Reincarnated as a Genius Prodigy of a Prestigious Family

Chapter 67



Chapter 67: The Maverick of the Theology Department (1)

It seemed certain that Karnas was a summons from Beyond the Horizon. However, it had a slightly different meaning now.

If previously they had thought so because he was a summons that was ‘never seen before’, now I had confirmation of such from the copy of the text written in ancient Archana language.

That, too…

Fwoosh!n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

It was confirmed that he was the kind of being who would grow into a legend, spitting flames and flying with huge wings.

“Ha.”

I chuckled at the sight of Karnas, who was running around the floor and breathing thin but clearly hot flames. I couldn’t find anything to say.

Well, it definitely seemed to be that creature, seeing him moving around so actively and even breathing fire just a few days after hatching.

“This is ridiculous.”

I never thought that something that was only passed down as a legend could be true.

Anyway, as I gradually discovered facts about the Magic Kingdom of Archana, I felt like most of the facts I knew would be disproved. Although it was only fragmentary information, I was very confident. I finally left the library and headed to the forest near the academy to train Karnas.

It was called the ‘Forest of Bonia’. I didn’t know about other aspects of it, but I did know that it was uninhabited.

“First, we should start with training, right?” I asked Karnas only after I was sure there was no one around. “Karnas, do you want to fly?”

“Kikreuk?”

“Like this.”

When I spread my hands and pretended to flap them, Karnas flapped his wings with an ‘aha’ expression.

Of course, that didn’t mean that he flew

“Kikreuk…”

After trying several times, the little one got tired and started to walk away, turning his back on me and crying sullenly. He really was amazing. How come all of his emotions were so clearly expressed?

“Alright, so flying is a fail.”

His muscles and the membranes of his wings had not yet been properly formed. Even so, it was a bit strange that he was already spitting out fire—and that the flames could nullify magic barriers.

Wasn’t the order of things a bit backward?

“Next, running? Or… walking slowly?”

“Kikreuk!”

Karnas shook his head. Then he jumped up and down and headed towards a rotten tree.

“Why here?”

“Kikreuk!”

Karnas raised his head as if telling me to wait and see.

Fwoosh!

He breathed out a jet of flames and obliterated the lone leaf hanging on the rotten branch.

“…”

“Ki一kreuk!”

I had no words to say when I saw him shrug his shoulders as if asking for praise. I stared blankly at the falling ashes of the burnt leaf.

“Alright, let’s train fire breathing.”

While I was doing that, I glanced at the forest. Even the weakest spark of fire could easily burn down an entire forest. Having experienced countless fires, one of the most common accidents on the battlefield, I had to come up with another way.

“Let’s do this.”

The target was simple.

“I’m glad I took assassination lessons.”

It was a rabbit I just caught in the ‘Forest of Bonia’. Mother’s assassination lessons not only included cutting an opponent’s throat but also lessons on surviving the pre- and post-assassination situations.

Of course, hunting was included. It was just a rabbit, so it was easy to catch even with basic traps.

“Ki一kreuk! Kkireuk!”

The little one saw me dismantling the rabbit and went crazy. He struggled to get out of my hands, trying desperately to eat it—perhaps it was instinct.

“No, wait.”

“Kikreuk…”

At least he still listened well.

I skillfully dismembered the rabbit and set aside the edible parts to be used as targets.

“Alright, Karnas. We’re going to hit this with fire. We’re going to eat only what we hit. What do you think?”

“Kikreuk! Kikreuk!”

Karnas got into position, telling me to start quickly.

Really. I was speechless.

Anyway, while training, I was also grilling meat and providing food for this little one, so wasn’t this killing two birds with one stone?

There was still a lot of food I’d bought from «Eus and Boden», but it would be a good idea to feed him like this. If he got used to it and could hunt on his own in the future, that could only be a good thing.

Anyway, to start…

Fwoosh!

…I was about to signal start.

“Kikreuk! Kikreuk!”

The little one properly grilled the four rabbit meat targets I set up with four strokes of flames.

“You’re a genius, too, huh?” I stroked his head with a strange sense of kinship. “By the way, I think I should do some training too.”

Spearmanship, swordsmanship, magic, assassination, and even summoning. There were endless training options available.

“Hmm…”

Looking at the forest reminded me of my mother’s assassination lessons.

‘In that case, should I practice some of the skills that my mother taught me?’

Aside from classes, Ernest was busy deciphering the treasure map these days.

The treasure map wasn’t that difficult. The more he deciphered it, the faster he got at it, and when he was almost done, Ernest contacted Dane.

“Where do you want me to go?”

⸢The Forest of Bonia, on the northern outskirts of the Academy.⸣

“Forest of Bonia?”

