Upon waking, Liqueur was nowhere in sight.
She must have returned home.
“She could have at least left a note…”
Still, I decided to let it go.
Today, I planned to build homes for my summoned beings.
In particular, it was high time to build a house for Cat-Dog, whom I had entrusted to Tsundere last time (Cat-Dog was a name Tsundere herself had coined).
More importantly, Tsundere had come to my house this morning, remarking, “Shouldn’t we start building Cat-Dog’s house soon?”
While it was true I’d been procrastinating and Cat-Dog genuinely needed a home, her comment felt a tad impudent.
So, when I told Tsundere I’d build Cat-Dog’s house right next to her own, she looked absolutely stunned.
‘Of course, the ‘impudence’ was just a joke; I actually intended to build it there because Tsundere and Cat-Dog seemed to get along so well.’
Incidentally, there had been nothing next to Tsundere’s house.
I thought I had built something there, but perhaps not?
Well, if there wasn’t, then there wasn’t.
****
“Should it be fire-attributed… or ice-attributed…?”
Cat-Dog, being a dual fire and ice-attributed summoned being, could reside in either a fire-attributed home or an ice-attributed home.
One might ask why I couldn’t simply put all of them in the same place, but in this game, housing multiple summoned beings in one home drastically reduces efficiency.
The tutorial itself had explicitly stated, [‘One summoned being per home!’]
“…To think that the dream of owning my own home could be realized so easily here.
It truly is wonderful.”
Of course, I already possessed my own home—a truly enormous mansion, in fact.
The more summoned beings I acquired, the larger my home grew.
To be precise, its exterior remained that of the small house I initially had, but its interior expanded.
How did I discover this?
“Chirp chirp!”
After Aengmu emerged from the hatching stone, I returned home to find my house had significantly broadened.
Ah, Aengmu was a dual electric and ice-attributed being, born from the summoning stone created by Kkongkkongi and Ppireusi.
Incidentally, I hadn’t named her yet.
Judging by her appearance, she was likely a summoned being modeled after a parrot.
Yet, where exactly did the electric attribute manifest in Aengmu?
No matter how closely I looked, there wasn’t a hint of electricity.
“Electricity for a creature that looks so… cool and refreshing… Ow, that stings!”
I had unthinkingly tried to stroke her wing and was promptly zapped.
She seemed to store electricity within her body, releasing it as needed.
“Ouch… that really stung… Did you not like your wings being touched?
My apologies.
I didn’t realize…”
“Chirp chirp?”
Tilting her head as if to ask what I meant, she then flew from the desk and settled on my shoulder.
After that, she began rubbing her face against mine.
“Yes, yes, you’re adorable.
Ow!
If you peck my shoulder with your beak, you’ll be in trouble!”
As I tried to stroke her head, calling her cute, she started pecking my shoulder with her beak.
This child, with her charming appearance, was behaving quite contrary to it.
“Ow, ow, stop, argh!
Hey!
I told you not to do that!”
“Chirp, chirrrup…?”
“I told you that wasn’t allowed!
Do you really want to be scolded?”
“Chirp… chirrruuup…”
Still, she seemed to understand her mistake, chirping softly like a child who had misbehaved as I scolded her.
“If you do that again, I’ll really scold you severely, alright?”
“Chirrrup… chirp chirp…”
“As long as you understand.
I’m sorry for getting angry, but if I don’t correct you now, you might become ill-mannered later on, so please understand, alright?”
“Chirp!”
Well, it was a relief that she seemed to cheer up quickly.
Anyway, I was still deliberating what to name her.
“A parrot with an ice body and electricity inside… How about Jjirikko (TL Note: A Korean onomatopoeia for an electric shock or zapping sound, combined with a diminutive suffix.)?
Ow, ow!
Alright!
I’ll give you a different name!”
As I tried to name her Jjirikko, she began pecking violently with her beak.
She likely didn’t approve of the name.
Honestly, I also thought ‘Jjirikko’ wasn’t quite right.
One mispronunciation, and she might later transform into a bird of prey that gambles with lives.
“Haa, no good names are coming to mind… Ice-Electric Parrot… Electric-Ice Parrot… Hmm…”
Whichever combination I chose, no truly good name emerged.
“What if I just keep it simple and call it Aengmu?”
“Chirp!
Chirp chirp!”
“Oh?
You like it?”
“Chirp chirp!”
Did she like this name?
She nodded her head vigorously at the name Aengmu.
‘Considering I almost gave her a name like Jjirikko before settling on the more conventional Aengmu, it’s understandable why she might like it.’
Given my notoriously terrible naming sense, a plain, unobjectionable name like that indeed seemed preferable.
“Alright, then.
From now on, your name is Aengmu, got it?”
“Chirp chirp!
Aengmu!
Chirp chirp!”
“True to being a parrot, she’s repeating her own name right after I gave it to her?
How adorable~”
“Meow-meow~”
“Ah, Cat-Dog.
Did you just wake up?”
Judging by her just-woken appearance, it seemed Aengmu and I had probably woken her up with our noise.
