Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 142

"A mark that only you can recognize? What is it?"

Asked Kajann.

"Actually, the thing is…"

Fighting the priest in the Forbidden Forest, he picked up a rock on the ground, enchanted it, and then threw it.

"Please, reach! Reveal the face!"

He was desperate.

As if not expecting Simon to fight back, the priest leaned out of the way a little too late. The attack tore through a small section of the right side of the hood.

"It drew blood."

At that time, he confirmed that the hem of the priest's hood was stained with red.

"The priest must have a scrape on their cheek."

Of course, a potion would have healed the wound, but Simon figured a faint scar might have remained if the wound was deep.

Kajann folded his arms and pondered. He seemed to be thinking of the faces of people with scars on their cheeks among the suspects.

In the end…

"It's quite vague."

Kajann shook his head.

"There's a chance that no scar remained, and there are many ways to hide them. Above all, it's impossible to determine the culprit based on a single scar."

"…Yeah, that's for sure."

Simon had already checked several people, but no one seemed suspicious.

Then, Kajann opened his subspace and took out a small pair of glasses.

"I'll give you this just in case."

"What's this?"

"It's something I've been carrying ever since I fell for the priest's trap."

Simon took the glasses and tried them on right away. It didn't seem to have any prescription, but his vision had gone blurry.

"If you wear that, you can see a real face behind a ‘biological face’. It would show through if they used a biological face to cover up the scar."

"Oh, that's pretty good."

The chance of spotting the priest with this was low, but it was better than nothing.

Simon tucked the glasses away in his inner pocket.

* * *

Once again, Kizen's busy days began.

They had to prepare for the performance assessment, the Duel Evaluation, the final exam that'll be in a few months…

"Ah! Absolutely magnificent."

Bahil, a professor of Curses, gave a round of applause.

He brought Simon to the stage and had him write the curse’s equation on the blackboard. He was explaining to the students how perfect, creative, and original this equation written by Simon was.

"Simon. Why did you exclude the vibration formula from the Motion Sickness curse?"

"Oh… That."

Simon scratched the side of his head.

After tossing up on whether he should be honest or make it up, Simon confessed,

"I didn't know the vibration formula very well, so I replaced it with the imbalance formula."

Stifled laughter could be heard from everywhere.

"To think that a Special Admission No.1 doesn't even know the vibration formula."

"He's only good at Summoning, he lacks fundamentals."

Hector's faction added a word or two as though waiting for this exact moment.

However…

"It's original! It's great!"

Bahil swelled with a protective pride.

"It’s because he didn't do any prior studies! Because his thoughts were pure white paper that hadn’t been stained by the ink of formulas and modifications! That’s how he can come up with such a unique idea!"

Thud thud!

Bahil pounded on the blackboard and, elated, poured out explanation after explanation.

"The Motion Sickness curse, of course, has to be made with the vibration formula! But this thinking just means that your brain is contaminated with tradition! Motion sickness isn't only caused by vibration. Humans experience motion sickness due to the discrepancy between the movement felt by the body and visual information! The sickness from riding a fast carriage on the pavement and the sickness you get from staring at movements on a mana screen for too long are both examples of this!"

Bahil went on to explain the visual motion sickness effect achieved by the imbalance formula in the motion sickness curse.

"Very well. This is how you should expand the curse equation! Now, a round of applause, please!"

Applause came from across the room. Simon felt at a loss with the overwhelming praise and bowed his head.

Bahil placed a hand on Simon's shoulder.

"I really like your idea, Simon. However, since the curse requires fast casting speed, let's start simple with the vibration formula."

"Ah, yes sir!"

'So we're going with vibration after all!'

The Curses aspirants complained inwardly, but they couldn't dare voice those thoughts.

Bahil affectionately patted Simon on the back, who returned to his seat.

'Love is overflowing in your eyes, Professor.'

Chehekle, standing under the stage, sighed.

A Kizen professor's one-sided love for his student. It was quite a rare sight.

'Still, watching Bahil so flooded with joy, even if restrained… It’s nice, I guess.'

