Chapter 329
The next morning was Spiritology class. In other words, for Simon, it was a free period.
Tak. Tak. Taat. Taaa. Tak.
Since early morning, Simon was scribbling formulas on the blackboard of an empty lecture room with intense focus. Sweat dripped from his swaying hair, the collar of his shirt shaking as he moved.
Taaaaat.
In the last formula, the final stroke stretched long before stopping, a firm dot placed at the end.
'This is it.'
Simon set down the chalk and ran over to the desk.
The space, made by pushing four desks together, was set with a Skeleton Mage set and a magic circle sheet.
Looking at the blackboard, Simon began to carefully adjust the formulas and circuits of the magic circle.
"The main circuit was the problem from the start."
Simon's Darkness began to flow into the magic circle, correcting errors. It forged new paths, and the numerical values in the formulas shifted accordingly.
After finishing the clean adjustments, Simon placed his hand back on the magic circle.
"Activate."
Woom!
The magic circle started up.
Darkness awakened the runic language, and the formulas refined the power of the runes.
From the center, the circuits spread out like spiderwebs, Darkness flowing along them like a river, ten strokes shining in a beautiful hue.
'So far, so good.'
After checking the magic circle's status, Simon's gaze moved to the staff fixed on the desk.
He connected the magic circle's circuit to the staff. If magic flowed out of the staff properly, then the undead assembled from this skeleton would also be able to use the same magic.
'Please!'
The magic circle unfolded above the staff. And then—
Pazik!
With a crackle of black electricity, the magic circle collapsed.
"Haaaah."
Simon collapsed along with it, feeling the strength drain completely from his body.
"What's the problem?"
He muttered in a hoarse voice, looking at the blackboard.
A magic circle is an ecosystem in which everything is intricately connected.
If you exterminate an insect, the spiders and mantises that prey on it disappear, then the birds that eat those vanish, and then the snakes that eat those vanish too.
But the result appearing before Simon's eyes was, 'Killed an insect, and somehow the snakes went extinct.'
He couldn't for the life of him understand the causal chain in between.
It felt like swimming endlessly inside a Möbius strip.
A huge wall loomed before him.
— When will you be able to make a Lich?
He felt embarrassed.
What was he thinking, daring to mention an ultra high-class undead in front of Aron, when he couldn't even make a Skeleton Mage yet?
"Ughhhh."
Simon rubbed his flushed face and sprawled out on the floor.
The empty classroom's ceiling came into view. A breeze blew through, ruffling his hair.
"Still,"
Staring blankly at the curtain fluttering in the wind, his face gaunt with deep dark circles, Simon let out a small laugh.
"This is fun."
Suddenly, Simon sprang up. He had meant to clear his head, but instead, idea after idea came flowing in.
Running toward a goal was fun.
Sometimes he was out of breath, sometimes his ankle would twist, but he knew that someday this hardship would end.
He knew that the view from the top would be breathtakingly beautiful.
"Seriously, let's see who wins."
Simon dashed to the blackboard and began inputting the adjustments that had just come to mind.
Saying he was going to make a Lich yet already feeling worn out was laughable.
This Skeleton Mage, he would complete with his own hands, no matter what.
* * *
"Hm~ hm. Hm~."
Maelyn walked through the campus, her sky-blue hair fluttering pleasantly.
She was in a good mood today.
'What's up with him?'
After all, Simon had asked to meet her alone before the afternoon class.
No Dick, no Kamibarez, just the two of them.
The guy who never did this kind of thing was suddenly acting like this, which made her feel strangely restless.
So she got up early to get ready. Her hair was in perfect condition today, and her makeup had gone on flawlessly.
With her long hair swaying lightly, Maelyn arrived at the empty lecture room they'd agreed on.
The door was slightly open.
'?'
Peeking through the gap, she saw Simon.
Bathed in the sunlight streaming through the window, feeling the pleasant breeze, Simon was asleep with his head resting on the desk. He was even snoring a little, something he normally never did.
Quietly, she slid the door open and stepped inside.
Simon had his head turned to the side, using his arm as a pillow. Like this, his jawline and nape stood out more clearly.
'He's sleeping like a baby.'
With his mouth slightly open, sleeping as if the world didn't exist, he looked nothing like his usual mature self. He just looked like some neighborhood kid.
She felt the urge to poke his cheek with her index finger to wake him, but he was sleeping so soundly that she held back.
Instead, she dragged a chair over and sat right across from him.
'Hmm.'
It was windy today.
His blue hair swayed like rippling waves, and as it caught the light, it gleamed faintly, shifting colors like a palette of blended paints.
Staring at his face in a daze, Maelyn's cheeks grew warm.
'Am I being a bit of a pervert?'
Just in case, she reached out and waved her hand in front of Simon's face.
No sign of him waking up.
'Haa.'
Calling someone out only to fall asleep in the classroom, how unromantic.
Still, it was fine. She crossed her legs, folded her arms, and stretched her neck forward, ready to observe him properly.
Normally, she'd feel shy and embarrassed, making it hard to look directly at his face from this close.
'....'
Looking at Simon like this—
She was reminded of Feon.
The Feon who had saved her in the Deathland, she had thought of him as fierce, terrifying, and hugely built.
