Episode 528

“Isn’t something strange going on?”

Priest Tijilling, tilting his head, asked the professor.

The unusual shine in Lee Han’s eyes had not disappeared, even as time passed.

Professor Paselete, seeming to realize this, looked at Lee Han with a hint of embarrassment.

“…Are you alright?”

Lee Han did not answer. He only stared silently at empty space as if there were something there.

Realizing her disciple was peering into the future with enhanced foresight, Professor Paselete muttered in a troubled voice.

“This isn’t good…”

“What isn’t good!?”

Realizing how serious things were, Priest Tijilling’s voice became urgent.

“It’s supposed to last only a few seconds, but when it goes on this long… It means the future being seen is that much longer.”

People who knew nothing thought peeking into the future was a casual matter, but the more experienced prediction mages were, the more careful they were.

Peeking into the future meant confirming one of countless possibilities.

From the moment you confirm it, that possibility becomes a powerful destiny that pulls the mage in.

In a way, a prediction mage who peers into the future becomes a puppet of fate.

If one only glimpsed brief fragments of the future, it was relatively safe, but with enhanced foresight, it was another story.

They could end up seeing much more concrete and varied futures, becoming bound by them.

And she knew from before that this disciple’s foresight was exceptional.

“Then… break the prediction!”

Priest Tijilling shouted louder than he ever had.

In contrast, Professor Paselete’s voice grew even weaker.

“His magic power… is so strong… external intervention is…”

“……”

Priest Tijilling was momentarily confused, but after desperately thinking it over, he figured it out.

So it meant she couldn’t intervene because the Wardanaz boy’s resistance was too high?

“Then isn’t there any other way?!”

“Except to wait…”

“How long?! No, why is the effect lasting so long in the first place!”

“…Because his talent is too exceptional…?”

Professor Paselete called for her other personalities to come out, but they were all completely silent.

The personalities that just now had been gladly approving when she let her disciple drink from the spring were now keeping their mouths shut at the hint of trouble.

“Is it possible for it to last longer just because someone’s talented?”

“Generally, it’s almost impossible, so I hadn’t considered it…”

Thud—

Lee Han, who had been staring into space, now lowered and then raised his head.

Then he slowly spoke.

“I know now.”

“…???”

“Wait! I don’t know what you’re thinking, but what you’re thinking isn’t necessarily the absolute truth!”

Professor Paselete tried to stop her disciple.

Usually, mages deeply lost in prediction believed only the future they saw was the answer, and acted with unshakable conviction.

But it was only one possibility, and overconfidence wouldn’t help…

“Professor. I already know what I must do.”

Lee Han’s voice was calm, but within it was a fanatical conviction not typically seen in him.

Professor Paselete was crushed.

Her student was about to experience the same things that so many mages before had already gone through.

“Think carefully. Why won’t you trust the words of a mage with more experience and talent than you?”

“Professors always deceive us.”

“……”

Unable to object, Professor Paselete fell silent.

“Priest Tijilling. Let’s go. There’s something we must do.”

“Ah, yes.”

The Wardanaz boy always had a strong presence, but now, bound to the future, it was even more overwhelming.

In a tone that allowed no objections, Priest Tijilling unconsciously straightened his posture.

• * *

The White Tiger Tower students stood before the work golem, actively exchanging opinions.

“So Raphadael, why can’t you get this thing working?”

“…I told you, just learning dark magic doesn’t mean you can control all golems!”

“Then why do you even learn dark magic if you can’t—urk!”

“Hold him back! Hold him back!”

As the enraged Raphadael grabbed a friend by the collar, the White Tiger Tower students hurriedly jumped in to break up the fight.

“We have to get that golem moving somehow. The workload is just too much.”

“Yeah. Why else did we learn magic? This is exactly when you use it.”

Their assigned task this week was cleaning out the enormous warehouse on the west side of the main building.

The items stored inside were construction materials like giant stones for the fortress wall—much too time-consuming to move by hand.

This was a case where magic was needed, but for first-year students, it was simply too much to handle on their own.

Their best shot was the excavated golem from before, but even that wasn’t easy to activate or control…

“I’m telling you, let’s just call Wardanaz. I’ve got his payment ready too.”

“Ugh. Finals are coming up and we need to save money. If we want to hire Wardanaz when studying for finals, that takes more money…”

“……”

Raphadael debated whether to criticize his friends for calling food rations ‘money’ or for planning to hire Wardanaz for their final exam prep.

“Why isn’t this thing working? I poured in a lot of magic power…”

“Try amplifying it more.”

“What if it breaks?”

“As if it’d break from something like that? Even Wardanaz’s magic power didn’t overload it…”

Tap tap—

Arriving at the scene of the White Tiger Tower students surrounding the golem, Lee Han tapped the ground lightly with his staff.

The White Tiger Tower students flinched in surprise.

“W-Wardanaz!”

“What brings you here?”

“Did someone call you?”

Regardless of their confusion, Lee Han looked around calmly and said,

“Come with me.”

“…?”

“????”

Without saying more, Lee Han spun and strode off.

Agitated, the White Tiger Tower students shouted after him.

