Chapter 88
“Professor, is it true that a fairy was discovered on Familiar Island?”
Eliza raised her hand and asked with a serious expression.
Yura, who was gripping Ulta by the collar like a thug, let out a sigh and released her.
“There was a report from some second-years who were training here two days ago.”
The students began to murmur.
“Of course, it’s all nonsense! In all my years as a teacher—and even as a student—I’ve never heard of a fairy being found on Familiar Island—!”
Yura, who had been speaking with conviction, stopped and looked at Leo.
‘Wait. Come to think of it, the Phoenix was also a familiar that supposedly couldn’t be found on Familiar Island.’
Yet one day, a first-year suddenly showed up with a contract.
‘And it was a baby Phoenix, at that.’
Yura’s face grew serious.
‘Could there really be a fairy, too?’
Just as that suspicion crossed Yura’s mind, Ulta, having escaped Yura’s grip, tidied up her uniform and shouted,
“Juniors! If you’re a summoner, you must have dreams about the Three Great Familiars!”
The first-years’ eyes sparkled.
Why wouldn’t they?
Every summoner dreams at least once of making a contract with one of the Three Great Familiars!
Of course, fairies usually form contracts with elves, but that doesn’t mean there’s never been a fairy’s contractor outside of elves in all of history.
A chance to encounter a powerful familiar!
For summoners, it’s in their nature to jump at such opportunities, no matter if it’s a sea of flames or the depths of the ocean.
“Don’t you want to see a fairy?!”
“We want to see one!”
“Hey! Don’t rile up the first-years with rumors that aren’t even confirmed!”
Snapping back to reality, Yura protested loudly.
Watching Yura, Ulta let out a deep sigh.
“Professor, I’m disappointed. When you were an assistant professor and I was a first-year, you were so full of dreams!”
“…Try being a Lumene full professor for three years. See what happens to you.”
“Ah! It’s so sad to see you as an adult worn down by reality with no dreams left! Living such a dreary life is probably why your personality’s gotten worse!”
A vein popped out on Yura’s forehead.
Flash—!
Carlo grabbed Yura, who was about to lunge at Ulta, and shouted,
“P-Professor! Please calm down! Calm down!”
“Let me kill that arrogant brat who runs her mouth however she likes…!”
Even as a fifth-year, Ulta was the only one who could talk to a professor that way.
The first-years grew frightened watching Yura’s clenched fists.
After a while, Yura finally calmed down and asked,
“All right, Ulta. The Department Competition is just ahead. You’re not just planning a fairy hunt game, are you?”
Ulta chuckled.
“Of course not.”
Ulta’s bright smile made the girls scream.
“Juniors, what’s the basic attitude I told you every summoner should have?”
“Openness.”
“No, love.”
All the first-years looked at Yura.
“You’ll just have to take what’s useful and ignore the rest. Still, she’s skilled, so her advice will be helpful.”
The first-years nodded.
They had been through a lot since coming to Lumene and just let it go.
“Loving only the familiar you’ve contracted isn’t enough. You have to love all familiars! And you need to build trust and harmony! That’s right! The unity where the familiar becomes you and you become the familiar! Harmony with nature! That is true love for familiars!”
The first-years, looking close to tears, glanced at Yura.
They tried to take Yura’s advice and ignore Ulta’s words, but it was hard to grasp at their level.
Yura rubbed her temples.
“In other words… you need to increase your affinity so you can bond with familiars you haven’t contracted yet… Hey! Explain things normally!”
Yura exploded, then took a deep breath.
“Fine. I get your point. So that’s what you want to do? It’s a bit early for the first-years, but all right.”
Yura curled her lips into a smile.
At that catlike smile, the first-years felt a chill.
Whenever she made that face, something ominous always happened.
“Professor Ain and that arrogant Len are working the first-years hard, so we need to keep up.”
“Exactly.”
“But there are a lot of paperwork issues…”
“I’ve taken care of them.”
Ulta held out a stack of documents, and Yura let out a whistle of admiration.
“As expected of you, Ulta. Impressive.”
“You flatter me.”
Just moments ago they were about to kill each other, but now they were perfectly in sync, making the first-years even more uneasy.
The truth was, Yura wasn’t exactly normal herself.
In fact, she was the quirkiest professor at Lumene.
Yura grinned.
“First-years, you’re staying on Familiar Island for three days of special classes starting now! Your senior already got overnight passes for the dorm, so it’s all taken care of!”
“What?”
“But I made plans to meet someone in Lumeria tomorrow!”
“I was planning to relax this weekend!”
Yura replied flatly to their protests.
“Like I care. You all said you wanted to hunt fairies, didn’t you?”
“W-Well, we did say that, but…”
“Eliza, say something. Professor Yura always listens to you!”
The top student in Summoning was Walden, but the most trusted by the professor was Eliza.
While Walden didn’t care about class affairs, Eliza always helped out diligently.
But Eliza’s reaction was indifferent.
