Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Simon and Lorain were walking side by side down the hallway of the learning center.

"You're wanting to tag along with me?"

Lorain's face showed a hint of doubt as she asked that.

"Yeah. Just one game will do, please."

"I mean, I don't mind, but…"

Lorain ran her fingers through her hair, which was as dark as the night sky.

"You're not the type to do this. What's the reason?"

"Mm, just…"

Simon, trying his best to smile, replied,

"…"

Lorain dropped her glance. She didn't answer but just gave a slight nod and walked on.

After she accepted, the two searched the building together.

Even if it was a search, it wasn't anything special. They walked the halls, and if they got a 'hunch' for a lecture room, they'd go in and look through desks and open the drawers.

However, many students in Kizen campus were hiding around the area to make a 'student kill'.

"Wahaha! If you want to go through here…!"

Shouted a student guarding one of the hallways, and he tried to lunge at them.

However…

"!"

He immediately froze in fright after seeing Simon and Lorain.

"…Then you can just pass, of course! Please, go through!"

As he moved out of the way, Lorain raised her hand, maybe in some sort of gratitude, and walked past. Simon followed her without much reaction, either.

'…I-I almost died right there.'

Drops of sweat fell from the boy's forehead.

'To think the two of them are working together. Are they planning to fight the student president or something?'

This place was dangerous. The student quickly fled the building.

"Oh, I found one here!"

Resuming the search, Simon pointed to a yellow card stuck on the wall. But Lorain shook her head.

"Not good enough. I already have a yellow card."

Lorain seemed to be aiming for a combination of seven different colored cards as well. Simon pulled his glasses out of his subspace and put them on.

"Leave it to me. Which colors do you have already?"

"Dark blue and yellow."

Simon already got a dark blue and orange card. He just had to find colors that didn't overlap.

When he put on his glasses, the whole building was colored yellow. This meant that only yellow cards appeared here.

Simon quickly led Lorain out of the building. This time, they went to a blue building.

"There's a lot here."

The two walked around the empty lecture room, searching for cards.

Simon had figured it out lately, but even the same colored terrain was divided into lighter and darker shades if you looked closely enough.

And it was in those darker areas that the odds of finding a card increased dramatically.

'I can't imagine life without these glasses.'

Simon immediately rummaged through a desk drawer and found two cards, but there was a condition on it, so they couldn't enter.

"Simon."

Just then, Lorain, scanning the lecture room, pointed to a card on the floor.

"What about this one?"

[Difficulty: Medium]

[Number of players: 2]

[Conditions of entry: Simultaneous entry of a male and female student.]

"Not bad."

She found a card that two people could enter. The difficulty level looked fine as well.

Simon was a little confused about the weird condition, though.

"Let's go with this one."

"Yeah."

Lorain stepped onto the card first and was sucked in, and Simon soon followed.

[Entering a new game.]

* * *

Simon remembered a fairy tale he had heard as a child in Anna's arms.

"The pig princess declared that all animals that walk on two legs are great."

Pig princess was Simon's favorite character as a child.

She had a cool and delightful personality, and she defeated all the villains.

"Mom! Then what about the four–legged animals?"

"Four–legged animals were considered livestock."

"That's weird. Why would pigs discriminate against pigs? What's the difference between walking on two legs and four?"

"Maybe it was something important to them. So the four-legged pigs tried their best to walk on two legs."

Recalling this, Simon opened his eyes.

If Simon was asked why he was brought back to such memories, it would be because the world he was in now was like a re-creation of the childhood fairy tale.

The animals wore suits and dresses, stood on two feet, and drank wine.

'Hm.'

SImon diligently looked around. There were dogs, rabbits, goats, sheep, and more in this fancy banquet hall, drinking wine and chatting.

He was worried that the animals might talk in animal sounds, but they properly spoke the continental language. Their pronunciation was perfect.

The way they stood on their two feet was also so natural. Using their front feet as hands to hold a wine glass looked completely natural.

'What a well-crafted world.'

Simon could see now why Endolas Vaudeville's abilities made him one of the continent's top ten mysteries, alongside Nefthis.

"Simon."

Simon turned his head. And the moment he spotted Lorain in her dress, his face turned red.

'Urk.'

It was a shoulderless dress that dipped down in the center to show quite a bit of cleavage. Also, the skirt was very short, barely covering her lower half. On her head was a pair of animal ears attached to a headband.

It was definitely not something a student would proudly wear.

'Must be Endolas'… tastes.'

Simon felt off because he felt like he had peeked into the middle-aged man's strange desires. Seemingly unsatisfied about the costume, Lorain pulled down on her short skirt and said,

"It's black again."

'…So that was your issue with it.'

Simon smiled bitterly.

He himself was dressed in a party tuxedo, which was pretty half-assed in comparison to Lorain's outfit.

'Man, even the shirt underneath the tuxedo is black. This is too much.'

And on his head, he wore a headband with animal ears, just like Lorain.

"Pfft."

A horse in a suit walking by sneered at Simon and Lorain's attire.

"Four ears, huh? What a terrible animal."

"As expected from humans."

Somehow, Simon felt like they weren't welcome in this banquet of animals.

Simon tried to remove the ridiculous animal ear headband, but it wouldn't budge.

"Simon."

Lorain approached, her animal ears shaking with every step.

'…'

Simon's face turned red once more, but this time from secondhand embarrassment. The outfit was one thing, but she looked so ridiculous, with her elegant expression completely ruined by her flapping animal ears.

"What do you think we have to do here?"

"I'm not so sure, either."

Just then, a new message popped into their vision.

[You are 'Knights'.]

