Episode 1104

-Joulin: What kind of ridiculous joke is that! Such jokes should be banned by imperial law!

‘I actually found it a bit funny.’

Lee Han was glad Joulin wasn’t right in front of him.

These days, she was weirdly quick to catch on; if he’d laughed, she might have noticed.

-Gonadaltes: More importantly, Your Highness. If there’s a method, shouldn’t the headmaster just cast it on me? Why do I have to learn it?

-Joulin: Huh?

Joulin paused at her contractor’s question.

Wait, that’s true?

-Joulin: …There must be a reason! Probably…!

-Gonadaltes: ……

Lee Han wore an indifferent expression.

He honestly doubted there was any real reason.

If there was, it was probably just to bother her student or teach him even more magic!

‘In the end, it probably won’t make a difference.’

Knowing the skull headmaster’s personality, he wasn’t about to just cast a spell on Lee Han now. Lee Han learning was basically already decided.

‘…Could having Prince Wuman here actually be to my advantage??’

He’d never thought this before, but now he was seriously considering it.

If he was the only student at Einrogard to benefit from Wuman’s arrival…

As her contractor went quiet, Joulin got anxious and called in a nervous scrawl.

-Joulin: Lee Han?

-Gonadaltes: Ah, sorry, Your Highness. I was thinking about what kind of spell it would be.

-Joulin: As expected! I knew I could trust you!

Joulin was delighted by her contractor’s reliable reply.

-Joulin: Actually, I have an idea myself.

-Gonadaltes: Oh? What is it, Your Highness?

-Joulin: While you’re at it, why don’t you just learn all this semester’s spells at once!

-Gonadaltes: …And then?

-Joulin: Then do the same with transformation magic, learn all those at once too… If you finish everything like that, Wuman will have spare time and will definitely give you permission…

Lee Han quietly closed his book.

‘Hmm… I’d better seriously consider ways to keep Prince Wuman around for another semester.’

• * *

On his way to Hall of the Scales and Lodges to meet Professor Paselete Craer, Lee Han spotted some familiar seniors and greeted them warmly.

“Hello, Senior Falkrius.”

“Wahaha! Wardanaz! Been a while! Did you have a good break? Not that you could have!”

“?”

Lee Han was a bit confused by the unique greeting.

Was this a Fleming Order greeting?

“Why do you think I didn’t have a good break?”

“Pff. I heard you spent the whole time with professors?”

“No way…!”

Lee Han was speechless.

How had such a rumor spread this far?

“Where did you hear that… Besides, spending time with professors doesn’t automatically mean it was a bad break.”

“Of course it does. What nonsense is this kid speaking.”

The club seniors looked at Lee Han as if they truly could not believe his words.

Just as mud becomes cloudy and dirty when thrown into water, so too does a break become miserable when professors are involved.

This was not a debatable topic. It was simply absolute truth.

“…So where are you all headed? I hear everyone’s complaining about the inspector lately. Are things okay for the Kitchen Club?”

The inspector’s storm was sweeping all throughout Einrogard, and even the Kitchen Club wasn’t safe.

Given Wuman’s personality, he wouldn’t tolerate students freely cooking and selling food without permission.

“Ah! Things are great for us, actually.”

“Pardon??”

“His Highness hired us. To take care of his trash—”

“Hey. Healthy meals. Healthy meals.”

“Sorry. Yeah, to cook his healthy meals.”

“……”

Lee Han realized the truth and was impressed.

Seniors were clearly no pushovers.

The oak tree snaps in a storm, while the reed bends and survives. They were flexibly adapting to the situation.

When faced with closure, they’d immediately switched sides and got hired!

“Pff. Work’s actually easier now, to be honest. His Highness supplies everything for us, even the ingredients.”

“But the meals themselves are a real ordeal.”

Falkrius waved his hand as if wondering what Lee Han was talking about.

“Heh heh. I lived through the Great Spirit Famine, Wardanaz. I eat anything gratefully.”

“Actually, that’s just Senior Falkrius. For the rest of us, the food is pretty bad. We just sneak some for ourselves while cooking.”

“!”

Lee Han’s eyes widened at the sight of the senior, glancing about and talking in a whisper.

So they had such tricks!

“But with dragon magic in play, won’t you get caught for violations sooner or later?”

“Haha. Thing is, it’s all permitted. I convinced them it’s essential to taste the ingredients to cook things properly. Wardanaz, stop by and have some yourself if you get the chance.”

Wizards were always adept at bending the rules.

The kitchen club seniors cleverly used the regulations, managing to fill their bellies during the cooking process.

No grand dishes, but far better than those bland, healthy meals.

“…Wait. So if the work started, why didn’t anyone call me?”

Lee Han frowned in puzzlement.

Now that he thought about it, he was also a kitchen club member and prided himself on his cooking skills—why hadn’t he been summoned?

At his question, the seniors looked at him as if he was the strange one.

“The inspector said not to call you. Didn’t you know?”

“Huh?”

“To be precise, any student in more than a certain number of clubs is restricted.”

“…I-I see. Thank you for letting me know.”

He hadn’t expected that this kind of consideration would even extend to clubs…!

• * *

Arriving at the Hall of the Scales and Lodges, Lee Han was about to greet a golem senior wandering nearby when he was startled.

