"-Hello~? Can you hear me?"
The echoing, faint female voice called for him in his dream. It was nothing like the voice that woke him this morning. It was more similar to a child's voice. In fact, it 'was' a child's voice. Yuuta was both surprised and confused at the same time.
'Am-…am I turning into a lolicon?!'
"Hello~? If you can hear me, please open your eyes!"
Yuuta frowned. He did not want to open his eyes just because a random, annoying child's voice like hers wanted him to. Who does she think she is, trying to interrupt his dream?! If she didn't call for him, he could've been at a tropical beach groping foreign girls or something along the line instead! The very notion of it made Yuuta shiver in excitement for a bit.
Still, he figured it would probably make her stop if he did so. He had to admit that he was also a bit interested who was the kid who called out for him and why the hell she wouldn't leave him alone to his dream.
Yuuta hesitated a bit before slowly opening his eyes.
He could see a blue light mixing with the darkness surrounding him. Darker and lighter tones of the color shifted in a beautiful cascade. His anger dissipated in an instant.
'Amazing…'
As he gazed in awe at the sight before him, a bright white light appeared above him.
"Ah! I knew it! I knew you could hear me! Hello there, uh, Yuuta, right?"
As she spoke, the white light above him increased and decreased in intensity. While staring at the light, Yuuta noticed his body felt weightless as if he were floating in water.
"Y-Yeah…so, who are you? What do you want from me? "
"A-Ah, right!", she clears her throat before continuing. "My name is Corteena Delaphor, though everyone calls me Corty! I was trying out a spell and it seems it worked this time, though it's quite unusual that I can speak to you like this…"
"I see. I'm glad your spell succeeded and all, but could you please leave me alone now? I want to wake up now. I've got things to do.", Yuuta said and closed his eyes for a moment, hoping she would leave him be.
"E-Eh?! I'm sorry, but I can't leave you alone! This is the first time something like this happened! Besides, I summoned you, so there's no way back now!"
Summoned? What does she mean? You summon things using magic, right? Can this kid use magic?!, Yuuta panicked for a second before dismissing the idea. No, there's no way an annoying kid like her would be able to use magic. After all, stuff like magic exists only in fantasy manga or light novel series, not real life, right? Besides, this is a dream. I shouldn't be worried about such things anyway…
As he thought about what she said for a few moments, the girl suddenly spoke to him.
"Oh~! It won't be long now! I'll see you in a minute!", She said that in a happy tone, which made Yuuta shiver for some reason.
Before he could fully process what was going on, he could suddenly feel a slight pressure on his back, as if he was slowly being pushed upwards into the light. The sudden development surprised him.
"Hey, kid! What's going on?!", he shouted at the light as he was being moved towards it, but there was no response.
His heart was beating wildly as he grew ever closer to the light. He was afraid because he could no longer make out if this was dream or reality. The touch on his back felt real, but the sight in front of him claimed otherwise. He tried to move away from it, but he could not move a muscle. He tried closing his eyes in hope it was all really just a dream, but when he opened them again, it was still there.
He was terrified as he was being enveloped by the bright white light. However, what waited for him beyond the light would scare him even more.