Episode 911

“…What on earth happened!?”

Having sealed the demigod hamster back into the Black Dark Hall and successfully reverse-summoned it thanks to dragon breath, the two professors were taken aback by an unexpected scene.

The dragon was bawling as if the world was ending.

Waaaaaaaah!

“Y-Your Highness, why are you crying?”

Lee Han is dying! This isn’t the adventure Joulin imagined…!

Joulin was crying so hard he couldn’t even speak properly.

All the adventures he’d heard of in fairy tales or legends were always about brave heroes defeating enemies together with wonderful companions, never about helplessly watching a fallen contract partner.

If this counted as an adventure, Joulin would ban adventures from the empire!

“What the… Actually, he’s just sleeping, you know?”

Professor Garcia, after checking Lee Han’s condition, spoke.

“Professor Baegrek?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah. Looks like he just collapsed from exhaustion.”

Despite the reassurance of the professors, the recently much more suspicious dragon did not believe them.

How could he trust that they weren’t just trying to deceive or placate him!

“…Did someone deceive Your Highness recently? No. Please check for yourself. He’s really fine.”

Joulin, abashed at Professor Garcia’s words, checked.

He’d been too scared to look before, but indeed, there was a pulse.

T-then why did he collapse? Did Joulin breathe too much?

“No. That’s not it.”

Knowing Lee Han’s mana well, Professor Garcia denied it immediately.

He’d already helped with the breath before—it wasn’t likely he’d suddenly be unable to withstand it now.

B-but, used it more than last time…

“Still won’t have made much difference, Your Highness.”

……

Joulin still had doubts after Professor Garcia’s response.

Maybe this cold-hearted professor really wouldn’t care even if his student collapsed and spat blood?

‘Now that I think about it, Lee Han always said the professors were cold and pitiless!’

“He probably collapsed because he overused his magic before we even got here. No matter how much magic you have, there’s still a limit to a person’s concentration.”

“He used Lightning Manifestation.”

“Pardon?”

At Professor Voladi’s words, Professor Garcia tilted his head.

Then Professor Voladi began a rare, lengthy explanation—one often seen in the professors’ lounge, but rarely elsewhere.

Starting from the powers inherited from the spirit king known as Thunder General, or King of Lightning—originally called Flash Lightning—now the boy of the Wardanaz family had…

‘Shouldn’t have asked.’

Professor Garcia regretted it deeply.

There was so much clean-up to do now—no reason to be listening to all this.

But as the youngest of the Einrogard professors, that meant he had once been an apprentice to them.

And the hierarchy between professor and student, once established, was a law more powerful than almost any curse.

So Professor Garcia, grumbling inwardly, couldn’t bring himself to interrupt and listened respectfully.

At least the story was interesting…

“Wait, you encouraged that?!”

“I did not.”

“A-ah, I see.”

Professor Garcia, just like the nervous dragon beside him, had his suspicions.

Did he really not encourage it?

“Hmm. I know Lee Han’s been interested in Lightning Manifestation magic lately, but that doesn’t mean there’s proof he used it just now.”

Still, feeling for his student, Garcia attempted to take Lee Han’s side.

There was no need for something as reckless as Lightning Manifestation—he’d have collapsed anyway from everything else.

Just look at the things he usually did…

Professor Voladi pointed to the back. You could see the trace left in the rock wall where the will-imbued lightning had pierced through the demigod hamster.

“…I see.”

W-when will Lee Han wake up?

“As soon as he’s recovered a bit, he’ll get up right away. No need to worry.”

Professor Garcia applied some simple first aid.

Having a lot of mana also meant recovery was exponentially faster.

Lee Han’s mana was so abundant that even “a lot” didn’t describe it. Even in this situation, his recovery was rapid—no need to worry.

“Oh, right. We should finish sealing the other Black Dark Halls before they open.”

Professor Voladi nodded. The Death Knights agreed as well.

One Dark Hall opening had already caused this much trouble. If any more opened, it would only get worse.

Joulin has a question.

“What’s your question?”

Professor Garcia replied kindly, feeling sympathy for the soft-hearted dragon, who seemed deeply shocked today.

Why haven’t the other professors come?

“……”

-……

Professor Garcia and the Death Knights fell silent together. Professor Voladi spoke.

“That’s…”

“I, I’ll answer!”

• * *

“!”

After a deep sleep, Lee Han awoke, startled to see a massive dragon curled up sleeping nearby.

“Your Highness!”

Uuuunng!?

“What happened to the continent? Have the demigods already conquered…?”

Waaaaah! Lee Han has gone strange!

Joulin, not knowing the situation, burst into tears once again.

He assumed Lee Han was hallucinating from pain and exhaustion.

‘Guess it’s not over yet.’

Finally catching on, Lee Han looked down from the mountain at the main building of Einrogard.

It was peaceful as always.

An explosion on the 11th floor and tentacles pouring from the windows on the 4th floor, but that was perfectly normal…

‘All good.’

“Sorry, Your Highness. My mistake. We haven’t been attacked while I was out, right?”

Mmm…

Hearing this clear answer, Lee Han breathed a sigh of relief.

As expected, the two professors were amazing. They’d somehow stopped the demigod legion summon.

“Lee Han, you’re awake?”

