Episode 991

Episode 991

“Lee Han of the Wardanaz family. What on earth is going on here?”

To Intarendals’ scream-like outcry, Lee Han answered as if he’d been waiting for him.

“You came at the right time. Intarendals. Please, say something to my teacher.”

“W-w-what?”

The disrespectful remark from the disrespectful student dealt an even bigger shock to the attendant, who had nearly fainted already.

“My teacher said that he would give lessons to prepare me for the exam, but he spent the whole day giving completely unrelated lectures.”

“I don’t understand a single phrase in the sentence Lee Han just spoke…”

Intarendals’ voice was pitiful. That’s how hard it was to believe the current situation.

Even a fleeting moment had to be spared to cram as much as possible into the student, so what kind of waste was this?

‘Is it possible I’m misunderstanding something?’

Perhaps his master had more time than expected.

Otherwise, this leisure could not be explained.

“You’re here. Did you bring it?”

“Yes, Lord Gonadaltes. But…”

Intarendals, trying to ask a question, halted after receiving a look from his master.

Loyal as always, Intarendals could understand his master’s command with a mere glance.

The command right now was silence.

“What did you bring?”

“My student, go teach the other wizards. Finish the remaining material.”

As Lee Han showed interest, the mad clone waved his hand dismissively, as if annoyed.

Lee Han, who had just suffered from force-feeding completely unrelated lectures to his friends because of his teacher, naturally became angry.

“No, I was just teaching other things because of you, and if you were going to do this, I should have just done it myself from the beginning…!”

Of course, whether the student was angry or not didn’t matter much. The mad clone simply sent his student flying without a care.

“Now we can talk.”

“…Master. May I dare speak candidly?”

“Intarendals. If an attendant like you cannot be candid, then who could possibly be candid to royalty? Say as much as you like.”

The mad clone spoke in a much more casual tone than he ever showed in public.

Rather than being moved by his master’s attitude, Intarendals felt even more anxious.

The master who had always been flawless was now displaying weakness.

It made him think, perhaps he was acting so because so little time was left.

“Is the world rejecting you again, Master?”

“Exactly.”

“I’m sorry. I thought not… Wait, what?!”

Intarendals reacted belatedly.

Even though he had asked the question, he had not expected an answer of ‘that’s right’ to actually come back.

“Has a cataclysm or disaster come?! Or is it a dimensional rift…”

“Not yet. But if I look at the future my student has seen, it is almost certain.”

The mad clone spoke calmly.

A remarkable wizard did not rely solely on his own magic. Especially a wizard rejected by the world needed to be all the more humble.

No matter how great of an archmage, there were things he might fail to foretell.

But fortunately, from the future glimpsed by his student, the mad clone could surmise to some extent.

“The reversal phenomenon that happened last time will occur again, and if my student is opposing royalty, it will happen soon.”

“I will prepare a way to stop it.”

The attendant answered firmly.

The magic set up near the laboratory at the mountain range wasn’t just to evade and defend against the gaze of the skeletal headmaster and his henchmen.

Those who were rejected by the world always had to prepare measures to prevent continuous abnormal phenomena. Without such measures, even an archmage could be reverse summoned in a single blow.

If it would soon be reversed, then they just needed to prepare countermeasures accordingly.

It would be tight, but he could loot the surrounding area and get whatever was lacking from the Dalkard family treasury…

“No. The interval is too short.”

But the mad clone shook his head.

To avoid such disasters with magic only made them fiercer each time.

Now that madness had come twice so quickly, the third time would come even faster, and more violently.

“You just need to prepare every time.”

“That won’t do. In that case, using reverse summoning is wiser.”

“But…”

Intarendals hesitated.

Even after being reverse summoned, there was a possibility of returning someday, but even an archmage could not predict that.

Wouldn’t it be better to stop it now, rather than hope for such an uncertain future?

He just couldn’t understand why his wise master would make such a choice.

But Intarendals could not ask. His loyalty chained the attendant’s feet.

“…Understood. Then, how?”

“There’s a rather decent alchemist around. I’ve gotten a potion. If a reversal occurs, I plan to use it to get reverse summoned. You…”

He called it a potion, but a potion strong enough to reverse summon the mad clone was basically just a powerful poison.

Intarendals felt a welling up of emotions at his master’s words.

“…Yes. I will complete my remaining duties before you are reverse summoned.”

“Yes. I’m counting on you. Pass on the remaining items and books to my student; throw away the rest…”

“What about the hamster?”

“That piece of garbage? It’d be better to throw it away.”

“Even if it’s insignificant, it was once a remarkable wizard. It might be better to hand it down.”

If Lee Han had overheard, he would have recoiled saying, ‘Please don’t give me something like that,’ but unfortunately, this conversation was happening behind his back.

The mad clone frowned and pondered at his attendant’s words, then nodded.

“You’re right. Having one more small pet can’t hurt. And the student seemed to like it, too.”

“That’s correct. Lee Han liked it enough to feed it himself.”

Intarendals agreed on this part.

Indeed, the royal student liked the hamster.

Although the hamster had once been an evil magical criminal, that wasn’t important. Pets like that had often been in vogue even in ancient times.

-It’s -Polynomial-, polynomial! Are you pretending you can’t remember? Because I wouldn’t let you play last time?

-N-no! I really forgot, Wardanaz!

-Wardanaz. By the way, that guy didn’t read the magic book he said he would last time.

