Sunlight slanted through the windows of the nurse’s office.
A faint smell of antiseptic drifted from the neatly organized medicine cabinet, and Se-ha lay on a bed behind white curtains.
An ice pack rested on his forehead.
“Are you okay?”
I-sol sat in the chair beside the bed, looking down at him.
“It’s not broken, is it?”
“The school nurse checked and said it wasn’t… ”
Se-ha raised a hand and pressed the ice pack down.
The area around his eye socket was swollen and bruised a deep blue.
“Ow, ow, ow…”
“That’s what you get for going in like an idiot without your summon.”
“I thought I could summon her…”
Se-ha closed his eyes, looking embarrassed.
“What happened to Da-hong unnie?”
“I don’t know… She just disappeared at some point.”
I-sol let out a sigh.
“I’m going to have words with her when she gets here.”
“…Don’t.”
Se-ha tried to stop her.
The last thing he wanted was to watch those two get into a fight.
Even so, he let out a small sigh.
*Last place again.*
Even with a summon, the fact that he was dead last hadn’t changed.
And how was he supposed to get Da-hong to actually listen to him?
Maybe because she was his first summon, he had absolutely no idea.
Just then.
*Slide.*
The nurse’s office door opened, and Da-hong walked in.
“There you are.”
Da-hong said it while chewing on a pizza bun.
“Da-hong…”
“Da-hong unnie.”
I-sol rose from her seat.
She placed her hands on her hips and said,
“Where did you go in the middle of class?”
“The school store.”
“Why?”
“I wanted bread.”
“Unnie, Se-ha almost got seriously hurt because you weren’t there.”
*Oh no…*
Se-ha pushed himself up and tried to stop I-sol.
“No, I-sol, I’m fine—”
“…I’m sorry.”
“…Huh?”
Se-ha blinked, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.
Da-hong had apologized, wearing a genuinely contrite expression.
“I did it because I wanted to eat bread with Se-ha.”
“…?”
Se-ha doubted what he was seeing.
Da-hong had apologized.
And with an expression that looked thoroughly remorseful, no less.
I-sol looked at Da-hong, who was hanging her head with a sulky look, then sighed as if she had no choice.
“Goodness, unnie is a summon, so she might not know the class rules very well. Just don’t do it again, okay?”
“Okay.”
“??????”
Se-ha could only blink at the unbelievable scene unfolding before him.
Who even was this right now?
Some kind of imposter wearing Da-hong’s face?
…Or had he been misreading her this whole time?
Maybe she really had just been acting strange because she wasn’t used to modern life?
“Here. This one’s yours.”
Still wearing that sulky expression, Da-hong walked over and held out a bun to Se-ha.
It was a cream bun.
“O-oh, th-thank you.”
The moment Se-ha took the bun with a dazed look on his face, Da-hong flashed him a sly grin—angled so only he could see it.
“…!”
Se-ha’s eyes went wide.
It had all been an act.
*Th-this demon, she really…!*
The instant Se-ha shot Da-hong a glare, the nurse’s office door opened again.
“Yu Se-ha, are you okay?”
“Seo-yeon-ssi.”
It was Seo-yeon.
She must have come straight here after finishing class.
“What did the nurse say?”
“Just a bruise, apparently. She said it’ll go down in a few days…”
Seo-yeon let out a sigh.
“Why didn’t you summon your summon?”
“Ahaha… It wasn’t that I didn’t—I couldn’t.”
“…?”
Seo-yeon furrowed her brow.
He couldn’t summon?
What did that mean?
“I’ve never been able to summon from the start, which is why I kept failing. Da-hong is the first summon I’ve ever successfully called…”
“…What?”
It wasn’t unheard of for a Summoner to fail a summon.
Inexperienced mana control, a mistake in the summoning formula—those were the usual causes.
But they only happened to raw beginners.
The summoning circle Se-ha had drawn earlier had been flawless.
*What’s going on here?*
Seo-yeon turned a suspicious eye toward Da-hong.
Da-hong was sipping apple juice with a perfectly unbothered expression, browsing the shelf of medicine bottles.
“So it’s not just that she can’t be dismissed?”
“…It seems that way.”
Se-ha rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepish.
Seo-yeon fell into thought.
*Not just dismissal—re-summoning doesn’t work either.
There might be a problem somewhere in the mana pathway.
But then how did he manage to summon her in the first place?*
“Can you tell me about the first time you summoned her?”
“Th-the first time…”
Se-ha’s face went red.
The chaos of that day came rushing back to him.
Specifically, Da-hong’s naked form.
He caught himself under the puzzled stares of Seo-yeon and I-sol and shook his head vigorously.
“Ugh, there wasn’t anything particularly special… It was just a standard lower-grade demon summoning formula.”
“Standard, you say…”
Seo-yeon’s gaze shifted back to Da-hong.
“Excuse me, summon? Can I have a word with you?”
Da-hong’s red eyes turned toward Seo-yeon.
Seo-yeon stepped closer to her.
“Where did you go earlier? You disappeared in the middle of class.”
“The school store. I wanted bread.”
“Hmm… I see. Please hold back next time.”
“I’ll try.”
“But you can go pretty far on your own, can’t you? Normally, the further a summon gets from their Summoner, the worse the quality of mana they receive. Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Nope. Doesn’t matter.”
“Interesting…”
*Click, click.*
Seo-yeon walked alongside Da-hong, studying her appearance.
*No tail, no wings.
Doesn’t seem like an incubus type…*
“This might be a rude question, but what are your contract terms?”
“Contract?”
“…You don’t have one?”
“Nope.”
“…???”
Seo-yeon couldn’t hide her bewilderment.
*No contract?*
A summon could not exist without a contract.
That was the fundamental principle of summoning.
The Summoner provides mana; the summon consumes that mana and exists according to the terms of the contract.
No contract meant it wasn’t a summon.
Seo-yeon kept her expression neutral and pressed on.
“If there’s no contract, how are you here?”
“I just am.”
“Just… are?”
“Yep.”
Seo-yeon stopped her visual inspection.
*’I just am.’*
That wasn’t an answer a summon could give.
A summon required the Summoner’s will and mana to exist.
The very concept of existing by one’s own volition didn’t apply to them.
Seo-yeon looked Da-hong over again.
White hair.
Thick horns curving like a ram’s.
No wings.
No tail.
Humanoid form.
The accepted wisdom was that the higher a demon’s rank, the more grotesque its appearance.
Lower ranks tended toward more human-like forms.
But if that wisdom held true—
The being standing before her right now should be a lower-grade demon.
And yet.
*Exists independently without a contract.
Can’t be dismissed even without a mana supply.
Didn’t respond when the Summoner sent a signal.*
Not a single one of those things was something a lower-grade demon could do.
Seo-yeon asked quietly.
“…What’s your rank?”
“Who knows.”
“Is that ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘I don’t want to say’?”
Da-hong looked at Seo-yeon.
“No one’s ever told me.”
“…”
Red eyes met brown eyes.
Just then.
“Um…”
Se-ha cut in.
“Yeah?”
Seo-yeon turned, and Se-ha had one hand half-raised.
“Actually, on the day Da-hong first arrived, I made her ramen.”
“…Ramen?”
“Yes. She said she wanted some.”
Seo-yeon narrowed her eyes skeptically.
“You’re saying that might be the contract?”
“Probably.”
“…”
A contract for a bowl of ramen.
It wasn’t impossible, but…
Really?
And from a demon-type summon, no less—the kind notorious for having demanding contract conditions?
Just then.
*Ding-dong-dang-dong—*
The bell signaling the end of class rang out.
Seo-yeon tucked her attendance book under her arm and said,
“Let’s leave it here for now. We’ll look into your summon again another time. Yu Se-ha, get some rest. You’re excused from class today.”
“Oh, thank you.”
Seo-yeon walked toward the door of the nurse’s office.
As she gripped the door handle, she glanced back at Da-hong one last time.
Da-hong was calmly drinking her apple juice, looking elsewhere, seemingly indifferent to Seo-yeon’s presence.
Seo-yeon closed the door without a word.
Left alone in the hallway, she stood there for a moment.
A bowl of ramen.
*The contract is a bowl of ramen.*
“What is that even.”
She pulled out a clear file.
Three sheets of paper inside.
Unmeasurable summon.
