Episode 779

“Because of you! It’s all your fault I—!”

“Are you insane!? I’ll get my revenge!!”

Gainando shouted tearfully, but the world of magical duels was harsh. Once you lost the initiative and started taking hits, it was hard to counterattack.

Adenart summoned a chakram-shaped artifact into the air.

As a specialist in summoning and enchantment magic, Adenart fused the two disciplines to craft attacks with ease.

The circular blade artifact spun in the air, gathering magical power with each turn and using it to fire magic missiles.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

“My vision’s blurring—urk!”

Trying to buy time to cast a curse, Gainando was struck mid-casting and lost focus.

‘Damn black magic!’

Gainando cursed the unfairness of curses that needed long chanting to counterattack.

Summoners just needed to summon and could then do something else!

“Hngh… huph!”

Scrambling down a snowy slope, Gainando quickly hurled himself sideways. The prince’s form “shrook!” vanished below.

‘…Crap!’

Seeing Gainando disappear from view, Adenart realized the mistake.

As expected of an Einrogard student, Gainando had escaped sight to buy time for a counterattack.

But Adenart calmly took out potions.

Often overshadowed by another class genius, Adenart had actually picked three majors. He was one of those students that made Professor Garcia ask, “Are you really sure??”

As a top student of the alchemy class, Adenart pulled out his own -Sense Enhancement- and -Mana Amplification- potions, drank them, then summoned another chakram.

‘…Come on!’

Adenart stared ahead with a sense of hostility sharper and more vivid than ever before since entering.

I must punish this little brother with divine justice!

“…??”

But there was no counterattack. Frowning, Adenart checked below the slope.

Instead of casting black magic for vengeance, Gainando had burrowed deep into the snow and was escaping in the opposite direction.

“!”

“I’ll get you back! Just you wait!”

“You think you can escape!?”

Thinking he’d gotten enough distance, Gainando flashed a noble middle finger at his half-sister.

Adenart ground her teeth, resolved to chase him down to the very end.

And then Lee Han arrived.

“…What are you two doing?”

“……”

“……”

• * *

The fog of war always turned advantage and disadvantage on their heads.

A mage who had the upper hand could find themselves in trouble, and vice versa.

And now, Gainando, who had been fleeing and losing, suddenly found himself with the advantage.

Because Lee Han appeared from Gainando’s intended escape path, and he could be the first to tattle.

“$#@$%$#%! ■■■■■!”

Excited, Gainando spouted off about “Imperial royals are all cruel tyrants!” and the like.

Of course, he crammed in so much at once, it was hard to understand.

-Wow! A new language!

“That’s not a new language, that’s just Imperial, actually.”

When the baby basilisk showed interest, Lee Han gently corrected it.

Once he’d calmed down, Gainando managed to get his point across.

“So you gave her a sandwich, and the princess got mad and attacked first?”

“She tried to attack me and eat them both herself!”

“……”

Lee Han shot Gainando a very suspicious look.

No matter how he thought about it, there must be some secret Gainando wasn’t telling.

“The princess eats a lot, but she wouldn’t attack a comrade for food, right?”

“Lee Han, you said it yourself! When people get hungry, you never know what they’ll do!”

“Yeah… I did say that. That was when you asked to be the food storeroom manager…”

Lee Han’s tone went cold.

That was what he’d said when Gainando begged to be put in charge of the storeroom.

“Really? Anyway! The point is, Adenart attacked me first! Even though I even gave her a sandwich!”

“Wa… Wardanaz.”

From afar, Adenart arrived, gasping.

Snow running had left her breathless.

Gainando glared and whispered,

“She’s pretending! Don’t be fooled!”

“I—I have an explanation.”

“She’s going to say she was hungry! That she was SO HUNGRY! Don’t believe her!”

“…Gainando. Keep your distance for a moment.”

Lee Han pushed Gainando away to hear Adenart out.

Catching her breath, Adenart explained, with as much dignity as possible, why she’d attacked her half-brother.

But Adenart was forgetting one key thing.

Sometimes, no matter how much dignity you put into the delivery, it just couldn’t be dignified.

“…So you were so furious at realizing the sandwich was changed that you attacked Gainando?”

“That’s right! Wardanaz.”

Adenart, thinking Lee Han understood, replied cheerfully.

-Ah… Is she a glutton?

“Pretty much.”

-Compared to that person?

“I think they’re about the same.”

“??”

Adenart looked puzzled as Lee Han spoke in a strange tongue into his sleeve.

Maybe he was insulting her half-brother…?

• * *

Eventually, the two made up.

“……”

“Hmph.”

“Nice to see you two reconciled. Just don’t attack each other—just help each other out with at least a minimum of noble dignity if the other’s dying, okay? That’s all I ask. Not expecting miracles.”

