Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner – 274



Chapter 274

The Washuburn mountains. The Castle of Demons.

“…It failed you say?”

On a throne of countless skeletons piled into a horrific masterpiece was a fair-looking man with long hair. His back was hunched over as he rested his chin on his palms.

[Situation… unexpected.]

In front of him was a living mound of flesh. It had no facial features nor a clear body shape and its speech was clearly stunted.

[The opening to the operation… a success. Hard dile successfully entered mouth of… monster duke. Monster duke under control. Monster duke relentlessly attacked another student not Lorain. Monster duke… annihilated by that student.]

[How strange.]

Replied a zombie butler standing to the side of the throne.

[If everything went as planned then the monster duke would’ve followed the trail of jet-black that had been infused into the Ancient Undead we encountered in the Jungle of Screams. So if it chased another person and not Lorain then…]

“Alahze.”

Magnus having come to a similar conclusion after a moment of contemplative silence had a serious look upon his face.

“Who is this person you said the monster duke followed?”

[Simon Polentia. S.A.1 brought in by the Witch of Death. Summoning major. First place in BDMAT three.]

“How strange~”

Magnus licked his lips as his stomach for prey grew.

“So he was related to the Witch of Death too. I wonder why the monster duke went after him…”

[As you are implying there is a chance that the Commander of the Seventh Legion could be Simon Polentia not Lorain Archbold.]

Replied the zombie.

[However he was not present when Talahze was killed.]

“That’s what I’m bothered about too. But it’s that cunning Witch we’re talking about here. We have to consider every possibility.”

Magnus closed his eyes for a moment in thought then continued

“For now keep Lorain at the top of our priority list. But at the same time start investigating Simon Polentia as well. Look as deep as you can into anything no matter how small it is.”

Just when the butler and Alahze bowed and were about to leave…

“Oh by the way did that bastard become obedient yet? The Ancient Undead from the Seventh Legion who we captured before.”

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The zombie butler shook its head.

[It is still the same. It doesn’t open its mouth no matter what we do.]

“Hmm how loyal to a legion that has already been disbanded. That’s not very undead-like.”

Magnus gestured for them to leave with a wave of his hand.

‘Ancient Undead…’

Standing up from his throne after his two subordinates left he leisurely walked to the window and stared outside.

From where his castle stood it was almost like he could look over the entire world.

‘To achieve my goal I need more Ancient Undead.’

* * *

Now there were only two more BDMATs left the assessments of the integrated second semester.

Within the ones that had already happened Simon’s performance was truly outstanding.

1st place on the first BDMAT 10th place on the second and 1st place again on the third.

Looking at it like this getting 10th in the second BDMAT stung him a little but if he could get the top score in the fourth and fifth he thought he could finish his first-year as the top contender for valedictorian.

‘Alright! Let’s not be satisfied with this and do better!’

Since there was some time till the next BDMAT the students were relaxed a bit in their classes.

The first class that Simon had was Defense Against the Holy Arts

“Today we’ll learn about the subjects taught at Efnel.”

The old man dressed in a white robe and gracefully fanning himself was none other than ‘Farahann Imidore’ Simon’s professor for Defense Against the Holy Arts.

He was once a Bishop in Efnel and was now the head of the anti-Holy-Federation movement.

Farahann was like the representative of the priests who submitted to Kizen and in terms of the amount of shock him being selected as a professor was far more controversial than Belya.

After all a priest was teaching necromancers. A lot of students felt off or straight up disliked Farahann but no one could deny that his classes were actually quite useful.

“The students of Efnel are your greatest enemy and challenge. You’d better expect to face them four or five times before you graduate.”

At Farahann’s words the Class A students all nervously gulped.

Still being fairly inexperienced as necromancers priests were unknown and terrifying opponents. That’s not even considering how badly the Saintess incident impacted some of the students.

“I have a question.”

A student raised his hand.

Occasionally students from extremist families who disliked Farahann would interrupt the class by cutting him off with questions like this.

“Please go ahead.”

But Farahann actually liked it when students took an interest in his lessons and asked questions.

