All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 228: The Cold Forge Bond

The stream chat messages faded from Hajin’s vision, leaving only the quiet snap of the wood in the office hearth as the charcoal settled. Ferra stood near the window, her fingers still tracing the edges of the traveler trousers she had pulled over her scales, grumbling that the human wool felt like sand against her skin.

Marrick slowly peeked over the top of his desk, his spectacles still tilted sideways as he watched the builder adjust the coarse fabric with a frown.

He cleared his throat, trying to regain his scribe dignity, "the census registration requires a surname, or at least a record of your origin for the regional tax ledger."

Ferra turned her eyes toward him, "dragon-blood crafters carry no surname, we are recorded by the marks of our hammers, so write that down if your paper has room."

Marrick whined, dipping his pen with a hand that still trembled slightly, "the Crown does not accept hammer drawings as valid names for tax exemptions, My Lord."

Hajin gestured toward the empty chair sitting near the cold hearth, "write her down as Ferra of the Great Forge, the treasury will not collapse over a naming exemption."

Ferra looked at the chair with open suspicion, asking if the four-legged contraption was designed to trap her before deciding to remain standing in the room.

Juna, who had been patrolling the street outside since the summoning began, stepped through the office door to check on the noise, her ears twitching with a quiet focus.

Aria floated up from Hajin’s wrist band, sitting on his shoulder while she watched his breathing.

She looked at his exhausted face, remarking in her dry, sarcastic voice, "your mana dropped by forty-two percent during that ritual, and the regional temperature is currently rising. You should probably sit down before the heat curls your hair next."

He rolled his eyes, but before he could respond to her, Vella suddenly materialized from her ring in a flash of cyan light.

She wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, leaning in close so that her breath brushed his ear, whispering in a suggestive voice, "summoning another naked girl instead of spending quality time with your favorite spirit, Master? And here I thought our Ring integration meant something."

Juna’s tail thrashed in fury as she immediately stepped between them, trying to pry Vella’s arms off Hajin’s shoulders with a flushed face. Vella only laughed, tightening her grip on his neck, her chest pressing against his back as she looked past Juna with a lazy, challenging smile.

Marrick let out another terrified squeak, sliding back under his desk, his fingers clutching his payroll ledger as if it could protect his life.

Hajin let out a long sigh, reaching up to tap Vella’s wrist to tell her to release him, feeling the familiar warmth of her core pulsing against his skin. She slowly released him, letting her hands slide over his shoulders with a lingering touch before stepping back, her hair spilling as she smiled at Juna.

Juna gestured toward the door, her ears pinned flat as she glared at the spirit, "you should return to your ring before you disrupt master any further."

Vella tilted her head, her smile widening as she leaned against a stack of timber crates in the corner, "are you worried I might steal his attention, or do you just hate sharing the room?"

Juna pointed a trembling finger toward the ring spirit with a red face, "your presence is unneeded for this census, and master is already exhausted from the summoning."

Vella stepped closer, her finger brushing Hajin’s cheek as she walked past, "he does not look like he minds my presence, but I will let you have your little meeting for now."

She gestured toward the door, her voice carrying a dry tease as she adjusted her sleeve, "I have to check the clinic’s herb inventory anyway, since the miners will need healing once the new forge gets running."

She walked out of the office toward the side clinic ward, leaving a faint scent of mint in the warm air behind her.

Juna grumbled, her ears slowly raising as she adjusted her grip on her weapon, "she does that on purpose just to see me lose my stance."

Hajin sighed, rubbing his temples as he looked at the ledgers, "she does it because you react every single time, so ignore her next time."

Aria sat on his shoulder, swinging her small legs with a lazy grin, "statistically, Juna’s reaction time to Vella’s hugs is faster than her combat reflexes, which is a great training metric."

Juna glared at the shoulder mascot, her tail twitching with frustration, "I do not react that way, I am only keeping the office secure."

The chat screen flared again, the viewers thoroughly enjoying the brief domestic dispute in the office.

[ CringeSlayer91: ] Vella went straight for the neck cling, did something happen off-camera?

[ TaxpayerOnEarth: ] Juna is about to bite her, look at the tail thrashing

[ JunaFanClub: ] protect Juna’s purity, Vella is too dangerous!

[ ashley (Mod): ] chat, stop clipping the trouser-helmet scene, keep the donations flowing!

[ GoldRushGamer: ] Ferra is entirely ignoring the high school romance drama, she just wants to melt things

Ferra looked out the window, watching the muddy eastern sector where workers were hauling raw granite blocks and timber beams. She asked where the regional forge was located, expecting a grand stone hall with proper bellows.

Hajin pointed toward the empty field in the distance, "we are building it tomorrow, for now, you have a pile of clay and some timber."

She laughed, her voice shaking the dust from the window frame as she looked back at him, "you call a mud pit a forge, you humans have no shame."

Marrick peeked out from under his desk, his voice trembling as he held his ledger, "we spent two thousand gold pieces on that clay, it is high-grade building material."

She snarled at him, "your clay is garbage, I will have to refine it myself before it can hold my fire."

Marrick whined, sliding back under his desk to avoid her gaze, "refined clay is not in the budget, My Lord."

Hajin gestured toward the trembling scribe to keep his mouth shut, "if she can refine it herself, we save gold on imports, so let her do it."

Juna stepped closer to the table, her ears twitching as she sensed the cold drift of the new soul bond.

She asked Ferra why the connection felt so weak when Hajin’s core was already stable.

Ferra looked at the twitching wolf ears with a critical eye, "his core is stable, but it carries no fire."

She explained that dragon-blood forging required a warmth that Hajin’s hybrid mana lacked, leaving their connection cold.

Aria chimed in from the shoulder, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "the compatibility is locked because your hybrid core lacks the pure elemental temperature required for a dragon-blood anchor, meaning the output will remain throttled."

Juna’s face turned red again, her tail thrashing against the floorboards as she glared at the mascot.

Hajin ignored Aria’s suggestion, focusing his attention on the ledger sheets, "we do not have time for that, we need to finalize the registry before sunset."

Ferra stood near the desk, her eyes moving between the chalkboard map and the ledger sheets with a look of open confusion.

She asked if human regions were governed by writing numbers on paper instead of measuring the depth of the mine shafts.

Hajin did not answer her question, instead tapping the corrupted apex core he had placed on the table earlier. The dark stone sat motionless, its leaking energy continuing to slowly char the wood beneath it.

Ferra turned her eyes from the ledger back to the core, her fingers still warm from holding it just moments ago.

She crossed her arms as she gestured toward the charring wood of the desk, "if we are going to forge weapons from that anomaly, we need to start building immediately."

Hajin pointed at the map on the chalkboard to indicate the eastern sector, "we break ground on the forge tomorrow morning."

She looked at him with a serious expression, her eyes locking onto his face, "do not expect miracles yet, the bond between us is still a cold wall of rock."

He looked down at the system screen hovering near his arm, "it will warm up once the forge furnace is hot, for now, you need to register and get to work."

[ Soul Anchor Complete: 100% ]

[ Summon Registered: Ferra ]

[ Class: Dragon-Blood Forgemistress ]

[ Compatibility: 68% ]

[ Passive Upkeep: 120 Mana/hour ]