Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 555

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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 555
The following morning.
First period was Curse Magic. Simon attended nervously, worried whether any strange rumors might have circulated, but the classroom atmosphere felt perfectly ordinary.
His classmates greeted him as usual and passed by.
‘Thank goodness. They didn’t spread any rumors, did they?’
Simon entertained that optimistic thought, but in reality those female students had already spread the gossip far and wide, their itching lips unable to hold back.
The content of the rumor was as follows.
-Last night, Student Council President Simon and fourth-ranked Merida spread a blanket in the main building and did something strange while tangled together.
Rumors typically need a certain plausibility and must sound convincing to spread widely, but this one felt sensational yet oddly implausible.
Considering Simon and Merida’s usual conduct, and more importantly, the act itself—spreading a blanket in a heavily trafficked building to do something strange—lacked any grounding in reality.
Had the location been an empty classroom where no one goes, the rumor would have spread far more widely.
Even gossip-loving students lost interest quickly, knowing they’d only be treated as fools for repeating such a story. Only the two female students who claimed to have witnessed it firsthand remained frustrated to the point of madness.
Of course.
“You crazy perverted bastard!”
There was someone who believed it.
Merin, who attended the same class, suddenly grabbed Simon’s wrist and dragged him outside, then proceeded to strike his face repeatedly with a cushion.
“M-Merin! Wait! Ugh!”
“How—how could you! You’re supposed to be a model for the students, the Student Council President, and you—with a girl at school—doing such shameless things!”
Merin’s face had turned bright red as she flailed the cushion about. Simon grabbed at it and asked.
“Wait. What exactly did you hear about these shameless things?”
Simon was genuinely curious what rumor had spread, but Merin’s face turned crimson like a tomato.
She stumbled backward, stammering “W-well,” and as the embarrassment reached its peak, she suddenly let out a sharp shriek.
“Why are you making me say it? You pervert!”
“…Simon.”
Beside her stood Kamibarez with a blank expression, fidgeting with her hands.
“That’s quite a shock. Growing up before we do…”
“It’s not like that, Kamibarez! Why are you too?”
Chuckle.
From where the sound came, Pier stood with his mouth covered, laughing. Simon glared at him.
“You’re the culprit, Pier.”
Even an absurd rumor would sound plausible if Pier embellished it.
“Well, I happened to hear an entertaining rumor, and I just mentioned it to the Student Council members. Now you should hear the details from him directly, right?”
“…I see.”
Simon explained the whole situation.
“Merida cast Sleep on you?”
“So that’s why you ended up tangled together!”
“…Don’t say ‘tangled,’ Kamibarez. It sounds weird.”
Simon scratched his cheek awkwardly and turned to look at Pier.
“Do me a favor.”
It was a rough way of asking him to spread the clarification. Pier, who had been perched by the window, dropped down and shrugged.
“That rumor’s already fading on its own anyway. We don’t need to scratch an itch that’s not there—it’ll disappear naturally if we just leave it.”
“I hope so.”
“Heh, but you two might get linked together for a couple of months just for fun, you know?”
Pier poked at Simon’s forearm teasingly.
“If it were true, you’d be a hero to the guys. Real man Simon!”
“…Please stop.”
Simon glanced anxiously around, worried who might be listening.
Merin still held the cushion protectively as she spoke with concern.
“But Simon, why did you end up connected with Merida all of a sudden?”
“We were assigned as dispatch partners.”
“Oh?”
Pier suddenly perked up.
“Wait, so at the dispatch site, that rumor might actually become real…?”
Whack!
Pier took Merin’s cushion to the back of his head and toppled over. Kamibarez spoke up.
“I’m glad it’s settled now, Simon! Where is the dispatch location?”
“Ah, about that…”
Simon scratched the side of his head and glanced at Merin.
“It’s the Ivory Tower.”
“Huh?”
Merin clearly had no idea what he was talking about. Simon explained what had happened.
“…The Festival of Time. Right, it’s about to start soon.”
“You know what that is?”
“What are you talking about? I belong to the Ivory Tower, so of course I know! I’ve even been inside a few times.”
