Episode 157

Whack!

Despite the warning, Gainando collapsed with a thud. It seemed he had fainted after being attacked by the monster.

‘He didn’t notice at all.’

Even though it was dark, he hadn’t noticed the approach at such close range.

The opponent clearly had the ability to hide its presence.

“Light!”

Lee Han summoned spheres of light around him and simultaneously made himself invisible.

“Heat, distort the air!”

That wasn’t the end.

An illusion took Lee Han’s place where he had become invisible.

“Sharkan. Attack if an enemy approaches!”

With a growling sound, Sharkan burst out. Sharkan barked fiercely into the darkness.

‘That way!’

Lee Han immediately summoned another sphere of light. The pitch-black darkness quickly receded.

Then the outline of the opponent became faintly visible. It was a monster that looked as if it had been molded from shadow like clay.

The shadow monster, startled by the advancing light, retreated even further. As it melted into the darkness, its outline instantly vanished and its form was hidden.

‘Doesn’t seem like a normal monster.’

Lee Han stared in the direction where the shadow monster had disappeared, lost in thought.

Unlike most living monsters, that shadow monster didn’t exude any vitality. It felt as if someone had artificially summoned it.

And this was a magic school.

There were too many people here who could summon something like that.

‘First, I need to subdue it!’

“Burn!”

Flames ignited, piercing the darkness. Having realized the opponent’s attribute, Lee Han decided to subdue it more aggressively.

If it feared light, it would surely fear fire as well.

Whoosh!

As flames flared up in midair, the shadow monster easily widened the distance, as if mocking him.

The panic it had shown when suddenly faced with the light was gone, and it had already regained its composure.

Even if Lee Han summoned light and fire, it was still the middle of the night.

There was plenty of darkness around to hide in.

But the shadow monster underestimated Lee Han too much.

“Burn.”

-?

“Burn, burn, burn, burn…”

-!

When the shadow monster first widened the distance, it should have run away immediately instead of circling around to taunt.

Lee Han instantly summoned dozens of flames around him.

Whooooosh!

A rapidly completed net of fire.

Before the shadow monster could escape elsewhere, it was surrounded by flames burning everywhere.

An overwhelming barrage of mana that gave the monster no chance to use evasion or stealth skills!

Trapped in the remaining darkness, unable to move an inch, the shadow monster could only watch and hold its breath.

Sharkan growled as if telling it to come out.

“Got you.”

The shadow monster didn’t dare come out of the darkness.

Instead, it waited for the surrounding flames to go out.

Since Lee Han was young, it figured that after some time, the excessive flames would become a liability.

-…???

But even as time passed, the flames didn’t budge.

Lee Han, who had been waiting, spoke coldly.

“If you don’t come out, I’ll burn the darkness along with you. Three. Two. One…”

He wasn’t keeping the flames burning everywhere because he was afraid of the shadow monster, but because he wasn’t confident in handling fire magic skillfully enough to wait with the flames up.

Sensing the warning in Lee Han’s voice, the shadow monster lost its nerve and crawled out.

Tap tap tap tap tap—

“?”

Footsteps could be heard from afar.

Lee Han turned his head and looked. A face he had seen a few times before was running hurriedly through the night’s darkness.

It was the storekeeper of the magic school.

• * *

-These are the monsters I prepared for this festival. What do you think?

-There are a lot of them.

-…How boring. Anyway, you must manage these monsters well.

The Skull Principal spoke to the storekeeper in a solemn voice.

The monsters summoned for this festival weren’t just to be used once or twice.

They were beautiful chess pieces meant to make the Skull Principal’s perfect plan shine.

-I’ll do my best.

But in truth, the number of monsters the Skull Principal had summoned was too great for the storekeeper to manage alone.

And the monsters weren’t docile, either.

-Stand still, don’t move.

Thud! Thud!

The monsters, ordered by the Skull Principal to track and attack students with outing passes, struggled as if they would burst out of their cages at any moment.

The storekeeper did his best to manage them, but in the end, an accident happened.

Several cages broke, and the monsters inside escaped.

It was a sudden situation, but the storekeeper didn’t panic.

He calmly caught the ones nearby and locked them up again, then tracked the traces of the ones that had escaped.

“!”

The storekeeper paused at the sensation of a massive magical power from afar.

Having lost his sight, the storekeeper had gained powerful magic detection abilities, but even with those, he couldn’t fully grasp this enormous magic.

Normally, he would have asked, “Principal, is that you?” but the storekeeper had been scolded by the Skull Principal recently.

“Are you the principal, or a student?”

Lee Han quickly considered.

If he said he was the Skull Principal here…

‘It’s not like I snuck out, so there’s no need for that.’

“I’m a student.”

“I see.”

Fortunately, the storekeeper didn’t attack Lee Han with a “You tricked me last time!” attitude.

Instead, he looked at the shadow monster surrounded by Lee Han’s flames.

Though his eyes weren’t visible, Lee Han felt the storekeeper was intrigued.

“Did you trap it by lighting fires around it?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t it try to escape?”

“I lit fires all around so it had no chance.”

Sharkan growled proudly.

The storekeeper was amazed by Lee Han’s words.

