Episode 791

Nillia dodged quickly, as if she expected it. She was quick to react, having seen Gainando get hit a few times.

“Wind, to the wall!”

“…You’re really using magic just to block that?”

Lee Han gave his friend a bewildered look.

Nillia was crouching behind a wall of wind, ready for a second attack.

‘Earlier, you said you were saving mana and carried the water by hand.’

“…I figured you’d attack again. That’s what you did when Gainando dodged.”

“Gainando just gets beaten up a little more than most.”

Lee Han flicked away the visible magic aphids from the mandrake with telekinesis.

It wasn’t difficult, but it surely required patience and perseverance.

“Wait a second, Nillia. Couldn’t you ask your spirit to do this?”

“I could, but spirits don’t like it. Mandrakes give off a faint poisonous aura.”

It wasn’t enough to harm a magician, but for low-grade spirits it was irritatingly toxic.

Lee Han reflected inwardly.

‘I always just thought, “it’s not life-threatening so just put up with it,” but maybe this is the difference.’

Maybe this was one of the reasons spirits liked Nillia but were cold toward him.

Though, about ninety-nine percent of it was still about mana…

“Guess I’ll just use the undead.”

Poof!

Lee Han summoned skeleton warrior Gonadaltes and ordered him to clean the mandrake.

The faintly toxic aura wafted out, but Gonadaltes didn’t dare disobey the tyrant’s command and dutifully knocked off the magic aphids.

Nillia watched in awe.

‘Necromancy…! It’s way more convenient than I thought…!’

• * *

As students began trickling in and time came, Professor Willow began the lecture.

“Now, this plant…”

“It’s a barometz, Professor.”

Bartrek raised his hand and confidently answered.

This unusual plant, with a fruit like a sheep blooming like a flower, was familiar to Bartrek, who was from an Eastern alchemy family.

The sheep-like fruit was full of nutrients, and the stem and leaves below were used in alchemy…

“Excellent, Bartrek.”

When Lee Han praised him from the side, Bartrek awkwardly wiped under his nose.

“I wasn’t asking about the name of the plant, child.”

“……”

Bartrek glared at Lee Han in embarrassment. Lee Han just shrugged.

‘Did I tell you to answer?’

“Knowing the name is good, but as second-year students, you ought to know a bit more than that. Right, where does this barometz…”

“The stem is used for blood-related reagents, the leaves for buffering reagents! The uses for the fruit are too many to list!”

Bartrek chimed in once again. Lee Han clapped softly.

“…It’s best to wait for the question to finish. I was going to ask where it’s most sold, and at what price. The fruit, that is.”

“Huh?”

Bartrek was disconcerted by the unexpected question. So were the other students.

The book -Wow! Plants in the Empire?-, for example, listed plant names, habits, and uses, but there was no mention of current prices or quantities.

Professor Willow looked at them with a slightly mischievous gaze.

“If you’re taking this botany course, I’d wager most of you are also studying alchemy. If that’s true, then you know that no one in the empire suffers for reagents more than alchemists.”

The alchemy school and botany class were deeply connected.

It was like how transformation magic students often took zoology classes.

Since gathering and managing materials fell into the realm of alchemy, botany was practically a required class.

“So, how do you get your reagents?”

“You have to procure them yourself, don’t you…?”

Bartrek answered as he had learned in alchemy class.

But Professor Willow shook her head.

“You can’t always do that.”

“B-but Professor Thunderstep said we should get into the habit of gathering reagents ourselves!”

Willow gave a gentle smile.

“That’s what he’d say when you were first years. But as you move on, he’ll tell you to get into the habit of buying them, too.”

“……”

Einrogard professors were, surprisingly, masters at moving the goalposts.

When you were a first year: “What, you spend money on reagents? And you call yourself a magician?!”

By third year: “What, you collect every single reagent yourself? And you call yourself a magician?!”

While first years, who didn’t need many reagents, were taught to be thrifty, by third year, when they needed a lot, they were taught to secure them by any means necessary!

“So now you see why you need to know the market price.”

Professor Willow pulled out a small booklet and magnified it. The cover read -Imperial Horticulturist Club Journal-.

“You have to know what plants are trending where, what events raise or lower prices, who you can get good plants from… Don’t ignore this stuff. If you wait until you need it, it’s too late. No magician is kind enough to save good plants for a layman.”

“Should I join the Imperial Horticulturist Club?”

“That’s a good idea, but it’s not easy. Their requirements are strict… Only accomplished horticulturists in the empire are eligible. It’s an honorable club. You’d be better off making friends with other magicians, setting up informants…”

Professor Willow recommended an easier way for the students.

“So then. Where is it mostly sold, and for what price?”

“I-I’m not sure.”

“I see. The next one?”

“I’m not sure either…”

“How about you?”

After Bartrek, others failed to answer, and the question came to Lee Han.

Lee Han was a little flustered, but answered as it came to him.

“Around this time, wouldn’t there be a lot sold near the southern Baltane Mountains? The price… Around twenty gold coins?”

“Oh. And the reason?”

