Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 559

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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 559
“Who ordered you to do this?”
Merida loaded another Sleep curse as she spoke. Watching the curse bloom at her fingertips, Mirde gasped and thrashed.
“I, I really don’t know!”
“Answer me.”
“Are you t-torturing me right now? In the middle of the Ivory Tower’s territory? Have you both gone mad?”
She wrenched out the words.
“If the Ivory Tower Master finds out what you’re doing, there will be w-war……!”
Merida cast Sleep again, and Mirde’s words cut off.
Watching Mirde writhe in agony while asleep, Merida’s face remained utterly blank — the cold, indifferent gaze of someone watching an insect pass by.
Snap!
She flicked her fingers, and Mirde — who had been convulsing violently — finally collapsed onto her back. Her breathing came in heavy, ragged gasps.
“Speak.”
“You f——ing b——!”
Mirde’s body shot upward again. Simon, watching from the side, spoke in alarm.
“Wait, Merida! Isn’t this going too far?”
“Us.”
Merida lifted her head and looked at Simon.
“We almost died back there.”
……
Simon did have a measure of insurance, but Merida must have felt genuine terror in that moment when the colossal train bore down on them.
She had said it plainly.
That they couldn’t continue the mission as things stood. That with lives on the line, she would absolutely uncover who was behind this before leaving.
She kept releasing and reapplying the Sleep curse on Mirde.
“Aaaaagh!”
Thud.
“Stop! Please!”
Thud.
“No! Not again!”
Thud.
At this rate, Mirde’s mind would shatter. Unable to watch any longer, Simon grabbed Merida by the shoulder.
“That’s enough. As Student Council President, I’m ordering you to stop.”
……
She stopped moving her fingers. Then she fixed Simon with a stare that asked: why are you interfering?
“What kind of horrible nightmare are you showing her anyway?”
“Not a nightmare. In the first place, the Sleep curse of Phantasus can’t create nightmares.”
Merida lowered her hand as she spoke.
“Then what?”
“Just her own image.”
Merida continued:
“Mirde falling asleep and then waking before us — she’s forced to dream that same cycle over and over.”
Precisely.
Reality Confusion.
Mirde knows that what’s been cast on her is Sleep. Even if she sees anything in the dream, if she tells herself it’s a curse, an artificially induced nightmare, she might be able to endure it.
But Merida’s method was different. The way she’s doing it now, she’s forcing Mirde to dream infinitely of falling asleep and then waking.
Now it must be real, she thinks as she wakes — but that very moment of waking is itself a dream.
Then she awakens again, convinced that this time it’s truly reality — only to find that too was a dream.
She dreams of waking from dreams, again and again.
Hope blooming, crushed, then blooming again — the cycle repeating eternally.
A hell from which she’ll never truly wake.
Mirde must feel as though she’s slept and woken thousands, tens of thousands of times.
Within the dream, Mirde screamed.
Stop.
Please stop.
But no matter how desperately she begs, the Merida within the dream does not relent.
Everything is only a dream.
“If she tries to tell the Ivory Tower Master and gets caught, I’ll simply testify that I cast Sleep on her seven times as self-defense against someone who tried to kill me.”
Merida raised her hand.
“It’s the truth, after all.”
Crack—!
Merida flicked her finger. Thud! Mirde’s back hit the floor.
“@#%^*&! Stop! Stop it pleeeease!”
Desperate words tumbled from her lips in complete disorder.
She must have thought she’d drift back to sleep any moment, so she squeezed her eyes shut—but this time it was no dream.
Mirde wept with a kind of rapture, flailing like a madwoman before throwing herself at Merida’s feet, clutching the hem of her dress and pouring out tears.
“Stop! Please stop! I—I’ll tell you everything!”
Merida hummed approvingly, nodded, and stroked Mirde’s hair.
“Who sent you?”
“I—I—listen, it’s real! Really, no one sent me—I did it myself! But the Ivory Tower Master, he—”
At the mention of the Ivory Tower Master, both Merida and Simon snapped to attention.
