“What time is it?”
“Almost morning.”
“Shoot. How long was I out? Also…Sasha, could ya quit standing there like…that? I have no idea where to look.”
Sasha finally sat down in the bath when she saw the flustered look on my face. She didn’t take her eyes off me the entire time, though, and went right back to interrogating me. “Are you still working?” she asked without any hesitation.
I couldn’t get out of the bath.
I was burning up beneath the water, and it was Sasha’s fault. Also, since I had no interest in being labeled an exhibitionist, I was gonna to have to stay put until the silver-haired maiden decided to go on her merry way.
“They didn’t have enough people to help out. Besides, business is booming. I’ve been working overnight shifts for the past month. Working the kitchen’s pretty rough, and it’s not worth the eight hundred ’n’ sixty gants an hour, quite frankly.”
“Eight hundred and sixty? Is that normal for a tavern the masses frequent?”
“Yep, sure is. A glass of beer’s a cheap two hundred gants, y’know. This isn’t one of those fancy restaurants on Main Street.”
“I see… It seems I have much to learn.”
I willed her to get out of the bath already, but for whatever reason, Sasha showed no sign of budging. Then a newfound suspicion took root in me. “Wait…,” I murmured as I tilted my head to the side.
“…How’d you know I work at a tavern?”
Sasha replied unassumingly, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, “Because I approved your labor petition. We’re classmates, but as a member of the Shidoh royalty, I’m also one of the Academy trustees.”
That was the first I’d heard of it. I couldn’t stop my eyes from going wide.
“Whoa. I had no idea.”
“You didn’t even suspect that might be the case? I’m both a top-ranked summoner and part of the Academy’s administration, after all.”
“Nahhh, no one who saw you summon an archangel, of all things, would doubt that you’re at the top of the class. But I dunno how to put this… Being both a student and a princess seems like a lot.”
“It’s nothing as difficult as what you’re doing, Feil Fonaf,” she said.
“Huh?”
“You’re the only student employed in town right now. Most students would already lose their entire day to spell research and combat practice, yet here you are working a part-time job as well. You do understand that at this rate, you’ll quite literally work yourself to death, don’t you?”
Sasha was never one to sugarcoat anything…
I let out a gut laugh before I realized it. I braced myself against the edge of the bath and stared up at the enchanted lights lining the ceiling. I squinted at the incandescent lamps, which had supposedly been invented a century ago.
“Senior conjurer and summoner jobs are burstin’ to the seams with filthy rich kids, and the Academy tuition is too damn high.”
In her eyes, I probably looked like I was on my last leg. Sasha’s voice was quiet as she asked, “Then why do you work so hard?”
Exhausted as I was, I let a weak smile form on my face and answered, “’Cause I don’t have time or money.” I scooped a handful of the bathwater and rinsed my face. “Unlike other first-years, I’m already eighteen.”
I let out an exhausted sigh that disappeared into the vapor. Once I was out of the bath, I was planning on reading over a spellbook I’d checked out from the library until first-period Morphological Theory of Elemental Summons started.
“Since I made it here by the skin of my teeth, I’ve gotta overcompensate and work my ass off, or I’ll never achieve anything.”
“But…I heard you applied to the Academy three years ago, when you were still fifteen.”
“Well…I had a hard time comin’ up with the enrollment fees.”
“I see…”
She probably realized continuing the conversation down that route would be as good as stepping on a land mine. Instead of prying, Sasha changed the topic entirely. “Come to think of it, you severely underestimated me during yesterday’s match.”
“What, you thought we were just having fun and teasing you?”
“No, not that. I don’t care about you targeting my clothes or even the swarm of insects. But, Feil Fonaf, you were up against me and never bothered to summon your Counterpart.”
“Oh…that.”
“I called Cecelia; she’s mine.”
“Well, Cyril summoned Zylgar on our side. And you know about Zylgar—that monster could’ve faced any of those teams solo an’ come out uncontested.”
“But that wasn’t nearly enough. I understand why Myfila didn’t summon her Counterpart, since hers isn’t fit for combat, but how long will I have to wait until you produce your ultimate summon? You’ve kept it a secret all this time.”
I couldn’t answer her.
She’d called me out without any idea what kind of situation I was in.
Cyril had the Tiger-Saber King, Zylgar, and Myfila had the Starry-Sky Whistler, Parol. Every summoner, without exception, had a Counterpart to their soul—a summon they could call on.
We summoners borrowed the powers of a partner who would cross time and space to unconditionally answer our call, and through that, we would gain the intuition to summon others. But those without the experience couldn’t become summoners no matter how great a conjurer they were. In fact, I’d only performed my first summon the day before the entrance ceremony.
The first summon that answers a conjurer’s call is called their Counterpart. And more often than not, that Counterpart is supposed to be the summoner’s strongest and best summon.
“Mine’s as uncooperative as I am,” I told her. “Haven’t prepared enough to summon my Counterpart in a match.”
“So you mean to say that slimes and swarms of insects are not your specialty?”
“’Course not. I like comin’ up with strategies as much as anyone, but I’ll show ya what I can do head-on, too—next time, all right?”
Then Sasha giggled. “Ha-ha-ha, next time. I see.” Finally, she got up from the bath. Droplets dribbled off her robe as it clung to her skin, making her look entirely too captivating.
“I do get the feeling I’ll be fighting against your team again,” she said. “Soon, I believe.”
As I looked up at Sasha, fresh from the bath, the corner of my mouth lifted.
She was so unfazed by a male gaze on her, and the deep valley of her breasts and striking curve of her hips were so out of place for her sixteen-year-old frame that I couldn’t help but want to laugh.
I was so focused on not letting her overpower me with her charm that I blustered out…
“Just wait for the summons festival.” “I’ll be waiting for the summons festival.”
We both ended up speaking at the same time.