Chapter 435
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu-gu-gu―
Late at night.
Simon, who had been lying in bed asleep, rubbed his eyes and lifted his upper body at the sudden noise.
“Uuuum.”
With a dazed expression, blinking his eyes, he got up from the bed and shuffled his feet.
Then he threw open the window and looked toward the direction the sound came from.
Not far from here, high in the mountains.
It wasn’t the sea, but from the ridges of the mountains, fish shaped like deep-sea creatures were swimming through the air. Around them, rocks, trees, and other things floated as if submerged underwater.
Simon rested his elbow on the window frame and propped his chin on his hand.
“I feel kind of sorry for the president.”
Phantasus caused abnormal phenomena close to dungeon anomalies whenever he slept at night. So he couldn’t sleep indoors, and would seek slumber at the remote peaks of the mountains.
Pung!
Just then, the phenomenon dissolved. Like the snort of a sleeping person bursting, the fish disappeared, and the trees and rocks floating in midair fell back down.
Phantasus had awakened.
Simon turned around. He took a fur-lined robe from the hanger, draped it over himself, then opened the window wider and swung his leg over.
And with a light leap, he jumped from his second-floor room.
There was no special reason to meet him. Since he was awake, he just wanted to keep him company.
Phantasus specialized in sleep curses, but he said that in years, he had hardly ever enjoyed a sound sleep.
Simon ran up the mountain ridge.
And after a short while.
“Huff, huff.”
Had he had a nightmare? Phantasus was drenched in sweat, gasping for breath.
He snapped his head around.
“Who’s there!”
With a rustle, Simon appeared from the bushes.
“It’s me, president.”
“......It was you, successor.”
Phantasus exhaled a sigh with a faint smile.
“What brings you here?”
Simon boldly walked up and plopped down beside Phantasus.
“Just couldn’t sleep?”
“Hu-hu-hu! I see. Neither could I, as it happens.”
Simon looked around.
The surroundings were wrecked as if bombed.
“It’s a kind of curse side-effect.”
Phantasus spoke before Simon could even ask.
“......Side-effect?”
“Yes. I became too obsessed with the Sleep Curse, and craved greater power.”
He took off his upper garment. The eternal magic circles carved into his body squirmed and shifted.
“To polish Sleep to the extreme, I opened what is called Compello... ah, I suppose you wouldn’t know that word. In any case, I crossed lines that should not be crossed, again and again.”
Simon’s eyes widened.
“Compello! I know about it!”
“You know?”
“Yes. I’ve experienced it a few times.”
Phantasus looked surprised, raising his brows.
“Of course, entering immersion naturally as you do is not bad. But I forced open Compello by artificial means every time, and eventually problems arose... hm? Why that expression?”
Simon’s face was stiff, as he opened his palm.
“You mean, like this?”
Simon sketched a magic circle of Compellonia on his palm.
Phantasus was startled, straightening his posture.
“Who taught you this?”
His voice was serious. Simon hesitated on whether to answer honestly, but decided Phantasus could be trusted.
“I learned it from Professor Bahil of Katarology.”
“Professor Bahil... that man.”
Phantasus pressed his palms to the ground and leaned forward.
“He too, then....”
“Yes?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Simon’s eyes sharpened. From his reaction, Phantasus must have learned Compellonia not from Bahil, but from someone else.
“For your sake, I must say this. Seal that curse away from now on. Another victim like me must not arise.”
Simon nodded.
“After trying it once, I’ve been keeping it sealed ever since. I thought the technique far too dangerous.”
“Oh, admirable! You tasted it once and yet could restrain yourself?”
“Yes.”
Of course, as a necromancer, Simon struggled.
The first time he invoked Compellonia, he used Void, and from that hint, he created Chaos.
Then next time? And the time after that, what power could he obtain?
Was Compellonia not the easiest and fastest way to reach greater strength?
But he endured.
—I will curse this world.
Because he did not believe that Professor Bahil had approached him with purely good intentions.
“U-cha.”
Simon stretched, cooling down the heavy mood.
“Since neither of us can sleep, tell me a story.”
“What kind of story?”
“Your Keyzen days, president. The little bits you’ve told during training have been tantalizing. I’ve wanted to sit down once and hear it properly.”
The corners of Phantasus’ mouth rose to his ears.
“Hahahaha! Storytelling is the specialty of Phantasus himself!”
So Simon listened through the night to Phantasus’ tales of Keyzen.
They had much in common. Like Simon, Phantasus had entered Keyzen without prior learning or background, and went through many trials and errors.
“I didn’t choose to learn the Sleep Curse.”
He stared at his palm, then clenched his fist tightly.
“It was just the only thing I could do.”
