Chapter 275
"Can you use holiness?"
"...!!"
At Farahan's question, Simon felt goosebumps crawl all the way up his neck.
How?
How did he know?
Simon desperately tried to maintain a smile, but his facial muscles stiffened despite his efforts.
His mouth went dry, his throat churned, but he managed to squeeze out a single sentence.
"I'm not sure what you mean, Professor."
"Heh heh!"
To Simon, the old man—who had suddenly become a source of fear—stroked his beard and smiled gently.
"I’ve lived my whole life with holiness. I can feel a faint trace of holiness in you. More than anything, when I touched your body during class earlier."
Farahan opened his palm.
"The extreme rejection reaction a necromancer should have simply didn't happen. Aside from your pained response, your body accepted my holiness without any resistance."
Simon’s face turned pale. Was that test earlier... meant to confirm this?
"I understand what you're worried about."
Farahan said in a warm voice.
"You can walk away now and we’ll pretend this never happened. This old man has no intention of harming a young man with a bright future ahead of him."
"......"
Simon still didn’t lower his guard.
He couldn’t answer so easily.
He didn’t even know if Professor Farahan was someone he could trust, or what he intended to do with this information.
However, he now knew that denying his ability to use holiness in front of this man was meaningless. Farahan was a master of holiness, and it was clear that he’d prepared this meeting with some degree of certainty.
If the professor of Defense Against Holiness testifies to Keyzen HQ, it’ll all be over.
Keyzen had become extremely sensitive to spies after the Saint incident. If he were interrogated as a holiness user, the truth about Richard and Anna might even come out.
As Simon hesitated, Farahan, reading his expression, stood up.
"I must’ve been too hasty. Let’s end it here for today."
"......"
Should he walk away and wait for another opportunity?
No.
Now that this man knew his secret, dragging things out would only make things worse.
"Continue."
Simon didn’t stand up from his seat.
"I want to hear more, Professor."
At those words, a strange light entered Farahan’s eyes. Though not a direct answer, Simon’s words carried strong intent.
"Not like most young people these days. Few are patient enough to sit down and have a proper conversation with an old man."
He began to loosen the neat uniform he was wearing.
"If I’m to earn your trust, I suppose I should tell you about my situation first."
Rustle!
The moment Farahan opened his robe and revealed his torso, Simon was shocked.
Across his chest and abdomen, numerous Eternal Magic Circles were ticking and spinning.
"As you can see, my life is in the hands of Keyzen HQ."
Farahan said.
"One flick of their finger, and this old man would return to the earth immediately."
"Th-That’s way too extreme! No matter what—!"
"I’m grateful for it."
Farahan said, stroking his beard.
"I was a man with nowhere to go, having betrayed the Federation. The necromancers had no reason to spare our lives either. But Lady Neftis personally granted us mercy."
He laughed.
"On the other side of the world, I still get to live, I have a respectable job, and I get to share my knowledge with the younger generation. My final years are happier than anyone else’s, truly."
"......"
"Of course, my assistants are under the same circumstances. The Eternal Magic Circles are Keyzen’s way of maintaining control in exchange for allowing us to work here. If they let priests run around without any leash, no parent would ever allow their child to study here."
His gaze turned toward Simon.
"A holiness user among necromancers, our situations are quite similar. I understand your pain and sympathize with it more than anyone else possibly could."
A calm smile, a composed expression.
Watching someone express their sincerity so perfectly made Simon realize that age and experience truly couldn’t be dismissed.
Simon sighed quietly and spoke.
"......What is it that you want from me?"
"You’ve got the question backward."
Farahan smiled.
"What is it that you want from me?"
"!"
"You’re the student, and I’m the teacher. You’re here to learn, and I’m here to teach. Yes, for example..."
Farahan’s voice dropped lower.
"If you so wish, I could teach you white magic, formally."
At those words, Simon’s heart thudded and began to pound faster.
"I don’t reject you, someone who can wield both darkness and holiness. Do you believe in fate?"
Simon shook his head.
"N-No, I don’t."
"I do. I believe the Goddess must’ve had a very significant reason for granting holiness to you, a necromancer. To put it more bluntly..."
Farahan’s expression grew serious.
"I sometimes think that I reached Keyzen before my final breath just to meet you."
Simon's mind was in turmoil.
A sudden, secret offer to study white magic?
[Kuhahahahaha!]
Out of nowhere, Feer’s booming laughter echoed in Simon’s head. Simon jolted in surprise, his shoulders flinching.
‘Y-You scared me, Feer! How long have you been watching?’
[That old man’s completely mad! Offering to teach white magic at Keyzen, the holy land of necromancers? Kuhuhu!]
Simon hesitated for a moment and asked,
‘Are you against it, Feer?’
[No reason to be! Back during the Saint incident, I too experienced that cursed “holy undead” state. And you’ve already used that holy explosion technique. You’re already too deeply involved with holiness to walk away now.]
‘......’
Above all, Simon was thinking of Anna’s voice.
—Because half of Simon comes from Mom. I hope Simon will take an interest in the place where Mom was born and lived.
No matter how much he tried to deny it, half of him was a priest.
More than anything, holiness was his asset. Just because he’d become a necromancer didn’t mean he had to bury this power.
If there’s something to be learned, he wanted to learn it all.
"......Professor, I..."
