Episode 856

Episode 856

“I actually think there’s a chance, heehee.”

Lagesa said that and then called for the Death Knight.

The Death Knight, who had been at the front gate, ran over with a look of curiosity.

-What is the matter?

“Do you see this sailboat?”

-I do see it.

“I’m planning to hand this sailboat over to this boy from the Wardanaz family. Could you be a witness?”

The Death Knight, at first, didn’t understand and asked again.

-Is it really necessary for there to be a witness?

“Ah. Because it’s Bible’s sailboat. Of course, I researched it with my own gold coins, so technically speaking, it actually is mine. But Bible isn’t really the type to care about things like that, right?”

-!

At Lagesa’s words, the Death Knight immediately knew what he meant.

Then he called for his comrades.

-Hey there!

-What’s the matter?

-Professor Verdus here is transferring ownership of the sailboat that was being researched with Lord Lagesa’s funds to Lord Wardanaz over here. I’d like you all to serve as witnesses.

-Oh my! Understood! If Professor Verdus ever seeks after a student’s property in a vile way, then we’ll throw him into the hottest and most miserable spot of the deep punishment room!

-I swear as well!

The Death Knights, all excited without waiting to see who went first, eagerly took an oath.

Lee Han spoke flusteredly.

“No, you really don’t have to go that far. That sounds like a lot of trouble.”

-No. We just want to lock him up, so

that’s why we’re doing this?

“……”

Lagesa, as if he knew it all, patted Lee Han on the shoulder and said his goodbye.

“Well, then, take care. Future Director of the Spirit Hall.”

“Yes. I wish you w…”

As Lee Han, seeing Lagesa off with a polite bow, hesitated.

‘Wait. Did he really just say something like that as a farewell?’

As expected from a pirate!

• * *

“Hello, Senior.”

Monday morning.

Lee Han moved his steps to the kitchen club’s dining hall storeroom on the 7th floor and greeted.

Normally, Falkrius, who would have been stripping an unknown monster’s meat with a huge apron, was wearing a neat school uniform and sitting at the table reading a book.

“?!”

Surprised at the sight, Lee Han asked,

“By any chance…”

“Ah, Wardanaz. You’re here?”

“Are you short of the grades required to graduate, Senior?”

Falkrius, who was always hearty with laughter, asked with a sullen face.

“Did you see me that way?”

“No, no, it’s just that you always worked in the storeroom.”

“This week, I have to prepare for the midterms.”

With the midterms coming up next week, the Einrogard students couldn’t act as usual.

Since everyone was like that in first year too, Lee Han nodded.

“So you’re studying here.”

“Studying… It’s a bit different than that.”

“Sorry?”

“This is the midterm the juniors will be taking.”

“???”

At Falkrius’ words, Lee Han didn’t get it and tilted his head.

Why was Falkrius taking the midterm intended for juniors?

“Why are you, Senior, looking at the juniors’ midterm… Ah. Is it that Professor told you to help prepare?”

At the dumbfounding question, Falkrius smirked.

“Haha, unless it’s a truly insane Professor, they don’t ask a student who isn’t even in 5th year to help prepare the exam!”

“……”

Huh?

“This is a club tradition, Wardanaz. Looks like you didn’t know.”

Originally, clubs were not survival groups for livelihoods but rather gatherings to maintain shared hobbies, interests, and traditions.

It was easy to misunderstand, but Einrogard’s clubs also had their own dignity and traditions.

One of those traditions was to help out their juniors!

Many clubs at Einrogard, including the kitchen club, had the seniors step up to help juniors prepare for exams.

‘Wait. There was a culture like this?’

Lee Han was surprised.

To think such a culture existed in the cold and desolate desert that is Einrogard.

“What does it mean to help with the exam? Is it teaching about things we don’t know, or organizing key points?”

“Hehehe. Well, there’s that, too. And you could say we help by raiding the Professor’s mage tower to get the exam questions in advance.”

“……”

Lee Han started to feel something was off.

No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like the warm, senior-junior friendship he first imagined.

Falkrius continued to explain.

Of course, as just mentioned, answering juniors’ questions or organizing key points was certainly helpful.

But as clubs engaged in honorable competition, sometimes more aggressive, and occasionally even radical, methods would emerge.

Like raiding Professors’ mage towers to get exam questions, or even preparing for cheating during the exam…

“Why go that far?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Wardanaz. I really lament it. If only the other club kids competed fairly, there’d be no need for this…”

Falkrius looked regretfully into the air.

How nice would school be if only kitchen club-type places existed at Einrogard, full of laughter and warmth?

‘I doubt it.’

‘Heh. Now that I think back, maybe it’s a good thing that you joined several clubs. If you only joined one, imagine all the fights. Normally, people don’t mess with juniors, but with you, Wardanaz, they might’ve…”

“……”

“Anyway, Wardanaz. You’re here at just the right time! I honestly think you’ll do fine on your own, but since you’re a member of our club, I need to help as a senior.”

“I’m not that good on my own, Senior. Please help me.”

Lee Han quickly answered.

Whatever else, he wasn’t going to refuse help preparing for exams.

“Uwahaha! Of course. Then pick a class.”

“Sorry?”

“You’re taking too many classes for one club to handle. We talked to the other clubs and decided to split them up.”

Originally, the seniors would just help with whatever classes their juniors were taking, but if a junior took classes from all schools, things changed.

Better for each club to take on some than to have all the seniors collapse.

