Episode 1095

‘This is bad.’

Lee Han stared at the mountain of letters with a serious expression.

Imperial people were much more informed about rumors and much more action-oriented than he had thought.

Even before the semester had started, this many letters had already piled up.

He couldn’t imagine how many more would come once the semester began.

‘At least, once the semester starts, letters won’t fly into my room anymore.’

He never expected the skeleton headmaster’s censorship to be this helpful.

Lee Han began tearing open the letters.

“Gainando!”

“!”

Gainando, who had been hiding in the closet playing Wizard Cards, was startled.

Had he been discovered?

“Gainando, playing Wizard Cards in the closet!”

“…What?”

Gainando came out with an awkward, embarrassed, and guilty expression.

His friend, who had been playing along inside the closet, stared at him resentfully.

‘He said we’d never get caught…’

“I need you to check for curses while I open these letters.”

“Okay…”

Gainando quietly prepared his magic like a gentle lamb.

If he worked hard, maybe his punishment for closet-hiding would be lighter.

“But Lee Han. Why the curse check?”

He wondered if the letters might be from Baldrogard students.

If so, there was a good chance they might have cursed the letters.

“These are from all over the Empire—you can’t be too careful. I’ll check by sense, but it doesn’t hurt for a double check. You have reagents, right? Go ahead.”

Gainando nodded and took out his reagent pouch.

As a student of the black magic school, curse detection was easy for him.

He drew a quick magic circle with some fresh blood from his finger, placed a silver balance scale on top, and measured the curse’s weight…

“Gainando. You missed a letter in the magic circle. That’ll hurt the efficiency.”

‘How did he see that?’

Gainando was shocked by his friend’s observation.

He hadn’t even been looking over here! How!?

“Once you confirm there’s no curse, read who it’s from and pass it over.”

“Okay. I’ll start with the letter from Granden City. It’s from Mage Puyo, who runs -Banyan Wand-.”

“I see. That person sent one too.”

“Yonner’s big sister sent one too.”

“Lady Meikin? I already got one earlier. Or did I leave it over there?”

Lee Han checked the letters, puzzled.

Surprisingly, Yoanen had really sent another.

To Yonner’s friend

Just in case you refuse the request because of Yonner’s words…

“…Thanks. Put it aside.”

“Brother Asan sent one too. Granden City Special Administrator.”

‘How many came from Granden City alone?’

Suppressing his dread, Lee Han opened the letter.

I was deeply impressed by the story about meeting your twin sister Haidan this vacation and solving Einrogard’s financial problems, and I have something I’d like to entrust to you, believing in that ability. It would be nice if you brought Asan, but if he doesn’t seem qualified, please scold him instead…

‘I’ll have to tell Asan his family really misses him.’

Lee Han quickly edited the letter’s content for his friend’s sake.

Not bringing Asan was one thing, but why did they ask to scold him if he didn’t bring him?

“Greenbell family… Oh. It’s from Big Brother Bogazun.”

“!”

Prince Bogazun was one of the many, ordinary (non-dragon) imperial princes.

He was supported by various guilds, families, and magic towers, but from Lee Han’s recent experience struggling with dragons…

‘Honestly, would a non-dragon prince ever become emperor?’

Even if every noble in the Empire joined forces to say, ‘Your Majesty, please abdicate soon,’ it might not be enough. And with many grand noble houses saying, ‘Haha, Your Majesty, please reign forever,’ it was hard for even a dragon prince to become emperor.

Even less for an ordinary (Bogazun would be angry to hear it) prince.

“The one we met at the mansion last year.”

Lee Han recalled that not only Bogazun but Princess Judrantas, who had competed against him (she was about the twenty-somethingth in line; he couldn’t remember exactly), had looked at him with incredible greed.

“I’ll just have to put this aside. Gainando, file it away.”

“L-Lee Han. Are you deciding not to meet other princes because of me?”

Gainando looked at his friend with slightly moved eyes.

If Lee Han, who was close with Gainando, kept meeting other imperial princes regularly, it might hurt Gainando’s reputation.

Was Lee Han making this decision out of consideration for his friend?

Lee Han was surprised.

Gainando wasn’t a stupid friend, but he’d never shown political intelligence like this.

“You even thought about things like that!?”

“I was just copying what Moradi said.”

• * *

-Sheesh. Yukveltire Senior, Adenart, all of those princes—why do they all hassle Lee Han so much?

Having lost another chance to play, Gainando ranted to Giselle as she walked by.

Giselle looked at Gainando as if he was the Empire’s biggest piece of trash.

How dare he say such things, when he himself is the leader of the princes who hassle people?

Still, Giselle held back her anger and explained as coolly as possible. This wasn’t the wilds of Einrogard but a mansion in the capital.

-…There are political considerations, too. Even if you’re from the same magic school, sticking closely to just one prince would invite the wrong impression. They don’t want unnecessary outside pressure either.

Few people in the Empire ever scrutinized or suspected Gainando, but if he showed a uniquely close relationship with the future archmage of House Wardanaz, that was another story.

It was enough for people to wonder, ‘Is that prince perhaps…?’

-What? So you’re saying Moradi means Lee Han’s hanging out with those nasty people for my sake?

-Not just for you, but balancing things is part of it…

-Thanks! I’ll go confront those two right now!

-Moradi, stop! You can’t beat up the prince here!

