The Nether Whale
"D-don't be ridiculous! Contact Nephthys right now! How dare you treat me like this—!"
Pop.
Lucius vanished from the world.
A few droplets of what was presumed to be his blood pattered down onto the ground from the empty air.
That was all.
Everyone stood blinking, mouths agape.
"No time to waste. All incoming students are to board the ship."
Silaje turned away with his hands clasped behind his back as he spoke.
"That includes you."
"......."
Simon quietly nodded and moved toward the ship. In the wake of what had just happened, the mood among the new students had frozen solid, though a few couldn't contain their excitement and whispered amongst themselves.
"So that's what Blood Magic jet-black sorcery looks like!"
"I'm aiming for Curse Magic, and I almost lost my nerve just watching."
"First-years get to take that professor's classes too, right?"
As Simon walked toward the ship, he stole a glance at Silaje. Silaje was looking back at him.
Their eyes met, and the man smiled.
"Don't worry. I didn't kill him."
"...R-right."
The moment Simon boarded, Silaje gave the order.
"Everyone, fasten your seat restraints."
Silaje swept his hand through the air. A reddish, droplet-like membrane unfurled and enveloped the entire ship. Simon watched the proceedings with keen curiosity.
How is this ship supposed to get us to Kizen?
The bow was pointed not at the sea but toward the land. He was wondering if it was about to reverse when a henchman who had been relaying communications reported to Silaje.
"Professor. Arrival in five minutes."
"Guide it in as planned."
The murmur among the students swelled. Far off at the horizon, a colossal spray of water was barreling toward them.
Whoosh—!
The spray swelled larger and larger as it approached, and moments later a whale of almost indescribable size burst out of it.
"Whoooaaa!"
The whale opened its jaws, swallowed the ship whole, and plunged into the sea.
The Underworld Whale — an aquatic undead that submits to Kizen's commands.
It roams the oceans of the world, devouring the ports of whatever cities Kizen designates. That said, once a year, it also performs a different duty: ferrying Kizen's incoming freshmen — those who could not secure teleportation permits — to the school. Put simply, it is Kizen's high-speed means of transport.
Though they were inside a whale's belly, the interior was surprisingly warm and comfortable. The Kizen henchmen stationed aboard the whale came up to the ship to wait on the new students and served them food.
The tension soon melted away, and everyone chattered and laughed as they talked about the life ahead of them.
"You were amazing back there."
Simon was talking with the student seated next to him.
The green-haired boy with his forehead fully exposed introduced himself as Rowen Oscar. That was how sociable he was — before coming over to Simon, he'd already befriended several other students.
"Right? The whole atmosphere made it impossible to step forward, but you just ran right in and grabbed his wrist!"
"It wasn't a big deal."
Simon replied indifferently as he cut into his fish steak. The flesh parted tenderly, and he squeezed a bit of lemon juice over it.
While Rowen mostly talked and Simon nodded along, Rowen suddenly clapped his hands and threw out a question.
"By the way, what did you take for the entrance exam?"
"Entrance exam?"
Hearing this for the first time, Simon tilted his head.
"There was something like that?"
"Of course there was! Everyone has to take it to get into Kizen! In my case, I did a morphing transformation with jet-black—"
While Rowen naturally pivoted into bragging about himself, Simon sank into puzzlement.
An exam? He had absolutely no memory of taking anything like that.
If I bring this up carelessly, won't it cause fairness issues?
He'd already received an item worth 5,000 gold; he couldn't burden Nephthys any further than he already had.
Having finished an absurdly embellished tale of heroism, Rowen's eyes gleamed as he asked, "So how about you?"
"Uh, um... mine was something similar to yours. Jet-black morphing."
"Oh, what a coincidence!"
"Everyone return to your seats. We'll be arriving shortly."
Silaje's voice rang out. The students, who had gathered in noisy clusters, quickly hurried back to their places.
They'd only just departed, and they were already arriving? A rush of tension swept through the cabin. Simon fastened his restraint and straightened his clothes.
Silaje came up onto the deck and spread the same reddish membrane over the ship as before, and then water began flooding into the whale's belly.
"If you don't want to fall, hold on tight."
Silaje was wearing an eerie smile as he said it, so Simon gripped the handle of the seat in front of him with all his strength.
Whoooooosh!
Like a dam bursting, the water that had risen to the very top blasted out with tremendous force. At a dizzying speed that lifted their feet off the floor, the students' screams rang out in chaos.