There was nothing special there. Although monsters often appeared, they could all be dealt with by the forest ranger. There wasn’t much to see there, and the trees were densely packed, creating a gloomy atmosphere.

‘Is there some kind of clue there?’

Ernest, who associated everything with exploration, started to run with a sense of expectation. Then, by chance, he met Leila.

“Huh? Leila! Where are you going?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s Ernest.”

Ernest soon discovered that Leila was also heading in the same direction.

“Dane told me to go there.”

“Me, too.”

“Oh, that’s strange. I thought we were going to do club activities. Is that our base?”

“No? I heard that even if you’re a new club, if you apply, you can get a club room that used to belong to a recently disbanded one.”

“Then what is it? Oh! Is this a good place to practice swordsmanship?”

Leila clapped her hands. She was already itching to spar with Dane again. Though she might not be his opponent, wasn’t sparring fun?

Leila was a competitive child who got upset when she lost, but strangely, she didn’t feel that way when sparring with Dane.

‘He has such unbelievable talent.’

So, rather than trying to catch up, Leila decided to thoroughly analyze Dane and learn some of his skills.

The two of them soon arrived at the Forest of Bonia…

“Kikreuk!”

“That’s right. Perfect!”

They could see Karnas continuously breathing fire and Dane standing behind him, clapping and cheering him on.

It was truly a rare sight—both seeing such a little thing unexpectedly breathing fire and the person behind him clapped with the most loving expression on his face.

“… What are they doing?”

“I’m not sure…”

Eventually, the two approached Dane and Karnas一

“Dane, what are you doing?”

“Oh my, Karnas! Come here!”

Dane gave them an unexpected answer.

“Dragon training.”

The two were silent for a moment, and then, without saying a word, their jaws dropped.

“Training what?”

“Dragon?”

Dane nodded calmly.

“Yeah. Dragon.”

“Then… this little one… Nah. That’s ridiculous.”

“Right. It’s just a nickname, right?”

Dane shook his head this time and said, “No. I looked it up, and he really is one.”

While their heads were filled with question marks—

“I looked it up, and it turns out he’s a summons from Beyond the Horizon.”

“S-so?”

“Among them all, he’s a dragon.”

“…”

“…”

Dane was casually relaying shocking facts as if he were telling them what he had eaten for dinner last night.

“Dragons are definitely…”

“In legends…”

The two eventually gave up talking. The person they were talking to was Dane.

A genius among geniuses.

Someone who could do ridiculous things.

If someone else had said that, they probably would have burst out laughing, but this was Dane.

“Well, if you don’t believe me, just watch later. You’ll see when he grows.”

They both believed him. After all, considering the abilities and talents Dane had shown so far, there was no way they wouldn’t believe it.

They instinctively thought:

‘This must be kept a secret no matter what.’

‘If he’s really a dragon…’

Wouldn’t there be chaos?

It was shocking enough that a Familiar’s Egg had hatched, but what hatched out from it was a dragon?

This was really…

“I have a truly amazing friend.”

Leila nodded at Ernest’s muttering.

“I agree.”

Dane didn’t mind them and quickly dismembered the rabbit he had caught and created more targets with them.

“Now, Karnas. Shoot Sparks!”

“Kikreuk?”

“Oh, you don’t like that technique name?”

“Kikreuk!”

“Then Flame Attack!”

“Kikreuk…”

Dane seemed to be having trouble naming his skills.

“Why can’t he come up with a good name?”

“Even geniuses don’t have a good sense for naming things.”

Finally, Ernest, who could no longer stand to watch, stepped forward.

“Dane, how about Ignis?”

“Kikreuk! Kkiur-euk!”

Karnas was very excited when he heard the name of the skill, ‘Ignis’.

“What does it mean?”

“It just means fire. In ancient Sekreit.”

“It sounds good. Do you like it, Karnas?”

“Kikreuk! Kikreuk!”

Karnas got even more excited and breathed out fire.

With that, the rabbit meat was cooked.

“Oh, it was cooked evenly this time?”

“Ki一kreuk!”

He puffed out his chest proudly. This was a huge improvement. Now, he could even control the strength of the flames. It was so cute that Leila stroked Karnas’ head.

“I think it would be nice to have a friend like this.” Leila suddenly asked, “But how do you plan on raising him? Even if you can get away with keeping him in your clothes now, what are you going to do later?”

“That’s why I’m training him now. He will grow a lot later, so it will be difficult if he stays by my side all the time, right?”

“True…”

Karnas was a baby dragon. Simply put, that meant that he would become a real dragon later. At that time, it would of course be impossible for him to stay in the dormitory, and he would eventually have to build a nest or shelter.

“Well, if you look for it, there may be another way.”

Anyway, the reason for the current training was to develop independence and to prevent the abilities of the incredible creature from being used carelessly.

