Episode 184

However, Lee Han did not receive any reward.

Before he could search their pockets, the others woke up.

“…Huh!”

“W-what happened?”

“……”

Lee Han and Ratford glared at the other tower students with dissatisfied expressions.

If they were going to wake up, they should have done so in the hallway earlier. After all the trouble of carrying them out…

‘These guys weren’t just pretending to sleep, were they?’

“Th-thank you, Wardanaz.”

The Black Turtle Tower student, having come to his senses, grasped the situation and expressed his gratitude.

His last memory was entering the classroom and inhaling the smoke from the ominous magic circle.

Since he had no memory after that, it was clear that Wardanaz and his friends had saved him.

Tap—

The Black Turtle Tower student grabbed Lee Han’s outstretched hand and shook it. Lee Han made a sour face.

It was a hand he had reached out to search their pockets.

“Thank you, Wardanaz.”

“We never expected you to save us.”

The White Tiger Tower students also woke up one by one.

And they expressed their thanks in the same way.

“To think you’d carry us out like this…”

“I never imagined it. I sincerely thank you.”

The students who had gotten up politely expressed their gratitude and turned to leave.

Lee Han glared at their backs, feeling annoyed for no reason.

“Shall I knock them out again?”

At Ratford’s whisper, Lee Han wavered just a little.

• * *

“What a mysterious thing…”

Professor Thunderstep tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand.

It wasn’t because of a hangover. It was only natural to get a hangover after drinking a lot.

If you didn’t, that would be even stranger!

He drove out the hangover with a potion and fell into thought again.

‘How did no one get caught?’

At the request of other professors, Professor Thunderstep had placed various potions in the first-floor classroom of the Dissection Hall.

Playing tricks on—no, helping students grow was something even other professors had to cooperate on.

Given the effect of the installed magic circle, if students had entered, they should have been rampaging in the classroom until morning.

But surprisingly, the classroom was empty.

It wasn’t that there had been no intruders. With chairs thrown around and the magic circle damaged, intrusion was certain.

But how?

‘Did they notice and strategize? No… If they had noticed, they wouldn’t have triggered the magic circle.’

Professor Thunderstep wasn’t angry, just curious.

What on earth had happened?

“Hello, Professor.”

On Friday morning, students began to appear one by one to submit their alchemy assignments.

“Yes. Good morning.”

Each student submitted their potion and left.

Seeing their sullen, troubled faces, Professor Thunderstep felt pleased.

They were clearly faces that had agonized all night because they couldn’t get all the ingredients.

“Hello, Professor.”

“Yes. Wardanaz.”

Seeing Lee Han, Professor Thunderstep suddenly felt suspicious.

‘…No, that can’t be.’

He wondered if the boy from the Wardanaz Family in front of him was responsible, but then remembered that Lee Han hadn’t taken those classes.

If he hadn’t taken the class, what did it matter? It was just a coincidence.

“I’ll leave this here.”

“Go ahead.”

Lee Han quietly submitted his potion and turned away.

Even after that, Professor Thunderstep was lost in thought.

‘Hmm. Truly mysterious.’

Professor Thunderstep got up and checked the potions the students had submitted.

He could feel the desperate traces of students struggling without ingredients.

‘Did this one use daisy instead? The idea is novel, but it probably doesn’t fit well. This one… ignorant. Did they just proceed without any ingredients? Bold, but the effect is too weak. This potion is complete resignation. Pouring in another potion of a similar color.’

As he checked, Professor Thunderstep paused.

Surprisingly, there was a potion in front of him that was nearly perfect.

“?!”

Professor Thunderstep was startled and brought his face closer. But even after checking again, the potion’s effect was perfect.

How??

‘How did they get thistle flowers? Did they know the location of another flowerbed?’

If that was the case, the student was incredibly lucky.

Clicking his tongue, Professor Thunderstep checked the name of the lucky student.

-Lee Han Wardanaz

“……”

Professor Thunderstep narrowed his eyes.

Something was tickling at Professor Thunderstep’s brain.

‘It’s not just one??’

Looking around, there was more than one student who had obtained thistle flowers.

Professor Thunderstep could hardly believe it.

No way…

No way?!?

• * *

“It’s over!!!”

Friday evening.

The Blue Dragon Tower freshmen cheered and whistled in the lounge.

Some students popped the caps off the drinks they’d been saving and sprayed them without hesitation.

Whether they did well or not, now that midterms were over, every student couldn’t help but feel liberated.

“It’s over! It’s really over!”

“Wanna play a round of cards?”

“Curse the professors!”

“Card game, anyone??”

“Wardanaz! What’s all this?”

“Everyone worked hard for the exams.”

Lee Han greeted his friends with a kind smile.

The luxury goods he’d been saving filled the table one by one.

Glass bottles of cold fruit juice and various desserts packed the table with no gaps.

Crispy crème brûlée and fresh cream cake topped with strawberries. Cold cream soda and ice cream made with peaches. Pudding made by mixing grapes, cream, and milk—an array of desserts you couldn’t usually eat at Einrogard.

The Blue Dragon Tower students were almost moved to tears by the feast.

“Wardanaz…!”

“You… really…!”

Even if Lee Han had saved the Empire, they wouldn’t have been this touched.

Lee Han thought to himself.

‘Seeing them this happy makes me feel guilty.’

In fact, going with luxury goods like this was also much more profitable for Lee Han.

