The battle with the immortal army was over. Following the Ganes Guild, the Tarados regular army had also joined Simon’s side. Soldiers stood guard over the fallen undead, their weapons ready to strike down any that tried to regenerate. Simon, the only one who could truly destroy them, moved through the ranks, finishing them off with the Greatsword of Ruin. Soon, nothing stirred.
"We’ll make camp here!" a commander bellowed. "Move quickly before night falls!"
Darkness was closing in. The nights in Tarados were notoriously cold, so under Simon’s mediation, the two factions agreed to set up a joint camp. Even so, Serne kept eyeing Lorraine’s regular soldiers as if she was itching for a fight, but Simon managed to talk her down.
While the girls rested, Kajan worked with practiced efficiency. With the rhythmic ’bang’ of his hammer and a nail held between his teeth, he had a large military tent taking shape with surprising speed.
’This is harder than it looks.’
Simon was helping him. The task seemed simple enough—wrap the tent’s guy lines around iron stakes—but it required a delicate touch. The lines had to be pulled with balanced tension, and he had to find solid ground, avoiding the deeper patches of sand.
"Have you been well, Simon?"
Lorraine approached him. "Ah, Lorraine!"
"Need help?"
"No, no, I can handle it."
She nodded and squatted beside him to watch. Having an audience somehow made him nervous, and his hammering became even more deliberate.
’Bang— Bang—’
"I was so surprised," Simon said as he worked. "You showing up with the domain soldiers, and Serne with the Ganes Guild."
Lorraine offered a faint smile. "A lot has happened."
She explained that she had come on this mission evaluation to thwart Serne’s schemes. When she learned that Serne was heading to Tarados, Simon’s destination, she had requested an additional teleportation circle from the school. However, the day before the evaluation, she had lost contact with her subordinate in Tarados. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Lorraine had come through ahead of Simon, only to be met by soldiers sent by the Order. They had tried to capture her on sight, even after seeing her Kizen uniform.
"So that’s why the teleportation circle to Tarados was gone," Simon realized.
"That’s right."
"How persistent of you," Serne drawled, sauntering over with her arms crossed. "To think you’d follow me all the way out here."
To avoid Lorraine’s pursuit, Serne had accepted a mission in a different region before using an Ivory Tower teleportation circle to slip into Tarados.
Lorraine’s eyes narrowed. "Of course I had to follow. Things won’t go the way you and the Ivory Tower want."
Meeting her flashing red gaze, Serne smirked. "At school, you’re as meek as a declawed cat. But the moment you’re outside, your true colors show, don’t they?" She gestured to the locket around Lorraine’s neck. Its clasp was open.
"So," Lorraine hissed, her voice laced with ice, "think very carefully about every move you make. The moment you do anything suspicious, I will strike first."
"Oh my, how terrifying."
"That’s enough, you two." Kajan emerged from behind the tent, hammer in hand. "We can’t stand around arguing. We need to make a concrete plan for what’s next."
Kajan immediately summoned the key players to the tent: the driver, who had served admirably as their guide; Lisa, their client’s sister; General Amin, commander of the Tarados regular army; and Karak, the bandit leader who now proudly served as Serne’s right-hand man.
"I am Amin," the general began, taking the lead. "The place where we have set up camp is, in fact, the entrance to the Order’s secret base. All prisoners captured throughout Tarados are brought here."
Simon sat up straighter. "What happens to them after they’re sent inside?"
"I’ve only ever seen the ‘gate’ open from a distance," Amin admitted. "I don’t know what becomes of those who are taken."
"Excuse me, enough of that," Serne interrupted, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Just tell us how we get into this ‘secret base’ of yours."
She exuded such an unapproachable aura that even General Amin treated her with deference. "Yes. The gate to the base is estimated to open at midnight. All prisoners are moved at night, arriving at these ruins at precisely that time. It has never once been different. On occasion, if the number of prisoners is too large, they are sent back and brought again the following night."
This confirmed what Lorraine had told him earlier. It was why they were now camped out, waiting for midnight.
