Episode 467

The Skeleton Principal was genuinely flustered.

Among all the exams the professors had mentioned, there had definitely been no Sairen involved.

Who was it?

“It was on Lightningstep Professor’s test…”

Professor Lightningstep wouldn’t have given such an unreasonable test to first-years.

‘Then what about you, Principal…’

The students were left speechless at the Skeleton Principal’s self-confession of being a piece of trash.

Ah!

The Skeleton Principal felt a flash of realization cross his mind.

-If you haven’t decided on your test content yet, crank the difficulty up several times! Avenge my Tanjuo’s grudge!

Hadn’t he himself gone around egging people to make the tests harder?

Besides, with the test areas flooded due to the spirit flood, it wouldn’t have been weird for Professor Lightningstep to both raise the difficulty and change the content.

Still, who would have thought it would overlap like this.

Well, wizards do tend to think alike.

“?”

“I don’t think that’s it…”

Doesn’t matter. Sairen’s usually hard to deal with even if you know in advance.

-Master, the Sairens are running away.

?!

At the Death Knight’s words, the Skeleton Principal turned his head.

The Sairens had been pointing and whispering when they saw Lee Han’s face, then turned and fled quickly.

……

“……”

Both teacher and students watched the retreating Sairens with twisted expressions.

• * *

“Q-quick.”

“W…wait, hold on. My hands are too frozen to move.”

Now that the Sairens had left, the students took the chance to pour boiling coffee into tin cups.

Even though Lee Han had enthusiastically cast on everyone, repeatedly diving in such cold weather was no easy task.

It hadn’t even been an hour, but everyone’s stamina was dropping rapidly and the cold was becoming unbearable.

The only consolation was that they could make a fire and had brought coffee grounds and tea leaves.

As the boiling coffee went down his throat, Gainando felt warmth spread through his body and his frozen fingers loosen.

Gainando muttered to himself.

“Maybe this is what a picnic is all about…”

“Are you nuts?”

“You trying to say weird things after drinking expensive coffee?”

“N-no. I just… trying to see the positive in any situation…”

While Gainando was being scolded, a few students—White Tiger Tower and Black Turtle Tower students with crazy stamina, and Lee Han who was just crazy for grades—were still getting ready to reenter the water.

“Haha, Wardanaz… you should just give up. Maybe you’re good at swordsmanship, but you’ll never match our knight’s training.”

‘Isn’t it weird to gloss over swordsmanship if you’re from White Tiger Tower?’

A Black Turtle Tower student listening on the side thought that to himself.

If you’re White Tiger Tower, you should compete with swordsmanship—saying “maybe not that”…?

Lee Han replied with an indifferent face.

“Whatever you say, I’m going in again.”

“F-fine! Let’s compete, then!”

White Tiger Tower students’ enthusiasm burned, thinking this was a test of their stamina.

Of course, Lee Han didn’t care about their competition.

‘I’ll keep looking until time’s up.’

After all this suffering, he was determined to get first place, if only to avoid feeling it was all for nothing.

Splash!

The students dove into the water again. Lee Han checked his underwater breathing and dark vision magic, then dove down skillfully.

Just how long had it been since the school was flooded that he’d gotten this good at diving?

‘Maybe trials really do make people grow.’

As Lee Han was having these pointless thoughts, someone approached him.

Tap tap—

“!?”

Lee Han, startled, aimed his staff. The other party, also startled, frantically gestured not to cast a spell.

-♩♪! ♩♪♪!

-Setting a trap like that… Pretending to leave just to ambush me!

The Sairen, eyes blazing with anger, quickly scribbled on a slate tablet.

Sonsab…

-Ah. Wait. Don’t tell me you stayed to help?

Looking closely, it was the same Sairen who had played boatman against the Mac.

And she showed no intention to attack. Lee Han wondered.

Nod—

The Sairen nodded up and down. Even so, her eyes were full of resentment and scorn.

She stayed to repay the favor from last time with Mac, and she gets doubted like this…

-Sorry. Living in Einrogard makes you unable to trust anyone.

At Lee Han’s words, the Sairen folded her arms and thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

She admitted even in her eyes, Einrogard’s students had grown quite harsh.

Wiggle wiggle—

The Sairen beckoned him to follow.

Having watched the Skeleton Principal at work, she knew where the most precious treasure was hidden.

‘That way.’

As she pointed, Lee Han hesitated and asked.

-Would you mind going first? Not that I don’t trust you.

-……

The Sairen, finding it truly disgusting and petty, resolved to repay her debt quickly and never have anything to do with this boy again.

• * *

Passing between the submerged tower pillars and dodging sudden jets of deep-sea hydrothermal water, the Sairen’s destination came into view.

Seeing the tangled wooden palisade debris making access difficult, Lee Han was aghast.

‘Did he really put it here for us to find?’

It seemed more like the Skeleton Principal wanted to say afterward, “I put it here and you couldn’t find it? What a bore.”

It was obviously not meant to be found.

Tap tap tap!

The Sairen, seemingly in a bad mood, slapped her fin on the floor.

It meant: Let’s grab what we need and split up.

‘The Principal’s nonsense must have put her in a bad mood.’

Lee Han approached the floor thinking this. He then sensed familiar magic.

Wooooong—

The Skeleton Principal’s magic, forming a delicate structure to protect the treasure, left Lee Han speechless.

