Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 127

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Summoning Genius at the Necromancer’s Academy — Chapter 127
Thud.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
Prince’s head rolled across the floor. Simon finally exhaled the breath he’d been holding.
[Not yet! Don’t let your guard down, boy!]
Szzzzzzz.
Prince’s headless body darkened as if his soul were fleeing it, then dispersed like smoke. What remained in that spot was merely the corpse of an ordinary zombie—the kind littered across Dead Land.
‘Surely not…!’
Simon spun around.
One of the zombies that had descended from the ceiling earlier, standing vacant after losing its leader, suddenly erupted with black lightning.
Growwwwl!
The zombie’s body began to darken. It looked as though a spirit were wrapping itself around the corpse.
The blackened zombie’s form shrank, then twisted into something entirely new.
[Impressive. I didn’t expect to lose a life so easily.]
The zombie had transformed into an exact replica of Prince—same beheaded form, same clothes, same crown.
Simon gripped his greatsword tighter, eyes narrowing.
[You’d do well not to come closer.]
Prince seized Merin’s arm where she lay sprawled on the ground. Simon’s teeth ground together.
“Don’t you dare touch Merin!”
[That depends entirely on what you do.]
Prince hoisted Merin onto his shoulder with ease and flashed a grin.
[Your name is Simon, right? If you want to save this girl, come to that mansion. And needless to say, you come alone—no Pier. Fair warning: hiding in a pocket dimension won’t help you.]
Prince broke into a run, launching himself up through the sewers’ ceiling with a single bound.
[See you later, then.]
“Prince!!”
Prince waved and vanished.
Simon made to chase him, but zombies shrieked and lunged at the fallen Dick and Kamibarez.
“Damn it!”
Simon rushed in and swung his greatsword, cleaving zombies to pieces.
Once he’d cleared every last zombie, he turned to pursue Prince.
[Calm yourself, boy!]
Pier’s voice cut through.
[Chasing him now will accomplish nothing! He’ll only string you along with that girl as leverage!]
“…….”
[Gather intelligence first! I’ve already captured some interesting humans from that mansion. Interrogate them!]
Simon’s eyes widened.
“Humans in Dead Land?”

* * *
Prince arrived at the mansion with Merin slung across his shoulder.
‘Pier really made a mess of things.’
Zombie corpses were piled high everywhere, and the black blood that spilled from them had turned the gardens dark and carved rivers across the stone.
Still, for the price of keeping Pier contained, this level of sacrifice seemed acceptable.
Prince walked into the mansion at a leisurely pace.
“Two of them were dragged away? What were you all doing?!”
“We’re—we’re terribly sorry!”
“It happened so suddenly, you see……!”
Human voices came from inside the mansion. Prince frowned and kicked the door open.
Bang!
The door swung wide, and three humans flinched at the sight of him.
[When did you arrive, Habier?]
Habier was an elderly necromancer whose face was deeply lined. He held a staff in one hand and, as always, had two cigars clenched between his teeth.
“Hehehehe! So you’ve arrived, Prince!”
Habier broke into a warm, grandfatherly smile.
“I only just got here myself. Came by personally to handle our usual transaction.”
Habier gestured to his subordinates, who wheeled out a large crate on a cart.
“I threw in two extra from the standard measure. Have a look for yourself.”
Prince stepped forward and opened the crate.
Inside lay what looked like chunks of charcoal—blackstone ore, saturated with high-purity Darkness Element.
[The numbers look about right.]
“Hehehehe, when have I ever steered you wrong?”
Habier had retired from his career as a professional Necromancer and now ran the corpse business.
He collected the bodies scattered throughout the Dead Land—those that had failed to become natural Zombies—and sold them on the market for profit. In exchange for Prince’s tolerance of this operation, since he effectively controlled the Dead Land, Habier paid him Blackstone tributes. Prince needed Blackstone to maintain his own power.
A kind of symbiosis.
Prince had to consume Blackstone to sustain his strength.
