Episode 693

Episode 693

When the senior kept his eyes closed and tried to escape from the illusion magic even in response to his words, Lee Han slapped the senior on the cheek.

Smack!

“Argh!”

“Senior! Pull yourself together! This is reality!”

In a situation where no particular magic could be used, the best way to break an illusion spell was to provide a stimulus.

A strong focus or stimulus could subtly twist the flow of magic and wake someone up from an illusion.

Lee Han slapped the other cheek. This time, the opposite side.

Smack!

“Wait, wait! I think this is reality!”

“That’s a relief.”

Eurde rubbed both his cheeks. The numbness proved, more than anything, that this was reality.

‘This kid is really scary…’

Of course, when someone was caught in confusion like this from illusion magic, it was right to help them as quickly as possible.

It might look funny, but it was actually quite a serious issue.

Even if you hadn’t been hit with illusion magic, if you started believing you were, the boundary between reality and illusion could collapse, leading to madness.

But that didn’t mean there were many people who could just strike a senior firmly on both cheeks.

He really was a big shot, organizing a smuggling operation with first-years from all four towers.

Eurde’s curiosity about his junior grew stronger.

This guy would be moving up to the second year soon, so he couldn’t possibly remain unknown…

“Which family did you say you were from?”

“Senior, let me explain more about our plan.”

“Oh, okay.”

Lee Han began to explain the plan he had prepared.

The passage that Lee Han was aiming for was the underground tunnel he had visited with Professor Garcia during the first semester.

Among the many underground tunnels of Einrogard, some were used by external merchant laborers.

Among those, Lee Han knew the location of the passage connected to the hidden secret brick door of the underground warehouse.

“I see.”

Eurde nodded.

“What do you see?”

“You found that book, didn’t you? -Secret Paths of Einrogard-. That book is a trap set by the principal. If you stick your head in there, it’s straight to the punishment room.”

“……”

Lee Han wondered, dumbfounded, just how many books the skeleton principal had published and spread.

“I personally went in and confirmed the passage myself.”

Eurde’s mouth worked soundlessly.

He was now learning firsthand that when people are surprised too many times in a day, they can barely speak at all.

“There are three merchant wagons, and they are scheduled to arrive at dawn on the first day of March.”

“Wa-wait.”

“?”

“Sorry for interrupting, but how do you know the number of merchant wagons or the scheduled arrival time?”

“I went and asked them.”

“They wouldn’t just tell you!”

“I forged the principal’s signature and Professor Verdus’s signature and pretended to be there on an extra errand.”

“……”

Lee Han had visited the merchant group with a fake signature from the skeleton principal and a fake signature from Professor Verdus.

Normally they would have checked, but since Lee Han knew the location and process of the underground passage so well, he managed to fool them into revealing the schedule.

“Wait. If the wagons arrive at dawn on the first day of March…”

“That’s right.”

The first day of March was a nightmare for Einrogard students.

It was the day the new semester at Einrogard began.

Everyone had to pass through the main gate in the morning, and if the wagons were expected at dawn?

“We pass underground before dawn, store the goods in the wagon safely, then slip out and arrive at the main gate on time.”

“Tough…!”

Eurde fanned his collar heatedly.

Though he said so, he was excited, thinking that this just might actually work.

“That’s why we need you, Senior. I know the path through the underground tunnel, but I haven’t experienced the second-year inspection. If it looks like we don’t have enough time during the job, we’ll have to delay the inspection start.”

“How?”

“I don’t know either. We’ll have to use whatever means necessary. Maybe summon a demon…”

“Demons won’t work. In Einrogard, the defenses against demon-type threats are too solid—the inspection team wouldn’t even glance their way.”

Whenever students started more summoning accidents, Einrogard’s magical defenses always got stronger.

Lee Han spoke bitterly.

“Let’s just hope we don’t need to improvise.”

“Let me ask just one last thing.”

By now, Eurde had totally fallen under the spell of Lee Han’s plan.

All his earlier attitude of looking down on a junior was gone—he just wanted to succeed as part of this operation.

Looking around Granden City, this looked like the plan with the highest chance of success among all the student smugglers.

“Go ahead.”

“How do you know the warehouse supervisor isn’t in the underground area?”

Eurde was quite familiar with the warehouse supervisor.

In fact, there were few Einrogard students who didn’t know him.

After entering school, when wandering around with an empty stomach in search of the underground kitchen and warehouse, you’d hear those terrifying footsteps from afar.

The skeleton principal’s tracker with magic detection power—the warehouse supervisor!

There were quite a few who’d been caught stuffing bread and cheese into their mouths.

“I checked with the Death Knight. This time, he’ll be taking part in the inspection.”

“That’s bad for the inspection team! …Hey. Wait. Who did you say you confirmed that with?”

• * *

For the remaining time, Lee Han and his friends checked their supplies and made preparations.

And finally, that day came.

The last evening of February.

Even the moon was hidden by clouds, making it unusually dark.

“Good luck, everyone.”

“May the skeleton shatter!”

Eurde chanted his blessing with confidence.

The juniors stared at him in shock before he realized.

“…Isn’t that a bit too much?”

“Uh… don’t you say that before anything big? That’s what we always did…”

Eurde felt the generational gap and shrank away.

