"What?" Meirin jumped up at Simon’s revelation. "So the Chaos Dullahan was a fake from the very beginning?"
"Then what’s your new skill, Simon?"
Under Meirin and Kamibarez’s expectant stares, Simon smiled sheepishly. "I have to figure that out now."
Meirin’s expression shifted from surprise to utter disbelief. "What is that?! That means you don’t have a plan at all!"
Kamibarez tilted her head, wondering if he was being serious. Beside them, Dick was laughing uproariously.
"That’s my bestie! So you’re just going to fool the third-years for now, right?"
"I do have a plan." Simon smiled brightly as he stepped into the Student Union building. "Just wait. I’ll show you something interesting soon."
---
Simon made his move that very night.
His first destination was the roof of the Student Union building. Waiting there was a man squatting with both feet planted firmly, staring up at the moonlit sky.
His gray hair fluttered in the wind, making the scar under his eye stand out.
"You’re here."
"Hello, Kajan." Simon sat next to him with a beaming smile.
Kajan let out a deep sigh and reached into his jacket. He swiftly held out a folded note pinched between his index and middle fingers.
"I’ve investigated all the official and unofficial auctions for Ancient Drakes."
"Thank you! The Thieves’ Guild’s intelligence network is fast, as expected." Simon quickly took the paper.
Kajan scratched the scar under his eye. "I heard about your duel evaluation today. Your recent actions raise a lot of questions. Your goal should be winning the duel against Aizel, so why are you looking for an Ancient Drake when you already have a surefire card like the Chaos Dullahan?"
Simon rustled the paper as he unfolded the note. "I figured one card wouldn’t be enough."
A faint smile appeared on Kajan’s lips. "Is that so."
After meeting Kajan, Simon headed straight to the Mutant Club room, where Benya Vanilla was waiting.
"This is good! A Red Drake, appraised as a three-hundred-year-old specimen! Red Drakes are the most fundamental of the Ancient Drakes, and they can use breath attacks, too. Oh, a Helm Drake is fine as well."
Benya looked over the auction list Kajan had procured and narrowed it down to the best options. Simon enthusiastically jotted down notes.
"How are you going to use the Ancient Drake? As a regular summon? Or for restoration skills or special abilities?"
"If it’s a skeleton type, I’d like to be able to use restoration skills on it. That’s my specialty, after all."
"Yeah, yeah, then we can narrow down the candidates even more!" She tapped the paper with her fingertip. "An undead made from this Ancient Drake can use minor Dragon Language! Complex commands would be difficult, but you could expect it to at least make the opponent flinch."
"That sounds good."
"And here, the Scale Drake. On the outside, its body looks completely smooth without a single blemish, right? They say it can actually form scales out of mana to cover its body."
To Benya, there was nothing more fun than giving shopping advice. She had been talking a mile a minute in her excitement, but then she paused, asking carefully, "But can you even handle an Ancient Drake? It’s a special undead that requires the Dragon Factor, you know."
"I’ve actually been studying the Dragon Factor lately. I recently figured out how to handle it."
Benya’s eyes widened. A second-year handling the Dragon Factor was unheard of. Still, given the incredible feats Simon had pulled off so far, she nodded, even if it was hard to believe.
"The price won’t be cheap, either. Do you have enough of a budget?"
"I’ll scrape it together somehow."
Ancient Drakes were rare monsters with immense archaeological research value, existing on a completely different level from the common drakes scattered across the continent.
If Liches were undead that excelled in raw performance, Ancient Drakes were practically in the realm of luxury goods. Collectors drooled over them, waiting for even a single specimen to hit the market.
Securing one wouldn’t be easy, but ever since Simon first heard Aaron’s explanation about Ancient Drakes, he knew he absolutely had to get his hands on one.
’There’s no better summon than this as an intermediate step toward a Bone Dragon. Above all, it has great synergy with me.’
He still had funds left over from various commissions. And since he planned to use the newly acquired Frost Field to create a new source of income, overspending a little wouldn’t be an issue.
Simon first selected the Ancient Drake he wanted to purchase from the auction, then wrote down the materials Benya listed as necessary for crafting the undead.
