Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner

Chapter 211

As soon as he walked through the main gate, the dark and dreary sky was supplanted by a bright and blue one.

Simon stopped the golem board.

'Wh-What in the world is all this?'

It was like he entered another world. He was standing on a raised stage that stretched from the main entrance to the center of the campus, and a crowd of people were cheering from below.

[Simon! Simon! Simon!]

They were even chanting his name.josei

As he stood there, dumbfounded, he suddenly heard a loud voice beside him.

[It is Simon Polentia, the Special Admission No.1! He smashed the test, taking first place yet again! We'll have him on stage for you all!]

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

A flamboyantly dressed host shouted from the center of the stage with a loudspeaker crystal ball in his hand. When their eyes met, he gestured toward Simon.

'There was no crowd like this outside the main gate. It must've been covered by an illusion. So this was…'

Simon's eyes moved to the large mana screens hovering in the air.

They were showing live feeds of the other students battling the Prima Materia monsters, all broadcasted by observers.

'This was all a test from Kizen after all.'

Apparently, the test would end once the student reached Kizen.

Another mana screen showed a board with rankings.

On the top row of that board was a gold #1 with Simon's face, name, nationality, and major next to it.

'Did I really arrive first?'

Flash!

Snap!

The blinding flashes of mana cameras went off everywhere.

Simon frowned and raised an arm to block out the shining lights. Beside the cameras were masked men wearing black ties and scribbling in notebooks at tremendous speeds.

'Even the scouters are here?'

Taking a deep breath, Simon returned to his senses. He was still very much confused, but he didn't let that confusion reach his face.

He calmly straightened his tie, fixed his collar, and walked up next to the host on stage.

"Please give a big round of applause once again to the student Simon Polentia!"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Accompanied by enthusiastic cheers, Simon arrived at the center of the stage. The host took the loudspeaker crystal ball from his mouth so the crowd wouldn't hear him before saying to Simon,

"You must be very surprised. Do you need us to give you a quick debrief? And would you mind a short interview?"

Simon felt the urgency in his questions. He definitely needed that debrief, but he decided it could wait until after the interview.

"It's fine. I'll answer whatever I can."

Simon gave a business-like smile and stood closer to the loudspeaker ball.

"You must be really surprised! Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm a little puzzled, but yes, I'm feeling alright."

"First, could you tell us a little about yourself?"

It was his first public appearance as Kizen's Special Admission No.1. Hundreds of eyes were glued onto him. No mistakes are allowed.

Simon took a slight breath and began,

"Hello, My name is Simon Polentia."

* * *

Whiiiish!

Thousands of meters above Roke Island.

Armed with the wings and scales of a corpse dragon, Hector defied all expectations. He was soaring higher than the clouds.

As soon as he had come to his senses, Hector realized that this was all a test by Kizen and took to the skies.

Of course, flying was a challenge, too. Kizen had released many of those flying Prima Materia monsters into the air, and they had few targets apart from him.

Many flashes of evil-shattering divinity beams lit up the sky as Hector dodged and weaved.

He had briefly considered joining the other students and taking a ground route, but in the end, he remained stubborn.

There was no way he could defeat that bastard by ordinary means. Knowing this, Hector dodged past and fought through countless flying monsters until he finally spotted the Kizen campus from up high.

'Now I just have to get back down!'

He had spent too much time fighting back. He lost quite a number of scales, too. Taking a quick glance back at the monsters following him, Hector set his core to overdrive, sending every drop of jet-black into the corpse dragon wings.

Soon, he moved from mostly horizontal to almost straight down, and he descended toward the campus with such speed he threatened to break the sound barrier.

Whiiiiiiiiiiiiish!

His scales tugged and pulled, the air resistance trying to grab at whatever it could, but Hector was able to take it.

After going so far just to shave off a minute at most, he was certain.

'This time, I'm definitely getting first place!'

He was nearing the Kizen campus like a meteor crashing toward the ground.

Upon seeing the glimmer of jet-black stretching out like a barrier across the empty school grounds, he became even more sure of his initial assumption.

This was a Kizen test.

'I will begin the integrated second semester with a victory! I, the heir of the Moore family…!'

He tore through the barrier of jet-black and flapped his wings soaked in jet-black with all their might to slow himself down and land safely.

'…am the best!'

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

The background around him changed, and he saw countless people cheering and throwing their arms up.

A shiver of ecstasy ran down his spine.

Hector pumped his fists into the air and roared with the ferocity of a dragon.

[Student 'Hector Moore' has arrived while we are conducting the interview!

'After all, I'm the— Hm? What was that? I—'

[As expected from the great Moore family! Please join me in giving a round of applause to Hector Moore, who beat out almost all the fierce Special Admissions and the other monsters to take second place!]

'Almost all? I'm second, not first?!'

[Going back to our interview with Simon Polentia, who came in first…]

A spectator still watching Hector let out a frightened yelp upon seeing the fury on his face.

Simon was the first to arrive on the stage, speaking into a loudspeaker ball as he answered the host's questions.

"Kuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

Hector's shout shook the spectator stands.

* * *

* * *

The interview went well.

