Chapter 226: Episode 226

’Blood Golem. Blood Golem…’

Perhaps because he was so excited about the new summoning magic Aaron was going to teach him, Simon couldn’t get the ‘Blood Golem’ out of his head all day. The excitement continued into the next morning. He was disappointed when he woke up and realized it wasn’t next week yet, but he decided to wait with a joyful heart.

“Please, just stop,” Dick said in a fed-up tone as they walked to the cafeteria. “That damn ‘Blood Golem,’ ‘Blood Golem’ ! Do you know you’ve been humming that since last night?”

“R-Really?”

A sudden wave of embarrassment washed over him, and Simon subtly looked away.

“Yes! You have! I’ll be able to play that melody on the piano soon! Blood Golem… Blood Golem…”

“You’re addicted too.”

“Aargh!”

Simon laughed out loud as Dick screamed in frustration. Let them get angry, let them criticize, let them say whatever they want. I don’t care, because I’m learning ‘Blood Golem.’

“Anyway! From now on, every time you say the words ‘Blood Golem,’ you get a flick on the forehead…”

’Meow…’

The two stopped walking at the sudden sound of a cat. Near a stone wall, they saw the back of a female student with bat wings.

’It’s Kami.’ He thought her back looked familiar. She was crouching down, playing with some kittens. One was white, and the other was black. When Kamibarez smiled shyly and held out her finger, the kittens playfully batted at it with their tiny paws.

“So cute…”

Simon and Dick quietly approached her.

“Kami?”

“Aaahhhh!”

Startled by the sudden voice, the wings on her back fluttered furiously. With a tense expression, she pressed her back against the stone wall, then let out a belated sigh of relief when she recognized the two of them.

“Y-You scared me!”

“What are you doing here?”

“Ah, well…”

’Meow, meow.’

A kitten climbed onto Kamibarez’s lap and nuzzled her affectionately. She looked like she was dying from cuteness as she stroked the black kitten’s head, and it started to purr.

“Ah, you can’t go in there!”

Kamibarez caught the white kitten that was trying to crawl under her skirt and placed it on her lap.

“…Hmm.” Dick’s expression turned serious. “That might not be a cat.”

Simon ignored Dick’s joke and joined in on playing with the cats.

“They look like they were just born.”

The kittens were wary at first when Simon got close. But when he extended his finger and slowly waved it from side to side, they forgot all about their caution and started excitedly biting and playing with his finger with their harmless teeth.

“Oh, that looks fun.”

Dick joined in too. But the moment he stuck his face out, he was scratched by a cat’s claw and sent reeling. Simon laughed loudly, and Kamibarez, terrified, pulled the kittens into her arms.

“N-No, you can’t do that! Are you okay, Dick?”

“Ah, it stings…!”

Dick touched his face and glared at the cat nestled in Kamibarez’s arms.

“That really might not be a cat.”

“That joke isn’t funny.”

“No, I’m not joking, I mean it literally! It could be a monster’s baby! Look! It has a small horn growing in the middle of its head!”

“…A horn?”

Simon’s expression turned serious as he touched the kitten’s head. He could definitely feel something sharp and pointed at his fingertips. A tiny horn was hidden within the fur.

“Th-That can’t be! Whitey and Blackie aren’t monsters!” Kamibarez cried out, hugging the two kittens. It seemed she had already named them.

Dick shrugged.

“What’s your proof that they’re not monsters?”

“They’re so nice and cute, there’s no way they’re monsters!”

“Damn it, resorting to a cowardly emotional appeal.”

“Hey, you idiots!”

Suddenly, a sharp shout came from behind them, and a water bottle flew at Dick. Just as he turned around, the water bottle hit the exact spot where he had been scratched. He let out a grunt and fell over.

“You told me to wait at the academic hall cafeteria!” Meirin strode toward them, her sky-blue hair flying. “It’s been twenty minutes! Twenty! Do you know how embarrassing it is to sit all alone in a crowded student cafeteria?! People walk by and whisper about me eating alone!”

Dick rubbed the spot where the water bottle had hit him.

“While you’re at it, why not take some time to reflect on why you don’t have any other friends to eat with?”

“I have plenty of friends!” Meirin shouted, her face turning red. “Shut up! And if you guys were late for something pointless, I won’t let you off… Ah!”

Meirin spotted the kittens in Kamibarez’s arms. Her furious expression melted like spring snow, and a smile spread across her face.