At the time, the perception of Sleep was poor. Merely a supporting curse, or at best used for capturing monsters, deemed one of the lowest-utility curses.
Students laughed when they saw Phantasus use Sleep in duels, but in his second year, his potential exploded.
“That was my real debut!”
He said, excited.
“The rule was, a hundred students enter an island to fight. At the very start of the exam, I put 99 to sleep on the spot! Then the rule of the exam turned into a competition among the 99—excluding me!”
“Ah!”
Simon gasped in admiration, and Phantasus raised his fist.
“The thrill when those always above me awoke, confused, and looked up at me! Do you understand?”
Simon grinned, bumping fists with him.
“Hearing it makes me feel refreshed.”
Thus Phantasus grew stronger and stronger, until in his third year, he became Keyzen’s student council president, and was even offered the youngest-ever position of ‘Crows’.
Of course, he refused that honorable seat, choosing instead to live as an adventurer.
“Now you are the president of Keyzen.”
Phantasus said, gazing up at the star-filled night sky.
“My younger sister is among the second-years.”
“Yes, I know. Though I haven’t seen her face.”
Merida Hugh Ikel.
A special admit number 4, and a skilled student who maintained 4th rank in the final standings.
“Of course I thought you would recommend your sister as president.”
“Haha! My sister is too small-minded! Conscious of my shadow, she cannot lead a life of her own!”
He shook his head firmly.
“Her talent surpasses mine, but her mindset is the problem.”
“......Haha.”
“In any case, for her sake.”
Phantasus gave a broad smile.
“Make it into a good school.”
Simon nodded.
“Leave it to me.”
* * *
Headquarters of the White Cow Merchant Group.
Warehouse No. 17.
Creak.
Creak.
Dim lights, specks of dust drifting in the air, and in the corner, sacks of grain piled like a mountain.
In this stifling space, a boy slouched in a chair, rocking back and forth.
Around him, all manner of random inventions were strewn across the floor.
Then, from the boy’s mouth, a sigh burst out.
“I’m boooored.”
And he slumped again.
Creak—creak—only the empty squeaks of the chair echoed.
Bang!
The warehouse door opened.
Light spilled into the darkness.
“Dick brother! Di-di-dick brother!”
“Di-di-di-dick brother!”
The fourth, Bill Hayword, and the fifth, Al Hayword, bustled in noisily.
“......You two, I’ll correct you for the hundred-thirty-seventh time.”
Dick said.
“My name is not Di-di-dick, nor Di-di-di-dick, it’s just Dick. Call me once, that’s enough. Got it, you ball-brothers?”
“Brother, are you senile already at your age?”
“We’re not ball-brothers, we’re Bill-brothers! Got it?”
“Same difference.”
The three brothers laughed at their silly banter.
“Oh, right! Di-di-dick brother! A letter came from Simon brother!”
At those words, Dick, who had been slouching in his chair, snapped his head up.
“At last, it’s come!”
He snatched the letter from his brothers’ hands, spun around on the spot.
“My best friend, my roommate, my soul partner Simon! Your reply is far too slow! But such slowness is in truth a refined strategy that drives women mad with impatience, which I, this great one, have seen through completely!”
“Brother, you sound kind of retarded.”
“What novel did you read?”
“Shut it, ball-brothers!”
In an instant, Dick ripped open the envelope and scanned the letter, joy spreading across his lips.
“......This boring, dull, idle vacation ends here!”
He tossed the envelope into the air and shouted.
“Travel! It’s a trip!”
Bill and Al echoed loudly, “Travel! It’s a trip!”
“The flower of vacation is, of course, travel! A sentimental trip, just a few close friends slipping away together! Then, brothers, I must go now, to search for the best destinations for our trip!”
Bill and Al’s eyes filled with envy.
“That sounds fun!”
“Can’t you take us too?”
Chuckling, Dick strode out of the warehouse.
“Ha! Do you want to get beaten to death by Father? Stay here and move goods for the rest of your lives, ball-brothers!”
“No way! Next year we’re entering Keyzen too! Di-di-dick!”
“Put your Core down, I’ll open it right now! Di-di-di-dick!”
Dick burst into loud laughter as he left the warehouse.
* * *
The vampire city.
Tuzeran.
“Good, good! Come at me with that vigor, my daughter Kamibarez!”
With the blood-red moon as the backdrop, in an open lot, two figures fought fiercely.
On one side, the Vampire Lord, Dietrich Von Ursula.
And on the other, a girl engulfed in the dark-red torrent of blood. She dashed along the wall of a building, fangs gleaming.
“Do not be ruled by blood! Resist your nature, hold fast to your reason!”
Crash!
The girl smashed through a wall and leapt. Dietrich wrapped his long cloak around his body.