“He told us that Geldon was coming to us! Geldon! The Ivory Tower Master said that man harbors resentment toward Kizen, and if Kizen is among the festival’s invited guests, he won’t sit idly by! When I heard that, I—I—I concocted a plan!”
…….
As Merida fell silent, Mirde grew increasingly frantic, babbling out everything that came to mind.
“It’s the truth! Only—only—the Ivory Tower Master always compared us to Kizen! He said he spends five times as much money on us, so why can’t we surpass those children! Useless, he’d call us! He kept saying that over and over! And then when he heard those Kizen brats were being dispatched here, and that he’d have me serve as their guide—my eyes just flipped! I—I wasn’t in my right mind!”
“So you were trying to kill us?”
At Merida’s question, Mirde shook her head as if possessed.
“No! No! It’s really not true! I just wanted to humiliate you! I had no idea you’d use Dark Magic so openly right there in the banquet hall! I swear!”
Sob! Sob! Sob! Sob!
She wailed, tears and snot streaming down her face. Merida nodded quietly.
“I understand. This stays between us.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Mirde nodded repeatedly.
“I won’t tell a soul! Not even if I die! I’ll take it to my grave!”
“I’ve planted a trigger in your dreams.”
Merida leveled her index finger at Mirde’s forehead as if aiming a gun.
Mirde trembled uncontrollably.
“You were terrified the moment you opened your eyes, weren’t you?”
……!
How many days had passed?
How many months, how many years?
What state would she wake up in?
Would she never open her eyes again?
She trembled in her dreams, seized by endless terror.
“If I die,”
Merida spoke in a steady, measured voice, as if weaving a spell.
“You will never wake from your dreams.”
From now on, Mirde would
recite those words every time she tried to fall asleep.

* * *
After sending Mirde away, Simon and Merida entered their assigned lodging room.
The ‘Lodging’—a space within the Tower of Time that remained unaffected by dungeon influence—was extraordinarily rare. The 50th floor had only one, and the standard was for two or three strangers to share a cramped space.
“You went too far this time, Merida.”
Simon exhaled heavily as he stepped through the door.
She’d confidently insisted on finding the ‘mastermind’ herself if he’d leave it to her, so he’d agreed—and she’d actually captured someone and tortured them with curses.
“Half measures are more dangerous.”
Merida answered boldly. Then suddenly her eyes lit up. “Oh!”—and she bolted toward the bed, diving onto it with a soft thump.
“Cozy.”
She curled up with her knees together, assuming what cat enthusiasts commonly called the “cat bread-baking pose.”
Simon spoke flatly.
“You’re claiming the bed pretty naturally, aren’t you?”
Merida, still in that prone position, cupped her cheeks in both hands and looked up with sparkling eyes.
……Unbelievable as it was. Was she actually trying to be cute?
“Fine, fine.”
Persuading Merida to yield the bed seemed impossible from the start, so Simon accepted his fate quickly. She remained curled up, and her eyelids began to droop drowsily.
“You can’t sleep yet. You have to finish your quota for the day first.”
Simon said coolly. Merida pouted, straightened herself, and sat up properly. Simon also settled into a chair nearby.
Upon inspection, there didn’t appear to be any Eavesdropping Magic specifically placed in the room.
With so many skilled Necromancers at this festival, setting up such a device would only invite trouble.
“About that mastermind you mentioned earlier.”
Merida spoke first.
“Was the Ivory Tower Master trying to kill us?”
“It’s hard to say it so definitively.”
Simon crossed his arms.
“There are signs he incited the Ivory Tower students at the academy, but that alone isn’t enough. After all, it was Mirde’s own will that drove her actions. More than anything, the Ivory Tower Master lacks motive.”
“Motive?”
“Yes.”
Simon unfolded his arms.
“If we from Kizen had been killed or injured during the banquet earlier? The Time Festival would’ve been finished for certain.”
If that happened, it would have been tantamount to the Ivory Tower Master tightening the noose around his own neck.