Lee Han was realistic.

He didn’t have the leisure to dramatically fix their relationship when they still had an unpredictable dimension to explore.

‘Even at Einrogard, that’s impossible.’

“Anyway, it’s lucky the three of us met up. Let’s head to the central zone as fast as possible.”

“Lee Han. How and when should we rest and eat?”

“Wardanaz. Did you see any extraneous dimensional beings on your way?”

Both Gainando and Adenart fired off their priorities.

And Gainando hastily jumped in,

“Actually, I was going to ask about that too!”

“……”

While her half-brother received a very disdainful look, Lee Han pulled the two apart.

“Didn’t run into any monsters yet. But don’t get careless—there’s no way there aren’t guardians who can sense intruders.”

The “natives” in a dimension usually didn’t like outside invaders.

That included magicians, and these active raiders were the main reason dimension exploration was so dangerous.

-Master. We did meet some spirits!

“……”

-Master? Didn’t you hear me? We saw cold spirits on the way! They ran away from you!

The baby basilisk chattered, eager to help.

Lee Han smiled and pressed his sleeve shut. The little basilisk wriggled, confused.

“…Lee Han. Did your basilisk just make a noise?”

“Said it was hungry. Haha.”

“What a glutton!”

Gainando mocked the basilisk’s appetite.

-Urgh… mup… grrgh!

The baby basilisk tried to scold Gainando in hissing fury, but couldn’t manage it.

“Wardanaz?”

“Yes?”

“There’s a spirit over there.”

“You must be mistaken. There’s no way a spirit’s still here avoiding us…”

Carelessly telling the honest truth, Lee Han looked in the direction Adenart pointed.

To his shock, several hedgehog-shaped cold spirits were frolicking further up the slope.

“Are those the rare type that doesn’t run away from me?”

“I—I’m not sure either…”

At the awkward question, Adenart faltered.

Honestly, she doubted it…

-Master, don’t you already have enough followers? Why would you want more spirits??

The baby basilisk cocked its head in confusion.

Wasn’t it good to have strong, evil followers like itself, the griffon, Perkuntra…?

“…Doesn’t that sound a little strange to you, the way you say it?”

-???

The baby basilisk couldn’t see the problem.

If your summoning contracts were strong and evil, that was a good thing, right?

“I’d like to try negotiating with those spirits to ask for directions.”

“Good idea, Princess. I’ll cheer you on.”

“Er, yes. I’ll try…”

Neither Lee Han nor Gainando were liked by spirits.

Adenart, feeling awkward (especially about Lee Han), approached the spirits.

“Lee Han.”

“Hm?”

“That’s the biggest sheet of ice I’ve ever seen.”

Gainando took in the scene, having not had a chance to look after Adenart attacked him.

“That’s an ice shelf. If you explore ice-type dimensions, you’ll see them often.”

Lee Han explained the vast ice plain.

Mages exploring alternate worlds had to be familiar with all kinds of landscapes.

“What are those cracks?”

“Crevasses.”

“And that big lump?”

“That’s a frost giant’s—”

Lee Han stopped.

Something was off.

“Wardanaz. There are frost giants here. We should move east.”

Just then, Adenart finished her negotiations and returned.

But the two friends didn’t respond, only stared at something.

“What’s wr—?!”

A frost giant was climbing out from under the glacier. Each time its giant fingers dug into the ice, loud cracks split the air.

THUD!

At last, the frost giant stood atop the ice.

It was as massive as any giant from the Einrogard mountains, but its eyes gleamed with intelligence and cunning not usually seen in giants.

And hostility.

-An intruder?

“…We’re magicians.”

Lee Han stopped his friends from bolting and spoke cautiously.

Usually, local beings in other dimensions were a bit hostile, but running or attacking without a word would only make things worse.

If negotiations succeeded, risk would drop sharply, which was a huge benefit for dimensional exploration.

‘What could I offer? Think. Frost giants…’

-Wait. That’s…?

The frost giant pointed at the tip of Lee Han’s staff.

There, set into it, was the blue gemstone he’d once received from the frost giant king.

‘Ah!’

Lee Han realized how to win the frost giant over and shouted,

“That’s right, it’s a gem given to me by the frost giant king!”

-So you’re that honored challenger! I heard tales of your deeds!

“What a shocking coincidence!”

Feigning admiration, Lee Han shouted,

“To meet someone who knows that story—I guess fate is on our side. As long as we’re both here, how about we trade what we need?”

-Oh, there is something I need!

“What is it?”

-Honor!

“…And what would that be, exactly?”

-The honor of having defeated the king’s honored challenger!

With a gesture, Lee Han sent his friends sprinting away at top speed.