Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 254

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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 School’s Summoning Genius — Episode 254
“I’m sorry, Claudia.”
It’s true that the class itself—learning to consume poison—is grueling and painful.
But Simon had witnessed Byeol-Ya’s skill in Langoustin, and he’d come to respect the values she’d spoken of in class. He didn’t believe they needed to refuse the lessons simply because they were agonizing.
“I want to keep trusting Professor Byeol-Ya.”
……
Deep disappointment settled across Claudia’s face as she waited for Simon’s answer.
“Why? What about that professor makes you trust her so much?”
“I—”
Before Simon could respond, she burst forward with her grievance.
“I thought you were someone with real depth! Are you just going to turn a blind eye to students’ rights? Will you die if the professors tell you to? The system at Kizen right now is fundamentally broken! If we fail, the professors’ demands will only get worse—!”
“That’s a logical leap, Claudia.”
This time Simon cut her off.
“I respect what you believe. But.”
He rose from his seat and pushed in his chair before continuing.
“What you’re saying right now isn’t reasoned persuasion—it’s emotional appeal.”
With that, he turned and left. Dick, who hadn’t signed the petition, flung the blank document toward her and followed after him.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Soft-hearted Kamibarez, still feeling guilty, kept bowing her head as she hurried after them.
“Hey! Wait up!”
Merin, who had gathered her things late, tried to follow the three of them, but Claudia grabbed her arm.
“Merin! You’re not like them, are you? Right? You’ll sign, won’t you?”
“That’s insane! Let go!”
Merin wrenched her hand free.
As Claudia withdrew with a wounded expression, Merin let out a long sigh.
“Why are you going so far?”
……
“A classroom boycott has no precedent in Kizen’s history. If you ask me, you’re overreaching. Cool your head and come back.”
Claudia’s lips twisted.
“What changes if I cool my head?”
In truth, Claudia had no other choice.
Everything had already been set in motion, and even if she stopped now, she wouldn’t escape the rumor that she’d defied the Kizen faculty.
She had essentially declared war on a major professor—risked her entire school life. If she failed, everything would fall apart.
“Sorry, I’m not signing yet.”
Merin turned to leave the classroom.
“Merin.”
Claudia spoke to the back of her head.
“Are grades really that important to you?”
Merin stopped in her tracks.
Her footsteps halted.
“I get it—you have to look good to the professors, right? Butter them up, play nice, that’s how you get your attitude scores and your grades. That’s the second-ranked student’s secret to a perfect GPA, isn’t it?”
“Hey.”
The moment Merin turned and their eyes met, Claudia felt as though the entire classroom had gone white, frost creeping across the ceiling.
She couldn’t move—as if her body had frozen solid.
“Don’t cross the line.”
Claudia felt goosebumps rise on the back of her neck, overwhelmed in an instant.
Stung by her own humiliation at that moment, she hardened her expression further.
“What did I say that was wrong—!”
“The real reason you poison users are opposing the Poison Magic class.”
Merin brushed back her falling hair and spoke coldly.
“Want to know?”
……
“If students gain poison tolerance from Professor Byeol-Ya’s lessons, the Final Evaluations and the BMAT will get a lot harder for you, won’t they?”
Hearing those words, Claudia felt a seething rage erupt from the depths of her chest.
“Merin—!”
She unleashed a surge of Darkness from her entire body. Her braided hair came undone and whipped like loose strands, then clumped together and transformed into countless venomous serpents.
“C-calm down, Claudia!”
“If you fight with Black Magic in the classroom, that’s severe discipline!”
Claudia’s friends rushed over and grabbed both her arms, trying to hold her back.
“Come on. Just say you’ll watch.”
Merin was about to conjure an Ice Aura with a dismissive smile when suddenly someone from behind clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Haha! Sorry, sorry!”
It was Jamie Victoria, the temporary class representative of Class A. Merin thrashed about, flailing her arms.
“Mwph! Mmph! Ugh-ugh!”
“Looks like Merin’s being stubborn again! You know she talks tough but has a soft heart, right? We’re heading out first! See you!”
After Jamie dragged Merin out of the classroom, a heavy silence fell over the room.
Everyone was watching Claudia’s reaction.
……
Once she’d composed herself, Claudia’s snakes retreated back into her hair. When she covered her face with both palms, her friends came over to pat her back and offer comfort.
“This is insane, just insane!”
Meanwhile, Jamie, who had forcibly dragged Merin out of the classroom, was giving her rear end playful taps.
“Hey! Why are you hitting me!!”
Merin shoved Jamie away, her face flushed. Jamie pressed her fingertips to her temples and sighed.
“Clara’s already going to be sensitive enough with the boycott coming up, and you two took things way too far. Class A agreed to work together when we meet during BMAT. Are you really never going to see Clara’s face again?”
“I’m not!!”
Merin let out a sharp cry.
“And Claudia started the provocation first! Implying I got my grades by fawning over the professors……!”
“Oh, come on~ Our pretty Merin, just let it go.”
Jamie wrapped her in a tight embrace, and Merin squirmed in disgust.
“Don’t cling to me! It’s hot!”
“You’re making up with Clara later, got it?”
“No way!!”

