Episode 757

Episode 757

Fortunately, Direte was not so cold-hearted as to scold an innocent junior who had rushed over with good intentions.

“Just die already!”

“Why?!?”

But the senior who was using that junior was plenty worthy of scolding.

Direte seized the chance to attack while Yukveltire had grown weak from her magical research.

Even after going to the trouble of removing her from the targets of the workshop’s defensive spells, seeing a friend commit such an act of betrayal, Yukveltire protested, all tied up.

“Direte. Such a dishonorable ambush. You’ve sunk to the level of the White Tiger Tower.”

Direte silenced her friend as well. There was nothing she wouldn’t say.

“So what were you doing?”

“We improved the magic circles here.”

Finding the newly drawn magic circles and structural diagrams among the pile of hundreds of sheets, Direte read through them with small exclamations.

She could tell what sort of improvements her friend was aiming for.

“Clever.”

Yukveltire nodded matter-of-factly.

“But honestly, this isn’t something you should be asking a junior to help with. It’s too difficult, too vast. This is just for you to do alone. Why are you asking a junior to help?”

“Mm-mmph.”

“…I’ll untie you, so don’t say anything unnecessary. No dishonor, insults, White Tiger Tower, wasting time, all that’s banned.”

When the magic gag disappeared, Yukveltire could speak again.

“I seek the help of a junior, and the junior learns magic. What’s the problem?”

“What magic are they going to learn? Do you think a second-year junior will learn anything by helping with your magic? They’d have to be at a certain level to learn anything.”

“Professor Bible said that a Wardanaz House junior is at that level.”

“……”

Caught off guard, Direte was speechless.

Lee Han gave his senior an encouraging look, telling her not to fall behind.

-You can do it, Senior. I know you can.

Inside, Direte cursed Professor Verdus for answering cluelessly, cursed Yukveltire, and cursed the junior last.

If you were going to be an honor student, do it in moderation—getting professors to help with their magic and starting up trouble, is this how these things happen?

“Professor Bible must be talking nonsense.”

“Professor Bible is quite accurate when it comes to magic, Direte.”

“Be quiet. Anyway, just because of Professor Bible’s opinion, you can’t put a junior in your difficult research. They’re just a second year.”

“The principal also said they’re at that level.”

“……”

Direte was appalled at her friend’s reply.

What the…?

“Don’t lie. With your personality, you’d never go and ask those two.”

Yukveltire shrugged and replied coolly.

“Professor Bible was checking my research when the principal came in.”

“Why?”

“No idea. He attacked the professor right away. After the attack ended, I had a chance to talk about my research and asked them both. Both agreed it was a good opportunity.”

‘…Should I have really filed a report?’

Direte gnashed her teeth at both of them, who weren’t any help.

Instead of holding her back, they answered like that.

Of course, purely from a magical perspective, their answer might have been correct.

Objectively speaking, the junior had the skills to help, and could learn while helping as well.

But anyone with a conscience should recognize what situation the junior is in now, and should have been able to anticipate what would happen if they gave Yukveltire a positive answer.

“Enough. I’ll help, so just pretend the junior wasn’t here. Got it?”

“My help and the junior’s help are entirely separate matters…”

Ignoring her friend, Direte beckoned Lee Han. It meant hurry up and get going.

“Junior, from now on, don’t ever come to this workshop. Got it?”

“That seems like an excessive interference and order to the junior—”

Once again, the princess’s mouth was sealed with a magic gag. Direte gestured at Lee Han one more time.

Leave now!

• * *

‘…I feel uneasy.’

Even though he was released, Lee Han felt somewhat uncomfortable.

He felt as if Direte had been detained for his sake.

Of course, Direte herself said, ‘Don’t overthink, I’m just helping because we’re friends…’

“Professor Verdus, are you here?”

Lee Han knocked on Professor Verdus’s workshop door.

When there was no answer, Lee Han realized belatedly.

‘Ah. He must have gone to the punishment room.’

Come to think of it, Professor Voladi had borrowed an artifact from the principal’s office.

Professor Voladi was smart, so he probably sent Professor Verdus to the punishment room in his place.

‘I’ll have to come another time.’

He had planned to ask each professor about the lectures he missed during the days off until the weekend and study on his own, but he would have to ask Professor Verdus next time.

And thinking it over, there really was nothing to ask about Professor Verdus’s lectures.

They were just self-study anyway…

“What is it?”

“!!!”

When Professor Verdus opened the workshop door and came out, Lee Han was startled.

“P-Professor!”

“Why are you calling?”

“You didn’t go to the punishment room?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“…Did Professor Garcia or Professor Baegrek go to the punishment room?”

“No, they didn’t.”

“?!”

Lee Han was even more surprised.

Not one of the three had gone.

‘Don’t tell me they didn’t get caught?!’

The members of the Shift Club would have called this a miracle.

Making a mental note to ask Professor Voladi how he managed it next time they met, Lee Han asked his original question.

“Professor. I came to ask about the content I missed in the last lecture.”

“How about helping me with my work instead?”

“I don’t want to.”

Professor Verdus grumbled at his student’s refusal.

Helping him with his work would be a much better learning experience than asking about the lecture!

