Episode 736

Chapter 736

“Hey. I think it’s a trap.”

“Marcang. Get a hold of yourself! It’s a trap!”

At Erde’s shout, the students who were in other solitary cells sensed something was off and stopped him.

No matter how you looked at it, it was a strange situation.

Someone calling Erde a senior was wandering around the punishment room.

Logically, it didn’t make sense.

“It’s not a trap! It’s a junior I worked with coming to see me!”

“……”

“…This guy, he got carried away by his own lies!”

The other students sighed.

When he was bluffing that there was contraband outside, they should have slapped him to bring him to his senses, but since they left him alone, his condition had worsened.

Since the punishment room is such a lonely and sad place, students locked in here often fell into madness.

“Marcang. I don’t particularly like you from another tower, but as a fellow comrade in the punishment room, let me give you some advice. The worst kind of lie is the one where you end up deceiving yourself.”

“Yeah. When I first came to the punishment room, I lied that I came here for robbing the Headmaster’s office. That lie led to more lies, and eventually I actually had to rob the Headmaster’s office.”

“What fools are you, thinking I’m some madman?! It’s really my junior!”

Naturally, Erde was offended.

The precious junior from the Wardanaz family had come to see him, but these despicable guys were slandering him.

“Marcang. Put your hand on your heart and think. If you were a junior, would you really come all the way through this dangerous and complex punishment room maze just to meet you? Seriously?”

“He’s right. That’s a trap. He might even be the Headmaster’s new minion.”

“……”

At his cellmates’ words, Erde started to waver a bit.

Thinking about it, no matter how capable someone was, it was hard to believe that a kid who just became a sophomore could break through the punishment room’s maze and find his way here.

Was he really one of the Headmaster’s minions?

“…But what could someone do even if they disguised themselves as that? There’s nothing they can do, we’re already in the punishment room.”

“He probably just wants to watch you suffer and enjoy it. The Headmaster likes that sort of thing.”

Erde became more and more hesitant at these plausible words.

At that moment, Lee Han came down the stairs and reached the end of the corridor.

Seeing the solitary cells on both sides of the corridor full of seniors, Lee Han breathed a sigh of relief.

“So you were all here.”

“…!”

“!!”

Without being told, the students quickly turned around and faced the wall.

If the new minion of the Skeleton Headmaster was here, it was dangerous just to engage with him.

“Senior Erde?”

“……”

“Are you upset because you’re locked up?”

Erde steadied himself and pretended not to hear, suppressing his shaking heart.

Lee Han was puzzled but, now that he had arrived, began to take out the things he needed to do one by one.

“I brought some snacks. I’ll leave them here. Eat them if you get bored.”

In the basket were freshly baked white bread, honey for dipping, strawberry jam, simple sandwiches with ham and eggs, cans of pork and cans of beef.

If it was outside, he would have had to charge money, but Lee Han wasn’t cold-hearted enough to ask the senior who had made sacrifices for the operation’s success to pay.

“Is there anyone who’d like some? I brought plenty. I won’t take any gold coins; I’ll just give them to you.”

“……”

The seniors’ fear reached its peak.

A minion offering food without taking gold coins in return—what kind of scheme was this?

They couldn’t even guess what trick it was.

“Are you all angry? Then I’ll get going. Senior, I’ll see you when you get out of the punishment room.”

When no one answered, Lee Han tilted his head and headed back to the stairs.

When the Death Knight coming down from above saw Lee Han, he called out loudly.

• Wait!

“!”

• The hidden path on that wall over there is faster than this way.

“Thank you.”

‘Just as expected!’

When the Death Knight gave directions instead of arresting him, the students’ suspicions grew even deeper.

Only after the junior had completely left did the students of the punishment room finally breathe a big sigh of relief.

“Phew. That was a vicious trap.”

“I almost answered without thinking.”

“Marcang. Don’t eat it. I guarantee you, it’s definitely poisoned!”

Erde also initially thought that way, so he didn’t touch the basket.

But maintaining such patience in the punishment room was not easy.

After trying to examine it with all sorts of magic, Erde eventually took a bite of the bread.

“…It’s tasty?”

“What? Don’t tell me you ate it?”

“This is fine, and this is fine, too… You idiots!! He really is my junior!!!”

Erde realized belatedly that it really was his junior and yelled out loud.

But the other students still couldn’t believe Erde’s claim.

“A junior brought food? Does that even make sense?”

“It’s slow-acting poison, probably.”

“Marcang. Then explain it. If he was really your junior, how did he get in here? And how was he so friendly with the Death Knight?”

Frustrating as it was, Erde couldn’t argue.

It was just too true.

‘Damn. How did he get in here anyway?’

• * *

Coming out after finishing his class, Lee Han spotted Senior Perse and her friends.

“Hello, Senior.”

“……”

Perse stared blankly, unable to respond. Her friends next to her explained on her behalf.

“Sorry. Perse transformed into an invertebrate by mistake during class, so she’s still suffering the aftereffects.”

“I-I see.”

But even allowing for their friend’s mishap, the seniors looked dark and exhausted.

Lee Han tried to encourage them.

“Cheer up, everyone. The weekend is just around the corner.”

“…I have classes on the weekend too.”

“!”

Lee Han was startled by the senior’s gloomy reply.

Classes even on the weekend?

