diff --git a/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/errors.rs b/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/errors.rs
index 6d3e83a..bc562d9 100644
--- a/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/errors.rs
+++ b/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/errors.rs
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ pub enum Error {
 
 	#[error("Shards do have inconsistent lengths: first = {first}, other = {other})")]
 	InconsistentShardLengths { first: usize, other: usize },
+
+	#[error("Shard is empty")]
+	EmptyShard,
 }
 
 /// Result alias to simplify API.
diff --git a/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/novel_poly_basis/mod.rs b/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/novel_poly_basis/mod.rs
index ba980b8..3a80ff2 100644
--- a/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/novel_poly_basis/mod.rs
+++ b/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/novel_poly_basis/mod.rs
@@ -156,7 +156,9 @@ impl ReedSolomon {
 		Ok(shards)
 	}
 
-	/// each shard contains one symbol of one run of erasure coding
+	/// Reconstruct from chunks.
+	///
+	/// The result may be padded with zeros. Truncate the output to the expected byte length.
 	pub fn reconstruct<S: Shard>(&self, received_shards: Vec<Option<S>>) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
 		let gap = self.n.saturating_sub(received_shards.len());
 
@@ -190,6 +192,10 @@ impl ReedSolomon {
 				})
 				.expect("Existential shard count is at least k shards. qed");
 
+			if first_shard_len == 0 {
+				return Err(Error::EmptyShard);
+			}
+
 			// make sure all shards have the same length as the first one
 			if let Some(other_shard_len) = received_shards[(first_shard_idx + 1)..].iter().find_map(|shard| {
 				shard.as_ref().and_then(|shard| {
@@ -231,6 +237,52 @@ impl ReedSolomon {
 
 		Ok(acc)
 	}
+
+	/// Reconstruct from the set of systematic chunks.
+	/// Systematic chunks are the first `k` chunks, which contain the initial data.
+	///
+	/// Provide a vector containing chunk data. If too few chunks are provided, recovery is not
+	/// possible.
+	/// The result may be padded with zeros. Truncate the output to the expected byte length.
+	pub fn reconstruct_from_systematic<S: Shard>(&self, chunks: Vec<S>) -> Result<Vec<u8>> {
+		let Some(first_shard) = chunks.first() else {
+			return Err(Error::NeedMoreShards { have: 0, min: self.k, all: self.n });
+		};
+		if chunks.len() < self.k {
+			return Err(Error::NeedMoreShards { have: chunks.len(), min: self.k, all: self.n });
+		}
+
+		let shard_len = AsRef::<[[u8; 2]]>::as_ref(first_shard).len();
+
+		if shard_len == 0 {
+			return Err(Error::EmptyShard);
+		}
+
+		if let Some(length) = chunks.iter().find_map(|c| {
+			let length = AsRef::<[[u8; 2]]>::as_ref(c).len();
+			if length != shard_len {
+				Some(length)
+			} else {
+				None
+			}
+		}) {
+			return Err(Error::InconsistentShardLengths { first: shard_len, other: length });
+		}
+
+		let mut systematic_bytes = Vec::with_capacity(shard_len * 2 * self.k);
+
+		for i in 0..shard_len {
+			for chunk in chunks.iter().take(self.k) {
+				// No need to check for index out of bounds because i goes up to shard_len and
+				// we return an error for non uniform chunks.
+				let chunk = AsRef::<[[u8; 2]]>::as_ref(chunk)[i];
+				systematic_bytes.push(chunk[0]);
+				systematic_bytes.push(chunk[1]);
+			}
+		}
+
+		Ok(systematic_bytes)
+	}
 }
 
 #[cfg(test)]
diff --git a/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/novel_poly_basis/tests.rs b/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/novel_poly_basis/tests.rs
index f7b6bd1..bfb858c 100644
--- a/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/novel_poly_basis/tests.rs
+++ b/reed-solomon-novelpoly/src/novel_poly_basis/tests.rs
@@ -479,6 +479,23 @@ impl Arbitrary for ArbitraryData {
 	}
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn round_trip_systematic_quickcheck() {
+	fn property(available_data: ArbitraryData, n_validators: u16) {
+		let n_validators = n_validators.max(2);
+		let rs = CodeParams::derive_parameters(n_validators as usize, (n_validators as usize - 1) / 3 + 1)
+			.unwrap()
+			.make_encoder();
+		let kpow2 = rs.k;
+		let chunks = rs.encode::<WrappedShard>(&available_data.0).unwrap();
+		let mut res = rs.reconstruct_from_systematic(chunks.into_iter().take(kpow2).collect()).unwrap();
+		res.truncate(available_data.0.len());
+		assert_eq!(res, available_data.0);
+	}
+
+	QuickCheck::new().quickcheck(property as fn(ArbitraryData, u16))
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn round_trip_quickcheck() {
 	fn property(available_data: ArbitraryData, n_validators: u16) {