At the end of the tunnel — a hole with nothing but darkness — a bright light appeared, and the ship shot out of it in an instant.
Vweeeeeee!
They were outside.
Thousands of meters in the air, so high the ground below looked like a toy landscape. The ship was riding atop the column of water the Underworld Whale had expelled.
Soon the force of the water began to weaken, and the bow tilted downward. The students screamed in terror.
Now, they would fall.
"Ghk!"
Simon outright hugged the seat in front of him.
Before long, the surroundings streaked past like shafts of light as they plummeted down and down without end. His clothes flapped madly in the headwind.
Shlick.
Then Silaje nicked his index finger with his own fingernail. The single drop of blood that welled up was absorbed into the membrane surrounding the ship, and the falling speed began to ease, little by little.
When Simon cautiously opened his eyes a short while later, the ship was descending slowly, like a hot-air balloon.
"Wooow...!"
The students cried out in awe.
Beyond the blue horizon, the sun dyed the world orange in a truly spectacular sunrise, and below the ship, the landscape of Roc Island — where Kizen stood — spread out before their eyes.
Dense jungle, sleekly swept plains, waterfalls drifting with fallen leaves, and even snow-capped mountains. All four seasons could be taken in at once from this island.
"Rowen! Wake up and look!"
"......."
Of course, Rowen and most of the others still had their heads buried in their seats or were busy dry-heaving.
Like a parachute unfurled, the ship gradually slowed, and at last it touched down safely on the ground.
Sighs of relief burst out all around. Quite a few students immediately clapped their hands over their mouths and bolted for the trees to vomit.
"Once you've disembarked, line up in four columns."
After a quick headcount, Silaje moved the students along.
Kizen was an enormous fortress, so vast its scale was hard to fathom. A giant gatekeeper opened the castle gates, and they passed through layer after layer of security jet-black wards to enter.
Besides Simon's group, who had come aboard the Underworld Whale, there were other incoming students who had arrived by different routes. Their journeys must have been just as intense, because every one of them wore an utterly exhausted expression.
"We'll move quickly. Please follow me!"
Inside the castle walls, the waiting henchmen whisked them along briskly. The students were led straight into a nearby building, issued their uniforms, and then split by gender into separate changing rooms.
"Please finish changing and gather outside within five minutes."
Everything here was lightning-fast. Swept up in the pace of things, Simon quickly changed into his uniform.
Even Kizen's uniforms look sharp.
The sleek black pants, tailored to fit perfectly like custom-made clothing, were closer to a suit than a school uniform. They hugged his body without restricting his movement in the slightest.
Over that he put on a white shirt and a red-toned tie, then slipped on a refined jacket bearing the Kizen crest.
And then he walked up to the mirror.
Whoa.
So this is what they call a suit fit? His reflection, dressed head to toe, looked handsome enough to draw an audible gasp.
The design sat somewhere between a uniform and a suit — elegant enough that he could have walked straight into a ballroom wearing it.
His spirits soaring, Simon turned back and forth, savoring his new look.
"Look at this! There's enchantment woven into the outerwear!"
"The uniforms double as combat gear, remember? Supposedly sturdier than most armor."
Hearing the voices from outside the changing room, Simon slowly ran his hand over the uniform jacket. A faint aura of magic truly did drift from the fabric.
How much could this possibly cost? It was essentially like wearing gold bars.
"Assembly in two minutes!"
At the henchman's urging, Simon hurriedly pulled on his dress shoes and headed outside.
The students who had changed into Kizen's suit-style uniforms were checking their reflections in mirrors, every single one of them with the corners of their mouths curling upward in delight.
"Please come out now! We're moving!"
Simon and the other boys emerged from their changing room, and from the girls' changing room across the way, the girls appeared as well.
The two groups froze almost simultaneously, as if on cue. Simon was no exception.
...The girls' uniforms are prettier, aren't they?
A refined black-toned jacket bearing the Kizen logo, a white blouse and slender tie visible beneath it, and a skirt that came up above the knee.
The women's design, too, sat midway between uniform and suit, with a clean, precise fit tailored to each figure. It gave them a slightly more mature air than their age.
"Boys and girls will each form two lines and proceed to the Great Auditorium."
Perhaps because they could all see each other looking so sharp, a curious current flowed between the two groups as they walked toward the auditorium. Everyone snuck glances at one another's outfits while walking, then quickly looked away the moment their eyes met. Murmurs of who's handsome and who's pretty were already ringing in his ears. So this is what school life feels like, Simon thought.
