Episode 854

Lee Han almost put force into the same spot where Professor Garcia had grabbed Verdus before, but stopped himself.

‘It’s too much of a waste to use it now.’

If he used it once, Professor Verdus would never let his guard down again. It would be a shame to waste it just because he was annoyed.

‘Heh. Professor Verdus has no idea what his weakness is!’

Completely oblivious to his disciple’s wicked thoughts, Professor Verdus began his explanation.

In fact, Professor Verdus’s long-cherished dream had been an airship, even before this small flying sailboat.

Not just a little flying sailboat, but a huge flying galleon—a fully automated flying galleon, to be precise.

Of course, flying vehicles weren’t entirely unknown in the Empire even now.

Even if you didn’t utilize wings of beasts like griffons or unicorns, a skilled enough enchanter could create flying artifacts to soar about.

Those with even higher skills could enlarge those artifacts and balance them to carry several people.

But that only applied if a mage was on board to directly control the artifact.

Professor Verdus wanted more than that kind of half-baked compromise: he wanted a flying galleon that could fly autonomously without a mage at the helm.

Of course, the difficulty was a thousandfold or more.

The sails and masts, the prow and crow’s nest—these all required engravings of magic that would gather and amplify the wind. In the huge keel running under the hull, you had to engrave magic to lighten the weight and reverse gravity.

Making all these magical arrays harmoniously interlink was enough to burn out one’s brain, and there were several other difficult problems to solve, so it was no wonder Professor Verdus, after decades, still hadn’t cracked it.

‘I suffered a lot over break because of that too.’

Lee Han had (by force) helped Professor Verdus to solve the mana problem needed for a large airship.

He’d planned to oversaturate some of the magical arrays with mana to see how much efficiency he could get and make do with that…

‘Wait. Do I remember all of this?’

Lee Han was stunned to find he remembered all the details of working for Professor Verdus last year.

He would have been less annoyed to remember ideas from Gainando’s lousy detective novels.

He’d forgotten all that already, but not Professor Verdus’s theories. Just the thought was extremely displeasing.

“This is pretty much a child’s toy compared to what I showed you last time.”

“I think Dame Lagesa will be very pleased to hear that.”

“Lagesa is just low-level to begin with.”

“……”

‘I really need to report this one.’

Lee Han firmly committed what he’d just heard to memory.

“It doesn’t move fully automatically; someone still needs to steer it. You have to use the helm here.”

“What level of mage does it take?”

A mage could steer a flying artifact like this.

The question was, at what level of mage?

If it was a really well-made flying artifact, even Baldrogard students could handle it; if it was shoddy, it would take someone like Professor Verdus. And ability aside, if you crash, at least no one would mourn you.

“A mage?”

“Yes? Isn’t it controlled by a mage?”

“This thing was made so even non-mages could steer it. How many pirates do you think are mages?”

“…!”

Professor Verdus spoke with perfect nonchalance, and the shock hit Lee Han hard.

He had forgotten, but this beaver… no, this beaver beastkin professor, was absolutely a genius.

‘I forgot. Professor Verdus is a man who’s survived with this personality.’

Just managing to survive under the skeleton headmaster with that temper was proof of genius.

Making it so even non-mages could pilot it.

It sounded simple, but making a regular ship’s wheel usable mid-air by ordinary people required a vast amount of magic.

You’d have to make air resistance feel like water resistance, adjust the sails as if you were moving on water, and account for every possible scenario where no mage was present.

“How does it land if there’s no mage?”

“If you throw this gravity-magic-imbued anchor, the ship will come down on its own.”

“And departure?”

“As soon as you pull the anchor up, the ship rises.”

“Turning? What about hitting rain clouds? Or encountering monsters?”

Lee Han kept firing questions, but Professor Verdus answered every one without a hint of annoyance.

Lee Han almost marveled at the carefully completed small flying ship—before hesitating.

“But, Professor, doesn’t that mean it’s already finished?”

From everything he heard, it didn’t sound like anything was missing.

Maybe Professor Verdus was just describing the specs in advance for an unfinished project?

“No. There’s still room for improvement.”

“Where? Do you mean where the paint’s worn off?”

“That’s fine.”

“Do you mean the figurehead at the front of the ship? It looks a bit incomplete, but that’s not really important—”

“Hm? That’s finished. It’s a beaver.”

“…Oh. Uh, yes. Ver—very imposing.”

Looking at the figurehead labeled “beaver,” Lee Han was dumbstruck inside.

‘Looked like a chimera to me.’

“Then what is it?”

“It needs to move completely automatically without a helmsman!”

Once again, Lee Han was shocked by Professor Verdus’s words.

It was already amazing, but he was aiming even higher.

Above all, that was a problem even Professor Verdus himself hadn’t solved yet (except for the giant airship), wasn’t it?

‘Dame Lagesa is no ordinary person, either.’

Given the amount of gold she invested, she’d have to shoot for that level.

Otherwise, who would invest in Professor Verdus?

“Dame Lagesa must be quite bold. Honestly, sponsorship and investments are usually made for something more realistic, yet she goes after something like this.”

