The Fifteen Minutes Before Departure
The candidate from House Amperge, who had finally thrown his rampage, was completely subdued at Simon's hands.
The henchmen had bound him tight with rope so that he could cause no more trouble.
And then—
"Did you see it? Did you see that?"
The freshmen who had watched the whole spectacle from the ship were all abuzz over the Student Council President.
"He seemed kind of gentle on the ship, but when he fought, he was just... overpowering!"
"Did you see how his arms got all veiny when he got angry?"
"They say the Student Council President is only a second-year!"
"He's only one year older than us? Does he have a girlfriend?"
The girls huddled together in a chattering frenzy, while—
"Insane. That guy fights like crazy. Seriously."
"Summoning major?"
"I think he's Magic Combat. Look how fast his feet were, and the way he countered with his fists."
"You clueless idiots. That black flame he was throwing around earlier? That's Jet-Black Mechanics for sure."
—the boys were busy dissecting Simon's battle on their own terms.
"Quiet down, please!"
The henchmen moved about trying to seat the students, but after what they'd just witnessed, no one could settle down.
Just then, Simon poked his head in through the window.
"Hey, everyone. It's dangerous inside the ship. Could you sit down and stay quiet for me?"
"Yes, sir!!"
In the blink of an eye, the freshmen snapped into their seats.
And these were the kids who wouldn't listen to anyone.
Simon allowed himself a faint smile, then turned back to speak with the staff member. All around, he could hear the girls sighing dreamily.
"Arthur Bleman. Confirmed."
Meanwhile, Arthur, last in line, presented his admission certificate, and with that every freshman was aboard. No more students would be arriving at the pier.
Arthur gave Simon a thumbs-up.
"That was truly incredible earlier, Senior Simon!"
"Sorry for butting in, Arthur."
In truth, if Arthur had gone all out, it was an opponent he could well have beaten.
"Haha! Not at all! I swung my fists around carelessly and acted far too rashly! I've learned a valuable lesson!"
Just then, the henchman doing the final headcount against the documents froze. Simon saw the look on his face and asked,
"What's wrong?"
"Th-the Student Council President."
She continued with a troubled expression.
"One person still hasn't arrived."
"What did you say?"
At those words, the headquarters staff member sprinted to the ship at top speed.
"Alright, freshmen! Count off from the front, starting on the right!"
"One!"
"Two!"
Every freshman on the ship raised their hands and counted off. The girl at the end of the first floor shouted, "Two hundred! Count finished!" and the boy on the second floor shouted, "Ninety-nine! Count finished!"
"Two hundred ninety-nine total. One seat is indeed empty! We're missing one person on the second floor!"
Departure was imminent, and the atmosphere turned frantic. Simon asked the henchman,
"What's the name of the freshman who hasn't boarded?"
"Just a moment...!"
The henchman flipped rapidly through the documents, then answered.
"Heidi Ferris."
Oh!
Heidi—the freshman he'd met at the bookstore. The girl who was so playful, and who refused to believe he was a second-year.
Heheheheheh—
A sinister laugh rang out.
The House Amperge candidate, still trussed in rope and lying face-down, was laughing, his shoulders shaking.
"Well, what do you know."
He twisted his mouth into a smirk.
"Looks like she's not coming. And just like that, another seat goes empty."
"Mr. President!"
The headquarters staff member came running up to Simon, clutching a communication crystal, completely out of breath.
"We need to talk. Now!"
"Of course."
The freshmen craned their necks toward the windows, wondering what was going on. Simon walked swiftly along the pier, speaking with the staff member.
"We just communicated with headquarters. Every team except ours here in Langestin has already departed for Roc Island."
"So we're the only ones who haven't left."
"Exactly. And when we reported that we were one student short of capacity, headquarters issued new instructions."
The staff member continued, his face gone ashen.
"If she hasn't arrived in five minutes, we are to board the next candidate in line instead."
"!"
Simon whipped his head around. The candidate numbered 1,001, still bound in rope, was wearing a meaningful smile.
"I find that hard to accept."
Sims said, as though trying to persuade him.
"That candidate committed indiscriminate violence—he even tried to attack our students. You saw it all with your own eyes!"
"I have a hard time swallowing it too, but those are the orders from headquarters. There's nothing to be done."
For hundreds of years, Kizen's incoming class had been kept at exactly 'one thousand.' That number was a long-standing tradition, and the very reason 'candidates' existed at all was to guarantee that the count of 1,000 was met no matter what catastrophe struck.
