Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

“Hello? We’re sorry to disturb your sleep.”

“……”

There was no answer. Simon continued to speak.

“We would like to use this room together. Would that be okay with you?”

Still, there was no answer. Lena, who followed in after them, grabbed Simon’s hem while trembling.

“L-Let’s just leave, Simon. After all, he’s……”

At that moment,

Red bloodshot eyes glared at them through the blanket. Rick gulped and Lena stepped back with a frightened look on her face.

“…A freshman.”

Finally, the blanket was lifted, and a man raised his upper body with a rustling sound.

“So today is the entrance ceremony… Is it already time for that?”

Although he was skinny, he had an ideal muscular body and sharp eyes. A clear scar seemed to divide his bloodshot right eye in half. Moreover, he had small scars all over his upper body.

A dangerous person.

It was everyone’s first impression of him. Rick and Lena grabbed Simon’s arms from each side as he opened his eyes.

“……No need to be so formal with me. I’m also in the same first year.”

“Then uhm……”

“Just call me Kajann.”

As he swept his hair up, you could see his frightening eyes.

He had eyes that couldn't be said to be a teenager’s at all, as if he would immediately grab a knife and stab a person to death.

“I don’t know how long you guys will survive in this school, but keep these two things in mind. First, everything I do is none of your business. Second, don’t be loud before I go to sleep. You can dance or sing or do whatever you want after I fall asleep.”

“……Ah! So you’re letting us in?”

“Whether I let you in or not, since there’s no vacant room, someone will occupy this place eventually.”

Kajann laid back on the bed and covered himself with the blanket.

“……”

After a while, Kajann fell asleep, breathing regularly.

Simon and Rick exchanged glances and went outside. Lena, who came out last, carefully closed the door.

“We’ll go with this room.”

In the end, the two decided to go with room 409. Lena worriedly asked,

“Are you really sure about this?”

“Yes, we are. I don’t think he’s that bad either.”

Lena nodded and marked the check on the list. Then, she placed their name tags in the case of the front door.

“Then I’ll confirm it as room 409! Please let me know if he happens to do something bad on the two of you. I’ll report it to the dorm master immediately to have him take action.”

“Alright. Thank you for your concern.”

After separating from Lena, Simon and Rick started unpacking their luggage in each place. Rick chose a space close to the door, and Simon took a place inside, relatively close to Kajann.

There was a noise between them while unpacking their things, but Kajann didn’t wake up. It was like he was dead. Only the tiny sound of breathing could be heard from time to time.

“Is he really not gonna wake up?”

Suddenly, Rick dared to drop the textbook on the floor.

There was a huge thud on the floor, but Kajann was still dead asleep.

“……He did mention that we can do whatever as long as he’s asleep. I guess he really meant it.”

“He doesn’t seem like a bad person.”

The two of them finished unpacking their luggage a lot more comfortably.

“Simon! Let’s go take a shower. I saw a public bath on the 2nd floor on the way up.”

“A public bath?”

* * *

This was also Simon’s first time in a public bath.

This facility could accommodate more than a hundred people at a time, and it had the floors and walls glittering like gold while hot spring water flowed out of the bath.

Simon relieved his fatigue by standing under the stream of water that came out when you pressed the button, and he soaked in the bubbling water.

“Ah, that was a good one.”

On the way out after bathing,

Simon went up the stairs with a languid expression and a towel wrapped around his neck. Rick chuckled.

“I’ve never seen anyone who gets surprised by a shower cubicle. Have you been living on a mountain or something?”

“Something like that.”

Simon replied, wiping his wet hair with the towel.

“Keke. Still, you should refrain from being in awe saying, ‘Woah~ Woah~’ while pressing the shower button, you know? Word spreads quickly among the students.”

“Did I really do that?”

“I wasn’t joking.”

The two returned to their dorm room.

Kajann was still asleep in the same position, as if time had stood still. When he looked out the window, it was pitch-black darkness.

As Simon had gotten drowsy after the shower, he lied down on the soft bed.

An exclamation came out in spite of himself. It felt like all the happiness in the world seemed to be there.

“Aghhh. It was good to come to Kizen after all.”

Hearing that, Rick giggled.

“Everyone wants to come to Kizen. Of course, it depends on our grades whether we can stay or not.”

“I heard that there are only 300 students in the second-year.”

“You’re right. We’re still in the student protection period, so the professors are being gentle on us, but in a little while, they’ll start expelling students for poor grades, violations of regulations, or even for being talentless. Life in Kizen is survival.”

Rick supported the back of his head with his arms and looked up at the ceiling.

“If you’re able to survive even the first-year, you can get into almost anywhere. If you can overcome the crazy competition and become an official graduate, then well… You’ll become mainstream in the era that moves the continent. Practically everything except being the royal family would be possible. Hm, no. If you’re a graduate of Kizen, maybe a small or medium-sized country might offer you a princess.”

Simon giggled.

“Do you want to become a noble?”

“Not really. Of course, becoming a noble would be comfortable since you won’t be ignored and stuff, but that’s not my ultimate goal.”

“Then what’s your goal?”

