Chapter 698
Simon explained to Serne what he had gone through in the North.
At first, he described mainly the progress of the liberation of the North, but as she quietly listened, her eyes curved slyly like a fox.
“Doesn’t it feel like something important is missing? Why would our 7th Legion Commander go all the way to such a far and frozen region just to meet the 2nd Legion Commander?”
“......”
It felt meaningless to try to hide anything from someone who seemed to be towering above him, so in the end, Simon told her the truth, and only then did she nod in satisfaction.
‘Interesting.’
Serne closed her eyes as she drank her juice.
‘After Deathland, even Frost Field fell into the hands of the 7th Legion Commander. I wonder if Simon realizes what this means.’
Originally, Frost Field had no strategic value. That was because the Northern Grand Duke, an active Legion Commander, was blocking it.
But now the Grand Duke and Carlos’ North had become Simon’s strong allies.
If necessary, Simon could even move the North Star and send Frost Field’s troops down into the continent. The Grand Duke would gladly make way for him.
A meaningless force had become a meaningful one.
And then, if one assumes that both the army of Deathland and the army of Frost Field could move simultaneously?
The fiefdoms that fell within their geopolitical range, the powers that would inevitably feel strategic pressure.
Countless scenarios formed and vanished in Serne’s mind. It was very satisfying.
‘If only I could get that person in my hands.’
She looked at Simon with languid, half-closed eyes, and at that moment Simon felt an icy chill sweep over his body.
“Now then, is that enough?”
“Yes, so, how should I deal with the pervert who barged into someone else’s room without fear?”
Simon flinched.
“Wait, that wasn’t the deal! You said if I told you, it would all be over!”
“Oh my, I don’t recall saying it like that?”
She gave a sly laugh and waved her hand.
“I don’t think someone like Simon would fall for the same trap twice. And besides, don’t you think the price for seeing my body should be at least worth several kingdoms?”
“I never saw it!”
She was the one who set up the trap and covered everything in the first place.
As Simon glared at her with a flushed red face, she chuckled.
“All right, all right. Instead—”
She raised her pale, slender fingertip and pointed it at Simon’s forehead.
“Promise me that the day after tomorrow, you will hide from Loraine Arkbold the fact that you’ve obtained the ‘North Star’. How about it?”
Simon’s face soured at her words.
“If it’s just to checkmate Keyzen, Lady Neftis already knows everything. She was the one who sent me there.”
“Oh my, that’s not my intention at all?”
“Then what’s your reason?”
She propped her chin on her hand and smiled.
“Self-satisfaction?”
I know something that Loraine doesn’t.
For now, that’s enough.
Wasn’t the price too cheap? Even Serne herself thought she was being too lenient.
“I’ve already paid the price.”
Simon stood up.
“I don’t want to lie to Loraine separately.”
“Oh.”
Serne blinked.
Not bad. Did he know how to raise his own value?
Of course, Simon wasn’t the type to care about such trivial matters.
Divinity.
He had spoken honestly to this side, so he would speak honestly to the other side as well.
‘Different.’
Feathered humans could never behave like that.
Humans only ever judged and acted based on the situation right before their eyes. If things went well, that was fortunate, but most often, they made mistakes at decisive moments and fell into ruin. That was why Serne chose simply to erase variables with feathers.
But if every person could think and act like Simon, if that were the case, how would the world be?
“Then shall I add another card from this side?”
She flicked the towel draped over her body.
“Wait a second!”
Simon’s face turned scarlet to the extreme.
He could no longer allow himself to be drawn into her pace.
Clenching his eyes shut, he thrust out his arm. The bones attached to his clothes shot out, flung the window open, and Simon hurled himself out.
“Oh my?”
Serne walked to the window. As Simon succeeded in escaping and fell below, he shouted,
“See you in class tomorrow!”
And then he vanished.
Serne snorted.
“Who could he have taken after to be such a bashful fool.”
She let her towel slide off with a whisper. Underneath, she was simply wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts.
Walking gracefully, Serne tied her damp hair in front of the mirror and got ready for bed.
* * *
The next morning dawned.
With hollow eyes, Simon was commuting to school on a Golem Board with his roommate Toto.
“Simon! Are you okay?”
Toto, who was holding onto Simon from behind, stuck his head out.
“You don’t look so good. Was the special training that exhausting?”
