Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 331

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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 Necromancer School’s Summoning Genius — Episode 331
Aaron’s carefully structured Skeleton Mage creation course had arrived.
From the very first lesson, Aaron and his teaching assistants were in chaos.
“Take out your Mana Sheets first! Mana Sheets first! Put everything else away!”
“Lightning attribute comes later, on your own time! We’re standardizing on frost attribute for this class!”
Because it was a high-difficulty undead creation that most had never attempted, the students floundered considerably.
From the very start, countless hands shot up pleading for help. Just as the assistants managed to handle that and move to stage two, another equally large forest of hands rose.
And scattered throughout the classroom, students were making mistakes left and right. The assistants had to dash about until their mouths tasted of copper.
“You have to build the circuit first. What if you touch the Master Formula already? Start over from the beginning.”
Aaron himself had paused his explanation and was now attending to students directly.
“You’re almost finished with your 1st Year and still making basic errors. Pathetic. Remake it from scratch.”
“I’m—I’m sorry!”
It seemed it would take a day or two before things truly settled. It was unavoidable trial and error, a sight he saw every year, so Aaron had long grown accustomed to it.
And yet.
One student stood out strikingly.
Among students who didn’t even know what a base bone was, who confused Series Circuits with Parallel Circuits—
There was a student who had completed three Skeleton Mages all by himself and set them up plainly before him, staring expressionlessly at the blackboard.
‘……Madman.’
The shimmering auras emanating from the staffs held by the three Skeleton Mages were flame, frost, and wind.
He had succeeded in creating three distinct attributes.
The sight of the boy standing them upright and doing nothing while watching the board seemed almost like a silent protest.
“He’s definitely a genius.”
“He’s on a completely different level from us~”
“He got in through Special Admission Rank 1.”
Murmured voices of the other students drifted over.
“He must’ve done advance preparation, right?”
“Of course!”
“So him struggling with skeleton assembly in the first lesson was all an act?”
“That’s actually hilarious.”
“I’ll give him genius status, but he seems like he’s showing off a bit.”
No.
Aaron quietly rejected the students’ whispered words that reached his ears.
Simon truly had not done any advance preparation.
Far from advance preparation, he had entered with necromantic knowledge at absolute zero. He had ranked at the very bottom of the entire school body, and he had started under conditions more disadvantageous than anyone else. And yet he had earned the title of Special Admission Rank 1, a honor that came with its own burdens.
Had he misstep even once, his entire school life would have spiraled into ruin.
But now.
‘No one can deny his Special Admission Rank 1 title anymore.’
Even now, the Skeleton Mage standing plainly beside Simon was undeniably the crystallization of his blood and sweat—the proof of his effort.
Simon’s sunken dark circles and disheveled hair spoke volumes of his recent ordeal. Yet his eyes still gleamed with brilliant clarity.
“Simon Polentia.”
Aaron approached him.
“Are you managing physically?”
It was a question that acknowledged the hardship he had glimpsed. Simon smiled.
“Yes, Professor.”
“Why did you undertake something so reckless?”
“I—”
In Aaron’s pupils, Simon’s bright, sparkling eyes were reflected.
“Because I wanted to.”
Whoooosh—
A fresh wind blew in through the window.
Aaron’s pupils dilated, and the surrounding scenery shifted.
It was the same classroom, yet the world had turned ashen, and the students wore old-fashioned school uniforms.
And here, brighter and more luminous than anyone, a boy’s arm shot up.
—I’m done with pathetic Island Ratmen!
Beside him, a freshly assembled skeleton adopted an arrogant pose following its master.
—When can I make a Lich, Professor!
The Summoning Magic professor let out a hollow laugh.
—Don’t overstep your bounds, Aaron Deia.
Whoooosh.
The wind blew once more. The scenery changed.
The boy had grown taller.
“You’ve chosen a difficult path.”
The professor spoke.
The lines on his face had deepened as well.
“You’re working night shifts to earn money for materials?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why go to such lengths?”
Aaron smiled as he spoke.
“What reason could there be? I do it because I love it!”
Whiiiissssh.
A third wind swept through.
Simon stood before him.
This boy, like Aaron had once been, carried eyes that gleamed with clarity and a confidence that made him believe he could accomplish anything in this world.
Aaron exhaled slowly and opened his mouth.
“What do you want, Simon?”
The reason he had fashioned a Skeleton Mage—the very subject he would be teaching for weeks to come—by his own hand alone, and now waited here so deliberately.
“Please teach me about the Lich’s Life Vessel Formula.”
It was to secure the conditions needed to outpace his peers.
Aaron’s first cardinal rule of teaching.
Every student who entered his classroom would learn something, without exception.
And so, for those who already knew what he would teach, he provided tailored instruction.
Simon had used this to learn Bone Armor from Aaron, and to learn Blood Golem.
“I read the book you gave me, sir, but I couldn’t grasp Life Vessel at all.”
With those words, Simon bowed his head.
“I need your guidance.”
Aaron’s throat tightened. His hand in his pocket trembled, and sweat beaded on his palm.
“Do you truly intend to create a Lich as your Practical Assessment project?”
“Yes.”
The boy’s eyes were earnest.
“I regret speaking of creating a Lich so carelessly in front of you. But my resolve on that matter is genuine, and it remains unchanged now, naturally.”
Youth is—
“Whether I can do it or cannot do it doesn’t matter anymore. I will make it happen, no matter what.”
A thing far too precious for the young to possess.
It does not quibble.
It does not measure carefully.
Because I want to.
Because I wish to.
The courage to challenge boldly, to collide endlessly without retreat.
Something Aaron once had but no longer possessed.
Aaron envied Simon’s youth.
“You said it just now. ‘Because I want to.'”
He wanted to discourage him, realistically speaking.
This genius kept reminding him of his younger self.
“There are more people in this world who do things they don’t want to do.”
He had endured defeat beyond counting.
Not only did he suffer alone—those around him suffered too.
His family’s fortunes declined, loved ones turned their backs, he faced rejection in academia, and his carefully selected direct disciples failed their exams en masse.
‘Simon. The older you grow, the more responsibility falls upon you. The more you pursue what you desire, the more you may devastate those around you. Countless pragmatic reasons will shackle your feet.’
That prodigy among prodigies—once so vibrant and eager in all things—had become now
a professor who wore clothes with stretched-out collars, suffered chronic fatigue, shuffled about in slippers, and forced his students to abandon Summoning Magic from the very first lecture.
-We cannot allow Simon, a genius sent by heaven, to become like you, Aaron.
His junior, who had watched his downfall from the closest vantage point, had demanded he relinquish the right to teach Simon.
Yet strangely, he could not let go.
Did ambition remain in him still? Did unfulfilled longing still linger in his heart?
But the very thought felt sinful, and so he could not choose Simon either. Time simply passed in that ambiguous state.
“Simon. Your second-year major selection is coming soon.”
But now.
He could not remain idle.
For this boy’s sake, and for his own.
“If you choose Summoning Magic again in your second year.”
Aaron opened his trembling lips.
“I want to accept you as my direct disciple.”

