1 – Return to the Skull.
A pitch-black space where no light can enter.
Crouched like an insect rolling on the street. How long had it been since I had to grind my teeth and endure?
Just when I began to doubt whether I was still alive, a faint sound from somewhere far away began to awaken me.
The sound got closer and closer, now loud enough to be heard clearly.
······
Still, the reason why I couldn’t understand it was probably because it was the first language I had ever heard.
What that clear and clear voice wanted was a bit of a nuisance to me, who had finally gotten used to the crouching posture.
However, unlike my mind, my body was already creaking, and the moment I began to straighten things that had been rolled up.
Less-!
‘Hmm?! Body···?’
A body that was very different from mine, and lacked many things that should have been there, was walking forward with a rattling sound.
Since when…
Has this body been like this since the beginning?
The fragments of memories that had now been jumbled were fragmented into pieces that could not be put together.
How long did it take?
I reached the huge door that glowed with a faint blue light.
Instinctively, I could see that stepping forward on this would lead me to the ‘outside world’.
I should have thought about it a little, but I took a step without hesitation.
The heavy-looking door opened bizarrely swiftly, and my body was sucked into it in an instant.
* * *
‘Dazzling…’
That was my first impression.
And I was very puzzled. It was because I had a vague idea of what state my body was in.
‘The skeleton is dazzling…’
As I was tilting my head, the clear voice that had raised me up in the pitch-dark space was heard from behind me again.
“Wow… Ah, hello?”
I turned right back. It started with her bowing her head deeply towards her, as she had to.
I was curious about the bizarre experience of my body moving on its own without even thinking about it.
‘Who is this child…? As if I saw it somewhere…’
I couldn’t see her face well because of her long bangs, but she was a girl with a familiar feeling.
For the first time in my life. She must have been no more than 20 years old, her shoulder-length bobbed hair was as deep black as the space I was in.
Her eyes, round and wide open, shone like stars even between her veiled bangs.
The kid in her faded black three-stripe training pants and a white T-shirt with her neck ragged.
At a distance of five paces away, she hugged her pillow and looked me up and down.
‘I don’t know what the hell is going on…’
But it didn’t take long to sort out the chaos in my head. Could this also be a change from becoming a skeleton?
In the blink of an eye, I first thought about what I had to do. The child in front said hello, and I have to respond.
‘I bowed my head to her before without realizing it, but… I guess I should greet her formally.’
After finishing my thoughts, I spoke to the boy with bobbed hair who was hesitant.
“Tick-tock!”
·········
There was silence between us for a while, and she decided that it was a good sign, so she pouted her eyes over the pillow she was holding on her chest and slowly approached me.
“Wow… I didn’t expect it to be real… No, of course it has to be because it’s my ability. Still… It’s so amazing!”
As she approached, she gradually lowered her pillow, her cheeks flushed red, and the distance between me rapidly increased with just a few steps in the narrow, square room.
She then slowly circled me clockwise as she began pouring out her words in an excited voice.
“Since it was the first summon, I thought there would be a small one, but a really big one came out?! You must be over 180 tall?”
“Skeleton soldier… Reliable? I feel like a soldier guarding me. Whoops.”
“But can I just give orders? You don’t need to memorize a spell like you did when summoning, right? Since there is no information, it will take time to get to know each one.”
Then he suddenly stopped turning around and stood in front of me, staring at me with a serious face. When the frantic child stopped, I finally saw her eyes clearly.
It was only then that I realized why this child was familiar.
‘First Summon… Skeleton Soldier… And Purple Eyes…’
With just a few keywords and her face, we were able to quickly reach a conclusion.
‘Summoner Lee Yeon-hee·······.’
A genius who reached Class A in two years.
The only class called Summoner.
And the unfortunate hunter who ended his life miserably while blocking the sudden dungeon break.
When she saw her, some memories of her that had been fragmented began to return to their place.
‘Yes, it was known to the public that way… But that was what he intended.’
It still comes to mind clearly. His twisted, disgusting face as he smirked with a dagger stuck in my eye. She drove her to her extremities. That also took my life…
‘Only early…’
For a moment, anger boiled over, but it was miraculously quick to find stability.
‘I’m much calmer than in my previous life. Is it brainless?’
The girl who died in vain in front of me, who was lost in her thoughts for a while, gathered her eyebrows together, and she was thinking hard about something.
‘I didn’t recognize her right away because there were no scars on her face, but it’s definitely Lee Yeon-hee….’
I still haven’t completely organized the information in my head, but one thing is certain: I returned to the past and became her first pet.
It was the same guild as me, and it was my lifesaver…
“Ah! How’s the crackle? It’s easy to sing!”
‘… When I was thinking about something, I wonder if I was thinking of my name…’
She thought there was nothing she didn’t know about her, but now I see her naming sense is terrible. I firmly shook my head.
“Eh?! Shi, did you express your dislike now?!”
‘Isn’t that such a surprise…’
Anyway, Tteokkigi was a name that even the most insensitive country couldn’t accept. Maybe it’s a name I’ll have to call for the rest of my life, but what the heck is it…
“Ahhhhh… It’s my first time naming someone.”
I didn’t think it would be resolved any time soon as I grunted and pondered for a long time, so I decided to step out.
“Tick-tock-“
“Huh?”
She tilted her head for a moment at the sound of her teeth grinding, then followed the direction I had turned her head.
“Calendar?”
She managed to catch my point and moved her steps toward the calendar. But for some reason I couldn’t move even a step from my place.
‘Your body… Isn’t moving?’
My legs didn’t come off the floor as if I had put a magnet with the opposite polarity to my feet on the floor. Did he notice that I was moaning?
“Ah! Walk over here!”
She gave her order and then her feet fell off the floor.
Dadak, dadak, dadak-
The sound of the sole bones touching the floor resonated in the cramped studio room. After a few steps, I arrived next to her and stared at the calendar.
‘January 2020······.’
I nodded slightly and pointed with the bones of my fingers.
“…Work?”
“Tick-tock-“
And pointed to the next letter.
“Month?”
“Tick-tock-“
“Janwol… Is this the name you want?”
I nodded. It’s a name I came up with by looking at the calendar in a hurry. Even so, isn’t it a much better tone than a crackle?
Then she opened her mouth wide for a while and couldn’t close it.
“No one would know that a minion is this highly intelligent! Could it be that they share their summoning love and language skills?!”
Of course it’s not like that, but for her who got her first summon, each one will be new and shocking.
‘Well… You’ll find out when you summon it a second time, so let’s just leave it at that…’
“Ilwol…Somehow, the name is pretty and nostalgic. Monsters are better at naming names than I am.”
She pretended to be discouraged for a moment, then her eyes drew an arc and she looked at me and said.
“January. Your name is now January! Please take good care of me!”
As she boldly said my name, a familiar message appeared in her mind like a hologram.
—–
[Skeleton Soldier Ilwol – Lv.1]
Strength: 3 Agility: 2 Stamina: 3 Intelligence: 24
HP: 6 Resistance: 0 Sense: 15 Recovery: 1
Attributes: Calm, Protection, Kleptomania, 99 Lives
Skills: Strike, Stealth
Equipment: Old wooden club
—–
‘If you look at the stats alone, it’s disastrous… Was it possible for Agility to be 2? I guess it’s fortunate that the intelligence and senses of a human are reflected…’
Rereading for the third time