Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

The door opened.

Kajann and Simon soundlessly stepped into Walter's lab.

"It's more ordinary than I expected."

"Indeed."

The place was well organized, unlike when Simon last was here.

There was a desk neatly located to face the door, a hanger, cabinets, a simple tea set, and books.

It was the kind of tidy administrator's office you'd expect to find anywhere. It was normal.

Too normal.

The professors in Kizen were necromancers and fanatical researchers before they became educators.

Bahil's gigantic blackboard was filled with curse formulas.

Belya's furniture was stained with her poisons.

A necromancer's personal space was a reflection of their unique colors.

That was why Walter's lab felt so unnatural. It lacked personality.

Slide.

Simon first opened the top drawer of the desk. He found nothing but mundane transaction documents, supply lists, and stamps.

Slide.

Slide.

He opened every drawer he could find, but there was nothing of interest. It was just a bunch of normal stuff.

Rattle!

Just then, Kajann pulled at a cabinet, discovering it was locked.

"Simon, I think there's something in here."

Simon's eyes immediately lit up.

"Do you think you can open it?"

"I'll try."

While Kajann pulled out various tools, Simon checked around thoroughly. He looked under the desk, rummaging through the trash can, and searched in the pockets of the clothes hanging in the closet.

'How come there's nothing suspicious at all?'

Simon went to the bookshelf, pulled out a few books, and flipped through them. He found a passage that Walter had underlined.

Creation begins by doubting the nature of things.

Simon took a picture of the words with the mana camera Kajann had given him. Then, he flipped to another page.

I don't want to believe that death leads me to another life. That would mean that a person's death closes a door that can never be opened.

It would be good if the dead tried to speak to the living, as the old speaks to the young.

There were other passages that were hard to understand. When he had finished, Simon continued to look around.

'Ah!'

He found his first piece of evidence. In a storage compartment, he found a document that appeared to be signed by Walter.

He unfolded it, and prepared to mentally compare it to the handwriting of the Bishop of the Heavenly Blood, but…

'I can't really tell.'

The two signatures were vastly different. It was expected, considering that the languages used were different.

Judas, the Bishop of the Heavenly Blood, had signed in an archaic script, and Walter, the professor of Kizen, had signed in continental language. He'd need to ask Rick to have this handwriting analyzed.

'If the two documents appear to be signed by the same person, I can use it as important evidence.'

For now, Simon took a picture of it with the camera.

Click!

As he clicked down on the button of the camera, something else clicked inside the room. Kajaan had gotten the lock open!

Simon rushed over.

"As expected from you, Kajann! Anything in there?"

"There is something, but I'm not sure what…"

"Let me take a look."

In the cabinet was a box of red bottles. There were a lot of them.

Simon immediately realized what it was.

'Hematopoietic injections!'

He was sure as he had just seen that in the hemomancy class this morning. It had to be the same liquid that was supposed to help your body produce blood faster.

"Unfortunately, this item is still new technology. It is hard to mass-produce, and even if a hundred blood slimes barely amount to a single syringe. Hence, quantities are extremely limited. So, I will give one of the best achieving students this lesson a chance to try the hematopoiesis syringe."

Simon furrowed his brow.

'Why did Walter lie to us?'

He said the quantities were limited, but this was enough for a few classes to take them.

Simon stroked his chin in deep thought.

'Everyone wants to take the hemopoietic injection because of the class this morning.'

In Class A, Sophia Santana had gotten the injection and was able to cast a far more powerful Blood Frenzy because of it.

Even students like Simon, who were skeptical of the new technology, became fascinated by the injection after seeing the results.

And since it had such limited quantity, they all hoped to be next to receive one.

Walter would give each one of them a hematopoietic injection, prove its efficiency, and further the students' interest.

'No matter how much I think about it, it's suspicious.'

Simon took a photo of the bottles of hematopoietic injection fluid with his mana camera, then grabbed one of them. Kajann, beside him, checked,

"Wouldn't it be dangerous to actually take anything?"

"I'm just gonna swap out one bottle."

Simon took out an empty bottle and a blood potion.

Then, he transferred a small amount of the injection fluid into the empty bottle, replacing the lost liquid with the blood potion.

"I'm planning to analyze its ingredients."

"Good idea."

Simon returned the bottle to its place, then closed and locked the cabinet door.

Kajann straightened his back and asked,

"So, did you find all the clues you were looking for here?"

"Yes."

He was able to obtain Walter's signature, his handwriting, and the ingredients of the hematopoietic injection.

But none of it was 'conclusive' evidence.

"Kajann."

"Hm?"

Simon hesitantly suggested,

"Can't we go underground where that dangerous thing is said to be?"

* * *

* * *

Simon and Kajaan came down the stairs and reached the basement in question.

The basement turned out to be comprised of two or three floors, which was expected for a Kizen building.

They walked down a long, dark corridor with mana-powered night-vision goggles, still only barely able to make out what was in front of them.

"I am doing this at your recommendation, but I'm not sure if this is necessary."

Said Kajann, scratching at one of his many scars.

Simon, clutching his throbbing forehead, responded,

"In truth, I'm also wanting to find proof that Professor Walter is innocent so I can stop doing all this."

It was also tough for Simon to suspect others.

Although he hadn't found anything conclusive, there were a lot of things pointing to Walter scheming something.

There were countless people who wanted the downfall of Kizen. If Walter was indeed a member of Heavenly Blood, something as dangerous as the Saintess crisis could happen again.