If the roster came up short, Kizen would set aside every other concern and fill the number.
Simon rose on his tiptoes and scanned the area around the pier.
No sign of candidate 1,002 or 1,003 nearby either.
Plenty of the other candidates should have been loitering around the site, yet the only one who'd shown up was that House Amperge fellow. Something smelled rotten.
Thud. Thud.
Sims walked swiftly up to the House Amperge candidate. The man was smiling with perfect composure, as if he'd known everything all along.
"Hey. You."
Sims's face hardened into grim lines.
"You had people kidnap a freshman, didn't you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
The candidate avoided his gaze and drawled lazily.
"No need to get worked up. Just untie me, would you? Let me board the ship too."
"..."
Sims was certain of it now.
This man had kidnapped Heidi to get himself into Kizen.
Don't take the bait. Stay calm.
First, Simon drew a dagger from his subspace pocket and cut the candidate's ropes.
"Ahh, I can finally breathe. You tied me so tight my circulation cut off."
The candidate rose to his feet and thumped his own neck a few times.
"Right then, let's hurry up and get to Roc Isl—"
"Kneel."
Sims kicked the back of his legs, dropping him to his knees. The henchmen seized both his arms firmly to prevent any funny business.
"Hey, come on!"
A sly grin curled across his lips.
"You call yourself the Student Council President, beating up a poor freshman like this? Just follow the rules! One student didn't show, so you send in the candidate. What's so complicated about that?"
It wasn't entirely wrong.
As far as Simon's duties went, his job as Student Council President was simply escorting the freshmen.
If he just hauled this man to Roc Island as he was, the count would reach 1,000 and the entrance ceremony would proceed without a hitch.
And this man had sold his body to dangerous black magic. In a few months, the side effects would weed him out of the competition on their own.
But still.
Sims clenched his teeth.
—Anyway, it was fun meeting you, yeah! If we run into each other at school, pretend you know me!
Simon could not, would not give up on Heidi.
She had done nothing wrong.
If she passed the entrance exam only to lose her place at Kizen so unjustly, she would spend the rest of her life drowning in pain and regret.
I came here as Student Council President, and I will not stand by and watch that happen.
Find the lead.
Sims grabbed the front of the candidate's shirt and yanked it up. Across his body, countless Perpetual Magic Circles were etched into the flesh.
...Just as I thought.
Simon examined the black magic circle drawn on the man's stomach with cold, clinical eyes.
Necromancers' magic circles differ in composition even when casting the same black magic—much as fingerprints differ from person to person, every necromancer's habits and the particular nature of their Jet-Black leave their own signature.
And Simon had seen this exact composition before. The feel of this Jet-Black, too.
The attack on Arthur yesterday.
The mysterious group that had assaulted Arthur.
He'd assumed they were nothing but a petty gang shaking down outsiders for money, but when Simon subdued them, they had vanished with strange black magic. They hadn't even been necromancers, yet their bodies had borne Perpetual Magic Circles.
The same goes for the circles placed on this candidate. Whoever this necromancer is, he has a taste for high-risk black magic, every single time.
The puzzle pieces in his mind snapped together at speed.
The group that attacked Arthur and this candidate were connected, and that group was almost certainly the ones who'd kidnapped Heidi.
As for why they'd gone after Arthur in the first place—most likely to keep him off the ship by holding him for even a single day.
But the kidnapping of Arthur had failed, so they'd switched to an easier target: Heidi.
That's it.
True, the candidate had gone berserk after losing his mind to forbidden black magic—but the reason he'd been so confident about the empty seat at the start was that he had backing he could trust.
Simon rose to his feet.
"Did you find anything?"
The staff member hurried over, his face tight with anxiety.
"How much time do we have?"
"We depart in five minutes."
"Could you buy us a little more time?"
The staff member furrowed his brow, lost in thought—then a faint smile crept across his face.
"...I'll write up an incident report later, I suppose. I can stretch it to ten minutes somehow."
Fifteen minutes!
"That's plenty."
Sims turned his back.
"Once fifteen minutes pass, don't wait for me. Depart exactly on schedule."
"U-understood."
Boom!
Sims ignited Jet-Black in both legs like a booster and took off at a sprint.
The freshmen murmured as they watched him go, while the candidate snickered and sneered.
"Good luck, good luck. It won't do you any good~"
Boom! Tatatat!
