Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 661
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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 661
Erzsebet hadn’t heard the details of the Grand Duke’s abilities, but she sensed it instinctively.
They were in danger. Now.
Every hair on her body bristled as her senses heightened. She didn’t need her eyes to feel the malevolent power bearing down from a distance.
Rip—
Her facial skin peeled away, and her undead eyes flashed with violet luminescence. More eyes opened across her forehead. Her perception expanded, and time itself seemed to slow dramatically.
She had to protect her master.
From her sleeves, web erupted forth, spreading across Simon’s path like a barrier. In almost the same instant—
Crack!
The inn wall shattered, and a black line—death itself made tangible—bore down upon Simon. To her eyes, it was unmistakable.
Death closing in on Simon.
Thrum—
Webs unfurled densely before Simon, and the black death struck them.
The slack webbing went taut in an instant.
Multiple strands twisted together, yet they failed to slow the onrushing death even slightly.
Snap—
One strand snapped.
Snap—
Snap, snap—
A second strand, then a third tore free.
At this rate, it was hopeless.
‘I must!’
Screeeeeech!
All her eyes blazed with light.
‘I have to protect him!’
Teal-Blue Darkness erupted from her entire body like a wave. As the darkness spread like an advancing tide and flowed into the webbing that blocked the death, the web transformed—its color and form changing, its mass swelling.
Screech-screech-screech!
As if by miracle, the web’s strength surged. The remaining strands caught the arrow’s momentum, slowing it for a critical instant.
[Haaaa!]
She yanked her arms back. Fresh webs erupted and wrapped around the arrowhead like a net, simultaneously meeting the target mark drawn on Simon’s abdomen.
“Ugh!”
Almost simultaneously, Simon seized the arrow with both hands. The floor beneath him exploded, fragments of sharp wood erupting and leaving a crimson line across his cheek.
“Kgh—!”
Simon gritted his teeth and tensed his legs.
Fortunately, Erzsebet’s sturdy webs had saved him from a piercing wound. Now he braced himself against the force—
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The output was in a different dimension.
Simon’s body was pushed back without resistance. Even after his back burst through the inn wall, he continued sliding backward. His legs, cloaked in Darkness, carved long furrows across the ground as he was driven back.
“Master!”
Swish—
Swoosh—
Sensing the crisis, Erzsebet swung both arms violently again. Countless webs poured from her, wrapping around Simon’s shoulders, his back, his legs.
Snap!
As she pulled her arms tight, the webs ensnaring Simon spread outward in all directions, anchoring themselves around the nearby Northern Territory buildings to lock him in place.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Yet the momentum only slowed slightly—Simon’s body continued to be pushed backward relentlessly.
Dozens of houses connected to Erzsebet’s webs collapsed in succession, their roofs torn away, their pillars uprooted and dragged along. Screams of shock echoed from the people.
Every building nearby was coming down.
‘Damn it!’
Simon, regaining his senses too late, cried out with blood streaming from his lips.
“Pier!”
The moment he opened the Subspace, Pier burst forth as if waiting. Pier immediately transformed into Bone Armor form and clung firmly to Simon’s legs and back, concentrating the reinforcement there.
At once, Pier and Simon applied force together.
Boom! Boom!
As Simon was pushed back, he smashed through building walls with his back in rapid succession. One structure, two, three—with each backward slide, the scenery changed. He passed through the interior of buildings, then back outside, the pattern repeating.
Simon shouted:
“Everyone, run!”
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Crash!
Chaos erupted. By sheer misfortune, Simon’s body was being driven directly into the Night Market street, and he nearly collided with people multiple times.
His legs gouged deep furrows into the earth. Simon clenched his teeth and spun around.
“!!”
A toddler—perhaps two or three years old—sat sprawled on the ground, babbling happily as he played with snow and mud.
“Run!”
Simon shouted, but the child was entranced by his snowman. No parents were visible nearby.
He shut his eyes tight and summoned the Darkness with every ounce of strength he possessed.
‘Stop, stop, stop, stop!’
The Legion Commander’s will surged forth.
Pier’s Bone Armor activated with tremendous force, and Erzsebet’s Web grew taut.
‘Stop, stop, stop, stop!’
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
Thud!
