Episode 964

-Plenty of food is ready, so there’s no need to rush!

-Is all the soup ready? Bring more pork fat and salt!

“Sigh.”

The very person who had spread a huge rumor throughout the city of Granden was letting out a deep sigh.

“Wardanaz. If you’re tired, go and take a break. You’ve already done enough.”

Falkrius gently suggested it, noticing his junior seemed fatigued.

He wasn’t just saying it out of courtesy; this junior had truly done several times more work than anyone else.

If it hadn’t been for his junior’s help, they couldn’t have prepared this much additional food.

The sheer amount of food that had been gathered surprised even the priests from various temples and students from the Cooking Club who came to help.

“No, I’m fine. I’ll go make some more water.”

Lee Han waved as if he was fine and raised his staff.

Priests who were working nearby, drying and preserving food for distribution, were shocked at the massive amount of water conjured seemingly out of thin air.

‘He can generate water like that? The mana consumption must be extreme?’

‘Are they overworking this junior??’

“…Wardanaz! Let’s go do that in the back!”

“The priests are looking at us funny!”

“Oh. Yes.”

The seniors hurriedly hid Lee Han at the rear.

In their hearts, they wanted to explain to the priests, “It’s not that we’re overworking our junior—he just has a lot of mana!” But in these circumstances, such explanation wouldn’t be very convincing.

Lee Han moved behind the temporary kitchen tent and filled the cauldron with water, letting out another sigh.

‘…I acted too emotionally.’

He had stepped up in anger when not only himself but even his senior was insulted, but with time and a cooler head, Lee Han now began to feel regret.

No matter how lowly the other party behaved, hadn’t he maybe overdone the revenge?

He swallowed his regrets and tried to recollect what had happened.

It was painful to think on, but for the sake of reflection, he needed to review it seriously.

• * *

Consumed by anger, Lee Han disguised himself as Stedal Nago and leapt lightly over the garden wall.

The defense and alarm spells hanging over the place were smashed by -Baldororn’s Mana Hammer-.

‘Ha. All that time spent rebuilding the mansion, and they couldn’t bother with the magic? They didn’t even prepare for impact nullification?’

Most magicians would not have agreed, but Lee Han thought a magical barrier must be designed to thoroughly disperse external shock.

If a magician with unlimited mana simply swung mana like a hammer from the outside, all those intricate spells would just get smashed.

No matter how much time or money it cost, you had to consider situations like this.

‘Well, that makes it easy. I’ll just smash everything.’

• * *

“Ugh!”

Lee Han stomped his foot.

The seniors prepping nearby jumped in surprise.

“A-are we maybe preparing too slowly?”

All the club members knew that their junior and Falkrius had gone out first and prepared a massive amount of extra food.

Normally, seniors didn’t mind a junior’s scrutiny, but when it came to this Wardanaz junior, things were different.

This was the junior who usually secured tons of ingredients and led the entire Cooking Club crew.

And now, with even more on top of that, it was impossible not to feel a little self-conscious.

“No, it’s not because of you, seniors… I’m just troubled by a mistake of my own.”

“What? Even you, Wardanaz, make mistakes?”

“……”

“A-ah, sorry. What kind of mistake?”

The seniors put down their knives and ladles and gathered around to comfort him.

They couldn’t even imagine a mistake from this junior, but if he really had made one, they wanted to help however they could.

“Recently, I acted emotionally and even murmured to myself in a way that was all ego and no sense…”

“Aw, that’s not even a mistake.”

“Wardanaz, don’t worry about it. When I’m doing alchemy, I mutter to myself about throwing the finished product in the absent Headmaster’s face.”

“Yeah. I mutter I’ll assassinate Professor Verdus after I graduate.”

Their comfort was clumsy but heartfelt. It came through to Lee Han.

“Thank you, everyone.”

“Mistakes like that don’t even count. Unless you blew up a building or something, don’t worry.”

“……”

Lee Han fell deep into thought once again.

• * *

After sneaking into the mansion, Lee Han went straight for the western annex.

Just recently rebuilt, it seemed particularly weak and full of gaps.

With Invisibility Magic to hide his presence and Illusion Magic to dull the senses of the patrolling guards, he leapt up to the second floor with Telekinesis Magic (using the main entrance was never a good idea in a covert op), and there he saw a familiar spirit gloomily patrolling the corridor.

“……”

-……

It was the same water spirit he’d met before.

Though cloaked in Invisibility, the water spirit shivered, feeling the resonance of a contract with a king-level spirit.

Seeing the water spirit about to turn and flee, Lee Han realized his Invisibility wouldn’t work on it.

“Wait! Stop!”

In truth, spirits didn’t just stop because you told them to. Lee Han immediately prepared a spell.

He couldn’t risk the spirit alerting the whole area by fleeing before he was ready—

Tap—

Amazingly, the spirit actually stopped.

Lee Han was flustered. A spirit that actually stopped when told?

“…Did you really stop?”

The water spirit nodded.

“…Aren’t you a spirit summoned to guard this mansion? Is it okay for you to listen to me?”