Oh, I had decided to keep her with me for the day since I was building her house.
While this would be unthinkable in “Everyone’s Summoner,” it was practically reality now, so nothing was impossible.
One might ask why they couldn’t simply live together, but these children needed their own homes to earn gold.
What could I do?
I needed to earn gold to feed them.
Although I still had plenty left over from my last spending spree, isn’t it always better to have more money?
-Knock knock
“Summoner-nim, may I come in for a moment?”
“That voice… It’s the Wandering Merchant, right?
The door’s open, come on in.”
“Oh my, you guessed correctly this time, Summoner-nim?
However… my hands are currently full, so I can’t open it.
Could you open it for me instead?”
“…What on earth did you bring?”
Hearing that her hands were full and she couldn’t open the door, I opened it myself, only to find a colossal stack of boxes piled outside.
“…What is all this?”
“Ahahaha… I brought quite a lot today, didn’t I?
I brought some things I thought you might need for living here.
Oh, I won’t charge you for them.
They’re just leftovers from my own home anyway, and since you haven’t been here long, Summoner-nim, you must need many things.”
“Um… what’s inside?”
“Well, starting with sunscreen, there’s foundation, lipstick, hair essence, and so on…”
Most of the items the Wandering Merchant had brought… no, to exaggerate only slightly, 99% of them were cosmetics.
“Isn’t this… a bit too much?”
“Oh, come now, surely not.
I originally intended to bring even more, but I thought it might be overwhelming, so I only brought this much!”
She intended to bring *more*?
Four out of five boxes were completely full, and there were at least five items from the last box!
Of course, since they were packaged, the sheer volume wasn’t *that* much.
I gave up counting around thirty, but it was probably around sixty items.
By the way, how many of these things did this merchant have at home?
And the cosmetics she brought looked incredibly expensive.
“Uh… thank you…?”
“Heehee, I’m glad I could be of help.”
No, I wasn’t thanking her for being helpful.
I was thanking her for *not* bringing more.
Even this was excessive.
“T-that’s enough.
A few of these will suffice for me, so please take the rest back…”
“What?
Why?”
“From my perspective, you won’t be able to use all of it.
It’s simply too much.”
“Oh, come on, you use cosmetics up surprisingly quickly.
Just take them for now and use them at your leisure later.”
With those words, the Wandering Merchant departed.
I considered stopping her but ultimately refrained.
It was obvious she wouldn’t take them back even if I tried.
“…By the way, she didn’t tell me how to use any of this, did she?
I don’t know how to apply them.”
Come to think of it, she had fled without even explaining how to use them, hadn’t she…? I should have just stopped her.
Well… she was already gone, so regretting it now was pointless.
“Do I have to learn how to apply makeup myself…? Wait, that’s not the problem right now.”
I had completely forgotten that I needed to build Cat-Dog’s house.
Roughly tucking the boxes left by the Wandering Merchant inside, I cradled Cat-Dog in my arms and stepped outside.
“Alright, let’s go build Cat-Dog’s home!”
“Meow!”
“And later, when you’re in your beast-human form, make sure to shower your Summoner unnie (TL Note: A Korean term used by a younger female to address an older female.) with lots of affection!”
“Meo… meow…?”
Cat-Dog looked flustered by my request for her to show abundant affection in her beast-human form.
That was also the second reason why I couldn’t raise them in my own house.
Each summoned being required its own home to grow into its human form.
The tutorial had mentioned assigning one summoned being per home due to decreased efficiency, but the actual reason for the inefficiency was that they wouldn’t grow without their own homes.
One might ask if they couldn’t simply remain in their current forms.
It was possible, but it would only lead to quitting the game shortly thereafter.
This was because without summoned beings growing into their human forms, game progression became incredibly difficult.
For starters, you couldn’t earn any money at all.
If that were the only issue, it wouldn’t be a big problem.
The bigger problem than not earning money was the exorbitant cost of food.
During their infancy, they consumed an enormous amount, leading to immense food expenses.
Therefore, it was crucial to build them homes and facilitate their growth.
More than ten classmates from middle school had quit the game because they played without building homes or letting their summoned beings reach human form.
“Alright, we’ve arrived.”
“Meow!”
Having explained the reasons for building their homes, we quickly arrived.
…But who exactly was I explaining all this to just now?
‘Well, it probably doesn’t matter.’
It didn’t seem like something to worry about, so I immediately started preparing to build Cat-Dog’s house.
“Shall we begin, then?”
“Meow-meow!”
“Cat-Dog, what attribute home would you prefer?
Fire?
Ice?”
“Meow…?”
Her reaction indicated she didn’t understand what I was saying.
Indeed, it was a difficult concept for a child who had only recently been born.
“I’ll build you an ice-attributed one.”
“…Meow!”
Cat-Dog, though not understanding, responded as if she did.
I temporarily entrusted Cat-Dog to Tsundere and unfurled the blueprints.
…Tsundere, upon being given Cat-Dog, had angrily demanded why I was entrusting her with the creature *again*.
