Necromancer Academy’s Genius Summoner - Chapter 84

Chapter 84

“I’m sorry, Meilyn.”

“There’s this big of a difference in skill?”

“Miss, you aren’t the successor anymore.”

‘……’

It wasn’t a pleasant dream. While remembering something from her memory that she didn’t want to recall, Meilyn came to her senses and opened her eyes.

She could see a bumpy cave ceiling, and the sound of a crackling bonfire echoed in her ears.

It was a little bit cold, but somewhat cozy. She slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes.

“……?”

She was wearing unfamiliar clothes. The robes were a bit large, and when she stretched out her arms, only her fingertips reached out of the sleeves.

She looked around again. She was in a cave, and the rain kept on pouring outside.

And in front of the bonfire seen at the cave entrance, a man with a thin but solid figure was sitting with his upper body exposed.

Just then, he looked back and smiled.

“You’re awake?”

“S-Simon?!”

Why was he naked again?!

Meilyn quickly lowered her head in shock. Then, she saw her own outfit this time.

“Wh-Wh-Wh-What’s thissss?!”

Underneath the robe that she was wearing, there was just wet underwear. Her face flushed red, and she reflexively covered her chest, gathering her legs together.

After taking a very defensive stance and curling herself up, she said in a trembling voice,

“Wh-What about my clothes?!”

Simon gave a sheepish grin and pointed with his fingertips. Near the cave exit, a wet male and a wet female school uniform sat drying out on vines tied like a clothesline.

“……I’m sorry.”

Simon cleared his throat.

“You can catch a cold if you wear wet clothes and all, so……”

“……!!!”

As she reached the limit of the shame she could bear, Meilyn’s face burned red all the way to the tips of her ears. Tears even formed in her eyes.

“Y-Y-You fucking pervert bastaaaaaarrrrrrd!”

“M-Meilyn! Keep it down……!”

She tried to throw something, but unfortunately, nothing was close. Simon stood up, sweating profusely.

“I promise nothing happened! I even closed my eyes when I took off your wet uniform!”

“Haah, haah, haah…”

She shuddered, then covered her face with her palms.

Seeing this, Simon just kept quiet and waited for her to calm down.

“……”

About 10 minutes passed in silence. Finally, Meilyn removed her palms covering her face, seemingly ready to face reality. Of course, her face was still red.

“……What the hell happened?”

As though waiting for her to ask, he explained himself.

While they were fighting, a high-ranking monster intervened, and Meilyn, caught in the impact, went unconscious. On top of that, it started to rain, so he evacuated to a cave at the bottom of the cliff.

‘The circumstances all add up. There’s no room for doubt either.’

She knew that Simon wasn’t the kind of guy to do weird things.

But to think that she was undressed by a guy…?! She wanted to disappear into a hole from the embarrassment.

Meilyn sniffled and glared at Simon while curled up.

Simon quickly looked away and pretended to scratch the side of his head.

“……Simon.”

“Yeah?”

“T-Turn around.”

Said Meilyn in a barely audible voice.

“Turn around? Why?”

“Ah! I’m going to change my clothes, so turn around, you idiioot!”

Simon, startled, quickly turned his back and stared at the bonfire.

She would want Simon to go outside the cave for a while, but it was raining out there, so she had no choice.

“St-Stay like that, okay?” If you turn around, I’ll really, really, really kill you!”

It seemed like she was trying to scare him, but her voice was trembling, so it didn’t feel like a threat at all.

It just felt like the growl of a little puppy drenched in the rain.

Simon answered while suppressing his feelings,

“Sure. No need to worry.”

“……”

Meilyn awkwardly got up, shoulders hunched over. She took out a dry towel and new underwear from the subspace while glancing at Simon from time to time.

Simon still hadn’t responded.

“……”

She let out an inward sigh of relief and grabbed the robe she was wearing.

On the other hand, the person who was most nervous was Simon, not Meilyn.

‘Wh-Why do I suddenly feel so nervous……’

Contrary to Simon’s normal values, the strong heart of a 17-year-old boy was racing like crazy.

His eyes were glued to the bonfire, but he couldn’t help but focus all his senses on his hearing.

As though he was trying to somehow hear something he couldn’t see.

Then he heard the sound of a fiber being dragged, and the robe she was wearing fell to the floor.

