Episode 1199

-That brat likes to act clever, but he’s still pretty sloppy.

The hamster squeaked in evaluation.

On average, magic criminals died, disappeared, or were dragged off to the Empire’s underground prisons before becoming truly great archmages.

The path of unlicensed magic was that dangerous. Beyond the Empire’s knights, every other magic criminal was a potential enemy.

This mage, Enster, was certainly cautious, but judging from now, the hamster figured that even without help, he’d last another ten-odd years at best.

Even after seeing that much mana in motion, he hadn’t considered that magical artifacts wouldn’t always function as expected.

Most mages wouldn’t, of course, but it was still a foolish mistake.

‘By the way, do we just need to go down, then?’

-Yeah. As soon as we go down, we can finish him off as easily as twisting a child’s wrist.

It was only difficult as long as he stayed wary. If they could just reach the workshop’s mana core below, they could pull plenty of tricks.

Once they’d checked all the escape routes, they could calculate the counter-magic before the target could respond.

Enster was overconfident, assuming that even a magic criminal like Antagondals couldn’t analyze and reverse the entire complex interior structure of the workshop in a single visit.

But that was the thinking of a frog in a well.

The hamster was fully confident he could stop all escape routes with a single visit.

-He’s nothing special.

‘Wait—aren’t you unable to use magic right now?’

Lee Han was skeptical.

Even if the hamster could calculate it, he couldn’t actually cast spells, could he?

-What do you mean? You’re the one who has to cast the magic. I’ll direct you; you’ll do the unraveling.

“……”

Lee Han stared in horror at the hamster perched on his shoulder.

He’d been relying on the hamster, and suddenly—this?

‘Can I even pull this off?’

-You again?

‘What?’

-That old trick of yours… always saying “I can’t do it” to catch people off guard.

“……”

Lee Han was dumbfounded by the hamster’s accusation.

He really never did that.

‘When did I ever? When I say I’m not confident, it’s because I really mean it!’

-Have you ever actually failed any of the things you said you couldn’t do?

‘…Even if not, that doesn’t prove I was just faking.’

Lee Han felt wronged.

Whenever he had to pull off a difficult spell, he was under immense pressure, and the hamster always interpreted that as false modesty.

He should do it himself, then!

‘Wait a minute. Why didn’t the professors catch this?’

-Those mages probably figured you could handle it just fine at your level.

“……”

Lee Han was struck by how there was no one in the world he could trust.

To think, when they all discussed the plan so seriously, they’d kept this sort of trick up their sleeves.

Of course, it wasn’t the professors’ fault. They’d simply accepted Lee Han’s nod as a sign that he could do it.

“So, what could you and the hamster be talking about for so long?”

Enster asked curiously.

Normally, you shouldn’t pry into another magic criminal’s business.

But seeing such a powerful mage talk with a hamster was too much, even for someone of Enster’s caliber.

What could that hamster possibly be, for such constant discussion?

Was it some powerful extradimensional being?

“I just like talking with hamsters. It’s my only hobby.”

“…Ah! R-right, is that so?”

Enster was so startled, he even forgot his pride and used honorifics.

A notorious magic criminal whose hobby was talking to hamsters. Well, old mages did tend to go mad, anyway.

The hamster shrieked in fury.

-You cursed brat! What kind of nonsense rumor are you spreading now?!

‘But he was getting suspicious…’

-■■■■! ■■■■■!

‘Please don’t swear at me in ancient tongue; I can barely understand you.’

---

Enster introduced the golems he would field for the job.

Einrogard golems usually didn’t care about appearance—no one saw them, and any money was better spent on performance.

But as a public-facing summoner, Enster’s golems were actually tidy.

Finely fitted bronze and brass parts, inscribed with delicate summoning glyphs and ancient runes.

They looked like they’d fetch a fortune at auction—except for one detail.

That was the real, still-beating elf’s heart pulsing in their chests.

“This golem is my masterpiece, housing a still-beating elf’s heart. And… with a few secret magics added.”

He hesitated as he spoke. Lee Han felt a familiar power from the golem.

‘Isn’t that a Sanguiros cult power?’

-Creepy. You’re right. Looks like he walked off with a relic from the cult.

‘It really is disgusting.’

Incorporating body parts into magic—

Lee Han shivered at the sight of twisted, potent magic animating a war automaton.

-What I find creepy is your sense. Without knowing the structure or spell, you recognized Sanguiros cult power just by the feel of the mana. Are you a hellhound or something?

“……”

The hamster had figured it out from Sanguiros cult inscriptions among the glyphs on the elf heart.

Using such powers always left traces.

But Lee Han, without knowing the writing, had identified the magic’s source purely by its feel.

It was truly, deeply unsettling perception.

‘Never mind that—analyze the magic for me. Do we need to go further down?’

-No. I found everything.

“!!!”

