Chapter 205
Chapter 205
"What the fuck is this monstrous kid?! Get her away from me!!"
"?"
Nefthis was innocently nibbling at her ice cream.
Seeing Nefthis not backing down, goosebumps formed across the wary Belya's arms and legs, and she began spewing venom from her entire body.
Every millimeter of wood and stone within several meters of her turned green and toxic.
Simon quickly evacuated with his group.
Lorain also got startled and said,
"Professor, please calm down!"
She was about to cause a huge incident.
"Don't tell me."
Belya barely came back to her senses. As far as she was concerned, only one monster could possibly be this powerful.
"Are you the Witch of Death?"
"Yeah!"
Replied Nefthis, smirking.
Finally calming down, she pushed herself back off all fours. The poison pooled on the floor was sucked up into her feet.
"Hah, can a kid like you even be called human at this point? You look more like an outrageous monster."
Lorain's eyebrows twitched.
"Professor Belya, aren't you being a little bit too ru?"
"It's fine. She's not entirely wrong anyway."
After finishing her last bites of ice cream, Nefthis looked at her.
"Anyway, I can't have you making more trouble! I recruited you despite all the criticism from the elders! I'm going to be pissed if you don't cooperate!"
Nefthis puffed out her cheeks and feigned anger.
'H-How cute.'
It looked that way to everyone else, but Belya was drenched in a cold sweat, seemingly looking at a terrifying monster instead.
"I heard you were causing a lot of trouble, so I came here myself! Now, will you please go to Roke Island?"
""
She gave Nefthis a wary look, then sighed heavily.
"I guess I won't have much of a choice."
"Kajann, please guide her."
Kajann nodded and led her away. She followed without much resistance.
Then, she met her eyes with Simon and smirked.
"See you at school, Simon Polentia."
"Ah, yes Professor."
The Belya left along with the Thieves' Guild, and Nefthis turned to face the students.
"Ah, the first-years! Hello, hello!"
She jumped in place and waved, and when Lorain behind her signaled for them to stop bowing, the four who'd been as stiff as a board raised their heads.
"Hehe! Perhaps it's because you guys are still so early in your studies, but you're all so young and cute!"
Everyone looked at Nefthis with confused eyes for a moment before instantly turning their gazes elsewhere.
"Anyone hurt?"
"Not at all!"
Chimed everyone.
Simon felt that Nefthis was being friendly now, so he was a bit relaxed, but the three behind him were still incredibly nervous.
"Well then, go back to your dorms and get some rest. You gotta get ready for school tomorrow! The integrated second semester is gonna be a lot of work!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
All four of them bowed once more and turned to leave.
Then, Nefthis added,
"Oh, Simon, spare me a minute?"
Simon froze in place.
"M-Me?"
* * *
The late-night streets of Langerstine.
""
Simon had no choice but to be tense.
He was walking with Nefthis on his right and Lorain on his left.
Nefthis stopped at a stall along the way and bought another three ice creams. She had originally ordered only two, but the stall owner gave her an extra because she was cute, not realizing who she was.
"Nom, nom."
Of course, she wasn't the kind to give up her ice cream to children hundreds of years younger than her.
As Simon watched Nefthis blissfully eat, he turned to look at his other companion.
Lorain, who had been walking with a blank face, put on a faint smile on her lips.
"Did you have a good vacation?"
"Ah, yeah. You?"
"Uh, I was just lounging around the house."
As the two of them exchanged smalltalk, they arrived at Kemmelroad before they knew it. Simon looked at Nefthis.
"So why did we come to Kemmelroad?"
Nefthis had finished her ice creams and cast a recognition-hindering spell on her face. She needed the slight disguise, as many people on Kemmelroad would recognize her.
With the spell finished, she smiled broadly.
"I wanted to give you a gift!"
"Wh-What?"
"You know, since you contributed significantly to taking down the Saint of Purification this time."
Simon scratched his head awkwardly.
"I don't think what I did was that important, though."
"The damage would've been much worse if you and Kajann hadn't handled things well, and it's not as if I can reward you publicly or anything. Not with the secrets you carry. But I can't let it go unrewarded, either!"
Simon waved his hand dismissively, too bewildered to do anything else.
"N-No! You don't have to go that far!"
"Take what you can get, Simon."
Said Lorain with a smile.
"Kajann and Serene already got the rewards they wanted. You're the only one left."
"Yup, yup! Well then, let's see if my order arrived!"
Nefthis waved for the two to follow before strutting forward.
They arrived at the same store where Simon had purchased his first subspace.
* * *
* * *
The three were ushered into the basement showroom where the expensive subspaces were displayed.
"Welcome, Lady Lorain!"
An old woman appeared, dressed in a sumptuous mink coat and with gold jewelry dangling from her neck and fingers.
Lorain waved happily.
"Have you been well, Stephanie?"