Rustle. Rustle.

You could hear her taking off the wet underwear.

Simon choked up. He kept on gulping in a strange way.

Splat.

Finally, the sound of wet underwear falling to the floor was heard. It felt heavy because of the rain.

She really took everything off.

Now, if he looked back, he’d see Meilyn without anything on.

The moment he realized that fact, Simon’s heart pounded as if it had been broken.

‘I-I’d rather stay outside.’

Imagining her appearance against his will, Simon had to tremble in the sense of terrible immorality.

Meilyn is my friend. It is a sin itself to have unscrupulous thoughts of my friend. I need to somehow regain my reason.

Simon moved the firewood and desperately focused on doing something else.

Rustle.

Meilyn wiped her wet body with a towel and finally changed into clean, new underwear. After she wrapped her body tight in Simon’s robes and fastened the buttons, she could breathe out a long sigh of relief.

She slowly approached Simon, who had stiffened up.

“Huff.”

Then, she sat right next to Simon as he warmed himself up by the bonfire.

Simon glanced a little to the side, and when he saw her white legs exposed through the robe, he turned his head away in fright.

“What is it?”

Meilyn giggled and poked Simon’s forearm.

“Why are you being more nervous than me? You idiot.”

“……I’m not nervous.”

After letting out a scoff, she pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged them tight. A calm silence flew between the two of them for a while.

* * *

* * *

“Aren’t you hungry?”

Simon stood up.

He stirred the pot boiling on the campfire with a ladle, then served the piping hot soup to Meilyn in a small dish.

“It’s a meat soup.”

It was a soup made according to Hong Feng’s recipe.

Her eyes widened. She had never imagined that she’d ever see proper food like this on this island.

“……Thank you.”

Meilyn happened to be really hungry. She grabbed a spoon and took a careful bite.

‘Woah!

It really tasted the same as the one she ate at Hong Feng’s hut.

She continued to scoop up a second spoonful and then a third. Simon proudly watched her eating.

“Simon.”

“Yeah?”

She put down the empty dish and replied with a blushing and coy face,

“……Thank you. For saving me.”

“You’re welcome.”

She put her face on her lap and gave Simon a vacant look.

“But why did you save me? To be honest, I deserve to be abandoned. I attacked first, you know.”

Simon made an expression as though questioning why she was asking something so obvious.

“You did the same. You didn’t really mean to eliminate me either.”

“……”

“Something like that. I can’t throw away the groupmate who’ll be with me for the whole first semester because of a trivial problem.”

Simon grinned and held out his fist.

“Don’t you think?”

She smiled embarrassedly and bumped Simon’s fist.

“Ugh… This won’t do after all!”

“Is something off?”

Instead of answering, she raised her right arm where she wore the tongue pad.

She spread out a magic circle with jet-black, entered a command, and overlaid it on her tongue pad.

‘Wait, that command is……’

Simon also knew all the commands of the tongue pad.

Meilyn’s tongue pad opened wide like a mouth, and the tongue rose more than a few meters.

She pulled out the green sphere the tongue had wrapped around. It was a huge chunk of points.

“Meilyn, what are you—!”

“What do you mean by what? I can’t handle this sting in my conscience. Take the payment for saving me!”

The two got tangled up and argued about receiving and not receiving it.

Meilyn forcefully brought the sphere to Simon’s tongue pad, who ate it without hesitation.

“Ah……!”

The number on the tongue pad has risen significantly. When he checked, it had gone up to 260 when before it was 127.

Simon suddenly jumped up.

“Just how much did you give me?”

“All but 1 point.”

She said while eating the soup, giving a nonchalant wave.

“Isn’t it obvious? I should’ve been eliminated there.”

“But you… Aren’t you aiming for 1st place in this evaluation too?”

“……”

She stared at the bonfire in silence, and after a while, gave him a grin.

“Hmph, of course! We still have two more days, right? If I hunt only the named ones, I can still aim for number one.”

“………Haha.”

Naturally, the mood loosened up, and the two of them finished the meat soup, not leaving even a scrap behind.

It was still raining outside the cave, and past the bonfire was a cliff. Still, the view was great. You could see the whole island at a glance.

‘It’s warm.’

The more she thought about it, she thought that Simon really found a good place. As she felt relieved and full, a pleasant languor ran through her body.

