Episode 687
by Cristae“What was that just now?!”
At Direte’s outburst, Lee Han and Ellendil jumped in surprise.
“Did that crazy sen—no, did Senior Yukveltire find us?”
“That bastar—no, did Senior Yukveltire find us?”
“…Yukveltire left earlier. More importantly, didn’t you just say you finished making -Liberation from the Skull- potion?”
Lee Han replied, puzzled by the question.
“Not finished yet.”
“Oh, right?”
Relieved by his junior’s answer, Direte thought perhaps he’d misunderstood and started to sit down again.
“The concentrate is done; just need to do the dilution.”
“……”
With that absurd reply, Direte was left speechless.
If you’ve finished the concentrate and only dilution is left, isn’t that basically done?
“How did you make it? -Liberation from the Skull- is a pretty difficult potion, isn’t it?”
“Thanks to love for spirits…”
Ellendil tried to respond warmly with pride, but Lee Han answered first.
“There are similar steps to -Dobruk’s Soul Return Potion-, which I’ve helped make before, and many procedures can be replaced with magical power, so it was possible. Also, Senior Ellendil had already done the complicated pre-preparation.”
Ellendil merely waved slowly, as if it were nothing.
“More importantly, -Dobruk’s Soul Return Potion-… Where did you make that?”
That potion was also highly advanced and tricky, not something a first-year would usually ever make.
“I tried making it helping out Lady Yoanen of the Meikin family.”
Clang!
Ellendil dropped his porcelain bowl.
And he stared at Lee Han in shock.
“You worked… under Lady Meikin…?”
‘Does he have a grudge against Yoanen, too?’
Lee Han was a little bewildered by the reaction.
He hadn’t expected such a dramatic response.
“Yes. I worked there before.”
“How did you survive…?”
“……”
Lee Han couldn’t answer that right away to Ellendil’s muttering.
It was true that Yoanen’s workshop had terrifyingly harsh labor.
“Well, it wasn’t as bad as you’d think.”
“The place is known for grinding up alchemists instead of reagents…”
“Now that I think about it, Lady Yoanen was a bit scary. I was scared, too.”
Lee Han quickly threw Yoanen under the bus.
If he defended her, he’d probably get lumped in as a weirdo, too.
Ellendil looked at him with a hint of pity.
“You must’ve had a rough time. To have made potions in that workshop…”
“Well, for this junior, that probably wasn’t too big a deal. No need to worry so much.”
Direte added from the side.
From what he’d seen Lee Han do, brewing potions in a workshop was one of the easier things for him.
Of course, Ellendil—who didn’t know the inside story—was inwardly appalled.
‘He really is frightening…!’
You couldn’t lead the Dark Magic School with such iron discipline unless you were heartless!
The magicians wandering around like cultists eventually gave up and disappeared, and dawn began to break in the distance.
Lee Han, who’d been busily brewing with Ellendil (every finished potion stowed neatly in his pack), looked outside and said,
“I think it’s safe to go now.”
“Yeah. Thanks again. You treated us so kindly when we dropped by your workshop.”
At Direte’s words, Ellendil looked bashful, as if it were nothing.
“We’re in the same department after all…”
“Hm.”
Direte looked at Lee Han with a complicated gaze.
Helping juniors of your own school was normal, but strictly speaking, Lee Han was a “junior” to almost every department’s seniors.
‘Better not mention that.’
Out of consideration, Direte kept quiet for Ellendil’s sake.
No matter how eccentric you are, everyone needs at least one competent junior.
“…Because you’re taking care of the dark spirit.”
“!”
Lee Han froze.
‘Ah, right.’
Now that he remembered, when he and Ellendil parted last time, they had promised (after a forced contract) to look after the dark spirit.
‘I haven’t summoned it since then…’
Usually, if you summoned a spirit, it was because you needed it.
The problem was, he’d never had any reason to use the dark spirit.
Dark element was among the hardest to handle and often required a spirit’s help, but Lee Han had just managed on his own.
Fire or ice elementals were useful for odd jobs, but dark spirits weren’t like that…
So Lee Han hadn’t summoned it—and couldn’t be blamed.
“Could I see it once?”
Ellendil asked, eyes shining.
Lee Han felt intense pressure.
‘It already seemed to hate me; won’t it just attack if I summon it?’
Getting ready to fight back if need be, Lee Han carefully summoned the lower dark spirit.
A dark-elemental spirit, shaped as a round orb, appeared.
“Have… you been well…?”
Ellendil called to it, and the spirit responded by spinning.
Though it had been berserk last time, it seemed to remember its creator/owner and acted quite friendly.
Plus, as a dryad mongrel, Ellendil was favored by spirits from the start.
“If anything’s bothering you, or if there are problems in the spirit realm… how’s your elemental energy?”
