Chapter 552: Episode 552
On the outskirts of Roc Island, a bizarre spectacle was unfolding at Kizen’s outdoor swimming pool.
Kizen students, clad in swimsuits, held out fishing rods with looks of pure terror on their faces. Every single fishing line was enchanted. Inside the pool, a chaotic frenzy was underway.
With a big splash, hundreds of crustacean-like monsters, resembling a cross between shrimp and lobsters, thrashed through the water. They moved with such blinding speed that the students lining the edge were constantly being drenched by the violent splashes.
The line went taut.
Eshe, who had been staring intently at the water, broke into a wide grin. "I got oooooone!"
With a tremendous roar, she yanked her arm back. A column of water erupted from the pool as one of the monsters was hauled into the air. The surrounding students gasped in awe.
"Don’t let your guard down!" bellowed Professor Grelion of Summoning Materials Science.
Eshe stuck her tongue out in concentration and threw up a Jet-Black Shield. The moment the monster landed on the deck, it spat a stream of black, ink-like fluid, which splattered harmlessly against the barrier.
"Use the curse I taught you!"
"On it!" she chirped, thrusting her hand forward.
’Remake Paralyze’
The curse shot out. The shrimp-like monster, which had been thrashing so violently it was cracking the tiles, suddenly went rigid. Its shell hardened, and it fell still.
"Got it!" Eshe cheered, hopping from foot to foot.
Grelion roared again. "What are you waiting for? Take it to stage two!"
"Okay."
With a grunt, Eshe heaved the monster into her arms. It wasn’t completely immobilized, however, and began to struggle wildly. Its tail whipped back and forth, slapping her repeatedly across the cheeks.
"Stop it! Ow! Hey!"
Her face bright red, Eshe staggered over to the next station: dismantling.
Here, other students grunted with effort, their heavy knives ’thwacking’ and ’thumping’ against the tough shells of their own captured monsters.
"The method for preparing crustacean monsters as undead is almost always the same!" Professor Grelion announced, having followed Eshe from the poolside. "If you can master the Kammapos, you’ve practically mastered half of all crustacean-type monsters! Strengthen your resolve!"
"Yes, sir!" the students chorused.
It was grueling work. All around, students were injuring themselves, their hands rubbed raw or bleeding from the effort. Teaching assistants moved calmly through the chaos with first-aid kits, patching them up as if it were a daily routine.
"Grrr."
Simon was among them. His task was to slice open the Kammapos’s belly, remove the organs unnecessary for undeath, and lay the foundational magic circles. After that, he had to drill a hole in the shell and thread a Jet-Black filament through it.
"I just don’t get it," Eshe grumbled, plopping her Kammapos down on the table next to Simon’s.
"You made it, Eshe."
"Did you know, President? Kammapos is a super-premium delicacy, the kind of thing you only see at banquets for high-ranking nobles! It’s insanely delicious! I can’t believe they’d dump something this expensive into a swimming pool instead of eating it. If it were up to me, I’d forget this whole ’Pass or Fail’ nonsense, build a bonfire, and roast it to a sizzle..."
"You with the orange hair! Quiet!" Grelion bellowed.
"Yes, sorry!"
Eshe was a great morale booster during tense exams, but in a regular class, she was just a massive distraction. Still, now that Grelion had shut her up, Simon saw his chance. He focused his concentration.
’Here.’
He gently touched the shell on the top of the creature’s head.
’If I just pierce this spot...!’
But the moment his tool made contact, the entire top section of the shell shattered with a loud cracking sound. Simon let out a frustrated sigh. A teaching assistant walking by paused to inspect the damage.
"Simon Polentia. Failed. Return to the pool."
"Yes, sir!"
So close. He felt he could have gotten it with one more try. Simon jogged back toward the pool to catch a new Kammapos.
"You fool! Wasting another precious ingredient!" Grelion roared after him. "Make sure you succeed next time! Understand?"
"Yes! My apologies!"
It was Grelion’s unique way of offering encouragement. Though he was feared by most students, Simon had grown to like him. He returned to the poolside just in time to see a new disaster unfold.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Toto, who had just hooked a Kammapos, was losing the tug-of-war and was being dragged into the water.
He hit the water with a loud splash and began flailing wildly. "H-Help me! ’Ack!’ I can’t swi—!"
The moment a human fell in, the Kammapos swarmed him. They might look like shrimp, but they were still dangerous monsters.
A nearby teaching assistant calmly cast a fishing rod. The hook snagged the edge of Toto’s swimsuit, and he was unceremoniously yanked from the water.
"Gasp! Cough!"
"Are you alright?!"
"I’m... I’m fine... Agh! Yes! I’m fine!" He coughed.
Thankfully, Toto seemed to be okay. Relieved, Simon picked up his own fishing rod again.
"Monster fishing where you risk your life," a lilting voice purred from behind him. "They certainly have some strange classes here, don’t they?"
Simon tensed at the sound of her voice, gripping his rod tighter as he cast his line. "Serne. Slacking off again?"
"I was just taking a little break. I was tired," she said, her fingertips lightly grazing his shoulder. He could hear her soft chuckle as he flinched, a clear sign she was enjoying his reaction. Her slender fingers danced across his shoulder like a wave. "Someone is talking to you, you know. Won’t you turn around?"
Simon clenched his jaw and stared straight ahead. "I’m focusing on the class. I have to work hard if I want to pass."
"Hmph."
He felt her press closer from behind, her warm breath tickling his ear. "Your face is red."
