Chapter 121
“I apologize on behalf of my brother and the royal family.”
Princess Molly bowed politely. Simon flailed his hands in panic.
“N-no! Your Highness!”
“I swear on my name that neither my brother nor Dresden will ever bother you again. I sneaked out too, so please allow me to arrange a formal apology later. Then, goodbye.”
She disappeared with a female student dressed in a maid’s uniform. Only then did Simon let out a sigh of relief.
As long as she was around, he didn’t need to worry about Andre’s retaliation anymore.
* * *
This was during a moment after the duel evaluation had safely ended, while Simon was stopping by the clubroom to do maintenance on Overlord.
“Hey, dude.”
Benya, who was helping him with the work nearby, spoke up.
“You said you’re taking Professor Aron’s class, right?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you learning these days?”
Simon paused for a moment, then replied.
“Hmm, come to think of it, we’ve been setting aside skeletons and other undead, and focusing solely on zombies lately.”
“…Zombies?”
At the word zombies, Benya froze with a grim expression. Dio, a second-year who was lazing around on the clubroom sofa as always, lifted his head slightly.
“Yeah. Is there a problem?”
“No, no problem. But if you’re studying zombies right now, then soon…”
Benya shook his head.
“You’ll be going there soon.”
“There?”
“...Ugh!!”
A sudden scream made both of them turn.
Dio was clawing at his own head and thrashing around.
“Damn it, I told you not to bring that up! It triggers my freshman-year trauma!”
“I had fun though!”
“Fun, my ass, it’s horrifying just thinking about it.”
Benya laughed loudly. Simon had no idea what they were talking about, so he just glanced back and forth between them.
“At the end of Professor Aron’s zombie unit, there’s an important ‘practical evaluation’.”
Benya explained.
“It might seem horrifying at the time, but looking back on it a year later, it’s all just fond memories~”
As Benya reminisced, over her shoulder, Dio was casting Simon a pitiful expression that clearly said, “You poor soul.”
* * *
Not long after Benya brought it up, a practical evaluation schedule was actually announced in Summonology class. It was a fairly large-scale evaluation that cleared out an entire day’s schedule.
The gathering place wasn’t the usual Summonology lecture room, but the teleportation magic circle they used when heading out on missions.
This clearly meant they’d be going off Roke Mountain.
[Interesting. Take me with you!]
When Simon told Feer what Benya had mentioned, Feer perked up with excitement.
‘Why do you want to come, Feer?’
[I’ve been meaning to check that place out! I was planning to visit during your vacation anyway.]
If Feer was going this far to say that…
[There’s a high chance the Zombie General of the Legion, “Prince”, is there!]
A potential new Legion General.
Of course, Simon was all for it. After missing the chance to acquire Viccrum, he didn’t want to let go of even the slightest opportunity.
There had been no mention of subspace inspections at Keyzen, and according to the upperclassmen, once the evaluation began, they’d be free to act as they pleased, so Simon accepted Feer’s proposal.
On the day of the evaluation.
Simon stored Feer and numerous legionized skeletons into subspace and arrived at the teleportation circle, the meeting point.
‘Oof.’
Having visited Feer’s ruins early that morning, he was already starving.
While nibbling on a wheat bun he bought from the snack stand, seated under the shade of a tree…
“Simon!”
Kamibarez came running over from the hill, waving her hand.
Her ever-smiling face had a kind of charm that made those around her feel better just by looking at it. Simon smiled and waved back.
“Hey, Kami.”
“Can I sit next to you?”
“Of course.”
She sat beside him, brought her legs together, rested her arms on her knees, and smiled cheerfully.
“You look like you're in a good mood today.”
“Yes! It’s our first group practical evaluation in a while!”
Indeed, Aron had declared that this practical evaluation would retain the same group formations from Jane’s class. Glancing around, Simon saw that all the students from Class A were gathered and chatting within their assigned groups.
“I’m a little worried, though.”
Simon said while chewing on his bread.
“About what?”
“The seniors in my club said this practical is tough.”
“Ah~ I heard that too. Apparently, Class C went before us, and they were so drained that they were totally spaced out in class the next day.”
“Ooh! What’s this, what’s this?”
Simon looked up.
Somehow, Dick had shown up and was now grinning mischievously down at them.
“Look at you two, getting all cozy! Wow! We’ve got ourselves a couple here!”
“Dick!!”
Kamibarez turned bright red to the tips of her ears and shouted. Simon just kept nibbling on his bread, used to this by now.
“I told you it’s not like that!!”
Kamibarez jumped up and covered Dick’s mouth with both hands.
Even as Dick mumbled “Mmph, mmph!”, when he managed to say a few more words, her face turned beet red and she began slapping his forearm in embarrassment.
‘I swear, Kami’s the only one who plays along with me anymore.’
Dick was clearly enjoying teasing her.
“Hey! Stop messing with our Kami!”
Maelyn approached, her sky-blue hair fluttering. Dick shrugged.
“I think it’s a bad habit to judge someone without hearing both sides of the story.”
“Yeah, based on your usual behavior.”
“Wow—harsh.”
Maelyn shook her head.
“Just thinking about how you caused chaos with that tongue of yours at the beginning of the semester still makes me want to die of embarrassment.”
“Ooh! So you’ve built up a resistance lately?”
