Chapter 492
The atmosphere of the twin professors shifted.
Standing on the left, Lin raised her index finger and spoke.
“Now, follow after me. Slowly, as slowly as possible. Finde-die Die-be!”
Simon stammered, repeating after her as slowly as he could.
“Fin-ded-ie D-ie-be!”
“How’s that? See how the rhythm breaks?”
On the right, Rune sharply pointed it out.
“This time, it’s this. Ra-v-ri-ma-đưa ra. anh!”
“Rav-rima-đưara. anh!”
Once again, Simon stumbled and broke the beat.
Even with Professors of Keyzen personally giving him a private lesson, he still failed! His face flushed hot with shame.
‘Am I really tone-deaf after all?’
“Then let’s go with something easier! Lin?”
“I think that’s a good idea, Rune!”
The two girls wagged their fingers and spoke in unison.
“School bell rings, ding. ding. ding. Hurry and gather!”
“???”
Simon looked blank. The difficulty had suddenly dropped way too much.
“What are you doing! Repeat it!”
“Ah, yes.”
Though embarrassed, Simon obediently followed their lead. The twins nodded in unison.
“See? You’re doing fine, Simon!”
“What do you think the problem is, Simon?”
Simon scratched the back of his neck.
“That just now wasn’t a funeral hymn, it was just a simple song.”
“You can sing normal songs fine, so why only mess up with funeral hymns, Simon?”
“Why is it only funeral hymns where your rhythm goes off? Have you ever thought about that, Simon?”
‘Now that they mention it…’
The twins spun around each other, laughing.
“You’ve known it all along.”
“What the true answer is.”
“In truth, Finde-die Die-be is supposed to be sung like you do, Fin-ded-ie D-ie-be.”
“That’s the original.”
Simon’s head spun.
What on earth were they saying?
“The first funeral song you were taught in your Summon Funerology class was a human song.”
“A system that uses the human voice to activate a magic circle made by humans—so the melody had to be aligned to the circle.”
“But the way you sing it is the raw, original method.”
“Simon, you’re not tone-deaf. You just know the truth, so you can’t get used to the false way.”
“For someone like you, we’ll teach something new.”
The two cleared their throats, spread a soundproof barrier around them, and then began to sing a new song together.
[Der König von Undead fiel hier nieder――!!]
“!!”
Simon felt goosebumps race all across his body.
“Repeat it.”
Simon reproduced their song exactly as he heard it. It was short, just a few lines long.
And this time, Simon managed it without difficulty.
“You understand now. Keep singing.”
“Close your eyes and summon the Darkness.”
Simon closed his eyes and began to sing.
“Ich sclwöre bie-de Dun kelheit.”
His emotions surged. As though making up for all his earlier humiliation, the song flowed from him effortlessly.
“Good, you’re doing well!”
“Like when commanding the undead—”
“Stronger!”
“Put more will into it!”
Simon furrowed his brows, singing with force, when suddenly he felt a heavy, swelling sensation under his chest.
“Louder!”
“Higher!”
Simon inhaled deeply.
Then, with a sensation of spewing out the suffocating thing lodged deep in his chest—
[Der König von Undead fiel hier nieder――!!]
Without realizing it, Simon unleashed Absolute Order—not through thought, but through his voice.
Drrrrrk.
Drrrrrk.
As Simon sang, the stone chambers of the graves in that complex place ground open with heavy noises. Skeletons and zombies began to rise.
Fwoosh!
Thud!
Arms of zombies pushed up from the ground, and skeletons’ eye sockets glowed as they surged forth.
[Der König ist Zurück―!!]
One.
Two.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of undead from the graveyard.
They gathered before Simon.
“As expected.”
“So it was.”
The twin professors clasped hands. All the undead in the area rose, bowing and kneeling in worship before Simon.
“Ah.”
At last opening his eyes, Simon shuddered at the sight around him.
[Kuhuhuhu! Took one right to the gut, didn’t I?]
Feer’s clone chuckled.
