Episode 869

Episode 869

Despite the bullying from the mean seniors, Lee Han was not shaken.

-Gonadaltes: A wizard must not harbor irrational fears. One must face and overcome those fears directly.

-Iactus: You go stare at the headmaster all you want.

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: You go overcome the headmaster all you want.

“……”

Lee Han almost attacked back with “Are you even going to graduate at this rate?” but caught himself.

No matter how much you want to fight, there’s a line you shouldn’t cross.

‘Anyway, this isn’t helpful.’

Unlike with other topics, whenever the skull headmaster was mentioned, everyone got so sensitive that it was hard to gather information.

As Lee Han was wondering if he should give up, someone posted a message.

-Sir Clzenberg: The headmaster is up in the capital right now.

“!”

Lee Han was surprised at the name he’d never seen before. It seemed others were also a bit surprised.

-Iactus: Clzenberg! I thought you graduated.

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: I thought you were locked in the punishment room forever.

-Sir Clzenberg: Haha. I’ve been quite busy lately.

-Gonadaltes: …Am I the only one bothered by Clzenberg’s archaic speech?

-Iactus: Hey. Didn’t you make your nickname Gonadaltes?

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Right. Are you in any position to point out other people’s quirks?

It was a short conversation, but Lee Han learned several things.

First, Clzenberg was a student who spoke in an old-fashioned way and was apparently quite popular among the other members.

The reaction was completely different from when a member like Bulgasari posted something and got jeered.

‘If anything, this Sir Clzenberg ranks among the most popular members of this -Einrogard Watchman- group. Bulgasari is among the least popular.’

Lee Han wondered where he would fit in, but seeing the pseudonym ‘Gonadaltes,’ he stopped thinking about it quickly.

-Sir Clzenberg: By the way, Beaver-Penguin-Fox, how’s that research you mentioned last time going?

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Of course. The toxic vapor cloud turned out really well. If anyone approaches, I could kill them in three seconds!

-Bulgasari: …Isn’t that a bit much? Other students could get hurt.

For an instant, no text appeared on the Whispering Artifact, and it fell silent. Even though Lee Han couldn’t see, he could feel the chilly atmosphere.

-Sir Clzenberg: I understand Bulgasari’s concern. But Beaver-Penguin-Fox has always shown excellent ability as a member. Even if he creates a toxic vapor cloud, he wouldn’t use it on other students.

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: ……

-Bulgasari: You really aren’t going to use it, right?!

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Ah. Be quiet. Who do you think you are to keep butting in?

-Bulgasari: See, see! Look at that!

-Sir Clzenberg: Everyone, calm down. Beaver-Penguin-Fox is surely…

‘Hmm. Now I see why he’s popular.’

Sir Clzenberg reminded Lee Han of the old knight Allarlong from the Wardanaz family.

A compassionate and generous old knight.

Having summed it up, Lee Han picked up his quill again.

He was curious where Beaver-Penguin-Fox intended to use a toxic vapor cloud that kills in three seconds, but right now he was more concerned about the skull headmaster.

-Gonadaltes: Sir Clzenberg. You said the headmaster went to the capital. Can you tell us more in detail?

-Iactus: Aw. Just when the topic finally changed.

Others grumbled, but Lee Han ignored them. Clzenberg answered kindly.

-Sir Clzenberg: Of course… But why do you use such a peculiar pseudonym?

-Gonadaltes: ……

-Sir Clzenberg: Anyway, the headmaster went up to the capital to prepare for a Grand Magic. He apparently needs to get various permissions.

-Bulgasari: Huh? Really? It was for something like that?

-Iactus: What kind of Grand Magic?? Like what? Is he putting more curses on every student’s neck?

-Sir Clzenberg: Even I don’t know that much. And that’s hardly a Grand Magic.

-Iactus: True. He could probably do that easily.

‘A Grand Magic?’

Wizards usually cast spells with their reagents and willpower, but not all spells could be cast that way.

Some spells were so grand or complex that it took hundreds of wizards decades to prepare.

These were usually called Grand Magic.

Spells so difficult that an individual wizard couldn’t hope to cast them.

The problem was, the skull headmaster was no ordinary wizard.

‘For the skull headmaster to have to go to the capital to prepare a Grand Magic… What in the world could it be?’

If it were any ordinary Grand Magic, he could have dealt with it at his own level—it wasn’t something usually requiring such preparations.

And it wasn’t the usual sort of preparation. It was the kind where you’d have to go and persuade the Emperor and all the bureaucrats.

At this point, Lee Han genuinely felt scared.

The merger of Baldrogard almost seemed less frightening by comparison.

The other members seemed to feel the same, whispering nervously.

-Iactus: What could it be? What’s he trying to do?

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Maybe he’s trying to enroll the royal who visited recently?

-Iactus: Is that a Grand Magic? Don’t say such nonsense.

-Gonadaltes: I agree with Iactus. Stop with the horrifying talk.

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Can’t even joke?

As Lee Han worried, a question suddenly occurred to him.

-Gonadaltes: By the way, Clzenberg. How do you know all this?

-Bulgasari: Yeah. How do you know? Suspicious.

No matter how he thought about it, Clzenberg knew too much.

‘Maybe there’s another apprentice besides me?’

There might be a hidden apprentice among the fifth or sixth years, or even higher.

Someone still yet to graduate and trapped in the darkest, deepest part of the school…

-Iactus: He could know. Why are you interrogating him?

-Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Says the suspicious one! Suspicious is you!

