Episode 1230
by Cristae“Hehe. Joulin’s power isn’t that special, you know.”
Sure enough, Joulin looked extremely pleased.
Though he said it wasn’t much, his eyes sparkled, encouraging Gainando to keep going.
“Gainando. That’s enough flattery.”
“What flattery?”
“…Nothing. Hand me the soil.”
Lee Han inspected the quality of the soil Gainando had brought.
The necromancy magicians of Einrogard usually sourced various reagents using the plots near the Hall of Darkness.
It was especially important to make one’s own reagents for necromancy.
Not only were necromancers typically poor… but the reagents they used often weren’t available on the open market.
Who would sell rotten soil strongly imbued with negative mana, for example?
“Oh. Huh. This is pretty good.”
Lee Han was surprised at the quality—it was purer in mana content than he expected.
Had Gainando been managing the soil closely lately?
“Did you by any chance go and take care of some more soil in your spare time?”
Gainando laughed, as if it was preposterous.
“What are you talking about, Lee Han? As if I’d do something like that. I’m not Senior Direte.”
“……”
Lee Han decided on the spot that the next time he met Direte, he would immediately tattle.
This cheeky guy!
“Professor Mortum brought some new fertilizer from somewhere. The effects were pretty good.”
“New fertilizer? That’s odd.”
Lee Han was suspicious.
Sure, Professor Mortum might make new fertilizer to enhance the soil near the magic tower.
He certainly had the ability to do it.
But Professor Mortum wasn’t the type to waste time on such things.
Not as bad as Professor Verdus, but Mortum was still quite willing to dump chores on students.
“Maybe…”
“Don’t worry, Lee Han.”
Gainando thumped his chest.
“My friends and I checked the vault first, so don’t worry.”
“Gainando…!”
Lee Han felt a little touched.
His royal friend had grown into someone dependable.
“If it wasn’t bought with vault money, then he made it himself. Which makes it even weirder… Don’t tell me he made Senior Direte do it?”
“N-no way. Senior Direte’s so busy these days.”
“If anyone could pile on more work, it’s Einrogard professors.”
From behind, Professor Voladi’s shoulders twitched slightly.
Lee Han didn’t notice and went on.
“Really strange. It’s not like the professor kidnapped a necromancer from somewhere or anything.”
Amazingly, that was actually the case—but Lee Han didn’t catch on.
Currently, there really was a necromancer from the Heirs of Ahrak locked in the necromancy school’s basement.
“…R-really, that could be it!”
Gainando felt a spark of realization at his friend’s words.
Indeed, Professor Mortum’s recent actions had been suspicious.
He kept going down to the basement, and he’d been personally bringing students the magical goods they needed…
“No, I was joking just now. It’s probably just Senior Direte. Your Highness, see? This is what happens when you lose your motivation—wicked deeds flourish.”
Lee Han didn’t miss the chance to tattle to Uman.
Gainando, still not convinced, asked,
“But couldn’t it be he locked up a necromancer in the basement?”
“I said no, Gainando. Bringing a necromancer like that to school would be a job in itself. And where would you even find one?”
“Hmph.”
Even though the logic was flawless, Gainando couldn’t completely let go.
‘I’ll have to snoop around at night later.’
“Indeed. You’re right. Already evil is rising up!”
Uman responded heatedly to Lee Han’s words.
What a wicked professor!
Lee Han kept up the fawning like a conniving courtier by Uman’s side.
“Heheheh. You should rain down divine punishment on this wicked professor. One of my tasks in necromancy is to submit an antidote to curses—how about making the professor do it?”
“A great idea! I’ll do just that!”
Yoner and Gainando’s eyes went wide.
They knew their friend worked as Uman’s right hand, but seeing him manipulate Uman so easily was shocking.
‘Is it really that easy?!’
At this rate he was practically the shadow headmaster!
A flustered Yoner asked Joulin,
“I-is this really okay? Is this how it’s supposed to be…?”
“Joulin approves. Uman’s been hogging my contractor too much.”
“T-that’s not what I meant.”
Anyone listening would think Lee Han was some kind of toy. Yoner was honestly flustered.
“Gainando, if Prince Uman stays all the way through next term, who knows what will happen— Gainando?”
Yoner suddenly realized Gainando was gone.
Looking up, he saw Gainando had already rushed to Uman, starting to butter him up as well.
“Your Highness! Please hand my reagent field chores off to the professor, too…!”
“……”
Fortunately, Gainando’s attempt failed. He muttered in disbelief.
“Why does he ignore my suggestion?”
“……”
“……”
His friends all knew the reason, but said nothing.
Lee Han focused on making the -Purification of Kinis- following the prepared reagents and the process chart Yoanen and Professor Voladi had drawn up.
