Episode 61

Episode 61
Who would have thought the students would become this distrustful.
But that was that, and curiosity was still curiosity. Professor Thunderstep sought out his favorite student, Ihan.
“Wardanaz.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“You’ll believe what I say, won’t you?”
Just as he believed Professor Ingerdel’s words, Ihan would also believe Professor Thunderstep’s!
Ihan nodded and said,
“Yes! I trust you! How could I possibly doubt you, Professor!”
“…Just say you can’t trust me, you brat.”
Professor Thunderstep grew annoyed.
It was better to have students who openly doubted him than ones like Ihan, who said it in a roundabout way, which made him seem all the more irritating.
“But you really didn’t get to meet the bull? Man. I prepared it at no small expense… Why did a mud golem appear instead?”
“…Wait. What are you talking about?”
Professor Ingerdel belatedly listened to Professor Thunderstep’s mutterings and turned serious.
Professor Thunderstep hurriedly made excuses.
“Hahaha… Professor Ingerdel. There seems to be some misunderstanding. Actually, I prepared both the bull and the mud golem, but only the bull somehow ended up elsewhere.”
“……”
Despite the excuses, Professor Ingerdel’s gaze was still icy cold.
There’s nothing scarier than a swordsman gone mad.
Professor Thunderstep hastily dragged Ihan over.
“Wardanaz, you explain. Who do you think prepared the mud golem?!”
“……”
Seeing him immediately contradict what he had just said, Ihan was dumbfounded, but he went along with it.
Professor Thunderstep’s eyes were just too desperate.
“Of course, you prepared it, Professor.”
“See? Professor Ingerdel. Look. Even the smart Wardanaz says so.”
“I see. But do you really think a mud golem is an appropriate trial for freshmen?”
“……”
Professor Thunderstep looked at Ihan again, but Ihan was already running far away with his friends.

• * *
  It was Saturday, but rather than going out for a walk or exploring the mysteries of the school, the friends from Azure Dragon Tower were holed up in the lounge, agonizing away.
  The pile of assignments from the week was mountainous.
  “Damn… Where is the logical loophole in this book anyway? Come on, isn’t the fact that a noble like me has to read and wrestle with a book like this a loophole in itself?”
  “Agh, how should I know how much making a magic circle costs? Just spend the spare money from the house, why be so stingy…!”
  The students held their heads and agonized.
  The assignments were all difficult tasks that just couldn’t be solved easily.
  Thanks to that, the snacks Ihan had stocked up in his cupboard sold like hotcakes.
  Getting lazy, Ihan filled a basket by the fireplace with assorted cookies and candies, putting up a sign.
  Apple-flavored candy – one silver coin
  Apricot jam cookie – two silver coins
  Sweet bar chocolate of the Meikin family – four silver coins
  Sugar-added black tea, one cup – one silver coin
  …
  …
  The prices were steep, but the students made no complaints.
  Being able to get these things at all was a blessing.
  After all, if they went outside now, the Black Tortoise Tower students were surviving by making fake snacks and candy and fake gum…
  “Pfft. You guys get this because you didn’t take alchemy and only took easy lectures.”
  “Are your assignments hard? After taking alchemy, everything else feels like sweet dessert.”
  “……”
  A few students in Azure Dragon Tower who took alchemy lectures boasted to their friends working on assignments.
  Anyone watching might think they’d actually slain a dragon or something, so much arrogance was written on their faces.
  “Those guys… Wardanaz probably did all the work anyway…”
  “Let them be. It’s pitiful. They had to meet a mud golem.”
  “Yeah. That really was a crazy lecture. How can they tell you to fight a mud golem?”
  The other friends just held back and listened for the sake of honor and friendship instead of telling them to cut it out.
  ‘They’re under the illusion that they’ll never go through something like that…’
  Ihan shook his head bitterly.
  Students not yet taking alchemy classes were under the illusion, ‘We’re fine since we don’t take alchemy, right?’
  …But, as you can see just from the basics of riding classes, at this school, madness was a virtue that any professor ought to have.
  Even if you dodged one crazy class, another would find you.
  They would know when the time came!
  Bubble bubble bubble—
  “Oakbells and small feather mushrooms. Right? Add these…”
  “Ew, it stinks, is this really right?? Is this really it…?”
  The students taking alchemy out their own cauldrons, gathering around and worrying together.
  They had gathered the ingredients to make the assignment, , but they had just started alchemy.
  If gathering the ingredients was half, then mixing was the other half.
  And since the ingredients were limited, the students’ hands understandably trembled.
  Bang!
  “Ahh!!”
  Bang, bang, bang!
  “Argh!”
  “Wait.”
  Ihan reached out to stop the students.
  He already knew, from the lecture, that alchemy could fail from even a trivial movement error or timing difference.
  But…
  ‘Something’s weird?’
  The situation just seemed a little odd.
  Even students who seemed to be doing things pretty well kept causing smoke to burst from above their cauldrons.
  If it were a minor mistake, it should just alter the potion quality a bit, but the result was nothing like what was in the illustration.
  “What’s wrong?”
  “…Professor Thunderstep couldn’t possibly have taught us the recipe wrong, could he?”
  “……”
  “……”
  A chilly wind blew through the lounge.
  A friend busy with a different assignment next to them said as if it was nonsense.
  “Eh, no way, why would he ever…”
  “No. It makes sense! It’s 100% likely!”
  “!?”
  In the past, friends would have thought ‘no way,’ but now they doubted the professors more than Ihan did.
  They were now true students of this school.
  “This is truly nasty…! How can he deliberately teach a wrong method?!”
