The Card Necromancer's Second Match
“I've got new information on Professor Walter.”
Simon immediately pulled out the envelope Kajan had handed him and read through its contents. It was a scrap of newspaper.
[Kizen's Professor Walter Hahn Unveils New Chimera at Academic Conference]
“!”
The photo in the paper showed Walter standing at a podium, waving to the crowd. The moment Simon's gaze slid to the monster beside him, the ground seemed to lurch beneath his feet as if an earthquake had struck.
“Wh-what on earth is going on here?”
The creature next to Walter was none other than the very male and female chimera he'd fought so ferociously just yesterday, fused into one.
“It seems Professor Walter noticed that intruders had entered the building's basement. That's probably why he unveiled the chimera at the conference that very morning. They made the first move on us.”
Simon's eyes went wide as he scoured the photo for details.
It was certainly the same male-female fused chimera, no doubt about it. But the one he'd faced last night had been far larger, with a grotesque appearance that bordered on gore. The chimera in the photograph, while the same type, was incomparably smaller.
It looked like nothing more than an infant conjoined twin — a single body with two heads. Even the materials were beast-type monsters, making it far less repulsive.
…So this is how they play their hand.
At this rate, there was no longer any point in making the chimeras in the basement public. Even if he pressed the issue, all Walter would have to do is say he'd be more careful going forward, and he'd slip clean off the hook.
“As it stands, reporting this to Lady Nephthys and Kizen headquarters is impossible.”
Kajan seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
“Th-then what if I speak to Lady Nephthys personally…?”
“Get a hold of yourself.”
Kajan slowly shook his head.
“Lady Nephthys is the ruler of the entire Dark Alliance, Simon.”
“…….”
“And regardless of whether she listens to you or not, there's no justification, no profit, and no evidence to investigate Professor Walter. The investigation itself wouldn't hold up.”
As much as Simon hated to admit it, the man was right.
Ugh.
He tilted his head back. This was the first time he'd faced such a meticulous, slippery adversary.
And what frightened him even more was that Simon himself still wasn't a hundred percent certain whether Walter was a true enemy or just an ordinary professor.
“He's a sitting Kizen professor, Simon.”
Kajan's voice softened slightly.
“He holds far more power and far more weapons than we do. I know you're impatient, but if you act rashly, you'll almost certainly catch the backlash.”
Simon let out a light sigh and looked at Kajan.
“What about Count Caron, the one with ties to Walter?”
“I contacted the Thieves Guild in the early hours this morning. They're moving. As soon as decent intel comes in, I'll pass it along.”
“Got it.”
Walter's slippery escapes were, if anything, stoking Simon's stubborn streak. Just as he was burning with fresh resolve—
“My, my. What a serious conversation we're having here, Zimon.”
Someone abruptly popped up behind them.
“P-Professor Hong Peng!”
Simon sprang to his feet, and Kajan gave a light salute.
“What happened to your candle, coming all the way out here?”
At Hong Peng's question, Simon answered with a beaming grin.
“I put it out before coming!”
Simon demonstrated, gathering Jet-Black into two fingers and flicking it away.
A proud smile spread across Hong Peng's face as she watched.
“Wonderful.”
Watching Simon snap his little fingers with such care, Hong Peng felt her heart slowly melting away. If it were up to her, she'd have whisked him off right then and there, locked him up somewhere, and made him do nothing but Magic Combat training.
“But now then.”
Her gaze shifted from Simon to Kajan.
“Who's the shtudent out here playing hooky?”
“Kajan Edvalt, K-Class. My business is finished, so I'll be taking my leave.”
Kajan saluted once more and turned his back.
“Not Zo facht.”
Hong Peng said.
“What about your classes, coming all the way out here?”
“…….”
“As a professor of Kizen, I can't simply stand by and watch a shtudent go astray.”
Technically speaking, Kajan had infiltrated Kizen as a student under Nephthys's orders to carry out his mission — but his registered status was indeed that of a student.
Kajan looked back at Hong Peng, his face expressionless.
“If you can't stand by, what do you intend to do?”
