Episode 681

As it was certainly his own doing, Lee Han dealt with the countless handshake requests that came his way on his own.

“Are you a student from Einrogard?”

“Yes.”

“Are you in third year?”

“No.”

People nodded knowingly at Lee Han’s answer.

In that case, he must be in fourth year!

After hearing many wizards’ introductions and even getting invitations to collaborate on research, Lee Han was finally able to sit down again.

Direte, suddenly reminded of something, asked:

“Wait. Where’s Yukveltire?”

“Professor Vertus—no, I mean, why are you looking for Senior Yukveltire?”

‘Did I almost say Professor Vertus just now?’

Direte was a little bothered by this slip, but let it go since it wasn’t important.

“If she’d seen you just now, she’d know you really are smart. Where is she? You saw her, right?”

“Mm… she’s over there getting ready, so it looks like she didn’t see.”

Lee Han spotted his senior in a corner of the hall talking with some other wizards and replied.

She was a typical Professor Verdus-type wizard, focusing solely on her own magic no matter what else was being presented behind her.

“Ah, come on!”

Direte sighed.

Unlike Koholti, this junior was a chance to prove how smart he actually was!

“I’m fine, Direte-senior.”

“I’M not fine?!”

Direte glared at his junior, who had been tone-deaf all day.

“Now that I think about it, it’s starting to irritate me. Junior, at school you stick your nose in all sorts of nonsense even when told to stay out of it.”

“That’s not really—”

Lee Han was about to protest that it wasn’t on purpose, but Direte ignored him.

“So why do you just sit quietly in front of Yukveltire? Show her what you can do!”

“But she’s my senior…”

Basically, Lee Han tended to hold back in front of people from whom he could get something. Just look at how Professor Verdus was still alive.

He didn’t know when he’d need help from his professors or seniors in second year, so he couldn’t afford to be arrogant.

“I’m your senior too, right? Here’s my first order as your senior: Go put Yukveltire in her place.”

Direte, now slightly delinquent, gave Lee Han an order in a tone that brooked no refusal.

But for Lee Han, it was extremely awkward.

“Uh… Even if you say so, I doubt I could… Would it be okay to attack Senior Yukveltire from behind?”

“……”

“That was a joke.”

“…Don’t joke with that kind of face…”

---

Yukveltire turned her head at the commotion behind her.

She could feel the crowd’s reaction was a lot hotter than usual.

Excited wizards discussed the previous magic, gesturing wildly in the air to demonstrate the moves.

These were reactions only seen when an impressive magic was presented.

‘What is this?’

Yukveltire, of course, had seen the gathering’s catalog and had a general idea of what spells would be shown.

There shouldn’t have been anything that could cause such a reaction…

“Lady Yukveltire, preparations are complete.”

“Alright.”

Yukveltire checked the artifact she would use in her presentation.

It was a delicate and complex artifact, so there was a lot of prep involved.

“I am truly impressed. To think I’d see such a magic…”

“It’s still unfinished. Are you just flattering me now?”

“N-no, not at all.”

The wizards who knew the princess’s personality cleared their throats and straightened their clothes.

But it was true—the artifact before them was extraordinary.

It looked like an ordinary pendant, but inside, hundreds of spells had been intricately arranged.

All the spells were deployed for one purpose.

The creation of an artificially isolated dimension!

Summoning power or creatures from alternate dimensions tied to reality was a widely known staple of magic, so that alone was nothing special. But Yukveltire had gone a step further.

What if you created the dimension itself artificially?

Of course, due to practical limitations, only a very small dimension could be made, but for an excellent wizard, even that was enough.

It meant—for a brief time—you’d have a world where the magician could set new rules.

When connecting to existing dimensions, all sorts of complicated exploration and negotiations were needed, but with this, there was no need.

If she succeeded in stabilizing something like “a dimension overflowing with vast magical power”…

That artifact could draw out nearly unlimited magical energy!

“An artificial dimension artifact!”

“Ooh, is she really presenting it today…!”

“? “

When the surrounding wizards made a stir even before the start, Lee Han wondered what was going on.

Direte closed his book and explained Yukveltire’s invention.

“…That’s basically how it works. Actually, this is such a difficult and unstable field of research that it won’t be as easy as just saying so. If it’s a dimension gushing out massive magic, it’s just as difficult to both sustain it and make a passage to it. But even so, this is a truly fantastic piece of research. To be honest, I worried Yukveltire wouldn’t be able to present it this time. But it looks like my worries were unfounded.”

He breathed a sigh of relief to see his friend’s work reach the level to be publicly presented.

Yukveltire was interested in dimensionology and was constantly trying to combine it with enchantment magic to create new results.

Because it was such a high-difficulty field of research, he’d been worried, but…

“Junior. More importantly, don’t you see anything to pick at?”

“Pardon?”

“You’ve got to pick a flaw. Once Yukveltire presents, you need to find something to criticize!”

“……”

Friendship was friendship, but separately, Direte still intended to avenge the slight received from the Dark Magic School.

“How am I supposed to criticize such an advanced spell?”

“Junior?”

“Yes?”

“You can more than handle it. Find something.”

“No, but…”

Lee Han felt it was unfair.

Why did Direte see him that way?

He was just a first-year, too!

