He looked towards me and said, "Yeah kid. Don"t you hate demons like everyone else out there?"

"I do, but you don"t look like one," I replied honestly. Somehow, I didn"t feel any menace coming from him.

"Why do you hate them? Is it because you think they are evil?" he asked in a calm tone like before.

"I have only met two of them before so I can"t say about all of them. But the first one blindly attacked us while the second one gravely injured my friend and destroyed a whole village," I replied.

I can understand that people in this world hate demons just for being demons. Why wouldn"t they? They have been suffering at the hands of demons throughout history. But as someone who was from a different world, my hatred wasn"t racial. At least, not yet.

"Hahaha! Come here and sit kid. I will tell you a story," said the man with a laugh. It looked like he heard something more amusing than the sky that he was watching.

I sat on the floor near him.

"Once my pride used to be bigger than this sky. I used to serve a powerful master. He was probably the wisest man I had ever seen. But, one day he went insane and the insanity spread. He started making foolish decisions one after another. My pride didn"t allow me to follow such a master, so I left his side and went on a different path. In the end, my absence became the cause of his fall," he paused there and looked towards the sky.

"Do you think I shouldn"t have done that? Should I have stayed by his side even though I knew what he was doing was insane?" His calm voice became a bit heavy as he was asking that.

For someone who was a former citizen of a democratic nation, the answer was simple, "You are free to make your own choices. What"s the point of serving someone who goes against your ideals?"

His eyes opened wide when he heard that. It looked like he wasn"t expecting this answer from me.

"Yeah, I knew that. I never thought I would hear that coming from someone else though," he said and then turned towards me again.

"Do you want to make a demon your familiar?" he asked with a wide smile that didn"t actually suit his handsome face. Some parts of it looked creepy.

"I don"t know about other demons, but you look okay. But, can you even fight?" I asked since I could sense nothing powerful coming from him. And he looked like a normal guy in every way one could imagine except for the fact that he was here in this s.p.a.ce.

"Hahaha! Yes, I can, I can... In fact, I can do one better. You don"t even have to use your mana to summon me or maintain my presence there," he said with a laugh.

"Okay, but I will have to tell you that I will be going on a dangerous journey soon," I replied since I didn"t want to pull someone into my mess without warning them.

"Hahaha! that won"t be a problem," he replied as if he heard me saying something funny.

"Okay, if you are fine with it. You already know my name, but what should I call you?" I asked since I didn"t know his name yet.

"Hmm... They used to call me Lucifer, but you can give me a new name. I don"t like that name anymore," He replied standing up from the ground.

I stood up as well following him.

"Lucifer hmm... sounds familiar. Well, a guy who looks normal but is a demon..."

"Umm... how about Zagan?" I said after thinking for a while.

He brought his hand ahead for a handshake and said, "Zagan sounds alright."

I accepted the handshake and when we shook hands a crimson red magic circle formed below both of us.

"I am your familiar now. I will come whenever you call me," he said after we finished our handshake. The magic circle then disappeared.

"Okay, but can you please keep the fact that you are a demon a secret. I am not sure how others will react when they hear that," I said since I had a feeling that they won"t take him positively if they know that he is a demon.

"Yeah, I understand," he replied in a calm tone. I thought he would be displeased after hearing that, but his response was surprisingly normal.

"Okay, how do I get back now? Others may be worried," I asked.

Zagan snapped his finger saying, "till next time" after which I found myself back in the training room.

Everybody had a panicked reaction on their face when I got there. They were probably worried since I disappeared right in front of them.

"W-what happened?" Sistina asked in a surprised tone. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief when they saw me, but they still looked confused.

"I couldn"t make a contract with a dark summon," I replied. It was the truth since what I made a contract with wasn"t a dark summon.

"I expected that would happen since you already have a divine summon. But I didn"t expect you to be pulled inside "The world of darkness"," said Miss Lilith. By "The world of darkness" she probably meant the place where I met the black dragon king.

I just replied with "I am not sure".

[Master, what happened? Are you alright? Your presence disappeared for a while.] I heard Flare"s voice telepathically.

[I am alright. I will tell you more about it later.] I replied.

"It"s unfortunate but you already have a summon. Arica, you go next," said Miss Lilith after things calmed down a little bit. Arica replied with "Okay" and started drawing her magic circle.

"Man, the shapes are almost exact. I had no idea she was this good."

She winked and produced an "Ahh" sound when she made a small cut on her index finger using the needle.

"Keep yourself together, Nara. That didn"t look hot. No... not hot at all."

As I was struggling to keep my emotions at check, I saw Arica looking at me with a playful smile.

She then dropped her blood on the circle and pa.s.sed the dark magic through it.

What she summoned was a Monkey carrying a golden staff. Unlike the other two before, this one just stood still with his eyes closed.

"Hmm... What should I name him?" said Arica putting her finger in her chin.

"Monkey King! Monkey King! Monkey King!" deep down I was rooting for it to be Monkey king.

"Jack," said Arica leaving me disappointed.

"Well, it"s her familiar and he doesn"t look unhappy about it."

After we finished the summoning familiars, Miss Lilith told us more about the familiars. The familiars used to get weaker the longer they were kept in this world. That was because they couldn"t absorb mana from the surrounding themselves. The same was with the masters who summoned them since they continuously needed to supply mana to sustain their presence. The familiars would disappear if the masters stopped supplying their mana to them.

Since both of my summons don"t use my mana to sustain themselves, I won"t have to worry about that.

Since every familiar had different characteristics and use, there wasn"t a specific way to train them. This was something a master and their familiar had to figure out on their own.

Sam came in and signaled that the lunch was ready after Miss Lilith finished explaining. So, we went to the dining room to have our lunch. After lunch, everyone was planning to head towards the open area behind the Academy to train.

Next chapter: A d-t-e with Arica