Chapter 59

At the same time, in Bahil's lab.

Shatter!

Bam!

Eyes red, Bahil was throwing anything he could get his hands on.

Sculptures, trophies, research materials, everything hit the floor and shattered.

"Huff! Huff...!"

In an instant, the surroundings became a mess.

Bahil placed his hand against the wall and panted. The head assistant teacher, Chehekle, seemed to be used to this situation. She had her back against the wall, eyes closed.

When the surroundings became quiet after a while, she opened her eyes.

"Are you done throwing your tantrum, Professor Bahil?"

"..."

Bahil strode over and leaned back on the sofa as if falling. He then reached out to his table and grabbed the tobacco pipe, lighting it up with dark magic and taking a sip of the smoke.

"Phewwww..."

Tobacco smoke stretched out. Seeing this, Chehekle frowned.

"Professor, smoking isn't allowed indoo—"

"Please, let it slide just this once, Chehekle."

However, Bahil threw away even the tobacco pipe.

As soon as it hit the wall, the pipe broke in two.

"...Why?! Why don't you understand me, Simon Polentia?!"

He let out a long sigh as he hitchily swept his bangs up. He suddenly jumped up from his seat, unable to get over his anger.

"You're a genius! A genius among geniuses that only appears once in hundreds of years! Why are you wasting your insane talent on Summoning? I can't understand it at all! Summoning is an old and outdated subject! Why don't you know that, no matter how successful you become with Summoning, you'll become nothing but a 2nd Aaron?!"

Unable to bear the frustration, Bahil began to scratch his body as if his whole body was itching.

"Your maximum level! Would be Aaron! Think about how Kizen's Special Admission No.1 with legendary talent is now being treated at Kizen!"

His arms trembled like he was having convulsions, and then he flopped to the floor.

Bahil's eyes glanced at the faded picture frame in the distance.

"..."

There, the young-faced him and Aaron, both wearing Kizen school uniforms, put their arms around each other's shoulders.

It seemed like there was no hint of concern on the faces of the two boys. They were just smiling brightly.

Perhaps the brightest in their life.

But Bahil knew better than anyone. The fact that he's come too far to go back to that time.

"I can't stand it. Everyone's so pathetic."

"...Professor."

"To see such brilliant talents being thrown into the abyss by themselves! I can't let this happen again! Only I can bring Simon back to life! Only I can cut that gemstone and turn it into the brightest gem in the world!"

"...Just be honest, Professor."

"Honest? That doesn't seem so bad."

Bahil jumped up from the floor.

"I want to have him."

A strange smile appeared on his lips. Veins bulged out of his fist.

"I insanely want him! Simon Polentia! I definitely want to make him mine!"

Here we go again.

Chehekle looked like she'd given up.

"I'm ready to slash my soul for him. I'll use any means to unleash the best of his talents and create the 2nd Nefthis!"

Bahil spread his arms.

"My dedication! My effort! My sincerity! My soul! And the only thing I want in return for risking my life is to bring him up into the realm of the Gods…"

He smiled with a twisted face.

"is for him to serve only me as a teacher."

"...Sigh."

"When someone asks Simon how he got to the top, Simon will respond like this! 'It's all thanks to my teacher, Professor Bahil.' Ahhh...! I'm getting chills just by thinking about it...!"

Chehekle, shaking her head as she watched Bahil trembling in madness, turned around.

"I'll leave now."

"Chehekle."

Bahil approached her.

"I'm a person who needs to get what I want in order to be satisfied."

Bahil strongly pulled her by the arm. Then, he lifted her chin as he held her in his bosom.

"Just like you."

"..."

His eyes looked at a beautiful work of art.

On the other hand, Chehekle, who was looking at Bahil with a pathetic look, kicked him in the leg with her shoes on. Bahil frowned and stepped back.

"This is sexual harassment at work, Professor Bahil."

"That sour personality from when you were still a student still hasn't changed."

Said Bahil, fixing his collar.

"To think that the talent who'll succeed me is this stiff."

"Didn't you amend that it'll be Simon Polentia who'll succeed you?"

"Oh, no way."

The corners of Bahil's lips rose.

"Simon Polentia isn't just a talent who'll succeed me, but someone who'll one day surpass me! He'll stand shoulder to Nefthis! As an educator, I'm only expressing my reasonable desires! No, more like it'd be abnormal if an educator sees such talent and their blood doesn't boil. And you're going to keep saying that my desire to possess him is dirty?"

"How could you describe trying to monopolize the right to teach a student other than dirty?"

"My my. You're not trying to give a single word."

Bahil put his hand in his pocket and tilted his head.

"I got a good idea."

"...What is it this time?"

"Right now, Simon is quite content with his Summoning. Even in Professor Jane's Cyclops battle, he was on a roll with Summoning. That was the problem in the first place!"

Bahil's eyes glistened with madness once again.

"What Simon has to go through now is a bitter defeat. That way he can look back on himself and think about what the problem is, where he went wrong, and which way to choose!"

"...I guess you have a point. So, how are you going to make such a genius suffer a bitter defeat?"

Bahil's mouth was ripped into a demonic grin.

"Isn't that too easy?"

Classes went tightly day by day. Of course, it was because of the Duel Evaluation.

Even 'Eric Aura', a professor for Mechanics of Jet-Black and a person who was quite thorough with theory, teaching even the origins of runes, moved right away to combat practice.

Whether it was to reflect the needs of the students or not wanting to drop their future major aspirants, most of the professors taught mainly combat dark magic this week.

