Episode 1229
by CristaeGainando, slightly dejected by his friend’s sharp reaction, pouted.
Why was he — a fellow royal — treated so differently than Joulin?
“You only called me to make me do chores, anyway.”
‘Huh? Sharp. This kid’s gotten sharp,’ Lee Han thought, slightly impressed.
As Gainando neared the end of his second year at Einrogard, it was getting harder and harder to fool him.
Truthfully, for this request from Yoanen, Lee Han and Yoner alone would have sufficed.
It’d be nice to call over another friend or senior with outstanding skills in alchemy…
‘But in that case, our friendship would probably be ruined on the spot.’
Yoner’s older sister was famous for being able to work her subordinate alchemists 27 hours a day if she needed to.
No matter how great the commission, you couldn’t just drag in your acquaintances under someone like that.
But Gainando was different.
‘He can be worked a bit. He’s a relative of Lady Yoanen anyway.’
‘Right. He’s fair game. Even Lady Kraha said it’s fine.’
Lee Han and Yoner traded sly looks. Gainando snapped back.
“I can see everything, you know!? You’ve been staring at me like that ever since you got the commission!”
“W-what are you talking about?”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
Muttering, Gainando trudged on.
‘Just wait. Next time I get a tough commission, I’m dragging both of you in with me.’
He had no idea how he’d get such a tough commission, though!
“Why in the world are there two dragons here?”
Yoanen whispered to her brother, flustered.
But Yoner couldn’t really explain, either.
“Prince Uman came down on his own because he was sad… As for Prince Joulin, I’m not sure.”
“????”
“Lady Meikin, are we working on these two projects today?”
Lee Han called out to Yoanen.
Even an alchemical ironman would find it tough to stifle their curiosity in a situation like this.
To pull it off, you’d have to be like Professor Verdus.
Suppressing her curiosity, Yoanen nodded.
“…Yes. Those two.”
‘Ugh. This isn’t normal difficulty.’
Lee Han groaned inwardly, reading Yoanen’s project list.
As expected from someone who could keep her subordinates working 28 hours a day, her interests were monstrous in difficulty.
- Purification of Kinis.
This was research to recreate and then improve part of old transmutation magic through alchemy.
If successful, this gray powder could become a reagent so powerful it could purify almost any contamination.
- Penumbra of the Canyon.
This was research to theorize primitive magic occurring in a certain region of the Empire.
In that unnamed canyon, living things occasionally shifted into a half-shadow state, and Yoanen wanted to intentionally reproduce this.
Was it some kind of localized dimensional overlay?
Or a mutation of the dark element?
If successful, she could add it to a variety of artifacts.
‘I’ll need to work 29 hours a day on this…’
Both projects reeked of Yoner’s older sister’s evil designs.
She was determined to make thorough use of Lee Han’s mana!
“Uh, Lady Meikin. But since we’re prisoners, magic is forbidden here.”
“It’s okay. I got permission. During the project, it’ll be fine.”
Amazingly, Yoanen was right.
There was no interference at all in casting spells during the project. Lee Han cursed silently.
‘If I’d known, I wouldn’t have needed to pull out Prince Uman’s tooth…!’
If only he’d waited!
Click!
Yoanen even unlocked the cell doors.
“You can move around this floor only. That shouldn’t be a problem.”
“…Thank you…Could you also let out Professor Baegrek and Prince Joulin?”
Suppressing her surreal feeling, Yoanen unlocked the other cells.
When Lee Han tried to call Uman, the huge Black Dragon shook his head.
“Uman would only mess things up again…”
“……”
“…Professor, is there a good way to help?”
Lee Han whispered to Professor Voladi.
After all, he was the one with the most educational experience here.
Professor Voladi thought for a moment.
And then conjured a water orb in midair…
“Wait!! Wait!!!”
“?”
“What are you going to do?!”
“Joulin thinks it’s a good idea.”
Joulin, watching from the side, agreed with Professor Voladi.
If he got hit, Uman might get up, right?
“…Both of you, just go help with the work in there for now. I’ll talk to Prince Uman.”
“Heeng. Lee Han won’t listen to me, just because I used Joulin’s Strike…”
“You used Joulin’s Strike? On whom?”
Yoner asked blankly, and Joulin hurriedly changed the subject.
“You must have misheard! Joulin never used such a thing!”
“……”
Yoner was shocked inside.
Just who did he strike!?
“Your Highness. You may have lost your confidence, but one thing is sure. The magicians here need your help!”
“!”
The huge Black Dragon flinched.
“No way. Needing Uman’s help? And… Uman would just fail again…”
‘This Black Dragon is worse than I thought,’ Lee Han grumbled inwardly.
Normally, this much would have worked already!
“Your Highness. No one goes through life without messing up sometimes. Look at us—why do you think we’re in here?”
Escape, disobedience, attacking a lord—prisoners lived well despite it all.
“And even if the Headmaster were here, we’d have acted the same way. Right, Professor?”
“?”
Professor Voladi, checking alchemical equipment in another cell, poked out his head at being called.
“Professor, you’d have escaped even with the Headmaster in charge, right?”
“I would indeed.”
“See!”
The Black Dragon flinched even more. A bit more and he’d be up and moving.
“Your Highness. I trust you. Even if not this time, I know you’ll step up again to overcome failure and move forward!”
“…Well said!”
Uman’s eyes flickered with life again.
In a flash, the huge Black Dragon disappeared, replaced with a burly, intimidating man.
“I showed you a disgraceful side, Lee Han of the Wardanaz family. Come to think of it, you showed me enough trust and friendship to transform into a Black Dragon.”
Uman said this with humility.
For a magician qualified to transform into a dragon to choose black was a great honor for Uman.
It meant he knew just how much Lee Han trusted and befriended him.
Lee Han panicked.
“Shh! Be quiet!”
“Hm?”
“Did you tell Prince Joulin about this?!”
Now Joulin’s head popped out from another cell.
“I thought I just heard something about transforming into a dragon.”
“N-no, you misheard! Completely! Prince Uman was talking about turning into a dragon and then going back to human, that’s all!”
“Lee Han… Joulin and Uman don’t really transform into dragons; they transform into humans…”
Joulin said with mild confusion.
Was a magician of Lee Han’s level really confused about this?
“Hahaha. Of course. Hahaha. Sorry. I must have gotten confused from all this time in prison.”
“???”
Tucking his head back, Joulin turned to the Blue Dragon Tower friends for reassurance.
“Lee Han seems strange, doesn’t he?”
“Lee Han’s always strange.”
Gainando, sweating as he hauled magic coals, replied.
Unlike his busy friend, Yoner, knowing the reason behind Lee Han’s oddness, felt sweat running down his back.
If Joulin found out that Lee Han had actually transformed into a Black Dragon… who knew how he’d react?
“I-it’s probably just being in prison. Haha, ha…”
‘Yoner seems weird too!’
Joulin thought to himself.
As voices drifted from a distant cell, Lee Han anxiously whispered:
“Never, ever tell Prince Joulin I turned into a Black Dragon.”
“Uh, why not?”
“…He’s expecting me to become a Gold Dragon!”
“…I think you misunderstand. My sister’s soul is far greater than mine; she doesn’t get caught up in such petty emotions…”
‘This dragon needs to be struck a few more times by Joulin’s Strike to wake up,’ Lee Han thought.
No matter how grand someone was, all people were prone to jealousy.
“That’s enough. It’s my transformation, my magic, and I’ll decide. Never tell him.”
“F-fine. But I insist—she’d be overjoyed and would bless you.”
“Sure… maybe…”
Uman might be right—Joulin might indeed be happy.
Being able to transform into a dragon was an amazing feat after all.
But Uman…
‘More like he’d get struck twice or thrice by Joulin…’
“All right! I’ll do what I can to contribute to the Empire’s magicians with this project. Let’s go!”
After wrapping up their talk, Lee Han and Uman energetically emerged into the hall and made their way to the solitary cell stuffed with alchemical equipment.
With everyone from that cell block gathered, the solitary room was crowded.
Professor Voladi was writing out the necessary alchemy reaction formulas. Yoanen was watching and carefully raising questions.
“I think this part isn’t proven yet; we should test it.”
“I agree. It’s still unverified.”
Meanwhile, Joulin, peeking over, chimed in.
“I think it’ll work.”
“…Your Highness, have you done this experiment before?”
Faced with difficult questions, Joulin grew faint-hearted.
He looked at Lee Han, hoping for help.
“I haven’t tried it… but Joulin thinks it’ll work…”
“I may not be adept at arithmetic or formulas, but even I, Uman, feel like it’ll work.”
Lee Han said, exasperated,
“Your Highness, you can’t approach new magic that way. Every step has to be verified and checked…”
“It’ll be fine.”
“If both of you say it’s fine, let’s just move on. We can confirm this later.”
Both Professor Voladi and Yoanen boldly skipped the experiment verification. Lee Han protested, flustered.
“Professor, if we skip this verification, all our future experiments could be based on a false assumption!”
“Master Wardanaz, a dragon’s intuition is almost never wrong.”
Yoanen explained.
While dragons rarely delved deep into scholarship, their natural intelligence and instinct could be shockingly accurate at times.
Even if they knew nothing about the basics, sometimes just looking at something, they’d know whether it was right or not.
And if two dragons said the same thing, it was practically guaranteed.
“…Unbelievable! That’s crazy OP!”
Gainando, who’d been lugging rotten earth from the necromancy district, caught the end of the explanation and wailed in despair.
Joulin puffed up a bit at his words.
“It’s not always possible, you know.”
“How can something like that even exist?! Lee Han! Say something!”
Watching Gainando flail, Lee Han shook his head.
Now he understood why Joulin didn’t mind hanging out with Gainando.
‘Sometimes Gainando flatters better than Professor Bendodol.’
The more jealous he acted, the happier Joulin seemed to get!