“Lady Hohenberg?...”
“Lady Beatrice Hohenberg of Dawn Lake, are you paying attention?”
“Huh?”
A young girl jolted awake, her vision blurry. The girl was fifteen years old, she was about 170 cm in height and was noticeable by her long golden hair. This was a trait of the Hohenberg noble house that was given to its true descendants.
“I see that you are with us again, Lady Beatrice. I know today is the day that you get your summoned spirit but please at least try to pay attention.”
The blond-haired girl saw an uptight glass wearing lady looking up to her. They were in a classroom and the person that was speaking to her was one of the teachers at this noble academy. Beatrice blushed a bit while trying to cover her face with a book, the other people in this classroom started laughing and snickering.
“I apologize Miss Enora.”
The lady stuck up her nose a bit high while looking at the other people in the room. Everyone here was of the same age, it was filled with a mix of boys and girls and all of them were wearing uniforms.
Not everyone had the same uniform, some were white and some were black. There was a clear status distinction between the people here. The classroom was built up high similar to how a movie theater was made. The people in the white uniforms were sitting back up high while the ones in the black ones were down below and closer to the blackboard.
Beatrice was someone that was sitting down at the first desk so her sleeping form was hard to miss. The young girl wasn’t able to sleep the whole night as today was a very important event. An event that would decide how her life would play out in the future.
“Good, let me go through today’s ceremony. I’m sure that you are all aware of the utmost importance of this magical ritual that you will go through.”
“You have been practicing for this very occasion.”
The glasses-wearing lady teacher had a small wooden wand in her hand. She waved it around while pointing at the blackboard the moment she did the letters started shifting around. They took the form of some kind of pentagram with a lot of runes.
“You will be brought to a room with this magic circle, be sure to go through the ritual as you have been instructed and place your prepared items at each point. Don’t make any mistakes as you could offend the spirits.”
“If you fail your ceremony your next one will be held next year. I must remind you that the older the summoner is the harder it is for them to connect to the spirit realm. A person that isn’t able to make a contract with a spirit will be deemed a failure at the age of 18 and will have to find a different profession.”’
The teacher continued to talk while Beatrice’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of someone failing. This reminded her of how she wasn’t allowed to fail, if she wasn’t able to procure a strong or even a middle-class spirit contract then the future of her noble house would be put into question.
‘I can’t fail… everyone is counting on me… the main house might revoke our branch family rights if I fail too…’
She was reminded of her older brother who was that unfortunate person. He was three years older and had dropped out after failing to establish a summoner contract. She wasn’t sure what he was doing now, he had left the main house while saying that he would find his own way outside the summoner profession.
This left her as the sole heir to the whole Hohenberg of Dawn Lake family estate. A big burden was dropped on her shoulders and she wasn’t sure if she would be able to succeed. The fear of disappointing her parents had taken root deeply in her mind.
There was a certain prestige that the noble families needed to uphold. She was part of a branch family, the main noble house required them to bring forth a summoner as an heir. Without it, the main family would drop their support and they would be stripped of their noble status. Without it, they wouldn’t be able to afford their estate that was also rented out through the main noble house to them.
In reality, her branch family was nothing more than the property of the main house. They were just dogs kept on a short leash. If a dog lost its teeth and wouldn’t be able to protect its master then it didn’t have a purpose of being. Without a proper summoned spirit she wouldn’t be considered worth the investment. If that happened there would be only one option, a thing that she knew her parents would do.
‘The will probably force me to marry someone... ‘
She shivered at the thought of being forced to marry some older man and having to bear his children. That was mostly what happened to noble ladies with no status and money. They would be sent out to tie the knot with a rich enough noble that would be able to support the failing estate. Her parents would be secure but her life would be in turmoil depending on who she would be left with.
Beatrice looked at the blackboard that was constantly being changed. The teacher went through the procedures again but she had already memorized everything down to a tee. This didn’t mean that she didn’t look at the explanation again. Worrying that she might have forgotten something she continued to pay attention.
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The lecture concluded soon and the students had to go outside. She remained seated at her desk with all the other black uniform students. There was a certain class rule here, unless all of the white uniforms left the classroom the lower born weren’t allowed to leave. This sometimes caused her to remain here for up to an hour if some of the noble ladies got too chatty.
She looked up to a certain person, it was a beautiful noble lady with similar blond hair to hers. The two looked a bit similar in one way or the other but this one was clearly of higher status. She was surrounded by other girls and boys in white uniforms and they were chatting away.
“What do you think Lady Isabella will receive?”
“I bet it will be a legendary spirit king like a white dragon!”
“I think a phoenix would fit Lady Isabella much better.”
