Chapter 459: Episode 459

The meeting proceeded at a breakneck pace. With only one day left, they knew that overreaching would be disastrous, so they decisively cut any unrealistic proposals. After trimming the excess and adding the essentials, an impressive plan began to take shape.

“Well then.” Meirin tapped the stack of documents on the desk to straighten them and rose from her seat. “Professor Jane’s office is close to our dorm, so I’ll go deliver these to her.”

“I’ll go with you, Meirin! Great work, everyone!” Kamibarez added.

The girls left first. Dick let out a long groan as he stretched. “Simon.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you really going to do it?”

“I have to.”

“Hehehe! That’s just like you,” Dick chuckled as he walked over to a drawer in the student council room and took something out. “Then take this, too.”

“What is it?”

“A disposable Memorial Crystal Orb. It’s student council equipment.”

A Memorial Crystal Orb was an artifact capable of recording video and audio. Dick tossed one to Simon.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Simon asked, bewildered.

“Beats me,” Dick said cryptically, tucking another orb into his own clothes. “But who knows? It might come in handy.” Then, ever the treasurer, he noted in the supply log that two had been used. “Well, I’m going to kill some time and then head over when the Venomology department’s hazing is about to end.”

“Alright. Be careful.”

—

Simon parted ways with Dick and headed toward the Summoning department dormitory. The meeting had dragged on longer than he’d expected. He figured he wouldn’t be able to visit Pier’s ruins until dawn.

’Phew.’ He was realizing once again that the main campus and the Summoning department were surprisingly—no, much farther apart than he had thought. After a long walk down a dark and secluded forest path, he finally reached the Summoning department building.

Simon passed the decorative skeleton guards and stepped inside. The lobby and lounge were empty.

“Oh! Hey there!”

At the familiar voice, Simon turned. It was Benya Vanilla, a senior from his club, running toward the common kitchen with her arms full of groceries.

“Benya!”

She explained that she and the other third-year girls with her were making food and snacks for the hazing ritual. Simon greeted them all.

“Just getting back from the student council meeting?” one of them asked.

“Yes. Where is everyone else?”

“They’re in the middle of the department welcome party right now,” Benya told him.

“Do you know where it is?”

“Go out the back of the building and walk straight toward the Forbidden Forest. You’ll find it.”

Simon bowed his head. “Thank you.” He then broke into a run, heading in the direction Benya had indicated.

He thought he might get lost in the dark forest, but it wasn’t hard to find. Boisterous laughter guided him, and lights flickered between the trees.

“Ugh! Uuuuurgh!”

He soon came across students leaning against trees or bent over, vomiting. The red badges on their collars marked them as second-years.

’Did they drink too much? Or is it…’ An ominous feeling washed over him. He ran faster, drawn by the sound of shouting.

When he finally arrived, the scene that met him was horrific. Second-years were on the ground, retching, their faces pale. In the center of it all stood Will, the third-year ranked twelfth overall.

“Ah, this is ridiculous,” Will sneered. “Why are you all making such a fuss after one sip?”

In front of him, a familiar figure was on his knees.

’Toto!’

Simon’s face went pale. A large bowl fashioned from a human skull sat before the kneeling Toto, filled to the brim with filthy slop. Strange, unidentifiable chunks floated on its surface.

“Drink it, you bastard. Can’t you hear me?” Will snarled, grabbing Toto by the collar and shaking him. “You’re not going back to the dorms until you finish every last drop.”

“I-I-I-I can’t do it…” Toto pleaded, his eyes welling with tears.

But the response he received was ice-cold. “If you want to blame someone, blame your classmates.” Will smirked and gestured to the side, where the other second-years stood with stiff expressions, quickly averting their gaze from Toto. “It was a loyalty game, wasn’t it? I thought everyone would drink their fair share for our final player, Toto, but they take one sip and drop out. Some of them just touch it with their tongue, make a face, and pass their turn. What the hell is this, Kizen? Your year is so damn soft. I’m going to teach you all a proper lesson today.”

