“Yu Se-ha. We’ll substitute the written evaluation with a combat ability test. I’m sorry, but it seems you’ll have to accept a penalty on your measurement score.”
“…Understood.”
Se-ha gave a heavy nod.
A target was set up.
A reinforced mana stone, two meters wide and two meters tall.
The head professor spoke.
“Have your summon attack that target.”
Se-ha looked at Da-hong.
“Da-hong, that target——”
Da-hong was already looking at it.
And then… it was gone.
“…What?”
The head professor rose from his seat.
The target was gone.
It had been there just a moment ago.
Only the stand remained, sitting there alone.
Not even dust.
Not even a trace.
“…?”
The observation gallery fell silent.
The head professor slowly opened his mouth.
“Did anyone… see that?”
“No, nothing at all….”
“It might be some kind of illusion ability.”
An illusion, he said.
The head professor glanced at his own angel.
But the angel had detected no illusion or phantasm ability whatsoever.
“…It doesn’t appear to be an illusion after all.”
“Shall we try once more?”
A new target was set up.
This time, everyone stared with wide, unblinking eyes.
And then.
Thwack.
The target split cleanly down the middle and toppled over.
“….”
Again, no one had seen a thing.
Not Da-hong taking an attack stance.
Not any ability being used.
Nothing.
The target had simply, suddenly, been split in two.
Nothing flashy.
Nothing dramatic.
A student sitting in the front row murmured quietly.
“…Did something just happen?”
“I don’t know. Wind ability, maybe?”
“Why did the target fall?”
The observation gallery filled with murmuring.
The professors huddled together.
“We can confirm destructive power, at least.”
“The problem is we have absolutely no idea how it was done.”
“We can’t calculate a grade. There’s no baseline to work from.”
The head professor finally turned his gaze toward Se-ha.
“Yu Se-ha.”
“Y-yes!”
“Can you explain your summon to us? What abilities she possesses. What classification she falls under.”
Se-ha opened his mouth, then closed it.
“W-well, that’s…”
“…?”
“…I’m not entirely sure. Other than that she’s of the demon classification….”
Silence fell.
The head professor’s eyebrows rose.
“You don’t know?”
“Ah, I only succeeded in summoning her yesterday…! I haven’t had a chance to figure it out yet. I’m sorry….”
Se-ha said this and bowed his head low, visibly embarrassed.
The head professor pressed a hand to his forehead.
Another professor sighed.
“Can’t be measured, and the summoner himself doesn’t know.”
“What a mess.”
Discontent leaked from the observation gallery as well.
“He doesn’t even know his own summon’s abilities?”
“He summoned her yesterday?”
“What is he even doing here?”
“….”
Se-ha’s gaze dropped to the floor.
Just as the head professor was about to speak again, someone raised their hand with a sharp snap.
“Allow me to verify.”
It was Sang-jun.
The professor looked puzzled.
“Sang-jun. What do you mean? How exactly do you intend to verify anything?”
Sang-jun glanced sideways at Se-ha as he answered, the corner of his mouth curling upward.
“I’m requesting a summon-versus-summon sparring match. Between Yu Se-ha’s summon and my Salamander.”
The head professor’s brow furrowed.
“Lee Sang-jun. This is someone else’s examination. Your involvement would compromise fairness, and you could be suspected of misconduct.”
Sang-jun replied without a hint of hesitation.
“Then we simply need to give me a reason to go all out.”
“What?”
“Deduct points from whichever side loses. If I lose, you’re welcome to dock my score.”
“….”
Se-ha bit down hard on his lip.
He could guess exactly what Sang-jun was after.
Se-ha had been receiving failing marks all this time—there were no more points left to deduct.
In other words, if Se-ha lost, it meant expulsion.
The professors conferred in hushed voices.
“Will this be all right?”
“Technically, there’s nothing in the regulations against it.”
“I’m still opposed, personally….”
“But there doesn’t seem to be another way….”
The head professor looked at Da-hong.
White hair.
Red eyes.
White suit.
Black horns.
Come to think of it, she was supposed to be of the demon classification.
Honestly, she didn’t look strong at all.
Demons grew larger and more ferocious the stronger and higher-ranked they were.
But look at this summon.
Tall for a female form, perhaps, but no more than an adult man’s height at best.
