The wind gusted by. The bustling roads of Raddermark rushed past below my feet. If I listened carefully, I could probably faintly catch the sounds of the high-spirited hawkers and the rhythmic sound of blacksmithing.
And during all that…
“I’m really sorry. I just happened to let it slip…”
…I was currently clutched by the collar of my cloak and hanging in midair off a giant beak.
“You just so happened to? You realize you told her our most important secret?”
“That’s a fatal mistake,” Myfila added. “It’s not like you, Feil.”
“Did Sasha seduce you or something? That’s how bad this looks.”
“I just wasn’t thinkin’… I just went with the flow, and it ended up slippin’ out…”
“What kind of idiot goes around revealing our weak point to the most likely person who’s going to win? It’d at least have been better if she was someone we could win against without Pandora.”
“Dammit. Why did I do it…?”
Normally, flying over Raddermark on a summon was prohibited, but today was the summons festival. It was the one time of year when summoners were supposed to shine.
Smaller versions of the ranking-match relay equipment usually reserved for the great hall of the Academy had been set up all around Raddermark, sending the three-hundred-thousand-person town into a frenzy.
I’d heard that it was an exciting sight to see the citizens leave all the buildings to overflow the streets. Apparently, even the most straitlaced government officials would set aside their work and gather to watch the screens with a beer in one hand once the matches started.
People old and young, rich and poor participated.
These screens broadcasted to the affluent neighborhoods of the aristocrats, the jam-packed streets filled with people of all kinds, and even the slums, where the residents scrambled to find the next day’s meal. Everyone was going to see the summoners as they bravely rushed in to fight.
And as part of that, the best summoners who would rise to the stage were allowed the one-day privilege to enter town with their summons on the morning of the summons festival. It was even more or less compulsory so we could act as an advertisement.
While we were circling leisurely overhead from the back of Cyril’s large bird summon, I looked down to see an herbivore as large as a hill plodding down main street. A trail of kids had formed at its feet to look at the summon, which was several thousand times larger than themselves, and some were even shaking hands with the summoner.
Kids looked up to summoners in any time and age. It was always easily the top career by a large margin whenever there was a What do you want to be when you grow up? survey. Having a dragon or large beast, a beautiful elemental, or really any kind of partner that went beyond the human existence probably tickled their fancy.
Light snow flitted down through the wintry sky.
“Huh? Why are you the only one riding in such a unique place, Feil Fonaf?”
A voice also came down to me, along with the snow.
I looked up to find Lulua Folicker and her two teammates.
She was snickering at me from on top of her fluffy white dragon as I hung from the large bird’s beak. Then the dragon gyrated through the air and appeared directly below the bird.
She matched us in speed.
We started talking—her straddling the neck of her dragon and me hanging off the bird’s beak—like we were just jabbering in class.
“…Got in trouble with Cyril and Myfila,” I explained.
“On the day of the festival? Wow, you’ve really done it, then.”
“This time, it was a hundred percent my own fault. Was a huge idiot.”
“So you’re saying they’re having you reflect here? Your strongest point is that perverse sense of camaraderie you all have together, so be sure to make up.”
Cyril decided to cut in from on top of the bird’s back right then. “He told Sasha our secret weapon’s weakness.”
Lulua clapped her hands together and burst out laughing right away. Her bright giggle filled the air under the heavy span of clouds.
“Well, no wonder you’re upset. I would be, too! Ah-ha-ha-ha! I never would have taken you for doing something like that, Feil Fonaf! Did Sasha seduce you or something?”
I let my head droop. “Don’t even… Cyril already said that…”
“So? So what is it? What’s your secret weapon? And what’s that weak point you mentioned? You already told Princess Sasha, so I’m sure you can tell me, too.”
“Don’t be silly. Cyril’ll actually murder me if I do that.”
“Not even for a peek at my thigh?”
“You could come at me in the nude for all I care. Ain’t talkin’,” I spat out, which just made Lulua laugh louder. Her summon even joined in, bleating melodically.
