Episode 213

The carriage flew like an arrow. It felt like hardly any time had passed, but the main gate of the magic school was already visible in the distance.

Lee Han felt a familiar sense of warmth, as if he had returned home for a moment.

And then he got goosebumps.

‘Did I get hit by a mental magic or something?’

A lot of the snow has melted.

There was a gentle regret in the Skull Principal’s voice. Lee Han cursed inwardly.

“It melted faster than I expected.”

Yes. I thought it would last longer. Was there really a need to resolve it so quickly?

“I’ll be more careful next time.”

Lee Han answered perfunctorily and got out of the carriage.

There were still places where snow was piled up, but the bitter cold from a few days ago was completely gone.

It was the warm weather of spring.

‘Still, I guess it’s lucky I didn’t lose the whole weekend.’

Priests could be seen here and there. Lee Han smiled in delight.

He was able to meet the priests without losing the rest of his Sunday.

That alone meant he was lucky.

If the cold had lasted just a bit longer, he could have avoided the priests…

The Skull Principal’s voice, full of regret, came from behind. Lee Han pretended not to hear and walked away.

• * *

“You must have had a hard time.”

The priests of the Order of Fire and the Afha Order spoke with expressions full of sympathy.

To think that students almost froze to death while they were away.

It was only natural for their hearts to ache.

“But it wasn’t all bad. Thanks to the cold, training with the fire element became easier.”

At Lee Han’s words, the priests laughed. They thought he was joking.

“Lee Han of the Wardanaz Family always finds the positive side of things, doesn’t he?”

“With that attitude, you’ll be fine no matter what trials come your way.”

Lee Han, who was wearing the fire absorption rings, bracelets, and necklaces, hesitated at their reaction.

“Did you think I was joking…?”

“Well then, let’s get back to fire training once more.”

Inside the tent, paper birds began to fly around.

Once you learned to control the movement of flames to some extent, the next step was to practice hitting moving targets.

In fact, for Lee Han, hitting the targets itself wasn’t that difficult.

He had already controlled other elements in far more complex and delicate ways.

What was difficult for Lee Han was maintaining the same firepower while moving the flames to hit the targets.

If he lost focus even a little, the flames would grow in size and spread everywhere.

Other wizards who handled the fire element would pour mana into the flames to maintain them after summoning, but Lee Han had to learn to restrain his mana as much as possible after summoning the flames so they wouldn’t run wild.

…It was a bit unfair, but there was nothing he could do.

Whoosh!

The flames circling around Lee Han accurately hit the paper birds.

The priests’ faces brightened.

Compared to last time, the firepower of the flames was noticeably more stable.

Of course, he was wearing ten fire absorption rings, four bracelets, and two necklaces, but even taking that into account, it was a remarkable improvement.

“Excellent! Your skills have improved a lot.”

“Really?”

Even so, Lee Han was slightly disappointed.

The experienced priests did not miss the disappointment in the voice of the boy from the Wardanaz Family.

“Is there any problem or concern? Please feel free to tell us. The priests’ ears are always open.”

“Well, actually…”

Lee Han slowly began to speak.

In fact, compared to other elements, the fire element had a narrower range of uses and was specialized in certain directions.

Water and earth, with their unique flexibility, could be used for attack, defense, and various other applications…

But fire was quite ambiguous in its uses.

Because of that, when handling the fire element, one couldn’t help but focus on destructive power.

“When I focus on controlling the fire, it seems the power weakens even if I succeed. A few days ago, I fought a monster…”

The priests of the Afha Order were not surprised by Lee Han’s words.

Anyone who handled fire element magic had worried about this at least once.

The nature of fire was certainly destructive, but in actual combat, it was surprisingly difficult to apply fire element to battle.

No matter how destructive, it only mattered if it actually hit the enemy.

Water and earth were easy to shape and easy to move quickly in that form.

Lightning was hard to control, but as an element, it was condensed with tremendous speed.

But fire was not only hard to shape, but also several times harder than other elements to move quickly in that form.

To solve this problem, you had to deliberately form and maintain the shape of an ‘arrow’ or ‘spear’ and even add the property of ‘launching’ to completely overcome the disadvantage, but that would make the circle difficulty skyrocket.

It wasn’t a method for someone just learning the fire element to attempt.

In the end, beginner fire wizards would either slowly move the flames to attack the enemy, summon wide flames to suppress the enemy, or use enchantment magic.

“It’s a common concern, Lee Han of the Wardanaz Family. It’s a transitional period before your magic level rises. Fire magic, especially, can be easily blocked if the opponent is prepared, so it can be frustrating. But if you don’t give up and keep training, your magic level will rise, and the worries you have now will be easily resolved. What kind of monster did you fight where you felt a lack of power?”

The priests asked for the name of the monster Lee Han had faced.

They wanted to hear the weakness and give advice.

Rather than being impatient to increase the power of fire magic right away, it was better to know how to attack the monster.

“I heard it was the King of Frost Giants.”

“…The King of Frost Giants, you say?”

“Yes.”

