommodate them. So why fret?

’This is a criminal life… let’s go all the way.’

And moreover… was I supposed to just overlook those breasts and the fact that I finally had an opportunity to form a bond with an elf?

’Hell no. This is not too much at all.’

Silence filled the room. Nisha’s gaze moved between the cores in my hand, the man, and the elf lady. Calculating. Weighing.

She sighed.

“If this is really what you want, then you must go through the proper channels.”

She looked at me carefully. Something had shifted in her expression. Less frustration now. Something closer to grudging respect, maybe. Or maybe just acceptance of my particular brand of insanity.

“But I must warn you, a job against Manhattan will cost you more than these.” Her gaze dropped to my hand before returning to my face. “I told you, right? They’re our biggest competitors. On the bright side, I’m sure Levi will be glad to take a job like this one.”

She closed her eyes and exhaled.

“Until then, what are you going to do with them? You can’t keep them here. We’re going to Los Arcos tomorrow, where our headquarters is located. You can’t exactly drag them around.”

I thought about what she said and looked at the man. He was watching us with the careful attention of someone whose survival depended on reading the room correctly.

“I also can’t exactly release him.”

Releasing him would mean he’d know everything we discussed here. He would probably run straight to the Manhattan people and tell them all about our plans.

’His absence might also raise suspicion. The Manhattan group could get spooked.’

I shook my head, turning the problem over. Then Kassie’s voice cut through my thoughts.

“I could go.”

Both Maggie and I turned our heads to her.

“What?”

Kassie looked at me with that evil indifference of hers. The same flat expression she always wore, like the world was a mildly inconvenient dream she was waiting to wake from.

“It’s safer that way. I run on free essence. You can tell my location from anywhere. You can cancel my summoning anytime you want if you feel it’s unsafe.” She looked at me with the certainty of something inevitable. “You know… I can never be unsafe. They are the ones you should be worried about.”

Her gaze drifted to the man. The threat in it was casual, almost lazy.