Episode 518

“How could a first year know that?”

Anyway, the guilty ones are always more shameless.

The skull principal also shut Anpagon’s mouth.

The ones heading for the punishment room were brazenly still running their mouths.

Normally, a mage always leaves residual traces of mana behind. Of course, such traces are usually so faint you don’t really have to pay attention, but… you should pay attention. Those sensitive to mana might react differently.

Lee Han understood what the skull principal meant.

Didn’t the mana-sensitive spirits flee whenever they saw Lee Han, screaming “A monster!”?

“Are you saying I need to hide my mana?”

Normally that would be the case, but…

The skull principal slowly looked Lee Han up and down.

You should start, at least, by clearing away the residual traces after you cast magic.

“Is it that hard to hide it?”

For you, it is. You godlessly mana-rich brat.

“……”

Leaving his discouraged student behind, the skull principal changed the subject.

From now on, observe the Bracelet of Ten Thousand Demons even more carefully. Normally, I’d have thought it would take much longer, but since one has already awakened… there’s an increased chance the others will wake up too.

The demons inside were a class apart from the shabby lower demons you see in necromancy class—a sort of noble breed.

Even sealed in the Bracelet of Ten Thousand Demons, they could easily possess the body of a still-young mage like Lee Han for a short time.

The demon that came out today was relatively simple, but there’s no telling what kind of havoc the others might cause.

“Yes. If even that bastard Anpursas was like this, I’ll never trust the other demons. He begged so desperately I finally let him, that’s all.”

Right. Demons must be ruled by the whip and the whip… what?

The skull principal paused.

Koholti and Anpagon also paused.

Let them what?

What do you mean, let them?

“The demon begged to fight just once so much that…”

…The demon… possessed… ah.

The skull principal understood right away.

He’d wondered why the demon hadn’t just forcibly taken over, but now he realized he’d forgotten the nature of this Wardanaz brat.

With godless amounts of mana, it was no easy feat for a demon to possess him.

Still, there was something odd remaining, even taking that into account.

Would a mage normally do something just because a demon asked? If I keep begging, will you agree to my requests too? Go collect donations at the cathedral for me.

“Ah. I had no choice. The upperclassmen were in danger.”

Are you saying that, or is your gut so full of garbage that you’re just spewing it out? The upperclassman should worry about the junior, not the other way around!

The skull principal was even more exasperated.

Once you’re an upperclassman, you should handle your own business even if you die; it was unthinkable to have your life saved by a junior.

Right, isn’t that so?

Fiercely glaring at Koholti and Anpagon, who had been looking at Lee Han with gratitude, the two hurriedly nodded.

Fine. After lying in bed sick for a while, you’ll truly understand how pointless it is to take care of your seniors.

“Lying in bed?”

Ah. You didn’t know?

The skull principal summoned a Death Knight, sent the two seniors to the punishment room, and took Lee Han to the healing room.

All your muscles are currently torn.

“……”

Lee Han was appalled.

No wonder the skull principal had been levitating him this whole time…

‘That bastard Anpursas!’

Thinking about it — no matter how outstanding a warrior he was, there’s no way that an untrained mortal body could handle such rampaging without damage.

In exchange for displaying such power, Lee Han’s whole body had suffered severe strain.

“I will never listen to a demon again. I’ll just keep them all locked up.”

No… Don’t do that… That would be a waste.

The skull principal was slightly flustered.

The reason for giving him such a precious artifact as the Bracelet of Ten Thousand Demons was for Lee Han to learn how to handle the demons and gain wisdom from them.

It would be such a waste to just ignore them completely.

A little muscle rupture was no big deal.

“……”

Lee Han almost asked, then what counts as a big problem if that’s a small one, but stopped himself.

• * *

“Uuuuuuggh.”

Lee Han groaned in pain.

Healing magic wasn’t a cure-all.

Especially with severe injuries like Lee Han’s, healing magic was never used to instantly fix everything. Otherwise, the strain on the body would be far too great.

You only healed the truly necessary parts immediately, letting the rest recover naturally with the help of restorative potions.

That was the standard approach to treatment.

Of course, for Lee Han who needed to be up and about, he was cursing Anpursas, the skull principal, and the demon in the infirmary for the pain.

With each step or exertion, pain shot through his body as if he’d been beaten.

Priest Nigisor and Priest Sharkal supported Lee Han on either side and spoke.

“What on earth happened at the festival…”

“Shouldn’t you rest a bit more?”

“I already rested for a day.”

Lee Han sighed as he replied.

He’d already learned from experience during his last request outside.

The more you rested, the more you’d have to bear the burden yourself afterward!

“Thanks for walking me here, everyone. I can manage from here.”

“Call if you need anything.”

“Thank you. Really.”

As Lee Han lowered his voice, the two priests looked at him curiously.

What was he going to say?

“Don’t tell the White Tiger Tower guys I got hurt.”

“……”

“…Alright…”

Though the two priests were startled, they decided to respect Lee Han’s wishes.

After they left, Lee Han sighed and used his staff as a crutch to take a step.

All his muscles ached, but there was work to do.

‘First things first.’

The baby basilisk whimpered in worry. Lee Han patted it to reassure it and went into the secret base.