Descending a long flight of stairs, they finally entered the Great Auditorium where the entrance ceremony would take place. Many of the incoming students had already claimed their seats; Simon's group was nearly the last to arrive.
"Simon! Is this real life? We're actually at Kizen! Man, it still doesn't feel real!"
Rowen — somehow having found him again after they'd briefly parted in the changing rooms — launched straight into chatter. Simon looked around the hall once and asked,
"Is this everyone? All the incoming students?"
"Of course! There are 1,000 freshmen alone!"
Simon's mouth fell open. It was far more than he'd imagined.
"And there are about 300 second-years, and less than half that in third-year, from what I hear."
"...What?"
"You get what that means, right?"
Rowen let out an ominous chuckle.
"Out of these 1,000, only the top 30% can advance to second year. That's how brutal the survival competition is here."
A survival competition, at school.
It was hard for Simon to wrap his head around. Just how punishing would it have to be for 700 people to be pushed out of the academy?
While he was mulling it over, the henchmen directed all the students to take their seats.
Rowen swept his gaze around the hall in a flash and began pointing out the various figures of interest.
"Serne Aindark! She made it in this year after all. The official successor of the Ivory Tower."
Where Rowen pointed, a girl with flowing platinum-blonde hair and a cold expression was visible.
"Every promising prodigy with a name is here! Darwin Caradin! Jay Sanders... Whoa! What is that?"
"What? Where?"
"Look behind you."
Simon turned around, and there was one person more striking than anyone else in the hall.
A male student of massive build, standing over three meters tall. The unfortunate students seated behind him were craning their necks and wearing looks of utter despair.
"Chatel Maer. Half-giant."
"...He's huge."
"He'll probably go into Dark Mechanics. Who could ever face that physique?"
Rowen shook his head.
"And then... heh heh."
The corners of Rowen's mouth lifted as he gazed to the left. There was someone toward whom not only Rowen but a great many eyes in the hall were already turned.
A girl sitting calmly, black-haired and red-eyed.
"Say what you will, this year's top spot belongs to her. Lorraine Archbold."
Simon flinched, but gave no sign of it and simply nodded.
"She's Nephthys's only daughter, so everyone assumed she'd be a 'Special Admission,' but apparently she just took the entrance exam like anyone else and got in with a reasonable score."
"Really?"
"She's not first or second in the rankings, but honestly, everyone already knows, don't they? The strongest of this year's incoming class is her."
Simon could agree with that. He knew better than anyone just how skilled she was — he'd seen it with his own eyes, up close.
Just then, a man's voice rang out from the podium.
"We will now begin the entrance ceremony! All students, please rise from your seats."
A man who appeared to be the master of ceremonies conducted the event.
True to Kizen's style, everything was crisp and streamlined, with no wasted motion. The vice-chancellor's address and the administrator's explanation of the rules covered only the bare essentials. For the audience, it was genuinely a relief.
The greatest roar of cheers, however, came when the faculty made their appearance.
Top-tier necromancers, still active in the field like Silaje. They were such famous figures that even Simon, who knew little of the continent's affairs, had heard their names.
When the idols they'd only heard about in stories appeared, the students' reaction bordered on religious fervor.
Even Rowen beside him was shouting himself hoarse, froth practically flying from his mouth, while Simon was studying the faculty closely.
"Nephthys didn't come out, huh."
Hearing Simon's murmur, Rowen snorted with laughter.
"You think that great necromancer would show up for some first-year entrance ceremony? You'd be lucky to catch a glimpse of her face even once by third year."
"...Is that so?"
Somehow I doubt anyone would believe that the very same person was wandering the streets of Langestin with ice cream smeared around her mouth.
"Next will be the student representative's oath. All students, please rise from your seats."
At last, the final event of the entrance ceremony. Simon rose from his seat as well.
According to Rowen, the student representatives were said to be the top male and female students of the freshman class, each called up one at a time.
"Students whose names are called, please come up to the podium."
The master of ceremonies spread open his documents and spoke.
"Special Admission No. 2. Serne Aindark."
A tremendous cheer erupted. The platinum-blonde girl rose from her seat and walked forward.
Murmurs of the Ivory Tower's successor rose from all around the hall.
"And Special Admission No. 1."
The moment the master of ceremonies opened his mouth again, the murmuring died all at once.
"Simon Polentia."