Episode 90

“Everyone gather! Derrgyu got caught!”

“?”

It seemed Gainando wasn’t the only one who’d been captured. Ihan turned his head at the voice from the side.

A little distance away in the courtyard, the White Tiger Tower students were scrambling in chaos.

“Did the White Tiger Tower get caught too? Did those guys maybe throw Gainando in on purpose?”

Ihan asked, thinking that maybe the White Tiger Tower students, furious about Derrgyu being captured, had tossed Gainando in as well.

“No. Gainando just tripped over his own ankle.”

“…I see.”

• * *

While Ihan and Yoner were caught by the two professors and forced to hear, “A true mage goes to grad school, not into the bureaucracy,” the students who had finished hurried out of the lecture hall.

The lecture was so suffocating that everyone would burst out afterward to breathe some fresh air.

-Get it together! Don’t collapse! There’s another class next!

-L-leave me here… I’ll just sleep…

The students about to collapse weren’t just from Blue Dragon Tower.

No matter the tower, it was a boring and grueling class.

-But, are Wardanaz and Meikin really okay? What if the professor noticed?

-That professor wouldn’t notice even if there were monsters sitting for us.

-Yeah…

-No joke, I’m serious. If I listen to this lecture a few more times, I think I’ll fall into an eternal sleep.

-With homework like this, what about the midterm? Is it okay to hand in a blank? If we get dragged to the punishment room…

-Honestly, while listening to that lecture, I thought about setting the room on fire.

-Me too. I’d rather a loose summon show up.

Bang!

Perhaps having heard the students or just because of the noise, a summon really did appear from the bushes.

Some students screamed when they saw the vine monster from last time appear.

-Everyone run!

-Get inside the building!

-Somebody get the professor!

-No! Even if you get the professor, it won’t help! Use that time to run!

Some escaped quickly, but others, like Gainando, tripped over their own feet.

The vine monster didn’t bother chasing those who fled.

It leisurely hoisted a few fallen students with its vines and walked off happily.

“…Wait. Did Derrgyu trip too? He’s not the type to fall down.”

“That White Tiger Tower orc friend tried to rescue Gainando and got caught.”

“……”

Ihan felt sorry for Derrgyu. He’d been caught while trying to help Gainando, just because they were friends…

A White Tiger Tower student came running out of the main building, panting.

“What happened?! What about the professor?!”

“H-he said, ‘Take care of it yourselves’…”

“……”

“……”

The answer brought back by the student who fetched the professor left not just the White Tiger Tower students, but the others too, speechless.

Seriously, isn’t that just too much??

But Ihan stayed calm.

‘I should have chosen the professor better. I acted too hastily.’

You shouldn’t just find any professor in a hurry and ask for help. You need to ask a professor you were relatively close to and who had a bit more of a conscience…

‘Wait. There isn’t a single professor with a conscience.’

…A professor you were relatively close to, who’s at least a bit of a pushover.

That white tiger student had probably been in too much of a rush and just grabbed anyone.

“What do we do? Wardanaz? What should we do?”

All the Blue Dragon Tower students gazed desperately at Ihan.

Should they give chase now?

Or look for another solution?

It was a tough call for any of them.

“Let’s go after them. We don’t even know where the professors are right now, and if we lose their trail, it’ll be a pain to find them.”

Right now, the traces left by the summon were clearly visible and not far off. Give it more time, and it’d be much harder to pursue.

And Ihan had one more thing he could rely on.

‘Perkuntra!’

When Ihan spoke the name, the dormant shard of Perkuntra inside him resonated.

Now, the contracted summoner was rightfully calling forth the spirit.

“Sing of thunder, O spirit! Thunderclap and lightning! The bellkeeper who guards the ruined kingdom’s bell tower and the watchman lost at sea both know your name and quail before you. The one who contracts with you calls to you, by rightful power!”

Seeing Ihan cast the summoning spell, the princess was astonished.

She was the one here who summoned spirits fastest, so she could guess what kind of spirit Ihan was calling.

The incantation used to summon a spirit demonstrated that spirit’s dignity and stature.

Such a long and elaborate summoning… unmistakably…

KWAJEEEEECK!

From the place where Ihan planted his wand, a flower of lightning bloomed and the spirit began to take form.

‘Spirit of lightning!’

The knight next to the princess, Rowena, was even more surprised than the princess.

It was acceptable that Wardanaz had contracted a spirit even stronger than hers—after all, he was a monstrously gifted mage.

But the spirit of lightning was among the roughest and most violent of spirits.

And with an incantation that long, it couldn’t possibly be weak.

‘How? What trick did he use to contract with it?!’

“Appear!”

At Ihan’s request, a fragment of Perkuntra materialized.

A fist-sized sphere of lightning formed with a crackle of sparks.

The students gaped at the sight.

Huh?

“???”

“…Ah! Of course! The strength of a spirit isn’t tied to its size!”

It was said that even Stormrider’s rabbit-shaped spirit was truly powerful.

