Episode 1105

“I just predicted it.”

Lee Han looked at his senior with a hint of disappointment.

He did respect this senior for his outstanding skill in divination, but he couldn’t believe he’d show such a petty side.

“Prediction is the beginning and end of divination.”

The stone golem senior stood as he replied.

At the same time, Lee Han casually walked to the room’s door and seized the escape route. He wanted to block a second escape, just in case.

‘This brat!?’

The senior couldn’t help but marvel at his junior’s shrewdness.

Blocking the exit first in this sort of situation was the kind of thinking a third-year or above might have. For a mere second-year to do it…

“A true divination mage can glimpse the future without relying on magic.”

“Senior, are you distracting me so you can run away?”

“…Fine. Fine. I won’t run, okay?”

It wasn’t like escape would be easy anyway, not in this heavy golem state. The golem senior gave up on fleeing entirely.

Even so, Lee Han didn’t relax. Not only did he block the exit, he double-checked for other possible escape routes.

“I told you I won’t run.”

“Understood. I was just admiring the room.”

“You’re really going to be a great divination mage.”

“If that’s just to put me off my guard…”

“It’s not.”

That last compliment was sincere.

Great divination mages could, like top chess players, anticipate and prepare for hundreds of futures. Lee Han’s suspicion showed he had the proper qualities.

He was even doubting a sincere compliment…

“So why did you want to run?”

“Mm. -Escape to the Shadow Fortress- is a really hard spell. I need to use the power of a Ouija board to cast it. Now I have to teach this to a second-year? That felt ominous.”

“Huh? Isn’t that a bit much? All this just for teaching a tough spell…”

Lee Han was taken aback.

If it took that much distance for each difficult spell, he’d only have about a fifth as many seniors left at this point.

Even for a divination mage, wasn’t this just paranoia?

The golem senior replied coolly.

“You’re the second-year who ran around last semester with the headmaster’s mad clone and a dragon—and this semester got Professor Craer on the run. I don’t think it’s excessive at all.”

“……”

Lee Han was at a loss for words, feeling the blow right to the bone.

‘Ugh.’

“…But it’s all just coincidence and misunderstanding. If you give me time, I can explain.”

“As a rule, in divination circles, if someone brings coincidences like that with them, you’re supposed to stay away. Anyway, no one else to teach you, so I will.”

“Ah. Is it because other seniors don’t know the spell?”

“Not so much skill—just that they’re busy right now.”

The golem senior pulled back the curtain. Lee Han watched closely in case it was a ploy to escape.

It wasn’t. With the curtain aside, three other students could be seen lying in the next room, each with an armillary sphere by their heads, deep in sleep.

“They’re still dreaming.”

“Prophetic dreams? Are they divining with dreams?”

“That’s right.”

“And it takes three of them working together?”

Lee Han was puzzled.

Were they already divining the midterm exam?

“They’ve been hired by friends to divine when the inspector leaves.”

“…Let’s just start the magic!”

Lee Han tried to change the subject—thankfully, the senior agreed.

“If you’ve been practicing, you know what kind of magic -Escape to the Shadow Fortress- is?”

“Yes. It’s a spell made from the tale of a young, brilliant prince who fled death by escaping to a fortress.”

“…Uh, no, I wasn’t asking about its origins. That’s what it’s based on?”

The golem senior was a bit flustered.

He’d only learned the spell from a grimorie in the divination wing; he’d never thought about the lore.

So that was the legend?

“Anyway, you know what the spell does since you know the backstory.”

“No.”

“…This spell raises your evasion rate.”

The golem senior, deciding not to drag things out, quickly moved on to teaching the spell.

With luck, after a proper ritual, maybe he could escape his ominous fate.

“Skilled thieves think if they hide and conceal their presence, they won’t get caught. But the truly gifted know that’s not enough. So before stealing anything, they obscure fate itself.”

High-level divination could pierce through all sorts of illusion and invisibility spells to locate opponents.

And if your opponent was defending, they could prepare even stronger magic. If you got lost in a maze crafted of divination spells, you might find yourself in a prison cell with no idea how you got there.

This -Escape to the Shadow Fortress- spell temporarily twisted a mage’s fate, letting them avoid their pursuer.

There were plenty of ways to avoid detection; you didn’t always need such difficult divination, but this spell shone when facing another diviner.

When avoiding mystical, invisible tracking, you needed a correspondingly mysterious spell.

“A-amazing! With this spell, you could steal even in more difficult and varied places!”

“The thief part was just a metaphor.”

The golem senior seemed a bit put out by his junior’s response.

Something about it felt off.

“I was just being metaphorical, too.”

“Yeah… okay. Wait a minute, how did you practice if you didn’t even know what the spell did?”

