Episode 917

Episode 917

“…Aren’t you a bit too humble for a royal?”

Regaining his composure with the help of Professor Garcia, Lee Han decided to ask about his curiosities one by one.

“You know that I’m of royal origin? I tried to hide it out of embarrassment…”

“……”

Not really?

Lee Han suppressed the urge to argue, ‘You yourself bragged about being royal and your clone berated me for not being one.’

What would the skeleton headmaster of the past know?

The young skeleton headmaster spoke with a kind demeanor.

“It’s true I was a prince. It’s true I was served and ruled over people in the beautiful palaces of the kingdom. But all of that is in the past. I made a vow to myself—to undertake something greater than inheriting the crown as a prince.”

“What… exactly?”

“I will eradicate suffering from the continent.”

“……”

“……”

The group, who more or less knew the outcome, fell silent.

Instead, the young skeleton headmaster smiled as if to console them.

“Don’t worry. Of course, it might be that I in your world failed to achieve the vow. But that doesn’t mean I here can’t achieve it, does it?”

“That… um… isn’t that too difficult, magically? The likelihood…”

In response to Lee Han’s question, the young skeleton headmaster answered gently, with a wise look in his eyes.

“That may be so. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll attempt it anyway.”

“……”

Lee Han stepped back and whispered to the professors.

“I’m so thrown off I don’t think I can carry on this conversation. Could you perhaps do it for me?”

“No. Student Lee Han! It’s only because it’s you that there’s even this much conversation. To be honest, I’m really struggling too!”

Professor Garcia was also just as unsettled and suffering.

Dealing with a young, kind, and gentle skeleton headmaster was much more harrowing than expected.

In fact, it almost made him wish for the fleshless, arrogant tyrant version!

Seeing that the two were struggling too much, Professor Voladi quietly spoke.

“Shall I then…”

“No, I’ll do it.”

Lee Han quickly stopped him.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed best that he kept talking rather than Professor Voladi.

“Um. Mr. Gonadaltes, may I ask you a few questions?”

“Of course.”

“Have you ever learned magic from dragons?”

“No. I never have. Did my future self perhaps learn magic from dragons?”

“Ah. Well…”

When Lee Han hesitated, unsure if he could reveal this, the young skeleton headmaster laughed.

“Some divination wizards dislike hearing about their futures, but I don’t mind at all. If I were to fail because I was bound and shackled by some knowledge of the future, then that’s as far as I’d ever go.”

“…Mr. Gonadaltes. Please, come to Einrogard!”

“Student Lee Han. Don’t say something so ridiculous…”

Knowing it was impossible, such words escaped Lee Han’s lips without his intent.

Bringing someone from a dimension of the past that was more like an echo, not even another dimension, was impossible. It would be like pulling out a shadow and making it real.

‘Wait. If he hasn’t learned magic from dragons yet…’

Lee Han quickly reviewed the timeline.

The history of the skeleton headmaster was so long it could easily fill a chronology, but there were a few landmark events Lee Han knew.

Royalty -> Learned magic from dragons -> Arrived at the Nine Mountains Eight Seas dimension -> Got swindled by demons -> Came to enlightenment through many ups and downs -> Much time passes -> Swindles a poor dragon -> Becomes Headmaster of Einrogard.

‘So this means it’s still the early period?’

A young skeleton headmaster who hasn’t learned magic from dragons yet.

Lee Han wondered what the young skeleton headmaster of this era was up to.

He said he was going around killing evil wizards, but Lee Han wanted more specifics…

“It’s not complicated. Let me explain. I left the kingdom and formed a secret society with wizards who shared my ideals. When the conditions are right, we gather together to bring down the wicked and help the suffering.”

The young skeleton headmaster had power enough to be called a great wizard even without learning magic from dragons.

He belittled himself because he hadn’t achieved much yet, but to murder powerful mage-nobles of strong kingdoms and escape, he could never be weak.

Lee Han, who was jotting down notes, suddenly remembered something and asked.

“Do you know about the magic called –Gonadaltes’ Fall–?”

“Ah. You know about that spell? It’s still in the research phase…”

The young skeleton headmaster looked embarrassed when the guests mentioned his spell.

Just as Lee Han heard from the Mad Clone, –Gonadaltes’ Fall– was, at best, a byproduct born during research, not the final goal.

Originally, it was meant to collect and trap all the world’s falls.

“If you would like, I can show you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Since you came from another dimension, I doubt you can stay long, so right away… ah.”

Just as he was about to cast the spell, the young skeleton headmaster hesitated with an apologetic look.

“To tell the truth, I have something I must do now. Could you wait for just a day?”

“That’s no problem… but, what do you need to do?”

“This city has long suffered tyranny and invasion. Because of that, clean water is hard to come by. I’m preparing a permanent way to prevent outside contamination and provide clean water.”

“Ah. Are you related to this city in any way?”

“Not particularly.”

Behind the young skeleton headmaster, who was preparing a great spell for people entirely unrelated to himself, it was as if a halo radiated.

Lee Han actually found himself missing the original fleshless skeleton headmaster.

‘Ugh. He’s too dazzling.’

