Chapter 484
The competition for course registration among the second-years was fiercer than ever.
Some students even resorted to flight magic, but that only drew the eyes of flying monsters—and worse, exposed them to the floating cards of Endolas Vaudeville—so it wasn’t the best choice.
‘Good.’
Simon also made it safely to the front of the Katarology building. He thought he had arrived early, but there were already students ahead of him.
“This way!”
“See if there’s another path around the back!”
But something was strange. They ignored the wide-open main entrance and instead circled around, looking for another way in.
‘Is something at the main gate?’
Simon turned his head. Three students lay collapsed before the entrance, trapped in a coffin-like barrier, groaning as they struggled.
‘Thirty-minute forced rest. Their barrier gauges hit zero after being attacked.’
Then who had brought them down?
The answer was right there. In the middle of the downed students, a massive card was planted in the ground.
There was no doubt—it belonged to Endolas Vaudeville.
‘…I see. The main gate is the fastest and most convenient, but a powerful monster is guarding it?’
There was no time to waste detouring. Unless he acted boldly, he’d never get the class on his timetable.
What was needed here was decisiveness.
While other students searched for alternate routes, Simon strode straight toward the gate alone.
Hwaaaaaak!
As he approached, the giant card flared with light and instantly split space apart.
The interior was far wider than other card traps he had fallen into. The surroundings were swallowed in darkness, and something massive rose from the ground.
‘A golem?’
It was a monster clad entirely in pitch-black ore, with only two glowing white eyes.
And it was hostile. The moment it spotted Simon, it lunged with a punch.
Kwooooooom!
Simon rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding it.
The golem’s fist smashed the floor tiles, blasted apart the fountain, and shattered nearby stalls to rubble.
‘Good thing this isn’t the real campus.’
This was a separate dimension, mimicking the school. Simon quickly shifted his completed magic circle to his fingertip, ready to fire.
The fastest and simplest curse:
<Exhaust>
The smoky projectile slammed straight into the golem’s body.
‘It landed!’
The curse took hold—but the golem merely slowed a fraction. Simon had to throw himself aside again to dodge the next blow.
“Ghk!”
Unprepared, his desperate roll sent him tumbling across the hard floor. His body screamed with pain, but even while rolling, he began casting another curse.
<Sickness>
<Weakness>
Curses flew one after another, but the golem’s assault never faltered.
Kwooooom!
The creature’s massive arm brought down a building in one swing.
Simon sprinted through falling debris as entire classrooms crashed down, desks and chairs scattering like shrapnel.
‘Three curses landed, and it barely reacts. How do I crack this?’
Dodging and cursing in turn, Simon gathered data.
Soon, he realized key truths.
First, the golem didn’t stack curses. The first Exhaust hit, but the second was simply deflected.
Second, after Sickness wore off, casting it again worked but at a heavily diminished effect. It seemed once a curse landed, the monster gained resistance.
‘I get it now.’
He finally grasped the examiner’s intent.
‘Don’t rely on stacking. Bring it down with one decisive curse.’
Panting, Simon hid behind rubble and flipped through his Katarology textbook. He hadn’t memorized every spell by heart, only skimmed many of them in class.
‘Found it!’
He traced the spell into the air at once.
“Rune Formula: Expansion.”
He recalled enough from lectures, relying on memory and Darkness. The magic circle snapped together, and Simon leveled his finger like a gun barrel.
A curse to obscure vision.
<Blind>
Swoooosh!
The curse bullet struck the golem’s face. Of its entire black-rock body, only those stark white eyes stood out—so Simon had aimed there.
The glowing orbs dimmed to gray, and the golem’s strikes lost precision.
‘It worked, but this isn’t the finishing move.’
Blind was only for buying time. He needed to end it before it wore off.
Simon slowly rose from cover, breathing steadily.
‘My strongest strike.’
He opened his palm, closed his eyes, and summoned focus.
Groooaaan…
It felt as though he sank into a silent ocean. Bubbles drifted upward.
