Episode 709
by CristaeStartled, Lee Han quickly apologized.
“Sorry, Professor. Do you dislike pocket watches?”
If it had been Professor Verdus, Lee Han might have yelled, ‘Do you think magic is the answer? Even if I die today, I’ll hit you with a spell before I go!’ But since it was Professor Garcia, he figured there was a reason for this reaction.
Garcia, regaining composure with a heavy sigh, covered his face with both hands in despair.
“…Lee Han, where did you get that?”
“Huh? I bought it cheap at an antiques shop outside school.”
“……”
Professor Garcia cursed Einrogard for always producing mysterious objects, students who sold off anything for cash, and the skeleton principal who drove those students mad with greed for gold.
Whoosh—
With a weary wave of his wand, the lost pocket watch returned and the shattered wall restored itself.
“Lee Han. Truth is… I made that watch.”
“Excuse me?!?!?!”
Lee Han was even more shocked than when he learned the skeleton principal was secretly royalty.
Could the earnest, kind Professor Garcia have inscribed words like these inside a pocket watch?
Congratulations, foolish and pitiful junior. If you are reading this, you have experienced a great magic.
If you’ve mastered the magic engraved in this watch, come find me, and I will reveal the true art!
-Your great senior
Clack!
“…You really didn’t have to read it again.”
As Lee Han flipped open the watch and read the text aloud, Garcia quickly shut the cover.
“Ah, was it the principal who forced you to write that inside?”
“I’d honestly rather say yes, but… no, no one forced me. Lee Han. I wrote it myself. And why would the principal care about something like that?”
“He forces me to do things…”
“……”
Professor Garcia made a mental note to corner the skeleton principal later and ask exactly what sort of conversations he was having with Lee Han.
He just couldn’t understand why a decent, honest student needed to be subjected to an emotional storm like this.
“Lee Han. People… change as they live. Hard as it may be to believe, there was a time I was very different from how I am now.”
“Was Professor Verdus different too, back in the day?”
“He was always like th—Lee Han.”
“Sorry, my curiosity got away from me.”
Garcia cleared his throat.
“Lee Han. In my school days, I went through a rough patch.”
“!”
Lee Han was shocked.
That Professor Garcia could have been rough?
It was as uncanny as the thought of Gainando being scholarly, or Professor Verdus being considerate.
How could such a kind man…
‘Well. Now that I think about the professor’s fist and that wall, maybe I CAN picture it.’
He started to wonder how he hadn’t imagined it already.
“Especially in magic—I used to lose my temper, not understanding why friends couldn’t keep up with me.”
“Anyone would do that.”
“Not usually. Please don’t just humor me.”
By now, Garcia had regained his calm. He briskly cut off the flattery.
Lee Han wilted a bit.
“Maybe it was because I was taking all the disciplines at once.”
“Anyone would go a little crazy, then.”
“Lee Han, take a look in the mirror when we’re done. Anyway, back then I was self-studying space-time magic and made real progress—so when I bottled it in the watch, I had this thought.”
“What was that?”
“If I left this in Einrogard, maybe, just maybe, a junior would one day stumble across it and be inspired to study space-time magic.”
‘I doubt it.’
Lee Han looked doubtful.
As seen with black magic or music magic, establishing an unpopular school was never easy.
You had to lay out a rosy future and rally followers; a provocatively inscribed artifact didn’t bring recruits.
But even without Lee Han saying so, Garcia seemed to have realized as much.
“But no one came.”
“The magic’s just… difficult, I guess…”
“That wasn’t really the problem,” muttered Garcia with a deep sigh.
“Lee Han, I’m amazed you came for this class, but I never dreamed you’d get the watch over break. Is this some kind of karma…?”
“You’re still my role model, Professor!”
At Lee Han’s flattery, Garcia’s troubled face softened a little.
“Thank you, Lee Han.”
“If anyone asks about the watch, I’ll just say the principal wrote the words inside.”
“No, that’s not necessary.”
Garcia shot back coolly.
After explaining his embarrassing past, Professor Garcia began teaching space-time magic.
“With time magic, you necessarily have to touch on space magic. They’re complementary in many ways. So if you start with time magic, you’ll also get a grounding in space, and then move on to the advanced stuff…”
He hesitated.
“But, Lee Han, are you really okay with this?”
“Sorry?”
“You’re already taking all the disciplines, aren’t you? Is there a reason to add even one more?”
“I’m fine, Professor. I really want to take your class.”
Lee Han spoke with sincerity.
With so many strange courses crowding his schedule, Garcia’s class seemed downright reliable.
