One month.
Long, if you called it long; short, if you called it short.
Kwaaang—! Thwack! Paang—!
The training that began every morning before sunrise did not end even after the sun went down.
I broke through Yustia’s support magic and Wind Whisper’s harassment, and was broken through in turn.
Once I memorized a pattern, a new pattern came flying at me; once I adapted, another variable came pouring down.
It reminded me of the hellish training I’d done back in my fighting days, when I joined an American camp ahead of my first match in the world’s largest organization.
Wake up at five in the morning, run ten kilometers, go five rounds of sparring, then analyze footage at night.
The memories of those days, when I’d thought my body was going to fall apart, came back vividly.
But to be honest.
This was more intense.
For one reason alone.
That damn healing magic.
Back on Earth, if you collapsed from exhaustion, that was the end of the day’s workout.
When the trainer ran over and shouted, “That’s it for today!” the day was over.
If you tore a muscle, you had to rest for days; if you strained a ligament, you spent weeks in rehab.
But here?
“Heal!”
When green light bloomed from Yustia’s fingertips, torn muscle fibers stitched themselves back together in real time, and bruised flesh was restored in an instant.
Even if I collapsed, and collapsed again, I had to get back up.
No—she made it so I could get back up.
There was no escape.
It was hell.
“Huaaaah….”
I lay sprawled on the training ground floor, gasping for breath.
Yustia’s healing magic was already giving off a soft glow, washing away my fatigue.
‘She’s recovering me again, this demon.’
My body was fine, but my mind was already in tatters.
I remembered the vicious smile of the coach back at the American camp as he shouted, “One more round!”
Yustia was even worse.
At least that big-nosed coach stopped when my ribs cracked.
But today, Yustia’s mood was strangely different.
She’d been humming since earlier, spinning Whisper around in the air, and even during training the corners of her mouth had been rising without end.
“Ahh… I’m dying.”
I barely raised my upper body and asked,
“Why are you so excited today?”
“Huh? You really don’t know?”
Yustia’s eyes went round in disbelief.
Her pupils sparkled like starlight.
“Tomorrow is the entrance ceremony!”
“Already?”
I stared blankly up at her.
It felt as though a whole month had slipped through my fingers like sand.
Every day had been nothing but a cycle of training, recovery, and more training, so my sense of dates had been completely paralyzed.
“What do you mean, already! I’ve been waiting for this day and this day alone!”
Yustia clasped both hands together and smiled brightly.
Her anxious figure from when she’d received the rejection notice from Eternoah, sitting in the café and frantically making the next plan, overlapped with the sight before me.
‘Her eyes are completely different from back then.’
One month ago, that desperate look she’d had as she bit her lip and flipped through lists of academies.
Now, that place was filled with confidence and anticipation.
“They said you were accepted unanimously by the professors through the special admission process, so we have to show results worthy of that!”
Yustia clenched her fist, her eyes shining.
Unanimously.
With Headmaster Kocrak’s recommendation, the door to the special admission process had opened, and not long after, the notice of acceptance had arrived at the Rosenhart household without a single opposing vote.
Yustia’s eyes had brimmed with tears, but in the end, she had not cried.
Instead, she had smiled brightly.
That smile from that moment was still vivid in my mind.
“And, Taesan, they say you’re already famous at the academy!”
Yustia added excitedly.
“They say the academy’s one and only human summoned beast has appeared, and the professors are making such a fuss because they all want to see you in person. They say the rumors are everywhere among the students too!”
“……”
I stared at her blankly.
Famous?
Even in my days as a fighter, the word “famous” had been far from me.
But in this world, was I going to become famous under the bizarre title of being human but also a summoned beast?
“That’s famous in a good way, right?”
“Of course! They say the professors have tremendous academic interest!”
Academic interest. Something about those words felt oddly unsettling.
What if they treated me like a research subject?
What if they dragged me into a lab and poked me all over?
“Feels like I’ve become a zoo attraction.”
I laughed hollowly and shook my head.
Yustia giggled at my reaction and held out her hand, saying we should rest early today for tomorrow’s sake.
Today.
“Yeah… thanks.”
I took that small hand and pulled myself up.
“Make sure you pack everything you need. Once we enter the academy, there won’t be time to return home for an entire semester.”
“What would I even have to pack? See you tomorrow.”
***
Eternoah Academy.
Morning sunlight poured over the enormous arched main gate.
The campus, lined with antique buildings where ivory marble pillars mingled with ivy, looked as though an entire medieval European castle had been moved there whole.
Colorful summoned beasts flew through the sky, and the plaza before the main gate was packed with new students, their summoned beasts, and even parents all mixed together in a dense crowd.
“Waaah! Taesan, look over there! That fountain! They say it’s a fountain made with science? That rises without mana. A famous sight of the academy!”
Yustia tugged on my arm and pointed everywhere.
The gloom she’d had when she left this place after receiving her rejection notice a month ago was nowhere to be seen.
Now her face was filled with pure joy.
“My lady! My lady! That thing in the sky over there, that’s a griffin! A real griffin is flying around!”