“……”

“Hehe. By the way, I’d like it if you would leave -One Drop of Potion Instead of Complex Magic- to me. Most of our club members are good at alchemy.”

“That does make sense.”

Barring a few special cases, alchemists tended to be very skilled in cooking or brewing as well.

Lee Han had no intention of asking for something like Professor Voladi’s class -Understanding Intermediate Battle Magic- just to make things harder, so he decided to ask them for the alchemy class.

Bang, bang, bang!

-What’s this! Why is the door closed!

-Kitchen club! Not open for business today?!

At the sound of someone banging outside, Falkrius poked his head out and shouted.

“Not open! We have to prepare for next week’s exams!”

“What…what are you talking about! You kept things open during exam week last year?!”

“That was because we had no money last year, so we did it during exam week. This year, we’ve saved up enough! Uwahaha!”

Falkrius burst out in a relaxed laugh.

Thanks to a junior who provided suspiciously high-quality ingredients this year, business had been up by an order of magnitude compared to last year.

Now they could afford to close whenever they wanted.

“Unbelievable!”

“I got up early just to have tomato egg soup and ran over here…”

The seniors slumped down as if the sky had fallen.

With the kitchen club’s food quality going up so much compared to last year, their expectations had been very high.

Lee Han, feeling a little sorry, poked his head out and whispered softly.

“…Shh. Please be quiet. I’ll serve you two only.”

“Wa…Wardanaz!”

“What a kind second-year nanny you are!”

“?”

Lee Han paused.

“Wasn’t that an insult just now?”

“It was, it was a compliment…?”

The seniors looked confused.

Wasn’t that nickname given because he took good care of them?

A little later.

While the two hungry seniors hurriedly sliced the rye bread they brought and dipped it into soup, Lee Han continued the previous conversation with Falkrius.

“So, how do you help?”

“Heh. The -One Drop of Potion Instead of Complex Magic- exam is basically half just ingredient gathering. The other half is actually making the potion.”

With the savvy of a senior, Falkrius hit the key point.

Professor Thunderstep’s alchemy class was notorious not just for how difficult the process was but also for requiring students to gather their own ingredients.

“At least now, you can run around the Einrogard domain to get them, but further on in the advanced course, you have to bring back jewels! Pfft. It’s totally insane!”

“You are absolutely right!”

Lee Han replied heatedly.

“Using jewels for alchemy! They’re crazy!”

“Wo, Wardanaz. What’s wrong? Are you hungry or something? Well, you’ll need gems someday…”

Alchemy wasn’t just about making potions after all, but a discipline for exploring all substances.

No matter how expensive, you couldn’t just never use them.

Falkrius cleared his throat and continued.

“To know what ingredients are needed, you have to check the Professor’s mage tower or herbal gardens.”

“And borrow some while you’re at it?”

Impressed at the junior’s keen learning, Falkrius gave a thumbs up.

“But they’re a bit more guarded this year. Do you know Professor Thunderstep’s cottage that’s just south of the Hall of the Scalpel and Mortar? Do you know who’s guarding the garden there?”

“No idea?”

Lee Han was curious.

That little garden near the cottage was one Lee Han himself managed, so he knew it relatively well.

Had they added extra security?

“Professor Bendozol! Can you believe it? Professor Bendozol is personally guarding it!”

“……”

Lee Han had to focus to control his expression.

Professor Bendozol, who loved animals, was actually doing odd jobs for Lee Han to give him time.

“A-absolutely… That does make it tough.”

“We have to try to break in anyway.”

“Senior, I have something to tell you.”

A third-year student, having not only licked his soup bowl clean but wiped every drop off with leftover bread, called Falkrius over.

“I know of a secret herbal garden Professor Thunderstep built in the mountains.”

“What?! Really? How did you find out?”

“I had to do an assignment and spent several days on the cliff, and saw Professor go by underneath.”

“Ha, you were lucky.”

‘Am I the only one who thinks spending days camped on a cliff is weird?’

Lee Han thought to himself.

Falkrius took notes of the third-year’s tip with interest.

“I see, I see… Good. I need to check there too. If there’s something I need, I’ll clean it out. How about you? Doesn’t your junior deserve a treat for lighting the cauldron and cooking for you?”

“Uh, well…”

Unlike his friend, the senior didn’t know anything incriminating about Professor Thunderstep, and hesitated before blurting out,

‘I… I do know who raided Professor Thunderstep’s ingredient wagon last summer.’

“What! That’s interesting too. Maybe I can negotiate with Professor. Tell me their name!”

“The Hormasi family’s Carnella…”

While Falkrius was talking to those two students, other kitchen club members arrived one by one.

The students seemed to instantly know what was going on when they saw Falkrius interrogating and recording things.

“You’re preparing for midterms.”

“Wait, isn’t Wardanaz taking classes from every school? Can we handle all that?”

“They said they’re splitting it with the other clubs.”

“Whew. Thank goodness.”

“Hehe! I think that’s about enough. Let’s go! We have to work hard all week if we’re going to help the juniors with their exams!”

“Yes!”

At Falkrius’ shout, the members energetically gathered and headed out.

With the pickled tentacle sandwiches Falkrius had prepared for breakfast, their morale skyrocketed.

So at first, the members didn’t notice—

‘…Uh, why is Wardanaz coming with us?’

The second-year junior had slipped in so naturally alongside them.

He didn’t even have to do this!