Episode 583
by CristaeHowever, trust once lost did not return so easily.
The White Tiger Tower students, carried down on stretchers, glared at Professor Ingeldel with eyes like puppies cheated out of their treats.
“Everyone…”
The students turned their heads away sharply.
“I am truly sorry, everyone. I misjudged the difficulty of the exam.”
“It happens.”
Lee Han, leading his friends at the front, answered reflexively.
When Giselle, next to him, looked at him like he was crazy, Lee Han tried to explain.
“Sorry. It just came out. Habit.”
If a professor apologized, he couldn’t help but automatically reply, “It’s all right.”
“Was it the slimes that got you?”
The knights asked in amazement.
Given their numbers, it was odd for them all to have been taken down by slimes.
Shifting slimes were tricky monsters but not overwhelmingly powerful.
They thought once a few students fell, the rest would adjust and react accordingly…
“Ugh…”
“Answer.”
A White Oak Knight called a squire in a stern voice.
This final exam was a test for Einrogard students, but also a chance to evaluate the apprentice knights’ abilities.
Professor Ingeldel would scold the Einrogard students for their mistakes, but the knights needed to address their own squires’ failures.
“Had you realized you were dealing with transformation-type monsters, there were ways to respond, weren’t there?”
Against monsters like shifting slimes, the best way was to keep verified people together and keep distance from the rest.
These monsters couldn’t endure patient vigilance—eventually, their own slip-ups would reveal them.
“W-we weren’t defeated by the slimes.”
“Not by the slimes?”
When the apprentice knight spoke hesitantly, the knight was surprised.
“Oh, I see. Did you maybe encounter a giant?”
“There are giants in the mountains?!”
The squire was downright startled.
The reaction made the other knights whisper in shock.
“So that rumor was true after all…”
“Ahem! Never mind that. If it was some other monster, that makes sense.”
That would be plausible.
Students’ plans ruined by shifting slimes, then, while moving in haste, getting ambushed by other monsters…
“What kind of monster was it?”
“Well, actually…”
The squire, glancing around nervously, pointed a finger. The finger was aimed at Lee Han.
“?”
“We were defeated by Wardanaz…”
“……”
The knights went silent as if at a loss for words. The squires, reading the mood, blushed and hung their heads.
“Explain what happened.”
The squires did their best to explain.
The shifting slimes, transformed into Lee Han’s group, skillfully lured the other students, and then he tricked them into attacking the real Lee Han’s group…
“…I see.”
“But surely not all these people were taken out like that? Why did you all fall?”
The other squires did their best to explain.
The shifting slimes, transformed into Lee Han’s group…
“Enough! Enough!”
The knights, faces reddening, interrupted.
For everyone to be defeated in the same way!
Maybe one or two falling for it was understandable, but for the rest not to get suspicious and stay cautious—how embarrassing.
“Come on! This was a competition—no matter how friendly you are, how can you trust others so easily? What did you learn?”
“Wardanaz just seemed so reliable… sob. I was wrong.”
The White Oak Knights felt chastened.
It wasn’t that Professor Ingeldel’s test had been too harsh. They’d simply been too lax.
“I failed you in my guidance, for you to be tripped up like this.”
“N-no…! This was because the Einrogard students got fooled first, we couldn’t help it!”
“Silence! Stop making excuses. Training as soon as we’re back!”
As the squires were being scolded, Professor Ingeldel apologized to the students once more.
“Everyone, I promise I will never prepare an exam like this for first-year finals again. You all worked very hard.”
“No, please don’t.”
“?”
Lee Han turned his head at what he’d heard.
Which lunatic would say such a thing in front of a professor wielding a knife?
“Professor, I hope you’ll prepare the same kind of exam for next year’s first years.”
“…Yes! This is too good for only us to suffer through alone.”
“It’s not your fault, Professor! We understand your true intentions!”
The White Tiger Tower students cried out through gritted teeth.
“Everyone!”
“Professor!”
The students hugged Professor Ingeldel, staging a touching reconciliation.
Lee Han was appalled.
‘You bastards.’
All because they didn’t want to suffer alone!?
- * *
‘Huh?’
Arriving at Professor Mortum’s workshop, the Black Rock Hall, for the black magic exam, Lee Han received the test paper and was surprised.
“Professor?”
“Cough. What?”
“Uh, is this all?”
“It is. Why?”
“Nothing.”
Lee Han glanced warily around the classroom.
But there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Gainando, sitting next to him and munching a sandwich, simply looked dumbly at Lee Han’s strange behavior.
At last, Raphadael turned to Gainando and asked,
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Huh? Who?”
“Wardanaz. Wardanaz.”
From the start, Wardanaz had been looking around like a knight infiltrating enemy territory.
Even Raphadael felt a bit on edge, wondering if something was lurking nearby.
“Lee Han’s always like that.”
“……”
Raphadael regretted even asking this prince.
‘This guy wouldn’t notice if Wardanaz’s head vanished.’
