Episode 900

“…Don’t joke with me.”

“I’m not. Please check.”

Lee Han held out the wooden box containing the incense. Professor Thunderstep exclaimed in disbelief.

“Don’t tell me you just brute-forced it with magic?!”

“Uh, is that allowed? I thought it would shatter the box if I did.”

“…Right.”

Knowing Lee Han’s magical power all too well, Professor Thunderstep had naturally set up extra traps in anticipation.

If brute magical force was used, the box itself would be destroyed. Purple Sandalwood Incense was extremely delicate and complex.

If Lee Han had shown up with a dejected face saying, “I shattered the box,” he had been planning to say with feigned regret, “This is a test in dispelling, not destroying. Don’t always try to brute force it with magic.”

Tap!

Professor Thunderstep snatched the box but paused before opening it, turning to his student.

“Wait. Take three steps back.”

“Yes. But why?”

“ユ냥.”

“Wait. Are you really thinking I’m about to attack you, Professor?”

Lee Han looked at the dwarf professor in disbelief.

He couldn’t imagine any reason, other than that, for Professor Thunderstep to tell him to step back.

Thunderstep fiddled with his beard, sheepish. This student really was extraordinarily perceptive.

“You could say that’s part of it.”

“Isn’t that a bit much?”

“Don’t blame me. Blame your seniors.”

“Are you saying a senior tried to attack you in this way?”

“What, you think not?”

Professor Thunderstep drew out a ring with Ashenstone and scanned it over the box. Fortunately, there was no sign of danger.

“Oh, such a commendable student. I knew I could trust you!”

“……”

Despite the compliment, Lee Han felt put out.

“Don’t take it too hard. In a way, that suspicion is a compliment. I don’t even suspect other second years this way.”

“Why not?”

“Usually I only do it from third year on…”

“Hm. I see.”

Lee Han nodded as if he’d learned something new.

Professor Thunderstep grew slightly anxious at that look.

Did I just teach that baby dragon how to run a scam, too?

‘Well, Professor Verdus will get hit first anyway.’

Consoling himself, Thunderstep opened the box. From inside, a gentle scent unfurled in sequence. Each component of the perfectly dispelled Purple Sandalwood Incense.

“……”

Professor Thunderstep felt he’d be less shocked if his student had assaulted him.

The boy from House Wardanaz was always full of surprises, but nothing had ever left him this baffled.

How in the world did he manage to dispel it so perfectly?

“O bearded one struck by lightning… I just can’t believe it… How did you do this?? Did you practice dispelling Purple Sandalwood Incense during vacation or something?”

“No.”

“That’s not the issue! Even if you pulled it off, I thought you’d do so at the very end of the week.”

Though Professor Thunderstep made the exam to target Lee Han, he never really underestimated his ability.

He had thought it was possible Lee Han would manage to barely deliver in time.

But to bring it in straight away, the very next day—

Thunderstep was so shocked his beard stood straight up, and he started babbling whatever crossed his mind.

“You didn’t get a dragon stone from Prince Joulin, did you? No, I did say that, but that’s just nonsense. No matter how much His Highness dotes on you, he’d never go that far.”

The professor shook his head at his own speculation.

Joulin was still a young, childish dragon, but a dragon was a dragon.

If someone approached with ill intent or greed, a dragon’s blood would know instantly.

If Lee Han had tried, “I’ll bake you a pie, so give me a dragon stone,” Joulin would have smacked him with a paw.

“He did give me one.”

“…He what?”

“He did give me one.”

Lee Han spoke in the despondent tone of an eldest sibling whose little brother had just caused trouble.

Why did Joulin keep acting on his own like this?

• * *

Early yesterday morning.

Once he’d finished his other studies, Lee Han grabbed the box to attempt Professor Thunderstep’s exam.

Nervous, knowing some friends had been hammered by the test.

‘Yoner said this test is total hell.’

Lee Han, half-expecting that he might conspire later with others to ambush Professor Thunderstep after graduation, carefully opened the lid.

Although potions are what first comes to mind, alchemy is really the science of synthesizing all substances.

The target could be a potion, a metal, or even a chimera.

Professor Thunderstep was a master of blending incense. The Purple Sandalwood Incense was so well made that Lee Han got a headache just looking at it.

Fortunately, Lee Han wasn’t affected by simply smelling it. Other students, though, experienced brief out-of-body trips during the process.

‘Black Shadow Sand.’

He took a pinch of black sand from his pouch and sprinkled it on the incense.

With a strange light, the sand left a mark.

‘Geranium on top of the trace.’

Geranium petals dropped one by one on the path.

One petal accidentally landed across the scent’s trail, and the Purple Sandalwood Incense inside the box surged, blowing away the Black Shadow Sand.

“……”

Suppressing his urge to curse, Lee Han tried again. He had to separate and neutralize the scents one by one, somehow.

‘This might not work. It’s costly, but I’ll use turquoise.’

When angry, people make emotional choices.

