NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: Summoning
“———Hey, Zero, what… what on earth is going on here?!”
“Yeah, seriously! What were you doing with Eresdia-Sama without us knowing?!”
“Why are you freaking out? Man, I’m exhausted.”
“Shut up!”
“Hey, Zurg, can I kill this guy?”
After my sparring match with Instructor Lowe, I was immediately caught up by the two biggest troublemakers among the newcomers—Fei, the delinquent, and Zurg, the hot-blooded giant.
Lately, apart from Eresdia-Sama, I’ve been spending a lot of time with these two.
So naturally, I’m getting dragged into this mess.
What? You want to know the outcome of the match?
Of course, I lost. You got a problem with that?
When Eresdia-Sama activated her advanced enhancement magic, she managed to crack Instructor Lowe’s wooden sword, but hers was shattered into splinters… and without her weapon, she was quickly subdued.
I couldn’t even stand up by that point, so the match ended with Lowe’s victory.
But hey, like I said from the start, our goal wasn’t to win but to give him a run for his money… and I think we did just fine.
“So… what do you guys want to know?”
I sighed, holding back my irritation, and asked.
“That’s obvious! We’re all curious about how perfectly in sync you were with Eresdia-Sama! Every guy in our class is talking about it!”
Fei, glaring at me with his eyebrows raised, demanded an answer.
That’s when I remembered the moment during the match when Eresdia-Sama and I worked together with just eye contact.
Yeah… I guess you can’t pull that off unless you know the other person’s skills and habits really well.
To be honest, I’ve memorised most of Eresdia-Sama’s habits from our night training sessions (not in a weird way, I swear).
As I gave a dry smile, Fei grabbed me by the collar.
“Hey, Zero, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten… the three of us made a pact about this!”
“Of course I haven’t forgotten something that important, you idiot!”
“O-Oh… okay then.”
He brought up that ridiculously important promise we made, so I responded without hesitation.
But why does Fei seem so rattled? I don’t get it.
“Huh? Did we really make that promise?”
“YOU TRAITOR! Forgetting something like that is a crime punishable by death!”
As Zurg scratched his head in confusion, Fei and I lunged at him simultaneously.
Zurg let out a pained scream as we suddenly attacked him.
“W-Wait, stop! If we cause too much noise, the instructor will—”
“Shut up, Zurg! You’re the one I can’t forgive!!”
“Yeah, exactly!!”
As we were noisily brawling—
“What are you guys doing?”
The girl at the centre of the earlier commotion, the one who started all this,Eresdia-Sama, approached, looking down at us with a cold, disapproving stare.
In that instant, the three of us quickly ended our fight and sat down in perfect formal seiza posture.
It was such a graceful and flawless display, I almost admired myself for it.
“H-hey, Eresdia-Sama. What’s up?”
“It’s too late to act innocent now. Do you guys always waste your time with such stupid things?”
Eresdia-Sama didn’t bother hiding her irritation, her voice dripping with disdain.
But we couldn’t just let that slide.
“What do you mean, ‘stupid things’?! A man’s promise is serious business!!”
“No,Eresdia-Sama is completely right!”
“Hey, shut up, Zurg!!”
Just as we were about to start fighting again, Eresdia-Sama knocked all three of us out simultaneously with a magically enhanced punch.
While writhing in pain, she spoke to me directly.
“Instructor Lowe is calling for you too. If you don’t hurry, you’re getting extra training.”
“I’ll be there right away! Let’s go!”
Extra training? No, thank you.
“——Excuse us.”
“Hm… so you’re here. That was a good match earlier. Have a seat.”
Led by Instructor Lowe, Eresdia-Sam and I entered a surprisingly plain and austere room.
Although Lowe is a head instructor, the sofa here looked incredibly luxurious, and the desk was leagues above anything we soldiers would ever get.
On a side note, this place is a special building, separate from the soldiers’ barracks, reserved only for instructors.
Normally, newcomers aren’t even allowed inside… except when specifically called like this.
Not that I ever wanted to come here anyway.
It feels suffocating.
“Instructor, what did you call us here for?”
While I was silently lamenting the unpleasant atmosphere, Eresdia-Sama asked Instructor Lowe in the most respectful tone I’d ever heard her use.
Lowe, sitting back in a fancy chair with armrests, answered her question.
“…You two are aware that there’s an upcoming test, right?”
A test…? What’s that? I’ve never heard of it.
While I stood there completely clueless—
“Of course we are.”
“You are?! Wait, am I the only one who doesn’t know anything about the test?”
Eresdia-Sama nodded as if it was obvious, and I accidentally blurted out my confusion.
Both of them turned and stared at me with looks of disappointment.
“You… You heard about it during the induction ceremony, didn’t you?”
“Oh, that. I had a stomach ache and stepped out back then.”
“What are you even doing with your life!?”
It’s not my fault! I thought I was going to die from the pain.
If I’d stayed, I might’ve embarrassed myself beyond repair.
So that’s why I didn’t know… I sheepishly nodded to myself, as Eresdia–Sama stared at me half-disgusted.
To break the awkward silence, Instructor Lowe cleared his throat.
“Ahem! The test is an important event that can affect your future rank. Every year, we assign simple tasks to newcomers from the requests sent to the knights’ order, but…”
After pausing for a moment, Lowe’s serious gaze turned toward us, and… oh no, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.
I want to run away.
“You two have received the highest evaluations from me and the other instructors. Therefore, I’ve decided to assign you both a task normally reserved for ‘knight apprentices’ or ‘junior knights.'”
And just like that, he dumped this incredibly troublesome responsibility on us.
So I smiled my best smile and—
“Excuse me, I need a time-out.”
I made a big ‘T’ with my arms.”