Walther Franken.
One of the few Necromancers who had entered the Academy.
On his first day, he had strode vigorously down the Academy corridor with a fluttering heart.
CLATTER!
And he had fallen flat on his face in spectacular fashion.
One of the students nearby had blatantly tripped him.
When Walther got up with a scowl, companions had appeared on either side of the bastard.
It was a planned collision.
‘Bad luck's stuck to me like scabies.’
Walther spat inwardly.
For some magic lines, enemies are decided from birth.
Necromancers, who control the bodies of the dead.
Druids, who attune themselves to the energy of great nature and value the cycle of life.
They were groups that could not accept each other, from the origin of their abilities to their dispositions.
There was only one time they reluctantly joined forces.
Only when waging war against Astallon, the ‘Iron Empire.’
Historically, Necromancers and Druids had caused disputes large and small.
And right here.
‘Tesca Academy’ did not bother to stop fights between students.
‘I figured there'd be trouble someday, but on the very first day?’
Before he knew it, three of them had surrounded Walther.
Among them, one with particularly sunken cheeks spoke to Walther.
His name was Gaiak.
The one who had just tripped Walther.
“I thought I smelled rotten maggots in this sacred Academy. Walther, was it you?”
“Gaiak……!”
This was their first conversation, but he already knew the name.
A relationship where they could go at it at any time.
The Necromancers and Druids had finished sizing each other up back at the entrance exam.
“No way. That won't do. We can't spend our days smelling rotting corpses until graduation, can we? So you'll have to get out of the Academy.”
“Hmph. Mingle with beasts long enough and even your brain devolves, I see. A plain fight that isn't a Challenge is subject to punishment. Don't you know that?”
SNAP!
A thick vein bulged on Gaiak's forehead.
Soon, a bluish energy gathered in his grip, and he swatted Walther's pouch.
CLANG!
Something long and white shot out of the pouch with a whoosh.
“You, you!”
“Of course I know. I also know that rule applies from the moment you put on the uniform.”
“……!”
Only then did Walther realize the bastards' plan.
The brief gap before the school rules applied.
In that interval, they meant to make Walther a useless mage.
There was no need to destroy his Circle or wound him.
They only had to take the bones he carried.
Because a Necromancer without ‘materials’ was no different from an ordinary person.
“Damn it, rise up……!”
“Not so fast!”
Before Walther could use an incantation, the Druid beside him covered his mouth.
He blocked his eyes as well, to interfere with manifesting a magic array.
“Let go of me!”
Unfortunately,
that was something one must never do.
“Don't go covering other people's eyes so carelessly.”
WHACK!
The bone thrown from the end of the corridor squarely hit Gaiak's forehead.
He fainted with his eyes still open.
“G-Gaiak!”
The Druids could not comprehend the situation.
Not even Walther, who had been the one tormented!
‘Gaiak's body shouldn't be that weak, though?’
The ‘material’ Walther had brought was fairly hard.
But the source of the power Gaiak used was a ‘Grizzly.’
He could wrap his whole body in the power of a bear from myth.
That was essentially sturdy armor from head to toe, so how had a single thrown bone knocked him out?
“You're that bastard, right? Kawin or Kowin or whatever.”
A Druid who had been eyeing Kawin through narrowed eyes raised his voice.
“Yeah! It's this bastard! The one who dragged out the test time and got in dead last out of 300!”
“Do you have any idea what you just did, you bastard?”
With things at this point, the gazes of the surrounding students gathered in one place.
Kawin put the bone that had fallen on the floor into his pocket.
Then he answered flatly.
“Act like intellectuals. Don't hunt in packs like beasts.”
“Oh, this bastard, seriously!”
Treating people like beasts.
It was what Druids hated to hear most.
Kawin, having read [Swordmaster of the Heavenly Slaughter Star], knew this well.
With so many eyes watching, he raised the level of provocation to wrap things up quickly.
THUD, THUD, THUD!
The Druids, having unleashed their power, charged in from both sides.
‘What do I do?’
Walther's anxious gaze darted left and right.
He had to choose.
Should he stand with the benefactor who had helped him?
Or pretend it had nothing to do with him and run?
‘Once I'm in uniform, this won't happen anymore. So…….’
If he just changed his clothes and made it to the auditorium, from then on he would never suffer from picked fights again.
All he had to do was close his eyes a little, right here.
“……Fuck that.”
Walther chose.
And he tore off his mask.
Walther's true face: part of the skin on his right cheek was gone, leaving his teeth and gums fully exposed.
In that state, Walther shouted forcefully.
“Rise……!”
WHAAACK!
But Walther's shout could not carry through to the end.
Because right before his eyes, one of the Druids went flying like a windmill.
“……up?”
Walther's blank eyes turned toward Kawin.
The Druid left alone was just as bewildered.
Kawin had been standing still, so he had meant to beat him to a pulp right away.
Yet his own two hands had cut through empty air, and his comrade was lodged in the wall, unconscious.
‘How could this dead-last bastard……?’
The Druid checked his memory for a moment.
Was this guy a Mana Brawler?
No.
He was not.
The three Druids had mocked Kawin as a ‘Dead-Battery Bug’ during the entrance exam.
A freshman of the worthless Lightning line.
He had even come in dead last, so they had thought there was no nickname that suited him better.
‘That's definitely how it was……?’
THUD!
An electrifying shock of current pierced through his abdomen.
“Kheck!”
This could not be.
An elemental mage whose movement and physical toughness were greater than a Druid's?
This was cheating!
KA-BOOM!
Instead of answering, Kawin drove his fist upward.
[Passive : Lightning Flash]
He spread the Orbis' magic power to the very ends of every nerve.
