Chapter 20: Chief Summoner
“Kuro! Are you here? How long have you been here? Wait, where did you come in from?”
“Nyaan.”
Cyril-san stood up with a clatter of the chair and held a bottle of wine in his hand. Kuro wrinkled his nose at it and let out a small “hiss.”
“No, no! This little one is friendly with me! Don’t be rough with him!”
“Friends? With a monster? You’ll be devoured, Haru.”
“They really are friends, Cyril-san, so it’s okay.”
Cyril-san put down the bottle, but he didn’t sit back down. He kept repeating, seemingly unable to believe it, “Friends with a monster?”
“I didn’t know the rules between monsters and humans. I accidentally formed a contract with him.”
“I don’t understand. Won’t that cause harm?”
“No, because we’re friends. Right, Kuro?”
“Nya.”
Kuro hopped onto my lap. I gently held him and stroked his back and throat. He was considerably larger than an ordinary house cat. He must weigh around seven or eight kilograms. He purred contentedly, seeming satisfied. The injury on his hind leg that had been twitching was starting to dry up. That’s a relief.
“He’s affectionate… Unbelievable things keep happening today.”
“When you’re with Haru, there’s never a dull moment.”
Cyril-san stared at Kuro.
“Haru, um, can I touch that monster too?”
“I’m not sure. Kuro, can you let Cyril-san touch you?”
“Nya.”
“It seems to be okay.”
Cyril-san tentatively touched Kuro. I held Kuro in my arms to reassure him.
Cyril-san touched Kuro with just his fingertips, in a cautious posture. Kuro closed his eyes and didn’t move.
“It’s my first time touching a monster, but it’s definitely alive.”
“He’s cute, isn’t he?”
“W-Well, I’m not sure if he’s cute or not. How did you become friends with a monster?”
How did it happen? What was it?
“He was cute, and he immediately became attached to me.”
“Cute… Weren’t you scared?”
“No.”
Finally, Cyril-san sat back in his chair. Victor admonished me.
“Haru, once you form a master-servant contract with a monster, if the master wishes, it will come running no matter where or when. So, from now on, don’t say things like ‘I want to see Kuro’ in public.”
“I see. I didn’t know.”
“If someone attacks you out of surprise, Kuro will have no choice but to retaliate. It’s better to be cautious for Kuro’s sake.”
“I understand. I’ll be careful.”
Kuro remained calm on my lap. Two men took care of the dishes, saying, “We’ll do the dishes.” I enjoyed petting Kuro.
After the kitchen was cleaned up, I said, “Kuro, you can go back now.” Kuro disappeared from my lap in an instant.
“Well, we should be heading back soon.”
“Yeah. Cyril-san, thank you for welcoming us so suddenly.”
Cyril-san frowned and made a hesitant suggestion.
“I don’t want to pry, but if Victor has any physical issues as a wizard, would you like to stay at my house until it gets better? You can bathe in that as much as you want.”
Victor hesitated for a moment but answered,
“Thank you. I would appreciate it if you could allow me to do so.”
I nodded vigorously.
“That’s great. I never thought I would have such a fun time at my age. It’s unbearable to say goodbye like this. Thank you too.”
“That’s good to hear, Victor. Thank you, Cyril-san. Well, we’ll return to the inn tonight, but we’ll come back with our luggage tomorrow. Goodnight. And thank you.”
“Ah, goodnight. Have sweet dreams.”
❂❂❂❂❂❂
On the way back.
“There’s something I want to ask you, Victor.”
“What is it?”
“Even if you couldn’t work as a summoner anymore, why did the higher-ups kick you out? Couldn’t they have kept you employed at the royal palace?”
“Oh, that. . . I think it’s because I was disliked by the Prime Minister, Benedict Farrar. He was also a summoner.”
“Was?”
“Until I was assigned as a summoner at the age of fifteen, Benedict was the top summoner at the royal palace. At that time, Benedict was in his forties, just barely hanging on as a summoner.”
The horse was walking slowly. The night breeze felt pleasant.
“There were no plans for summoning at the time, but I, a newcomer, ended up taking the position of the top summoner through the ability assessment. Benedict had disliked me from the beginning.”
“Oh, is it jealousy?”
“Maybe it was especially infuriating because I was just a teenager.”
Oh? If that’s the case, then now that Victor is gone, is the Prime Minister back as the top summoner?
“Summoning from another world requires a tremendous amount of magical power. The Prime Minister is already fifty years old. His peak as a summoner has long passed. He can no longer fulfill the role of a summoner.”
“I see.”
“Since I took away the position of the top summoner from Benedict, who was just young at the time, he changed his goal to obtaining the position of Prime Minister. He must have struggled a lot to surpass numerous rivals and become the Prime Minister.”
“Yeah.”
“After finally becoming the Prime Minister, I failed when I summoned you to prevent a great disaster in the kingdom. Summoning failure is a big blow to his position as the Prime Minister. I have tarnished Benedict’s reputation twice. It’s natural for him to want to get rid of me.”
“But it’s not anyone’s fault.”
“Human emotions don’t follow logic.”
I gently patted Victor’s arm with the reins of the horse. I felt like being kind to him.
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