Necromancer Academy and the Genius Summoner-Chapter 355: Episode

Simon wandered around Pentamonium, taking in the various events. From demonstrations of mecha-undead to lectures by high-ranking summoners, there was plenty to see, and he had a thoroughly enjoyable time. As dusk fell, he returned to his lodgings. He and Kajan would share one room, and Serne another.

He was about to pull out a book to study some cursology before bed when...

—’Let’s talk for a moment.’

Kajan called him out. Even when they weren’t in the dorms, their meeting spot was the same. When Simon reached the rooftop, he found Kajan looking up at the night sky.

’A full moon again tonight,’ Simon noted as he approached. "No wine?"

"I’m on a mission. So, no."

Simon plopped down beside him, and Kajan got straight to the point. "The reason I wanted to see you is—"

His gaze glinted like a blade. "I have something to report regarding the mission."

Simon swallowed hard and nodded.

---

The next morning, the fateful hour arrived.

"Whoa, my heart is pounding!"

"My voice keeps cracking, what do I do?"

The morning was dedicated to the first-year necromancer thesis presentations. Simon leaned against a wall, quickly scanning the script he had prepared. Serne was running late, so Kajan had gone to find her.

"Oh, working hard, are we, Kizen?"

A male student in a green and checkered uniform struck up a conversation. Simon wracked his memory. A first-year from Alland... Benz, was it? The kid with the forceful handshake.

"Ah, don’t be so wary," Benz said, holding up his hands. "Today, I’m competing purely on—"

’Fwip!’ He unfurled a thick stack of thesis papers. "—summoning skills alone."

If that was the case, Simon was happy to oblige. He smiled brightly. "I’ll be looking forward to it, Benz."

At that single remark, Benz’s face flushed. ’A-A Kizen student remembered my name! What an honor...! No, wait!’ He suddenly slapped his own cheeks with a sharp ’smack!’ ’Don’t get happy over something like this! It’s humiliating!’

He turned to his reflection in a nearby window. "Who am I?" he muttered, adjusting his necktie and flashing a grin at himself. "A proud student of Alland."

Simon decided to pretend he hadn’t seen a thing.

"Anyway!" His self-esteem recharged, Benz pointed a finger at Simon’s chest. "This year’s Pentamonium presentation is the worst in history! We should both be careful!"

"Why is it the worst?"

"Hmph. You don’t know anything! Look over there!" Benz pointed toward the three judges. "From the right: Kalavan of Citation Hell, Vintra the Thesis-Ripper, and Latonia the Proof-Parrot."

"The what?"

"They’re the most notorious judges in Pentamonium. Usually, you only get one of them, but this year, horribly, all three are here." Benz rubbed his shoulders as if getting goosebumps. "Yesterday was a nightmare. Our second-years had their spirits completely crushed. I heard some of them were crying in their rooms, saying they needed to rethink their futures."

"...It’s that bad?"

"They’re demons who will grind your confidence into dust," Benz said with a deep sigh. "And we’re just starting the proper black magic curriculum. How much originality can they really expect from us? We’re bound to get torn apart."

"Hmm."

"That’s why I prepared only the most difficult words and logic so the judges won’t be able to understand..."

"What are you two doing?" A pleasant, melodious voice like a spring breeze cut in.

Benz spun around and stumbled back in shock. "Y-You’re...!"

Her ivory hair fluttering like something out of a photoshoot, Serne approached with her hands behind her back. She gave them a foxy smile and bowed her head slightly.

"Were you bullying Simon again?"

"N-No! I was...!" Benz’s lips trembled, and he couldn’t speak. To him, this girl was the sun, and he felt as if he were being scorched by its unfiltered rays, shriveling up like a salted slug. Just making eye contact was an honor, but being this close was agonizing. He felt an overwhelming urge to prostrate himself on the floor.

"Serne," Simon said in a chiding tone.

She smiled sweetly and turned her gaze to Simon, and Benz finally felt the suffocating tension in his chest release.

"E-Excuse me!" he squeaked, scurrying down the stairs as if fleeing for his life.

Serne watched him go before asking, "What were you talking about?"

"Just the thesis review."

"Serne Aindark. This is your second warning," Kajan said with a sigh as he joined them. "If you use your power for something so trivial one more time, I will report it to my superiors and have you sent back to Roc Island."

"That’s so mean! I was just standing still!" Serne pouted, but Kajan ignored her. Strangely, while she would snap back at Lorraine, Nephthys’s daughter, she tended to listen to Kajan. Simon guessed it was because Kajan was also on her list of potential recruits.

"Please be seated."

And so, the first-year thesis presentation began. Sierra was the first of the necromancer schools to present. A female student in a red uniform stood hesitantly at the podium, glancing around nervously.

"We haven’t even started, and my vision is already going dark," said Vintra the Thesis-Ripper, the judge in the middle.

"Yesterday’s second-years were the worst," added Kalavan of Citation Hell. "Aside from one, they were nothing special."