“I'll take you to your K-Class advisor and we'll have a little chat.”
Kajan, wearing a weary expression, began scratching the scar at the corner of his eye.
“You won't get much out of me.”
An odd tension settled over the scene.
Caught in the middle, Simon glanced anxiously back and forth between Hong Peng and Kajan.
They weren't about to start a fight over this, were they? He felt uneasy — Kajan already had a history of going head-to-head with Byeolya, Hong Peng's twin sister.
“Or…”
Hong Peng's eyes curved like a fox's.
“In true Kizen fashion — if you prove your strength, I'll turn a blind eye.”
With those words, she pointed at the training course.
Kajan let out a sigh.
“I have no idea what this is about, but let's get it over with quickly.”
Only a few minutes of class remained.
As the TAs moved to clear the training course, Hong Peng came up to them.
“Zorry about thith! Juth one more shtudent, and we're done with the course!”
The TAs looked at her, puzzled. Hadn't all the students who were going to run it already finished?
Then Hong Peng clapped her hands and gathered the students.
“Everyone, azzle up!”
Students who'd gone off for water or scattered into chatter came flooding over, and Simon joined them. Hong Peng sat the students down and spoke.
“Zo — how did it feel to run the training course?”
The students raised their voices as if they'd been waiting for the chance.
“It was fun, but so hard!”
“I couldn't figure out the timing at all!”
Amid the lively chatter, Hong Peng turned back around with a smile.
“Then for the very latht thing today, we'll watch juth one more shtudent run it, and that'll be a wrap on clath!”
Trudge, trudge.
Kajan walked toward the training course with a scowl on his face. Watching him, Simon let out a small laugh.
So Professor Hong Peng was planning this from the start.
Proving his strength was the official pretext, but in truth, she must have recognized Kajan's power at a glance. She was a Magic Combat specialist herself, after all.
“Simon! What's going on?”
Dick came huffing and puffing over to where Simon sat.
“Why is Kajan over there?”
“Simon!”
Meilin and Camibarez followed close behind. Meilin stared at the training course with grave eyes.
“That's Kajan, right?”
“Yep.”
“Simon! What's happening?”
Simon answered with a smile.
“Nothing much. We were just talking, and Professor Hong Peng snagged him.”
Before long, Kajan stood at the head of the training course and looked at Hong Peng, speaking as though spitting out the words.
“My movements won't be of much use as a reference for the students.”
“That's quite all right.”
Hong Peng replied with a smile.
“Juth showing them that a combat magither like you exithts is plenty.”
Kajan scowled and absently scratched the scar over his eye. That was when TA Brad came walking over.
“Ah, whatever. No time to waste, so we'll start right away, student.”
Kajan gave a curt nod. Brad muttered ‘rude little…' under his breath, then thrust his arm down.
“Begin!”
Tang!
Kajan took off running. Wooden marionettes bristling with countless arms came spinning toward him. Kajan's two arms began to move.
Paba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bat!
“Whoaaaaa!!”
Kajan didn't even bother falling back to parry — he simply sprinted at full speed, casual as anything, batting the arms aside as he went.
The sight of his joints bending at grotesque angles was both eerie and striking.
Crash!
The first obstacle.
An enormous pitch-black straw ball wreathed in enchantments came dropping down. Kajan took one look at it and simply punted it with all his might.
BOOM!
The mass of straw truly did fly like a ball, soaring clear out of the course before slamming into the ground with a bang! and bursting apart.
Immediately, the second obstacle — three skeletons came charging in with shields raised.
Kajan, still swatting marionettes aside as he ran, stomped hard against the ground.
KOOOM!
The floor split open without warning, and a huge gash tore across it. The skeletons stumbled, caught off-balance in the crack. Kajan kicked their shields clean away and made for the final obstacle.
The marionettes had multiplied. Beyond them, five scarecrows stood in a neat row.
Kajan slid out his index finger, and his nail darkened to pitch black.
Kajan's Original — Fang (爪)
SKWAAAAAAAAAK!
Fang, wielded through a single index finger, carved a nail-slash upward from below. The grey flash cleaved through all five heads in one stroke.
