Necromancer Of The Black Bible (98)

The next day.

The rumor that Erisia had humbled her rival, Valen von Kastren, spread in an instant.

Now there was virtually no one within the academy who didn’t know about it.

“Did you hear about yesterday? Valen supposedly bowed before Erisia!”

“Really? That proud Valen? I can’t picture it.”

“Who could’ve imagined it? But many people saw that scene yesterday.”

“I saw it too. Valen bowed until his nose nearly broke in front of Erisia.”

The strong subjugating the weak was a commonplace occurrence inside the academy.

After all, this place was built that way.

The academy broadly permitted student-on-student violence to teach that only the strong could survive.

In particular, armed competition among classmates was even encouraged.

The permitted scope of violence was wide; as long as it didn’t cause permanent damage or disability, it was allowed.

However, the continent’s best healers were stationed here, so becoming disabled was difficult.

So in practice, unless it was lethal, it was all acceptable.

“Killing right away is no fun. Then you can’t have this sweet victor’s ceremony, can you?”

Erisia smiled coldly and looked down at the area beneath her feet.

She was in her dormitory.

She sat lightly dressed in a chair, her feet soaking in a washbasin.

“Yes.”

A soft boy’s voice.

The end of that voice trembled faintly.

When she withdrew one foot from the steaming washbasin, the boy kneeling before her began to wash her foot.

The boy’s identity was Valen von Kastren.

He looked intact.

The ankle that had been trampled and broken was cleanly healed, and the wound on his nose was gone.

But unlike yesterday, he complied meekly with Erisia’s words.

That was to be expected; moments ago he had been completely subdued.

As promised, Valen had come here before wake-up time to prepare the wash water before leaving.

But Erisia did not leave him be.

Valen resisted desperately, but it was useless.

Erisia once again subdued Valen with overwhelming skill and stamped the hot red seal of the Eckhart family onto his left cheek.

Valen’s hands, washing Erisia’s feet, trembled continuously.

The eldest son of a count washing someone else’s feet.

Just yesterday they were classmates, and before that he had scoffed at the girl—now he knelt and capitulated.

Something unimaginable while living with his family was now possible.

Valen, already tasting fear, simply moved as his instincts dictated.

Erisia looked at Valen’s cheek as he washed her foot, smiled slightly, and spoke.

“Your expression is too stiff. Can’t you smile a little? You’re making the morning unpleasant.”

“……”

Valen glanced up at Erisia, and their eyes met.

“Ah, well….”

Embarrassed, he couldn’t control his expression.

Laughter isn’t something that can be forced like that.

Erisia bent forward and stroked Valen’s cheek.

“It’s not easy, is it? I understand. I’ll let what just happened slide. It’s probably your first time. But from tomorrow, you mustn’t do that, okay?”

“…Yes.”

“And….”

Erisia traced the seal stamped on his reddened cheek with her thumb.

“Don’t erase this until graduation. It suits you.”

The family seal stamped on exposed skin meant he was essentially a slave of that house.

It was a declaration that she would keep Valen as her slave until graduation.

Valen did not know how to respond.

Then he finally managed to speak.

“Wh-when I go back home on leave… what will I tell them….”

Erisia snorted softly and replied.

“What else but the truth. Tell them you’ve come to serve as the retainer of the great heir of the Eckhart family.”

Valen’s pupils widened.

The thought of returning to his family and saying that to his father made his future seem bleak.

But he couldn’t refuse.

He didn’t know what worse fate awaited him if he defied Erisia.

Valen, trembling all over, ended up wetting himself.

Erisia, watching this, spoke.

“Let’s stop for today. Get out.”

At that, Valen lowered his head deeply.

“Th-thank you.”

“Wipe up your mess before you go.”

“Yes!”

Valen quickly wiped the floor with the towel he had brought.

Then he used magic to clean it thoroughly.

When he finished cleaning, Erisia nodded, and Valen carefully closed the door and left.

At that moment, the wake-up bell rang outside.

Ding-, ding-, ding-

Erisia listened with a peaceful expression, then looked at her toes.

Her clean, white toes.

She wiggled her toes and then spoke.

“If I knew it would be this nice, I should’ve had this made sooner.”

In truth, Erisia had been watching for an opportunity.

Whom to subdue and make a slave.

She pretended to be ordinary on purpose, because if she revealed her strength too early everyone would avoid her.

Still, it didn’t cause much inconvenience to her life.

Her background as an Eckhart gave her power, and Erisia’s appearance was correspondingly beautiful.

Not many would dare to touch a beautiful young lady from the empire’s foremost mage family.

Except for immature types like Valen.

“First, I’ll take my medicine.”

Erisia took a pill from a drawer.

A lustrous red pill.

It was a tonic sent by her family.

A tonic that, when taken continuously, quickly helps form Mana Rings.

