Episode 1222
by Cristae“Thanks to you all, I won’t fall behind even in here.”
At Lee Han’s words, Gainando made a face like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Why on earth would anyone study even inside the punishment room?
“Lee Han, you can rest a bit while you’re in the punishment room. We even brought magazines and wizard cards…”
‘But you can’t play wizard cards alone, can you?’
Yoner thought to himself as he listened.
Play wizard cards by yourself?
Apparently, Adenart thought the same thing and spoke up.
“You can’t play wizard cards alone, can you?”
“…Wh-why does everyone nitpick everything I do!”
Gainando grew indignant at the other prince’s low-class political attack.
Of course, the others did not agree. They all took Adenart’s side and looked at Gainando as if he was ridiculous.
Even Yoner (in fact, Yoner was the first to side with Adenart).
“Hmph. If you can’t play alone, just get someone to play with you. Wait a second!”
“Wa—”
Lee Han tried to stop him, but Gainando darted away to the next cell. Without even checking who was inside, he shouted,
“Could you play wizard cards with Lee Han for a bit?!”
“Very well.”
“…P-Pr-Professor Baegrek???”
Gainando recoiled in shock, falling on his backside.
He had never expected who’d be next door!
“Professor, what are you doing here?!”
“No one knew Professor Baegrek was here?”
Lee Han was puzzled. Yoner whispered, embarrassed,
“Lee Han, you’re his only student…”
“Oh.”
Now that he thought of it, unlike the other professors, Professor Voladi’s absence didn’t really stand out.
In fact, even when he escaped before, very few people noticed.
Still, Lee Han, as a respectful disciple, protested,
“There’s also Eandurde.”
“……”
“…Mm…”
Honestly, whether it was one or two didn’t make much difference, but the friends decided to respect Lee Han.
Meanwhile, Gainando, sweating bullets, began explaining his wizard card deck to Professor Voladi.
“S-so this is… the deck I’ll lend you… It’s made up of giant monsters… It’s really flashy… Even has a dragon…”
“Seems hard to survive the early game.”
“N-no, that’s not true! Sure, it can be at a disadvantage if you go against someone who plays cards without honor, but it’s pretty decent…”
“What is he even doing?”
The Blue Dragon Tower students stared at Gainando in disbelief.
Explaining wizard cards to Professor Voladi?
Lee Han called out to help his friend.
“Gainando, don’t bother the professor and come here.”
“You could have called me sooner…!”
Gainando rushed back, sniffling and unable to even remember exactly what he’d just said.
After losing a few decks, what else was he supposed to say?
Seeing their conversation going off track because of the other prince’s lack of class, Adenart cleared his throat lightly.
Then he brought up what he wanted to discuss.
“Wardanaz, as a fellow second-year, it was truly a proud moment to see you subjugate the anti-magic faction with Professor Baegrek.”
Some students, being so close to Lee Han, tended to take it for granted, but having a magician like Wardanaz in their class genuinely was something to be proud of.
The more fame Wardanaz built, the more his peers would bask in that glory, too.
As a friend of his class, now was the time to express their thanks.
But Lee Han didn’t respond. Adenart was a bit taken aback at the unexpected reaction.
Huh?
“Did I say something wrong…?”
“Did you say anti-magic faction?”
“Was… wasn’t it?”
Adenart grew even more flustered.
Wasn’t Lee Han chasing after Professor Baegrek to subjugate anti-magic followers?
Gainando couldn’t help it and burst into laughter.
“Anti-magic faction! How could you get it so wrong?!”
“Th-then…?”
“Lee Han went with the professor to subjugate magic criminals!”
“……”
Lee Han was nonplussed.
Adenart could be mistaken—plenty of rumors would have spread while Lee Han was away.
But Gainando was there when they fought the evil god cultists, yet still misunderstood.
Smack!
“Why??!”
Gainando, having been smacked by a staff through the bars, looked up in bewilderment.
“How are you suddenly bringing up magic criminals? It was evil god cultists. You saw the Sanguiros Order too.”
“Oh? Uh… ohhh? Then, what about the magic criminals?”
Gainando was thrown into confusion.
Yeah, what about that?
Lee Han, dumbfounded, turned to Yoner for answers.
“What kind of rumors are spreading for even Gainando, who was there, to get it wrong?”
‘Anti-magic faction, magic criminals, evil god worshippers, and separatists—all those come up.’
Yoner, with an ambiguous and hard-to-read smile, thought to himself.
Lee Han was certain he had explained the evil god cultist story to at least some friends, but as always, rumors spread regardless of the truth.
The students of Einrogard would add their own colors and twists to stories as they pleased.
-Wardanaz finished all his midterms and then left with Professor Baegrek? I see. There have been loads of magic criminals popping up lately, maybe he was going to hunt them down.
-He probably went after the anti-magic crowd. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Just seeing Yoner’s ambiguous grin, Lee Han could imagine how far the rumor mill had gone.
He sighed.
“I wish you guys would help spread the truth and quiet the rumors.”
“Of course. We can do that much, Wardanaz. What should we say?”
With Ahsan’s confident patting of his chest, Lee Han was again reminded that, at times like these, friends were all he could rely on.
“I tracked evil god cultists, actually found an evil god’s domain, went in, fought the evil god, and luckily managed to destroy it.”
“……”
“……”
“…Lee Han, are you telling the actual story or just joking?”
Gainando asked, confused.
Other Tower friends came to visit, one after another.
The White Tiger Tower students handed over a neatly packaged chunk of wild boar meat through the bars.
“Wardanaz! Congrats on defeating the separatists!”