Something collided with his leg with a sound like shattering ice.
The Darkness of the black arrow was spent.
“Gasp!”
Simon collapsed where he stood.
“Gasp! Wheeze! Ah! Ah!”
He panted for breath, sweat pouring from him like rain, and looked back over his shoulder.
The snowman the child had been building lay shattered against Simon’s leg.
“?”
The toddler’s eyes, which had been blinking up at Simon, began to glisten with tears. Then came a wail.
“……Ha, haha.”
Simon managed a strained laugh and scooped the crying child into his arms.
“I’m sorry, did I scare you? I’m so sorry I broke your friend.”
Simon patted the child’s back, apologizing profusely. In the distance, figures who appeared to be the parents came sprinting toward them, tears and snot streaming down their faces, their shopping baskets abandoned.
And then.
“…….”
Crash!
The Flag Bearer who had guided the Grand Duke’s Arrow toward Simon hit the ground face-first, his expression vacant.
“……Im.”
A crisis had occurred.
The Grand Duke’s Arrow—capable of piercing a monster as massive as a mountain range in a single strike.
The Northern Territory’s ultimate symbol of destruction.
“……Mad.”
Had been stopped.
By a ‘human’.
The Flag Bearer’s trousers darkened with moisture.
“How is that even possible……”
As he muttered blankly, he saw boots approaching.
Crack!
Erzsebet’s boot came down on his forehead, and his consciousness fled.
* * *
A new legend was born overnight in the Northern Territory and Bilkenos.
It was called ‘The Boy Who Stopped the Grand Duke’s Arrow.’
The people of the North gazed repeatedly at the long furrow that had formed in the ground where Simon’s feet had dug in as he held the arrow, as though it were a sacred pilgrimage site.
“It’s truly a miracle, a miracle! Isn’t this the first time the Grand Duke’s arrow has ever been stopped?”
“And by an outsider, too!”
When one coachman tried to walk across the mark left by Simon’s footsteps, the people of the North flew into a rage and shouted him back.
The winter spirit had intervened.
The ancestors of the North were watching over them.
As various theories circulated about the incident.
‘Sigh.’
The very author of this legend lay in bed, tears glistening in his eyes.
Bandages were wound tightly around his abdomen.
-Commander? Here—
Erzsebet fed him porridge with a playful grin, and he rested through the morning. It was past noon before he made his way to the Grand Duke’s Castle.
“Hehehehe! The entire Northern Territory is abuzz with tales of you, my lord!”
As he entered the castle, Godrick greeted him with a beaming smile.
His demeanor had changed completely from their first meeting. Even the way he addressed Simon had shifted to the most formal honorific—’my lord.’
Simon scratched his temple and spoke in a hoarse voice.
“Is being hit by an arrow and collapsing really such a big deal?”
“Of course! No one has ever survived being struck by the Grand Duke’s Arrow before!”
“My, are you all right? I’ve heard the rumors.”
Grayson, the milkmaid who supplied the castle with dairy every day, rushed over in a single stride and thrust a bottle of milk into Simon’s hands with a bright smile.
“Your bones aren’t damaged, are they? Here! Reindeer milk is supposed to be so good for the bones.”
“Thank you, I’ll drink it gratefully.”
Simon cradled the milk bottle and shuffled up the stairs, finally arriving at the door to the Grand Duke’s office. He knocked with the back of his hand.
“It’s Simon.”
“Come in.”
The door opened to reveal the Grand Duke in the midst of training, dressed in an embarrassingly scanty outfit as always.
Today she was balanced on her fingertips in a full handstand, supporting her entire body’s weight. The way the Darkness Element coiled around her body told him she’d even increased the load.
Simon took a seat and waited for her training to finish.
Soon enough, she concluded her workout and wiped her brow clean with a towel, breaking into a grin.
“The Northern Territory was quiet until you arrived, and now it’s all noise. Everyone talks of nothing but you.”
Simon laughed awkwardly.
“It seems to keep happening that way.”
“I hear you took an arrow. Are you hurt?”
“This morning I felt like I was dying, but by afternoon it was bearable.”
“I see.”
She cast her gaze out the window, then gestured to Simon with her chin.
“?”
