Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 144

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Necromancer Academy’s Summoning Genius — Episode 144
“Simon, I……”
“What?”
She twisted her legs together nervously, her voice growing bashful.
“The glasses you wore earlier looked really good on you.”
“Really? Ha, thanks.”
The two of them made their way to the dining hall together.
It was lunchtime, so the place was crowded.
They waited at the very end of the line, then took their time over lunch for about an hour before stopping by the cafe to treat themselves to dessert.
“The chocolate frappé was so delicious~”
Kamibarez spoke with a beaming smile on her face.
Simon thought she seemed unusually animated today.
Usually she was conscious of those around her and spoke little, careful not to make mistakes, but the Kamibarez chattering away in the cafe this afternoon was a new side of her.
‘Though, is it really new?’
Come to think of it, he’d seen her like this exactly once before.
That night when they first met during the group assignment, when they’d gone together to the Forbidden Forest, she’d been just as animated.
“About thirty minutes until the next class.”
Simon glanced at his wristwatch and spoke. She broke into a smile.
“Should we head to the classroom early?”
“Sounds good.”
The two of them strolled slowly across the campus.
“Simon, I wanted to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“Well, it’s about the Sadam Club I joined~ There’s this group of first-years that we hang out with.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“We’re really close. Everyone seems so happy to belong to this group. But if… if two people in the club started to… like each other that way…”
She looked up at Simon with a flushed face.
“Would the rest of the club be able to keep things the same as before?”
“……Huh?”
“Oh, it’s just that a friend’s been acting like she’s watching me, and I—!”
Simon scratched the side of his head.
“That’s embarrassing. I haven’t dated anyone myself, so I can’t say for sure, but… I think the atmosphere’s bound to change, doesn’t it?”
“Y-you really think so?”
“When two people start dating, they naturally prioritize each other over their other friends, right? The others start picking up on the couple’s dynamic, and suddenly all four people aren’t equal anymore.”
“……”
Her face stiffened slightly, and she brought her hands together.
“But emotions aren’t something you can control the way you want.”
Simon stretched, his voice relaxed.
“I think it’s natural.”
“Oh, yes, that’s true!”
As they traded more conversation, the two of them were heading toward the Martan Shooting Practice Hall, where their Blood Vessel Poison class would be held.
Then Kamibarez suddenly started in surprise and began rummaging through her skirt pocket.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh no, I left my notebook at the cafe!”
“I can go back—”
“No, no, no! It’s my thing, so I’ll run back and grab it! You go ahead to the classroom!”
Crying out, she dashed off toward the campus cafe.
Simon sat down on a nearby bench to wait for her.
‘Haa.’
A gentle breeze drifted across, rustling his hair.
It was wonderfully peaceful.
‘Being like this brings back old memories.’
Back in Reshill, he would lie sprawled in a meadow, staring blankly for hours. Simon tilted his head back now the same way, gazing up at the sky.
‘……?’
The color of the sky held a faint crimson tint.
He opened his eyes wider and saw a reddish veil of some kind spread across the heavens. The sky appeared dyed blood-red because of that membrane’s color.
‘A barrier? I’ve heard Kizen has defensive barriers.’
But he’d never seen one exposed to the naked eye like this before. Simon’s brow furrowed as he looked up.
‘But why would a barrier suddenly become visible like this?’
A chill of unease.
Or perhaps
a premonition.
Suddenly the hair on his entire body stood on end, and an inexplicable dread began creeping up his spine.
There was no evidence, no reason. Yet Simon felt it—a visceral, instinctive certainty that something terrible was about to happen.
He was just rising from his seat when
a deafening roar tore through the air.
The sound shattered across the campus.
A blast unlike anything he’d ever heard before—the concussive wave slammed into him so violently that his vision spun, and he pitched forward onto the dirt.
A high-pitched ringing filled his ears.
His hearing went muffled. Tinnitus screamed through his skull. The ground itself thrummed with such tremendous force that his body wouldn’t obey him.
Struggling to his feet, Simon lifted his head.
A pillar of black smoke. If Kamibarez hadn’t left her notebook behind—if she’d gone inside the Martan Shooting Practice Hall—she would already be there. But the building was now disintegrating in a furious explosion.
‘…What is this?’
The scene before him was so profoundly unreal
that Simon found his mind struggling to process what he was seeing.
Ringing. Ringing.
The high-pitched whine in his ears wouldn’t stop.
Another explosion erupted on the far side—behind the Toxicology Building, which stood nearby.
The Magical Technology Building had just detonated.
‘…Merin!’
Simon threw himself upright.
But there was no time to act. The explosions continued without pause. Now the Dormitory screamed with flame, and the First-Year Study Hall erupted into chaos.
Black smoke engulfed the world around him, swallowing daylight in thick, roiling darkness.
