Episode 558

“……”

Hodrong silently wiped the coffee from his face with a handkerchief.

Iunrade, who had spat coffee onto his superior’s face, had absolutely no excuse.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!!”

“That’s enough.”

After wiping off the rest of the coffee, Hodrong looked at him with suspicious eyes.

“Did Gonadaltes order you to do that?”

“…No!!”

Suddenly accused of being strangled by the skeleton principal, Iunrade freaked out and denied it.

“Why would he do such a thing!?”

“There are plenty of reasons. Maybe to confuse me by splashing coffee, so you can steal my bag. Or attack me while I step away.”

Hodrong had a deep-seated distrust of the Einrogard mages.

In fact, not just Hodrong, but most imperial officials didn’t trust Einrogard’s mages.

There had been cases where officials had visited Einrogard, only to end up involved in unfortunate magic accidents.

Even though Lord Gonadaltes had tearfully insisted it was “really just a coincidence,” the officials didn’t believe him.

“Or it could be emotional revenge.”

“That’s not it! Really, it isn’t!”

“Fine, I’ll believe you for now. But keep your distance.”

Hodrong openly gestured for his subordinate to move away, and Iunrade retreated, showing his injustice with his whole body.

“All right. Let’s go then.”

“Huh? Where to?”

“You just heard it, right? An Einrogard student caught a wanted criminal.”

“Oh.”

Iunrade suddenly remembered why he’d spit his coffee.

Because he’d just heard something so absurd.

‘This is bad!’

The townsfolk shouted, “An Einrogard student caught a wanted man!”—but Iunrade wasn’t fooled.

After all, wasn’t he from Einrogard himself?

Obviously, there must have been a misunderstanding.

It probably started out as “An Einrogard student is a wanted criminal!” and as it passed from person to person, it became, “What? An Einrogard student caught a wanted criminal?”

“M-Mr. Hodrong, it’s probably just a rumor? Cities are always full of rumors. There’s no need to waste your time on this sort of thing!”

As Iunrade tried to dissuade his superior, he wondered why he had to go this far.

Honestly, if his juniors just handled things well there’d be no problem!

“Is that all you have to say? Follow me. I want to see what’s going on.”

“B-but… there are a lot of people, and there could be pickpockets…”

Hodrong grew even more certain as he saw Iunrade’s hesitation.

He must see with his own eyes what the Einrogard student was up to—and put a stop to it!

• * *

“You worthless bastard, whose skin should be flayed and salted, then hung from a mountain pole to be picked apart by crows, a bastard worse than a broken, rusty sword fragment!”

“You should be locked in the deepest underground cell of the punishment room and rot forever, turn to stone and never blink, and have Professor Verdus in the next cell, you bastard!”

The captured Gardam wept, flailing his hands. He tried to crawl away, desperate to escape.

He’d survived stormy battles, even the fierce Incartan rebellion, yet none of that mattered before the terror of facing a real mage.

The two mages hurled curses at the fallen Gardam as they dragged him along.

“If you try escaping again, I’ll poke a few more holes in you.”

“All you had to do was surrender, but you escalated this. Are you even human? Do you know how many students you’ve caused trouble for!?”

‘I don’t know, you bastards!’

Lost for words, Gardam internally screamed at the mages spouting nonsense at him.

When he broke through the front door and used up all his magic items to block the way, he thought he’d finally escaped.

-Get out of my way! Out of the way!

He barreled down the boulevard, shoving and kicking aside citizens.

He hoped this wall of people would keep the pursuing mages from using magic recklessly.

-A basilisk has appeared, citizens of Granden! We need to restrain it and move it outside, so clear the way!

But the mages pushed straight through people just as forcefully, closing in.

Worse, they didn’t hesitate to use magic—savage spells flew by.

-Wardanaz, what if you miss?

-Don’t, miss! Moradi, I’ll cast an enhancement spell, get ready!

-Got it, wait, side effects…

He prided himself on his tenacity, but the two mages relentlessly dogged him, again and again.

He knocked over a stack of fruit crates to block the way—crates were smashed aside. He ducked into alleys—summoned creatures chased him. He dove into canals—ice magic bombarded him until he nearly froze to death…

Not even Gardam thought he could flee this far. It was the power of sheer terror.

But even willpower has a limit.

As his strength faded and his mana drained, exhaustion crashed over him.

Crunch!

A summoned panther bit Gardam’s ankle as it pounced from the side.

At the same moment, Giselle slashed both of Gardam’s arms. His weapons went flying.

From behind, Lee Han shot a water prison, shattering both of Gardam’s legs.

“S-surren…”

“You worthless bastard, whose skin should be flayed, salted, and hung from a mountain pole for the crows to eat, a bastard worse than a broken, rusty sword fragment!”

“You should be locked in the deepest part of the punishment room and rot forever, turn to stone and never blink, with Professor Verdus in the next cell, you bastard!”

Realizing he had nowhere left to run, Gardam tried to surrender, but the mages who’d chased him this far were raging.

Gardam called out to the townsfolk.

“Help me! Save me! The mages, they’re—”

Thud!