He was already making plenty of profit, but it felt a bit wrong to squeeze out even more here.

If he made a generous meal with fresh ingredients from the garden or elsewhere, using seasonings and spices bought from outside, the profit wouldn’t be nearly as high.

‘…No. I mustn’t waver.’

Lee Han steeled his wavering heart.

Such special meals should only happen once in a while. If he stocked the pantry and planned meals like this, the pantry would be emptied in no time and the students would fall into hunger.

In the long run, it wouldn’t be good for Lee Han either!

“Don’t push, everyone. Line up. There’s plenty.”

Compared to other towers, Blue Dragon Tower had plenty to eat and was orderly, but this time, everyone was pushing and shoving to get to the front.

Lee Han lined up his friends with Yoner’s help.

“Okay. Line up…”

“I’m first!”

“You didn’t even do well on the exam!”

“…Get in line.”

“Ah. Yes.”

“S-sorry, Wardanaz.”

Of course, there were minor scuffles, but the friends all understood.

Lee Han nodded knowingly as he saw the princess’s followers lining up to receive their share.

“You’re going to bring it to Her Highness, aren’t you?”

“Ah!”

“…You guys didn’t forget, did you?”

At Lee Han’s question, the followers averted their eyes awkwardly.

“If you bring it to her, I’ll give you more, so go ahead.”

The followers looked at the glass bottle of melon juice, then at the deliciously sliced cake, then up the stairs.

“Her Highness might not like this kind of thing…”

“……”

Lee Han was appalled.

Their loyalty lost to delicious desserts?

“She usually eats lightly. Maybe she only ate because of us…?”

“Y-yeah.”

“I don’t think so.”

Even at Lee Han’s words, the followers pretended not to hear. They wanted the desserts too much.

“…I’ll just go call her myself.”

“As expected of you, Wardanaz!”

“Stop, it sounds sarcastic.”

Lee Han went upstairs and knocked on the princess’s private room door.

The princess opened the door. On her expressionless face was a faint hint of expectation.

But that expectation soon disappeared. Lee Han’s hands were empty.

“…!”

The princess’s eyes shook more violently than when she was suspected of secretly stealing a sandwich last time.

“Everyone’s eating snacks downstairs, so please come down and join us.”

The princess let out a very slight sigh of relief. Then she nodded.

Lee Han went down the stairs first, and the princess followed.

The followers were startled to see this.

“Will you be alright? It’s so noisy…”

“Wouldn’t it disturb your thoughts? Maybe you should stay upstairs…”

The princess sternly tapped the back of the follower’s hand. The follower was flustered.

“Wardanaz. What if Her Highness is having a hard time?”

“She doesn’t look troubled at all.”

“Yeah. Your loyalty is twisted.”

Gainando grumbled as he stuffed pudding in his mouth.

If only they showed even 1/100 of that respect to me…

“Shut up, Gainando. What do you know about my loyalty?”

“Yeah. My loyalty is pure.”

Annoyed, Lee Han waved his hand.

“She’s not a child. She’ll be fine. See, she’s standing there just fine.”

“R-really? She’ll be okay, right? But how did you convince her to come down? She doesn’t seem to like this kind of place.”

Lee Han wondered if his friends had ever had a proper conversation with the princess.

Of course, Lee Han was the same…

“I spoke sincerely. Next.”

“Lee Han, after you finish handing out desserts, want to play a round of cards?”

“You kept losing, though?”

He’d meant it out of concern for Gainando, but it seemed to have pricked Gainando’s pride.

Gainando tried to stay calm (though it was obvious he was trembling) and said,

“T-that was just a test deck. I put in new cards this time… it’s stronger now…!”

‘Just putting in expensive cards doesn’t make a deck strong.’

Gainando was the type to fill his deck with cards that required a lot of magic to summon.

In contrast, Lee Han built his deck mainly with low-magic cards that chipped away at the opponent wizard’s life, ending the game early.

Of course, Lee Han couldn’t help but win.

“Alright. I’ll play one round…”

Bang!

The lounge door burst open and a Death Knight appeared.

All the students were shocked.

“I-it’s the weekend, isn’t this too much!?”

“Can they do this? Can they really do this?!”

But contrary to the students’ cries, the Death Knight had a reason for coming.

From now on, students whose names are called and who failed will move to the punishment room.

“……”

“……”

Lee Han was appalled.

‘The rumor that you go to the punishment room if you fail wasn’t a lie!’

It was easy to be mistaken that you could study as lazily as you wanted since wizards could learn as they pleased, but Einrogard wasn’t so easy that you could slack off even in the classes you took.

Gainando.

“No! No!”

Faced with the fact that he’d have to spend his golden weekend in the punishment room, Gainando tried to run.

Of course, he couldn’t escape the Death Knight.

“Lee Han! Bring me food! You have to bring me food!!”

A few unlucky students were dragged away by the Death Knight. Outside, a prison carriage for criminals or lawbreakers was waiting.

Wardanaz.

“?!”

Other students were more surprised than Lee Han.

How could Wardanaz have failed?

“Wasn’t there some kind of mistake?”

“You should take circumstances into account! Even an undead like you would fail at least one class if you took as many as he does!”

You’re the top student of Blue Dragon Tower. Come with me.

“……”

For some reason, Lee Han’s friends glared at him with annoyance. Lee Han spoke calmly.

“It’s not my fault.”