Episode 587

‘Did I answer too hastily?’

The reason Lee Han replied so quickly was because he felt somewhat guilty.

Arriving before finals to try and finish the test early wasn’t exactly an upstanding thing to do.

But now, the tree spirit’s reaction made him suspect he was missing something.

What is this?

“Do you know me?”

-From the master…

The tree spirit’s characteristic slow, weighty voice.

Lee Han realized that the master referred to was the skeleton principal.

‘Ah. So, one of the principal’s underlings?’

That would explain why the spirit had heard of him.

Lee Han relaxed a little.

-…I heard.

“Oh, I see. Then about coming to help… are you in charge of this jungle, by any chance?”

The birch spirit nodded.

Strictly speaking, she was less “in charge” and more responsible for cleaning up a mess she had created, but the forest keeper didn’t like saying too much.

And cleanup could be considered a form of management.

‘Lucky me.’

Lee Han marveled at his fortune.

If he could get help from the keeper managing this jungle, he could easily cut through it.

He just needed to uncover the jungle’s secrets…!

“Priest Siana, Priest Sharkal. We’re lucky.”

“I understand perfectly.”

“We just have to pretend we’re here to help, right? Haha!”

The priests understood Lee Han’s meaning and immediately got ready to lie.

They would pretend to help out and, following the forest keeper, check out the path through the jungle!

From their innocent faces, there was no trace of ‘a priest should not tell lies’ kind of stubbornness.

Lee Han paused.

‘Is it okay for priests to get so used to lying?’

A second later, he thought again.

‘It’s good to be adapting to Einrogard.’

“Let’s go, then!”

The birch spirit was delighted by Lee Han and the students.

It was finals season, and here they were, helping clean up a jungle that had nothing to do with their own exams.

Such good-hearted students.

• * *

One of the plant monsters the skeleton principal had requested, the Avatara, had strong vitality and reproductive power.

Just tossing a single seed could instantly turn the area into jungle.

To clean up Avatara completely, it was necessary to remove the core plants hidden deep in the jungle.

Of course, this wasn’t easy.

Avatara didn’t particularly attack or devour intruders, but it also wasn’t just docile.

If improperly provoked, Avatara would only make the jungle denser and drive out the intruder.

Despite her slow speech, the forest keeper moved gracefully fast within the jungle.

-He…

“This tree?”

“Is there something about this tree?”

-Tru…

“……”

-nk…

The students, out of patience, spoke to the forest keeper,

“Could you please speak a bit faster?”

-De…

The forest keeper, her face already showing she’d said enough for the day, continued even more slowly.

The students began guessing among themselves.

“‘De’? Dig here?”

“Maybe ‘destroy’ it?”

“Could be ‘determine’?”

“Maybe it’s ‘dig up’…”

-stroy…

“So it was destroy after all!”

Having gotten their answer, the students immediately drew out their wands and swung.

Sharkal pulled a nearby branch, turned its tip into an axe blade, and swung with force.

Kaang!

“W-whoa.”

Sharkal was surprised.

It felt like swinging at solid rock—an intense recoil made his hands tingle.

“This isn’t an ordinary tree.”

Siana nodded at Lee Han’s comment.

“It certainly doesn’t seem like it. Step aside.”

“Wait, hold on. Just one more try—”

“One attempt per person. Move it. Quickly.”

‘Was there such a rule?’

Lee Han was confused, but Siana pushed Sharkal aside and pulled out a vial.

“Die!”

“Woahhh!”

The priests cheered her on from behind.

Lee Han saw this and again pondered,

‘Is it okay for priests to be so violent?’

Chiiik—

Lee Han didn’t know what concoction Siana had prepared, but a distinctly toxic liquid burrowed into the tree’s roots.

Still, the tree showed no signs of withering.

“Hmpf! Move! Step aside!”

“Ah, come on!”

“Let me try the power of the Shisenza Order—”

“If you fail, does it mean Shisenza Order is weak?”

“What nonsense is that!”

-Fire…

While the priests chattered noisily, the forest keeper slowly opened her mouth.

Siana told her friends,

“Fire! She says use fire magic?”

“Is that really okay?”

It wasn’t that the priests didn’t know how to use fire.

It’s just, in a jungle, with the risk of wildfire, they had been holding back.

Tchk—

“Doesn’t seem to burn easily. I think it’s safe.”

“Then, I’ll summon fire.”

After showing that fire wouldn’t easily spread, Lee Han raised his staff.

If the tree to destroy had stronger defenses than expected, he figured it was his turn.

‘As long as it doesn’t spread…’

The thought of using fire magic for the first time in a while made Lee Han a little excited.

“Burn…”

Fire filled with strong mana slowly bloomed.

The flames looked like they’d swell explosively for a moment, but Lee Han barely managed to regain control and focused them on the tree’s outer shell.

The tree withstood all other means, but it couldn’t withstand this fire. The flames quietly spread, enveloping the tree.

The priests clapped and cheered.

“As expected!”

“That’s the power of the Fleming Order!”

“No, the Afha Order!”

“It’s neither—”

As Lee Han tried to intervene between the bickering priests, the forest keeper thought to herself.