He didn’t want to risk switching out of difficulty and winding up with Professor Voladi Mark II.
“Lee Han…”
When Garcia gazed at him, Lee Han felt awkward.
Perhaps the professor was moved by the loyalty of such a diligent junior.
“I used to try and dissuade you, but now I wonder if someone should stop you altogether…”
“……”
As Lee Han was dumbfounded, Garcia smoothly changed topics.
“Then, let’s start with -Time Perception- and -Space Perception-.”
“I already learned both.”
“…When? Did you learn them with someone?”
Garcia folded his arms and squinted with suspicion.
Too focused on magic to notice, Lee Han answered truthfully.
“Over break, together with Alsicle.”
“Aha.”
Garcia quietly jotted a note: ‘Hang Alsicle of the Pengerine family upside-down.’
“Hold on.”
“Why, Professor?”
Worried he’d been found out, Garcia quickly closed the notebook. Lee Han, unaware, continued.
“I learned -Space Perception- early last year with Senior Valpatan.”
“Aha!”
Professor Garcia added below: ‘Hang Valpatan, too.’
External mages, older students—no real difference.
With a subtle smile, Garcia said,
“Then let’s move on, Lee Han!”
“Are you upset, Professor…?”
“Not at all, Lee Han. Really.”
Inside, Garcia felt a sharp pang at his perceptive student’s intuition but played it off.
“The next spell is -Minor Personal Time Extension-. It’s a 2nd-circle spell, but difficulty is close to 3rd or 4th, so don’t rush. Got it?”
“Yes.”
Time magic was infamously difficult because its very concepts flew in the face of the world’s laws.
If a mage wants to set something on fire, just trick the laws to light some kindling.
Not so hard.
But to slow time? That’s almost rebellion against the universe.
You had to endure enormous resistance.
Before real time spells, though, came -Minor Personal Time Extension-—a halfway approach.
Not changing external time, but your own, internal, subjective time.
Veteran fighters or swordmasters sometimes recount their perception of slowing time in battle. This spell was the original version.
‘A lot easier if you’re just changing your inner sense of time, I suppose.’
Lee Han could see Professor Garcia was trying to help his students adapt to the brutal discipline with something sort-of easy first.
Of course, for time magic “sort of easy” was still brutal in absolute terms…
“From instant to moment, from moment to heartbeat!”
Chanting a long, complex spell unlike most 2nd-circle magic, Lee Han focused.
Luckily, he’d already experienced several slow-time moments.
…Whether that was a good thing or not, he wasn’t sure, but it was helping now.
“For this spell, you have to check for yourself if you’ve succeeded. Try using Time Perception, Lee Han.”
“Thank you.”
Professor Garcia, hoping to go easy on him, offered a cup of tea.
He could tell Lee Han would be worked to the bone in other classes—no need to burn out here.
Lee Han drained the hot tea and tried the spell again. Garcia watched the empty cup and mused,
‘…Should I make it hotter next time?’
‘Tch.’
Lee Han left, disappointed.
He’d failed to fully master the spell.
He’d gotten the slow-time sensation, but without control it didn’t count.
Professor Garcia said it was already quite fast, but Lee Han didn’t buy it.
‘Professor Garcia’s reassuring in general.’
It was as hard to trust “That’s still fast!” from Garcia as to trust “You’re slow!” from Verdus.
“I think I’ll have to try persuading him directly—the kid’s a born mason. We’d better snatch him before the library club does.”
“I’ve heard rumors about the Wardanaz family, but he’s something else.”
‘Damn.’
Overhearing voices down the hall, Lee Han immediately cast an invisibility spell.
To think he’d have to start dodging upperclassmen even before seeing the juniors.
‘I need a better way to keep them off.’
-But is it true the junior is taking every discipline?
-Hmm. I doubted it, but I checked—it seems so. No wonder there are such crazy rumors about the Wardanaz family. It’s fearsome.
-What’s scarier, transferring an entire lake, or taking every discipline? I’d say the latter.
“……”
Lee Han was tempted to fire a spell straight at their backs as he passed.
Having no idea why he’d wound up in this situation, it grated all the more to hear others talk so lightly about it.
Vmmm—
Suddenly, Lee Han felt a magical pulse only he could sense. It was the -Whispers of Einrogard- artifact notebook Direte had made for him.
‘What now?’
He wondered if his friends had already started fooling around, scrawling messages.
I have an offer for you.
-Hmph. Buzz off.
……
‘Ah. Maybe that was too harsh.’
When the other side went silent, Lee Han felt a twinge of regret.