Episode 686
by Cristae—I said, who is it…
Creak.
With the sound of a sliding door opening from inside the workshop, the dryad-half senior appeared.
Dropping leaves on the oak floor as he walked out, Ellendil spotted Lee Han and greeted him warmly.
“Lee Han of House Wardanaz…!”
“Yes.”
Recalling and confirming his memory, Ellendil continued in his slow manner of speech.
“Right! Last time, you helped and looked after the dark spirit…”
‘That’s pretty far from the truth.’
To be accurate, Lee Han had basically attacked a berserk dark spirit, subdued it, and forced a contract on it.
And the contract wasn’t because Lee Han had wanted to, but rather because Ellendil pressured him into it…
“Ah. Yes, that’s right.”
“And the person beside you… uh.”
When Ellendil saw Direte’s face, he quickly stepped back.
“G-greetings… Senior…”
“O-oh. Hi.”
Direte waved awkwardly.
Ellendil, also looking awkward, ducked his head and retreated behind the workshop forge.
As the air thickened, reminiscent of the stifling atmosphere of Adenart and her followers’ tea parties, Lee Han glanced around.
Unfortunately, there were no juniors present besides Lee Han.
‘I really need to get promoted to second year already,’
Lee Han sighed deeply. If there were no juniors, he’d always have to resolve these situations himself.
“Direte-senior. Was there something between you two?”
Whispering, Lee Han asked, and Direte replied, also whispering as he kept an eye on Ellendil.
“I told you before, right? The Dark Magic School students got attacked by Ellendil once while harvesting reagents in the forest.”
“Ah.”
At that, Lee Han recalled the history between the Dark Magic School and Ellendil.
In fact, that didn’t just apply to the Dark Magic School.
There wasn’t a single school at Einrogard that didn’t need reagents from the forest.
It was common for greedy students to damage the forest, and of course, Ellendil, who protected the woods, would clash with them.
“Oh, but then, Senior, if that made things awkward, why is it also awkward for you, Direte-senior?”
“I went because we’re in the same school, you know…”
Direte revealed the rest of the story he hadn’t shared last time.
When the Dark Magic School students got caught, Direte had gone to rescue them as a senior.
When he arrived, the students were being held by forest golems…
…so Direte had no choice but to destroy all the forest golems to rescue them.
“Huh, golem-type summoned creatures are hard to make, aren’t they? You took them all out?”
“I had no choice! The golems were pretty rough.”
‘That’s pretty intense, too, Senior.’
If Direte had overheard, he would have felt like grabbing Lee Han by the collar, but Lee Han just nodded.
From behind the workshop furnace, Ellendil, staring at them, asked shyly.
“You seem… close with the Dark Magic School…”
“I also study Dark Magic.”
“W-what?! Why…?!”
“Why not?”
Direte shot back, slightly irked.
What’s so shocking about studying Dark Magic?
…Well, it was a bit shocking…
Reacting, Ellendil shrank back in fright.
“Eek.”
“N-no, I’m not mad. Junior, you can tell him. I’m not mad, am I?”
“Don’t angry people often say things like that?”
“Whose side are you on?”
“…Senior! Direte-senior isn’t angry! See? It’s safe to come out!”
Ellendil hesitantly straightened up.
But his wary gaze was still fixed on Direte.
“How did you even break those forest golems…?”
“Hey. Junior. You only say that because you didn’t see it back then! He’s just as crazy—a mad junior!”
Direte exploded.
He’d refrained from trash-talking juniors of other schools as a senior, but Ellendil was definitely a mad junior too.
Without any dialog, Ellendil had ordered his golems to smash Direte’s undead army.
Direte had wanted to resolve things peacefully, but having been ambushed, his only option had been to blow up his undead army and obliterate the surrounding area.
“What brings you here…?”
“Ah. Well, you see—”
Lee Han pointed out the window, where ominous groups of magicians could be seen roaming.
They still hadn’t given up looking for Lee Han, and looked almost like a fanatic cult.
Ellendil seemed to think so, too, and asked nervously.
“Are they cultists?!”
“No, not that.”
Lee Han explained—skipping the weirder details of today’s events.
After shining at the gathering, he had become the target of every magician’s pursuit…
“Ah, I’ve had that happen too.”
Ellendil nodded slowly, agreeing with Lee Han.
When he’d attended an alchemy conference, he’d been besieged with scouting offers and nearly overwhelmed.
“That must have been tough… Wait.”
Ellendil suddenly frowned, as though he’d recognized someone outside the window.
It was Yukveltire.
With an anger that didn’t match his usual impassive, sluggish demeanor, Ellendil asked:
“That wicked magician came, too?”
“……”
“……”
Lee Han and Direte exchanged glances.
‘We’d better hide that we’re close, right?’
‘…Yeah…’
Ellendil declared firmly:
“Good. Relax and make yourself at home.”
“Thank you, senior.”
