I Only Summon Villainesses

The massive metallic reinforced door slowly came apart at the cleaved edges, gleaming with molten light. Kassie gripped one edge with her hand and tore the metal wider open.

The men in the center room trembled as they watched what could only be akin to a Demoness slowly walk closer to them.

Well, from behind Kassie, I emerged and folded my hands at them.

They glanced between me and the unfriendly warrior next to me. Despite her provocative armor, it seemed to be something more terrifying that made them tremble.

’Men without balls.’

I sighed and gestured with my head.

“Get out.”

Kassie shifted and looked at me. Her helmet vanished, revealing her raising a brow.

“Are you sure?”

I smiled.

“What difference will three men alive make? We’re stealing an entire ship…”

“Yea, remember to include the fact that it’s a ruined ship.”

I paused and turned to where the sound had come from. It was from behind Kassie. She shifted and turned, and there Gilbert was, with a defiant fold of his hands and an unhappy expression.

Then I remembered.

’Oh…’

A wry chuckle formed on my face.

“Well, you can’t really blame Kassie for a ship that couldn’t manage her strength.”

Gilbert chuckled dryly.

“I doubt there’s anything that can manage her strength. Why treat Motherling as though she’s the odd one out?”

I blinked.

’Well, he’s not entirely wrong… even I couldn’t.’

My mind made a quick journey back to my first Spirit Gate, where I was certain I was going to die and had gotten the wish of my life that day before dying. Whatever happened there, Kassie sure has grown even more uptight since then.

’Come to think of it… we have never talked about it, have we?’

Gilbert was glaring at Kassie. The brazenness behind that glare had me so amazed that I drifted away from my thoughts before they became quite melancholic.

White Feather gave Gilbert a concerned look.

“Mister Gilbert, I suggest you befriend caution. I can’t guarantee you’ll keep your head if you keep staring like that.”

He frowned and arrogantly trotted away, reaching the control deck of the ship. He studied the myriad of buttons and levers on it and even glanced at the upper deck, checking a few things before a wide grin split his face.

“Awesome! Awesome! With this, our speed is going to increase twofold!”

I smiled pleasantly.

“That’s what I want to hear.”

Gilbert continued to run around the control deck, romancing almost every button and lever on the ship.

’How does one even fall in love with things like this…’

I scrutinized my own passion against his and, for a moment, wondered if I ever saw myself being obsessed with boring things like this. Things that didn’t jiggle or weren’t soft and bouncy.

I shook my head.

“Please fly that thing, and let’s chase that son of a bastard.”

I turned to White Feather. She stepped forward and looked at me with a resolved grimace.

“Thank you, Lord Cade.”

“I don’t think you should be thanking me yet. There’s so much to do and so little time. Do you still feel her?”

White Feather closed her eyes for a moment, touching her chest. Then she opened them.

“Her presence within me is growing faint.”

My eyes widened slightly.

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

White Feather looked down.

“It could be any of many things. He’s either putting a vast distance between us, or he’s looking for a way to break our connection so I won’t know where he is.”

She paused and humorlessly added,

“He could also be killing her.”

I glanced at her worriedly, especially at how she downplayed the heaviness of what she had just said with her tone.

I studied her for a moment and noticed a slight shudder in her shoulder. I sighed and touched her.

“Well, then we just have to make sure none of that happens. We will find Fairywind and retrieve your daughter from that ugly fiend.”

She smiled somberly.

“Thank you, Lord Cade.”

“You needn’t thank me for anything.”

Several lights flickered to life in the control room, causing me to shield my eyes with one hand. Kassie’s helmet formed around her face, and she silently watched the enormous engine of the ship groan to life like a beast awakening from slumber.

The lights slowly flickered and dimmed as the roaring sound of the machine fell into a low and flowing hum. Her helmet vanished again.

“Hm, humans certainly have been busy creating pointless things since when last I was alive.”

I glanced at Kassie and at the ship, then again at Kassie.

“Uh? How’s this pointless?”

She turned to look at me.

“There’s always a way to do everything. We live in a world that is alive… you can fly if you want to, you just have to be resolved enough to discover how. But humans? They would rather enslave things to help them do what they should train their bodies to do.”

I raised a brow.

“Not everyone is like you, Kassie, and what do you even mean by enslaving a beast?”

Kassie looked around the ship and evenly said:

“Once we get to our destination, I will break apart this metal carapace that has been built around it and free the creature within this thing.”

My mouth fell open, and I was silent for a moment.

Even Gilbert turned back with a dumbfounded look on his face.

A soft, short laugh broke out from White Feather. She had tried her best to keep a straight face; even her lips were trembling.

Kassie turned to her, then turned to me. Then she silently walked out, her helmet forming. After she stepped out of the door, I felt her return to my soul.

I turned to the front, looking like this was just every other day and not Christmas.

The air was soaked in silence.

Then, a couple of seconds later, when I thought everything had passed — the ship was already lifting off the water — White Feather’s voice broke the silence.

“Lord Cade, you have a peculiar summon.”

I smiled with delight, warming up my mind with the cute and legendary Kassie moments.

“Yea, she is a very peculiar one.”