Normally, Lee Han wouldn’t use expensive reagents, but now he went for it. There was no need to open his pouch to check.

He knew its contents so well, just the feeling at his fingertips called out what he wanted.

Tap—

He carefully held the ore over the box.

Then the incense inside surged and suddenly split into dozens of separate fragrances.

“?????”

Startled, Lee Han failed to notice that the ore in his hand wasn’t turquoise but golden.

While he stared, the Purple Sandalwood Incense was completely dispelled. The situation was so bizarre, Lee Han thought he was dreaming.

‘What?’

Trying to convince himself he’d discovered a new use for turquoise, Lee Han belatedly realized the stone in his hand was off.

The energy within it was far too extraordinary.

For one, the color was different (turquoise was still in his pouch), and within, hundreds or thousands of reagents’ worth of energy, endlessly shifting, glowed with a constant light.

A single reagent with the power to replace thousands—like the Philosopher’s Stone.

Of course, a real Philosopher’s Stone couldn’t be left at room temperature, and would be sealed in magical layers, so it couldn’t be that, but if anything, it was like the legendary dragon stone…

“Joulin! Joulin!!”

Realizing at last, Lee Han shot up from his chair. The baby basilisk that had been looping around his sleeve woke up with a start, then fell back asleep.

“Joulin, you!”

What is it?

Pretending to be asleep and waiting, Joulin “woke” with a yawn.

Lee Han glared sternly at the baby dragon, the honorifics gone.

“There’s a dragon stone in my reagent pouch. Do you know who put it there?”

Joulin has no idea.

His innocent blink seemed totally guileless.

But how did it go—did you solve the Purple Sandalwood Incense?

“Quiet. I’m asking the questions now.”

……

Joulin folded his wings, cowed by Lee Han’s anger.

Still, he wasn’t totally scared. He had his backup.

“Joulin, dragon stone is a very, very rare material. Only dragons can make it.”

Joulin knows this too.

‘Is he crazy?!’

Gainando trembled.

Now was the time to apologize—not double down and provoke Lee Han’s temper.

As someone experienced in being stubborn, Gainando knew this kind of talk would only end badly.

And he wasn’t the only one worried.

Several students who had once been completely overpowered for trying to argue back—like, “Playing chess isn’t goofing off, it hones my mind,” or “I’m here to study magic, not do chores for the dorm”—swallowed nervously.

…Wardanaz is the kind of guy who’ll even smack a dragon on the head…

“And yet, a dragon stone that wasn’t there until yesterday is suddenly in my pouch today. Coincidentally, there’s a dragon in the lounge who brought up dragon stones before. Now, who could the culprit be?”

Heh. You’re missing something, Lee Han.

“…What am I missing? Tell me.”

As Gonadaltes said, and as you’ve said, at Einrogard, if there’s no evidence, you’re innocent! If you weren’t caught on the spot, no matter how suspicious Joulin is, he’s innocent!

Joulin proudly cited Einrogard’s rule.

This was what the baby dragon was counting on.

Einrogard’s proud rule was that unless there’s clear physical evidence or you’re caught in the act, a student’s freedom is guaranteed.

It was one of the two great freedoms underpinning Einrogard, along with the headmaster’s right to harass students.

“I see.”

Heh. Joulin is indeed clever. Now, Lee Han! How did the incense turn out?

Stretching his wings in triumph, Joulin crowed.

“From now on, you’re grounded.”

Lee Han turned away and spoke in an icy voice.

Huh, what!?!

Joulin was flustered.

The logic was perfect??!

Why!? Lee Han! The rules of Einrogard…

“Y-Your Highness. That is the rule…but there’s just one thing you forgot.”

What did Joulin miss!?

Joulin was about to burst into tears. The students spoke hesitantly.

“They just ignore the rules…”

……

Einrogard students rarely kept to the rules.

Only then did Joulin realize the hole in his argument.

Lee Han! Lee Han! Joulin is sorry!

But Lee Han was already up the stairs.

Gainando shook his head.

“This is bad. That’s a level-five anger.”

“…Level five? That’s real bad…”

Joulin didn’t know what “level five anger” was, but he could tell it wasn’t good.

Hain! What should Joulin do? How do I make Lee Han forgive me?

“Uh…well…”

Gainando panicked.

If he knew that, he wouldn’t always be groveling himself.

“I guess… all you can do is just pray for mercy…”

Lee Han! Joulin is sorry!

Taking the expert’s advice, Joulin kept yelling up the stairs.

Creak—

The sound of a private room door opening came from above.

The baby dragon’s face brightened.

Hain! Lee Han is coming out!

‘Wait, is he really going to let him off with just an apology?’

Gainando was indignant.

Is it special treatment for a real dragon!?

But Lee Han didn’t come down the stairs. Instead, another creature slowly crawled down.

It was the baby basilisk.

—Master said I have to live with Your Highness now… wahhh…!!!

…Aaaaaaah!

The two rare baby creatures wailed at the top of their lungs, rattling the lounge.