“Even now, with the Time Festival underway, if Geldon’s attack caused casualties, the Ivory Tower could have glossed it over with vague promises of compensation. But the Ivory Tower Master went so far as to stake his own position.”
The conclusion was simple: if Simon or Merida died within the Ivory Tower, the Ivory Tower Master would have far more to lose than gain.
On top of that, both of them had been invited by the Ivory Tower. But if something happened to them inside the Ivory Tower? Countless conspiracy theories would inevitably spread.
It wasn’t just the Ivory Tower Master’s position at risk. Kizen’s fury, now backed by public opinion, would come crashing down, and the entire Ivory Tower organization could be destabilized.
What reason would he have to harm Simon and Merida, bearing such risk?
“So we’re…… are you even listening?”
Merida, who had been nodding off, rolled her eyes toward Simon.
“Yeah.”
……
“I hear everything, even while dozing.”
Simon let out a hollow laugh and rose from his seat.
“Let’s hold off on hasty conclusions and act carefully. Time to get to work.”
“Right.”

* * *
Simon and Merida shed their uncomfortable tuxedo and dress. They had a Barrier in place, and after changing into Kizen Academy Uniforms that were better suited for combat, they left the Lodging.
The moment they stepped beyond the safe zone, the air felt different. Even the color of the tower took on a hazy, grayish tint.
Simon and Merida moved forward with caution.
‘The Tower of Time, I see.’
The Dungeon that appeared here hundreds of years ago had swallowed up two thousand years of the Ivory Tower’s history in a single gulp.
Just as the Ivory Tower once clung to history and records, this Dungeon too was deeply influenced by everything it had consumed, producing the most bizarre and extraordinary phenomena.
One such phenomenon stood directly ahead.
-Remarkable! This device is revolutionary!
-Sound coming from a stone! Incredible!
A group of middle-aged men in somewhat antiquated garb had gathered. They were making a fuss, holding a blue stone to their ears or shouting into it with exaggerated enthusiasm.
-With this technology, even mages who cannot use magic, ordinary households, everyone will be able to enjoy the benefits of magic!
The presenter held the stone aloft.
-The name of this invention is!
This was the scene of the Communication Crystal’s development from 330 years ago.
The forms of these people were all as faded as an old photograph, and a crackling, static-like sound emanated from them.
‘So this is the Dungeon showing us a reenactment of the past.’
It was best not to interfere. Simon gestured to Merida.
“Let’s pass quietly.”
“Okay.”
Though historically significant, they had no time to linger on such sights. Simon and Merida hurried past.
“But that person there.”
Merida murmured softly.
“If they only knew that even now, Communication Crystals remain so expensive that only high nobility can afford them……”
-You two there!
Simon and Merida flinched.
All the mages in the historical scene were now glaring at them.
-The doctor is making a crucial announcement!
-Where are you going at such an important moment?
They’d been caught.
Simon’s heart sank, but he forced a smile and spoke.
“Ah, haha! Our apologies for the disruption!”
The two rushed over and made a show of sitting beside the scholars, bending their knees and sitting on empty air where no chairs existed.
‘This is exhausting.’
This Dungeon had already been conquered 300 years ago.
The Ivory Tower had published the Dungeon’s rules, and Simon and Merida had both studied them.
One of them.
<When a Temporal Entity speaks to you, comply with their demands and respond naturally. Pretend you belong there.>
The moment they realize that the world composing them is ‘false’, that the time they exist in is not the present but the past.
They’ll rampage and attack.
‘I don’t have time for this.’
Simon watched the mages’ presentations with a tense expression.
If someone spoke to him and asked about his affiliation or something, it would be over. He had no idea what families existed three hundred years ago, so he couldn’t answer with any confidence.
“Merida, I’ll send you a signal when—”
When he glanced over, Merida’s head was drooping rhythmically.
She was asleep through all of this.
‘Damn it, she’s no help!’
Even before the mission had truly begun, Simon felt worry blooming inside him like an unstoppable weed.

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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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