“And here we are!” I cheered as the floating platform stopped in front of the Sorcerer City-state of Compus, the city which the games were being held in.

As the Sorcerer Academia Games was an important event throughout the states, there was a large influx of mages and important officials from other states converging into Compus. Even officials from the nations across the Continent could be seen here and there, trying to get into the city.

The Sorcerer City-States was an enigma to outsiders, and the other nations would keep tabs on the state of the sorcerers every year to make sure they do not get too powerful. If the sorcerers were to ever unite under one state, this could destroy the balance of power within the Continent through the power of tight-leather musclemen.

But I don’t care about that! I got a competition to win!

I moved my platform away from the main entrance and towards a heavily guarded gate. Musclemancer guards eyed us from every direction, but did not stop us. There were a lot less people using this entrance for obvious reasons.

“Halt. Entrance is only through invitation,” a large guard called out as he stepped in front of my platform and flexed.

I tossed a scroll towards the head guard before replying “I have an invitation here, my good man!”

“I see. All is in good order, however, I must insist that you continue on foot,” the head guard said after a quick look at the invitation.

“Why not?!”

“Your… vehicle is too big to go through the gates, and we cannot open the barrier for you exclusively…” the head guard replied after a moment of silent arm contraction.

I see his point. It was sort of true that the platform was too big… I should have expected this before ordering the students to turn the floating platform into a floating manor house complete with gates and walls…

I leaned back on my chair and looked up from my porch. True enough, above the tall stone walls, there was a barrier covering the city. Judging from a distance, I could tell that it should be strong enough to keep people and animals out.

“There’s no need to lift the barrier! This floating manor can go through it without a problem!” I shouted.

“Wait!”

Before I could hear the rest, I clapped my hands and ordered the manor forward. My mobile vacation house floated upwards, then crashed through the feeble barrier like a fish going through a thin waterfall.

As the manor lowered itself, the head guard emerged from the gatehouse with a slightly unamused look.

“Don’t worry! The barrier’s still up and we had your permission to enter the city!” I called out.

The lead guard sighed while relaxing his muscles then asked, “I take it that you don’t need a temporary lodge?”

“Of course not! I have a manor to myself for free! Just send me up to the nearest available parking spot, and I’ll be good to go!” I shouted with a thumbs up.

After getting the directions from the lead guard, I navigated my floating manor carefully through the hazardous stone jungle of Compus. Floating towers skid by past, entire roads flew by, and bridges were being formed overhead to make new passages on-demand.

I finally found an empty spot between two towers, then parked my house. I rubbed imaginary sweat off my forehead and heaved a sigh of relief. I stretched my back, sipped juice from my glass, then went back to not doing anything.

It’s tiring work relaxing on my sunchair while the students do all the work by themselves!

Ah, no! I just remembered that I got work to finish!

I snapped my finger and the slightly shaky house stabilized itself. There was a slight hiccup, but there was nothing to worry about since I could just fly if the manor crashes onto the ground. As for the other students… Ah well.

I went inside the manor and the students were all on their knees, breathing heavily from the spells they’d been casting to keep the manor floating. It was hard enough for some novice mages that had not even seen adulthood to get themselves off the ground using magic, so it wasn’t a surprise to me that lifting an entire manor house was almost an insurmountable task for them.

“Alright. I can keep the manor floating passively. We’ve reached Compus, but there’s still a day or two before the competition starts. So you know what that means…” I announced then gave a long pause to get the students excited.

“No hope… There is no hope in this hell…”

“Please, Goddess. Save us…”

“I will run away and kill the Demon Lord instead…”

“That means you get two days of vacation! I urge you students to go out and explore Compus yourselves!” I announced out.

“Hope! There is hope in this heaven!”

“Goddess! I am your most devout servant starting from now on!”

“The Demon Lord lives for now…”

I tapped my chin, then snapped my fingers as a candle popped up in my mind. “Actually, I’d like it if you guys go with Yomi instead of me! As you know, students can’t go around without their teacher’s guidance, and it’s troubling that I cannot join you, but if Yomi doesn’t answer-...”

