Episode 56

But Rowena had no more time to think about the secret of the summon.
More than that, she needed to figure out a way to handle the mud golem in front of her.
“So if you go out, it attacks.”
“No way! Does that mean we’re trapped?!”
“It’s too soon to be sure. Let’s attack it!”
“Stop! If you attack recklessly, it could be dangerous.”
The students buzzed, voicing their opinions.
Perhaps because they were all frightened and flustered, their voices grew louder and more stubborn.
Sensing they were about to start another pointless argument, Nillia hurried over to Ihan.
To control these (who didn’t listen to Nillia) friends, she needed Ihan’s authority.
“Wardanaz. Wardanaz.”
Ihan was frowning, deep in thought about something. Nillia grabbed his arm and shook him.
“Wardanaz!”
“Oh. Sorry, what is it?”
“What about you? These jerks—no, friends—are about to start arguing again. You need to step in.”
Ihan nodded. Nillia, suddenly curious, asked,
“So what were you thinking about so hard?”
“Oh, I was thinking over this situation really carefully.”
“!”
Nillia perked up her long ears.
Now that she thought about it, this Wardanaz boy always had uncommon insight.
The fact he respected the wisdom of Shadow Patrol hunters and rangers, the fact he valued their skills, the fact he was friends with Nillia herself—all of these things.
Maybe, with his unique perception, he’d already found a way out of this situation?
“Well? What did you figure out?”
Not just Nillia, but the other students looked at him with a hint of expectation.
Ihan slowly opened his mouth.
“I think this is a trap set by the professors.”
“……”
“……”
No one could say anything to such an unexpected answer.

• * *

“Let me out.”
Calm down, Professor Ingerdel.
The skeletal headmaster spoke soothingly as he released the magical chains binding Ingerdel’s wrists and ankles.
Ingerdel looked in disbelief at the skeletal headmaster and Professor Uregurum.
Darkness fell over his eyes and, before he knew it, he was whisked away to another place—now the skeletal headmaster had kidnapped him.
Such crazy wizards existed in this world!
I have a good reason for bringing you here, Ingerdel. Listen, and you’ll understand.
“What’s your reason?”
If someone as reliable as you is around, students won’t have a chance to grow on their own during a crisis.
“……”
Left dumbfounded by a reply as ridiculous as he feared, Ingerdel was too stunned to speak.
Seeing his face, both the skeletal headmaster and Professor Uregurum nodded with satisfaction, as if to say he was convinced.
“Professor Ingerdel seems to understand.”
“I don’t understand! If you want students to grow, there are lots of other ways! Regular, repeated training, sparring, a mentor’s attitude and proper teaching…”
The headmaster shook his head at Ingerdel’s words.
As if to say, ‘That’s just what you’d expect from a swordsman.’
That’s not how you raise magicians.
“You’re right, Professor Ingerdel. That’s not how magicians should be raised. Facing predictable crises teaches nothing; it doesn’t foster a magician’s creativity.”
“……”
Ingerdel almost drew his sword but stopped. This was a magic school, not a knightly academy.
‘I’d rather just go back to knight school at this point.’
Professor Ingerdel might be confused now, but he’d understand someday.
“…Fine. To give students a ‘crisis,’ you made them hike deep into the mountains for hours, hit them with bad weather, and set up an ambush in an unexpected situation—I’ll accept that much.”
Uregurum looked bashful at Ingerdel’s response.
“No need to praise me so much…”
“It’s not praise. There are lots of other dangerous monsters in the mountains, and it’s easy to get lost. What will you do if something truly unexpected happens—like another monster showing up?”
At Ingerdel’s question, the skeletal headmaster and Uregurum both tilted their heads and answered.
Shouldn’t the students just overcome it themselves?
“The students should overcome it themselves, right?”
“……”
Ingerdel’s shoulders slumped in despair.
‘I was an idiot to try to talk to magicians…’
The more outstanding the magician, the stranger their mind usually was.
If someone was a professor at this school, they were probably half-mad to begin with.
Professor Ingerdel gave up on further conversation.
“Fine… If there’s a real problem or students go missing and you need a rescue party, call me.”
Okay, okay. So you’ve changed your thinking a bit now, huh?
“I have not.”
Trying to comfort sighing Ingerdel, Professor Uregurum offered him a hot tea.
He said supportively,
“There’s no need to worry. What I prepared really isn’t that dangerous. At worst, they’re just oxen enhanced with potions.”
For this alchemy assignment, Professor Uregurum had prepared everything with great care.
In places where potion ingredients could be found, he’d set up monsters just as he had last time.
Right now, maybe the students were cursing “damn Uregurum,” but after they became fine alchemists, someday they’d be thanking him.
“If it’s just oxen, the students should be able to handle it.”
At least that much reassured Ingerdel a bit.
Even if they were potion-enhanced, there were some very capable freshmen among those in the mountains, so he figured they could handle it with skill.
Do they breathe fire?
“No.”
Teleportation?
“No.”
Other attribute attacks? The blessing of sword-immunity? An aura of fear? Roaring?
“What, are you trying to put enough money into one ox to buy several mansions?”
Uregurum couldn’t help but retort.
Extra strength and agility would be plenty. To give everything the headmaster mentioned would require a ridiculous fortune.
The headmaster grumbled, half-deflated.
Boring. Some other monster should show up.
“Will saying that make one appear?”

