Potential Familiars?

Library.

After class, Nathan and Selena met up as they promised.

"So this is the Azilia Kingdom…" Nathan looked at the map Selena roughly sketched. 

"Yes. We might not be close to the front line, but we're just right behind it. The kingdom south of this place, which is directly connected to the alien border, is the Liaystian Kingdom. Their second prince is our classmate. 

"Also, there is another country that develops for the grace of angels, the Holy Kingdom. They are prospering under the blessing of angels, which allows them to supply food for the frontline as well as helping the injured. 

"On the west, there are two places that you might need to be aware of. The first one is the Blacksmith Guild. Their heir, August, is also our classmate. The second one is a kingdom where the beasts reign supreme."

"Beast?" Nathan frowned.

He thought this would be something similar to him, but Selena clarified, "Yes. The beasts are basically something like werewolves, centaurs, cat people, and so on. Their summoned beings are half animal, half human."

"I see." Nathan nodded. 

"In the north, we have the famous dead forest that is protected by millions of skeletons. Meanwhile, the east is basically the mix of everything. There are several powers, but I'm not very sure. There is a lot of jumbled information regarding the east."

"Is that so?" Nathan asked, "How about you? Are you a noble from this kingdom?"

"I am?" Selena drew another sketch. She marked the first one as Frexia Academy, where they were currently studying. "My family is somewhere around here."

She circled the area on the west, which wasn't that far from the Holy Kingdom.

"Hmm. Does your family experience a famine or something? Does the Holy Kingdom not help you?" Nathan asked with an innocent face, as if he were clueless about how absurd his question was.

"What?" Selena was baffled by the question.

"I thought that because you said you couldn't do anything related to money, your family might be suffering from famine," Nathan explained, taking advantage of his identity as a farmer. 

"No." Selena's face contorted. "It was because… because…"

She couldn't say it. She looked like she was in a lot of pain.

"Did I say something wrong? I apologize." From that reaction alone, Nathan realized that the situation was much more complex than he originally thought. It was better to leave it at that. 

Selena bit her lips, remembering when Nathan said he didn't need to prove himself. If only her life was so easy.

'How can you say that? Do you know how much I want to be a boy? My family has been cursing me because I'm a girl and the vampire we summon is based on our gender. In other words, even if I have the talent, I don't have any chance to summon a vampire progenitor.

'I want to prove to my family that I can also do it. I want…' Selena took a deep breath. She felt so stupid. Why would she even get angry because of it? Nathan was just asking because he was curious and had no intention to mock her.

"Still, vampire, huh?" Nathan looked at the ceiling. "If I can only summon a beast, I guess Caine is out of the question."

Bang!

Nathan's body twitched as he lowered his head. Selena just slammed the table, her eyes turning bloodshot.

"What did you say?" Selena clenched her hands. "How do you know about the vampire progenitor that my ancestor summoned?"

"Huh?" That question shook Nathan to the core. Caine existed? Nathan asked himself. He just made a random remark, but he thought that since he was a vampire, he couldn't summon him.

"I haven't mentioned a single name. How do you know about Caine? No, what do you know about him? You wanted me to teach you about things, but did you actually already know about it and just play dumb this whole time? Was it that fun to watch me make a fool of myself?"

Nathan didn't expect such an intense reaction from Selena. At the same time, it would be troublesome if this continued.

There was only one escape route. Nathan hurriedly said, "I heard it from Fenrir. He said he missed the time he fought against Caine after seeing your familiar."

Selena's expression turned serious. "Fenrir? The wolf you summoned?"

"Yeah." Nathan nodded.

"Did he say anything else?" Selena asked. "Did he know how to summon Caine? No, how did he fight Caine? Did he win? What happened?"

"I don't know. He did mention three names: Caine, Dracula, and Lilith." Nathan tested the water by stating those three famous names.

To his surprise, Selena sucked a cold breath as she said, "You even knew the name of the vampire progenitor that my father has?"

The moment she confirmed her father had Dracula, something clicked in his mind.

'If Dracula and Caine exist, it means that they summon not only the creatures from normal fantasy. They are summoning the familiars from all kinds of sources as long as they are humanoid but not human. In other words, fallen angels like Lucifer or Azazel can be summoned here.

'No. Even my freaking idol, the great sage, Heaven's equal, can also be summoned to this world. Should I go to this country where beasts reign supreme and search the monkey king?'

To completely confirm his theory, Nathan couldn't help but ask, "By the way, who is the name of the archangel?"

Even though she didn't know the reason for that question, she still answered, "Raphael."

'Yeah. That's it. Time to search for those cool and badass motherfuckers. No, wait. Can I just summon them? I don't really want to know this, but what if I can only summon a divine beast? Well, it seems that I can only confirm it once I summon my second familiar.' 

While Nathan was in deep thought, Selena kept muttering a single name over and over again. "Lilith… Lilith… Lilith is a woman's name, right? If it's mentioned alongside Caine and Dracula, she should also be a vampire progenitor, right? Does that mean I can summon a vampire progenitor as well?' 

Nathan caught a glimpse of her expression. She was strangely happy about the name. He couldn't help but wonder, 'There are a lot of sources about Lilith. If she somehow summons her, it won't follow the lore about Lilith being a combination between a vampire and a succubus, right?'

Nathan couldn't help but imagine Selena's face, which was devoid of expression most of the time, to be one like a succubus.