Episode 506

Lee Han watched in bewilderment as the dwarf wizard bustled away, but then something occurred to him.

‘Wait…!’

This was no time to be moping over being pickpocketed—or rather, pocketed.

“Professor. You have to move now!”

“?”

Lee Han quickly started ushering Professor Voladi along.

Thanks to the harsh training at Einrogard, he could predict other transmutation wizards’ actions.

‘We need to get out of here!’

“What’s going on?”

“I have some questions about magical combat! Not something I should ask here, let’s go somewhere outsiders can’t follow!”

At the words “magical combat,” Professor Voladi seemed quite interested and compliantly followed.

As Lee Han took a side stairway down a corridor to evade being tracked by outsiders, he heard voices murmuring behind them.

-Huh? I think they went this way…

-Hold on. Why did you come down here? Weren’t you acting above it all just a moment ago?

-Haha, let’s not point fingers. We’re all in this together!

-Ugh… Fine! Let’s talk together, then!

‘I’m really glad I learned divination magic.’

Thanks to his divination practice, he managed to escape from the crazy wizards. Lee Han secretly thanked Professor Craer.

Of course, this had nothing to do with divination magic.

• * *

Ahsan, who had packed his bag for the dark magic lecture, looked at Lee Han’s face with curiosity.

“Hey, Gral. Lee Han seems a bit off.”

“Wardanaz has always been odd. And don’t pretend to be friendly. Don’t poke him with your staff either.”

Raphadael grew irritated and knocked away Ahsan’s staff.

Usually, when the other Blue Dragon Tower students said, “Hey, don’t talk to me,” it meant, “What? How dare you be so rude?” and ended conversation. But this prince just ignored it and said whatever he wanted anyway.

“He looks tired, doesn’t he?”

“Of course he’s tired. He studies magic like crazy, how could he not be?”

“No, he was usually fine with that much.”

“……”

‘Is he really my friend?’

Raphadael eyed Ahsan strangely.

If your friend was working that hard at magic, you should at least urge him to take care of his health instead of “He’s usually fine with that much.”

He couldn’t tell if it was something coming out of his mouth or just a noise from his beak.

“Are you o-okay?”

“Hm? Oh. I was busy greeting the transmutation wizards from outside.”

“I see.”

Imirg, who had nodded, suddenly sensed something odd.

‘Huh?’

He hadn’t heard anything about transmutation wizards coming from outside, and it was weird that Wardanaz was apparently the one greeting them.

And more than anything, today wasn’t even a day with a transmutation class!

“The transmutation wizards came? Why were you greeting them?”

Raphadael seemed to think the same and asked.

Ahsan replied, looking at his friend like he was pathetic.

“You don’t get it? Last time the summoners came, last time the dark wizards came, Lee Han was the one who greeted them. It’s the same with the transmutation wizards.”

“…No… Wait… Hey! Hey!!”

As Ahsan finished his nonsense and entered the lecture hall, Raphadael nearly grabbed his own neck in frustration.

It was so absurd that he couldn’t decide where to start arguing, and in the meantime, the guy just left.

This prince truly had a special talent for driving people nuts.

“Good day, Professor.”

Cough “Yes. Good job. I heard you completed an outside request?”

Maybe having heard about the request, Professor Mortum coughed and gestured for Lee Han to sit.

“Yes. The other professors were with me, so it wasn’t that much trouble.”

Lee Han replied glibly, not even wetting his lips. It was almost an instinct.

You could never know how professors would talk about you when you weren’t there—caution was best.

“It wasn’t that much trouble? Cough Lucky for you. In the future, it will be trouble.”

“……”

“……”

His friends looked horrified, but Lee Han found himself agreeing with Professor Mortum.

‘That counts as warm and kindly concern.’

Given the difficulty of the last request, by second year they’d probably be sent alone to hunt dragons and bring back change.

Cough, cough… “Anyway, requests from outside are a hassle since you have to meet the hiring party’s standard of silver. And you all are… well, dark wizards.”

“……”

“……”

His friends’ faces darkened.

If seniors were present, surely someone would beg, “Please, professor, we’ll find out in second year anyway, can you keep your mouth shut?” But Professor Mortum just said it plainly.

After all, dark magic requests were harder than those given to other schools.

While the enchantment magic students got, “Could you please fix our broken artifact?” the reality for the dark magic school was, “There’s an outbreak in the southern plague zone—please send some dark wizards.”

“Uh, but wouldn’t there be demand if you were good at making golems or summons?”

Ahsan, pulling a bone from his bag, asked, full of doubt.

Indeed, Lee Han had told him this last time:

-Lee Han. Why study stuff like bone armor enhancement? No one’s going to ask for that.

-Ahsan, you must not know. Bone armor reinforcement is all the rage with adventurers lately. They all beg to have it done.

-Really?! What about bone spear enhancement?

