Chapter 490
“.......”
The classroom was swallowed in a confused silence.
And then, the twins strode up to the podium.
With their arms crossed in identical poses, one leg cocked in the same manner, and the same sullen expression plastered on their faces, they stared down at the students.
Then—
“Haaaaah.”
Both let out a heavy sigh at the same time.
“Hopeless. Lin.”
The girl on the left spoke.
“Are we supposed to teach those pathetic things from scratch? Rune.”
The girl on the right replied.
“My chest feels heavy already.”
“At least I asked for them to be matched to 3rd-years.”
“I told you we should’ve just said no to Neftis.”
“But then Neftis would sulk.”
“She might not hang out with us anymore.”
And then the two began chattering away among themselves.
The image the students had expected from Keyzen professors was already shattered, but more than that, the professors themselves were equally disappointed with their students.
“Professor Lin, Professor Rune.”
At that moment, the head teaching assistant stepped forward with a smile.
“Since you’re on the podium, shouldn’t you at least introduce yourselves to the students?”
The head assistant was a charismatic middle-aged man. He looked more like the professor than the professors themselves.
“Professor still sounds weird, Head.”
“Gives me chills, Head.”
“But since you’re asking so nicely, we have no choice.”
“Yeah.”
The two girls clasped their hands together with a clap, then raised them toward the students.
“Hello. My name’s Lin.”
“My name’s Rune.”
‘...Was that it?’
While the students blinked in confusion, Lin, on the left, opened her mouth again.
“Any questions, kiddo?”
Snap!
As if waiting for the cue, a hand shot up high, and a male student stood from his seat.
“Pierre Buckley. Professors—are you not human?”
“Can’t you tell, Pierre?”
“Idiot, Pierre. We’re not human, we’re Undead.”
Simon nodded. That made it even clearer.
The two were Undead—specifically, the most mysterious beings in existence: Ancient Undead.
This time, a female student raised her hand.
“Eldarin Luo. You look quite young outwardly... could it be that your age—”
At those words, the twin professors recoiled with horrified expressions.
“Ghastly! So rude! Eldarin!”
“Asking a lady’s age! Eldarin!”
“Five demerits!”
Eldarin flinched, then protested with an indignant look.
“T-that’s unacceptable! To receive demerits for merely asking your age! Keyzen is a place of strict meritocracy—!”
[Merit?]
The professors’ expressions instantly turned cold.
The surrounding temperature plummeted. Eldarin felt his whole body seize with chill as an immense weight pressed down on him.
[That’s amusing. Yes, Keyzen is a strict meritocracy.]
[We stand here because of our strength, and with that authority, we gave you demerits.]
[If you resist that authority, then come up and prove your strength.]
[Show us if you are stronger than we are.]
Behind the two Ancient Undeads, the sound of children’s laughter echoed like ghostly wails. Eldarin’s lips turned pale blue.
“Th-that’s...!”
Just then, a hand tugged on her clothes.
Rank 5, Aseraz, was shaking her head firmly with a stern expression.
“Cut it out. Don’t wreck the department atmosphere.”
And then, from behind, a chillingly clear voice rang out. The Summonology department’s representative, Hector, spoke coldly.
In the end—
“M-my apologies. I accept my punishment.”
Eldarin bowed low, apologizing to the two girls.
Lin and Rune sighed and waved their hands as if to tell her to sit down. Even now, the timing and speed of their gestures were perfectly identical.
At that moment, the head assistant stepped forward again.
“Professors Lin and Rune have each taken the teaching chair at Keyzen about ten times. Their last lecture was nearly fourteen years ago, so it’s no wonder you students didn’t know. And moreover—”
He glanced around at the class.
“Both professors are Ancient Undeads directly contracted with Lady Neftis. I’ll say no more.”
The students stirred with whispers, and in front of Simon, Toto muttered.
“S-still, it feels kinda weird. Undead teaching humans...”
Simon tilted his head.
“Why? I don’t find it weird at all.”
“R-really?”
In fact, just yesterday Simon had attended Feer’s lecture.
The weekend teachings of Ancient Undead had already become one of Simon’s driving forces for growth. He could almost hear Feer’s clone chuckling: Khhuhuhu!