Lee Han was shocked.

They were still walking the display corridor above the underground mana core, where the golems stood.

The chilly hall barely revealed the golems in the dim glow, with seemingly no exits in sight…

-They’d never let us farther down. The core? What, open it up and show us inside? Mages all think the same.

The hamster explained his findings as if it were nothing special.

First, there was evidently a teleportation scroll stashed somewhere.

A patch of hallway had a different sound to its echo, showing a hollow had been built below.

It was standard to clear out nearby material when preparing long-range teleportation, to avoid interference.

Second, there was a dimensional gate.

Marks on the wall showed the strange warping caused by connecting an interior wall to another dimension.

It was a telltale sign of casting dimensional magic over matter.

‘You’re amazing!’

-That kind of compliment only fills me with self-loathing, so cut it out.

The hamster squeaked curtly, but didn’t seem displeased.

-There’s also a non-magical escape—an underground tunnel. Just collapse it.

‘How do we block the other two?’

-Once you find the exact spot of the scroll, just hit it with a spatial displacement spell.

The hamster said it like it was nothing.

Basically: cast space magic at a place you can’t see, at a scroll somewhere below.

Lee Han balked.

‘This isn’t false modesty—there’s no way I can cast spatial magic of that precision. I’d need at least some detectable trigger.’

Even amplifying his spatial sense had limits.

With obstacles and distance, finding an unseeable scroll was impossible.

-If that’s too hard, there is another way.

‘What is it?’

-The mage here can’t craft a mid-range teleport scroll. He’s only a summoner. So it has to be one he picked up from ancient ruins.

‘What does that matter?’

-Idiot… those are usually about to break. They’re only preserved in ruins.

The hamster’s advice was simple.

Just keep pulsing large quantities of mana downward through space.

So simple it was almost embarrassing.

‘Will that really break the scroll? I doubt raising mana density will do it.’

If that were all it took, Lee Han’s room or the Blue Dragon Tower would have no furniture left.

-It’s not to break the object, but to destabilize the internal magic.

‘I still don’t think that’ll be easy.’

If raising mana density was enough to glitch magic, half the Empire’s artifacts and magical buildings would already be ruined.

Rarely did anyone install magic without contingency plans…

-Then just break it with spatial rending.

‘Fine, but why are you so irritable…’

The hamster’s tone made Lee Han grudgingly comply, pulsing mana downward.

The process was so silent and simple that Lee Han began to doubt the method as he repeated it.

How many times had he done it?

He and the hamster both sensed a spike of powerful magical energy from below.

-Got it! Something malfunctioned. The scroll should be fried now.

Despite the hamster’s bold claim, Lee Han gave him a suspicious look.

Come to think of it, he’d been wrong quite a bit even inside Einrogard…

‘…What’s next? How do we neutralize the dimensional door?’

-Normally, you’d snipe it directly with a space magic, but you said you couldn’t. Just try the same method.

‘Again?’

-If the mana density is too high, the connected dimension’s coordinates shift. The exit is sealed.

“……”

Feeling dumber than ever, Lee Han projected more mana downward.

While Enster explained each golem spec, he observed Lee Han continuously talking to the hamster and thought,

‘Didn’t think Antagondals would be this crazy. Damned symptoms are worse than I thought. I’ll have to keep my distance after this job.’

There’s a lot of talk about “mad mages,” but truly insane ones are rare.

A real mad mage is dangerous to friend and foe alike.

Talking to a hamster this much—the lunacy had clearly reached the marrow.

“Are the golems satisfactory?”

“Yes. Quite impressive. Are they for sale?”

“You know the answer.”

Enster replied warily, and Lee Han gestured dismissively.

“I was just asking. No need for suspicion.”

“…Right. If you meant anything, the brazier would warn me…”

No sooner had he spoken than the dark corridor lit up; the golems’ eyes blazed red and blue.

Lee Han tensed, thinking his mana-meddling downstairs had been caught.

‘Do I take him out now—?!’

“An intruder!”

Enster glared at Lee Han. Lee Han answered blandly.

“The brazier.”

“…R-right. Could it be a tail… No, surely not.”

Enster didn’t think a criminal like Antagondals would show up with enemies following him.

More likely, one of Enster’s own enemies had broken in.

-Hey. What if it’s the Einrogard crowd coming to look for you?

‘Can you picture my professors so impatient they’d charge down here—ah, actually, yes. But I doubt it’s them this time.’

-……

Ignoring the hamster’s stare, Lee Han anxiously scrutinized Enster.

Should he make the first move or not…?

“Sanguiros! Sanguiros assassin!”

Realization dawned, and Enster screamed. Lee Han let out a happy exclamation.

“Excellent!”

“…W-what?”

“I just love exterminating dark-god worshippers.”

“……”

Enster felt a sudden chill at the sheer madness of this criminal mage.