“......No, I just didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Last night had been hectic. First he had fallen into Serne’s trap, then right after that he had gone into Feer’s ruins to place the Legion’s undead there, and when he returned, he had skimmed a few lines of his textbook before collapsing into sleep.
In his dreams, Serne appeared, capturing him with feathers and trying to push him down.
‘Ugh, I’m tired.’
Half-asleep, half-awake, Simon piloted the Golem Board until he arrived at the classroom.
The first class he would take since returning from the North was Aron’s Intermediate Summonology. Today’s task was a practical performance exam to create Arachnea, the spider-type undead.
The evaluation was to be held outdoors. Rows of tables were lined up for the students, and teaching assistants bustled about, setting up the necessary materials.
“Presideeent!”
As soon as he arrived, an energetic voice called out.
Orange-colored hair popped up from below. It was Eshu Arzel, from the same 10th group.
Simon greeted her warmly.
“Hello, Eshu.”
“Yeah! Hi to you too, Totooo.”
Eshu waved at Toto, who was standing awkwardly behind Simon. Toto’s ears turned red as he hesitantly waved back, “Ah, hi.”
Then Eshu turned her head sharply back toward Simon.
“I’m so glad you made it back safe, President! But you’re later than the scheduled return date, huh?”
“It turned out that way. The situation there got a bit tangled.”
“It was sooo noisy in the department! When Senior Aizel returned, people started wondering if Simon was going to become the new ‘Aizel’ this time!”
‘What kind of nonsense is that now.’
Simon gave a wry smile. At Keyzen, strange trends and slang appeared and disappeared so fast it was a headache.
“Ah.”
At that moment, another familiar face was walking past.
The 5th ranker, Aseraz Mikel.
They weren’t particularly close, but since their eyes met, Simon raised his hand to greet her. However, she coldly turned her head away and walked past, pretending not to see him.
“That girl, really.”
Eshu grumbled, then lowered her voice.
“Do you know what happened while you were gone? Everyone was worrying and talking about you, but Aseraz openly said that with Simon gone, she’d move up a rank, so wasn’t that a good thing?”
Simon smiled bitterly.
“Well, Keyzen is a place of sheer meritocracy, so that’s not too surprising.”
“Still. And also—”
Eshu took a step back, her smile turning mischievous.
“On the other hand, the person who worried about you the most when you were gone was Hecto—”
“You should be worrying about your mouth the most, Eshu Arzel.”
“Eep!”
Eshu squeaked and stumbled backward.
Hector, with his massive build, was walking toward them, followed by faction students chatting amongst themselves.
Eshu’s face turned bright red like an apple, and she quickly greeted him.
“H-hi, Department Rep......! Ehehe.”
With a cold, disinterested look, Hector clicked his tongue.
“!”
At his icy response, Eshu’s shoulders trembled. The single tuft of hair that stuck up from her head drooped down sadly.
Toto, standing behind Simon, also somehow grew gloomy in sympathy.
Then Hector’s gaze turned to Simon.
“Did you prepare well last night for the performance exam?”
Simon scratched the back of his head.
“Honestly, I barely did.”
A self-satisfied smile crept across Hector’s lips.
“It’s your own fault. No matter how much you fool around relying only on that one talent of yours, this time there’s no way out......”
“Students! The professor is on his way, please line up!”
At the assistants’ shout, the students, who had been gathered in noisy groups, hurried into formation.
And there, walking in with two assistants, was Aron, the professor of Summonology. Today again, his hair was messy and he was wearing casual shorts.
He stood in place, glanced over the students standing before the tables, and fixed his eyes on Simon.
Simon quietly gave a nod of greeting, and Aron also answered with a nod.
“As announced, today we will conduct the performance evaluation for Arachnea. Up until now you have been creating humanoid or animal-type undead easily enough, but this is the first time you will be assembling an arachnid belonging to the order Araneae, so I expect you will struggle quite a bit. Nevertheless, an evaluation is an evaluation.”
He turned his back.
“No more chatter, the performance evaluation will begin now.”
Click.
The timer in his hand was activated.
“Begin.”
* * *
Two hours later.
The evaluations of the performance results were underway.
“......Simon Follentia.”
Standing before the Arachnea Simon had made, Aron let out a somewhat bewildered laugh.
“A+.”
Oooooooooh—!
Exclamations of awe burst out from here and there among the students.
Simon smiled sheepishly and bowed.
“Thank you.”
