Chapter 789
Along with several footsteps, new people entered the classroom.
Among them, the most recognizable figure was an old man in fluttering white robes. One hand stroked his long beard, while the other waved a fan.
A figure like an immortal sage transcending the mundane world. Seeing the familiar face, Simon smiled.
“We’ve managed to invite Professor Farahan of Defense Against Holiness.”
At Aron’s introduction, Farahan waved his fan in greeting.
“Hmm! It’s been a while since the vacation, everyone.”
The students, now used to Farahan, greeted him warmly.
Aron spoke again.
“I’ve asked Professor Farahan to instruct you on how to deal with a priest as a summoned opponent. We’ll prepare so that battles don’t break out when crossing the border, but since we don’t know what might happen on-site, the school requires you to complete this training. More than just preparation for this mission, it’s essential training for a summoner. Focus.”
“Yes!”
“Then I’ll return to headquarters to monitor the situation. Head teaching assistant, contact me if anything comes up.”
“Understood.”
Aron left the classroom.
After a brief exchange with Farahan, the head teaching assistant glanced at the clock on the wall and announced:
“We’ll gather at the outdoor training ground in 30 minutes. Please change into your gym uniforms and assemble!”
* * *
The lesson was flowing into an unpredictable course.
Creation of a Death Knight.
The necessary material: a paladin’s remains.
Crossing the border for it.
And before that, completing the Defense Against Holiness training.
The Summonology students walked toward the locker room, chatting among themselves.
—Are we really crossing the border?
—Looks like it. Remember last semester, when we went far out just to get materials for a Dullahan?
—Hey, hey. Nothing to be scared of. Some people even went to the Holy Federation on a black mission request during evaluation.
—That’s different! Going to Impheng is usually through a Neutral Zone route, right? Crossing the border, and with an entire department, is a completely different matter!
Simon let the words of his classmates slip past one ear as he entered the locker room.
Some expressed concern, but most still trusted Aron. After all, Aron had a solid track record from the previous Dullahan lesson.
Nearly the entire department had successfully created a Dullahan before the second-year midterms, and that remarkable result led Summonology to achieve second place overall in the Dark Emperor ranking, the first in 70 years.
‘But the risk this time isn’t the same as with the Dullahan.’
Standing in front of his locker, Simon stripped off his shirt.
‘I just hope the professor doesn’t push himself too much.’
As he opened the locker to take out his gym uniform, his expression stiffened.
There was no spare gym uniform.
He suddenly remembered he hadn’t brought back the one he used during the last Magical Combat lesson.
“Something wrong, Simon?”
Toto, changing at the locker beside him, poked his head out from under his gym shirt.
“I forgot to bring my uniform.”
“Want to wear mine? I’ve got an extra.”
Toto lifted his spare uniform as an offer, but Simon politely declined.
That size of clothing… maybe Hector could wear it as an arm sleeve.
“Hey, Simon! You don’t have a uniform either?”
From across the lockers, a student leaned his head out.
Short-haired, friendly tone. Simon recognized him as Matt Comer, known for frequently asking Aron questions. Judging by his expression, he shared Simon’s misfortune.
“Yeah, looks like I’ll have to run back to the dorm.”
“Then you’ll definitely be late. Since the Darkness Dynamics building is right next door, want to go borrow one together?”
A good idea.
He knew a lot of Class A students from Darkness Dynamics, and he could just borrow from anyone. Simon nodded.
“Let’s go now.”
* * *
Arriving at the Darkness Dynamics building with Matt Comer, they saw the students still in class.
Through the window, Simon spotted familiar faces like Scott Snyder and Miller, who had been classmates in first year, but he couldn’t call out to them.
Luckily, a teaching assistant waiting outside asked what was going on, and Simon explained.
—Ah, in that case, I’ll handle it.
The assistant said that lingering here might draw Professor Jane’s ire, so he’d explain the situation to Scott and Miller and send someone with a uniform.
Simon bowed gratefully.
Leaving the Darkness Dynamics building, he hurried to the first outdoor training ground.
It was close by anyway, and it also had a locker room, so he decided to receive the uniform there.
While worrying whether it would arrive in time, a Summonology assistant pulling a cart called out to him.
“Simon, someone’s looking for you behind the locker room.”
“Oh, thank you! Who is it?”
The assistant grinned mischievously.
“A girl.”
* * *
“Hmph.”