Thanks to this, the students' Duel Evaluation repertoire had greatly diversified. Of course, that was true for all Kizen students.

After taking the class this morning and finishing their early lunch, Simon was on his way to the next class with Rick.

'So the second and third class are both Hemomancy.'

The Hemomancy class, having been delayed due to the professor's circumstances, was assigned all week.

Because of the fact that professors were active Necromancers, there were many cases where the schedule became extreme.

And at the same time…

"There isn't a single day of Summoning this week."

Simon let out a deep sigh. Rick shrugged his shoulders and replied,

"I heard that Professor Aaron went on a business trip."

It bummed Simon out. As it was a Duel Evaluation season, Aaron would've taught him offensive magic, and it must've been a great reference for Simon.

Even if he didn't, there must've been an opportunity to ask how you could use Summoning to fight on an equal footing with other students.

"Huh?"

Rick, who was biting a sandwich as a dessert, stopped walking.

"Simon! Look over there!"

"Hm?"

"The brackets for Duel Evaluation are out!"

A large bulletin board could be seen in the direction Rick was pointing, and students were already swarming it.

The two quickly ran toward it.

'My first opponent after coming to Kizen.'

Simon looked for his name with a pounding heart.

'I think I'll be fine as long as I dodge the few monsters.'

Lorain Archbold, daughter of Nefthis.

Serene Aindark, the successor of the Ivory Tower.

Chatelle Maerre, the Half-Giant.

It was a trio that must be avoided. Other than these people, Simon thought it was somehow manageable.

'Ah, found it.'

[Stadium 2, Round 1, Match 12]

Class A Simon Polentia vs. Class G Haren Cork

'Who's Haren Cork?'

It was his first time hearing the name. Rick was giggling like it was the same for him.

"Legang Chopra? What a unique name. I wonder if they're from Shahed."

"Rick, you don't know yours either?"

Rick nodded and looked at Simon's opponent.

"Haren Cork from Class G... Want me to investigate a little? Like their specialty or majoring subject?"

Simon scratched the side of his head.

"I'll feel bad for you."

"Nah, Legang is also in Class G, so I'll just include them while investigating. It'd be nice if you also had information about your opponent, right?"

"Yeah. I'd be grateful if you would do that."

Simon moved his gaze back to the bulletin board again.

Haren Cork. What kind of dark magic would they use to fight? Even if it was a Duel Evaluation, it didn't feel like they're just gonna throw punches.

A stage where you could exchange dark magics with other students and clearly compare their achievements with each other.

It'd be a lie if he said he didn't feel any pressure, but at the same time, his heart was pounding.

"I hope the class ends quickly."

Hearing Simon talking to himself, Rick blinked.

"Huh? Why all of a sudden? You like taking classes, don't you?"

"I have something to train personally in the evening."

Rick chuckled.

"This bastard is about to do some stomping again. What training? Let's be honest. How many students do you think can respond to your Combat Magic and man-killing kick?"

"...don't call it a man-killing kick. Plus, I'm not using Combat Magic as my main this time."

"What then?"

"I'm gonna try fighting with Summoning."

Rick's eyes widened out of surprise, but he soon grinned.

"Would you like me to do the Meilyn version, or the Cami version?"

"...What's that?"

"Just choose one."

"Meilyn?"

Rick folded his arms and turned his head away with a coy expression, and he said in a forced female voice,

"I clearly told you, alright? To fight with Combat Magic."

"Pfffft!"

Simon laughed, spit flying out of his mouth.

Rick, who was smiling proudly at his friend's satisfying reaction, suddenly fell down from a bag that flew at him.

"Just die!"

Meilyn was fuming, red-faced. Next to her was Camibarez, covering her mouth and desperately holding back her laughter.

"Ah, what's wrong?! It's the same if you heard— Uwaaah!" 

"Dieeeeeee!"

* * *

As soon as today's class was over, Simon passed Kevin's stable route to Rochest.

'It's been a while since I came to Rochest at midnight.'

It felt a little strange to see the dark and quiet streets when they were so lively on the weekends.

There was nothing good about being found out as a Kizen student, so he was wearing a robe, but there were many boys and girls who wore robes like Simon.

'First, the Necromancer shop.'

Simon headed to the Necromancer shop he had been to recently.

"Welcome~"

The last time he came, Rowen was working part-time, but this time, a young man with a monocle was sitting at the counter.

'So he's the shop owner.'

Simon heard a little about him from Rick.

A Necromancer who reached the 2nd year in Kizen but had been pushed out by the competition and was currently running a shop in Rochest.

Simon bowed his head politely.

"Hello, Senior!"

The shop owner smiled in embarrassment.

"Haha… A senior? Huh. You don't have to be like that to me, dear Kizen student."

Simon raised his head.

"Still, I heard that you made it to the 2nd year..."

"I'm nothing but a dropout. The current first-year Kizen students are much more valuable than an old student who dropped out."

Still, he was smiling as though he was inwardly pleased. In fact, many of the people who set their feet and ran businesses in Rochest were from Kizen like him.

Whether they couldn't forget their brilliant student days at Kizen or because they were nostalgic, they were people who still lived around Kizen despite no longer being able to enter it.

Because of the existence of such people, the Kizen students, most of whom were high-ranking nobles, weren't able to make a fuss in Rochest.

"Anyway, what are you looking for, Student?"

Simon answered the shop owner's question right away, eyes shining.

"I want to make a skeleton archer."