The Roar of Woodville
With no reason to hide it, Lethe simply spoke up.
"He's a professor currently serving at Epnel. Gahen Andoria."
Lethe explained that Gahen taught Sacred Dynamics at Epnel. From what she knew, his reputation was solid — though she'd never sat in on his lectures herself, so her knowledge didn't go much deeper than that.
Having heard her out, Serne nodded with a serene little smile.
"Thank you for the information."
"Not that a necromancer like you will ever cross paths with him in your lifetime."
Lethe folded her arms with an air of indifference.
"He's well on in years, too. He couldn't march to a battlefield if he wanted to."
He was a priest who had retired long ago and never made a name for himself in battle, which was why he remained a relatively obscure figure among necromancers.
"Hehe, you were thinking of my feelings? How kind."
"You could've just asked from the start. I'll never understand how you necromancers go straight to mind-control first and figure things out later."
The atmosphere had softened, but the two girls were still circling each other with claws bared beneath the civility.
"Well then, since fate has gone to the trouble of introducing us—"
Simon flinched. At some point, Serne had sidled up to him and latched herself snugly onto his arm.
"Shall we grab lunch together, Simon?"
A whiff of fragrant perfume mixed with her scent washed over him, and Simon's face went red in an instant. Serne gave a knowing smile, then glanced over at Lethe.
"……"
Lethe was watching the two of them with her trademark blank expression. The corner of Serne's mouth curled upward.
"What?"
"Just thinking."
"It seems unlikely I'll ever meet this Gahen person, as you say."
The corners of Serne's eyes curved like a fox's.
"But I'd say you're in much the same position yourself, wouldn't you?"
"……"
Lethe's expressionless brow twitched, just slightly.
After a moment of silence, Lethe heaved an exasperated sigh.
"If you're not going to help, get out of the way. Some of us are working here."
"Yes, yes."
Serne slipped free of Simon's arm with a giggle behind her eyes.
"Enjoy your time in the Dark Alliance, then. Simon, see you at your match shortly."
"See you later."
Serne drifted away, her ivory hair fluttering behind her. Before long, the barrier dissolved naturally, the murmur of the crowd swelled, and a cool breeze swept through.
Simon breathed a quiet sigh of relief and looked at Lethe.
"Shall we go?"
Lethe gave a silent nod and walked ahead of him.
After patrolling together, the two of them headed over to Woodville Stadium once Simon's match time rolled around.
Even among the fifteen arenas of the Dark Festival, Woodville boasted the largest grounds — and because of that, each department was allowed to field up to twenty competitors.
Fierce competition was expected, so the Summoning Department had mobilized its heavy hitters en masse. Student Council President Simon led the charge, followed by Group 10's Loraine, Eshu, and Toto, and even Serne and Fitzgerald.
Beyond them came Guinevere and Cendra — two of the most respected squad leaders in the department — as well as Vicente, the leader of Group 4 who had recently grown close to Simon.
With Hector, Asseraz, and White effectively reserved as Top-10-level anchors who had to carry their own events to first place, the department had thrown every available ace into the fray.
— This match is an urban warfare battle!
The set piece was spectacular. Makeshift buildings stood scattered everywhere, giving the genuine impression of standing in the middle of a city. The announcer explained that the set had been modeled after Langoustine.
— The rules are simple! Find the treasures hidden throughout the city and carry them back to your team's formation to score points! On top of that, taking down an opposing department's student is worth a whopping 5 points! Students who rack up high kill counts can also walk their own bodies through the allied formation to bank their accumulated points! Of course, if you get shot down before you make it there, your points go to whoever dropped you. Oh — it seems the referee has just declared the start of the match!
The instant the match began, twenty students from each of the seven departments — a hundred and forty in all — leapt into action, unleashing dazzling displays of black magic.
Smoke bloomed across the city from the very first moment, and flames roared skyward.
WHAAAAAA!
The crowd's energy burned just as hot. Arms raised, they screamed themselves hoarse.
"Go! Summoning Department!"
"That's our Student Council President, seniors!"
