Episode 754

The griffon let out a low cry, clearly irritated.

“Who pulled the griffon’s feathers?! Salko, it was you, wasn’t it?!”

“Shut up, stupid prince! The griffon’s upset because it can’t find Wardanaz!”

“Everyone, I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but…”

Giselle responded knowingly to Yoner’s words.

“You mean if we don’t find him before the antidote wears off, we might all be wiped out.”

“No. I meant to say the griffon might eat us first if it gets mad.”

“……”

“……”

At Yoner’s words, the group’s mood grew tense.

As if to confirm their fears, the griffon began clacking its beak, staring at the wizards suspiciously.

Gainando complained indignantly.

“Wardanaz really is missing! That’s why we brought you!”

Though the students said so, the griffon didn’t trust anyone but its master, no matter how familiar.

It was possible these cunning wizards were trying to use the griffon’s power because Lee Han was absent.

If so, it would not allow it.

-■■■■■!

With a cry, the griffon suddenly dived.

Caught off guard, the students clung to the griffon and screamed.

“There, there’s Lee Han!”

“How did you all get here?!”

Rushing down the mountainside at lightning speed, Lee Han was shocked to spot his friends.

The griffon shook itself, trying to throw off everyone else and let Lee Han ride.

“Fongrif! Don’t do that!”

-!

“Apologize to your friends. You can’t just try to drop them.”

-……

As Fongrif sulked, the friends tried to cover for him awkwardly.

They had worked so hard to get here because of Fongrif.

“Yeah! Apologize!”

Gainando leapt up, dusting himself off. He’d rolled alone after being on the outermost seat.

Fongrif glared at Gainando as if to remember this later.

“Wardanaz, let’s hurry and get out. The potion won’t last long.”

“Yeah. Thanks, everyone. I didn’t expect you’d come this far.”

Lee Han was genuinely touched as he looked around at his friends.

It would’ve been hard enough to rescue him if he’d just gone missing normally, and here they’d come to a place where he’d been kidnapped by the crazy doppelgänger.

“Wait. Shouldn’t you all be in class right now?”

“Um… today’s class was cancelled.”

“Yeah, the professor said something came up.”

Lee Han gave a wry smile at their answer.

It was obviously a white lie.

“No need to pretend. You skipped class to save me.”

“Uh, no! The professor really said something came up…!”

Lee Han ignored their excuses and climbed atop the griffon. The others got on and the griffon soared into the sky again.

Gainando babbled in relief.

“The seniors were useless. Even after all that, they couldn’t break the magic after several days.”

“What are you talking about? This was broken by the seniors and professors.”

“Professors?”

The friends were puzzled.

They hadn’t expected even professors to be involved.

“Professor Garcia and…”

“Oh, so that’s what happened!”

“Professor Baegrek and Professor Verdus, too.”

“Wardanaz. Are you sure you’re not misunderstanding something?”

• * *

“They say the junior has joined up. Looks like he’ll be out soon!”

“That’s strange.”

“??”

Direte was a little flustered at Professor Voladi’s words.

“What’s strange, professor? Of course, taming a griffon might sound strange, but with him…”

The professor shook his head.

That wasn’t what he meant.

Professor Garcia and Professor Verdus also belatedly realized the oddness and their faces hardened.

“A dimensional shift?!”

“Did something get summoned?”

“It must be a tracker. Send a message.”

Professor Voladi gave cold instructions.

If the skeleton principal’s doppelgänger had summoned a tracker, it would be an especially tricky foe.

“What should I say?”

“Tell them to disguise themselves as someone else. Are there students nearby?”

Professor Voladi stuck his head out of the magic tent and checked the campground.

A few students who’d come after class were staring in awe at the melting sky.

“We need help.”

“Eek!! U-uh… Professor Baegrek! What’s going on?!”

Pop!

Professor Voladi waved his staff and transformed a student.

The student, now resembling Lee Han, shouted in surprise.

“W-what is this?!”

“Run. Next!”

Professor Verdus caught on and admired it.

“Turning them to emit a similar aura to confuse the trackers! Efficient!”

“This isn’t the time for praise!”

It was Direte who snapped the bewildered juniors into action.

“Everyone, to the main building! Dimensional trackers are chasing us, so we need to throw them off!”

“Ye-yes!”

Despite their confusion, the juniors began to move quickly.

The giants and Ikurusha, arriving late, saw the students disguised to feel similar to Lee Han and grew confused.

-What’s going on…

“Mr. Ikurusha, we need to get the student out but a nasty tracker is on us. We’re using disguises to throw them off!”

Thanks to Professor Garcia’s explanation, Ikurusha understood quickly.

-Trying to fool the trackers, eh? Got it. We giants will help too!

“Uh… yes!”

Professor Garcia wondered if transforming giants would actually work, but, with time short, cast the magic anyway.

Suddenly, a crowd of giants resembling Lee Han appeared. Even in the rush, the giants burst out laughing at their own ugly faces.