However difficult the magic, if everything was handed to you this way, the difficulty dropped considerably. Lee Han found the work going smoothly.
‘Not bad progress.’
Yoanen too seemed pleased with the progress; her gaze softened. Yoner quietly sighed in relief seeing this.
She really did not want to see her sister lose it in front of her friends.
“Should we take a break?”
“???”
Joulin looked around in confusion.
Things were going well—why take a break?
“I don’t understand why we’re stopping.”
“Ah. We’ve finished this stage, so now we need to check a few things.”
Lee Han moved aside the finished intermediate product and explained.
With alchemy this difficult, you couldn’t do everything at once.
You had to set goals for each stage and advance step by step.
Having just finished one step, it was now time to gather what was required for the next.
“What do we need?”
“We need to find the reagent that will react best with this product.”
All the magicians present joined a lively discussion.
Which reagent, when added to the gray lump, would produce the best purification effect?
Professor Voladi recommended things such as Digitalis of the snowy mountains or Peyote cactus, but Yoanen replied she’d tried and found those had powerful side effects.
In true disciple-of-Thunderstep fashion, Yoner recommended violet sandalwood, but Yoanen rejected it as ineffective in this season.
As she stared blankly at the gray lump, an idea struck Joulin.
…Dragon’s blood would probably work well, right?
“Uman. Uman.”
“Yes, sister.”
“If you add a drop of blood to that, it’ll turn out well.”
“Indeed… Dragon’s blood is a strong reagent. If you add my sister’s intuition on top, the odds are high.”
“I’d like to borrow a drop of your blood, Uman!”
Uman happily pricked a drop of blood and handed it over. It was no trouble at all.
Joulin quickly dropped it onto the gray lump. With a strong magical reaction, the mana began to shift.
“?!?”
All the magicians turned in surprise. It was clearly a purification effect.
“What is it? What did you add—”
“…Joulin!!!”
Lee Han got a sense of what was up from Joulin’s guilty, sneaky look in the corner.
That was the look of someone trying to dodge responsibility after causing trouble!
“You!”
“Joulin didn’t take a drop of blood! Uman did it!”
“?!???!”
Uman’s eyes flew wide.
He never thought his beloved sister would do this.
“S-sister. You told me to do it…?”
“Joulin knows nothing! You can check the blood drop to see!”
While the two dragons argued, Professor Voladi went wordlessly to work, suppressing the now-reacting gray lump and writing up the results.
Lee Han ignored all that and kept scolding Joulin, who desperately tried to pin it on Uman, but soon just sulked.
Yoanen was simply overwhelmed at the surreal scene.
Did Wardanaz always perform alchemy by harvesting reagents from dragons like this?
In that case, he was the most extravagant alchemist in the Empire.
How could he…!
“Lady Meikin? Work’s almost done, I think…”
“Ah, yes! Sir Dragon-Alchemist!”
“…Excuse me?”
“Misspoke. Master Wardanaz.”
“……”
Lee Han eyed Yoanen very suspiciously.
“Thanks to everyone’s help, the -Purification of Kinis- is complete faster than I thought. I’m truly grateful.”
With the thickened notebook and finished product in hand, Yoanen smiled in satisfaction.
Lee Han nodded, then said,
“And next? Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“…Dragons present, please remember: no matter how useful your bodies might be for alchemy, that doesn’t make it right to use them carelessly…”
Lee Han nodded in satisfaction. Yoanen was thinking,
‘It’s not really a problem to use a small amount.’
If she had dragons this close, she’d use reagents from them every day!
It never occurred to Meikin’s gifted alchemist that this was why dragons avoided her.
“Right. Both of you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Joulin did not give blood.”
“So then…”
She was about to let it go, but paused at Lee Han’s hand signal.
Lee Han subtly signed:
-That’s too short. Make your lecture longer.
“……”
‘This kind of thing should be taught in Einrogard lectures…’
Yoanen had no talent for lecturing; she was usually on the receiving end.
Still, she did her best and scolded the two dragons again.
…Honestly, she was just afraid that her brother’s friend would get upset and cancel the request halfway.
Normally, the client holds the power in a commission. But sometimes, the roles get reversed.
For instance, when the worker has two dragons and endless supplies…
“Now. The two of you, please step out.”
“…?!”
“?!!”
Joulin and Uman were both shocked.
“Ah, but there’s still one left!”
“Yes, but we’ll handle this next one ourselves.”
Yoanen started coughing a little at that, but Lee Han ignored it.
Uman protested in disbelief.
“I—I was just… just…”
He’d wanted to say it was Joulin’s fault, but his respect for his sister stopped him.
Joulin seized the chance.
“Then send only Uman out; Joulin will stay!”
“Sister?!”
Uman’s eyes popped wide.