Episode 412

“What?! How with a golem?!”

“How on earth!”

At the reactions of the golem-summoning magicians, the black magicians were initially confused, then finally realized what was happening.

They clearly misunderstood after seeing Einrogard’s student, Wardanaz, controlling a golem.

“Ah. That’s not something we did…”

“Quiet! Quiet. We… we can figure it out ourselves.”

“But…”

The black magicians were flustered.

They tried to explain, but the summoning magicians, out of pride, refused and started speculating among themselves.

“What is this? How is he withstanding that kind of waste with a golem? The mana drain should be extreme, right?”

“Is he maybe reabsorbing the radiated mana and restoring himself?”

“How efficient could that possibly be! You’d struggle to recover even a tenth. Surely… surely they’ve developed a magic circle that we don’t know about?”

“Black magic… does black magic have such a thing? Some rare attribute of negative mana…”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that! If such a thing existed, we would know!”

“What other methods? Any other ideas??”

“Don’t look so directly. That’ll give it away! Steal glances.”

The summoning magicians whispered as they agonized.

Their pride made them sneak peeks at the golem, but they just couldn’t figure it out.

It wasn’t that there was some new magic circle they didn’t know, nor that any new material was being used—it looked like a normal golem from the outside…

Just how was he able to repeat such meticulous movements while maintaining mana for the golem?

“Could he have just poured in a lot of mana?”

“No matter how lost you are, do you want to make such an absurd joke?”

There were no magic stones or potions near the golem—such an ignorant method couldn’t be the answer.

“Hey.”

“Wait! Just hold on.”

“No… let me just explain…”

“Wait!! Just wait a second!! Hey!!”

“……”

The black magicians wore uncomfortable expressions.

Nothing felt good about seeing the guys they usually fought with acting like this.

They’d been planning to tell them…

“Ugh… ughh… ughhh.”

“Gruhhh… gruuuuh… gruuuuuhhh.”

“Sob. Ugh.”

The summoning magicians kept agonizing.

Some were so frustrated they nearly teared up.

Not only had they lost to black magicians with golems, but they couldn’t even guess how it was being done.

As the summoning magicians trembled with humiliation and shot glances of defeat, the black magicians suddenly felt their hearts pound.

Huh?

“Actually, what really happened is…”

“Shh. Wait.”

“Why?”

“No need to say anything. They said themselves no explanations are needed.”

“…!”

Unaware that the black magicians were playing at being devious, the summoning magicians gritted their teeth and said,

“It’s not… it’s not over yet. We’ll definitely find out by the end of the festival, no matter what method was used. Wait for it!”

Unable to stand their humiliation, the summoning magicians hurried away.

The black magicians only laughed, as they had nothing more to say.

“…Kehahaha! Kehahahahaha!”

“Wahahahahaha!”

“…Just you wait!!”

Once the summoning magicians left, the black magicians looked at one another, their faces full of excitement.

How long had it been since they felt this exhilarated!

“…Um. Black magicians?”

“……”

It was only when Lee Han, who had watched it all from behind, called out that the black magicians realized what they’d done.

• * *

“Why aren’t the golem guys getting ready?”

“No idea? Maybe something went wrong?”

The other specialty summoning magicians found the golem summoners’ mood odd.

Among inanimate-targeted summoning specialists, the golem specialists were the most vocal and proud.

That was only natural, given their summons were intuitively powerful and in high demand throughout the empire.

But today, the mood was as if someone had died…?

“Are you guys okay? If you’re not going, we’ll go first?”

“…Go ahead…”

“!?”

Normally, the golem kids would have yelled, ‘How dare you take our place!’, but now, with pale faces, they just yielded, and everyone was flustered.

“You sure we can go first?”

“Yeah…”

“Are you guys really okay? You’re the ones who always look down on ego items…”

“Yeah…”

“…Hey, are you guys seriously okay?”

“This is worrying…”

The summoning magicians who first wanted to just move on now started murmuring, seriously concerned about the golem magicians.

Even a non-magician has a hard time getting out of the swamp of despair, but for magicians, it was even more dangerous.

An exploding magician was several times more dangerous than an exploding regular person.

What if they caused an accident…

“Hey. I know you’re stuck, but moping around won’t change anything.”

“Yeah, come on. At a time like this, it’s better to stop thinking and just watch other magicians’ magic. Look, the Einrogard students are going to display some summoning magic. It’s not often you get to see classic, textbook magic! The disciples of Professor Millei themselves!”

“Even if it’s just small summons…”

“…Can’t we just leave these bastards in a pit somewhere?”

“Shh. Endure it.”

The other summoning magicians coaxed and comforted the golem magicians out of professional camaraderie.

In the end, the golem summoners begrudgingly stood up.

“Whew… How did he do it?”

“No idea, but stop thinking about it! Let’s just watch the students’ magic.”

“Will it be paper birds?”

“Already, at that age?!”

“You still can’t summon paper birds, right?”

“I—I just don’t have an aptitude for it…”

The summoning magicians took their seats, chatting.

Among today’s participants, there were several who could use higher circle magics than the Einrogard students.

But magicians who had solidly built every foundation of summoning magic like Einrogard’s students were exceedingly rare.

Magic was a difficult and narrow path even for the chosen.

Not every magician, or environment, could restrain themselves from just using their obvious, available skills while they honed their foundations.

For that reason, to the magicians at the festival today, the first-years of Einrogard didn’t look like underlings at all.

Rather, they looked like the small but rising swells of a great wave that, if given momentum, could easily swallow up a skiff.

“It’s starting. Paper birds!”

“Beautiful! Summoned perfectly in one go!”

Exclamations and applause rang out amongst the summoning magicians.

