Episode 178

Episode 178

He had no idea why the apprentice knights were clapping.

‘And I didn’t want to know, either.’

Lee Han turned around quickly to leave the place.

To the apprentice knights, that looked like the pride of someone from a great noble family who didn’t care much about his own honorable actions.

A person with pride acted honorably because the action was honorable, not because praise and reward followed.

Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!

The applause grew even louder.

Lee Han shook his head in disgust.

• * *

“Ah. So that’s it.”

Lee Han could only understand after Deorgyu explained it to him.

Deorgyu was flustered by his reaction.

“…Why are you surprised, Lee Han?”

Hadn’t he helped his opponent, who had suffered internal injuries from using an excessive technique, even breaking his own sword to do so?

“I just tried to break the opponent’s sword, but mine broke along with it.”

“…I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“What are you pretending not to hear? I tried to break the opponent’s sword and…”

“Hey! The apprentice knights are coming! Let’s go greet them!”

Deorgyu cut off Lee Han’s words.

Thanks to Lee Han’s honorable action, the apprentice knights and the White Tiger Tower students had slightly eased the tension between them.

Some truths might not need to be known.

Ssssss—

“?”

Lee Han and the White Tiger Tower students looked at the apprentice knights with bewildered expressions.

The apprentice knights lit a fire and started grilling meat over it.

Lee Han asked Bikelinz.

“Excuse me, but what are those knights doing right now?”

“They’re grilling the game they caught themselves.”

Bikelinz nodded with satisfaction.

There were a few customs among knights who traveled all over the vast empire.

One of them was to treat others to the monsters they had subjugated or hunted.

A kind of goodwill and gift that a knight could show.

“Put a bit more spice on it.”

“Why? Isn’t this enough?”

“They’re students from the magic school. The gamey and wild smell will be too strong for them to eat.”

Even if it was game they had worked hard to catch, not all of it was tasty.

In fact, among monsters, the tasty ones were rather rare.

Moreover, it wasn’t likely that apprentice knights were skilled at butchering, bleeding, or cooking, so if this meat was easy to eat, that would be even stranger.

For that reason, the apprentice knights favored strong spices.

When they sprinkled spices mixed from all over the empire, it became fairly edible.

“Ah. We’re out.”

“Isn’t there anyone left? Look for some.”

Meanwhile, the meat finished cooking. The waiting White Tiger Tower students each grabbed a skewer and started tearing into the meat.

“Wa…”

“Is it all done?”

“It’s well cooked. Not bad.”

The White Tiger Tower students chewed and ate the meat. The way they devoured it without hesitation was almost combative.

“…!”

“!!”

The apprentice knights were shocked at the sight.

They hadn’t even sprinkled the spices yet, but they were eating so heartily.

‘We misunderstood…!’

‘Yeah, a knight is a knight wherever they go!’

With this realization, the apprentice knights reflected.

To think they had tried to look down on fellow knights just because they ate well at the magic school.

“…Sorry.”

“What?”

“We thought you were resting comfortably while we were struggling.”

At the apprentice knight’s words, the White Tiger Tower students frowned.

Is that supposed to be an apology…

“But we realized that doesn’t matter. Whether it’s the rough, shabby training camp on the outskirts where we stay, or the comfortable, cozy dorm rooms at your magic school, what matters is that we’re all knights…”

“Do you really want to get stabbed in the back?”

“Ah, no, why?!”

While the knights bickered, Lee Han took a bite of the meat skewer.

And then he evaluated it coldly.

“They didn’t get rid of the gamey and wild smell. Deorgyu. Put some of this on.”

“I’d feel a bit self-conscious if I was the only one putting it on…”

The bickering knights seemed to have made up somehow. They started tearing into the meat again.

The White Tiger Tower students had learned better than anyone since entering school that you had to eat when you could.

They finished off the meat before it even finished sizzling over the flames.

“I have something to say.”

“Go ahead. Munch.”

“Yeah. Gulp.”

“……”

The apprentice knight was dumbfounded by the White Tiger Tower students’ reaction.

Of course, eating well wasn’t a bad thing, but shouldn’t they at least listen when someone was talking?

“…It’s about how we caught this Ironboar.”

When knights treated others to their game, it was customary to boast about how they caught it.

The apprentice knights eagerly explained how they caught it.

-So we split into a tracking team, a driving team, and a hunting team. The tracking team chased it, the driving team drove it in, then we used traps to wear it down…

“Munch munch.”

“Gulp.”

“So? What happened?”

“……”

But Lee Han was the only one who even pretended to listen. The other White Tiger Tower students focused on the meat as if they were just hearing a dog bark somewhere.

The apprentice knights were frustrated.

They were trying to make up, but that attitude…!

“…Have you caught anything recently?”

One of the apprentice knights couldn’t hold back and asked.

One of the White Tiger Tower students thought for a moment and said,

“Demon Ghoul.”

“…Don’t say ridiculous things! How could you catch a Demon Ghoul!”

“We caught it.”

“That’s right. We caught it.”

Lee Han stared at the White Tiger Tower students.

‘Since when was it “we”?’

Sensing his gaze, the students turned their heads.

