Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 542

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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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Summoning Genius of the Necromancer School — Episode 542
The morning Dark Runic Studies class had barely ended when an unexpected chase broke out.
“Wait, just hear me out for a second!”
“Our club’s business briefing—!”
Simon and the Student Council members bolted through the corridors, weaving between the pursuing club students.
“What is this madness!”
Merin cried out while gripping her streaming sky-blue hair. Kamibarez pressed forward, breathing hard, while Simon kept pace behind them, shielding their backs as he glanced over his shoulder.
“Haha! This way!”
Dick, leading from the front, let out a cheerful whoop and ducked into an alley.
“They went between the buildings!”
“Get them!”
Get them? What did that even mean.
Simon shook his head at the words.
Tap-tap-tap—
Tap-tap!
The Student Council members flew through the narrow alley in a heartbeat.
The moment the pursuing club students entered the alley after them—
‘!’
Everything went silent.
The Student Council members had vanished cleanly from the empty space between the buildings.
“Where’d they go?”
“There’s nowhere left to run…”
The students looked around in confusion, then glanced up. A rope was being drawn up from the third floor of the adjacent building.
“There! They went into the next building!”
“Third floor! Get them!”
Crash!
All the pursuing club students poured through a first-floor window into the building.
Once the surroundings fell quiet—
Whoosh.
The wall rippled like a blanket being pulled down, revealing the four Student Council members pressed flat against it.
“Hahaha! They fell for my trap perfectly!”
Dick rolled up the straw mat camouflage that looked identical to the wall and tucked it into his subspace. Simon chuckled and spoke.
“You had this prepared in advance?”
“You bet! I figured it’d come to this, so I mapped out an escape route ahead of time! I even brought the Student Council’s direct servants!”
On the noisy third floor, Mojo, a Student Council attendant, snapped to attention. Dick playfully returned the salute.
“…Say. You’re actually enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Merin griped while brushing dust from her clothes.
“That was impressive, Dick!”
Kamibarez beamed with admiration, and Dick’s chest puffed up with pride.
“Come on, let’s hurry to the Student Council Office.”

