Episode 789

Nillia, true to her North Mountain hunter background, sprinted at full speed. She was so desperate, she even pulled out a potion from her pocket and drank it on the run.

She would never let a magic criminal spread ridiculous rumors!

“Wardanaz! Hurry!!”

“Uh…”

‘If I just stand still, I bet no one will care, though?’

Lee Han spread his mana throughout his body, temporarily enhancing his physical ability, and chased after his friend.

He could have cast a few more enhancement spells, but felt that would be overdoing it for this.

Honestly, if he stayed still, even Einrogard students would probably just hear “young hunter” and move on…

“I, Antagondals, was defeated by a mere young hunter…!”

“Hey, stop right there!”

Gritting her teeth, Nillia pursued the bat.

As they turned a corner, they saw some third-year seniors at the end of the hallway playing marblestone.

“Should I throw here, or over there…”

“Hurry up, will you?”

“Hey. Quiet. When I throw is my right—even the Skull Principal can’t touch that…”

“I, Antagondals, was defeated by a mere young hunter…!”

“Excuse us!”

“We’re coming through!”

“???”

The seniors, who were about to throw rune-marked stones, stared in confusion.

“What was that just now?”

“Wait. Did it just say Antagondals? That magic criminal?”

The seniors watched the two underclassmen sprint off in admiration.

These juniors aren’t ordinary these days!

Meanwhile, the bat turned another corner.

This time, upperclassmen were playing wizard hopscotch. Nillia cried out in utter frustration.

“Why are there so many seniors in the halls today?!”

“The toxic swamp burst on the sixth floor, so all the seniors who were there…”

“I, Antagondals, was defeated by a mere young hunter…!”

“?!”

A senior staggered after stepping on the fourth square and being hit with a spinning curse, then was startled.

“Did it just say Antagondals? What’s going on?”

“I think, judging by that ugly bat form, it must have sent an incarnation and got destroyed.”

“Even if it’s just an incarnation, underclassmen are really impressive these days!”

“……”

“……”

The two fell silent at the upperclassmen’s praise.

Lee Han thought to himself.

‘Should I just drop out now?’

Come to think of it, Antagondals had only been mentioning Nillia.

If Lee Han just quietly stopped…

“Wardanaz…!”

“I wasn’t thinking anything!”

“What? You stopped just now!”

“!”

Nillia pointed ahead, where the exhausted bat fell and crumbled away.

Panting heavily, Nillia caught her breath and spoke with relief.

“At least no weird rumors will start now, right?”

“Huh? Yeah… um, sure.”

Not wanting to break his friend’s hopeful spirit, Lee Han told a kindly lie.

• * *

“…So, that’s the situation.”

“Isn’t that super dangerous?!”

“Well, yeah. We should be careful.”

“……”

Nillia was shocked to hear her friend speak as if he was just reminding her to bring an umbrella because it might rain tomorrow.

‘Is he numb to danger…!?’

Maybe it was because Einrogard had thrown so many hardships at him, or maybe—

‘No, most of my other friends never acted like this, no matter what they went through. Wardanaz may have always been this way…’

Nillia continued her rather rude speculation in silence.

“By the way, Nillia. Do you take the lecture -A Magician’s Life with Plants-?”

“Yeah, I do. Why?”

Inside, Lee Han cheered.

‘It really is a second-year lecture!’

Just from the name, it sounded like a botany course, but he hadn’t known if it was for second- or third-years, and had been worried.

It was a relief to discover it was for second years.

“That’s really good. So it really is a second-year course.”

“……”

Nillia gave her friend a look full of sympathy, pity, and fear all at once.

“What was last class about?”

“Not much. It was the first class, so she explained what the course would be and showed us some rare and interesting plants. Oh! The professor’s a willow spirit, by the way.”

“I see.”

“Right. You’re in Professor Verdus’ class, aren’t you, Wardanaz? What’s that like?”

Nillia asked, her interest piqued.

They were both in the enchantment school, but since Lee Han was taking a third-year course, she wanted to know what difference that made.

“Oh, yeah. -Staff Materials and Magic Amplification-. You had -Introduction to Enchantment-, right?”

“Right. Senior Yukveltire teaches it.”

“How is it? Is she as eccentric as Professor Verdus?”

“No? She teaches well.”

“…?”

Lee Han doubted his ears.

Teaches well?

Had “teaches well” taken on a new meaning at Einrogard?

“Teaches well?”

“Yeah, really well.”

Nillia briefly explained Professor Yukveltire’s classes.

She wasn’t all that interested in her juniors, but unlike Professor Verdus, she didn’t just toss everything aside to go do her own thing.

She methodically organized the necessary content for every lesson and distributed it in detail to her juniors, so the second-years in the enchantment school had little to complain about.

In fact, compared to Professor Verdus’ lectures last year, hers was infinitely better!

“……”

Lee Han felt wronged listening to this.

It wasn’t like he wanted Senior Yukveltire to torment the second-years, but this seemed…

‘Why does everyone act normal only when I’m not around?’

“And you, Wardanaz?”

“We… um… just steal the professor’s projects and study from them.”

“C’mon. Don’t joke.”

“……”

“…You’re not joking?”

Nillia suddenly felt very sorry.