“…Uh, right. Thanks.”
Lee Han was too tired to argue, so he just accepted the gift.
Almost two years at Einrogard had made White Tiger Tower students very skilled. Compared to when they started, it was no contest.
When they’d first enrolled, they didn’t even know how to bleed a wild boar or scrape fat from a pelt; now, they could process everything into various types of preserved food.
Lee Han hung up the salted and smoked meat in the corner of the ceiling and asked Bartrek,
Didn’t his older brother Amrek from the Crescent Night Order help Lee Han out a lot this time?
“Didn’t your brother say anything about it?”
“He said, ‘Why can’t you do as well as Wardanaz when you’re from Einrogard too?’”
“……”
White Tiger Tower friends looked at him with sympathy.
That was something every second-year at Einrogard would hear at least once.
“Uh. Sorry.”
“No… It’s my own damn fault…”
The mood grew awkward. Giselle, who’d been listening behind them, set the others aside and asked,
“What happened to the evil god cultists? Are they all wiped out?”
“Hey, Moradi, why didn’t you correct them?”
“…I tried but they wouldn’t listen!”
Sparks flared in Giselle’s eyes.
She’d dropped hints for these White Tiger Tower kids, but they just wouldn’t get it.
She couldn’t spell out Professor Voladi’s backstory, so she’d only said “there might have been evil god cultists mixed in,” but the White Tiger Tower kids just interpreted that as “so, there are some evil god cultists among the separatists.”
Even some who’d gone out on last term’s evil god cult suppression request with her still didn’t get it.
-Moradi, think about it. Sure, Wardanaz took down evil god cultists on the last request. But is there any guarantee he did the same this time? Personally, with House Wardanaz’s political situation, separatists just sound more plausible.
-As expected, Katono’s insight is truly sharp!
Giselle felt like the two-eyed seer in the village of one-eyed men.
“Yeah. I get it. The Blue Dragon Tower kids believe some weird rumors too.”
“…Did you see the professor?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. He’s good.”
Lee Han glanced at the wall. Giselle never guessed Professor Baegrek was next door.
“So what about the evil god cult?”
Giselle asked again.
Rumors were already spreading that the cult had been struck hard, but nothing beat hearing details from the person involved.
How bad was the hit, really?
Lee Han answered with a serious look.
“We tracked the evil god cultists and ended up fighting the evil god directly. Since it was completely destroyed, whatever remnants are left will collapse and fade quickly.”
“…Are you messing with me right now??”
The Black Turtle Tower students arrived and immediately cursed out the White Tiger Tower.
“Wardanaz, those idiots are shameless to boot! They eavesdropped on us discussing preserved foods and beat us to the punch!”
“But it’s fine. We brought a different gift. Nothing will top it compared to meat.”
“Oh? What is it?”
Lee Han was curious as he saw his friends’ confidence.
Ratford handed over their gift through the bars.
“Here you go.”
“…A hammer, chisel, shovel… rope…?”
“Escape tools!”
“……”
The Black Turtle Tower students were serious.
Even if this was a professor’s punishment cell, there’d be countermeasures against magic.
That’s why physical tools could sometimes catch the system off guard.
It’s worked a few times before.
“These tools are made from Frost Iron and Magnetite. If you start digging from the corner now, you can be out before the end of term.”
“Thanks, everyone.”
Lee Han was skeptical inside, but thanked them anyway.
His skepticism was because of the skeleton headmaster.
Truth was, the only reason students ever managed to break out of the punishment room was because the headmaster didn’t impose overly strict surveillance or restraints.
If he really monitored everything tightly, it’d be nearly impossible for students to escape.
Right now, the skeleton headmaster was under heavy pressure and intimidation from a certain professor to keep Lee Han thoroughly locked up.
Under those circumstances, escape was probably very difficult.
While puzzling over how to use the escape tools, Lee Han suddenly grew curious and asked,
“Did you hear what kind of battle I fought with Professor Baegrek?”
“This time you went after apocalyptics, didn’t you?”
“…Nope.”
“Then what was it?”
“Hmm. I doubt you’d even believe me if I told you.”
At Lee Han’s words, Salko looked disappointed.
“Wardanaz, I may be from another Tower but I’ve always respected your work ethic. Do you really think I wouldn’t believe you?”
“Yeah. I met and fought with an evil god directly. Destroyed it, too.”
“Can I retract my last statement?”
The Phoenix Tower students came last. Lee Han waved to the clerics.
“Thanks for coming, everyone.”
“Wardanaz! You actually fought an evil god? That’s incredible!”
Siana said, her eyes shining.
These clerics, unlike the other students, had gotten the news directly from their respective orders.
The news of the evil god’s destruction had spread to various orders, and since they shared verified information, the Phoenix Tower clerics had no reason to believe any other rumor.
Lee Han just stood there. The clerics grew nervous at his lack of reaction.
Was he not fully recovered?
“…You’re the most trustworthy and smart students in your Tower! Thanks!”
“??!?”
The clerics were bewildered by Lee Han’s enthusiastic response.
They hadn’t expected him to react so strongly to simple praise.
When they later heard the story, the clerics nodded.
“Ah, yes. Honestly, it was hard to believe at first, so we had to reread it a few times ourselves.”
“Good thing you believed me right away. Really.”
“Don’t worry, Wardanaz. If someone won’t believe, we know how to convince them.”
Siana said with absolute confidence.
“What’s that?”
“I heard it will be officially announced in the Imperial News soon.”
“…What will?”
“The evil god subjugation! Now that cleanup is done, it’s time to announce it.”
“……”
I didn’t mean for them to use something on that scale…?!