"The heart of a living Black Yeti—that will be really hard to get. It’s difficult to preserve, and the sellers name their own price, so there’s practically no stock. And the brain fluid of a White-Browed Lycanthrope, too..."
Simon spoke as he quickly jotted the names down in his notebook. "Could you also tell me the regions where those monsters appear?"
"You’re going to get them yourself? Black Yetis only appear in the northernmost part of the continent, and White-Browed Lycanthropes are in the Irokua Archipelago, far away from the mainland." She shook her head. "You could use your authority as Student Council President to request a teleportation magic circle from Kizen, but even for you, it’s impossible to gather all these materials in such a short time during this busy period."
"Don’t worry about that." Having written down all the materials, Simon grinned. "I have some people I can ask."
Benya tilted her head in confusion.
---
Without a moment’s rest, Simon headed to his next destination.
Returning to the Summoning dorms, he sneaked up to the roof without the building managers noticing. An undead crow was waiting there.
It wasn’t a bird commonly seen around Kizen.
"I’m counting on you."
To be exact, it was a bird controlled by Grayson in northern Kalos.
This crow served as his communication network with the North. Receiving Simon’s message, the crow immediately spread its wings and soared into the night sky.
Of course, this undead wasn’t going to fly to the North all by itself. Before it exhausted its jet-black aura, the crow relayed the information via telepathy to another undead bird of the same species.
That bird then flew up and relayed the information to the next. Through this continuous chain, Simon’s instructions finally crossed northern Kalos and reached the Frost Field.
And the Frost Field was thrown into utter chaos.
Monstrous growls and piercing shrieks echoed across the frozen wasteland.
All the undead of the Frost Field gathered at the ’Abyss,’ the main base of the Northern God. Their numbers were so vast that the red ground was completely obscured.
[Listen up, entire army!]
Zairos, the Northern God, stood on a hill and spread his arms.
[My great liege and the master of the Frost Field, Legion Commander Simon Polentia, desires the ’heart of a living Black Yeti’!]
The sea of the dead howled in unison.
Just to collect school supplies for a single boy, a massive army of undead had gathered in the Frost Field.
[Furthermore, our liege added that he needs it to be as fresh as possible! Therefore, I looked up the dictionary definition of the human word ’fresh’!]
’Huh?’ Grayson, who was watching through a crow from a short distance away, felt a sudden sense of unease.
[Fresh means ’new and refreshing’! And refreshing means ’feeling clear and cool’! Do you now understand our liege’s hidden meaning?]
The moment his explanation went beyond a single sentence, there was no way the undead of the Northern God could understand.
[Our entire army will march to Mount Afam, the habitat of the Black Yetis! We will eradicate every living creature there and sweep the mountain completely clean and refreshing!]
The undead shrieked in frenzied agreement.
’No, I don’t think that’s what he meant,’ Grayson’s crow urgently relayed through telepathy, but Zairos’s resolve remained unchanged.
[Our liege’s command must be realized! All forces, to Mount Afam...!]
At that moment, his voice warped, adopting a sinister edge.
[There is no reason to go to such a trivial place! With this army, we can conquer Vilkenos, which is currently rotting in peace... Keugh!]
Punching himself in the face to shut up the residual thoughts of the former Northern God, Zairos spoke again.
[Go! Dedicate your souls to our liege and carry out his command!]
With a deafening roar, the entirety of the dead in the Frost Field marched forth in a frenzy—all because of a single boy’s request to gather school materials.
---
Meanwhile, at the southernmost tip of the continent lay the Irokua Archipelago.
The Irokua Archipelago was a demonic region swarming with independently evolved monsters. Furthermore, because a dungeon had been left open to the elements, the monsters pouring out of it had severely disrupted the ecosystem, turning the islands into an utterly unpredictable danger zone.
Right here, a swarm of black flying objects soared in over the sea, cutting through the wind.
[Listen, soldiers of the loyal Skull Wing unit.]
Among the flock, the most massive cluster of feathers suddenly raised its head.
