Fifty-Three Bones
"The third disadvantage: Summoning is weak against Priests."
This time, even Simon couldn't help but widen his eyes.
Conflicts with the Priest faction were the most sensitive issue among students lately, and every professor so far had touted their discipline's strengths on exactly this point.
Aaron was the complete opposite.
"I titled it that way, but to put it more precisely, Summoning isn't suited to modern warfare at all."
"......"
"Summoning shines brightest in a 'full-scale war.' In a massive battle where tens of thousands clash against tens of thousands, a summoner finally gains an endless supply of materials for raising undead. But with the ceasefire agreement in place, today's battles take the form of localized skirmishes against priests on missions. It's an inevitable sign of the times that Curse specialists and Hemomancers—people who can strike quickly and cleanly without leaving a trace—are the ones in vogue."
In other words, Aaron was declaring his own specialty outdated, yet there wasn't a trace of emotional turbulence on his face.
"And it's also true that summoning magic is vulnerable against Priests. Imagine an undead army you poured a fortune and endless effort into, crumbling to pieces from a single holy incantation a Priest recites. We're simply at a disadvantage in the matchup."
Aaron set down his chalk and turned to look at the students.
"There are countless other disadvantages I haven't mentioned, but the judgment is yours to make."
At that moment, a hand shot up.
It was the very same student who had first volunteered during the Curse class.
"I'm Jamie Victoria! I'd also like to know the advantages of Summoning!"
"......"
To the other professors, a student who set them up for a sales pitch like that might have been a source of pride—but not Aaron.
"I don't recall permitting questions."
Jamie felt goosebumps rise all over her body. The other students, who had been lounging comfortably, belatedly snapped to attention and stiffened in their seats.
His appearance was a wreck, but Aaron was still a first-rate necromancer holding a professorship at Kizen.
"S-sorry!"
Jamie bowed her head.
But as long as Aaron was a professor, he had a duty to answer his students' questions.
He clicked his tongue and spoke.
"The strength of Summoning is numbers. Beyond fighting alone, you can call on the aid of summoned creatures, which lets even a single necromancer execute a wide variety of tactical deployments. Did that answer your question?"
"Yes, sir!"
Aaron crossed his arms.
"Whether you take Summoning next semester, or choose it as your major—that's your decision. But keep one thing in mind."
Aaron's voice turned grave. He sounded like an entirely different person from the one who had been lumbering lazily through the lecture.
"If you don't have the resolve, don't set foot in this field."
Aaron really was different from the other professors.
"Don't come crying, don't complain, don't drown in self-loathing, and don't come begging for academic counseling after second year because money's too tight—that's exactly the kind of soft-minded nonsense I'm telling you not to bring into this discipline."
There was something almost like resentment settled in the depths of Aaron's voice.
The teaching assistants standing behind him let out quiet sighs as well.
"And if I catch anyone choosing Summoning as their major just because the competition is low, thinking it's an easy ticket to survival, I will personally expel you myself. That's all."
He'd even declared war on the students.
"......Now then, let's begin the lesson."
As Aaron returned to his drowsy voice and gestured, the teaching assistants moved swiftly, placing skeleton sets on each student's desk.
Simon let out a breath of relief and looked down at the skeleton set on his desk.
Bone fragments packed in order inside a box. Looking closely, the bones even had numbers written on them.
"What you've received are the bones of an 'Island Ratman.' It has a skeletal structure very similar to a human's, but simpler and far cheaper than human bones. Most beginners in Summoning start with this creature."
A Summoning TA pinned a detailed diagram of the Island Ratman's bone structure, complete with numbering, to the blackboard.
"Let's begin. Take out skull number one."
Simon and the students lifted their skulls onto their tables with tense faces.
A few of the girls winced slightly in disgust, but that was the extent of it. True to the girls who had made it into Kizen, there was no hesitation in their hands.
"The skulls come pre-assembled. There's an opening at the bottom where you can insert your hand, and inside the skull is a magic circle calibration frame. Everyone, put your hand in and construct the circle."
It was true. The structure closely resembled the calibration board from their first Curse class, except this one was carved directly into the skull.
Simon squeezed out his Jet-Black and let it flow into the calibration frame.
'Good.'
He was getting fairly used to using the calibration tool now.
"And once the circle is complete—"
"KYAAAAAH!"
"GYAAAH, AACK!"
Screams erupted from every direction.
The moment the circle completed, the skulls suddenly sprang to life, clacking their jaws against their palates with a rapid clack-clack-clack.
Students holding their skulls shrieked and hurled them away; some were so startled they toppled straight out of their chairs. Even Dick at the next seat was clutching his chest, gasping for breath.
"When the circle completes, the undead activates, so don't be alarmed. That's what I was going to say, but I'm a little late, it seems."
Aaron said with a smirk.
Several students shot him resentful glares, but none dared actually protest.
Meanwhile, Simon had completed the circle inside his own skull. The skeletal head came alive at once, clacking its jaw as it rolled around on the desk.
"Stay still."
Simon caught the head as it tried to roll off the desk and set it back down. Sure enough, the undead went quiet, as if it had truly understood his words.
"......Simon. Have you handled stuff like this a lot?"