But she couldn't be careless at times like this. Bahil could be quite unpredictable.

In fact, at this point, it wouldn't be strange for him to put a curse on Simon's body to make him a puppet disciple. He only didn’t because he was concerned Simon's genius could be damaged.

"Chehekle!"

At Bahil's voice, she jumped before slowly turning her head toward him.

"Yes, Professor?"

"For the rest of the period, please continue the practical training, assistant teacher."

What was the matter with him? He always taught Class A himself, even the practical training.

But Chehekle just bowed her head despite her confusion.

"Understood."josei

Bahil strode off, and Chehekle came up to the stage.

"We'll begin the practical training after a 15-minute break. Assistant teachers, gather in front of me."

* * *

* * *

After training the students and finishing the class without trouble, Chehekle came to Bahil's lab. She lightly knocked with the back of her hand.

"Professor, this is Chehekle."

"…"

There was no response telling her to come in, but Chehekle opened the door and entered the lab as if used to it.

And she was surprised. On the large blackboard that occupied the entire back wall of the lab, Bahil was frantically moving his chalk as he drew up formulas.

'He's finally on it again after so long.'

Chehekle waited with her hands folded in silence.

An hour passed like that. Bahil, who had filled every corner of the blackboard with formulas, looked back at her, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"When did you come in, Chehekle?"

"About an hour ago."

"What about the class?"

"We ended it well. Beside all that, what's that formula?"

Bahil grinned and slammed the blackboard.

"I heard that the Dresden Kingdom has been in trouble as of late due to attacks by wild harpies. It's a Motion Sickness curse that applies to flying monsters."

Her eyes widened.

"So it's a 'remade' Motion Sickness, a new version."

"Exactly! Flying monsters tend to be unphased by the vibration-style Motion Sickness. That's because it's a curse made only to deal with humans without considering a harpy's sense of balance. So I created a new curse using intersectional motion sickness!"

Bahil's fingers danced across the blackboard as he explained various parts of the equation.

"Creating discord between visual information and balance information! Using this formula, the harpies will feel as if they're moving down when they're flying straight and vice versa! In the end, the more the harpies fly, the more they'll feel this discrepancy, and they'll soon fall to the ground out of motion sickness."

"…"

He was a real geek and pervert, but his ability was real. As a scholar of Curses, Chehekle was genuinely impressed.

"Wait, then the compliment you gave Simon wasn't just lip service?"

"Hah! You've worked with me for how long, and you still don't know me, Chehekle?"

Bahil sat down on the armrest of his sofa and began to stretch his hands after writing for over an hour.

"My compliments to him are completely sincere!"

"…"

"His way of thinking about formulas is different from that of ordinary students! His way of thinking is slightly twisted! Even I get a lot of inspiration from listening to his answers!"

Bahil gave a light laugh and continued.

"In Professor Jane's test on the first day of Beginner Dark Magic, him deriving 1,200,146 without using the Theron Formula but through an ancient rune from Mechanics of Jet-Black, the instant skeleton formula from Summoning, and the Exhaust formula from Curses stirred gossip even in the professors, right? It's like that!"

Bahil rhythmically drummed his fingers against the armrest in unbridled joy.

"His creativity in dealing with formulas reminds me of a wound up spring being released. You cannot know where it’ll go! If his parents didn't let him study in advance so he would have his originality at the moment genius exploded… Ahhh! Their ideas and perseverance would not just be something to admire, but fear!"

"Alright, alright, I get what you're saying, Professor."

It was as if he was about to bow in the direction of Simon's parents. Readying the clipboard she used for the classwork, she asked,

"So, what will you name the remade Motion Sickness?"

"Hm."

After thinking for a while, Bahil said,

"SIMOtioN Sickness?"

"Lame."

Bahil laughed and got up from his seat. Then, he spoke without the hint of a smile.

"Professor Silage is moving."

"…"

"I heard that they had tangible results from studying the blood known as SM-1."

Simon couldn't have any fun in Hemomancy class until now.

