Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

"It's new information about Professor Walter."

Simon immediately took the envelope Kajann handed him and opened it. A clipping of a newspaper article was inside.

[Professor Walter Hann of Kizen presents a new chimera at an academic conference.]

"!"

The picture in the newspaper showed Walter standing on a stage, waving. And when Simon looked at the monster next to him, his eyes shook like they were in an earthquake.

"Wh-What is the meaning of this?"

The monster beside him was a man and woman fused together exactly like the one that they had fought so fiercely the day before.

"Professor Walter must've realized that there was an intruder in the basement of the building. Which is why he presented the chimera at the conference that morning. He made the first move."

Simon opened his eyes as wide as he could and scanned the photo.

It was definitely a chimera composed of male and female bodies. But the one they fought last night was much larger and had a grotesquely hideous appearance.

Although they were the same species, the chimera in the photo was incomparably smaller.

They looked like baby Siamese twins with two heads on one body. The materials were also less grotesque because they were made of beasts and not humanoids.

'…I didn't expect him to handle it like this.'

Now that things have turned this way, there was no point in publicizing the chimera in the basement of the building. Even if it became a problem, it would just be a matter of him saying, 'I'll keep a good eye on it,' and leave it at that.

"At any rate, we can't report our findings to Nefthis and Kizen HQ."

Kajann seemed to think of the same thing.

"Th-Then, if I talk to Nefthis personally—"

"Pull yourself together."

Kajann shook his head.

"Nefthis is the ruler of the entire Dark Territory, Simon."

"…"

"Whether she listens to you or not, there's no justification, practical interest, or evidence. Nothing. There's nothing. The investigation itself can't be used.

Even Simon thought he was correct.

'Ugh.'

Simon tilted his head back. He'd never met an opponent with this scrupulous scheming.

And what was even scarier was that Simon still wasn't 100% sure if Walter was the real enemy or just another professor.

"He's an active Kizen professor, Simon."

Kajann's voice softened.

"He has far more power and weapons at his disposal than we do. I know you're in a hurry, but acting rashly could backfire."

Simon sighed softly and looked at Kajann.

"What about Count Caron, the one who had a connection to Walter?"

"The Thieves' Guild is on the move after I contacted them at dawn this morning. I'll let you know as soon as I get any good information."

"Got it."

Walter slipping away like an eel was causing Simon to work harder out of spite.

While Simon was letting his will to fight burn inside him…

"What are you talking about so seriously, Simon?"

Suddenly, someone appeared from behind them both.

"P-Professor Hong Feng!"

Simon jumped to his feet, and Kajann gave a small bow.

"What happened to the candle? Why are you here?"

Simon answered Hong Feng's question with a broad smile.

"I blew it out!"

Simon demonstrated his technique of gathering jet-black between his two fingers and flicking it out.

A proud smile was on Hong Feng's face as she watched.

"Splendid."

Watching Simon flick his fingers, Hong Feng's heart was slowly melting. Part of her wanted to kidnap him, lock him up somewhere, and force him to practice combat dark magic.

"By the way…"

Hong Feng's eyes moved from Simon to Kajann.

"Who's this student who came all the way here, skipping classes?"

"My name is Kajann Edvalt from Class K, ma'am. I'll be leaving now since my business is over."

Kajann bowed once more and turned away.

"Stop."

Said Hong Feng.

"What happened to your class, and why are you here?"

"…"

"As a professor of Kizen, I can't just sit idle when a student is skipping a class."

Kajann had been sent by Nefthis to infiltrate Kizen as a student to carry out the missions given, but he was still a student.

Kajann looked back at Hong Feng expressionlessly.

"What are you going to do if you can't just sit idle?"

"I'll take you with me and talk to the advising professor of Class K."

Kajann started scratching the scar around his eye with an exhausted face.

"You won't be able to hear much stuff about me."

Suddenly, the atmosphere became strange.

Caught in the middle, Simon looked back and forth between Hong Feng and Kajann uneasily.

'They won't start fighting all of a sudden out of anger, right?'

Simon was anxious because Kajann already had a history of fighting Hong Feng's twin sister, Belya.

"Or…"

Hong Feng's eyes curved like a fox's.

"You being a student of Kizen, I'll turn a blind eye to this one if you prove your strength."

With that, she pointed to the training ground course.

Kajann sighed.

"I don't know what that is, but please make it quick."

* * *

* * *

Only a few minutes were left before the end of class.

The assistant teachers were about to clear the training ground course when Hong Feng came up to them and said,

"I'm sorry! I just need one more person to try the course!"

The assistant teachers looked at Hong Feng questioningly. All the students who were capable of it had already tried it.

Then, Hong Feng clapped her hands and called the students together.

"Everyone, gather up!"

Students who had gone to get water or scattered to chat came rushing back, and Simon joined them as well. Hong Feng sat them down and said,

"How was the training ground?"

The students spoke up as if they had been waiting.

"It was fun, but it was too hard!"

"I don't get the timing!"

As the students chatted, Hong Feng turned around with a smile.

"Then, we'll just watch one last person do it, and that'll be it for today's class!"

Tap. Tap.

Kajann was walking toward the training ground with displeasure clear on his face. Looking at him, Simon let out a small laugh.

'Professor Hong Feng planned this from the beginning. I see.'

Although it was under the pretext of testing the skill, she most likely had recognized Kajann's strength at first glance. After all, they were fellow dark martial artists.

"Simon! What's going on?"

Rick hurriedly came to where Simon was.

"Why is Kajann there?"

"Simon!"

