Episode 598

Ziderf blinked at the faint sounds reaching his ears.

Suddenly, he remembered an old, pointless conversation he had once had with a knight under the duke.

-But what happens if you get hit by a petrification curse and are left unattended for a long time?

-What a useless question. Would that ever really happen?

-You never know what could happen in this world, Sir Ziderf.

-If you were hit with such a curse and left unattended, you’d be discovered and killed before that. That’s why it’s a pointless question.

-I think since the whole body changes, one wouldn’t starve to death. But maybe the body would stiffen. Prisoners locked in narrow underground cells for a long time get twisted, don’t they?

Now, Ziderf felt like he could answer what happens if you stay cursed for a long time.

Even though it was his own body, he felt so awkward that he had no strength at all. He felt like he would topple over at the faintest breeze.

“U… U… Uh…”

Even when he tried to speak, his stiffened tongue and lips made no sound.

The Death Knights saw this and came running, shocked.

-Oh no!! Who the hell did this crazy thing!

-It wasn’t me!

-Nor me!

The Death Knights, thinking one of them must have carelessly turned a guest into a statue and tossed him there, did their best to tend to Ziderf.

-Guest, please don’t move!

-If you’ve been a statue for a long time, your body will have no strength. For now, soak in hot water and recover first!

-Get out that liquor. We need to restore his senses.

The Death Knights were suspiciously knowledgeable about treating petrification curses.

They immediately laid Ziderf down and poured a few mouthfuls of amber-colored liquor at his lips.

“Uu. Uuh.”

Ziderf’s face looked a little less pale than before. The Death Knights smiled in satisfaction and nodded.

-As expected, nothing works as well as ‘Einrogard’s Lava.’

-Lay him down for now. Massage his limbs, then call Professor Lagrinde.

Snapping out of his gray-hued daze, Ziderf’s mind slowly began to clear.

At one point he felt as if he had completely lost consciousness and become a statue forever, but somehow he’d managed to get out.

‘…Was I not discovered?’

As he blinked his stiff eyelids and looked around, it seemed he hadn’t been.

Piles of grimy red slime corpses were stacked like mountains, mages who looked like students were treating giants nearby…

‘?!?!’

Ziderf almost screamed at the surreal sight. Fortunately, his throat was still stiff, so no sound came out.

‘Pull yourself together. Assess the situation.’

For now, the Death Knights, servants of the great archmage, showed no hostility.

They must not have realized Ziderf’s true identity.

-Professor Lagrinde. There’s a guest here who was a statue for a long time…

“Cut it out. You lunatic thugs. Did you turn another guest into a statue and toss them here just because you didn’t like them?”

-W-what! When did we ever!

-Wardanaz will misunderstand!

At Professor Alcassis’ outburst, the Death Knights frantically denied it.

Some shouted at Lee Han not to fall for the professor’s slander, but it wasn’t very effective.

‘So they do this to statues often.’

Still, the professor clicked his tongue, tossed a restorative potion to them, and left.

The Death Knight poured the potion into Ziderf’s mouth.

“U… Uh… Ah.”

-You can speak now? Are you alright? What’s your name?

“I… I can’t remember.”

Ziderf craftily made an excuse.

At a time like this, rather than fumble a clumsy lie, it was safer to insist he couldn’t remember anything.

Since the Death Knights misunderstood, encouraging that should make it easier to escape.

-We swear on our master’s skull, we’re in trouble.

-Shh. It’s not over yet. All we have to do is restore his memory.

The Death Knights encouraged each other, full of resolve.

-Wardanaz-kun. Is there a way to restore the memories of someone who’s lost them?

“I’m a first-year.”

-We know that though?

“…It means I don’t know.”

-Damn!

-Let’s ask Professor Lagrinde again.

-Professor Lagrinde will get mad…

“If you just send me outside, I won’t tell anyone.”

Ziderf pretended to tremble like a frightened commoner of the Empire.

The Death Knights felt even sorrier.

-No, no!

-We’ll definitely get your memories back for you.

‘Why does he look so familiar?’

Lee Han tilted his head.

Strangely, Ziderf looked familiar.

He felt like he’d seen a statue like that somewhere before.

What are you lot doing?

The floating skeleton headmaster came swooping in from behind. Next to him was Professor Voladi.

-Oh, nothing at all, master. We found a guest who had accidentally been turned into a statue and were talking to him.

Don’t tell me you turned him to stone again and dumped him somewhere? I told you, if you’re upset, just say it—No! That’s the intruder! What the hell are you doing!

The skeleton headmaster yelled in disbelief.

The moment he heard that, Ziderf squeezed out the last bit of strength in his body to try to escape.

But the boy in front of him moved much faster. Lee Han struck Ziderf’s chin with his staff.

Whack!

-……

You… you didn’t have to kill him… Well, never mind. Good job.

• * *

During finals week, the skeleton headmaster always checked in with a few especially dangerous professors.

-Are you preparing well?

-Yes, I am.

-Really preparing well?

-I said yes! What’s wrong?

-Haha. I’m not actually asking. Open your storage—if you’re not ready, you’ll be boiling in that pot like a beaver stew today.

Among them, a special watch was kept on some professors even before finals week, but fortunately, Professor Voladi wasn’t that bad.

