A Defective Knight
Skeleton Knights turned out to be a far more difficult task than Simon had expected.
There were especially many details to watch out for. Unlike a regular skeleton, where you simply snapped the bones together like assembling a puzzle, you had to account for the *armor* as well.
Some parts had the armor attached after assembly; others came with the bone and armor fused together as a single piece from the start. The moment you confused the order, disaster struck.
“Ugh, this really isn't easy.”
You had to understand the armor's structure and assembly sequence before you could even put the bones together.
When Simon glanced around, quite a few students already had their hands raised, calling for help. The Summoning department's TAs were running themselves ragged, sweat pouring, just like every other day.
“There's no need to overcomplicate it.”
Aaron's voice rang out.
“The armor is just one more part in the end. Don't get buried in the details—keep the whole picture in mind and fit things together step by step.”
Simon started by quickly completing the two legs. When he stepped back to admire his work, a proud smile crept across his face of its own accord.
“Not bad. So this is the appeal of a Knight!”
Necromancers tended to think of skeletons as fragile, high-maintenance undead that collapsed the moment you so much as poked them. But once you covered those vulnerable joints in metal, the thing looked impossibly sturdy.
As his hands began to loosen up, Simon moved straight on to the torso and fitted the chest armor as well. Now that the hang of it had clicked, he could keep fitting pieces in order without pause.
“This one slots into the groove, this one connects to the jet-black channel.”
Watching Simon's Skeleton Knight rapidly take shape, Toto let out a sound of pure envy.
“Amazing! You've already built that much?”
“Once my hands warmed up, it wasn't so bad.”
He'd fumbled at first, lacking any knowledge of armor or metalwork, but the moment the bottleneck broke, everything flowed smoothly after that.
Simon's practice table now held a Skeleton Knight split into upper and lower halves—the armor's structure simply demanded it.
“Last piece!”
Simon rolled up his sleeves.
“Connect the torso to the legs, cover the joint with the armor, and—!”
Clank!
The thing was surprisingly heavy with all that armor. As Simon heaved the upper half upward with a grunt, a white hand caught the other side with a soft tap.
“I'll help.”
“Thanks, Lorraine!”
The two of them gripped the torso firmly from either side and, on the count of one, two, three, slowly lowered it onto the lower half.
Click.
The sound of a proper connection. The jet-black of two spines met and fused, knitting into a single skeleton.
“Yes! Done!”
At the instant of completion, Simon let out a triumphant shout.
And then—
SCREEECH!
An utterly sinister sound rang out.
Immediately after, the Skeleton Knight swayed unsteadily, and with an abrupt crack of something snapping, its waist bent sharply forward and lolled down deep toward Simon.
"??"
Simon and Lorraine exchanged stunned looks.
* * *
Simon went straight to Aaron for help.
Aaron examined the hunched-over Skeleton Knight with meticulous care, then finally spoke.
“Assembly looks flawless.”
“Th-then...?”
“It's defective.”
Thud!
Simon's heart sank.
“Factory-made goods come with defects—barely news at all for a product like this. The upper and lower halves joined properly, but the bone above the junction was damaged from the start. In the end, it couldn't bear the weight of the plate and buckled.”
“Ah...”
Simon heaved a disappointed sigh.
‘Argh, I knew I should've bought Vanilla Brand!’
He'd stopped briefly at a necromancer shop in Langestin while escorting the new students, only to find that the Vanilla Brand Skeleton Knight stock was completely sold out.
The clerk had recommended 'Pastel', a brand a full tier below, and Simon—torn between overpaying back in Rochest or buying here—had eventually gone with the Pastel product.
“Don't be too discouraged. Every summoner goes through this at least once.”
Saying that, Aaron moved on to another student.
“Contact the seller and go through the refund process.”
“...Yes, Professor.”
Simon stared blankly at his slumped-waisted Skeleton Knight.
“Pre~sident! The glue you lent me worked great!”
Just then, the orange-haired girl who'd borrowed his bone glue came bounding over with a bright smile.