The students rushed to Yomi’s room like an avalanche and started vigorously bashing down her doors. It was a good thing the engineering students learned how to harden doors with near invulnerability to physical damage!

Yomi peeked out of her room with her usual messy hair and clothes, then asked, “Eh? Is it morning already?”

“Yomi! You and the students will tour Compus! I don’t have a tour guide prepared, so just do whatever you please!” I announced.

“PLEASE, MISS!”

“WE BEG OF YOU, MASTER YOMI-... NO, MISTRESS YOMI!”

“GODDESS YOMI!”

“Eh? Eeeh? A- Ah! Wait! Let me get changed!” Yomi shut her door and came back after a few minutes. She was clearly thrilled to be able to spend some time with her students.

“Alright! Let’s go right now! Let’s tour Compus! I’ve been here before so I know some good spots!” Yomi cheered, and the students erupted in joy.

“Ah, wait. Kendra stay here,” I ordered.

“WHAT?! WHY?!” Kendra protested.

“We have to do some master-apprentice stuff,” I said with a shrug.

“B-But you said I’m not your apprentice during the course of the contract!” Kendra pointed out.

“I don’t adhere to rules, not even my own!” I declared stoically. It seemed that this little girl was starting to reach her rebellious age so I would have to throw in some bait. I leaned close to her then whispered, “You get to do actual necromancy if you stay here.”

“Yeah! Master-Apprentice stuff! I love those things!” Kendra’s attitude went on a 180 degree flip as the clouds of depression made way for a sunshine of enthusiasm.

“Eh? Will you be fine?” Iova asked.

“Sure, sure! I’m fine! Now, get out of here!” Kendra was keen on getting the rest of the students out of the floating manor. The students flew down to the ground while Yomi separated a small chunk of the floating platform to create her own personal platform. It was somewhat embarrassing that the students knew how to float while the master sorcerer didn’t, but it couldn’t be helped! The students were trained by me, after all!

With the students gone, there was only me, Kendra, Lard, and Inez left in the manor house. I shoved Lard out of the house since I knew he would somehow survive the lethal fall, while I gently let Inez down with a cloud of air. Luckily for me, Inez was interested in visiting the local medical center which was set up by the Path of Light, so it didn’t take much convincing to get her to leave.

“Alright! Let’s go, Master! Show me necromancy!” Kendra said with near-uncontrollable anticipation.

“Alright, first we need a body to get you started. This task will involve raising the dead, but not resurrecting it. Understood?” I instructed.

“We have to get a corpse? I suppose… I could murder a few people,” Kendra mumbled on her last few words, but she quickly cleared her throat. “I mean, how are we going to get a corpse?”

“Oh, I have one prepared. It’s in perfect condition for a total novice like you,” I said as I fished around my robes. I felt a tug while searching within my robe, so I pulled it out and casually placed the body onto a table.

“WAIT! YOU CARRIED A DEAD BODY INSIDE OF YOU?! I expected a small dead rodent, but I didn’t expect you to stuff a dead human into your robes!”

“Now, now. Don’t judge people. Only I get to do that because I am powerful.”

“Wait, isn’t this Flexia?” Kendra gasped as rage started to burn inside of her.

“Wait, wait, wait. She’s dead already. To be honest, I had been working around with her, so she should be in her final stages of raising. She had some fairy-... I mean demonic influence in her, but Inez helped me torture it out of her while she was an imperfect undead. I had to kill her again, but she should still be raisable,” I explained.

“As expected of the sadist priestess, to be able to torture the undead… Truly formidable,” Kendra praised Inez, but what does she mean by sadist? “Hold on, do I really have to raise her? I don’t know…”

“Kendra. She’s dead already. Felixia had paid the price for messing with a student of Boss. Besides, if you’re successful, this could be your first permanent minion,” I said.

“Perma… Perma-.. Pe- Puh- Pa-....”

