Necromancer Academy and the Genius Summoner-Chapter 195: Episode

"Alright! This is where we’ll be staying for the next two days!" Dick announced, spreading his arms wide.

The four of them had arrived at the very top of Langerstine’s central clock tower. Simon, Kamibarez, and Meirin all stared in utter shock.

"There’s a place to stay up here?"

The tower’s massive, glowing clock face hung directly above them, bathing the balcony in a soft, ethereal light. The space had been cleverly converted into accommodations; half was a lodging area with beds and furniture, while the other half was a large balcony with a dining table. The four of them stepped outside.

"Woooow!"

The dazzling nightscape of Langerstine spread out before them. Kamibarez jumped up and down, her face alight with pure delight. "This is incredible, Dick! How did you find a place like this?!"

"Heheh." Dick crossed his arms and puffed out his chest. "I get things done when I need to. A place like this in exchange for a two-hour part-time job? Not a bad deal, right?"

"Yeah, it’s amazing," Simon agreed, admiring the view.

Next to him, Meirin was already busy laying out oil paper and paste—materials she had bought from a street vendor on their way up. "More importantly, get ready! ‘A Thousand Lights’ starts in thirty minutes!"

"...Do we really have to do that?"

"Of course!"

A Thousand Lights, a quintessential Langerstine tourist experience, was a nightly ritual where people released lanterns into the sky at eight o’clock sharp. Simon remembered watching it with Lorraine when he had first arrived in the city. His reaction now, however, was rather lukewarm. Dick, after a few minutes of admiring the view, complained it was cold and went inside to flop onto a bed.

Meirin threw her hands up in frustration. "Hey! If you come here, you absolutely have to release a lantern! Why else would you come to Langerstine?"

"That’s right!" The girls were in perfect agreement, and they began diligently folding the paper lanterns.

"Meirin! I don’t think you’re supposed to put the paste there!"

"Ugh! I messed up! This one’s ruined!"

But the task proved harder than it looked. Unable to watch their struggle any longer, Simon sat down, and his fingers moved with a surprising deftness, folding the delicate paper and assembling the frames.

Kamibarez gasped in admiration and clapped her hands. "You’re amazing, Simon! Is there anything you can’t make?"

He even managed to salvage the lantern Meirin had nearly ruined. She pouted, looking embarrassed. "Jeez. If you knew how to make them, you could’ve helped sooner."

"Haha, it’s not that I really know how," he admitted. "I made one with Lorraine when we were here before, so I guess I just remember the feel of it."

At his words, Meirin and Kamibarez both flinched.

"Uh, when? Why were you with her?"

Simon, focused on his task, furrowed his brow slightly. "Lorraine helped me buy textbooks and supplies the day before I started at Kizen. It was my first time away from home, and I didn’t know anything, so she helped me a lot."

"W-Were you two friends from before?"

"No, we met for the first time then."

The two girls exchanged a peculiar glance.

"Wow," Dick chimed in cluelessly, having reappeared with a drink. "Isn’t that something couples do together? Lucky you. Date Nephthys’s daughter and your life is set..."

"Hey." Meirin shot him a glare so cold it could freeze fire. It was the same look she gave him right before she attacked, and Dick flinched instinctively.

"Uh, what?"

"Are you the only one with a mouth here? Huh? There are three other people waiting, so hurry up and bring three more drinks!"

"Ugh. You really work me to the bone," Dick muttered, feigning misery as he trudged back to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Simon, who couldn’t help but give his all to any task he started, was wholly absorbed in making the lanterns. He ended up finishing all four.

"Ah! Look over there! People are gathering at the observatory!" Kamibarez pointed to a distant hill. Countless tourists and couples were making their way to vantage points on hills and rooftops, preparing to release their lanterns.

"Ours will fly the highest," Meirin said, her voice buzzing with excitement. And she was right. No observatory or hilltop could compare to the height of the clock tower.

"Alright, I’ll light them," Simon announced.

They had decided to release one lantern each. As the others held theirs aloft, Simon lit them one by one with a candle. Finally, he lit his own, holding it carefully by the edges.

"It’s starting!"

All across the city, beautiful, crimson lanterns began their ascent into the night sky. Being at the highest point, Simon’s group waited a moment for the others to rise.

