Episode 395
by CristaeEpisode 395
Angrago and the White Tiger Tower students were too embarrassed to answer right away.
However, Lee Han immediately grasped the situation.
“You idiots skipped class and got caught by monsters!”
“C-class has nothing to do with it…”
For some reason, the White Tiger Tower students were more flustered because it felt like Wardanaz was angrier about them skipping class.
Clatter!
Suddenly, a noise arose from behind as trees collided.
Lee Han clicked his tongue.
The broken wooden puppets split and new ones appeared.
‘Seriously, which professor made these?!’
The fact that they could multiply like that even when broken.
As a fellow mage, he couldn’t help but be impressed by the craftsmanship, but as a student attending the class, it was an infuriating level of persistence.
Lee Han took a deep breath.
With the ghost tree behind him, he didn’t have many options.
‘I need to finish this as quickly as possible and face the ghost tree!’
Crunch!
‘Amazing!’
Angrago marveled while hanging upside down.
There were many problems with his character, but he couldn’t deny Wardanaz’s swordsmanship.
A rock-solid swordplay reminiscent of a walking fortress!
The Blue Rock Swordsmanship mastered by Wardanaz didn’t have that many basic forms, nor were its variations complex or bizarre.
Compared to all sorts of complicated and difficult advanced swordsmanship styles, the Blue Rock Sword at first glance seemed like an inferior style.
However, conversely, there was a clear reason why the Blue Rock Sword, with its few forms and simple variations, made such a name for itself in the Empire.
Simple swings, but if once unleashed, they were unavoidable—there was nothing more powerful than such an attack.
The simplest attack is the strongest.
To truly be called a Blue Rock Swordsman, one must be able to realize this straightforward yet difficult lesson with patience and dedication…
“What are you doing?!!”
Angrago shouted, forgetting even that he was hanging upside down.
While he was in awe, Lee Han was employing some bizarre trick technique.
Suddenly, the length of the wooden sword extended, and the puppet jerked back. That much was fine, but seeing as there was no damage even when it hit—
That was a cheap trick, an illusion to confuse the opponent rather than a real technique.
“Don’t talk to me. You’re breaking my concentration.”
“W-why would you use a technique like that…”
He had just been admiring the pure swordsmanship, but mixing in weird tricks broke the mood.
He had wanted to see a perfect, flawless display of beautiful Blue Rock Swordsmanship…
Of course, Angrago’s expectations meant nothing to Lee Han. Lee Han poured out all the trick techniques he had learned recently without hesitation, knocking down the puppets.
Caught off guard by the sudden tricks, the wooden puppets couldn’t react and collapsed.
‘Trick techniques really are the best.’
Of course, using such absurd tricks against a truly skilled swordsman would be a suicidal move…
But Lee Han had no intention of facing any truly skilled swordsmen anyway.
If faced with a truly skilled one, he’d rather avoid them!
“Wardanaz! Be careful!”
Even before Angrago’s shout was finished, Lee Han had already leaped away.
A tree branch shot up from where Lee Han had just been standing. It was an attack from the ghost tree.
“H-how did you know?!”
“Of course I was on guard.”
Lee Han dusted himself off as he spoke.
Luckily, because he finished the puppets quickly, he avoided the worst-case scenario of a pincer attack.
“With -spatial perception- magic… Wait. Didn’t you all use -spatial perception- magic?”
“……”
“……”
The -spatial perception- spell was more difficult than a circle and not a spell one could waste like Lee Han did.
Even if White Tiger Tower students succeeded, it wouldn’t be easy for them to make it last more than 10 seconds.
‘I almost found myself rooting for the ghost tree for a moment.’
Swish!
An attack flew in from behind.
Lee Han rolled aside as if he had already expected it and dodged. The ghost tree let out a wail of frustration.
It realized its surprise attack wouldn’t work.
Whack, whack, whack, whack-!
Tree branches swung like whips as the attacks resumed.
Lee Han widened the distance and dodged. As he skillfully rolled away, the ghost tree made a mocking sound.
-■■■■…
It was as if a warrior with a sword was mocking him for continuing to widen the distance instead of charging in.
Lee Han was slightly flustered by the mockery.
‘Is that thing under some kind of delusion now?’
Now was not the time for the ghost tree to be acting relaxed.
Because…
“Burn.”
Dozens of flames erupted in the air.
They were small but packed with powerful magic—a cruel, persistent fire.
Against the wooden puppets (or in Professor Ingeldel’s class), he wouldn’t use ranged magic, but the ghost tree wasn’t included in that.
The moment he got some distance, he intended to cast spells and bombard it with magic, but the tree was acting relaxed.
On the contrary, the ghost tree should have tried to close the distance before Lee Han could get away.
-■■■■!
Maybe realizing that too late, the monster hurriedly charged.
But it was already too late.
The flames Lee Han conjured blasted the exposed trunk of the ghost tree in a ferocious trajectory.
- * *
Splosh!
Lee Han splashed a lump of water on the White Tiger Tower students.
He was worried the fire from the ghost tree might spread to them.
“Are you okay?”
“…Water, you didn’t really have to pour it on us.”
The students, looking like drowned rats, groaned as they stood up.
Having been hung upside down and swung like a pendulum, they were more than a little dizzy.
“Is everyone alright?”
“!!!”
At the sound of Professor Ingeldel’s voice from above, the students were startled.
“Professor, why are you here?!”
