Episode 1028

“What? Really?? Where???”

As Gainando immediately stuck his head out, Siana whispered in slight admiration.

“Gainando really is a great friend.”

He was willing to play along with such an obvious lie, after all.

Most people wanted to help, but couldn’t pull it off so shamelessly. In fact, beside her, Tijilling was hesitating, unsure if he should also mention seeing a cloud.

But Gainando replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“What do you mean? Where’s the wyvern-shaped cloud?”

“…Ah! Look, there’s a griffon-shaped rock!”

Siana switched the topic again. This time, Gainando looked in that direction, gullible as ever.

“Wow! Look over there!”

“???”

The prince pointed outside with a surprised voice, so Siana was startled.

‘Wait? Was there really one?’

She’d just made that up, but now it seemed there really was a griffon-shaped rock outside.

But Gainando wasn’t reacting to the rock’s shape.

He was surprised because a corpse was lying on the grassy slope of a hill.

“Isn’t that a corpse???”

The Petrogard wizards smiled.

Sometimes, visiting guests from outside misunderstood free-spirited Petrogard wizards. This corpse was one such…

“That’s not a corpse. Corpses aren’t that color.”

“That’s right. Prince, you’re a black magic student—how can you not recognize a corpse?”

“Ah, right. Don’t tell Lee Han.”

“…That’s not a corpse; it’s a Petrogard student.”

“What? Why would a student be lying here in the grass, not even in school, at this hour?”

“Haha. Why not hear directly? Bunarzo!”

Dalser, who took the role of professor but insisted he was not one, called out to the student.

The student lying like a corpse on the hill opened his eyes sluggishly at the call.

“Why?”

“Come over here for a second. The guests have some questions.”

“No.”

Bunarzo closed his eyes and lay back down again.

Clap clap clap clap clap—

The Einrogard students found themselves giving a standing ovation.

“……”

“S-sorry. Our hands just moved on their own…”

Blushing at the students’ excuses, Professor Garcia hid his face in shame.

Dalser, meanwhile, did not seem surprised.

“Oh well. Let’s go to him.”

As the wagon drew closer, Bunarzo reluctantly got up.

“Bunarzo. If you don’t answer, it’ll just get even more annoying.”

“…Fine, I’ll answer. What do you want, Professor?”

Next to him, Benjamin scolded sternly.

“Bunarzo! Mind your language!”

“…Fine, fine! I just won’t call you professor! What is it?”

Listening in, Lee Han didn’t understand and whispered to Professor Garcia.

“Uh, why is he getting scolded?”

“He called him ‘professor,’ Lee Han. That title goes against Petrogard’s culture of freedom.”

“……”

Forbidding everyone from using the word “professor” seemed its own sort of unfreedom.

Lee Han thought so, but said nothing.

After all, he was here to help, not provoke the Petrogard students.

“What were you doing out here?”

“Making a work.”

“????”

The Einrogard students murmured.

Adenart asked in confusion,

“There’s no tools, workbench, or materials in sight…”

Crafting magical items always took lots of time, effort, and equipment.

Even students of Einrogard’s enchanting discipline couldn’t help but agree.

That’s the reason even as they grumbled about Professor Verdus, everyone still worked at his tower.

And yet this student was working with none of that.

Did Petrogard have some new method?

“Maybe he’s sending his soul to another dimension to craft?”

“That’s insane… Not even Wardanaz…”

“Hey.”

While the foreign guests whispered, Bunarzo tapped the side of his head with a fingertip.

“I was searching for the most important thing.”

“Materials? Reagents?”

“Proper secret art? Designs?”

“No. Artistic inspiration.”

“……”

“……”

The Einrogard students looked as if they were hearing about “art” for the first time, like lifelong barbarians who’d only battled for survival.

“Art…”

“A… inspiration…?”

“Uh, is that a magic name?”

“No. I think he means actual art. The kind covered in culture classes. The Empire has music, painting, poetry, that sort of thing.”

“R-right. …But why would you need that for a magic item?”

“Maybe he’s just making an art piece, not a magic item?”

Bunarzo looked at the barbarians from outside, full of contempt.

“I am making a magic item. What are you, savages?! Don’t you even know what art is?”

That riled the Einrogard students up.

“How dare you! We know what art is!”

“We go to plays outside and even compose songs! Dalkard! Show him!”

Just as Ahsan began singing, “Einrogard, Einrogard, how wonderful you are,” Lee Han quickly stopped him.

If that song got out, Einrogard’s social reputation would be in shambles and Professor Garcia might have to hide his origins for months.

Fortunately, Bunarzo didn’t hear the song and his attitude shifted a bit.

“You write songs, too? That’s impressive. Then why would people like you ask such dumb questions? Don’t you know the most important thing to making a magic item?”