Originally, Lee Han had worked in his dorm room, but after getting the base, he’d been moving his things over one by one.

For now…

‘This is a bit much to do in my personal room.’

Looking at the bubbling potion in the huge cauldron, Lee Han finally understood why the seniors had searched the school so hard to secure storerooms and secret bases.

No matter how convenient and close the dorm was, there were limits to what you could do there.

And for someone like Lee Han, studying all kinds of magical schools, the dorm was even more inconvenient.

If an accident happened, it would be chaos for all his friends…

‘The foresight potion is coming along nicely.’

Lee Han checked the potion’s status.

Thanks to trial and error, it was now reliably moving from the early phase into the mid-phase.

‘As for the reagents…’

After confirming that, Lee Han moved on.

Beside the drawer where he kept his stockpiled reagents, he was working on creating even more.

Even just for necromancy, making reagents was necessary, and all necromancers had to learn how to make their own reagents.

Tap—

Lee Han set a pouch of bone powder on the balance scale and checked the weight.

Since the weight had increased, it looked like the work was progressing properly.

Just as the type of bone you used altered the power of bone-element magic, there were methods to improve the quality of already-existing bone.

By adding various reagents, you raised the quality.

“Hm. I really do need to get more poison.”

Lee Han thought he should borrow some things from Professor Thunderstep’s hut.

The professor had stocked up on some poison mushrooms earlier…

-Squeak.

The basilisk sounded apologetic. Lee Han was puzzled.

“Why…”

Bzzt—

“!”

Just as he was about to ask, Lee Han turned his gaze to a message from the mirror.

He had forgotten; a senior whose face he didn’t even know had left a linked artifact in the base.

Lee Han used his staff as a crutch and slowly went over again.

On the way, he saw the books on water prison spells from Professor Voladi and quickly closed them, pretending he hadn’t seen them.

‘I’ll get to that later.’

Arriving at the mirror, Lee Han checked it.

Do you know the first year from the Wardanaz family?

“……”

How did I get found out?!

• * *

Thinking calmly, he hadn’t actually been found out yet.

Lee Han understood why the other party had asked such a question.

‘It’s because of the stone-throwing festival.’

It was undoubtedly curiosity about the impression Lee Han had made at that castle-something festival whose name he barely remembered.

Once again Lee Han cursed Anpursas.

‘Because of that guy, I hope I didn’t leave any weird impression.’

He might not have to meet his seniors now, but from second year onwards, encounters with upperclassmen would dramatically increase.

And since Lee Han was attending several schools of magic, that went double for him.

So first impressions with upperclassmen were important…

‘I’m scared to even imagine how I looked.’

How had a junior running wild with a sword in hand seemed to the upperclassmen?

He doubted it put him in a good light…

If you know, let’s exchange information. I’ll share what I brought.

Lee Han refocused.

The immediate issue was this upperclassman whose identity he didn’t know.

How to handle the situation?

‘If I act like I know too much, it’ll look suspicious. The seniors who know me are…’

Fortunately, there were a few upperclassmen who knew Lee Han.

If he responded based on their standards, he could avoid suspicion.

He had to keep his identity hidden as much as possible, while also…

‘…Demonstrate that I’m a proper, diligent junior.’

Once his thoughts were in order, Lee Han decided to try for personal gain.

Whoever the other party was, they probably had friends and acquaintances.

If good rumors spread about Lee Han, that was good too.

-I know of him. Some friends have told me.

What kind of student is he?

-Respects seniors, well-mannered, and always accomplishes any request diligently with a bright face, they said.

That’s not what I was asking. I meant, what about his magic.

Lee Han grumbled inwardly at the response.

‘Isn’t character way more important?’

If you’re skilled at magic but your personality is trash, you’re just a future magic criminal.

The folks at Einrogard are way too indifferent about personality.

-He’s decent enough at magic.

I heard he’s attending several schools. Do you know if that’s true?

‘It should be okay to say this much?’

Necromancy and healing magic upperclassmen already knew.

Upperclassmen close to those seniors likely knew too.

-Yes. I heard he attends multiple schools.

So it’s true. That’s impressive. Do you know why he doesn’t take enchantment magic?

‘?’

Lee Han paused at the question.

He couldn’t figure out what that meant.

‘I do, though? What is he talking about?’

Worried that it was some kind of trap question, his thoughts grew complicated.

Why would someone think he didn’t attend enchantment magic?

‘Let’s think it through calmly. Why ask that?’

Rather than needlessly over-complicating things, Lee Han reset his thoughts.

Why would the other person ask something like that?

The idea that the other suspected his identity was too much of a stretch.

The suspicion was…

‘This person attends enchantment magic!’

The person takes enchantment, saw Lee Han’s festival performance, and thought ‘He attends several schools, so why not enchantment?’—that must be it.

Nothing else made sense.

But one thing was still puzzling.

Why did they think Lee Han didn’t take enchantment?

‘I am taking it.’

Thinking more, he realized the likely reason.

Enchantment students, like Professor Verdus, generally aren’t interested in others.

So even if Lee Han was a fellow enchantment student, they might not even notice.

It was odd that even upperclassman Anpagon didn’t know, but maybe…

‘They probably just forgot to mention or ask about it.’