Self-Summon [Demon Summoning/Evolution litRPG] Chapter 1: [1.01] Starving Artist

Read chapter 1 of Self-Summon [Demon Summoning/Evolution litRPG] by Drim on NovelPedia.

“Angelica!” “Angelica. You never leave. So I know you’re in there!” The girl in question grumbled awake in her bed. Since her apartment was only a single room, there was no escape from the cantankerous rapping at her front door. “Answer the door, Angelica. If I have to use my master key and find you hiding in there, this conversation will be a lot less friendly.” “Uhgk, Coming!” Angelica called in return, forcing herself to sit upward, wrenching herself from her comfortable pillow. She took a second to adjust her clothing that had become disheveled in her sleep then hurriedly stomped over to the door, having to dodge the trash and other random items that were strewn across the floor, and she almost nearly stepped on her cat who was sleeping in one of the many delivery boxes that had fallen away from the unorganized mountain. “Good morning, Ms. Gate.” The tenant greeted her landlord with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, forcing a smile on her face while squinting at the blinding light of the outdoors. “If it can even still be called morning.” Ms. Gate didn’t reciprocate the fervor, already stuck in a mood that wouldn’t be so easily swayed. “Do you know what tomorrow is, Angelica?” “Umm, first of the month?” She took her best guess. “Yes,” the landlord huffed, unamused. “And it will be exactly three months since you’ve last paid your rent.” “Ah, well, that’s, erm…” The wheels in Angelica’s mind slowly started to turn, trying to dig for an appropriate excuse that wouldn’t exacerbate Ms. Gate’s already pissy mood—coming up short. “And I take it you still haven’t gotten a job?” The peeved woman piled it on. “No, not since umm…” Angelica really didn’t want to explain it again. “Not since you were fired from your last job for incompetence.” Ms. Gate finished the sentence for her. “That’s not what happened!” The accusation spurred lingering trauma in the unemployed girl. “They, erm, it’s because they lied and-” “I’m tired of hearing the same sob story, Angelica.” Ms. Gate’s patience was already running out. “Even if it’s true, and they blamed whatever accounting fraud they were committing on you as the intern, that was what, over a year ago now? It’s time to move on. You’re letting that fancy degree your mother paid for go to waste, and you have your actuary license. Surely there’s someone who would hire you who hasn’t heard about the stain on your record.” “M-maybe…” Angelica muttered, hesitant to agree. “But I’ve really just been focusing on my art. It’s—I think it’s what I really want to do.” “And how much money has your art made you, hmm?!” The landlord all but spat on her dreams. “Clearly not enough to pay your rent. Look, Angelica, I really don’t want to do this, but things have changed. It was out of respect for your mother, and your promising future, that I even rented to you in the first place since you were an unpaid intern. And it’s why I’ve been so lenient thus far. Yet even I have a limit to how many concessions I can make. “Per your lease, three months unpaid rent is the limit. It means that if you have not paid off at least a month by tomorrow, then I have no real choice but to evict you. I’ll be kind, at least, and give you two weeks to move out, but once tomorrow hits, there will be no stopping the process even if you come up with the money.” “W-wait, you can’t just do that!” Angelica started to panic. “Why are you only telling me now on the last day? You could have at least told me a few days ago!” “I tried!” Ms. Gate insisted. “I’ve been calling and texting you non-stop for the last week! But you’ve ignored it all. Why else do you think I’d drive out here? You know I don’t live close by anymore!” “Huh, but my phone hasn’t made any noise at all lately.” Angelica turned to look back into her dark apartment, seeing the light glow of the device charging on her nightstand. She rushed over to grab it, having to do another dance around all the obstacles. “Oh, umm, I see…” she hesitantly reported when she made it bac