"Now!" Meirin shouted.

At her signal, they all let go. The four lanterns from the clock tower soared into the heavens first, soon joined by a thousand trailing fragments of light that painted the night city in a breathtaking glow. Watching their lanterns drift away, each of them made a silent wish.

’I hope that when the second semester ends, all four of us will survive and still be wearing our Kizen uniforms.’

Simon finished his wish and opened his eyes, gazing at the river of fire that flowed across the night sky like a celestial galaxy.

"It’s so beautiful," Meirin whispered, her voice trembling.

"It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen," added Kamibarez, for whom this was her first time seeing the festival.

Dick grinned and nudged Simon’s elbow. "What’s your verdict?"

Simon replied with deadpan stoicism.

"Your 200 Silver is exploding in the sky."

Dick roared with laughter. Meirin shot Simon a look that screamed ’mood-killer’, while Kamibarez covered her mouth with a hand to hide a small smile.

"He’s right! 200 Silver for a piece of paper is a rip-off!"

"Ugh, you two have no romance in you. It’s a sickness, I swear."

After watching the lanterns for a while, the four of them sat at the terrace table and opened a bottle of wine. Simon brought out the lunchbox Anna had packed for him. The sight of the delicious food packed tightly into the small containers, along with Anna’s heartfelt note, genuinely touched everyone. The taste, of course, was exceptional.

"Simon! Please tell your mother thank you so, so much!"

"I shall bow in the direction of your mother’s home."

As they ate and drank, they talked for hours. It felt like they had two months of stories to catch up on, and they all eagerly shared tales of their adventures, their laughter echoing into the night.

"You know, whenever we talk about the vacation, Simon gets pretty quiet," Dick remarked.

"...Uh, well. I was just busy with my duties as lord."

"Tsk, you wasted your precious vacation just lazing around."

Simon just smiled, thinking they would lose their minds if they knew he had been to the Holy Federation. And so, the night deepened.

---

"Mmm..."

Simon gently picked up Kamibarez, who had fallen asleep on the floor, and carried her into the bedroom.

Meirin was already sprawled out on one of the beds, still in her uniform, having kicked off the blanket at some point. He carefully laid Kamibarez down beside her and pulled the blanket over them both. After watching them sleep for a moment, he quietly closed the door.

"Ughhh, I drank too much..." Dick, who had insisted he was perfectly fine, staggered and collapsed onto the floor.

Simon chuckled.

"You only had three glasses."

"Three glasses makes me a heavy drink...er..."

Simon helped the slurring Dick to his feet and dragged him over to a single bed. Then he stretched his arms high and stepped back out onto the terrace. The cool night breeze cleared his head. Leaning his elbows on the railing, he looked down at the inky darkness of Langerstine, now silent and devoid of the thousand lights.

"Is there something you wanted to say, Father?"

At his words, a shadow detached itself from the darkness, landing silently on the terrace railing. The pitch-black figure crouched, its piercing gaze fixed on Simon.

"How long have you known?"

"Since we were releasing the lanterns."

The Vampire Lord, Dietrich, smirked. "I have stayed too long. I must leave Langerstine now."

"I understand. I’ll take care of Ka—"

"Kamibarez is a defective product."

Simon’s expression hardened.

"In vampire society, where strength is the only virtue and the law of the jungle reigns, she could never survive. Not in power, and not in spirit."

"Is there any parent who calls their own child defective?"

"Insolent brat." Dietrich bared his teeth, his fangs glinting with a terrifying sharpness. "I am the Vampire Lord. Even if she is my child, as the leader of an entire clan, I cannot show personal affection."

"And yet, you seem to care for her a great deal."

"It is my karma." His gaze drifted over the darkened city. "Everyone believes they are a pioneer, that they are exceptional, but history merely repeats itself. Everything flows according to its design." His voice was a low, steady rumble. "Defeated by a fleeting, primal impulse, I fell in love with a human woman, and she carried my child. Giving birth to a vampire’s offspring is an ordeal no human body can bear."

A vampire baby kills its human mother. They had known this, yet they had still been together.

