Episode 431

Professor Garcia tried to defend Professor Verdus out of a sense of conscience, but the skull principal didn’t care.

If not that guy, then who? Could the students have come in and taken it? Bible is definitely the culprit. I swear on my skull I’ll get this bastard tossed into the punishment room!

“……”

Well then! Take care of yourself, Professor Garcia. Don’t neglect your health like you did as a student.

As the skull principal whizzed away outside, Professor Garcia let out a deep sigh.

It was a short time, but she had been so nervous that sweat was running down her spine.

“Hurry up and come out, all of you! Why on earth did you come into the professors’ lounge!”

Professor Garcia pulled the students out of the closet one by one.

Priest Tijilling asked worriedly.

“What if Professor Verdus gets in trouble because of us…”

Lee Han answered in her stead.

“It’s fine. Professor Verdus will understand.”

“…??”

Priest Tijilling was a bit flustered by Lee Han answering instead of the professor she’d asked.

Huh?

“How do you know that?”

“Priest Tijilling. It may be embarrassing for me to say this myself, but I’m one of Professor Verdus’s closest students. I can easily tell what she’s thinking. Professor Verdus will understand.”

“…R-really…?”

As Priest Tijilling hesitated, not really understanding, Professor Garcia hurriedly cut in.

“Lee Han is right. The professor will understand.”

Truthfully, Professor Garcia had no idea if Professor Verdus would really understand, but now was not the time to make a fuss about that.

She needed to get the students out of the lounge as quickly as possible.

“Hurry and go down, all of you. And never come to the professors’ lounge again!”

“Even if we don’t get caught?”

“…Student Lee Han, you and I will talk privately later. Oh, right.”

Professor Garcia turned, as if she had almost forgotten something.

“Take the items you packed just now with you as well. You went to the trouble of getting them.”

As she handed over an armful of waterproofed fabric, sea-stones, and scrolls, Lee Han was taken aback.

“But, Professor, from what I heard, I don’t think I can actually use these yet…”

“Learn to use them. Nobody knew how at first.”

“Professor, are you perhaps angry I came into the lounge?”

• * *

Finally back at the tower, the students let out a sigh of relief.

Priest Nigisor and Priest Siana whispered excitedly, still unable to calm down.

“That was really wonderful!”

“Are we going again tomorrow?!”

“…Ah, no. I have to study tomorrow.”

“Then what about the day after tomorrow??”

“I have work the day after.”

Priest Siana’s expression was colored with disappointment.

Lee Han felt apologetic and said,

“If you need a guide for night walks, I have other friends. I’ll introduce you.”

“That…! I didn’t think of that.”

Priest Siana nodded her jaw as if she hadn’t thought of that in the first place.

It wasn’t like only Lee Han could take them out.

“We should recommend it to other priests in the tower too.”

“It’ll be just fine if we go together.”

The priests figured there was no harm in going out together since the death knights had been so kind to them.

Priest Tijilling, who had been listening, gingerly tugged on Lee Han’s sleeve.

“What’s up? Ah.”

Lee Han looked at Priest Tijilling as if he understood.

“You want to go together, but you’re embarrassed.”

“…No.”

For once, Priest Tijilling nearly lost her composure.

“It’s not that, it’s about the box…”

“Oh, that.”

Lee Han took the small bronze box from his pile of belongings.

It was the potion box with the small cauldron engraving that the skull principal had been looking for.

“I’ve been worrying about this box all along.”

Priest Tijilling let out a soft sigh as she spoke.

Lee Han looked at her knowingly.

“I’ve been wondering how to use this box to get the most benefit during the flood too.”

“…I meant, shouldn’t we return it to the principal…”

“The problem is how to use it.”

Lee Han fell into deep thought.

Given what the skull principal had said, this potion box was certainly an item that could further trouble students during the flood.

Increase the water volume, change the current’s direction…

“Or maybe it could poison the water.”

“…No, definitely not that.”

Priest Tijilling replied absentmindedly.

No matter how bad it got, she couldn’t imagine that the water could actually be poisoned.

At that point, it wouldn’t just be the principal, but a truly mad mage.

“Really? I thought it was a real possibility.”

Lee Han said, disappointed, as he grabbed the lid to the bronze potion box.

He’d already done what tests he could, so he decided to open it directly.

Click!

Fortunately, opening the box didn’t trigger any curse the skull principal might have put on it.

Inside were ordinary potions.

“Potions… huh.”

“Well, it’s a box for storing potions.”

“I’ve never seen these ingredients before. Priest Siana?”

Priest Siana, who had been making plans with the other priests for their night walk, turned at his call.

“What is it? I’m making plans right now, can’t it wait…”

“I just wondered if you might know what these ingredients are. I figured a priest as skilled in alchemy as you might. If you’re busy that’s fine…”

Priest Siana threw down her quill and paper and rushed over.

After looking inside the potion box, she was amazed.

“These are the horns of the Tanjuo (Boat-Swallowing Fish)!”

“!”

Tanjuo.

As the name ‘swallows boats’ implies, it was a giant sea monster reminiscent of a whale.

Of course, it wouldn’t have such a name if all it had was its whale-like size.

The Tanjuo was a monster with abnormally strong otherworldly blood—like that of a demon or a spirit—able to control ocean storms at will and move through waves and clouds.