-No time to laugh! Scatter!

-Got it!

“Professor!”

Meanwhile, the griffon appeared in the distance.

Though it hadn’t even been a week, Professor Garcia and Direte felt as if they were seeing Lee Han for the first time in a year.

“Lee Han…!”

“Ugh! Lee Han’s turned into a giant!!!”

Before any touching reunion could be had, Gainando screamed and pointed at a giant running by.

The giant was proud.

The transformation had fooled even human wizards.

-Ha, foolish wizards!

The giant left satisfied.

“…Listen up, everyone. Now we scatter and move to the main building. Professor Baegrek, take these two. Professor Bible, take those two. If you lose any students, your life’s on the line. Understand?”

Worried that Professor Verdus might leave students behind out of laziness, Garcia spoke firmly.

“Student Direte. The students…”

“I’ll take these two.”

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Seeing her friends transformed to look like Lee Han, Giselle looked ready to throw up.

“Sorry, Moradi.”

“…It’s fine. I volunteered for this.”

“Moradi, that’s not actually me, it’s Salko transformed as me.”

“You little…”

“Moradi, I’m really me. Salko was joking.”

“……”

“They’re here!”

Suddenly, the students thought dusk had come.

But it wasn’t.

Thousands of bats blotted out the sun as they flew in.

Professor Garcia muttered,

“Hunting hounds…! Of all the times, those troublesome trackers!”

“Go!”

Professor Voladi split the group, sending the remaining students and Lee Han’s group on their way.

Lee Han flew alongside Professor Voladi on the griffon and asked,

“Professor, why are those called hounds?”

No matter how he looked, they were bat-shaped monsters, not hounds.

Before the question was even finished, several bats vanished and reappeared before Lee Han.

Then, twisting with smoke and shadow, they abruptly transformed into four-winged demons.

Professor Voladi casually shattered the demon with a wave and replied,

“Hounds of the Duke of Greed. Don’t let them leave your sight.”

The demon archduke Lee Han had met before, the Duke of Pride Garisaima, was matched by Duke of Greed.

Wizard slang called the Duke of Greed’s pets “hounds of greed.”

Technically, they could take any shape—not just dogs, but monsters of any form…

Swish!

“!”

Lee Han was shocked as he saw a hound slip out of his field of vision and instantly teleport closer.

As soon as it left his line of sight, it had immediately used teleportation.

He knew some otherworldly beings could instinctively do things wizards took a lifetime to master, but this was still shocking.

To use that level of teleportation so easily?

Crackle!

Suddenly, a chain of jade lightning erupted in the western sky, tearing the hounds apart.

Professor Verdus shrieked in a birdlike voice,

“Garcia! Friend-foe recognition! Friend-foe recognition!!!”

Unlike Professor Baegrek, Professor Garcia was definitely not adept at battle.

Battle mages had careful techniques to distinguish allies from enemies, but Professor Garcia had never cared.

Professor Verdus hurried to defend himself, alarmed that Garcia was casting high-powered destructive magic so fearlessly, even with allies nearby.

“Just defend yourself!!”

“Baegrek! Switch places with me!”

Ignoring him, Professor Voladi kicked the griffon in the side to speed up.

Even with the arrogant command, the griffon accelerated anyway. That showed how threatening the duke’s hounds seemed.

‘So that’s why they’re hounds!’

Unlike the more sentient devils, these monsters exuded no intellect.

No matter what powerful magic struck them, they didn’t flinch or show fear.

They only chased their target.

And their abilities were terrifying. Slip out of sight and they’d instantly teleport back in.

Bang!

As a hound approached, Lee Han cast his newly-learned Wardanaz’s Telekinesis.

The demon wasn’t too tough—struck by a shockwave, it crumbled to dust.

Professor Voladi questioned him.

“What was that spell?”

‘Oops.’

It was too late to hide it, so Lee Han answered honestly.

A professor like Voladi would instantly recognize the instant, non-verbal spell’s level.

“…I learned it while I was kidnapped by the doppelgänger.”

Lee Han tattled with nothing held back about how the crazy doppelgänger’d pressured him.

It was a fluke, highly unlikely to happen again, and…

“An unsafe teaching method.”

Even in a crisis, Professor Voladi criticized the doppelgänger’s methods.

Magic should be passed from master to disciple in mutual trust, not forced through brute pressure.

“That one is not suitable as a mentor.”

“……”

Lee Han was momentarily speechless.

No…

No…!!

He liked that Professor Voladi criticized the skeleton principal’s doppelgänger.

At least Voladi didn’t say “great ancient wisdom, as expected” or something like that. That alone moved Lee Han.

But he still felt so wronged.

Why am I so bitter about this?

Even Lee Han didn’t know.

“What’s wrong?”

Professor Voladi, concerned at his student’s distress, wondered if he’d suffered magical backlash.

“It’s nothing. Maybe some dust got in my eye.”

“Still, don’t lose track of the enemy.”

“Yes…”