With a pout and a blush on her cheeks, the one waiting was someone Simon knew all too well.
“...Maelyn?”
“W-what! Can’t I come?”
Flustered, she snapped back, clutching a boy’s gym uniform in her arms. Simon suppressed the smile creeping up his lips.
“It’s not that. The assistant said he’d send someone, so I didn’t expect it to be you.”
“I—idiot! I was just asked to! You wanted to borrow a uniform, right?”
She shoved the uniform against Simon’s chest.
“This is Scott’s. Return it later.”
According to her explanation, while in practice, the assistant came in quietly and explained Simon’s situation to Scott Snyder. Scott readily agreed and told him the locker where his uniform was kept.
Maelyn, who had just finished early and was allowed to leave class, happened to overhear.
“So I came myself! You’d better appreciate it!”
Simon smiled warmly.
“Thanks, Maelyn.”
At that smile, she flinched, then quickly folded her arms and turned her head away.
“Just so you don’t get the wrong idea! I finished practice first, I had a free period next, the assistant looked busy, so I had no choice but to come! Got it?”
“Got it.”
After rattling it all off like a machine gun, she sighed and brushed back her sky-blue hair.
“But today’s your major class day. Why a gym uniform for Summonology?”
“Ah, well...”
Simon explained the situation.
After listening to everything, she rested her chin on two fingers, her face turning thoughtful.
“So you’re crossing the border to get Death Knight materials, and to prepare, you’re receiving Professor Farahan’s Defense Against Holiness training.”
“Right.”
“Professor Aron... this is worrying.”
Maelyn closed her eyes.
“From another department’s perspective, that curriculum is impressive enough to envy. Starting Death Knight creation in the second semester of second year is surprising already, but being able to enter the lesson with every student holding the required material? That’s something else.”
She made a coin-shape with her fingers.
“The material costs being saved are enormous.”
Money.
The most crucial factor for anyone in Summonology. Some students even transferred out because they couldn’t afford material costs.
“Professor Aron is trying to catch both birds, performance and cost.”
She raised one finger on each hand.
“Of course, the risks are great. More than anything, how does he plan to turn the remains of a holiness user into an undead...”
Ta-da-da-t!
Simon and Maelyn were exchanging words in a flurry, when suddenly the sound of footsteps echoed beside them.
“Ma—e—lyn!”
With arms flung wide, ivory hair flying, the student rushing toward them was Serne. She leapt forward and wrapped Maelyn in a tight embrace.
“Did you come to visit our department? You came to see Seri, right? Thank you!”
“Hey, get off!”
Maelyn tried to push Serne’s face away, but she couldn’t withstand Serne’s physical charge. With her cheeks flushing red, she shouted:
“Disgusting, what are you doing!”
Simon smiled faintly as he watched the two.
Back in their first year, whenever Serne clung to her like that, Maelyn reacted with extreme disgust, but now, after the Ivory Tower incident and the vacation, the atmosphere seemed much more relaxed.
“Oh, right.”
After pushing Serne off, Maelyn suddenly curved her lips into a triumphant smile.
“You haven’t heard yet, have you? When I visited the grasslands, I met Lord Feon.”
“Oh my, really?”
Serne shifted her eyes briefly toward Simon, then back again.
For an instant, Simon felt a chill—was it just his imagination?
“That must’ve been nice.”
“Nice doesn’t even begin to cover it! When I opened my eyes, Lord Feon was holding me in his arms. He saved my life again, and we even had a conversation together!”
Serne let out a soft chuckle.
“Fine, fine. Lord Feon is yours, Maelyn. As for Seri, all I need is the Simon of the future.”
She tilted her head toward the sky, as though picturing it.
“That dependable, mature figure. That deep voice, with a trace of beard...”
“You’re talking about that time in the Tower of Time when you saw grown-up Simon again, aren’t you? Stop bragging about it already.”
“Oh my, but Maelyn started it first.”
“What does future Simon have to do with Lord Feon anyway!”
“It means future Simon is even more charming.”
“Lord Feon is...!”
Out of nowhere, the two started quarreling.
Simon let out a wry laugh.
‘But in the end, they’re both me.’
Arguing, right in front of him, about himself as Legion Commander and himself from the future.
It left Simon feeling strangely odd. He unfolded the gym uniform in his hands and said:
“Class will be starting soon. I’ll go change first.”
They both nodded.
