Evil Dragon Was Really Doing It—he was truly planning to summon his dead friend up from Hell, and had even put the idea into action.
While she was searching for field mice and rats in the vegetable and corn fields, Evil Dragon had already tried summoning the handsome older sister in the portrait.
Evil Dragon had just said that he was wondering why he had failed to summon this handsome older sister up from Hell.
Fortunately, he hadn't summoned her. If he had, and Evil Dragon happened to tell this older sister that this young dragon had given him the inspiration, who knew whether the undead sister would get angry and haunt her, making her have nightmares every night?
Terrifying.
It was truly terrifying.
If Evil Dragon had summoned this older sister because he wanted to see her and chat with her, perhaps even say some intimate things, that would have been fine.
But if he had summoned this older sister from Hell to collect a debt, Lucia felt that she would absolutely be haunted by the undead. "L-Lance, why did you suddenly think of summoning this older sister from the portrait? Do you miss her?"
"Why would I miss her? I suddenly remembered that she still owed me money, so I wanted to summon her up from Hell and make her pay me back.
"I tried summoning her several times with necromancy, but she didn't respond. That's a little unreasonable. Could she have reincarnated? That shouldn't be possible. I've never heard of the undead in Hell reincarnating.
"If she didn't reincarnate, then was there something wrong with my necromancy? That's even less likely. If even my necromancy can't summon the dead from Hell, then the necromancers in the human world have even less of a chance."
So he really was doing it to collect a debt!!!
Evil Dragon was really going all out to collect what he was owed. When he thought of this older sister, it wasn't because he missed her, but because he wanted her to pay him back. Normally, when an evil dragon saw such a beautiful older sister, shouldn't he be thinking, I couldn't protect you while you were alive, and I couldn't make you my lover.
Now that you're dead, I'll summon you back and make you understand my love for you.
How had Evil Dragon Lance's thoughts turned into collecting a debt? Was this beautiful older sister really worth less than those cold gold coins?
"Why don't you just stop summoning this older sister? What if she comes up but can't pay you back? It might affect the friendship you once had."
"If she's that hopeless, then once I summon her, I'll laugh at her mercilessly. She's been dead for over two thousand years, yet she couldn't even rise to a minor official position in Hell. She's still a poor wretch. If I don't laugh at her, who should I laugh at? Besides, even if she couldn't rise to an official position, after working in Hell for over two thousand years, she should have at least saved a little money, right?"
In his memories, Sophia had been a talented, ambitious mage who loved life. She had been that way while alive, and after dying and going to Hell, she was surely still an ambitious female ghost who loved life.
After more than two thousand years, if she couldn't become a lord in Hell, couldn't she at least become a squad captain?
Or perhaps Chief Mage? She had at least been his Lance's friend back then. If she didn't even have that much ability, would she be worthy of the title Evil Dragon Friend?
Oh, Sophia seemed to have never known that he was a black dragon, not even before she died.
He had even said that he would quietly tell her the secret when she grew old and died. He hadn't expected her to die young. None of that mattered anymore. What he cared about now was that his attempt to summon Sophia with necromancy had received no response.
It was as if no such undead existed in Hell at all.
That was strange.
He knew her name, age, and appearance. By rights, he should have been able to summon her easily.
Yet after summoning her four or five times, there had been no response from Hell.
If he were a necromancer who had never signed the "Necromancer Summoning Contract" with Hell and had never obtained a certification, then failing to summon an undead would have been normal.
The problem was that he had passed Hell's examination and signed the "Necromancer Summoning Contract" with Hell. There shouldn't have been any situation in which he was unable to summon an undead from Hell.
There were two kinds of necromancers. One kind had passed Hell's examination and signed a "Necromancer Summoning Contract" with Hell.
The other kind had failed the examination and never signed a Necromancer Summoning Contract. They were wild necromancers.
Certified necromancers could summon undead from Hell to fight for them at any time.
Wild necromancers could also forcibly summon undead from Hell, but if they were discovered, Hell would issue a wanted notice and bounty for them.
If an undead forcibly summoned from Hell died in battle, the wild necromancer would be forcibly transformed by Hell into a battle undead and made to serve Hell for one hundred years.
When an undead summoned by a necromancer who had passed Hell's examination and signed a Necromancer Summoning Contract died in battle, Hell would not only refrain from holding the necromancer responsible, but would also take the initiative to try to revive the fallen undead. This was somewhat absurd. Undead were already people who had died once. After becoming undead, they could still be revived after dying again. All that could be said was that Hell's foundations were terrifying enough to scare people... and dragons.
Necromancers who signed contracts with Hell did not get everything for free. Every year, they had to submit a certain amount of gold coins or various strange materials to Hell.
Sometimes, Hell would also issue missions to necromancers.
Necromancers could not refuse. They had to assist Hell unconditionally and help it with various matters.
The beings responsible for interacting with necromancers on Hell's behalf were called death gods.
There were also two kinds of death gods. One kind came from Hell.
The other kind consisted of powerful necromancers who had won Hell's favor and were appointed to act as death gods in the mortal world. These death gods were called Trainee Death Gods.
Trainee Death Gods were considered necromancers working for Hell, and they received a salary.
Necromancers paid money to Hell, while Trainee Death Gods worked for Hell and received wages from it.
Lance thought of himself. He had first become a necromancer who signed a Necromancer Summoning Contract with Hell. Later, he had felt that it was a bad deal. After all, he had to pay Hell every year and also help it with strange missions.
To save money and earn a little on the side, he had applied to Hell to become a Trainee Death God.
Relying on his outstanding dragon charisma and a bit of decent strength, he had easily become a Trainee Death God.
The only problem was that this Trainee Death God of his had not received a salary from Hell for a very long time.
That was because he had applied for leave.
There was another reason as well. Hell had discovered that its Trainee Death God seemed to have lived a little too long. Other Trainee Death Gods lived for two or three hundred years at most, while he had lived for more than a thousand years and still hadn't died. They were a little afraid to contact him. They were worried that the moment they did, they would have to start paying him.
Twenty gold coins a month.
The salary wasn't high, but it was a problem that he had lived for so long.
This time, when he used necromancy to summon Sophia, he might have caught the attention of Hell's Trainee Death God who had been slacking off for several hundred years.
"Lance, could this older sister... not be in Hell?"
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