All My Summons Become Divine Girls

’Why is the gold light fading?’ Didi thought, watching the claws pull out of Gazel’s chest while blood rained down on the ground.

The monster stood over him, its face twisted in an awful grin while he hit the ground and stopped moving completely.

’Please get up,’ she thought, reaching her hand out toward him while her legs refused to move, ’you can’t just leave me here.’

But he didn’t move, and the monster turned its head toward her, its eyes completely empty as it raised its claws again.

"Gazel!" she yelled, her eyes snapping open as she jolted awake.

She sat up fast, gasping for air while her chest heaved violently. Sweat covered her entire body, making her clothes stick uncomfortably to her skin. Her hands grabbed at the blanket covering her legs, gripping the fabric tight while she tried to figure out what was happening.

’I’m alive?’ she thought, feeling the rough material under her fingers while her breathing came out in broken pieces.

The panic faded and an overwhelming sadness took over. Gazel was gone, the man who had protected her since she was a child and treated her like a little sister, really died fighting for her.

She felt incredibly empty, because no one had ever paid that ultimate price for her before and knowing it was her fault made the guilt almost unbearable.

If she had just listened to him and ran when he told her to, maybe he would still be alive.

’This is my fault,’ she thought, crying freely while she sat there. ’I was too proud and now Gazel is dead...’

She cried for a few minutes, shaking under the blanket until her throat hurt too much to make any more sound.

Eventually, the smell of cooked meat reached her nose, making her hungry despite how terrible she felt and forcing her to look up.

’Where am I?’ she thought, wiping her wet face and looking at the walls around her.

It looked like a small natural cave, dimly lit by a campfire positioned near the entrance. The heat from the flames pushed away the cold night air, and sitting on the other side of the fire were two people she didn’t recognize right away.

A boy was carving a piece of wood with a small knife, and a beastkin girl sat near him, quietly eating a piece of meat.

’Who are they?’ she thought, shrinking back a little against the cave wall.

She didn’t feel any hostility from them, but her guard was up completely. After what she had just survived, she wasn’t ready to blindly trust anyone sitting in the woods at night.

Hajin noticed her moving and stopped carving, looking up at her across the fire.

"You screamed pretty loud just now," he said, setting the wood down. "Are you alright?"

She stared at him, her eyes checking his face before dropping to the cheap clothes he wore.

’Wait,’ she thought, her brows pulling together. ’I saw him earlier today.’

She remembered the carriage ride through the capital and the boy who had locked eyes with her through the window. It was exactly the same person.

"You," she said, her voice rough from crying. "You were the one on the street."

He gave a small nod, picking up a stick to poke at the fire, "yeah, small world."

’She has a really good memory to remember a random guy on the street after everything she just went through,’ he thought, looking at her red eyes and tear-stained face.

"How am I here?" she asked, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. "The monster... did you fight it?"

"Fight it?" he repeated, giving a short dry laugh. "No. I grabbed you and ran as fast as I could while it was distracted. I am not suicidal enough to fight something like that."

She looked down at her hands, the reminder of the monster bringing the heavy sadness back in full force.

"I see," she said quietly. "Then the others... they are really..."

He didn’t need her to finish the sentence to know what she meant.

’She’s grieving,’ he thought, watching her shoulders slump forward while she stared at the ground. ’Losing the people supposed to protect you is always rough.’

He didn’t offer any comforting lies, because he knew from experience that hearing things like how it would all be okay from a stranger meant absolutely nothing when you were hurting. It was better to just let people process it.

At the edge of his vision, the stream comments were rolling steadily.

[ CringeSlayer91:] man, princess looking devastated

[ ShadowMage44:] ngl that knight went fully beyond his limits, sad he died

[ NewViewer_02:] Hajin you gotta say something to make her feel better

[ashley (Mod) :] let her process it, losing someone in front of you takes time to digest

’Ashley is right,’ he thought, reading the golden-tagged comment, ’no point in talking right now.’

He reached over, picked up a piece of cooked meat from a stone near the fire, and held it out toward her.

"Eat something," he said. "You’ve been out for almost half the night and your body needs energy if you want to make it back to the capital."

She looked at the meat, then at his face, ’he is being strangely casual with me,’ she thought.

Most people outside the royal court would be stammering or bowing if they found themselves sitting across from a princess, but he acted like she was just another person. It felt jarring, but right now, it was also exactly what she needed. She didn’t want to be treated like a precious item that needed to be handled carefully.

She reached out and took the food from him with a small nod.

"Thank you."

He let go of the meat and went back to carving his wood piece, "my name is Hajin," he said casually. "And the girl sniffing her food over there is Juna."

Juna’s ears twitched fast and she glared at him across the fire, "I am not sniffing it," she said, giving the meat in her hand one last suspicious look before taking a bite. "I am just making sure it’s cooked."

Didi watched them interact and felt a tiny bit of the tension leave her shoulders. It was a normal conversation, completely detached from the horrors she had seen a few hours ago, and that normalcy grounded her.

"I am Princess Didi," she said, her voice sounding a little stronger than before.

"Well then, Your Highness," he said, not looking up from the wood. "Get some sleep after you eat. We will head back to the capital at first light."

She sat quietly for a moment, finishing the rest of the meat before looking at him again.

"Thank you," she said, her voice dropping a little. "For the food, and for getting me out of there."

He stopped carving long enough to meet her eyes and gave a single nod, making it clear she didn’t need to say anything else.

’I really am tired,’ she thought, feeling the tension finally drain out of her. The food and the heat from the fire had pushed her body past its limit, so she pulled the blanket up to her chin, lay down on the ground, and drifted off to sleep almost immediately.

Hajin watched her breathing steady, setting his piece of wood down. Juna had already curled up on the other side of the fire, her tail wrapped around herself while she slept.

’It’s been a long night,’ he thought, rolling his shoulders to get rid of the stiffness in his back. ’I should probably close the stream and get some rest too.’

He was about to pull up the system panel when it suddenly forced itself open, overriding the stream chat entirely.

The soft gold lines of the system flickered violently before shifting into a deep, glaring red that lit up the inside of the cave. He stiffened, reading the words that rapidly filled the screen.

[ Warning: Hostile Resonance Detected ]

[ Target: Princess Didi ]

’Hostile resonance?’ he thought, his eyes widening in confusion. ’What is this about? She hasn’t done anything to me.’

The red panel shifted, expanding with new lines of text that completely wiped away any tiredness he had left.

[ Target Bloodline Identified: Underworld King ]

[ Details: The Underworld King was the central entity responsible for the betrayal, execution, and shattering of the Goddess of Reincarnation. ]

He stared at the screen, then slowly turned his head to look at the sleeping princess.

[ Recommended Action: Eliminate the carrier to prevent future threat. ]

’You have got to be kidding me,’ he thought, staring at the prompt while the fire crackled quietly in the background.