“S-sorry. I didn’t realize you meant it.”

“Studying by stealing the professor’s work is kind of fun. And educational.”

“Really?”

“No. I just made that up.”

“……”

“……”

A brief silence passed between the two.

To change the mood, Nillia made a suggestion.

“T-then, let’s go check out the -A Magician’s Life with Plants- classroom first! I’ll show you around before class starts!”

The classroom for this botany class was a greenhouse brimming with all kinds of plants.

Just caring for and looking at them was enough fun that even outside class hours, a lot of students came to study in the greenhouse.

Of course, Lee Han never had any spare time due to his lecture load, but since it was almost mealtime…

“I’m supposed to help at kitchen club, though.”

“Then let’s go after you finish that. I’ll help too.”

“After that, I have to go take care of the animals at polo club for a bit.”

“…Then I’ll do that too.”

“After that, I have stonemason club…”

“Hey, enough already!”

Nillia couldn’t take it anymore and finally snapped at her friend.

• * *

Hearing his friend’s heartfelt frustration, Lee Han reflected and canceled most of his club appointments.

He kept just one.

“I can’t really cancel the kitchen club today. I heard the seniors are on the verge of a riot.”

“…The food is pretty terrible, yeah.”

Nillia had to agree.

Feeding the hungry stomachs of the many Einrogard students always meant kitchen club meals barely stayed afloat.

With limited ingredients and needing to make do with what they had, taste tended to take a back seat.

But that never convinced students who were shelling out a gold coin per meal.

-Hey, you madmen! Stop serving bread made just from ground beans! At least use more than half wheat flour!

-Get rid of this corn gruel!

-If you’re going to keep serving this salted meat, just hand out rocks. Rocks would be easier to chew!

“I’ve always wondered, where do they even get that salted meat?”

Nillia was genuinely puzzled.

By second year, most magicians could cast enough spells to preserve meat with no trouble.

So why did kitchen club always get that salt-cured meat, harder than rocks?

“I was curious too and asked. Usually, the principal buys it in bulk outside and brings it in.”

“……”

Nillia was dumbfounded by Lee Han’s explanation.

What the…?

“When you walk around the school, some kitchens are easier to get into, but a lot of those are fake kitchens. The principal purposely fills them up with gross food supplies for students to find.”

‘He really puts his heart into totally useless things!’

Nillia shivered again at the skull principal’s obsession.

He could just leave it empty, but wants to watch students suffer instead…

“It’s still better than nothing. If you cook it right, you can eat it.”

No matter how hard and gritty the meat was, if you pounded it, tore it up, chopped it fine, boiled it with bread in water long enough, you’d get something salty that was… sort of a meal.

Not that any of the students eating it were likely to be satisfied…

“Seniors, I’m here.”

“Wardanaz! Been waiting for you!”

The kitchen club members cheered as they welcomed Lee Han.

Strictly speaking, what they welcomed was the food Lee Han brought with him. For club members always suffering from limited ingredients, this junior was a miracle benefactor.

“Any flour?”

“Used it all yesterday. Tried to get more wheat but the sixth floor turned toxic…”

“Any rice?”

“A little left.”

“Meat…”

Lee Han unpacked supplies he brought and discussed the menu with the seniors.

Watching, Nillia felt embarrassed for having complained about kitchen club meals.

-Is this really worth a gold coin? If Wardanaz saw this, he’d faint, tsk!

‘How could I have criticized them without thinking of their situation?’

“Let’s make oat porridge for now.”

“Oat porridge is unpopular. Someone might throw a bowl at us.”

“Let’s add other ingredients to fool the eye. Onion, carrot… heck, let’s throw in some cheese.”

“Cheese too!? Isn’t that too luxurious?”

“We’ll slice it thin. Cut the salted meat and drop it in the porridge, and leave the ham I brought as garnishes outside.”

“Good plan. We can fool the eyes that way!”

“……”

Nillia forgot all her embarrassment and shot a stern look at the kitchen club seniors.

As she thought, most of the club members were half con artists.

They were leading her honest friend down the path of trickery…

• * *

“Nillia, thanks for helping.”

“This isn’t what I thought you meant by ‘help.’”

Muttering, Nillia left with Lee Han.

She’d expected to help skinning and prepping meat, not pounding it to make it look like there was more.

“Three, two, one… here we are. Yggdrasil Greenhouse. Right?”

“Yeah. We just open the door.”

Nillia hurriedly opened the door to show her friend the classroom before the lesson began.

She’d spent more time than expected helping at kitchen club (students gathered for food had nearly started throwing plates, but settled down in the end).

Whoosh—

A wave of hot, humid air unique to greenhouses rushed out. Inside, Professor Willow looked over curiously at the two of them.

“Class hasn’t started yet.”

“Hello, Professor. I wanted to introduce the classroom, so we came early.”

“I see… You’re excellent magicians. Look around all you like.”

Professor Willow set aside the branches she was trimming and smiled kindly.

Then she paused when she saw Lee Han.

“It’s been a while, Professor.”

“Wardanaz. …Quite a long time since we met last year! I’ve heard so many stories… But why aren’t you using your staff? You look full of complaints.”

“……”

Lee Han, feeling wronged, glared at his staff.