Thanks to it, Erisia reached the 4th circle by the end of the first semester of third year.

Erisia poured water into a teacup and dropped the tonic in.

The water bubbled and turned crimson.

She drank it slowly while checking outside the window.

She was currently in the girls’ dormitory.

Opposite was the boys’ dormitory.

And the place her eyes focused on was the room of Crown Prince Eric, a fourth-year student.

Within the academy Eric was unrivaled in skill and rank, so he used a special room on the top floor of the dormitory.

Slurp-

Just as Erisia was nearly finished with her tea.

The special room’s window opened.

Noticing this, Erisia naturally set her teacup down on the table.

Then she gracefully stretched her body.

Wearing light clothing, her curvaceous figure was fully revealed.

Her body, in the midst of growth, was alluringly beautiful to anyone who looked.

After briefly displaying her figure toward Eric, Erisia quickly drew the curtains and murmured,

“Shall I head down to the dining hall now?”

She immediately began to dress herself.

Dressed neatly in her uniform, she checked her appearance in the mirror.

Sunlit crimson-blond hair and skin so pale it was almost cold.

Against that backdrop, her eyes shone brilliantly.

Her eyes, glowing with the Eckhart family’s distinctive ‘golden hue of flame,’ were something she had earned in the first test after being adopted by the family.

Since then she had passed the numerous trials set by the family head.

Because of that she survived and made it this far.

Thinking of the trials she endured from being born an orphan to arriving here, the competition at this academy seemed trivial.

‘I will seize everything.’

After entering the academy she instinctively knew.

That most of those here were her prey.

Erisia smiled at her reflection.

Her face, which had been cold moments ago, blossomed brightly.

She looked like a fresh spring flower.

She touched her lips with a finger, staining them a bright crimson.

Her impression changed noticeably.

The previously innocent-looking flower now hinted at a mature allure.

At that moment, a knock sounded from behind.

“We’re here.”

She could tell who it was just by the voice.

The ones outside the door were Dexter and Revan.

As third and fourth-year students of chivalry, they had a close relationship with Crown Prince Eric.

They had been close even at the orphanage and had formed a powerful faction here as well.

“Wait a moment, I’ll be right out!”

Erisia smiled at the mirror once more, adjusted the crimson diamond pendant at her throat, grabbed her bag, and went out.

As the door closed.

The mirror that had reflected everything so far shimmered with a faint green light,

and within that faint glow a man’s face appeared.

A man with long black hair down to his shoulders.

He was Damian.

Damian slid out from the wall where the mirror had been and carefully examined Erisia’s room with ash-colored eyes.

Then he spoke softly.

“Found her.”

A rare smile played at the corner of his mouth.

Finding Emma wasn’t that difficult.

Knowing her family name, I quickly tracked a trace and, by dredging up the memories of those who remembered her, arrived here.

During this process I recalled an important skill.

‘Phasing into spirit form.’

I realized while fighting a wraith lord that if I phase my body into spirit form, almost no one can see me.

Unless it’s an archdemon of the Ethereal Realm like Illinas or Dikrea, or another spirit, they can’t detect me.

Moreover, there are no movement restrictions.

I can pass through any object and move at considerable speed regardless of location, allowing me to track a target by the shortest straight-line distance.

This is a tremendous advantage.

It’s incomparable to the invisibility used by ordinary mages.

‘Now my body can shift between spirit and physical form.’

I had already gained the ability to pass through walls when I formed my first Mana Ring.

I had taken Equinox’s explanation for granted, but fighting the Lord of Wraiths made me understand the phenomenon happening to my body.

[Very good. Understanding your own abilities is the basis of growth.]

Equinox’s voice was heard for the first time in a while, but it wasn’t particularly welcome.

Because this thing had been so quiet until now.

[The process of obtaining a necromancer’s fifth Mana Ring is itself a trial. You must solve this trial on your own.]

A bitter laugh escaped me.

Equinox giving me a trial.

[Your excuses are excessive. If you won’t help, then just be quiet.]

Equinox fell silent again.

I wouldn’t be needing its help.

My opponents were pubescent kids.

I had already gauged their level.

No matter how strong they were compared to their peers, they could not be my match.

And Dexter and Revan were here too.

‘Two birds with one stone, or rather three?’

In truth, I thought I had forgotten their faces.

But seeing their faces moments ago, memories from my previous life came back vividly.

The expressions of the kids who giggled while watching Andre press down on my knee.

‘What shall I do to them?’

I agreed with Emma that killing them outright wouldn’t be fun.

A victor deserves a proper trophy.

A hot flame rose from my heart.

That heat was anger.

That anger consumed me for the first time in a long while.

At that moment, Nocturne’s voice was heard.

Master. There is someone here.

At those words I turned my head and saw a woman watching me.

She was not human.

She was a spirit whose entire body shimmered with a red aura.