Episode 121

Episode 121

The talking book belatedly made an excuse, as if it realized what it meant by its words.

“Of course, I didn’t mean for you to keep getting hurt. I just meant I wanted you to come by often.”

“Ah. I see.”

Ihan relieved his discomfort and opened his pocket.

Inside were things like solid pieces of rock.

“They’re griffon gallstones.”

“Oh…!”

Ihan recalled the books he’d read in his head.

According to the alchemy book he’d read, weren’t griffon gallstones definitely…?

“Do they have a powerful effect on mana recovery?”

“That’s right. You know quite a bit.”

Ihan became sullen.

‘Pretty useless.’

He had already experienced firsthand in Professor Uregeoreum’s class that mana recovery potions had little effect.

If it was a mana depletion potion, maybe, but as for the mana recovery effect…

The talking book was flustered by Ihan’s reaction.

If he simply didn’t know what it was, that would be one thing, but to react like that even knowing? That made no sense.

Unless he was raising griffons himself…

“It’s valuable, you know? These are real griffon gallstones.”

“Thank you. It’s just that I’ve rarely been short on mana, so…”

“Oh.”

Only then did the talking book understand Ihan’s reaction.

Come to think of it, a freshman with that much mana would never have felt any mana shortage.

“Hmm… Among the demons I know, there are a few who can absorb mana. But they’re too dangerous for me to introduce to you.”

“I appreciate the thought.”

Ihan quietly took a step back as he spoke.

As expected, since it was a demon summoned by the skeletal principal, it seemed there would be nothing to gain from getting too close.

“You have to come by often! Let’s talk about Gonadalthes together sometime!”

The talking book, ignorant of Ihan’s real thoughts, fluttered its pages in farewell.

Dereugyu exclaimed in admiration.

“Even though it’s a demon summoned by the principal and held captive, it treats you kindly, Ihan. Ihan. It’s clear it recognized your ability.”

After all, even demons were fond of talented people.

That was clearly why it was being so nice to Ihan.

“I feel like it’s something a bit different from that though…”

But as far as Ihan was concerned, their conversation had nothing to do with that kind of reason.

This was…

‘Probably because there’s no one else to complain to about the skeletal principal.’

Who could get together and complain about the skeletal principal?

There weren’t as many such people as you might think.

Thinking that, Ihan suddenly felt a bit sorry for the talking book.

How did it end up entangled with the skeletal principal!

• * *

.

Just as mathematics was the foundation of all studies, this lecture was also extremely important.

From mana calculation to magic circle creation and new spell development—once one’s level of magic reached a certain point, intuition and sense alone no longer sufficed.

Because of that, the students all knew how important this class was and had to study hard, but…

‘Did someone cast a sleep spell?’

Ihan looked around.

The students were already wiped out. Gainando was even snoring quietly as he dozed.

The only survivors were Asanina (who was stabbing the back of her hand with a quill to stay awake), Adenart (who was expressionless, but Ihan had witnessed the princess casting a sleep-banishing spell on herself), and Yonair.

Ihan took out some coffee.

When he offered coffee to Yonair, Yonair accepted it as preciously as a person rescued after being stranded in a snowy mountain for months and savored it.

“So sleepy…”

Ihan nodded.

Maybe it was just his imagination, but even the air in the lecture hall seemed to grow thin.

After he finished doodling a water bottle on top of a geometric figure, Yonair turned his head for a change of pace.

For some reason, Ihan seemed even more upright than usual.

‘He must have stayed up all night?’

“Aren’t you sleepy?”

“In such a sacred lecture… I can’t sleep, Yonair.”

“????”

When his friend suddenly said something weird, Yonair was shocked.

What’s gotten into him?

‘I need to make a good impression.’

Ihan opened his eyes wide.

Honestly, even with his iron will, Ihan felt himself getting drowsy listening to the professor’s voice.

The peculiar rhythm of his speech was almost hypnotic, making people sleepy.

If he hadn’t known the professor’s true identity, he would have suspected him of being a master of mind magic.

Alpen Nyten.

He was the professor in charge of and had once held the position of a high-ranking imperial administrator.

An imperial noble who’d earned all kinds of grudges by slashing the research budgets of countless mages!

He’d swung the sword so much that even now, professors at the magic school still held a grudge against him.

But Ihan was different.

‘I have to make a good impression…!’

An imperial upper administrator—wasn’t that one of the few highest positions you could hold in the empire?

There was no way someone in such a position wouldn’t have connections.

What if he could make a good impression on such a professor?

—Wardanaz, my boy. You are exactly the talent the empire needs. Join us in the empire after you graduate! I’ll recommend you myself.

—Thank you, professor!

Rather than an apprentice-mentor relationship built on mutual love and hate in the workshop, the sort that simply made a recommendation and then stayed out of one’s life was the real master-disciple bond, as far as Ihan was concerned.

For that, he needed to stand out to Professor Alpen Nyten.

‘But he really doesn’t seem to care about the students.’

Ihan pondered.

Professor Alpen Nyten was the classic type who would say, “I’ll go my own way; you all just keep up if you can.”

Regardless of whether the students were keeping up, he simply did his own thing.

He was probably fully satisfied doing so, which made him all the more difficult.

‘He’s like Professor Voladi, but difficult in a different way.’

It’s not that Professor Voladi was uninterested in students—or rather, uninterested in a student.

On the contrary, the problem was that he had too much interest.

And he would wait for the students to catch up, too.

Although he waited from much too far away…

“What are you pondering?”

