Necromancer academy’s genius summoner

 

 

Chapter 4

 

Simon and Lorain returned to Kemmelroad.

It turned out that Kemmelroad was a street dealing with items for Necromancers.

The deeper you went, the more revealing the types of items on display became, such as skeletons, monster corpses, and organs that moved as if they were alive and were sold in liquid bottles.

Simon felt as if he had entered a different world separated from the world that he had originally lived in.

“Do you know when the most exciting time of the entire school life is?”

Asked Lorain, who was walking with him side by side.

“Uh, hm… When?”

“It’s when you’re shopping for school uniforms, textbooks, and supplies with excitement before enrolling in school! Now is your happiest time, so enjoy, Simon.”

She chuckled a little.

“Things will be really hectic after getting into Kizen.”

“……Haha.”

The first place they went to was the bookstore.

Kizen’s admission and tuition fees were all free, but textbooks had to be purchased as personal expenses.

“There are a lot of books to buy. Do you still have the admission letter?”

“Yes! Here it is.”

Besides the admission letter, there was a list of necessary materials in the letter.

Lorain glanced at only the pages on the list of books and returned the letter before saying,

“I remembered everything. This way.”

While Simon was following her from behind, something heavy suddenly dropped.

Simon quickly stretched out his arms to catch it. It was a terribly thick book. On the cover, he could see the title,

‘Introduction to Summoning?’

Before Simon could think of anything, another new book was put on top. This time, it was .

‘T-This one’s heavy too!’

Lorain kept pulling books from the bookshelves and stacked them up.

The books , , , and were piled up. Simon’s arms started to tremble.

“Lorain! Don’t tell me we have to learn all of this in the first year, do we?”

“Of course not.”

She gave a fresh smile while turning around. 

“We’re in Kizen, you know? It’s a given to master this much in the 1st semester of 1st year.”

“Here, take this ‘Poisonous Alchemy’ book too!” 

……I think I miss Les Hill already.

She ran to find the book, while frantically choosing a book.

Left alone for a moment, Simon looked around.

‘Come to think of it…’

Most of the people who entered the bookstore were around his age.

Judging from them holding the or books, they must’ve been students enrolling at Kizen.

It was the first time he had seen so many of his peers in one place. At Les Hill, the only people he knew at his age were Carlon, who was one year older, and Sofia, who was two years younger.

A new life with students of the same age. Little by little, Simon began to look forward to this thing called school life.

“Yes! I’m on my way!”

“?”

While he was side-tracked, a female student was running by his side. Simon narrowed his eyes and observed her movements.

In an instant, her body bent towards Simon.

‘What?’

There was no reason for him to bump into her, so Simon turned his body to dodge her.

“……Ah!”

She hit the bookshelf just like that, and the books stacked on the bookshelf shook precariously. 

This was dangerous.

Simon instinctively jumped to her and covered her.

Rrruuumble!

Books fell on Simon’s back.

It hurt a lot. The books felt like stones stabbing him.

She looked up at Simon with an astonished face, and then bowed her head hurriedly.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry! Because of me—!”

“No, I’m sorry for spacing out and getting in the way.” 

Simon said while trying his best to smile.

“Rather than that, let’s put these back up. I think we’re going to get scolded.”

“Ah, yes!”

The two hurriedly picked up the fallen books. She handed up the books on the floor, and Simon tiptoed and placed them on the bookshelf.

One of the clerks heard the noise and came to see what was going on, but when he saw the two of them putting the books back, luckily, he went back without saying anything.

‘This is the last one.’

While Simon was putting the last book back where it was, the girl was organizing Simon’s books that were scattered around.

“Y-You’re a freshman of Kizen, right?” 

Looks like she saw the textbooks.

Her face broke into a wide smile when Simon nodded.

“I-I’m a freshman of Kizen too! My name is Cindy Vivace! What about you?”

“Simon Polentia.”

“I see. Nice to meet you! I’m actually from Shahed, in the north, so I was a little scared because I didn’t have any close friends here.”

Simon nodded his head.

“I guess we’re in a similar situation.”

“I-If it’s alright with you, Simon……”

With her face dyed red, Cindy twiddled the tips of her two index fingers. Then she said in a scarcely audible voice,

“Do you mind… if I talked to you at school… in the future?”

It wasn’t that big of a deal.

Simon gave a little smile.

“Of course. I’d like to ask you of something first though.”

“Thanks!”

She jumped up from her seat.