“Hey, Wardanaz! At least give us an explanation!”

“Yeah! Do you think we’ll just go along just because you say so? Is that how you see us?!”

Even as they yelled, the students hurried to follow behind Lee Han.

“……”

Priest Tijilling, at Lee Han’s side, looked at the students in bewilderment.

‘But… they’re following?’

From what they said, it sounded like refusals, yet they were following…

• * *

“Tutanta. Do you have any idea why Wardanaz is acting like this?”

“No, Moradi. I was going to ask you the same.”

Students from the various towers, gathered at night, discussed their confusion.

Lee Han had knocked on their doors with a stern face telling them to follow, so they came, but were curious about the reason.

Yawning, Gainando looked at the other tower leaders and asked,

“So what, you guys don’t know either?”

“Yeah. Prince, do you know anything?”

“Nope. I don’t either. Wait, if you guys don’t know either… are you here for the same reason I am?”

“What same reason?”

Giselle didn’t understand and asked.

Was Gainando implying he had another reason for being here?

Since he was close to Wardanaz, maybe he’d heard something.

“Aren’t you here so you don’t get in trouble with Lee Han?”

“……”

“……”

“Ah, isn’t that it?”

When the two angry friends prepared to attack, Gainando quickly retreated behind the Blue Dragon Tower students.

He didn’t know it, but what he just said had hit closer to home than he realized.

Normally, these two would never have obeyed such an out-of-the-blue command.

They had been overwhelmed by the force of personality from the changed Lee Han!

Realizing this thanks to Gainando’s remark, the two flushed with embarrassment.

“Excuse me, I have something to say.”

“?”

Priest Tijilling called them over.

He spoke with a cautious look so no other students could overhear.

“Right now, Wardanaz-nim’s condition is… not normal.”

“…I knew it!”

“I actually figured as much.”

“???”

Priest Tijilling was confused by their response.

“How… did you know?”

“Priest, I’ve worked in a guild for years. You can tell just by looking at his face if he’s normal.”

‘What does that have to do with anything?’

“Priest, I’m from a knight family of the northern lands, raised among swords. I can tell someone’s state just from their eyes.”

‘Do knights have such abilities?’

Priest Tijilling was puzzled, but that wasn’t the important part.

“Understood. Since you both were aware, this will make things easier.”

He gave a brief explanation of Lee Han’s current state.

Salko, who feared Wardanaz had botched a summoning and lost his consciousness to a spirit or demon, asked in shock,

“So, he’s in a kind of awakened state…? Bound to a future he saw?”

“Something like that. He said he’s focusing all of his mind on making the future he saw come true.”

As Priest Tijilling explained, Yoner approached with a gloomy face.

“I tried to make him drink puke potion, but he refused.”

“It won’t work. If his foresight gets suppressed now, it would interfere with fulfilling the future. By the way, Meikin. These two already knew.”

“What? Really?”

Yoner looked at them in surprise.

How could they have already known?

“…Not exactly. It was just a guess.”

“That’s not important now. So, Meikin, what about making him drink the puke potion by force?”

“Can that even work…?”

Yoner tilted his head.

Their friend was already overwhelmingly strong, but now he had an extra edge of sharp foresight.

He could preemptively spot and retaliate against any obvious approach.

“……”

Upon realizing this, all the friends frowned.

“Is everyone here? Let’s get moving.”

Lee Han looked around at his friends and turned.

Then, seeing an opening, one White Tiger Tower student tried to sneak into the bushes on all fours.

‘I can’t spend the rest of my time working!’

Whack!

Without turning back, Lee Han fired a water orb and subdued the friend.

Everyone was shocked at the overwhelming display.

‘No openings…!’

‘His casting speed is so much faster than usual!?’

The guy who was already like a monster had gotten even stronger—it was suffocating.

“…Maybe Wardanaz has seen a future helpful for all of us?”

Salko tried to find something positive.

Giselle wavered a bit at those words.

Wardanaz might be a bit crazy, but he wasn’t the kind of petty guy who only plotted for his own gain.

Could he really be moving toward a future that benefits all the students?

“Wait. Isn’t this…?”

“Could it be…?”

Following Lee Han into the main building, the students felt a strange sense of unease.

Second floor, storage, the connecting corridor…?

-Welcome, challengers.

A giant statue was marching toward the students as if to greet them.

The powerful statue that had instantly defeated Lee Han and his friends before.

The students froze at its appearance.

• * *

“What, what’s up?”

“What is that?”

Students who didn’t know what the statue was didn’t even seem wary as it approached.

Zap!

The statue instantly teleported a student’s staff into its own hand.

“…?!?!?”

“Wha, what the hell?!”

Even those unfamiliar with magic immediately realized how formidable the statue was.

Had this sort of statue always been here?

“Don’t back down.”

Lee Han said in a toneless voice.

“That foe is not to be feared. It’s one we can defeat.”

“Wardanaz, you scare me more than that thing right now…”

The friends were torn between fearing the statue before them and fearing Wardanaz behind them.

“Advance!”

With a shout, Lee Han pressed his friends forward from behind.

Today, he would defeat this statue and seize the secret hidden beyond!