“I was wondering how I could make myself noticed by the professor.”

“…Isn’t that enough??”

Yonair asked in a flustered voice. Puzzled, Ihan asked back.

“What’s enough?”

“There’s nothing wrong with drawing a professor’s interest, but if you draw too much, I feel like it’ll be hard for you…”

Yonair advised gingerly.

Before entering school, he’d never imagined he would give a friend advice like this.

To not draw too much attention from professors—since when was that advice?

But looking at this boy from the Wardanaz family, he really couldn’t help but say it.

He’s seriously worried!

“It’s fine, Yonair. Really. And Professor Alpen Nyten is different from the other professors.”

“Hmm… If you say so, I won’t try to stop you…”

For some reason, Yonair felt uneasy.

Why did it feel like his friend was digging his own grave?

“…Up to here. Remember this equation. You’ll absolutely need it for mana calculations.”

Meanwhile, Professor Alpen finished the lecture.

At the words “up to here,” Gainando—barely awake—miraculously lifted his head.

“Is it over? Is it over??”

“Now, we’ll have a quick quiz.”

“…So it’s over…”

Gainando, realizing it was over in a whole new sense, grabbed his head.

Looking around, all the students who had been collapsed just a moment ago were now wide awake and despairing.

“You’re lucky.”

“Lucky? How is this lucky?!”

Gainando was shocked by Ihan’s muttering.

Had his friend gone mad while he wasn’t watching?

Ihan ignored Gainando and thought to himself.

‘I’ll make absolutely sure to stand out to Professor Nyten in this pop quiz.’

If there was anywhere he wouldn’t lose to other freshmen in this classroom, it was math.

He’d surely show something!

Parararak-!

A gap opened between the students, and test sheets started appearing in front of them.

Ihan lightly knocked on the side.

A transparent barrier summoned by Professor Alpen was blocking the space. When he glanced at it, his vision became blurry.

‘If you can’t even use magic to cheat, this’ll be tough.’

Since coming to magic school, the first thing he thought about upon seeing any magic was how to break through it.

As he was thinking, the professor’s voice reached his ear.

“If you finish everything first, you may submit and leave.”

‘Of course.’

“If you don’t finish everything, you may not leave.”

“…?”

The last words were added so naturally that Ihan almost missed the significance.

But thinking about it, something felt off.

‘He said we can’t leave unless we finish everything?’

It was odd to state something so obvious in a separate line like that.

Apparently, Ihan wasn’t the only one who thought so, because someone raised their hand and asked,

“Professor, do you mean we can’t leave until we’ve filled in every blank?”

“That’s correct.”

“Phew.”

The students relaxed—at least, until the professor’s next words.

“…With correct answers.”

“Uh… What if our answers are incorrect?”

“You’ll have to keep solving until you get the correct answers.”

Professor Alpen looked at the student as if wondering why he was asking such a trivial question.

Only then did the students realize what was happening, and their faces turned pale.

‘We can’t leave until we get everything right??’

‘Right now… uh…’

The students instinctively turned to look out the window.

They’d been planning to enjoy the afternoon and evening after this lecture, but suddenly the story had changed.

No one could tell just how many hours Professor Alpen intended to keep them locked up…

‘Surely he wouldn’t keep us until night?’

‘Don’t you know this school by now?’

‘He’s not going to keep us here until tomorrow, is he…?’

Sasasak!

Ihan began furiously scribbling with his quill.

Now it wasn’t a matter of drawing the professor’s attention or not.

It was a matter of whether he could get out of the lecture hall or not.

• * *

‘I’ve pretty much finished everything…’

Ihan looked at the circles drawn on his test paper, lost in thought.

Because the paper was enchanted, a circle appeared each time he got an answer right.

But the final question was tripping him up.

One day, Gonadalthes received 3,892 imperial gold coins from the Emperor to construct the Imperial Vilteron Ballroom. The spells used in the Vilteron Ballroom at this time are as follows…

(Omitted)

…After all these spells and reagents are used, how many imperial gold coins does Gonadalthes have left?

‘No matter how I look at it, 720 is the answer.’

Ihan couldn’t understand.

He checked the magic circle several times, verified the amount of reagents required, checked the labor costs for producing it…

No matter how he double-checked, the answer didn’t change.

Why?

Looking around, a few other friends seemed to have caught up to Ihan, having put down their quills and now staring intently at the final problem.

They were all stuck on the last problem together.

‘Is it not something you can solve with the information given in the problem, but something you need to have previously known? Is it a problem you solve with a different kind of thinking?’

Ihan wondered.

Gonadalthes was the skeletal principal’s castle.

If the skeletal principal received the gold, would he have returned any leftovers to the Emperor?

‘That doesn’t seem likely.’

Lost in thought, Ihan absentmindedly wrote ‘0’ on his answer sheet.

There was no penalty for being wrong, so he figured he’d try stabbing at an answer.

Swiik—

But a circle was drawn on the test sheet. Ihan was shocked.

‘What is this…??’

Professor Alpen, realizing Ihan had finished, also turned his gaze.

“You’re faster than I expected. Well done. Full marks, Wardanaz.”

Although he’d finally received the praise he wanted, Ihan didn’t feel happy. If anything, he just felt confused.

“Pro… Professor.”

“What is it?”

“May I ask about the last question?”

“Ah.”

Professor Alpen let a slight smile slip onto his stern face as he replied.

“I wanted to bring some laughter to students exhausted by the test.”

“…Oh…”

Ihan wondered if he needed to revise the whole “make a good impression” plan he’d had.