Episode 1093
by CristaeGonadaltes:How did you know?
“……”
Ellendil wondered if he was insane.
How many dragons in the Empire had the leisure to visit Einrogard just for sightseeing!
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:Just… a hunch…
Gonadaltes:Oh. As expected of you, Senior.
‘It would be hard to find a compliment that makes you less happy than this.’
Despite the junior’s compliment, Ellendil wore a sour expression.
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:So basically, they’re coming just to see you?
Gonadaltes:What kind of slander is that? Of course, I am a dragon contractor. But Prince Joulin is coming to tour the scenic spots of Einrogard. Please don’t misunderstand this.
Lee Han firmly denied it.
If a wrong rumor spread here, all the visits from dragons might be blamed on Lee Han.
While Prince Uman came because of the skeleton headmaster, Prince Joulin’s visit might have had just a tiny bit to do with himself, but in strict terms, all of Einrogard shared the responsibility.
Because Einrogard just looked so interesting that they wanted to visit.
‘I did nothing wrong here. I’m an innocent victim.’
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:Contract?
‘Oops.’
Lee Han realized his mistake.
Because professors had been popping up around him so often lately, he’d forgotten that the fact he was recognized by a dragon and had a contract was actually a closely guarded secret.
Known only to some bureaucrats and patriarchs…
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:You were chosen by a dragon?!
Gonadaltes:If this information leaks, I’ll post all the pseudonyms you used and everything you said under them on every board in Einrogard.
“……”
It was invisible to the junior, but Ellendil’s face turned pale.
Isn’t that too much?!
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:B-but, you’re the one who mentioned it…
Gonadaltes:Hmph. Keep your mouth shut.
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:I’ll never say a word. I swear…
Gonadaltes:But do you think the school will change a lot if the dragon inspector comes?
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:Of course.
Being a fourth year, Ellendil had seen an inspector come some years back.
That inspector wasn’t a dragon, but an ordinary imperial official elf. Even so, it was enough to shake up the school.
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:Yeah. There once was a case where students who were sent to the punishment room after being caught trying to run away were all released after an inspection. So after seeing that, everyone tried to escape.
Gonadaltes:Oh.
Lee Han’s eyes sparkled.
What an excellent tip!
Beaver-Penguin-Fox:And after the inspector left, they were sent right back to the punishment room…
Gonadaltes:……
‘Not much help after all.’
-Are you there?
From outside, the butler called Lee Han.
He had been resting alone in the parlor using “taking a break” as an excuse, but as time went on, the butler, worried, had come to find him.
-Should I call someone for you?
“Ah. No. I’m fully recovered.”
Lee Han closed his book and stood up.
He hadn’t needed to recover at all.
The young prince had handled all the difficult work, and as for the battle, it had just used up some mana.
‘Should I have acted more exhausted?’
He could have left, but the reason he was waiting was to receive a courtesy gift.
Etiquette among nobles was like a set of rules; what you should do in each situation was clearly defined.
In a case like this, where a guest who visited the mansion had helped them, it was only proper to reciprocate.
If you just left, you’d get a reputation for having no manners.
The problem was Lee Han didn’t really want to receive anything.
He’d come to someone else’s mansion, dug up an ancient relic, and was now being given a gift—no matter that he was an Einrogard student, his conscience twinged a little.
‘It’s not even that hard, but wanting a reward makes my conscience…’
Lee Han looked around.
Maybe he could teach his host something about magic instead.
‘Ugh. Should’ve studied harder in general.’
If he were a true upperclassman, he could have taught something useful about magic!
“Thank you so much for everything today. Please accept this as a token of our gratitude!”
Eren Dee offered a scroll carefully stored in a wooden box. Lee Han felt slightly relieved at the sight.
‘If it’s a magic scroll, it won’t be overly expensive.’
Of course, magic scrolls could get as expensive as you liked, but judging from the paper, it was ‘baekhwaji.’ It couldn’t contain powerful magic.
