I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 236: The Woodland Threat [part 1]

We waited, muscles tensed and ready for battle, but the enemy never came.

The dread, though, that didn’t leave. At some point the footsteps stopped, the leaves of the forest rustled, and after that I heard nothing anymore. Just silence where something should have been.

Nisha straightened and eased up, then let her Cleavers go. She was about to dismiss her Beast too when I glared at her.

”Wh... what are you doing?”

She smiled a little. ”You should know I’m a D rank summoner. I can’t afford to use my essence anyhow.”

I stared at her, then glanced at the surroundings. The trees stood too still. Not a branch moved.

”But the threat isn’t gone...” I turned my gaze to her beast. The creature was still standing guarded, its body low, snarling towards the depth of the forest. Whatever was out there, the beast knew it too.

I gave her a straight face.

”Dismissing your weapon means dropping your guard. We can get hit at any moment.” I held her gaze. ”I feel like we are dealing with something different today.”

She studied her summon for a moment, watched the way its hackles refused to settle, then brought her gaze to me.

”Then summon your villainess? With her, this is bound to go much simpler.”

I sighed and turned around. ”Yea, you’re not wrong, but I do intend to overcome this myself. I have no issues summoning her, but I want to be able to protect myself too. I took this opportunity as a test to do that.”

Nisha let out a sly smile.

”Impressive... Although a Summoner trying to protect themselves is kind of pointless, especially when they have a summon like yours.”

I said nothing to that. I turned forward and began walking into the forest. Nisha naturally followed, her beast summon right beside her, still snarling at the trees.

The snarling was constant now. Low and persistent, like a warning that never resolved into anything.

After thinking about the last thing she said, I opened my mouth and cut the silence.

”But in the Academy, we are taught to protect ourselves and fight for ourselves. We fight other summoners while our summons are also fighting.”

Nisha looked at me with a slack jaw. But something about it felt exaggerated, like she was mocking me.

”You don’t say...” She laughed as we continued forward. ”That is because they’re trying to improve your chances of fortitude growth.”

”Oh?”

”You should know that Regular beasts do not have fortitude.”

At that moment, I stopped in my tracks. ”Uh?”

She had walked forward a bit, so she had to stop and turn back to me. Her beast circled once, restless, then pressed close to her side.

”You’re surprised. I guess you didn’t know.” She tilted her head. ”I told you that a Spirit Summoner is very special for many reasons.”

Indeed, she had. And everyone who found out I was a Spirit Summoner never failed to remind me how special I was.

”But still, Regular Summons don’t have fortitude, so they can’t grow?”

Nisha shrugged. ”Practically... if they could, we would be just as special as Spirit Summoners. The concept of fortitude simply doesn’t exist for them. I command my beast, she obeys, and that’s all.”

I gave her a suspicious look.

She scratched her head. ”Well, it’s not like I know for sure it’s a she, but it’s more convenient that way.”

I studied the unlikely she. The rippling muscles beneath that sinuous obsidian body, the eyes, the teeth.

I gulped and returned my eyes to Nisha.

”I’m not trying to be stereotypic or anything, but this one does not look like a she.”

’Again! They usually all don’t look like it.’

This was the same case with Kassie’s mount, Cindy. Imagine the name. Cindy.

’Kassie’s naming sense is peculiar.’

Nisha smiled and nodded. ”No one knows if bestial summons are non-binary creatures.”

I nodded lightly and we continued in silence.

But it didn’t last. As we walked deeper into the forest, the unsettling dread pressed in again. Not that it had ever left. No matter how much I searched, listened, strained for it, there was nothing concrete. The footsteps came and disappeared. They would return only to vanish again beneath a rustle of leaves, like something circling just beyond where I could see.

At some point, I wanted to believe the forest itself was playing tricks on us. After all, we were taught in the Academy to never trust the environment of a spirit gate. The high density of spirit essence in the atmosphere contributed to the formation of whatever region one found themselves in, and that meant the region itself couldn’t be trusted.

In a gate, one could say... nature is alive.

And this nature seemed to be toying with us.

If not for Nisha’s summon persistently snarling into the distance, I might have convinced myself I was being paranoid. But the beast’s agitation was proof. Something was out there, and it was content to watch.

I stopped suddenly, looking around the tall trees, and feeling slightly dizzy, I asked Nisha, ”What are we even looking for? Where are we going?”

She stood for a few moments, scratching her head.

”Didn’t Milo give us an assignment? We are supposed to go three o’clock.”

I narrowed my gaze into the depth of the forest, still shrouded by clusters of tall trees that blocked the path forward.

”Where is three o’clock at this point?” I wondered aloud, turning slowly, searching for any landmark.

She turned around too, unable to answer the question.

Something was wrong, but I couldn’t place my hand around it. There was this faint, persistent feeling, refusing to leave, an assurance that something was bothering me just beneath the surface of what I could name.

Instead of dwelling on it, I shrugged. ”I guess we just have to continue forward then. I’m sure we’ll break out and meet them on the other side at some point.”

Nisha leaned her weight on one leg. ”Fair point.”

Her summon, meanwhile, started to snarl louder. Far less subtle than before. The sound crawled under my skin. I wanted to hush it so we wouldn’t get discovered by whatever bastard was stalking us.

Luckily, Nisha reacted first. She dismissed the summon and sighed.

The forest went quiet. Completely quiet. Not even the leaves stirred.

Then a strange thought entered my head.

”Why?”