This story takes place about a month before Sylvia was summoned to the world of Halkeginia. This story is set in Mysteria Academy, a rival school of Tristanian Magic Academy. However, the main focus of this academy is not magic, but summoning.

This is the story of Lou, a freshman at Mysteria Academy. She was nicknamed as doofus, or the weakest summoner in history, because…… her first summoning was actually…… a butterfly!

Lou is currently 15 years old, her height is only around 1.4 meter tall, and she is flat-chested. Due to her childish appearance, she had always been called shorty or Loli. She has a beautiful blonde hair that extended up to her waist, and was trimmed in short bang style. Her pair of big eyes are as clear as the blue sky, paired together with her flushed cheeks, her small nose, and pink lips, she looked exceedingly charming.

Perhaps people were jealous of her beauty, or her poor background, or perhaps due to the kind treatment she gets from the strongest summoner in the academy, she was treated poorly by the student mass, even with her exceedingly good looks.

And today… is yet another catastrophic day for our young protagonist.

“Hahaha-! Loli, just give up already, you can never beat my summoned beast with your puny butterfly!” They are currently having a mock battle in class, a youngster about the same age as Lou is currently having a bout ⌈¹⌋ with her.

The youngster’s summoned beast was a fearless lion, it was more than ten times larger than Luo’s little butterfly, and hundred times as fierce. Luo’s summoned beast, which was the green little butterfly, frantically dodged left and right to evade the giant claws coming down at it.

The battle between summoners are battle between their summoned beasts, while the summoner stay at the back of the line to offer support.

This is obviously the biggest mismatch, the strongest in the class versus the weakest in the entire academy. Without a doubt, the match was completely one-sided. But how did something like this happen? It’s not because of some cliché scenarios like what we usually see in light novels. That pairing was hand-picked by the professor, in hope that Lou will be able to learn something from being paired with the strongest kid in her year.

The match didn’t last for long, the puny butterfly let out a miserable screech after getting hit by that vicious claw once.

With a loud bang, the little butterfly was smashed hard onto the ground. Surprisingly, it has a rather sturdy body, most insects would already be squashed after receiving such a heavy impact, yet its body is actually still intact. A loud screech followed soon after, “Noooo-! Anya- Anya-!”

The screech came from Lou, immediately after the little butterfly called Anya was hit by the vicious claw, she ran to its side and embraced it softly, she was on the verge of tears.

She immediately became the laughing-stock of the entire class, “Hahahaha- I knew it, there’s no way the doofus can beat Raymond and Lycan!” Raymond is the name of the youngster, Lycan being the name of his summoned beast.

The one who mocked Lou was Raymond’s lackey, after that mockery, the rest of the class burst out in laughter. The professor was obviously unhappy with their behavior, and admonished the entire class, “Silence! There is no shame in losing, only through many trials and errors will we humans improve, the most important thing is not lose heart and learn from our errors! All of your behaviors are unacceptable!”

“Tsk-!” Some of the students clicked their tongues, they are obviously very dissatisfied with how the professors always favored Lou.

Just as the professor was about to get to Lou’s side to encourage her, she suddenly stood up and ran out of the training field.

***

Within Mysteria Academy, at the third floor of the main building, the 3rd year had just finished their class. Everyone had already left the classroom, only two people remained. That was Anne and Owen, the strongest pair in the Academy.

Anne has a light brown hair that hanged down until her bottom, her pair of big eyes are emerald-green. She has a well-developed breasts, and stand at around 1.68 meter tall. She is about 17 of age, and is proclaimed as the strongest summoner in the academy. She is the daughter of a fallen noble, so she has a bit of a dignified aura around her.

The guy beside her is Owen, he enrolled as Anne’s bodyguard, and is popular with both genders alike, even with his evil look. He has a short brownish hair, and squinted eyes, he always have a serious expression on his face, which doesn’t gives people a good first impression. But nevertheless, his swordsmanship is marvelous, and he earned the respect of the student body due to his diligence.

Anne is currently looking out from the window, she could see a small figure sitting on top of the stairs in front of a wide open field, with her face hidden between her knees. She could instantly recognize the small figure, since she was the only one wearing a blue hat with fluffy ears like that.

Anne couldn’t help but exclaim, “Oh- poor Lou…”

***

After running off from class, Lou arrived at a wide open field, she sat on top of the stairs, and tried to repress her crying voice.

“Sniffs… Sniffs…” Lou felt very frustrated, she felt very mistreated, “Why only me?” she thought, “Even though I worked harder than anyone else… why?! Why can’t I get stronger? Why?!”

Just when she was in despair, she could feel someone’s presence beside her. That person pulled Lou into her embrace, and gently patted her head, “Now, now~ You can let it all out, it will make you feel better.”

That person was Anne, the strongest summoner in Mysteria Academy, and the only one, aside from the professors, who treated her with kindness. When Lou felt the warmness that passed through her body, she couldn’t hold back anymore. She started to cry out loud, tears started to roll down her cheeks like an unending waterfall, she cried, she cried, and she cried, she keeps crying until she has no more tears to shed, it lasted for almost an hour.

After she finally calmed down, Anne said with a warm smile, “Do you feel better now?”

Lou nodded her head lightly while uttering, “Mm… Thank you sis-Anne.”

“Now, can you tell me what’s going on? Did someone bully you again?” Anne tried to get the story out of Lou, but she just shook her head, and said, “It was nothing.”

Anne was not convinced, she tried to press on, “You sure? If you are getting bullied by anyone, you must let me know ok? I will be sure to teach them a lesson!” Anne cracked her knuckles as she said that.

Lou shook her head strongly, and said, “No- no-! I was not getting bullied, promise! I just lost in a mock battle, that’s all…”

Anne looks convinced, she patted Lou’s head gently, and said, “Don’t worry, as long as you don’t forget this feeling, you will inevitably grow stronger, much stronger than anyone else. Don’t ever forget this frustration you feel today!”

That was not some empty words coming from Anne, due to her lineage as a fallen noble, she was not treated kindly when she first enrolled into this academy, but look at her now, she is standing at the top of the academy, she is the strongest summoner the academy had ever seen!

However, Lou didn’t really take that advice to heart. To her, it sounds exactly like an empty word, but she still nodded her head in consent.

“Come… Let me take you back to the dorm.” Anne stood up from the stairs and extended a hand for Lou.

Lou grabbed her hand, and walked back to the dorm hand-in-hand with Anne. On the way back to the dorm, Lou heard someone gossiping about some rumors.

“Hey, have you heard the rumor?” (Student A)
“Was it about the underground dungeon?” (Student B)

“Yea… I heard if you can get to the deepest part of the dungeon, you could get some amazing power!” (Student A)
“Hahaha-! It’s none of our business anyway, no way we can make it to the depths of the dungeon!” (Student B)

“The underground dungeon? Amazing power…?” Lou’s eyes suddenly lit up, she was determined to go and explore this underground dungeon. Which will happen in a not so distant future……

Author’s Note:

Some people complained that I include too much info dump in my story, that they are boring to read and breaks immersion.

Personally, I think those information are rather interesting and necessary, but I want some honest opinion from you readers, are those boring to read after all? Should I cut down on the info dumps and focus more on story-building?