“Neftis’ words were right.”
“Yes, yes.”
The twin professors’ eyes gleamed as they stepped closer. Then, perfectly in sync, they asked.
“You’re the ‘seventh’, aren’t you?”
Simon flinched.
“We heard it from Neftis. Baby general of the Legion.”
“We’ve been watching you. Baby general.”
Their eyes flashed.
“Neftis wants you to ascend to the next stage.”
“You’re the most important ‘key’ in her plan.”
The countless undead howled the cries of the dead.
The twins raised their hands.
“Our trial—”
“Congratulations on passing it.”
From the graves, all the risen dead threw back their heads and roared.
For Simon, it was an experience he would never forget.
* * *
The next morning.
“Undead are beings on the boundary between life and death, and necromancers are those who breathe a special kind of life into the dead.”
Second-year Intermediate Summonology Major.
“Of course, priests of the Holy Federation think it’s just a grotesque puppet manipulation of corpses, but it’s fundamentally different. Necromancers draw upon the skills of the undead from their lifetime.”
Professor Aron walked across the podium, holding a textbook as he explained.
“The power to control lingering thoughts and draw out the undead’s skills from life even stronger—the ‘Rune of Reminiscence’ and its base formulas are essential for any summoner to learn. Not just for Skeleton Knights. From now, I’ll explain the variations and structures. Turn to page 16 in your textbooks.”
Students flipped through their books and took notes from what Aron wrote on the blackboard.
“……”
Lost in a daze, Simon was startled by the sound of fingers snapping. He turned his head to see Loraine watching him with concern.
“What’s wrong, Simon? Did something happen?”
“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
Simon quickly snapped back to attention.
“That’s not like you at all.”
This time, it was Toto on the other side who spoke.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen Simon space out during Professor Aron’s class.”
Loraine narrowed her brows.
“……Could it be you’re still heartbroken from failing to sing the funeral hymn yesterday?”
This time, chuckling laughter came from the back row.
It was Serne.
“He must’ve been shocked to discover for the first time in his life that he’s tone-deaf~”
“Th-that’s not it!”
Simon’s face turned red as he protested.
“You four over there, quiet.”
At Aron’s words, the four of them clamped their mouths shut and turned their attention back to their textbooks.
‘It keeps coming back to me… what happened yesterday.’
Slap! Slap!
Simon lightly slapped his own cheeks, snapping himself out of it.
And just as he was about to resume taking notes from the board—
Kiri-ri!
“!”
At some point, a Corpse Spider had come tapping at the window.
Startled, Simon glanced around. Luckily, Aron and the teaching assistants were looking elsewhere.
Keeping his movements as natural as possible, Simon opened the window. The Corpse Spider slipped a small note onto his desk and then disappeared.
‘A letter from Erze! Did she find something?’
At that moment, Erzebet was investigating the mysterious group that had experimented with “Kal” in the Dresden Kingdom’s royal library.
Rustling, Simon unfolded the letter.
“To my beloved Commander of the Legion.”
It was unmistakably from Erze! Simon tensed as he began to read.
“Even as I write this letter in the library, this girl’s heart is filled only with thoughts of you, my commander. Just imagining the date coupon you promised as a reward makes this girl’s heart go thump-thump…”
‘……Wasting half the report with nonsense like this.’
Simon immediately skimmed down to the next paragraph.
“With this much, I believe I’ve at least conveyed one ten-millionth of my love for you, my commander. Now, for the interim report. To begin with the conclusion—I have yet to decipher this language. The more I investigate, the more I am convinced that these characters are not a language, but rather a highly advanced cryptographic formula.”
A highly advanced cryptographic formula, huh.
“While digging through the materials in case I could find a pattern, I came across some scribbles by whoever wrote or read them. Fortunately, the notes were written in the continental tongue.”
“!”
Simon lowered his head sharply to read the next words.
「Tarados, large-scale cleaning required.」
“……”
A strange light flickered in Simon’s eyes.
