Episode 852

The calmest among them as he checked the sixth compartment of the backpack was Sevius.

While Jandanni was moved by the miraculous friendship and Lee Han was being stern, Sevius composedly examined the interior.

“…Wait a second.”

“What is it?”

“This… it looks like someone opened it once before. Look here.”

Sevius cast a spell to project the sixth compartment as an illusion. The enlarged space appeared before the mages.

It looked like the workshop of a retired mage. The only difference was that, rather than taking all their belongings upon retirement, it seemed the mage had left things behind for their successor.

A birch workbench for examining and sorting reagents, a high-quality alchemy cauldron with eight burners, jewel drawers for reagents sorted neatly by color, spare staves, and a bookshelf filled with grimoires, a chest full of gold and silver coins…

Puzzled, Lee Han asked,

“Couldn’t the Einrogard senior have just stocked this up before closing the compartment?”

“No. That’s not…”

“Ah. It is strange! It doesn’t make sense that an Einrogard student would pile up those gems, gold, and silver coins in there.”

Lee Han gave a knowing nod of his fist onto his palm.

Sevius glared and said,

“…Look next to that.”

“?”

Lee Han turned his gaze. Letters were written on the wall of compartment six.

In memory of my bulky Einrogard friend, I leave my passion here for the Einrogard student who one day will open this backpack in place of the Baldrogard student. Please use it well. And forgive the Baldrogard student if he throws a fit.

– Ifeldrem

“Sen… senior!”

Jandanni exclaimed in surprise at the legendary Baldrogard senior’s name.

“It’s the name of the senior! The one who passed down this bag!”

“…Why is something like that written there?”

“Well… maybe the senior foresaw a situation like this?”

Jandanni, flustered, put forth a theory.

If the senior had opened the extradimensional maze and heard their friend’s message, even belatedly, they would have been deeply moved by that friendship.

And probably thought something like this.

Einrogard and Baldrogard, as the two leading pillars of the Empire…

“…Ah, this bastard, seriously.”

“Senior! What are you saying, honestly!”

Lee Han almost took a swing at him, but when Sevius jumped first, he freaked out and stopped him.

When a usually composed person explodes, it’s all the more alarming.

Jandanni asked in surprise,

“Wh-why are you acting like this?”

“Keep going. Just skip ‘two pillars’!”

…Anyway, the senior perhaps thought that the misunderstandings between Einrogard and Baldrogard should be resolved and that the two schools should become closer.

Einrogard students had magic, Baldrogard students had refinement and honor…

“……”

“……”

Jandanni visibly shrank under the murderous gazes of the two mages.

“Did… did I say something wrong again?”

“Keep going.”

…Things to exchange.

But misunderstandings could not be resolved that easily.

So the senior re-closed the backpack and left it for his juniors.

So that, if juniors ever opened it, they could be touched directly by the goodwill left by an Einrogard friend.

“Then why did he leave things behind for those Einrogard students?”

“That’s simple. Baldrogard students wouldn’t be able to open it and would call for Einrogard students, right? Then they’d witness it together.”

“…What nonsense… does that even make sense?”

“But it happened, didn’t it…”

Lee Han was at a loss for words at Jandanni’s hesitant but insistent logic.

…Indeed?

“Senior. Please refute him.”

“…Hmm.”

“Senior!”

Despite Lee Han’s plea, Sevius kept his mouth shut.

At this point, it was hard to argue back.

Garal, still awestruck, said,

“So you’re saying that the Baldrogard senior personally opened this, checked his friend’s message, filled it with gifts, and closed it up again?”

“Yes!”

“There was a mage of that caliber at Baldrogard?”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“Ah, no…”

As his employer glared, Garal averted his eyes timidly.

Meanwhile, recovering slightly from the shock, Lee Han quietly conferred with Sevius.

“Then this Ifeldrem mage must have met his Einrogard friend again, right?”

“Probably.”

“That’s at least some relief.”

“It’s not, though.”

“Sorry?”

“It’s not because they maintained their friendship. Rather, if he went to meet his Einrogard senior, he probably got dragged into the punishment room too. Given the headmaster’s personality, that’s just how it would go.”

The skeleton headmaster was relatively lenient with outsiders, but things were different for students from other magic schools.

If someone snuck into Einrogard just to visit a student being held in punishment, the headmaster would most definitely lock them up.

“Well, come on. Isn’t going to the punishment room a rite of passage everyone goes through at least once?”

“……”

Sevius almost told his junior, ‘Even one trip to the punishment room and outsiders will never come near Einrogard again,’ but stopped himself.

“Anyway, it’s fortunate that the misunderstanding between the two didn’t remain unresolved.”

“That’s true.”

“But from the way he went to the trouble of sealing the compartment again instead of just giving the backpack to any random Einrogard student, it seems he didn’t learn much from the punishment room.”

‘He may be my junior, but sometimes he’s genuinely scary.’

Sevius shivered at Lee Han’s coldheartedness.

How could anyone say that after everything that just happened?

“Here. Please accept this.”

Jandanni extended the backpack.

Upon reading the letter left by the senior, it was clear why the backpack was left with the Baldrogard students.

It was with instructions to hand it to an Einrogard student with whom they could share friendship someday.

‘Senior. I think I now understand your intentions.’

“But didn’t we just take this anyway…”

“Shh. Quiet.”

Sevius shut his junior’s mouth.

There was no reason to disturb things when the other party ended things nicely and even gave them the item.