Running down the deserted beach road, Simon flung open a colossal subspace pocket.
"Come out. Akemus."
Whoosh!
A man with pitch-black wings reminiscent of a crow burst out from within.
[You called, Young Master!]
Akemus, commander of the Skullwing unit.
Before boarding the teleportation magic circle, Simon had brought him along—since they had to leave Roc Island, he wanted insurance in case of a Magnus attack.
He'd resolved not to deploy an Ancient Undead in a city if he could help it, but with the situation this urgent, there was no other choice.
"Suppress your Jet-Black as much as possible, and carry me into the sky."
[Your orders are mine to follow!]
Akemus scooped Simon up in his arms and instantly rocketed skyward on the strength of his wings alone. The towering buildings of Langestin whooshed past, and in a moment they were over the rooftops, the open sky before them.
"Ugh!"
Sims squeezed his eyes shut against the crushing pressure.
And a short while later—
Flap!
Flap!
Two black wings spread wide across the sky.
Simon was above the clouds now. The buildings and the people below looked impossibly far away.
Good. At this height, no other necromancer will spot us.
Sims turned to look at Akemus.
"Akemus! Do you remember the feather you gave me at Pier's Ruins?"
[Of course I remember, Young Master!]
Sims's eyes gleamed.
"You said that no matter where that feather is, you can find it—right?"
Akemus nodded.
[Without a doubt.]
"..."
Heidi opened her eyes.
A place she didn't recognize. She'd blinked, and here she was. If she stretched her neck she could see what looked like a sofa or a bed; she was in the kitchen, it seemed.
Presumably 'those men' had rented out some lodgings somewhere and were using it as their hideout.
Clank!
Her arms were bound in chains fixed to the wall.
Her eyes stung beneath the lids—she'd cried so much. Her whole body felt drained. In front of her scraped, bloodied knees sat a single bowl.
"What, you haven't taken a single bite? Is that any way to treat our hospitality?"
A scruffy, sour-faced bearded man gave a low chuckle.
She ignored him and turned her head. She could see a window.
"...!"
Beyond it, dawn was breaking bright.
"No—no!"
She tried to lunge up from her seat, but with a harsh rattle of chains her body was pulled back down.
"Please, just let me go...! Please!"
She begged through her tears.
"I'm begging you! I have to get to Kizen today! The ship's about to depart!"
The men who had kidnapped Heidi simply burst out laughing.
"Give it up, kid."
"Ship's probably left already."
As the sky lightened, an enormous despair blurred the edges of Heidi's vision. All the effort she had poured into getting into Kizen drifted past like smoke.
The first time she'd opened her Core.
The first time she'd formed a Jet-Black Arrow.
Trembling through the first question of the entrance exam.
And the day she'd finally received her admission letter—when she and her mom and dad had clung to each other and sobbed their hearts out.
All of it had turned to foam on the water.
The very day before enrollment.
One moment of carelessness, and she'd been kidnapped.
...I want to go.
Staring at the window growing brighter and brighter, she squeezed her eyes shut.
I want to go to Kizen. Even if I have to sell my soul to a demon...!
One of the men watching her grinned.
"You'd best give up clean. Even if you left now, you'd be too lat—"
CRASH!
The instant the window shattered, the girl witnessed a miracle unfold before her eyes. Her ears rang with a whine like static.
Feathers.
Through the broken window, thousands—no, tens of thousands—of jet-black crow feathers swirled into the room, blanketing everything in darkness.
And bursting forth from that explosion of black feathers came a boy in a black uniform.
Shhk—
Sliding on both feet across the floor in a magnificent forward charge, he drove himself into the three men.
A ripple.
The black feathers blanketing the room briefly veiled Heidi's view—and in the moment they fell away, the boy had already passed through, and the three men were soaring into the air, spraying blood.
WHAM!
CRACK!
CRUNCH!
Their bodies slammed into the ceiling and the walls.
"What the hell is going on?!"
The men in the living room came running—only to be bowled over by enormous black feathers that came flying in through the window after them.
"You're not too late."
A kind voice, as though steadying her heart.
Between the black feathers drifting gently down, a blue-haired boy's eyes caught the light.
At his gesture, metal serpents appeared from somewhere and coiled around her chains, crushing them to pieces.
"You're...!"
Feeling her arms come free, Heidi's eyes went wide. The boy smiled warmly and held out his hand.
"I'll take you there. To Kizen."