What was Tarados? A person’s name? Or a place?
And what did it mean by “large-scale cleaning required”?
Considering the atrocities committed by that group, the phrase chilled Simon to the bone.
‘Feer. Feer.’
Simon tapped the badge-like clone of Feer attached to his uniform.
Moments later, the clone’s eyes lit up.
[Kuhuhuhu! Why did you summon me, boy?]
‘Please take a look at this. It’s from Erze’s interim report.’
Feer read through Erzebet’s letter, then spoke.
[Tarados is a place! Located on the outskirts of the Dresden Kingdom.]
‘I see.’
[Who knows what those bastards are plotting there!]
Simon nodded firmly.
According to Erzebet, the state of the ink suggested the note hadn’t been written long ago.
A valuable clue, obtained with great difficulty.
One he couldn’t afford to miss.
‘What should I do…’
Simon folded his arms, deep in thought.
At that moment—
“That’s all for today’s class.”
Aron declared the lecture over. Students instantly burst into chatter.
“Quiet! One announcement.”
Aron dragged the chalk across the board with a scritch.
“This weekend, the Mission Evaluations will begin.”
Students’ faces brightened.
Mission Evaluation.
Among Keyzen’s famously harsh curriculum, mission evaluations were considered one of the more lenient tasks.
You could choose assignments on Roke Island and rest while staying on campus, or pick an easy job outside and treat it like a sightseeing trip.
Of course, Simon had always used the opportunity productively, searching for his father’s Ancient Undeads, securing funds, and acquiring new undead.
As a Keyzen student, it was one of the rare chances to leave the island. Simon had always looked forward to the evaluation season.
“I understand your excitement. However.”
Aron curled his lips in a grin.
“From the second year onward, the rules change.”
The first-year mission requests Simon had experienced were classified as follows:
White Requests – Missions within Roke Island. No chance of conflict with priests.
Blue Requests – Missions within the Dark Alliance. Very low chance of conflict with priests.
Red Requests – Missions within the Neutral Zone. High chance of conflict with priests.
Black Requests – Missions within the Holy Federation. Certain conflict with priests.
And the biggest change for second-years was this:
“The white requests are gone. Second-years will not take missions within Roke Island.”
The classroom immediately erupted in noise.
“Minimum grading will now start from blue requests. If you want higher scores, you’ll have to take red or black. And during your second year—”
Aron raised his index finger.
“You must complete at least one black request.”
Jaws dropped.
Black requests meant infiltrating the Holy Federation, crawling with priests—real missions for seasoned professionals.
“……That’s insane.”
“I thought I’d never step foot in the Holy Federation before graduation.”
The class fell into chaos.
“W-what should we do, Simon?”
Toto looked at him, trembling.
“They say the Holy Federation is a living hell where humans can’t survive! Rivers of blood instead of water! Corpses drifting downstream! Monsters starving for holy power roaming everywhere!”
Simon forced a wry smile.
“Well, it can’t be that bad.”
“To send us to such a terrifying place! We’ll never cross the border, we’ll get caught by Inquisitors and executed! Hung up on a red cross!”
Thud! Thud!
Aron slammed the podium.
“Silence.”
The room instantly quieted.
“There’s still plenty of time, so think carefully. As for black requests, the faculty recommends tackling them in the second semester, once you’ve grown stronger.”
With hands clasped behind his back, Aron shuffled off in his slippers.
“Tomorrow night, request boards will be set up in each dormitory lobby. From second year onward, there will be far more assignments suited to majors. Use this chance to gain precious field experience you can’t get inside the school. That’s all.”
“Thank you, professor!”
One by one, students rose from their seats and filed out. Simon tidied his books, his eyes gleaming.
‘Feer. You know what I’m about to say, don’t you?’
[Kuhuhuhu! Finally, some action!]
The clone’s eyes blazed.
[I’ll have the entire Legion ready to march at any moment!]
Simon nodded and rose from his seat.
At last, it was time to act again as commander of the Legion—Feon.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters