Episode 790

“Professor, the truth is…”

Full of grievance, Lee Han reported what had happened to Professor Willow.

The tree spirit inhabiting this staff was really something else.

Sure, it was an excellent spirit with all sorts of authorities.

But now that it lived inside a staff, shouldn’t it be considerate of the magician using it?

Even after Lee Han fought the Frost Giant King and the Ghoul King, it complained he was “still lacking.”

At this point, it was less a tree spirit and more a spirit of destruction. Lee Han suspected it wouldn’t be satisfied until he was destroyed.

“I-I see.”

Professor Willow was taken aback that the boy from the Wardanaz family would put his staff on trial and accuse it like this.

She had merely asked a quick question out of curiosity, hearing the spirit in his staff still hadn’t awakened, and she hadn’t expected such a long flood of complaints in reply.

“Of course, maintaining a close relationship with spirits is difficult… I have spirit blood myself, and sometimes I too feel uncertain. But if you listen carefully, you can understand their minds.”

“For example, their wish for the master’s destruction?”

“…Normally it doesn’t go that far. Hm. In my opinion… it seems this spirit is quite a high-ranking spirit.”

Professor Willow examined Lee Han’s staff carefully.

Multiple authorities and a deep desire to prove itself.

That was the behavior typical of high-ranking spirits.

“But, Professor, I don’t understand. Aren’t high-ranking spirits usually not like this?”

Lee Han asked, puzzled.

He didn’t get along with the lower and intermediate spirits, but he was familiar with mighty high spirits, so he knew the difference well.

The higher-ranked a spirit was, the greater not only its power but also its ego and intellect, its very presence elevated.

Just look at Perkuntra.

Unlike other spirits, it had a true name, a title, subordinate spirits under its command, a domain, and various authorities.

But the spirit in Lee Han’s staff had never spoken a word nor demonstrated any clear authority.

And yet, it was a high-ranking spirit?

That sounded as odd as saying Gainando was an archmage of the necromancy school.

“That’s right. It’s not typical.”

Professor Willow tapped her leaf-like “beard” as she continued.

“But there are sometimes exceptions. High spirits that have been sealed or exiled and lost their power. These spirits have lost their might, but retain their dignity.”

“!”

Hearing her explanation, Lee Han was surprised.

He’d assumed without thinking that the wooden staff’s spirit was a low-level one, but it turned out to be a high spirit with a true name.

“That might explain why it seeks to have its abilities awakened. It can recover its power through resonance with its master.”

There were various ways a heavily injured spirit could recover, and one was with the help of the magician under contract.

When a magician kept borrowing its faint remaining authority, its power would gradually amplify.

It would be a long journey, but at some point, once it crossed a critical threshold, a spirit could recover its original power through powerful resonance.

‘Now I feel a little guilty, hearing all that.’

Lee Han reflected after Professor Willow’s words.

He hadn’t been unwilling, he’d just thought, “This staff really has an awful and foul personality,” but from the spirit’s point of view, that wasn’t fair.

Only by the master repeatedly using and empowering the authorities could the spirit slowly recover its own power. No wonder it felt so frustrated by the lack of progress.

“Wait, Professor. Just one thing—I get most of it, but regarding the authority of absolute endurance, it didn’t want me to substitute mana for it, but instead said I should use a stronger spell. But isn’t it better to use even just a little bit of its authority if you want to recover?”

“If it were loose enough to use its authority flexibly, it wouldn’t be a sealed spirit. For a high spirit to recover an appropriate presence, the mage must demonstrate matching ability.”

A tree spirit’s authority was very difficult to use.

As a compromise, Lee Han had to master stronger magic and face stronger enemies to awaken new authorities—using weaker magic wouldn’t cut it.

‘Hm. Actually, never mind. I take back the guilt.’

Lee Han immediately let go of his sympathy.

This wasn’t his fault, it was the spirit’s.

What kind of lunatic expects that from a second year at Einrogard?

‘At this point, it really is a spirit of destruction, not of trees.’

“I see. Thank you, Professor.”

“It’s best not to rush waking it up.”

“Haha. Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

As he had no thought of rushing anyway, Lee Han instantly agreed.

“Spirits sealed like this tend to be especially wild and dangerous.”

“I see… Wait, Professor—aren’t all high spirits wild and dangerous?”

For example, let’s look at “that” spirit.

Any spirit with real power was basically arrogant and violent.

“No, not at all. Spirits each have their own temperaments. For example, the Thunder King you made a contract with is quite dignified, isn’t he?”

“…?!”

Lee Han was startled that anyone would call Perkuntra refined.

To hear spirits say Perkuntra was on the dignified side?

‘Impossible. What even are spirits?’

“The ones who gave you this gift were oaks, right? If the oaks were the caretakers, it means this spirit was sealed away by other spirits.”

There were generally two types of sealed spirits.

Those sealed while fighting evil foes, and those sealed by their own kind.

The former could be fine, but the latter were likely to be unruly and vicious.

You had to be pretty out of control and violent to be sealed up by fellow spirits.

“A… spirit of destruction!”

“?”

Professor Willow cocked her head at Lee Han’s words.

A spirit she’d never heard of.