• * *

“First, I’m thinking of combining mermaid tears and blue jade to create a city gate. Such a gate will purify and block outside contamination.”

The young skeleton headmaster said as he walked toward the port.

During the Three Kingdoms period, there were all sorts of nasty magical plagues everywhere.

Demons were summoned when bored, and each kingdom would scatter plagues with magic without the slightest care.

The nobles lived in safe places and were protected by magic, so it didn’t matter for them, but common people would die off if they were even a little unlucky.

To prevent this, the young skeleton headmaster planned to inscribe a powerful purification magic in the city gate.

“Isn’t mermaid’s tear hard to obtain?”

Lee Han asked in surprise.

Mermaid tears were certainly rare materials in the current empire.

Could it have been easier to get them in the Three Kingdoms era?

“It’s a hard material to obtain. But I must, regardless. Here.”

The young skeleton headmaster rented a small rowboat and personally took up the oars.

Lee Han asked in surprise.

“I’ll row.”

“No. How could I ask guests from elsewhere—my alleged students no less—to row?”

The young skeleton headmaster gazed at Lee Han’s group with a loving look.

He clearly didn’t want to let such precious ‘students’ even get a drop of water on them.

Lee Han could see Professor Garcia biting his lip from behind. It was that surreal.

Splash!

Of course, the young skeleton headmaster wasn’t purely rowing with his own strength. As he cast a spell, the oars moved by themselves, and a wind arose to push the boat forward.

The boat quickly picked up speed and glided out onto the open sea.

“By the way, I’ll cast a protection spell. Sirens often appear nearby.”

“Ah. I’m fine. I’m actually friendly with sirens.”

“?”

Professor Garcia cocked her head at Lee Han’s words.

‘Huh…?’

According to the sirens in the Einrogard domain, they were certainly not close.

Especially siren Parthenope, who had protested so much—’What kind of unimaginable human is that’—over and over.

Were there other sirens here?

“Indeed… Having someone like you as my student is a great honor.”

“Please, please don’t say things like that.”

Lee Han seriously considered whether he needed to beg the other to ‘please look down on me.’

That’s how hard it was to adjust.

He could listen to a siren’s song for a year and be fine, but the benevolent skeleton headmaster…

-♪♩♩♩♪…

“!”

As the siren’s song began, Lee Han’s group tensed a little.

They had prepared, but in dealing with beings like sirens, one could never be too careful.

-!

But the siren’s song stopped right away.

The sirens who recognized the young skeleton headmaster’s face fell silent and bowed their heads respectfully.

“Thank you for your consideration.”

The young skeleton headmaster politely bowed to the sirens. The sirens guarded and helped the rowboat until it passed through their waters.

“…Uh, what magic was that??”

Not fully understanding the situation, Lee Han asked, flustered.

Had the young skeleton headmaster just subdued the sirens with magic?

“What do you mean, magic?”

“The sirens… stopped singing… and… you know!”

“Oh, that’s what you meant. The sirens here sometimes show me kindness.”

“Ah. Have you perhaps saved these sirens before?”

“No. I haven’t.”

“……”

It took Lee Han a moment to recover from the shock.

So right now…?

‘Did the sirens purely sense his aura and grant him favor?’

He could hardly believe it.

The sirens at Einrogard had never acted that way.

They only became slightly friendly after extremely long and complicated negotiations…

‘Maybe the Einrogard sirens turned wicked after much time passed?’

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than a huge ship in the distance was sunk, as sirens fiercely attacked it for trespassing.

“…Professor Garcia. I can’t believe sirens would help out like this.”

“I’m very surprised, too, Student Lee Han. Hard to accept, but… it’s probably just like with your brother, Arsil.”

“At least my brother was only popular with elementals.”

The young skeleton headmaster kept receiving favor from various oceanic races as he journeyed.

Not only sirens, but even huge fish and whales came out to greet him, and Lee Han couldn’t help but doubt he’d arrived at the wrong past.

It was all just too surreal!

“Look, over there—it’s a mermaid!”

Spotting a mermaid’s tailfin, Lee Han cried out urgently. The young skeleton headmaster lavishly praised him.

“Excellent! I didn’t think you’d be the first to spot the mermaid.”

“…How will you collect the tears?”

Ignoring the embarrassing praise, Lee Han pressed on.

Mermaid tears were a precious ingredient.

Even if you tried to negotiate for some, the mermaid would likely not hand them over easily. What might be a huge treasure to a human held little value to a mermaid.

Capturing or threatening a mermaid was out of the question, given their immense power.

A mermaid swimming the sea had agility rivaling a unicorn. At the slightest hint of suspicion, it would twist space and disappear into the depths.

“We’ll ask first, of course.”

“…Th-that’s it?”

“Requesting is more important than you’d think.”

With a humble attitude, the young skeleton headmaster spoke to the mermaid.

After listening courteously, the mermaid momentarily disappeared beneath the waves, then soon resurfaced, bringing a sparkling jewel as a gift to the young skeleton headmaster.

It was a mermaid’s tear.

“I thank you for your grace. I will never use it for selfish purposes.”

The mermaid, having received the young skeleton headmaster’s thanks, tranquilly disappeared.

And Lee Han felt that nothing would surprise him anymore.