[Fine.]
Prince gestured, and waiting Zombies approached to carry away the Blackstone crate.
“But Prince—what about that woman?”
[Found her.]
Prince dropped Merin, whom he’d been carrying, heavily to the ground. Habier’s dull eyes swept over her, and his expression suddenly shifted to one of surprise.
“A Kizen student, no less? How did such a precious young lady end up in the Dead Land……!”
[Those bastards seem to hold classes here once a year for the past few years. Lucky lot, apparently.]
Prince flopped onto the sofa and tilted his head back.
“But why this girl specifically……?”
[There’s someone I want to kill, and I’m using her as bait. Once he finds his way to the Mansion on his own, I’ll kill him.]
Who did he want to kill?
The question nagged at Habier, but he didn’t press for details. His gaze remained fixed on the unconscious Merin.
As his eyes traced up and down her body, Habier’s tongue flicked out wetly.
“Sell her to me.”
[Thought corpse merchants only dealt in corpses? Didn’t know you’d branched into the slave trade.]
“Every now and then, living flesh has its uses. I’ll purchase her for twenty Blackstones.”
Twenty Blackstones was an extravagant offer.
Nearly half the amount he’d just received from the crate.
[Fine, do as you like. Once I’ve lured him in, I’m done with her anyway.]
“Hehehehe!”
As Habier nodded, his subordinates came and carried off the unconscious Merin.

* * *
Clatter-clatter!
Inside a swaying carriage, Merin opened her eyes slowly, a dull throb spreading through her head. Her mind felt foggy and her throat burned with thirst.
‘What……?’
As consciousness returned, she blinked and looked around.
Why am I in a carriage?
Did I pass out and wake up back in Kizen?
What happened to the Field Exam?
Where are Simon and the others?
Clutching at these tangled questions, she sat in a daze when—
“Awake, are we?”
An old man’s face, creased with wrinkles and covered in age spots, suddenly loomed over her. Merin tried to scream in shock.
But no sound came. Her body wouldn’t obey her either.
A cloth was stuffed in her mouth, and her hands were bound tightly behind her back. Whatever had been done to her, she couldn’t even summon the Dark Element.
She immediately shrank away from the old man, drawing her legs together and curling inward.
“Mmmph! Mmmmmph!”
“Can’t quite make out what you’re saying.”
Habier clicked his tongue in mock disappointment.
‘What? What is this? Who is this person?!’
She needed to understand her situation quickly. She turned her head sharply toward the window.
Darkness. That peculiar red sky stretched overhead in the black expanse.
Unfortunately, this was still the Dead Land. The skeleton driving the carriage wasn’t human at all.
After that strange young Zombie had knocked her out, this man must have found her and brought her here.
But it made no sense. Why would there be a human in the Dead Land—not eaten or killed by Zombies, but actually… living here?
Habier sat facing forward without speaking. Though his face was rotted like a Zombie’s, he was unmistakably human.
Maybe he’d understand if she explained. He’d seen the Kizen School Uniform—he’d know better than to lay a hand on her.
While Merin was forming these thoughts, a wrinkled hand was already reaching toward her thigh.
‘@%&#^$*%@!!!’
Merin let out a desperate shriek and kicked Habier’s face away.
His head snapped back with a sickening crack.
“Kehehehe!”
But he simply turned his head back and laughed, blood trickling from his nose. Like a snake, he extended his unnaturally long tongue and licked the blood clean.
“Spirited, just like a young lady should be. Excellent!”
Merin felt her skin crawl.
“Mmpf! Mmph-mmph-mmpf! Mmmph-phmmph!”
“Hmm? I’m afraid I don’t quite understand.”
“Mmmmph!”
Habier approached with a smirk and unwound the cloth that had been binding her mouth.
She gasped for air and screamed, her eyes wide.
“Don’t you dare lay another hand on me, you filthy bastard!”
“Hehehehe!”
Habier showed no sign of being cowed, merely flicking his tongue. She braced her knees and pushed herself upright.