Even if that spirit seemed ordinary, it surely hid extraordinary power.

Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense for Wardanaz to go through so much trouble to summon it.

Wardanaz wouldn’t make that kind of mistake!

The students nodded in understanding, but Ihan himself didn’t.

This was too different from the Perkuntra he’d first met.

No matter if it was just an avatar…?

-What’s this? Isn’t this too small a fragment?

-You forgot I’m still bound by your order to remain sealed…!

Perkuntra spoke telepathically, sounding frustrated.

Of course, Perkuntra had told Ihan before: ‘Once you’re outside, don’t forget to summon me! My abilities are not limited to this!’

But that was supposed to be after a few days had passed.

Right now, Perkuntra was still under the order to ‘remain here sealed’ for him to leave the punishment room.

Without that lifted, he couldn’t be summoned outside at his leisure.

Because Perkuntra was powerful, at least a tiny fragment could barely be summoned, but normally he wouldn’t be summonable at all until freed.

Even as Perkuntra explained, Ihan’s gaze remained cold.

-Do you not believe me…!?

-Not that I don’t, but… If this keeps happening and you always have some reason you can’t help when I need it, how can I trust calling you?

Perkuntra almost missed the old wizards.

Arrogant, foul-tempered, illogical brutes who would shout and throw tantrums.

With them, he could lash back and burn them to nothing.

But this young wizard spoke calmly and inoffensively, yet still so annoying.

Worse, it was hard to argue with him.

-Don’t worry. I don’t know why you summoned me, but this much power is more than enough. Just watch!

‘We’ll see about that.’

-I told you I can sense your feelings!

-Ah. Not my thoughts too, right? We need to respect each other’s privacy.

• * *

Ihan hastily chased after the tracks with the Blue Dragon Tower students.

Ahead, the White Tiger Tower students were also hot on the trail.

“Hey! Don’t follow us!”

“That’s our line! You get lost instead!”

“You can’t even use magic… huff, huff.”

And the outcome of the race was all but settled.

With separate fencing and fitness courses, there was no way the Blue Dragon Tower students could keep up physically with the White Tiger Tower students.

Ihan looked at them pityingly.

“You should have exercised more.”

“T-they’re just stupidly strong… huff, huff.”

“I’ll go ahead. Follow as best you can.”

“No! Wardanaz! Huff… If you go alone, the White Tiger Tower guys w—”

‘Probably not.’

‘Probably not…’

Friends like Rowena and Asan, who knew Ihan better, thought so to themselves.

Any other student might have been in danger if left alone with White Tiger Tower, but Ihan was a different case.

If anything, wouldn’t he be more dangerous to the White Tiger Tower kids?

“It’s fine, just come after me when you’ve caught your breath.”

-Why are you so fit?

Perkuntra wondered as he watched Ihan pull ahead.

He didn’t seem from a knight’s family, so why…?

But before he could learn the answer, Perkuntra cried out urgently.

-Enemy. There’s an enemy hiding!

“I hide at night!”

Ihan instinctively chanted a spell. But the attack didn’t come.

-Where is it hiding? There’s nowhere near here to hide?

There was no big bush or anything near the path right now.

You’d have to run farther toward the mountain to find cover.

-Underneath!

“!”

Ihan dove immediately.

If it was hiding underground, even an invisibility spell would give him away by sound and vibration.

But the vine monster didn’t aim for Ihan. It leapt from the ground and snatched another White Tiger Tower kid in front.

“Aaangh!! No!”

A goat beastman was snatched up by the vine.

-How was it hiding?

-It’s gotta have been some skill the wizards gave it. Originally, monsters like that can’t melt into the ground and disguise themselves!

‘So it’s not just the professors at this school who are nuts, but the seniors too.’

Ihan gripped his wand and locked onto the vine monster.

The White Tiger Tower student it snatched hung limply, drained of strength.

-It absorbs magic. Be careful not to let it sap yours… Well, you could spare some, but better be careful! If you’re grabbed, it’ll be a pain!

-I never planned to let that happen anyway.

Just having a lot of magic didn’t mean Ihan was dumb enough to get caught by a vine. He readied his wand to conjure fire.

“Bur—”

-No!!!! Absolutely not!!!!!

With trauma from Ihan’s fire, Perkuntra stopped him desperately.

Until he was sure, he couldn’t let Ihan use fire magic.

-Can’t use it?

-It’s dangerous! You could burn the other students to death!

-I wasn’t going to attack, just keep the monster at bay…

-Still dangerous!! No way!!

‘Is it that bad?’

Ihan wondered.

Wouldn’t it be fine to just float balls of fire nearby to keep it away…?

-Normally I’d be able to subdue it in one go, but I don’t have that much power now.

Ihan looked at Perkuntra with a betrayed glare.

He said earlier this much power would be enough!

Perkuntra frantically added,

-But I’ll teach you the spell! You’ll use it in my stead.

-Can’t you just use it yourself? Isn’t it risky if I try something new right away…