Episode 1144
by Cristae“If your disciple excels, you should be grateful, not angry!”
The capital stonemason guild members also shouted.
To be honest, they weren’t really angry—they just wanted to yell at Professor Verdus.
The anger had been building already…
“Even if you teach the same, students achieve in different ways. Complaining about that? Tsk tsk.”
-Strictly speaking, Professor Verdus didn’t teach… Um. Never mind.
The Death Knight, muttering, paused.
Even so, you couldn’t reveal too many school secrets to outsiders.
Strictly speaking, Professor Verdus had never really taught, and the heir had learned everything on his own—especially that truth!
While chatter continued in the background, Lee Han felt a sense of pride for the first time in a while.
‘Maybe this is the real reason for studying.’
It’s great to understand the logic of the world and broaden your horizons, but seeing the professor stamping in frustration like he’d die of anger—this was a pretty good reason, too.
If he could see Professor Verdus’s face like that, he felt like he could take on 5th circle magic or a Small World…
‘No, forget that.’
Lee Han immediately snapped back to his senses.
He was getting way too excited by Professor Verdus’s anger.
“Grrr… grrrrr…”
Professor Verdus, unlike usual, didn’t give up and stared at the tower, trying anything to nitpick it.
The other seniors looked at the professor with exasperation.
‘If only he was this passionate when actually teaching.’
‘A guy who never used to even really look at what we made…’
The man who used to check everything halfheartedly was now focusing so much, they wanted to smack him in the back of the head.
“Professor, how about nitpicking about the high mana consumption?”
“Are you stupid?! Mana consumption means nothing to Wardanaz!”
Professor Verdus barked at the student whispering beside him.
Nevertheless, the student smiled calmly.
“Oh dear. Then it can’t be helped.”
“……”
Lee Han looked at his senior in disbelief.
What was even more bizarre was that the other seniors looked regretful—“Ah, I should have done that!”
When would there be another chance to tease Professor Verdus that much?
“This is… well made.”
Eventually, Professor Verdus gave up and declared surrender. He looked so dejected, it was hard to believe he was usually such a cheerful professor.
At that moment, the classroom erupted in cheers as the seniors rushed forward.
“Wardanaz! Wardanaz!”
“The Hero of Einrogard!”
The seniors tossed Lee Han in the air, shouting.
“I always knew you’d defeat Professor Verdus someday! You rascal!”
The bewildered capital stonemason guild members got a whisper from the knights.
-They’re usually much more quiet and diligent students.
“Ah… I see.”
While the seniors passionately celebrated their junior, Professor Verdus turned away.
“I’ll look at the next work.”
“…Wait up.”
The students, swept up in excitement, snapped back to reality like someone had poured cold water on them.
They quickly put Lee Han down and hurried back to their seats, scrambling to fix their own assignments.
“Ugh.”
“Ughhh.”
With the noisy scene suddenly changing like a lie, the knights whispered again to the guild members.
-They are normally much more cheerful and bright students.
“……”
Back on the ground, Lee Han quickly stepped in front of Professor Verdus. Since the professor was still on all fours, blocking him wasn’t hard.
Looking back, he could see the seniors desperately trying to fix their own projects.
‘I need to buy time.’
Normally, a senior should protect the juniors, but Lee Han didn’t even think that now.
He had to protect the seniors from the wicked Professor Verdus!
“Professor, could you look at my project a bit more?”
“What? Why?”
“Well… I want to improve further.”
It was a throwaway line, but it sounded rather convincing. Lee Han nodded as he continued.
“Come now, don’t just move on out of laziness—please tell me where I can improve.”
“I said, it’s well made, didn’t I??”
“Unacceptable. Don’t tell me, professor, you can’t think of any improvements?”
It was a sharp provocation, but it didn’t work on someone as self-confident as Professor Verdus.
The professor answered firmly.
“If it’s perfect, what improvements could there be?”
“…I see. Disappointing. Senior Yukveltire pointed out improvements as soon as she saw it.”
“?!!”
Professor Verdus was shocked.
“?!!!!”
Yukveltire was even more shocked.
When?!
“When did I ever?!”
“Shh. Be quiet. We need to keep the crazy professor under control.”
If left alone, Professor Verdus would bite into everything in the classroom and turn the place into hell.
He had to keep at least a leash on him.
“Grrrr… grrrrrrr…”
Hearing Yukveltire supposedly found improvements, Professor Verdus focused again, without any doubt.
He was so focused, Lee Han thought he could probably burn the whole tower down with willpower alone, never mind magic.
“Professor. If you can’t think of improvements right away, there’s nothing to be done.”
“Wait!”
“No, please find them later. For now, it’s time to continue the lecture.”
“Just wait! I can’t let this go!”
Professor Verdus struggled as he was dragged to the front podium. The knights wrapped a metal chain around his neck to help Lee Han restrain him.
-Please use this.
“Thank you.”
For a moment, Lee Han wondered if even Professor Verdus deserved to be treated this way, but decided to think about it later.
“About the tower…”
“So, anyone have questions? The professor is ready for questions!”
Lee Han loudly changed the mood. The seniors looked at him with eyes that said, “Would you want to ask a question in this atmosphere?”
But Lee Han had already crossed the river. There was no turning back now.
“Any questions?”
“…All right. Fine, I’ll do it.”
Maybe feeling sorry for his junior, or maybe out of pity, one senior raised his hand.
It was Erde of the same Marcang Tower clan, someone Lee Han recognized.