“No, seriously, why would the oaks give me something like this? Do they have a grudge against me?”

“No, nothing like that. It’s a misunderstanding. After such a long time in reflection, it’s probably mellowed out; giving it to help and follow a young magician is a way to let it atone.”

“……”

Even after the explanation, Lee Han didn’t feel great.

Since when did troubled spirits’ rehabilitation become his problem instead of theirs?

“In my view, with your abilities, you’ll have no problem befriending and persuading this spirit. Ha ha…”

“Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha!”

Lee Han forced a smile and made up his mind.

‘I’ll disregard the spirit’s opinions when I make my next staff…’

• * *

“Wardanaz, this is Red Maple.”

“I see.”

“This is Blue Maple. This is Black Maple. This is Jade Maple…”

“…You don’t really need to memorize all those distinctions…”

Nillia, excited to guide him in the greenhouse, ignored Lee Han’s words.

“What really amazed me were all these trees from the North Mountains. Let’s go check out the subarctic dry climate zone!”

‘Should’ve come with someone other than Nillia.’

After treating Lee Han to an extended tour of her favorites, Nillia finally started the actual explanation.

“Last class, everyone got assigned a garden bed. We’ll be raising these all semester. Last week, your bed was handled by your friends, Wardanaz.”

“Nillia!”

Lee Han was touched by his friends’ thoughtfulness.

Even in the cut-throat world of Einrogard, friendship like this existed.

These friendships always moved people’s hearts…

“…Wait. Isn’t this a young mandrake sapling???”

True to his reputation as the year’s top student, Lee Han recognized the plant just from its leaf pattern.

Nillia was impressed.

“Amazing! How’d you know?”

“……”

In spite of the praise, Lee Han glared at Nillia with a sense of betrayal.

“To think you planted a mandrake in my bed when I was absent. Isn’t this too much?”

Even though Lee Han was taking classes at a more difficult level than others, he didn’t expect his friends to act like professors too.

He felt truly betrayed.

“What? No, that’s wrong! I got a mandrake too!”

Nillia jumped to deny the ridiculous accusation.

All the other friends had mandrakes in their beds as well.

Professor Willow had just handed out mandrake saplings to everyone in the first place…

“Oh. So the class project is just mandrakes, then. Wait. Nillia, earlier you said it was nothing special.”

-Not much. It was the first class, so she explained what the course would be and showed us rare and fun plants…

Lee Han recalled those words and asked.

Nillia answered, puzzled.

“It wasn’t much, right? We just got the saplings and planted them.”

“…Nillia, you really are becoming an Einrogard student. To call planting a mandrake sapling ‘nothing special.’”

“…!!!”

As Lee Han sighed in pity, Nillia nearly fainted from her mix of frustration and outrage.

‘Hey! For you to say that…!’

Her friend, who’d just treated “A mad incarnation is stalking us” as “Let’s just be careful,” was now talking like this. It just wasn’t fair!

“Kuugh…!”

“What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing. Look, I’ll show you how to care for the mandrake sapling.”

Lee Han nodded and listened closely.

He’d read about it in books, but hearing it directly from Nillia—who’d learned from Professor Willow—would be much better.

“First, you water it like this.”

Nillia poured water from a watering can onto the mandrake sapling.

“Water… Water it.”

As he took notes, Lee Han felt something odd.

‘Why not just use water magic?’

Unlike Gainando, who struggled with water magic, Nillia knew how to use the basics and had a spirit as well.

So why go to all that trouble by hand?

“I see. Mandrakes must prefer pure water to magically invoked water. I didn’t know that.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Nillia’s ears perked up, unsure what her friend meant.

“You carried water from the stream in a bucket instead of conjuring it magically…”

“Oh, that.”

Having emptied the watering can, Nillia stretched, then refilled it.

“You have to do it five times with this bucket—it’s just to conserve my mana. The plant drinks so much, it’s a waste to use magic water.”

“…I’ll just conjure some water for you.”

When Lee Han summoned water, Nillia shot him a look full of pride.

One thing she noticed—Wardanaz showed the most presence during this kind of simple, repetitive labor.

Splash!

A floating mass of water filled the buckets over and over. The work progressed quickly.

“Huff, huff. Okay, that should about fill the mandrake’s throat.”

Nillia panted, sweat pouring down.

The mandrake’s leaves looked hydrated, but Nillia herself seemed to have withered a bit in the process.

“Why not drink some water yourself?”

“I’ll do it after. There’s no time now. Next, we have to deal with magic aphids. Once the mandrake drinks all the water, they show up. These things are invisible, so you have to use this potion to make them appear.”

Nillia poured some homemade solution into the watering can and began seeking out hidden pests near the saplings.

Watching her constantly moving in the stifling hot greenhouse, Lee Han shook his head.

“This class is no joke.”

“What are you talking about? This is an easy one.”

“Can you really say that when you’ve been working nonstop even before class starts?”

“But you’ve taken way harder classes than this, Wardanaz! Last year you managed a garden bed, did stable duty every dawn, and this year you’re in tons of clubs…”

“……”

Lee Han, hit where it hurt by his friend, turned the watering can toward Nillia.