“Oh, the princess is so lucky. She actually knows what you guys will do, and nobody can predict what mischief you’d get up to.”
Myfila’s grumbling right after that hit me straight in the heart. “Thanks to him, we need to figure out a counterplan for that. It’s been a lot of work.”
Cyril and Myfila knew that Sasha seeing Pandora had been unavoidable. What they were really mad about was that I’d gone ahead and revealed Pandora was dead and couldn’t move.
Sure, I’d been so excited to see the top student in the Academy flustered, but I’d been an idiot to run my mouth and tell her such a big secret. Sasha’s archangel would be able to just target me the moment I tried to get into Pandora.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Lulua laughed again when she saw my shoulders droop as I still hung in midair. Then she changed the subject. “So actually, have you guys heard about Bernhart?”
I just shook my head without saying anything, but it seemed like Cyril knew more about what was up than me.
“I heard no one’s seen him since the incident. He’s been missing from lectures and hasn’t returned to the dorms, so his teammates went to visit him at his house, didn’t they?”
“Yeah, exactly. His flunkies—the guys who were following him around for the allowances he gave them—could all abandon him, but his match teammates aren’t so lucky.”
“They’re still participating in the festival, after all. If they had to bow out because he was missing, they’d become the laughingstock of the whole Academy for being cowards. That’d make them desperate.”
“So what do you think happened?”
“He’s still missing, as far as I’m aware. Actually, just yesterday, Bernhart’s teammates threw themselves at me, begging me to know if there was some sort of underground aristocrat’s salon and wanting me to tell them about it. I sent them away and let them know there’s no such thing.”
“Well, it looks like he actually is doing something now.”
“Someone found him?”
“Not found so much as spotted.”
“Oh?”
“Last night was the opening of a Conjurer Society members-only auction, and that’s where he was seen—by Erica and Hayana. You remember how those two collect things from famous, deceased conjurers, right? They said it was difficult to tell since he was wearing a hood, but it sure looked like Bernhart.”
“At the Conjurer Society? That’s almost next door to the Academy.”
“So he must have been close by—much closer than any of us thought. And can you guess what he bid on at the auction?”
“I’m not particularly interested to know…but it’s the Conjurer Society, isn’t it? So maybe a painting that makes anyone who looks at it go insane.”
“Obviously not! It was a summoning stone. One that can summon an angel.”
“Why would a summoner—even a bad one—need a summoning stone? Normally, those are just used by the rich as protection. The strongest thing those can summon would be about as strong as the average conjurer anyway.”
“Apparently, it went for a very high price, all because it was an angel.”
“I’m sure it did. But no summoner would use their money on that. Why would they spend an exorbitant amount of money on a one-time summon when they could just take the time to make a contract with an angel?”
“I wonder if that’d even be possible. It is Bernhart.”
“Well, if all his memories of everything except how to be a summoner were wiped and he went through a full personality change, then maybe.”
“Ah-ha-ha! Well, I think that it must be a counterplan to extempores. Especially after he got pummeled by one Mr. Feil Fonaf.”
“So he wanted a summoning stone that wouldn’t require an incantation? That seems like an extravagant waste of his money.”
“Maybe he’s thinking of what’ll happen if he can’t get support from his teammates? The whole thing with Julietta showed that he’s powerless if he’s put in that kind of situation.”
“Well, no one’s going to be happy with this.”
“All of Raddermark’s put off by it. And of course they would be with a summoner who relies on a summoning stone going up on the grand stage. Then again, I can sympathize with his obsession over winning at the festival.”
“We’ll need to face upperclassmen even in our first matches,” Cyril said. “It doesn’t matter if they laugh at us as long as we win.”
“Right. It might not be a big deal to Princess Sasha, but the rest of us have to face more experienced second- and third-years.”
“Your first match is against third-years, right?”
“And you’re against second-years. Let’s all do our best to get our victories, then. Well, we’re off. Sorry for bugging you. And please forgive poor Feil Fonaf.”