“Huh?”
Then she looked at Simon, head hanging in defeat, and at the Skeleton Knight with its wilted waist.
“PWAHAHAHAHA!”
She burst out laughing. The students around them frowned and turned at the racket.
“What even IS this?! Snrk! Hahahaha! What is this, an old-man skeleton or what?”
“It's defective,” Simon said, cheeks burning as he took the glue back.
“PFFT! Hnngh! Ah, sorry! Heheheheh!”
After laughing herself hoarse, she wobbled over and thunked her back against Toto's shoulder. Toto stiffened up like a board, his face flushing scarlet.
“Your pose just now and the skeleton's pose were exactly the same. Heheheh! That summon and its master! Kikiki!”
“Stop laughing!”
Meanwhile, a short distance away.
Hearing the commotion, the class's fifth-ranked student, Aseraz, had turned her head, her eyes gleaming.
‘A defective product? And he was the trickiest one to beat. Lucky draw for his first class.’
From the very back row, Hector was watching the whole scene with a blank expression.
‘Huh. So even he has days like this.’
Left alone once more, Simon groaned as he tried to prop the bent-waisted Skeleton Knight upright. But its waist flopped right back over to the other side.
‘I can't give up like this. There's plenty of class time left.’
Granted, Aaron had promised a perfect crafting score on account of the defect, but with the finish compromised, there was no stopping an overall downgrade.
Kizen showed no mercy in its evaluations. Only results mattered.
‘Time to throw everything I've got at this!’
If results were what counted, then it didn't matter how crude the fix was—temporary patch or not, he just had to force that back straight and keep the thing moving properly for the rest of the period.
Simon pulled the spell-tape used in Summoning coursework out of his bag and tore off a strip.
Then he wound it around the waist, over and over.
‘The jet-black channels route out sideways.’
Simon drew a small magic circle over the defective bone, then another circle on top of that. By building a makeshift circuit, the jet-black could flow between the circles without passing through the bone at all.
‘Good—like this?’
Simon stepped back and folded his arms.
“Move, Knight!”
Clank, clank.
At Simon's mental command, the Skeleton Knight staggered forward, one labored step at a time. Clumsy, sure—but it could walk.
‘Running might be out of the question, but hey, this is something.’
Letting out a breath, Simon drew a sword from his subspace and pressed it into the Skeleton Knight's hand. Then he angled it toward an empty stretch of air.
“Swing it!”
VWOOOOM!
A rather crisp sound. Hope reignited in Simon's eyes. The surrounding students began to murmur and look his way.
“This time, horizontal!”
WHOOOOSH!
The Skeleton Knight twisted its waist and unleashed a mighty swing—and—
CRAK!
The exact same force it had generated overwhelmed it. The knight's waist bent again, rocking back and forth like a spring—boing, boing. Simon buried his face in his hand as laughter erupted around him.
“Are you okay, Simon?”
Lorraine came over and asked. Simon nodded with forced vigor.
“Of course. I'm not giving up yet.”
“Right. You've got this.”
Had she come over on purpose just to encourage him? Simon felt real strength flooding back into his body.
‘Still—I saw a path just now.’
Simon emptied every piece of equipment he owned onto the table. He had absolutely no intention of giving up.
* * *
Time passed.
One by one, students completed their Skeleton Knights and lined up to have them inspected.
And the very first person in the entire second-year Summoning department to finish a Knight was Aseraz Mikel.
Vwoom— vwoom—
Every time her knight swung its sword, gasps of admiration rose from all around.
A single blow that came down straight and true, power loaded to the brim. There was no comparison to the chaotic flailing of a common skeleton.
“Well done, Aseraz.”
Aaron, holding his evaluation sheet, nodded.
“Your score is—”
“It isn't finished yet, Professor.”
At Aseraz's mental command, the Skeleton Knight set down the shield held in its left hand—and instead gripped a second sword.
‘Twin Blades?’