“Of course!”
“Feeling confident, huh? Shall I test it?”
Dick suddenly bent his knees and made a show of placing his hands on his thighs. Maelyn coldly retorted,
“Oh, standing in this position made my legs sore. Mind if I touch them?”
“...!”
Dick’s expression hardened. She had nailed his next line exactly.
He awkwardly pretended to change his stance, then stretched his legs wide.
“Were you gonna do that ‘standing square’ bit or whatever?”
“W-what the hell, how did you...?!”
“If you’re gonna beat a dead horse, at least know when to stop. That gag’s been reused so many times it’s brain-dead now.”
“You’re amazing, Maelyn!”
Kamibarez clapped and cheered. Before they knew it, even Simon was watching Maelyn’s counterattack with interest.
Dick rubbed his face like a man facing the greatest crisis of his life.
“Wow, damn. I was saving this for a special occasion.”
“Quit spouting crap and focus on the practical evaluation.”
“Now, I shall recreate Maelyn’s signature victory pose.”
“Signature?”
Maelyn’s expression turned slightly anxious.
“When Maelyn won during the duel evaluations, it was something like this.”
Dick folded his arms. He placed his left arm over his belly button and raised his right toward his face. He straightened one leg and slightly bent the other, striking a curvy, tilted pose.
Then, from that stance, he pushed his hair back with his right hand and gave a sly smile.
“Try harder, commoner.”
Pffft!
Puhuh!
The students who had been watching, wondering what was going on, couldn’t hold back their laughter any longer.
Simon spat out the bread he was chewing into the grass, and Kamibarez quickly covered her mouth. As for Maelyn herself, her face turned bright red.
“Ahaha! Didn’t I nail it? Now for the next pose—”
“Don’t you dare, you lunatic!”
Maelyn pulled her bag out of subspace and began beating Dick with it. He took the hits square to the face and collapsed into the grass as a one-sided assault ensued.
“Another beatdown ending!”
“Die!”
Laughter erupted from all around.
“Hah, seriously.”
One of the girls near Hector’s group scoffed.
“They’ve got zero sense of the mood. They don’t even know where we’re going and they’re acting all carefree—don’t laugh, dumbass!”
“Ow!”
She smacked the boy standing beside her on the back of the head.
As everyone was chatting away energetically—
“Attention.”
Aron finally appeared.
All the students’ eyes widened.
He wasn’t wearing his usual wrinkled t-shirt, shorts, and slippers. Instead, he was clad in a coat lined with black feathers.
‘Whoa, so clothes really do make the man.’
He looks like a completely different person.
As the students quietly admired him, Aron spoke in his signature languid tone.
“No time to waste. Everyone, step onto the teleportation circle.”
As usual, Aron was the kind to send students off without a single explanation. After they entered the circle, he finally stepped into the center.
Wuuuuuuung!
It was the now-familiar feeling of teleportation. Simon closed his eyes as he felt his feet lift off the ground.
He opened his eyes.
The image he had in his head, formed from senior testimonies and rumors, vanished cleanly. This place was beyond anything he’d imagined.
A world of black.
Just stepping into this space and breathing made him feel uneasy.
The sky was pitch-black, and red cloud-like forms drifted through the air, creating an unfamiliar flow. Weeds and what might’ve once been flowers grew from the ground, but they had lost all life and crumbled like paper.
It was easy to see why people called this place the Land of Death. The expressions of the other Class A students, transported along with him, showed visible discomfort at the alien, desolate landscape.
Rustle.
Kamibarez, terrified, clung to Simon’s sleeve. He gently patted her on the shoulder, whispering that it would be okay.
“Attention.”
Aron, in his black-feathered coat, stepped to the center. The students gathered around him.
“No need for panic. This is the southern region of the Shahed Kingdom, on the continent. A place called Deathland.”
Aron began his explanation.
“Deathland is considered one of the ten greatest mysteries of the continent. The powerful black magic cast on this area has mixed with natural phenomena to cause bizarre effects. One of the most notable examples—”
He plucked a faded flower from the ground.
“In this region, the concept of decay does not exist.”
Tap.
He tapped the flower with his finger, and it crumbled to dust.
“When a living creature dies here, even after time passes, it does not rot or disintegrate. Its form remains. Because of that, this place is—”
Aron smirked as he continued.
“Known as paradise for zombies.”
The students went pale. Strange, grotesque groaning sounds—clearly zombie-related—had been echoing from the surroundings for a while now.
“This Summonology practical evaluation will proceed as a group assignment, as previously announced.”
Aron glanced at the wristwatch on his arm.
“You’ve all studied zombies and learned the magic circle used to raise them. The task is simple. Before the time limit, create the best summon-type zombie you can in this Deathland, and present it to me.”
Simon’s eyes widened.
‘…A mission to create zombies!’
That meant dragging in the natural undead scattered around Deathland would be useless. Only summon-type zombies created by students using magic circles would be evaluated.
“Evaluation criteria include the zombie’s completeness, originality, combat ability, and even the magic circle used in its creation. No points for teamwork. All four team members will receive the same score and ranking based on the zombie they present.”
Aron grinned darkly.
“I hope there won’t be any crybabies scared of a little zombie. You are necromancers. Approach this evaluation like necromancers.”
Superb.