“By any chance, I’m curious if any seniors have come up with ideas regarding staffs.”

Professor Verdus’s lecture, -Staff Materials and Magic Amplification-, was an attractive class for talented and outstanding students.

Although it was usually taken by third-year students, that was a trivial matter to Lee Han.

A much bigger problem was Lee Han’s staff—or to be precise, the spirit inside it—had become a little sulky.

Lee Han thought he’d been using his staff diligently, but the spirit didn’t think so.

To make the spirit happy, feeling like, ‘I’m being put to good use,’ he needed to infuse more magic into the staff.

But to do that, he needed to change and upgrade the core material and structure of the staff…

‘Now that I think about it, isn’t the hurdle a bit too high for a first-timer’s staff-making class?’

Since he had so much farther to go than most, Lee Han wanted to see his seniors’ staffs.

Since they had started before him and struggled more, there would be a lot to learn.

“I don’t remember.”

“……”

Lee Han glared at him, but Professor Verdus was serious.

“Professor. I’ll write a report to the principal about your negligence in teaching.”

“Nonsense! They were really all trash opinions!”

Professor Verdus protested with all his injustice.

If truly valuable suggestions had come out, Professor Verdus would have remembered.

But at the last class, all the ideas the students put forward were trash.

It was still the start of the semester.

It was a time when students threw out ideas that were the trash of trash.

-What about making the body out of silver and putting behemoth bone shards inside?

-How are you going to get both?

-I’ll have to think about that from now on.

-I’m trying to break in my steel staff, but the spirit says it smells bad and won’t enter. Does anyone know a being that likes to go in steel staffs?

-Hmm. If you add too much lodestone to the staff, it explodes…!

They were all trash, even in retrospect. Professor Verdus shook his head to get rid of the leftover memories.

“Better to just ask now! What do you want to know?”

“I need to choose a staff body material that can accommodate a dissatisfied spirit and a jewel given by a being from another dimension, but it’s really tough. Wood is stable but has its limits, metals are hit-or-miss, and as for gems or precious metals, who knows when I’ll collect enough…”

Professor Verdus yawned at the boring subject.

For a second-year student, it might be a fresh dilemma, but for Professor Verdus—who’d dealt with it thousands or tens of thousands of times—it was painfully dull.

Lee Han glared at him again.

“Professor. I’m serious.”

“Oh? Uh, all right. How about this? I’ll introduce you to another student. You can ask them.”

“Hm.”

Lee Han was intrigued.

He honestly thought he’d learn more from a senior than from Professor Verdus.

“If you know someone who’s knowledgeable about staffs, that’d be great. Which senior is it?”

“Yukveltire.”

“…Professor. Just recommend me a book, and I’ll study on my own.”

• * *

Carrying a heavier backpack than earlier, Lee Han headed to Professor Paselete’s shadow office, the prophecy magic professor.

The death knights, seeing Lee Han, lifted the visors of their helmets and greeted him.

-Wardanaz, good to see you!

“Hello. By the way, do you know where the principal is now?”

Since he ran into the death knights, Lee Han decided to seek out the Skull Principal and bring up what had happened.

Look!

Even though the Skull Principal had confidently said it would be all right, Lee Han had been kidnapped and nearly forced to spend his whole life at Einrogard. Even thinking back, it was a terrible ordeal.

And Lee Han suspected the principal of staying silent and uninvolved on purpose.

‘Did he just leave me alone so I’d have to learn magic by force?’

Given the Skull Principal’s character, it was a wholly plausible scheme. Lee Han planned to confront the principal in person and denounce this plot.

-The master seems to be quite busy. We haven’t seen him either.

“……”

Lee Han gave them a suspicious look.

He wondered if the knights were covering for their master.

“Is that so?”

-Yes. There were times in the past when the master would also not show up like this.

“When he’s plotting something evil?”

-Hahaha… More like something bigger was being planned.

“When he’s plotting something even bigger and more evil?”

The death knights pretended not to hear the junior’s impious question.

Everyone knew Lee Han had just barely escaped the mad doppelganger.

“In any case, let me know if you see the principal.”

-Understood!

Since there was no point in lingering, Lee Han bid farewell to the knights of death.

But suspicion in his heart only grew stronger.

‘Even more suspicious.’

Right now, Lee Han’s mind was full of conspiracy theories like, ‘The Skull Principal and the mad doppelganger colluded! The mad doppelganger was really the principal’s minion?!’

Thud, thud, thud—

“Are you there, Professor?”

“The professor is sleeping.”

A senior he’d never seen before opened the door to the shadow office and beckoned Lee Han inside.

“Is it because of a prophetic dream?”

Dreams full of uncertainty and madness were always a good buffer for softening the shock of prophecy magic.

“No, just went to bed late after playing cards with another professor. You’re the one, right? Wardanaz House student who takes all the schools’ classes?”

“…Yes.”

“The professor told me to read this to you… Found it. The student is more than capable of keeping up, even if you miss a class.”

“But I can’t be so overconfident after skipping a lecture…”

The senior motioned for him to be quiet, then flipped a card and read the back.

“That’s not overconfidence, it’s called self-awareness…”

“……”

Lee Han muttered internally that prophecy mages really were peculiar people.