Half-Made Summoners

As the conversation drifted over dinner plans, Jeyeon slipped the topic in a different direction.

"I'm curious about the guild's strength, actually. What level is everyone at now?"

Jena, Jisoo, and Hoyeon took turns answering.

"I'm 49 right now."

"Me? 71."

"Hmm, 69 for me. Don't let the look fool you—this oppa used to be one of the top-ranked hunters back in the day."

"……Wait, you're level 49, 71, and 69?"

At the rookie's widened eyes, all three broke into proud smiles at once.

He probably never imagined a washed-up guild had hunters this high-leveled. Hoyeon felt her shoulders straighten all on their own.

Those high levels were their pride—and their one and only selling point.

Granted, not a single person had joined because of them yet.

"Sihyun, you're impressed, huh?"

"Yes, very impressed."

"Haha, well, that's understandab—"

"They're really low, aren't they?"

"……Sorry, what?"

Hoyeon's smile froze right there on her face.

Did I hear that wrong?

But the question kept coming, as if to bury any hope of a misunderstanding.

"What have you all been doing this whole time?"

The three pairs of eyes wavered in unison.

This kid seemed okay, and then—again?

Hoyeon dabbed at her moistening eyes and asked, "Sihyun, did we do something wrong? Is it because Uncle keeps calling himself your oppa?"

"……What are you talking about? It's not that."

Jeyeon, in fact, had her mind fixed somewhere else entirely.

Why are their levels exactly where they were?

Jisoo and Hoyeon had already been at that range ten years ago. Which meant that in all that time, they hadn't climbed a single floor.

The only progress at all was little Jena making it to 49.

Calling them lazy wouldn't be fair, either.

Given how the old guild had ended, it wasn't her place to point fingers.

The Tower produced no resources. The only money to be made came from dungeons, where you could haul out the byproducts.

If it doesn't pay, of course people would let it slide.

Humanity wasn't in danger anymore, either. The conquered Tower was little more than a bomb with its detonator pulled—these days it served only as a trial ground where awakened hunters ground out their levels.

So there was nothing pitiful about it. Not really.

It was simply a shame that talented summoners had stopped growing.

If I'd been here, they would've seen the end of it.

Jeyeon swallowed the words she'd meant to say, her feelings a tangled knot. What came out instead was a heavily softened version.

"It's just… summoners really hit their stride in the late game, so I was wondering if you'd want to go higher."

Hoyeon asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "Sihyun, you actually know things these kids today shouldn't."

"Most classes work that way, right? Well, I could be wrong."

"No, Sihyun, you're right."

"But it's not like we got lazy or anything. We got too weak—weak enough that the upper floors are out of reach now."

"What do you mean by that? Too weak?"

Jisoo and Hoyeon exchanged a dry laugh.

A brief silence settled before Jisoo spoke.

"We're half-made now. Our levels are high, but we can't use the advanced summoning skills."

"You can't use them?"

"Our contracts were severed. From the day the final floor was conquered—all of them."

Jena added cautiously, "We were borrowing the power of the Great Entities that Unnie Jeyeon discovered. Thanks to her, we never had to withstand an Entity's rank on our own—we just took the power and used it."

"……"

"But when Unnie died, it seems it all lost its effect. So now we can't call the summons we were contracted to."

That's impossible.

The Book of Summoning was never supposed to work that way.

It was a contract document granting every summoner whose name was inscribed in it the right to wield the authority of the Four Great Entities.

Even if the original contractor died, the names held as long as the book survived. She had gone through hell to secure those terms.

And now they were telling her the contracts were severed.

I clearly…

gave it to Ki Taewon.

She had begged him that desperately.

He didn't give it to them.

No—it wasn't simply a matter of withholding it. If the book were intact, the contracts alone couldn't have broken.

……He destroyed it.

A summoning contract was binding for life. Once an Entity stopped answering, you couldn't fill that slot with some other summon.

Beings that had answered her call just yesterday vanished overnight. And these three had endured ten years without ever learning why.

The stagnant levels. The worn-through shoes. Those faces laughing dryly while calling themselves half-made.

They were the kids who had called Ki Taewon "oppa," "hyung"—who'd looked up to him and followed him.

He'd known, too. He knew exactly what would happen to them if he destroyed the book.

And he destroyed it anyway.

……Ki Taewon. Were you really rotten all the way to the bottom?

Making himself a traitor wasn't enough? Just how much did he stand to gain, that he'd go that far?

……Ah.

Jeyeon's gaze stopped.

Quite a lot, actually.

A world without Sung Jeyeon. In that world, Ki Taewon, the perennial second-place finisher, became the strongest. Ryu Sungho, Seongyeon's former vice guild leader, became president of the Association.

