Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Spendthrift Necromancer (77)

Second Arrangement (3)

Wellington and Arnold.

The two argued fiercely. Before long, Wellington turned urgently toward Kern.

“Kern! Didn't you say you wanted to join the Magic Department?”

“If I do, can I arrange my classes however I want?”

“……

Why? You'll already be busy enough taking only School of Death classes…….”

“Really? Now that I think about it, maybe I don't absolutely have to join the Magic Department?”

Only then did Wellington realize what was happening.

This audacious student was pitting him against the head of the Swordsmanship Department.

The problem was that the department head, who outranked him, was charging in with foam practically spilling from his mouth.

“Hoho, Professor Wellington doesn't seem particularly desperate. Then why not concede him to us?”

“……

You may arrange your classes however you like!”

“We'll let you skip classes entirely! Just keep Swordsmanship as your department in name and take only whichever classes you want! I'll authorize it personally as department head!”

“I can take Magic Department classes too?”

“Of course! Naturally! I have at least that much authority.”

“What if I don't choose many classes?”

“Fill the rest with Swordsmanship! You don't even have to attend. You've already earned full marks!”

Wow, this guy.

He really didn't hold back.

That basically meant Minwoo could attend only what he wanted and skip everything else.

Much better than what the School of Death had offered.

He liked it very much.

“Well, if you're willing to go that far.”

“Haha! Yes, excellent choice!”

Wellington's eyes went hollow.

Minwoo didn't feel particularly sorry.

Society was competition, after all.

It was Wellington's fault for failing to offer better terms.

“It was a pleasure, Professor Wellington.”

“Ahhh…….”

Wellington reached out with a trembling hand as though some blond, tanned delinquent had stolen his lover away.

Minwoo passed him and approached the department head.

“I'll be in your care, Department Head.”

“Hoho. Yes, yes. Just make the schedule you want and bring it to me. I'll approve it immediately.”

The department head patted his shoulder affectionately as he spoke.* * *Merhen.

A second-year student in the Magic Department.

Her primary aptitude was Water-element magic.

Just as the Swordsmanship Department Head had boasted, taking the same classes as her wasn't difficult.

After registering, Minwoo naturally slipped into one of her classes.

He spotted a blue-haired woman who looked like a noble young lady.

“Hello. Mind if I sit here?”

“…….”

Merhen stared at him.

Only for a moment.

“……

Go ahead.”

Her answer came in a tiny voice.

He sat beside her and studied her.‘She's timid.’She could barely meet his eyes, like the textbook image of a sheltered noblewoman.

He casually dropped a phrase.

“Death Lord.”

“……

Pardon?”

“The Arrangement. Doesn't that mean anything to you?”

“What are you suddenly talking about…….”

They were keywords she should have had no choice but to react to, yet she didn't so much as twitch.

She only tilted her head as though he'd genuinely said something completely out of nowhere.‘What?’This was very different from Cedric.

The moment Minwoo participated, Cedric had immediately recognized him as a challenger to the Trial.

He had also known that time was repeating endlessly because of the Arrangement.

Merhen was different.

She merely tilted her head with innocent eyes as though she truly knew nothing. If this was acting, she deserved an award for Best Actress.‘Two possibilities.’She knew and was pretending not to.

Or she genuinely knew nothing.‘Feels like the latter…….’If she knew nothing, why?

Minwoo had one guess.

Right now, she wasn't undead.

Becoming the Banshee Queen would happen in the future.‘So she doesn't have the memories?’Because she'd been returned to the period when she was human and completely unrelated to all of this?

Either way, one thing was certain.

This place had been constructed from Merhen's regrets. To resolve it, he ultimately needed to discover what she regretted.‘Better observe first.’She looked like an extremely timid girl.

Approaching too aggressively could easily backfire.

Especially since Kern, from what Minwoo had heard, was notorious as a problem child.

If he rushed in, he'd only leave a bad impression.

He quietly attended the same classes and spent time observing her. Along the way, he learned several things.

There were noble girls who kept flicking strange bits of debris into her hair, along with groups who snickered whenever they looked at her.‘Is she being bullied?’It looked that way.

She was suffering from subtle, malicious bullying. On top of that, she didn't seem to have a single close friend.

Her routine was simply class, library, food, sleep, and repeat forever.

Kim Minwoo, meanwhile, was enjoying the life of a social butterfly.

The child of a prestigious house.

And word had spread.

He was the eccentric who had defeated all the Swordsmanship professors and then started learning magic.

It wasn't strange that he began attracting attention.

Nobody in the Academy had ever behaved this bizarrely before.

In only a day, countless Magic Department students had begun gathering around him.

He grabbed one who looked like the talkative type and asked.

“Your name was Malone, right? I have a question.”

“Yes, Lord Kern. Ask away.”

“We're the same age. Why are you talking so formally?”

“Come now. How could we possibly be equal? Lord Kern is a child of House Demorn, a ducal family, while I'm merely the son of a viscount.”

“Doesn't the Academy say status doesn't matter here?”

“People can say anything they like.”

That told him enough.

Minwoo nodded.

“Especially someone like you, Lord Kern. Your family is powerful and your talent is exceptional. People naturally treat you with respect.”

“Enough flattery. Her.”

Minwoo pointed toward Merhen, and Malone tilted his head.

“Ah, her?”

“Tell me everything you know.”

“Could it be that Merhen has caught your eye?”

“Answer the question.”

Malone grinned as though he understood.

“You know how the Empire sends inspectors to every district, right?”

“It does?”