Will clamped a large hand on the back of Toto’s head. “Now, drink up. I’ll even let you off the hook for the chunks, as a special favor.” He forcefully pushed Toto’s face toward the bowl.

Tears streamed down Toto’s face. “I-I-I-I can’t drink it! Please, save me!”

“You’re not gonna die from this, you punk! Hey, hey! Stop resisting!”

When Toto grabbed the skull bowl and held on for dear life, Will’s eyes sharpened. “Do I have to shove your face in it to make you drink?” Jet-Black energy flickered on Will’s arm.

Just as he was about to plunge Toto’s face into the bowl, a hand shot out and clamped down on his arm.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Simon’s voice was low and dangerous.

The eyes of the second-years, who had been looking away, unable to watch, snapped wide open. Toto turned his head, his eyes swimming in tears.

“Simon!”

Will just grinned. “…So you’re here.” He released Toto. Simon glared at him, his eyes like chips of ice, but Will remained nonchalant. “Hehehe! What can I do? This is a long-standing Kizen tradition, meant to promote unity and friendship between seniors and juniors…”

“Friendship?” Simon cut in. “To me, this just looks like bullying.”

“A second-year brat interrupting a senior. What a mess,” Will spat on the ground. “Do you think we enjoy this? Hell, do you think we didn’t go through the same thing? Every single third-year drank it, and at the end, we even licked the skull bowl clean! If you’re going to blame someone, blame your own damn luck for getting picked, and blame your classmates who abandoned you! Now, let’s continue.”

He grabbed Toto’s face again.

“Wait a minute,” Simon said, stepping forward.

Will’s expression crumpled in annoyance. “The student council is getting awfully nosy about ’department affairs’! What do you want? Isn’t this an overreach of your authority? You haven’t even had your inauguration ceremony as President yet, have you?”

“You said it was a loyalty game,” Simon stated, shrugging off his uniform jacket. It slid to the grass with a soft swish. He loosened his tie, letting it drop, and then unbuttoned his white shirt, revealing a toned, powerful torso. His muscles were so densely packed they seemed to strain against his skin.

“…Wow,” the male students breathed in pure admiration. The female students covered their blushing faces, though they peeked through their fingers.

“What now,” Will grunted. He had flinched instinctively at the unexpected display of muscle but feigned composure. “What do you want, you bastard! You want to fight me right now?”

“I’ll drink it in Toto’s place.”

A stunned silence fell over the clearing.

“Is that not allowed?” Simon asked calmly.

“Simon!” Toto cried out, horrified.

In contrast, a wide, vicious grin stretched across Will’s face. “It’s not that it’s not allowed, but are you sure you’ll be okay?”

Without another word, Simon lifted the large, flat skull bowl and brought it to his lips. ’Gulp, gulp.’ His Adam’s apple bobbed as the foul contents rapidly disappeared.

“Th-This crazy bastard…!” Will stumbled backward in shock. He never thought Simon would actually drink it.

Simon dropped the empty skull bowl to the ground with a thud, his expression unreadable. Some of the solid chunks remained, but every drop of the liquid was gone.

’Detoxify.’

His resistance ability, which Professor Velia herself had acknowledged as the best in their year, activated. Hemotoxin coursed through him as black magic took effect, analyzing the impurities and pulling all harmful toxins to the surface of his body.

On top of that.

’Jet-Black Internal Differentiation!’

Beads of pure Jet-Black began to form on his bare torso. He had gathered the impurities with his resistance, and now, by combining them with Jet-Black and hemotoxin, he was expelling them from his body.

Dark red droplets with a foul smell pattered onto the ground. Simon took a long, deep breath, composing himself. Then, he slowly opened his eyes.

“Is that all?” he asked, crushing one of the droplets under his heel.

Will’s lips trembled, his face a mask of disbelief. ’This bastard, what did he just do? Why is he perfectly fine?’

