Episode 703

Any other student might have scoffed at such nonsense, but as a fifth-year, Direte quickly understood.

“Did the principal not put the ban on you, saying you had too much magic?”

“Yes.”

“……”

An awkward silence lingered.

Direte, troubled for his difficult junior’s sake, thought deeply about how to comfort him, but nothing came to mind.

“I’m fine, senior.”

“…No. You can’t be fine… How can you be fine with this?”

“I’ll manage to avoid them… probably. And you’re a fifth-year, aren’t you? I can handle it too.”

“That’s not really the same…”

Direte wanted to say, ‘I chose fifth year of my own free will, you’re being forced into this by the principal’s malice, it’s not the same level at all,’ but he gave up.

It would only make his junior feel worse.

“Phew. Okay. Let’s drop it. Talking about it doesn’t help. The reason I came is because I was worried about you.”

“Which part, exactly?”

“……”

Direte pressed his forehead with his fingers, as Lee Han himself seemed unable to guess with so many possible worries to pick from.

“…Let’s start with your class schedule. Though I’m not sure we’ll get through all of it today.”

“But senior, I have something urgent to do today.”

“Already? What is it? Research? A request? Some crazy… crazy professor didn’t call you already, did they?”

Even as he asked, Direte felt a premonition.

With this junior, it wouldn’t be strange for a professor to have called for him on the very first day.

“No, I just need to move some smuggled goods.”

“…Are you serious?”

Direte looked at Lee Han as if he couldn’t believe it.

After that absurdly difficult inspection, to have brought in contraband at all…

Just unbelievable.

“How did you get it in?”

“I was lucky.”

“That inspection wasn’t something you could pass with luck alone… Well, that’s good. Glad it worked out. I’ll help you move it.”

It didn’t sound hard to Direte, who offered to help readily.

He planned to talk to his junior as they worked.

“It’s quite a lot.”

“That’s fine. I’ll just use summons anyway.”

“Then I really appreciate it. Senior, you should take some too.”

“No thanks.”

Direte waved a hand.

What would he want with some second-year’s little stash of smuggled goods?

After all, from fifth year onward you’re half a professor, and material worries become much less pressing.

Especially since this year’s inspection was so tough—there couldn’t be much that got through anyway…

• * *

“…Were you always a wizard?”

“So are you, senior.”

Direte, so stunned he blurted out a question no mage would ever ask, stared at the sheer amount—it looked like the goods had come in by wagonload.

“How on earth…”

“I’ll explain if you’d like.”

“No, later. I am curious, but hearing that story tonight would take all night.”

Direte gave his head and wings a little shake to focus.

He was curious. But he’d come to help a troubled junior, not to hear the legend of Einrogard smuggling.

Maybe next time—if he ever had the time.

‘…If I ever do.’

For a moment he felt the familiar sorrow of a fifth-year, who could disappear for weeks at a time.

“Hide in the dark, carry the goods.”

“Watch the front.”

“Sense hostility.”

Direte summoned a variety of undead helpers to assist with the job.

Even for a simple evening walk, you could never let your guard down at Einrogard.

Enemy detection, sight extensions, stealth and camouflage were the basics.

“Anything I can help with?”

“No, let a senior keep some face. Did you prepare your schedule?”

“Yes.”

“You used the Calendarion, right? The big clock artifact Yukveltire built.”

“You know about it, senior?”

“Of course. It’s so handy. Plenty of classmates tried to steal it.”

“……”

A bit of school history he’d rather have not known.

Direte held out his hand for the schedule, and Lee Han handed over what he’d written.

“This is what I got.”

“Hm… almost identical. I was worried, but Yukveltire’s machine is pretty accurate.”

“There were some malfunctions.”

“What? Why?”

“I signed up for too many courses…”

“……”

Direte pretended not to hear and changed the subject.

“But what matters is that you got it sorted out!”

“Yes. …Wait, senior. What do you mean ‘almost identical’?”

Lee Han was puzzled.

“Almost identical” suggested something to compare it to—but he’d put his together just today, talking with Yukveltire. What was being compared?

“Ah. The professors’ list.”

“…?”

Lee Han tilted his head.

What did he mean?

“The professors… made a list?”

“Yeah, they coordinate your schedule and try not to overlap each other’s stuff.”

“WHAT?!?!?!”

For the first time in ages, Lee Han was truly shocked.

Had there been such a sinister plot going on in secret?

“You didn’t know?”

“Of course I didn’t! When did this villainous scheme start?”

Slightly startled by his junior’s intensity, Direte answered in a hesitant voice.

“The faculty lounge?”