From the abyss came the haunting cry of a whale.
‘I must recreate that sensation completely…’
He remembered the colossal pupil of the sea’s ruler, and the desperate countermeasure he once used.
Kiinnng—!
A circle began etching itself into his palm.
‘Overload the circle by forcing Darkness beyond its limits!’
The magic circle tore apart, blooming into a three-dimensional blossom. Black mana pulsed, dragging an overwhelming power into reality.
Simon’s eyes snapped open.
The very curse he once used against an enormous monster.
<Simon’s Original – Sleeping Deimos>
With a whale-like wail, a torrent of dark-blue energy surged forth, crashing into the golem.
BOOOOM!
The blast broke like waves against stone. The golem staggered and collapsed flat on the ground.
Thuuuuud!
The shockwave tore through everything, hurling debris as the ground trembled.
Simon shielded his head with his arms and endured.
“…?”
Peeking, he saw the monster lying sprawled, asleep. Beyond it, a gate of cards shimmered.
‘I did it!’
Afraid it might wake, Simon didn’t celebrate—he tiptoed quickly through the gate.
Wooooong!
The barrier shattered. Passing through, Simon now stood in the Katarology building’s 3rd-floor hallway.
A direct transfer.
Given the difficulty of the test, the reward was fittingly generous.
‘Alright, let’s go!’
* * *
Katarology Department Building, 2nd-Year Campus
Bahil’s new laboratory.
Click.
Chehekle, the head assistant of Katarology, placed a tray with coffee on the table.
“Professor, your coffee.”
Then she stepped back respectfully, hands folded.
“……”
Normally, the man in the pristine white suit guzzled coffee like an addict. But today, Bahil lounged in his chair, uninterested, barely breathing.
Piles of documents and belongings from the 1st-year campus cluttered the room, still unpacked despite the new semester. Even the enormous blackboard covering one wall remained untouched.
Chehekle glanced at it—Simon Follentia’s name was scrawled across it, a scar of frustration.
“Professor, today is course registration day.”
“……”
“Students are coming. Please drink your coffee and prepare to receive them.”
Srrrr—
Bahil’s fingers twitched.
He was notoriously picky, always using only his own tableware. Even when dining out, he demanded food be served on his personal dishes.
Clink.
He grasped the cup’s handle, and Chehekle watched expectantly. But for a full minute, Bahil sat motionless. Then his grip slackened.
Instead, he dipped his finger into the scalding coffee, sucked it clean, and then let his arm fall limp like a corpse.
Was this man human—or a zombie?
“Professor!!”
Chehekle finally snapped, anger flashing.
“What are you doing?! You disappeared without a word, troubling all the other professors! And now—what, the world ends if a student refuses to take your class?!”
“Yes.”
Bahil finally opened his mouth.
His voice was drained, devoid of even a spark of vitality.
“My world has collapsed.”
“Collapsed? What nonsense! What about your insane ambition to curse the entire world?! You said it yourself, Professor—that Simon was just a piece of the puzzle for that plan!”
“Chehekle.”
A lifeless smile touched his lips.
“He is a talent that might be born once in ten thousand years. But my lifespan does not reach ten thousand. A gifted necromancer lives perhaps 150 years, yes? Too short to wait for the next millennia.”
“…No, Professor!”
Bahil’s lips curved higher.
“It was my mistake. I was too hasty. I should have raised him for years in a positive environment, nurtured him into a brilliant curse master, and only then acted. Instead, I tried to teach Compellonia to a mere boy of seventeen, not even a year past opening his Core. Simon is clever, he must have realized at once what I intended to do to him.”
“……”
Chehekle fell silent. Bahil’s dim eyes shifted to her.
“Chehekle, you are too talented to remain under me. Do as you wish. I will write a recommendation to Lady Neftis. As a professor of Katarology, guiding children directly will be a new field for you.”
“Professor.”
“If not, you have always longed to be free of me. That too is fine.”
“Professor.”
“And if what you want is revenge against me—”
“The one I want revenge on isn’t this half-dead shell of you!!”
