Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

“……”

Simon thought about it.

He knew that Hong Feng was serious about the direct disciple recommendation, but what about Simon himself?

Majoring in Combat Magic.

There was no doubt in the fun of Hong Feng’s class.

A curriculum which took place outdoors, crises that emerged one after another, and even the outdoor meal and intense competition.

There were difficult parts, but if he thought of all of them as part of his training to become stronger, he could endure it.

However,

“Thank you for your proposal. It’s more than I deserve. But… to be honest, I’d prefer not to.”

Simon got up from his seat and bowed his head. She nodded her head with enthusiasm like she wasn’t that surprised.

“May I ask the reason why?”

“Right now, there’s another study that I want to deeply indulge in.”

Her eyes curved in a half-moon shape.

“Alright. Thank you for telling me clearly so that I won’t leave any lingering feelings behind.”

“………Ah.”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up on you like this, Simon.”

Her brown hair fluttered slowly in the wind. 

“You still have a year left before you can pick your major, right? I’ll try harder to change your heart, Simon.”

Simon was just dumbfounded.

‘What’s so special to me that you’d go to that extent……?’

“And, personally, I became curious to see how far you’ll be able to go.”

She got up from her seat and swung her hand. A jet-black teleport magic circle spread across the floor.

“It’s fine if you’re not my disciple. If you need my help, come to me anytime.”

“……Thank you, professor.”

“I want you to keep what happened here confidential. You can go now.”

Simon bowed his head once again and stepped on the magic circle.

Whirr!

As Simon disappeared, a wind blew and shook the decorations in the house.

She sat on a creaky wooden chair and looked outside the window with a light smile.

“Professor Hong Feng!”

The door burst open and an assistant teacher came in.

“How did it go? Where’s Simon?”

She smiled and shook her head. The assistant bit his lip with a bitter face.

“How dare he decline your proposal……!”

“It’s fine, Brett.”

She tapped the assistant’s shoulder and looked outside the window. Brett fumed, saying,

“I don’t understand why you suddenly got your eye on that student! Why don’t you give this proposal to Hector, who’s more gifted with combat magic? Other than him, there are four other aspiring combat magic students with plenty of possibili—!”

“A genius.”

She spoke softly.

“I’ve seen a lot of geniuses in Kizen, but I’ve never seen ‘that kind of genius’.”

“……What?”

She smiled without answering.

* * *

Simon was the last one in Class A to arrive at Kizen.

He was exhausted from the arduous class, but fortunately, he still had more than two hours left until the afternoon one.

He returned to the dormitory, entrusted his uniform to the minions to do the laundry, and headed to the bathroom to wash off his sweaty body.

“Simon!”

When Simon met Rick, it was in the bathroom. Simon had arrived a little earlier than him, but he had a somewhat excited expression on his face.

“Heheheh! You won’t believe it when you hear what happened to me a while ago.”

“What is it?”

Rick took a glance around before whispering in a quiet voice,

“I was being teleported after stepping on the magic circle, and it abruptly got almost stuck or something with a bam! When I woke up, I was in Professor Bahil’s lab all of a sudden!”

Simon blinked his eyes.

“Professor Bahil of Curses?”

“Yeah!”

“Did anything happen there?”

“He just got me cleaned up.”

“……”

Simon made a wry smile.

“I heard from the seniors who used to be in Kizen before! Teleport scout! This means Professor Bahil marked me, right? Am I going to be a direct disciple too?”

Simon looked away while sweating.

“Uh……… Maybe, yeah.”

“Woah shit, I can’t believe I bridged with a big shot of Kizen like this! You know what direct disciple means, too, right? It basically means your school life will be a piece of cake! Even disciplinary action or expulsion is overlooked most of the time thanks to the professor in charge!”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard this year.”

Simon and Rick turned their heads at the sudden interruption. Hector and two of his faction members stood upright.

“A fucking useless commoner as Professor Bahil’s direct disciple? Even a passing dog would laugh.”

Their friends giggled and laughed. Rick stood up slowly, a smile on his lips.

“Oh my. Was our little master a bit upset because Professor Bahil paid more attention to me than you when you have to be the best at everything?”

“……”

Hector took a step closer. Looking at him again, he wasn’t only huge in height or size, but he also had a strong, muscular body.

“Watch your mouth, petty merchant.”

“Because I’m a petty merchant, I know guys like you very well.”

Rick swung his wrist and remarked,

“I heard that you also slagged Meilyn off in the Combat Magic class. You fucking think you’re the only one with backstory and hardship? You’re a fucking weakshit too, you bastard. Acting like you’re something special because you went through the education of the Moore family.”

Ignited by the insult, Hector stretched out his right arm violently. A jet-black magic circle was drawn on his palm and Rick’s body twisted before roughly slamming against a pillar.

“K-Kuhugh!”

“There are things that a lowly being like you can’t say.”

Hector drew a line with his arm to the side, eyes bloodshot.

“Just die here, you bastard.”

Creak!

It was a curse. As Rick grabbed his neck in pain, the students around him got up and screamed.

“Kugh! Kuhehe!”

Despite his situation, Rick smiled and held out his middle finger. Hector’s expression turned cold, hardening.

“C-Calm down, Hector!”

“Hey! Isn’t this crossing the line? If you use a curse outside of class…!”

Two friends approached to stop him, but they fell on their backs from a single swing of Hector’s annoyed arm.

The moment Hector was about to draw a magic circle on the palm of his other hand…

“……!”

A foot suddenly appeared in front of him.

Slam!

Hector narrowly blocked it by crossing his arms. Then, he slipped on the wet bathroom floor and went down to a knee.

The curse that was being cast was canceled by the impact, and Rick, freed from the pain, backed off while coughing.