‘Actually, I was going to say fire didn’t work…’

The forest keeper had originally meant to tell the students that even fire wouldn’t help.

She’d figured, since they’d tried axes and potions, fire would come next.

The core trees anchoring Avatara’s area were fiercely protected. They rarely succumbed to axes, potions, or fire.

To remove such a tree, you needed to first cut off its connection to the rest of the jungle, sap its life force to weaken its defense, and then use a special spell to strike its weak point—

But this first-year just burned it down with brute force. It was truly astonishing.

Rather than be flustered or astonished, though, the forest keeper just blinked.

She had intended to explain the original method, but now, too lazy, she just pointed to the next direction.

-Next…

“Yes. Let’s move, everyone.”

The students moved on, never dreaming that fire wasn’t the intended solution.

“Looks like fire is the answer after all.”

“Let’s keep this secret from Priest Nigisor, okay?”

-To the next location…

• * *

“How do you find your way in the jungle?”

Lee Han persisted.

One thing he’d learned since entering Einrogard was that every bit of knowledge became useful sometime.

For now, he could just follow the forest keeper, but one day he might end up lost in a jungle all alone.

-The energy…

“Energy? Oh. That core tree we just destroyed had a different defensive feel from the surrounding plants. Naturally, its energy would feel different too. So, if you learn to distinguish and remember that difference, you can use it as a guide to move around, right?”

The forest keeper nodded approvingly.

Not having to explain everything was quite pleasing.

Such an admirable first-year!

“I see.”

“No, no, no.”

Priest Siana, standing next to him, jumped in, flustered.

“What was that just now??”

“Hm?”

Lee Han was puzzled.

He thought maybe Siana had missed what was said.

“So, Priest Siana. You know how you can sense the flow of mana in magic? In this jungle, you can sense the flow of mana too. Even though it seems complicated and chaotic, there are distinctive mana patterns you can use as markers. The tree we just destroyed was like that.”

“How do you even detect and remember something like…? Wait, never mind, I’ll ask later.”

Priest Siana did not ask how exactly Lee Han could sense and remember a specific mana pattern in this chaotic magical flow.

She was close enough with the boy from House Wardanaaz by now not to ask amateurish questions.

Surely he solved it with some mysterious and special ability of his own.

Or maybe some wicked secret spell passed down in his family, but that didn’t matter much…

“You two weren’t just talking telepathically, right?”

“Oh. No. Did it look that way?”

“It really seemed like telepathy.”

“Weren’t you speaking by telepathy?!”

“……”

Lee Han was the one surprised by the priests’ reaction.

Why was that?

• * *

Afterward, Lee Han’s group dutifully followed the forest keeper, helping as directed.

Along the way, they learned to find paths through the jungle, identify dangerous plants, and what useful parts to collect from felled plants, all from the forest keeper.

“You… you learned all that?”

“Would you call that learning?”

The priests whispered.

It was less that the forest keeper taught anything, and more that Lee Han simply figured things out for himself while the forest keeper walked ahead.

Even if you swapped out the forest keeper for a dented boulder or for Gainando, he’d probably have realized about the same.

Unaware of the priests’ whispered doubts, Lee Han was walking ahead when he realized something.

‘Wait. Something’s odd.’

Thinking about it, the forest keeper was supposed to be managing the jungle.

But rather than managing, the forest keeper seemed to be running around destroying specific trees.

Sometimes it was necessary to cut down a diseased tree to keep sickness from spreading and endangering the rest, sure.

But the ones being destroyed seemed to be the key core trees of the area, not diseased ones.

As if trying to get rid of the entire jungle.

‘It wouldn’t be a bad thing for us to have the jungle gone… but what? Is there a reason not to leave it?’

Lee Han wondered why the forest keeper was trying to remove the jungle.

It couldn’t be just for the students’ convenience…

As he pondered, they arrived at the final tree. Following the forest keeper’s direction, Lee Han burned the tree to ash.

At that moment, the jungle’s plants suddenly began to collapse.

As if someone sped up time, the undergrowth withered, leaves fell away as dead foliage, and the trees decayed into the ground.

And all of it gathered and formed into a single seed. The jungle that had been here now felt like a mirage.

“Uh… were you really here to remove the jungle?”

-?

For the first time today, the forest keeper showed a different reaction.

She couldn’t understand what the master’s apprentice was talking about.

What else would you have come here for except to remove the jungle?

Creak—

With the jungle gone, the classroom door emerged, and Professor Yonramo appeared from inside.

“It’s all cleared up? Thank you… Oh, Lee Han? What are the other students doing out here?”

Professor Yonramo looked puzzled to see students gathered in front of the classroom.

There was still plenty of time before the test.

“Wait, did you all help clear the jungle? I appreciate it, but it’s finals—shouldn’t you be studying for the test…”

“Professor, um, wasn’t breaking through the jungle part of the exam?”

One of the priests asked hesitantly.

Everyone’s face betrayed a sense of foreboding.

“I said the final is transforming an arm. Wait, didn’t I say so?”

“……”

“……”

-Tha… nk… you…

Leaving the students with faces decaying in defeat, the forest keeper offered her thanks and strolled away.