Chapter 80: Second Betrayal (6)
“Hey, Cairn. Do you have a partner yet?”
“Yeah, I already do.”
The offers came flooding in.
It was no surprise—every mage would want a skilled frontline warrior by their side.
Even Dolores, the one whose hair had been cut off by Cairn just a day earlier, was trying to team up with him.
“Do you have a partner yet?”
The nerve of her to ask that after what happened yesterday.
He couldn’t help but be impressed by her audacity.
“Don’t get the wrong idea, you did cut my hair, but… let’s just say, teaming up with me could be good for you too.”
An ordinary student would probably be flattered to partner with the top-ranked mage from the Magic Faculty, but Cairn had other plans.
“Sorry, can’t do it. I already have a partner.”
Dolores pointed at Merhen, the girl Cairn had chosen.
“Why? There’s nothing in it for you! She’s the worst at magic and even failed the last test. You need to get your scores up!”
“I don’t need anyone else to come in first place.”
“So… you really like her, huh?”
Cairn’s voice dropped a tone, making her flinch.
“When did we start speaking on a first-name basis? You never used to talk to me like that.”
“Well, you’re using first names too, and we’re the same age, so…”
“True, but if you’re gonna use first names, then stick to it. Don’t mix it up.”
“Great. Anyway, I can’t partner with you—I already have a team.”
“But… so, are you and her, like… a thing?”
“Yeah, it’s important! I kinda… like you.”
Now that was out of left field.
Even Merhen, sitting nearby, seemed confused by Dolores’ sudden outburst.
“Do you really need a reason to like someone? You were the first person who treated me like that, and it kind of… made my heart skip a beat.”
Dolores’ face turned bright red as she spoke, attracting even more attention.
The whispers among the surrounding students grew louder.
This was escalating quickly.
“Sorry, I’ve already decided on my partner.”
“So… are you two… dating or what?”
“…So, you’re saying I still have a chance?”
“Dolores, maybe think about other people’s feelings instead of just your own.”
“Take a moment and think about the way you’ve been acting. Then ask yourself if this is how you want to come across.”
“But… I’m still pretty, even with short hair!”
Was she really interpreting “the way you present yourself” as solely about appearances? The way her eyes trembled suggested that she knew what Cairn meant.
She might just be charging ahead despite the shame she felt.
Cairn chuckled quietly to himself.
At least when it came to romance, Dolores seemed very proactive.
It was admirable in its own way.
People who give their all, no matter the context, are always a refreshing sight.
With that in mind, Cairn knew he had to be honest with her.
“I don’t dislike you, but I don’t think we can be together. Sorry.”
He signaled to Merhen, and they headed outside.
Naturally, he asked her,
“So, you’re in for being partners, right?”
“If you don’t mind, yeah.”
Their last conversation must have left an impression.
Merhen quickly agreed to his offer.
“…Why are you doing all this for me? You and I don’t really have any reason to interact.”
It was all about stacking up points now so he could leverage them later.
Plus, if he helped her, there might be some extra bonus when the task wrapped up.
You have to start accumulating points early to get the best rewards.
He couldn’t just tell her that, though.
“You know my reputation, right? People call me a troublemaker.”
“…Yeah, I’ve heard that.”
“I used to be at the bottom of the ranking in the Swordsmanship Faculty. I guess seeing someone in a similar spot as I was made me want to help. It’s not that deep. I just felt like you could use some support.”
She paused for a while, clearly lost in thought, then spoke again.
“…Thanks for helping me.”
“I do it because I want to. No need to thank me.”
“But… were you hiding your real skills?”
“Something like that.”
Of course, he couldn’t say it was technically someone else’s body.
So he just rolled with it.
“We’re the same age, right? It feels weird to keep addressing each other so formally. Don’t you think?”
“Let’s just be friends. We’re all equal here at the academy, aren’t we? So, what do you say? We cool?”
“Great. Let’s get along.”
He offered a handshake.
She hesitated for a moment before taking his hand.
[PR/N: “We cool?” then proceeds to handshake, why is bro acting like those summer anime mc’s who are making the fml fall for them unknowingly with their ‘charm’.]
There was some time before the practical exam began.
In the meantime, Cairn decided to test out an idea he’d been mulling over.
He paid a visit to Professor Wellington.
“Oh! Cairn! What brings you here? Looking to finally join the School of Death?”
“Professor, I have a question first.”
“Is there no summoning magic at all in the School of Death?”
“Yeah, you know, summoning undead or something like that.”
“No, that’s not really a thing.”
“Why is that? I mean, it seems like a pretty obvious extension of dealing with corpses, doesn’t it?”
“Sure, many mages have tried to go down that path, but no one has ever succeeded.”
“What if someone could summon undead? What do you think would happen?”
“If someone could actually do that?”
“Yeah. Would they be hunted down by religious groups or something?”
“Ha! Don’t be ridiculous. If that were the case, do you think people would have even attempted it?”
He agreed with Wellington’s assessment.