He was asked how he spent his vacation, what dark magic he'd been practicing lately, what the hardest thing was about being at Kizen, and what he was looking forward to in starting his integrated second semester.

He was worried he'd be asked about his past or background, but there were no difficult questions. They were just questions that a typical student could answer.

When he finished the interview and went backstage, a woman was waiting, her hands folded in her lap.

When their eyes met, she immediately bowed.

"Student Simon."

He didn't know her name, but her face was familiar.

She was one of Jane's—the woman in charge of Class A—assistant teachers, so he would have seen her occasionally at drills or when Jane called for Simon.

Simon also bowed his head and greeted her politely.

"Have you been well, assistant teacher?"

It was nice to see a face he recognized.

"I've been fine. But more importantly, I saw on the screens earlier that you took a bad fall. Are you hurt anywhere?"

At that, Simon grabbed his throbbing left arm.

"On this arm, a little."

She reached over and grabbed the arm.

"How about here?"

"It's fi—"

"Here?"

"Agh! That hurts!"

As Simon screamed, she nodded with a tender smile.

"Follow me. I'll take you to where you'll be treated."

"Thank y—"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Another round of wild cheering erupted. They both turned their heads to look.

It was hard to see from where they were, but a third person must've arrived. The host was shouting the name 'Chatelle Maerre'.

"Let's go."

Simon followed the assistant teacher. She explained that, normally, this would be the servants' job. However, because it was such a big event, the servants were already incredibly busy and the assistants had to manage the students.

"But, assistant teacher, what is all this about?"

She gave a small laugh as Simon let out his pent-up curiosity.

"I'm sorry, I know you're surprised. You'll hear more about it at the opening ceremony, but it's some sort of performance assessment for the entire first-year cohort. It'll reflect on your grades, and probably at least 50 of you will be stripped of your Kizen uniforms today."

At that, Simon felt his stomach sink.

'At least 50?!'

"Also, the test today is completely open to the public, just like the last Duel Evaluation where even the Princess of Dresden came to watch."

She glanced over and saw the look in Simon's eyes.

"Of course, I know how you feel, Simon. I was also a Kizen student, and it's not that pleasant. You know, you're going through a lot… Those students who puked or pissed themselves during this test, and even just exhaustion during others… It's kind of annoying having an entire audience watching you."

Simon dismissively waved his hand, surprised by the heart-to-heart.

"I-It's not that bad! Well, Kizen gave me a stage to make my name known and to start accruing fame, so…!"

She smirked as if she'd seen through Simon trying to cover up his displeasure.

"I know I'm not an admin but just an assistant teacher with no say in anything, but as an educator, I apologize. The truth is, this opening test was already confirmed, and it was HQ's decision to force it to be public."

"What? Why would the headquarters suddenly decide to—?"

"Actually, it's because the terrorist incident gave those questioning Kizen's dominance more of a platform to stand on."

It wasn't easy for a single organization to rule over four kingdoms and great families such as those in the Ivory Tower with an iron fist.

In that regard, Efnel was clever.

Their system destroyed all nations and nobles within their Federation, creating a single empire. They made religion the core foundation of the state's existence and controlled the populace through the inquisitors and censorship.

Nefthis, on the other hand, took the difficult road of 'Unity', bringing together the forces in the name of the Alliance. But this Saintess incident was good material for the anti-Kizen factions, and even more sprung up because of it.

"Holding the tests in public is like a show of strength. It's like we're telling them that the Kizen is still the strongest~ And that the students involved in the incident weren't intimidated by it."

According to her, the intensity of Kizen's publicized tests actually frightens most of the audience.

Plunging 17-year-olds who hadn't even finished the standard first semester straight into deep trauma, making them fight divine monsters and real priests, disabling their uniforms, and throwing them onto a battlefield.

It wouldn't be surprising to see some students wind up with cores destroyed.

However, in the end, most students overcame their fears and fought the priests with all their might, making their ways to Kizen's campus.

The crowd was very impressed by this, and the atmosphere when Simon entered was built by that. Ultimately, it was all part of the big picture that the headquarters was painting.

'…As expected from a powerful organization. It feels like they have the citizens playing by Kizen's hand.'

He could already envision the headlines that would be on the front page of every newspaper in the Alliance. Simon chuckled to himself before asking to sate his curiosity,

"But what's with the priests earlier?"

"That will also be explained at the opening ceremony a little later. To summarize, you could think of them as people who escaped from the Holy Federation and are cooperating with Kizen, I guess."

They had arrived at the emergency clinic. The assistant teacher walked back to her station with a respectful bow, and Simon's wounds were treated.

Thankfully, his left arm didn't need a splint and was quickly dealt with. He was told not to strain the arm for the next two days.

After receiving his treatment, he left the clinic and returned to the waiting room backstage.

Murmur murmur murmur!

That's when he heard lots of noise coming from the crowd. Simon looked to the mana screen in the waiting room, and a delighted smile made it onto his lips.

'It's Meilyn!'

She had arrived at the front of the Kizen campus within the top 10.

Now, all that remained was the battle with the old priest.

——