Episode 588

Episode 588

And the final exam for Transformation Magic was not particularly difficult.

“Professor. I have a question. I definitely tried to transform into the forepaw of Sharkan, but I kept turning into a dragonkin form.”

“That’s because you have a lot of mana. There aren’t many forms you can endure. You’ll improve as you keep practicing.”

Transformation magic heavily relied on experience.

Everything from maintaining a form to finding a form that fit one’s own constitution became much easier the more experience one piled up.

Especially for students like Lee Han, who possessed an abnormally large amount of mana, far more experience would be necessary.

“There’s no need to be impatient.”

Professor Yonramo knew well that Lee Han was also attending other schools of magic.

Given that situation, the fact that he performed transformation magic well enough to get a perfect score on the final was already an amazing feat.

In fact, rather than just amazing, it was insanely amazing…

Anyway, given all that, there was no reason to be impatient at all.

“Yes, I understand.”

When the professor said that, Lee Han nodded in acceptance.

‘So I’ll improve if I keep practicing, huh.’

However, in Professor Yonramo’s eyes, Lee Han seemed somehow disappointed.

Anecdotes he’d heard about Lee Han from other professors had planted a preconception in Yonramo’s subconscious.

When a student with a statue-like face sat expressionless, you couldn’t help but interpret it through your own perspective.

‘Hmm.’

Professor Yonramo thought hard about what advice to give so that this first-year student wouldn’t do anything reckless before the next semester.

“The magic book you got last time, -From Caterpillar to Dragon-—do you still have it?”

“Ah. Yes.”

At the last gathering of Transformation Mages, Lee Han had been enthusiastically welcomed.

He was so popular, he’d even received a family grimoire.

“You might want to study it over the break. It’s quite a good magic book.”

Lee Han’s pupils flickered briefly.

The final exam was over and yet the professor had suddenly given him extra homework.

Why?

‘Did I do something wrong? I got a perfect score, didn’t I?’

Now, the other students taking Transformation Magic were chirping and laughing out of the classroom like larks.

Why was Lee Han the only one getting assigned extra homework?

“How much should I study?”

“How much?”

Professor Yonramo hesitated.

He figured Lee Han would be busy even during winter break, so he didn’t want to put too much burden on him.

“As much as you can?”

“…!”

Lee Han was greatly shocked.

As much as he could?

Wasn’t that basically telling him to do everything he possibly could!

‘Is it really that much of a problem that I keep turning into dragonkin forms?!’

• * *

In front of the Phoenix Tower, after pitching tents and lighting a fire, the students from Blue Dragon Tower gathered to study together and let out sighs.

Maybe because snow had started falling again, they absolutely hated studying.

“Should we move to the library to study?”

“We already moved 30 minutes ago, remember?”

“Maybe we’ll study better if we move again.”

Gainando, who was doodling, asked in confusion.

“Lee Han. Is it possible for the sum of the angles in a triangle to be 190°?”

“…How on earth did you calculate that?”

The -Geometry and Arithmetic- test was an unavoidable required class, and on top of that, it was notoriously difficult—everyone squirmed except for a few special students.

Lee Han put down the Suoktan Grimoire he was working on and checked Gainando’s math.

Realizing it late, Gainando spoke with a voice full of betrayal.

“L—Lee Han is studying for a different class!!”

“What!?”

“How could this happen!”

The students from Blue Dragon Tower were deeply shocked.

Of course, they knew Wardanaz was top of this class as well, but to show such confidence as to prep for another exam even right before this one?

Even Ahsan and Adenart were shocked.

Both had been doing a final check just in case, too.

“Lee Han, you don’t know how I feel! How could someone confident enough to not even prep for the test understand my heart!”

Gainando, who also hated studying, clung to it.

The other equally unmotivated students followed suit and shouted.

“He’s right! Wardanaz, you don’t know how we feel!”

“Do you even need to know that sort of thing?”

Yoner asked, puzzled, but his friends’ voices drowned him out.

“We demand more snacks and break time…!”

“No. I already took the final, so I’m studying other stuff.”

Lee Han sealed Gainando’s mouth as he spoke.

At those words, his friends burst out laughing.

Even Adenart was made to smile by the joke.

Ahsan, after laughing a good while, wiped his tears and spoke.

“Still, Wardanaz, that you already finished the final…wait, you’re not joking, are you.”

Ahsan was flustered when he saw that Lee Han was 100% serious.

Huh?

Was it really not a joke??

“I was told to help design -Pocketknife Fortress- for the exam, so I did that and submitted the report first.”

Lee Han showed the basic blueprint for -Pocketknife Fortress- to his friends.

After seeing the complicatedly intertwined arrangement of the fortress and the artifacts, their faces turned pale, as if they’d seen a skeletal headmaster. Adenart quickly straightened his lips and acted like he hadn’t been smiling.

“Anyone want to do this instead?”

“……”

“……”

“Guys?”

All his friends bowed their heads and began diligently calculating numbers.

Seeing them fall silent, Lee Han contentedly went back to writing in the grimoire.

‘I guess I won’t need to hand out extra snacks.’

• * *

Kilbedek had once been an adventurer, sometimes even a swindler, but now he’d buried all that in the past and was living as a fairly honest general store owner.

It was thanks to the villagers.

These villagers had warmly welcomed Kilbedek, who was no more than an outsider.

So Kilbedek also tried to repay them by doing honest business.

Of course, with outsiders, he did pull some scams, but he was definitely honest with the villagers.

It was the same for the other two adventurer brothers, Doig and Geido.

