CHAPTER 11
This time, the chosen one was Hector. Maelyn, lips jutting in disappointment, leaned back, while Hector slowly stood up from his seat.
Just like in the first class, Simon and Hector stood facing each other. The assistant placed a skeleton set at their feet.
"About ten minutes left before the bell rings."
Aron checked his wristwatch as he spoke. Then, rummaging through his pocket, he pulled out a cheap necklace and hung it around the neck of the skull model set up in front of the podium.
"Use your skeleton to get this necklace. Whoever has the necklace when class ends will be declared the winner. You are forbidden from moving yourselves or using any other form of dark magic, but aside from that, all other actions are allowed. Now, get ready."
Aron extended his arm. The two lowered their stances.
"Begin."
Simon and Hector knelt in front of their skeleton sets at the same time.
‘I can do this!’
With eyes gleaming, Simon pulled out the skull.
‘I can win this class!’
Simon channeled Darkness into the magic circle inside the skull and awakened the undead.
The skull, now flickering with black light in its eye sockets, began to clatter as if alive.
‘Let’s assemble the spine in one go. From number 2 to 7…’
Simon looked up toward the blackboard. But—
"……!"
The assistant, with an apologetic expression, was taking down the bone structure diagram from the board.
Aron spoke.
"Cheating is not allowed in this challenge."
Simon bit down on his lip. Hector, also startled, showed a flicker in his eyes, but soon turned back to the skeleton set.
Simon also steadied himself and picked up a bone.
‘Still, the bones have numbers. If I just assemble them one by one starting from number one, I’ll be fine!’
However…
No matter how carefully he looked, there were no numbers marked on the bones.
"What you used earlier were class materials. The assistants went to the trouble of labeling them by hand. Commercial skeleton sets don’t come with friendly numbering."
Aron's calm voice echoed through the room.
"I told you, didn’t I? As necromancers, you must know all this by heart."
It felt like the sky was collapsing.
Simon glanced sideways at Hector.
Hector, having already completed all the preliminary study across subjects, seemed to have memorized the sequence and structure of the Island Ratman’s bones. He was assembling them without a hitch.
‘…Don’t give up. I’ve built one before, so I should at least remember the important bones.’
Simon found the second cervical vertebra and began carefully assembling it step by step. Aron folded his arms, observing silently.
‘Special Admission No. 1 is handling a skeleton for the first time.’
He turned to look at Hector.
‘That big guy, on the other hand, has memorized the structure and sequence. He’s relying on knowledge and memory.’
There was a reason Aron hid the bone chart and didn’t provide numbered bones from the first class.
While this naturally gave an overwhelming advantage to those who had prepared in advance, Aron didn’t care who won.
His goal was to find students with a natural sense for summonology.
‘Hector, was it? He’s got a knack for this.’
While his foundation was built on pre-learned knowledge, the way he avoided mistakes in critical moments was due to his instincts. When presented with two confusing choices, he consistently picked the right one with uncanny accuracy.
‘Meanwhile, Special Admission No. 1…’
He was stumbling from the beginning. With the core bones assembled in the wrong order, the entire structure was losing balance.
He looked half-panicked, swapping bones in and out at random.
Aron wasn’t necessarily a fan of pre-studying, but if one lacked talent, at least they should’ve been prepared.
‘The only one worth keeping in this class is probably Hector.’
Click. Clack.
Before anyone realized, Hector’s skeleton had both legs completed and was standing upright.
Applause broke out from various parts of the room. Especially the four students who had declared their allegiance to Hector. They shot up and began chanting his name.
‘I’m going to win.’
Hector began assembling the arms, glancing sidelong at Simon.
The guy had already stalled at the torso. He was clearly in a state of panic.
‘And since I’m going to win anyway, I might as well crush him so thoroughly that he never dares to stand up again.’
Hector finished assembling the right arm. He could have gone to grab the necklace right away, but decided to leisurely finish the left arm as well.
‘I’m going to turn him into the class clown. I’ll shatter that special admission arrogance and drag it down to the ground.’
In a flash, the left arm was complete. Hector had assembled a full skeleton without even looking at a diagram.
Hector’s skeleton began to move. It was a bit wobbly, but each step was steady.
Circling Simon mockingly, the skeleton then lifted the necklace off the model and hung it around its own neck.
Hector raised his muscular right arm high in the air. His skeleton followed suit, lifting its right arm in performance. The students seated burst into boisterous laughter.
"Five minutes remaining."
Aron’s cold voice came.
"……"
Simon was still stuck at the torso.
Was it nerves? Or the pressure from his opponent? The bone order that had been on the tip of his mind had now completely vanished.
‘Stay calm.’
Simon set down the bones he was holding.
Whenever he couldn’t recall the correct order or numbers learned in class, Simon relied on instinct—on his gut—to piece things together.
But that clashed with what knowledge he did have, and the two forces tangled in his mind like a storm.
So Simon made a decision.
Unless you’re some kind of genius with photographic memory, memorizing the intricate order of bones from a single class is impossible.
Therefore, he let go of the knowledge learned in class.
‘This time, I’ll go with instinct. I’ll assemble the way my heart tells me to.’
Simon slapped apart the partially built skeleton with his arm. Gasps erupted all around.
"Did he give up?"
"No talent, no guts."
"How did someone like him even get Special Admission No. 1?"
Simon ignored the voices. He didn’t want to leave even a shred of regret within the time he had left.