‘By the way, Feer. Did you hear?’
[I heard, boy!]
‘They said they’re Ancient Undead contracted with Lady Neftis... does that mean Lady Neftis is also a Legion Commander?’
[Khhuhuhu! Impossible. That woman’s a very special case.]
Normally, only Legion Commanders could contract with Ancient Undeads and use them as subordinates. But Neftis was an unfathomable necromancer who defied the common sense of the world.
She maintained her contract with Lin and Rune through a completely different method.
And besides, the twins were the only Ancient Undeads she possessed, other necromancers couldn’t even imitate her.
“Then Professors, perhaps you could begin the lecture now...”
“Fine, Head!”
“We’ll rip plenty from Neftis for this favor, Head!”
The twin professors strode to the blackboard. With a gesture, a white piece of chalk and a pink one flew into their hands.
Tap-tak-tak!
They stood on tiptoe and began writing the word “Funerology” across the board. Even as they wrote, each stroke was split exactly in half, one completing the left side, the other the right.
When it came to drawing the circle at the end, both started at the same spot, traced half a circle each, and click! met at the end.
“Well then.”
“From here, we’ll take a question—”
Having finished writing, the twin professors turned back.
“Oh.”
Over ten students had their hands raised high, waiting eagerly.
Though they’d been unsettled at first by appearances, once the lecture began, that unease had vanished completely.
Professors who had already penalized a student just for asking a question—surely, through questions, they would both grant and deduct points liberally. That was the students’ analysis.
Who stood at the podium didn’t matter.
What mattered was what they could give the students.
And at last, the twin professors seemed satisfied with the enthusiasm. They smiled faintly.
“Of course we’ll take questions, but—”
“The concept of Funerology? That’s too obvious, isn’t it?”
The two whispered to each other, then suddenly asked in unison:
“Which of you kiddos can explain the origin of Funerology?”
The difficulty of the question had risen.
All ten students who had raised their hands let them drop, disheartened.
“No one?”
“Seriously, no one?”
Lin and Rune scanned the class, then suddenly their eyes lit up as they shouted together.
“Loraine! There’s Loraine!”
“I see her too! Knew you’d be here!”
And Loraine, smiling, bowed her head politely to the professors.
“All through your childhood we told you the story of the Pied Piper! Why aren’t you raising your hand, Loraine!”
“Present! Stand up and present, Loraine!”
As all eyes turned to her, Loraine gave an embarrassed smile and rose from her seat.
“Loraine Arkbold.”
Her calm voice rang through the classroom.
“Will the Pied Piper story do?”
The twin professors nodded vigorously. Loraine nodded once as well, then began recalling.
“Once upon a time, there lived an evil necromancer in a village.”
That evil necromancer was the local lord who ruled over the fiefdom. He grew rich by draining the residents of taxes and their very lifeblood.
But none of the villagers could stand against him, his undeads were far too powerful.
Then one day, a terrible drought struck. The villagers faced starvation, and unable to bear it any longer, they ran into the streets to protest against the necromancer’s excessive taxes.
The evil necromancer declared it a “rebellion”. He sent his powerful undeads to disperse the people, then as punishment demanded that each household send one family member to his laboratory for undead experiments.
Those who refused saw their entire families slaughtered.
The villagers had no choice but to yield. Some volunteered themselves for the sake of their families, some were chosen by lot, others were helpless infants, ignorant children, or elderly grandparents. They were dragged off and killed.
Thus the villagers survived, but only through the sacrifice of others.
And in surviving, it was as though they weren’t truly alive at all. Haunted by the shadows of those sacrificed, they lived tormented. Many thought it would have been better to die.
“Then one day.”
In the silent classroom where everyone held their breath, Loraine’s clear voice carried.
“The Pied Piper visited that village.”
The Piper, too, was a necromancer. Hearing the villagers’ story, they begged him to destroy the evil necromancer.
The Piper replied:
—You can never defeat an evil necromancer while alive. But in death, you can. What will you choose?
Tormented by guilt, the villagers took their own lives and became the Piper’s Undeads.