The head professor turned his gaze back to Se-ha.
“Yu Se-ha. Will you accept the match?”
Da-hong still appeared utterly indifferent, her attention drifting elsewhere.
Se-ha grew anxious.
His opponent was the highest-scoring Salamander of this cohort.
What he knew of Da-hong’s abilities amounted to this: she’d jumped from four stories up and walked away without a scratch.
Impressive enough for an ordinary person, but by Awakened standards, it was nothing remarkable.
Whether Da-hong could hold her own against a massive fire-breathing summon—he genuinely didn’t know.
She could get seriously hurt.
“D-Da-hong.”
Da-hong turned her head.
Se-ha spoke quietly.
“…Are you going to be okay?”
Da-hong looked into Se-ha’s eyes.
He was genuinely worried.
About her.
The corner of Da-hong’s mouth lifted slightly.
How amusing.
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“….”
Da-hong had answered, but Se-ha still looked unconvinced.
Still, there was no other option.
“I’m sorry. If it looks dangerous, I’ll stop it right away.”
“Do whatever you want.”
Se-ha finally looked up at the head professor and gave a nod.
“…I accept.”
“Good. Permission granted.”
The observation gallery stirred.
“They’re actually doing it?”
“It’s the Salamander versus that thing.”
“Wow… they’re insane.”
Sang-jun bowed politely toward the faculty seats.
“Thank you.”
Then he walked out into the examination area.
Applause erupted.
The top candidate of this cohort was stepping in personally.
Sang-jun walked with a slight roll of his shoulders, as if savoring every clap.
Behind him, a massive Salamander lumbered out after him.
The Salamander seemed equally confident—its fiery mane blazing to life, heat shimmering through the air around it.
Sang-jun took his position on the far side of the examination area and fixed his gaze on Da-hong.
“Don’t disappoint me. I’ll make sure your exit is as humiliating as possible.”
Da-hong said nothing.
She simply watched Sang-jun with bored, languid eyes.
Sang-jun swallowed without meaning to.
*…What is this?
Why does looking at those eyes make me uneasy?
She can’t even rank among the lower-tier demons.*
He forced a show of composure.
“Let’s begin, Professor.”
The head professor raised his hand.
“Both sides, are you ready?”
“Ready whenever you are.”
“I’m—ready as well.”
Se-ha clenched his hands tight.
The head professor’s hand came down.
“Begin!”
Sang-jun thrust out his arm.
“Go!”
Sang-jun was the first to give the order.
The moment the word left his mouth, the Salamander charged forward with ferocious momentum.
The entire examination hall heated up in an instant.
Students in the front row reflexively shrank back.
The fiery mane blazed and roared, and the air itself seemed to boil.
Da-hong didn’t move.
She just stood there.
“Da-hong!”
Se-ha screamed.
“Ha! Too late!”
The Salamander’s flames swallowed Da-hong whole.
The fire surged high.
WHOOOOSH!
Screams and gasps burst from the observation gallery.
The blaze scorched the examination area for a long moment before dying down.
The smoke cleared.
“…Huh?”
Da-hong was still standing there.
Not a single smudge of soot on her white suit.
“…What?”
“How?”
“She’s completely fine?”
The gallery erupted into noise.
A different kind of noise than before.
Crunch.
Sang-jun ground his teeth.
He issued another command to the Salamander.
“…Again! Maximum output!”
FWOOOOOM!!
The Salamander opened its jaws wide.
A torrent of flame poured out—incomparable to anything before.
The heat was enough to trigger the barrier lining the examination hall walls.
One of the professors reflexively shielded his face.
The fire died down again.
The smoke cleared.
Da-hong was still standing in the same spot.
She covered her mouth with one hand and yawned, looking thoroughly bored.
“Grrrr…”
The Salamander snarled, its pride wounded, flames flaring up around it.
At that sound, Da-hong’s eyes shifted to the Salamander.
“…!”
In that instant, the Salamander’s pupils dilated wide.
It flinched.
And took one step back.
Sang-jun watched and scowled.
“What are you doing! Don’t back away—attack!”
“…Grr.”
The Salamander didn’t move, despite Sang-jun’s command.
Then Da-hong began walking toward it, slowly. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“Are you done now?”
