Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 83

Chapter 83: Juggling Two Lives
A week passed. Once a month, Divinity Magic class had been tolerable. Now, with Mari’s presence, it was like he had to sit through that class every day, like an injested poison. She preached the words of the gods, and he felt the sickening presence of divinity all the time.

She smiled like she meant it, laughed at things he said., and even asked him about his dreams.

And Kai lied through his teeth.

He never had time to present the fabricated backstory he had crafted prior to enrolling, not once. Everyone assumed he cheated his way into Thesiones, and frankly, he was content to let them think so.

But Mari was different. She didn’t just believe the rumours; she wondered. One day, she asked him point-blank.

“Everyone says you paid someone off to get in here.”

“And?”

“Well… Did you?”

“Of course not…” Kai sighed. “My master, someone the headmaster knew, sent me here with a letter of recommendation.”

“I knew it. I thought the citadel’s top magical academy wouldn’t let cheaters in, since lying is a sin before the gods.” Mari tilted her head and looked deeply into Kai’s eyes. “There’s something familiar about you,” she said one afternoon, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear as they sat on the grass behind the eastern tower, where students often went to study.

Not that he invited her along. She began to pester him more than Willam did over the last week.

Kai froze for half a heartbeat before launching into a tale he made up on the spot.

“My father worked the mines in the Iron Mountains,” he said, eyes focused on the distance as if recalling memories he’d lived. “My mother was an Elementalist from Stormveil. They met during a mineral trade to enhance elemental channels. She left pregnant. Raised me alone until I was ten. Then… she died.”

Mari’s expression softened.

‘It’s working. I’ll have her eating out of the palm of my hand soon enough.’

“I never met him,” Kai added with a shrug. “I travelled with merchants until I met a mage who saw potential and trained me. Eventually, they sent me towards Thesiones.”

He said it all with a straight face, drawing from a comic he read in another life. The main character had died a tragic death, but Kai didn’t plan to follow the same script.

Mari smiled gently, “That’s… sad. But you seem strong, in your own way.”

He nodded, forcing a smile, even as his shadows coiled restlessly in his soul.

“T-thank you.”

“So, what are your dreams? Would you want to serve the church as well?”

‘You murdered our parents. You brainwashed our brother. And now you want to know about my dreams?’

He hated her. But he needed her.

If he could gain her trust, just enough to ask her to heal Vepice… that was all that mattered.

“I don’t believe so. I think I’d like to travel the world. Maybe become an adventurer.”

Kai could see that she wasn’t satisfied with his answer, but accepted it.

Kai buried himself into a textbook about mages who have managed to use three types of elemental magic simultaneously. Thanks to Willam’s memorisation magic, the moment he flipped through the pages, the information stored itself in his head, but he pretended to be absorbed in it so that Mari stopped questioning him.

Between these uneasy conversations and endless classes, Kai’s free time dwindled into nothingness. What few scraps of solitude he used to salvage for sigilcraft or undead maintenance were now consumed by intrusions. His personal space had become a revolving door, constantly creaking open for three very different kinds of torment.

While in his dorm room, Willam barged in like a blizzard, carrying scrolls scrawled with impossible glyphs or rare theories from ancient magical civilisations, usually starting his visit with:

“You’re smart enough to get this, right? It’s only banned in two provinces now.”

Kai would listen, nod, even skim the scrolls, only because sometimes Willam stumbled onto something genuinely useful. Other times, it was just mind-numbing prattle about temporal mana displacement or cursed mirror arrays, all while Kai tried not to figure out how to write a silencing sigil to shut him up.

Then there was Emille, who found joy in finding new ways to mock him whenever they crossed paths. A smirk here, a comment there. Kai gritted his teeth every time.

After another elemental magic class with Todd Emberbane, someone pushed him into the wall by the door.

“Still in E-class? With all that raw talent? You’re like a spoiled fruit that looks good on the outside but is rotten at the core.”

‘Would anyone actually miss this asshole? I could just…’

He wasn’t even sure what Emille’s problem with him was. But he didn’t care. They’d settle things eventually. Just not now.

Finally, there was Mari.

She was the worst of the three, not because she was cruel, but because she wasn’t.