“I don’t really get it. Why do we need to know the classes that the priests take?”

“I will explain that soon.”

Then another student jumped to his feet even though Farahann hadn’t granted him permission to speak.

“I’m suspicious of your intentions! Professor which students do you think are better? Kizen’s or Efnel’s?”

It was a question that was impossible to answer correctly.

In fact it was the question of the century the kind that no one truly knew the answer to. It was as difficult to answer as the meaning of life.

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“I have experienced both Efnel and Kizen and although you may be on a par in terms of skills you are no match for the youth of Efnel in terms of mentality.”

Clamor.

The students burst into fervent whispers. The student who’d asked the question spoke even louder trying to stab at the heart of the matter with his forked tongue.

“Professor! What you just said—!”

Whaaap!

It took less than a second.

Farahann pointed his finger at the student and immediately a stream of divinity shot out like a bullet before stopping right in front of the student.

“Ah!!”

The student’s eyes widened. For a second he thought he was dead only belatedly seeing where the stream of divinity ended.

“This is exactly what I am talking about.”

The student’s jaw dropped and his legs trembled. A wet patch formed in his pants.

“Efnel’s students are trained at an impersonal inhumane level of training in the belief that faith and mental strength are the source of divinity. Also I would advise visiting a restroom.”

An assistant teacher took the student and disappeared into the back of the lecture hall.

Farahann brought his arm back to his side like he hadn’t just threatened to kill someone and continued to fan himself.

“Of course I believe that is merely a difference in teaching methods. Your flexibility creativity in combat and ability to create unexpected variables are far superior. Now let us return to the point at hand.”

He turned to face the large chalkboard behind him.

“There are seven core subjects in Efnel.”

Farahann grabbed a piece of chalk and carefully wrote each one down.

Blessings

Mechanics of Divinity

Study of Holy Spirit

Healing

Guarding

Study of Divine Beasts

Combat Light Magic

Putting down the chalk Farahann stroked his beard and smiled.

“Do they not seem familiar?”

The students began to murmur. Jamie Victoria raised her hand.

“Jamie Victoria sir! The three subjects at the top of the list are similar in concept to the ‘C.M.S.’ in Kizen! Curses Mechanics of Jet-Black and Summoning!”

“Good job. I will give you 5 points for a good attitude.”

Jamie clenched her fist in joy.

“In the exact same way that you all choose your majors Efnel’s students choose their own major from this list. And when you come face to face with a priest it is not hard to tell which discipline they major in if you closely observe the spells they are using.”

Farahann’s eyes became serious.

“If you determine the specialty of your opponent you could learn a mountain of information from that alone. What basic spells are available to them their strengths and weaknesses their fighting style their attack and defense patterns and even their personality. All this information in return for nothing.”

Listening to the class Simon nodded along in agreement.

“Do you now…”

Putting down the chalk Farahann smiled.

“a…understand the need to know your enemy?”

The lecture room fell silent once more.

Farahann’s lessons were helpful even if he’s a priest. That was a fact no one could deny.

“Fortunately priests delve deeper into their strategies against necromancers out of a compulsion to avoid anything that may shake their beliefs in the slightest. So you better try to outmaneuver your opponent and then viciously bite down on their weakness. That’s how a necromancer can beat a priest in an unfavorable fight. After all…”

Farahann added tapping the chalkboard with his fan

“After all overcoming a stronger adversary with cleverness and cunning is the very role of a necromancer.”

Simon almost gave him a standing ovation. The other students were also all in awe.

“Well then now we shall dive into the details of each subject.”

Actually Simon knew most of this ‘Defense Against the Holy Arts’ class having studied exactly this already.

Back when he went to the Holy Federation during his vacation Rete had taught him so rigorously that even an inquisitor wouldn’t find him out. Hence Simon’s understanding of most facets of the Holy Federation was outstanding.

“Are there any students here who can explain the subject called Guarding?”

Simon raised his hand and answered

“Simon Polentia sir. It’s a study specializing in defense such as divine barriers and territories.”