“Magic… isn’t it?” said Lee Han, and everyone nodded. But Bunarzo sighed deeply.

“No.”

“Maybe deadlines?”

“That’s the least important. The most important thing is beauty. Here, look at this.”

He pulled a small pendant from his pocket.

Inside a decagon-cut blue-green stone swirled a complex, elegant enchantment.

‘Cold-control magic, maybe?’

Lee Han saw the magic at a glance.

But there was something odd—lots of superfluous elements.

For instance, the pure gold ornament wrapping the gem.

The angel-shaped gold might have been added for cold control, elemental amplification, or spirit resonance.

But it didn’t really have to be an angel. If it were Lee Han, he would’ve just wrapped it in gold, etched a minimal spell circle, and blasted it with power.

‘Why that carving?’

“What does it make you feel?”

“Not sure…”

As Lee Han replied, Bunarzo sighed again.

“This necklace blocks ambient cold and can create a snowstorm at will.”

“I figured that. The gold’s for cold control and spirit resonance, right?”

“!!”

Bunarzo was surprised.

He hadn’t expected someone to see not just the magic but the purpose of the ornament.

“But why carve it? Wouldn’t just wrapping it and carving a spell circle be most efficient?”

He was shocked again—then his face clouded with distaste.

“That’s such an ugly approach! It’s not beautiful at all!”

“S-so the carving’s purely for aesthetics?”

Adenart asked incredulously.

“It has a magical effect too.”

“But as Wardanaz said, this way would be much more efficient…”

“I told you, it’s not beautiful!”

The Einrogard students all started muttering.

Naturally, it wasn’t praise. Words like “fool,” “idiot,” “dumber than Verdus” could be heard.

But Lee Han was quietly impressed.

‘I’ve soaked in Einrogard so long, I forgot my roots.’

He used to only think about how to make artifacts sell for more, but at some point he’d been obsessed with just making them better.

Maybe it was the constant danger—he’d lost sight of the important things and only thought about immediate problems.

‘He’s right. No matter how good it is, it should look nice—it’ll sell better. I forgot that.’

“I understand. Beauty is important, too.”

“Of course. I figured someone with a good eye would have taste. Now go. Don’t disturb my contemplation.”

The Petrogard student closed his eyes and lay back down.

He intended to stay sprawled on the hill like a corpse until inspiration struck for his ideal work.

Seeing that, Gainando snapped.

“That lazy slacker! If it was me, I’d be waving my staff and pounding a hammer, not lying around!”

“The prince is right. That’s not how any self-respecting wizard should act.”

“Worse than Professor Verdus!”

As the students grew more agitated, Professor Garcia quickly interceded.

“Everyone, calm down! Petrogard’s style may feel unusual to you—”

“It’s not unusual, it’s just wrong!”

The Einrogard students’ gazes blazed with hostility.

-There should be no wizards like that!

…was practically what their faces said.

“…But if there are ten thousand wizards, there are ten thousand wizardly ways. This is Petrogard’s school style. You need to learn to respect it, okay?”

“……”

“……”

“You all understand, right???”

As the sound of space compressing and bending came from nothing in Professor Garcia’s fist, the students shouted out quickly.

“Yes!”

“We Einrogard students always respect other magic schools!”

“Thank you, everyone. Petrogard students are free artists—don’t expect them to act like Einrogard. Okay?”

“Should have just visited Kalarogard instead…”

Muttered a second-year.

While Kalarogard was the most unpopular magic school in the Empire for being the most secluded, gloomy, and smelly school of black magic, to Einrogard students it suddenly felt like the better option.

As the carriage set off again, Dalser laughed cheerfully at the students’ shock.

“Einrogard students always have the same reaction when they visit.”

“I’m curious—does work actually get done like that?”

Lee Han asked, genuinely curious.

Having trained at Einrogard, he couldn’t imagine that style.

“It’s slow, and some students make no progress at all.”

“Then doesn’t that cause problems for Petrogard?”

“What do you mean? It’s the student’s own choice.”

“!”

Petrogard wasn’t like Einrogard, forging students in harsh pressure.

So long as you had the minimum skills, you could join and do as you pleased.

Even if a student never produced a single work and starved to death, it was their choice.

Consequently, the number and quality of works varied wildly, but every so often, a masterpiece emerged and carried Petrogard’s reputation.

“Lee Han. Lee Han.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s show them what’s what with music magic. ‘Einrogard, How Wonderful Thou Art’…”

“…At least let me play something like -Escape to the Shadow Fortress-.”

Lee Han let it slide.

But next to him, Professor Garcia paused in thought.

‘Wait?’

Now that he thought about it, of all the magic schools currently researching music magic, Petrogard was the most interested.