Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

“You’re confident?”

Simon nodded with a serious face.

“Yes. I’m confident.”

And as soon as Simon said that, Jane picked up the quill and signed the request form.

“You may leave now.”

“……O-Okay?”

Simon felt the countless excuses he had prepared in his head become useless.

She’s really allowing me, just like this?

“There must be a reason for you to say that you’re confident in front of a Kizen professor. You don’t have to convince me. You’re Kizen. You only have to take responsibility for the results.”

Her gaze turned frightening.

“I hope you weren’t tricking me, Simon Polentia.”

Simon’s expression hardened as he received her gaze head on, but he didn’t falter any further. Simon bowed his head.

“Thank you for trusting me.”

“……”

Her quill stopped for a moment, but soon resumed.

“Please be safe out there.”

It sounded like a throwaway line, but Simon felt as though her voice was somehow warm.

* * *

Simon was really busy as soon as he got back to the dormitory.

“Rick! I’m planning to go down to Rochest for a while. Is there a safe route?”

“Huh? Today?”

Simon went down to Rochest through the route he had heard of from Rick.

There he bought some equipment, as well as a robe and clothes for an adventurer to hide their identity.

Then he went straight to the Forbidden Forest and stopped at Pier’s ruins.

“Pier! Isn’t this perfect?”

What Simon gladly offered was plate armor that could’ve been found inside a medieval castle.

Pier’s expression turned sour.

[You’re not telling me to get inside that armor, are you?]

“You said you wanted to stick around me during the mission, didn’t you? You can’t roam around looking like that.”

[……Tsk.]

Eventually, Pier went inside the armor. It was more appropriate to say that he went in it than to say he wore it.

After a while, the armor started to rattle unnaturally and move. 

[……Are you really telling me to move around like this?]

“Looks good on you, Pier!”

Simon clapped his hands with a wide smile. Pier shuddered and looked back.

[Dammit! I told you not to laugh like Anna!]

“Hahaha!”

After putting the conscripted skeletons into the subspace, Simon returned to Kizen.

When he entered the dorm room, Rick was asleep and Kajann was nowhere to be seen.

Simon packed his things and prepared for the trip. He was leaving for the mission through teleportation early tomorrow morning.

‘It’s been so long since I’ve been outside Roke Island.’

Simon closed his eyes, excited.

* * *

The dawn of the next day.

Simon packed his things and moved to the location that he was informed of. A long-distance teleportation device was installed on the hill behind Kizen, and many students were already waiting for their turn.

“Simon!”

Turning around after hearing his name, he saw Meilyn running toward him while waving. She seemed to be using the teleportation device too.

“Hey Meilyn.”

“Hi! By the way, are you seriously going to take that mission?”

Meilyn folded her arms with a frown.

“I told you it’s difficult to complete an investigation mission in 5 days. Don’t tell me that I didn’t tell you to get something easier, okay?”

Simon replied, smiling,

“Thank you for worrying about me.”

“I-It’s nothing like that!”

She let out a shriek. Simon laughed it off and asked,

“How about you? Where are you going?”

“A merchant escort mission going up near Langerstine.”

She laughed boastfully.

“Isn’t it great? It’s a carriage trip that starts from Langerstine.”

“Still, be careful. If you ever run into a band of thieves……”

“Pfft. You think it’s still like the old days? And even if thieves come……”

She took off a bit of the adventurer’s robe she was wearing.

Underneath was a black jacket, a white shirt, and a skirt. Kizen’s female school uniform.

“I just have to tell them to get lost after showing them this. Even a bunch of stupid bandits would know what happens if they lay a hand on Kizen.”

Simon feigned a smile.

When he faced the gangs in Langerstine the day before school, he remembered that they all lost their will to fight the moment Lorain revealed the name of Kizen.

“……That kinda feels like cheating.”

“The merchants request Kizen students for this purpose too.”

At that moment, the teleporter managers started calling the students by name. Meilyn waved her hand when she heard her name.

“Well then, bye! See you next week.”

“Yeah, take care of yourself.”

“Worry about yourself more. The place you’re going, Kallos, is at the forefront of the Dark Alliance.”

After leaving those words, Meilyn ran off.

There seemed to be quite a few students moving to Langerstine. A lot of students were clustering on the teleportation device. Langerstine was a popular destination because it was close to Kizen, and because you could also hang around after the mission was over.

After a while, Meilyn and the students were teleported, and the manager called the names of Simon and several other students. Simon walked toward them.

“Please present your ID and request form.”

The manager politely bowed their head. Simon presented the student ID from Kizen and the request form signed by Jane.

“To the Arnish territory in the Kallos Kingdom. Is this correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Please sign here.”

“Okay.”

Upon receiving the document with Simon’s signature, the manager smiled brightly and stepped aside.

“Confirmed. You may go up now.”

“Thank you.”

Simon got up onto the teleporter. Then, he saw a student who had gotten there first.

“Ah.”

It was a familiar face.