“Tell us in detail!”

“Yeah. Tell us in detail!”

The apprentice knights glared, determined to catch any holes if it was a bluff.

“Wardanaz cast magic…”

“And then?”

“Kept casting…”

“…And then?”

“Kept casting until it fell.”

“……”

The apprentice knights were speechless.

It was obviously nonsense, but…

That actually made it sound even more real.

“Wait. Then it wasn’t you who caught it, but Wardanaz, right?”

“We were together, so we caught it together!”

“Let’s ask Wardanaz. Wardanaz, what do you think?”

“Just stop and eat your meat….”

Lee Han muttered in a tired voice.

• * *

After fighting so fiercely in the morning, he wanted to rest.

But the other lectures didn’t wait.

When began in the afternoon, Lee Han regretted wasting his energy in the morning.

‘Because of those knight guys…’

The only ones satisfied were Professor Ingeldel and Sir Bikelinz; the students were groaning from fatigue and muscle pain.

Some White Tiger Tower students were already brazenly asleep.

Lee Han looked at them in disbelief.

“Those crazy guys… Gainando. Wake up.”

Lee Han smacked the back of his head. He had no right to criticize another tower.

Gainando woke up with a start.

“Who, who hit me just now?”

“Must have had a bad dream. No one hit you.”

“Really?”

Everyone was hurriedly reading their books and muttering, but Gainando and Lee Han just sat calmly without doing that.

At a glance, they looked similar, but Yoner knew very well that their circumstances were the exact opposite.

The difference between someone who was too well prepared and someone who was not prepared at all!

“Everyone, put away what’s on your desks.”

When Professor Alpen Knighten appeared, the students took a deep breath with despairing expressions.

When he waved his staff, the books and papers on the desks flew into their bags.

Time and rules began to appear on the classroom blackboard.

“Students who finish early may leave first. Now. Let’s begin.”

In less than five seconds, the test papers appeared before the students. The students grabbed their quills with faces that looked ready to vomit.

‘It’s not that hard.’

Lee Han quickly solved the problems, thinking that if others heard him, they’d throw an ink bottle at him.

In fact, for Lee Han, math and geometry problems of this level could be solved instantly even without studying.

The problems with magical elements, such as ‘Calculate the number of mana stones needed for this magic circle’ or ‘Complete the missing part of the magic circle,’ were a bit trickier, but as long as you knew how to apply them, they weren’t that hard.

In one go.

Lee Han quickly filled in the blanks.

The expressions of the other students sitting behind him turned to shock.

‘Wardanaz…!’

‘Shouldn’t Wardanaz be made to take tests in a different classroom for fairness?’

Just by solving problems, he could make other students despair.

The students grumbled inwardly.

Because Wardanaz studied so hard, the class average would go up, the professors’ standards would go up, and the family evaluation standards would go up.

Selfish guy…!

“Don’t look around.”

At Professor Alpen’s warning, the students lowered their heads.

Lee Han stood up from his seat. Professor Alpen wasn’t surprised.

“Are you finished?”

“Yes.”

“You may submit and leave.”

Lee Han walked out of the classroom without looking back.

The students stared at his back with eyes full of envy and jealousy.

Tap!

Gainando also stood up. Professor Alpen asked with a surprised expression.

“Are you finished?”

“Yes!”

“…You may submit and leave.”

Gainando also ran out of the classroom without looking back.

The students stared at his back with eyes full of exasperation and respect.

‘What a reckless guy.’

‘You’re the best, Gainando!’

• * *

“Burn up!”

Normally, someone would have shouted, ‘Don’t use magic in the lounge! What if you hit someone by mistake!’ but tonight was different.

Even Gainando was swinging his staff and practicing.

Tomorrow, Thursday, was the most hellish day of this midterm week.

It was the day of Professor Garcia’s exam.

As a wizard, even if you got low grades in other liberal arts or miscellaneous lectures, you could make excuses like, ‘What use is that kind of culture to a wizard?’ ‘As long as a wizard is good at magic, who cares about those petty calculations? I’ll be a wizard who acts on intuition!’ but for , that wasn’t possible.

A core lecture that no Einrogard student could avoid.

“Gainando, did you take black magic?”

“Yeah. So I have to study for that, too. Whew. It’s really tough.”

“I have to study summoning magic, too. I have it even harder.”

Depending on how you planted the seeds and made them bloom in this lecture, your future path for the next year would be decided, so its importance was immense…

…and so was the difficulty.

For the fields you decided to focus on during class, you had to take additional tests.

“Are you looking down on black magic?! Do you know how hard curses are!”

“Compared to summoning magic, black magic is easy!”

“Hey. If you don’t know illusion magic, stay out of this.”

“Shouldn’t you guys focus more on basic elemental magic? That seems like the hardest.”

“Wardanaz. You decide. What do you think is the hardest magic?”

Unable to decide among themselves, the friends called Lee Han.

Lee Han raised his head from the mountain of books piled up. Books from all sorts of magical fields were stacked in a mess.

“What did you say?”

“…Ah, nothing.”

“Do your best, Wardanaz!”

“Let’s sit down and study, too!”