 Rick made a coin shape with his finger.

“This.”

* * *

* * *

“……”

Rick’s expression seemed too complicated to simply be saying, ‘he wants to make money’.

However, Simon decided not to ask further questions since they’d just met for the first time today.

While Rick was contemplating for a moment, Simon poured his magic power into the ring on his finger.

The ring was dyed in black and Simon pulled the handle. A subspace opened from the floor, and the skeleton set of Island Rat Man came out. It was the class materials that he had bought at Kemmelroad.

“Oh! What’s that? What was that just now?”

“A subspace.”

Simon answered briefly and sat down in front of the skeleton set.

He opened the case and took out the packed bones. When he examined the surface with his finger and sniffed it, it was clean, like it had been properly disinfected. A bone diagram was also enclosed on the bottom of the case.

Rick put on a fed-up face.

“……You’re studying again when we just finished the class?”

“It’s just that I didn’t want to forget the sensation of that moment.”

The battle with Hector in the summoning class.

So many things happened all at once that Simon wanted to relive the wonderful sensations of that time once more.

He first awakened the undead by pouring jet-black into the magic circle drawn on the skull.

Click. Clack.

The skull came to life as it hit the jaw and roof of its mouth together.

Undead created by summoning magic considered the jet-black user as their master.

Simon slowly closed his eyes and raised his assimilation level with the undead. Countless thoughts began to settle in Simon’s mind.

‘With only my intuition this time too.’

Simon picked up bones No.5, No.7, and No.10, and attached them to the skull. It was fun that the bones stuck to themselves when you applied even a small force.

He made the spine, formed the torso, and continued on to the legs. Rick watched Simon with his mouth open as Simon put the bones together smoothly.

“……There we go!”

After 30 minutes, he could recreate the irregular four-legged skeleton he made in class.

However, it took a lot of time, unlike in class. The way it walked was also creaky and unnatural, like there was a problem with the legs.

It was a matter of concentration and immersion.

When he assembled the skeleton in a comfortable space without stress, the results were not as good as during class.

Nevertheless, Simon was satisfied that he had restored the product.

While stroking the skull of the undead, Simon said,

“I’m sorry.”

He then applied strength to his fingers, knocking the skeleton’s body down.

Clatter!

The bones that had been assembled scattered all over the place and went into different places like the bed, the desk, by the window, and in the closet. Rick said in surprise,

“What? Why did you do that? What a waste after making it……!”

Simon closed his eyes and raised his concentration. Sweat trickled down from his clean, washed hair again.

Skeletons formed by summoning magic had a tendency to restore their former bodies. It was officially called the ‘restoring force’, but, in the field, it was also known as ‘attraction’.

Simon felt the jet-black contained in the 53 bones scattered throughout the room.

‘Restore!’

When Simon opened his eyes, the bones scattered throughout the room flew all at once and began to attach themselves to the skeleton’s body.

It took 30 minutes to make it at first, but it only took 15 seconds to reassemble and return to its original shape. 

Simon let out his held breath and opened his eyes. 

“………It’s hella amazing, even when seeing it again.”

Mumbled Rick, smirking.

After the restoration, the skeleton approached and rubbed its head on Simon’s leg and fawned. Simon also smiled and stroked the undead.

While he was at it, he started assembling the standard Island Rat Man skeleton shown in the diagram.

Rather than simply looking at the diagram and following the numbers, he wrote down on his notebook what he realized while examining and thinking on his own. Why the No.11 bone had to come after the No.10. Why the assembly order the was way it was.

This order has been the standard used by necromancers for a long time. But it must have taken a lot of trial error to get to this point.

Every action had a reason and meaning behind it. Every time he realized that, he was thrilled, and he felt grateful for his predecessors' knowledge and hard work.

Simon tried swapping bones No.25 and No.31.

“How’s that?”

Simon did several experiments. The skeleton that had been moving its arm shook his head with a rattling sound.

He realized that some arrangements were more effective for undead to move, even if there were more rational choices in terms of the human body structure.

“……Mmmmm.”

Rick, who had been dozing for a while, rubbed his eyes and got up.

“You’re still at it? Guess you really got interested in Summoning.”

“Yeah, it’s fun.”

Simon put a smile on his face.

“I already can’t wait for the next session.”

Rick yawned and went into bed, but Simon’s night wasn’t over yet. He pulled out the book, ‘Introduction to Summoning’, and started researching.

‘The basics of the undead.’

Simon was still thirsty.

The skeletons that my father used to help the people in my territory.

The skeletons Lorain used to suppress the gangs.

I wonder what I’m lacking compared to those two.

Click!

Clack!

Rattle.

He kept on reassembling it while continuing to study. The skeleton restored in 15 seconds could now be restored within 10.

But this time, something was different. A dark blue jet-black arose from the eyes of Simon’s skeleton, which had been reassembled more than 70 times.

This was something that didn’t happen, even during the class.

Swaaa…

The skeleton with burning eyes moved its head and looked at Simon.

“………”

Simon also made eye contact with the skeleton.

Simon’s first day of school continued like that until late at night.

——