If he put it here, could he at least not set up a barrier too?

‘A truly insane person.’

Lee Han clicked his tongue and focused his magic.

He could swear all he wanted, but it still needed to be disabled…

As Baldororn had taught him, he loaded up his magic and blasted it as a breaker against the barrier.

Bang!

The Sairen looked at Lee Han as if to say, “What are you doing?”

She was no professional mage, but as a being of spirit blood with high intelligence and after living long in Einrogard, she knew enough about magic.

And what Lee Han was doing was definitely not the usual way to break through a barrier.

What a brute-force approach…

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

But as Lee Han repeatedly hammered away with his magical battering ram, the Sairen’s expression changed.

As absurd as the brute-force method was, if he could keep it up this many times…

-Hm. Doesn’t work after all.

Lee Han regretfully gave up.

The Skeleton Principal had carefully tweaked it to withstand external shocks.

-Why are you looking at me like that?

Puzzled, Lee Han looked at the Sairen.

She was staring dazed, as if entranced.

-♪♬♩! ♪♬!

‘…She better not be trying to charm me now.’

Lee Han looked away, thinking Sairen would be furious if she heard that.

Meanwhile, the Sairen snapped out of shock and finally offered proper advice.

Don’tbruteforceit—usethisweaklinkbelow…

‘Ah. Must not be a mage if she doesn’t realize how impressive what I just did was.’

Lee Han was once again reminded that Sairen wasn’t a mage.

To call what Baldororn had taught “brute force”…

‘But she’s right about the direction.’

Carefully examining the area the Sairen pointed to, Lee Han realized she was right.

It was a tiny detail, but the magic at the bottom ring was weaker.

In most magic, this would be a structural weakness.

-It does feel weaker here.

-?

The Sairen stared at Lee Han as if to say, “What nonsense is that?”

In theory, all magic has weaknesses, but high mage spells would hide even those.

The only reason the Sairen knew them was because she’d watched the Skeleton Principal cast it—she couldn’t sense the difference in magic at all.

-He must have reinforced the inside with wooden elements.

Lee Han sensed branches entangled throughout the barrier magic. Seemed they were arranged to distribute and absorb force at the weak point.

The Sairen nodded, agreeing with Lee Han’s analysis, and started drawing hard on the slate.

She explained starting from the weakened ring, the order of interlinking magic lines to unlock it.

But Lee Han simply generated fire and set the structure ablaze.

-!!!!!

In a silent scream, the Sairen hurled her slate and sent a whirl of water to try and put out the fire.

But, as expected of a fire started underwater, it didn’t go out easily. The Sairen had to draw on her spirit power to finally put it out before the flames spread.

-♪↘♪♪↗♪!

Whatever it meant, it was clear the Sairen was angry. Lee Han apologized.

-I thought since it was made with wood element, if I set it on fire, it’d break right away.

Youreallythinkthatwouldwork!!!

-It did, though…

-……

The Sairen stared at what was left of the burnt barrier.

Usually, with the spirit-fueled flooding and the barrier’s resistance, it ought to have been hard to burn—should have just gone out.

But the flames this wizard conjured were so powerful they burnt it all up.

If the Sairen hadn’t hurried to put it out, the treasure inside would have burned too.

Tap tap tap!

To explain just how clumsy Lee Han had been, the Sairen filled the slate with rows of writing.

Feeling she was truly angry, Lee Han adopted a repentant attitude.

‘I probably could have controlled it anyway, even if I left it alone.’

He thought this, but stayed silent.

Honestly, unlike other magic, Lee Han still didn’t feel confident with fire elemental spells.

• * *

Whoosh—

Since Lee Han came up last, his friends ran over with curiosity.

“Did you find anything?”

“Ah. Wait a sec.”

Because he’d been fussing with the Sairen, he hadn’t even checked what the treasure was.

Lee Han opened the box and read the note inside.

Outing pass.

“Nothing special.”

“…!!!!”

“!!!!!!”

-!!!!!!

Even the Death Knight beside them was shocked.

To be so nonchalant about an outing pass…

Was this really a first-year student?!

‘How can this be??’

The Skeleton Principal, who’d been harassing the other students, heard the commotion and swooped over.

What’s going on?

-Master. A student found the outing pass…

What? Found that?

The Skeleton Principal was stunned.

He’d planned to tease them later with “How couldn’t you find this, when it was here?” but to see it actually found—

And you, why did you find that?

“……”

“……”

The students fell silent as the Skeleton Principal scolded Lee Han without even asking who it was.

“I didn’t say I found it.”

So you’re saying you didn’t?

“I did, but…”

Thought so.

The Skeleton Principal grumbled and snatched the box from Lee Han’s hand.

-Aren’t you curious how I found it?

No point asking, it’ll just annoy me. Did you threaten a Sairen to get it?

The Skeleton Principal answered gruffly, not realizing he’d hit the truth without meaning to.

-That’s a bit much…

Do you not understand a joke? A joke?

-S-sorry.

Anyway, looks like everything’s been found, so on to the next event.

“There’s more?!”

“When does this end?!”

The Skeleton Principal silenced the students.

Talent show. Show a magic that fits the picnic, each of you.

“Hm.”

Wardanaz, full marks for you. Just go sit over there.

“What…”

Even being left out like this reminded Lee Han that maybe, this too was part of a picnic experience.