“So cute!”

“Right? Right?”

The two girls were completely captivated by the kittens’ cuteness, making a fuss over every little movement. Simon stood up, and Dick took out a notepad.

“Hmm, I should contact a watchman. Tell them a wild monster has appeared on Kizen grounds and needs to be exterminated.”

Meirin shot Dick a glare. Kamibarez, terrified, hugged the kittens tighter.

“P-Please don’t do that, Dick! I’ll take good care of them!”

As her large, purple eyes welled up with tears, Dick said in a fluster, “No, it’s not about you…!”

“You really have no manners,” Meirin snapped. “How can you talk about extermination in front of these cute little babies? If you call the adults, you’ll regret it.”

“Guys,” Simon said, quickly mediating. “I’m against extermination, too, but Dick has a point. It would be a problem if we kept them on campus and they turned out to be real monsters and caused an accident. We need a plan.”

“Hmm.” After thinking for a moment, Meirin spoke up. “Then, for now, I’ll take them to the girls’ dorm and leave them with some staff I know. I’ll also call someone who can tell if they’re monsters. Okay?” Simon quickly nodded, and Dick agreed as well, but he scratched his head with a confused expression. “Jeez, do we really have to go to all that trouble? If we just leave them, their mom will probably come find them.”

“Did you forget this is a necromancer school?” Meirin retorted. “What if some weirdo catches them and uses them for an experiment?”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that.”

And so, an agreement was reached. The four of them headed to the girls’ dormitory, holding the cats. “Hahaha! Good day!” Dick was all smiles, making his presence known as he entered the forbidden zone for men. Meirin gave him a look, but he was already chatting with a staff member he knew. “U-Um…!”

Kamibarez approached the dorm’s storage manager, holding the kittens. She explained the situation and asked if she could keep the cats in the girls’ dorm courtyard for a while. “There’s always one kid who does this every year,” the staff member sighed. “Student, I feel for the cats, but we have our own work to do, so we can’t look after animals indefinitely.”

Kamibarez said she would do all the troublesome things like feeding them herself, and tried to persuade her to let them stay just until they found their parents, but it was no use. “Ahem.”

Just then, Meirin cleared her throat once from behind Kamibarez. “I heard the price of mana stones on Roc Island has gone up a lot lately. No, was it that they’re ’expected’ to go up?” The staff member’s expression hardened. Simon gave a bitter smile and tried to stop her. “Meirin, don’t use your power like that.”

“Who said I was doing anything?” Meirin smiled like a queen. “I’m just concerned about the market prices.”

The staff member couldn’t risk making an enemy of the Ivory Tower over the simple annoyance of raising a pet. In the end, she agreed to let them keep the cats in the warehouse on the condition that they would be kicked out in two months, whether they were confirmed to be monsters or not. “Thank you so much!”

Kamibarez bowed her head over and over. The freed kittens also wandered around, and as if they recognized the person who would feed them, they flopped down in front of the storage manager and started acting cute. Seeing this, the manager’s expression softened, but she quickly cleared her throat, conscious of the students. “Well then, you students should get going. You need to prepare for your next class.”

“Yes!”

“We’ll be in your care.”

The matter was resolved more easily than expected. As the three of them were leaving the girls’ dorm, Dick, who had been talking with the staff member, came running over, out of breath. “Haha! News flash, news flash!” Dick started spewing out the fresh information he had just obtained.

“Swords, spears, maces, arrows, and so on—Kizen is buying up all the weapons in Rochest! And when that wasn’t enough, I got intel that they’re procuring weapons directly from Langerstine!” Simon’s eyes flashed. “It must be related to the theme of the next exam, right?”

“Probably. That’s what I think too.” Kamibarez tilted her head. “Th-That’s strange. It feels a bit random to have weapons for an exam that evaluates black magic.”

“Or maybe it’s something like this?” Meirin quickly offered an idea. “They make us pick one weapon, and then we have to fight each other in a colosseum!”

“Nah, no way,” Dick said, shaking his head. “Most of the weapons Kizen is buying are cheap. I’d rather just use combat magic than use something like that.” Kizen was buying up weapons. This information alone wasn’t enough to determine the theme of the exam, but it was undoubtedly an important clue. ’Weapons,’ Simon thought, his mind racing.