Simon's SM-1 blood was a brand new type. Since it was completely different to existing Hemomancy types and hadn't yet been studied, Silage had no way to teach him.

So Silage moved his disciples all over the continent to proceed with the research, and the results were about to be revealed.

"I believe it'll take about 15 days for Silage to complete SM-1's curriculum for Simon."

"That's a crisis."

Said Chehekle, calm.

"Yes. Indeed it is a crisis! Adding to that, Professor Hong Feng's counterattack is also scary!"

Bahil clasped his hands together and spoke heavily.

"I heard she started teaching Jet-Black Eruption in Combat Dark Magic. Why do you think she progressed her class so quickly? Sure enough, only Simon Polentia learned Eruption in that class! She must intend to keep Simon's Combat Dark Magic growing!"

Chehekle frowned.

"I wonder. According to the rumors I've heard, Simon rejected Professor Hong Feng's offer to become her direct disciple."

At that, Bahil burst into laughter.

"Do you really believe such an obvious bluff? Even if the rumors are true, Hong Feng isn't a woman to give up just like that. Everyone is fooled by her foreign accent and innocent face, but she's a very tenacious and greedy person."

"In addition to the existing Summoning, Combat Dark Magic and now Hemomancy…"

The competition for this one student was insane. Chehekle sighed and continued,

"But Professor Bahil, during the Duel Evaluation between Simon and Malcolm, didn't you say you did not need to be impatient, since he'll fall into your hands in the end? There must be a reason you talked so big."

"Of course, Chehekle!"

Bahil went to the edge of the blackboard and pulled a string. Then, several layers of paper fell in clumps beneath the blackboard.

"I'm making a curse only for 'my Simon'."

"…Please, never say that again."

"The new Simon Polentia Original that I'll present to him! I plan to show him a level far above that trivial Bone Armor!"

Thinking soberly, Simon was currently doing well with Summoning. Even in the Duel Evaluation, he overwhelmed the Special Admission No.10

In a way, it was only natural that Simon wouldn't have much interest in other studies.

As a student, it was wise to focus on one’s specialty instead of training other means of attack.

"I decided to understand him! Isn't it true? It's unnecessary trouble to use a curse to weaken an opponent who will fall to the Overlord without him lifting a finger!"

So Bahil changed his ways.

Rather than emphasizing the combat aspect, a completely new curse was needed to catch his attention.

"When this study is complete, I guarantee Simon will be mine! But I believe time will be an issue."

Bahil rubbed his chin.

"Which will be developed first, Silage’s SM-1's style, or my Simon-original curse?"

Chehekle let out a laugh as if stupified by what was going on.

"If Simon knew this, he'd be overjoyed. The great Kizen professors are desperately fighting to win his favor. Why is everyone going so far?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Bahil grinned.

"The benefits of making him our disciple is worth doing this all a hundred times over!"

* * *

Simon's Group 7 came to the cafeteria together after finishing the Curses class.

Today again, the four of them ordered the limited-menu hamburger steak and took their seats.

Camibarez smiled brightly.

"Phew~ It was a close call today! The two people behind us were the last ones!"

"I know, right?"

Rick rested his chin on his hands and grabbed some of the fries.

"Everyone's information is getting faster and faster. It looks like a new community has been established that I don't know about. I guess I'll have to investigate."

"Stop fussing so much about something so small."

Meilyn snorted and cut a slice of the hamburger steak.

Despite saying that, she was the one who enjoyed the limited menu item the most.

"By the way,"

Simon looked around.

"don't you think the atmosphere is a bit off?"

"Y-You're right."

The students, as well as the assistant teachers who ate here, were talking quickly with stiffened faces.

Rick said, "Give me a moment," and went to listen in on the rumors.

"Did something happen?"

"Perhaps Efnel did something? Like a preemptive strike or something?"

"N-No way!"

Then Rick ran back to his groupmates while sweating profusely.

"Rick! What's wrong?"

"Haaaaaah, that's definitely big news."

Said Rick, brushing his hair back with a conflicted expression.

"Professor Lang of Poisonous Alchemy has passed away."

——