Episode 219
by CristaeThe friends were flustered, but Lee Han remained calm.
It was never personal feelings—he was acting on solid reasoning.
‘Without Deorgyu, the White Tiger Tower guys will never cooperate with me. If anything, they’ll just make a fuss. In a situation like this, if they make a fuss, they could attract the Rock Drake’s attention.’
Yoner tilted his head at that explanation.
“But couldn’t we just leave them alone…”
“Let’s go.”
“……”
Lee Han amplified the invisibility spell and moved forward.
Yoner followed, wearing a subtle expression.
- * *
“Nobody move.”
“Uh… ugh!”
The White Tiger Tower students were so startled they almost fainted.
Blue Dragon Tower students suddenly popped out of thin air—it would be strange not to be shocked.
“W-what the… It’s Wardanaz.”
“Actually, that’s not so reassuring…”
One White Tiger Tower student muttered.
Lee Han decided to remember the face of the guy who just muttered that.
“Don’t make a sound. If you make noise, I’ll attack.”
“You don’t have to say that, Wardanaz. We’re not rookies.”
“?”
It seemed the White Tiger Tower students didn’t really understand the situation.
Lee Han wondered how to phrase, ‘You’re now subdued, and if you lay down your weapons and surrender, I’ll treat you as prisoners according to Einrogard regulations,’ in a way that wouldn’t be too offensive.
“We were actually looking for you, Wardanaz. We came because Deorgyu earnestly requested it.”
“!”
Lee Han paused.
Amazingly, these White Tiger Tower students had come seeking cooperation!
“……”
The Blue Dragon Tower students, who realized this belatedly, exchanged glances.
‘…What do we do?’
‘Let’s just pretend we don’t know anything for now.’
‘Doesn’t the way we’re holding our staffs look kind of suspicious?’
The Blue Dragon Tower students, who had been holding their staffs ready to cast magic at Lee Han’s signal, quietly lowered their hands.
Their posture did look a bit suspicious.
The White Tiger Tower students, sensing the strange atmosphere, asked,
“But Wardanaz, why do you have so many friends with you…?”
“As you know, the library is dangerous.”
“Is that why?”
The White Tiger Tower students, puzzled by the Blue Dragon Tower students’ murderous aura, nodded, seemingly convinced.
Still not grasping the situation, Gainando whispered,
“When do we attack?”
“Attack?”
Yoner gestured, and the others quickly restrained Gainando.
Lee Han, his expression unchanged, said,
“We were talking about when to attack the Rock Drake.”
“Y-you’re going to attack the Rock Drake???”
The White Tiger Tower students looked at Lee Han like he was insane.
They’d suspected that Wardanaz was a mad archwizard who’d devoted his life to all sorts of magic and secrets, but not this crazy!
‘Ah. That was a mistake.’
In his rush, Lee Han’s excuse had come out strange. He quickly clarified,
“I don’t mean we’re definitely attacking the Rock Drake, just that if there’s really no other choice, we would.”
“Y-yeah.”
“You’ll do it when we’re not around, right?”
Even with the clarification, the White Tiger Tower students had already stepped back two or three paces.
Just the idea of attacking a Rock Drake, even as a last resort, was terrifying.
Even the most reckless knight family student hadn’t thought, ‘Let’s just attack the Rock Drake.’
“…Enough. Just tell us why you’re here.”
- * *
In fact, the White Tiger Tower students were in much better shape than the Blue Dragon Tower students.
Unlike the Blue Dragon Tower students, whose only strengths were family and magical ability, the White Tiger Tower students fundamentally had the ability to take care of themselves anywhere.
Because of that, they acted more proactively.
-Let’s split into threes to search for the path!
If you were confident, splitting up was much more advantageous.
Lee Han would never do something so reckless, but as everyone knew, the White Tiger Tower students’ bravery was second to none.
And this time, luck was with them.
-Found it! There’s a door leading down here!
-Call the others! Tell them we found it!
When one group found the way down, Deorgyu earnestly asked his friends,
-Sorry, but can you do me a favor?
-Depends on the favor, Deorgyu.
-Do you remember when I gave you two slices of butter sponge cake?
-…Alright, fine. What is it?
-Can you go and tell the Blue Dragon Tower friends where this is? I’d go myself, but it’d be awkward.
-What?! Why?! Is it Wardanaz again…
-…It’s not that. I owe him. Think about it, as knights—don’t you owe Wardanaz too?
-…Not really, but…
At Deorgyu’s words, the White Tiger Tower friends were at a loss for words.
They, too, had honor as knight family scions. They couldn’t completely deny Lee Han had helped them.
But…
-Even in the name of knightly honor, we’ve suffered way too much.
-Yeah. We’ve suffered too much.
Honor or not, they really had suffered a lot!
But in the end, they couldn’t refuse Deorgyu.
When words like ‘honorably’ and ‘repay a debt’ came up, as knights, they just couldn’t ignore it.
-I really don’t want to go.
-Yeah. Who knows what that Wardanaz guy will do.
-If we’re going, couldn’t we bring more people? Isn’t this group a bit small?
- * *
“So, at Deorgyu’s earnest request, we came.”
The White Tiger Tower students left out all their grumbling and complaints.
Lee Han was slightly moved.