—

After finishing their afternoon classes, the day grew dark. Simon jumped over the wall again today. He planned to stop by Pier’s ruins and discuss this new power called ‘Cloud’ with him. Feeling like he was taking a stroll, he walked through the Forbidden Forest, then lifted his head to look at the sky. ’The moon is really bright tonight.’

The weather was also colder than usual, and Simon rubbed his shoulders before hurrying on his way. He was now so familiar with this path he always took. “…Huh?”

But the moment that familiarity became strange, Simon quickly dropped to a crouch. There were footprints. ’I came on a day to avoid the watchmen’s patrols. Could this be an unscheduled patrol?’

Looking closely, the footprints weren’t human. The shape kept changing, and the stride was inconsistent. It was presumably a monster, but there were no monsters with footprints like this in the Forbidden Forest. Simon suppressed his presence and cautiously followed the tracks. “Huh!”

A shiver ran down his spine. He quickly hid behind a tree, then peeked his head out to look ahead. He saw a strange black creature sweeping the ground with its tentacles. Its appearance was reminiscent of a walking squid, and its body was fluid like a slime. Its skin was as black as the night sky, and its head had no facial features, only horns sprouting from the left and right sides. An organ that looked like a mouth protruded from its face, sweeping the ground as it moved. It was busy, as if it were searching for something. ’What in the world is that?’

A mysterious creature he had never seen in the first semester was searching the Forbidden Forest. Seeing the Jet-Black coming from its body, it was an undead, but no matter how he thought about it, it didn’t seem to be one of Kizen’s.

Simon was startled and quickly pulled his head back. ’That scared me.’ One of Erzebet’s Corpse Spiders was gesturing at him, trying to tell him something. Then it scurried off, wiggling its rear as if telling him to follow. Simon took one more look at the mysterious creature, then ran after the Corpse Spider. A short distance away, he saw a tall skeleton waiting. “Pier!”

Pier was in full gear, wearing the Cloak of Invisibility and holding the Greatsword of Ruin. “Did you see it too? That thing over there…!” [I saw.]

A deep anger could be felt from Pier’s thoughts. [Damn it! I didn’t think he would move this quickly.]

“Does that mean it’s…”

[Yes, it’s an Ancient Undead sent by Magnus.]

Simon bit his lip. It seemed they had sent subordinates after tracking Pier’s consciousness. [Ancient Undead ‘Talaje’. We’ve found a total of seven undead, including him and his clones.] Pier slung the Greatsword of Ruin, which had been stuck in the ground, over his shoulder and scowled. [For now, Erzebet is setting up a web barrier to prevent those monsters from leaving the Forbidden Forest. But it’s only a matter of time before they reach the ruins.] “…Ugh, what should we do?”

[Magnus has detected my consciousness. I will leave Roc Island and lure them away.] At those words, Simon shook his head. “I can’t allow that, Pier.”

Pier was the most important administrator in the Legion. No matter if he had been detected by Magnus, Simon couldn’t send his heart out into the open. “You said even a Legion Commander can’t enter Roc Island while it’s protected by Lady Nephthys, right? Then the best thing for you is to stay here.” [Then what do you plan to do? If Magnus discovers the identity of the 7th Legion, everything will be for nothing.] After a moment of serious contemplation, his lips pressed into a thin line, Simon finally spoke with a heavy voice. “If running away is useless, then I’ll meet this provocation head-on. I will destroy Magnus’s Ancient Undead.”

[…Boy.]

“Since Magnus stole my father’s undead, I have no intention of being on friendly terms with him either.”

’Like father, like son,’ Pier thought. But it was his role to give wise counsel to the young Legion Commander. [Talaje’s ability is special. He’s not specialized in combat and destruction, but he’s been strengthened by Magnus’s power. If we let him escape, then it will be a true, all-out war between Legions!] “We can do it. It’s not like we’ve been idle all this time, right?” Simon took a notepad from his Subspace. Then, he quickly scribbled in cursive and handed it to a Corpse Spider. “Send this note to Kajan in Room 409 of the male dormitory. Kajan knows our situation and will gladly help.” The Corpse Spider took the paper from Simon. It used its web to attach the paper to its body and quickly exited the forest. “Now.” Simon looked at Pier again. “In the end, we just have to make sure Talaje is completely destroyed here so he can’t report to Magnus, right? Tell me Talaje’s abilities, Pier.” There was no running away now. The battle between Legions was imminent.

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