• * *

Ihan’s theory may have sounded absurd at first.
But as time passed, the others found it more and more plausible.
Mainly, because Ihan was trustworthy.
If Gainando had said the same, everyone would have dismissed it as nonsense. But when Ihan said it, they thought, ‘Wardanaz wouldn’t say something baselessly, would he?’
And most of all, Professor Uregurum had form.
The students still remembered their first alchemy class vividly.
The evil professor Uregurum who had sent wild boars to attack them!
From a professor like that, it wasn’t strange at all to have a mud golem lying in wait.
“Then where did Professor Ingerdel go?”
“He must’ve planned it all with Professor Uregurum.”
“That’s so unfair…!”
“Professors! You really can’t trust any of them!”
The students were indignant at Ihan’s deduction.
Even Professor Ingerdel, whom they’d trusted, was in league with Uregurum.
Ihan calmly reviewed the situation.
‘No matter how I look at it, it’s too much of a coincidence.’
They’d arrived right where the herbs and ingredients grew, and suddenly Professor Ingerdel vanished, it started raining, and a mud golem showed up…
For so much to line up by chance was too perfect. At this point, it was natural to be suspicious.
“Wardanaz, if this is Professor Uregurum’s trap, what do we do?”
“Nothing much changes. We just have to figure out how to get rid of that mud golem.”
Ihan responded calmly to Asan’s question.
Seeing the students’ depressed looks, Ihan cheered them up.
“Come on, everyone. Since it’s a trap Professor Uregurum set, there’s definitely a way to solve it.”
“That’s right!”
That made sense.
If the mud golem was something Professor Uregurum prepared, there must be a way to deal with it.
Having recovered from being intimidated by its imposing presence, the students got to work thinking up ways to handle the mud golem.
“What if we throw fire or acid potions at it?”
“That’s for trol… I mean, for fighting trolls. It seems to attack if you cross the line—how about erasing the line?”
“You think a trick like that will work? Let’s block its sight. If it can’t see, maybe it won’t notice us escaping.”
“Let’s just shoot it with arrows, first!”
As he listened to the students, Asan thought once again that Wardanaz should organize the plan.
Otherwise, they’d just keep coming up with one dumb idea after another.
Rowena came up and said,
“Her Highness suggests using an elemental to draw the golem’s attention… Wait. Where’s Wardanaz?”
“Huh?”
Asan looked around in confusion. Ihan was nowhere to be seen.
“Didn’t anyone see where Wardanaz went?”
“Did… did he get kidnapped?”
“I’ll break through the golem and go find him.”
Everyone panicked even more than when the mud golem appeared.
But Ihan hadn’t been taken.
Yoner was shocked to see Ihan suddenly appear behind the mud golem.
“!!”
“Wardanaz?!”
The chattering students stared in disbelief as Ihan crossed the line and appeared behind the mud golem.
The mud golem, for its part, just stood there stupidly without grabbing him, even though Ihan had crossed the line.
“How did you…?!”
“Magic. I used an invisibility spell.”
While the others had been talking, Ihan had performed a simple experiment.
He wanted to see if the mud golem would notice if he used the invisibility magic on his belt.
Fortunately, the mud golem didn’t notice Ihan passing by.
Plus, there was an extra benefit.
Once you’d crossed the line, the golem didn’t care even if you turned off the invisibility!
That was big.
“You already mastered invisibility magic…!”
“No, I just used an artifact.”
“You already mastered artifact crafting…!”
“…Not crafting.”
The Black Turtle Tower students watching Ihan were confused.
Huh?
Did we ever sell an artifact like that?
“Did we have something like that?”
“This wasn’t made at school; it was a gift from the Frisinga clergy.”
“Wow. What kind of clergy gives that sort of present?”
“The Frisinga Order.”
“……”
“……”
Both sets of tower students recoiled at the name Frisinga. Ihan felt a bit hurt.

• * *

Even though Ihan got out, things hadn’t changed much.
All the other students were still trapped in front of the mud golem.
“Wardanaz, go down and fetch the professor!”
“We can’t let him go alone! What if Wardanaz abandons us…?”
“Do you think Wardanaz is some kind of Gainando? Don’t be ridiculous!”
“S-sorry, that was out of line…”
Ihan ignored his friends’ words.
Since this was Professor Uregurum’s trap, even going down to fetch the professor would likely do no good.
‘We solve it by our own power.’
The bright side was, since Professor Uregurum had prepared it, it was something freshmen could solve.
“Move!”
Ihan threw a steel bead and swung his staff. The bead began spinning in the air.
‘Find the golem’s core.’
Ihan planned to bash the mud golem all over until he found where the core was hidden.
Yoner shouted in concern,
“Will that be okay? It’s a golem…”
Even if it was mud, a golem was a golem. The thickness of its body was no joke.
Yoner doubted that a freshman’s magic could break through.
But Ihan nodded confidently.
If this had been a wild golem, he would have thought of something else, but this was a kind of assignment that Professor Uregurum had set up.
‘So it can’t be all that strong!’
He swung his staff, and the steel bead struck the golem squarely.