• * *

“…You sure didn’t get beaten up. Moradi’s just overanalyzing. She likes politics too much. It’s just that I’m trying to avoid the hassle of lots of letters.”

“I see. Still, if someone asks, can I say it’s more because of me than Adenart?”

“No.”

Muttering, Gainando continued inspecting letters.

By the time they finished checking all the letters from Granden City as well as other places, half the day had gone by. Lee Han sighed.

‘There’s a limit to how much I can refuse. Just the requests I have to accept will fill an entire semester.’

There were even proposals from Baldrogard, Kalarogard, and Petrogard.

It made sense for Baldrogard, but why were magic schools assigning outside requests to another outside mage?

Attention, everyone!

“!”

“Ah, ah! Is this Einrogard?!”

A student who’d been dozing off jumped up, thinking the skeleton headmaster’s psionic wave meant they were at Einrogard.

“Whew. Still outside.”

His Highness would like to personally take you all himself.

“Prince Joulin?!”

Lee Han, shocked, protested to the skeleton headmaster.

He’d let his guard down, thinking break was almost over, and now he had to tell people there was still time to send in petitions.

The skeleton headmaster looked at his disciple as if he were crazy.

Of course, Prince Uman. Are you nuts?

“Oh.”

As the students gathered, Uman began his prepared speech.

“Thank you all for coming together. It’s truly wonderful to see the young pillars of the Empire and the future mages!”

“He seems like a good person!”

The students, who had been murmuring, immediately changed their attitudes.

They’d been worried to hear an inspector was coming, but he seemed incredibly gentle.

Honestly, it would be hard to be worse than the skeleton headmaster.

‘Foolish kids.’

The skeleton headmaster snickered inwardly.

Right now they were looking at him with excited eyes, but once the semester began, they’d long for his rule.

“Uman has dragon blood and can carry you all on his back and fly. It would be an honor to have the chance to carry Einrogard’s talents on my back!”

“!!”

The students were flustered by the unexpected proposal.

“Do we really have to? Honestly, it’s kind of uncomfortable…”

“Aren’t dragons super rare in the Empire? How did His Majesty ever end up with a dragon spouse?”

“If Professor Bendozol heard this, he’d faint.”

“Still, how often do you get a chance to ride on a dragon’s back?”

“Good point. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime honor.”

Joulin, holding Eandurde’s hand with one hand and munching a lollipop with the other, was provoked by these remarks.

“Joulin can give rides too! Lee Han!”

Lee Han, chatting with his friends up front, panicked.

To fly all the way to Einrogard—Joulin could end up exhausted or even collapse.

‘Eandurde. I’m counting on you.’

Lee Han gave a look begging his junior for help before turning away.

If anyone could persuade her stubbornness, it was a junior close to Joulin.

Whack!

Eandurde snatched the candy from Joulin’s hand. She spoke in a stern voice.

“If you don’t behave, you don’t get candy.”

“…I, I h…”

“Even if you call for Senior, still no candy.”

“……”

On the verge of tears, Joulin resisted calling after her. Eandurde handed back the candy.

“Promise not to tattle?”

“Okay…”

While the owner was chatting with friends, a baby basilisk who’d observed what just happened wondered if this could just be left alone.

‘Isn’t that heresy?!’

But seeing Joulin happily sucking her candy again, it seemed fine…

“Oh. Once the semester starts, everyone should go see the lake together.”

“Okay.”

“The snow mountains too!”

“…Fine.”

“And the desert also…”

“Enough! Pick just one.”

Joulin was shocked by her friend’s stern response.

Pick just one?

Such coldness was unheard of from Lee Han.

“W-why…”

“Sister!”

Right then, Uman approached in the middle of their chatter. Joulin greeted her brother warmly.

“Uman! Why are you here?”

“As the new semester begins, there are things I must tell you.”

Joulin nodded graciously.

Though, next to the huge, human-shaped Uman, Joulin’s dignity evaporated completely…

“Once the semester begins, Einrogard students must devote themselves entirely to their studies.”

“Yes. That’s true.”

“So, please refrain from contact with the students as well.”

“…Huh?”

Joulin’s face changed color.

What?

“Your plan to tour Einrogard’s spiritual sites is quite a feat, but you mustn’t impede the Empire’s future pillars.”

“T-t-t-t-t-that…”

Joulin’s eyes spun wildly. Eandurde gave her a look that said, “You used that excuse, huh?”

“E-Eandurde…”

“Saying farewell so soon. Truly admirable.”

Even with Eandurde’s high first-year combat power, she had no chance against Uman.

As Joulin hesitated, Uman wrapped things up.

“C-can I at least talk to Lee Han? He’s my contractor??”

“Hmm… A contractor is an exception. Just make sure it’s only when it doesn’t disturb academic pursuits.”

“Y-yes! I’ll do that!”

Joulin’s voice, barely keeping the contractor exception, was full of relief. Eandurde suddenly began to worry for her senior.

…Is she really okay?

Uman bowed politely and turned away. As he strode off, he noticed Gainando and spoke.

“Wizard Cards.”

“Yes! Do you know them well?”

“Aren’t you too old for Wizard Cards if you’re an Einrogard student? Please leave them to the little kids.”

Uman gave Gainando a pat on the shoulder with a word of encouragement and then left.

“…Wh-what was that just now?”