[Objective of the knights: Protect the Pig Princess until the time limit.]

* * *

* * *

'Knights?'

Their roles and task had been assigned.

Lorain looked around and said in a small voice,

"Then, there must be someone else here with another."

As soon as she said so, a new message popped up.

[There are 'assassins' hiding among the animals.]

[Objective of assassins: Assassinate the Pig Princess before the banquet ends.]

[There are two assassins.]

[The assassin is an animal who joined the banquet. You cannot recognise them by their appearance.]

'Aha.'

Simon finally understood everything.

This was clearly a world created by Endolas Vaudeville based on the famous fairy tale Anna read to him, 'Animal Kingdom'.

This meant that two of the animals in this banquet were real students from Kizen. And they were after the life of the Pig Princess.

"They must've realized that we're the knights."

"That's right."

Simon and Lorain's appearance didn't change. They were still humans. So it was safe to assume that they'd be under the assassin's sights, no matter what they did.

"Then, where's the Pig Princess?"

The two of them busily looked around.

They scanned the many pairs of animals, but a pig was nowhere to be seen. And none of the animals wore dresses luxurious enough to be called a princess.

"Let's start by gathering information."

"Yeah."

The two split up to question the animals.

"Excuse me. Where would be the Pig Princess?"

The old wolf in a suit waved his arm dismissively in annoyance at Simon's question.

"Ma'am, I would like to ask some questions."

The goat in the dress snorted and ignored him.

'Mm, this is gonna be tough.'

While gathering information, Simon thought of finding out whether they were Kizen students or not, but on the whole, the animals were avoiding Simon and Lorain.

"Are you looking for the princess?"

A fox sprawling on a sofa chuckled.

"The princess hasn't made her entrance yet. The heroine always arrives last."

This fox had a way with words. It hopped off the sofa and came over to Simon.

"Interesting."

Then, it searched Simon's face thoroughly.

"I was doubtful about it, but a real human did come here. I see."

"…Are humans not meant to come here?"

"Humans walk on two legs, so there's no reason you guys can't come. You aren't livestock, after all. Still, I can't believe a shameful, furless animal has come all the way here. My gosh."

The fox smirked.

"See to it that you don't trouble Pig Princess."

Then, the fox walked away, his tail wagging behind him.

Simon stared at its back with a serious face.

'That's not an assassin, is it?'

The fox's behavior was a bit suspicious, but judging from how he gave information about this world, that suggested he wasn't a Kizen student.

Simon crossed the fox off his mental list of suspects and continued to observe and talk to the other animals.

'I don't know who turned into an animal, but they're pretty good at acting.'

Simon was expecting to see at least one animal panicking at the suddenness of the situation, but all the guests in the banquet hall were acting naturally.

He would've guessed someone was an assassin if they were cowering in silence, looking nervous, or reacting strangely to the other animals, but no such animal could be seen.

'It seems like the Pig Princess hasn't arrived yet, so let's not be too hasty.'

Simon and Lorain met once more after gathering some information. They sat down at a table with cake and dessert plates and talked. Lorain had apparently been treated the same way as Simon by the animals.

Based on the information they brought back, they made some conclusions.

1. This banquet was hosted by the Pig Princess, and she'll appear at the very end of the event.

2. Humans are the lowest class here.

3. The animals consider it sacred that they all walk on two legs. Even humans, whom they hate, are allowed in the banquet hall because they walk on two legs.

4. They despise animals who walk on four legs and consider them to be livestock.

Simon opened his mouth.

"This game is based on the fairy tale 'Animal Kingdom'. You kinda get that, right??"

"I'm not so sure. I'm rather unfamiliar with those fairy tales or nursery rhymes you see."

"Really?"

Simon briefly explained the plot of the fairy tale to Lorain. It wasn't a complicated story to begin with.

The animals on a farm rebelled, kicked out the humans, and built a kingdom.

At first, they formed a society where everyone was equal. But one day, a pig suddenly developed the ability to stand on its own two feet and decided to stand above the other creatures, using the logic that 'I'm a higher being, greater and more evolved than all of you.' Then, it called itself the 'Pig Princess'.

Many animals envied her and tried to stand on their two feet. The pig princess liked this, and soon, a hierarchy developed among the animals on the farm.

The bipedal animals wore fancy clothes and ate expensive food, while the quadrupeds remained as livestock.

One day, after living such a life of tyranny, the Pig Princess looked in the mirror and realized she was just like the humans she hated so much, so she hung herself.

"Huh?! What's that part??"

Listening to the story intently, Lorain frowned.

"What kind of fairy tale is that? That's too brutal."

"The children's version is that the Pig Princess realizes the error of her ways, walks on all fours again, and lives happily ever after. Anyway, here's what I think."

Simon explained his strategy for this game, and Lorain nodded in agreement.

And so, there was a bit of time to relax before the Pig Princess arrived.

"By the way, Simon?"

Said Lorain.

"You said there was something you wanted to talk about."

"Ah."

Simon was so focused on the game that he completely forgot about it.

He actually approached Lorain for this purpose, too, after all.

Simon alluded,

"Do you know about Professor Silage?"

"Hm?"

"Just what kind of mission did he take that he suddenly quit being a professor in Kizen?"

Lorain blinked.

"Why do you want to know that?"

Simon quickly put his brain to work.

"O-Of course I'm curious about it! He was one of my favorite professors in the first semester, and he just disappeared at the drop of a hat."

"Hmm."

Lorain closed her eyes and thought for a moment before replying.

"This is confidential, so don't tell anyone else."

"Yeah! Of course."

She spoke in a low whisper.

"Professor Silage has gone to a dungeon."

——