Summoner Sovereign

As it turned out, Uncle Glen was right. The moment Lilith hurried into Henry Porter"s study room, the old princ.i.p.al casually directed her to help him brew some tea. He even instructed her on which tea leaves to use.

"…seriously?"

Lilith was fuming as she struggled with the teapot, and then began pouring hot liquid into a couple of small cups. By the way, she didn"t bother to use any electricity – using her own fire magic, she boiled the tea manually herself. She frowned as she stared at the two cups of steaming tea, perplexed as a bead of perspiration ran down her face.

"Grandpa treasures this tea so much that he can"t bear to share them with his friends, and actually conceals them at my private estate. To think that he would actually pull them out to entertain Richard…"

Well…for one thing, I wasn"t a big tea drinker, and I doubted Princ.i.p.al Porter would have to worry about me liking the tea so much that I began requesting for it or drinking it excessively. I normally preferred chilled honey-flavored tea because I had a sweet tooth, so these sorts of refined tea leaves weren"t to my taste.

Placing the cups on a tray, Lilith strode over to the huge mahogany coffee table that Princ.i.p.al Porter invited me to sit on. Already I had pulled out a few holographic screens from my smartphone and was displaying several digital archives.

"Fascinating!" Princ.i.p.al Porter exclaimed when I showed him one of Harry Harootunian"s essays regarding the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. "I never would have thought that such academic discourse existed in the twenty-first century!"

And late twentieth century, but I didn"t bother to correct him. Instead, I merely nodded. Even though I loved the subject, I couldn"t claim to be an expert, having almost failed my preliminary exams and nearly getting kicked out of graduate school in my past life. So I decided to let the digital archives and long-lost scholars do the talking.

"I didn"t think that so much academic material would be lost to the ravages of time! I"m so glad they still have digital archives of these ancient records stored in the cloud server! I would hate to think what would happen if they were lost to us forever!"

"Uh, right." I could only laugh hollowly as Princ.i.p.al Porter continued to gush over the books I had dredged up.

"Hmm…Marilyn Ivy…Ben Figal…John Dower…Tessa Morris-Suzuki…even Donald Keene! Why have we not heard of these amazing scholars" work in the field before?"

Because a thousand years had pa.s.sed since their texts had been published? It would be weirder if people were still talking about them a thousand years into the future…I guess? Then again, people still talked about Socrates and Plato during my time, but admittedly they were no longer as renowned as they once were.

"Um…I brought the tea."

Lilith was hesitant to break into her grandfather"s enthusiastic ranting, and she stood off to the side, the tray in her hands.

"Thanks," I told her, but Princ.i.p.al Porter continued rambling even as his beloved granddaughter pa.s.sed him his cup. At least he was conscious enough to accept the cup without dropping it.

"Young man, how did you come across these works?! Surely you didn"t randomly decide to search the ancient archives for scholarly articles and books from the twenty-first century? How did you pinpoint that period?"

"Uh, the truth is…yeah. It was a lucky coincidence." Okay, that wasn"t the truth, but surely you couldn"t expect me to tell the old guy I somehow reincarnated from the past after sacrificing my life to save someone from a falling crane. He would probably think I was mad or something. Or dismissed me as joking. "I was just browsing through the archives when I caught sight of these articles, and decided to arbitrarily read them. I was so drawn to their fresh viewpoints and perspectives that I couldn"t stop reading and thinking about them, and so…that"s how I recalled them when I saw your post in the library"s bulletin board yesterday."

"It"s rare to see a combat mage take such a keen interest in history!"

Princ.i.p.al Porter fell silent for a moment as he reminisced, and then he smiled, a nostalgic expression on his face.

"I remember when your father was here. He never had an interest in anything outside fighting. I never would have thought his adopted son would show such keen interest in the academic field. Not just history, but literature too…"

"Well, I like reading…"

Partly because I was trying to learn more about this new world that I was thrown in. However, something in his words caught my attention.

"You still remember my dad?"

"How could I forget?" Princ.i.p.al Porter chuckled. "He was one of the brightest and most talented students in my academy. He was always getting into trouble with my son." He threw a sidelong glance at Lilith, who was hovering in the background. "I"m glad my granddaughter didn"t take after my son. The two of them were always up to mischief, showing no interest in research unless it benefited their combat skills."

I remembered the spirit summoning research program that Princ.i.p.al Porter approved and helped established. However, it was supposed to be top secret, and technically Dad wasn"t allowed to share the details of that with me, so I continued to feign ignorance.

"Uncle Glen seems like a responsible person to me," I said instead. Princ.i.p.al Porter almost spat out his tea. Even Lilith snorted in disbelief, but she remained silent as Princ.i.p.al Porter wiped his mouth with a napkin and gaped at me.

"Surely you jest!"

I shrugged noncommittedly. "I can only say what I"ve observed of Uncle Glen so far."

"Fair enough." Though Princ.i.p.al Porter conceded that, I had no doubt he was wondering what sort of trickery Uncle Glen employed to pull the wool over my eyes. Coughing, he cleared his throat and beamed.

I suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

"Would you be interested in joining my research group?"

