Episode 551

Episode 551

A moment later.

Professor Thunderstep walked out of the hut, grumbling.

“Wardanaz, you may not know, but professors and students of Einrogard originally never invade each other’s territories. Just like well water does not invade the river…”

“I apologize, Professor.”

“Ahem. Don’t forget to organize the storeroom.”

In the end, Professor Thunderstep had no choice but to surrender, unable to withstand the persistence of his student.

If it had been another student, maybe not, but a student like Lee Han couldn’t be ignored easily by Professor Thunderstep either.

Because he was such a precious student, always working hard, even on ordinary days…

“All right, then. Shall we go look for spirits?”

“Why are you so obsessed with spirits anyway? Hm?”

Professor Thunderstep couldn’t understand.

Of course, if a mage could receive help from a spirit, their range of abilities widened greatly.

But no matter how he looked at it, Lee Han was a student who would do well without spirits, like the skeleton principal.

“Professor, how many spirits have you contracted with?”

“…That doesn’t seem related to our topic right now…”

“Let’s hurry, Professor.”

Lee Han seemed determined not to listen to anyone even slightly more familiar with spirits than himself.

Professor Thunderstep could only shake his head and move his feet.

• * *

“Everyone, get out of the way.”

The dwarf professor pulled out a crossbow and pulled the trigger. With a thunk, the bolt tore through the space around them.

Crash!

An abomination using a giant oak tree as its core, looking like a tree monster, collapsed with a single strike.

Lee Han couldn’t help but be amazed.

Even though he couldn’t identify all the spells on that crossbow, he could still feel how incredible it was.

Moreover, the bolt wasn’t an ordinary bolt. At the core of the bolt, which was shaped like a short arrow, was a long flask filled with an alchemical solution that sloshed about.

‘Could I get at least one?’

“That’s odd.”

“Excuse me?”

Lee Han flinched, wondering if his inner thoughts had been detected.

“There are too many of them. Even in natural situations, their numbers wouldn’t increase so rapidly.”

Professor Thunderstep was an outstanding alchemist, but he was also a remarkable ranger.

And rare was anyone as sensitive to changes in their domain as a ranger.

They had barely entered the forest, but it was pitch-dark as night already. It was proof that the power of the dark element was growing.

Abominations didn’t usually increase this quickly…

“In that case, could it be the principal…”

“It’s probably your seniors’ mistake.”

“Ah. So it’s the seniors’ mistake.”

“Didn’t you just mention the principal?”

“Did I?”

Yoner and Priest Siana, who were beside Lee Han, quietly averted their gazes.

Professor Thunderstep shook his head and spoke.

“The principal might be the type to do this kind of thing, but he wouldn’t. Cleaning up abominations is too much of a hassle.”

“Did you just say he’s the type to do this?”

Priest Siana asked, doubting her ears, glancing from Lee Han to Yoner. The two nodded with flat expressions.

“You heard right.”

“He is the type to do it, you know.”

“!?”

While Priest Siana was stunned, Lee Han asked his question.

“When you say the cleanup is a hassle, are you talking about environmental contamination?”

“That’s right.”

Professor Thunderstep looked at his student as if proud.

He might have been annoyed at getting involved in his students’ affairs, but whenever he saw Lee Han instinctively grasp what he hadn’t even taught yet, that annoyance disappeared.

“The principal’s attacks vary in method every year, but his cleanup is usually immaculate. Otherwise, he’d have to deal with it himself. This is probably a student’s mistake.”

“I see.”

“It’s probably the dark magic students.”

“Excuse me?”

Lee Han bristled slightly.

He recalled his own dark magic seniors, who always had drooping shoulders, unlike students from other schools.

“Whenever something like this happens, does it always have to be the dark magic school? Isn’t that a bit much?”

“A, ah…”

Only then did Professor Thunderstep remember that Lee Han was also taking dark magic classes, and spoke apologetically.

“I’m not doubting them just because they’re dark magic students. Look. The abominations are all dark spirit-infected.”

“……”

Lee Han realized what he was getting at.

He lowered his voice and whispered to Professor Thunderstep.

“Even so, since they’re all Einrogard students who learned from you, Professor, shouldn’t you go a little easy on them? If you show some generosity, the seniors won’t forget.”

“……”

‘Aren’t you not actually that close with them?’

Witnessing Lee Han instantly suspect the dark magic seniors, Professor Thunderstep began to wonder if Lee Han actually wasn’t that close with those seniors.

• * *

“S, senior Ellendil. Isn’t this dangerous right now?”

The second-year students spoke with terrified faces as they looked at their dryad-mixed senior.

This student, who had dryad blood mixed into his soul, was the highest-year student among them, but had the most ragged appearance.

He wore an overcoat that looked like it had been woven from fallen leaves, and mud dripped from all over his body, making it hard to tell if he was a beggar or a wizard.

“Hmm. Sorry, everyone.”

“……”

“……”

Ellendil’s calm words made the juniors’ expressions fall.

What their senior had been doing in the forest was a kind of experiment.

Injecting primordial homunculus with dark element, he aimed to create an artificial dark spirit-like entity!

Of course, if it had worked, he wouldn’t be here like this.

The homunculus grew unpredictably, then escaped and went rampant, spreading the dark element throughout the woods.

Seeing abominations begin to appear in the forest already, he shivered, imagining what a dreadful winter it would be in Einrogard this year.

“I really should have gotten help from the dark magic school.”

