Episode 248

“Why? Did you have something to tell Wardanaz?”

“No… It’s nothing.”

Salko shook his head.

He had definitely heard the name Ogonin before, but it seemed likely it was just someone with the same name.

If it were that Ogonin, he would be teaching his juniors at the magic tower by now.

Would someone like that really waste time teaching a first-year student?

“By the way, this Baldororn person…”

“Ah. Lord Baldororn. I met him too when I went out last time, and he was really wise.”

A student from Black Turtle Tower who had met Baldororn together with Lee Han last time answered as he passed by.

“I see. Impressive.”

As all his friends reacted like this, Salko had no choice but to believe it.

He must really be an amazing wizard!

• * *

A barrier made with illusion magic was similar to a kind of lock.

Just as some locks are weak and loose while others are solid and sturdy, and some have simple structures while others are complex.

A barrier cast by an outstanding illusionist was like stacking many complicated and solid locks on top of each other.

For an intruder to break through this barrier, they had to understand and undo the structure of each lock.

Inevitably, the attacker had to be more skilled than the defender for such a task.

Of course, Lee Han was not more skilled than the star wizards of the magic school…

Bang!

‘Lucky.’

Lee Han had a method he learned from Baldororn.

Swinging his massive mana to smash the lock itself!

Of course, some barriers were prepared to resist brute force, but quite a few barriers were vulnerable in this area.

By wizard standards, breaking a barrier like this was an absurd method.

Why would an archmage with that much mana bother to use such a brute-force method to break a barrier?

Just figure out the structure and undo it!

It was natural not to prepare for such a brute-force method. In a way, it was a waste.

With the sound of a curtain tearing, the barrier opened.

By chance, it was a barrier Lee Han could break through.

Lee Han thanked Baldororn once again.

…Of course, Baldororn hadn’t taught him to go around breaking barriers in such a brute-force way!

‘By the way, these stairs are pretty long.’

A spiral staircase appeared after breaking the barrier.

Even though he had climbed quite a bit, the end was still not in sight.

At least the path wasn’t blocked and there weren’t any particular obstacles, so it seemed fine for now…

Clatter, clatter!

A door connected to a hallway appeared at the end of the spiral staircase.

Loud noises were coming from the open door. Something seemed to be happening in the hallway.

‘A magic experiment?’

Lee Han approached the door and glanced down the hallway.

Unfinished magic circles were engraved here and there, and materials were scattered all over the hallway in a mess that looked very familiar.

Whether wizard or not, students struggling with countless assignments looked the same everywhere.

“Is anyone there?”

Lee Han called out cautiously.

No matter what year the students around the hallway were, it seemed better to announce himself first than to step in silently.

Besides, the seniors wouldn’t even see Lee Han…

Crash, bang!

Before Lee Han even finished speaking, containers of materials toppled and wooden boxes tumbled everywhere.

And a sheet of paper floated up into the air.

-How did you get here, junior?

• * *

A first-year student and a fourth-year student at the magic school were not fundamentally very different.

Of course, a fourth-year student was more skilled at getting meals, knew more about the magic school, and could use more magic than a first-year…

But when it came to doing assignments and preparing for exams, there wasn’t much difference.

Direte and Koholti, who were among the rare black magic majors in the fourth year, were no exception.

“Isn’t there nothing good about wandering around during the rearrangement period?”

“Yeah. Normally, that’s true. If only some damned bastards hadn’t released the Frost Giant King into the hallway and made us waste a whole week.”

“……”

Koholti had nothing to say even if she had ten mouths.

The incident where, while conducting a magic experiment with friends, a dimensional overlap occurred in the upper hallway due to a failure.

First-years may have enjoyed a miraculous, happy time in the spring snow, but Koholti and her friends were busy dealing with the aftermath.

Even after the Frost Giant King left, the effects of the overlapping dimension didn’t disappear immediately, so they had to set up all kinds of magic circles to prepare, check the situation regularly, and write reports…

And all this had to be done while preparing for assignments and final exams.

Professors might be kind and gentle to first-years, but to fourth-years, they were sharp as knives.

If you couldn’t do your assignments or failed exams because of a mistake in your experiment, they would never forgive you.

“Y-yeah. Whoever it was, they were really bad.”

“Yeah. I hope whoever it was is dead. Right?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Shut up and finish the magic circle. Considering the time left, even if it was Demon Lord week instead of rearrangement week, we’d still have to work.”

The assignment Direte and Koholti were working on was a magic circle to control powerful beings from other dimensions.

Beings summoned from another dimension always looked for opportunities to stab their master in the back and escape control.

Low-level summons could be controlled with relatively simple methods, but the stronger the summon, the higher its intelligence and will.

To control such beings, simple methods wouldn’t work. High-level magic had to be used.

The magic circle they were attempting was one such method.

If completed properly, it would weaken the summoned being’s power and break its will…

“Did you finish drawing the wall?”

“It’s done.”

“Check it.”

Koholti rummaged in her pocket and took out a round bell. It was a bell contracted with a low-level demon.

Of course, it was out of the question to summon a powerful being into an unverified magic circle, so they had to first test it by summoning a weak monster.

Poof!

With a puff of smoke, a demon popped out.

At first, the demon looked like it was in pain, but after a while, it started glancing around, trying to sneak off to the corner.