Dick at the next seat looked positively revolted, as if he couldn't bear to even touch the undead.
Simon shrugged. His father was a necromancer, so skeletons wandering around the house had been a common occurrence.
"Get used to it. You're necromancers now."
Aaron went on, hands jammed in his pockets.
"And with the circle you just activated, your undead is as good as finished. Of course, it can't move since it has no body. Now it's your turn to build the skeleton's body."
Aaron rapped his knuckles against the photo of the Island Ratman's bone structure pinned to the blackboard.
"Any necromancer worth the name must have a perfect command of the bone structure of whatever creature they intend to summon. A human body has 206 bones, but an Island Ratman has 53, so it's far easier. First, find cervical vertebra number two."
The students rummaged through their skeleton sets. Simon, too, quickly located the bone labeled '2.'
"Now connect bone number two to the skull."
Simon tilted his head.
There were no tools for attaching anything—how was he supposed to connect it?
Tentatively, Simon pressed bone number two against the base of the skull.
At once, as if magnetic attraction had taken hold, the bone in his hand trembled faintly and tried to attach itself. When Simon eased the pressure of his grip, the bone snapped into place on its own with a crisp click.
'Oh, that's amazing.'
Simon blinked.
"To say it once more: activating that circle completed the entire spell that moves your skeleton. And skeletons have a property that makes them try to return to the form of their previous body."
Aaron turned his head back to the bone diagram.
"Next, bone number three."
He set the skull on his desk, found the bone matching each number, and connected them one by one, step by careful step.
"Continue the same way, up to eleven."
"Done, I did it!"
"Nice!"
Before anyone noticed, delighted exclamations were ringing out all across the room.
Simply finding a bone and pressing it into place made everything snap together on its own. Simon's skeleton, completed up through the neck, nodded its head up and down as if congratulating itself.
Simon burst out laughing.
'This is fun!'
Maybe because they weren't human bones, but the disgust and awkwardness had melted away entirely.
It felt like assembling a sculptural figure that moved exactly according to blueprint, and Simon was able to throw himself completely into the lesson.
"Be careful not to confuse the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. The Island Ratman is a bipedal animal, and completing the spine that supports its hindquarters is the most critical part."
"If you assemble the bones in the wrong order, you won't get smooth movement. The skeleton will creak, its motion will suffer, and it'll be prone to breaking down at crucial moments."
"Now, proceed all the way to sixteen in one go."
Plenty of students had been worried after the tense atmosphere at the start of Aaron's class, but the truth was that the Summoning lessons were fun enough to win anyone over.
The room buzzed with lively chatter as everyone showed off their finished creations or asked questions about whatever they were curious about. Aaron didn't bother restraining the free-wheeling atmosphere at all.
"We're almost there. Proceed all the way to fifty-three. Anyone who gets stuck, raise your hand."
"Professor! The leg assembly isn't working over here!"
"Waaah, Professor! My skeleton keeps running away!"
Simon completed his skeleton in a single attempt, without a single trial or error. A skeleton slightly shorter than an average person stood in place, clacking softly.
'......This is a skeleton made from my own Jet-Black.'
As he watched with a faint swell of pride, the skeleton tilted its head.
A smile crept across Simon's face at the sight.
"Hey! Aren't you going to control your summon?! It's hitting me!"
"I'm the one who told it to."
"Kyaa, look at this! I can even make it dance!"
"......Why is this thing kind of adorable?"
Warm laughter rang out from all over the room. The students who'd safely finished their skeletons were too busy playing with their new summons to care about anything else.
And then, on the other side of the room—
"Simon! Please, please look at my skeleton!"
Not everyone was having an easy time of it. Dick at the next seat was tearing at his hair.
"Why does this thing keep attaching its legs to its arms?!"
Dick's skeleton had affixed a right leg to its shoulder in place of a right arm, and was now waddling along on it. The other students who caught sight of it doubled over laughing.
"Hmm."
Simon studied the waddling skeleton with grave, scrutinizing eyes.
"It looks like it confused the leg parts with the arm parts. That's why the skeleton itself thinks its leg is an arm."
"R-really?"
"Look at this. Bone twenty-one isn't an arm bone—it's a leg bone."
"Oh, you're right! Why do they all look so identical?!"
The Summoning class flew by faster than any lesson so far.
"That's enough. Skeleton assembly ends here for today."
Disappointed groans rose from every corner. Aaron returned to the lectern and picked up the attendance sheet.
"Finally, we'll hold the participation lesson. Students I call on will come to the front."
The unavoidable hour had come at last.
Simon swallowed hard.
Surely he could get away with just one turn, though......
"Simon Polentia. To the front."
But for Special Admission No. 1, there was no escaping his turn. Simon rose from his seat with an expression of pure resignation.
"You got this, Simon."
Dick cheered, clapping him hard on the back. A short distance away, Hector and his gang were snickering.
"And next up is......"
Everyone averted their eyes from Aaron's gaze—everyone except Meilin, seated at the very front, who sat with her head held high, practically leaning into his line of sight.
Truthfully, setting aside the pressure, a moment to impress a Kizen professor was worth its weight in gold.
However.
"Hector Moore. Come up front."