“The Valpurgis festival should be happening there around now, and the fruit of the barometz is popular at such festivals, isn’t it? And since the southern winters weren’t that cold last year, I expect there’d be plenty of barometz. So the price probably hasn’t risen much above average…”

“Very close. The price is a little higher, actually. Some adventurers who collected barometz teamed up for negotiations, but honestly, that’s hard to know unless you’re in the market.”

“I factored that in, Professor. But I thought the local adventurer guilds were struggling financially and wouldn’t hold out long, so I figured they’d compromise.”

“……”

Professor Willow opened the -Imperial Horticulturist Club Journal- to check.

Barometz fruit—currently 25 imperial gold coins (South Baltane Mountains)

“An interesting prediction, but wrong…”

Barometz fruit—current price 25 20 imperial gold coins (South Baltane Mountains)

“Am-amazing!”

Professor Willow exclaimed in admiration.

“How did you predict that?”

“I always read the imperial news closely.”

“Excellent. Well done.”

“Ugh…! Wardanaz, you brat!”

Bartrek stamped his feet in disappointment.

He never thought someone would study even this kind of detail.

The wall of the top student was truly very high.

‘It wasn’t that complicated…’

Yoner, a fellow reader of the economic section, felt a bit embarrassed.

Bartrek seemed to have badly misunderstood something.

• * *

Professor Willow used half the class for instruction, and let students tend their mandrakes for the other half.

No matter how much one used free time, it was still important to have a chance to ask the professor directly.

“Hey, Wardanaz. Want to help?”

“With what?”

“Mandrakes need really strong sunlight to thrive, right?”

To grow a mandrake, you had to keep watering it, pull pests, give it strong sunlight, and handle lots of chores.

And even then, if the mandrake was in a bad mood, it could just wilt or die—plants could be terrifying that way.

‘I’d rather deal with a basilisk.’

Lee Han stroked a baby basilisk. The one that had been dozing in the stuffy greenhouse air perked up and curled its tail around his finger, delighted.

“Right?”

“We’re creating that sunlight ourselves.”

“……”

Lee Han briefly wondered if his friends were crazy.

Conjuring sunlight with the sun’s properties was totally different from conjuring mere light or fire.

You’d need to summon a dozen solar-aspect properties just to imitate it.

“Are you thinking of your graduation project already?”

“What are you talking about, Wardanaz? We’re not you.”

“What did you just say?”

“We heard there’s an artificial sun artifact in the principal’s warehouse. If we steal it, our mandrakes are guaranteed full marks this semester!”

“…If you do, let me know. I’ll pay to borrow it, too.”

“Wardanaz! What happened to you this year?! You used to be so much bolder last year!”

Lee Han ignored his bad friends’ temptation.

He already had enough trouble and enemies—he didn’t want to add the Skull Principal to that list.

“So, you do it like this…”

“Huh, this one’s ugly.”

“What are you two doing?”

Seeing Ratford and Bartrek whispering at the garden beds, Lee Han asked curiously.

The two were talking with very serious, intent faces.

Bartrek hurriedly pointed at the garden bed.

“It’s nothing. Right, Ratford?”

“Ah. We’re trying to make patterns on the mandrake leaves.”

“Hey!”

Bartrek was furious at the betrayal. Ratford, however, didn’t care.

“You’re just a partner—why shouldn’t I tell anyone? Who I talk to is my business.”

“Tch, that’s how Black Turtle Tower guys always are…!”

“What are you doing anyway? Patterns?”

“Mandragoras fetch a higher price when they have unusual leaf patterns.”

Bartrek blushed in embarrassment.

He was ashamed, talking about making money through leaf patterns in front of the top student.

Of course, Wardanaz looked shocked.

“You two are… geniuses?!”

“……”

“Right. I used to be. How could I forget? Dammit. My magic studies were for nothing.”

Just as Lee Han was obsessed with efficacy, there were always people equally obsessed with looks and beauty.

Collectors in the empire were known to pay a fortune for rare, decorative patterns on mandrake leaves.

“How far have you gotten?”

“I tried using a potion, but only managed some spots…”

“That’s common. You need a rarer pattern! Bartrek, is that all you’ve got?”

“S-sorry.”

Bartrek apologized, then wondered to himself why he just apologized.

• * *

“From moment to instant, from instant to blink.”

“Very good.”

Professor Garcia watched as Lee Han attempted the spell -Lesser Internal Time Extension-, a spell to stretch a magician’s internal sense of time.

For his year, Lee Han’s learning speed was almost impossibly fast.

Of course, Lee Han himself was dissatisfied with his progress…

“Ugh!”

“You don’t need to rush…”

“Yes, understood. Ugh!”

“……”

Professor Garcia considered whacking him.

“Oh right, Lee Han. Next week is club week, so there’ll be more outsiders on campus.”

“Understood.”

“Since you’re in a lot of clubs, you’ll probably get called by a bunch of them.”

“Unders… Wait, what did you just say?”

Lee Han, lost in his magic, flinched.

Did Professor Garcia just say something ominous?