She snapped, shouting.
“What are you doing?! You, collapsing over something like this? You, Bahil Amagar, who was praised as the greatest of all time?!”
She grabbed the class roster off the floor and flung it at his face with a thwack!
The booklet slid down. Bahil’s cheeks were flushed red, but he only smiled weakly.
“It seems students have come to register, Professor.”
Hearing footsteps, Chehekle straightened her tie and smoothed her expression.
“Compose yourself. It is discourteous to let students see you in this state.”
“I no longer care…”
“Compose yourself.”
Her cold voice cracked like a whip as her heels clicked across the floor. A knock sounded at the office door.
“Yes, coming.”
She steadied her voice and opened it.
And then—
“Ah!”
Chehekle’s hardened face suddenly lit up brightly.
“Professor! Look here! Your very first student has come to see you!”
“……”
Bahil ruffled his disheveled hair, sitting upright at last.
And then—
“!”
He saw him.
A blue-haired boy, stepping shyly inside.
Holding Bahil’s Katarology course registration slip.
“Ah, hello, Professor Bahil.”
Simon bowed politely. Bahil froze like a statue, silent.
The air grew painfully awkward.
“Um…”
Scratching his head, Simon steadied his resolve.
“I think I was too harsh back in the infirmary. I’d like to apologize.”
“……”
“Even if your intentions weren’t pure, without Compellonia, I would have died in my fight against Sillage. You saved me. Thank you for teaching me curses all through my first year.”
He bowed again.
‘Ah…!’
Emotion welled in Bahil’s eyes.
How? How could such a student exist?
“I’ve chosen Summonology as my major, but… I still wish to learn curses from you, Professor Bahil.”
I still wish to learn curses from you, Professor Bahil.
I still wish to learn curses from you, Professor Bahil.
I still wish to learn curses from you, Professor Bahil.
I still wish to learn curses from you, Professor Bahil.
Those words echoed madly through Bahil’s mind.
“If you would permit it, please allow me to enroll.”
Simon held out the form with both hands. Bahil accepted it with trembling fingers.
His chest tightened, his throat choked.
He could not speak.
That it had been his own greed. That he, too, had always wished to continue teaching Simon.
The words stuck. His voice failed him.
All he could do was sign the form with a shaking quill.
“Thank you!”
Simon smiled brightly.
After exchanging a few more words with Chehekle, he left the office.
And the moment he was gone—
“Heh…heh.”
A laugh slipped from Bahil’s lips.
“Hehh—hahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
His whole body convulsed like a madman’s as he laughed.
The light returned to his eyes. Blood surged through his veins. His heart thundered.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Simon Follentia!!”
“Keep your voice down!”
Chehekle hissed, pressing a finger to her lips, worried someone outside would hear.
“Simon has gone. The second student is already waiting.”
“I have no time to waste my elation on those vermin, Chehekle!”
He spread his arms wide, laughing like a fiend.
Simon Follentia—the boy who had touched the realm of gods—said he still wanted to learn curses from him.
“Good! Good! Excellent!”
Bahil whipped his head around, his lips curling in a schemer’s grin.
“Chehekle! Do you know the word ‘Special’ that the students use?”
“…N-no, I don’t.”
“Ha! Unacceptable! An educator must keep up with the culture and language of teenagers!”
His sudden mania left Chehekle bewildered.
“‘Special’ means ‘department characteristic’! And the most notorious one for Summonology is this—”
His eyes glimmered with madness as he ran his hand over his face.
“Transfer.”
“……”
“For fifty years, Summonology has had the highest transfer-out rate of all seven majors. Even Senior Aron’s affection for Simon will last only this semester!”
His grin sharpened.
“I will reclaim Simon.”
‘You never had him to begin with.’
Chehekle sighed deeply.
Perhaps she had unsealed a monster. The thought worried her, just a little.
“I’ll let the second student in.”
At least for today, she was simply glad that Bahil had returned to being Bahil again.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters