Episode 425

“What are you doing right now?”

At Professor Alcassis’s question, Lee Han replied cautiously.

“Professor Verdus is asking for my help.”

“…With what?”

“Artifact… crafting?”

“……”

Professor Alcassis looked outside, then at Lee Han, then outside again, as if she couldn’t believe it.

Then she opened the door.

Professor Verdus, waiting with innocent-looking eyes, tilted his head up at both of them as the door opened.

“Oh? Professor Lagrinde! Good to see you!”

“Good to see you… So what exactly are you doing right now?”

Professor Alcassis’s voice was ice cold.

It was less a question and more, ‘Are you even aware of what you’re doing?’

“Making artifacts?”

“Is it a low-difficulty artifact, by chance?”

Professor Alcassis gathered her last shred of faith and did her best to understand Professor Verdus.

If it had been a practice artifact for lower-year students, it would have made sense to bring Wardanaz along for hands-on training.

“No? It’s my research project.”

“Your… research project?”

“Yup!”

Professor Verdus nodded. Despite having a cute appearance typical of the beaver beastkin, Professor Verdus was highly skilled at provoking other people’s anger.

‘Is someone about to throw a punch?’

By habit, Lee Han glanced at Professor Alcassis’s hand.

Usually, when other professors dealt with Professor Verdus, watching their hands made it easier to read their emotions.

If a fist clenched, it meant a blow was coming. If the veins twitched, it was still sort of okay…

Surprisingly, Professor Alcassis didn’t move at all.

“If it’s an artifact difficult enough that you, professor, have to work on it, you do realize there’s a high chance an incident could occur if a first-year helps, and that would almost certainly end in injury?”

“Just be careful! Sure, this kid’s not great at magic, but he’s picky enough that it’ll be fine!”

Lee Han looked a bit hurt.

Aside from Professor Verdus, no one else had ever said he was bad at magic.

“And if someone gets hurt, we just heal them.”

“What if it’s an injury even the infirmary can’t handle?”

“Then we just call in the school’s healing wizards to fix it, right?”

“I see… Hey. Step outside for a second.”

Professor Alcassis pointed at the basilisk egg and gestured to Lee Han.

It was a sign to take the egg and wait outside.

Professor Verdus titled his head.

“If you’re done talking, you can just take him along, you know?”

“Professor, please stay for a moment.”

Grasping the mood, Lee Han quickly gathered up the basilisk egg and closed the hut door.

Even with sound-blocking magic, it sounded like he could hear Professor Verdus’s faint screams inside.

The egg trembled, and Lee Han patted it reassuringly.

“That’s just Professor Verdus. He doesn’t act like that with other people.”

• * *

After the conversation ended, Professor Verdus spoke with a deflated voice.

“You don’t need to help anymore.”

“Please say it in a more mature way.”

“I came to realize that asking a first-year to help with professor-level artifact crafting isn’t just dangerous, it’s an unreasonable burden.”

“Well done.”

Professor Alcassis nodded with a weary look.

She’d just wasted what little free time she had because of Professor Verdus, and suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of futility.

‘Of all the ways to waste time at Einrogard, this might be the worst yet.’

“Professor, please have some of this at least.”

With utmost politeness, Lee Han offered raspberry juice.

It was made from raspberries he’d picked—no, stolen—from Professor Thunderstep’s garden.

Professor Alcassis didn’t know why Lee Han was looking at her with such respect, but she accepted his kind gesture.

“Thank you. If Professor Verdus says anything strange, just let me know.”

“You’re the greatest professor in Einrogard.”

“Don’t flatter me needlessly. That’s not a good habit for a wizard.”

When Professor Alcassis left, Professor Verdus grumbled. The basilisk egg twitched as if annoyed by the noise.

Lee Han ignored it and said,

“Why not do something else?”

“Like what? A new research project? Oh, do you have any ideas?”

Lee Han smiled calmly at the image of a professor asking a first-year for new research topics.

“I meant your lecture prep.”

“Oh… lectures…”

Professor Verdus openly showed his reluctance. Lee Han felt like calling Professor Alcassis back over.

“I don’t wanna.”

“Are you really a professor, saying that out loud?”

‘You sure don’t act like it, though.’

Lee Han slipped up, and said what he’d only meant to think, but Professor Verdus didn’t seem to notice due to his glum mood.

“I don’t want to, but Gonadaltes is making me. Why do I have to?”

“Is that so? …Wait. Didn’t you get a gold coin investment from the headmaster?”

“I did?”

Lee Han looked at him with a scornful glare. Professor Verdus didn’t catch on.

“Let’s get ready for the lecture.”

“I said I don’t want to.”

“I’ll call the headmaster.”

“…!!!”

Professor Verdus stared at Lee Han with the face of a great mage betrayed by his favorite disciple.

His beaver whiskers even quivered from the shock.

“Let’s get started.”

“…Fine…”

Professor Verdus slumped off to prepare. Somehow his back looked especially pathetic.

‘Good thing it’s Professor Verdus.’

If it had been any other professor, Lee Han might have felt a twinge of sympathy, but since it was Verdus, he felt nothing.

Lee Han pushed Professor Verdus along toward the tower.

The Craft Hall.

Professor Verdus’s workshop and tower.

