The Recruitment War and the Unique Undead
"Now, now, everyone, calm yourselves."
The man who had risen from his chair looked back over his shoulder as he spoke.
"The choice will fall to Simon in the end, so wouldn't it be right to leave the decision to him?"
The Curse Research Society and President Sadam clicked their tongues in unison. The man stepped forward and placed a hand on his own chest.
"I am Andre. Third Prince of the Dresden Kingdom. And the Noble club is a gathering of the powerful — those who will one day rule the Dark Federation."
A prince...?! There's royalty at Kizen?
Just as Simon moved to bow, Andre raised a hand to stop him.
"None of that. At Kizen, the only thing that separates people is ability, nothing more."
"Ah, understood."
"Back to the matter at hand, then. The Noble club is a gathering that will sketch the great blueprint of the Dark Federation. When we're adults, each of us will stand as a representative of our own organization, and extracting what we want from one another will cost a considerable diplomatic price. But right now, we're here purely as students, aren't we? I believe there are things we can promise each other while we're still students."
Andre's eyes gleamed.
"The Noble club — we move the continent as students."
So that's what they meant by a club of future power-brokers. Simon nodded slowly.
"Every student at Kizen wants into Noble, but the requirements are strict. Your parents must be nobility of marquis rank or higher, or possess wealth and power on that level. Your classmate Elisa has joined us as well, you know."
The Special Admission No. 7 who launched a Ghost Ship into the sky? Yeah... I can see that actually suiting her.
"But I don't really have any power worth mentioning."
"Nonsense! You fall under the conditions as well. Special Admission No. 1 students are covered by a special clause—"
"Ugh, you talk way too much. Forget it."
President Sadam shoved Andre's face aside and pushed her way forward. Andre kept jabbing a finger at her, shouting over and over, 'How dare a commoner be so insolent!' — but she didn't so much as pretend to listen.
"Freshman. Join Sadam, and I'll teach you how to maximize the use of that SM-1 blood of yours — how to wield unlimited Jet-Black."
This time it was the president of the Curse Research Society who stepped forward.
"Oh, please. Like that's anything special. You said you're aiming for Summoning, didn't you?"
He activated the mana projector he'd drawn from his coat, and an image of an undead flickered into view — eyes crawling all over its body, its form like rotting wood.
"The rare curse undead, Dead Byron. We've already secured one, and if you want it, we'll provide it free of charge — training in its operation included."
"Hey, you!"
"Curses are a discipline inseparable from necromancy, and their versatility is immense. Combine curse magic with your summoning, and the synergy would be more than enough to—"
"Move aside!"
Prince Andre shoved both of them out of the way and planted himself in the center.
"What good is any of that rubbish! Power is everything — power! Isn't all this scrambling and scrambling ultimately for the sake of future power?! Joining Noble is the fastest path to the ultimate goal—!"
"Get lost already!"
"No, you move! And you reek — go take a bath!"
"It's my constitution!"
The three seniors tangled together and started brawling. Simon let out a small sigh and bowed politely to them.
"I'm sorry. I'd like some time to think it over."
With those words alone, Simon turned his back and headed off toward the dormitory.
The three of them watched his retreating figure, each wearing a smile brimming with certainty.
He's definitely joining MY club!
He wasn't in any hurry to think about clubs.
The moment Simon got back to the dormitory and unpacked, he headed straight for the Forbidden Forest and slipped into Pier's ruins. He pulled out all the skeletons and corpse spiders from his subspace — and finally, it was this one's turn.
[Hurry up and take it out, Legion Commander!]
"Right."
He opened his subspace and carefully drew out the Overlord.
Geez, even looking at it again — it's insane.
Pier and Erzsébet, naturally — but even the skeletons and corpse spiders around them seemed to prick up with curiosity, crowding in for a look.
The Overlord, however, had a strongly wary temperament. It whipped its long limbs through the empty air, threatening off any undead that tried to approach.
It really is fascinating, though.
The kraken — evocative of an octopus, a squid, a jellyfish — was, to anyone's eye, a boneless soft-bodied type of monster. And yet here it was, constructed entirely of bone, moveable by a necromancer. From the outside, it looked less like an undead and more like a model octopus assembled out of spare parts.
Simon ran his hand along the kraken's limbs, stroking them slowly.
According to Finch's earlier explanation, the kraken's bones had originally been hopelessly soft and floppy, so a massive quantity of mithril — rigid yet resilient — had been infused into them after cold treatment. And that had turned out to be a masterstroke. The result: a blade that was flexible and razor-sharp.
Good.
Simon connected to the kraken's consciousness and tried moving its limbs. Watching them churn powerfully through the air exactly as he willed felt exhilarating.
It was the first monster of this kind he'd ever handled, so his control was still clumsy — but with a little practice, he'd improve in no time.
[Would you like to test it?]
Before he knew it, Erzsébet was holding up a flattened chunk of rock rubble and waving it.
[Treat this as your target and pierce it!]
Simon grinned and extended his right arm.
Shhhhlick!