-Thanks, Moradi! You bastard. No wonder you forgot. Get up here!

-M… Moradi! We’re in the same tower! Why are you doing this!

Seeing Lee Han treat the other wizards like rats, Intarendals looked away and watched him.

Then he spoke cautiously.

“…Master. Having made a disloyal candid remark today, I beg you to allow me to say one more thing. In my humble opinion, it seems you should teach Lee Han as much as possible for the remainder of the time…”

Even if he conceded everything else, he just couldn’t understand his master’s current reckless indulging of his student.

For a moment, the mad clone was silent at the attendant’s words.

“It may seem that way. But the royal family has a plan.”

“!”

Intarendals’ face brightened.

As expected, the wise master indeed had a perfect plan.

“May I ask what it is?”

“You’ll find out when the time comes, attendant.”

With the gentle refusal, Intarendals lowered his head. It was time to stop being rude and display loyalty again.

-If you can’t solve even this magic equation, what on earth did you do last year? You come up front, too!

-Wardanaz. He got it wrong too but just changed his answer!

-You, come up front too, bastard!

“……”

Intarendals wore a heavy expression.

…There must indeed be a plan.

A brilliant and extraordinary plan that even the attendant himself couldn’t imagine…

• * *

Tap tap-

“Hmm…?”

A night at the end of the weekend.

Yoner, lying in bed and about to fall asleep, opened his eyes at the sound of a paper bird tapping on his private room window.

“…If it’s Gainando, I’ll spike his food with tongue-paralyzing poison…”

Luckily, it wasn’t from his cousin.

Night walk planned. Participants please come to the lounge.

-Lee Han

‘Was there something else to steal?’

Having received his friend’s paper bird, Yoner got dressed and gathered his gear.

Unlike his first year, his equipment had increased quite a bit.

A small bronze bell to detect hostile presences, his newly changed staff, a balance and spoon for quickly checking potion materials, a potion belt for vaporizing desired potions to make fog clouds…

After checking everything, Yoner went down the stairs.

He continuously tried to guess the purpose of tonight’s outing, but nothing came to mind.

Supplies were still ample, and there was no particular shortage of reagents.

‘Is it because of the exam?’

If Lee Han had information about the exam, it would make sense.

Wasn’t Lee Han always good at things like that?

“Oh. Yoner.”

“What’s up?”

“I want to check on Professor Thunderstep because he’s acting suspicious.”

Lee Han explained what had happened recently.

These days, the mad clone seemed to be deliberately hiding something, and one of those things was a conversation with Professor Thunderstep.

The mad clone was underestimating the students of Einrogard far too much.

If anything seemed suspicious, sneaking in to search a professor’s workshop at midnight was exactly the Einrogard spirit.

“Lee Han!”

Just then Gainando was seen coming down the stairs, still wearing his pajama hat.

“Gainando. You know you’re wearing a pajama hat, right?”

“Huh? This is an artifact. I wanted to try it out tonight.”

“……”

“……”

Both thought their friend had clumsily kept his pajama hat on and reflected deeply.

Lee Han asked Gainando,

“Do you know why we’re going out tonight?”

‘Probably because of snacks.’

Yoner thought so inwardly.

“Isn’t it because Professor Thunderstep is scheming something in secret, so we’re investigating? You kept worrying about that.”

“…?!!!”

Yoner was appalled by his cousin’s answer.

No way?!

“You… you…!”

“??”

“A-ah, it’s nothing. I thought you were out for snacks.”

“I got snacks earlier.”

“Shh. Shut up.”

Lee Han stepped on Gainando’s foot firmly.

He’d whined so much that Lee Han had secretly given him one earlier, and now he was telling on him.

“Anyway, let’s go if everyone’s here.”

“What about the others?”

“I didn’t need many, so I only called you two. I needed Yoner because we’re breaking into Professor Thunderstep’s workshop, and Gainando… well… I called you because you’re reliable.”

‘He called me because he knew I’d come no matter what.’

Yoner could read his friend’s mind, but said nothing.

The three left the tower quickly. Having gotten so used to outings since their first year, they could now get around with their eyes closed.

“Wait. Death Knight’s about to come.”

“Should we drive it off with sound or with light?”

“We chased it with sound last time, so let’s use light this time.”

When a light appeared in the distance, the approaching Death Knight changed direction to check it out.

Lee Han and his friends nodded and moved on.

“But Lee Han.”

“Hm?”

“How are we getting into Professor Thunderstep’s workshop?”

Gainando asked, puzzled.

Einrogard professors weren’t fools. Of course, they would have magical security firmly set up around their towers.

Since it looked like they were planning to sneak in, their usual break-and-enter method wouldn’t be possible…

Swish—

Lee Han and Yoner simultaneously raised a key.

The key to Professor Thunderstep’s workshop—a.k.a. the Water Engraving Hall.

“…Did you… did you steal it!?”

“No. The professor gave it to me. Asked me to take care of the reagents and the greenhouse herbs.”

“Why didn’t Professor Mortum ever give me a key like that?”

As Gainando grumbled, Lee Han quietly tucked the rest of his key ring inside his clothes.

The bundle had a black, shining key to the Black Dark Hall—the Black Magic School’s workshop.

“…Professor Mortum is suspicious and stingy, you know.”

“Guess so. Bet Senior Direte didn’t get one either!”