Episode 197

Lee Han brushed off his hands and looked around.

He was checking to see if the Skeleton Principal or the Skeleton Principal’s summoned creatures were nearby.

‘Or not?’

At first, he thought it was the Skeleton Principal’s doing, but on second thought, it didn’t seem like the Skeleton Principal would bother to harass him in such a complicated way.

‘Then who is it?’

Someone who knew that Lee Han had gone to the twisted dimensional corridor with Professor Mortum, and wanted to send him back there to mess with him.

…Was there anyone besides the Skeleton Principal who would do that?

‘No. There’s no point worrying about something I can’t answer right now.’

Lee Han shook his head to clear his thoughts and moved on.

From the perspective of the fourth-year seniors watching, it was maddening.

“Why is he ignoring it? Did we spell something wrong?!”

“Would we make a spelling mistake? It’s not our first time sending a letter. We sent it properly and formally!”

“This… is weird?”

Koholti and his friends couldn’t understand.

When they were freshmen, they were always hungry, tired, and miserable.

…Actually, not much had changed even now, but anyway, they had been desperate to find something to eat.

Testing the toxicity of suspicious mushrooms on themselves, entering rooms in corridors that anyone could tell were off-limits, venturing into the forest outside the school despite strange rumors…

When you know nothing about the school and are filled only with desperation, even if you get a letter saying “dangerous journey, many risks, safe return not guaranteed,” you’d still think, “There must be something there,” and go.

But why was this freshman different?

‘We even wrote the reward properly, so why is he ignoring it?’

‘Is it because of the Principal? Did the Principal threaten him?’

While they were worrying, the freshman had already walked far away.

Koholti and his friends could only watch the freshman with bewildered eyes.

• * *

Do you have some complaint against me?

“Of course not!”

Morning.

The Skeleton Principal, floating into the classroom, sensed suspicion in Lee Han’s gaze.

‘No matter how I think about it, it has to be this guy.’

Lee Han thought to himself.

No matter how he looked at it, the sender of the letter he received last night seemed to be the Skeleton Principal.

Who else but the Skeleton Principal would send something like that?

Of course, it was a needlessly complicated method for the Skeleton Principal, but there’s no such thing as “never.”

‘What’s with this kid?’

The Skeleton Principal felt uneasy.

Among the many Ironheads, the boy from the Wardanaz Family had quite extraordinary talent.

It was annoying that all he did with that talent was “help his friends, block the Principal’s excellent plans”…

Still, a freshman with that much ability needed to be watched. You never knew when he might stab the Skeleton Principal in the back.

“Pr… Principal!”

What?

“May… may I close the window??”

A student, teeth chattering from the cold, spoke up. His lips were already turning blue.

Normally, the main building’s classrooms were less cold than outside, even without heating.

Just closing the windows and blocking the cold wind made it much less chilly.

Whoooooosh!

But today, all the windows in the Basic Magic Character Education classroom were wide open. The cold morning air rushed in, slapping the students’ cheeks.

Do as you wish.

“Th… thank you!”

The student, who hadn’t expected the Principal to allow it, ran joyfully to the window.

But Lee Han sensed something ominous.

‘No way?’

“Huh? Huh?”

The student who ran over was shocked.

All the windows had disappeared!

Why aren’t you closing them?

“…There are no windows…”

Oh dear!

At the Skeleton Principal’s shameless words, the students bundled up in thick coats and leather glared at him.

Even the dullest student in the classroom could tell who had removed the windows.

Today’s lecture topic will be the wisdom of a wizard in cleverly dealing with unexpected situations like this.

“……”

Now, stop shivering and think. Wizards with poor character act foolishly when faced with such crises. They try to endure by joining forces.

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

The Skeleton Principal blinked. Gainando’s voice was immediately sealed.

Wizards with good character don’t fall for such nonsense and wisely find the root of the problem. When you face a crisis or unexpected situation, don’t foolishly try to endure by joining forces. That’s as good as giving up.

At the Skeleton Principal’s novel theory, several students besides Gainando voiced doubts.

“Wouldn’t it be better to combine strength and brains?”

“I think it’d be better to pool our wisdom, too.”

Don’t talk nonsense. Do you think you’ll get gold by banging a bunch of Ironheads together for a hundred days? Wisdom comes from desperation. If you gather and chatter, you’ll only get complacent. Later, you’ll realize you’re scratching, stabbing, and biting each other. You might as well have just thought it through alone from the start.

“……”

At the Skeleton Principal’s open curses, the students were dumbfounded.

Isn’t this really too much?

Meanwhile, Gainando was signaling the students who had just spoken to have their voices sealed, too. Lee Han thought to himself.

‘They’ve really absorbed the lesson well.’

Now then. Ironhead who likes to cooperate. You try blocking the window together.

“…!”

A White Tiger Tower student, pointed out by the Skeleton Principal just for speaking, was flustered.

“Uh… Uh…”

“Don’t worry, Gatono. We’ll help you.”

The White Tiger Tower students resolutely stood up to help their friend.

They intended to save their friend from the evil Skeleton Principal, who knew nothing of knightly honor or friendship.

Shaa!

The White Tiger Tower students began hanging the leather they’d brought over the empty windows.

It wasn’t perfect, but with several layers of thick leather enchanted with cold resistance, they could block the wind.

Other tower students watched the work with slightly impressed expressions.

If you hang the leather like that…

Clack!