When they arrived, Professor Verdus, getting grumpy again, started prepping the lesson with grumbling.

“Here’s the black jug iron ingot, and… some coal… the forge and bellows… we’ll need white charcoal too… ugh, so annoying… maybe something other than charcoal…”

“Please just find the charcoal.”

Professor Verdus grumbled twice as much as he searched for it.

“So what’s today’s lesson?”

“We’ll reshape the iron ingot to prep it for artifact crafting.”

A great enchanting wizard was not only skilled in magic but also in understanding material properties and sculpting forms.

One of the key methods of enchantment is to engrave magic into materials via a magic circle, and the form or structure of the material affects the magic.

Even with the same armor, a skilled craftsman designed the structure from the start to draw the most from the engravings.

Obviously, it wasn’t easy.

You had to know the magic you’d be engraving, understand how it worked, and predetermine what structure was needed.

You couldn’t easily recalculate after everything was made.

And after calculation, you still had to minutely sculpt various magical materials; so proficiency in transmutation magic, as well as smithing and crafting, was needed.

After prying the prep list out of Professor Verdus, Lee Han borrowed what was necessary from all over the place.

“But professor, I know your goals are high, but isn’t this too hard? Can first-years really handle this?”

“This is for second-years.”

“……”

Lee Han almost threw down what he was holding but held back.

Shouldn’t you pick one of the poor second-years to do second-year lesson prep, not Lee Han?

“Please prepare the first-year lesson instead.”

“Why do you like prepping so much?”

“I’m just trying to do the basics… No, never mind. Just hurry up, please.”

• * *

The skull principal was frustrated by the lack of any progress from the death knights’ search.

‘What’s going on? Did they get outside help? There’s no connected outsiders, though.’

The principal wasn’t an amateur. He had already checked in advance for any outsiders connected to students.

If there was anyone helping with a breakout, or, say, unauthorized outings, they’d soon get a tour of the punishment room together.

-Could it have been a misunderstanding?

Instead of answering, the skull principal blocked the death knight’s mouth.

The death knight who was always silenced just for being nice felt unfairly treated.

Maybe someone’s been bribed.

-Who would be crazy enough to help someone sneak in and out of Einrogard? No matter how much you like silver coins, if you get caught…

Life is full of surprises. Besides, he’s got a truly wicked tongue. He could easily tempt them.

The skull principal believed that if Lee Han put his mind to it, he could easily con a few local suppliers.

With the Wardanaz family fortune and his own evil silver tongue, tricking some naïve clerk and hiring a wagon wouldn’t be that hard.

Good, good. Even if we don’t see immediate results, keep searching. If you keep the pressure on, students always slip up. By the way, did the visiting mages leave safely?

-Yes. The last of them just left the village.

There were no troublesome grumblers?

-All were satisfied.

The skull principal nodded.

Whatever else, the opinions of visiting imperial mages were very important.

If word got around among imperial mages, it would cause all sorts of trouble—event invitations, funding, research support, and so on.

Getting scolded by the Emperor was just a bonus.

What clowns. Complain about Einrogard’s “perfect” education, but the moment you get to toss them a student to observe, they shut up with excitement!

-They really are clowns.

Yeah. At any rate, they’re gone… but the knights are still here?

-Yes. With permission, the knights’ gathering is this weekend…

A gathering of the brainless, I suppose. It can’t be helped—it’s permitted. Send death knights to keep watch. Don’t let anyone sneak off to town or the village.

The death knights nodded.

Guarding against possible student mischief was their job.

Hearing the rough report, the principal floated off.

It always amazed the students, but the skull principal regularly reviewed the professors’ curricula.

If it weren’t for this, it could be much worse than it is.

Whose turn is it now?

-Professor Millei.

Millei’s fine. He manages on his own.

-Then Professor Garcia.

Garcia even more so. The trouble is he works too hard. Even if he slacks off, his students would do fine.

-Next is Professor Verdus.

…Let’s go check on him. That one, I have to see for myself.

Even the usually hands-off skull principal wouldn’t let Verdus slide.

No matter how relaxed he was, there were professors he had to keep an eye on.

Verdus was the prime example.

He was the sort to dump a chunk of carnelian, a box of processed hawktalon wood, two bags of ice gnawers, and an ogre tendon in front of his students and say, “Build me an artifact out of these by the end of class”. He could not be left unwatched.

You can leave a genius to his own devices—that’s the principal’s theory. Trouble was, Verdus always went too far.

…What’s that?

-The classroom.

I wasn’t asking what it is… I’m asking about that.

-Didn’t you set it up?

Him??

Looking in the classroom, where at each student’s desk there were carefully measured materials and example magic circles drawn, the principal couldn’t believe his eyes.

Had Verdus been kidnapped and replaced by rivals in disguise?

-…It does seem a little strange.

A little?

-Very strange.

Before these thoughts finished, Lee Han entered the classroom.

He confirmed the setup and walked back out.

When the principal realized what was going on, he was at a loss for words.

Did he… actually make the first-year kid help him prep class now?!

No matter how smart, you don’t just hand over lesson prep to a first-year.

What if he gets it wrong?

-Master.

What is it? What now?

-Uh… It seems like this was prep for second-year class…

…Unacceptable. Call Bible.