Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 194

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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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The Summoning Genius of the Necromancer School 194
“Merin’s already here?”
Simon asked as he ate a pudding dessert he’d bought from a street vendor.
“Yep.”
“Wasn’t Merin supposed to join us tomorrow?”
Dietrich grinned with the calculated malice of a villain plotting some mischief.
“Actually, Merin’s been in Langerstin for a week already.”
“What?”
“You’ll see when we get there!”
Under Dietrich’s guidance, the three of them made their way to a grand theatre situated in the heart of Langerstin’s city center.
Elegantly dressed nobleman and ladies in gowns were streaming inside. Judging from what the staff were calling out, it seemed a play was just beginning.
“Three kids, is it.”
Dietrich walked straight to the front without waiting in line, his tone casual. The ticket vendor glanced at them.
“…Hmm, do kids these days even watch plays? Besides, the daytime performance tickets are all sold out.”
Dietrich smiled crookedly, leaning his body at an angle as he proudly indicated the crest emblazoned on his chest.
“Just kidding. We’re from Kizen.”
Then he gestured pointedly at the two people standing behind him.
Simon sighed inwardly and casually mimicked Dietrich’s posture, while Kamibarez flushed and put on a self-important air.
The effect of the name Kizen was immediate. The vendor’s back bent in a bow, his palms rubbing together as he switched to the most deferential speech.
“K-Kizen, honored guests! Is there something wrong? Has our theatre done something amiss…?”
Dietrich’s smiling expression turned ice-cold in an instant.
“Why? Guilty conscience about something?”
“N-No! Shall I call the theatre director at once?”
“That won’t be necessary. We’re just here on a matter-of-fact inquiry. Please don’t bother reporting this to your superiors.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The three of them entered the theatre with a pass.
A female staff member, visibly tense at the appearance of Kizen, bowed respectfully and led them to the finest VVIP seating.
It was on the second floor—a private room with a single table.
The staff member asked what wine they’d like. Dietrich declined with a flick of his index finger to his forehead, saying they were on duty. Once she closed the door and left, Simon spoke.
“The view is really perfect from here.”
Being on the second floor, they could see the entire stage laid out below them. Kamibarez looked around nervously, smoothed her skirt, and sat with quiet composure.
“Is it really okay for us to do this?”
“Of course it is.”
Dietrich ran his hand along the armrest of his comfortable chair and crossed his legs.
“Isn’t that exactly why we attend Kizen? We’re students, but we have investigative authority. The trick to living without regret is knowing what privileges you have and making good use of them.”
“So then.”
Simon folded his arms.
“When were you going to tell us why you brought us to a theatre?”
“Ehehe, you’ll see soon enough. Now, it’s starting!”
The theatre darkened, and mana-lit spotlights illuminated the stage. The curtain rose, and a girl with sky-blue hair in a white dress appeared.
Simon and Kamibarez’s jaws dropped.
“M-Merin?!”
Dietrich clutched his belly and began to laugh.
“Ehehe! So you had this funny little hobby and tried to hide it from us? You don’t stand a chance against my intelligence network.”
Soon Merin and a male actor took the stage and began to perform with intensity.
“Stavarego! I cannot leave you behind!”
Merin cried out.
“You must flee, Almakarinа. A foreign army will soon descend upon this place. Even if I fall, you and the child within must live on.”
One pleading to stay, the other refusing—the two of them began their melodramatic scene as music flowed naturally over them from above.
‘I’m curious. I’ve never heard Merin sing before.’
Simon waited with his heart racing. Merin joined her hands before her chest and opened her mouth.
-I lived within a dream.
The moment Simon heard that voice for the first time, a slight tremor ran through him.
So crystalline and ethereal. The other audience members reacted just as Simon did.
-Because you exist, I can fight against the dark truth.
Merin, who had been singing peacefully with one hand on her chest, gradually opened her arms and swayed gently in time with the music.
-Even if I were born as a butterfly, no flower could ever bloom for me.
Everyone was completely entranced by her voice. Kamibarez was, and so was Dietrich, who had come to tease her.
And now the climax approached.
-The world is!
Exclamations of admiration burst from every corner of the audience.
As the melody reached its crescendo, a delicate yet powerful soprano emerged, her expression subtly tightening—a voice that was nothing short of miraculous. Her song continued to dissolve the hearts of the spectators, and the piece moved toward its finale.
