I Only Summon Villainesses

The Colonel stayed bowed, though his head barely dipped at all.

“Ah, some really troublesome guests today, milady. They put a knife to my neck and insisted that I brought them to you.”

“You should know, with how things have progressed at this hour, I have little time for jokes.”

His lips curled into a smile. For a moment, I thought he wanted to throw us under the carriage, but the next it really looked like this bastard was playing around. Before he could answer however, Lady Fintan’s voice cut into the space between them.

“Is this how you treat a very esteemed customer?!”

The Lady turned to Lady Fintan, who was standing next to me.

Her expression didn’t change. Not a flicker, not a crack. It was like watching the surface of a lake that had been still for a hundred years decide whether something was worth rippling for.

Her dark-blue brows sat high, sharp enough to look carved. Her skin was pale without a single blemish, save for a mole beneath her right eye that sat there like a mark of depravity among a flood of divinity. That was the whole trick of her beauty. Everything pristine, everything composed, and then that one flaw placed so precisely it made the rest of it worse.

’Worse for me, that is.’

“You are, in every sense, our esteemed guest, Lady Fintan of the White Tail Clan. But you haven’t exactly been on your best behavior with us for a while. You were nearly banned from the Night Auction because of your uncomely conduct. I was the one who pleaded with the Central Council on your behalf. You were permitted to attend again, and yet… you intend to make another scene by arriving late?”

Her words wasted no effort and demanded no answers. They were sharp and direct, each one landing and staying where it was placed.

For some reason, I saw so much of Kassie in this woman.

After she stopped talking, the fox lady said nothing. She smacked her teeth. Then, after a beat of silence, her voice retorted.

“I’m not trying to make a damn scene! I sincerely am not! I just want to silently get what I came here for! Why does everyone always reprimand me and never turn to that wretch!”

“If you mean Lady Thamita, she is always on her best behavior. Lady Fintan, it is you who has ropes to knot. Even now, look at you. There’s no reason to be raising your voice at me, and yet here you are.”

Lady Fintan went silent. She didn’t retort, didn’t argue. She simply looked down like she had just been reproached and it actually hurt. It was almost childish, in a way.

And witnessing that made me curious about who exactly this woman was. Because Lady Fintan was not a child. She was not weak. And she had folded like wet paper under three sentences.

The Lady emanated an air of quietness and peace. Her entire body seemed assembled from elegance, and yet she wore nothing extravagant. A dark purple gown that tightened against her upper body and flowed freely downward, covering her feet or whatever was there at this point. No jewelry that I could see. No ornamentation. She didn’t need any of it, and she knew it.

“I’m glad you see your wrong, and I hope you’ll keep yourself in check.”

Then the Lady took her eyes off Lady Fintan.

And turned them on me.

I felt stripped bare. Not physically, though it felt close enough. It was like standing at the edge of a vast, clear body of water and looking down to find nothing between me and the bottom. Just the depth, and me suspended above it with nothing to hide behind.

I felt… seen.

She shifted slightly. Something trembled through her, quick and controlled, and she caught herself almost instantly. I didn’t know what caused it, but I was damn sure I caught her eyes drop to my lower body before they locked back onto mine.

She recovered with such composure that if I told anyone I saw her tremble, they would hate me for the lie so thoroughly I would be burned at a stake.

’Ah… suddenly I’m having a bad taste in my mouth. Why did I have to go and think that.’

“Young man. Care to tell me who you are?”

Her clear blue eyes held me. Her question demanded an answer without needing to be asked twice.

But I noticed something strange.

I was standing alone.

’Huh…’

I almost staggered, but her voice anchored me.

“Don’t worry. You’re in my Spirit Illusion. All that you see around you, depending on perspective, both is and is not real.”

My brows pulled together.

“What does that even mean?”

“You’ve not quite answered my question. What do you seek here? Do you seek to expose someone?”

I chuckled, low and dry.

“Why would I want to do that?”

I pulled a couple of Primal Fangs from my coat and showed her.

“I’m here to sell items to the auction and make money.”

She stared at the fangs in my hands and said nothing. A full second crawled by, and then she exploded with laughter.

It was wild and unrestrained. Completely wrong for someone who carried herself with that level of elegance. It left me unmoored, because even in the middle of this chaotic, ugly laughter, her beauty still shone through.

’Strange… I used to think all laughs from beautiful women were bound to be ugly.’

What was I saying. I did think her laughter was ugly, very ugly. But why the hell was it enchanting?

I frowned.

’Hey. I recognize this.’

Before the Lady even stopped laughing, I was already looking at her with a dark grimace on my face.

She went completely silent and looked at me with an indifferent expression.

“Hey, lady. I really don’t like people messing with my head. Get the fuck out. Right now.”

Her eyes widened. Then froze.

“Oh… that’s a first. I’ve never been caught.”

Her lips curled into a coy smile.

“But you have it wrong, young man. You’re the one who walked right into my mind. It’s only natural that yours be made bare before mine, when you were the one who entered. Right?”