I Only Summon Villainesses

In as much as the mercenaries were employed as meat shields for this battle, it made no sense that they would simply drive us into the battlefield with no economical account for rest. So even though the horn was sounding for the fifth time tonight, we weren’t tasked with the burden of having to ready our weapons and descend into the battlefield.

Instead, Sergeant Kael was pulling back with her Night Guards, and our mercenary line was following last, while the sergeant who had brought me, Sulin, and Jose was pushing forward to the frontline with an entirely different batch of mercenaries.

The formation of the retreating soldiers sank into and mixed with that of the advancing ones, and the same thing happened with the mercenaries, myself included. No sooner than later, we were already back in the yard where we had been resting before we were let loose onto the battlefields of the ruined city.

I sat there for a minute, leaning against the rock and patiently letting every breath that galloped through my lungs roll out as more rolled in.

There had not been a unique method of spirit essence recovery aside from the one I had discovered, but breathing certainly helped one way or the other. Kassie had mentioned it, and Yuan had also implied how important breathing was to both the physical and spiritual stamina. So I breathed. In and out, slow and deliberate, while the aches in my muscles argued against the idea that rest was actually happening.

There were Night Guard soldiers who had not participated in the battle. They were going around sharing water and a little bowl of food to people, while Sergeant Kael’s commanding voice sounded across the yard.

“We have only three hours, thirty minutes to rest. If you know what’s best for you, spend this time recovering your stamina and tending to your wounds.” She shrugged. “Well, I’d be damned if there’s anyone of you that decides to do otherwise.”

She then glanced at me and said flatly.

“Care to follow me… Mister… Cade?”

I was confused for a moment but I nodded and stood up. People’s eyes were on me even as I did, and it was difficult to tell what they were thinking. Whether it was respect for what I’d done on that battlefield, or the quieter, more familiar suspicion that came with being singled out by authority.

I followed Sergeant Kael. We walked beyond the yard and into the main building. The guard that let us in seemed to think twice before he opened the door, his gaze lingering on me a beat too long.

Immediately, I was led into a completely different hall. It was vast and endlessly adorning, not radiant or carrying anything celestial. Instead it was as vast and dark as the palace of a tyrannical emperor could be. But the place had definitely been taken and molded into something that served the nature of the battle going on outside.

There were long tables scattered across the hall, and there were men dressed in black and crimson armor, all hunched over those tables, talking to each other in low voices. Maps, from the look of it. Troop movements. The kind of planning that decided who lived and who was thrown into the next rotation.

We passed them and none of them glanced behind to question why Sergeant Kael was bringing a mercenary this deep. They all just turned away, and soon we cut left and walked down a hallway where we entered another large room.

We finally stopped, and Sergeant Kael stood straight and saluted the man that sat at the end of the room.

I didn’t notice him immediately, because the room was so dark that I felt like it was clinging to my skin and sight. There was someone there at the end of it. I knew the moment I stepped inside, but I registered nothing until the man’s voice rolled out.

“Well done, Sergeant. Is that the golden sickle?”

The voice filled the room like something with physical weight, a deep resonance that settled into the walls and pressed against the air in my chest. The kind of voice that didn’t need to be raised to be heard.

“Yes sir!”

Sergeant Kael glanced back at me and nudged with her head for me to step forward.

As I hesitantly walked forward, the darkness cleared slowly and formed a path of light for me. I was now a few steps beyond Sergeant Kael, and I could see up to the point of a few staircases.

Looking beyond, with no sense or understanding of what waited there, made my heart hammer. But I was not fearful. The presence was intimidating, so intimidating that it would be stupid not to feel fear.

But then, there was Kassie. She might have been docile recently, making it easy to forget how terrifying she was in the first instances where I summoned her. But I hardly forgot things like that. The memory of Kassie’s overwhelming aura, the first time it spread out, was still etched deep in my head.

This didn’t come close.

And I was sure that whatever Kassie showed that day, she hadn’t even been serious. I was yet to see Kassie at anything resembling serious, and yet…

“So… you’re the one who went and turned things around for us, huh.”

I could hear steps as he spoke, a deep and vibrating baritone descending toward me.

“You speak as though that’s a problem. I don’t hear any tone of gratefulness.”

Sergeant Kael flinched.

“You…”

“Let him be, Sergeant. I’ve grown rather bored of people always shouting about who I am and how much I need to be respected. This right here is a fresh start.”

He finally came out of the darkness, smiling.

He was tall, disgustingly tall. The kind of tall that felt like a personal insult. Layered black robes with crimson accents hung from broad shoulders, a scale-patterned collar rising to his jaw and serpentine embroidery running down the front panel. Geometric red trim lined the hem. Long black hair, half-pulled into a topknot secured with a gold crown-pin, the rest falling wild past his waist.

His eyes were sharp, downturned, and a permanent scowl was etched upon his brows despite the smile he wore. The kind of face where even the friendliness looked like a warning.

I gave him an irritated look.

“Did I offend you? Have we met before?”

’Yes, your height offends me.’ I breathed in and breathed out. Slowly. The envy wasn’t worth showing.

“I want to know why I was called here.”

His smile widened, that sharp face emanating an authoritative darkness that his friendly expression was trying very hard to contradict.

He brought out a paper in his hand and read it with a casual tone.

“You slaughtered some very powerful Spirit Summons with just your skills. Sources of information say you deployed a crimson fog that made people stronger and the enemy relatively weaker, and then there was a white chain and flames that stopped the advance of the Night Fall Order summons.”

He let the paper drift to the ground. A man who could afford to let reports fall where they pleased.

“I don’t know a lot of high-rank summoners who can singlehandedly disperse multiple Heroic-tier Summons. Your existence baffles me, because you are not in any record…”

His gaze met mine, and at that moment I felt like I was being pulled into a vast and endless darkness.

However, at the same time, I felt acutely aware of myself, and the fact that this was a deceit on my mentality. I had two attributes shielding my head, after all. So this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for him.

I scoffed and looked him back in the eyes.

“When you start asking politely without a sorry attempt at intimidating me, then I can start taking you seriously.”

He froze and looked at me. Then one loud, annoying laugh resonated from him.