Episode 1051

Episode 1051

It was one thing coming from the Skull Headmaster, but when even Professor Garcia acted like that, Lee Han became slightly dejected.

‘Aren’t both of them being too harsh?’

Of course, the two of them had known Professor Voladi for much longer.

Especially in the case of the Skull Headmaster, he must have known Professor Voladi when he was a student.

From Lee Han’s standpoint, it was indeed a part he couldn’t easily know.

‘He probably did go through a turbulent adolescence.’

Even if he was walking down Einrogard’s hallway spitting, throwing punches at students from other towers, and casting spells at beaver beastkin, it wouldn’t have been odd at all.

But people can change, can’t they?

In fact, recently Professor Voladi had shown an astonishing change once the number of students in his school increased by 100%.

He might be able to be stopped through the sincere persuasion of his students!

‘This guy. He’s thinking useless things again.’

The Skull Headmaster looked at his student as if he were pathetic.

This boy of the Wardanaz family often had rather useless stray thoughts.

Because of his emotionless, statue-like features, just sitting still made him look like he was lost in serious thought, so the other professors often fell for it…

But not the Skull Headmaster.

Snap!

“Don’t get lost in useless thoughts.”

Getting hit again with the staff, Lee Han was startled.

“How did you know?”

Sometimes this teacher showed off an evil mind-reading ability.

He always said, ‘If I had a spell that could pierce your mana and read your mind, I’d build another castle in the Einrogard domain,’ but great archmages are generally also skilled liars.

‘Isn’t he actually reading my thoughts with illusion magic?’

Snap!

The Skull Headmaster hit him again and said,

“Take notes.”

“Yes.”

“The name of the fallen evil god before disappearing was Sengguiros. His worshippers called him ‘the Fair Steward.’ Once, he was favored by the western vampires…”

Normally, information about such evil gods wasn’t shared unless necessary.

Even the Skull Headmaster, who respected near-infinite freedom, put control on certain knowledge, and one such field was knowledge about evil gods.

According to the theories of cynical archmages like the Skull Headmaster or the Wardanaz clan’s patriarch, divinity is a power formed by the collective unconscious of mortal souls.

Thinking of it the other way around, it meant that as soon as you knew of it, you were inevitably entangled.

Most of the time, it wouldn’t cause much trouble, but very occasionally, when bad luck stacked upon bad luck, one’s life could be twisted.

Take the Prahgall Order, for example. Usually, they just looked like a group of morons trying to transform into unpleasant tentacle chimeras but…

…if a person fell into a dire situation, Prahgall’s powers of life and regeneration could urgently surface in one’s mind.

Especially for Einrogard mages who actively dabbled in strange things, a little more caution was necessary.

“But you’ll probably be fine.”

“Lee Han Student has already dealt with so many other evil gods, I don’t think hiding this one will change anything.”

“…Professor, did I do something wrong??”

It was one thing coming from the Skull Headmaster, but Professor Garcia’s words stabbed at his heart.

That attitude, as if giving up!

It was hard to believe that the loving Professor Garcia would seem to have given up on a student.

“No. Nothing. I’m just half giving up and half trusting you, Lee Han Student.”

“Professor…!”

Lee Han was moved again. It was truly Professor Garcia.

“Why do you ignore the fact that I also said ‘gave up’?”

The Skull Headmaster clicked his tongue and continued explaining.

This evil god Sengguiros was peculiarly called ‘the Fair’ because of his attributes.

If you offered a sacrifice, he would grant you power equivalent to it.

To the uninitiated, they might ask, ‘What’s so special about that?’, but in fact, it really was special.

Fundamentally, divinity wasn’t something that always rewarded offerings.

If such an equivalent exchange were possible, all the Phoenix Tower students would already be using divine magic freely.

“Well, I was lucky to receive a couple of divine spells, but generally it’s tough.”

“Lee Han Student, it’s not luck, just your mana… no, nevermind. Keep listening.”

Anyway, Sengguiros’s trait of promptly giving rewards delivered a huge shock to his believers.

Unlike gods who never answered no matter how much you called, just how attractive did this seem?

“That’s suspicious. There’s no such thing as a deal that good.”

“You’ve gotten sharp.”

If things had ended there, the god wouldn’t have been called ‘evil.’

Sengguiros basically preferred bloody sacrifices, and those who offered more blood received greater rewards.

This system inevitably led to violence and catastrophe…

“In the end, it got exposed and he fell. These types never last long.”

Compared to Sengguiros, Prahgall or Ksaksarigol were rather mild.

There’s no way you could blood-soak the region and not attract attention.

“I imagine a great subjugation campaign was carried out.”

“A great campaign? Hmm… well, something like that. Anyway, this guy was like that, so if a stranger comes and tries to entice you with a fair deal for power, don’t fall for it.”

“Do I look like a fool to you?”

“Don’t even believe it if they say they’ll teach you magic.”

‘Does he really see me as a fool?’

Lee Han was a bit suspicious.

Otherwise, why all this worry…

“If you see someone who seems to love blood and is oddly powerful lurking around, be wary.”

“Seems like there are a lot of them in Einrogard.”

“You’ll have lots of outings in the second term, so I’m already worrying.”

The Skull Headmaster looked at Professor Garcia as he spoke.

From the second term of second year, Einrogard students had to earn gold coins through side jobs—no, through legitimate and noble commissions.

Otherwise, it would be hard to cover the insane magic expenses from third year onward.

Inevitably, outings would massively increase, so it was natural to worry.

“Professor Baegrek will be staying in Einrogard anyway, so what’s there to worry about?”

Lee Han asked doubtfully, but the Skull Headmaster ignored him and kept talking to Professor Garcia.

“If we send out the Wardanaz boy alone, magic criminals will flock like flies, and if we post Professor Baegrek with him, evil god cultist remnants will swarm like mosquitoes.”

“Truly a difficult problem.”

Like the proverbial wolf, goat, and cabbage crossing the river problem, this too was complex to solve.

Send out Lee Han alone and he attracts magic criminals, send Professor Baegrek with him and evil god worshippers show up…

“!”

Contemplating various methods, the Skull Headmaster frowned.

He felt a strange sense of disharmony near the mansion outside the dungeon.

“There’s a mosquito buzzing around the house.”

“Excuse me? What kind of madman?”

Instead of being frightened or trembling at the fact that a pursuer was lurking near the mansion, Lee Han was simply startled.

This was basically a dragon’s mansion after all. Though Joulin was still immature, his combat strength was by no means weak.

‘Actually, it’s more dangerous.’

He didn’t even want to imagine the destructive power of a dragon who couldn’t control themselves.

And right now, both the End of Einrogard and the Skull Headmaster were here!

The water spirit seemed to think so too—it stopped tending the dungeon in the corner and looked aghast.

Which mad mortal is skulking around here?

“Looks like it really did resurrect. Come out!”

Once the Skull Headmaster gave a commanding order, the intruder, who’d been watching for a way over the wall into the residence, suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway.

“!”

The infiltrator showed surprise for a moment but soon regained composure.

Given the current dangerous place in the capital, his exceedingly normal appearance was almost more surprising.

Dressed in a worn brown tunic and holding a round workman’s copper plate, anyone would assume he was a guild laborer from the city.

But as the intruder drew closer, Lee Han noticed an odd part.

It was the eyes. The laborer’s gaze gleamed red with murderous intent.

“I–I have come to pay my respects to the great archmage.”

From inside the workman’s throat came a voice. A bizarre, powerful, unfamiliar voice that did not match at all.

The Skull Headmaster seemed insulted and annoyed that some evil god cultist lackey would chase them all the way here just to pay his respects.

He looked at him as if looking at a bug and said,

“If you came to pay your respects, just get to the point and die quickly. I don’t want to listen for long.”

“I–I shall do so. The great archmage has a grudge with us.”

“Like I don’t have grudges with a million of you.”

“B–But the one who grievously wounded us is y–you, the great archmage. S–So, please await our revenge.”

“Get in the back of the long line then.”

Even as a lackey of the resurrected evil god cult came to declare war, the Skull Headmaster seemed indifferent.

“Are you done talking? Looks like you are. Then…”

“Headmaster. Your Highness is still here.”

“Good point. Excellent.”

The Skull Headmaster praised his student for once.

Nothing good would come from demonstrating to Joulin how to pulverize a person.

If later he declared, “Joulin will try it too!” and picked up the habit, a royal summons would immediately follow from the imperial palace.

“We’ll have to drag him away. Your Highness. I apologize for bringing a useless pest…”

“INTRUDER!”

Joulin belatedly shouted. The Skull Headmaster and Lee Han looked at the dragon with concern.

Could he have been deeply shocked?

An… an intruder has finally entered the dungeon! Joulin’s dungeon!

Joulin was surprised.

But in a somewhat different way than the two imagined.

Intruders targeting a dungeon didn’t enter just any old dungeon. They only targeted those worth the effort.

“…Your Highness. That guy is actually an evil god worshipper who was following the Headmaster…”

“Shh. Quiet.”

The Skull Headmaster silenced his student.

There was no point in teaching Joulin about evil gods in detail, and…

…seeing him so delighted, it seemed pointless to ruin his mood.

• * *

“Junior, you don’t have to worry. He was just a lunatic evil god worshipper.”

“……”

Eandurde looked at his senior with a sour expression.

They’d been whispering a long time with the Skull Headmaster and Professor Garcia, then handled the intruder as soon as he appeared and brushed it off with ‘just a mad evil god worshipper’—it was too suspicious.

“…Alright.”

Yet Eandurde showed trust in his senior.

Even if something was being hidden, he believed it was being hidden because Eandurde shouldn’t know.

Eandurde turned his gaze.

Joulin had been sitting quietly for a while now.

Looking at that serious expression, he worried Joulin might be dwelling on the discord he felt from the intruder.

If this dragon were to start asking about it cluelessly…

‘I have to step up and persuade him.’

Lee Han. Lee Han.

“What is it?”

The residence being exposed to an intruder could mean Joulin might be in danger. Shouldn’t Joulin also move to a new location for a while?

“To where?”

A safe place would be good! A place with many mages and a Demon Commander. Even better if it started with ‘Ei.’

“I see.”

“What do you mean, ‘I see’? Stop enabling him!?”

The Skull Headmaster berated his student in disbelief.

Just who are you trying to bring again now?!