-…I plan to have the giants help administer the test this way.

-…Oh…

‘Should have started checking last week?’

Having heard about this final from Professor Voladi, the skeleton headmaster debated whether to raise the alert status even further.

Maybe the reason Voladi hadn’t seemed maniacal so far was simply because he’d never had any students.

Usually, if you talked about exams with professors, the skeleton headmaster would say “Raise the difficulty,” but this time, Professor Voladi’s test was honestly a bit…

-Meh! I think it’s fine as is!

-Thank you.

Despite feeling a bit uneasy, the skeleton headmaster approved Professor Voladi’s exam.

As headmaster, it was a matter of pride—he couldn’t object just because the test was hard.

Still, he couldn’t help but worry, and so he found himself calling on Professor Voladi more often.

-Is everything going well?

-Yes.

-Really going well?

-Of course.

Professor Voladi gave a faint smile.

The skeleton headmaster concluded that he kept asking because he was so impressed with Professor Voladi’s test.

He was left speechless seeing the professor’s self-satisfied smile.

‘I hired him, but does he really have no conscience?’

The skeleton headmaster liked putting kids through hardship himself, but he didn’t feel proud about it.

But this professor, who was genuinely proud, was even more evil than the headmaster.

‘No wonder he has no students.’

Thinking so, the skeleton headmaster nodded.

-Fine. When the test starts, I really want to watch.

Regardless of Professor Begrek’s lack of conscience, this test was honestly worth watching.

When else would he get to see an exam that mobilized giants? Stories about it would last more than ten years.

And what was truly special about this test wasn’t that it used giants.

What was special was that with the mobilized giants, he constructed a seamless and elaborate obstacle course that ran like a spectacular parade, without a single break.

A test only a battle mage like Professor Begrek, steeped in practical experience, could construct!

How far would Wardanaz get in this test?

‘I am curious.’

-Master! A monster has appeared!

Right. Handle it yourselves.

At the death knight’s report, the skeleton headmaster waved his hand with annoyance.

After all, across Einrogard, five or six monsters must appear every day—why did they have to report every single one?

-Master! A monster is rampaging near the main entrance!

You idiots! Why didn’t you say so before? If the main entrance is damaged, I will not forgive you!

-……

The death knight had nothing to say, no matter how many mouths he had.

Anywhere not visible to outsiders could be crawling with monsters, but around the front gate, which outsiders came and went through, it had to be absolutely clean.

If someone had been invited and a monster popped out, one third of that day’s donations would vanish.

Now I’ll have to go myself. Professor Begrek.

“I’ll help you too.”

Wouldn’t it be better to prepare your test?

“It’s already perfect.”

A faint smile spread across Professor Voladi’s face again.

The pride behind that smile annoyed the skeleton headmaster for no reason.

‘It’d be nice if the test got ruined… Oops. What am I thinking?’

For a moment, his dislike for Professor Begrek made him almost root for Wardanaz.

Fine. Let’s go!

The skeleton headmaster and Professor Voladi quickly flew through the air and arrived near the main gate.

It looked like a ruckus had already occurred: fallen first-year students, giants being healed by upper-year healers…?

?

The skeleton headmaster wondered why the giants were here, but ignored it and checked the main entrance first.

The damage wasn’t too bad.

The statue park was wrecked and a bit of the road was gone, but the main gate was intact, and most importantly, no outsiders were swept up.

‘Thank goodness!’

He breathed a sigh of relief and then saw the group of death knights.

He glared at them.

While things got this bad, what were they doing messing around?

What are you all doing? Don’t tell me… did you turn someone into a statue again…

• * *

Having knocked down Ziderf, Lee Han found himself flustered as he asked,

“Was he really an intruder?”

Think I’d try to insist an innocent guest was an intruder?

“……”

-……

An awkward silence hung. Lee Han replied quickly.

“There’s no way you’d do that!”

Too slow by two beats… Anyway, so the intruder was hiding among the statue debris at the main entrance. I thought he got lost deeper in the main building…

The death knights, realizing their mistake, quickly flattered him.

-Indeed, he managed to make it all the way here.

-But there was no fooling the master’s gaze!

It seems you all were actually tending to the intruder, didn’t it?

-That’s a misunderstanding! We were just calming him to prevent shock until we could hand him over!

The death knights made clumsy excuses. The skeleton headmaster shook his head.

What rotten subordinates!

And what about you?

“…Ah! I was cursing the intruder for being so vile, coming all the way to the main gate!”

Lee Han shouted quickly.

Come to think of it, the only reason the intruder made it to the main gate was because Lee Han had tossed him there when cleaning out the storage.

That was not a fact he wanted spread around.

-Sorry. Mage. We’ve been fighting, it’s tough.

-We need to rest after taking so many hits. Ugh. My head’s ringing.

“……”

He saw the giants talking with Professor Voladi in the background. Professor Voladi’s face was still cold, but his fingertips were trembling slightly from the shock.

Noticing the situation, the skeleton headmaster clicked his tongue in sympathy.

My, my… How unfortunate. Professor Begrek worked so hard to prepare.

“I, too, am truly sorry.”

Didn’t you just laugh?

“It’s your imagination.”