From what she said, it didn’t sound like a particularly dangerous place.
Of course, Merin had been young then and hadn’t yet opened her Core, so she’d mostly wandered the lower levels where the danger was minimal. As for the upper sections, she admitted she didn’t know what they were like.
“A place where the continent’s time flows—how wonderful! I’d love to visit someday!”
Kamibarez fluttered her wings as she listened.
“Lucky. So one person gets sent to the desert on deployment, and another gets to enjoy a festival? That’s not unfair at all, right?”
Pier muttered in complaint.
As the conversation drifted this way and that, Simon stole a sideways glance at Merin.
—From this point forward, this is a classified mission entrusted solely by headquarters to the Student Council President.
Because it was top secret, it was a mission he couldn’t even tell his friend from the Ivory Tower about.
This was no simple deployment.
Kizen Headquarters had entrusted the mission only to Simon, the Student Council President. Put simply, the assignment was to retrieve information and data about the Ivory Tower from inside the Tower of Time.
In other words, they were ordering him to play the role of a spy.
At that moment, Simon had made one thing clear.
—I understand I’m in a position where I can’t refuse the mission, but I have no desire to get caught up in the conflict between Kizen and the Ivory Tower.
—Ah, I can see how you might misunderstand it that way.
The headquarters official opened his mouth with a serious expression.
—The details are top secret and I can’t disclose them, but this matter concerns the peace of the entire continent.
—I beg your pardon?
—The Ivory Tower Master is scheming something.
Simon recalled the conversation he’d had with the headquarters official yesterday.
Merin genuinely had no idea. She knew about the Festival of Time itself, but she had no clue that Simon was being dispatched to the Ivory Tower.
But there was one person who likely did know.
—Something interesting is about to happen.
Serne Eindarc.
She was the official heir to the Ivory Tower and belonged to a faction within the organization that was hostile to Kizen.
What’s more, the Ivory Tower Master was her adoptive father.
‘I just hope this doesn’t drag me into something troublesome.’
Simon pressed his temples firmly. All he wanted was to return safely and continue learning Durahan.

* * *
Evening of the dispatch day.
Simon left the Dormitory dressed in a bow tie and tuxedo.
He’d dressed up for the first time in a while. He’d changed his hairstyle, sweeping back his bangs to reveal his forehead cleanly, and had even given his newly purchased formal shoes a light test.
[Khehe! I’m looking forward to this Ivory Tower assignment!]
‘Thanks for coming along, Pier.’
To prepare for any contingency, he’d decided to bring Ancient Undead along on this outside assignment as well.
Those he’d take directly into the Subspace were Pier, Herseba, and Achemous.
Currently, Erzsebet was on Simon’s orders tracking “White.” If needed, he planned to call her through Herseba’s ability.
Besides that, the plague fiend “Cal” had merged into Pier’s sword, and Prince could be summoned whenever there were zombies. He could mobilize the entire 7th Legion at any time.
With preparations complete, Simon boarded a Teleport Magic Circle at Kizen and traveled.
He crossed the space and arrived.
“Oh.”
A night sky densely scattered with stars opened up before him.
When he lowered his head, the bright lights made his eyes ache.
Simon found himself dropped right in the heart of a metropolis. Tall tower structures competed as they stretched toward the sky, and the noise heard everywhere made his ears ring.
Simon was rather surprised.
‘The Ivory Tower is this flourishing a place?’
Most people on the continent, when they hear “Ivory Tower,” picture a desolate field with a single towering structure, and eccentric scholars locked inside doing nothing but research.
But the tower’s technology spreads beyond its walls, and naturally, a massive metropolitan zone forms around it.
Whooooosh-!
There was even a train running through the city center.
‘Impressive! A train, and not even in the Sacred Federation!’
No matter how much it’s called the age of Necromancers, everyday goods closely tied to people’s lives are still usually made from Mana.
Mana Stones, Mana Screens, Communication Crystals, Memorial Crystals, Mana Lamps, Mana Heaters, and so forth.
Of course, Dark Element-based products had superior performance, but since there was no special production means exceeding a Necromancer’s Core, they came with the disadvantage of being expensive.
