Episode 724
by Cristae“Senior. Senior.”
“Hmm?”
The senior, who had been preparing his own work, looked up at Lee Han’s call.
“Something seems odd. I’m a second-year, but this is a third-year course.”
“What? Did the professor force you to take the class?!”
The senior asked, startled.
Lee Han didn’t fully understand what he meant, but he denied it for now.
“That’s not it. I picked it myself, with Calen’darium’s help… Wait. Why did you ask if I’d been forced into the class?”
“Oh. Never mind that. It’s just an old rumor I heard, so I thought I’d ask.”
The senior waved his hand as if to say not to worry.
It was one of those legendary rumors you hear when you first enter Einrogard.
If a student’s skills were too outstanding, supposedly, the classes would start picking the student rather than the student picking the class!
He and his friends worried, ‘What if the professor invites me by force because I’m too good?’ but that never happened.
Einrogard professors were colder than expected.
“……”
Not noticing Lee Han’s stiff expression, the senior continued.
“If you picked a class with Calen’darium’s help, it’s probably the best fit for you.”
“But I’m a second-year and this is a third-year class.”
“It’s strange, but once in a while outstanding people do take upper-year classes. Senior Yukveltire did that.”
“I see…”
Since the seniors’ reactions seemed milder than expected, Lee Han wondered if he’d been too sensitive.
“So things like -Disgustingly Beautiful Creatures-, -Elemental Magic and Its Links-, or -Poison, Bone, and Blood- aren’t especially weird either?”
Lee Han listed a few course names from his timetable, and the senior hesitated.
There were just too many courses usually taken by third-years.
…Normally, even a genius only takes one subject from the upper year as a specialty, right?
“Usually just one. That’s kind of a lot…”
Another senior, grinding equipment on a whetstone nearby, chimed in.
“He’s that guy.”
“Ah, I see. Geez. Even as a third-year, I’m still so stuck in my ways.”
“……”
Lee Han reminded himself not to attack the seniors and asked again.
“It is weird, right?”
He hadn’t even mentioned all the courses he hadn’t asked about yet.
No matter how he looked at it, the names of these courses felt more suited to third-years than second.
“It’s odd, but you can handle it. Calen’darium chose well, I’m sure.”
“A magician is a master of artifacts, not a slave. What if I change courses now? Maybe switch to something a little easier?”
“Ah, you can’t do that.”
The senior grinding equipment answered instead.
“I tried to take a second-year class this year and the professor literally kicked me out.”
“……”
The professors at Einrogard might seem indifferent, but they were strict in some areas.
Students had to take classes suited to their level; if anyone tried to take easier classes on purpose, the professors wouldn’t allow it.
‘There’s absolutely no freedom!’
Lee Han fumed again at Einrogard’s tricks.
They said you could learn magic freely, but there was no freedom at all.
While Lee Han was simmering, the seniors started asking questions—they were as curious about him as he was about them.
“Wardanaz. I’m curious about something…”
“Oh. Yes. Please ask.”
“Why were you with Professor Verdus?”
“…?”
Lee Han was puzzled by the strange question.
“It’s class time, isn’t it?”
“What? Wait. Did you come at the scheduled start time?”
“???”
When the junior looked confused, the seniors kindly explained.
“With Professor Verdus, you don’t need to show up on time. He doesn’t care if we’re here or not.”
“But don’t you need to hear the lesson?”
“Where’s the lesson?”
Lee Han turned around.
Sure enough, there was nothing.
Come to think of it, even though he showed up on time, he hadn’t learned anything in particular since class started.
“You just come in when you feel like it and leave when you want.”
“You bring your project, work, then go. I was working somewhere else before this.”
The Einrogard students had figured out how to make use of Professor Verdus’s indifference.
If the professor didn’t care about the students, the students just took care of their own learning.
“But what if you get stuck on something?”
“You figure it out yourself. Like so.”
Just then, a senior groaned, apparently stuck on a problem, stood up, and wandered near Professor Verdus’s workbench. Of course, the professor, entirely focused, didn’t notice.
Pop!
The senior snatched up something from Professor Verdus’s workstation and dashed madly out of the classroom like a lunatic.
Professor Verdus leapt up and ran after him.
“Stop right there! You dirty, thieving scoundrel!”
“I’ll study it and return it!”
The echo from outside the classroom made the seniors nod.
“That’s how you do it.”
“……”
Lee Han didn’t bother to ask, ‘Can’t I just ask questions?’ He knew the answer was no.
It was quicker to learn by stealing Professor Verdus’s work than by asking questions.
“Let’s go, too.”
“Where?”
Clatter—
The seniors crowded around Professor Verdus’s bench to quickly copy and scribble down notes.
“Ah, I see. Like this…”
“He really is skilled.”
