The Golden-Haired Summoner - Prologue

“What? Study every day! Study! I’m sick of it! What? If it’s so embarrassing, then find another smart daughter! I don’t care! In that case, I’ll just die alone!”

Slam.

She snapped her phone shut irritably.

Anger surged within her.

Why? Why? Study! Study! Her mother always had that word in her mouth.

The daughter of the neighbor, the daughter of a colleague, someone’s daughter, someone’s son! She was sick of it.

Even today was the same.

Usually, she would finish her academy classes, then have group tutoring until 11 PM. But today, due to the teacher’s personal reasons, the tutoring was canceled.

So when she called to say she was coming home early on the bus instead of a taxi, what did she get?

“Don’t lie. You probably skipped tutoring, right? What if your grades drop? How can we live with the embarrassment?”

If it’s embarrassing, then die. Why live? Do you think you can take studying to your grave?

She was sick of everything. When a teacher asked why she studied,

“Because everyone else does it. If I don’t, I look weird.”

That was the beginning of the problem.

Of course, the story reached her mother’s ears, and from that day, more academy classes and tutoring sessions began.

Out of rebellion, she had answered all the questions on the first day’s test randomly.

The result was an average score of 23.

From that day on, her mother treated her as a problem child.

Until that moment, she thought she had lived an ordinary life.

She maintained decent grades and made friends.

She didn’t hang out with troublemakers.

She was obedient when necessary and rebelled when necessary.

But her mother, who prided herself on pushing her, blamed her for all the problems.

And saw her as a problem child.

An embarrassing daughter.

If she was so embarrassing, why not just leave her alone? Why push her to study and meddle? She ignored the buzzing phone.

She removed the battery and shoved it into her bag.

“Ugh, whatever!”

After fuming for a while, exhaustion suddenly hit her.

Her eyes grew heavy.

Since the bus had a long way to go, she thought it would be okay to sleep a bit.

She slowly drifted off to sleep.

How long had she slept?

Screech.

Crash.

“Ahhh!”

A violent impact jolted her awake.

She banged her head on the seat in front but wasn’t seriously injured.

However, her neck felt stiff from the shock.

Dazed, she looked around.

Seeing an orange glow outside the window, she guessed they were in a tunnel.

“Everyone, get off! Quickly!”

Hiss.

She didn’t know what was happening, but the bus driver’s urgent voice made her grab her bag and hurry off.

After making sure she hadn’t left anything, she was the last to get off the bus.

As soon as she stepped off, she had to cover her nose.

The air was thick with smoke and dust, making it hard to breathe.

There was a strange smell too.

It was sweet but bitter.

The suffocating, nauseating smell filled the tunnel.

Everyone who got off the bus with her was holding their noses.

What is this?

Looking for the source of the smell, she realized the tunnel was long, with almost no visible light due to the smoke.

No, it wasn’t just the tunnel; the smoke was blocking her view.

She could barely see a meter ahead.

Her eyes stung.

Rolling up her sleeves to cover her mouth, she noticed a few people stumbling towards them through the smoke.

One of them tripped over his feet and fell clumsily.

But for some reason, she didn’t feel like laughing.

The man was crawling on the ground, trembling as if he had seen a monster.

What’s wrong with him?

Frowning, she watched as an elderly woman approached the man and tried to help him up, despite him being twice her size.

Seeing no one else stepping in, she pouted and walked towards the man.

Then, a strange explosion sound came from where the man had run from.

Boom!

“Ah! Ah! F-Fire! There’s a fire!”

Grabbing her hand, the man yelled with wide eyes.

“…What?”

Not understanding, she asked again, but the man had already let go and was running in the opposite direction.

As the man disappeared into the smoke, a chilling fear ran down her spine.

Another explosion.

She looked in the direction of the sound with teary eyes.

Through the thick smoke, she saw a red glow.

Oh my God, what is that?

“Gasp!”

She couldn’t help but let out a gasp.

The blazing fire was approaching through the smoke.

The fierce flames crept closer, consuming the abandoned cars.

She noticed something on the road, slick and shining.

What is this?

Realizing it was some kind of oil, she finally understood the source of the strange smell.

Petrol? Gasoline? She wasn’t sure, but one thing was clear: it was fuel.

Crash.

“Eek!”

Another explosion.

This time, she saw it clearly.

The flames, crawling on the oil, had swallowed a car, causing it to explode with a loud noise, sending glass shards flying.

What is this? What is happening?!