A storm of attacks rained down on the bottom-ranked members of the unofficial -Einrogard Watchman- popularity poll.

Lee Han could only take a step back.

‘Tch. This guy is way too popular.’

-Sir Clzenberg: Calm down, everyone. I just happened to be in a position to learn this information.

-Baquantalana: I’ve thought about this before, but is Clzenberg maybe the headmaster’s apprentice?

-Sir Clzenberg: Hoho. I’ll leave that to your imagination.

“……”

Suspicious!

Lee Han overwhelmingly found him suspicious.

Of course, there could be a senior apprentice that Lee Han didn’t know about deep in the darkest corners of Einrogard, but Clzenberg didn’t seem like such an apprentice.

If he were truly the headmaster’s apprentice, he’d have the proper hatred to show for it.

As a true apprentice of the skull headmaster, Lee Han vowed to uncover the impostor’s identity.

‘Oh right. I almost forgot to ask about the Star Guide usage.’

Lee Han intended to ask about the midterm artifact for Professor Paselete’s exam.

One of the seniors might know how to use it.

-Bulgasari: Is Professor Craer still mad? Maybe it was all just a misunderstanding?

-Iactus: Oh. No. Just a moment ago, the professor doubled the bounty on Professor Verdus’s head. He even put a bounty on the stolen artifacts.

‘Hmm. Not a good time to ask.’

Lee Han quietly closed his book.

If he asked about artifact usage now, he might end up with multiple anonymous informers reporting him.

-Have you finished?

The baby basilisk poked its head out from Lee Han’s sleeve. Lee Han nodded and replied.

“Yeah. But why have you been so sleepy lately?”

-I was just pretending to sleep!

“Why?”

-Because there’s a dragon.

Unlike its usual behavior, filled with curiosity, the baby basilisk checked its surroundings with great suspicion.

As if checking whether Joulin was nearby.

“He’s sleeping over there.”

-!

As Lee Han pointed at Joulin dozing in front of the break room fireplace, the baby basilisk darted straight into his sleeve.

-Waaa… You tricked me…

“…Ah, no. I didn’t trick you.”

-You tricked me…

“I’m sorry.”

Lee Han put a snack into his sleeve to soothe the baby basilisk.

Even while crying, the baby basilisk nimbly ate the treat.

“By the way, Prince Joulin isn’t that scary a person.”

-Dragons are scary.

“Of course, it may seem threatening by species, but you’ve seen for yourself.”

-What?

“…Many behaviors that make him seem less threatening?”

-?

The baby basilisk tilted its head.

No matter how hard it thought, there weren’t really any actions that seemed less threatening.

He held Lee Han with his paws, tried to kidnap him to his nest, tried to wrap him with his tail…

-Seems dangerous to me?

“No. By that logic, you’re dangerous, too.”

-What?!

At Lee Han’s remark, the baby basilisk was tearful again.

But Lee Han saw that the two acted similarly overall. Joulin was just much stronger, with much more brutal magic power.

“…Right?”

-Hmph.

Even after Lee Han’s long persuasion, the baby basilisk grumbled but nodded.

That Prince Joulin the dragon might actually be a relatively less dangerous dragon…

Hmm.

Thanks to a fun-filled day, Joulin, who’d been sleeping deeply, heard Lee Han’s voice in his sleep and immediately reached out a paw.

“Uff.”

Joulin grabbed Lee Han firmly to prevent escape and curled up around him. Like a child clutching a favorite doll.

Of course, from Lee Han’s perspective, he had been suddenly kidnapped to a dragon’s nest. The baby basilisk whispered in shock.

-He, he really is scary!

“…He’s just playing.”

-You just went “Uff!”

“You must have misheard. I was planning to sleep here tonight anyway.”

Using telekinesis magic to protect himself, Lee Han forced the issue.

The baby basilisk stared back with suspicion.

It feels like a lie…

• * *

“…Hah!”

A wasteland with the sky and horizon utterly empty.

When Lee Han realized it was a vision from the black book, he let out a sigh of relief.

He’d thought it was a nightmare from being kidnapped to a dragon’s nest.

“What is it this time? Is it magic to let me sneak out without waking Prince Joulin?”

If it was, that would be pretty useful.

A magic to secretly escape a dragon’s grasp…

But the black book, instead of teaching a spell, moved sluggishly in mid-air, stalling for time.

Puzzled, Lee Han asked,

“What is this? If you won’t teach me magic, then let me out.”

If the black book thought Lee Han would beg to learn magic, it was mistaken.

He was already learning too many spells. Besides, midterms were coming up.

If it wouldn’t teach him magic, that was fine.

But again, the black book dodged and just floated about aimlessly.

‘What’s with it. This brat?’

Lee Han sensed discomfort at the black book’s behavior, so different from usual.

Usually, it would impatiently cram a spell into him as if every second counted, but now it was acting leisurely.

‘Exactly…’

While thinking, Lee Han absentmindedly looked behind him.

There, just as last time, the dimensional door marked with the golden ring symbol from the headmaster’s youth appeared.

It was the dimensional door the black book had mentioned, saying, “The headmaster entered and learned magic here in his youth, so you go learn here too.”

…And it was right in front of Lee Han!

He had thought, ‘If I don’t go in, what could the door do?’—but now he was shocked.

‘The dimensional door… sneaks up on you?!’

As always, the headmaster’s minions had a knack for creatively tormenting Lee Han.

Vowing to physically retaliate against the black book once he escaped from the dream, Lee Han was forcibly sucked into the dimensional door marked with the golden ring.