* * *
Claudia’s boycott declaration sent shockwaves through Kizen.
Every student in the cafeteria was talking about nothing else.
“Forcing students to ingest poison is pretty extreme, you have to admit.”
“But still, students boycotting classes? That doesn’t make sense. It’s a challenge to professorial authority.”
“I don’t like how they’re targeting a professor who just started. They wouldn’t dare make a peep in front of Professor Jane or Professor Bahil.”
“I’m going to support the boycott~ I’m tired of throwing up all the time.”
Simon could barely taste the bread he was eating. From every direction, conversations about Byeol-Ya and the class boycott were pouring in.
‘Will they actually go through with it? A boycott?’
Lost in complicated thoughts, lunch ended in a blink. The four of them left the cafeteria and headed to the Poison Studies Building for Byeol-Ya’s class.
“You guys! Look there!”
Dick pointed toward the entrance of the Poison Studies Building.
“Wow! They said they would, and they actually are? The energy is incredible!”
As Dick said, a group of male and female students were standing in front of the entrance holding picket signs in protest.
“Stop this outrageous practice of making students ingest poison!”
“We want to live!”
The students who had declared the boycott were denouncing Byeol-Ya’s poison-ingestion classes.
The picket signs they held read: “Students are people too!” and “We don’t want to be poisoned to death.”
‘Ugh, this is really uncomfortable.’
Every time students entered the Poison Studies Building to attend class, the protesting students’ eyes blazed as they glared at them, raising their voices even louder.
“Professor Byeol-Ya’s class is tyranny!”
“Please don’t abuse your authority as a Kizen professor!”
When Team 7’s four members finally arrived at the Poison Studies Building, the students at the entrance, as if waiting for them, raised their voices again.
Dick maintained an impassive expression, while a frightened Kamibarez quietly gripped Simon’s collar. Simon positioned himself to shield Kamibarez from their view.
“Students are people! We are not lab rats!”
Claudia was among them, shaking her picket sign with more passion than anyone else and shouting.
When Merin spotted her, she scoffed and strode forward without hesitation. Claudia’s smoldering gaze fixed on Merin’s retreating back.
The moment they entered the Poison Studies Building, both Kamibarez and Dick let out simultaneous sighs of relief.
“That… that was scary.”
Kamibarez hunched her shoulders like a frightened rabbit.
“Did you see how they were glaring? The way they looked, they seemed ready to grab our ankles and drag us back out.”
Dick added his own remark.
Mm.
Simon, too, had a feeling this protest wouldn’t die down easily.
“Merin, are you alright?”
Just then Kamibarez approached Merin and spoke quietly.
“What?”
“You fought with Claudia in the classroom, didn’t you?”
“……I’m not going to worry about that anymore. Let’s head up.”
The four of them entered the third-floor classroom.
It was five minutes before class, and empty seats were scattered throughout. The students filling the room were passionately discussing the current issue.
Dick glanced around at the vacant desks and spoke.
“I’ve been at Kizen for a long time, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Wow~”
“Ha ha! You sound just like a third-year student!”
Dick and Kamibarez made a deliberate effort to lighten the mood while watching Merin’s expression, but she, caught in her own dark cloud, silently withdrew her textbook and unfolded her notes.
A moment later, one minute before class began, Byeol-Ya’s assistants entered the classroom and stationed themselves behind the lecture platform.
Looking at the assistants’ hollow faces, Simon could sense how much they’d suffered in the interim. He even felt a pang of sympathy for them.
‘No matter where you are, the people caught in the middle always have it hardest.’
Byeol-Ya was not one to read the room, and she held firm, unshakeable convictions about education.
Even when students were dissatisfied, they didn’t dare breathe a word in front of the professor for fear of academic penalties, so they vented their frustration and resentment on the more accommodating assistants instead.
Caught between Byeol-Ya and the students, it was painfully obvious how much the assistants had endured.
“Yaaaaaawn.”
It wasn’t long before Byeol-Ya herself entered the classroom. Hands thrust into the pockets of her outer coat, she strolled in and yawned with casual indifference.
Never mind that a protest was happening directly outside the building below—she showed no sign of concern whatsoever.
—Please stop abusing your professorial authority!
The distant sound of protesters’ voices echoed faintly from outside.
Bang! Byeol-Ya shut the classroom door with a noise and sprawled into the professor’s seat as she always did, flicking her fingers.
The Head Assistant stepped forward and began calling the roll.
‘How about that.’
‘The assistant’s face has gotten completely gaunt.’
Likely the Head Assistant was suffering more than anyone else in this room.
She had repeatedly petitioned Byeol-Ya to lower the toxin content or reduce the number of poison sets used during class to two or three, but had been refused each time.
In the end, the situation had spiraled to this point. She felt responsible.
“Colburn Aisle.”
“Here!”
“Dick Hayward.”
“Present!”
Just then the Head Assistant calling roll flinched. She hesitated for a moment, her eyes darting, before opening her mouth.
“Claudia Menzies.”
“…….”
The classroom fell into heavy silence. Of course, no answer came.
Feeling sorry for the Head Assistant’s awkward wait for a response, Jamie, the class representative, shot her hand up and spoke.
“Claudia isn’t here today, Assistant Teacher!”
“Ah, yes. Next.”
After that, the Head Assistant would call a name, and Jamie would call out “Not here”—and the pattern continued.
The classroom atmosphere sank rapidly. By the time the Head Assistant heard “Not here” for the last student, she closed the attendance ledger, her eyes squeezed shut.
“P-Professor, I’ve finished calling attendance.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Byeol-Ya, her expression blank, was picking at her ear when she suddenly snapped her finger. An unidentifiable substance erupted in the air like a firecracker.
“Absences? Boycotting class? How ridiculous. Just ridiculous.”
She rose smoothly to her feet and walked out onto the lecture platform.
The Head Assistant stepped back to join the other assistants. Her junior colleagues cast her encouraging looks.
“When class ends today, pass this on to those friends outside.”
Byeol-Ya opened her mouth and bared her jagged, shark-like teeth.
“No matter how much noise those kids make or what they say, I’m not about to change my methods.”

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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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