“Then I’ll be going! Father’s waiting for me outside.”

“Alright.”

“See you in Kizen next time!”

She waved her hand and walked away.

“Wait a minute. Cindy?”

“Hm?”

She looked back. Simon was shaking something.

“Could you return my wallet now?”

In Simon’s hand was Cindy’s wallet.

In that instant, her eyes that only seemed innocent turned sharp. The pupils of her eyes split vertically like a cat’s.

‘No way.’

Cindy quickly rummaged through her pockets. They were empty.

“………Hah.”

She was completely beaten.

She raised the corner of her lips and looked back at Simon.

“I was confident that you would never find it out because I swiped it with Necromantic magic, but how did you know?”

“It’s just that, my wallet started floating all of a sudden, so…”

Cindy strode over and made eye contact with Simon.

“And you simply noticed that? Don’t give me bullshit. You’re also applying to major Necromancy, aren’t you?”

“Well, I’m not yet sure abo—”

“I knew it!”

Cindy’s eyes sparkled up.

“Kizen is on a whole different level after all! Wow! My gosh! People like you would be swarming there, right? Ah, I’m really looking forward to school life!”

‘……Aren’t you too confident for a pick-pocket?’

She chuckled before taking Simon’s wallet out from an inner pocket and throwing it to him.

“If you’re also majoring in Necromancy, we might see each other for 3 years, right? Let’s compete to the death, Simon!”

She was the type of person who didn’t really listen to people.

Simon gave a little sigh and tried to return her wallet, but Cindy waved her hand this time. 

“It’s fine. I lost this time, so take that as a payment for victory.”

Being cool in a weird situation.

Simon thought that the myth that there are no normal people among the Necromancers was slowly coming true.

“I’ll look forward to meeting you. Say hi if you see me at school!”

Cindy walked and disappeared through the bookstore wall while waving.

‘……’

It felt like a storm had passed. Simon, who had been staring blankly at the wall where Cindy had disappeared, opened her wallet.

There were only a few coins in it.

‘Making a big deal out of it.’

Simon giggled.

 

* * *

* * *

“Simon!”

At that moment, Lorain returned with her black hair waving.

“ ‘Introduction to the Epidemiology of Jet-Black’ seems to be sold out now! The stock will arrive in two hours, so they said they would deliver it to the dorm along with the other books.”

Lorain poked Simon’s arm mischievously.

“By the way, who was that girl a while ago? Are you close with her already?”

Simon sweated and avoided her gaze.

“…W-Well, something like that.”

“Fufu. Why are you stuttering? Don’t tell me you guys already exchanged your feelings?”

Well, we almost exchanged our wallets.

“Anyways. Since we decided to get the books delivered, let’s get out. There are many other places to stop by other than here.”

“Where are we going next?”

“A shop for bags.”

Do I have to buy a new bag too?

“What I’m using right now isn’t that bad though.”

“Hm?”

Not understanding what he was saying, she blinked her eyes, and then… 

“Ahaha!”

Burst out in loud laughter. 

“Ah. So cute. So you’re really a bumpkin, huh?”

“Ahem.”

Simon’s face flushed with embarrassment.

“When we say bag for Necromancers, it usually means a ‘Magical Inventory.’ To put it simply, a subspace.”

* * *

A large building set a few blocks away from the bookstore.

Simon and Lorain were led downstairs. After going through several layers of dark security magic, the two were able to enter the shop lit up with soft lighting in the underground.

“…….Wow.”

This entire space was lined with items such as backpacks, pockets, and briefcases.

Long coats, pocket watches. Even carts and living lizards. 

Things you wouldn’t know what they were for were hanging on the wall or floating in the air through magic.

“Welcome, young lady Lorain!”

An old woman in a luxurious mink coat appeared from the stairs.

She had a thin body and a fastidious impression. Expensive gold crafts were hung all over her body.

Lorain happily waved her hand.

“Have you been doing well, Stephanie?”

Stephanie laughed while rubbing her hands.

“I wonder why our VVIP visited us without any notice? I’m sure you bought a bag last month……”

Lorain gently placed her hand on Simon’s shoulder.

“I came to see this friend’s bag today.”

“Ah!”

Stephanie suddenly appeared in front of Simon. Simon had to pull his head back slightly because of the hooked nose of the old woman that burst in.

“So you’re a freshman of Kizen! A pleasure to meet you! Necromancers are always our best customers.”

“A-A pleasure to meet you.”

“Then, what kind of product shall I show you?”