Lee Han pulled out his violin and sheet music.

The golem senior recoiled at the sight of the violin, which exuded an ominous magic.

“What’s with that instrument!? Why do you carry such a cursed thing around?”

“The headmaster recommended it.”

“I see.”

The senior accepted that answer immediately.

Of course he did.

Suddenly, Lee Han felt uneasy and asked,

“I heard it was unlucky, but does it really carry a curse?”

“Don’t worry about it. Cursed magic or bad luck, it’s all the same until it manifests. A mage born with powerful fate can even subdue it.”

The senior recalled that Lee Han had a contract with a Guest Star.

He’d actually vowed last semester to avoid this very situation, but this kid had caught him off-guard yet again.

‘I’m sure I promised myself not to get caught up again! How could I forget and let this happen!’

He reflected grimly.

Maybe it was Lee Han’s manner. He carried a fearsome destiny, but always greeted you politely as “senior,” which made you lower your guard.

“Senior?”

“Oh… Sorry. I was thinking of something else.”

“About what?”

“About why I swore not to get tangled up with you… and apparently forgot.”

“……”

Lee Han showed a hint of hurt.

‘Isn’t that a little harsh?’

It was true that last semester he’d bothered his senior for help decoding Arna of the Guest Star and Basilios of the Small World and more…

“Maybe forgetting means that wasn’t how you really felt, deep down?”

“Don’t even say that before I chisel it on my stone. Anyway, how are you going to use that instrument?”

“Music magic.”

“Is that what Senior Chaegla’s researching? I didn’t know you did music magic too. Well, I suppose you did say your wizard’s duty was to study every school.”

“…I never actually said that.”

Lee Han looked pained.

It wasn’t duty—he’d just gotten involved by chance—and now he was being slandered.

“If it’s music magic, then certainly…”

The golem senior nodded.

Having talked a few times with Senior Illeg, he had a good sense of music magic’s qualities.

It was pretty close to raw or word-magic.

Magic like that could be cast by talent rather than difficulty level.

“But you said you haven’t succeeded yet?”

“Yes. I practiced other pieces first, and honestly, this one’s a bit tough—the magic just won’t flow.”

“Hmm. Music magic isn’t my specialty, but let’s have you try the music version first. If it fails, we’ll use a traditional approach. I’ll show you how.”

The golem senior took out the Ouija board artifact (Lee Han followed close behind, in case the senior tried to run).

Made from demon bone and blood, the board greatly aided in casting advanced divination spells.

“You offer a sacrifice… and wait. Hm. It doesn’t seem to like this.”

“…Senior, isn’t that a living demon?!”

Lee Han, watching from the side, blurted out. The senior nodded.

“Of course. …Ah. You’re wondering why I’m offering a sacrifice to a subdued demon? That’s the Wardanaz spirit.”

“No…! I was just honestly surprised! Sealing a demon into an artifact!”

“Junior.”

“Yes?”

“I think it’s more shocking that you controlled the headmaster’s clone, so be quiet.”

“…….”

Lee Han muttered curses at his senior inside.

The golem student slowly recited the spell, moving the Ouija board’s letters.

As each letter was matched, the golem senior spoke a new incantation beginning with that letter, and each time, the demon’s divination power surged, boosting the magic.

“…A fortress shrouded in shadow hides fate—no one can find it…”

He chanted until halfway, then stopped.

He didn’t sweat in his golem form, but his voice sounded exhausted.

“Huff. Let’s stop here. Finishing it all is too draining. Do you get the sense of it now?”

“Amazing. I had no idea it was like that.”

“Divination magic’s pretty different from other schools, right? It’s much more uncertain and mysterious.”

Among Imperial magic schools, divination was the closest to raw magic.

Lee Han deeply reflected on the spell and explanation the senior had just shown him.

‘So in the end, it’s a powerful spell that twists a mage’s fate—forming a distortion barrier that divination can’t penetrate.’

What shot through Lee Han’s mind was the great duel between the Clone of Ambition and the skull headmaster.

That fight was way above Lee Han’s comprehension, but now he realized there’d been a battle of high-order divinations beneath the surface.

Each was twisting the other’s fate and trying to lay shackles of certainty.

The movements of the spell he’d just seen, the spells those archmages cast, and the sheet music he’d read and practiced hundreds of times…

As Lee Han’s instrument moved, magic stirred like the senior’s spell, and fate began to tremble.

And the parallel worlds—hints of the future that divination usually read—were now sunk deep into a shadow screen, unreadable by any outsider.

With a thrill of success, Lee Han shouted,

“Senior! I think I’ve got it!”

“W-wait, that’s not how the spell is supposed to work…?”

The golem senior was flustered by the overwhelming surge of magic.