I slapped Kendra’s back then chided, “You’re stuttering.”

“Permanent minion?! Just like your… er… companions?! My very own slave?!”

“It’s rude to call them slaves, but yes. While most minions raised by necromancers require their master to be near lest they lose connection and go feral, these kinds of permanent minions could freely roam, and they don’t need a constant supply of undeath essence to feed from,” I nodded. “If you think about it, it’s like enslavement, but with brainwashing and death.”

“To think that my first minion would be someone that tried to kill me…” Kendra traced her finger along Flexia’s cold arms, then gulped loudly. “Was your first minion the same?”

“No way. My first one is my pet.” I took out a rock with eyes scribbled on it, then proclaimed, “This is Scribbles. My first undead companion.”

Kendra opened her mouth, gave me a ‘are you serious?’ look, then went back to examining the dead body. After a moment of silence, she said, “So when do we begin?”

I rubbed my hands and started, “Firstly, you need to learn the biggest truth. The necromancy you know… is a lie.”

“Ha?”

“You already know there’s the magic perceived by others, and magic perceived by… us.”

For just a brief moment, Kendra was exposed to not just one or two of her personal beloved ‘clowns’. She was drowned in them before the world returned to normal.

“Um… can I ask a question?” Kendra muttered.

Wow. She recovered quickly. She must be getting used to the constant companionship of those things.

“Ask away, kiddo.”

“A student died, right? Did you use necromancy on him? Is he technically an undead?”

“Oh, he died recently so I just used a minor resurrection spell to get him back. Unlike Iova who had totally died with grievous wounds, the student that I revived was… in pristine condition,” I explained with a smug shrug. “Though, minor resurrection does require you to have connections to the Spirit World, if you know what I mean.”

Kendra scratched her head in confusion. “What is real necromancy?”

How would I explain this as simple as possible…

“Remember the stage metaphor? The one with the actors and such?”

“Yes?”

“When the character of an actor dies, it would be unrealistic to expect the actor to stay in the same spot on the stage the entire play. They’d complain or even ask a raise, and we can’t have that!” I declared.

“A raise?” Kendra retorted with an unamused look.

“In the event that an actor ‘dies’, the most reasonable thing to do is to quietly pull the actor off the stage, and replace the actor with a realistic doll or something similar. Is it still the same actor? Nope. But it is the same character, and that’s all it matters… to the audience, of course,” I continued.

“I see,” Kendra nodded while muttering. She looked at me, then realized something was off. The little girl stared at me with bemusement, and she had an urge to touch me. She moved her hand forward and was surprised when my robes felt stone-like.

The person talking to her… wasn’t me.

“You still with me, kiddo?” I spoke as I grabbed her shoulders from behind, which scared the wits out of her.

“A statue?!” Kendra looked back at the ‘me’ standing in front of her.

“I just used this illusion as an illustrative example. Don’t take this too literally, but then again, if it looks realistic enough, that… would be me,” I pointed at the fake statue of me. “Knowing this, what do you think necromancy is?”

“Um… Hmm…” Kendra pondered while biting her fingers. “Necromancy is raising the actor from the dead?”

I shook her body, then replied, “Very close. The necromancy you know is… what I would blalantly call ‘fake’. Straight and simple, it’s not necromancy at all.”

“What? Why?”

I took my hands off Kendra’s shoulders, then pointed ahead. Kendra thought I was pointing at my statue, but then she leaned to the side and realized something. There was another statue hiding behind the statue.

“Normal necromancy is creating a doll of the doll. I told you, magic is linking the fake to the fake, then the fake to another fake, and so on. The first doll is pulled off the stage, and a new doll takes it place. Fake necromancy does not raise the dead, but it simply emulates the dead. Jotus the Peasant is not Jotus the Dead Peasant, and Jotus the Dead Peasant is not Jotus the Zombie,” I said as I placed my hands back on Kendra’s shoulders.

For a moment, Kendra had forgotten to breath, so I had slap her back to get her back on track. It was only then she started stammering, “What? What? What?”