"In that case, how do we open the gate?" Kajan asked.
In response, Amin produced a key from his coat. "I took this from the lord. At midnight, a spatial distortion occurs in the ruins. If we insert this key at that moment, we should be able to open the gate to the secret base."
"Hey, that key! Our old boss had one of those!" Karak exclaimed, raising his hand. He glanced at Serne and quickly corrected himself. "The ’old’ boss, of course! I serve my Queen now!"
"Oh, what a loyal man," Serne giggled.
Lorraine’s gaze shifted to her. "What did you do with Black Wolf Ganes?"
"What do you think I did?" Serne shrugged. "He dared to raise a weapon against me, and my mind control wasn’t working very well, so I lost my temper and made a mess of him. He ran off, a bloody pulp, bawling his eyes out. I imagine he’s probably dead by now."
"That’s our queen!" Karak boomed. "There’s no one else on the continent who could overwhelm Captain Ganes like that!"
Simon hid a dry laugh. So that’s how she’d taken over the Ganes Guild. Brute force.
"And you?" Serne turned to Lorraine. "How did you manage to bring the lord’s soldiers?"
She sighed. "Finding you and Simon was the priority, but the situation in Tarados was too dire to ignore. I handled it while I was there to demand an explanation from the lord."
As expected. As the one destined to succeed Nephthys, she felt a profound responsibility for the crisis in Tarados.
"I arrested the lord and locked him in the dungeon," Lorraine continued. "Frankly, his reputation among his own soldiers was abysmal. He forced them to be his villains while constantly withholding their pay. Amin is far more popular. When news spread that the lord was imprisoned and Amin had staged a coup, most of the soldiers sided with him. The men I brought are all loyal to Amin, not the lord."
"Let’s get back to the matter at hand," Amin said, unrolling a parchment on the table. "This is a rough map of the secret base’s interior. It was in the lord’s safe."
Kajan leaned forward to inspect the document. "This is far too confidential for an outsider to be holding."
"The lord joined the Order," Simon explained. "Given the massive workforce he provided, he must have been an important figure to them."
Simon clapped his hands together, the sharp sound cutting through the tension. "Alright. We’ll rest until midnight. When the time comes, we’ll use the key to open the spatial gate and make our entry."
He turned to Lisa, whose face was etched with anxiety. "Don’t worry. I promise I’ll save your brother."
"Okay!" she nodded, the movement causing the necklace around Simon’s neck to sway.
[Wait a moment! You haven’t forgotten our priorities, have you? My main body comes first!]
’I know, Kal,’ Simon thought. He scanned the faces of the others. "You’re all going to help, right?"
Kajan gave a firm nod. "We’ve already discussed this. I’m your escort, and I’ve agreed to cooperate in any way necessary."
Lorraine chimed in, her expression resolute. "As students of Kizen, we can’t turn a blind eye to the tragedy in Tarados. I’ll help with everything I have."
A brilliant, mischievous smile spread across Serne’s face. "I don’t want to," she sang.
’What?’
She held out an open palm. "Unless, of course, you offer me a worthy price."
"You have to be kidding me."
Serne was a formidable force on her own, and unlike him, she had no need to conceal her commander’s power. Her help was essential. Simon heaved a long sigh and looked up. "What do you want?"
"The usual. A stamp on my coupon." Serne winked, holding up three fingers. "How about three for this little job?"
Simon said nothing.
He’d tried to ignore her incessant talk of coupons, but her persistence made it impossible. What on earth did she plan to wish for once she collected all ten? A sliver of fear crept into his thoughts.
"Three is too much," he countered. "One."
"Three."
"One."
"Three."
"One."
They were at an impasse. Serne’s expression softened into a cute wink as she grabbed Simon’s arm. "How about three, with some cozy date time with me included?"
"Gah! My queen...!" the bandit leader, Karac, growled, glaring at Simon with eyes burning with jealousy.
Simon ignored him and pressed on with the negotiation. "Shouldn’t that actually lower the price?"
