Baal-hamon's summoning class (1)

After the ruin incident, the academy had taken a week's time off for a big funeral.

After all, precious students of the academy had died in that ruin.

If I remember correctly, around five students died in that accident. Although they weren't my students, I felt some sort of anger toward their deaths of them.

Honestly, it was surprising to me. I would have never guessed that I would ever be able to feel these feelings toward people who I deemed as strangers.

Maybe I was getting softer?

I leaned back in the chair, tilting it.

Due to the week's time off, the first dungeon raid was canceled, and they moved the school festival forward.

Although my students seemed to be sad about the cancellation, they understood why it was done.

As already some students had died in that accident, the academy wanted to take some time off from such dangerous activities.

As a result, they had to cancel the dungeon raid.

However, in addition to that, they also moved the school festival forward to lighten the mood and atmosphere, which was well-intentioned, but just felt kind of ridiculous.

After all, some people died and the response of the academy was to move forward with the school festival, which many people deemed as insensible.

I sighed as I recalled the annoying meeting that I had with all the other professors.

It wasn't Melina's fault that they chose to make such stupid decisions, but the fault of democracy.

Although it was a good concept, it really didn't work out if the majority of the voters were idiots.

Even though Melina's vote had priority, as she was the principal, the votes of the other teachers massively outnumbered her.

Of course, there were some people who understood that it was a bad idea, like Baal-hamon, Rumia, or Mhyrrelle and voted against it, but in the end, the majority won.

I was under the impression that they didn't actually want to move the school festival forward for the students, but for their own enjoyment.

There was literally no other reason for moving the school festival up. Instead, they could have at least waited a bit before announcing that.

The fact that many — if not most — of the teachers voted for the school festival, though. After all, many of them were human aristocrats in the empire, and I already had enough bad experiences with aristocrats.

Most of the time, they were disgusting human waste who would abuse the commoners and exploit them.

However, that wasn't only limited to human society.

For example, in the Elven society too, Elven aristocrats tended to treat the commoners, especially men, badly.

While the fact that the Elven society is a matriarchy also played a big role, the whole concept of aristocracy didn't make sense to me in most cases.

Only in the case of special races, such as devils or other races with special bloodlines, it made sense.

The whole exception to that would probably be the royal families. They always seemed to have a very special reason why they were of that rank.

A week of free time was long.

I had already finished my preparations after the first day and I spent the rest of the days just roaming around the empire, and furthering my knowledge by either buying new books or trying out new potions.

Occasionally, Acedia also called me when she had free time, and invited me to have dinner with her, as she just didn't like to eat alone.

Although I wanted to say that she could just call anyone else, every time I even thought about saying that, her voice grew colder.

Feeling threatened by the sudden change, I always refrained from speaking my mind out loud.

I do find it scary how she could read my mind, though. While I knew that she wasn't really using any magic, it sometimes felt like she used some sort of sixth sense to predict such things.

However, the fact that she relied on me so much confused me somehow.

Was she just that unpopular? It would be weird to think that she didn't have many friends, as I was sure that many people liked her personality.

I liked it at least.

Standing up from the chair, I approached my bed, throwing myself onto the soft mattress.

Although tomorrow the classes started again, I had a day off tomorrow, which meant that I had nothing to do again.

Well, just relaxing also didn't sound that bad either, I guess.

***

***

The next day, I took my time and fully slept out, like I always did during the last week.

Honestly, it felt kind of weird to be able to do such things without getting stressed or worrying about your survival.

Looking at a nearby clock, I realized that I had woken up just right before the lunch break started.

Growwwl

My stomach rumbled right after I woke up.

Fortunately, since the lunch break hadn't started yet, I could just go to the school cafeteria and get something to eat there.

Finishing my morning routine, I grabbed a black coat from my wardrobe and set off to the cafeteria.

Contrary to my expectations, I wasn't the first one to arrive, as there was already someone else eating at a table.

Even though he was sitting far in the distance, I could see him proudly crossing his arms as he stared at his food like it was his servant.

My eyes widened, as I started using ether to infuse my eyes.

Baal-hamon was sitting on a table with his arm crossed, as the spoon just raised itself, levitating in the air and flying directly into his mouth.

He wasn't just acting like the food was his servant, the food really was his servant.

I had always wondered why I never saw Baal-hamon eating in the cafeteria, but seeing him now, I guessed that he just preferred to eat in solitude.

Realizing that, I decided that it would be rude of me to just sit down while he was eating, waiting for him to finish.

I leaned onto a nearby tree, crossing my arms, as I waited for him to finish.

Suddenly, letters of mana started to form in front of me, spelling something out.

'You can come, my friend.'

I raised my eyebrow, looking at the mana-written words and then turning to Baal-hamon.

Using ether, I could identify a small smirk on his face, as another sentence formed in front of my eyes.

'I require your assistance.'

Interesting.

I've never seen such use of mana before.

Even though everybody knew that forming things from mana was possible, manipulating it from such a distance and with such dexterity was certainly impressive.

Especially because it didn't seem hard for him at all.

Feeling amused by his peculiar way of communicating, I approached him, sitting down right next to him, as I, too, ordered something to eat.

"You're finally here, my friend." A napkin was flying through the air, wiping the food scraps from his lips.

Looking at it further, I could identify a transparent hand using the napkin. However, I didn't think that it was something mana-related, as it lacked the slightly colored property of mana.

A familiar perhaps?

"Yes, I am." I nodded to one of the waiters, who was just about to bring me my food, flashing him a grateful smile. "What do you need me for?"

The service at Sylpheon really was top-notch.

"What do you think a familiar is?" With a hand swipe, Baal-hamon sent his plate flying directly into the empty hands of a waiter.

I rested my chin on my hand, furrowing my eyebrows. "It's just another branch of magic, isn't it? Although many people think that having a familiar doesn't require you to actually have talent at all, as you rely on the power of your familiar, that is not true at all."

In the spirit realm, many types of different spirits existed.

It was a realm like the fay land. Something that we can sometimes see and know of, but aren't able to enter.

With a few exceptions, of course.

Different kinds of spirits roamed around in the spirit world, ranging from low-tier spirits like ghosts to even minor deities.

The most important thing, when making a contract with a spirit, is the compatibility between the familiar and its avatar.

However, many people seem to believe that compatibility just meant luck, as it isn't really specified what exactly 'compatibility' is.

Therefore, many people think that, even though they were weak and had no potential as a mage, they could try their luck with being an avatar.

Unfortunately, that was wrong.

If you want to be a competent avatar, you also have to have the potential to be a competent mage. They were just different branches of magic, and as such, were used differently.

Yet, for whatever reason, people still think that an avatar was just an inferior version of a mage.

Due to the use of a spirit that guides you through the fight, people looked down on avatars, not knowing that a good avatar could also be a decent mage.

In the end, it just depended on the taste and aptitude of the person and which type of branch he wanted to go to.

"That's an amazing answer, my friend." Baal-hamon nodded proudly. "I expected nothing less of you."

I raised my eyebrow. "Thank you. But what does it have to do with you needing my help?"

He sighed. "My foolish students still seem to underestimate the dangers of being an avatar and familiar summoning."

I gulped as I realized what he was trying to say.

Not preparing for a familiar summoning or not taking it seriously could result in the spirit getting angry and attacking the summoner in the worst cases.

"As I am also responsible for keeping the summoning circle stable, protecting my foolish students would be quite difficult, even for me. "

Baal-hamon's golden eyes narrowed as he leaned forward, intertwining his hands.

"Mr. Voidwalker, I require your assistance."