“Ahem. Wardanaz. There’s nothing hiding in the classroom.”
“Is that so?”
Lee Han tried summoning a paper bird to check outside the classroom. Professor Mortum sighed and said,
“There’s nothing outside either.”
“Ah, I see.”
Lee Han cast -Perception of Emotion by Ogonin- to analyze Professor Mortum’s emotional color.
Seeing this, Professor Mortum decided he may as well just explain.
“Cough. Last midterm was a bit wild, so the final is kept simple.”
“…Wait, is it because the school’s potion supply is exhausted?”
Lee Han asked anxiously.
He’d heard from his upperclassmen that the black magic school didn’t have a generous budget.
Even at the last midterm, the seniors had complained about the lack of potions…
“…Cough, did your seniors say something about the black magic school again?”
Professor Mortum suspected the loose-lipped seniors had let something slip.
Were they really whining to new students, instead of inspiring them with hope and dreams, about “how our school’s out of potions and we’re dying out here”?
He’d already been shocked before, hearing a new student had borrowed potions from another school…
“What sort of things did they say?”
“That the black magic school’s situation is dire…”
“They never said anything like that.”
If Professor Mortum was a master of black magic, Lee Han was a master of the art of survival as a student.
The moment the professor asked, Lee Han already grasped his intentions.
Watching from the side, Gainando tilted his head.
According to the seniors…
“Uh, our school is really going t-” “Urk!”
Lee Han jabbed Gainando’s side out of sight. Gainando doubled over.
“…Anyway, the black magic school isn’t in that bad of shape. Cough. Don’t waste time, just solve the questions quietly.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Professor Mortum’s words reassured Lee Han a bit.
Apparently, there wasn’t a special trap—this really was just the exam.
Of course, it could still be a trick. Lee Han decided to relax only moderately, keeping that possibility in mind.
A skilled mage must always consider every possibility.
Choose the creature that lives among the undead.
- Skeleton
- Quinae
- Sand Octopus
- Rock Drake
- Shade Wraith
‘Hmmm.’
Lee Han pondered the question.
At first glance it seemed easy, but it was a trick.
‘A skeleton isn’t a creature.’
The answer was “none of the above.” Lee Han wrote in his answer and moved on.
Gainando, sitting next to him, looked at Lee Han and spoke proudly.
“Lee Han, this is too easy?”
“Did you actually read the question properly?”
“Of course!”
‘This guy. I’d better check his paper later.’
If Gainando answered “skeleton,” he’d have to be scolded sternly.
How could he fall for such a childish trick question?
‘Oh, Lee Han…’
Instead, Gainando silently fumed at Lee Han.
After all their studying together, didn’t he trust his friend? How could he even ask if he’d read the question properly?
Choose the creature that lives among the undead.
- Sand Octopus
No matter how he thought about it, the answer was the sand octopus.
- * *
“Um, professor.”
After all four handed in their test papers, Raphadael raised his hand carefully.
Gainando just watched blankly, finishing his leftover sandwich.
“I’d still like to be checked on what we practiced all semester for undead summoning.”
“Gah.”
Gainando almost spat out his sandwich.
“Are you crazy!? The exam is over!”
“I still want to show my summoning practice. That’s what the exam’s for.”
“You sound just like Lee Han! Are you nuts!?”
Lee Han and Imirg were also surprised, staring at Raphadael.
They hadn’t expected him to say something like that.
‘What’s he thinking?’
Professor Mortum coughed and asked,
“You must be quite close with your summoned creatures.”
“N-not at all! Not close!”
For a scion of a proud knight family who learned black magic to fight black mages, how could he say such a thing?
But Professor Mortum nodded knowingly.
“Cough. That’s typical for black mages who study undead summoning.”
Unlike other summonings, undead were unruly and hard to control, always seeking an opportunity to rebel.
But after enduring and training, there came a point where one could handle undead summons with ease.
The satisfaction felt then was incomparable to other summoning fields.
‘Is that so?’
Lee Han was unconvinced.
The undead were troublesome, yes, but he didn’t feel satisfaction from summoning them…
‘He’s drifting off into useless thoughts, that one.’
Professor Mortum clicked his tongue at Lee Han.
Of course Wardanaz would find those words unrelatable.
“Perhaps you’ve had a recent insight… Cough. Well, we have time, so let’s add a bit of undead summoning to the end.”
Gainando let out a short scream, but Professor Mortum did not intend to go back on his decision.
“Why are you like this? You used to hate black magic! Go back to hating it!”
“I still don’t really like it.”
“Liar! Liar!! Who says they don’t like it and then shows up this prepared!?”
While Gainando grabbed Raphadael by the collar, Lee Han lifted his staff to go first.
‘A dark-element skeleton warrior should do.’
Of all the undead summoning options, this was the one he could control with the most confidence.
With recent intensive practice, he could even make it dance single-handedly.
A dancing skeleton would surely deserve full marks…
“Cough. Wardanaz.”
“Yes?”
“You don’t need to demonstrate.”