Ta-tap.

Simon came down to the floor, eyes radiating a brutal glare.

“Yeah. I was wondering when you’d step in.”

Hector stood up while grinning. He spewed jet-black from both hands and Simon grabbed the imaginary lever as he flowed the jet-black into the ring on his hand.

As the situation was reaching its climax…

Bang!

* * *

* * *

A bucket flew under Hector’s feet and shattered, sending the parts all around.

Hector and Simon flinched while the other students let out screams of surprise.

“…It’s noisy.”

Swaaaaaa.

The man who was sitting in the bath got up. A stream of water ran down his back, showing countless terrifying scars.

“Do you all really want to die?”

And he was someone that Simon knew. Simon’s eyes widened rapidly.

‘Kajann!’

It was none other than that person who lived in deathly silence in their room.

“……Kajann Edvalt.”

Hector lowered his arms and looked at him.

“I heard the rumors. So you were still in school, huh?”

Kajann cracked his neck without saying a word. Every time he cracked his neck, you could hear a popping sound so loud that it was hard to believe that it came from a human.

“Hector!”

“B-Be careful. His eyes have gone completely mad!”

His friends ran and stood in front of Hector, as if escorting him.

But…

“Let’s stop this.”

The words that came out of Hector’s mouth were unexpected. The two friends looked at him in bewilderment.

“It would be better for you to behave well. There’s no second chance.”

Hector walked out of the bathroom with big strides. His friends, who had been spacing out for a moment, followed Hector like they were running away.

“Rick!”

Simon quickly checked on the condition of Rick, who was lying down on the floor.

“You alright?”

“It’s nothing.”

Rick chuckled.

“The curse he placed on me was also just to scare me. He doesn’t have the balls.”

Swaaaa.

Kajann went back into the bath and closed his eyes as the situation wrapped up. You could see the students in the same bath slowly moving away while checking on him.

Simon stood up and said,

“Kajann, thanks for the—”

“You guys are noisy too.”

Back turned, he said,

“Get lost.”

“……”

Simon had a faint smile on his lips. He thought that Kajann wasn’t a bad person after all.

* * *

There were a few events, but they ended without any major problems.

Rick revealed that he was actually provoking Hector to get him punished. Of course, since Simon attacked Hector, both of them would be punished as, even if the punishment was issued, Simon had still struck Hector. So, he neatly abandoned the plan.

Rick smiled brightly while Simon felt embarrassed and apologized after hearing the story.

“It’s much better that you stepped in! It felt so refreshing when you kicked Hector.”

He’d also done the provocation because he was carried away by the emotion. After all, in the end, they were on student protection period. Even disciplinary action wouldn’t do significant damage. Of course, Hector must've known that.

When they came out of the shower, the school uniform cleaned by washing magic was delivered in the front of the dorm room.

The two quickly changed into school uniforms and safely finished the one remaining class in the afternoon.

When they finished all the scheduled classes, it was already dark. Simon and Rick were on their way back to the dormitory after having dinner.

“Uaaah! It’s finally the weekend!”

Shouted Rick as he stretched.

“Simon, what are your plans for the weekend?”

“The weekend? I don’t really have any plans in particular.”

“Hey~ you shouldn’t do that! In Kizen, how you spend your weekends is really important.”

“Saying it like that… You must have some plans.”

Rick nodded.

“Actually, the weekend schedule is more important to me than the weekday classes. I’m going down to Rochest.”

Rochest. A city affiliated with Kizen. It was a medium-small-sized city that became active by the visits of employees, students, and minions of Kizen.

It was famous as a resting place for Necromancers and a student city. It consisted of countless restaurants, inns, and shops related to necromancers, and you could often see students of Kizen working part-time to earn money for class materials.

In particular, on the weekends, students flocked and made for a huge floating population. Usually, what students meant by ‘let’s hang out on the weekend’ was the same as saying that they should go to Rochest.

“But what are you going to do in Rochest?”

“Drawing up a business plan.”

Rick answered quite seriously.

“The money that Kizen provides for living expenses every month isn’t enough to live on. And it’s not like I’m overwhelmingly amazing at my studies, letting me get a scholarship. Gotta make use of my skills.”

Simon nodded his head. It was a fast movement by Rick, as expected from him.

“Simon, you also better set up some kind of way to make some money too. It’s only during the student protection period that the professors provide materials as they are now. The monthly living expenses can’t cover the enormous cost of materials for Kizen’s classes. The seniors have their own unique income route.”

“Mm… Really?”

Having to be independent, with even things other than the class, wasn’t an easy life. Plus, Simon was interested in Summoning, which cost a lot of money, so he had to come up with a countermeasure.

“Heheh. Or, wait for me till I establish something in Rochest. I might even provide you a job.”

“Nah. I should earn the money that I need.”

“…Oh, you’re quite aware of what it takes when it comes to money. I see.”

Before returning to the dormitory, Rick secretly sneaked out, heading to Rochest, saying he would prepare for tomorrow’s schedule.

Of course, going out of Kizen on weekdays was prohibited, but there weren’t any big problems if you weren’t caught since the school’s tradition was very free.

Simon returned to the dormitory alone. He bought some snacks in the cafeteria before returning to treat himself for the weekend.

He was going to thank Kajann properly if he was there, but he’d left the room today as well.

Left alone, Simon sat on the spacious floor and opened his snack. It was a fluffy mini chiffon cake cut into six slices.

Simon put one of the cakes in his mouth. 

It was delicious. As he was enjoying and munching the rich flavor of butter…

“……”

He could feel a gaze.

Simon carefully turned his eyes and looked towards the window. He saw a girl hanging from the window, her eyes wide open.

‘N-Nefthis………?’

By the way, he was on the 4th floor.

——