“…Damn it, what are you doing! Attack!”
Sang-jun urged the Salamander on.
But rather than obeying, the Salamander sank lower and lower to the ground.
“Attack, I said!!”
“…Whimper.”
With every step Da-hong took closer, the Salamander’s fiery mane shrank.
The scales that had blazed red as fire had gone dull and ashen, drained of life.
Da-hong stopped.
She was standing directly in front of the Salamander.
Its head was still enormous, yet somehow it looked impossibly small.
The Salamander began to tremble like a leaf.
Nothing about it resembled a creature called a fire spirit.
The observation gallery went cold.
“The Salamander is….”
“It looks like it’s… scared…?”
Sang-jun shouted in a panic.
“What did you do to it! You—!!”
The professors murmured among themselves.
“Sang-jun’s commands aren’t getting through at all.”
“I see it too.”
Sweat beaded on Sang-jun’s forehead.
At this rate, his defeat was certain.
He’d stepped in for nothing and was about to walk away humiliated.
*How dare she…!*
Sang-jun wrenched his mana up with everything he had.
A Forced Command.
The last resort—overriding a summon’s will and forcing it to obey.
The Salamander’s body shuddered in convulsions.
It fought through its fear, struggling to rise.
But the moment Da-hong reached out her hand, the Salamander slammed its head back down to the floor.
Thud.
“…Ugh, what—what’s happening! How is a Forced Command not even—!”
Da-hong extended her hand with an expressionless face.
Her pale, slender fingers touched the Salamander’s scales.
Thwump.
The Salamander’s entire body vanished.
“…Huh?”
No smoke.
No debris.
No trace.
Sang-jun stood there blankly, staring at the spot where his Salamander had been.
Only a faint scorch mark remained.
Nothing else.
“…Ah?”
Da-hong lowered her hand and turned around, walking back toward Se-ha.
Not a sound.
Sang-jun was still staring at the empty spot where the Salamander had been.
His face said he couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
Da-hong came and stood beside Se-ha.
Se-ha’s mouth opened and closed.
“…Da-hong.”
“Yeah.”
“The S-Salamander….”
“Yeah.”
“What did you do.”
“I just petted it. It was an interesting creature—I’d never seen one before.”
“….”
Se-ha didn’t ask anything more.
The first to collect himself was the head professor.
“…Ahem. Yu Se-ha.”
“Y-yes!”
“That was quite a match.”
“Th-thank you.”
Se-ha bowed his head.
“But to be honest, there’s no measurement baseline. Mana output, classification, method of attack—all unknown.”
“That’s….”
Se-ha’s expression darkened.
“However.”
The head professor glanced toward Sang-jun, then looked away.
“Given those results against the highest-scoring summon of this cohort, it would be reasonable to award at minimum an equivalent score. We’ll process it as a tie with Lee Sang-jun.”
“What!?”
“Excuse me!?”
Both voices came at once.
Sang-jun cried out in fury.
“That’s absurd…!”
“Why is it absurd? Your Salamander lost, did it not? Then as of now, Se-ha’s summon has demonstrated superior capability—hasn’t she?”
“That… but….”
“As a special consideration for your efforts, I won’t be docking your score.”
“….”
Sang-jun’s face twisted.
His score.
The highest score of this cohort—the one he had earned himself—was being handed over to Yu Se-ha, right in front of him.
His hands trembled.
Se-ha stood there in a daze.
“Well then, among this year’s first-years, that makes you number one. Congratulations, Yu Se-ha.”
The observation gallery exploded.
“What? What just happened?”
“Yu Se-ha is first place now!?”
“The Salamander just disappeared.”
Se-ha could barely hear any of it.
First place.
He’d known about the written exam.
That had always been the case.
Because if he was going to make up for the failing marks he kept receiving for not being able to summon, he had to study the written material as hard as he could.
But the practical exam too.
Overall first place.
Him—the one who hadn’t managed a single successful summon since entering the Academy?
“….”
His legs felt like they might give out.
Just then.
“Good for you.”
A voice came from beside him.
He turned his head.
Da-hong was looking at Se-ha, smiling softly.
It was the first smile he’d seen from her since the night of the summoning ritual.
Se-ha looked at that face.
“…Yes.”
He barely managed to answer.