"For that, I lost the woman I loved more than anything. And I brought Kamibarez into this world not as a complete vampire, but as a defective product. That was the first time I ever experienced failure. All of it is my karma." A deep, ancient regret flickered in his eyes.

"Then let me ask you this," Simon said, his face cold. "Meeting Kamibarez’s mother, loving her... can you truly define all of that as a failure?"

The Vampire Lord’s lips parted. "No."

"Then that’s all that matters," Simon said with a faint smile. "It’s impossible for everything to go according to some grand design. I don’t think it was some fleeting impulse. I think it was inevitable—the only path that could lead you to Kami."

"Khahahahahaha!" Dietrich’s laugh boomed across the rooftop. Simon flinched, glancing back toward the room, but thankfully, no one seemed to have stirred. "A little brat who hasn’t lived a fraction of my life speaks so boldly!"

But there was a simple charm in the boy’s unburdened perspective. Dietrich swirled his cloak, wrapping himself in shadow.

"Take good care of my daughter."

"Yes. Leave her to me."

With those final words, Dietrich’s body dissolved into a swarm of countless bats, scattering into the night. The amiable smile on Simon’s face faded as he let out a long sigh of relief.

’That intensity... I was so on edge.’

He turned and went back inside.

---

The next morning. Only one day remained until the start of the semester. Simon had thought that today, at least, would be filled with nothing but fun.

It all started when Meirin glanced at Dick’s vacation homework.

"This absolute lunatic! He’s not even halfway done!" she roared.

Dick broke into a cold sweat.

"I-I was planning to do it with you guys now."

"You mean you were planning to have us ’help’ you, don’t you?! That’s it! Everyone, get your homework out! Now!"

And just like that, Simon and Kamibarez, who had been sleeping peacefully, were subjected to a homework inspection. Kamibarez was in better shape than Dick, but she had skipped sections here and there to focus on her training. Simon, for his part, had been diligent, but his written scores in every subject besides Summoning were low, resulting in a host of errors.

"...Wow. Just... wow." Team 7’s leader pressed a hand to her forehead, then covered her entire face. The other three stood at attention before her, shifting nervously. "Give me back the emotional high from yesterday, you jerks. To hell with a thousand lights and wine on the terrace."

Her cold gaze swept over them. "At this rate, you’ll start the semester with the lowest scores, get hit with a handicap, and spend the whole term groveling! Especially you, Dick! You’re headed for a permanent vacation! Have you forgotten what Professor Jane is like? Did your brains turn to mush after a two-month break?"

Dick forced a smile and clasped his hands together. "Now, now, let’s not get too excited. Just calm down. And while we deserve a scolding, the reason should be clear..."

"Reason? Did you say ’reason’?" She snatched up his Blood Flow Studies assignment. "The question was: ‘Contemplate the caster’s handicap when casting the Blood Flow magic, Catapholet.’ And Dick’s answer..." She gritted her teeth. "‘Losing blood makes you dizzy.’ You submitted this as an answer, you absolute moron?!"

"Well, it’s Blood Flow magic, so I’m not technically wrong..."

Meirin hurled the stack of papers, smacking Dick in the face and sending him stumbling backward.

"I’m losing my mind! To think I was planning to spend the combined second semester with a team like this!"

Group-based classes would continue in the second semester. If any of them were expelled for poor grades or couldn’t contribute to group projects because of other handicaps, the rest of the team would suffer.

Kamibarez clasped her hands and tried to defuse the situation with a cute, sweet voice. "...Uh, Mom?"

"Quiet, Kami. Don’t think you’re getting off easy this time."

Realizing her charm was useless, Kamibarez snapped to attention, her expression tense.

Simon forced a smile. "I’m a bit better off, right?"

"You’re all the same, you idiots! Don’t even think about taking a single step outside this room until every last bit of this is done!" Meirin, the group leader, gathered up their disastrous assignments, slammed the pile onto the table, and roared.

"Redo it! Right now!"

"Yes, ma’am!" the three chorused.

They immediately grabbed their quills and got to work. Amidst the frantic scribbling, Dick gave a thumbs-up and said with misplaced optimism, "This just proves the universal truth that vacation homework can only be done by cramming at the last minute."

"How about I prove the universal truth of gravity by dropping you from this clock tower?"

Dick’s head snapped back down to his homework.