Simon dashed into the locker room, while Serne, naturally following him into the men’s locker room, was yanked back by the hair by Maelyn.
* * *
A short while later, the Summonology students, dressed in gym uniforms, gathered at the first outdoor training ground.
Soon after, Farahan and his assistants, along with the Summonology assistants, assembled as well.
—Then, let us begin class.
Since this was Defense Against Holiness training borrowed during a Summonology class period, the focus was on how to deal with priests as summoned opponents.
—Observe the priest’s movements carefully. By watching how holiness manifests, you must identify the type of attack.
Farahan’s assistant used Holy Bolt, and Aron’s head assistant dodged with a ghoul, then charged forward to subdue the assistant. Gasps erupted from all around.
—There is also the method of exploiting the affinity between holiness and darkness. For example, if a priest uses a powerful spell, you can throw a summon in as bait, and then evade.
This time, Farahan conjured a large holy sphere and hurled it, and the head assistant instantly reacted, opening subspace and tossing out a zombie.
When holiness encounters darkness, whether in small or large amounts, it seeks to purify. While the holy spell slowed slightly in the act of cleansing the zombie, the assistant rolled to the side and escaped.
—The method with the least risk of damage is an ambush. Even priests cannot reliably sense darkness unless they are especially sensitive, unless they use holiness. And priests too grow fatigued maintaining holiness, so gaps are bound to appear.
Offense, defense, scouting, ambush.
Farahan delivered only the essential points. After the theory class, the students immediately moved on to practice drills.
“Hu-cha.”
As Simon controlled a ghoul to deftly dodge the Holy Bolts fired by Farahan’s assistants, voices of admiration rose from all around.
Looking around, he realized that quite a number of students were now seated in the outdoor stands of the training ground.
Since the training ground was located in the middle of campus, and it was lunchtime, it made sense.
Apparently enjoying the sight of others training, many sat down to watch, or even bought food to eat as they observed.
—Simon, you PASS the practice drill.
As Simon’s ghoul rounded the marker, an assistant checked him off.
Applause broke out here and there.
“Simon—! Well done!”
In the stands, Maelyn was watching too. She waved, and Simon waved back.
Simon was immediately advanced to the next stage, the actual combat drill.
“We will now begin the actual combat training.”
Students who failed the practice drill had to repeat until they succeeded, like a loop, while those who passed moved on to the combat drill.
Only those who received a PASS in actual combat training would earn the qualification to cross the border for this mission.
“The rules are simple. Using only summons, you will fight against the assistants of Defense Against Holiness.”
This time, the number or type of summons didn’t matter. Students could prepare their summons in advance. As long as they landed even a single valid hit on the protective suit worn by the assistant, they passed.
However, the assistants adjusted the difficulty according to the tier of summons used.
If one brought out just a ghoul, they would only throw slow Holy Bolts, but if someone used a tier-3 Dullahan, the assistant could use powerful white magic like White Break or Exorcism.
Since bringing out a main summon risked damage from holy magic, and no one would take responsibility if it broke, most students opted to summon two or three ghouls for balance.
“Excellent work!”
Pierre Buckley, using three ghouls boosted with Lino’s Golden Line for a sudden burst of speed, struck the assistant’s barrier. The head assistant nodded in approval.
“Student Pierre Buckley. PASS. Proceed to the next student.”
After giving Pierre Buckley his passing mark, the assistant looked up.
“Next, student Simon Follentia.”
Waaaaaaaah!
A huge roar suddenly erupted. Simon, along with the students training nearby, raised their heads in surprise.
Somehow, during lunchtime, the training ground had become packed with students. Hearing rumors that students would be fighting priest-trained assistants, they had come crowding in.
“Simon! Show them!”
“Counterpart to Ballack!”
And Simon’s stock had risen dramatically after the recent Ballack incident. It was plain to see just how favorable the first- and second-years’ sentiment toward Simon had become. Every move he made was becoming an issue.
‘This is overwhelming.’
Simon wiped the sweat from his brow as he stepped forward.
This wasn’t the kind of scene he wanted. He had intended to approach training with a light heart, but with so many eyes on him, he couldn’t help but feel nervous.
‘Still, if it can’t be avoided...’
Then the only option was to succeed spectacularly.
Simon took his place at the starting line.
“......”
And in the very back row of the stands.
One student quietly removed the golden badge that symbolized the third year, and slipped it into his pocket.
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