“Professors!”

The sight of the two returning professors had never felt so reassuring. Lee Han greeted them with deep respect.

“You professors have saved the continent!”

“I-I don’t think it was that dramatic.”

Professor Garcia looked a bit embarrassed.

Maybe things would have escalated if they’d failed, but it was still embarrassing to be credited with saving the whole continent for this.

“Well done.”

“Thank you. Have all the demigod legions been destroyed?”

“No. Just sealed.”

Professor Garcia shook his head, explaining.

The Mad Clone, although he’d made up his mind only moments earlier, had used that time incredibly efficiently.

After consecutively casting Black Dark Halls, he’d tried to contract with the demigods within and pull them out one by one.

Of course, such secret arts required huge power, so after using magic to summon the first demigod, the plan was to use its power to extract the rest.

Fortunately, they sealed the remaining Black Dark Halls swiftly after handling the first demigod, so luck was on their side.

“We stopped the first demigod and sealed the rest before they could emerge, so there shouldn’t be further trouble. Things like that can’t be easily reverse-summoned.”

Given how powerful the Black Dark Halls were, it was also an ordeal reverse-summoning them without causing collateral damage.

Even for Einrogard professors, it would be tough to handle everything on the spot, just the two of them.

“Did you meet the clone?”

“Yes. And we also met the King of Yaksha. He was a rare wise one.”

Professor Garcia expressed admiration for the Yaksha King.

Beings from other dimensions were normally eccentric or unpredictable.

The more powerful they were, the worse this got.

But with the power to seal the Mad Clone, the Yaksha King still treated mortals with respect and grace.

A truly rare being.

“It’s good luck you formed a contract with one like that, Lee Han. I’m relieved.”

“…I see.”

Lee Han wanted to complain that it was thanks to the Yaksha King that he’d had to make a needless contract with a star, but he held it in.

Now wasn’t the time.

“Can the Headmaster’s clone be restored to normal?”

“Hmm.”

Pressed by Lee Han’s careful question, Professor Garcia looked troubled.

“I don’t think it’ll be easy. Unlike the Black Dark Hall, he’s an extraordinary archmage…”

The seal the Yaksha King was currently casting might have looked simple, but it used a diverse array of intricate secret arts.

Not just one or two—dozens.

Stopping an archmage on the level of the Mad Clone was like playing a hundred simultaneous games of chess—if he slipped even once, the enemy would regain the upper hand.

One of the secret arts the Yaksha King used was overlapping his own existence data with the enemy’s so they couldn’t do anything at all.

A powerful seal, but also tricky to break from the outside.

Because if you attacked the Yaksha King or interrupted him, you could easily break the seal holding the Mad Clone.

“So resolving this by force probably won’t work. Lee Han.”

“Uh, weren’t we talking about restoring him to normal? Why mention attacking?”

Lee Han was puzzled at the unasked answer.

He hadn’t been asking if it was possible to erase him—just if it was possible to restore him.

Professor Garcia froze at his reaction.

“…I just thought you might wonder! Ha ha! Ha ha ha!”

“???”

Lee Han didn’t quite get why the professor was acting this way, but he nodded anyway.

Embarrassed, having briefly mistaken his student for a little Voladi obsessed with battle, Professor Garcia continued.

“So, I plan to work with Professor Baegrek to study Fall magic.”

“!”

Hearing the familiar magic name, Lee Han was startled.

‘Of course. He’d know after meeting the Yaksha King.’

That talkative king wouldn’t have stayed quiet.

Certainly, he would have advised the most effective solution for this situation.

So the two professors had decided as quickly as possible to research -Gonadaltes’ Fall-.

“I’ll help, even if it’s not much.”

“Really? Lee Han, you shouldn’t push yourself…”

Professor Garcia was delighted, though he tried not to show it.

After what the Yaksha King had said, Lee Han’s help was likely crucial for this solution.

Not so much magically, but because being the Mad Clone’s disciple would carry extra weight.

If an outsider cast -Gonadaltes’ Fall-, the persuasive power would be much less…

“That’s true, but… this is my problem too.”

Lee Han spoke, half resolved.

He was tied up with the Mad Clone in far too many ways to simply leave everything up to the professors.

Given the current climate, who knew when another kidnapping attempt might occur?

“……”

“Professor Baegrek?”

Professor Garcia looked curiously at Professor Voladi, who had been deep in thought and hadn’t spoken a word this whole time.

Wasn’t now the time to praise this admirable student?

“Oh. Sorry, I was thinking.”

“About what?”

Professor Voladi explained slowly.

He’d been planning midterms; now, in light of all that had happened, he was considering whether to count today’s events as the test or not…

“……”

Professor Garcia was dumbfounded.

‘Do you have no heart??’

A mere sophomore had just fended off a demigod’s rampage basically alone!

“Personally, I think you should count it.”

“But you must have been looking forward to it.”

At that, Professor Garcia turned to Lee Han. Lee Han shook his head slightly.

“Disregard the student’s wishes, Professor! We’re professors.”

“Hmm. On this, I respectfully disagree with you, Professor Garcia.”

With that, Professor Voladi assented: he would indeed count today’s events as this semester’s midterm, thoroughly nettling Garcia for no reason at all.