“Hm? What are you talking about?”

“…Didn’t Dame Lagesa ask for it?”

“Lagesa didn’t want it.”

“???”

Lee Han was starting to feel dizzy, as if he’d fallen under illusion magic.

Was Professor Verdus using some kind of spell?

“…So what is this, if you’re giving it to Dame Lagesa?”

“Oh. Lagesa said just being pilotable is good enough.”

Lagesa was a realistic pirate who never even dreamed of a fully automatic small airship.

She’d just thought it would be nice to have a scout ship that even a pirate who couldn’t use magic could handle, and that’s why she invested.

“Then… isn’t it finished? You can just give it to her, can’t you?”

“What are you talking about? After finishing this much, hand it over without improving it? You call yourself a mage?”

“……”

Seeing Professor Verdus act like he’d forgotten what “investment” meant, Lee Han shut his eyes tight.

‘Why did I answer that letter!’

Whatever staff or black obsidian he’d received, he should have just forgotten it and ignored Professor Verdus!

“So, Professor, you’ve already finished it, Dame Lagesa didn’t demand anything, and you’re just refusing to hand it over because in your eyes it’s a waste to end it here. So you’re holding on to it even though the client wants it.”

“Yep!”

“…So will you just give up and hand it off if it’s not done by tomorrow?”

“No?”

“I see…There’s some dust on your shoulder again.”

Lee Han casually rested his hand on Professor Verdus’s shoulder.

Was now the time?

• * *

In the end, Lee Han held back once again.

‘Might as well look for an opening and nab it.’

If he helped, an opportunity would present itself eventually. And if not, Lee Han would simply steal the little airship and deliver it to Lagesa himself.

He even had a new backpack now…

‘Wonder if it’ll fit. If I empty compartment six, maybe? It’ll be close.’

“Okay. Follow me.”

Professor Verdus led Lee Han out of the attic.

He poked his head out and looked around carefully.

“Why are you doing that?”

“In case of ambush!”

“…But this is your tower.”

“There could still be traitors.”

‘Sharp in odd places.’

Considering how much Verdus’s students had discussed selling him out for a price, Professor Verdus’s suspicion was justified.

Even after scanning his surroundings, Professor Verdus didn’t relax. He took stock once again while exiting the main tower.

Watching him check for attackers, assassins, spies, or Lagesa for almost ten minutes, Lee Han yawned.

“You could have just lived a good life.”

‘He’s very thorough.’

After speaking, Lee Han realized he’d let slip an inner monologue, but Professor Verdus didn’t mind at all.

“What do you mean? I did live a good life.”

“…So where do I go?”

Professor Verdus grunted as he hauled out the sailboat and gestured for Lee Han to hop on.

Once both were aboard, the little ship rose into the air, heading toward the main building’s roof.

Flying near the main building on Einrogard’s grounds wasn’t ideal.

Death Knights monitoring for student breakouts would immediately take off and pursue any escaping vehicle.

But the Death Knights didn’t chase this one.

Lee Han realized the knights already knew about Professor Verdus’s airship.

‘Of course. Even monitoring a professor’s vehicle would be a hassle for them.’

Useful information.

Next time he needed a trip out, he’d just need to kidnap Professor Verdus with the vehicle…

“Oh. Wrong way.”

As the main building suddenly stretched taller in front of them, Professor Verdus backed the sailboat away.

After adjusting altitude, he went in again. The main building, which had just risen, now sat calmly in place.

Lee Han recognized the tower stables, which he’d seen several times before.

Professor Verdus, after a light landing, pulled a thick pile of spell scrolls from his bag. To move without a helmsman, all kinds of control magic were needed.

“Here. We’ll test these one by one and record the discrepancies.”

“But professor, I don’t know these spells.”

Lee Han checked the spells Professor Verdus brought out.

Thanks to being forcibly made a disciple, Lee Han at least knew about -Bible’s Mana Emission Enchantment- and a range of spells for absorption, amplification, curvature, conversion, and so on.

But these were far more complex and demanded concrete, intuitive results.

-Bible’s Launch Enchantment-, -Bible’s Flight Enchantment-, -Bible’s Landing Enchantment-…

Most likely, these were spells prepared for all the various situations required for flight.

Of course, it was bound to be complicated.

Basically, these were the kind of spells used to create flying artifacts.

‘Looks like flying artifacts are made by combining spells in ways like this.’

Now that he was a second-year student, Lee Han quickly understood.

-Bible’s Mana Emission Enchantment- and so on were like the basic arithmetic of artifact creation; -Bible’s Launch Enchantment- and such were like the specific formulas for various circumstances.

In other words, these were spells that were half-essential for anyone making flight artifacts.

“Ah. Really?”

Professor Verdus sounded surprised at his disciple’s ignorance.

He’d taken for granted that Lee Han would know.

“Yes. Should I just record discrepancies while you do the tests?”

“Hm? No. I brought you for your mana, after all. So you’ll have to learn these now.”

“……”

Lee Han stared at Professor Verdus’s shoulder again, more intently than ever.