With them, he stormed the evil necromancer’s castle.
But even as undeads, the villagers could not overcome the necromancer’s powerful forces.
“It was then that the Piper played his flute.”
The tune that came forth was the very screams of the family members who had been sacrificed before.
The undead villagers roared in wrath, their strength exploding beyond limits. They tore apart the evil necromancer and his undeads alive, biting them to death.
“And so, the villagers completed their revenge, and finally closed their eyes in peace.”
Loraine sat down. The students buzzed, exchanging thoughts on the grim tale.
“...So very Dark Alliance-esque. What a cruel fairytale.”
“Kids listening would just cry.”
“So is it a happy ending? Or a bad ending?”
“Neither. Maybe both.”
“Quiet! Quiet!”
The head assistant hushed the class. The twin professors nodded in satisfaction.
“We’d like to give Loraine 5 merit points!”
“But she didn’t volunteer herself, so she gets none!”
Loraine smiled.
“That’s fine.”
The professors returned to the blackboard.
“From that story, who can point out the essence of Funerology?”
Simon, Hector, and Aseraz all shot their hands up, but Aseraz was fastest.
Her expression brightened visibly as she stood.
“Aseraz Mikel! Funerology is black magic that strengthens the undeads. In the final scene, the Piper reproduced the screams of the sacrificed through his flute—a funeral dirge—and awakened the strength of the villagers, allowing them to defeat the necromancer they never could have otherwise.”
“Correct, Aseraz!”
“Five merit points, Aseraz!”
“Thank you!”
She cried, sitting down. Hector pounded his desk in frustration.
“The human concept and word of Funerology originates from this Pied Piper tale.”
“Funerology is black magic that empowers undeads.”
“Summoned Undead, once complete, have no real way to power up. Their specs only wear down over time.”
“But! Funerology is virtually the only method of making undeads stronger.”
The twin professors snapped their fingers.
The head assistant, already prepared, opened the subspace and summoned two undeads onto the platform.
“Ghouls!”
At his gesture, the two Ghouls rushed at each other, clawing and biting. Their strength was perfectly matched.
The assistant spread his arms, separating them once more.
“And here!”
The twin professors stepped forward, each placing a hand on a Ghoul’s head.
“What happens if we cast Funerology on one side?”
Fwoooosh!
The Ghoul touched by their hands erupted in pitch-black flames. Empowered with a flame attribute, it overwhelmed the other and burned it to death.
“Wooooah!”
The students clapped wildly, thrilled by the fire-breathing Ghoul.
“And beyond that!”
“There are many different types of Funerology!”
The assistant summoned four more Ghouls, then stepped back. The twins passed by them.
With each touch of their hands, the Ghouls changed: one radiated a freezing chill, one turned transparent like a mirror, one sprouted thorns across its body.
And then the fourth—
“I’ll cast Engorgement! Lin!”
“No! Cast Amplification! Rune!”
The two began bickering over which Funerology to use. The students chuckled quietly.
“Fine then!”
“Let’s cast both!”
Both girls pressed their hands to the Ghoul’s face. Its body swelled like a balloon, bulging grotesquely.
Until—Pop!
Unable to endure, its body burst. Students screamed, ducking or hiding behind desks as chunks of undead flesh splattered across walls and windows.
“This is what happens when you mix two Funerologies wrongly!”
“Greed is bad!”
The professors brushed past as though it had been part of the plan. Assistants calmly used cleaning magic to tidy the mess.
“Now then!”
“Practical time!”
“Today you’ll become the Pied Piper yourselves!”
“You’ll experience the root and foundation of Funerology!”
All the assistants raised their arms high.
Without anyone noticing, a massive teleportation magic circle spread across the entire classroom floor.
‘When did they…!’
Lin and Rune grinned slyly.
“Well then!”
“Off we go!”
With a blinding flash, the professors and students vanished from the lecture hall without a trace.
“......”
As the floating sensation faded, Simon opened his eyes and looked around.
The students who had been sitting in the lecture hall now sat on the ground, startled, glancing about.
“Wh-where are we?”
All around, countless tombstones jutted from the earth.
It was a graveyard.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time