“W-wardanaz. Don’t tell me… you sold us out…?!”
“…You idiots. You were messing around at the lecture location.”
Lee Han was dumbfounded.
He had just rescued them…
“W-we need to run away!”
‘At least they’re not totally brainless.’
As much as Angrago and his friends lacked sense, they at least knew that facing a professor after skipping class was not a good idea.
“Relax. Just stay put.”
“Why!? Don’t tell me you’re planning to sell us out…”
“…Shut your mouth before I hit you.”
In Lee Han’s view, the paranoia of the White Tiger Tower students was because of the skeleton headmaster.
Getting them into traps at night and making them run this way and that…
“All because of the headmaster, this is an unfortunate misunderstanding.”
“Headmaster? No, this has nothing to do with the headmaster…”
“Quiet.”
Angrago wanted to say, ‘We’re suspicious of you because of what you did, not because of the skeleton headmaster,’ but he was silenced.
“What are you all doing?”
Professor Ingeldel, who had come down, looked at the situation with a puzzled expression.
Lee Han answered with a hint of pity.
“Here, Angrago and his friends were caught by the ghost tree. That’s why they couldn’t make it to class, it’s really…”
“???”
“…Th-that’s right!”
Angrago caught on the quickest. He realized late but played along with the story.
“They got caught by the ghost tree? Then, what are you all doing here?”
“We were practicing swordsmanship in the forest.”
“Oh my…”
Professor Ingeldel’s expression was moved.
He knew the White Tiger Tower students were serious about swordsmanship, but not to this extent.
“Everyone, please stay after class today.”
“Huh?”
“You must be feeling very regretful. I understand. I’ll help you not to lose to the ghost tree.”
“……”
The White Tiger Tower students stared at Lee Han, but he ignored them and checked the ghost tree to see if there was anything useful to salvage.
“Wardanaz…”
“Good luck.”
“Our golem repair…”
“Just do that and this as well. Good luck.”
Lee Han patted Angrago on the shoulder. But the ungrateful Angrago only frowned all the more.
“Wardanaz, well done. You handled those wooden puppets well.”
“Thank you.”
“By the way, Wardanaz. About what you mentioned earlier, the Beechwood Knights. I heard they might visit the school once…”
“Huh??”
Lee Han was startled.
The decisiveness of knights always surprised Lee Han.
If they said, ‘Let’s have a meal together sometime,’ they really did turn up for a meal!
“Of course, they’d need permission…”
“It’s difficult, right?”
“…Fortunately, the headmaster has given permission this time.”
“Huh???”
“If it were just anyone, I’d be worried, but the Beechwood Knights are always generous donors. It seems to be a good thing.”
Professor Ingeldel nodded with the confidence of someone whose speculation was almost certain.
And now, it was Lee Han’s turn to frown.
- * *
“Why do we, have, to move, this…”
“Blame your friends.”
After class, while Angrago and his friends were getting extra lessons, Lee Han moved lumber with the White Tiger Tower students.
Angrago had been whining that since they’d finally found it, if they didn’t take it now they might not be able to get it later…
‘If the golem can be repaired, it could be useful.’
At first, it seemed so unlikely that he didn’t care much, but as more people were gathered, Lee Han’s mind started to change.
If he could have a functional golem, work would become so much easier.
With tasks from Einrogard piling up, the golem would be a reliable helper.
“Lee Han. I heard about the storage room. How about searching it more thoroughly?”
Deorgyu wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked.
To gather parts for the golem, they needed to search all over the school.
At first glance, the cluttered storage room looked like a trash heap, but with a careful search, they might find something useful.
After all, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Lee Han was impressed.
“Deorgyu. You. Are you trying to use the White Tiger Tower students being tricked as an opportunity to get night chores done faster? Genius.”
“…N-no! That’s not it?!”
“Great idea. White Tiger Tower guys! Let’s go! There’s another place to get parts!”
Lee Han called out to the White Tiger Tower students who were putting down the lumber.
Caught up in the mood, the White Tiger Tower students unwittingly followed behind Lee Han.
Lee Han felt satisfied at the sight.
If nothing else, this sort of loyal candor was the strength of the White Tiger Tower students.
‘If only I could finish everything before the weekend.’
If so, he could finally do his overdue studies in peace.
Clatter, bang, crack!
Rushed to the storage room, the White Tiger Tower students began hauling out bundles, just like the previous week.
“How much of this junk is there for it to be endless?”
“Oh, is this basalt? If we shape it, it looks usable?”
“That’s monster poop.”
“……”
Thunk-
“?”
Lee Han felt something bump against his foot and looked down.
A heavily rusted bronze doorknob was connected to a hatch on the floor.
“Wait, everyone come here.”
“W-wardenaz. We weren’t fooling around!”
“…I’m not scolding you, just hurry and come.”
Lee Han resolved to treat the White Tiger Tower students a bit more gently.
“Have you seen this before?”
“…Huh?!?”
‘They haven’t.’
From the reaction of the White Tiger Tower students, Lee Han realized that this floor hatch leading underground had never been found before.
It must have been discovered as they cleared away all the piled up junk.
“T-this… Wardanaz… isn’t that it?? That???”
“What is it?”
Lee Han asked hopefully, reacting to the White Tiger Tower student’s words.
Maybe they knew something?
“The underground tunnel to escape outside, made by the seniors…!”
“…I doubt there’s an underground tunnel connecting from the second floor of Einrogard all the way outside the school walls.”