But since his senior told him to, Lee Han pretended to scrutinize the artifact.

With so many wizards and spells around, it was hard to distinguish magical energies at first, but after a bit, he could start to make out the differences.

‘So. Up to this point is the mana left by the wizards in the audience. From here on is the artifact’s magic.’

Were the wizards nearby to hear Lee Han, they’d be appalled at how acutely he could differentiate the ambient mana in the space.

At last, he was able to sense only the artifact’s magical power.

‘Amazing!’

The structure of the artifact reminded him of a rocket that ignites its thrusters in succession:

The mana accelerated in the first magic circle gets accelerated again in the second, then yet again in the third…

In this way, the power was amplified to the maximum, providing the thrust needed to create an artificial dimension.

To make such an artifact, you had to not only chain such magic circles together, but also account for all the shocks and heat generated in the process.

Compared to that, the magic formula for creating the dimension, once you had the power, was almost easy.

Before he knew it, Lee Han muttered,

“How could someone like Professor Verdus create such an artifact…”

“……”

Direte looked at Lee Han with a complicated expression.

Hearing a junior say that about his friend was a little painful.

“Ah. Direte-senior. I think I found a flaw.”

“Oh? What is it?”

Direte perked up, ears twitching.

It was a chance to prove in front of Yukveltire how smart his junior was.

“I roughly followed the mana flow inside, and at one point the magic circle starts to twist and can’t complete a perfect circle, so it ends up as an ellipse.”

“…?”

Direte was confused.

How could his junior sense the magic flow of an artifact from that far away?

And inside the artifact, too!

“Junior, how’d you sense the mana inside the artifact? It’s a long way off! Plus, all the ambient magic—”

“I focused.”

“…Ah. Well, yeah. Focus. Focus is important…”

Such a textbook answer left Direte speechless.

Well, of course you had to focus to sense magic!

“Wait. That’s not the point. I am curious how you predicted the resulting shape just from the flow, but… So, you’re saying it’ll finish as an ellipse?”

“If you overlay the flows and keep projecting, it shapes into an ellipse.”

Direte’s face grew serious.

Having helped with Yukveltire’s magic, Direte knew what would happen if it finished as an ellipse.

Instead of creating a small, safe artificial dimension, it would link with another unstable dimension and create a rift.

If it connected to a relatively safe dimension, that’d be fortunate, but if it linked to something dangerous, things could get ugly.

“I need to stop this.”

Just as Direte stood, the artifact began to activate. He exclaimed in shock.

“Why is it starting now?! There should be time left!”

“We requested it!”

The wizards who came on stage replied with cheerful smiles.

Such an impressive magic deserved as much time as possible, so more wizards could learn from it.

Of course, for Direte, it was maddeningly “kind.”

“Yukveltire, stop! It’s not a perfect circle, it’s an ellipse!”

“!”

Yukveltire turned to her friend with shock in her eyes.

This was not something to take lightly.

“What nonsense is this!”

“We checked thoroughly! There was nothing wrong!”

The magicians who managed and checked the spells for the presentation cried out in disbelief.

After the princess submitted it, they had managed it meticulously, and checked it one more time before the start.

But now, for a wizard with his hat pulled way down to suddenly claim there was a problem—how absurd!

“Stop making trouble and just sit down!”

“Come on, isn’t that a bit much for a safety issue?”

Lee Han protested, and Direte sighed.

“Mad wizards often cause a fuss with nonsense, so the mage towers and guilds also get jumpy!”

“……”

While Lee Han, now knowing the truth, was left speechless, Yukveltire asked,

“Direte. On what basis? You haven’t even touched the artifact these days, have you?”

“My junior sensed it. The mana flow is off in the middle.”

“……”

“……”

The sudden chilly silence made Direte flinch.

‘At the very least, I should’ve claimed to have noticed it myself…!’

He’d blurted out the truth, wanting to prove his junior’s ability!

If Direte had claimed to have noticed, Yukveltire might have believed him.

“Direte… I really can’t understand why you go this far just to prove a junior from the Dark Magic School. It only ends up proving my point.”

“N-no! He really did notice! And that error is real! Stop it now!”

At Direte’s words, even the wizards who had just praised Lee Han looked less sure.

“No matter how skilled, that sounds too far-fetched…”

“Isn’t it all just bluff? Now that I think about it, that last spell was suspicious too.”

“Is that even possible?”

‘Crazy!’

Direte felt like a two-eyed man fallen among the blind.

He’s just too skilled to persuade people!

“Oh, sing thunder, spirit.”

“?!”

Beside him, his junior calmly began to chant.

An attitude that showed he wasn’t at all bothered by accusations of lying or boasting from the other wizards.

“Let lightning and thunder strike! Bell-ringers who keep the ruined kingdom’s tower, and watchers on the “Rowboat Above the Clouds,” all fear your name.”

As a spirit beyond normal strength began to open a dimensional gate and reveal itself, wizards in the hall sensed something was coming and were shocked.

At the same time, the artifact started to make a bizarre noise as it malfunctioned. The magic circle inside the pendant warped more and more into an ellipse.

“!!”

“Th-that’s…!”

“The one contracted with you calls you in proper right!”

As Perkuntra appeared, Lee Han rushed forward.