They, too, had been warmly welcomed by the villagers, and to repay the favor, while tending sheep, never stole livestock from the villagers—only pilfering the livestock of outsiders.

The pastoral life they had forgotten was restoring their souls. Every morning, when they met at the village gate, the three ex-adventurers would quietly smile.

-May the glory of Bildockal be with you.

-May Bildockal have no further need to look after you.

Their souls had recovered so much that they could sometimes speak of the terrible things they’d experienced at the crazy magic school, over drinks.

In fact, Geido, after three bottles of strong wine, even said things like ‘maybe that was a stroke of luck.’

Of course, once he sobered up, it was no easy matter to say such things.

Not just because of the hangover, but because those were truly ghastly memories.

Getting kidnapped by some monster of a mage, dragged to a magic school, and being threatened to fight terrifyingly young mages.

And worse than even the threats, being brutally attacked by that young mage.

That they had quit being adventurers and settled in the village needed no further explanation as to just how terrible it had been.

-At least now that there’s no chance of getting mixed up with mages, I can rest easi—

-Do you know a man named Kilbedek here? He runs a general store. Recently, he sold someone a copper mirror claiming it was magical, though it wasn’t.

-I—I don’t know him.

Suddenly, appearing and shattering the peace of the village, a stranger cloak-shrouded from head to toe caused Kilbedek to jump in surprise.

Whoever he was, Kilbedek’s instincts, honed over many years, were screaming that this person was extremely dangerous.

It wasn’t just because the stranger’s physique was as large and unshakably sturdy as a trained knight.

It wasn’t just because he had recently learned that Kilbedek sold someone from outside the village a copper mirror, falsely claiming it was enchanted.

It was a more primal, instinctive sense that was screaming: this stranger was dangerous!

-Ha ha. Actually, I asked because I already knew you were Kilbedek. When you’ve been dead a long time, little pranks like this are quite fun.

-…!!

Just as Kilbedek turned to run, the stranger’s arm suddenly stretched out.

An arm made of darkness coiled tightly around Kilbedek, felling him in an instant.

-Before you pay for your crimes under Imperial law, do a little community service.

-…!!

-W-What on earth… You’re—killing people…

-Shh. You aren’t in much of a position to righteously demand to be spared either.

The stranger spoke, spreading a chilling aura from within his robe.

-You’re Doig and Geido, right? The two brothers who recently stole two horses and a cow?

-Eek!

As Geido tried to pull out his club, the stranger simply snatched it and struck Geido on the head.

Seeing that fighting power, Doig raised his hands in surrender.

-I surrender!

But the stranger smacked Doig on the head, too. Then he bundled all three up and loaded them onto the back of a horse.

-Move out!

When the three former adventurers woke up, they were already in a moving carriage.

Inside the carriage, people of every sort of dress were murmuring and chatting.

“Hey, where are you from?”

“Wha… what?”

“Are you deaf or something? I’m asking where you came from and what you’d been doing.”

“I… I was… running a general store.”

“A general store? You pull any scams in that line of work?”

At Kilbedek’s words, several people in the carriage snickered.

Among criminals, the ‘quality’ of your crime determined your pecking order.

A swindling general store owner was bottom of the heap.

“I used to be an adventurer. Then I retired.”

“Is there anyone here who wasn’t an adventurer or mercenary? If you left the village wielding a club, you were an adventurer or mercenary.”

-Hey. Quiet down.

A voice came from outside the carriage.

At that, the criminals who were chattering spiritedly shrank back.

Kilbedek guessed, even from before he woke up, that these people had been punished several times.

They were excessively afraid of outside interference.

“W-Where do you think they’re taking us?”

“I don’t know either, damn it. Maybe to sell us as test subjects to a black magician?”

“Could be selling us as slaves too.”

“Which region is short on oarsmen lately? I heard there’s a shortage up north because of the storms and no one wants to go out rowing.”

“For God’s sake, anything but getting sold to a black magician for experiments.”

The criminals tried to swap information and soothe their fears.

At that moment, Kilbedek, looking out the carriage window, screamed so loudly his ears felt like they would tear.

“No!!! No!!!! I said no!!!!!”

“???”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Stop him! Cover his mouth! If we all get punished…!”

Though the criminals muttered, Kilbedek paid no attention and tried to open the carriage door to escape.

“You idiot moron! If the door opened by pulling, we’d have been out already! Stop! You wanna get us all killed?!”

“Get out of the way! I have to get out! We’re headed to Einrogard right now… mmph!!!”

The criminals suppressed Kilbedek and covered his mouth.

Fortunately, the stranger outside didn’t come in.

“E… Einrogard? Isn’t that the nest of those mages?”

“I didn’t hear it was that dangerous? They’re not illegal mages, right?”

“Then why are they bringing criminals like us there?”

“……”

A moment of silence.

Kilbedek, using brute force, shoved the criminals aside and ran for the door again.

“I’m getting out!!”

“Stop that lunatic!!”

The remaining criminals trembled with fear.

What kind of place was Einrogard that it could make someone act like that?

• * *

“Hello. Mr. Oriphulas.”

Lee Han politely greeted the demon Oriphulas, who had served as an Imperial legal officer for 131 years.

Greetings to you as well!

Oriphulas responded cheerfully.

“Could I ask about the content of today’s final exam?”

It’s not hard. It’s a test to distinguish between the good people of the Empire and the wicked.

Hearing the detailed explanation, Lee Han and the students were amazed.

“Did they bring a lot of guests from outside?”

“How did they bring in the wicked people?”

“Maybe there are some people among those brought in who are just supposed to play the role of the wicked?”