Episode 258

‘Patrolling isn’t as bad as I thought.’

At first, the idea of a first-year student patrolling the magic school seemed ridiculous, but once his pockets started to feel heavy, Lee Han’s mind changed.

As he patrolled two rooms used as food storage and one used as a reagent storage, Lee Han deftly pocketed useful items with skillful hand movements.

If Ratford had seen him, he would have shed tears of admiration.

-Hold on.

“!”

Lee Han tensed up.

Was he caught?

‘I was sure I was in their blind spot.’

-You must be hungry, Wardanaz. Let’s fetch something to eat.

-Oh, that’s right. When you become undead, you forget about hunger.

-Young people should eat a lot. It’s the age when you could chew rocks.

The Death Knights strode over to the corner of the food storage room and rummaged through a box.

Then they brought back a hard, long loaf of bread, salami sausages, some fresh vegetables, and tightly sealed glass bottles.

-We just grabbed whatever. Not sure if it’s to your taste.

-It’s been so long since we ate.

“Th-thank you.”

Lee Han was caught off guard by the Death Knights’ grandfatherly gesture of packing him a bundle of food.

“But is this really okay?”

-Hahaha! Just like a diligent student.

-Of course it’s not, but what can you do? You have to eat while working.

The knights from a long-lost kingdom were very lenient when it came to breaking rules.

If you’re hungry, you eat; if you’re thirsty, you drink.

Especially when you’re helping the school!

‘Wait, this is alcohol?’

Lee Han was surprised when he opened the glass bottle.

“Is it really okay to drink while on patrol?”

-Hahaha! Of course not. But we’re doing the work, so you can have a sip, Wardanaz.

-You’ll only be eating black bread and cold rice balls again when you get back. Eat up while you can.

‘Modern knights should learn from the old ones.’

Lee Han was touched by the Death Knights’ compassion and chivalry.

Those White Tiger Tower guys should learn from this…

As Lee Han ate heartily, the Death Knights spoke beside him.

-Finding a rat that’s run into the maze takes longer than you’d think. I understand you’re young and ambitious, Wardanaz, and want to find it yourself, but don’t push yourself too hard.

-Right. Sometimes it’s not a bad idea to just do your time as the master ordered and then go do your own thing.

“…Wait. I’m not ambitious, though?”

Lee Han paused as he was cutting bread and sausage with his pocket knife.

The Death Knights nodded with kind faces.

-Yes. True ambitionists always say they have no ambition.

-None of the ones who claim to be ambitious are ever real ambitionists.

“No…”

Lee Han wanted to point out the logical flaw in the Death Knights’ words, but they wouldn’t listen.

The older you get, the less you listen to the young.

‘Einrogard needs a rule sending rumor-mongers to the punishment room.’

Lee Han gave up and finished his meal.

‘Patrolling really isn’t as bad as I thought.’

Unlike when he first wanted to attack the Skull Headmaster, there were all sorts of unexpected benefits.

He could befriend the Death Knights, borrow items from some storerooms, and check out places he’d always been curious about…

The Death Knights didn’t care much about what Lee Han borrowed from the storerooms.

They all seemed to think, ‘He’s young, what’s wrong with a little thievery?’

Nodding as he drew a map with a quill, Lee Han thought about how to use the remaining time as efficiently as possible…

“Alright. This time, let’s check out the floor below.”

-We’ll follow you anywhere!

• * *

Duke Ikaldoren’s confidant, Giderf, had to struggle to endure the rising fear.

Anyone would have felt the same.

How could anyone keep their sanity while hiding alone in the middle of Einrogard on high alert?

Giderf, renowned for his composure and calm, felt his reason wearing thin.

‘Trusting those Snake of the Maple Tree guys was a mistake. Yeah. Trusting them was the mistake.’

Veteran adventurers who would do anything for gold, and knew how to handle wizards.

He’d thought that was enough for them to get inside.

He hadn’t even expected that much.

He just wanted them to come in quietly, work together quietly, and steal quietly…

But those crazy adventurers, instead of dying quietly, did something to raise the school’s security level.

With the terrifying archmage Gonadaltes walking around at night, warning, ‘You’ll die whether you come out or not,’ Giderf’s nerves were at their limit.

Click—

Giderf opened the lid of his bronze pendant.

‘Three uses left.’

It was an extremely powerful artifact, one of the lifelines that had kept Giderf alive so far.

Once activated, it cunningly paralyzed the surrounding magic—a powerful artifact!

This was a magic school crawling with magical barriers and patrols. Even an archmage could be discovered with a single mistake.

Giderf was fairly skilled with stealth magic, but that alone wasn’t enough. Without this artifact, he’d have been caught long ago.

It was a shame it had limited uses…

‘Time to prepare.’

Giderf took out another artifact.

It was a small statue-shaped artifact.

“O great mage Goltineus, I offer my respect, please transform me!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Giderf’s body turned into a statue.