Lee Han cast a silence spell at Gardam’s solar plexus and quickly explained to the gathering crowd.

“No, citizens! This is a wanted criminal with a bounty on his head!”

“Ah, that guy!! He’s Gardam of the ‘Bleeding Hands’!”

“Right, right!”

‘Phew.’

Lee Han and Giselle exchanged glances of relief.

If nobody had recognized Gardam’s face, they might have gotten arrested by the city guards—thanks to luck, it worked out.

“So, who are you people?”

“Uh… We’re adventurers of the Granden City adventurer guild. Right? Gubon?”

“…Y-yeah.”

‘Who’s Gubon?’

Giselle didn’t know, but went along.

Nothing good would come from revealing they were students.

“Huh? Aren’t you Einrogard mages?”

“Yeah, that’s right! That shabby, humble outfit, and a staff too! You’re Einrogard mages for sure!”

“No way a wandering mage could use such magic!”

“……”

“……”

Lee Han and Giselle exchanged shocked looks.

Even though he’d covered all the Einrogard insignia with his coat, people still suspected them just for looking shabby and humble.

‘What do we do?’

‘Improvise, Wardanaz. Improvise!’

“…What a thing to say! Einrogard mages? Absolutely not!”

Lee Han raised his voice.

“We live day by day, sleeping on dirt and using the sky as our blanket, just humble adventurers…”

“Oh, but you look like a noble?”

“Aren’t you a noble?”

The townsfolk eyed Lee Han suspiciously.

Lee Han snapped at them.

“I said I’m not! That’s dangerous talk!”

“But your face…”

“Don’t judge people by appearance! Look, even Gubon here—she may look pretty outside, but inside she’s sly and vicious, she’ll slice down anyone who won’t listen!”

‘This bastard…’

Giselle felt a surge of anger but couldn’t spoil the mood. She just glared and nodded silently.

“Ah, mage!”

The adventurer Gubon, passing by with her companions, recognized a familiar face and greeted him warmly.

“What are you doing here? Good to see you!”

“Do you know each other?”

“Yes. This is Sir Wardanaz, a mage of Einrogard.”

“……”

“……”

Giselle glared at Lee Han as if she’d kill him.

• * *

“…Anyway, we’re not.”

“Yeah… sure.”

“Understood.”

The gathered people hesitated, then nodded.

It was basically a “They must be mages from Einrogard but clearly don’t want to say so, let’s respect that” look.

Lee Han and Giselle became crestfallen.

‘Ruined.’

‘It’s over.’

They felt as if the time until their punishment room sentence was rapidly shrinking.

Lee Han glared daggers at the collapsed Gardam. Gardam recoiled and buried his head in the dirt.

“Will you hand him over to the city guard?”

“For a mage’s request, of course we’ll do it. But are you sure? You’re the one who caught him…”

“It’s fine.”

Lee Han waved his hand with a lonely smile.

The smile seemed to say that fame and fortune in the world are worthless to a mage.

The people around felt a deep inspiration, as if it was their own story.

“Moradi. Let’s go shopping.”

“…Let’s. Can’t be helped.”

Giselle sighed lightly and accepted reality.

Complaining to Wardanaz wouldn’t change anything.

They’d just have to brace to get caught and buy their items as fast as possible.

“Wait. Wardanaz, what about money? We didn’t stop by the mansion.”

“Can you give back the silvers I left with you last time? Thanks.”

Lee Han got back the silvers he had left with Gubon.

“The next stash is at the staff making shop, so let’s get it on the way.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Why are you mad?”

• * *

Hodrong, who arrived late, ordered Iunrade to keep quiet and assessed the situation.

The dignified citizens of Granden gave testimony highly trusted by those serving the Empire.

“So, when the mercenary threatened to unleash a basilisk, the mage grabbed him and wouldn’t let go?”

“Indeed!”

“They chased him so fanatically, even a family enemy wouldn’t pursue someone like that.”

“Why do you think they went so far?”

“There’s only one reason! After seeing that rotten mercenary smash and topple the citizens’ property, they just got furious!”

“Indeed!”

Hodrong let out an exclamation of disbelief as he cross-checked their stories several times, but they all said similar things.

“So it was a first-year student?”

“That’s correct.”

Gubon answered devoutly.

But the elite Granden citizens next to him looked at Gubon with doubt.

“Maybe you’re mistaken?”

“Adventurers always exaggerate, you know.”

“He didn’t look like a first-year to me. I know a bit about magic—looked third-year at least.”

“N-no… he really is a first-year! I’ve worked with him!”

Gubon snapped, but it just made things worse with the Granden citizens.

“Ha!”

“Of course, of course.”

“Did I ever mention I once had an audience with the Emperor in my youth? Such a grand and beautiful…”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m actually an earl’s illegitimate child.”

“……”

Gubon trembled with humiliation.

What stung more was that if another adventurer had said this, he would’ve thought, “What the hell is this nonsense?”

Citizens or not, Hodrong recorded all the testimonies, then turned to his subordinate in admiration.

“Perhaps there is hope even for Einrogard.”

“Ha! That could never be!”

“……”

“S-sorry. Reflex… I really apologize.”