Her legs trembled.

She was so shocked, she felt like her heart had moved to her head.

The pounding heart in her head made her acutely aware that she was alive.

But her legs wouldn’t move. Why? I need to get up!

Instinctively, she moved her hands.

Usually, she wouldn’t touch the dirty road, but now she was crawling, dragging her powerless legs away from the fire.

Tears welled up.

She couldn’t understand why this was happening.

The acrid smoke made her throat burn.

She turned around, but everyone else had already fled, leaving her alone.

“Cough, cough!”

Her palms hurt, embedded with gravel.

Her nails broke.

Her sleeves were stained with oil.

Her new jeans, which she had worn for the first time, were covered in oil.

But before she could even complain, the scorching heat hit her back.

She instinctively stood up and took a few steps forward.

She was startled and stood up, feeling like her legs were not her own.

She started running.

She wasn’t confident in her running, but the fire was slow, so she thought she could escape.

But soon, she saw someone lying on the ground.

Seeing the foam around the mouth of the fallen person, she was filled with fear.

Are they dead? Really? No way!

Tears streamed down her face.

She hadn’t run far, but she was already out of breath.

Where is the end of this tunnel? She couldn’t see any light.

The smoke grew thicker, making it harder to breathe.

Her legs gave out, but she kept moving.

She pushed herself to keep walking.

If she stopped now, she felt she would collapse.

The smoke thickened, making it hard to see anything ahead.

Suddenly, she stepped on something horrible—a dead body.

“Ahhhh!”

The person seemed to have been trampled to death.

Their flesh was torn, and pieces were falling from their mouth.

Their back and face were covered in footprints.

It was a gruesome sight. Had she stepped on this person too? She felt nauseous.

But she had to move her legs.

If not, she would end up like them.

She saw more bodies, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back.

It didn’t seem like someone else’s problem.

Her eyes burned, and she felt she would collapse if she stopped moving.

She was on the brink of life and death, barely holding on.

She relied on the faint orange light around her to find an exit.

How long had she walked?

The orange lights flickered and then went out.

In the complete darkness, she finally collapsed.

Am I going to die? Really?

At that moment, she thought of her phone in her bag.

She fumbled in the dark, trying to turn it on, but she couldn’t see the buttons.

She started pressing anything, but it wouldn’t turn on.

Why? Why isn’t it working?

Tears streamed down her face, wetting her hand.

“Mom, Dad! Sob.”

She cried, unable to hold back.

She felt wronged and scared.

Her whole body trembled, and she couldn’t breathe.

Then she remembered the battery in her bag.

She moved her hands frantically.

She put in the battery and pressed the power button.

The time it took to turn on felt agonizingly slow, and she wanted to throw the phone away.

Finally, the phone powered on, casting a faint light in the darkness.

With trembling hands, she saw her mother’s missed call and pressed the call button.

The phone rang.

Ring, ring.

Ring, ring.

Please, answer. Answer! Answer, Mom! She couldn’t stop trembling.

She felt she would suffocate.

Ring, ring.

Click.

[Hello.]

“Mom!”

It was as if she was saved from the darkness.

For a moment, she felt saved.

[What? How dare you hang up on me like that?]

“…Yes, I won’t do it again. Really.”

[Not ‘yes,’ but ‘yes, ma’am.’ What? Why are you suddenly like this?]

“Sob. Mom, please save me. I’m going to die! Really die!”

She was overwhelmed with grief.

Am I really going to die like this? Mom and Dad only have me.

I was their late-born child, their precious daughter, Princess Yejin. I always got annoyed when Dad called me his princess, saying it was embarrassing. But now, I’m sorry. What should I do?

[Why, what’s wrong? What happened, Jin-ah?]

“Mom, cough! I… Cough, cough…”

She felt like she couldn’t breathe anymore.

Her vision blurred.

[Jin-ah!]

“I’m sorry, and really… cough”

“Mom, Dad… I really… love you both. Please, don’t fight anymore… Please…” I coughed violently, my throat closing up, and my words came out in wheezing gasps.

My mother’s frantic voice faded into the distance. I could hear her calling out to my father.

[Honey! Honey! Jin-ah… Jin-ah is…]

My father’s voice came through, barely audible, muffled by static and the growing darkness around me.

[Jin-ah? Jin-ah?? Jin-ah!]

I couldn’t respond. My strength was gone. My entire body felt limp as I slumped to the ground. The phone slipped from my fingers, clattering on the hard surface.