He stacked magic power layer upon layer over the area his fist would strike.
As a result,
CRUNCH!
The Academy's unusually high ceiling.
The Druid's head was lodged there.
With everything below his neck left dangling, the Druid lost consciousness.
‘That's impossible……!’
Clutching his trembling legs, Walther approached Kawin.
“K-K-Kaw……!”
“It's Kawin.”
“Right! Kawin! I'm Walther Franken! Thanks for helping me!”
Walther grabbed Kawin's hand and bowed his head.
Then, as if something had dawned on him, he hurriedly put his mask back on.
“Surprised, right? Us Necromancers are…….”
“I know. Parts of your body get lost as the price for commanding wraiths.”
“I-is that so.”
Walther scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
His deep gray eyes turned to the unconscious Druids.
“But what now? A huge incident blew up right from the start.”
“It's not really an incident. Like those bastards said, the school rules apply from the moment you put on the uniform. So there's no punishment.”
“Is…… that so?”
“If they've got complaints, tell them to come back. They can issue a Challenge, the thing this Academy's crazy about.”
With that, Kawin brushed past Walther.
Walther watched his back, then lowered his gaze.
“Ah……!”
At some point, the skull bone Kawin had thrown earlier had ended up in his hand.
***
“This crap is…… a uniform?”
Kawin muttered, looking at himself in the mirror.
Tesca Academy used the term ‘service uniform’ instead of ‘school uniform.’
As if to prove it was not just a name, Tesca Academy's uniforms were full of traces of ‘real combat.’
First of all, nearly everything from head to toe was in black tones.
The shirt was white, but once a jacket or coat went on, even that was reduced to a mere handful.
The outer garment's matte fabric was thick and tough.
Magic power was embedded in multiple layers of fiber to withstand external impacts.
On the high collar that fastened up to the neck, a golden line ran vertically, as if for an accent.
A single line was the mark of a freshman.
“I kind of get why the admission fee's so expensive. Just a little.”
Unlike how it looked, it was neither heavy nor hot.
The magic in the uniform even covered small practical comforts.
‘Combat gear that can turn you into a student soldier in one second.’
That was Kawin's assessment of the uniform.
The same went for the female students.
It was attire that made it impossible to tell whether they were going to class or going out to catch monsters and beat them senseless.
The only difference was that they wore a shoulder cape instead of a jacket.
“Whoa. That looks awesome.”
Walther, who had come up beside him at some point, gave Kawin a thumbs-up.
“Maybe because the uniform's black, the platinum blond suits you so well. It goes perfectly with the gold insignia at your neck, too.”
Maybe he was grateful for the help earlier.
Walther did not seem to have any intention of leaving Kawin's side.
“Are you sure it's fine to hang around with me? It'd be better for you to stick with the other Necromancers. Like the Druids do.”
“Haha. That's just you not knowing any better. Beasts like forming packs, but Necromancers hate banding together. We're wary of each other, saying you can never know what the other's thinking. Even though they're Necromancers themselves.”
A kind of self-loathing toward one's own kind?
It was not a bad thing.
He had no intention of coming all the way to the Academy only to spend his days without a single friend.
A friend.
It was something neither Cha Hun nor Kawin had ever had in their lives.
“Kawin. If you're curious about anything at the Academy, ask me whatever. I crammed a lot into my head before enrolling.”
“You mean you studied ahead?”
“More like, research is a specialty of us Necromancers.”
Above the black mask, Walther's eyes curved into half-moons.
Walther suited the black uniform well, too.
His mask and hair were all in black tones, giving him a sense of unity.
The downside was that he looked a bit gloomy.
“Of course, I don't plan to repay my debt with trivial information like that. When you're in danger, I'll definitely help you, too.”
Kawin focused his senses for a moment.
His heartbeat was fast, but not fluctuating much.
No rough breathing, and the smell of his sweat was steady.
Walther Franken truly regarded Kawin as a friend.
‘Even if it weren't for that…….’
Looking at Walther's clear gray eyes, it was hard to see it as a lie.
When Kawin nodded, Walther led the way.
Then he turned his head, as if something had just occurred to him.
“Ah. Could I ask you one favor?”
“Go on.”
“If you come across anything hard, let me know. I'll buy it at a high price. Necromancers go weak in all four limbs for anything hard.”
“Sure.”
***
“We will now begin room assignments.”
The great auditorium, where 300 people had gathered.
The eyes of Professor Valeria, standing on the podium, spun around once.
Soon, a large circular formula appeared above her head.
“Whoa……!”
A magic array that fit perfectly into the dizzyingly high ceiling.
Rune characters were packed densely along the front and back of the circle's rim.
“The Academy's dormitories include multi-person rooms as well as single rooms. More trivially, some are closest to the cafeteria, and some are excessively far from the classrooms. Unfortunately, there are also places where four people must share a bathroom.”
At that, some students' faces contorted sharply.
“You will be given room-selection rights in the order in which you decipher this magic array. The student who deciphers it first will be assigned the best VIP Room in the dormitory. You may think of it as a sort of penthouse, or a suite. A room that lacks nothing.”
“Ohhhh!”
At Valeria's words, the students' eyes lit up.
Already, the students were running their brains at full throttle to decipher the magic array, which was as large as a great mountain.
“……Hmm.”
Only one.
Except for Kawin.
“Then we will begin now. The time limit is twelve hours. Students who fail to decipher it within the time limit will be assigned randomly. A student who deciphers the magic array need only come up to the podium and give me the answer.”
“All right.”
“?”
Everyone's gazes, Valeria's included, turned to one place.
Step, step.
The test had only just begun.
Someone was walking toward the podium.
It was Kawin.