‘Does that make any sense?’

“Why do you have class on the weekend?”

“Who knows. Maybe there’s too much material to cover? Not enough training? The professor’s gone mad?”

“No matter what, that seems a bit much…”

“You’re taking all the schools of magic, aren’t you? That’s more extreme.”

“……”

Lee Han was hurt by the senior’s words. Another friend nearby scolded her.

“Why do you take out your cursed lecture schedule on a junior?”

“Hmph. It’s true, isn’t it?”

‘Shouldn’t have said hello.’

Lee Han decided that from now on, if he saw a senior who looked tired, he’d avoid starting conversation.

People get sharp when they’re tired.

‘This must be Professor Bendozol’s class.’

Turning his attention to the next class, his eyes caught the name -Disgustingly Beautiful Creatures-.

Seeing the title alone made it all but certain it was Professor Bendozol.

The location was even far from the main building, at Nightmare Echo Forest on the west side.

That forest gained notoriety among sophomores because last year, students from White Tiger Tower and Black Turtle Tower nearly went missing while trying to find food there.

All sorts of evil spirits and ghost-type monsters wander about, driving out intruders to the forest.

Most of Einrogard’s professors weren’t normal, but one willing to teach in a place like this was rare, even among them.

Lee Han walked along the forest trail. The path itself wasn’t very hard, since he’d come by several times before.

Unless you went into the mountains, no second-year Einrogard student got lost on flat ground.

‘It’s awfully quiet.’

As it happened, not long ago, Lee Han and Direte had gone to the Dark Forest and triggered a trap left by some mad mage’s clone, so Lee Han felt all the more cautious.

“Sharkan.”

Summoning his familiar, Lee Han slowly walked, scanning the area.

He didn’t stop at summoning Sharkan but also floated a light orb above his staff and cast various other enhancement spells.

And yet, nothing in particular happened.

‘Was I just being jumpy?’

If there was a threat or enemy, it would have appeared already, but since there was no ambush and nothing set off his senses, Lee Han began to think maybe he was just being paranoid.

How long did he walk like that?

A large clearing appeared in the woods. It was the location for the current lecture.

Sure enough, Professor Bendozol was waiting for the students with arms crossed and a dissatisfied look.

“Professor. Hello.”

“…Huh, what?! How did you get here?!”

The professor was startled by Lee Han’s greeting and shouted.

He hadn’t expected any student to arrive this quickly.

Lee Han, seeing that, was even more confused.

“The lecture starts soon, doesn’t it? Of course I’d be here. But…”

Looking around the clearing, Lee Han realized for the first time that there was no one else there.

Something was odd.

If this was a black magic class, it would make sense to be alone, but even if Professor Bendozol was mad, a class like -Disgustingly Beautiful Creatures- should still be fairly popular.

So why was there no one at the clearing?

“Why is no one here?”

“They haven’t arrived yet, that’s why. Is that even a question? More importantly, how did you get here?”

“…Were there traps on the way, by any chance?”

“Traps? That doesn’t count as a trap. It was just a test!”

The brazen professor was saying things Lee Han felt like he had heard somewhere before, but he persisted.

As a result, he began to understand a bit about what this class -Disgustingly Beautiful Creatures- was like.

It turned out the class was always held in dangerous locations within the Einrogard territory.

The professor could have brought those creatures for a demonstration, but Professor Bendozol took extra care.

The rarer and more powerful a creature was, the more dangerous its habitat, so he thought it was best to bring students there directly for real learning.

Of course, students were not so easily persuaded by Professor Bendozol’s thoughtfulness. Many students arrived late or dropped out.

Sometimes he felt heartbroken about these uncommitted students, but Professor Bendozol stubbornly stuck to his educational philosophy.

For this Nightmare Echo Forest lecture, the professor had even chosen a day when the mana was strongest and tried not to agitate the monsters more than usual.

It would be hard to be this committed without a deep teaching philosophy.

‘…This is bad. The class is crazier than I thought.’

Lee Han felt anxiety gripping his chest.

He had braced himself for some madness from Professor Bendozol, but this exceeded his expectations.

Having to go to a new dangerous place for every class?

“Why aren’t you answering?! How did you get here?!”

“I just walked.”

“You just walked? What about attacks? Evil spirits? Packs of ghosts?”

“There weren’t any.”

“……”

Professor Bendozol stared at Lee Han in shock and disbelief.

He couldn’t believe that, after all the trouble he’d gone to prepare, it’d have absolutely no impact on a student.

“Unbelievable! These damn evil spirits. Don’t tell me they’re picking opponents out of cowardice!”

While Professor Bendozol fumed and analyzed what mistake he had made, Lee Han asked another question.

“Professor. I have a question.”

“Griffon? Basilisk? Unicorn?”

“None of those.”

“Then what’s your question?!”

“It’s just, if all the students arrive late, how are you going to run the class?”

“If I can’t teach everything, I do it on the weekend too.”

Professor Bendozol answered gruffly.

He didn’t want to teach on weekends, but according to Einrogard’s rules, there was no way around it.

It was truly a pitiable thing.

“I see.”

“Wait, come here! I need to confirm why the monsters didn’t show up—”

As he started speaking, Professor Bendozol noticed that the Wardanaz family boy had disappeared into the forest again.

Amazingly, this boy was going to fetch the other students!