Those were positions that had meant nothing to her.

She'd assumed the same was true for Ki Taewon.

Jeyeon let out an empty laugh.

The moment Ki Taewon's interview ended, Ryu Sungho's press conference had erupted—as if he'd been waiting for exactly that.

……When did it start?

The day I came back? Or before we even began the final assault?

There was no way to know.

How far the two of them had colluded, or exactly when their hearts had turned—none of it.

But the result left before her eyes was plain as day.

Those two climbed upward. These kids were left behind here.

She'd thought her return was a reasonless, out-of-nowhere reincarnation.

But now—maybe there was a reason she'd come back.

To set things right.

Even if that wasn't the reason, it didn't matter.

If there isn't one, I'll decide it for myself.

Jeyeon drew in a long, slow breath.

I'm giving everything back.

That was what she'd chosen to do in this life.

Jeyeon lifted her eyes to Jisoo and Hoyeon.

"You two don't need to hang your heads."

"……"

"You just need to get strong again. We can turn this around in no time."

To the two of them staring back in a daze, Jeyeon offered a smile.

"Because now, you've got me."

"……Oh, yes, of course."

"Sihyun, your uncle is truly moved right now!"

"Aigoo, our youngest is so dependable. Your unnie and oppa will work even harder."

The three of them laughed, taking it as the best well-meant comfort their strange youngest could offer.

To bring the kids back, I have to get strong first.

Only she had ever been able to summon the Great Entities and withstand the weight of their rank.

And the advanced summoning skill needed to call them unlocked at level 50.

In her past life, reaching Floor 50 had taken about five years.

A significant chunk of that was spent waiting for the next floor to open.

But already-conquered floors could be climbed back to back, so this time she could slash that wait drastically.

"Then I'll head to the Tower right now, while the topic's up."

"What? Right now?"

"Yes, every hour counts."

She wanted to cut down—even by a single day—the time those kids spent living as half-made hunters.

Jeyeon stretched her hand out into the empty air and murmured, "Portal open."

At once, a small light tore through the air and began widening the gap. By the time the dot of light had grown big enough for a person to pass through, the force swirling in the passage sent her hair streaming toward it.

Jeyeon stepped forward and whispered low, "Awakened name… Lee Sihyun. Requesting entry to the Tower—"

—was what she tried to say.

But then—

Grrrrrrumble—!

Jeyeon slowly lowered her gaze.

Her stomach.

Lee Sihyun's—no, her stomach.

……No. At this timing?

At the sound of someone clearing their throat, she looked up to find every one of them staring at her.

"Ahem. Sihyun, going in is all well and good, but shouldn't you eat first?"

"No, honestly, at this point it's practicall—"

Grrrrrrrumble!

"She says we should eat first, so?"

"No, I'm really f—"

GRRRRRRUMBLE!

"Ugh, fine. Eat! We're eating first!"

This body of Lee Sihyun's, useless for anything but sabotage!

Jeyeon waved her hand, and the portal quietly shrank closed. Still fuming, she flung herself onto the sofa.

"Wha—no, you can't sit th—"

Fwoosh.

The ancient springs groaned once in surrender. The cushion sank deep, her bottom sailed past the sofa frame, and landed square on the floor.

"Uack!"

Her knees shot up to face height. Both arms hung awkwardly in the air, with nowhere to go.

Jeyeon froze in exactly that position.

"……It works, actually."

Hoyeon finished her sentence a beat too late.

"Haha. Sihyun, you have to sit on the left end. That's the only spot that still holds."

"……"

"I meant to warn you. Uncle was a little late, that's all."

While Hoyeon smiled sheepishly, Jena reached out a hand to Jeyeon. As Jeyeon took it and pulled herself free, her foot caught the coffee table, sending several papers scattering across the floor.

Ha, seriously…

Jeyeon knelt down to gather the papers.

One sheet, then two. And then her eye caught a sofa leg wrapped in duct tape.

Even after ten years, this was too much. Newly bought furniture shouldn't be in this state. They must have bought run-down secondhand junk from the very start.

Just you watch.

The moment her level rose, she'd grind through dungeons and rake in money. First thing she bought with it: all of this, replaced.

Jeyeon gritted her teeth and picked up the last remaining sheet.

Her hand stopped.

A government logo was stamped in the corner of the document.

"……Something from the Association?"

Jeyeon murmured as she unfolded the paper.

A garish neon-colored poster filled her vision.

Jeyeon read it through in a single sweep, and one thought struck her.

……They didn't build this whole thing just to make me come out, did they?