[Zairos, who became the Northern God, has joined the Legion. He claimed to be the Legion’s greatest loyalist in the past and still does now, but to me, Akemus, that is not the case.]
As new external entities invaded the archipelago, the native flying monsters buzzed furiously and rose into the air to defend their territory. However, Akemus did not slow his advance.
[Show true loyalty to that rolling stone! This is also a battle of pride between units, so we will secure the ’brain fluid of the White-Browed Lycanthrope’ before Zairos’s forces can complete their task! Eliminate everything that gets in our way!]
A massive pair of wings spread out with a piercing screech, revealing Akemus’s true form. Following his lead, the other Skull Wings fanned out their dark blue feathers.
[Prove your loyalty!]
The undead descended upon the archipelago.
Fishermen in the vicinity later testified that the sky had turned pitch-black for hours.
---
The Pentamonium Auction House was a place where all the most valuable items across the continent gathered.
Not only physical objects, but also dinner dates with celebrities, esoteric knowledge, and copyrights to magic circles were traded here. It was a place where anything with a rare value could be bought and sold.
Right here, where wealthy elderly nobles walked by leaning on their canes, a young man in a sharp suit was holding a communication crystal orb, looking thoroughly flustered.
"Lady Benya, I don’t think this will be easy."
He was an employee of the Vanilla Group, sent as Benya’s proxy.
"Dr. Gonilla is aiming for the Ancient Drake appearing in this auction. I think it would be better to aim for a drake on another day... Ah, you still want to bid? Understood."
As the employee tucked the communication crystal orb into his jacket and tried to head into the auction house, the Pentamonium auction manager blocked his path.
"I apologize, but no one other than VVIPs may enter."
The item Simon wanted was the corpse of a ’Scale Drake,’ known among Ancient Drakes for levitating its scales in the air.
Its value was astronomical, and the problem was that the caliber of the auction house selling this item was simply too high. The employee tried to use the Vanilla Group’s name to gain entry, but the auction manager shook his head.
"If it’s for the Vanilla Group, it would have been fine had the Chairman come in person. I am sorry."
"No, it’s not an item the Chairman wants, I’m just...!"
"I am sorry."
Faced with the firm rejection, the employee eventually turned around and reactivated the communication crystal orb.
"I apologize, My Lady. It’s a top-tier auction that only VVIPs can enter, so with my credentials... Yes, yes. Please tell Simon that I am sorry as well."
"Excuse me." Hearing those words, the auction manager hurriedly approached. "Did you say Simon?"
"Yes."
Only then did a warm smile appear on the auction manager’s lips.
"You should have said so sooner. If that’s the case, please go right in."
"Excuse me?"
"When Pentamonium’s barrier was breached previously, Student Council President Simon provided great assistance. It is a strict directive from the higher-ups to accommodate him with every convenience for his activities in Pentamonium."
The employee let out a small gasp of awe. ’As expected, it pays to have a good reputation.’
---
Back in the Mutant Club room, Simon and Benya were holding their breath, waiting for the results.
Benya rested her chin on her hand, nervously tapping the desk with her fingers. Simon was trying to repair his Overlord, though his distraction caused him to keep spilling lubricant on the floor.
Suddenly, the crystal orb flared to life.
[My Lady! We won the bid! We secured it for two thousand gold, which is cheaper than initially expected!]
"Yes!" The two of them jumped out of their seats and cheered.
"We did it! The biggest hurdle is over now!"
"I-Is it? But the other materials won’t be easy to..."
Just then, an undead bird pecked at the window. When Simon opened it, the bird fluttered in, landed on his shoulder, and chirped its report.
Hearing the report, Simon grinned. "The Black Yeti’s heart and the Lycanthrope’s brain fluid. They say both have been fully secured."
"H-Huh?" Benya stared at him in sheer bewilderment. He had already obtained those precious items?
But Simon took it a step further.
"Oh, by the way, I set aside two Black Yeti hearts—one for me to use and a spare—and there are a hundred and thirty left over. If the Vanilla Group is interested, would you like to buy them at a discount?"
"H-Huuuh?" Benya’s jaw practically hit the floor.
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