She didn’t knock or prepare Kai for her arrival. She just appeared. In the library, in the greenhouse, once even outside his dorm with a basket of fruit and a smile that could make a monster hesitate.

“Do you like strawberries?” she’d asked that day, holding one up like peace.

Kai had taken and eaten it after applying a weak barrier. He smiled and did as he was expected to, because he had to.

She asked about his training routines, what kinds of spells he specialised in, whether he’d ever seen a real celestial event, what he thought happened after death, and what his biggest dream was.

The worst part? He answered. Carefully. Calmly. Even kindly.

Because he needed her.

Temporarily.

She was a resource to be used, like a potion he’d rather not drink unless absolutely necessary. He reminded himself of that every time her laugh reached him and softened something inside he wished would stay sharp.

Several times, Kai approached her with Shade silently slithering behind him, claws half-drawn from the shadow realm. Just a test. Just to see if he could.

Every time, a thin veil of radiant light shimmered to life around her like a divine heartbeat. Gentle, but absolute. The barrier pulsed with warm golden hues that hissed at his shadows and repelled them like oil against water.

The third time it happened, Mari turned, unalarmed, her voice calm but curious.

“Mirlin… were you going to do something?”

He hesitated. Just a blink too long.

“I was sneaking up to scare you,” he said quickly, shrugging like it was nothing. “Didn’t think you’d have countermeasures.”

She smiled softly, completely unphased. “One of my blessings. A barrier that reacts to hostile intent.”

A chill ran down his spine. Not because of the spell. But because it worked. Even if his face was calm, even if his words were measured, the gods had read what was truly in his heart.

Hatred.

She walked beside him after that, speaking of light and grace and how all evil could be cleansed if given time and care.

And Kai? He forced his shoulders to relax and offered her polite nods.

All the while thinking: How long until that barrier fades? How long until I can kill her and no light answers her call?

But for now, he sharpened his smile and kept walking beside her.

Because before the darkness reclaimed what it lost… he needed her light.

—

One morning, his schedule was disrupted by a new subject: Binding & Warding Magic.

Taught by Warren Wilkins, a lanky professor with permanent ink stains on his fingers, the class delved into the theory and practice of magical containment, arcane cages, suppression seals, mana dampeners, anti-teleportation wards. The kind of magic used in prisons, battlefields, or when trying to restrain a volatile spirit.

Kai found it… fascinating.

Not just because it had potential to restrain divine or holy targets, like Mari, but because it could be used to control. To contain entities that defied death. Creatures like the Grave Maw. Shade. Maybe even himself, if things got out of hand.

Unfortunately, even this class ate away at his time. He etched his last sigil just over a week ago. The warnings from the band and from Orlin rang in his mind, but he had no time for it. Every waking second had him consumed by interference. He hadn’t practiced necromancy in over two weeks.

‘Orlin mentioned the band would do something after a day, but after I missed the deadline, nothing happened. Maybe the curse broke down over time?’

Just as he thought that, the curse activated.

He felt it during lecture, like a noose tightening around his arm. The Abyssal Band flared with searing heat, black flame crawling down his forearm in violent pulses.

Kai bit his lip until it bled to avoid crying out.

“Professor Wilkins, I need to be excused!”

“A bathroom break? Very well, I can’t protect students from expelled bowels.”

Kai rushed out of the classroom while holding his arm.

By the time he stumbled into his dorm room, arm blistered and raw, he collapsed on the floor and forced himself to heal it with his natural regeneration and use up his life essence. But even once the pain ebbed, the tightness remained. The band didn’t loosen.

That night, while asleep, something hissed in his mind. He woke to the tightness on his wrist.

“You were warned.” A voice said.

“We gave you a whole week of peace, Kai. And you wasted them. We were lenient.” Another voice added.

“You’re slipping. You let yourself get distracted.” A third voice chimed in, her voice low and pitying.

Kai stared at the smoldering brand on his arm and said nothing.

‘Ah, so there are three souls within this artifact. Interesting. Well, they’re right.’

He couldn’t keep juggling this false life. If he let himself slip any further, he wouldn’t just fail to heal Vepice or get revenge for his family. He’d lose the war he hadn’t even started yet.

‘I need to limit my distractions.’