‘Deorgyu…’
Deorgyu was proof that even among White Tiger Tower students, there were those with conscience and a sense of honor.
To think they’d actually help.
“You actually came looking for Wardanaz? I thought you hated getting involved with him?”
“…Hmph. We don’t mix petty feelings with duty. Nobles wouldn’t understand the sense of responsibility of a knight.”
“We didn’t care at all about any grudge against Wardanaz. We were only thinking about repaying the debt. That’s honor.”
‘These guys must really have hated coming here.’
Lee Han thought to himself.
The Blue Dragon Tower students were indignant, but didn’t say anything.
Just showing them the entrance down was enough to say they owed a debt.
“Alright. Thanks. Will you show us the way?”
The White Tiger Tower students led the Blue Dragon Tower students.
The terrain hadn’t changed, so finding the way wasn’t a problem, but it wasn’t exactly easy either.
“Rock Drake!”
The monster that had plagued the students throughout the dungeon was still wandering the wilderness.
The Blue Dragon Tower students grimaced, but the White Tiger Tower students spoke confidently.
“What, you don’t know how to deal with a Rock Drake?”
“You do?”
“Of course. We ran into one on the way. If we didn’t know how, how would we have made it here?”
Lee Han was surprised at the White Tiger Tower students’ confidence.
‘Is there a method only passed down in knight families?’
Lee Han was a student who read every book in the Wardanaz family and got extra monster lessons from Professor Thunderstep.
But he’d never seen any trick to easily deal with a Rock Drake.
What is it?
‘If it’s a method only passed down in knight families, I can’t miss this.’
“Here, watch!”
The White Tiger Tower students lay flat on the dusty ground. Even though the hot, dry earth dirtied their clothes and hands, they didn’t care.
“The Rock Drake’s vision is higher than you think. If you lie flat like this, it can’t see you.”
“And from here!”
One White Tiger Tower student started crawling along the ground. Not lifting his body at all, he wriggled along like a bug.
A Blue Dragon Tower student watching muttered,
“They look like bugs…”
“Shh. Quiet.”
“See? If you crawl like this, you can avoid the Rock Drake.”
“I’ll just cast an invisibility spell for you.”
At Lee Han’s words, the White Tiger Tower students dusting themselves off froze.
…Huh?
Is that possible?
“You… can do that?”
“Of course.”
“…Then why did you make us do this?”
“I wanted to learn if your method was better.”
“……”
Despite the explanation, the White Tiger Tower students glared at Lee Han.
- * *
“See that slanted hill over there? That’s where the entrance we found is.”
“I see.”
After confirming the 4–5 meter high hill with a steep cliff, Lee Han nodded.
They must have climbed up the gentle slope on the other side.
“…Wait. Are there still students who haven’t crossed?”
“Not sure? Why? Are there friends left?”
“Looks like it.”
Lee Han strengthened his vision by pouring mana around his eyes.
He saw White Tiger Tower students on the distant hill.
‘Are they waiting for those who haven’t arrived yet? To teach them how to get down?’
If so, the friendship of knights is truly admirable…
-Block him! Don’t let him climb up!
-Get out all your potions! If the Rock Drake climbs up, we’re dead!
“……”
Seeing the White Tiger Tower students running around frantically, Lee Han frowned.
Not knowing this, the White Tiger Tower students beside him chattered away.
“Wardanaz, no matter how good you are at magic, finding the path is a whole different…”
“Tsk.”
“…D-did I brag too much? You’re not mad, are you?”
- * *
-The door is locked. How do we open it?
-Search the nearby bookshelves. There might be a key or a way to open it.
-Okay. …Rock Drake!!
-What? You’re going to open it with a Rock Drake? How are we going to find a Rock Drake here?
-No! There’s a Rock Drake over there!!
As the White Tiger Tower students were wondering how to open the door down, a Rock Drake appeared.
-■■■■■…
While the students displayed a mix of fear, despair, and intimidation, the Rock Drake closed the distance and settled in front of the hill.
Then, it glared at the students.
Even someone who knew nothing about monsters could see from its expression that it was deeply displeased.
How much time passed?
As the Rock Drake didn’t move, the sweating White Tiger Tower students couldn’t hold out any longer and stepped forward.
-I-is it warning us to leave?
-Let’s just move!
-The door? It goes down, though??
-Is that important right now?!
Before the words were even finished, the Rock Drake began to advance.
It wasn’t a terrifying charge to trample its enemies, but even just walking up the hill, the pressure was overwhelming.
“It’s coming this way!!”
“Do whatever you can to buy time! Even if you have to go down the other side, just buy time!”
“Get all the repellant potions! Throw them!”
“Get ready with magic. Aim for the eyes! We have to threaten it somehow!”
Smack!
A water orb flew from somewhere and struck the Rock Drake’s nose dead on.
The Rock Drake, which had been walking slowly, now turned its head with a speed that was incomparable to before.
Anyone could see its movement was full of irritation.
“I-it’ll be okay, right? Wardanaz?”
“We’ll see…”
“……”
Lee Han stared coldly at the Rock Drake. Next to him, the White Tiger Tower students remembered what they’d heard earlier.
-We were talking about when to attack the Rock Drake.
-I don’t mean we’ll definitely attack it, but if there’s really no way out, we will.
‘…Is this guy really about to take it down…?!?!’