Meilyn and Camibarez followed, looking at the training ground with serious eyes.

"That's senior Kajann, isn't it?"

"You're right."

"Simon! What's going on?"

Simon replied with a smile.

"It's not a big deal. He was just talking to me during class and then got caught by Professor Hong Feng."

Now standing before the training course, Kajann looked at Hong Feng and blurted out.

"My movements won't be much of a help for the students."

"That's fine."

Said Hong Feng with a smile.

"Showing them that a dark martial artist like you also exists will be enough."

Kajann scratched the scar in his eye with a disapproving face. Just then, Assistant Teacher Brett approached.

"Ah, well. We're kinda running out of time, so we'll start right away."

Kajann nodded his head. Brett muttered something like, "What a disrespectful brat," and lowered his arm.

"Go!"

Dash!

Kajann started running. Wooden puppets with countless arms spun and came toward him, and Kajann's arms began to move.

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tap!

"Woaaaaaaaaaah!!"

Kajann didn't even step back to parry them away, but he just nonchalantly ran at full speed, slapping the arms away.

His head and arms bent bizarrely, creating a spectacle that was both impressive and grotesque.

Rrrrumble!

The first stage.

A large, black, enchanted ball made of straw came down. Kajann looked at it, then kicked it away without hesitation.

Thud!

The ball of straw actually flew off the course and exploded on the ground with a loud pop.

He proceeded to the second stage right away. Three skeletons were running at him with shields.

Kajann, running wildly as he parried away the wooden arms, stomped hard on the ground.

Crack!

The ground broke apart, leaving a huge fissure, and the skeletons stumbled over it. Just like that, Kajann kicked the shields aside and went straight to the final stage.

More wooden dummies appeared, and beyond them were the five scarecrows lined up in a row.

Kajann stuck out his index finger, and the nail turned black.

{Kajann Original - Fang}

Skwooooooosh!

The 'Fang', being deployed with just his index finger, left a flash of gray light.

Then, all five severed heads came tumbling to the ground.

"Tr-Training over!"

Said Brett with a dumbfounded face.

"…He cleared it in one minute and twelve seconds!"

"Wooooaaaah!"

"What the—?!"

"What did I just see??"

The students jumped to their feet, and Simon, standing in the back, clapped enthusiastically.

"Did you see that? That's me and Simon's roommate! Mwahahaha!"

Rick bragged excitedly to the students of Class A around him. One student asked,

"Are you close with him?"

"Of course! He's like a sworn brother to me and Simon!"

Kajann bowed his head in Hong Feng's direction, then jumped away and disappeared.

Brett, who observed the scene, broke out in a cold sweat.

'…I-Is that really a student? If I fought him… I think I might lose.'

Hong Feng looked at the students with extreme satisfaction.

"Did you see that clearly? I hope that student's battle and performance will give you interesting inspiration. Well, that is it for today!"

"Thank you very much!!"

* * *

Several things happened over the weekend.

First, Simon succeeded in dredging the corpse of the monster duke from the bottom of the ocean. It was in pretty good shape, so Vanilla offered to buy it alongside a few more bidders, too.

It looked like the auction would happen as soon as the appraisers finished getting a rough price.

In the meantime, Vanilla HQ informed Simon that they had no problem in returning the skull of the former sword master, the Ancient Undead Manus.

However, they added that the skull was of a non-magical undead and has poor jet-black conductivity, making it unsuitable for use as a lich. One of the main reasons was that they had no body bones to fit its skull to, either.

So Benya said she would find a suitable skeleton for the lich herself.

Business outside of Kizen was going pretty well, and Simon spent the rest of the weekend preparing for his performance assessments.

Before he could make a lich, Simon had to master the lower tier, skeleton mages.

In addition to that, he had to learn the four curses, train the higher tier of Blood Poison, create a new combat dark spell, practice handling the divine beast Akalion, practice transforming the kittens, learn Commander skills from Pier, and even more.

There really weren;t enough hours in the day for him.

However, he knew that he would become even stronger if he could get through this.

It wouldn't just be an upgrade in one or two areas, but as a necromancer. With such anticipation, he didn't even feel tired.

And so the weekend passed.

The fourth BDMAT, organized by the Necromancer of Cards, 'Endolas Vaudeville', continued as usual.

And the second match had begun.

"Run, run!"

"Over here!"

As the students quickly dispersed from the Kizen campus searching for new cards, Simon looked down from a second-story window with his arms crossed.

[If you win a battle with the following student, you'll be awarded with an additional point.]

[Beppoe Bolletdise]

A new message appeared on the card pinned to his chest.

'So the target changes every test, huh?'

Simon thought he couldn't let his guard down. Because it meant that at least one person in the entire school was targeting him.

Simon departed, too.

Rick pestered Simon to join him for a siege theme card, but he decided to do it next time.

Because he had a personal goal.

'Ah, she's moving.'

The person he was watching from the window was a dark-haired female student.

Simon jumped out the window as she entered the learning center and quietly followed her.

'I can't hear her footsteps.'

When he went inside the building, he couldn't tell where she had gone.

The moment Simon turned toward the hallway…

Swiiiiiiiiiiish!

A dark red glow surged toward him.

Simon quickly ducked to dodge it, then gathered jet-black around his leg.

Fwip!

He spun around and unleashed a spin kick as the dark red light rushed toward his face.

Slide!

Yank!

The leg and the dagger stopped by a hair's breadth from each other's faces.

"…Simon?"

Lorain lowered her dagger, looking perplexed.

Simon lowered his leg as well and smiled.

"Hi, Lorain. What card are you looking for?"

——