* * *
The Student Council’s workload was staggering.
The school’s major decisions were handled by Kizen Headquarters and the professors, with the Student Council merely voicing student opinions. But where student welfare was directly concerned, the Council’s authority became immense.
Opening ceremonies and school events, festivals, club season, student assemblies, external goodwill activities, departmental autonomy meetings—all of it fell under the Student Council’s purview.
This club season was no exception. Despite it being lunch hour, there was no question of Simon’s group casually heading to the cafeteria, so they hurried to the Student Council Office instead.
“I’m sorry for putting you to all this trouble.”
Merin said apologetically.
“Not at all. It’s naturally part of our duties.”
The direct attendants returned with bento boxes from the cafeteria.
The four of them settled around a table, making quick work of lunch as they dove into discussion.
“It’s club season, so everyone’s trying to impress the Student Council.”
Dick waved his fork around as he spoke. Simon tapped Dick’s fork with his own and asked.
“Why are they trying to impress us?”
“Because we set the budget.”
“How much are we talking?”
“About ten thousand gold for the year, roughly.”
Simon’s jaw dropped at the staggering sum.
“That much?”
“That’s why the competition’s so fierce. Like I said—a silent war.”
Dick twirled his fork with a flourish, then made a stabbing gesture toward the table.
“It’s strange not to participate in club activities during club season when all that funding gets released. Everyone’s going to jump in trying to grab a piece, which is why you get all these fly-by-night clubs popping up left and right, then disappearing the moment the season ends.”
“Precisely.”
Merin wound her pasta elegantly onto her fork and spoke in a cool voice.
“Like when you founded that ridiculous Rochester Business Support Club back in your first year?”
*Ahem, ahem, ahem—*
Dick coughed in embarrassment.
“Wh-what? Here we go with the slander again! My club members actually learned something about business, and it was genuinely useful!”
“So is that club still active then? Idiot.”
Dick, having taken a barrage of blows from Merin, turned his head away with a wounded expression.
“I-I-I didn’t know I’d end up joining the Student Council back then! Please don’t hate the person just because you hate our foolish past!”
“Then when you’re being scolded, stop whining and shut your mouth. I’m out of patience.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Merin sighed heavily and dabbed her mouth with a handkerchief, then looked at Simon.
“That’s basically how it is, Simon. A lot of students see clubs as nothing but a way to make money.”
“Hmm.”
Simon folded his arms with a troubled expression, while Kamibarez began taking meeting notes.
“And honestly! Is it normal for them to be lobbying the Student Council members so openly?”
Merin pointed down toward the window. Students were already gathering below.
“They’ve all lost their minds. We need to change the framework.”
Kamibarez, who had been writing notes, blinked.
“How would you change it, Merin?”
“We need to start by fixing the budget allocation.”
Merin spread her arms wide.
“It doesn’t make sense that a brand-new business club gets more funding than a sports club that’s been around for over twenty years, just because their project is bigger. We need to set stricter standards for new clubs and conduct more thorough evaluations.”
Dick shook his head firmly.
“We’re already taking club booth applications starting tonight. When exactly would we do all these evaluations?”
“We can do it while taking the applications!”
“But then how do we allocate the budget?”
Dick asked abruptly. Caught off guard by the counterattack, Merin rolled her eyes momentarily before responding.
“Right, the budget. The thing is, club season is when the Student Council gets the most complaints all year. Some clubs get more, some get less, and there’s always noise about it. So if we make the evaluations strict and only select a small number of clubs, we can distribute funds equally without anyone complaining.”
“I object!”
Dick raised his hand as he spoke.
“That’s the classic problem with nobly-born girls, isn’t it?”
This time, Merin’s face flushed red.
“Wh-what are you—!”
“If you give everyone the same amount, do a club with three members get the same funding as a club with thirty? The thirty-member club wouldn’t even be able to have a single group dinner.”
“That’s way too extreme an example, you idiot! We wouldn’t give them exactly the same; of course we’d make reasonable distinctions!”
“But you haven’t established the criteria for those distinctions yet.”
Simon turned his head to look at Dick.
“So what’s your take on this, Dick?”
“Well, having worked in the field myself, I’d like to offer an administrative principle here.”
Dick shrugged as he continued.
“Just… leave things as they’ve always been, sir.”
“…You just made that up, didn’t you?”
“Ahem! Anyway, Kizen must have had reasons for doing things this way. I don’t think we need to change things unnecessarily.”
Merin tapped the table.
“Are you saying we, as the Student Council, should just ignore problems we clearly see?”
“It’s probably so difficult to fix in practice that they left it alone. And honestly? Really honestly speaking.”
Dick placed a hand on his chin and grinned.
“The whole student body trying to look good to us—isn’t that kind of nice?”
“…?”
The faces of everyone except Dick went rigid.
Dick, not expecting this reaction, looked flustered.
“Students who aren’t even close to us hanging around trying to talk to us, older students forcibly dragging us away by the arm, shoving bribes into our uniform jackets and running off, and harassing us so we can’t even eat lunch properly—that’s nice?”
Merin said sharply.
“It was… suffocating. People made unreasonable requests from all sides.”
Kamibarez said quietly, looking away.
“Even the 3rd Year Department Representative called me in.”
Simon scratched the back of his neck. Dick, looking embarrassed, quickly changed the subject.
“Oh my, I’m sorry for being so self-interested! Let me put it differently then.”
Dik pointed with the tip of his finger at Simon’s Student Council President badge.
“Club Season is when our Student Council’s power reaches its absolute peak!”
“…….”
“Just hear me out before you misunderstand! Of course that’s not what I mean at all! We can push budget toward clubs that are friendly to us and allocate less to clubs that oppose us—that sort of thing is possible. Those 3rd Year Seniors still seem to treat us like makeshift help, but we could make them properly sweat for it! Honestly, right now our Student Council isn’t in a completely stable position, is it?”
Merin’s expression hardened.
“You want to ignore countless problems just for that? Students who want to focus purely on club activities are suffering because of it.”
“It’s unfortunate, but we need to think practically.”
“That’s not practical—that’s just looking away!”
Both their heads turned at once.
“What do you think, Simon?”
“…….”
Kamibarez too seemed to sense the weight of the moment, gripping the meeting notes tighter in her hand.
Simon interlaced his fingers and deliberated for a moment before speaking.
“Both of your arguments have merit. We can’t ignore deepened problems, and what you said about Club Season being our Student Council’s power is true. But.”
Simon looked at Dik.
“Power has two sides, doesn’t it?”
When one club receives more funding and comes to support the Student Council, another club receives less and harbors resentment toward us. Becoming someone’s ally is the same as becoming someone else’s enemy.
“If our situation is as precarious as all that, I think what matters more than making allies is not creating any more enemies.”
“Well, yeah. That does make sense, but how do we do it? It’s going to be hard to keep everyone from being dissatisfied.”
Simon smiled at Dik’s question.
“Let’s set clear budget allocation criteria and just make those criteria public to the entire student body.”
The criteria for budget allocation was decided to be the most objective standard: the membership size of each club.
After this Club Season ends, clubs with larger membership will receive the largest budgets. And as Merin suggested, instead of screening new clubs.
“We collect reports.”
Simon said.
“Rather than distributing all the budget at once, let’s collect performance reports from clubs every month. We’ll make sure no one tries to create a quick cash-grab club. The budget will be provided monthly after we receive the reports.”
Kamibarez clapped her hands.
“That sounds good!”
Dik folded his arms with an “Hmm.”
“Won’t the clubs complain that we’re just creating more work for them?”
“That’s funny.”
Merin laughed lightly.
“Think about all the effort those clubs have been putting into lobbying us. Writing a performance report once a month? That’s nothing. And money’s on the line, isn’t it?”
“……well, yeah. Since money’s involved.”
“And! The Student Council is going to conduct unannounced spot checks to make sure the performance reports are actually being fulfilled!”
Dik startled this time, drawing an X with his arms.
“Excuse me, Vice President! Surely we’re not going to strangle ourselves with more work like this!”
“Shut up! I’ll do it alone if I have to!”
Things were coming together roughly.
Kamibarez compiled everything neatly and prepared the report.
“All done! If we’re going to get this ready by tonight, shouldn’t we get Professor Jane’s approval right away?”
“You’re right. Let’s go toge——”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Click!
Just then the Student Council Office door opened. All four of them stood up from their seats at once.
“Professor Jane!”
From her expression, it seemed she’d already heard everything.
As she entered the Student Council Office, she scanned the report on the desk with her eyes and smiled.
“I was planning to give you that assignment anyway. This is better than what most 3rd Year student councils come up with.”

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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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