When the elevator doors opened, the hallway was silent.
Rosalind was still clutching her wallet to her chest as she walked, unable to shake off the shock.
Sora followed a few steps behind her. Hands in his pockets, his expression as blank as ever.
At the far end of the hallway, on either side of the door to the apartment across from theirs, stood two men in suits.
Victor's bodyguards.
When they heard the elevator, they both turned their heads at once. Their eyes slid first to Rosalind, then to the white-haired young man behind her.
And stayed there.
A few minutes ago, this woman had gone down the stairs. And their young master had followed her.
Now the woman was back. And with her was a man they didn't recognize.
Their young master wasn't with her.
One of the bodyguards shot his partner a single look.
The next moment, both of them were gone.
When they reached the top of the stairs, their feet didn't even touch the stairs. One floor, two floors, three floors. They weren't going down the stairs. They were leaping down floor by floor.
Sora didn't even look after them.
Rosalind's hands were shaking as she put the key in the lock. On the first try, the key didn't go in. On the second, it did. She opened the door, stepped inside, and let the boy behind her come in too without saying a word.
The door closed behind them.
...
Elena was sitting on the couch in the living room with her legs tucked under her.
Her bedroom was spotless now.
The torn posters were in the trash bag, and the trash bag was by the door. For the first time, the walls looked this bare, the room this plain. Everything that could have made her look like a freak was gone.
On top of that relief, there was that little window too, and Elena couldn't hold herself back.
Loyalty: 1%.
Next threshold: 19%.
Reward: ???
Elena hugged a pillow to her chest and stared at the ceiling, wiggling her toes. The corners of her lips kept curling up on their own, and the harder she tried to suppress it, the wider they spread.
Maybe being able to teleport to Sora's side. Maybe being able to hear his thoughts. Or maybe dual cultivation...
When she heard the door open, Elena turned her head.
"Mom! You're back? Look, I was just..."
Rosalind had stopped at the entrance to the living room. Her face was pale white. She was still clutching the wallet to her chest with both hands.
And without a word, she slowly pointed her index finger behind her.
"Who is that?"
Elena looked where her mother's finger was pointing.
In the doorway stood a man with long white hair spilling over his shoulders, black clothes, and an expressionless face.
Although even before she looked at him, she had already felt through the bond between them that Sora was behind her mother.
The pillow in Elena's hands fell into her lap.
She had forgotten to come up with an excuse for this.
All the fantasies in her head scattered at once, and panic flooded in to take their place. Her mother was asking. Her mother was looking at her. She had to give an answer. Right away. Now.
"U-um..." Elena got up from the couch and clasped her hands together in front of her. "Mom, he's... he's from my class, a... I mean, not exactly from my class, from school, someone we met at school..."
"I'm her summon."
Sora's voice was low. Flat and monotone.
Elena's mouth fell open.
Rosalind slowly turned around.
Without looking at either of them, Sora walked into the living room, sat down in the armchair in front of the window, and crossed his legs.
Rosalind's finger was still in the air.
She froze, staring at the white-haired young man who had settled into the armchair by the window and crossed his legs as if he had lived in that house for years.
Her mouth opened, but she couldn't get the words out properly.
"Summon..." she whispered.
The word left a strange taste on her tongue.
A single card floating in front of her daughter. The darkness that had burst from the platform and swallowed all the light. The Summoner seal shining on the card. That garbage ability everyone had looked at with pity, the one that had ended her daughter's future before it even began.
And that same afternoon, a handsome man had suddenly appeared out of her daughter's room.
Rosalind's finger slowly dropped.
Her daughter's ability had worked.
The ability everyone called useless, the one where Summoners supposedly died before they could even make their first summon, had somehow worked. And she hadn't even entered the Dream Realm yet.
Rosalind reached the front of the armchair in two steps. She didn't even notice she had set the wallet down on the coffee table. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
"You..." Her eyes roamed over Sora's face. Smooth skin, sharp features, a face so flawless it couldn't possibly belong to a human. "Aren't you human?"
Everyone knew Summoners summoned monsters. Wolves, birds, creatures she didn't even know the names of. If this was a summon too, then this face, this body, this hair... Maybe it was all just a disguise. Something that changed shape. A monster wrapped in human skin.
Sora looked at her.
"Half human. Half vampire."
A brief silence fell over the living room.
Rosalind blinked.
"A vampire?" Her brows furrowed slightly. "Like the ones on the 18th floor?"
The hand Sora had resting on his leg stopped.
He was surprised that there were vampires in this world too, but what was even stranger was that there were vampires in this building and he hadn't sensed them beforehand.
"There are vampires in your building?"
"Sora!"
Elena leapt off the couch and jumped between the two of them. Her hands were in the air, her cheeks bright red.
"I'll explain that later!" she whispered to Sora, then quickly turned to her mother. "No, Mom, of course not! My ability summons heroes. He's a hero, not a monster, I mean... he's got nothing to do with stuff like that."
Rosalind looked at her daughter. Then at the white-haired head visible behind her.
A hero.
She gently pulled Elena aside, stepped right in front of Sora, and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Can you hurt my daughter? I've heard that summons can't harm their masters, but I need to hear it from you."
Sora didn't answer.
The only sound in the living room was the ticking of the clock on the wall.
Elena stood next to her mother too, holding her breath and looking at him. Two pairs of eyes. One worried, one curious. Both waiting for the word that would come out of his mouth.
Sora answered briefly.
"Impossible."
Rosalind's shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.
She kept looking at Sora's face for a while longer. Then she took a deep breath, put her hands on her hips, and asked in an extremely serious voice:
"So, do we need to offer you blood as food?"