The sensation was maddening. Unable to stand it any longer, Simon spun around, his face flushed. "Serne! Stop messing around—! Ah."
His words died in his throat. She was wearing a revealing black bikini, far too daring for an eighteen-year-old student. She gazed up at him with innocent, captivating eyes and tilted her head like a fox, a faint blush dusting her cheeks.
"You finally looked. I wore this just for you."
"Uh!"
It wasn’t just Simon; every male student in the vicinity was losing his mind. The class was the last thing on their minds. They risked death to sneak glances, knowing full well what would happen if Serne caught them.
"Focus!" the teaching assistants growled, and their heads snapped back toward the pool.
"...You know," Simon said, turning away again to focus on his fishing. "They told us to bring a modest swimsuit."
"Hm? This ’is’ the most modest one I own."
He should have known it was pointless to argue. He suspected that after today, the school would issue much clearer guidelines on swimwear.
"Aren’t you curious to see how much more daring the others are?"
"...Please, just focus on the class."
At the hint of anger in his voice, Serne pouted and moved to stand beside him.
’Ugh!’
Simon’s face burned, and he quickly averted his gaze. Serne began to prepare her fishing rod, infusing it with Jet-Black.
"Alright, alright. I’ll focus."
"...Uh, yeah."
But she just fiddled with her rod, her preparations taking an unusually long time. Wondering if she was having trouble with the bait, he glanced over. She wasn’t using the school-provided bait at all. Instead, she was attaching a single white feather to the hook.
She cast her line with a powerful swing. For a moment, Simon was speechless. Her platinum blonde hair, shimmering in the sun, whipped through the air as she cast. The sight was as breathtaking as a masterpiece painting. The hook landed in the water with a soft plop, and in that instant...
The water began to rumble.
From every corner of the pool, every single Kammapos churned the water, charging madly toward her hook.
"What the—what’s going on?"
"Aaaah!"
The other students scrambled back in alarm. Serne shot Simon a playful wink and then, with a sharp tug, lifted her rod.
A living chain of Kammapos, linked tail to tail, soared high into the air with a swooshing sound. A moment later, a rain of monsters poured down onto the deck, where they flopped and writhed.
’Haha... how many did she catch at once?’
Serne smiled, satisfied, and made a small gesture. "This one will do."
She wrapped one of the flopping monsters in a feather, levitating it into the air. With another flick of her wrist, she pushed the rest back into the pool. After cleaning up so neatly, she waved as she headed for the dismantling station.
"See you in a bit."
"Yeah."
"And Simon," she added, her lips parting as if to say more. She hesitated, her tongue flickering, then simply broke into a radiant smile. "Something fun is going to happen soon."
"Something fun? What is it?"
"It wouldn’t be fun if I told you beforehand, now would it?" She gave him a sly wink and walked away.
"Simon!"
Lorraine came rushing over from the dismantling station, her black hair flying behind her. She shot a disapproving glare at Serne’s retreating form before turning to Simon.
"Did something happen while I was gone?"
Turns out, a lot had happened. With both Lorraine and Professor Grelion absent, there had been no one to keep Serne in check.
"Don’t worry. It’s all sorted out now."
"Hah. Causing trouble the moment I step away..."
Simon watched Lorraine shake her head. She looked quite pretty in her own swimsuit, but her appearance was striking in a completely different way from Serne.
"Hm?" She looked at him quizzically, and Simon quickly turned back to the pool.
"What is it?"
"...Nothing. It’s just..." Simon said, his face flushing slightly. "Pink..."
He was asking how she could possibly wear a bright pink swimsuit to school. Lorraine cleared her throat and gripped her fishing rod.
"It was the only one I had at home. I was going to buy a new one in Rochest, but it got too late. So I picked the most modest one I could find..."
It was the exact same excuse Serne had used. They seemed to be polar opposites, yet in the strangest ways, they were remarkably similar. Perhaps opposites do attract, after all.
"What were you just thinking?" Lorraine asked, her eyes narrowing.
Simon forced a laugh and yanked on his fishing rod. "Sorry, going ahead!"
With a big splash, a large Kammapos was pulled from the pool.
---
The club recruitment season ended, and life at Kizen sped up. After the ghoul evaluation, Simon created two more undead as part of his formula studies and completed another duel evaluation. He won, of course, and was immediately promoted to a higher squad. Now, it was time to prepare for the looming midterms.
The current topic in the Summoning department was the creation of the undead ’Night Terror’. As a magic-type undead, its difficulty was considerable. Simon was currently assembling a small-scale version using the Kammapos he had acquired in his Materials Science class. Its Jet-Black moved like a tail.
"This is fascinating."
It had started as a shrimp-like monster, but now only its upper body remained. Its tail had been replaced by a gently swaying appendage made of pure Jet-Black. It slithered through the air like a sea serpent brandishing a black tail. The true ’Night Terror’ was a much larger and more vicious creature, but the goal of this lesson was to learn a new runic language, so they were using smaller, safer materials.
"When you link the flow of Jet-Black to an external form using the Vibro rune, this is the result," Professor Aaron explained as he walked among the students. Since White’s arrival, the professor had looked increasingly haggard. "You must master the Vibro rune to assemble higher-level undead. Any students whose tails are not moving correctly should re-examine their summoning circles."
"Professor! This isn’t working!" Hands shot up across the classroom. Aaron and his assistants were as busy as ever, moving from student to student.
"That’s all for today," Aaron announced, walking to the front of the class. "We’ll finish this next time." He unfolded a document that had just been delivered, nodded once, and then addressed the students.
"Everyone, your attention. I have an important announcement."