She even took the oath as the student representative. At that time, Simon was the male representative, and she was the female representative.

With her beautiful, ivory hair fluttering away, she was putting on a white coat over her Kizen school uniform and was using her neat-looking parasol gracefully.

She also curtsied and greeted Simon when their eyes met.

“We ran to each other again.”

The official successor of the Ivory Tower, Special Admission No. 2 Serene Aindark.

* * *

* * *

Somehow, there was a tension forming, not because of her background, but because of a foreign energy flowing from her.

‘……It’s suffocating.’

Among the many students of Kizen, Lorain was the only other one with such a unique aura.

Lorain had a strong feeling of coerciveness and roughness, but in the case of Serene, you could feel a far higher class of dignity.

The monarch's dignity that humbles and embarrasses their opponents while showing them up. It made him wonder if she was really the same age as him.

Then, her mouth opened.

“I heard that our Meilyn is being taken care of.”

She knew that Simon and Meilyn were in the same class and group.

“She’s a little bit of a whiner, but she’s kind and tender on the inside. Please take good care of her.”

Simon took a slow, deep breath. Little by little, the trembling, the tension in his body, and the trivial thoughts in his head all flew away.

Finally, a relaxed smile appeared on Simon’s lips.

“Why are you telling me that?”

“……What?”

“Meilyn isn’t a person under your protection. She’s a freshman at Kizen, just like you.”

Simon noticed the meaning in her words and intonation.

Serene was treating Meilyn as someone naturally inferior to her.

And that fact… was very much irritating Simon.

“Meilyn is doing well without you needing to worry about her.”

A deep smile appeared on Serene’s lips.

“I see.”

It was the first time he had drained his mental strength like this by just talking to someone.

Simon turned his head, not wanting to deal with her anymore, but Serene looked at Simon while blinking her jade-colored eyes. Drops of sweat started to appear on Simon’s brow.

“Then, I’ll activate the device!” 

Thankfully, the manager picked the right time to say they were operating the device.

Wooooooosh!

The teleportation device activated, and a dazzling light engulfed Simon and Serene’s bodies.

Serene said with a smile,

“See you again next time.”

I don’t want to see you again!

With that thought in mind, Simon completely entrusted himself to the sensations floating in his legs.

* * *

In the office of the castle lord from the Kallos Kingdom’s territory of Arnish and an area under the domain of the Dark Alliance,

“……It happened again?”

A middle-aged man with a long brown beard was sighing with a grimace.

He was Count Raymond, the person in charge of Arnish.

“Yes sir. I’m sorry.”

The guard captain bowed his head with a hardened face. Next to him was a corpse on a stretcher, covered with a white cloth. Its face was hidden by the cloth, but its droopy hands were twisted and dried up like a mummy’s.

“These incidents are happening more and more frequently. This is already the third case this month!”

The Count hit the table. He then undid his shirt collar and let out a sigh.

“I can’t live with this feeling of anxiety anymore! What about the mercenaries we hired from outside?”

“They are still on the search, but even after scouring the territory, there was nothing……”

The Count frowned.

“Eating up the money without being able to work properly! Send them back too!”

“Yes sir! And I’m sorry to ask, but was there any news from Kizen……?”

“There’s still no news from Kizen.”

The Count ground his teeth.

It had been three months since he placed the request. The number of victims continued to increase due to the unknown situation, but there has been no response from Kizen.

The guard captain bowed his head. 

“After all, maybe we should put this as a formal request to the HQ of Kizen instead of as a general reque—”

“You want to call a Necromancer from HQ? Do you want to blow the entire budget of our territory on a commission fee?”

“I-I misspoke!”

The Count spoke while leaning deeply into his chair.

“You may leave now.”

“Yes sir. Rest well, sir!”

The guard captain and the guards took the corpse and left the room. The Count sighed and filled an empty glass with wine.

“Would you like a glass?”

Said the Count, raising his glass. Then, he heard someone’s voice from behind the curtain.

“Thank you for your offer, but I’ll decline as I’m still in training.”

The curtain lifted, revealing someone sitting in a chair.

She was dressed in a robe, her hood was pressed far down, and you could see whitish hair visible under the hood.

The Count drank the wine at once.

“I apologize for calling a special guest like you all the way here, but as you can see, the situation is quite urgent.”

The Crown Prince was scheduled to visit the territory just next month.

It’d be bothersome to have a shady thing happening at such an important time. The Count’s eyes gleamed.

“Are you really sure that you can solve it?”

The person sitting on the chair slowly got up. As the wand in her hand pushed up the end of her hood, her plentiful hair flew down, revealing the face of a young girl.

“Do you not trust in the Efnel?”

The Count flinched. 

“Th-That’s not what I meant……”

“Don’t worry, Count. It’s the will of the great Goddess to save the people of the continent from the evil acts of the undead.”

A bright smile formed on her lips.

“On the honor of His Holiness, I, Ellen Zile, a 2nd-year student at Divine University Efnel, will surely solve the case.”

——