Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 298: Convention, Day 2, Presentation

I barely ate any lunch because I was too nervous. Then it was finally time. Sir Edward came personally to show me the way towards the lecture hall. He looked a bit tired.

"Koyuki! I am looking forward to your presentation. Your teaser has given me a lot to think about and I still haven't figured it out yet. Did you discover runes to change the elemental alignment of a spell to necrotic? Ah, I can't wait!" He did look enthusiastic. Did my puzzle keep him up all night?

While I failed to respond Gronir and Mary arrived.

"Hello Edward." Gronir said.

"Sir Edward." Mary gave him a nod.

"Greetings." Then he looked at me again. "I admit I have tried to pry some information from your teachers, alas, it was fruitless."

I nodded while nervously fidgeting with my notes. Thankfully Gronir and Mary kept talking with Edward so I simply followed silently. Helena, Cassie, Skadi and our tier three undead followed us. We had brought Frank and Bob to guard our stall while we were busy.

The lecture hall looked rather big. I suppose the Academy of Neth was quite a bit bigger than the Royal Academy. And they focused more on talking and less stabbing.

At one end of the hall was a desk for the speaker, or multiple speakers. Three chairs were arranged behind it, as was a small couch. A blackboard was on the wall behind the desk where you could draw things with chalk. The listeners were arranged in a semicircle around the speaker, with a corridor in the center. Interestingly the different rows of benches were on different levels, each row was one step higher.

While we took our positions Sir Edward opened the room for the public. A lot of people eagerly streamed into the hall. Helena, Skadi and Cassie sat down, they were mostly classified as assistants. Kaito and Hatsumi stood behind me while Gronir and Mary were next to me.

Once everyone was settled Gronir did… Something? Was there a stone he pressed on the table? A loud gong sounded and people fell silent.

"Greetings. I am Gronir, senior mage and teacher of advanced death magic at the Royal Military Academy. I have with me Mary, the blood scribe and Koyuki with her team."

Blood scribe? Mary had a title?

Gronir continued: "We cannot present all of our findings. By royal decree some of our discoveries shall remain a secret. However, our joint efforts have made a breakthrough in necromancy. Koyuki, a second year student and senior mage, has revolutionised our field. Yes, the maid behind her is a vampire and a spellblade."

There was a lot of murmuring, some people even raised their hands.

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"Questions come later. For now, Koyuki!" Gronir gestured towards me and I considered just hiding under the table. No, I had been in battles, I had faced death, I could face this.

"Greetings."

"Speak louder." Mary whispered in my ear.

"Greetings!" I tried again. "I am Koyuki, a student. Together with my friends I have raised quite a few undead and made some discoveries along the way. Today I shall share some of those discoveries. The biggest one, which ultimately led to a vampire spellblade, is how undead function: The spell that keeps them animated."

There was a bit of murmuring going on but I ignored it.

"The body of a living creature works differently. Information is stored inside the body. If you hurt yourself, your body knows to heal. It knows how you work. But an undead? All that information is inside the spell. They are the spell. To change them you do not change the body, you change the spell."

Now there were gasps, a lot more hands and some shouting. "The hair, it makes sense!" I heard Sir Edward shout.

Gronir did the gong thing again and people quieted down.

"How do you change a spell then?" Someone shouted just as I was about to continue.

"We are not releasing detailed information, for now. However, you might want to keep an eye out for new books." Gronir interjected.

"Preposterous! You are claiming every undead is incorporeal, bound to an object!" Someone shouted.

Gronir shook his head. "No, they are more like an enchantment. A skeleton cannot exist without the body and breaking the bones breaks the spell keeping it animated."

"Hatsumi." I said and my maid stepped forwards. The runes along her arms lit up. "This is the first vampire spellblade, created with the knowledge we gained through our discovery."

Obviously most people had already seen her yesterday, or had at least heard about her. However now she was publicly presented, at an official event. It gave the announcement a lot more weight. And people started talking again until Gronir quieted them once more.

"Moving on…" I continued my presentation and went back to our discovery. I mentioned some spells, like hair growth, while Gronir demonstrated it on a zombie rat. Then I talked a little bit about the possibilities of enhancing undead in general.

After a while Gronir took over and expanded on the topic. When it came to the spellblade runes Mary took over. She touched Hatsumi's arm and showed some of her work. She also had Skadi stand next to her in comparison. Then she went into a lecture on how you needed to personalise runes and some of the switches she made for a vampire. She did this by comparing two runes to enhance the strength of the spellblade.

"But how can you change the spell animating the vampire? I can see you modified the runes but the runes are attached to the body. How do you connect them to the spell?" Someone asked.

"Now that is not something I will share, by royal decree." Mary replied.

It caused a lot of shouting and more questions. People were really unruly.

"A question, if you please!" A new voice shouted. The man was dressed in a grey suit. His black goatee was a stark contrast to his very pale, almost white, skin. Behind him stood a knight in full armour, with a closed visor. "Is your breakthrough only applicable to undead with blood, or could you turn others into spellblades as well?"

"Blood is a requirement, for now." Mary clarified.

"Ah, a shame." The man replied.

A lot of people were staring at him. Maybe he was famous?

Our presentation was mostly over at this point, although the questions kept coming until Gronir activated the gong again. Some questions had even been about Kaito. A small group of people was more interested in creating dullahans than spellblades it seemed.

"I understand that you still have questions, however our presentation is over. We are still here tomorrow, so feel free to drop by our booths. But understand that we will not share all of our secrets. And remember, there will be a book available later this year."

It was over! Helena patted me on the back. "Good job."

I just leaned into her and got a hug as a reward.

"I brought smoke bombs in case you need to avoid the crowd." Cassie said, while eying the people still lingering in front of the hall.

"When she says smoke bombs she does not mean smoke to hide in, she means smoke to clear out a crowd." Skadi added.

"This was a tremendous success, well done Mistress!" Kaito stated.

"I need a drink." I mumbled.

"Let's celebrate!" Helena suggested and everyone agreed.