In her luxurious room, at dawn, Diana sat at her desk, anxiously tapping her foot. The warm rays of the sun passed through her curtains, casting a glow inside her room as the sun rose. The beautiful sight did nothing to ease her mind. The only solace was her discovery of the reason why she was being bullied.
It happened shortly after her summon was sent back. Her curiosity about her reward made her bring up her new status window. After snooping around, she found the reason.
'Status window'
[Name: Duchess Diana von Koenig Lvl.12]
[Occupation: Summoner Lvl.3]
[Summons: Bahamut, Zoe]
[Role: Grand Duchess]
[Rank: Novice Summoner]
[Party N/A]
[Sp.0]
[Skills]
[Quest]
[Rewards]
[Stats]
Her eyes naturally made their way towards the skills section; she mentally brought it up. Her eyes concentrated on the talent subsection.
[Summoning(F)]
[Axemenship(SSS)]
[Loved by Trancedents(EX)]
When she first discovered it, she wanted to face palm. It was a wonder that she wasn't bullied more. An axe-wielder with mediocre talent in summoning barges into the most prestigious school, insisting on taking the top class.
After some digging, she found out that her predecessor stubbornly insisted on becoming a summoner despite having no talent. When she couldn't get into the school through legitimate means, she took a more unethical approach and bribed her way into the school.
She rubbed her temples with her hands before slouching into her seat, a heavy sigh escaping her lips.
It finally made sense why she was facing such disdainful glares from the royal class, and why her teacher also bullied her.
Today marked the first month that had passed since she summoned Bahamut.
She leaned into her seat, her hand restlessly looking for something to play with.
A week after that monumental event, she took the opportunity to contact her estate, ordering items required to summon a firebird. A great introduction to summoning powerful bird creatures.
Just like the wolf incident, she didn't summon her intended target but instead a phoenix. The event made her want to pull out her hair. Instead, she accepted it with stride. Much like the dragon, the other students mistook the phoenix for an evolved Firebird.
She had a feeling it had something to do with her third talent.
She didn't correct their misjudgment, although phoenixes didn't have the same stigmas as dragons, the one she summoned was wounded and running from something. Diana turned towards a little birdhouse in the corner of her room. The phoenix was sleeping without a care in the world.
Thankfully, it required a minimal amount of mana to maintain in its small form, unlike Bahamut, which made her feel like her essence was being ripped apart. There was another positive from the event.
Her successful summon had effectively stopped the other students from picking on her. Now, the worst thing that they did was avoid her. If she had a bone to pick with anyone in her class, it would be the princess.
She shuddered just thinking about her. No matter where Diana went on campus, she was bound to meet the princess who insisted on getting the handsome lizard, her eyes more fanatic than the cult members who used to visit her door, who insisted that they weren't a cult.
Diana could almost swear her eyes shifted into a vertical slit, while talking about her summon. She chalked it up to her imagination.
She let go of the brush she was absentmindedly playing with and instead reached into her bag, her hands fumbling about reaching for her notebook and a pen.
She neatly placed it on her desk, her pen on the right side, before opening it to a blank page.
Her hand grabbed the pen, and she started to write in a coded language only she would understand. This was the real reason why she woke up early; a month had passed, and in that month, she had gathered a lot of information.
'Beyonders.' That is what the natives called the players; this was something she already knew, but what she didn't know was if she was actually in the same world where the game took place.
She was thankful for being a Duchess, her whole dukedom was at her disposal. With the help of her people, she found out that this world was the same as the game. Even the respawn centers were in the same location with the same indiscernible magic etched into the floor.
Her people said it resembled ancient magic, but that they weren't sure. Whatever it was, it only confirmed her suspicion.
The game was chaotic; in fact, it started with a war.
This was a good thing, not the war, but that it was the same world as the game.
Diana was adamant about being a summoner; she was one in her previous life, and she would be one now.
Even if the current body had little talent to work with, she was sure that one day her efforts would be rewarded.
She had sunk hundreds upon thousands of hours into the summoner class; with the system, there was no way she couldn't overcome her mediocre talent.
Diana continued to write; this time, she wrote the year she was in, then she wrote the name of an empire.
The Lionhart Empire.
The fact that it was still up told her that she still had plenty of time. The start of the closed beta happened when the Archduke was assassinated. The main quest revolved around solving the mystery of his death.
New Frontier had a wide degree of freedom, even while the main quest was about the Archduke's death, players were able to spawn in any number of the beta locations, and even able to become adventurers and ignore the main quest. Or spawn on the other side of the world, and never even interact with the quest.
For that reason, players never found out who killed the Archduke. The emperor, who had recently gotten sick, died, and war was on the horizon.
The entire continent vying for scraps, even its shadows reaching the academy.
Diana was not an ambitious person; she had a minimum wage job, was going for a mediocre degree, and was satisfied with her place in life.
If it were her previous self, she would have ignored the war, but as a high noble, she would inevitably be roped into the Great War. For her survival, she had to plan the best way to use players.
She stopped writing and tapped her chin with her pen. Diana glanced at her clock.
There was one hour before she had to get to class. She neatly put her stuff away and got ready for class.
Diana gently shook the bird house, waking the phoenix. It chirped before lazily stretching, its drowsiness evident in its half-lidded eyes.
"Zoe." She whispered, not wanting to be too loud and hurt her ears.
The phoenix looked at her and nodded weakly, her soft voice coming out of her mouth as gentle as the morning sun.
"Yes, Diana?"
"Will you join me in class today?" Diana asked, her back bent as she looked over the mythical creature named Zoe.
The bird looked at her before getting up, its little legs moving as it walked around its house.
"Yes," She firmly nodded before flying out of the birdhouse, circling above Diana, and then landing on her shoulder.
The bird made of flames, surprisingly, did not radiate heat.
Diana made her way to class with her usual commute. She entered the class with Zoe on her shoulder, before making her way to her desk.
She placed her bag down neatly beside her and took out her class notebook. She looked around. By this time, everyone had learned how to maintain their summons in the overworld. Several different types of creatures accompanied the other students. Mostly just Moon-Swallowing wolves, as they attempted to reach a high level of affinity with them.
Diana, focused on her textbook, reached under her desk and grabbed it. She opened to page 130 and started reading. While she knew a lot about summoning, now she was able to learn it the way an NPC would have.
She heard a loud screech coming from her right. The sound of wood scraping on wood, a pair of hands entered her peripheral vision.
'Pretty hands.' Familiar hands, Diana inadvertently shuddered before turning to face the owner of the accursed hands.
"Your highness"
"No need to be so formal," She flashed her a graceful smile, the corners of her lips raised as her eyes twinkled with mirth. The princess tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Just call me Ria." Her eyes locked onto Diana's summon.
"I see your immortal bird is doing much better." She neatly folded her hands as she spoke.
Her words made the hair rise behind my neck. I could feel the goosebumps forming. Had she figured out this was a phoenix?
"Immortal?" Diana asked her with a tilted head.
She laughed at my reaction, her hand coming up to cover her mouth.
"You're always so serious, Diana."
"Even when you wanted to learn summoning, you barged into the emperor's room with an axe and demanded entrance to this academy." She continued to laugh, her eyes twinkling with joy.
"My father's face," She mumbled before shaking her head while her eyes looked distant as if reminiscing about something. The smile returned to her face as she opened her mouth to speak. Her hand gently patting my shoulder.
"Immortal, like how it looks so frail, and now it looks so strong." She rolled up her sleeves and patted her bicep, a knowing smile on her face.
"It's a cute nickname." She nodded to herself, her bright blue eyes that resembled the ocean started to narrow.
"Now about that handsome lizard..."