“If it’s something Professor and Senior Ulta suggested, it must be for us. As long as we get a comfortable bed and good meals, I’m fine.”
The other students looked hopeless.
Yura looked exasperated.
“Huh? Eliza Hergin. What are you talking about? Comfortable bed and good meals? There’s no such thing!”
“What?”
Now Eliza looked a bit flustered.
“You’ll be experiencing the wild.”
Yura crossed her arms and flashed a wild smile.
“Surviving in this self-contained ecosystem! That’s your task from today!”
“What?!”
“You want us to live in the forest for three days?”
“It’s not just surviving in the forest.”
Ulta smiled.
“You’re forbidden from using summoning, Aura, or magic for three days. Survive with only your own strength.”
“What?!”
“That’s insane! There are all kinds of familiars and spirits on Familiar Island!”
Familiars and spirits that aren’t contracted are very dangerous.
Especially those hostile toward humans can be deadly.
The idea of surviving for three days on an island full of such wild familiars and spirits was daunting for the first-years.
“As a summoner, you need to be able to handle familiars even without taming them.”
“B-But…!”
“Anyone who doesn’t want to can quit.”
Yura said, face expressionless.
“But I won’t train anyone who quits for the Department Competition. You’ll fall behind the students from the Knights Department and Magic Department.”
The summoning students’ faces hardened.
“I told you at the start, you’re not the same as students from other departments.”
The students clenched their fists.
“When you think about the familiars and spirits you might face in the future, this is nothing. Do you think I’d put you in danger without a reason?”
“N-No.”
“Then you know why we’re doing this training?”
The students fell silent at Yura’s question.
No one dared to speak.
“Isn’t it because young summoners these days don’t understand familiars enough?”
All eyes turned to Leo.
Yura grinned.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because it’s easy to get summoning mediums if you have money. You can even contract powerful familiars through the Hero’s World.”
Leo gazed into the deep forest.
“Many summoners can now obtain powerful familiars, but I think that’s why they’ve become distanced from the essence.”
“……”
“There are things you can only see when you go find a familiar yourself and make a contract.”
“Such an old-fashioned answer, junior.”
Ulta’s eyes sparkled.
“But that’s exactly right.”
Yura smiled.
“Leo is correct. With a medium, you can easily contract a powerful familiar. But it’s hard to fully draw out a familiar’s abilities that way.”
Yura addressed the students.
“We summoners are people who communicate with beings who use the power of nature. In that sense, we both adapt to and rule over nature.”
Everyone listened closely.
“That’s why Ulta talked about openness. How many of you have actually witnessed the true nature of the familiars you use?”
Yura narrowed her eyes.
“Did you see them with your own eyes and make the contract yourself? Or did you just take the medium your family gave you or a familiar you got during class?”
None of the students answered.
“You’ll never master summoning that way. You need to experience nature and understand the familiars and spirits living there. That’s one way to become a greater summoner.”
Yura grinned.
“Still longing for a warm bed and good food?”
“No!”
“Don’t you want to go higher?”
“Yes!”
“Good! That’s the spirit!”
Yura pumped her fist.
“Now, I’ll hand out daggers for you to use.”
“And these butterfly nets, too.”
Ulta said with a smile.
“…You don’t really think you can catch a fairy with that, do you?”
Yura narrowed her eyes.
“Who knows? Maybe you can?”
“Sometimes I’m embarrassed you’re the top student in the Summoning Department.”
Yura said, genuinely, but Ulta just smiled.
* * *
Familiar Island was one of the largest islands in Lumeria Lake.
In terms of size alone, it was even larger than the main academy island where Lumene students lived.
The deeper you went, the more vast wilderness unfolded.
Thrown suddenly into the wild, the summoning students all looked tense.
With no summoning allowed, they had to be ready for anything.
But at the same time, there was a strange sense of anticipation.
It was because of the fairy story Ulta had told.
So the students began to build their own sleeping spots for the next three days.
This training was a solo event, just like the battle royale in the Department Competition.
‘Fighting each other is forbidden. You can cooperate in emergencies. But you’re on your own for sleeping and eating.’
That was what Yura told them before sending them into the forest.
‘This training is also your practical exam, so do your best!’
‘This summoning class is really the most hardcore.’
As Leo searched for edible berries to prepare a meal—
“It’s a fairy! A fairy!”
A desperate voice rang out from afar.
The students nearby sprang into action.
Leo quickly moved as well.
But when he arrived, a male summoning student was standing with his head caught in a flower-shaped plant with teeth, his eyes unfocused as he shouted,
“It’s a fairy! A fairy!”
“Did that idiot seriously get caught by a plant familiar because he couldn’t even recognize it?”
“Geez! Idiot!”
Some students sighed and tried to help their classmate.
“I feel stupid for rushing over, too,” Eliza said with a frown as she turned away.
Just as the students started to scatter again, Leo looked up into the trees.
Up there, clutching his stomach and rolling on a branch, was a mischievous fairy prince.
‘He needs a good smack to come to his senses.’