“You couldn’t have had any time to prepare for this performance evaluation with the special classes you’ve been taking.”
Simon wiped away cold sweat as he replied,
“......I, I must have just been a little lucky.”
In truth, Arachnea was nothing. Compared to the upgraded version, the “Corpse Spiders” Erzebet was making for the Legion, this was child’s play.
The results were as follows.
1st place, Simon Follentia.
2nd place, Hector Moore.
3rd place, Aseraz Mikel.
4th place, Guinevere Venners.
Fwoooosh!
Off in the distance, Hector, unable to contain his rage, kicked over a table and scattered his materials, flames practically spewing from his mouth. His faction students clung to him, trying to restrain him.
“He fell for the bluff, Hector.”
“As if Simon wouldn’t have prepared. No way he came in here unprepared.”
Hector had been in great condition today, he had even managed to beat Aseraz Mikel, but just as Simon returned, he had to give up first place.
Aron gave a gesture to Simon as if to say ‘Come here for a moment’, and Simon followed behind him.
“The next class is also related to spider-type undead.”
Aron spoke once they had reached a quieter place.
“But it seems you won’t need it. Instead, we’ll start the Bone Dragon class during that time. It’ll likely be a long-term project, are you ready?”
With a determined expression, Simon nodded firmly.
“Yes!”
“Good.”
After that, the professor’s consultation continued.
They discussed Simon’s studies in Summonology, and exchanged a few updates about recent affairs.
“The third-year, Aizel Bringer, has returned, what are you planning to do about the student council presidency?”
“I’ll keep the position until final exams. After finals, we’ll settle it with a duel.”
“......I see.”
Hearing this, Aron’s expression grew somewhat complicated as he sank into thought.
Simon blinked and looked at him.
“What’s wrong, Professor?”
“If you want.”
Aron raised his head.
“We can postpone the Bone Dragon until the second semester, and I can run classes to prepare you for the duel instead.”
“Ah.”
Simon hadn’t expected Aron to be this considerate. His heart swelled with gratitude, and then he smiled.
“I really appreciate the offer, but it’s fine! I can’t let the main goal get reversed, can I?”
In truth, creating a Bone Dragon was so difficult that some necromancers spent decades of their lives on it.
There was a reason it was called the ultimate in Summonology.
Simon had promised Neftis he would complete a Bone Dragon by his second year, so even starting now, at the end of first semester, felt a little late.
“If that’s your will, I understand.”
Aron also nodded, and stood from his seat.
“Return to your place.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
* * *
That afternoon.
Chiiik— Chik—
“......”
The chief assistant of Katarology, Chehekle, stared ahead with an expression as if she were witnessing something utterly bizarre.
Then she let out a deep sigh.
“......Are you going on a blind date or something, Professor?”
Bahil was spraying perfume in front of a large mirror.
His outfit was far more dressed-up than usual, an expensive suit, shoes polished to a shine, and his hair slicked back neatly with a comb. Smiling at his own reflection in the mirror, he curled his lips.
“Of course not. It’s just a supplementary lesson.”
“That supplementary lesson is the responsibility of the chief assistant, namely me.”
Bahil, elegantly adjusting the bow tie on his neck, replied,
“Even for you, Chehekle, this I cannot concede.”
‘What the hell has this guy eaten wrong this time.’
Supplementary classes weren’t even official. Nine out of ten professors just left them to the assistants and went home, and Bahil had always done the same.
And now he wanted to handle it personally?
“A 1:1 private class with Simon Follentia.”
Stepping away from the mirror, he wore a meaningful smile.
“I cannot possibly let such a golden opportunity slip by.”
“......What nonsense are you spouting. Among the students eligible for this special lesson, there are four who also take your regular Katarology class.”
She shook the papers she had placed on Bahil’s desk.
“I begged you to at least check the roster, didn’t I?”
“Ah, did you?”
Bahil turned his back.
“The names of mediocrities never register in my eyes.”
‘......Crazy bastard.’
Apparently, he had only remembered the name of Simon Follentia.
Chik— Chik—
Spraying more perfume again, Bahil curved his lips into a smile.
“Then I’ll leave the lectures for those three other mediocrities to you. Just secretly bring Simon alone to my classroom.”
‘......Damn it!’
Chehekle’s arms trembled.
She felt an overwhelming urge to pull out the resignation letter from her pocket right now and hurl it straight into that smug face.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters