Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume4 Chapter2 (section)

===The Story of a Certain Summoner and Vessel 01===

Incense Expert Ellie Slide did not subscribe to a view of good and evil.

In fact, she was a truly rootless person and she had no principles based on a specific region, culture, set of traditions, or religion. So she had no interest in the concepts of good and evil that were a part of that.

That was clear enough from how she dressed. She was a Western European witch, but she included Native American aspects such as an eagle feather, piercings across her body, a dreamcatcher, and an axe that doubled as a pipe. She came from a line of witches that had escaped persecution in Europe by crossing over to the New World and secretly taking up root there, but she possessed none of the hopes or grudges of her family.

The giant silver armor-breaking axe had an electronic cigarette device on the end.

The round dreamcatcher hanging from her neck was not a spider web that caught dreams. It mostly contained the symbol of the Rose at the base of the Summoning Ceremony.

Her stance could be seen in the name Amplifier 500 which meant she would thoroughly increase the skill of any summoner she contracted with. She did not follow any specific principles or beliefs and she did not worship any specific religion’s god as she traversed the world of the Summoning Ceremony. She was a rootless person through and through.

She had a single goal.

She did not care if they were from Government, Illegal, or Freedom, but she wanted to see the summoner she was paired with reach Award 1000.

She would use whatever she could to accomplish that.

That might mean justice, protection, and world peace.

That might mean evil deeds, cruelty, and the extermination of mankind.

Whatever the ignition was, she only needed a corresponding summoner who would be inspired by it. And true to her name as an amplifier, once she found that ignition, she would thoroughly fan the flames to amplify that mental state in the summoner.

“Pant, pant, pant, pant…!!”

As Ellie pulled a small bottle from her belt and calmly exchanged it for one on the back of her axe, a large black-haired man with a pompadour was soaked with sweat. He doubled over and desperately worked to suppress the tremor rising from the core of his being.

He had tearfully returned to the outer edge of the donut-shaped trade show. Tens of thousands of people filled the D.R.O.K. trade show, but not all of them could get a room at a luxury resort hotel. This area full of RVs and mobile homes may have been the seediest part of the makeshift city.

“Th-that scared the shit out of me… That’s the White Queen for you. I knew what to expect, but damn is she scary!! I ran into that kid in Toy Dream 35 a while back, but there’s something wrong with him if he can hang around that thing!!”

The pompadour man jumped into a beach chair sitting next to a barbecue set. The chair and its parasol toppled over, but he ignored that and sat with his back against the silver mobile home.

He then searched through his pocket and pulled out a small bottle of whisky in his shaking hand. He removed the waterproof paper that was rubber-banded to the side of the bottle and followed the folds to create a container almost too small to hold a single walnut. He poured the clear amber liquid inside and gulped it down. But this was not alcohol. It was kid’s stomachache syrup. He seemed to have enough respect left as a Government summoner to worry about what people around him thought. …At the same time, the practiced motions showed just how often he relied on this.

Not that it was surprising he was terrified.

However, Ellie Slide could not have him losing his nerve. The bottom of her sleeved cape shook as she searched for the necessary entry under good and evil. Then she produced a perfect reflection of it like a mirror.

“Then are you going to give up? That is indeed an option. The Deltaston family, Himekawa Mika, and the rest of the 353 vessels have no direct relation to your life. Abandoning them and walking a more aimless Government path would be much more constructive.”

“Kh.”

“Perfect Game is not an almighty power that ensures you defeat any opponent. It refers to your ability to ultimately rework any result into a victory for yourself. So wouldn’t not fighting be one option? I have heard that both martial artists and chess players are selective about which opponents they will face.”

“…Shut up.”

“Why not begin by deciding at which point you will withdraw. You tend to run straight in without a hint of strategizing, so I doubt you would even think about talking about a strategic retreat as a laughable excuse. So where do you draw the line? Where do you cut your losses and give up? You need to do the calculations and find your own ans-…”

“Okay, boss, let’s cook some buffalo meat on that barbecue set!”

“Yay! I want a hot sandwich.”

“…”

“…”

The exposed midriff girl raised both hands on reflex, so she cleared her throat.

Ellie Slide pouted her lips and poked her index fingers together in front of her chest.

“I-I was the one that supplied that endangered animal meat. It was my skill and achievements that created lush greenery in the middle of the desert, allowing their numbers to recover. So all of that farm buffalo meat should belong to me. So why am I the one begging you for some?”

“If you were in charge of it all, the buffalo would go extinct right after they’d finally recovered.”

“Are you saying I’m obsessed with meat!?”

“Let’s just say I’ve never seen you eating vegetables.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I eat potato chips and popcorn.”

“That goes beyond ridiculous!!”

They strayed off topic a bit, but that was not a problem.

No matter what happened here – even if he got angry and hit her – it was not a problem for Ellie Slide. As long as that inspired the summoner and gave them the drive they needed to earn further Awards, she would allow anything. If they wanted kindness, she would let them use her lap as a pillow. If they preferred the whip, she would swing a cowhide paddle down at them.

This was not Ellie’s own will.

Just like a fortuneteller, she would seek out the summoner’s distortion and reflect it back at them like a mirror. That was all she did.

Her focus was on seeing the moment the summoner reached Award 1000. The only other thing she cared about was her personal buffalo meat that grew in the artificial farm built in the middle of a desert.

But she did not need kindness or the whip this time.

Just as she had predicted, Max Layard clenched his teeth.

The pompadour man slowly exhaled while sitting on the ground with his back resting against the silver mobile home.

“I know I’m not skilled enough and that I’m out of my league here. I mean, we’re up against Freedom Award 903 and the White Queen herself. There’s no way a normal fight will get us anywhere.”

“And?”

“Like hell I’ll give up. I’m not fighting because I think I’ll win. I’m fighting because I can’t afford to lose.”

Max wiped the unpleasant sweat from his forehead and faced forward.

The fighting spirit had not vanished from his eyes.

“So we’re in my territory now. Winning and losing don’t matter. No matter how cheap or silly it is, I just have to ''turn this into my victory'' in the end.”

The mirror had worked perfectly.

Incense Expert Ellie Slide did not subscribe to a view of good and evil.

She was nothing more than an amplifier.

If Max Layard had been an evil person, the amplified evil would have taken several lives. If he had been a good person, the amplified good would have saved several lives.