But when she met Feon again in Kelso Village in the Neutral Zone, he was actually slimmer than she had imagined.
Yes, just like Simon right now.
'Feon's Darkness was also a bit of a deep bluish color, if I recall.'
Her heartbeat quickened, her breathing grew shallow.
She clasped her hands together as if forming a mask, and brought them toward Simon's face.
'Oh, from this angle, they do look kind of alike…'
Just as she was about to stretch her arms out toward his face—
His eyes snapped open.
"Wah! Waaagh—! Aaaah—!"
Maelyn flinched violently in shock, her body trembling. Her face turned bright red, all the way to her earlobes.
"?"
Simon, blinking innocently for a moment without grasping the situation, soon smiled.
"It's Maelyn. I must've dozed off for a second."
"Ah, damn, you scared me!!"
She let out a sharp cry, bringing her hands up to her chest.
Her heart was pounding wildly. Anyone could tell she was the one at fault, but for some reason, her voice got louder first.
"Sorry."
And, as always, Simon accepted it with a smile.
"...Hmph."
Maelyn quickly picked up her chair and stepped back to put some distance between them, fanning herself briskly with her hand.
"S-so, why did you call me?"
Turning her head away with a prim tone, Maelyn glanced at Simon out of the corner of her eye.
He answered.
"I had something I wanted to ask."
'!'
Why did those words suddenly sound so loaded?
No, of course, knowing Simon's personality, there's absolutely, absolutely no way—!
"The truth is, my Dark Flare magic circle got completely stuck. I was trying to set up a Cold Bolt magic circle earlier."
Yes, as expected, it was not that.
What were you expecting?
You fell for it again.
Maelyn's smiling face twitched slightly at the corners of her mouth.
"So, I tried changing the main circuit of the magic circle…"
Unaware of her inner thoughts, Simon eagerly continued his explanation about the magic circle. Feeling strangely irked, she pursed her lips in a pout.
"...That's how the basic formula itself broke apart. Got it so far?"
Letting out a small sigh, Maelyn rested her chin on her hand.
"That's a circuit resistance problem."
"Hm? I thought the resistance wasn't the issue."
"No, you idiot! Just listen to me!"
Before long, the two of them were at the blackboard, writing formulas and refuting each other's points.
"No, no, that's not the way to go!"
Fired up, Maelyn corrected Simon's formulas. In the middle of scribbling frantically, she let out a small chuckle.
'I really am a necromancer, huh.'
Getting heated over something like this, running up to the blackboard without thinking—yeah, that was her.
"What's so funny?"
"Ah, nothing. Just watch, I'll prove it to you!"
After about twenty minutes of debate, the winner was Maelyn. Simon also realized what his mistake had been and felt a refreshing sense of resolution.
It was only natural. She was a genius ranked second in all of Keyzen by grades alone, and Dark Flare Dynamics and the Dark Flare series were especially her area of expertise.
For Simon to even challenge her on this was laughable, there was an overwhelming gap.
With a victor's smile, Maelyn asked,
"But why the sudden interest in the Dark Flare series? You've been doing fine with Summonology and other things, so why bother adding a new offensive technique?"
"No, I was in the middle of making a Skeleton Mage."
"Huh?"
Maelyn looked taken aback.
"What nonsense is that? We have a Skeleton Mage-making class tomorrow, why are you making one alone?"
"Uh, just… sort of like… a preview."
"You really do go looking for trouble."
Maelyn shook her head with her hands on her hips.
"Anyway, since I helped you, buy me food, okay? Using my brain made me hungry."
"Sure, let's go."
* * *
The next class was Professor Eric Aura's Darkness Dynamics lecture.
Darkness Dynamics is the backbone of black magic.
Even professors from other subjects often asked students about their progress in Darkness Dynamics before adjusting their own lesson plans.
That's because the formulas and runic language students knew would change depending on the pace of this class.
— Didn't you learn that in Darkness Dynamics?
It was one of the questions professors most often asked students during class.
And while students like Maelyn, who used the Dark Flare series and such, could choose this class as their major, Darkness Dynamics was a required course.
Therefore, the professor did not take on direct disciples.
"That's all for today's lesson."
The man in his middle years teaching this crucial subject, 'Eric Aura', had the nickname "the colorless, odorless professor".
His ability and skill were recognized, but he was famous for being extremely by-the-book and never adding his personal flair to the class. He was also a thorough worshiper of theory.
His clean, straightforward lessons focused solely on the transmission of knowledge.
Compared to star professors like Bahil, who put on dazzling shows, or Hongpeng, who always encouraged student participation, his classes felt a little bland to those used to more dynamic lectures.
It was a course of pure theory, with no practicals.
A subject where you spent all day staring at magic circles, runic language, and formulas, your head aching from it all.
Still, every student knew how important it was.
If you learned this well, you'd inevitably use these formulas in other classes, so it was not a course you could afford to neglect.
"Good work, everyone!"
When class ended, students quickly filed out of the lecture room.
Eric was tidying up when a student approached him.
"So, what's your question…?"
Turning his head to see who it was, Eric looked slightly surprised.
Usually, the students who came to ask about Darkness Dynamics were the same ones, but today it was someone unusual.
"This is the first time you've come to see me, Simon Follentia."