The clear sky vanished beneath ash and cinder.
Screams tore through the smoke from every direction. Fires clawed upward from the rubble, and students collapsed, bleeding.
“Ah…”
Simon’s pupils dilated, trembling.
What was this.
What in the name of all that was holy was happening.
Merin? Dik? And…
‘Kami!’
The thought of her struck him like a wave of ice water, draining all warmth from his blood.
Simon ran.
Smoke made him cough without end, and the world tilted beneath him, but all he could think was that he had to move.
She was close by. She might still be saved.
Stumbling blindly through the smoke, Simon’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Kami!”
Kamibarez lay crumpled on the ground, blood streaming down her forehead.
Her skin had taken on a sickly gray pallor, and she coughed violently, over and over.
“Are you all right? Stay with me!”
“Si…mon?”
Mercifully, her eyes opened.
“W-what’s happened? There was an explosion, and…”
“I don’t know! This place isn’t safe! Can you stand?”
She nodded and pushed herself up. His only thought was to get her out of Kizen, anywhere but here.
Simon grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the smoke.
What was happening? Was this real? What in the world—
A wet, tearing sound.
Flesh splitting open.
Even flooded with adrenaline, the pain was white-hot and blinding.
Blood erupted from his mouth.
“Simon!!!”
Simon looked down. Something black—as if forged from shadow itself—protruded from his chest.
A cross.
A cross had pierced straight through him.
All strength drained from his limbs, and he collapsed. Kamibarez cried out, dropping to her knees beside him.
“Simon! Simon! Are you all right? Please! Please! No, don’t! Don’t do this! Simon!!!”
Footsteps.
Through the murk of smoke and ash, someone was approaching.
With desperate effort, Simon turned his head toward the sound of those footsteps.
‘…!!!’
Blood-red hair whipped through the flames, a black scarf dancing with it.
It was a woman in a black suit.
‘Curiosity killed the cat.’
Simon’s eyes widened in horror at her demon-like smile.
‘You should have left Kizen back then.’
That was true.
Damn it.
It was true.
‘Professor Francesca…!’
Francesca was Priest.
She was the spy.
She had killed all these students!
He had to stop her.
He had to tell someone.
Kasan, Loraine, the professors, Neftis.
He had to tell them—!
He felt his strength draining away.
His consciousness blurred; his blood-soaked vision faded.
Above Kamibarez’s sobbing cry, countless black crosses bloomed across the sky.
‘Run.’
No sound came from his throat.
‘Run, Kamibarez.’
The cross fell.
With a dull impact, Simon’s vision went dark.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The sound of clock hands moving reached his ears.
He was still conscious. When Simon glanced down, he saw the Neftis Artifact hanging from his neck glowing with brilliant light.
‘…!’
The pain vanished. All emotion drained away.
Francesca, Kamibarez, the burning Kizen—all of it dissolved into a world of only black and white, and Simon fell into it.
A tall woman with flowing silver hair stood in that space, countless clocks ticking silently in the void around her outstretched arms.
Her face lay in shadow. He thought he was seeing her for the first time, yet something felt familiar.
Certain features were etched into her appearance.
‘…Neftis?’
With that sight, Simon’s consciousness shattered.

* * *
“Simon, Simon.”
“….”
“Simon, wake up! We’ll both get in trouble.”
Whoosh!
Simon’s eyes snapped open in panic.
The first thing he saw was Kamibarez beside him, eyes wide as saucers.
Simon’s lips trembled.
‘What is this?’
He looked around.
A classroom. He could see Dick and Merin taking notes.
All the other Class A students were fine, their quill pens scratching as they wrote. A cool breeze drifted in from the window.
The exact opposite of what had just happened.
Everything was impossibly peaceful.
‘They’re all…alive?’
Relief flooded through him, only to be replaced by a sharp chill that crawled up his spine and radiated through his body.
A nightmare?
No, it wasn’t a dream.
That had been real.
He saw the Toxicology textbook on his desk. He raised his arm to check his wristwatch.
‘Ah….’
That was it.
He had gone back a few hours—to just before that terrible event unfolded.
When he glanced down, he saw that the Neftis Artifact hanging around his neck had been completely shattered.
—You’ll understand what it truly means when you experience the Moment of Experiencing Death. For now, just keep that in mind.
Kasan’s words about the artifact came flooding back to him.
Was this what the Moment of Experiencing Death meant?
He couldn’t calm himself at all.
“Simon, are you all right?”
Kamibarez looked at him with worry etched across her face.
“Your complexion has gone pale.”
…….
The moment his eyes met hers—full of concern—Simon felt his mind threaten to collapse entirely.
He wanted to scream, to seize her shoulders and shake her desperately, to weep and cry out.