Yurika was hopping up and down beside her too.
Despite her title as the maid in charge of summoned beasts, she was completely excited like a child on a picnic.
“Yurika.”
I pointed at Wind Whisper sitting on my shoulder and said,
“Aren’t you supposed to be looking after me and Whisper?”
“Oh, I don’t know! Lord Taesan, you take care of it!”
Yurika waved her hands and turned away.
“There’s so much to see, and you expect me to sit around taking care of summoned beasts? This is an entrance ceremony that might only happen once in a lifetime!”
“But that’s your job.”
I folded my arms, dumbfounded.
Yurika glanced furtively around, then whispered into my ear.
“Shh! It’s a secret from my lady.”
Then she stuck out her tongue and had already darted off into the crowd like an arrow.
“Look over there! There’s a summoned beast exhibition booth! I’m going on aheaaad—!”
Watching her back grow smaller and smaller, I let out a sigh.
Wind Whisper on my shoulder went “Booo,” as if it found her pathetic.
“……Right. You and I have been abandoned.”
I tapped the creature on the head and smiled bitterly.
The entrance ceremony hall resembled a gigantic amphitheater.
Between stone pillars soaring high into the sky, banners woven with magic fluttered in the wind, and the tiered seats were already packed with parents and guests.
On the platform at the front, Headmaster Kocrak and the faculty sat with dignified bearing.
And before that platform, in the middle of the plaza, the new students were lining up.
The moment I saw that line, I frowned.
‘……That’s cruel.’
At the head of the line was the top entrant. Behind them, the runner-up.
The line continued in order of entrance scores.
The farther forward you stood, the more excellent you were; the farther back, the more inferior.
Could there be any hierarchy more blatant than this?
There were rankings in the fighting world too, but at least they didn’t line you up and publicly humiliate you.
And at the very end.
A good distance away from where the regular entrants’ line ended, a small sign had been set up.
‘Special Admission.’
Yustia stopped in front of it.
I naturally stood beside her.
When I looked ahead, dozens of backs stretched endlessly before us.
As if the end of this line were the end of the world.
“……”
Regular entrants crossed in front of us as they moved to find their places.
A few of them cast overt glances our way and whispered.
“Look at those kids in the back. They’re special admissions.”
“Aren’t they just slipping into the rear line even though they have no skill?”
“Family connections, obviously. Isn’t that one the only daughter of a prestigious house? It’s obvious.”
Snickering laughter drifted on the wind.
Openly contemptuous gazes pierced Yustia’s back.
I did not miss the way her shoulders flinched ever so slightly.
But Yustia did not turn her head.
She pulled up the corners of her mouth and smiled.
As if embarrassed, and as if nothing was wrong.
But the tip of her chin trembled faintly, and her tightly clenched fingertips had turned white.
Only I, standing right beside her, could tell just how thin a floor that smile stood upon.
“You okay?”
“Of course.”
Yustia answered while looking straight ahead.
Her voice was firm, but the hard resolve settled deep in her eyes spoke her true feelings in her stead.
“After this semester ends, and when the closing ceremony comes after the final exam….”
Her gaze pierced toward the head of that distant line, to where the top entrant stood.
“I’ll be standing at the very front over there.”
It wasn’t bravado.
As someone who had trained with her for a month, coughing blood all the while, I could vouch for that.
This woman was someone who could make it happen.
I nodded without a word.
Just then, an upperclassman neatly dressed in the academy uniform approached, holding an information board.
“Excuse me, sir. Separate seats for parents have been prepared in the upper viewing area. If you’ll come this way, I’ll guide—”
“He’s a summoned beast.”
Yustia cut in quickly.
She watched his reaction, speaking in as natural a tone as possible.
“This person is my summoned beast.”
The upperclassman’s gaze swept me up and down.
Once, then twice.
And when his eyes moved a third time, they widened into round circles.
“Ah… you’re that Rosenhart.”
His tone changed.
The polite language quietly disappeared, and in its place came a voice half filled with curiosity and half with wariness.
The upperclassman’s gaze moved from Yustia back to me.
“And this is… the human summoned beast.”
He looked up at me.
The fingertips holding the information board were trembling faintly.
Rather than fear, his expression was closer to that of a zookeeper facing some rare creature he had never seen before.
“I’d only heard rumors, but seeing you in person, you really are human.”
“Yes, I am human.”
When I answered calmly, the upperclassman cleared his throat and looked away.
“Ah, then… since you are a summoned beast, please stand beside your summoner. You are wearing a registration bracelet, correct?”
I lifted the silver bracelet wrapped around my wrist.
“Yes, confirmed. Then… please enjoy the entrance ceremony.”
The upperclassman left behind an awkward smile and hurried away.
The moment he was a few steps away, I saw him run over to another upperclassman and whisper something in their ear.
The number of glances turning toward me grew from one to two, then three.
That feeling of having become a monkey in a zoo came back again.
“Am I supposed to get used to this?”
I swallowed a sigh and looked forward.
On the platform, Headmaster Kocrak was rising from his seat.
It seemed the entrance ceremony was about to begin.