Heroine Creation: All My Summons Are Custom Made

By the next day, Lancet was still trying to process what Espel had asked of him.

Not because he did not understand the words. He understood them perfectly. That was the problem.

Espel Fyrebloom had stood there with the same cool composure and asked him to have sex with her like it was just the same as asking to borrow someone’s pencil.

Lancet had thought he was prepared for anything, but that... that definitely caught him off guard.

Her expression hadn’t even changed much as she explained herself.

She said she was a virgin and that she had never experienced the act of sex. Lancet, who had quickly become uncomfortable, asked what that had to do with anything.

Espel said that sex was supposed to be a pleasurable thing, right? A thing people claimed brought joy, so she wanted to know for herself whether it really did.

She wanted to feel an event that had been planned, not stumbled into, not born out of accident or impulse. She wanted to know whether something so deliberately chosen could still be objectively good, rather than merely good because humans had decided it should be.

She said it as plainly as if she were discussing research.

Lancet stared at her for a long second.

Although he had not anticipated this from her, that was Espel, all right.

Something about the seriousness of her tone made it impossible to laugh it off. To her, this was not indulgence. It was observation. Experiment. Another way of testing the world’s assumptions and seeing which of them held up when stripped of emotion.

Lancet rubbed a hand over his face and let out a breath.

Of course he agreed.

He could hardly do anything else. He desperately needed her help or it would be climbing mountains and ten hour meditations for him.

And if he was being honest with himself, there was no version of this conversation that had a clean, normal ending. Espel was not asking because she was careless, maybe in a naive way she was. Nevertheless, it seemed more like she was asking because she wanted control over the meaning of the experience.

That was very much like her.

And so he had agreed, still dazed, still not entirely certain of what had actually happened.

That wasn’t all she had asked of him though. She also demanded that he would explain his powers in more detail to her, and prove what he meant by he could make even stronger than she already was.

Lancet hadn’t been completely honest with her in that part. He could do it, yes, but he wasn’t really planning to. However, knowing her ultimate motive, Lancet knew that it would entice her.

Pushing the matters of the Entropy Mage behind him, Lancet took his seat in the crowd as the next phase of the Inter-Class Competitions began.

The Competition Platform had returned to its full day’s tension, with students gathered in tiers of seats while the floating cameras drifted overhead in patient arcs.

The afterglow of the Dungeon Expedition challenge had not faded yet. If anything, it had sharpened everything. The results were still fresh. The arguments were still moving through the student body. The atmosphere felt like a wire pulled tight just before it snapped.

Lancet sat among the Summoner-D section, compressed between Kasto and Anita, who were both overly excited as usual.

Then the announcer’s voice rolled through the stadium.

”Students and Staff of Awakener Supreme, citizens all over the world, welcome once again to the Inter-Class Competitions.”

The crowd roared, excitement rising with the noise.

”Today’s challenge is Tribute Harvest Battles.”

The scoreboards above the arena changed at once, the title flashing in bright holographic text across the central screens. Every Class Group had O points once again, though it would be added to the overall points by the end of the challenge.

The announcer continued, his voice carrying easily through the platform.

”This is a competition where Tribute nodes will be placed in a zone. Your Class Group’s task is simple in theory, and rarely simple in practice. Secure them before the others do.”

A low ripple moved through the crowd.

”Sometimes you will need to defend what you found. Sometimes you will need to steal it from another team. Sometimes you will have to decide whether it is better to keep moving or risk everything for a larger Tribute gain.”

Applause came from the students. It was obvious that this challenge was a very possible one.

Lancet looked up at the screens and then around the stadium.

The entire platform felt alive with anticipation. Teams were already calculating routes in their heads. Some students looked excited. Others looked like they were trying to hide how nervous they were.

Then the announcer’s voice sharpened again.

”As before, Class Group-D will begin first.”

The crowd stirred. Class Group-D always had the burden of opening the floor.

The lower years were expected to set the tone, survive the first pressure, and create the early pattern the rest of the day would chase. That meant every eye in the stadium was already turning toward the students now being called forward.

Miss Maecil called the names of her three representatives for Summoner-D. Luke Travers stepped forward first, quiet as always, acting like nothing affected him. Min Tu followed with a similar calm, just a little gloomier. Cassandra Bridge was the only one smiling, excited to be participating.

Lancet watched them head towards the center of the platform and then, before Luke could go too far away, Lancet stepped down from his place and crossed over to him.

The noise of the platform throbbed all around them, but for a second the space between the two of them felt strangely insulated from it, as if the stadium had been built only to frame this one brief moment. Lancet stopped beside his former roommate and shot him a small, tired smile.

”Hey Luke,” he said. ”Good luck, man.”

Luke looked at him, his flat gaze lingering for a moment. Ultimately, he then looked away. He did not even bother to answer.

Locking in his gauntlets, Luke walked toward the silent confidence, and he did not look back. Not even once.

Lancet stood there watching him go, the noise of the stadium swelling again around the gap Luke left behind, and let out a quiet sigh.