‘The investigation results are similar as well.’
He had scoured through the academy’s archives.
As a result, he learned that the reason why these guys weren’t summoning wasn’t because of external pressure, but because they simply couldn’t do it.
Was creating an undead an easy task in the first place?
If you had some know-how or enlightenment, it might be easy, but if you had to start from scratch in an unknown field, it could be a very difficult topic.
“So, if someone could summon undead, they’d be treated well, right?”
“Of course. Among us death mages, they’d be considered a hero. It would be proof that summoning undead is possible.”
“And what about other branches of magic? Would they treat them differently?”
“Hah! Unfortunately, those magicians don’t really care. If they didn’t want to be around the ‘gross and smelly’ stuff, they wouldn’t have become mages in the first place. Summoning undead? They’d probably just scoff.”
“But why are you asking about this?”
Wellington’s response confirmed Cairn’s suspicion.
If he could summon undead, it would be a big deal to death mages, but other magic branches wouldn’t care much.
The other mages avoided the School of Death because they didn’t want to deal with the less pleasant aspects of magic, like decomposing bodies.
On the other hand, death mages would likely go wild over a simple skeleton summon, considering how many of them had tried and failed to do just that.
It would be like reaching a milestone that had eluded everyone else.
‘So if someone summoned a lich or a death knight, they’d go crazy, right?;
The knowledge that he could summon undead could be valuable among mages.
Other magicians might not care, but to death mages, it would be a groundbreaking achievement.
That opened up opportunities. Showing off even a simple skeleton summon could win over the mages and gain access to their knowledge. Given the versatility of the necromancy spells, that could be a significant advantage.
Using corpse-based magic.
Magic that uses bones for both attack and defense.
All of these were upper-level spells with considerable utility.
‘These would be perfect for my skeleton Mages,’
The skeleton Mages could use a few spells, but they were mostly basic-level.
Against high-level monsters, their attacks would often just bounce off.
He needed some beefier spells that could really pack a punch, using more mana to deliver a solid hit.
“Professor, I can summon undead.”
Cairn snapped his fingers, summoning a single Skeleton Mage.
In that instant, Wellington’s expression went from shock to awe.
“That’s impossible! H-how did you do it?”
He grabbed the Mage’s skull, his hands trembling with disbelief.
“I just imagined it.”
“Y-you mean to say that just thinking about it made it happen?”
Wellington’s eyes sharpened with intense focus.
“Tell me the exact process. How did you do it?”
“I just visualized the undead and reached out my hand. The mana flowed on its own.”
“Hmm… Given your extraordinary aptitude, it’s plausible that you might achieve what others can’t,”
Wellington said, nodding slowly.
His eyes then widened with urgency.
“You must let us study it! This could be a breakthrough! I’ll give you anything you want, but please, let us study this Mage!”
“Professor, wouldn’t it be better to have more subjects for research?”
“I can summon a lot of these skeleton Mages. You can study them all you like.”
“Really? Thank you, thank you! You’re the savior of our School of Death!”
“I just need you to do me one favor.”
“Teach the Death magic to the skeleton Mages, as much as possible.”
“Done. I’ll gather all the professors in the department, and we’ll start teaching right away. But… will they be able to learn the spells?”
“Well, we won’t know until we try.”
Wellington scrambled to summon the other professors from the Death magic department.
Within minutes, he returned with four others.
They all gasped in astonishment at the sight of the Skeleton Mage.
“Oh, undead summoning!”
“Is this really possible?”
“So, if you just teach us the magic, we can really study these undead?”
“Maybe our School of Death will be brilliantly revived.”
“Haha! That’s right! If we can summon undead , it’s really possible!”
The professors’ eyes lit up.
If undead summoning became possible, the potential of the School of Death would be much greater than before.
Skeletons were just the beginning.
If they could just figure out the summoning mechanism, there was no reason why they couldn’t summon higher-level summons.
This would open up a world of possibilities for all the magicians of the School of Death.
They might even jump from the lowest rank to the middle rank or higher in one fell swoop.
The five professors’ eyes gleamed.
[Summoning 1,628 Skeleton Mages!]
Rattling bones filled the enormous hall as the new Skeleton Mages appeared.
The professors were beside themselves with joy, seeing an entire sea of undead in front of them.
“Ahh… is this heaven?”
“Teach the spells! This is crucial for our research!”
“Alright! Let’s make history! This is going to be our biggest research project of the year!”
The five professors immediately dove into an intense lecture, teaching various spells to the Skeleton Mages, while Cairn observed the rapidly growing list of messages.
[Miley learned ‘Corpse Explosion’ from Professor Hammerson…]
[523 Skeleton Mages learned ‘Bone Shield’ from Professor Stal…]
[1,102 Skeleton Mages learned ‘Magic Circle Formation’ from Professor Milennol…]
A deluge of messages streamed in, signaling a cascade of new knowledge being shared among the Skeleton Mages.
Cairn’s gamble had paid off.