Mana-based products, on the other hand, could be mass-produced and were affordable.
The Ivory Tower must have accumulated tremendous wealth through such mana technology.
‘Impressive, really.’
A city of cutting-edge technology and riches that surpassed Langoustin.
That had been Simon’s first impression of the Ivory Tower. The architectural style alone suggested it, and even the people walking the streets looked wealthy—their very clothing marked them as affluent.
Simon felt a thrill at the novelty of his surroundings and unfolded his map beneath the glittering streetlights.
‘Getting to my destination on foot would take a while.’
Since he’d come all this way to the Ivory Tower, he decided to ride the train instead.
Not an ordinary train, but a sightseeing train that operated only during the Festival of Time. He paid the rather steep fare of five hundred silver and boarded.
‘Oh.’
The train moved slowly, and one entire wall was transparent like glass, offering a clear view of the city’s nightscape.
“Welcome, dear tourists, to the Ivory Tower!”
A guide rode in each car, explaining the city’s attractions.
“For more than two thousand years, the Ivory Tower has served as a pioneer, guiding humanity forward…….”
Simon listened to the guide while admiring the photographs and illustrations affixed to the train’s walls.
Most were works celebrating the Ivory Tower’s long and storied history, though some showed the tower rising majestically above jungles, deserts, and glaciers.
‘So the tower existed in all these places. Did they move locations frequently in ancient times?’
One piece in particular caught his eye. A photograph showed a primitive-looking, naked ape and a robed wizard wielding a staff with their arms around each other’s shoulders, grinning and flashing a V sign.
‘This is way too exaggerated!’
Aside from the absurdity of an ape and a wizard posing for a friendship photo, there hadn’t even been Mana Cameras back then.
“About this photograph—didn’t they not have Mana Cameras back in those days?” a tourist asked, voicing exactly what Simon was thinking.
The guide, however, answered gravely without so much as a hint of embarrassment.
“In ancient times, there existed a legendary magical system known as the Magical Civilization. These mysterious techniques, which we cannot even analyze with modern knowledge…….”
Whenever something seemed amiss, the guide conjured up talk of the Magical Civilization to smooth things over.
The Magical Civilization was essentially a catch-all explanation.
Yet as Simon examined these various materials, he found himself wondering if this Magical Civilization might actually have existed.
‘Perhaps that’s why the Ivory Tower attempted research into reversing time?’
In this way, sightseeing and enjoying himself, Simon finally arrived at his destination station.
‘Walking would probably have been faster, honestly.’
The sightseeing train took a slow, winding route, so the journey had taken considerable time.
Simon unfolded his map again.
Looking at the city’s full expanse, two massive towers rose prominently.
The relatively smaller white tower on the left was the Ivory Tower’s headquarters.
And on the right, the largest, tallest, and pale gray tower—the former headquarters of the Ivory Tower, now called the Old Tower or the Tower of Time.
‘There it is.’
In the two thousand years of the tower’s existence, this place had served as its stronghold for seventeen hundred of them.
The Tower of Time loomed before him.
Whooooooooosh—!
An inexplicable force coiled around the tower’s peak. A golden band, not unlike Neftis’s anomaly, spiraled in and out of the Tower of Time’s body.
What on earth would unfold here?
Simon moved forward, thrilled by anticipation.
“Excuse me, coming through!”
City carriages halted noisily in front of the Tower of Time. Gentlemen and ladies descended from the vehicles in turn.
“The Earl Calbrine and his lady, confirmed.”
A butler stood at the tower’s entrance, verifying the invited guests. Behind him were armed soldiers—the security was formidable.
‘……I made it safely, but.’
Merida, his partner, was nowhere to be seen.
He’d expected Merida to depart from Kizen with him, but she insisted on taking a different route in.
She’d assured him she would arrive exactly on time, but there was no sign of her anywhere.
As Simon’s anxiety grew and his eyes scanned the surroundings,
‘!’
In the dark night,
on a bench beneath the soft glow of a street lamp sat a girl. In a black off-shoulder dress, she was a face Simon knew well.
‘Merida?’
She dozed gently on the bench.

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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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