“Wouldn’t a Sylph be more aligned with that?”
Beatrice listened in while a certain green-haired youth walked over towards Lady Isabella. He was quite handsome and the other people that were chatting took notice. They all moved back slightly, they were clearly making way for this individual that was of higher status than they were.
“Would that be to your liking, your Majesty?”
Isabella smiled at the new arrival and the two started talking. Beatrice turned her head away out of indignation. She knew that the man approaching was one of this country's princes while the blond girl was his fiance. She didn’t want to interact with that girl but this was something impossible as she was someone from the main family. To her, she was nothing more than a servant, a useless one if she wasn’t able to get a fitting summoned spirit.
The high nobles finally decided to move their butts. Beatrice was in Isabella’s camp so she followed behind her. She was the odd person out of this group, mostly her use was in doing troublesome errands. Today was an important day though, so even these nobles were more focused on the summoning ceremony. If they failed their prestige would be put in question even more than hers was.
There was only one chamber to perform this ritual so she needed to wait. First came the more distinguished nobles like the Prince or Isabella. She and some others would need to wait till late at night to get their turn.
She remained outside while waiting for her turn, the people that were from the more pristine noble houses were all able to receive their spirit summons. It was easier to achieve this with some additional items, some summons could be somewhat ‘bought’ over to form a contract.
The lower nobles like her didn’t have enough money for something like that. The items that a person offered during the ritual were a form of tribute to the summoned being. They were there to attract them, more than one spirit could answer your call. The strongest one would then win out over the others and be the one to form a contract.
Time continued to fly and now the youths in the black uniforms were beginning their rituals. Some of them were successful while some failed. With lacking resources, they could only count on their lackluster talent. Soon it was her turn to give it a try, the large doors to the spacious ceremony room opened up and she was left alone there.
She could see the stairs leading up to the summoning platform. The room was dimly lit but rays of light were shining on that platform. In its center was the magical circle that the teacher mentioned before. It had already been used by many other students before, some of the mana used in the ritual was still lingering.
‘Time to place the gifts…’
Beatrice took out the items that she prepared. They had some magic in them that was supposed to lure the spirits here. They were just ordinary magical items, the more costly ones were already used during her brother’s tries. Even with the higher quality ones he was unsuccessful. Even with moderately good items around there was a big chance of failure, she hoped that this wouldn’t be the case for her.
‘Please... let this work…’
She went down to her knees in the center of the magical circle. Her hands were clasped together as she went down into a kneeling position. The magical symbols started lighting up in a deep blue color as the ritual started.
“Ego antiquum spirituum te rogamus, occurre obsecro mihi testimonii…”
She started a long chant that she had remembered thoroughly. There was no stuttering and no hesitation in her voice. This was her one and only chance, failure was not an option. Rays of light shone down on her as she continued praying. Nothing seemed to be happening and she couldn’t feel the presence of any spirits. Normally they would start to appear the moment she finished the chant but even after going through with it once, there was nothing.
There was still some time left in this ritual, the magic circle was active so she started repeating the incantation over and over again. She couldn’t feel anything happening but when she opened her eyes a strange scenery filled her vision.
She wasn’t in the ritual chamber anymore, she was in some kind of dark space. When she looked up she could see a strange unfamiliar sky with many stars. Some of them were moving around, it made it look like rain, a rain of stars.
Then she looked behind her and saw him. There was a giant standing before her, his large glowing eyes focused on her small form. This giant was wearing some strange white robes and his body was covered in some kind of otherworldly golden glow. She could also see arcs of lightning bursting forward from his very being.
‘Is… that a summoned spirit… I never heard of something like this…’
She racked her brain about an answer while slightly panicking. Then it came to her, in one book there was writing that some special spirits could pull their summoners into their own realm. These spirits were considered legendary ones, the ones that had a humanoid shape were also considered even rarer.
She dropped down to her knees and started bowing the moment she realized that this spirit might have been a rare legendary one. Beatrice wasn’t sure why he chose her but this was her big chance, there was a possibility of the ritual failing if the summoned spirit didn’t agree. Thus she assumed the kneeling position and did her best to plead her case.
“Honorable heroic spirit, I Beatrice Hohenberg beseech thee to grand me a contract!”
After she spoke those words an uncomfortable silence was all that greeted her. This was only broken by a strange deep groan that this giant gave out. This only made her plant her face deeper into the ground while pleading more.
“Sorry about that little girl, could you raise your head it’s hard to talk like that…”
The next time the giant spoke up his voice was much softer sounding. She did as instructed and looked up, her body trembling slightly at the giant before her.
“I think you need to explain a few things here…”
The giant spoke up while moving his large face closer, the time for contract negotiations had begun.