‘Run! You have to get out of here right now! Please! Please!’
But he bit down on his lips and forced those screams back down his throat with brutal effort.
Not now.
It’s too dangerous.
There was something more dangerous than an explosion standing right in front of him.
…….
Simon steeled himself and forced his gaze forward.
Now, he had the courage to face it.
“The toxin of Cakeus belongs to the Blood Vessel Poison classification. It destroys blood vessels and blood cells, causing hemorrhaging to never cease, gradually draining the prey’s strength…….”
At the lectern.
Francesca stood in plain view.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
The root of all this suffering stood right before him.
His heart hammered wildly. Heat flooded his face until it burned crimson.
Was this how a detective felt standing before the culprit? He wanted nothing more than to leap to his feet and shout that she was Priest.
But how would he prove it?
How could he prove that she was Priest, that she would blow Kizen apart in three hours?
‘…… Calm down. Calm down. Please.’
His buttocks trembled. His legs quivered uncontrollably.
Again and again, he imagined vaulting over the desk and subduing her.
…… That would be foolish.
If he started a fight now, the students enthralled by her speech would take her side.
And her strength—he’d seen it firsthand in the Forbidden Forest. Without access to his Legion Commander power, he couldn’t defeat Francesca.
Would they win even if every student in this class attacked her at once?
Madness.
His opponent was Priest, ruthless enough to execute a plan that would obliterate Kizen.
Students who threw themselves at her would be slaughtered one after another.
‘…… Stay level-headed. If you die here, it’s truly over.’
The artifact Neftis had created with her power was destroyed. Going back in time twice would probably be impossible.
He had to treat this as his last chance.
He couldn’t afford to squander it on recklessness.
He needed to think about how to prevent the disaster bearing down on them.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
His legs trembled. His lips grew dry.
‘…… You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.’
At last.
Simon exhaled slowly and succeeded in controlling his mind.
First, he tapped Pier’s avatar with his fingertip.
‘Pier. Bring the entire Legion to Kizen right now. And bring Erzsebet with you. Right now! As fast as you can!’
[Boy? Your mental state is extremely unstable. What’s happened?]
‘I found Priest. I’ll explain the details later—just come quickly!’
[Understood! I’m heading out now!]
His connection with Pier cut off.
Phew.
The Toxicology class wasn’t over yet.
Provoking her would be dangerous.
He had to hold on until the Legion arrived.
Simon slipped his trembling hands beneath his clothes.
Then, his hands shaking, he put on Kasan’s Glasses.
‘…….’
Looking again, Francesca’s face showed no change whatsoever.
The scar on her cheek was nowhere to be seen.
Her face was just as it had been…….
Just as it……?
‘Ah.’
In a brief instant.
Simon witnessed a sight like something from a nightmare.
As she instructed the students, a second face suddenly appeared on Francesca’s face. Where her cheek should be, he glimpsed eyes, a nose, a mouth.
No, wait.
She hadn’t grown a second face—she was simply tilting her head while wearing a Biological Shell she’d fashioned after herself.
The reason Kasan’s Glasses hadn’t exposed her earlier was that she’d molded the Biological Shell after her own visage so precisely that the outer and inner faces matched perfectly.
But now that outer shell had begun to crack.
Beneath the Biological Shell, the real Francesca’s face was smiling.
Precisely—staring straight at him.
‘……!’
Eyes wide, lips stretched into a ghoulish grin, like something malevolent incarnate.
It was the same smile she’d worn when she killed him hours from now.
A faint scar—almost certainly from Simon’s own hand—ran across her cheek.
Chills raced down his spine uncontrollably, but Simon forced his expression into stillness.
He endured.
Regardless of how she looked at him, he feigned indifference and listened to the lesson.
And deep in his heart, he stoked his will to resist.
He swore an oath.
By whatever means necessary, he would stop her.
‘Breathe.’
The hardest moment to hold himself together during that class was when her gaze turned toward Kamibarez.
Kamibarez was surely on her list of priority targets.
Simon finally removed his Glasses.
He was afraid he couldn’t hold on any longer.
Afraid he’d leap up and bolt from the room.
‘…….’
So it went.
That grueling span of patience finally ended.
“Attention. Salute the professor!”
“Thank you for your instruction!”
“You’re welcome. Let’s meet again next week.”
Students filed out of the Classroom. Some approached her to offer a word of concern, and Francesca accepted their words with a gracious smile.
The sheer repugnance of it made his stomach turn.
‘I need to follow her.’
During the class, Simon had considered countless scenarios.
One thing was certain: touching Francesca right now would be madness.
All the professors who could match her in a direct confrontation were at Yongmyo. There was no proof she was a Priest, so persuading teaching assistants or others to cooperate would take time.
