Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 91

Chapter 91: Disappearing Students
The sun had barely dipped past the spires of the academy when Kai passed through the stone arch near the herbology greenhouse where the plants for his naturopathy class came from.

His robes pulled tighter against the wind. Twilight had turned the campus golden, and students loitered under enchantment-lit trees, the usual mix of laughter and mana crackles rippling through the air.

Two girls sat on a low wall nearby, whispered behind their hands. Their voices weren’t meant for him, but they never noticed him slip into the shadow of the tower ruin beside them.

‘Concealment.’

“…She’s the first one this year,” one murmured, brushing a strand of copper hair behind her ear. “Gone. Just like that.”

“She didn’t even pack. It’s like, like she vanished.” The other girl’s voice quivered. “Why do they always say they just… left? Who leaves without telling anyone?”

“Pressure gets to people,” the first girl muttered, not sounding convinced. “Maybe she just couldn’t take it anymore.”

“That’s what they always say.”

Kai narrowed his eyes, processing each word. Missing students. This year’s first. Always say.

His curiosity deepened when a semi-familiar voice cut in.

“Are you talking about Lysira? The third-year?”

Aliza. A girl in her final year at the academy, and the same one he saved from arcane panthers so long ago.

She stepped forward, her red braids catching the last of the sunset. The two girls hesitated, then nodded slowly.

“Yeah… she was here two days ago. Then nothing. Her room’s empty. Faculty says she transferred. But…” One girl trailed off.

“But it’s weird,” the other finished. “Weird like last year.”

Aliza looked over her shoulder and locked eyes with Kai. She blinked. “You were listening?”

‘She spotted me through concealment? That’s a scary level of impressive.’

Kai stepped out of the shadow. “Of course I was.”

The two girls jumped as his concealment faded.

He approached calmly, hands tucked into his coat. “That sort of thing isn’t something you just overhear and ignore. What’s going on?”

The other girls quickly excused themselves, vanishing like shadows as Aliza turned to face him fully.

“Thank you, again,” she said, a little breathless. “For what you did at the caravan.”

Kai froze.

“I… Uh, caravan?”

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. I have a gift from the God of Sight: the eye of Asmondus. I can see your name, amongst other things. Even if you’re trying to hide it, I can see it all.”

‘I guess, if she didn’t tell anyone since I saved her… She might be trustworthy?’

Kai nodded once. “Well, you looked like someone who didn’t want to die.”

“That’s one way of putting it.” She looked down, then sighed. “Lysira is just the most recent one. Every year, one or two students disappear. It’s happened as far back as anyone can remember. Always with a clean dorm, a vague excuse, and absolutely no farewell. No letters. No goodbyes. Nothing.”

Kai narrowed his gaze. “How do you know it’s not just a transfer?”

“Because my best friend, Selene, vanished two years ago. She was in the top ten of our year. She would have told me. She wouldn’t have left without saying anything.”

Kai tilted his head. “And no one’s investigating?”

“No one takes me seriously. They say I’m paranoid. Grieving.” She met his eyes, her voice quiet. “But there’s something wrong with this place. The professors just ignore it. Some tried to figure it out when they first started teaching, but ultimately, they all gave up.”

A pause settled between them before Kai offered, “I’ll help you.”

Aliza blinked, stunned. “Wait, what? You will?”

“So long as you can give me any tips or tricks for winning the Arcane Crucible.” His voice was dry, businesslike.

She gave him a strange look. “You’re negotiating help for Crucible tactics?”

Kai shrugged. “We’re all under pressure, Aliza. You want something. I want something. Let’s make it work.”

She gave a soft laugh. “You’re strange.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

Still, something flickered in her eyes, relief, perhaps. Hope. “But if that’s what it takes, I’ve seen plenty of crucible games, and I’ve even participated twice. It’s a deal.”

She extended her hand, and he took it without hesitation.

As they parted ways, Kai couldn’t help but feel the stirrings of something off under the surface of the academy. The idea of missing students, quietly covered up, fed into a memory.

‘Merri’s sister. She went missing, too. What’s with everyone taking girls? Kidnappings and disappearances. I hate to think about what’s happened to any of them.’

That night, with the moon casting pale beams through the dorm window, Kai sat on the floor of his room, candles flickering as sigils swirled around him on pieces of paper suspended with a light rotating sphere of wind magic.

Willam had gone to the practice field again, obsessed with creating new hybrid spellforms.

‘This time, I’ll fortify my mind and body. I won’t let anything try and overtake my mind. One foot in this world, and one in the other.’

Kai waited until the air chilled, until the veil felt thin.

He reached into the space between life and death.

The candlelight dimmed to a pale blue.

Then he was in another realm. He stood up and viewed his eerie and darkened surroundings. She came, drifting into the room like a breath of winter.

Merri.

Her spirit shimmered faintly, no longer bloodied like she had been in her final moments of life. Kai’s wards kept her tethered to the space. Safe. Connected.

She smiled at him.

And that smile broke him. His tears flowed.

“You’re still keeping us together,” she whispered. “Even in death. You always were the strange one.”

Kai swallowed the knot in his throat. “That’s twice today someone has called me strange. I just wish you’d lived.”

“I wish I could be more than a corpse to you,” she said softly, brushing spectral hair from her face. “But we all make do with what we can.”

“I need to know about your sister. The one who went missing.”

Her gaze turned serious. “Elva. She looked like me. Taller. Stronger. She was fierce… but warm.” An image seared into Kai’s mind. Elva, long auburn hair, a stubborn jaw, eyes like a golden fire.

Then Merri’s tone changed.

“There’s something wrong here, Kai. Something bad is happening at the academy. Not just disappearances.”

“What is it?”

She opened her mouth.

But something yanked her spirit back.

The candles flared. Cold overtook his lungs.

Then… pain. Movement.

“Kai! Wake up! Wake the hell up!” Willam’s voice cracked as he shook him.

Kai gasped violently, eyes snapping open. His body trembled. He was pale, sweat-slick, breath shallow.

Willam was hovering over him, panicked. “You died. You died, I swear, your skin was like ice!”

“I wasn’t dead,” Kai rasped, sitting up slowly. “Just… deep.”

“Deep in what? A coma?!”

“A conversation.”

Willam looked at him like he’d finally gone mad.

Kai sat for a long moment, staring at the cursed band on his arm. Then to the empty air where Merri’s spirit had been.

Her warning echoed like thunder under still water.

‘Something bad is happening? First, I need to prepare for the Crucible.’

Kai cleaned up his mess and sat on his bed.

‘And then? Then I’ll go to Ylthara and find Elva.’