“The east side is the life gate. We need to block it.”

“I’ll block it now!”

Koholti ran over and blocked it enthusiastically.

Hoping her friend would forget about the Frost Giant King.

“Blocked?”

“Blocked.”

“Check it.”

Koholti summoned another demon. Like before, the demon was in pain at first, but after a while, it adapted and tried to escape.

“This time, the north side opened.”

“……”

Koholti sighed deeply.

That was how high-level magic circles worked.

Fix one spot, another gives trouble. Fix that spot, and a spot that was fine before becomes a problem…

“Let’s fix it again.”

“Yeah… ugh.”

“?”

Direte frowned as Koholti flinched.

It was clearly the reaction of someone with a problem.

“…What? What’s going on?”

“N-nothing.”

“Nothing? You just said ‘ugh’ just now.”

“I said it’s nothing…”

“Do as you like. If you hide it and I find out, I’ll cast a real Black Death curse on you.”

“…Actually, the intruder barrier I set up down below broke…”

“Are you kidding me?!”

‘Ugh. I should’ve kept it secret.’

Koholti regretted it inwardly.

She should have held out and not given in to Direte’s coaxing…

“Do you call that saying something? Why did it break? Didn’t I tell you to set it up properly?”

“No… really… I did set it up properly…”

“Then why did it break?”

“…Maybe I made a mistake…”

Koholti shrank as she spoke.

During the main building’s rearrangement period, new shortcuts appeared out of nowhere.

During this time, upper-year students had to be even more careful.

What if a first-year student wandered in while they were experimenting upstairs and got hurt?

-What have you learned after all these years at the magic school? How can you let a junior get hurt in this honorable school? Does it make sense for someone to get injured at this glorious school?

-It doesn’t ma… No, I’m sorry.

Of course, Direte and Koholti had also made preparations so that lower-year students couldn’t step onto the newly connected shortcut.

They set up barrier magic and wrote phrases like, ‘This path is protected by a barrier, so those without skill should turn back!’

But maybe Koholti made a mistake when setting the barrier, and it suddenly broke.

“Hurry and go set it up again!”

“Y-yes!”

Koholti hurried to go down.

But the visitor arrived even faster.

A familiar first-year student they’d seen before climbed the shortcut stairs and came out through the door, and Direte and Koholti were shocked.

• * *

“It said ‘upper floor shortcut’… didn’t it?”

-That’s right.

Lee Han conversed familiarly with the unseen Direte.

It was nothing surprising for a first-year at the magic school.

-Wardanaz. Thanks again for last time.

When he saw a different handwriting appear, Lee Han was puzzled for a moment, then realized.

“Oh. Were you there when the Frost Giant King incident happened?”

-Yeah. Wow, thanks so mu…

Direte couldn’t hold back and elbowed Koholti in the back.

“How nice. Bragging about solving it with a junior’s help?”

“Ugh. Ugh! Direte, the junior is watching, violence is…”

“They can’t see anyway!”

Direte, using the power of magic, struck out.

Lee Han tilted his head as the seniors disappeared mid-conversation.

“Are you there?”

-I dropped my quill for a moment.

‘Something’s fishy.’

Lee Han thought so, but didn’t pry further. Seniors had their own circumstances.

-How did you get up here? Wasn’t there a barrier?

“Ah. I tried to break it… I was lucky.”

“……”

“……”

Direte looked at Koholti as if she couldn’t believe it. Koholti’s face turned bright red as she hung her head.

‘Undone by a first-year…?’

If this got around to the other friends, Koholti’s nickname would become -Defeated by Ironhead- or -Less than Ironhead- for sure.

‘That’s not the important thing right now.’

Direte decided to ask how it was undone later, and focused on the important question.

-Why are you on the upper floor?

“I’m looking for the Spire Stable you mentioned last time.”

Direte was at a loss for words.

Of course, she was the one who mentioned it, but she didn’t expect a first-year to seriously try to break through to the upper Spire.

…Is he really a first-year??

-…Since I told you, I can’t complain. The Spire Stable is close from here. Just walk straight down the hallway, then turn and go up the stairs and you’ll find it right away.

“Really?!”

Lee Han was overjoyed.

Who knew such luck would come during rearrangement week.

‘Yeah. After all the bad luck, it’s time for some good luck!’

Considering all the things that had happened during the week and weekend, it wouldn’t be surprising if a shower of gold coins fell on him.

He’d just had too much bad luck.

-Wait. But you can’t go through right now. We’re in the middle of an experiment.

Direte drew an arrow on the paper.

At the end of a hallway covered with complicated magic circles was a crystal prison.

And inside, anyone could see a huge, furious demon locked up.

-We can’t move that until the experiment’s done.

Direte briefly explained what kind of experiment they were doing. Lee Han nodded as he listened.

“So, I just have to subdue that demon?”

-That’s right.

“Does magic pass from outside to inside that cage?”

-It does, but why?

“Flash!”

Lee Han zapped the unknown demon inside the crystal with lightning.

The demon let out a scream of pain.

-Junior. Thanks for wanting to help, but demons don’t submit just because you hit them.

“Is that so… Sorry.”

‘Huh?’

Unlike Direte, who was watching Lee Han, Koholti could see the demon inside the crystal prison very clearly.

Didn’t the demon just avoid his gaze?