The spirit shook its head, indicating ‘no’ to the question.

“So it’s not a normal arrangement, then. I’d better check. I’m naturally close to spirits and have contracts with many. I’ll call some spirits in for communication.”

The spirit nodded in awe.

Truthfully, it felt more fear than kinship from him.

But a magician contracted to a spirit king was not to be doubted or questioned.

If he said so, so be it.

Surely a magician of that level wouldn’t lie about something so petty…

In the air, Lee Han’s contracted sparrow and squirrel spirits appeared.

They were confused for a moment, quickly figured things out, and set to communicating.

“Not a formal contract?”

Though he couldn’t understand their words, through spells and the power of contracts, Lee Han managed to grasp the situation.

Surprisingly, the spirit guarding the mansion wasn’t under a formal contract.

Usually, to borrow a spirit’s power, a magician would promise compensation (though sometimes spirits ran even then) in a formal arrangement.

Bardane, however, did not do this.

He’d bound and sealed the spirit, forcing its power.

‘What?!’

Lee Han was appalled.

No matter how hard it was to contract with spirits, to do something this foul…

“You scumbag!”

The spirit nodded at the magician’s righteous anger.

With this righteous response, it seemed certain Lee Han was indeed beloved by spirits. The resonance and intimidation of the spirit king’s contract made it clear.

“Wait. Then that rampage last time…?”

Lee Han wondered.

Last time, he’d only taken the artifact.

True, he’d run into the owner and knocked him out, but he hadn’t destroyed the mansion.

Yet rumors later said the place was half ruined.

Could it be—

The spirit nodded in agreement.

‘So it was!’

When Bardane had fainted, the seal’s power weakened, giving the spirit a chance to escape and causing it to rampage.

Lee Han was furious at his wrongful blame.

“Does this even make sense?!”

Again, the water spirit warmed to him.

Lee Han, calming himself, asked,

“All right. So, where’s the sealing artifact Bardane is using?”

If Bardane wasn’t a magician, he’d need some artifact to keep a spirit bound.

Likely, he hadn’t caught the spirit himself but rather bought it after someone else bound it.

Smash that artifact, and the spirit would be free.

Shrug—

The sparrow and squirrel spirits shrugged, meaning they didn’t know.

After the last rampage, Bardane had started carrying it himself or hid it somewhere in the mansion.

“…Hmph. Well, I was planning to smash everything anyway. I’ll find it as I break things.”

-!

The water spirit looked at Lee Han, moved.

A magician going this far for no benefit, just for a spirit?

With resolve, the spirit proclaimed it would help.

“You’ll help? But aren’t you bound to the artifact?”

Lee Han asked, perplexed. The water spirit signaled that it would be fine.

It couldn’t last long, but if it gave its all, it could defy its master’s orders for a while.

That the spirit could risk true harm to itself fired up Lee Han’s resolve.

“…All right. Then I’ll do my best to wreck everything too!”

• * *

Back in reality, Lee Han began to feel a little better.

‘Right. The spirit was freed, at least.’

He still felt he might have gone too far with all the destruction, but there had been a good reason for it.

Caught up in smashing things, apparently he’d broken the sealing artifact, and the spirit had thanked him and left, finally freed.

Midway, Bardane had started begging him to stop and asked what he wanted, but Lee Han had nothing to say.

The food had already been spirited away by the undead summons during the chaos.

-Nothing.

-…What?

-I said I want nothing.

-……

And that wasn’t the end of it.

Like the future ace of the Teleportation Club, Lee Han tossed other treasures over the wall as well, making his intentions unpredictable.

From Lee Han’s side, this was to make it the perfect crime, but for Bardane, the damage and fear were multiplied many times over.

‘…Maybe I shouldn’t have thrown the treasures too? There were no witnesses, after all, so I wouldn’t have gotten caught…’

“Wardanaz. Look over there.”

Falkrius, who had come near at some point, pointed ahead with his arm.

The hungry and poor people of Granden City were receiving food with joyful faces.

“It’s thanks to you that this was possible. Thank you.”

“…Not at all.”

More than a dozen excuses, the scene pointed out by Falkrius before him comforted Lee Han’s heart.

One way or another, the outcome had been good.

Come to think of it, the old skeletal headmaster was known to destroy whole cities in the name of doing good, so what’s a villain’s mansion or two…

‘No. Who am I even comparing myself to?!’

Lee Han forcefully reeled in his mind and reflected again.

Let go of the line like this and really would become the youngest evil disciple of the skeletal headmaster.

“By the way, Wardanaz. Did you hear the news?”

“What news?”

“I heard the Masons’ Club commissions were all canceled this time. The nobles who requested them got embarrassed at their own extravagance and canceled everything.”

“Oh, you mean that chivalrous thief? What a great magician. Sure would be nice if he were a fellow Einrogardian.”

“If he were an Einrogard senior, there’s no way he’d do something that good. If anything, our seniors are more likely to be the ones getting hit by a chivalrous thief.”

“That’s true. …Wardanaz!?”

The seniors were startled as their junior collapsed facedown to the ground in despair.