The third-years and first-years cheered with just as much fervor. Everyone had become one, swept up in the match, losing themselves in it.
And then there was one outsider.
……They certainly know how to have fun.
Lethe wandered listlessly through the stands on her own, scanning the field for anyone wielding divinity.
Hmm.
She turned her head and let herself watch for a while.
With a hundred and forty students clashing across a city-sized set, it was hard to pick out any single player's exploits. Yet one figure shone through it all, brilliantly conspicuous.
— Student Council President Simon Polentia! He's already taken down six opponents! Incredible!
BOOM!
Parting a curtain of thick black smoke, Simon emerged clad in Heavy Armor — the defense-specialized variant of the Bone Armor family.
Wrapped in bone armor like a walking fortress, he tanked ordinary black magic head-on and simply barreled through, trampling the summoned beasts his opponents threw at him.
"The President's racking up points like a tycoon!"
"He's loaded with treasure too! Get him!"
The Summoning Department students kept funneled treasure toward Simon, and Simon, laden with those spoils and his own points, was making his return to the allied formation.
On the giant mana screen, the students' point totals flashed into view.
1st Place — Simon Polentia : 40 Point
Simon was being hunted, but his own department seemed to have concluded that no one could touch him — they kept feeding him treasure without pause.
If he banked that many points into the Summoning Department's formation, holding him off from first place would become nightmarishly difficult. More and more students began chasing him.
And yet.
CRUNCH!
THUD!
Simon in his Heavy Armor wasn't dodging — he was only growing bigger and bigger.
Parts that broke away were patched up by grafting on other bones, and he even had skeletons haul bricks and wooden planks from the city set and slap them onto his body by the armload.
"……What on earth is that now."
"He's getting bigger?"
Simon was becoming a giant.
By now, the undead bones weren't forming his body so much as serving as the connective tissue binding building rubble into a whole. Bit by bit, Simon's frame was warping into a bizarre artificial golem.
The silhouette now towered far beyond anything Heavy Armor could produce.
<Bone Armor — Giant Armor Type>
VWOOOOOM!
A colossal arm of building materials swung wide, and two students crashed into it and went tumbling. Their barrier gauges dropped to zero in a single blow, and Simon's points climbed.
"Protect Simon!"
The Summoning Department students climbed onto the giant Simon had built, deflecting curses and blocking black magic from atop its shoulders.
But the match didn't flow smoothly for long.
"I can't let you have this so easily."
A man came charging in from the Magic Combat Department's formation.
A boy with a longsword as tall as himself and an eyepatch over one eye. The Magic Combat Department's representative, ranked tenth overall — the Demonic Sword user, Juhl Vincere.
His arrival threw the Summoning Department into chaos.
"J-Juhl!"
"Stop him however you can!"
Several Summoning students lunged at him, but Juhl cut them down with casual strokes of his demonic sword, kicked off a rooftop, and soared into the air.
<Juhl Original — Single Wheel>
CRRAAAAACK!
The demonic sword carved a trajectory like wet ink, and in one stroke, the giant's moving arm and part of its shoulder went flying.
Juhl clicked his tongue, unsatisfied.
Missed.
He hadn't been aiming for the arm — he'd been going straight for Simon himself, lodged in the chest of the giant.
He tried to swing the demonic sword a second time, but the students dogging his heels, hurling curses at his own point total, forced him to retreat.
"Tch! Now is hardly the time to fight amongst ourselves!"
"Shut up and hand over your points!"
Relations between the six other departments were hardly rosy either, so battlefronts were forming all over the field with Simon at the center of it all.
In the meantime, another giant rose up to block Simon's path.
The Summoning Department students went white as sheets.
"We're done for."
The Jet-Black Mechanics Department's representative, ranked second overall — the half-giant, Chatel Maer.
He clapped his palms together and unleashed his black magic.
<Chatel Original — Domain Seizure>
The entire city tilted into a U-shape out of nowhere, and only the ground beneath Simon's giant sank deep. Then—
KRA-BOOOOOM!