“It’s that thing, Will,” a third-year behind him whispered. “The resistance-type skill that the new Venomology professor teaches. It neutralizes poison.”

“…What?”

The bowl had contained contaminated water meant to induce nausea, but for Simon, it was no different from drinking plain water. Immune to most poisons, detoxifying something so simple was child’s play.

“S-Simon…” Toto looked up at him, his eyes shining with emotion.

Simon offered a faint smile, then picked up his shirt and put it back on. “If we’re all done now…”

“No.” Will’s eyes sharpened into daggers. “It’s not over yet, you bastard!”

’Just as planned,’ Simon thought, a quiet, cold smile touching his lips.

—

The system for Kizen’s department welcome parties was simple. There was the main event: a relatively normal drinking party where the department representative participated and the second- and third-years mingled. They played games, and any student who lost or was chosen for a penalty was sent to the ’hazing’. That was what had happened to Toto and the others.

The hazing consisted of three stages, and any student who endured all three was left physically and mentally battered, usually unable to return to the main party. Once the hazing was over, the next victim was selected from the main event and sent over. In the end, most students experienced it at least once. The only exceptions were the handful of students favored by the seniors, or the second-year department representative. For them, loyalty to the seniors who spared them was all but guaranteed.

Meanwhile, at the main event…

“Wow, you dodged it again. You’re lucky, Lorraine!” Leonard exclaimed.

Lorraine, who had drawn a blank lot, felt her expression harden slightly.

“Alright, alright, enough of that,” Leonard said cheerfully. “Pour me a drink. We’re going all out tonight!” He was deliberately overwhelming her, preventing her from focusing on anything else. Most of the students around him were third-years; the only other second-years were Hector, Aseraz, and Lorraine herself.

“…Yes,” she replied quietly.

The third-years drank the alcohol she poured with fawning gratitude, all while trying to keep the atmosphere lively. But even as she served them, Lorraine’s expression grew colder by the second.

’This won’t do.’ She had heard the rumors about the ’hazing’. She had intentionally tried to get chosen for it to investigate, but she was always subtly maneuvered out of it. In truth, the game was being manipulated with extreme precision by the third-years. They had to prevent Nephthys’s daughter from going to the hazing at all costs.

“Senior,” Lorraine finally said, putting down her glass. “I’m worried about the students who went to receive their penalty. May I go check on them?”

“Niven!” Leonard shouted to a third-year beside him. “She’s worried about the kids at the hazing! Go check on them.”

“Okay!” the student, Niven, replied, scrambling off.

Lorraine half-rose from her seat in surprise. “Ah, no! I meant—”

“Ah, it’s fine, it’s fine.” Leonard placed a firm hand on her shoulder, sitting her back down. “Given your status, you must be exhausted. Being treated specially gets old, doesn’t it? It’s tough, annoying. I get it.”

“That’s all the more reason for you to show that you can mix in and have fun with us commoners. The Headmaster would be pleased, don’t you think? This is an opportunity. I’ll make sure you become friends with everyone here. Hey! Someone pour Lorraine a drink!”

Leonard was like an iron wall, blocking her every move. As Nephthys’s daughter, Lorraine had grown up attending formal events, accustomed to reverence. But Leonard, the son of a low-ranking official, had learned to survive by reading every room. He was an experienced mentalist who had done everything imaginable to curry favor at Kizen. Their life experiences were worlds apart. There was no way Lorraine could escape a trap set so deliberately by him.

She sighed internally. The only excuse that might work—a trip to the restroom—was instantly thwarted as third-year female seniors would miraculously appear to accompany her.

’Four people of interest,’ she thought.

Leonard clinked his glass against hers and downed his wine. ’The headstrong Serne is obviously absent. Simon was called to the student council, and I sent Benya to prepare the food. I’m marking Lorraine, so it’s perfect.’

His eyes narrowed. ’Just don’t cause any trouble, Will.’

But trouble was already brewing in a place he couldn’t see.

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