Watching the pair talk, Lee Han tensed up.
At any moment, that dark spirit might rat on him.
“How’s the contract?”
The dark spirit spun again, then performed a deep bow to Lee Han.
To anyone watching, it looked like sheer loyalty.
“Wow, that’s rare! A spirit showing that much loyalty—you must have been together a long time, huh?”
Even Ellendil, and Direte too, found it remarkable.
And Lee Han was amazed as well.
“???”
He’d never summoned it before, so why was it acting like that?
Last time, it had shown nothing but hostility!
“Um. Senior.”
“?”
Direte turned as Lee Han whispered to him.
“This dark spirit…”
“Impressive, honestly. It’s rare even for a spirit to show that much loyalty—much less a dark spirit. How’d you meet?”
Lee Han didn’t mention Ellendil’s involvement in case it became awkward between them. He diverted the topic.
“I only summoned it the first time for a contract and haven’t called it since. Why’s it acting like that?”
“…What?”
Direte couldn’t believe his ears.
Usually, it took time to become friendly with a spirit.
The time shared between the magician and spirit—
That’s what forged a firm bond and true friendship between two beings from different worlds.
To not have summoned it again…
“Why didn’t you summon it?”
“I had no reason to…”
“Didn’t you need dark element for anything? You even combined it into skeletons and summoned them, right?”
“I just did that myself.”
“……”
Direte realized that too much talent could actually be a problem.
He’d just breezed through things a spirit should’ve helped with.
Maybe being bad with spirits wasn’t just about magical power.
“If a spirit shows loyalty without spending time together, usually…”
“Usually?”
“It’s out of fear.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Even if you don’t do anything directly, with a magician’s history, spirits are sensitive to that. Let’s see, you’ve…”
Direte recalled what Lee Han had been up to—since the Bitong Mountains, and the gathering today.
…There were just too many incidents.
“That’s why—it’s frightened into obedience.”
“W-wait, earlier you called it loyalty based on affection.”
“Loyalty from fear, loyalty from fondness—about the same thing.”
Fitting for a dark magic student, Direte had no problem with controlling summons through fear.
Since familiars from the undead dimension were so violent, you had to whip them into submission.
Of course, Lee Han sought something different, and could only frown.
“Maybe it was happy that I didn’t summon it…?”
“Spirits don’t really think like people. Just accept it. Some get friendly, some just submit. That’s all.”
Lee Han glared at his unhelpful dark magic senior.
Truly, he was just like his friend Yukveltire—so annoying.
Ellendil, oblivious to their side conversation, finished conversing with the dark spirit and bid it farewell.
“Sniff… Seeing it healthy makes me glad, really…”
As Ellendil wept tears of joy, both Lee Han and Direte wore complicated expressions.
To change the subject, Direte spoke up quickly.
“Hey, junior. When are you heading to Granden City? It’s about time, right?”
“Eh? There’s still plenty of time left, isn’t there?”
As vacation ended and the new semester approached, students usually gathered in Granden, the big city nearest to Einrogard.
Lee Han and his friends also planned to go—but with almost two weeks left, there was no rush.
Why waste time hanging around so close to Einrogard?
“Ah, right. I guess you wouldn’t know—this is your first time.”
Direte realized the misunderstanding and explained.
“Usually it’s a bad idea to stay in Granden City over break. The closer you are to Einrogard, the higher the chance you’ll run into a professor.”
“I made it all the way to Flaher City, but still ran into professors.”
“That’s just your fate, junior.”
Direte answered coldly. Lee Han looked wounded.
How could he say such a thing?
“Waiting until the last possible moment to go to Granden isn’t bad, but from second year on, most students start arriving early.”
“Why’s that?”
“To prepare things to bring into school.”
“!”
Lee Han was surprised.
“Wait. From second year on, we can do that?”
Einrogard wasn’t a school that really required preparation.
If you needed books or gear, you could get them on your own.
But from second year on, you could bring in outside supplies?
Did that mean the magic required went up that much?
“Amazing that the principal allows that for second years. I thought he’d ban it.”
“……”
“……”
Direte and Ellendil stared at Lee Han.
The gaze made Lee Han realize he’d misunderstood something.
“Wait, don’t tell me…”
“Of course it’s not allowed. That’s all smuggling.”
Direte had been talking about sneaking things in, not officially.
The skeleton principal strictly forbade bringing in outside goods, regardless of year.
But after a year at Einrogard, every student realized how necessary outside goods were.
Where there’s need, there’s magic.
Einrogard students did whatever they could to sneak as many goods in during the start of term as possible.
“Can’t you just leave and bring stuff in during the semester?”
“…Junior, you do know that most students don’t just go in and out in the middle of term, right?”
Direte looked at Lee Han with an exasperated expression, as if to say, “Honestly, he’s too much.”