“……”

In hindsight, professors wouldn’t plot from some archdevil’s palace, they’d do it in the faculty lounge, of course.

Lee Han calmed a bit.

“Please, give me the details. Senior. I need to know about this hellish scheme of the very worst demons.”

“Uhm… It’s more like a discussion….”

Becoming a fifth-year gave Direte permission to visit the faculty lounge.

Though it was more obligation than privilege—since research meetings, class reporting, and so on all had to be done directly with professors.

And this time, when he visited the faculty lounge, Direte noticed a peculiar room.

Actually, it wasn’t the room so much as what was inside it.

All it contained was a carved wooden board standing alone.

Monday

9:00~11:00

11:00~1:00

1:00~3:00

Looks like nothing’s changed from last year?

Really? My class order is different, though?

…I was talking about break time, Professor Verdus.

We skipped it last year, and it worked fine, didn’t it?

Normally, I hate to side with Bible, but this year, it’s really necessary. Even with only the essential courses, it looks like this. Didn’t Garcia drop some easy classes?

I left out a few so Lee Han could rest!

I’m sure. But you could’ve dropped harder ones instead—admit it, Garcia. Deep down, you’re no different than the rest of us.

Below that, a giant fist mark looked like someone had pounded the board.

Then beneath that…

…Everyone, don’t provoke Professor Garcia.

“That board was in there.”

‘…Strange. Why does this seem familiar?’

Lee Han felt an odd sense of déjà vu, but didn’t try to chase it down now.

“And then? What happened?”

“I asked the professors. After fighting over schedules so much, they eventually switched to agreeing from the start.”

It was a pretty reasonable method.

Instead of acting petty, blocking each other by running classes long, the professors could just all agree on properly-timed lessons.

…Apart from Lee Han having no free will at all!

“Why do they get to decide among themselves?!”

“Uh, yeah, but…”

Direte had no answer for such a reasonable complaint.

He should’ve caught it at the time in the lounge, but Lee Han was such a special case, he’d just thought, ‘Well, I suppose you have to do it for him.’

“But for you, the timetable is nearly fixed, isn’t it? Only hard classes, no easy ones…”

“I could take off hard classes, too.”

“That’s ridiculous! You need to take the most useful classes you can.”

Direte dismissed that out of hand.

It reminded Lee Han, again, just what it meant to be a fifth-year.

“So that artifact schedule is actually the professor’s schedule.”

“Yeah…”

“……”

For once, Lee Han felt dejected.

Of course, always seeking efficiency, he would never have gone around changing his schedule much anyway—but to know his fate had already been decided was still a blow.

Direte saw his normally energetic junior get downcast and nervously fluttered his wings.

“Uh, but… look, maybe… Oh, no, there aren’t any open slots. But here, this and this aren’t actually picked by the professors, so you could change those to something else!”

“…Thank you, senior.”

Lee Han managed a bitter smile and pulled himself together.

A pang of defeat might have stung his chest, but he couldn’t just sit there.

‘Yeah. No point sulking forever.’

It might’ve been better not to know, but in the end, nothing much had changed.

He would just do his best in all the scheduled classes, and get the highest marks.

“Feeling better?”

“Yes, senior. This way.”

Lee Han conjured a water bead, grabbed it, and walked several steps upside-down on the ceiling.

As Direte watched in stunned silence, Lee Han continued walking and chanted,

“As a proud Einrogard student, I swear—never trust, be bribed by, or snitch to any professor. Especially the principal. I will be doubly suspicious…”

“……”

At Lee Han’s embittered oath, Direte blinked, then glanced around.

‘Was there a secret room here?’

He wasn’t surprised he hadn’t known. There were surely more secret rooms at Einrogard than the skeleton principal’s years on earth.

“How’d you find this one?”

“A graduate I met in the punishment room, feeling sorry for me, told me.”

“Uh…”

Direte looked away at such a pitiful reason.

If he ever met this kid in the punishment room, he’d probably help him, too.

No normal inmate’s backstory could compete with this level of tragic woe.

Rumble!

‘Not bad!’

Direte admired the surprisingly neat secret base.

Used by graduates in the past, it was a fine spot—with traces of many complex spells still lingering.

“Could you leave the contraband in that storeroom?”

“Sure.”

Direte ordered his summons to organize everything neatly in the hidden base’s storage room.

‘This is better stocked than the kitchen club’s warehouse.’

“What’s this…?”

Circling the traces of spells, Direte saw a blank notebook fixed to the table.

It was a familiar design.

“What’s this? Looks familiar…”

“Oh. A senior once told me to check if anyone in black magic was using it—that’s a comms artifact.”

“……”

Direte instantly regretted asking.