Simon rose from his seat and looked out the window.
And.
“Ah!”
His mouth fell open.
Atop a lance outside the castle walls lay the severed head of the very same Flag Bearer who had maneuvered the Grand Duke’s Arrow toward Simon.
Crows from the Northern Territory circled round, cawing loudly as they pecked out the dead Flag Bearer’s eyes.
“Surely you didn’t… execute him…!”
“I did.”
The Grand Duke spoke in an even tone.
“I severed his neck, and his subordinates I’ve enslaved—I’ll work them to death and feed them to monsters.”
All things considered, Simon himself was unharmed and no one had died. He thought the punishment perhaps a touch severe, but the Grand Duke’s response was cold.
“We are at war now, and discipline is paramount.”
She clenched her fist tightly.
“Dueling is an ancient tradition in the Northern Territory, and I allow people to fight as they wish. But the one who lost that duel then shamelessly manipulated my Arrow for a personal grudge?”
Bang!
She drove her fist into the wall, and fine cracks spiderwebbed across it as the entire castle shook.
“A hundred deaths would not be enough.”
When the Flag Bearer plants the flag, the Grand Duke fires her Arrow.
This is an absolute and solemn law of the Northern Territory, and no Flag Bearer in history had ever planted a flag for personal reasons.
Of course, she herself had noticed that the Arrow’s trajectory would pass through the city and had exercised appropriate restraint, but she had fired because she trusted the Flag Bearer.
That her trust had resulted in this betrayal seemed to weigh heavily on her.
Currently, she had issued a disciplinary order to all Flag Bearers. Perched in her chair with crossed legs, she cupped her chin and let out a long breath.
“We’ve no time to fret over trifles. You’ll participate as well.”
“In what?”
She pointed downward.
“A war council of the Northern Territory.”
* * *
The Grand Duke’s Castle housed a spacious war room.
The Grand Duke sat at the center of a great round table, surrounded at a distance by men of varied and distinctive appearances.
Simon observed them from a seat slightly apart.
‘These must be generals.’
The Northern Territory’s military structure, explained simply, consisted of warriors, Flag Bearers, generals, and at the very apex, the Grand Duke.
Of course, ranks between those ranks did exist—”senior warrior,” “chief Flag Bearer,” and among generals themselves titles like “Commander-in-Chief”—but broadly speaking, there were three categories.
Everyone gathered in this room now held the rank of general or higher: men capable of commanding entire armies, not merely individual units.
‘They are formidable.’
They were worlds apart from the Flag Bearer he’d recently faced.
Every last one of them had opened their Core and was a veteran of countless real battles—at a glance, Kingdom-class powerhouses.
“What is this child doing here?”
When an unfamiliar boy appeared in the War Room, one general gestured with his chin. The red-bearded general across from him raised the corner of his mouth in a sly smile.
“I think he’s the one who blocked the Grand Duke’s Arrow.”
“How amusing!”
Their gazes held equal parts curiosity and wariness toward this outsider.
Just then, Godrick hurried over with an extra chair. One of the generals furrowed his brow.
“Now see here, Godrick. You’re setting a place for this child at a meeting that will decide the fate of the Northern Territory? Over a few deflected arrows, no less——”
“Are you finished with your chatter?”
When Jin Arskalter spoke in a cool voice, the generals fell silent with tensed expressions. She gestured toward Godrick, who was bringing the chair.
Scrape.
Simon took his seat at the round table and joined the meeting.
But there was more to it than that.
‘Ah.’
He was sitting directly beside the Grand Duke.
Several of the generals shot Simon envious and jealous glances. One even clicked his tongue in disapproval.
“Grand Duke, who is that child?”
Ganiro, the most powerful man in the Northern Territory after Jin Arskalter, asked the question.
“Ah, this one here?”
The Grand Duke draped an arm casually around Simon’s shoulders and pulled him toward her with obvious pride.
“Everyone, pay him proper respect. He’s my new disciple.”
At the word “disciple,” the generals’ mouths fell open.
Jin Arskalter was renowned for never maintaining personal relationships. And yet—a disciple?
As Simon squirmed with embarrassment, the Grand Duke chuckled and ruffled his hair.
“This boy will play an important role in our plan.”
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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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