"…huh? What research group?"

Oh boy. My premonition proved to be true. Don"t tell me it was the same spirit summoning research group that Dad got involved in about two decades ago. That had been a pretty dangerous project, which had eventually led to the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild throwing their lot in and stealing their research. I still remembered how Seinagi Tens.h.i.+ was murdered in cold blood, all because Angelica was a yandere who didn"t want any other girl getting close to Dad.

Not that I was ever going to call her that to her face, but you know…the truth has to be spoken and all that.

Fortunately, Princ.i.p.al Porter seemed to have moved in new, different directions.

"Archeological research, actually."

"Uh, you do know that archeology and history are two different things, right?" I reminded him, scratching my head.

"Yeah, they are. But they work hand-in-hand. I just need someone with a fresh perspective to help us catalogue and a.n.a.lyze the scrolls we"re bringing in."

"…scrolls?"

"Oh, right, I suppose I should explain from the beginning." Princ.i.p.al Porter looked apologetic. "We discovered an ancient tomb right across the Black Underworld Swamp, a few kilometers west from Vermillion City. I"m leading a team of archaeologists to excavate the site. Even though your history training isn"t exactly the same thing as archeological training, I"m sure you can provide certain perspectives that even experienced archaeologists may overlook. Moreover, you can double as security…as you are probably already aware, the Black Underworld Swamp is a very dangerous place. We are in need of powerful combat mages who are capable of protecting the archeological team. For this aspect alone, you are more than qualified – but your history viewpoint is just a bonus that might come in useful."

"That sounds fascinating," I remarked, feeling a little excited. It wasn"t everyday that you get a chance to explore an ancient tomb. "Do you know which period the tomb was built? When did it originate from?"

"Hmm, records put it around at least eight hundred years ago." Princ.i.p.al Porter was musing.

Yeah, if it was eight hundred years ago, it would be about two hundred years after my previous life, so I would know nothing about it. I doubted I would be able to help. Even so, this sounded like a great chance to explore ancient tombs and perhaps earn some cash from a mission. Plus…Princ.i.p.al Porter said that the archeological team required protection. As a wannabe hero and an aspiring mercenary, of course I wouldn"t pa.s.s up such a golden opportunity.

At least that was what I thought, but Lilith quickly cut in.

"Grandpa! You can"t just drag people into your archeological dig! Richard is busy with his own cla.s.ses at Jing Tian Academy! Not to mention, the national tournament is coming up really soon! He will want to focus on training and preparing for it…"

"My dear Lilith, you cannot be serious?" Princ.i.p.al Porter calmly sipped from his cup of tea. "What is a little tournament compared to an exploration of an ancient structure that would most certainly yield new and exciting discoveries that can change the way we study history?" He then suddenly perked up, as if he had a great idea, and turned back to me. "Speaking of which, you should just transfer to our Vermillion Academy. Your father was a student here once to, it"ll be very easy for me to arrange your transfer."

"No, no, no." I waved my hands frantically. "There"s no way I can abandon my school this late into the semester and this near the tournament. That would be too irresponsible. And with all due respect to your Vermillion Academy, I really like Jing Tian Academy and would prefer to stay there until I graduate."

"Fair enough. Princ.i.p.al Porter was unperturbed. "If you feel that strong a sense of responsibility toward your school, then perhaps I can have Lilith transfer to Jing Tian and help you guys with the tournament. Even though she isn"t as knowledgeable as you – she takes too much after her father for that – I daresay she excels at fighting."

"!!!" Lilith almost broke into tears when she heard that. It was clear that she was thinking something along the lines of "I"m your granddaughter, am I not!? Are you actually selling your own flesh and blood granddaughter away in some backroom deal?!"

"You"re kidding right?" I blurted out. "This isn"t Battle Frenzy! Let"s stop ripping that off!"

"Battle what?" Princ.i.p.al Porter repeated, bewildered. I shook my head and decided to take the initiative.

"Never mind, sir. Rather than that, I want to say, I would love to volunteer for the archeological expedition. As long as I make it back in time for the tournament, I will be happy to help and guard the excavation team for a period of time. Fighting against the monsters in the Black Underworld Swamp will provide me with excellent combat experience anyway."

Lilith was so shocked that she didn"t object to this. She was still perspiring profusely, her mouth hanging wide open. Fortunately, Princ.i.p.al Porter was still on the ball.

"Excellent! I"m very glad to have you onboard!"

"Yes, sir…but before that…don"t forget about the matter of uh…payment?"

"Oh, certainly! I can"t possibly ask you to work for free, can I?" he stroked his beard. "You sure you don"t want to be rewarded with a scholars.h.i.+p into Vermillion Academy?"

"No, no, I"m staying in Jing Tian Academy…"

"I see. Oh, wait…how about Vermilion University? Once you graduate from Jing Tian High School, you"ll be looking for a university, right? Just like your dad. I strongly urge you to consider Vermillion University as one of your choices. I"ll definitely be able to grant you a place here…"

For now, I decided to just accede to his requests and frantically nod, while praying that Lilith didn"t pa.s.s out on the spot.