Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sellar was Sofia and Saria’s name from their father’s side. It was a name they had been denied after their mother died and their father married another woman of nobler status.

In another world, this might have been a tragic story, but to Sofia, it was all just the recollections of her older sister. She barely remembered her mother, while her father was but a distant and blurry image in her memory. They were both dead anyway.

Still, when faced with someone sharing her birth name, Sofia was intrigued. ‘It could be a coincidence’ had been her first thought. But then she read it again. Jennifer.

Sofia clearly remembered the strange sensation of looking at a different version of herself when she met the tall blonde warrior woman in the mercenary group that helped her escape the castle in her first trial. She had been a muscular woman wielding a large claymore, and she had a strong accent.

Most importantly, her name was Jen.

There is no way. Right?

Like hypnotized, Sofia walked up to the door and knocked twice.

No one answered. She knocked again, and the answer again was a heavy silence.

No one home. Well.

I’ll have to come back to this later. Might as well bring Saria too. Even if we’re really related, that would be like an ancestor of several generations, no? But to think that I met her in the trial.

Sofia was a bit too lost in her thoughts as she climbed the floors, when she looked at a nameplate again it read:

‘Floor 15 - Teacher Caleb Whitehound - Barrier & Defensive Magic’

“Oh, I’ve gone too high.”

So this guy isn’t just the academy’s doormat. He did say he was a shieldmage, so he lives on the floor right above mine…

Sofia turned around and was finally on her own floor. There was no decoration, but the nameplate was already there.

‘Floor 14 - Teacher Sofia Vakaria - Summoner combat strategies’

It’s interesting that they kept my name as Vakaria everywhere. I’m sure Beligenus knows about my actual name, Caleb has even seen my ID. Well, it is better like this. Even if Aphenoreth is safe when it references me, better safe than sorry.

Bringing her silver key to the door, Sofia had to wait for the magic barriers to unlock one by one. The magic only showed up when they were brought to life like this, and it was pretty impressive. These barriers felt almost as strong as the one protecting the academy from the outside. I don’t think I could break through these even with a big bolt, that’s some pretty serious security. If I’m actually in any kind of danger, hiding in there might be my best bet until Leverle comes to protect me.

After twenty seconds of the complex magic locks of the layered barriers opened one by one, the door finally unlocked. Sofia entered and closed behind her, the barrier instantly closing back up. At least it’s only opening that’s slow.

“Damn, that’s spacious. Quite a few windows, a big main room and doors to other rooms on both sides.”

The bed in the main room though? It looks oddly like the church’s room with only a bed in the middle of a large empty space…

The walls look much nicer than cold marble though. It’s the Exidian style with polished wood on the lower half and stone on the upper half just like the ID registration office.

What’s this thing?

[Light switch] : press to turn on the lightstone arrays embedded in the ceiling.

Sofia was stunned by the sudden discovery of button-controlled ritual circles. She pressed the button several times, watching the light appear and disappear.

I’m easily entertained… I have not been doing much in the way of trying to have fun lately. Maybe it’s time to stock up on books again.

After inspection, it looked like the side rooms were a small study with empty bookshelves, a kitchen stocked up with some dried food, a bathroom and a storage room.

“Hmm, too bad I left most of Zangdar’s furniture in my secret mountain base. I never even went back there. Well, maybe I’ll go back someday. But for now…”

Sofia summoned the engineer and the broom elf skeletons to help her decorate the house. She knew Pareth wouldn’t be of any help for that job.

“Wait… Wasn’t there one more elven skeleton? Oh, yeah there was! I never checked what it was… Come out buddy, let’s see what you’re made of.”

[Solar Solar Mage - Lv. 249]

“Right… Well. You can help the nun shine up the floor I guess.”

While two of the skeletons got busy cleaning the place, which was already decently clean, Sofia got to work making bone planks, screws and nails for the engineer to process into functional furniture.

It was much faster to offload the work to him than to try to figure out boring stuff like sliding rails, door hinges and such parts by herself, all she had to do was to tell him the name of what she wanted. The room quickly filled up with featureless bone furniture. When Sofia felt there was enough raw matter ready for the engineer to process, she switched to adding detail to the ready pieces with [Bone Dominus]. She tried her best to replicate the flowery vegetal patterns she had noticed which seemed to be popular in the Exidion Empire.

In a few hours, as the Sun slowly worked its way up over the horizon, Sofia turned the mostly empty room into a homely place with a bunch of functional furniture and a lot of decorative nonsense.

The best part in her opinion was the series of pedestals near the entrance with miniature statues of people. So far she had only made Saria, Alith, Pareth and Erredis, but this already looked extra nice to her, and now she wanted to make a whole set with everyone she had ever met. This would take some time, but now that she had a fine enough control of [Bone Dominus], it was really exhilarating to be able to make whatever she wanted.

Looking at her new home for the next year, Sofia felt proud but unsatisfied. It was too white with everything made of bones. There was too little contrast.

“I really need to add some color. Should I work on coloring the bones with dominus? I did find how to do that with the armor back then, surely it cannot be too hard…”

With that in mind, Sofia resolved to at least go out to buy colorful carpets, curtains and wall ornaments soon, to bring some life to this home of hers.

“Oh, I need to decorate the entrance too…”

Sofia heard some knocking on the door. The clothier?

“I’m coming!” she answered, unsure whether the person on the other side could even hear her considering all the magical protections still up around the place. She jumped to the door and opened it. There was no need to use the key to unlock it from the inside, but it still took just as long. Finally the lock clicked and Sofia opened the door.

A red haired stout dwarf in a formal black suit with black glasses was not what Sofia expected, but it was what she got.

[Artisan - Lv. 300+]

“Oh lord, if that isn’t a gorgeous new teacher, your proportions are nothing to joke about, it’s good that I brought all my stuff. May I come in?”

“Hi… The Clothier, I suppose?” At least he’s not hiding his thoughts at all…

“Indeed, lady. Beryl sent me, said you needed a few new outfits. And I daresay she was right if this is how you usually dress… Wait, is that a Dragon scale?!”

Sofia smirked. “Oh, you have a good eye behind those glasses, uh? Come in, let’s sit down.”

The dwarf followed and closed the door behind him. Suddenly Sofia felt a bit uncomfortable about being locked in with someone stronger than herself, but surely this person wouldn’t dare try anything funny.

“Aye, name’s Altemir, but everyone just calls me the Clothier around here so don’t bother remembering that stuff. I ain’t gonna pry about the Dragon Scale but I sure as hell would love to have a look at some point. You have… An interesting taste for decoration. I’m sure you and Eternam will be good friends, but well, none of my business. Now, what kinda clothes do you want, pretty lady?”

“I’m not really sure…”

“I see. Give me a second…”

Altemir stood up, walked a few steps to an empty space in the middle of the room, and started unloading racks and racks of female clothing from a spatial storage item. There were robes, tunics, shirts, skirts, anything and everything in all colors and sizes, even some leather armors.

“Hmm, should be all what’s relevant, do you want to look around for the kind of style you like or should I show you what I think would look good on you?”

“You’re the expert,” Sofia answered with a shrug.

“Hmm… Alright, alright… What’s your stance on exposed skin? Ankles, arms, shoulders, open back? Cleavage?” the dwarf asked, already rummaging through the hundreds of hanging outfits he had produced.

“I don’t like having my belly exposed but everything else I don’t really care either way as long as it looks normal.”

“Quite lax, I reckon you’re gonna be very popular among the male students,” the dwarf commented, “lemme see what I have for you.”