“Nah, the dark magic school wouldn’t have helped. The people there are weird and scary.”

“This isn’t the time for that, senior Ellendil.”

One second-year spoke up firmly.

“We should quickly erase the evidence and run.”

“…You…”

The students looked at their friend.

Then, as if he’d said something right, they patted him on the back and shouted.

“Well said! Let’s erase the traces and run!”

In their confusion, they had forgotten the basic rules of Einrogard.

When something goes wrong, erase the traces and run!

“Hmm. But… If we leave it as is, the forest will get too polluted, and someone has to stop it.”

“No, senior, if we get caught, it’s the punishment room until the end of the semester! We’ll have to take finals from the punishment room! Which is more important, the forest or you, senior?!”

“If you insist, the forest is more important, right?”

“……”

“……”

The juniors belatedly remembered that this brilliant alchemist had an extraordinary way of thinking and lamented.

“Senior! You have to come with us!”

“We have no choice. Grab senior! We have to take him!”

Bang!

“?”

“…?!”

At that familiar sound of a bolt and the rending of space in the distance, the students were terrified.

Every Einrogard student feared the professors, but especially their own department’s professor.

“Isn’t that Professor Thunderstep?!”

“No, why did he come all the way here?? There’s no hut here???”

“Are we discovered!? Did someone snitch?!”

“Scatter! Split up and run! Senior, you have to run!”

“Yeah, got it. Everyone scatter.”

Einrogard’s rule, ‘Erase the evidence and run when something happens,’ was followed by the next rule: ‘If discovered, scatter and run.’

The students followed those rules and began to scatter and flee.

• * *

“How could those ungrateful brats!”

Professor Thunderstep tore at his beard in rage.

Lee Han was perplexed. Professor Thunderstep was fuming at something far off in the distance, where nothing could be seen.

“Ah. Are there seniors there, by chance?”

“Yes!”

“Are they seniors who major in alchemy?”

“…Yes!”

“Professor! I told you the dark magic seniors were innocent!”

Professor Thunderstep was too enraged to bother with Lee Han’s changing words.

He gritted his teeth and prepared to apprehend those ungrateful students.

“I clearly told them not to conduct experiments in the forest… Track them down!”

“Wait, professor…!”

Lee Han panicked as Professor Thunderstep mounted a spirit deer to pursue the seniors.

He had only just arrived at the place where spirits might be!

“Shall we go on our own? We’re almost there anyway.”

“Let’s do that.”

Nodding at Priest Siana’s suggestion, Lee Han agreed.

He was very anxious, unsure how long the spirits would remain here.

“Darkness, gather here.”

Lee Han cast a spell to clear the dark fog that hung around them.

As if to prove it was one of the most alien element attributes, the dark element itself was a hostile obstacle to all living things.

Even ordinary forest mist, when combined with dark element, became a deadly trap that sapped vitality.

The blessing was that Lee Han was a rare user of the dark element, even in the dark magic school.

Lee Han swung his staff to draw in the mist.

The dark element, so hard to gather outside, was easily drawn in within this forest.

‘I should clear it.’

Although it was a rare element, paradoxically, it became less useful in this forest.

Since the abominations fused with dark spirits, the dark element itself had little effect.

“Wait, wait, wait!”

“????”

Priest Siana screamed “Eek!” and hid behind Lee Han.

A person had suddenly appeared out of thin air.

“Don’t throw away that dark element! Could you put it in this bottle for me?”

The person looked like a banyan spirit-mix, reminiscent of Puyo or Professor Willow. Clearly a plant-type hybrid.

“Who are you?”

“Just bottle the dark element for now. It’ll disappear soon!”

“It won’t.”

Lee Han skillfully controlled the dark element, aiming at the stranger. An unmistakable gesture of vigilance.

Because of its alien nature, controlling the dark element was especially difficult, except for a few naturally gifted wizards.

Lee Han kept the dark element like a spear at the tip of his staff, ready to respond.

“W-Wardanaz. Isn’t he a senior?”

“Priest Siana, seniors are actually more dangerous. In terms of danger, it’s principal, professor, then senior, in that order.”

“B-But…”

Still bound by common sense, Priest Siana seemed scared at the idea of aiming at a senior.

Yoner also looked worried.

“Wait. I apologize. But I really didn’t mean to.”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“For… all of this…?”

Ellendil tilted his head quizzically.

The three first-year students realized everything at those words.

The culprit was right in front of them!

“Attack! Attack!”

“Lee Han, give the signal!”

Ellendil, flustered by their intense response, waved his hands.

“I didn’t mean to…?!”

“Intentional or not, didn’t you summon all of this?!”

The dryad-mixed senior thought for a moment about how to persuade them, then made a decision.

He gave up.

“Um… you can attack, but could you bottle the dark element for me first?”

“……”

“He, he seems insane.”

Priest Siana muttered from behind.

• * *

Lee Han, for now, lowered his staff.

The stranger seemed crazy, but at least didn’t seem intent on ambushing them.

In his slow speech, Ellendil explained what had happened and looked at the three.

“So, what brings you all the way here?”

“Uh…”

“Well…”

Yoner and Priest Siana unconsciously looked at Lee Han. Lee Han replied firmly.

“We couldn’t just ignore the spirits being chased by abominations, so we came in.”

“You…”

For the first time today, Ellendil’s eyes widened in surprise.

Even among Einrogard students, rarely did anyone show this much interest in the forest or spirits.

“You’re really a good person!”

“Not at all. It’s only natural as a mage.”