Mountains surged up from both sides, shearing the Bone Armor's upper body clean from its lower half. Every jaw in the stadium hung open.
"Chatel got Simon!"
But.
Simon's point total on the stadium's display board hadn't moved an inch.
WHUMP!
Somehow, Simon was already escaping through the collapsing wreckage of the giant. At the same moment, he pressed a turquoise crown down firmly onto his head.
<Simon Original — Royal Guard>
Turquoise light flickered on all sides.
Capes billowing, the Royal Guards bounced from building materials to walls and back again like flashes of light — and cradled in their hands, treasure.
WHAAAAAA!
The crowd's cheers reached a fever pitch. Now at the city's edge, a great circular barrier resembling an enormous mirror loomed before them. The Royal Guards hurled their treasures into it.
FWOOSH!
FWOOSH!
With every treasure that passed through the circular barrier, the Summoning Department's score began to climb and climb.
However.
Chatel had failed to stop Simon in time.
"……Move."
"Ah, I'm afraid I can't do that~ giant."
Serne was standing squarely in Chatel's path.
Juhl the demonic sword user, too, found his way barred by someone who had appeared without warning.
"Your reputation is well earned."
Juhl tightened his grip on his demonic sword. The city lay cracked and split all around, yet one person stood there with perfect composure.
"Sorry, but I can't let you through."
The girl standing there with a dagger in her hand was Loraine.
With the department representatives all tied up, Simon was free to sprint unimpeded.
Curses and black magic snapped at him from every angle, but the Royal Guards around him intercepted the incoming attacks like streaks of lightning, cutting them out of the air.
At last, escorted by his Royal Guards, Simon stepped through the barrier himself.
WHAAAAAAA!
Simon's kill count converted into points.
The Summoning Department students clenched their fists as one and roared their triumph.
It was, without exaggeration, the decisive blow.
The match was over.
The Cursing and Jet-Black Mechanics Departments had charged hard to the very end, but in the end, the Summoning Department clinched first place on the strength of the points Simon had fought for.
— Si-mon! Si-mon! Si-mon!
The name of the match's standout rang through the stadium. Lethe absently wiped her palm against the hem of her robe.
Th-that was actually kind of fun.
She was embarrassed to have enjoyed a match between necromancers, but there had been plenty to see.
So Kizen is this strong. Their power couldn't be underestimated. This was no time to go around preaching about holding the advantageous element of divinity.
Unless priests advanced further, the necromancers would overtake them before long.
And…
Lethe's head turned. Simon was just then walking along, bowing to the spectators — and heading close to where she sat.
Hm.
Self-conscious, Lethe glanced quickly around her. Realizing no one was watching, she awkwardly raised a hand.
"Simon! Over here—!"
UWAAAAAAA!
A massive roar buried her voice. The first-years in the stands surged forward as one, screaming their hearts out.
"Student Council President, senior! Over here!"
Lethe stared at the spectacle with a somewhat foolish expression on her face.
So he really is the Student Council President.
Popular with the juniors, huh.
Just then Simon drew even closer. She was opening her mouth to try again when—
"SIMONNNN!"
"You did it!"
The Summoning Department students came flooding in. Even the third-years in the stands clambered down, throwing their arms around shoulders and slapping high-fives.
"Another job well done!"
"A victory of strategy!"
Simon vanished into the crush of students, showered with celebration. He seemed to be enjoying himself too, beaming as he hugged friends and traded high-fives.
The watching girls' faces were flushed one and all, Serne had glued herself to Simon's arm yet again, and Loraine could be seen holding out a towel to him.
"……"
Simon! Simon! Simon!
Simon's name thrummed through the air like a living thing.
Suddenly, all of it felt foreign to Lethe.
The people, the culture, the language — and even Simon himself, hoisted up and cheered by the students like a hero borne on their shoulders.
Everyone laughing, crying, celebrating together — while she alone felt as if she'd been plucked out and left dangling apart from this world.
"……"
Lethe rose slowly from her seat and slipped out of the stadium.