-Of course. There are so few dark wizards it’s even a scarce market.

-What about skeleton-type summons or golems?! Are those popular too?

-That’s the most popular of all. I’ve been told among nobles, there are few things you can boast about like a bone golem.

-Never heard that before?

-It’s because they’re embarrassed they can’t get bone golems, so they pretend not to care.

-Ah!

Cough “Those golems and summons are only used by dark wizards. Why would the normal public want such hideous things?”

-…???

Ahsan looked at Lee Han as though his world had collapsed, but Lee Han pretended not to hear.

“Don’t think about selling weird stuff. Just improve your skills so you can handle any request. Cough Everyone, get your bones out.”

The students took out their bones.

They were currently practicing magic to further reinforce undead-type summons after summoning them.

Cough “Wardanaz, go practice dark element over there.”

Lee Han no longer reacted with surprise or confusion.

‘Well, I have practiced undead reinforcement more than enough by now.’

He had done it many times successfully, so there was no need to repeat it now.

“Professor, aren’t the seniors here today?”

In response to Ahsan’s question, Professor Mortum soothed his throat with hot tea and replied.

“They have their own studies… You all should be able to handle this much on your own.”

‘Makes sense.’

Lee Han understood.

And in the long run, this was good for him too.

Given the dark magic school’s lack of personnel, Lee Han might have to look after first-years even as a second-year.

‘You need to know which spells to handle yourself. Good point.’

Also, since last time he had almost bumped into Senior Direte trying to anonymously collect info beyond his notes, it was probably best to keep some distance for a while.

People do have a sense of shame, after all.

‘Unless you’re the skeleton headmaster, it must be embarrassing.’

“……”

“……”

Following Professor Mortum’s directions, Lee Han went through the side door and paused at the sight of Direte wearing a mask.

Huh?

“Professor? I thought the seniors weren’t here?”

Cough “That just goes for bone magic… You think I’d make you practice dark element alone?”

Professor Mortum rebuked Lee Han in an annoyed tone.

How could someone at Wardanaz’s level ask such a stupid question—he wasn’t Ahsan.

When practicing dark element magic, it was only natural to have a supervising dark wizard nearby.

“R-right.”

“Hurry up and practice. I’ll be checking your dark element work in the finals.”

Ahsan asked in alarm,

“Us too?!”

Cough “No. Only Wardanaz.”

“Whew. Thank goodness.”

“……”

“……”

Imirg and Raphadael looked at Ahsan like garbage.

Lee Han turned his attention to Direte in the mask.

“Uh, senior.”

“Nope.”

“Pardon?”

“Not your senior. I’m someone you’re meeting for the first time.”

Lee Han turned to the masked, unfamiliar crow beast-wizard.

“Ah… Pleased to meet you, dark wizard I’m meeting for the first time. Please teach me about dark element magic…”

“…Let’s have a good session…”

In this awkward atmosphere, the dark element lecture began.

• * *

The unfamiliar crow beast-wizard’s skill was outstanding.

“The dark element is one of the most unique and alien among the various elements.”

“That’s right.”

“So you need to be extra careful when handling it. It’s better to combine it with other schools rather than using it alone. Especially with transmutation or enchantment magic, even just temporarily infusing it…”

Direte started with basics about dark element magic.

Even though Lee Han received direct lessons from other professors or even the skeleton headmaster, Direte wasn’t the type to skip such foundational parts.

“But senior.”

“…Wait. Told you, not your senior.”

“Ah… dark wizard I’m meeting for the first time.”

Lee Han pointed behind them and asked,

“What’s that?”

Behind the unfamiliar crow beast-wizard, there were large straw dolls.

One wouldn’t think much of a single one, but a bunch of similar straw dolls standing there so ominously was hard to ignore.

“Ah. Those are practice straw dolls.”

“Do you discharge the dark element into them?”

Since he’d done basic elemental training with Professor Voladi, it was hardly surprising.

Of course, Professor Voladi used living people instead of straw dolls, but that wasn’t a huge difference.

“Discharge…? It’s more like imbuing… We’re making curse dolls.”

“Curse dolls, you say?”

Sensing concern in Lee Han’s voice, the unfamiliar crow beast-wizard spoke faster and lengthier.

“It’s not something we use in sketchy ways. It’s actually a standard method for learning to use the dark element.”

Due to its nature, the dark element was used more for granting or transformation than direct transformation or discharge.

One of the most common practical spell applications was the dark curse doll.

Just by tightly infusing a straw doll with the dark element, it becomes a cursed item that saps the owner’s vitality.

Dark wizards who mastered this technique could make cursed items out of all sorts of everyday objects.

“Understand? It’s definitely not a weird or illegal magic under imperial law. Junior. Are you listening?”

“Did you just call me ‘junior’…”

“You misheard. Now, focus.”