‘Isn’t it cool…’

“Drink up, everyone.”

Gulp!

The students drank the disguise potion that Yoner and Siana had made, and their appearances began to change.

It wasn’t a high-level potion that changed race, but it was good enough for the smuggling job.

Lee Han nodded, seeing his face grow a thick beard and body turn bulkier.

“Let’s go. See you at the main gate tomorrow!”

Lee Han’s party split into two groups.

One went directly through the underground Einrogard tunnel into the warehouse.

Lee Han and Eurde joined this team.

The other group stayed behind as backup, just in case.

Deorgyu and Nillia led this team.

Clatter, clatter—

“Three wagonloads of smuggled goods. If we succeed, the black market at Einrogard will be overflowing this year.”

Eurde, disguised as a coachman beside Lee Han, muttered.

During first year, since only first-years interacted among themselves, the market economy within Einrogard didn’t function well, but it was different from the second year onward.

The black market expanded, and even restaurants appeared.

But even this market economy couldn’t avoid outside influence.

If the best students at gathering or providing food—like the kitchen club or supply experts—got sent to the punishment room, prices shot up right away.

Sometimes, even with silver coins, you couldn’t buy what you needed at Einrogard.

But three wagons’ worth of smuggled goods!

If just the leftovers after distributing to everyone here were put into the black market, a windfall would fill Einrogard for a while.

“Junior, have you thought about what you’ll do if this works?”

“Me, sir?”

“Yeah. With all that stuff. You’ll stash enough to eat and use for a semester, but what about the rest?”

“I was planning to cook it and sell it to my friends.”

“That’s good, too.”

Eurde nodded, as expected.

A shrewd guy like this would naturally want to sell off the surplus.

“How much are you gonna charge?”

“About one silver coin per meal?”

“…What?”

Eurde couldn’t believe his ears at the price.

“Uh, is that too expensive?”

“N-No. That’s too cheap. Are you joking?”

“I’m not joking.”

Eurde wondered if his junior was confused.

Maybe he’d cheat the portions or use cheap ingredients (though even then, one silver coin was too cheap).

But no.

From what he’d heard, this junior really just planned to fill people up and take a silver coin in return.

“Are you crazy?! Why would you sell for so little? If the kitchen club guys hear that, they’ll have a heart attack!”

“Compared to cost price, that’s expensive…”

“What cost price. Is there even such a thing as cost price in Einrogard?! The only original sin here is getting admitted. If you’ve sinned, you should pay five silver for a piece of rye bread!”

‘Is it that bad?’

Lee Han was a little flustered at his senior’s remark.

He’d thought he was making a hefty profit—but apparently not.

“Wait, have your friends ever eaten their fill for just a silver coin?”

“When I cooked, that was usually the case.”

“What kind of food did you make?”

Dishes using rice, wheat, and rye.

Vegetables brought from the garden or hut like onions, ginger, corn, mushrooms, peas, as well as goat’s milk or cow’s milk, eggs. Grapes, peaches, pumpkin, figs.

For sauces and seasonings: maple syrup, honey, marmalade, chili, nutmeg, olive oil, whole pepper, tomato sauce, etc.

Various dried fish or pickled sardines, mackerel, herring. For meat: large chunks of raw ham, beef, pork, lamb. Sausages, bacon, etc…

“…That’s what I mostly used. I’m not a chef, so the menu was humble.”

“……”

Eurde felt a wild urge to either refuse to believe what his junior just said, to banish all juniors who ate their fill to Baldrogard, and finally, violent self-hatred for being born a year too early.

“I wish I hadn’t asked…”

“This way, please.”

Lee Han guided the wagon along the route he’d taken last year.

Just in case, he’d scouted the route several times in advance. As the wagon passed between two unremarkable trees, a sudden surge of magical power appeared.

“!”

Eurde belatedly sensed the magic and was shocked.

There really was a road here.

Rumble—

Suddenly, the road before them sloped down and began to connect underground. Eurde gulped, feeling the start of things.

It wasn’t his first time stealing in Einrogard, but he’d never not been nervous.

Especially a heist on this scale…

-You’ve arrived earlier than expected.

Eurde felt his heart skip a beat at the familiar voice of the Death Knights.

‘What’ll you do?’

‘Stay still.’

Lee Han remained quiet. Seeing the junior disguised as the leader say nothing, Eurde felt anxious.

Was he supposed to do something?

-Don’t talk to the workers. You’re scaring them.

“!”

Lee Han already knew from experience that the workers here kept silent.

If you just kept still as if afraid of the Death Knights, they’d interpret it their way.

-I just said you arrived sooner than expected.

-Can’t they come early? We need a lot of manpower for inspections this year, so the sooner we’re done, the better.

-It’s probably because of that boy, right?

-Must be.

-The master seems to be giving the Wardanaz boy too hard a time. If it goes on like this, he’ll go off the deep end like the other disciples…

-Hey, don’t speak so blasphemously.

The Death Knights gave a cursory check and let the wagons through.

As the wheels started rolling again, Eurde heaved a deep sigh of relief.

They’d just made it through the most dangerous crisis!

The plan was already half a success.

Eurde whispered in an excited voice.

“You madman. You did it. You actually did it!”

But Lee Han’s face was twisted with pain and resentment rather than happiness.

“Why, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s keep going.”