“Meilyn.”

Then Simon spoke to her.

“Can I ask you something?”

“If it’s a perverted question, I’ll kill you.”

“No, it’s nothing like that.”

Simon hesitated a little, then said,

“Why are you so obsessed with being number 1?”

“……”

The wordless eyes that were looking outside the cave became fierce.

“There’s someone that I want to beat no matter what.”

“That person you’re talking about must be… Serene Aindark, the Special Admission No.2. Am I right?”

“……”

Meilyn’s reaction towards Serene was very sensitive.

He remembered that the mood became bloody after mentioning the name Serene the day they first formed a group.

Also, when Hector called her “Serene’s underling”, she threw herself at Hector, intending to actually burn him to a crisp.

“You’re right.”

She nodded her head in approval.

Releasing her tight grip around her legs, she leant back, supporting herself with her hands.

“This is something I’ve never told anyone in Kizen, but I was the official successor of the Ivory Tower.”

It was Meilyn, not Serene? Simon had never heard of this.

“I heard that it was decided that way since I was little. So, I have a memory of being high-spirited, since people from the Ivory tower family spoiled me. At that time, I didn’t know how heavy the position of being an official successor was, and it was just fun seeing adults bowing their heads to me. I was immature. Then, one day, the Lord of the Ivory Tower brought in a newly adopted daughter.”

Simon quickly connected the dots and said,

“So that adopted daughter was Serene, huh?”

“Yeah. She was the same age as me, and clearly, she was a child who was brought to be my antipode. Of course, the reaction of the people of the Tower wasn’t good, asking why they adopted a daughter all of a sudden, saying the motives were obvious, so on and so forth. My position as successor seemed solid, as she wasn’t even a daughter born of a concubine, just an adopted daughter without any legitimacy. However……”

There was tension at the end of her words.

“Serene was a genius. No, a monster. The word ‘genius’ isn’t enough to describe her.”

“……”

“She completed the jet-black modification that took me almost half a year, in a week. It’s said that she understood any theory no matter how difficult it was, and she could know a hundred things after listening to one. Blood is also important in Ivory Tower, but…… any problem was meaningless in front of Serene’s talent. Before everyone realized it, regardless of faction or family, the whole Ivory Tower was filled with anticipation. That someday, the Ivory Tower would be able to regain its former glory the moment Serene grew up and became its lord. And I……”

She smiled bitterly.

“I was placed on the back burner. Adults constantly compared Serene and me. I always played the role of the idiot who made Serene shine, and I was only called out to public places to be embarrassed. By the time I grew up and came to my senses……”

Meilyn shrugged.

“I was, of course, dumped. The elders even revised the Tower’s law just to make Serene the official successor. Since that day, the way people looked at me completely changed. From the elders of the family, servants, friends, and even parents. Everyone gave up their expectations of me.”

“……”

“Then we turned 17, and because of the pact we made with Kizen, Serene happened to go to Kizen to study as a special admission. So I took the entrance exam on my own and entered Kizen too.”

Now Simon could understand everything.

That was why she was so obsessed with becoming number one despite not getting enough sleep and working like crazy.

It was to overcome Serene. To gain the approval of her family once more.

In fact, Meilyn attacking him felt senseless at the time, but he was convinced after he heard her story.

Simon was a Special Admission No.1. A person that pushed her target, Serene, to No 2.

Of course, Simon had only recently started learning dark magic. There was an incomparably huge gap between him and Serene. The difference between No.1 and No.2 wasn’t determined by a difference in skill.

Still, Meilyn would’ve been burning with a competitive spirit. Curious as to if defeating Simon would get her to Serene, too.

“I won’t give up even if it kills me.”

She clenched her fists.

“Everyone says it’s impossible, but one day I’ll take back what I lost. Without a doubt.”

Simon gave a wide grin.

“If it’s you, it’s definitely possible. I’ll cheer for you, Meilyn.”

“Hmph.”

She snorted, but as if she felt good deep inside, an arc was drawn on her lips.

“You know that all 961 first-year students entered the Island Survival assessment this time, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Serene is also on this island. If you meet her, avoid her at all costs. I’m speaking as someone who has been watching her from the side for several years, but the more I look at her, I don’t think she’s…”

Meilyn’s expression became serious.

“…human.”

——