A single tentacle shot out at a terrifying speed. Mid-flight it veered sharply, Erzsébet flinched back with a start, hurled the rock upward, and fled.
The tentacle chased it up through the air and skewered the rock dead center.
[Th-that startled me, Legion Commander!]
"Ah, sorry. I'm still not used to the control."
But still.
He'd swung the Overlord exactly once, and the thrill of it was electric. This was an undead with a genuinely satisfying feel to command.
[A freak of nature, yes — but neither its power nor its speed leaves anything to criticize. It's certainly an undead worth its exorbitant price. HOWEVER!]
Pier folded his arms.
[The Overlord has one fatal flaw.]
"Which is?"
[The body's defensive durability is nonexistent.]
That was certainly true. Since the Overlord was not an undead that existed in nature, it couldn't hold its form from bone alone. A great deal of the researcher's artificial craft had gone into it — and if this body took an attack and was destroyed...
[If it's destroyed, there's no restoring it to what it was.]
Finch, its original creator, was gone now too.
One destruction and it was over. The Overlord was an entity for whom the skeleton's signature Restoration was impossible.
[You'll no doubt have to endure plenty of trial and error to use it at full capacity in real combat. But it can't be helped. The Overlord is an undead unique to YOU alone on this entire continent, boy!]
"...A unique undead."
[Exactly! Which means there's no one who can teach you how to use it. You'll have to discover the right way to operate the Overlord all on your own!]
"That's certainly true."
Simon crossed his arms and sank deep into thought. Then his eyes lit up.
"Ah! Then how about this?"
He returned the Overlord to his subspace.
"If outside attacks become too threatening, just store the entire body safely in the subspace. And then—!"
Simon yanked an imaginary lever.
"Open the subspace like this and stick out only the limbs—!"
Simon gestured into the empty air. When nothing came out, he grunted and fired off command after command in rapid succession — but the Overlord gave him the silent treatment.
"What the — why isn't it listening—"
SHHHHLICK!
Suddenly a tentacle shot straight out of the subspace and slammed into the ruin wall dead ahead.
With a resounding CRUNCH!, the tip of the tentacle smashed through the stone and buried itself deep.
Whoa.
[Magnificent!]
Savoring the electric thrill in his hand, Simon issued the recall order — and once again, the Overlord flatly ignored him.
[With it inside the subspace, the link of consciousness doesn't flow properly,] Pier said. [The kraken was never a creature that could become a skeleton in the first place, so its will-transmission is weak by nature. Tuck it into a subspace on top of that, and the effect inevitably drops off a cliff.]
Hmm.
The power was undeniable. But it was a crossbow whose bolt refused to fly no matter how many times you pulled the trigger. If you had to yank it over and over just to get a maybe-launch, the uncertainty was far too great to rely on as a main weapon.
"Plenty to improve and research, then."
Still, Simon's heart was racing. How to bring out the full potential of this devastating new asset was now his job alone. And there was endless room to grow.
After whiling away the hours at Pier's ruins practicing with the Overlord, Simon returned to the dormitory once more.
There was a note on his desk from Dick. The group members were holding a study session in an empty lecture hall — come hang out, it said.
Simon grabbed a few textbooks right away and headed for the building Dick had told him about.
Outside, the second-years were still making their final desperate push to drag juniors into their clubs. As far as Simon knew, the club registration deadline was tomorrow.
Clubs, huh.
It wasn't that he hadn't thought about it — but nothing had really grabbed him yet. Part of it was that his mind kept drifting back to the Overlord.
"...Hello?"
A voice cutting in out of nowhere made Simon whirl around, startled.
A boy with heavy dark circles and a slouched back had crept up on him. Simon spotted the crimson insignia pinned to his collar and gave a polite bow of the head.
"Ah — senpai. Go ahead."
"Here... take this... if you don't mind..."
The boy held out a flyer.
"Would be nice if you stopped by... if you're interested... but I know you won't... yaaawn..."
He yawned and shuffled off elsewhere.
Weird guy, Simon thought, unfolding the flyer.
Recruiting new members — all years welcome
Strange name. And it was the first Summoning-related club he'd been offered out of all the pitches so far.
What exactly do they do there?
"Huh? Hey! Simon!"
A familiar, smiling face appeared down the corridor. It was Meilin.
"Why are you standing around at the door instead of coming in?"
With that, she slapped him on the back with her palm — CRACK!
Simon let out a strangled "Urk" and collapsed to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
"H-hey! What's wrong with you?!"
She stumbled backward in shock.
"I'm still... injured..."
"In-, in-, INJURED?! You should've said so ages ago, you idiot!"
"...You didn't exactly give me time to."
At all the commotion, Dick and Camibarez opened the lecture hall door to see what on earth was going on. Both had a cookie clamped in their mouths.
"...?"
Their eyes darted back and forth between Simon sprawled on the floor and Meilin, face flaming red, hopping anxiously from foot to foot with no idea what to do.
"Meilin..."
Dick shook his head slowly, gravely.
"Blinded at last by grades and jealousy, you turned on your own friend..."
"It is NOT like that, you lunatic!"