A powerful magic that even a high-level transmutation wizard would find hard to copy.

This artifact was another lifeline for Giderf.

Along with the bronze pendant, he had been moving locations every few days and disguising himself as a statue.

Until the alert was lifted.

‘No one come in. No one come in.’

Bang!

“So there was a back path behind the first-floor main entrance stairs?”

-Something like that. Oh, don’t tell the master.

“Don’t worry.”

When a group of Death Knights entered, Giderf was so startled he felt his heart freeze.

If he hadn’t been in statue form, he would have let out a gasp.

Each of those Death Knights, minions of Gonadaltes, had terrifying combat power, and if provoked, would summon every enemy in the area.

Giderf just wished they would leave quickly.

“What kind of room is this?”

-Well… Actually, in a magic school, rooms appear and change every time you blink. Not that I can blink!

-Hahahahahaha!

-Khahahahaha!

“…Wahahahahahaha!”

Lee Han laughed just in time.

As typical undead with little joy in life, the Death Knights were very proud of their jokes.

Fortunately, Lee Han had the extraordinary ability to laugh no matter what nonsense the professors said.

-A storeroom?

-Looks like a place to store artworks. Paintings and statues.

‘Tsk.’

Lee Han was disappointed.

If there were no secret passages, back doors, food, or reagents, wasn’t the room just junk?

-Don’t be too disappointed, Wardanaz.

One of the Death Knights seemed to have noticed Lee Han’s thoughts and offered advice.

-Even rooms that seem like no one would care about can be surprisingly useful. Since no one cares, it’s good for storing things.

“!”

Lee Han perked up at the Death Knight’s words.

‘It’s true, I do need more space these days.’

When he first entered the tower, he never thought he’d run out of space.

He had not only a private room but even a spacious lounge.

But as time passed, his belongings increased.

From food he bought outside, to various reagents and materials piled up for assignments, books, stacks of paper…

Now Lee Han understood why seniors hid stolen materials in secret storerooms deep in the mountains.

There was no space in the tower, and if you just left things around, other tower students might steal them (even your own tower students).

To be an excellent magic school student, you needed at least three or four secret storerooms no one else knew about.

‘At this point, am I a squirrel hiding acorns or a wizard?’

“If I throw in a few wooden boxes, no one will touch them.”

-Exactly. There’s an old saying: if you want to hide a corpse, hide it in the forest.

“?”

‘Wasn’t it, if you want to hide a tree, hide it in the forest?’

Lee Han thought so, but didn’t point it out for the Death Knights’ sake.

Maybe it was different in the old days…

-Wardanaz. Are you planning to use it as a secret storeroom?

“Yes.”

Another Death Knight chimed in.

-That’s good, but there’s too much junk in this room. I recommend getting rid of half. If you just pile up the light stuff by the entrance, students won’t come in.

“I see…”

Lee Han nodded.

It would definitely look better if he cleared out the bulky items.

“Can I move the statues outside?”

-Wardanaz, as I always say, there’s nothing in the world you can’t do. Just do it.

-There are statues in front of the main entrance. Put them there.

“Uh… Is that really okay?”

-Wardanaz, as I always say…

“Understood. Let’s move them out.”

Lee Han and the Death Knights started moving the statues out one by one.

But they didn’t know—

One of the statues was turning pale and screaming inside!

‘No… No!’

Giderf felt like his heart was turning to stone.

To escape, he needed time to release his transformation and use his artifact where no one was watching.

But in front of the main entrance?

That was where every being in the magic school would be watching.

If he released his transformation, he’d be dead in less than a second.

‘No! No! I said no!’

Giderf couldn’t understand the current situation.

He couldn’t even understand who the boy with the Death Knights was.

He looked like a first-year, so why was he walking around with Death Knights?

There were so many things he couldn’t understand that it felt like Gonadaltes was playing with him.

Maybe his identity had already been discovered, and that wicked Gonadaltes was mocking him?

“But what are these statues used for?”

-Students make them as a hobby, and sometimes there are classes. If you need one for magic later, you just take it.

-There’s probably a statue-making club. But Wardanaz, you’re a first-year, so you probably haven’t joined any clubs yet.

“……”

Lee Han thought that even if he joined a club, he would never want to join a statue-making club.

• * *

“Thank you for today.”

-Not at all. You worked so well, Wardanaz, we’re even happier.

-See you next time, and go study hard!

Lee Han saw the Death Knights off and went inside.

He still had assignments left, so he felt a bit heavy-hearted, but his mood wasn’t too bad.

‘By the way, where on earth is that intruder hiding?’

He didn’t even know who it was, but Lee Han thought the opponent was really persistent.

To hold out so tenaciously in the middle of enemy territory.

Just what kind of person were they?

‘Let’s hope I don’t run into them.’

Lee Han hoped he wouldn’t bump into them while wandering around.

If an intruder was that good, they were surely a formidable opponent.