The Summoning Room

It’s a common story where a hero fights a villain. It’s also quite common to hear about their adventures and the people they meet along the way and form allies with. But have you heard of heroes who have familiars, strange beings they form a contract with to fight with them? Maybe you have, but do you know where they stay or what they do while they wait for their master to summon them? Well this is a story about such familiars. A group of odd creatures that dwell in a hidden space where the await a call from their master; the hero’s summoning room…

“Hey! You crazy bastard! What gives you the right to say that to me?!” A loud roar reverberated throughout the hall, shocking everyone who heard it. In one corner of the hall was a room, where a man sat as he conducted interviews for the vacant position of his assistant. The man looked relatively young, around his mid-twenties. He wore a grey shirt with black pants, and also had on a light armour suited around his chest. 

This young man was currently the one being yelled at, yet he remained nonchalant, as though the one being insulted was not him. The young man stared at the culprit of the unnecessarily loud voice. He was a large, muscled man of around 178 centimetres. At the beginning of the interview he referred to himself as Flinch, so the young man addressed him as such.

“Look here...Flinch, as I said before, you’re not cut out for this job.” He leaned back and folded his hands. “You’re nothing but a muscle man. At most you’re only better than the average fighter. You won’t be of any help if I let you join my team. In fact you’ll just be extra baggage…” he paused for a second before he resumed speaking. “…and that’s a weight I don’t want to carry.”

“You!” Flinch's face turned red in anger. He’d never felt so humiliated before. What kind of interview was this? Then as if to placate the him, the young man added.

“You’ll have better luck applying to be a knight or a mercenary.” This sounded comforting, until the young man spoke further. “Just don’t waste your time trying to be something you can’t be in your entire lifetime.” The young man unfolded his hands and leaned across the table, his finger pointing at the door. “Now leave. I don’t want to waste anymore time on you than I already have.”

“You lunatic! What kind of hero are you?”

“Me?” the young man laughed. “I’m the kind who does what I want. Now leave, before I actually show you what kind of hero I am. I guarantee it won’t be a fun experience for you.” It only took a second for his whole temperament to change. As if his attitude earlier was a mere illusion, and this was the real him. 

Flinch felt angry, his emotion was on the brink of exploding. The only thing holding him back was his rationale. Although he wanted to beat him up, he knew he couldn’t. After all this was Carlton Mann, the only man to reach a master level in both swordsmanship and magic. Even without him taking action, just one of his familiars was enough to destroy three towns. He was truly an abnormal being. But the people loved him, they praised him and thought of him as a hero. What a load of...Flinch thought as he left the room. That man is nothing but a messed up lunatic. He's definitely no hero.

Following his exit, a mysterious sound of laughter soon broke out. Something somewhere couldn’t help itself from laughing at the entire situation. “Who was that sad excuse of a fighter," it said as it took a deep breath to calm down. “He actually ran away before master could do anything to him, how pathetic.” 

Seeing the unnatural state of the creature next to her, Silvania couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “You’re a nutcase,” she said. “What exactly was funny about that situation?” The creature turned to look at her with a smile on its face.

“Everything is always worth laughing about. Why don’t I put a smile on your face and you’ll understand,” the creature drew a smile across its face with its fingers as it leaned towards her.

Silvania clicked her tongue and looked away. “Clown,” she cursed under her breath. The clown laughed again when it heard her.

By the side, the other four creatures in the room ignored the two’s banter. 

“Master was so nice though,” Alice spoke sweetly as she hugged her bunny close to her chest. “Mummy says it’s always good to be nice to people.”

“Old hag, you’re already 300 years old. Why do you speak like you’re five? So disgusting,” another commented and then proceeded to give an exaggerated shiver.

“Oy, Shad, do you want to die.” The young girl Alice instantly changed her tone. “Call me old hag again, and this time I’ll really pull your horn our and feed it to my rabbit.”

“As if master will let you,” Shad said without an once of fear.

“How do you know, if I’m a good girl, master will surely…”

“You’ve already tried to cut my horn off forty-two times. It’s never worked then, and it won’t now.”