And the Tanjuo’s horn…

“I’ve only ever read about it in books. It’s really rare in real life…”

“What? How expensive is it?”

Assuming Lee Han’s question was a joke, Priest Siana ignored it and continued.

“The entire power of the Tanjuo is contained in the horn. Just with this horn, you can summon a Tanjuo. Even if it’s only its spirit form…”

Even if it wasn’t its original body of flesh and bone, a monster the size of a Tanjuo could wield formidable might.

Lee Han started to understand what the skull principal was thinking.

“The rest of these are summoning ingredients too. Summoning the Tanjuo…”

Priests Siana and Tijilling nodded at the same time.

It was obvious the principal would torment the students by controlling wind and rain.

“…She probably planned to attack the tower where the students are gathered.”

“???”

“…Huh? That far?”

“Isn’t it possible?”

Lee Han closed the box as he spoke.

The priests were too good-hearted and underestimated the skull principal’s malice, but Lee Han didn’t.

When the rain poured down, visibility would shrink.

There was no telling if death knights sent by the skull principal would ride the Tanjuo and attack the tower.

“But that’s not what’s important.”

“That’s true. What matters is that the box is in our hands.”

“Ah. That is important, but… what I meant was, after we alert the other towers to prepare for the flood, let’s get ready to sell this fabric.”

“……”

“……”

“We can do it together, right? By the way, Priest Siana, can I ask a little more about summoning the Tanjuo?”

“The summoning itself isn’t difficult. All the ingredients are here, and as long as you follow the steps correctly, it should work.”

“No, I meant how expensive is it… thanks anyway.”

Now that he thought about it, selling it would be pretty hard.

Even if he took it outside and sold it, could they really keep it secret from the skull principal?

“Oh, Lord Wardanaz, there’s one more issue.”

“What’s that?”

“It’ll use up a lot of magical power. That’s all right, isn’t it?”

“……”

Lee Han felt a little sad that his friends so naturally thought of him as a walking reservoir of magic power.

• * *

As the skull principal came in to conduct the lecture and heard the students murmuring, wrinkles formed on the skull.

-So, you’re saying a flood is really coming.

-In this weather? It’s not flood weather.

-But that Wardanaz guy never lies about this sort of thing.

-So what do we do?

-First, let’s make a raft. Can you get more wood?

-The Black Turtle Tower guys keep driving up the price. We might have to offer some of our stored meat.

-Vile fiends! Trying to profit from a friend’s misfortune!

Getting swept up in a fake rumor about a flood. Do you even call yourselves Einrogard students?

“!”

“!!!”

The first-year students’ eyes widened at the principal’s rebuke.

Then they started whispering again.

“There really is going to be a flood!”

“This is crazy…! I honestly thought it wouldn’t happen!”

……

The skull principal realized the mistake and clicked his tongue inwardly.

Unlike other grades, the Wardanaz boy had already gained strong influence throughout all four towers.

Like it or not, there weren’t many who would ignore the boy’s words.

Especially in direct opposition to the skull principal!

‘Just like a student of Verdus, how infuriating.’

The skull principal floated away, full of rude and insulting thoughts.

Do whatever you like. The only ones who’ll suffer for it are yourselves.

“Hey. It’s really a flood.”

“I’d bet my family name on it.”

Silence.

An anti-eavesdropping spell fell on the clueless students.

The skull principal looked around and asked,

Where did we get last time? Did we finish, ‘I will not mug and rob guests from outside’?

“Yes! Principal!”

‘If I absolutely had to mug and rob a guest, then I will disguise myself well so as not to get caught’—did you do that too?

“Yes! Principal!”

Did you? You’re progressing fast. Then today, I’ll bring out the teaching materials.

With a snap, the sound of death knights hurrying down the corridor could be heard.

The students quickly tensed at the sound.

Some hid under the long table, while others flocked to Lee Han’s side.

“Wa-Wardanaz. What kind of monster is coming? What kind of monster?”

“Be quiet. You’re making it hard to relax.”

The door opened and the death knights entered.

But, contrary to the students’ fears, there was no monster attack.

The person in the midst of the death knights was a normal wizard.

“???”

“What the…”

Begin.

The wizard cleared his throat and began to speak.

“Beloved juniors, I’m sure you’re all thinking this right now.”

“!!”

Lee Han was appalled by the greeting.

Amazingly, the person was a graduate of Einrogard!

‘What the…!?’

It was the first time many of the students had ever met someone senior to them, and they looked at the wizard with great curiosity.

“I am studying at Einrogard, the Empire’s finest magic school. So I’m the best in the Empire. I can do whatever I want. I can steal village livestock for my transformation magic experiments, and borrow the city guild’s funds for alchemy if I feel like it.”

“……”

All the first-years frowned.

None of them had ever thought that way.

“That is a really big misunderstanding, my juniors. If you fall into that delusion, without realizing it, you’ll slip into evil crimes and end up with a bounty on your head in the Empire.”

That’s why you shouldn’t go experimenting after stealing other people’s stuff!

“Principal, please… this is in front of the juniors…”

There’s no saving face for someone caught. Fine, I’ll say no more.

The skull principal grumbled but fell silent.

While the senior wizard was going on about, ‘how did I forget the glorious opportunity of Einrogard and fall into crime,’ Lee Han was thinking—

‘Maybe this senior left something behind in the school before graduation?’