He picked up the skull labeled number one. And in that brief moment, the habits and logic etched into his mind screamed at him to grab the number two cervical vertebra next.
‘I’ll do it my way!’
Simon ignored it, and connected the number five, seven, and ten bones to the skull in succession.
"Wait, didn’t he mess up from the start?"
"It’s over."
Simon clenched his teeth.
There was no need to create the "correct" answer. Professor Aron’s requirement was simply to get the skeleton moving and retrieve the necklace, regardless of how it was done.
‘There’s no time. I’ll scrap the complicated structure and simplify it.’
‘Use bone number 20 as the base to build the front legs.’
‘Bone 27 is essential. I can’t skip it. I’ll use 29 instead.’
Aron’s eyes widened as he silently watched Simon’s work.
‘This is…!’
Simon wasn’t building a bipedal Island Ratman.
It was a quadrupedal creature, with both its arms and legs touching the ground.
‘No way. That’s absurd. And yet…!’
There was no mistaking it. The bone structure closely resembled that of the giant rat monster, Gray Rat, said to be found in major cities of the western continent.
They were essentially in the same biological category, and the Gray Rat was believed to be the Island Ratman’s earlier evolutionary form.
‘He’s assembling the bones differently to recreate the Ratman’s pre-evolutionary state?’
Of course, anatomically and ecologically, their internal organs and traits differed greatly, so it wasn’t truly possible to replicate a Gray Rat.
But what Simon was making wasn’t a biological organism, it was an undead, far removed from the realm of natural life. Whether the bones fit properly or not, dark magic could make them move.
‘He connected tailbone 49 to the thorax. That looks plausible.’
‘How does he know that bone 11 and 16 are compatible?’
‘He’s not applying learned concepts and knowledge, but grasping it intuitively?’
What was taking shape before their eyes was, by Aron’s standards, a failure—a complete misfit of an answer.
And yet.
Aron felt a chill run down his spine, like standing before a vast ocean.
‘Something’s strange.’
Meanwhile, Hector sensed something was off about Simon as well.
Simon’s creation, the thing with all four limbs planted on the ground and its torso lowered, was a grotesque skeleton that could never be called an Island Ratman.
And yet, it was undoubtedly becoming something.
"Well done, Simon!"
In the tense silence of the classroom, Cindy Vivace suddenly stood up and raised her hand.
"The shape’s complete! I don’t know what it is, but just finish it like that!"
Before anyone noticed, Dick had also gotten to his feet and shouted.
Other students watched Simon’s creation with anxious expressions. Even Maelyn, the top of Class A, had half-risen from her seat.
Hector bit down on his lip.
I’m the one who built a complete skeleton.
In the shortest time, without even looking at the diagram.
I’m the protagonist.
So why—why isn’t anyone looking at me?
Hector grew restless.
Just like in the first class.
‘I’m not going to just sit here and watch!’
Hector gave a command to his skeleton. Aron had only banned direct movement or the use of other dark magic, any other action was permitted.
Hector’s skeleton began charging toward Simon. Simon, focused on assembling, didn’t seem to notice. Amid the growing noise, shouts of “Watch out!” erupted from all sides.
Wham!
At last.
Hector’s skeleton kicked Simon’s skeleton and shattered it.
It collapsed from the torso down, bone fragments scattering through the air. Students stood up in shock, covering their mouths.
‘I win. Simon Follentia!’
Hector, drenched in sweat, wore a victorious smile.
But.
‘…Why?’
Simon, as if he had known all along, was smiling calmly and stretching out his right arm.
Something was wrong.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and Hector’s gaze followed the direction of Simon’s outstretched hand.
Among the bones that had been launched into the air from the kick, one arm bone flew in a curved arc.
As it passed beside Hector’s skeleton, it performed a simple, singular motion, yet one executed with flawless precision.
Snatch.
The arm grabbed the necklace from Hector’s skeleton and yanked it off. Then, as if it had fulfilled its purpose, it dropped lifelessly to the floor.
Everyone’s mouths fell open.
And then, at that moment—
Ding—!
The clear bell signaling the end of class rang out.
"……"
"……"
A heavy silence settled over the classroom.
No one spoke a word.
Even Aron, holding the necklace in hand, stared blankly at the fallen skeleton arm on the ground.
"Th-this… this isn’t right!"
Hector shouted, nearly hysterical.
"Professor Aron! You said the necklace had to be retrieved with a skeleton! That’s not even a skeleton, just a random, meaningless bone fragment!"
Heh.
A soft laugh rang out.
Everyone turned to where the laugh had come from.
Simon, dripping with sweat and sitting on the floor, lifted his head and looked straight at Hector.
"Doesn’t look that way to me."
Whirr!
The arm bone holding the necklace shot through the air like it was pulled by a magnet and collided with the collapsed torso.
Clack!
Snap!
Click!
Bone fragments scattered across the floor began to attach themselves to the torso one by one. The skeleton staggered as it rose to its feet, and before long, it had fully reassembled into its pre-destruction form.
Hector’s eyes trembled in disbelief.
The skeleton, still gripping the necklace, approached Simon. Then it stood upright and gently placed the necklace around Simon’s neck.
As Hector stared at him with a face twisted like he’d bitten into dung, Simon grinned.
"That’s settled, then?"
No one needed prompting.
The lecture hall erupted in a thunderous roar of cheers.
Superb.