Suddenly, a huge undead raptor flew in from outside the window and flew off with the leather in its beak.

“……”

“……”

The Skeleton Principal spoke with a blank face.

Oh dear. An unexpected accident occurred. You should have blocked it with magic, not such a foolish method.

‘Isn’t someone going to start a knife fight?’

Looking at the White Tiger Tower students, it seemed like they could kill with just their eyes.

As it got colder and the faces of the friends next to him turned pale, Lee Han raised his hand.

‘Now that I’ve learned cold, I can just freeze it over.’

“I’ll…”

Go run an errand.

“Aren’t you being too much!?”

“You have to let Wardanaz do it!”

Before Lee Han could answer, the other tower students protested in outrage.

‘Am I some kind of item?’

I don’t know what you’re talking about. Wardanaz, get going.

• * *

Go to the Spire Keeper and get the “Gloves of the Cold Winter.”

(The map is on the back.)

‘Not bad.’

It wasn’t that Lee Han was happy to escape the Skeleton Principal’s boring lecture.

Just figuring out a new shortcut in the magic school that he didn’t know about was enough of a gain.

Creak!

When the letter written by the Skeleton Principal moved the school’s wall and summoned a hidden staircase, Lee Han looked at the letter with greedy eyes.

‘If I could copy this and swap it with a fake… No. Too risky.’

After a quick estimate, Lee Han regretfully gave up.

The risk of forging this was just too high.

‘By the way, who is the Spire Keeper? Don’t tell me…’

Among the Skeleton Principal’s various minions Lee Han had met, there was the Storekeeper.

His eyes were covered with bandages, but he had sharper senses than anyone.

…Of course, he had mistaken Lee Han for the Skeleton Principal, but anyone could make that kind of mistake, and overall, he was definitely capable.

If the Spire Keeper was that type of minion, he wouldn’t be easy to deal with.

Normally, there’d be no reason to clash, so he just had to run the errand…

‘The problem is, I’m in the middle of clearing the path to the spire.’

For Lee Han, who was targeting the spire stables, the name “Spire Keeper” was unsettling.

Lee Han steeled himself.

‘No. This is an opportunity.’

Rather, it was lucky to learn about the Spire Keeper’s existence now.

If he knew in advance, he could make plans.

He’d figure it out by confronting him directly!

Thud—

After turning three spiral staircases, riding two elevators, and passing through four secret doors, he arrived at a place he’d never seen before.

From the view outside the corridor window, he could tell he was quite high up.

Tap!

The Spire Keeper was standing in front of him.

Holding a strangely shaped staff, his mouth wrapped in bandages, the Spire Keeper blinked as he looked at Lee Han.

Even though he hadn’t done anything, the air felt tense. Lee Han quickly took out the letter.

“Here it is.”

“……”

The Spire Keeper looked at the letter and nodded. Then he gestured for Lee Han to follow.

“I’m Lee Han.”

“……”

Even when Lee Han introduced himself, the Spire Keeper didn’t answer.

Lee Han had gotten used to friends who spoke little, like Her Highness, but the Spire Keeper kept an even stricter vow of silence.

From Lee Han’s perspective, trying to extract as much information as possible, this was a troublesome situation.

‘The Storekeeper would be better than this.’

One-sided conversation and silence.

Without a chance to do anything, the Spire Keeper walked down the corridor and opened a door.

Inside, all sorts of bizarre items were scattered in disorder.

Lee Han instinctively felt he knew where this was.

‘One of the Principal’s storerooms!’

Just as a squirrel hides acorns all over the forest, the Skeleton Principal had storerooms all over the school buildings.

Such storerooms were sometimes targeted by students or disappeared due to accidents or changes, but most remained intact and were used by the Skeleton Principal as needed.

Vrrrr—

‘What’s that?’

Hearing an ominous vibration, Lee Han paused.

But the Spire Keeper stepped among the junk as if nothing was wrong.

‘Is it nothing?’

Vrrrrr—

But the vibration grew louder and louder. Lee Han started to feel uneasy.

“Does it always do this when outsiders enter?”

Tap!

The Spire Keeper immediately swung his staff and cast a shield over Lee Han.

At the same time, a sword spewing strange murderous intent flew out from among the junk.

Bang!!!

“!”

Lee Han was startled by the impact that shook the shield.

‘Is the Principal really insane??’

Sending him on an errand was one thing, but leaving a crazy artifact like that on standby?

Even if Lee Han had blocked the Principal’s plans a few times, this was a bit much.

“……”

The Spire Keeper’s expression grew serious.

The sword that had awakened now was an artifact that would never move unless provoked by a powerful enemy.

But for some reason, it had suddenly awakened.

He couldn’t understand it.

The Spire Keeper swung his staff, distorting space and casting another shield.

Even if he didn’t understand, he had to deal with the situation first.

But the sword was no pushover.

It flew in quickly before space could be distorted and pierced the shield, injuring the Spire Keeper.

The Spire Keeper frowned and swung his staff again.

At this point, he decided to get out for now.

“!” Lee Han was shocked to see the Spire Keeper struck down by chains flying in from behind.

If this happened…

“Sharkan, come out!”

Lee Han drew up his magic power.

He didn’t know what kind of crazy artifact was attacking, but now that it had come to this, he had no intention of going down quietly.

Even if he had to turn the storeroom into a ruin, he would survive by any means necessary!