“Real necromancy is telling the originals, or whichever is closest to the original, to obey your commands,” I said while waving my hand. Both statues started to move mechanically towards each other, then they book shook each other’s hands.

“Necromancy, at the very core, is about raising the original from a state which it shouldn’t be in. The more skilful you are… the closer you get to the original,” I concluded with a snap. Both statues crumbled, and I finally let Kendra go before walking to her front.

Kendra didn’t say anything. She only held her head, then blinked repeatedly. After a deep breath, she looked like she had an epiphany. “How many of your minions… your companions are the original?”

“I am not obliged to tell you that.”

“Are we all originals?”

“That is only a question you should ask when bathing in hot water alone.”

Kendra shook her head, unsatisfied with my half-answers. She walked towards the dead body of Flexia, the dead saboteur-musclemancer that tried to kill her before, then raised her palm towards it. I thought she had misunderstood my lesson, then reality started warping.

Almost like flipping a book to look for a specific phrase, different realities scrolled past. More realities were created, only to be destroyed just a microsecond later, and the corpse of Flexia was starting to leave faint images.

To any mere observer, Kendra looked like she had frozen in time, idly standing over the corpse.

But to me, she was moving around, kicking the various dead bodies the appeared across the room which only Kendra and I could see, looking for something - looking for an answer.

“More. I need more,” she urged to particularly no one.

The floor crumbled around me as Kendra pushed on stubbornly. It was clear that her head was spinning, and she had already tried to hold back from vomiting on multiple occasions, yet she pressed on without care.

“Dead… Dead… Dead…” Kendra repeated as she waved her hand around. “Fake. All lies.”

I wanted to give her a hint, but held myself back. I was becoming more amused as my only student and successor got closer and closer to the answer.

“No… I don’t need the actual truth. Only my own truth. Perceived, but not justified.” Kendra slowly wrapped her hands around the original corpse then began strangling it. The corpse’s eyes opened, and it started resisting.

At first, it tried to break Kendra’s grip from her neck, but as her ‘life’ started to seep away, she started clawing Kendra’s hands off. Blood dripped from Kendra’s hands and wrists, but her face remained stiff and cold.

Only when the corpse stopped moving did Kendra let go. The room was silent save for her heavy breathing. She quickly turned around to look for me, as if I would disappear any moment. Or perhaps she was hoping for a praise?

“How did it feel?” I asked with a rather smug voice.

“What? Feel… what?” Kendra replied.

“If we speak in terms of the metaphor, you murdered the actor playing as the corpse of Flexia. You are now an actual murderer.”

“I thought they’re dolls…”

“Please. It’s a metaphor. Besides, there’s a lot of desperate people who would gladly play out the role of a chair if it meant getting paid,” I pointed out while swinging my finger side to side. “Now, raise her from the dead. Experience true necromancy, sport.”

Kendra stood back from the corpse before lowering her palm towards it. She closed her hand into a fist, then acted as if she was pulling a set of strings. The corpse’s heart began to beat, but it was pumping nothing out. It was almost as if the heart, the veins, and the blood within the body weren’t connected at all. Each piece of the corpse was a separate entity of a separate dream.

Flexia’s corpse rose up, then looked around. In her excitement, Kendra bit her fist so hard, she drew some blood. “Look look look! Master, look! I- I… I did it!”

“Ooooh…” I clapped while trying to sound amused.

Kendra tried to take a step forward, but ended up falling towards the floor. I tried to catch her and missed, but at least I tried!

As I crouched to check on the little girl, I noticed that the room had returned to normal. Flexia was looking slightly disoriented, then realized where she was. “I’m alive again?!”

“No. You’re still dead.”

“Oh…” Flexia grumbled disappointedly.

I rolled Kendra up only to be greeted with a half-conscious grinning maniac. She giggled a bit then asked, “So I’m a true murderer, huh? Will the guards catch me?”

I pointed my finger at the ever-increasing cloud of shadows gathering over our heads, then replied, “Ask your clown friends.”