“Professor, I’m actually designing a wooden tower for areas where stone isn’t available. Could I ask about the optimal wood combinations for construction? My combination is like this, but which would you recommend…”
“Was there maybe a problem with the rubber magic? But it was perfect, though—?”
“Sorry?”
“The rubber magic was cast perfectly…”
“…Professor. My tower was already finished, wasn’t it?”
“Huh? Oh, oh.”
Professor Verdus looked as if he were split between two personalities. One was still pondering the junior’s tower, and the other was—
…doing nothing, just spacing out.
“If you’re going to build a wooden tower! What kind of wood! Will you use?!”
“Oh, here, this combination.”
Professor Verdus quickly scribbled down the names of various spirit woods. Erde and the other seniors were all ears.
He would usually waste tons of time saying, “Figure it out yourself,” “Think about it,” or, “You can’t even do that?” But now he was answering instantly?
“Professor! I have a question too!”
“Did Yukveltire’s improvement point refer to the tower’s foundation?”
Professor Verdus couldn’t let go and sneaked a question to Lee Han.
Lee Han replied coldly.
“Answer my senior’s question first and I’ll answer yours.”
“Huh? What did someone ask?”
At Lee Han’s prompting, the seniors quickly poured out their questions.
The questions they’d never dared ask before came flooding out, but Professor Verdus answered every one smoothly and instantly.
“Professor, I want to use the power of spirits to control things, but what level would be needed…?”
“At least high enough to be considered noble. Check the earth spirits. By the way, was there a problem with the flight enchantment spell?”
“Professor, about the backflow that you mentioned earlier, what if I add a magic to distribute the force along the edges of the tower?”
“In that case, it’s better to divide the lightning induction spell along the edges from the start. Was it not the flight enchantment, but the lightning magic that’s the issue?”
The seniors were all moved by the changed Professor Verdus.
To answer questions right away like this!
Of course, he still added less-important questions after each answer, but this alone was a huge difference.
Normally, Professor Verdus would waste time with dozens of pointless comments.
“Hey. Send a paper crane to get everyone’s unasked questions in now.”
“Already sent it. Whew. I never thought Professor Verdus would change like this.”
“…But this is what he’s supposed to do…”
Come to think of it, for someone like Professor Garcia, this was just standard.
To be happy about simply getting answers to questions—somehow, that felt a bit unfair.
Still, Professor Verdus sincerely finished the lecture for the remainder of the time. Even the stonemason guild members from the capital had to acknowledge this Q&A session.
“Great work, Professor Verdus.”
“Any hints? Is there anything to improve, not in magic, but in cost?”
“…Anyway, thank you for your work!”
The guild members flinched a bit.
They felt pressured by Professor Verdus, who kept muttering as if possessed by something.
Watching him, the knights started to get a little worried.
‘What’s he thinking of doing?’
Say what you will about how much they disliked Professor Verdus—his magical ability was still respected.
Would he be able to give a convincing point of improvement that even Professor Verdus had missed?
“Thank you for your work, Professor.”
“What’s the improvement?!”
-Professor Verdus. Have you no pride? Asking your student…
“I have none! What is it?!”
The knight lost his words, trying to help Lee Han.
Honestly, telling someone crawling on all fours that they had no pride wasn’t likely to land, anyway.
“Professor.”
“Hmm!”
“I’m sorry. That was a lie.”
Lee Han left those words and used all his magical power to sprint away.
“…W-well, goodbye then!”
The capital stonemason guild members and Yukveltire, snapping to their senses, hurriedly said farewell and dashed out as well.
“……”
Seeing Professor Verdus standing there blankly, the knights felt a bit sorry.
-We’ll serve a special meal tonight in compensation.
Lee Han ran as fast as he could. He felt like he shouldn’t go near anywhere Professor Verdus might appear for a while.
‘…Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Professor Verdus angry.’
Unlike other professors, it was hard to imagine a furious Professor Verdus.
Would he start chewing things with his front teeth?
Anyway, whatever the case, it was never wise to approach. Lee Han steeled himself once more.
“Wa-wardanaz student! Wardanaz student!”
“!”
He thought he’d put enough distance, but someone was calling out behind him, and Lee Han realized his mistake.
‘Still making such careless errors!’
“P-please wait a moment! How can you run this fast…”
The stonemason guild members almost collapsed from exhaustion. Lee Han had run off much faster than expected.
‘Hmm. No way these folks have been bribed by Professor Verdus.’
After this rather rude thought, Lee Han spoke.
“Sorry. I have a habit of running off as soon as class ends.”
“……”
Anyone could see it was because of Professor Verdus, but the guild members didn’t press him.
“It’s a good habit. By the way, we came to make an offer—would you be interested in participating as an advisor on magical architecture projects?”
“I don’t think I can.”
“We thought you’d be interested… huh?”
The guild members were baffled.
For wizards interested in jobs like this, this was a hard offer to pass up.
But why?
“If it’s not rude to ask—what’s the reason? Did Professor Verdus give you some impossible order…?”
The stonemason guild members suspected Professor Verdus.
Whenever something happened, it was the troublesome one who got blamed first, and putting that aside, Professor Verdus was naturally suspicious.
He was a professor in the Enchantment Magic School, after all.
“Well…”
Lee Han replied with a very troubled expression.
“…I just have way too many requests pouring in right now…”
“……”
The guild members’ eyes went wide at the totally unexpected answer.