“…That’s not a problem with fire magic, but because the opponent was too strong, Lee Han of the Wardanaz Family.”

The kind priests of the Afha Order couldn’t help but become serious at those words.

To feel the power of fire magic against a being as powerful as the King of Frost Giants, just how high a circle magic would you need to cast…

“Wait. But why did you end up facing the King of Frost Giants?”

One of the priests noticed something odd.

Come to think of it, the name King of Frost Giants was so strong that they almost missed it…

Lee Han was still a first-year student.

There was no reason for him to face the King of Frost Giants.

“I happened to meet him while helping my seniors.”

“What year were they?”

“Pardon?”

“What year were your seniors?”

“Fourth year…”

The priests whispered among themselves. Lee Han thought he heard words like ‘trash’ and ‘despicable.’

“But thanks to them, my fire magic improved like this.”

Still, since he would have to see those seniors in the future, Lee Han tried to defend them.

Of course, the experienced priests of the Order weren’t fooled by such words.

“Lee Han of the Wardanaz Family. You gain a lot if you survive entering a dragon’s lair, but no one recommends entering a dragon’s lair. From now on, you must never associate with such seniors. They are very bad people.”

“I understand.”

The priests were so serious that Lee Han nodded.

If he tried to defend them here, it would only make the seniors look worse.

“Try increasing the speed of the bird.”

“Yes.”

The priests began to increase the speed of the paper birds. Lee Han focused and controlled the flames.

A flame the size of his index finger moved quickly, chasing the bird.

Seeing such rapid growth, the priests forgot how serious they had just been and smiled in satisfaction.

They couldn’t forgive the seniors for making a freshman face the King of Frost Giants…

But seeing how much he had grown, it seemed that intense experience had really helped.

Swish! Swish swish!

“…?”

The priests, who increased the number and speed of the paper birds each time Lee Han succeeded, felt something strange.

Since the paper birds were faster than the flames, at some point, Lee Han should have had to herd them and hit them one by one rather than shoot them all down.

But the boy from the Wardanaz Family was just moving the flames and blasting them.

No matter how you compared, he was faster than the paper birds.

“Try increasing the speed even more.”

The priest controlling the paper birds nodded. The birds flew as if determined to have a speed contest.

Lee Han was so focused he couldn’t even hear the priests’ conversation. As the paper birds darted through the air, the flames chased after them.

Just looking at the speed, it was almost no different from other elements.

‘Fast!’

The priests of the Afha Order, who had seen all kinds of flames, couldn’t help but be amazed at the speed of these flames.

To achieve this speed just by controlling them, without any additional magic?

‘I see. It’s the mana…!’

Having so much mana that it was hard to control wasn’t only a disadvantage.

The priests had never seen flames move this fast.

…Of course, they’d also never seen a beginner wizard with so much mana that he couldn’t control fire…

“Meeting the King of Frost Giants really did help a lot.”

“Even if that’s true, it’s not something you should say out loud. Be careful.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“……”

After knocking down the paper birds and relaxing his focus, Lee Han paused at the conversation he overheard.

‘If I talk about this again, I’d better leave out the seniors.’

It seemed to sound much weirder than Lee Han had thought.

• * *

Monday morning.

Professor Garcia’s face was very bright as he entered the classroom.

Lee Han felt a slight sense of anticipation from that positive energy.

‘Did something good happen?’

Usually, Mondays after the weekend were always painful, but at the magic school, they were even more painful.

Every Monday, a summoned monster would be released, the Skull Principal would set traps, an early winter would arrive, or the Skull Principal would attack…

But seeing Professor Garcia’s face, maybe this week would be different.

Would a truly peaceful and warm week finally come?

“Did something good happen, Professor?”

“Good question.”

Professor Garcia replied in an excited voice.

“Last night, we finally caught the monster that had settled in the deep part of the library. It was wrongly summoned and had been bothering students for months. Now it won’t interfere with students’ studies anymore.”

“I… I see?”

The first-year students in the classroom couldn’t share Professor Garcia’s happiness.

None of the first-year students had ever set foot in the depths of the library.

Einrogard was already complicated enough, but the library was one of the most labyrinthine places.

There was no such thing as systematic book classification, and the stacks you visited today would be somewhere else tomorrow—a lawless labyrinth!

The first-year students, being sensible, only looked for books near the relatively safe entrance and never ventured deeper.

“Con… congratulations?”

“Congratulations?”

Still, since it was Professor Garcia, the students forced themselves to congratulate him. Professor Garcia nodded, looking happy.

“Now, professors teaching other classes will be able to take out books without hesitation.”

“…?”

Lee Han, who had been listening absentmindedly, paused.

He felt an ominous sense of foreboding.

“Uh, Professor?”

“What is it, Lee Han?”

“Have the lectures so far used fewer books? Out of consideration for us?”

“I think that was often the case.”

“Then from now on, there’s a high chance the lectures will use more books from the library?”

“I suppose so?”

“……”

The students, who realized this belatedly, began to change their expressions.

Gainando whispered.

“If we set fire to the library, maybe it’ll be closed for a while?”