“By the way, Dane,” Ernest said. “I’ve finished deciphering the map.”

“Oh.” Dane’s eyes sparkled.

Leila and Dane gathered around Ernest. Karnas also approached, seeming curious.

“So you found out who the creator was?”

“Yeah. Surprisingly, it was Saul Hangston.”

According to Ernest, they needed to know the creator of the map to find the ‘key’.

“Saul Hangston designed this hall. Look.”

Ernest crouched down and spread out the map on the floor, his deciphered text spread out beside it.

Naturally, Leila and Dane couldn’t understand what was written.

“Your handwriting is bad.”

“Ha… haha…”

Ernest had bad handwriting. Really bad handwriting.

Well, as long as he explained it well, it should be fine.

“First, where we need to go is decided.”

“Where?”

“At the east end of the Academy, an abandoned hall that is now unused.”

“An abandoned hall…”

The Academy was built a very long time ago. Therefore, there were buildings that weren’t in use now. The abandoned hall was one of these.

“This is a hall built by St. Aimar, but it has not been used since it was completely closed some time ago.”

“Why was it abandoned?”

“Saint Aimar rebelled against the Emperor. Well, it wasn’t a rebellion, it was just that he went against the emperor’s wishes.”

“Ah.”

“First, according to the deciphered text… We need to enter the tombs of the saints located here, in the basement of the hall.”

Leila shuddered and said, “A grave? That’s a bit creepy.”

“That’s what the deciphered text says. As for the tomb, you’ll get used to it if you keep going. It’s a more interesting place than you think.”

Ernest shrugged as if it were nothing, but Leila shivered even more as if she would never do that.

In the midst of this, Dane expressed his doubts, “Wait. If it’s the east end… isn’t that the Academy restricted area?”

“That’s right.”

It was just as Dane said. The academy had quite a few restricted access buildings at the east end. St. Aimar’s Hall was one of them.

“If it’s a restricted area, at the very least we’d get demerits.”

“That’s right. It’s a demerit. If it’s a building built by someone who was disliked by the emperor and then closed down, then an even more severe disciplinary measure could be handed down.”

Dane passed on the matter for now.

“What else?”

“There will be Undead.”

What?

“…Undead in the Academy?”

“There are undead…?”

“That’s why it’s a restricted area.”

After the restricted area, there were undead. It was one problem after another.

“No, why are there undead in the academy?”

“Well, that’s because there’s only a thin line between theology and necromancy.”

Dane nodded at Ernest’s answer and said, “That’s true. It is said that when a priest dies with a deep grudge, his divine powers sometimes manifest as necromancy.”

“That’s exactly the case, Dane.”

St. Aimar.

He was a priest who tried to protect the poor and the weak but ended up gaining too many followers, so the emperor feared and eliminated him. His and his followers’ corpses were buried there, in St. Aimar Hall, and they now roamed the earth as undead.

“…Should I contact the Theology Department?”

“I heard they won’t go there. If the Theology Department goes there, it means they will ultimately rebel against the emperor’s will.”

“Ah.”

Political reasons.

“And since they are corpses that had strong divine powers while alive, they will be that much more powerful. That’s why it was only abandoned. If they could, they would have taken care of it a long time ago.”

“Ah.”

This academy really had everything.

“And even if you contacted the Theology Department, there probably won’t be anyone who would help.”

“Then isn’t it dangerous? Why leave it as-is? Shouldn’t something be done about it, even at the imperial level?”

Ernest shook his head at Leila’s question and replied, “Usually, the undead that are created in such a way can’t escape from their resting place. That’s where their power comes from. They’re not a threat unless someone goes in.”

To put it simply, it wasn’t a problem as long as no one went in. It wasn’t that it couldn’t be subdued, but it was politically troublesome to touch it.

There was also symbolism there. A sort of warning that if you rebelled, you would be destined to wander like an undead forever.

“That’s why the Academy is hiding its existence. Though, everyone who needs to know, knows.”

“But you know a lot about it, too.”

“I did my research thoroughly before enrolling. I love exploring! The Academy is the best place for exploring!”

He was just an exploration addict.

“So, does that mean we can’t solve it with our own strength? The undead’s weakness is divine power.”

Of course, divine power was not the only weakness. However, Leila and Ernest just stared at Dane with expectant expressions.

“Why are you looking at me?”

“Just in case.”

“That’s right. Can you also use divine powers?”

“…”

That was absurd.

Dane shook his head.

Instead, he came up with a method.

“I don’t know because I haven’t looked into whether I have a talent for it, but I know someone from the Theology Department.”

Dane recalled someone on the ninth floor of Dantère Hall, someone who was in the Theology Department… but didn’t act like a typical student from that department.


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