Yet some watched with expressionless faces.

These were among the most skilled magicians present.

Knowing the Einrogard standard, they weren’t amazed just by this.

“Come on, juniors…”

“Shh. The professor will hear you.”

The seniors watched on tensely, clearly sensing that Professor Millei was also tense, despite pretending otherwise.

“Stop right there!”

Swish—

When the paper birds halted in mid-air, the applause grew louder. But the seniors sighed softly.

Trivial mistakes by the juniors were still apparent.

“They should’ve stopped at once upon command, but they were a bit slow.”

“The movements weren’t too clean either…”

“There was wastage in the magic circle during creation. That’s why the movements shake from mana leakage.”

As expected, the truly skilled summoners still watched with unmoved expressions.

The next wave of paper birds spoke out loud.

Cheers and applause burst out again, but a few summoners’ faces still did not change.

“They should have made them sing! Should have made them sing—”

“You couldn’t even do that, and you expect the first-years to manage?”

“If they had, it would have brought a standing ovation!”

“Let’s just go threaten them to stand up. A trip to the punishment room would be better than this.”

While the seniors were chattering, one first-year student launched a paper bird late. It was the last launch after the longest preparation.

“…Huh, that’s Wardanaz, right? Wasn’t he with those black magicians earlier?”

“Why was he with them?”

“Who knows… Is there any way black magic helps with paper birds?”

Lee Han’s paper bird was ordinary.

It flew up and circled slowly like the others.

Many summoners clapped but wondered.

‘Was it just late?’

‘I should clap to avoid making it awkward.’

Even the seniors didn’t realize right away and were puzzled.

“Was he unprepared because he was late?”

“Did the black magicians delay him? Those black magicians…!”

“No. He’s always taken black magic classes…”

Suddenly!

One of the previously expressionless summoning magicians shot to his feet and looked toward Professor Millei.

Professor Millei nodded curtly, signaling approval.

Suddenly, a spirit hawk appeared from thin air. The summoned hawk darted savagely at the paper bird, trying to tear it apart.

Lee Han bit back a curse and steered his bird.

‘Are you insane?!’

To attack someone’s summon right in the middle of a presentation.

If Professor Voladi were here, it would have been grounds for a fight.

If it weren’t a festival, the other magician would have had some bones broken already.

Lee Han, grinding his teeth at the cowardice of striking at him with so many watching, focused hard.

‘Dodge, dodge, dodge…!’

Swish!

The paper bird performed unbelievable maneuvers, avoiding the attacks.

Once, twice, three times.

“…!!”

“That… that?!”

Now even the summoners who hadn’t caught on were shocked.

“What’s going on? What is it?”

“Look at its movement! Those movements!”

A paper bird summoned with a pre-recorded magic circle could only move within set limits.

Even if it tried to dodge, there was no way it could evade the attack of a fierce, fast summoned creature like a spirit hawk.

Yet this paper bird was dodging with incredible precision.

The magician must have been directly linking consciousness and controlling it.

Fwoosh—

‘…Are you seriously mad?!’

Lee Han grew angrier as a mystery magician cast obscuring fog.

As if attacking the bird once wasn’t enough, now they were making it impossible to control by blinding him with fog.

He swore he’d see them in the punishment room after this and focused hard on farsight.

If he couldn’t see from his own eyes, he’d use the bird’s view instead.

‘Just hang in there a little longer… Got it!’

Luckily, the farsight spell worked. The paper bird dodged the spirit hawk’s attack one more time.

The summoning magician, realizing he didn’t need to see any more, sent the spirit hawk back to its original realm.

Then, with dignified movements, he extended his hand.

“Congratulations, Professor Millei. You’ve raised an excellent disciple.”

“I always knew Einrogard’s students were outstanding, but I didn’t expect this.”

With those words, all the seated summoning magicians rose to their feet in congratulations. A subtle joy flickered in Professor Millei’s eyes. The seniors, seeing their teacher’s response, sighed in relief.

“There is still much to improve. That magic, too, was merely copying mine. Soon he must make his own unique magic.”

“No need to rush. For a young magician of that level, he’ll find his path soon enough.”

‘He’s our teacher, but isn’t he a bit much sometimes?’

‘Tell me about it.’

The seniors, watching their teacher still claim the student was lacking, just shook their heads.

This was going too far!

Bang!

“Just now, some magician used that fog—”

“Ah. This is the magician who impressed us so much.”

“We are touched.”

Lee Han, who had been about to burst out in anger, immediately sized up the mood from Professor Millei and the magicians around her.

“…Thanks to your timely fog, I was able to overcome a crisis.”

“Not at all. I never held back my hand. Hahaha!”

‘…Wasn’t that junior angry just now? Was it my imagination?’

“Impossible!!”

“!?”

Just when it seemed the commotion was over, a huge shout rang out from behind.

The golem-summoning magicians were staring at Lee Han in shock.

“He wasn’t a black magician!?”

“Then how did he control that golem… No… both… the paper bird… how…?!”

“Hey, you guys…”

The summoners by Professor Millei frowned.

Confidence was one thing, but this was extremely rude behavior in someone else’s territory.

“No! Please, wait a moment! He controlled a golem! A golem! I saw it with my own two eyes!”

“He can control golems! He really can, and expertly…”

The other summoners, not knowing what was going on, frowned, thinking the golem specialists were spouting nonsense.

Why pester a first-year already exhausted from controlling paper birds?

Catching the mood, Lee Han whispered to Professor Millei.

“Professor, I think you should step in.”

“You’re right, Lee Han.”

Professor Millei adjusted her monocle and spoke up.

“Let’s have a demonstration of golem control as well.”

“……”