“That’s why he’s still alive. Did you know there are assassins waiting in nearby towns to kill Professor Verdus? Some noble families hired them over stolen gold coins.”
“Damn. Wonder if there’s a way to help those guys?”
Lee Han quietly joined in, copying Professor Verdus’s work.
The professor’s workbench looked like a giant junk pile, but inside was all sorts of wisdom.
Even just a few artifact blueprints or magic circles pulled from crumpled balls of paper could be a huge gain for students.
Not long after, Professor Verdus came back after retrieving his work. The senior who’d taken it was nowhere in sight.
Professor Verdus fumed and yelled.
“There are too many thieves in this school!”
The students all pretended not to know and quietly returned to their seats.
“…Where’s that senior?”
“Professor Verdus is crazy but not cruel. He probably just knocked him down.”
Since Professor Verdus only cared about recovering his work, he didn’t retaliate or send students to the punishment room.
The missing senior would probably return after nursing a few bruises.
But the senior didn’t come back even after some time.
“He’s not coming back.”
“Must have gotten hit hard. Don’t worry about it—just work, junior.”
‘No wonder the students who take Professor Verdus’s classes all have personalities exactly like him.’
Lee Han muttered internally, cold enough to freeze the seniors’ blood.
Professor Verdus called Lee Han again. He needed help with his work.
The seniors, who had been working with single-minded focus, found this strange.
‘Come to think of it, I only asked why he came early, but never asked why he was actually with Professor Verdus?’
Just arriving early was understandable if you didn’t know Professor Verdus’s unique style—but being close to his workbench was truly strange.
Basically, Professor Verdus never let anyone else near his workbench.
Actually, that wasn’t so odd. Wizards considered their research secret, and their workshops banned outsiders.
Of course, it’s a bit problematic if even students can’t go near since he’s a teacher, but…
‘Is it okay to get that close?’
The seniors stopped their own work, curious, and watched Lee Han and Professor Verdus.
Since this was a -Staff Materials and Magical Amplification- class, a few enchanter students were there too, and they gave commentary in cautious voices.
“It’s really weird… really weird. For Professor Verdus to call him over like that.”
“He must need help with something especially fussy?”
“Professor Verdus doesn’t even use helpers for that.”
Professor Verdus already had a reputation for being crazy, but when it came to his magic, he was even worse.
He couldn’t tolerate any tasks that didn’t meet his standards—even basic prep work or simple chores.
So he never called students even for menial tasks.
“Hey, aren’t we supposed to balance materials today?”
“Let’s just watch for now.”
The students sat in clusters by tower, casting curious looks. Some even sent paper birds calling absent friends to hurry over.
“Sending one to the Green Jade Tower today is done!”
“Oh, then…”
“Next one!”
“……”
Lee Han stared intently at Professor Verdus’s fluffy head.
“I’m taking this class too, don’t I have to work on my own project?”
“Just do this one and you can. You’ll finish your own quickly anyway!”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Trying to turn away, Lee Han found Professor Verdus banging on the floor and opening a secret compartment, pulling out special staff materials.
Lee Han nodded.
“I actually wanted to help even if you hadn’t said so. Shall we start next?”
“Remember mana emission enchantment?”
The proper name was -Bible’s Mana Emission Enchantment-.
It was one of the magic spells Professor Verdus had forced on him last year.
“Yes.”
Crash!
“?”
When Lee Han turned, the seniors hurriedly set up their chairs again and gestured for him to go ahead.
“Don’t mind us.”
“The floor’s slippery because of all the magic in the classroom. Keep going!”
Lee Han looked puzzled, but Professor Verdus whined for him to focus, so he turned back to the workbench.
“You need to learn a few magic spells similar to that.”
“Oh? Which ones?”
“Absorption, amplification, increase, acceleration, explosion, curve, conversion…”
“Do you maybe not know what they mean?”
Lee Han grumbled, but instead of stealing and running from Professor Verdus’s work, he sat down and began to learn magic.
-Bible’s Mana Emission Enchantment- was a magic that transformed the property of mana, causing the substance imbued with that mana to emit magic.
The special thing was, it enchanted the mana itself, not the material.
‘Add a variety of processes to the mana inside the artifact to amplify it.’
Working magic onto the mana inside the magic circle step by step produced more accurate results than casting consecutive spells on the material itself.
It was a spell befitting Professor Verdus’s personality—so precise and intricate as to be almost madness.
Lee Han, well aware of this method’s advantages, agreed to learn willingly…
‘I can’t learn them all, but it’s good to pick up more when I can. The more I know, the easier it gets to prepare for other enchantments.’
Lee Han began with absorption. Fortunately, since it was the opposite of emission, the theory itself wasn’t too hard.
“Not done yet?”
“Just a moment, please.”
“Not done yet?”
“One moment.”
“Not done yet? Not done yet? Not done yet?”
“Wait… all done.”
Crash!