As he eyed the rolled-up scroll, Lee Han suddenly noticed something strange.
‘What is this? I don’t sense any magic power?’
No matter how tightly sealed, a magic scroll should give off at least a faint trace of magic.
But the scroll presented to him as a gift had absolutely no magical signal.
Could it be a magic scroll made so well that it even fooled Lee Han’s senses?
“What kind of magic scroll is this?”
“Huh? It’s not a magic scroll?”
“Haha. As expected, Lord Wardanaz. You never stop thinking about magic.”
Eren Dee and the butler burst out laughing. Of course Lee Han couldn’t laugh.
‘Then what is it?’
“If it’s not a magic scroll, what is it?”
Instead of responding, the butler unfolded the scroll.
…To the owner of this deed, the ownership of the Oak Ranch in the western imperial city of Ileinus…
“???”
Lee Han froze in place as if struck by a petrification curse.
And then, belatedly stammered, he asked again.
“Was it… a deed?”
“To be exact, it’s a document certifying the rights to the ranch and surrounding land. It’s one of the most recent purchases, and I thought it would make a nice present for you, Lord Wardanaz…”
The butler explained, smiling.
He thought the gift Eren Dee had selected was a very dignified one.
It wasn’t too expensive or too vulgar, and came with the symbolism of a beautiful ranch.
If it had been a document for a mine or a manufacturing workshop, it would have seemed a bit greedy.
Thunk!
Lee Han staggered and bumped into the chair beside him. The two were startled.
“Are you alright!?”
“I-I’m fine. Just a bit of aftereffect from the earlier fight.”
“I knew it…! I’ll go call someone!”
“No. Really. I’m fine. Truly.”
- * *
The skeleton headmaster, holding a meeting while occupying his disciple’s mansion without permission, spotted his disciple coming back outside.
-Hahh.
“?”
-Hahh.
“???”
The kid who never let his expression change no matter how much Professor Verdus harassed him was sighing heavily every three seconds, staring at the ground.
The skeleton headmaster called Professor Garcia.
“Professor Garcia.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Professor Garcia hurriedly stopped manipulating the summoned creature she was controlling remotely and looked up.
She had been operating an artifact by controlling a summoned creature in her private Einrogard room.
“Can you see Wardanaz?”
“Yes. He’s sighing every three seconds.”
“What do you think is wrong?”
“Doesn’t everyone get depressed at the start of the semester?”
“That kid is the exception. He’d actually be delighted that he could learn more magic.”
“Still, I mean… Hmm. You might be right, Headmaster.”
Professor Garcia, about to object, hesitated.
Since she enjoyed the start of the semester, the disciple might possibly enjoy it too.
“Could it be because the new inspector is arriving?”
“Smart kid. He’s already figured out that outsiders shouldn’t be let into Einrogard.”
The skeleton headmaster nodded in satisfaction.
Some of the second-year idiots at the villa were having strange hopes for the inspector, but that was a huge mistake.
“Maybe it’s burdensome that Prince Joulin is coming.”
“…Let’s not say such things to His Highness.”
The headmaster asked sincerely.
As for Uman, he didn’t much care if he got emotional scars, but Joulin was still very young.
If she heard such things, she might even burst into tears.
“Just in case, go and ask. Professor Garcia, if it’s because of Prince Joulin, tell him to fix his face into a smile.”
‘Can that even be fixed that easily…?’
Professor Garcia tilted her head as she stood up.
Apart from the headmaster’s order, she was also just curious. Why was the disciple sighing so much?
-So, then…
-Yes. I really regret…
-No, no. Student Lee Han is…
Professor Garcia, who had gone up to speak to the disciple, exchanged a few words and nodded as she returned. The skeleton headmaster asked, curious.
“So, what was the reason?”
“He was given a land deed as a gift by a big-spending noble, but he found it too burdensome and refused.”