“Yes. They say it's to find hidden gems and all that. Anyway, she's a commoner Mage selected through that program.”

“A commoner?”

“Yes. Meaning she has no backing.”

“She could still be a merchant's daughter or something.”

“Haha. You're joking. Everyone knows her parents are tenant farmers.”

“So those girls bully her because they're jealous of her talent?”

“No? She isn't talented.”

“Why would they select a commoner with no talent?”

“To be precise, she has aptitude, but she's hopeless at manifesting it.”

“She can't use magic?”

“Correct. That's something you only discover after actually learning magic, so…… once she got here, everything came out.”

“Does that happen often?”

Malone shook his head.

“Extremely rarely. Usually, someone with strong aptitude is also good at manifestation. You could say she was extraordinarily unlucky.”

An Academy mostly attended by nobles.

And a commoner had slipped in.

But she had no talent?

That would make her even easier to bully.

Minwoo understood the situation well enough.

“Still, the accessories she wears look pretty expensive.”

There was a reason he'd first mistaken her for a noblewoman.

The uniform was standard Academy clothing, but accessories and things like that looked rather costly.

Malone snorted.

“Well…… she probably went into debt. You see that sometimes. Commoners who spend heavily on appearances. If they don't, they feel like they're truly nothing. Not that dressing up changes their lowborn blood.”

“She borrowed money?”

“She's an Academy student, so there must be places willing to lend to her. The interest would be rather high since she's a commoner, though.”

“Fine, setting that aside…… who's she?”

Minwoo pointed toward the girl who seemed to lead the noblewomen bullying Merhen.

“Uh…… well…….”

Malone's eyes darted around.

His manner suddenly became much more cautious.

Then he whispered quietly into Minwoo's ear.

“Lady Dolores of House Encian.”

“A duke's daughter?”

“Yes. You could say her family is roughly equal to Lord Kern's…….”

“A duke's daughter has nothing better to do than bully a commoner?”

“Ahem. Lord Kern, since you've been in the Swordsmanship Department, you may not know this…….”

Malone lowered his voice.

“Actually, in their first year, Lady Dolores lost the top ranking to that girl.”

“She can't even use magic, but she ranked first?”

“Ah, first year is usually like that. Unless you're from one of a handful of magic families, nobody has learned actual magic yet. So first-year rankings are based on aptitude.”

“She must've had excellent aptitude to take first place.”

“Yes. Merhen was famous when she entered. She had aptitude for all four major elements. First place was practically guaranteed.”

“So Dolores lost first place to her and held a grudge?”

“I don't know if I'd call it a grudge, but Merhen definitely got on her nerves. Then once they opened the box, it turned out there wasn't much inside…….”

And apparently the harassment had continued ever since.

Minwoo understood the situation.

Time to assess it.

Merhen was a commoner.

Her aptitude had been strong enough to rank first. She must have entered the Academy with enormous hopes.

But once things began for real, she turned out to have nothing?‘Her pride must've been shattered.’She'd probably gone into debt trying to patch up that shattered pride through spending.

On top of that, she'd been suffering subtle bullying for a long time.‘Sounds awful.’He didn't even need to see more to know.

The Academy was probably half hell to her.

She likely couldn't withdraw either.

If she'd taken loans because she was a student, dropping out might mean getting dragged somewhere shady the very next day.

What could she regret in a situation like this?

Taking out more debt than she could handle?

Becoming a Mage?

Failing to enjoy her school years?

Several possibilities came to mind.‘I'll start with the easy one.’He approached Dolores and her group.

The girls had been flicking little scraps at Merhen and indulging in their subtle harassment. Their gazes shifted toward him.

When he stared, Dolores stepped forward as their representative.

“What is it?”

“Stop bullying her. It's ugly to watch.”

“……

Ha!”

Dolores scoffed in disbelief.

“Who are you to interfere? Is there something between you and that girl?”

“That's none of your business.”

“And what if I don't stop?”

When suppressing a group, the first thing to do was take out the leader.

He drew the Necromantic Sword.

In an instant, Dolores's hair was sliced cleanly away. Golden strands scattered across the floor.

She blinked.

Stared blankly down.

Then.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

She shrieked in horror.

“L-Lady Dolores's hair……!”

“She spent more than ten years growing it……!”

The followers' eyes grew huge as well.

For a noblewoman, hair was like a peacock's feathers.

Now it was gone.

Of course they were horrified.

“Y-You fucking bastard!”

Blood vessels burst across Dolores's eyes. Mana gathered around her body.

Looked like she was trying to cast magic.‘She's basically asking to be hit.’Apparently her brain had filled entirely with thoughts of attacking, because she had practically no defense at all.

Minwoo slammed the sword sheath into her temple.

Since she'd concentrated all her Mana into the attack, she collapsed instantly.

She was supposedly the daughter of a duke.

Killing her would be too much even for Minwoo to handle.

He'd probably get expelled.

So he'd kindly settled for knocking her unconscious.

“M-My lady!”

“She's not dead. Take her away.”

“How dare you! You barbarian!”

“Want a taste of being bald too?”

“Eek!”

The noblewomen trembled and finally lowered their eyes. As they left the classroom like defeated soldiers, Minwoo called after them.

“Tell her if she pulls anything again, I'll cut off the rest of her hair. When you come back, I'm asking whether you told her. If she doesn't know, you're getting cut too.”

“L-Let's go! Hurry!”

The noblewomen fled the classroom.

Minwoo turned around.

Merhen was staring at him with a shocked expression.