“I am Merin Blenne, a first-year student of Kizen and a member of the Ivory Tower! Do you even comprehend what you’re doing right now?”
“More precisely.”
Habier smirked.
“A corpse that was once a Kizen student, a member of the Ivory Tower. That’s what I see.”
“……!”
“Unfortunately, this old fool lacked the nerve to kidnap Kizen students for ransom. But you—you’ll make a fine undead creature indeed.”
Habier suddenly seized her necktie and yanked.
She tumbled helplessly onto his lap, and he grabbed her jaw, forcing it upward.
“Gasp……!”
“An Ivory Tower student—excellent material! You might become a Skeleton Mage, or perhaps a Banshee.”
Habier’s fingers brushed across her cheek.
“Though it is a shame, truly a shame. Such a beautiful face and hair, all to vanish—it’s tragic. But there’s no help for it. I do hope you’ll find a good master when you become undead…….”
Crunch!
Merin bit down hard on Habier’s finger.
“Ack—ack-aaaaaagh!”
She clenched her eyes shut and bit with every ounce of strength she possessed, drawing blood and tasting copper. Her teeth sank deep into his flesh.
As Habier thrashed in agony, she released his finger and jerked her head back. Then—
Thud!
—she drove her forehead into his with every ounce of force she had.
The wrinkled old man cried out and rolled across the carriage floor.
‘That’s enough!’
She’d bought herself time.
Her gaze fixed on the carriage window.
Falling from a moving carriage with no use of the Dark Element or her hands might mean death, and the fear seized her for a moment—but even that seemed preferable to becoming an undead for this monster.
Once the decision was made, hesitation vanished. She threw herself toward the window.
Grab!
“……!”
A powerful hand seized her ankle just as she was about to slip free.
“Hahahaha! Futile!”
Then he wrenched her back inside the carriage in one brutal motion.
Smack!
A sharp blow struck her abdomen, and she crumpled to the carriage floor.
Habier grasped her light-blue hair and licked his lips eagerly.
“Splendid! Unable to use your hands or the Dark Element, yet you summoned such courage and cunning! It truly convinces me that not just anyone enters Kizen. But!”
Habier reached toward her school uniform jacket.
“That ends now.”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
She felt utterly cheated. Arriving at Kizen and accomplishing nothing, meeting her end this pathetically…….
Boom!
A massive impact struck the carriage roof. The horses shrieked and swerved, sending the entire carriage lurching violently.
“What on earth—!”
Crash!
A brilliant white greatsword punched through the ceiling. Merin gasped in shock, and Habier’s face went pale.
The blade carved a triangle into the roof, tearing a hole through which a man descended into the carriage.
‘……Who—who is that?’
A cloak draped his frame, beneath it khaki-colored work clothes. Bones protruded from various points on his body.
When the man turned to face her, Merin flinched in terror and pressed herself against the far end of the carriage, trembling.
‘I—I can barely breathe……!’
The oppressive weight of his presence was suffocating.
Half his head and face were encased in bone, his mouth alone exposed. One socket of his skull blazed with an eerie blue light like a phantom flame.
The man gazed quietly at the rope binding Merin’s hands and her disheveled clothing.
And he turned his head to look at Habier.
“Wait—ask once more. Who are you……!”
Crack!
A man’s foot shot forward at invisible speed, driving deep into Habier’s abdomen. His body folded like the letter L, and he coughed blood with a wet, violent sound.
Thud!
This time the man’s heel came down on the back of his head. The carriage floor shattered beneath them, and Habier’s head drove straight through.
Crunch! Crack! Smash!
The man did not stop.
“Ah, ahhh…….”
Merin, watching from the side, trembled violently with fear.
He hoisted Habier’s blood-soaked body upright with one leg, then kicked him savagely with the other.
Crash!
Habier’s body tore through the carriage’s frame and flew out into the street.
A raw, sickening sound accompanied his screams—the unmistakable snap and splinter of shattering bone.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————