"Wow, so mean!" she pouted.
"Fine. Two stamps, and that includes you sparing your time."
"Then it’s a deal!" Serne, finally satisfied, extended her hand. Simon took it, and they shook on the agreement.
As time passed, the sky grew dark. Serne, ever the free spirit, nonchalantly wrapped herself in a blanket and drifted off to sleep. Kajan, meanwhile, meticulously analyzed the map of the secret base. Lorraine offered to prepare a meal.
"I’ll make something simple," she announced. "It’s best to eat before a major battle."
As she stood, bucket in hand, Simon rose to join her. "Ah, I’ll help."
With dusk settling around them, the two walked together to fetch water from a subterranean spring said to flow near the ruins. Lacking proper cooking facilities, everyone had to fend for themselves. Fortunately, Simon had a cooking set in his subspace and planned to make a simple vegetable soup.
Simon walked in silence.
Carrying the empty bucket, Simon stole a glance at Lorraine. Her steps were light today, occasionally breaking into a little skip. Her expression seemed carefree, a stark contrast to her usual demeanor at school.
"What are you looking at?" Lorraine asked playfully.
Startled, Simon quickly averted his gaze. "Nothing, it’s just..."
"This?" She gently shook her locket necklace. "Is this bothering you?"
Simon gave a small nod. He had wanted to ask about it for a while but had held back, sensing the shadow that constantly hung over her. He suspected it was a family matter involving Nephthys.
"During the break, my mother said something to me." Lorraine’s fingers traced the outline of the locket, her long eyelashes casting shadows on her cheeks. "She asked, ‘During your first year at Kizen, how much did you grow compared to Simon or your other peers?’"
Simon said nothing.
"I didn’t really have an answer."
Lorraine was already a complete necromancer. Her unique red ability was so potent that, when applied to a skeleton, it could defeat ten others single-handedly. When used on a skeletal horse, it made the creature faster than any other in existence. But for all its strength, her reliance on it had become a crutch.
Simon scratched his head, feeling a bit awkward. "She compared you to me? I feel kind of bad about that."
"There’s nothing to feel bad about. Besides, the second example she used was Phantastus. He became the strongest in Kizen by honing a single curse, without any innate ability. Hearing things like that... it made me realize I really haven’t grown at all since my first year."
Simon listened in silence, nodding as she spoke.
"It’s also true that I wasn’t motivated by the first-year curriculum," she admitted. A night breeze swept past, rustling her black hair. "Nothing I learned at school was stronger than my own ability. So instead of learning, I tried to get involved in the school’s administration, to prove my managerial skills to the adults. But in doing so, I neglected what was most important about my role as a student."
They had arrived at the spring. She placed her bucket in a hollowed-out pit, and water slowly began to fill it. They sat down to wait.
"So, a restriction was put in place." She pulled her knees to her chest. "I am not to interfere with school administration until I graduate. That is my mother’s order."
"So that’s why you couldn’t step in and stop the third-years’ hazing ritual."
"Yes. I have no authority. And secondly..." She fastened the locket at the end of her necklace, then conjured Jet-Black in her palm. Not a trace of red energy was present—only a pure, inky darkness, like her hair, that flickered in her hand. "My innate ability is to be sealed on school grounds."
Simon remained silent.
"From now on, I have to handle all my classes, exams, and evaluations using only the inherent power of a necromancer. The only times I can use my ability are when I must fight under the Archbold family name, or when I’m fulfilling my duty to stop Serne."
Simon finally spoke. "It’s not my place to say, but doesn’t that seem a bit excessive? You’ve always used your black magic by weaving your ability into your Jet-Black. If that’s suddenly blocked..."
"You’re right. I might have become a below-average necromancer at Kizen." She closed her palm, extinguishing the Jet-Black, and clenched her fist. "But after a day or two of living like that, Simon..."
She turned to him, a bright smile gracing her lips. "I started to admire you."
With a bewildered expression, Simon pointed at himself. "Me?"

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