One of the two other creatures in the room released a deep sigh. “You guys, can’t you all just get along well for one day?” They were all familiars of the same master but four out of six of them couldn’t seem to get along. They fought and argued all day, it’s no wonder his master made a covenant with him. Half of it was probably so that he could be a middleman and help resolve the issues that took place here. If they always fought each other, it will not only affect their master but there was a possibility that their fighting prowess could also be reduces. 

Shad gave him a side glance, “Hey Mak, why did master make you in charge. I’m the one whose been here the longest.”

“And you’re also the most childish and annoying,” Alice added.

“Hey I’m not childish. I’m just very carefree.” He argued back.

“At least you acknowledge that you’re annoying,” she murmured in return.

“Now, now guys. Let’s not argue,” Clown interrupted. “Just smile and be happy.”

“Keep your smiles to yourself you freak.” Alice glared at him in disgust. Out of everyone here, Clown was the one she disliked the most. Why does he have to wear a smile all the time. He’s probably trying to win master over with that smile. She snorted loud enough for him to hear her. I won’t let you win. Only I can win master’s heart by being sweet. Seeing her like this, Clown instantly understood what was going on in her head, which caused him to burst out into happy giggles.

“Stop that!” Silvania said angrily. “Your face is creepy enough. Don’t make it worse by laughing.” Yet Clown continued to laugh, and soon the noise in the room grew even louder.

In the corner of the room was a small button. The button often changed colour from red to blue, each colour symbolising their master’s frustration level. Red meant the master had a high level of frustration while blue meant that the master was still calm and unbothered. That button was now currently indigo…almost turning red.

Dong! A loud sound of steel hitting the floor echoed throughout the room silencing everyone. “Master…headache,” Agis said quietly. Surprisingly, everyone went silent after he spoke. Despite how unruly they could all be, none of them said anything when Agis spoke. He was the ultimate silencer of the group but it was not because he was a man of few words, so it wasn’t that they valued every word that came out of his mouth. The reason was actually simple, they feared him: he was the strongest out of them all, and most importantly… the craziest. 

Mak glanced at Agis and thought to himself. He really is an effective silencer. With just a single action he was able to silence everyone.

“Oh, it’s true.” Shad said after glancing at the button that was almost red. “Master’s button is almost red.”

Silvania glared at all of them and spoke, “How many times does this have to happen before all of you remember that any huge noise or disturbance here can affect master’s mental state.” She looked at them disapprovingly. “I’m going to lie down. I’ll come out when master calls for me.” With that she turned and left the room. The others showed no care about whether she stayed or left. Her attitude and actions were nothing new, she always acted like that especially when it concerned the master’s health. 

“But that reminds me,” Clown suddenly spoke up after a few moments of silence. “When will master call for us? It’s been almost two months since one of us was summoned outside.”

“True,” Shad nodded in agreement. It had been too long since any of them were summoned to fight in the outside world. Most of their time was spent in this room, waiting to be summoned.

“I don’t want to wait anymore.” Alice said with a sad pout.

“You guys don’t have to worry,” Mak said.

“Why do you say that?” Shad asked. Everyone looked at Mak and waited for him to explain. However, it was Clown that spoke up.

“You guys are so stupid,” Clown said, once again drawing their attention. 

“Hey you Clown bastard! Who are you calling stupid?” Shad asked angrily. Rather than get upset, Clown's originally wide smile grew wider as he spoke.

“Have you both forgotten that master is currently interviewing people for an assistant position.” Without him having to speak any further, Shad and Alice immediately understood what Mak and Clown were getting at. Once their master found an assistant, they would soon begin a new journey of exterminating the devils that dwelled deep within the country’s forest. When that time comes, master will surely summon us from here. They all thought amongst themselves.

“It seems we won’t have to wait much longer,” Clown added as he looked at the screen before them. The screen that acted as a window to the outside world and showed them the things their master saw and did. And right now it showed that their master had finally made his choice on whom he wanted to use as his assistant. 

At the other end of the room Agis smiled as he watched the screen. Good, cause I’m tired of waiting.