  “Figure it out ourselves, are you kidding me?!”
  As the students grumbled in anger, Ihan quietly deliberated with Yoner.
  Rage was rage, but grades were still grades.
  Even if they wanted to grab the professor by the collar, the assignment still had to be submitted.
  “We’ll just have to experiment by changing one thing at a time from the potion recipe the professor gave us. Yoner, do you have any guesses?”
  “The demon beard flower, troll mushroom, marlène, and okryonghwa in the recipe seem suspicious… Honestly, as far as I know, none of them have anything to do with spirits.”
  “So are these all traps?”
  “Probably not all of them—at most one or two, right? Even if they’re irrelevant to spirits, they might still be useful for amplifying the summoning force or strengthening the user’s mind.”
  Ihan admired Yoner’s quick analysis.
  Though Ihan was a skilled experimenter himself, he couldn’t compete with Yoner’s vast knowledge, who had lived with alchemy ingredients books since childhood.
  ‘I should’ve read alchemy books instead of just the finance section of the newspaper?’
  “Testing each one out is the quickest, but the problem is… we’ll run out of ingredients that way.”
  Ihan lapsed into thought.
  What was Professor Thunderstep thinking when he put a trap in the recipe?
  “You probably have to search the alchemy books and compare with old recipes to find what’s wrong…”
  Yoner muttered in a dejected voice.
  With those words, Ihan felt like he understood the professor’s intentions.
  ‘Ah. Don’t just rely on recipes made by others—fumble through the books yourself and discover by seeking answers.’
  Knowledge learned by direct experience always lasts longer than what someone else teaches.
  When he thought that far, Ihan got goosebumps.
  He was reading the professor’s mind too well.
  Those who gaze long into the abyss come to resemble it.
  Ihan shook his head to dispel his fears.
  ‘Really need to stop getting jerked around by the professors.’
  “Wanna go find some books?”
  “Yoner, searching books, we’d be short on time even with the whole weekend, right?”
  “Probably, yeah…”
  “Absolutely not. I have to go out tomorrow.”
  Ihan spoke, face resolute.
  In his eyes burned a determination that could not be swayed by any professor.
  Yoner, for a moment, felt something like awe at that resolve.
  “……”
  And was confused.
  ‘…Is it ok to be so moved just by someone saying they’ll go out?’
  “Everyone stop making potions and gather in one place!”
  “??”
  “We’ll figure it out by experimenting.”
  “Won’t we run out of ingredients?”
  “We’ll pool everyone’s ingredients here and maximize what’s left. I’ll check the other towers, too.”
  “…!”
  Asan expressed his admiration.
  With only the ingredients one person gathered, you couldn’t run repeated experiments, but pooling everyone’s changed the story.
  That way, the leftover materials would increase.
  Yoner nodded as well.
  “If students from other towers join in, that’ll help too. People might point out things I missed.”
  “Sister Siana would be good.”
  “She’s from the Phoenix Tower, do you think she’ll come?”
  “She praises Wardanaz a lot—if he asks, won’t she?”
  Leaving his friends’ voices behind, Ihan confidently exited the lounge.
  From his back radiated a conviction not to lose his holiday no matter what.
  “Wardanaz…! We’re counting on you!”
  “Come back soon.”
  “Oh. Wardanaz, call the princess too.”
  “…Can’t you guys at least do that yourself?”
  Ihan asked incredulously.
  “I mean… we’re not close to her…”
  “You’re the closest, aren’t you?”
  “Maybe because she’s royalty, it’s hard to approach her.”
  “Fine, fine…”
  It wasn’t a difficult task, so Ihan just nodded.
  “Ah, Gainand too! How could you mess up multiplication!! Now we have to recalculate everything!”
  “I didn’t mess up! You did!”
  “Where’d you get such a blatant lie! Your formula was wrong in front of you!”
  “……”
  Ihan was dumbfounded at the sight.
  These guys?
• * *
  -Princess. This is Wardanaz.
  -!
  When Ihan knocked, the princess gazed at his hand with anticipation in her eyes.
  But there were no snacks in Ihan’s hand.
  After listening to the explanation, the princess simply nodded and went downstairs to the lounge, but for some reason, Ihan felt her shoulders had slumped.
  Ihan felt a bit guilty.
  ‘I’ll have to bring something whenever I come up from now on…’
  Anyway, since other friends handled the register, giving more snacks profited Ihan.
  He just felt a little pang of conscience at charging gullible friends so hard.
  ‘Is it here?’
  Having arrived at his destination, Ihan looked around.
  As a member of Azure Dragon Tower, he hadn’t had many chances to come to other towers.
  The Azure Dragon Tower was so luxurious it felt almost decadent, but the Phoenix Tower radiated a solemn aura. Maybe it was the difference in students.
  ‘…Wait. How do I get in?’
  Arriving at the Phoenix Tower, Ihan realized he didn’t know how to enter.
  He decided to just try brute force once.
  Thud—
  “!”
  As if an invisible barrier covered the front gate, Ihan bounced right off.
  ‘A spell to block intruders, huh. Well, that makes sense.’
  If non-members could enter the Phoenix Tower, it’d be a disaster.
  “Wardanaz family’s young master Ihan?”
  A familiar voice called from behind. A snake beastkin student in priest’s robes tilted her head.
  Seeing Sister Siana, Ihan instinctively laid on the flattery.
  “The wonderful potion-maker, Sister Siana!”
  “Oh dear. That’s excessive praise.”
  “It’s not flattery, just the truth.”
  “I just made another potion—please, take some. It’ll help with fatigue recovery.”
  Siana, with a wide smile, handed over the potion.