“Senior! Why did you become a stone golem!?”

Last semester, this senior had been a bronze golem (sometimes copper). Yet now he’d changed to stone.

A mage from a different school might think nothing of it, but Lee Han was a student of divination magic.

Diviners read the future from even the smallest differences.

This senior always switched bodies to avoid bad luck, but changing materials again meant something was up.

“The inspector said bronze was dangerous, so I switched to stone.”

“……”

The golem senior sounded utterly exhausted.

He didn’t show it on his face—he was a golem—but it was clear the inspector had worn him out. Lee Han quickly changed the topic.

“I came to see the professor. Is he in?”

“Oh, you’re here to learn magic? Come on in, I’ll teach you.”

“?”

Lee Han felt a strange sense of discord at the answer.

Wait, what?

‘Didn’t the headmaster definitely say it would be Professor Craer?’

Why was a senior teaching now, when the skull headmaster had undoubtedly assigned Professor Paselete Craer?

“Did something happen to the professor?”

“Something? Mm… you could say that. You know about how the professor has multiple personalities, right?”

“Yes.”

“Hearing the inspector was here, the professor brought out a personality he doesn’t usually use.”

Professor Paselete Craer, a banshee half-blood and an excellent diviner, split his personalities to spread out the risks of foresight.

But there was a downside: dealing with the professor could be a real pain for students.

Sometimes he acted normal, and sometimes he was extremely timid or had a terrible temper…

“There were more personalities?”

“Of course. The one out now is the personality of the greatest archmage.”

“!”

Lee Han was surprised.

‘Greatest archmage’ sounded imposing just from the name.

“With a name like that, I doubt he’s average…”

“Yeah. When he switches to that state, he exhibits divinations on another level.”

“Then what does that have to do with him not being here now?”

If his level was higher, shouldn’t he teach even better?

Maybe he’d left to get some component for the spell or something?

“Mmm. You’re not getting it yet… Junior, the thing about really top-tier divination is that from the outside, it can look impossible to understand. You follow?”

“Yes? Yes.”

Lee Han nodded for now.

It’s true: beyond a certain point, divination magic becomes unfathomable to outsiders.

For example, if told, ‘If you want to avoid the coming misfortune, stay away from all royalty,’ how could you possibly decipher what that means?

But what did that have to do with the current situation?

“The professor said meeting you would bring misfortune, so he left you to me and ran.”

“……”

Lee Han immediately frowned.

What was that even supposed to mean?

“What the…! That’s just rude!”

“Why are you blaming me? He’s the one who ran away.”

The golem senior, looking aggrieved, dusted off some stone powder.

He was already being run ragged with wild instructions from the ‘genius’ professor (like filling the outer wall with crawling vines or covering up the prepared Lake of Uncertainty), and now this!

“S-sorry. The accusation was just so absurd I lost my temper.”

‘Though it’s not entirely unjustified…’

The golem senior thought to himself.

Certainly, this junior had a knack for attracting dangerous sorts.

Last semester alone, he’d run around not only with the headmaster’s crazy duplicate but also with dragons.

He could understand why someone as sharp as Professor Paselete Craer would sense danger and flee.

“Where is the professor? The headmaster ordered this—tell him to come back at once. I’ll prove the prophecy wrong myself!”

The sight of his junior burning with resolve left the golem senior a little moved.

Plenty of wild rumors flew about, but there was no denying this kid wasn’t so bad.

“Forget it. Give up. If a true master diviner decides to run, finding them is next to impossible. And I can teach you in his place…”

“Don’t you value your own time, Senior? We have to bring the professor back!”

Lee Han was hopping mad. The golem senior was a bit touched by the sight.

Despite all the scary stories, this guy really wasn’t half bad.

“That’s enough, give it up. Here, let’s open what the professor left you.”

The golem senior unrolled the scroll Professor Paselete Craer left behind.

What spell would it be this time?

‘Divining stars, maybe? No, who’d recommend astrology in this season. Lake scrying? Or maybe something more proactive, like… Voices of the Ancestors? Wait, that’s a 5th-circle spell—would a 2nd year even manage? Not that he cares about that kind of thing…’

Pop!

Teach Student Lee Han of the Wardanaz family -Escape to the Shadow Fortress-.

P.S.

Do not summon or locate me, or report me to the inspector.

Paselete Craer

“…Is he insane?!”

The golem senior shouted in shock.

This was an even tougher spell than expected.

Teach this to a second-year??

“Why is he telling me to teach this? It’s not like you have to run from the gaze of some evil shadow dragon!”

“!”

Lee Han paused.

His senior was sharper than he appeared.

“Senior, to be honest, I have actually been practicing Escape to the Shadow Fortress, though not in the orthodox way.”

He had transcribed it earlier when he received the music magic score.

He hadn’t mastered it as he had other music magic, but he’d been practicing.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. So if you could just instruct me…”

“All right, all right. Hold on a sec.”

The golem senior told Lee Han to wait a minute, and tried to quietly slip out.

Lee Han immediately grabbed the stone serving as the senior’s hand.

“…Senior, you’re not trying to pawn me off on someone else and run away, are you?”

“You…! Did you divine that with magic?!”