Kwooooom!
The impact echoed through the whole city. Soon, the crimson torrent receded, as if her strength had waned.
From within emerged a small girl with light-violet hair, panting heavily.
Dietrich smiled.
“Well done.”
He thought sending her to Keyzen had been the right choice.
His daughter, once frail in body and spirit, had returned with a completely transformed will. Kamibarez was overcoming her physical weakness through sheer mental strength.
‘That boy must have had a good influence.’
Thinking of his daughter’s friend, that human named Simon Follentia, Dietrich stroked his chin.
“Lord.”
A vampire in uniform approached.
“Forgive the interruption during training, but a letter has arrived.”
“A letter?”
“Yes, in the name of Simon Follentia....”
Flash!
Kamibarez’s once-dull eyes blazed, a crimson glow bursting forth.
‘Damn! I thought it had completely subsided!’
Dietrich shouted urgently.
“Get out of the way!”
But it was too late.
In a flash, Kamibarez subdued the vampire, baring her fangs with a chilling smile.
Beyond her, the blood-red moon loomed, and in her eyes flickered a crimson gleam. Seeing it, the vampire squeezed his eyes shut instinctively.
Rustle.
But there was no pain.
Only, the letter was gone from his arms.
“Ah....”
When the vampire regained his senses, before him was just an ordinary girl, cheeks blushing, a shy smile on her lips.
“S-sorry! I’ll just go inside first!”
Clutching the letter, she darted into the building.
The fallen vampire blinked in confusion.
“My daughter Kamibarez! The seal must be locked tighter!”
Dietrich scrambled after her.
“Later!”
Thud!
A door slammed shut, and the sound of a bolt sliding into place followed. Moments later, Dietrich trudged back outside.
“L-lord?”
His shoulders drooped.
“Kh-hk! All those years raising my precious daughter, and what use was it!”
“......Excuse me?”
* * *
Behind Langerstine Grand Theater, in an empty lot.
A sky-haired girl opened her eyes with a puff of breath. In the deserted yard of the theater, a massive ice pillar stood.
Expressionless, she stared at the ice, then—
“Achoo! Achoo!”
She sneezed. Sniffling the stray snot back, she hugged her shoulders, shivering.
‘......Ughhh, why does the cold still bite, even though my skills have improved?’
“Training again today?”
In the midst of her solitary practice, a voice intruded. Maelyn turned her head sharply, her eyes widening.
“You’re always working hard, Maelyn.”
A boy in a Keyzen uniform, with blue hair, was walking toward her.
It was none other than—
‘S-s-Simon?!’
“I like that earnest side of you, putting your heart into everything.”
Simon approached, his eyes glistening.
“Drowning, in those blue eyes of yours, I—thwack!”
The words never finished, as Maelyn’s side kick sent him tumbling across the dirt.
Face flushed bright red, Maelyn leapt up and shouted.
“Simon doesn’t say cheesy lines like that!”
“......Haha.”
The one rising from the dust wasn’t Simon. It was a thin, sharp-nosed middle-aged man.
“Y-you’re still strong with your kicks, Agent Maelyn.”
It was Seiyur Griezmann, the illusionist who once deceived Team 7 in the Neutral Zone by posing as an agent, now living his second life as an actor.
Maelyn folded her arms and gave a dry laugh.
“That mission in the Neutral Zone was ages ago. How long are you going to keep using the word agent?”
“It stuck to my tongue... urk! But I think you just broke a rib.”
When Seiyur staggered, Maelyn turned her head with a huff.
“Then don’t transform into Simon!”
“......But Agent Maelyn, you requested it first. You said my male face was too plain for reading lines, and for immersion, to use Agent Simon’s face....”
“Eeeeek! Aaaagh! Enough! Shut your mouth!!”
Flustered, Maelyn flailed her arms, her face scarlet. Seiyur faintly smiled and handed her a letter.
“A letter has come, from Agent Simon.”
“Really?”
Beaming, Maelyn rushed forward and snatched it. Then she gave him a fierce glare.
“If you peeked inside, seriously—”
“......I wouldn’t cross that line.”
“Anyway, thanks for bringing it.”
Seiyur bowed lightly.
“Please do your best for tomorrow’s final performance as well. There are many in the audience who come again and again, enchanted by Agent Maelyn’s voice.”
“If I ever set foot here again, I’m not human!”
Clutching the letter to her chest, Maelyn scurried off.
“Why was your reply so slow, during vacation of all times?”
She tore open the letter as she ran.
Reading Simon’s neat handwriting, a smile slowly spread across her lips.
When she finished, she closed her eyes, savoring the lingering feeling.
“......Just this once, I’ll let it slide.”
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