If what he said was true, it meant he had quickly lit the fires so the shadow monster had no chance to escape.

That many flames, just like that?

Even with a talent specialized in fire elemental magic, it was a feat hard for a freshman to show.

“You’ll be a great wizard.”

“Thank you.”

“Then, may I take the monster?”

“…Is it one that escaped the principal’s notice?”

Lee Han was much quicker on the uptake than the storekeeper had expected.

Monster, storekeeper, wanting to take it—he immediately thought of the Skull Principal.

The storekeeper didn’t show it, but was slightly flustered.

A freshman knowing this much?

Could it be?

“Did the principal tell you?”

“In a way, you could say that.”

Lee Han answered evasively.

Of course, the Skull Principal hadn’t told him, but since he had guessed from the principal’s actions, in a way, the principal had told him.

The innocent storekeeper couldn’t imagine a freshman already having such a cunning tongue.

“That’s right. It’s one of the escapees.”

“Are there still many left?”

“Yes.”

“……”

Lee Han cursed inwardly.

‘This school should ban summoning things if you can’t manage them.’

“May I help you?”

The storekeeper was surprised by Lee Han’s words.

He hadn’t expected a freshman to offer such a commendable thing.

Other freshmen might have refused, but seeing the boy in front of him just subdue a shadow monster, he was clearly capable.

Besides, wasn’t he practically the principal’s disciple?

There shouldn’t be any problem working together.

“Would you?”

“Yes. It’s my honor to help someone dedicated to this magic school.”

“You’ll really be a great wizard.”

“Haha. Thank you.”

‘Easy.’

After dealing with someone like the Skull Principal, dealing with the storekeeper was almost too easy.

The Skull Principal’s endless schemes and tricks had trained Lee Han this much.

‘The Skull Principal definitely has a plan.’

He’d dig for information while helping.

Lee Han knew well by now.

If you don’t seize opportunities when they come, you can’t survive in this magic school.

“Wait. Let me wake Gainando first.”

“Go ahead.”

Lee Han summoned a lump of water and dumped it on Gainando’s face.

“Gukuluk!”

“Gainando! Are you okay!”

“I’m… cough, cough. M-my outing pass! Where’s my outing pass?”

“It’s fine. Go inside the tower and don’t come out today.”

Gainando had the advantage of not asking unnecessary questions.

When Lee Han spoke seriously, Gainando nodded seriously as well.

“Got it.”

“Good. Get home safe.”

“But when you get back, want to play a round of cards?”

“……”

• * *

Lee Han, moving with the storekeeper, caught three more shadow monsters.

Shadow monsters, summoned from the dark world composed of negative and shadow mana, were favorite summons of cunning and devious black magicians.

They had abilities specialized in stealth, tracking, ambush, and so on.

‘Truly like the Skull Principal.’

While digging for information from the storekeeper, Lee Han confirmed the shadow monsters’ weaknesses.

Just as he had experienced, they were extremely afraid of light and heat.

‘I’d better remember this in case I see them again.’

“So… when these things were summoned, they were ordered to track students with outing passes.”

“That’s right.”

“……”

‘It’s ridiculous even hearing it again.’

Lee Han reconfirmed the information he’d extracted and was dumbfounded all over again.

What the…

He’d thought the Skull Principal was handing out outing passes too easily, and sure enough, there was a sinister plot.

After the festival, when students, excited to go out on Saturday morning, headed for the main gate…

That’s when the ambush would come!

‘It’s really a relief I found out in advance.’

Lee Han breathed a sigh of relief inside.

If he hadn’t known, what would have happened…

‘Wait a second.’

Just as he was feeling relieved, a sense of foreboding flashed through Lee Han’s mind.

‘Let’s think from the Skull Principal’s perspective.’

Would he go to all the trouble of summoning monsters just to ambush students leaving for the weekend and take their outing passes?

…Wouldn’t he also use them to ambush students returning?

Lee Han tried to sound as casual as possible as he spoke to the storekeeper, so as not to be found out.

“By the way, where do the monsters wait when students are returning?”

Because Lee Han spoke so naturally, as if he already knew, the storekeeper didn’t suspect a thing.

“They’ll be waiting near the hill in front of the main gate.”

“If you’re late dealing with the monsters… you could be sent to the punishment room.”

“That’s right.”

“…Come to think of it, aren’t midterms next week?”

“That’s right.”

“If you get trapped after coming back on the weekend, you won’t be able to study for midterms properly… even better, then.”

“As expected. You’re truly the principal’s disciple. You’ll be a great wizard.”

“……”

Lee Han almost dropped his mask and punched the storekeeper right then.

• * *

“Why do you look so down?”

Professor Thunderstep was puzzled to see Lee Han sighing deeply in front of the alchemy tent from early morning.

But Lee Han only sighed in response.

“That’s why you shouldn’t have listened so much. Here. This is a potion to make you feel better.”

Professor Thunderstep filled a glass with a barley potion bubbling with golden foam and handed it over.

Everyone around had already drunk the barley potion and was happy.

“Professor.”

“What?”

“If you had to break through a place where someone was lying in ambush, what would you do?”

“…What kind of plan are you scheming now?”

Professor Thunderstep was appalled.