—Never to meet again.
Flames erupted across the stage in a burst of effect as Merin and the male actor scattered. For a moment the audience sat stunned, then a torrent of fervent applause erupted from the seats.
“That was… that was incredible!”
Kamibarez, tears glistening in her eyes, was clapping without restraint. Simon rose from his seat and joined in.
Simon, thoroughly provincial to his core, was seeing a play in such a grand theatre for the first time in his life, but what struck him most was the peculiar fact that the actress commanding the audience with such a commanding vocal presence was his friend.
Moreover, Merin in such heavy makeup and a formal dress looked not like a peer, but like an adult several years her senior.
Soon the duet ended, and the play’s timeline jumped forward fifteen years.
“Yawn.”
Dietrich had begun to yawn.
The story followed a typical narrative structure with nothing particularly exceptional about it.
Merin, separated from her husband, gives birth to a daughter alone, and when the child grows up and becomes curious about her father’s identity, she goes abroad.
Later, she falls in love with a foreign youth who helps her, but then discovers that he is actually the son of her biological father, and despairs.
‘…Wait, but why do they end up together anyway?’
Ultimately, to escape all of society’s prejudices and constraints, the two throw themselves into the river and the play ends.
A sudden, jarring plot twist. Simon decided to stop trying to make sense of it.
“This goes off into the mountains, straight into the mountains. The director of this play needs to be fired.”
Dietrich also clicked his tongue in agreement.
With that, all the acts came to an end, and finally all the actors took the stage to dance and sing together. Merin came out too and sang along with them.
And then the finale. The curtain rose and the lights brightened. The actors bowed in respect, and the audience, still lost in the lingering emotions, stood one by one and applauded. The three of them did the same.
Moments later, the curtain fell and the spectators filed out.
“Come on, let’s go!”
Dietrich said excitedly.
“Where to?”
“Where else would it be? The waiting room where Merin is! The real show starts now!”
The three of them left the VVIP seating and made their way toward the actors’ waiting room.
A staff member tried to stop them, saying outsiders weren’t permitted, but when he saw Dietrich’s Kizen School Uniform, he gasped and quickly stepped aside.
Dietrich scanned the nameplates attached to each door as he passed, then stopped in front of one in particular.
“Here it is.”
Dietrich gave a light knock, and a voice from within said, “Please, come in.” Dietrich grinned and gestured to the others.
“All right, let’s go in, you two!”
“Yes!”
The three of them burst through the door.
Merin, who had been combing her hair neatly before the mirror, noticed them only then.
“What…?”
Her eyes, which had been momentarily blank, widened as if they might burst from her head.
“What, what—what what what WHAAAAAT?!”
Her face flushed a vivid crimson as she jolted to her feet.
“What are you doing here?!”
Simon smiled broadly and waved at her.
“We watched the play. It was wonderful, Merin.”
Upon spotting Simon, Merin’s face turned an even deeper shade of red, like molten lava. Kamibarez clasped her hands together, her eyes shining brightly.
“Your singing was absolutely beautiful, Merin! And your dress is gorgeous!”
“Thank you, Ka… wait, no—you maniacs! How did you even find this place?”
Her questioning gaze turned toward Dietrich.
“Ugh! You again?”
“Correct.”
Dietrich struck his current signature pose—a forehead flick.
It was a gesture perfectly designed to provoke irritation and disdain, and in the next instant, a cosmetic bottle from Merin’s hand flew directly at his forehead.
“I want to be alone, so get out of here right now!!”

* * *
Though Merin had issued an Eviction Order that exceeded the threshold of bearable embarrassment, these were not people inclined to obey.
Simon was lounging on the sofa, snacking away, while Kamibarez stood behind Merin, touching her dress.
Merin had her face covered with both palms, peeking at Simon through the gaps between her fingers.
“What? Did you… did you see it?”
“See what?”
“My performance.”
“I did. From beginning to end.”
“&$%*&@#!!!”
She made an incomprehensible noise and buried her face between her knees. Dick was having far too much fun laughing at her, while Simon spoke to her gently, as if soothing a child.
“What are you so embarrassed about? Your acting was excellent, and your singing was lovely.”
“That’s completely different when people I know are watching!”
Merin fanned her flushed face with rapid hand motions, trying to cool the heat in her cheeks.