Lorain answered instead.

“The best and most expensive.”

“Unbelievable!”

Screamed Stephanie.

“Both VVIPs! I’ll take you this way.”

Stephanie brought the two of them into another room. The products were not hung on the wall, but stored in glass display cases. Stephanie tapped one of the shelves with her finger, and the window vanished as if it had evaporated.

“Try this, dear customer.”

What she handed over was a navy-blue glove featured with luxurious patterns.

As Simon carefully put it on his right hand, he felt the expensive cushioning. It was enough to make him almost faint.

“This product was created by ‘Ellen Beiter’, the subspace craftsman of the century. Could you please draw a rectangle with your finger on any wall?”

Simon nodded and drew a square on the wall as instructed.

Shiing!

Then a hole was opened up in the wall.

When Simon looked inside in surprise, a huge space had spread out. It was big enough to fit an entire house. 

‘So, this is a subspace!’

While Simon’s thoughts were filled with astonishment, Stephanie’s explanation continued.

“As expected from the masterpiece of Ellen Beiter, the loading capacity is a whopping 8,000UB! In addition, there’s the convenience of bringing up the space at any time if you’re wearing gloves! It’s truly a product worth calling an innovation of inventories!”

“……Hmm.”

On the other hand, Lorain looked quite disappointed.

“It does look convenient, but only being able to open a subspace when a wall exists is a strict limitation. There are many cases where there aren’t any in battles on plains. And Simon is now a beginner as a necromancer, so he doesn’t need a large capacity either.”

“That might be one way to say it.”

“Isn’t there something that’s more versatile, even if the capacity is smaller?”

Stephanie walked away with a grin instead of answering. Then, she removed the glass window of the display stand at the far end.

“This is a product that hasn’t yet been released to the market. The latest work of Eclipse, one of the next generation of young artisans!”

What she carefully lifted up was a ring. It was basically silver, but it changed to purple or green depending on the angle of the light.

“Try equipping it, dear customer.”

“Ah, yes!”

Simon carefully put on the ring. The soft prism’s color was beautiful.

“It’s easy to use! Please flow jet-black into the ring.”

Simon moved his jet-black as instructed.

The ring absorbed the jet-black like a sponge and changed its color from silver to dark blue.

“How is it?”

“…It feels like something like a handle is under the ring.”

“It’s working properly! Think of it as a lever and pull it out.”

Simon grabbed the imaginary handle and pulled it back slowly.

And then…

Rattle!

With the sound of the stones interlocking each other, 

A vertical space opened on the floor. Something like white vapor flowed out from the gap in the space.

“………Woah!”

Simon’s heart began to pound rapidly. This time, even Lorain had a slightly surprised expression on her face.

“The loading capacity is 4,000UB, which is half of the product a while ago, but it’s far superior in terms of practical usage! This subspace opens on the floor regardless of its slopes or uneven surfaces. There are 7 magics enchanted inside the space, including first-class preservation magic and temperature control magic.”

“What about an eject function?”

Asked Lorain.

“Of course, there is! You may try it.”

Stephanie was looking around for a suitable item when she found a little bunny doll lying in a corner.

“Hm? Why is a doll here?”

“My playful granddaughter often visits the store.” 

Stephanie let out a bitter laugh and threw the doll into the subspace.

“Dear customer, you’re a freshman, right? To use the eject function in actual fights, you’ll have to practice a lot. Now, feel like you’re using the space’s mana to wrap around it and…”

As Simon was told, he moved his mana to cover the rabbit doll.

It wasn’t difficult. Maybe because the ring was in contact with the body, the mana of the subspace moved freely, like the mana of his own body.

“…Mana automatically activates the ejection magic inside the space just by surrounding it. Now, if you release the mana that was wrapping the object like popping it…!”

Pow!

The rabbit doll came out of the subspace. It floated up in a gentle arc and fell on the floor while standing upright.

Stephanie and Lorain exclaimed.

“Well done, dear customer!”

“You’re good! Are you sure this is your first time?”

His heart was racing, so he couldn’t hear the two of them well. He seemed to understand why subspace was an essential item for a necromancer.

Simon thought of himself opening a subspace in the near future and taking out the undead.

“Simon. Do you like it?”

Lorain came close and smiled. Simon snapped out of it and nodded his head repeatedly.

Of course he liked it. It was the first time he’d ever wanted something this much.

However…

Simon’s eyes slowly turned to Stephanie.

“…How much is this subspace?”

 

——