With a trembling voice but a determined gaze, Simon looked at Farahan.
"I want to learn white magic."
As if he’d been waiting for that exact answer, Farahan beamed with delight and nodded.
Farahan conducted a brief test with Simon.
He needed to know Simon’s current level in white magic to tailor the right curriculum.
"Amazing! Truly amazing!"
Farahan couldn’t stop expressing his admiration.
Simon hadn’t specialized in any one field, but he could use a wide variety of techniques. Not only the basic offensive spell Holy Arrow, but also Heal and Cure, the foundations of Healing Studies, as well as Strength, Haste, and Endurance from Blessing Studies, and even basic defensive techniques from Defensive Arts.
The reason he’d learned so broadly, of course, was because he hadn’t taken actual priest training, but had been trained in the Holy Federation to pretend to be a priest.
"Your fundamentals are solid. I’d believe it if someone told me you were a first-year priest at Efnelle!"
In fact, Simon had successfully deceived countless inquisitors during his time in the Federation.
"I don’t know who taught you, but you were taught very well."
Simon gave a faint smile. At the same time, he appreciated that Farahan didn’t pry into who had taught him.
Farahan, scribbling away with his quill pen, spoke excitedly,
"It’s been a long time since I last gave a lecture on white magic, and I’m thrilled. By the way, do you have any field in white magic you’d like to specialize in? Of course, you can also just work on raising your overall proficiency."
"Hmm, let’s see..."
After a moment of thought, Simon asked,
"Would it be possible for me to learn Divine Beastology?"
"It’s not impossible, but you can’t even start the class without a divine beast. And in the lands of the Dark Alliance, finding a divine beast is like picking a star out of the sky."
"I figured as much."
For now, he decided to learn broadly across all areas and see which of the seven Efnelle disciplines suited him best.
‘To think I’d be talking about white magic here in Keyzen.’
Simon lifted his head and looked out the window.
‘I wonder how Lete’s doing.’
* * *
Heaven Island.
Efnelle Headquarters.
"Amazing. Truly amazing."
Rahol, the archbishop of the Holy Federation and professor of Holiness Dynamics, was frowning. In front of her, a girl wearing a pristine white Efnelle uniform sat in a chair.
"Just look at the mess you caused over the past week."
Rustle—
Rahol scattered the documents across the desk. The girl turned her head slightly, wearing a defiant expression.
"Assault on classmates, attacks on upperclassmen, assault, assault, assault, and assault."
Rahol read through the reports and then pressed her fingers against her temple, sighing deeply.
"Why do you keep getting into fights with everyone, Lete?"
The girl, with hair white as snow and golden eyes devoid of emotion, scoffed.
"They started it. One of them kept pestering me with some dumb confession, so I just punched him. Dating is against the rules at Efnelle anyway, and you hate it too, Professor."
"Violence is an even bigger rule violation!"
Rahol shouted, then clutched her throbbing head.
"For heaven’s sake, as the number one freshman of Efnelle’s entrance class! No, even before that, as a female priest! Conduct yourself properly! Are you some six-year-old boy in a playground brawl? Why do you keep beating people up?! Have some dignity! Dignity!"
"What, so female priests can’t beat people up?"
When Lete muttered sarcastically, sparks flew in Rahol’s eyes.
"Lete!"
"Honestly, Efnelle’s way too rigid and uptight. Everything’s about status, rank, gender. If you don’t act ‘appropriate’, then it’s just nagging, nagging, nagging."
"You know very well, Lete! A reverent heart comes from reverent behavior! That’s the foundation of being a priest!"
"And even when I act all solemn and proper, my holiness doesn’t increase or anything. Even now, while I’m punching people left and right, my holiness is still the same."
Rahol let out a deep sigh. Did this brat eat something rotten?
Lete had always been a little rough around the edges, but she used to act reverently, befitting a priest. At some point, though, she’d started to change.
Yes, probably since the break. After the vacation ended and the second semester began, Lete started questioning everything enforced by Efnelle and the Holy Federation.
Who did she meet? What kind of influence did they have on her?
"You show absolutely no remorse."
Rahel stared coldly at her.
Lete was one of Efnelle’s core talents, destined to become a major figure in leading the Federation in the future.
Although the next Saint of Purification hadn’t yet appeared, Lete was overwhelmingly considered the number one candidate.
The upper ranks were already biting at Rahol, asking whether she was properly managing Lete. Before Lete one day became a saint and ascended to semi-divinity, Rahol figured it was best to correct her behavior now.
"Kneel. Lete."
"Yeees~"
Lete replied flatly, got off the chair, and dropped to her knees on the floor without expression.
"You are hereby ordered to a 12-hour fasting prayer. You will pray to the Goddess and reflect thoroughly on what you’ve done wro—"
"Professor Rahol!"
The door burst open and a monk ran in. He whispered something urgently into Rahol’s ear, and her face twisted with displeasure.
"I’m going right now."
Rahol stood abruptly and glared down at the kneeling Lete.
"Remember this. Twelve. Hours."
"Yes~ See you later~"
Lete said, clasping her hands together as if preparing for prayer.
Rahol hurried out with the monk.
"Up we go~"
Lete immediately stood, didn’t even look back, and walked straight through the side door.
"As if I’m crazy enough to sit around and do that nonsense."
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters