Episode 1086

“Oh—We’ll bring in your luggage, too! If it’s Lee Han, he’ll definitely do it for you!”

“Thank you.”

For some reason, Alhidle’s voice was cold.

No matter how much he tried to sound grateful, the jealousy in his heart just wouldn’t disappear.

Poke—

Eandurde poked his side lightly. A signal not to show it.

“S-sorry.”

“Later. We’ll get even. The chance will come.”

“Right. You’re right.”

Alhidle nodded, then paused.

…But is it even revenge, really?

Technically, the second-year seniors hadn’t done anything wrong to them…

But Alhidle’s burning jealousy was too much to cool with calm logic.

Why were those people able to live happily at Einrogard just for having entered a year earlier????

“Grrrrr…”

“W-what’s wrong? Did something get stuck?”

Gainando was in the middle of packing chocolate boxes inside more chocolate boxes, inside even more chocolate boxes, when he jumped at the strange noise from his junior.

“N-no. I’m okay.”

“Ah, I get it. It moved you, huh? Sheesh. Over something like this.”

Gainando laughed.

He figured his juniors were just surprised that they could bring in stuff from the outside. As a senior, he found their reactions adorable.

“……”

“……”

The junior’s fists clenched, full of silent resolve.

• * *

“Well, I’ll be counting on you, then.”

“Yes, sir!”

The skull headmaster completed his day by personally seeing off the visiting nobles.

These nobles had come for a consultation because of the third-year Einrogard students.

They’d originally requested new exteriors and enhancements for their mansion’s magic statues, but the students, getting greedy, had accidentally let the statues loose.

This caused chaos in the nobles’ village, leading them to come to the capital to complain to the skull headmaster in person.

The skull headmaster sighed, dispatched Death Knights, and, just in case, sent a paper bird to Professor Yonramo of the Transformation School, who was in charge.

Simultaneously, he soothed the visiting nobles.

-You’re pillars of the Empire, aren’t you? Please be understanding. I’ll have the village restored. Just don’t report this to the bureaucrats.

-Ah, yes, understood.

-And please don’t mention this to any other nobles, either. We could lose contracts.

-Understood.

-And please don’t tell any other magicians either. If contracts—

-……

The nobles, baffled, dared not refuse the Demon Commander’s requests.

Unless you were from a grand noble family, you could never talk back to the skull headmaster. Ordinary nobles never dared resist in front of him.

‘Come the new semester, straight to the punishment room.’

The skull headmaster ground his teeth. What a disgrace to the school.

He was reminded, as always, how difficult it was to teach students.

If you gave them plenty, they grew complacent and lazy; but if you squeezed too hard, they’d run wild from the pressure…

“It really is a hard job.”

-……

-……

The Death Knights said nothing.

They knew from experience that speaking up now—“Then shouldn’t you just cut down on outside contracts and give more money from the school?”—would be a one-way ticket to the punishment room.

Plus, as far as they were concerned, the gold already being given to students was plenty. To pay them more, professors, knights, or bureaucrats would have to go hungry.

-Couldn’t we ask professors to supervise students even more during outside jobs? There are always attendants assigned…

A relatively young Death Knight came up with a clever idea.

After all, during certain jobs in the semester, professors or the headmaster’s assistants already acted as supervisors. Handing out a little more help didn’t seem like a bad idea.

If it looked like the students were about to mess up, you could intervene…

“What kind of ridiculous nonsense are you spouting so long? In that case, the professor should get the reward. Why should the students get it?”

The skull headmaster glared at the knight with unprecedented contempt.

The Death Knight wilted under his gaze.

“If you did that, students would just ask professors for help with every task, Professor Garcia would never get any sleep, and Bible would get fatter and fatter. Is that what you want? Hm?”

-No, sir!

“As long as you get it.”

It was a bit forced, but also reasonable.

The future was clear: leaving aside the matter of student independence, certain professors would be overburdened with work.

Thud, thud, thud—

“Anyone there?”

“…No.”

The skull headmaster recognized the voice and replied.

But in defiance, the guest boldly pushed open the door anyway.

Thunk!

And banged his head on the doorframe. The emperor’s fourth child—Black Dragon Uman—grimaced in pain and entered.

“You bang your head every time I see you. Not thinking of making yourself shorter?”

“It’s inconvenient, I admit.”

Uman answered in a deep, booming voice. The skull headmaster covered his ears with an annoyed look.

“And your voice—could you lower it?”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“So, what brings you here? Want to donate even more to Einrogard?”

There was a reason the skull headmaster found Uman bothersome.

The Black Dragon had long been obsessed with the delusion that he must be the Empire’s guardian of justice.

Worst of all, this delusion had made him imagine the skull headmaster and Einrogard as potential enemies of justice.