“What a foolish brat! What did he learn at Einrogard?”
The skeleton headmaster scolded sharply, sounding exasperated.
Not even any other student, but Wardanaz making such a rookie mistake? It was unbelievable.
“Actually, Lee Han was regretting that even if it was near Baldrogard, he should have just accepted.”
“Withdraw that statement. He does have backbone. There’s no reason to accept land near there.”
“…You’re not just worried he’ll transfer to Baldrogard, are you?”
“Of course not, Professor Garcia.”
“I see.”
Professor Garcia was slightly relieved. It seemed that had just been her imagination.
‘There’s no reason for Student Lee Han to go to Baldrogard.’
“I am a little worried he’ll run away altogether.”
“……”
As Professor Garcia looked speechless, the skeleton headmaster called Lee Han.
Lee Han approached, shrouded in a gloomy, depressed aura, sighing deeply.
“What’s wrong…”
“Don’t look so down. If you want it that badly, just take it by force later.”
“Yes…”
The disciple was in worse shape than expected.
The skeleton headmaster wondered if smacking him would fix him, and then spoke.
“The new semester’s about to start. I have a task for you.”
“?”
Lee Han looked up at the skeleton headmaster.
The new semester was about to start and now a task?
“Are you going to make me come back to school late again?”
“What do you mean, late? Someone might misunderstand if they heard that. Come.”
At the headmaster’s command, an adventurer cautiously appeared.
It was Ivinta, the bandit leader who ran an underground fortress not far from the capital—a face Lee Han recognized.
“You know her, right? Tinpot Ivinta.”
“I-iron Cloak…”
“What?”
“Nothing. Tinpot, yes…”
She was a fierce and intimidating bandit boss, but before an ancient archmage, she was no more than a mouse before a tiger.
Ivinta didn’t even have the nerve to correct her own nickname and stayed silent.
“Yes, I remember, but why is she here…”
“During this semester, she’s going to be your underling.”
“???”
Lee Han, hearing the headmaster’s comment, which seemed to skip several steps, became even more confused.
Use as an underling?
“Am I supposed to kill her and summon her as an undead?”
“……”
“…Have you not taken the Magic Ethics class? I thought you had. Anyway, that’s not it. Not as a servant within the school, but to use when you go out.”
Leaving the trembling Ivinta alone, the skeleton headmaster continued.
No doubt, this disciple would be called out frequently for outside errands in the second semester.
“It’s not set in stone. There might be requests only inside…”
“Pipe down. Don’t say such nonsense.”
The skeleton headmaster waved him off.
Even in Einrogard, students who stood out started getting personally assigned outside requests as early as third year, but the boy from House Wardanaz was ahead even of that.
Just the letters the skeleton headmaster had received so far made it impossible for Lee Han to just stay inside the school.
“You still remember the stuff about those evil god cultists tied to Professor Voladi, right?”
“Yes.”
“They said they wouldn’t act rashly, but you can’t trust that completely. Keep an eye on them yourself.”
“You could trust the professor a little more…”
“I do. If I didn’t, he’d be in the punishment room.”
The skeleton headmaster pointed at Tinpot—no, Iron Cloak—Ivinta, in a tone devoid of trust.
“She knows quite a bit about bandits and mercenaries and has a wide network. If there’s anything suspicious, she’ll probably notice first, and you can have her run miscellaneous errands. If you think you’ve found evil god cultists, report right away.”
In other words, take her around as both servant and guard.
Lee Han had a question about this.
“But Headmaster, unless it’s the capital, I’ll be travelling all over the Empire. Isn’t it way too unlikely I’ll just run into those cultists? Do you think they’ll try to approach Professor Baegrek?”
“Who knows.”
“?”
Lee Han was puzzled by the headmaster’s reply.
Then why all this preparation?
“I don’t know. It just seems like you’ll run into them somehow. You’re the type who always attracts trouble like this.”
“……”