The Hellhound incident.
The Iron Claw suspicious death.
It looked like she’d need to add one more.
*Contract status: uncertain.*
Seo-yeon closed the file and walked down the hallway.
***
*Slurp.*
Da-hong stared absently at the spot where Seo-yeon had left.
That was a fairly strong human.
Strong enough to take down even an upper-grade demon, perhaps?
She might be the strongest human Da-hong had seen so far.
So this was Korea’s top academy—even the visiting instructor’s level was quite high.
Still.
*What’s her goal?*
She could tell Seo-yeon was trying to dig into her.
Seo-yeon had tried to be subtle about it, but that was a wasted effort on Da-hong, who was acutely sensitive to the weight of a gaze.
*Just curiosity?
Seems a bit too persistent for that.*
She thought there might be some other motive at play.
*…Well, whatever.*
But that was as far as Da-hong’s interest went.
Seo-yeon hadn’t shown any hostility, and she hadn’t crossed any lines.
Just an enthusiastic teacher, that’s all.
Just then.
She noticed Se-ha pushing himself upright.
“We got permission to leave early, so let’s head back. Da-hong.”
“You don’t have to sit through more class?”
“…Honestly, I’m too embarrassed to go back. I passed out in such a spectacular fashion.”
“Hmm.”
As Se-ha got up, I-sol rose as well.
“Then I’ll head back. Take care going home.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
***
“Damn it!”
*Thud!*
*Rustle, rustle—*
Sang-jun kicked a tree, sending a shower of leaves trembling down.
“That bastard. How dare he tuck his tail and run?”
Sang-jun fumed, struggling to swallow his rage.
The Salamander hadn’t responded again, and he’d ended up losing today’s sparring match in humiliating fashion.
To someone who normally couldn’t even keep up with the tip of his shoe.
Even the lackeys who used to hang on his every word were keeping their distance now.
“This is all Yu Se-ha’s fault.”
He ground his teeth.
He wanted payback, badly.
The sight of that guy strutting around like he owned the place just because he’d won once was unbearable.
But he couldn’t think of a way to do it.
*Isn’t there something I can do?*
Just then.
“Hey, student.”
“…?”
A man in a suit was calling out to him.
*…Doesn’t look like a teacher or a professor.*
“Who are you? Outsiders aren’t allowed in here.”
Sang-jun said it with a sharp, guarded edge.
He thought it was just his bad luck that some kind of salesman had wandered in.
“Relax, I just want to ask you something. Here, I’m with—”
“…Iron Claw Guild?”
Sang-jun squinted at the business card the man held out.
Iron Claw was a reasonably large A-rank Guild.
But Sang-jun already had a contract in progress with another guild.
He was about to reflexively decline the card when he caught himself.
*…Wait, hold on.*
With the Salamander refusing to answer his summons, the odds of that contract falling through were very high.
In that case, it might be worth having a backup plan ready.
Sang-jun took the card.
“What do you want?”
His tone softened slightly, and the man smiled an easy, friendly smile.
“Like I said, I have a few things I’d like to ask.”
The man glanced around once, then lowered his voice.
“I’m looking for someone. Have you seen her? White hair, red eyes. A woman with horns on her head.”
The moment Sang-jun heard that, something flickered in his eyes.
He didn’t need to hear more—it was obviously about Yu Se-ha’s summon.
Yu Se-ha again?
Sang-jun ground his teeth inwardly.
“Why are you looking for her?”
Sang-jun clicked his tongue as he spoke, and the man’s eyes sharpened.
“Ah, there was a bit of a run-in with one of our guild members. We need to have a conversation about that.”
“A run-in…?”
“Yeah… Let’s just say there’s something that needs to be settled. Can’t go into details.”
The man said it with burning eyes.
“…?”
*Wait, so he’s not here to scout Yu Se-ha?*
Sang-jun narrowed one eye.
This seemed like a different purpose than he’d assumed.
“Judging by your reaction, it looks like you know something. Could you share a little information? We’ll make it worth your while.”
Sang-jun paused, then nodded.
“Sure.”
The man’s face brightened.
“But.”
“…?”
Sang-jun lifted his chin.
“Let me state my conditions first. It’s about the guild.”