Finished talking to Lee Han, Ellendil looked at Direte.
His gaze now showed respect, not the earlier wariness.
For a senior to enter another school’s workshop to protect a junior from someone like Yukveltire…
“I didn’t know you were so warm-hearted, senior.”
“Hmm.”
Direte felt awkward.
In truth, he was friends with that ‘wicked magician,’ but he couldn’t possibly say that and hope to stay friendly with the alchemy junior.
“I just did what I had to do.”
“That’s what makes it great.”
Unable to stomach any more praise, Direte changed the subject.
“I’ll keep watch in case the evil magician comes over there.”
“……”
Lee Han was a little dumbfounded watching Direte quietly slip away.
Seriously, what kind of excuse was that?
“What were you working on?”
“Potion making… need to secure some research funds this year.”
Though skilled in alchemy, Ellendil prioritized the forest, so his options for taking on commissions were limited.
That meant he had to focus extra hard on potion-making commissions like these.
“I want to research what species trolls prefer as food…”
“……”
Lee Han was even more shocked than when he’d met the Archduke of Pride.
So the mad research proposal was from Senior Ellendil!?
“Why, though…?”
Ellendil’s face brightened to see his clever junior showing interest in research.
“Are you interested?”
“I-I’m just curious about the nature of the research…”
Though Lee Han tried to dodge in fright, Ellendil already took it the way he liked.
“Forest trolls are powerful monsters, but… at the same time, they maintain the forest ecosystem. They deal with invaders, too…”
“So, you want to study what prey species forest trolls prefer in order to raise them?”
Ellendil paused. It was an intriguing thought.
“I hadn’t considered that, but… that might actually be interesting.”
“No, wait. I think I misunderstood.”
“Really? I think it’s a good idea…”
Ellendil, moving slowly as always, spread out his research notes.
Forest trolls were menacing monsters, and the damage they caused was substantial.
Ellendil noticed that certain species suffered more than others.
Maybe forest trolls had personal food preferences?
Figuring that out could help adventurers and rangers safely approach troll habitats.
If no preferred food species was in the party, the trolls might simply ignore them.
‘Turns out it’s a pretty reasonable study.’
It was actually a proper study to analyze trolls more deeply in order to mitigate forest troll-related harm.
It just had a… unique title.
“It sounds interesting.”
“Really?!”
Ellendil was thrilled—though his sluggish movements kept it from showing much.
“Then would you like to participate? It’ll definitely be fun.”
From the window, Direte frantically waved, signaling Lee Han to REFUSE at all costs.
There was nothing to gain as a second-year helping with seniors’ projects.
Of course, it wasn’t like there were no benefits.
By helping with a senior’s superior magic, you could grow as well.
But Direte felt Lee Han already had too many chances to help magicians far above his level.
Starting with the professors…
‘He’ll never survive if he keeps helping seniors too!’
“I’ll… think about it.”
“Knew you’d be interested…!”
“I only said I’d think about it.”
Lee Han’s attention was caught by Yukveltire walking down the boulevard.
Then he looked at Ellendil in front of him.
‘…Hang on. Isn’t there not much difference between them?’
Sensing further talk of research would only dig his own grave, Lee Han changed topics.
“By the way, what kind of potion is this one?”
“Oh, this… It’s one I developed myself. I call it -Liberation from the Skull-.”
“That’s a unique name! What does it do?”
“It temporarily paralyzes the principal’s magic, that’s what.”
“……”
Lee Han was taken aback by the unexpected effect.
Now that he thought about it, Ellendil had previously shown up confidently in front of juniors at the forest.
He couldn’t have done that without a potion like this.
“Wait, who buys this?”
“Other Einrogard students, of course.”
Direte, arms crossed, answered in his place.
Ellendil’s potion was already famous among certain students.
“It’s really that useful? I’ve never seen a senior use it…”
“Not to avoid juniors—mainly to avoid the principal’s minions. Some of them can sniff out the principal’s magic to chase you down.”
‘Einrogard really is no joke!’
Lee Han regretted ever thinking he “sort of understood Einrogard after first year was done.”
He’d never understand Einrogard, not even after graduation.
‘But I’m glad I learned this now.’
“Could you teach me, too?”
You had to learn these things in advance to have any shot at escaping the principal’s clutches someday.
Lee Han politely asked, and thankfully, Ellendil readily agreed.
“Yeah… it’s not hard.”
‘Sure about that…?’
Direte thought to himself.
If it really were easy, students wouldn’t be paying Ellendil a premium.
Alchemy potions can seem simple, but they can get endlessly tricky. Even Direte, who knew a fair amount, wouldn’t bother making harder ones and left it to the experts.
“Like this?”
“Not bad…”
“Here?”
“Good… keep going.”
“Is this finished?”
“Hold on. Let me check… Yes, it’s done.”
“!?”
Listening to their conversation, Direte jumped up.
Who just finished what!?