The moment Aseraz gave the next order—
SHRING! SHRING!
The two swords crossed in beautiful, sweeping arcs. The students went beyond cheering; their jaws simply dropped. Even Aaron nodded with clear satisfaction.
“Impressive. How did you do it?”
“The materials for my Skeleton Knight come from a Danger Class 3 monster—the Galbaren.”
She began explaining at once.
“It's a monster that fights with highly irregular tactics. I linked my knight's thought-link to it at full strength, then focused on finding the most effective techniques it used in life. When I gave it two swords, I found the effect doubled—so I modified the skeletal structure of its wrists and arms to match that trait.”
“...Beyond crafting a summon, you've already given it individuality.”
Aaron smiled.
“A shame I can't award anything above an A+. Well done.”
Clap clap clap clap!
Bathed in the students' applause, Aseraz stepped down from the podium.
“Next!”
Hector assembled a knight one and a half times the size of an ordinary Skeleton Knight—built to match his own massive frame—and earned an A+. It was common knowledge in Summoning that the bigger the skeleton, the harder it was to build.
Fitzgerald carved enchantment circles into the equipment itself, creating a distinctive undead that, upon entering combat, pumped jet-black into its own sword and armor to strengthen itself—and drew praise from the students.
But Aaron saw it differently.
“A fine idea—except you didn't account for the knight's jet-black consumption or its operating time. As it stands, you'll be lucky to get five minutes of movement, let alone strength that doesn't require direct control.”
Caught off guard by the unexpected savaging, Fitzgerald faltered for a moment before adjusting his glasses and replying.
“My objective was to build a Skeleton Knight model specialized for short, decisive engagements—one that offsets that weakness.”
“For a improvisation, not a bad answer.”
But Aaron was still several steps ahead.
“If you'd truly set out to make a short-engagement model, you wouldn't have put enchantment circles on the armor in the first place.”
“...”
“And had you chosen lighter plating to match, I might have let your reasoning pass. B+, Fitzgerald.”
No amount of slick maneuvering could slip past a Kizen professor's eyes.
Fitzgerald accepted the verdict cleanly and returned to his seat, where he muttered quietly to Toto.
“I still think it was worth a try.”
“...Hahaha.”
And then—
“Simon Polentia.”
Simon came up for his evaluation, an unsteady, lurching Skeleton Knight trudging at his side. Raucous laughter broke out across the room.
“...You worked hard.”
Aaron said, sounding genuinely sorry for him.
Simon had thrown every material he owned into forcing that defective back ramrod straight—and the Skeleton Knight had paid for it, its armor hacked down and trimmed away into a light plate just to cut weight.
“As I said before, there was no flaw in your craftsmanship. But as a professor of Summoning, I have to evaluate the finished product.”
“I understand.”
“Simon, the score I'm giving you is—”
“One moment, Professor.”
Aaron turned his head. Simon was smiling a meaningful smile, arms spread wide.
“I am confident this knight of mine would beat any other knight in this room.”
The surrounding students stirred. A few laughed openly.
“Is he bluffing?”
“Even after watching what happened to Fitzgerald?”
“Not against Professor Aaron, come on.”
At those words, a deep smile spread across Aaron's face.
“Can you take responsibility for that claim?”
“Absolutely.”
Aaron's head turned.
The first person his eyes found was Hector.
Honestly speaking, having watched Simon and Hector push each other to grow side by side in Class A, he would have loved to see the two of them cross swords.
But a professor had to set aside personal bias during class. The student holding the finest Skeleton Knight built in today's lesson.
“Aseraz Mikel. Step forward.”
Scrape!
As if she'd been waiting for exactly this, Aseraz rose and brought her twin-bladed Skeleton Knight with her.
Hector, who had half-risen from his seat, ground his teeth at the sight of her walking out instead.
“Simon Polentia.”
Aaron turned back to him.
“Defeat Aseraz's Skeleton Knight, and I'll indulge your claim.”
A smile played across Simon's lips.
“Then watch closely.”