“Good job. Could you name one territory light sp—”

“Territory of Glorification. It’s a light spell used by priests to buy some time to cast a blessing. It’s activated in the realm of the unconscious so it can be broken down with a curse that has a confusion effect.”

The assistant teachers were unanimously astonished never having met a student with even half of his base knowledge

Farahann also gave a hearty laugh and said

“Good no great! I’ll give you 10 points for a good attitude.”

“Thank you sir!”

Defense Against the Holy Arts class was just like a score vending machine for Simon.

Meilyn sitting next to him tapped Simon with her elbow and whispered to him

“Hey what’s the meaning of this?! When did you study Defense Against the Holy Arts so thoroughly?”

Simon smirked full of joy from seeing her face so full of envy.

“It’s a secret.”

“Oh what a cheapskate. Tell me please!”

* * *

After the theory class it was straight to practicals.

Today’s prac was about diffusing divinity in the body. The main goals were overcoming the fear of divinity and learning how to drive it away with jet-black.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

“Pant! Pant!”

The students’ reactions were worse than when they ate poisons in Poisonous Alchemy.

One after another the students screamed like they were losing their minds from even a drop of divinity.

‘Focus focus.’

Simon was nervous but for an entirely different reason.

“Please tell me if you feel like you can’t take it anymore.”

The assistant teacher who stood in front of Simon grabbed Simon’s arm and channeled in the divinity. The assistant teachers were also former priests.

“Gasp!”

Simon gathered jet-black in his veins to make his face go pale.

“A-Are you alright?”

“…Ah yes. It’s still bearable.”

His voice was raspy as if he had to push through layers of agonizing pain for every syllable but internally Simon felt something similar to doubt or embarrassment. 

‘It feels like I’m only getting better at acting.’

First he had to be good at acting like he was feeling pain from the divinity and second he had to be careful not to use divinity without realizing it. 

Sometimes when he was taking a Defense Against the Holy Arts class he would really be immersed in it and suddenly divinity would come out of his hands. It had already happened once but luckily he didn’t get caught. And he’d been extra careful ever since.

“Hoho give me a moment.”

Then Farahann approached them.

“I’ll be the one to take care of this student.”

“Ah yes Professor.”

The assistant teacher went away and Farahann grabbed Simon’s arm channeling divinity into it.

Simon frowned.

“Is it alright? The roots of divinity and jet-black are the same after all. Go ahead and try to push the divinity out with the jet-black.”

“Yes sir!”

Simon effortlessly whirred up his jet-black and suppressed the divinity that had entered his body.

“Mm. well done.”

He pretended to make a mistake once then succeeded on the second try. Farahann nodded in satisfaction and returned Simon to his seat.

‘Did I do it too fast?’

After looking at his palm he soon shook his head and returned to his seat.

And just like that today’s Defense Against the Holy Arts class had ended.

“I heard that there’s steak on today’s limited menu! Run!”

Shouted Rick holding his textbook against his waist as he ran on the spot.

As Meilyn and Camibarez were wrapping up and Simon scrambled to his feet

“Mr. Simon.”

Suddenly a Defense Against the Holy Arts assistant teacher called out for Simon.

“Professor Farahann would like to see you for a moment.”

“What?”

He saw Farahann waiting still fanning himself in the distance.

“Go ahead guys.”

Said Simon. Rick looked surprised.

“Woah what’s going on? Is it another offer to be a direct disciple?

“There you go again speaking without a filter. Compulsory subjects don’t have direct discipleship or anything.”

As Rick and Meilyn argued Simon quickly arrived in front of Farahann.

“Come with me to my lab.”

“Ah yes.”

Farahann’s lab was just upstairs in the building.

After getting into the clean room with walls painted white the two sat down on the sofa.

“Would you like a cup of tea?”

“No I’m good.”

Nodding Farahann opened his fan wide.

Using that as a cue the room’s curtains were drawn shut the lights went out and darkness filled the room. At the same time divine magic circles activated bursting with light.

“P-Professor?”

“Please don’t be surprised. This is a simple device to block out sound and sight. Now I have one question.”

Farahann stroked his beard his forehead creased with grim seriousness.

“Can you use divinity?”

——