* * *
Sniffle, sniffle.
As Summoning Magic class ended and students streamed noisily toward the next classroom, someone’s voice could be heard breaking with tears.
Though it was one of the precious few moments of genuine joy Kizen students felt in a day, the sound of quiet weeping filled the hallway.
“Stop crying already.”
Merin turned to look at the source of the tears, a forced smile on her face.
“Kamibarez.”
“Sob—but… Simon and Professor Aaron! It’s just so touching!”
Kamibarez brushed away the tears clinging to the corners of her eyes.
“When I saw Professor Aaron listing nothing but Summoning Magic’s shortcomings back in first year, I thought he must have suffered terribly. But I’m so relieved he finally opened his heart like this…!”
“But why are you—”
Dick’s quip was cut short by Merin’s sharp tap to the crown of his head. Simon merely laughed softly.
“Brother! You look relieved.”
Dick nudged Simon’s ribs playfully, grinning.
“You kept turning down offers from other professors and waiting, didn’t you!”
“Yeah, because it would’ve been bad manners for the student to request discipleship first.”
Simon desperately fought to suppress the smile tugging at his lips.
If there hadn’t been people around, he would have pumped his fists in the air, screamed with joy, and danced in wild celebration. But he managed to hold himself together, clinging to whatever dignity he had left.
“But Professor Aaron really is—”
Merin raised a slender index finger to her lips.
“Simon wanted it, so why didn’t he just agree right away? Instead he insists on waiting until second year advancement.”
“I understand it.”
Simon answered with a smile.
“Professor Aaron is the cautious type when it comes to choosing direct disciples too hastily.”
Currently at Kizen, the prevailing strategy was to aggressively recruit top talent by offering direct discipleship early.
Aaron, on the other hand, had always maintained that students should first discover their full talents and aptitudes before carefully choosing their major and mentor.
“Seeing Professor Aaron and Simon like that made me so emotional! I want to become someone’s direct disciple too!”
Kamibarez said.
“… I hope Professor Walter will make me an offer.”
‘!’
Simon’s expression tensed at those words.
“Don’t be so anxious about it, Kamibarez.”
Merin smiled kindly and patted her head.
“Professor Walter hasn’t taken any direct disciples yet, but if anyone’s his first choice, it’d be you.”
“Well, of course!”
Dick nodded emphatically in agreement.
Only Simon remained gravely troubled, anxiety written across his face.
‘… Kamibarez becomes Walter’s direct disciple?’
“Ah~ Ah~ Professor Bahil, are you listening!”
Dick threw his arms up and shouted.
“If you don’t take this genius student soon, she might go to Professor Byeol-Ya instead!”
“Can’t you just go off to some distant star or something.”
Merin chided him, and Simon and Kamibarez burst out laughing.
“Oh, but before that—you guys! I’ve got some fresh, important intel!”
Dick snapped his fingers and turned to face the three of them.
“Important intel?”
“Yeah! We’re off this weekend, and next week they’re gonna run the third After-School BMAT game right away!”
“Already the third one.”
Once the After-School BMAT wrapped up completely, the Practical Assessment season would be nearly over.
Then only one trial would remain for Kizen’s first-year class—the Promotion Exam, including the 5th BMAT, the final and most dreaded ordeal looming on the horizon.
“Kizen’s Promotion Exam has a notorious reputation.”
Merin raised one finger, her expression growing serious.
“The difference in power and treatment between first and second year is like heaven and earth, so the exam is supposedly quite grueling. And with the final BMAT on top of that, I can’t even imagine how difficult it’ll be.”
“Yes. The headquarters ran a simulation, and they said 500 out of 797 students would fail. … It’s terrifying.”
“We can worry about the Promotion Exam when it comes!”
Dick threw an arm around Simon’s neck and grinned widely.
“You promised to do Siege Warfare with me for this After-School BMAT, right?”
Simon nodded.
“Of course. I’m looking forward to it.”
Though what he was actually anticipating lay elsewhere entirely.
Simon was planning to deploy the Skeleton Mage in actual combat during this Siege Warfare exercise.
‘What new techniques might be possible with a Mage?’
The mere thought of it sent a thrill coursing through him.

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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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