I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 224: The Spirit Summoner Revelation is so Underwhelming

”Alright, alright, I hear you okay? Stop shouting.” Levi said casually, managing to calm Milo down a little, even though the man was still fuming and reeling from the aftereffects of his explosion just now.

”Actually, there is the person that gave us the job.”

Everyone’s head turned towards where Levi’s hand was pointing. Everyone except Tristan and Nisha.

Milo frowned back at Levi.

”Is this supposed to be a joke? It’s not getting funny anymore.”

I hesitantly looked at them and nodded.

Milo, when he saw me nodding, knitted his brows.

”What? It’s true?”

I nodded again. ”Yes, it is.”

Levi leaned back comfortably and gestured slightly to me.

”Get them up to speed.”

’What?!’

I swallowed for a moment as I watched all their gazes fall on me with focus and attention. Even Cressida beside me was looking at me like I was some messiah or something.

’Great. Public speaking. My favorite.’

I managed to shove the image of their faces out of the front corridor of my brain and focused on the actual matter.

”When I arrived in Recimiras, I encountered a strange occurrence. Someone pleaded for my help. According to her, she was enslaved against her own will. She set out to find her sister and encountered a spirit gate she and her cohort decided to put an end to, but it seemed to have been more difficult than expected. At last, more people raided the same gate and she was taken as spoils of war.”

Milo thought about what I had just spilled, touching the frames of his glasses. The gesture seemed habitual, a thinking tic.

”Hmm, that indeed is a dilemma. But she’s not special. Manhattan does this every time.” He tilted his head, studying me with renewed attention. ”What does this person mean to you?”

I was silent for a moment, then I leaned forward, resting on my knee. I shook my head.

”Aside from my patriotism to my values, she means nothing. This is all about me. I wish to help her, so I paid for the Black Company services.”

Nisha grinned from where she was.

”He gave us the cores of an Apex and a Primal, none of which are level one.”

Milo’s eyes widened. He adjusted his glasses, as if that would help him process what he’d just heard.

”What? That cost a fortune!” He threw his face at me, voice rising with each word. ”Young man, with those two cores alone you could get yourself a mansion and start a farm for long term income. You’d still even have more!” He calculated on his hands, muttering as he went. ”Black market price for a Primal core should be about ten thousand gold. Do you know what ten thousand gold can do for you? Now, an Apex spirit core, goodness, I have no idea but it’ll be an astronomical amount. Apex cores are incredibly rare so they’re prized very high.”

When Milo made that explanation, my mind reeled. I was beginning to reconsider a lot of things.

’They weren’t exaggerating for real. Ten thousand gold has to be a lot because I know how these ruffians have been betraying one another for thirty thousand silver talents. And I just... handed it over. For a stranger.’

The thought settled in my gut like a stone.

Nisha watched me, her grin sharpening. ”What? Are you having a change of mind? It’s too late to have a change of mind.”

I chuckled, letting the sound break some of the tension building in my chest. ”I change many things. My mind is not one of them. I think this person will turn out to bring more value to me than ten thousand gold. I can be a good judge of character, you know.”

Milo and everyone else continued to stare at me. I wasn’t telling any lies here. Had I not judged Lira and she had turned out to be someone I can trust, just as I expected? Everyone in the Mercenary guild, including Elena, had proven my instincts right in their own way. There was a little bumpy road with Elena, but it wasn’t anything I didn’t expect.

In fact, my decision to act towards her like I did was to sever our connection so that she wouldn’t be caught in the middle. She was sincerely a good person, and the fact that she failed to understand me and give me the benefit of the doubt shouldn’t announce her otherwise.

’Sometimes protecting someone means pushing them away. Even if they hate you for it.’

Milo looked at me with a dubious expression, then exhaled.

”But how did you get your hands on cores like this?”

Levi chuckled. ”Oh right, the news hasn’t reached here.”

Milo turned to him. Others did too.

”What news?”

Levi grinned hard, as if he was savoring the words that were about to come out of his mouth next.

”This guy here is a Spirit Summoner.”

Immediately, the room exploded.

Milo rose up with so much vigor that the table almost overturned. Ophelia and Odelia were holding their mouths, their eyes wide. I hoped Odelia was regretting not giving me that bowl right now.

”What? Really?! A Spirit Summoner?!” Cressida shouted, practically vibrating beside me. ”That’s sick! So he has a Heroic Spirit. Let me see, let me see, Cade please let me see! What hero was he? What tier? From which era?”

She leaned into my space, eyes gleaming with the enthusiasm of someone who’d just discovered treasure.

Levi frowned upon her as she continued to pester me.

”Cress, stop that!”

Immediately, she pulled back with a downcast expression.

’Thank you Levi. That was beginning to get uncomfortable.’

I managed to release a fake chuckle at them and said:

”Not to disappoint you but... I’m F rank and I do not have a Heroic Spirit as a summon.”

The shift in the room was immediate.

Milo’s eyes twitched. Ophelia and Odelia seemed disappointed, their earlier excitement deflating like punctured balloons. Cressida pouted painfully, her whole body sagging with the betrayal of unmet expectations.

’From messiah to disappointment in three seconds flat. A personal record.’

”Then what do you have? What nature is your summon?” Milo inquired, looking at me with renewed calmness. The initial shock had passed, and the analytical mind behind those glasses was taking over.

”I have Villainous Summons.”

Milo did not express as much shock as he expressed before when he heard I was a Spirit Summoner.

’I guess the real glory lies in having a heroic spirit.’

That was a bit saddening. Kassie was just as awesome as any hero could have been. In fact, personally, I think she’s far more awesome.

’Suddenly I want to tell them her tier.’

But I held off on that. Aside from not being pestered for it, the attention drifted somewhere else.

”What do you mean... s?” Milo asked, squinting his eyes at me. He’d caught it. The plural.

”I am capable of summoning two Villainous spirits.”

He pushed back his chair as if he was scared of something hitting him. His face was looking pale. The others were also becoming tense, stress forming all over their faces. Something was wrong with them.

”Levi, what did you bring home to us? This is so much confusion.” Milo’s voice pitched higher with each sentence. ”He’s a Spirit Summoner, cool! But he’s F rank and can’t summon heroes, that’s bad. But he can summon two Villainous spirits, that should be over the line impossible! How is it even possible?”

’Should I let them know both of them are calamity tiers with fortitude above 8.0? That’ll be an overkill, right?’

I think it would be. It’d be one hell of an overkill, so I decided to just make do with this much. After all, nothing good came out of revealing all my cards, and the people that needed to know, knew already.