“Th-the training run is over!”
Brad said, his face gone numb.
“…O-one minute, twelve seconds! Cleared!”
“Whoaaaaaaa!”
“Insane!”
“Did I just see what I think I saw?”
The students leapt to their feet. Simon, standing at the back, clapped his hands off with all his enthusiasm.
“Did you see that? Huh? Did ya? That guy's MY roommate! Me and Simon's roommate! Hahaha!”
Dick crowed boastfully at the Class A students around him, and one of them asked:
“You're close?”
“Absholutely! He and Simon are basically like sworn brothers to me!”
Kajan gave a slight bow toward Hong Peng, then flung his body into motion and vanished on the spot.
Watching him go, TA Brad broke out in a cold sweat.
…Is that… really a student? If I fought him, I'd lose.
Hong Peng looked over her students with a thoroughly satisfied smile.
“You all gave that a good watch, I hope? I'd love for that shtudent's fighting and heroith to give you all zome fun inspiration. Alright, that's it for today!”
“Thank you!!”
A great many things had happened over the weekend.
First, they'd succeeded in hauling the Gwaegong's corpse up from the bottom of the sea. Its condition was quite decent — Vanilla had expressed interest in buying it, and several other companies had joined the bidding as well.
Once the appraisers finished putting a price on it, the auction would proceed.
Meanwhile, Vanilla's headquarters had informed them that returning the skull of the former Swordmaster — the Ancient Undead Manus — was no problem at all, but that as an undead which had never wielded magic and whose Jet-Black conductivity was poor, it was unsuitable as a Lich. The absence of any body-bones matching the skull was one of the main reasons.
So Benya had personally stepped forward, saying she'd look into bones fit for a Lich.
Everything on the outside was going along more or less smoothly, and for the rest of the weekend Simon buried himself in preparations for the practical assessment.
Before building a Lich, he had to master the lower stage — the Skeleton Mage. Beyond that, there was learning the Four Great Curses, advanced Blood Poison training, creating a new Magic Combat technique, handling the Divine Beast Akalion and practicing with the kittens' transformations, and learning the Legion Commander's techniques from Pier. The list went on and on.
Even ten bodies wouldn't have been enough.
And yet Simon had a firm conviction that if he got through this period well, he would grow stronger than ever.
It wasn't just one or two fields improving — it felt like being upgraded across the board as a necromancer. Drunk on that anticipation, he hardly noticed his exhaustion.
And so the weekend passed.
The 4th After-School BMAT, hosted by the Card Necromancer, Endolas Vaudeville.
The second match had begun.
“Run, run!”
“Over this way!”
As students scrambling for new cards streamed out of the Kizen campus and scattered in every direction, Simon stood at a second-floor window with his arms crossed, watching them go.
[Win your engagement against the next designated student to gain 1 additional point.]
[Baepo Bolletdis]
A new message shimmered to life on the card pinned to Simon's chest.
So the target changes with every exam.
He couldn't afford to relax — it meant that, somewhere among the entire student body, at least one person was always gunning for him.
Simon set off as well.
Dick had begged him to go tackle the siege-battle theme together, but Simon had put it off until later.
This time, he had a somewhat personal objective in mind.
Ah — there she moves.
The one he was watching through the window was a black-haired girl.
The moment she entered the Lecture Hall building, Simon leapt out the window after her and slid in alongside.
No footsteps.
Once inside the building, he'd lost all trace of where she'd gone.
Just as Simon turned his steps toward the corridor—
Shwaak!
A dark crimson gleam came surging at him.
Simon ducked his head to dodge, gathering Jet-Black into his legs.
Ta-at!
He spun on the spot into a roundhouse kick, and the dark crimson gleam came rushing toward his face at the same instant.
Cheok!
Chunk!
By a hair's breadth — a single sheet of paper's distance — his leg and her dagger froze just in front of each other's faces.
“…Simon?”
Lorraine lowered her dagger, a flustered look crossing her face.
Simon lowered his leg with a smile.
“Hey, Lorraine. Which card are you hunting?”