It was a level of idiocy unthinkable for a highly intelligent dragon.

‘He was such a sweet, cute kid…’

The skull headmaster looked at Uman with a hint of pity.

Back then, little Uman would chase after him, crying, “Lord Gonadaltes!”—and now he’s grown up only to snarl.

These dragonfolk were a troublesome race indeed.

“I already donated.”

“You did?! Good thinking. But who did you donate to? Don’t tell me it was Professor Verdus?”

Surely Uman wasn’t such an idiot as to give to Bible Verdus.

“I donated to Lee Han of the Wardanaz family. I paid for the gold the imperial treasury needed this time.”

“……”

The skull headmaster’s expression changed.

Like the archmage he was, he sensed ominous premonitions.

No way…

“…Thanks, but why? Are you thinking about making a contract? Don’t. Have some pity.”

That was sincere.

No matter how strictly he pushed his student, even the skull headmaster didn’t want to shackle him with two dragons.

He was already barely scraping by…

“No. Please have a look at this.”

Uman produced a rolled-up scroll from his robe. The skull headmaster recognized it at once as a golden-embossed imperial decree.

“……”

His ominous premonition was growing ever stronger.

The skull headmaster snatched the decree and read it. The contents were simple.

…I designate Uman as the Emperor’s representative, granting him the powers of inspector at Einrogard for one semester…

“Kugh.”

Having confirmed the grim conclusion, the skull headmaster staggered.

Even an ordinary inspector would be troublesome, but he was coming as the Emperor’s representative?!

“No way! His Majesty may be narrow-minded and petty, but he’d never send an inspector on his own without a word!”

“There are several reasons!”

Uman thundered. The force of it made the skull headmaster even more uneasy.

What now?

“First, many reports have been filed. The most serious among them: making your disciple participate in the hunt for a void monster from another dimension.”

‘Voladi Baegrek…!’

The skull headmaster bowed his head. He immediately recognized the culprit.

He’d even kept tabs, in case they tried going to the palace, but still, she’d gone and filed the complaint.

There was only one gap in her schedule.

After meeting Alsicle and the skull headmaster, she must have rushed directly to the palace and submitted it. What insane determination.

The skull headmaster sighed deeply. He’d been backstabbed by his ungrateful disciple.

‘Fine. You win.’

Now that he thought about it, he’d underestimated Voladi Baegrek’s resolve.

Once she made up her mind, she could do anything—he’d been careless.

He really should have paid more attention when it came to matters involving her.

“Actually, that one wasn’t my fault… Never mind, it’s too late anyway, right?”

“Yes!”

“Lower your voice. What’s the next one?”

The skull headmaster asked in a resigned tone.

It was certain Uman would be coming next semester just to be a headache.

-Master! Isn’t this too much, making us suffer this humiliation at the claws of a young dragon?

One enraged Death Knight protested.

Amongst themselves, the knightly order often complained that “our master is too eccentric,” but it was another thing to hear it from an outsider.

What did this rookie dragon actually do for the Empire to be so arrogant?

But Uman was unmoved. The blue glow from the Death Knights’ eyes had no effect—a sign of a dragon’s innate power.

“Since you asked, I’ll continue. His Majesty ordered you to stop exploiting the innocent magic tower folk through your disciple!”

-……

-……

The knights who were about to get angry suddenly stopped.

A forgotten sense of shame came rushing back.

But the skull headmaster remained brazen.

“If the tower folk offer me gold, what am I supposed to do? Refuse? You were among those extorting them with magic cards.”

“T-that…! That’s different! Magic cards were a gift from dragons to the young races! How could you say that?”

Uman flushed with indignation.

Magic cards were supposedly invented by a dragon to bring the joy of play to the young races during troubled times.

How could he refer to them as an extortion tool?

“Hah. Seems like the grownups play with them more than the children nowadays.”

“That’s enough! I don’t want to hear it! You’re mocking me again!”

“Wait. Was it your doing that let Joulin visit?”

“Yes.”

Uman nodded.

Normally the emperor didn’t like having anyone bother Einrogard’s students, but Uman had declared he would personally watch over his older sister. The emperor had relented.

“I personally vowed to protect against any disruption to students, so permission was granted. If my sister visits the magical lands of the school, it will be a good experience for her.”

“That’s not really her reason…”

The skull headmaster muttered to himself.

Joulin’s true purpose was not soul searching by visiting Einrogard’s magic-rich mountains, lakes, deserts, lava fields, and so on.

Ninety-nine percent of it was to hang out with her friends.

“Eh? Pardon?”

“Nothing. So you’ll personally be escorting her?”

“Yes. Don’t worry. I will make sure she cannot interfere with students.”

“…Well, at least next semester, I won’t be the only one who’s miserable.”