• * *

Lee Han shouldered his new backpack and left the -Visitor Lodging- village with Sevius.

Surprisingly, Sevius willingly yielded the backpack to his junior, without even demanding anything in return.

“Are you really sure about this?”

“Yeah. I originally thought of this as Einrogard’s property, so that’s why I tried to retrieve it. According to the senior’s wishes, you should have it.”

“?”

Lee Han tilted his head.

“What do you mean?”

“It was left for a Baldrogard friend, who then left it for an Einrogard friend in the future.”

Since the one Jandanni considered a friend was Wardanaz, it made sense for Wardanaz (Lee Han) to keep it.

Lee Han was horrified.

“We’re not friends, though???”

It was already hard enough to be friends with a fourth-year Baldrogard student who thought he was a sixth-year.

Where were they supposed to start?

Sevius replied tiredly,

“Then go give it back.”

“Come to think of it, I think we can call it friendship.”

Lee Han immediately gave up.

Certainly, if a problem came up later, ‘I received it from a friend’ would be an easier excuse than ‘I stole it.’

‘Yeah. I got an artifact like this, I suppose I can be a friend.’

He wasn’t thrilled about it, but when he thought about the backpack and all its contents, he could endure.

Lee Han checked again the items in the sixth compartment. There were various magical items and, in particular, the reagent gemstones and gold coin box moved him.

‘Those Baldrogard people pile up stuff like this in their private workshops and practice magic? This is insane.’

At that point, it was more hedonism and extravagance than magic.

Sevius, beside him, seemed to be deep in thought. Lee Han asked, just in case,

“Is something wrong, Senior?”

‘Does he want to take something from inside after all?’

If Sevius asked to divide the loot as his share, Lee Han was ready to do so.

Since Sevius had helped as a senior, he’d let Sevius have the items from compartments 1 to 5, and Lee Han would settle for the modest 6th.

“I was just thinking about how strange it was for there to be a curse on the spatial maze earlier.”

“Wasn’t that just a precaution?”

“If the headmaster or Professor Verdus got their hands on it, they’d open it right away.”

From the Einrogard senior’s perspective, he would have had to prepare for all sorts of scenarios besides his friend opening it by legitimate means.

Especially since he’d stolen items from the skeleton headmaster and Professor Verdus to make it.

‘Come to think of it, I should be careful, too.’

Lee Han vowed to change the outer appearance of the backpack as soon as he got back.

Even though considerable time had passed, those two were among the most persistent people in Einrogard.

“That’s likely what happened. But in this case, the Baldrogard student opened it and closed it again. If he recursed it, he would have known that it’d put his juniors at risk.”

Sevius made a reasonable point.

If juniors later opened the bag to make friends but got hit with a curse, they would just shout, ‘Treacherous Baldrogard bastards, it’s a trap!’—so much for friendship.

Sevius did not understand why nothing remained as a safeguard.

“They didn’t force it open like we did, they probably left advice on the correct way to open it… strange.”

“Ah. I think I know why.”

“What’s that?”

“Those Baldrogard bastards never ever read magic books, so while they used the bag their senior left behind, they probably threw away the book he left, thinking it was a magic book. How about that?”

“……”

Sevius wondered if his junior might hate Baldrogard a little too much.

‘But… it is kind of convincing!’

• * *

“Where’d you get that bag?”

“I got it from a Baldrogard student.”

“I see. So you took it from them.”

“No, I said I got it.”

“Yeah. Got it. Got it.”

“……”

Lee Han made a disgruntled face at his friends’ reactions.

“Yoner. When I say I got it, does that sound like I stole it?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“…I really did just get it.”

“What? How?!”

Yoner was more surprised than when the artifact had opened.

How could he have just received it like that?

“So… we got friendly by chance, and as a token of friendship…”

“……”

Yoner didn’t believe his friend but hesitated over whether to pretend to believe him for the sake of ‘friendship.’

Lee Han shook his head in resignation.

“Forget it. Don’t believe it.”

“N-no, I do. I believe you.”

Meanwhile, his friends started emptying the compartments one by one and carefully packing in what they needed.

“Wait. Why put mana potions in? Wardanaz doesn’t need them.”

“By that logic, why put food in? Most of the food Wardanaz carries is eaten by other people anyway!”

“…Fine, include the mana potions.”

“Told you!”

They emptied out all the fine wines from compartment 1 and packed in potions.

In compartment 2, toys were removed and food was packed; in compartment 3, expensive dress clothes were taken out and replaced with sleeping bags, capes, and survival clothes. In compartment 4, they took out the Toberiz series and…

“W-wait! Who, how did they get this!?”

Gainando was dumbfounded at sight of a rare, out-of-print edition.

“Lee Han! Who gave this to you? Who was it?!”

“Gainando. Is that the priority now? Just pick a magic book and pack it.”

“Hey! Do you know how amazing this is…!”

Compartment 5 was emptied of polo equipment, replaced with various animal gear and devices. The sixth compartment was left as it was for now, to use as needed later.

“?”

Having opened the mouth of the bag to check the sixth compartment, Lee Han was puzzled upon finding something new.

‘What’s this? Wasn’t here before, was it?’

It was a letter.

A letter from Jandanni, under the name of the Alzadrk family, inviting him to visit Baldrogard sometime.

Lee Han saw it and let out a quiet sigh. Then he took out a quill.

“Lee Han. What are you doing?”

“Writing a reply.”