And most critically, in roughly two hours, massive explosions would tear through Kizen. Given the time remaining, she’d likely already planted the explosives throughout the school.
Even if he somehow managed to dash to Yongmyo and convince the professors to come back, one look at them would frighten Francesca enough to detonate everything remotely.
‘Stay calm.’
Only I know of this terrible future.
Then my best course is to discover what explosives she’s planted and how she means to trigger them, then disable them without her knowledge.
Right now, gathering more intelligence is all I can do.
“……Simon?”
Kamibarez approached with concern etched on her face.
“You’re right—something’s wrong with Simon. This isn’t like you.”
Simon lowered his voice as much as he could.
“Kamibarez, the Priest has appeared.”
Color drained from her face.
“She’s going to blow up Kizen in a few hours. Get Dick and Merin—and anyone else you can convince—out of Kizen.”
Just then Francesca stepped out of the Classroom. Simon left Kamibarez frozen in place and quietly slipped after her.
Tap. Tap.
She walked slowly down the corridor. Simon matched her pace, muffling his footsteps and blending into the stream of students leaving the room.
‘If she catches me tailing her, it’s all over.’
She crossed the corridor and descended to the first floor. He thought she might leave the Toxicology Building entirely, but instead she continued walking toward the basement.
‘……I remember. The basement of the Toxicology Building.’
The fact that dangerous chemicals were stored in the Toxicology Building’s basement was common knowledge among Kizen students.
And managing them was the responsibility of the ‘Kizen Toxicology Professor’—the continent’s foremost expert in the field.
Now the puzzle pieces were slowly clicking into place.
The Priest’s killing of Rang wasn’t simply to separate the professors from the students through the Night of Erebos.
‘Once she becomes the Toxicology Professor, she’ll have free access to everything in that basement. She used the explosives from there. It has to be.’
Her footsteps were distinct, echoing clearly as she descended the basement stairs—click, click, click.
Pier hadn’t arrived yet, but there was no time to wait.
Simon was about to follow her down the stairs when—
Grab!
Suddenly two arms shot out from behind, clamping down over his mouth with tremendous force and wrenching him backward. Then—
Click! Click! Click! Click!
Clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter!
At the sudden sound of footsteps thundering up the basement stairs like madness, Simon’s entire body went rigid with goosebumps.
A suffocating terror.
Francesca, her eyes blazing red, had bolted up to the first floor and was sweeping her gaze wildly around her like a mad creature.
‘……Phew, that was close.’
Simon remained pinned against the opposite wall, his mouth still clamped shut by whoever had grabbed him.
If this person hadn’t dragged him over, she would have spotted him without question.
Separated from Francesca by only a single wall.
Simon held his breath and waited. Just as she was about to move forward, students came pouring down the stairs.
“Classes are back to normal starting tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah. But they won’t skip this week’s duel evaluation, will they?”
“It’s only been a day or two at Kizen.”
As the mass of students poured out, her footsteps halted.
Francesca glanced around frantically once more, then—mercifully—turned and descended the basement stairs again.
‘I’m… alive.’
Simon felt the tension suddenly drain from him.
But who in the world was this person? The grip holding his body was so powerful he couldn’t move an inch.
“Stay quiet.”
A familiar voice came from behind him.
“She hasn’t dropped her guard yet.”
“……!”
Simon quickly closed his mouth. For about a minute he remained silent, then heard footsteps descending the stairs again—click, click, click.
At last, the person who had dragged him released his grip. Simon twisted around to see who it was.
“……Kasan!!”
Simon’s eyes welled up with tears.
In this suffocating situation where he could rely on no one, one of the people he’d been desperately searching for had appeared exactly when needed.
Simon rushed toward him, clinging to him as he spoke.
“Kasan! Kasan! I know this will be hard to believe, but you have to trust me! What happened is……!”
“I believe you.”
Kasan raised his index finger in a gesture to lower his voice, then tilted it toward the shattered Neftis Artifact.
“You’ve seen the future, haven’t you?”
“……!”
“I had an additional task from Neftis.”
Kasan drew a pendant from his pocket that resembled the one hanging from Simon’s neck.
It too was shattered into fragments.
“Your protection detail.”
Kasan continued in an even tone.
“If your artifact breaks, this paired artifact is destroyed in turn and outputs your location data. The moment I confirmed the damage, I came running straight here.”
“……Ah!”
“Calm yourself. From this moment forward, whatever you tell me, I will believe unconditionally.”
Kasan lowered his posture and placed a hand on Simon’s shoulder, his expression grave.
“I give you my word. No matter what terrible future awaits ahead, if we join our strength together, we can stop it.”
A composed expression, a voice brimming with confidence, and a smile full of trust.
Simon understood at once.
“Tell me what future you saw.”
This man could be trusted.

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