A Second Moon Rises
"S-so... how was he?"
What kind of story was this?
Why was it turning out like this?
Listening to the two of them chatter about his future self, Simon couldn't help feeling more and more embarrassed by the minute.
"He was magnificent."
Serne cupped her cheeks, a blissful smile blooming across her face.
"That strength, that intellect, that dignified gravity. And oh, how dearly he doted on me. Ufufu."
Simon's face twisted into something grotesque.
He doted on Serne? If anything, it would have been the other way around. It was an absurd claim.
"And he gave me all sorts of advice, too."
That part, at least, was true.
If you want to find your roots, seek out a man named 'Gahen' in the Holy Federation!
So her roots lay in the Holy Federation.
Where, then, had the Ivory Tower's Master brought her from?
She'd been far too young, Serne had said — too young to remember where she came from at all.
"Of course—"
Serne curled her lips upward in a provocative smirk as she eyed Loraine, who had been listening with evident interest.
"He didn't say a single word about you, did he?"
For the briefest instant, Loraine's shoulders flinched — but her poker face closed over the crack immediately.
"You were standing next to him, so naturally he talked about you. Is that really something worth reading so much into? Are you that desperate?"
"Desperate? Whatever do you mean?"
"I understand your position — trying to ride out the Ivory Tower's crisis through recruitment. But cutting away all the context and launching straight into a pitch like that? All it does is burden Simon, when he ought to be focused on his studies and his evaluations."
Lorraine's usual calm slipped away for a moment, revealing the commanding presence of an empress beneath.
"Everything is a decision for next year's Simon to make."
"Ah. That much is true."
Then the two girls' murderous glares swung onto Simon. Caught between them, he felt his breath catch in his throat.
"All units, rise! All units, rise!"
Right on cue, an assistant's shout rang out from outside.
"The monsters have begun their assault! Everyone prepare for deployment!"
The students who had been resting indoors came pouring out.
It was a night crowned by a fat, full moon. Huddling their robes against the biting night wind, the students readied themselves for battle.
-This is your student commander, Hector.
Hector's voice was crackling out of the communication crystals each of the students had been issued.
-Everyone, move to your assigned defense points. I know this is a free-combat exercise, but at minimum you hold your own sector. Anyone who lets their sector fall, I will personally beat to death.
Listening to the transmission, Simon couldn't hold back a wry grin.
Somehow, it was so very Hector.
-Especially any bastard who abandons his sector because he spotted a Guardian — I will walk to wherever he's standing and kill him myself.
"Oof, hell. The commander's more likely to wipe out our own side than the monsters are~"
One of the male students snickered.
"Hey. Something funny?"
When a girl from Hector's faction glared daggers at him, the boy just whistled innocently and shuffled off, pretending not to hear. Simon watched him go.
'Hector clearly wants to run this exactly according to his own strategy... but keeping this mob under control won't be easy.'
Truth be told, the students hadn't come here simply to hold a fortress. They had come for the Guardian — the finest raw material in existence for crafting a top-tier Dullahan. Guardians were a rare species of monster found only here, in the Frigod Autonomous Region.
Killing a Guardian and smuggling its corpse out of Frigod was a grave violation of the treaty. Unless one delved into the black market, no shop in the entire Dark Alliance — necromancer-owned or otherwise — stocked a Guardian Dullahan.
An undead that money simply could not buy.
And Grelion had arranged the one chance to obtain it. The Summoning Department students would, in practice, treat the battle itself as a sideshow and hunt for Guardians with their eyes blazing.
"How clever of you~ Simon."
Serne remarked, falling into step beside him.
"Tossing aside the troublesome commander's post so you can focus entirely on hunting the Guardian?"
"That's not why I passed it up."
Simon said.
"In a situation like this, I figured Hector's better suited to command than I am."
"Serne Eindark!!"
By the time they climbed up onto the fortress walls — speak of the ogre and he shall appear — Hector was already bearing down on them, eyes blazing green.
"Group 11's sector is not here! Get to your assigned post!"
"My goodness."
Serne put on a smile that was more menace than mirth.
"Are you giving me orders right now?"
"Command authority is mine."
Hector thudded over — boom, boom — and planted himself in front of her.
Other students were watching. If he didn't break her here, he'd lose face as commander.
"Return to your sector, Serne Eindark."
He warned her one final time.
The pupils of Serne — who had been regarding him with a pretty, laughing smile — turned glacial.
"No thanks."
"Serne."
Simon sighed and pushed her by the back.
"Why are you picking a fight the second we get here? Go back to your post."
Then, in a low voice meant only for her, he murmured, just this once, let it go — and her eyes went wide as saucers. A moment later, her lips curled into a sly grin.
"Hmmmm, well. If Simon insists that much."
Humming a little tune, Serne drifted away.
"......"
Hector's face contorted violently, and he rounded on Simon.
"You bastard. What the hell have you been playing at this whole time?"
"At what?"
"I asked what kind of scheme you're running."
He looked even angrier than he had dealing with Serne's defiance. Pierre Buckler, his fellow squad member, had already slipped quietly up behind Hector, ready to talk him down if it came to that.
"Hey."
Simon said evenly.
"You wanted to command, didn't you?"
"......"
Leaving it at that, Simon turned his back and rejoined his Group 10 members.
Lorraine, who had been braced to break up a fight, allowed herself a small smile. Toto, who had been cowering from the tension, let out a relieved sigh.