And the only person in Kizen who was suspicious of Walter and believed he might be involved with Heavenly Blood was Simon, who had fought Heavenly Blood himself on the divine train.

'It never hurts to be cautious,' thought Simon before resolving himself once more.

As they continued down, Kajaan muttered,

"This is deep. It doesn't look like the basement I know of this building."

It was like an underground bunker.

They were cautiously moving onward until Kajann, who was leading the way, stopped and raised a clenched fist.

It was a sign to pause.

'…Urk.'

There was a horrible stench assaulting their nostrils. It reminded Simon of what he smelled when he was in that warehouse with the mountain of hearts.

Kajann scanned the walls and gestured for Simon to take a look.

The stone was covered in splattered blood. It was like they had just walked into the scene of a murder.

The two kept their mouths shut and walked on as silently as possible.

'!'

A sudden chill ran down Simon's spine.

In the darkness, he saw something opening its eyes.

It had four eyes.

"Kajann, dodge!"

A huge hand came out from the darkness.

The two of them threw themselves to the side, the floor shaking as the giant hand crashed to the ground where they had just stood.

Hastily backing away, Simon pumped more mana into his night-vision goggles and looked ahead.

'What is that?'

Something horrible was squirming in front of them.

Its skin was a tattered brown, with stitches visible everywhere.

Upon inspecting it further, it looked like two giants pasted together, one male and one female.

Where the chests met in the center, a single beating mass could be seen pushing aside broken ribs with every beat.

"Is it a chimera? Looks like it's not going to let us pass."

Said Kajann, preparing for battle.

The monster jumped up and dug its fingers and toes into the ceiling, its two upside-down faces staring at Simon and Kajann.

Seeing the monster's head twitch like a possessed doll, Simon felt his hair stand on end.

'It's coming!'

The abomination's torso swayed in the air as it reached forward two arms and feet at a time, crushing stone with every move to stay on the ceiling.

With every step, it only got faster, crawling toward them like a spider made of flesh.

The sound of its sharp nails scraping against the wall pierced their ears.

"Back off!"

Kajann stepped forward.

As expected from a veteran, he jumped up without a trace of fear and clenched his fists. Jet-black swirled around his knuckles.

Ka-toooosh!

His fist, containing the destructive power of a sledgehammer, landed squarely in the center of the male giant's head.

With a shock that shook the entire basement, the monster's head jerked back.

"Tsk!"

Kajann frowned.

"It didn't get a clean hit."

"What?"

The counterattack came right away. The fist of the female body was coming down on Kajann's head.

Slaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmm!

Kajann was piledrived down into the floor.

'Kuhugh!'

He ground in pain.

'Open!'

Fwip!

Fwiiip!

As six tentacle blades approached to stab the monster's eyes and heart, it jumped back away to dodge.

"Tsk."

Kajann staggered to his feet and wiped his mouth.

"That's a dangerous chimera. We may not be able to defeat it with our strength alone."

The creature circled around, moving its four pairs of limbs like a spider, slithering along the floor, walls, and ceiling. It was making extremely good use of the small space.

"Kajann!"

Simon held up his hands, a jet-black circle beginning to form in front of him.

"I'll prepare a curse. Please stall for a minute!"

"Got it."

Without question, Kajann charged at the monster. While Kajann and the monster fought fiercely, Simon took a deep breath and concentrated.

Thud!

Kajann's elbow cleanly hit the monster in the back of the female head, lodging it into the floor.

However, the male's arm came down on him, slamming into Kajann.

He flew into the wall.

"It's almost immune to physical attacks, huh…?!"

Staggering back from the shock, Kajann looked at his nails.

'Should I really use Fang here?'

The male's fists came flying toward Kajann, grazing across the floor. Just before he got hit, Kajann flashed his eyes wide open.

'Black Robe!'

A wave of jet-black covered Kajaan, taking the brunt of the chimera's attack.

As he was pushed backward, he braced himself and swung his right arm in retaliation.

{Kajann Original - Fang}

Giant, gray nails tore into the monster's heart and torso.

However…

"!"

The nails weren't able to dig deep, and the wounds began healing unnaturally quickly.

'Even if I was able to cut through the skin and the flesh, the blood itself is like steel.'

He never knew a liquid could be that hard. The blood gave it an absolute resistance to all attacks.

"Kajann! It's complete!"

Simon rushed in with a curse magic circle in each hand. Now was the perfect time to strike, the chimera sluggish as it focused on recovering from Kajaan's attack.

Simon jumped up high and attached the magic circle to the male's head.

'Next!'

Landing on the monster's shoulders, he then ran toward the female side. Not giving up that easily, it tried to punch at Simon.

However, Kajann jumped up and intercepted its attack, buying Simon one last second.

And one second was all Simon needed.

He safely attached his magic circle to the head of the female side and jumped off.

Then, he spun around midair to face the monster, reaching his arms out to activate the curse.

{Hostility}

The curse took its effect.

The male's fist, which had been aimed at Simon, changed direction and struck the female in the face.

Thuuuuuuud!

The female, enraged, also swung its fist at the male body.

Pow! Thud! Smash! Pow!

The monster, which was just one body, began to fight furiously among itself, its limbs flailing as they struck one another.

"…What an incredible curse. Where did you learn it from?"

"Professor Bahil!"

The two quickly pushed past the monster.

And the moment they were almost at the end of the hallway…

"…!"

They could not believe their eyes.

"Wh-What is that?"

——