“But Merin, how did you end up doing a play in the first place?”
At Kamibarez’s question, Merin came clean.
She’d always been interested in theater. She went to see plays frequently, and she enjoyed singing as a hobby.
The trouble started when Serne came to find her during training at the Ivory Tower. The two of them quarreled, and they made a wager to compete using Pitch-black Elemental Dark Magic.
“Serne bet the position of successor to the Ivory Tower.”
Merin scratched the back of her neck as she spoke. Simon, who had been listening intently, laughed softly.
The picture formed clearly in his mind. She’d thrown caution to the wind and charged in, just as she always did.
“And if I lost, the condition was that I had to go on stage in the actual play and perform as an actress.”
“Oh! So you got utterly destroyed?”
“I can’t exactly smash your mouth, can I?”
Dick closed her lips immediately. Merin covered her face with her palms again.
“But that fox Serne…! Somehow she actually went and secured a production at the Grand Theatre in Langerstin, and locked me in as an actress! Ugh, I can’t believe it…!”
“For something you were supposedly forced to do, you looked like you were genuinely enjoying yourself on stage.”
Simon smiled as he spoke. Merin’s face reddened, and she answered by sticking her tongue out at him.
“I thought it was wonderful! Among all the actors, Merin was the most beautiful, and she sang the best!”
“…Thank you, Kamibarez. These two just want to make fun of me, but you’re the only one I can count on.”
Just then, Dick wrapped her arms around herself and adopted an awkward, feminine voice.
“Stavarego! I cannot leave you behind!”
“I’m doooooooomed!”
Merin shrieked and hurled everything within reach at Dick, who fled with a giggling laugh.
“This is so unfair! I’m going to be the butt of jokes for the whole semester! I was terrified of him finding out!”
“Haha!”
The four of them chattered and laughed together in cheerful chaos.
Merin had removed her makeup and changed back into her Kizen School Uniform, emerging from the dressing room. As he’d thought, the uniform suited her far better than the flowing dress.
“But Merin, the role of Almakarinа seemed a bit strange! She’s the mother of the female lead!”
Merin giggled at the absurdity of it herself.
“It was incredibly weird! The director wasn’t in their right mind. My supposed daughter is in her thirties. But in this industry, you need people with good acting skills and public recognition for the lead roles, so there’s no helping it.”
“Oh, my dear daughter Rudogorami. This mother’s heart is torn to shreds!”
“I really should tear you to shreds.”
“Ah! My bangs! Don’t pull my bangs out!”

* * *
Outside the dressing room, where four people chattered mindlessly.
Leaning her back against the wall beside the door, a girl with platinum-blonde hair swayed the feathers in her hand. She gave a small laugh and pushed off from the wall.
A staff member with a feather stuck in the nape of his neck approached carrying a tray with two cups of tea, his expression utterly dazed. She smiled with her eyes and lifted the cup, and the staff member passed by her and walked to the side.
“It’s for the lady over there, sir.”
Besides her, there stood a massive man wrapped in a pitch-black cloak near the door. At the staff member’s words, the man’s expression hardened.
“Get out.”
Thud.
Dietrich’s killing intent erupted, and the staff member with the feather stuck in his neck collapsed where he stood. Whether it was because the cups of tea fell from the tray or for some other reason, his trousers grew thoroughly soaked.
“What a waste~”
Serne sipped her tea elegantly and spoke.
“Do you have business with those people as well?”
“Mark my words, human.”
Dietrich’s eyes gleamed with a red light.
“If you use that filthy power on my daughter, that day will be the day the Ivory Tower crumbles to dust.”
“Yes, yes.”
Serne took it in stride.
“And don’t you think it looks bad for an adult to interfere in children’s squabbles? A Vampire Lord playing the fool, how amusing.”
Dietrich let out a scoffing laugh.
“You dare claim you’re one of those ‘children’?”
“For now, I’m just seventeen, after all~”
The two exchanged smiles that made one’s skin crawl. Just then, the door burst open.
“Come on! Now that Group 7 is finally complete, we should go get a drink!”
Dick shouted. Merin and Kamibarez followed, and Simon, the last to emerge, closed the door behind him.
“Simon?”
Kamibarez stopped in her tracks and called to him. Simon was staring at the ground.
A feather lay scattered on the floor, along with a large footprint. Simon smiled quietly and turned to face her.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

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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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