Chapter 4
But Fay couldn’t just sit and wait. Zynie would probably fetch someone for help, but if they made too much noise, it would only be a matter of time before Virelda or Merga heard about it.
Fay was tired of being seen as a walking disaster. She wanted to get out on her own.
Besides, who knows. Maybe she’d succeed in summoning the eagle and end up making a real difference on the battlefield.
“Let’s do this.”
Fay tried to push down her anxiety and replace it with hope as she began the summoning ritual. She drew the circle, opened the book on the floor, and slowly began to recite the eagle’s name.
“Alnazir Tesiano Sapoforta Kenoheim Almahabbatbartias Lugaride, La Kr, Lonimu, Lihates Rubera, Pet, Pehrion…”
She could already feel herself stumbling, and once she fumbled a syllable, panic set in. Her tongue twisted every word that followed.
“Beriazarah Albarecturanis, Ah, Ar Areka Al, Azrak Aljuh, Aljurien S… S—…”
Her tongue always froze up when she was nervous!
In summoning rituals, pronouncing the name exactly right was everything. But this tongue of hers had ruined every attempt.
Why couldn’t she pronounce just one invoked’s name properly?
Her heart was desperate, but her tongue never followed. Sighing, she flipped the book back to the front page. She hadn’t expected to succeed on the first try, anyway.
Today, she’d keep trying—hundreds of times, if she had to—until something happened.
Gathering her wits, Fay started to recite again. But suddenly, a strange mist began to gather at her feet. It was an eerie, unsettling fog. She shut the book and tucked it under her arm, raising her staff high.
Something writhed in the mist.
Had she really managed to summon an invoked—even after botching the name so badly?
It seemed impossible, but something was definitely there. Fay took a deep breath, bracing herself.
“W-who are you? Show yourself, right now!”
As she shouted, a pair of eyes gazing at her curved like a crescent moon. A chill ran down her spine and she found herself holding her breath.
Slowly. Very slowly, something emerged from the mist: a thick, black tentacle, bigger around than her torso.
That’s definitely not an eagle!
Fay’s hair stood on end. Eagles don’t have tentacles. This wasn’t the invoked she’d meant to summon.
* * *
Alnazir Tesiano… (hereafter Alnazir) had been sleeping in the same spot for roughly 300,000 years. Nothing in the world had piqued his curiosity enough to make him wake.
Once, he’d found it amusing to watch humans and their tragedies, but he’d long since grown bored of it.
For ages, he’d done nothing but sleep, until one day, a voice tickled his ear.
At first, it was so faint he could barely make out the words—a human voice, little more than a mosquito’s buzz.
Probably just another human born while he was asleep.
He tried to ignore it, but then something strange happened. The voice grew clearer, sharper, louder.
‘There’s a witch here who wants to make a contract with you!’
Alnazir’s eyes flew open in shock. This was the first time he’d actually understood a human’s words.
“Witch?”
He didn’t know if that was a name or a title, he’d never heard it before. He listened closely. The voice overlapped itself in a strange echo, and to his amazement, it even included his own name.
How did they know? He’d gone so long without anyone calling him, even he had nearly forgotten it. He had no way of knowing it was pure luck. The witch had only said his name because she’d stumbled over it so many times.
What kind of creature was this witch?
He was itching to find out. Alnazir looked up at the ring of light where the voice had come from. On the other side was a completely different world—who knew what he might find? His instincts told him a great being awaited him, and his curiosity finally got the better of his inertia.
For the first time in eons, he rose from the sea, forcing his body through the portal, though it was so small he could barely fit his head through.
The witch? Where was the witch?
He glanced around and soon spotted a small girl with pink hair.
“D-did it work?”
Her voice was small and trembling. The fact that he could understand her words sent a thrill through his entire body.
She had to be this world’s supreme ruler. Just meeting someone of her caliber filled him with such delight that his tentacles swayed and danced in the air. He was in the best mood he’d ever known.
“So you’re the witch.”
She stared at him with wide eyes, shaking as if deeply moved by his presence.
As his heart surged with excitement, he reached a tentacle toward her—but just then, she collapsed to the ground.
For a human, even hearing his voice could be fatal.
“…Why’d she die?”
Alnazir frowned, never once suspecting that the witch was, in fact, just a human.
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