"I'm fine as always! And the man next to you is?"
Stephanie's eyes lit up.
"You must be the Kizen student who bought the 4,000UB capacity subspace made by Gelen Eclipse?"
Simon looked genuinely surprised.
"You remembered?"
"Of course! I remember every VVIP since I opened! Then, last of all"
Stephanie looked at Nefthis, who had a recognition-hindering spell cast on her face.
"It may not be your face, but it's probably you, Nefthis."
"Ah! How did you know?"
"Because you're with Lady Lorain and you have ice cream all over your mouth."
Nefthis touched her cheek once and the spell was broken. She grinned and waved.
"Hi, Stephanie!"
"Hello."
Stephanie laughed.
"It seems like only yesterday that we were little kids playing in the fields together. This old grandma is all wrinkly, yet you're still the same, Nefthis."
"Yeah! Yeah! It was fun back then~"
There was a moment of reminiscence between the two old ladies.
"Oh, right, business! If you're here, I take it you wish to see that product?"
"That's right! We're here to see the item."
"Just a moment, please."
As Stephanie glanced behind her, four employees brought in a large box.
When they set it down, a small necklace on a red cushion could be seen sitting in the middle of the enormous box.
'S-Such exaggerated packaging.'
Nefthis reached over and tried to touch the necklace.
Ting!
Her hand immediately bounced back.
Then, enormous magic circles stretched out into the air and began to spin at various speeds.
"Whoa!"
Simon and Lorain both let out surprised gasps and took a few steps back.
"These are all security devices. Here, sign it, Simon."
"S-Sign? Where?"
"On top of each magic circle! Duh! You just have to write on them using your jet-black. Doesn't matter what you write."
Following Nefthis' instructions, Simon signed all twenty of the magic circles in the air.
There was so much to sign on that Simon had to catch his breath afterward.
When he was done, the security device was cleared, and he was allowed to pick up the necklace.
He slowly lifted it up, examining it in his hands. A white artifact in the shape of an octahedron was attached to the cord.
"Put it around your neck."
Simon did as he was told and carefully put the necklace on.
"Next, enchant the artifact with your jet-black."
"Alright."
Simon took the artifact in his hands and poured jet-black into it. The artifact changed to a dark-blue hue, then it seemed to dissolve into thin air.
"H-Huh?"
Simon panicked and tried to grab the vanishing artifact, but it was no use.
He stared at it in disbelief as it completely disappeared from his hand.
'Did I do something wrong?'
Nefthis and Stephanie burst out laughing, seeing Simon on the verge of tears.
Lorain shook her head at the childish adults.
"It didn't disappear, Simon. It's just that the anti-theft magic was activated."
"Anti-theft magic? What's that?"
"Your necklace could come off in the middle of a fierce fight, you know! So it carved itself into your body in the form of a sigil. If you look above your chest, you'll see"
Not even waiting for her to finish, Simon began frantically unbuttoning his shirt. Lorain looked away.
Once unbuttoned, he looked at his chest and breathed a sigh of relief. She was right. There was a dark blue mark on his skin.
"You're all set. Now, let's try it out."
Said Stephanie, rubbing her palms together.
"It's simple to use. I need you to ignite the sigil with jet-black."
Simon nodded, channeling his internal jet-black to activate the sigil. The sigil glowed.
"The subspace covers a large area of empty space. Think of the sigil in your mind and grasp the void behind you."
"L-Like this?"
Simon stretched his out arm behind himself and grabbed the air.
"You've got the right grip! Now, please picture that there's an imaginary sliding door. Not an imaginary lever, a door. Then, imagine that you're opening that door sideways with!"
Rattle!
"all your might!"
Thuuuuuuuuuuuuuump!
A huge portal, over twenty meters wide, opened diagonally in the direction Simon had pulled. It almost filled the entire underground storeroom.
"Woah."
"The design was based on Lady Lorain's abilities."
A faint smile appeared on Lorain's lips at Stephanie's explanation.
"This is a subspace exclusively for housing undead! If the subspace you're using now, Simon, houses 4,000UB, this one has over 100,000UB!"
Simon's jaw dropped.
"You mean to say it has more than 25 times the capacity of the subspace I have right now?"
Simon looked inside the portal he had opened. It didn't look like the inside of a subspace, but a vast field.
"That's right! But it doesn't have any ejection capabilities or anything else. It's purely a subspace for huge undead armies!"
Stephanie smiled.
"Of course, such a large subspace isn't available on the market. It's priceless."
Simon was so stunned that he forgot to say thank you.
Stephanie's gaze moved to Nefthis.
"By the way, Nefthis?"
"Hm?"
Stephanie lowered her voice.
"Isn't a super-capacity subspace like this only for top-notch summoners? Why are you giving it to first-year Kizen student as a gift?"
"Beats me."
Nefthis gave a meaningful smile.
"I suppose it might come in handy someday."