"Their level was atrocious, but we must remain professional and judge fairly," said Latonia the Proof-Parrot from the left.

The judges were exchanging light banter, but to the students, it sounded like a conversation between demons.

"Begin," Vintra commanded, his expression turning serious.

"Y-Yes!"

The student projected an image with a mana crystal, placed her hands on her chest, and took a deep breath. "I am Elaria Lecrell, a first-year Summoning major from Sierra. My research topic is the habits, physiology, and application of the swamp undead, the ’Dragonbone Demon’."

Before she could finish, the three judges leaned back in their chairs, their boredom palpable. The Sierra student was flustered but pressed on. "The Dragonbone Demon primarily inhabits swamps in the Kalos Kingdom. Its body length is about seven to ten feet, tail length about a foot, shoulder height..."

"Next."

"Ah, yes! I’m sorry! The Dragonbone Demon mutates from the corpses of monsters that sink into swamps. Especially in deeper..."

"Next."

"The Dragonbone Demon is classified as a skeleton, but restoration techniques cannot be used. Instead—"

"Next!" 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

They didn’t give her a chance to speak. Her pupils began to tremble, but with the boldness of a necromancer, she skipped eighty percent of her content and flipped to the back of her thesis. "Please look at the screen. This is the summoning magic circle formula I’ve created for the Dragonbone Demon."

Only then did the judges sit up.

"As you can see, the core rune is ’Funeral.’ The supporting formulas are—"

"Wait," Kalavan of ’Citation Hell’ interjected, her eyes glinting behind her glasses. "A research paper on creating a Dragonbone Demon using the ’Funeral’ rune already exists. State your source."

"Th-The source is...!"

While the student fumbled, Kalavan opened a subspace and pulled out several documents, enlarging them for the audience to see. "<An Assembly-Centric Modeling Methodology for Dragonbone Demon Design>, and <A Summoning Interpretation of the Funeral Runic Word>. I found two with a simple search. So, student Elaria, what is the difference between these papers and yours?"

The audience began to murmur.

"O-Of course, there are preceding papers," Elaria stammered. "But I used the Kandal formula for the deformation rate and rotation value...!"

"Prove it," ’Proof-Parrot’ Latonia cut in. "Rationally prove why you thought the Kandal formula was a good match for Dragonbone Demon design."

"Ah, ah, yes!"

She hastily scribbled a few formulas on the blackboard, but Latonia scoffed. "It’s obvious you just forcefully inserted your own thoughts based on the existing paper."

"Wh-What?"

"I will now prove why the author of that paper used simple calculations instead of the Kandal formula." Latonia stood up and began writing on the blackboard, turning the presentation into an impromptu lecture. The irony of a judge teaching the presenter was lost in the tension.

Even after Latonia finished tearing her apart, the attacks continued.

"Why didn’t you cite the source for the formula?"

"That’s not how you handle a Dragonbone Demon. Have you ever actually assembled one?"

"What on earth are they teaching the kids at Sierra?"

The judges were like hyenas, relentlessly tearing into any weakness. The student’s bewildered expression showed her spirit was cracking.

"I will state the evaluation result," Vintra the Thesis-Ripper announced, lifting her thesis. "Trash. Zero points."

He then ripped the paper to shreds in front of her eyes, scattering the pieces at her feet. "Did you think Pentamonium was that easy? Did you think you could just patch things together like a chimera?"

"Don’t think we’re being too harsh," Kalavan added coldly. "You showed no preparation, no sincerity, and no thought. You were the one who disrespected Pentamonium first."

As the hall fell silent, the girl walked down the stairs with her head hung low like a criminal. When her friends ran to comfort her, the tears she had been holding back finally burst forth.

’This seems a bit harsh,’ Simon thought, wincing from his seat in the audience. Elaria’s thesis certainly had its flaws, but he wondered if it was necessary to push a student just starting to learn black magic so far.

Vintra slammed his palm on the table. "This day is off to an extremely unpleasant start! Next!"

---

As the presentations went on, the atmosphere in the hall grew more hostile.

"Trash. Zero points. Next!" Shredded paper littered the podium floor.

"You call this a thesis?! Do you think this is school homework?!"

"This is the problem with this generation of peace! When I was a student...!"

"Putting everything else aside, there’s no sincerity or courtesy. Isn’t it common sense to be familiar with the basic format for a Pentamonium thesis?"

Like a thresher at work, the mental fortitude of the students who took the podium was ground to dust. Sierra, Alland, and Moiran couldn’t escape the blade.

However.

"This one’s slightly better."

A male student from Moiran—the same one who had boasted of overthrowing Kizen—received a fairly good evaluation.

"It’s still severely lacking, but at least it’s the best of the lot."

"It’s not like we’re asking for much. We’d let it slide if they just did this much."

For the first time, a thesis was returned by Vintra the Thesis-Ripper intact. As the student stepped down to scattered applause, his eyes naturally drifted toward Simon.

"Well, now it’s their turn," Vintra said, crossing his arms. "Come on up, Kizen!"