And Eshu was staring at Hector's mangled expression, cheeks flushed pink. The moment Simon returned she jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.
"Class Prez! Class Prez! You and Hector seem pretty chummy!"
Simon scratched the side of his head.
"I really don't think Hector sees it that way."
"Aw, come on, anyone can tell you two get along! Could you introduce me sometime?"
Things had gotten better between her and Toto after that whole business — but that was all it was. It seemed the one she actually liked, as a man, was still Hector.
"No, we're not really that clos—"
Simon flinched mid-sentence.
Back there, he could see Toto standing with his head hung low, looking sulky.
"If you were in the same Class A, that counts as close! Oh right — Death Knight boy was in Class A back in first year too, wasn't he?"
As Eshu said this and started toward Toto, Simon's face went faintly dizzy.
"Y-yeah. Class A."
"Really? Whoa! Amazing! Then did you happen to tell Hector about my—"
"Eshu!"
"Eshu!"
Simon and Lorraine shouted at the same time.
Eshu turned back toward them, a question mark practically floating over her head, and before Simon could get a word out, Lorraine spoke with a face gone cold as stone.
"Mind the time and the place. Now is not the moment for that kind of talk."
This was the fortress wall, and an army of monsters was marching straight toward them.
"Ah, sorry, Lorraine! I was just trying to liven things up......"
Simon exhaled in relief inside.
Nice timing.
Lorraine turned her head and added, sharply, "Toto, you pull yourself together too."
"Y-yeah!"
Simon rolled only his eyes sideways, glancing at Eshu where she stood pouting.
'Honestly, this girl is remarkable in so many ways.'
Talk to her for even a moment, and no matter what situation you were in, you forgot everything and got swept up in her. Granted, she was the type who'd open with a joke even if a mana bomb detonated right in front of her.
Crackle!
-This is Aaron.
Aaron's voice rang out from the communication crystals. Every student froze mid-motion and focused on the transmission.
-A minor problem has arisen. The monster numbers exceed what the Shahed side anticipated.
The students looked past the fortress walls. Beneath a moon bright as bone, a black tide of troops was advancing.
Chuk! Chuk! Chuk!
Monster armies, in Simon's experience, were nothing but shrieking, mindless charges. But the Mimics' advance was so disciplined it evoked a human army. They carried torches in hand, and some among them waved banners or blew horn calls exactly as men would.
The students who had climbed the walls trading jokes felt their expressions harden at last.
"......Th-that doesn't look like a minor problem."
"There's way too many of them!"
-But as Professor Grelion said — having come here in Kizen's name, there can be no retreat. Kizen headquarters has judged that this battle will not be easy for the students alone, and has issued additional orders. Professor Grelion and I will both be intervening in this battle directly.
WHOOOOAAAAA!
At the students' enormous roar, the Gahal tribesmen readying arrows on the wall jumped in surprise and looked around, wondering what on earth had happened.
"We get to fight alongside the professors!"
"This is the best!"
To the students, the words Kizen Professor were nothing short of myth.
Above the pallid moonlight, the colossal undead warships that symbolized Aaron began to rise, one after another.
"Ahem."
And atop a building below the walls stood Grelion.
"Those bastards at headquarters. 'Raise your juniors and take it easy in your twilight years,' they said. And still they work me to the bone like this."
Before him, six briefcases lay on the ground. They looked like briefcases — but every last one of them was twitching, its outer surface bulging and rippling like a living, straining creature.
"So. You're the one who wants to rampage tonight, are you?"
One case — strange insect wings sprouting from its surface — hopped up and down eagerly, as if vying for his attention. Grelion grinned and picked it out.
Click!
He broke the seal and spread the case open, and the surge of organs within pulsed and throbbed, alive.
Grelion gazed at it fondly for a moment — then, without a shred of hesitation, pressed the open case straight into his own body.
Krrrkkk-kkk!
Grkk-kk!
The case melded itself onto Grelion's frame. Its countless nerves bored through his skin and threaded into his flesh.
"Ggghhhk!"
The whites of his eyes showed as drool spilled in strands from his mouth. The veins across his whole body flooded black, and living eyes embedded themselves in his chest.
The living flesh spilling from the case converged along his back, where six wings of six different species erupted upward, and new chimera arms locked into place above Grelion's own.
It was as though he had hoisted a colossal chimera onto his back.
"GRAHAHAHAHAHA!"
⟨ Grelion Original — Chimera Skin ⟩
KUUUUNG!
Grelion kicked off the ground and launched into the sky.
[Hear me, all necromancers of Kizen!]
At his cry — bellowed with six wings spread wide — every student looked up at the sky.
[On this continent, our every deployment must be a promise of victory! Win — thoroughly, by any means necessary!]
His monstrous arms spread apart, and a half-disc of compressed, unknowable energy took shape at their center — a technique in the form of a crescent.
Beneath the moon, a second moon was rising.
[GUHAA!]
Grelion hurled the half-disc outright. It slammed into the ground beyond the fortress, buried itself, and drove forward — sweeping the monsters in its radius clean off the face of the earth.
WHOOOOAAAAA!
Five hundred. More than five hundred monsters vaporized in a single stroke.
Along the path the buried moon had carved, not a single trace of them remained.
Feeling the old thrill of the battlefield surge through him, Grelion roared.
[BEGIN THE BATTLE!]