Episode 974

Despite not being an old dwarf miner, Jarun of the Iron Shoes family was very knowledgeable about orichalcum, but there were still some things he misunderstood.

Orichalcum didn’t reject Jarun because he was tainted.

Unfinished orichalcum naturally repelled greedy intruders. Much like certain plants move to protect themselves, orichalcum did the same.

Once orichalcum was completely finished, its property of repelling intruders usually disappeared.

If left untouched, it would typically become a high-density magic power accumulator, but if someone interacted with or contaminated it, it would transform, gaining unique properties.

“I see.”

Lee Han tried to soothe the baby basilisk so it would stop hissing (it wasn’t very effective) and listened carefully to Mad Clone’s explanation.

Unless it was something that had to be learned directly, Mad Clone’s instructions were always helpful and substantial.

Where else could you learn the wisdom and knowledge of ancient times?

Occasionally, some magic had to be learned in person, but still…

“By the way, the reason you said not to let it out of my sight—is that because it devours a lot of mana?”

“That’s right.”

‘Normally, you’d call this a cursed stone, wouldn’t you?’

Orichalcum was usually found in especially spiritually dense places even among the deep underground.

You couldn’t crystallize orichalcum with ordinary energy.

That’s why, upon finding it, the usual approach was to leave it undisturbed and have a miner visit steadily to care for it.

Plucking it out and having a mage carry it around like now was quite unusual…

“Wouldn’t it have been better just to leave it here and raise it?”

“I’m sure I said a treasure needs to be in your own grasp. Besides, if you want to tame it, it’s better to carry it with you.”

“Oh, right, you said it grows as you want it to.”

Thinking about it, orichalcum was a unique stone that was raised according to the will of its caretaker.

Come to think of it, perhaps carrying it was actually better.

…It would drink up his mana like crazy, but still…

‘I already have more than a few doing that.’

Lee Han stared at the baby basilisk. The hissing monster wagged its tail as if to ask what he was looking at.

“So, how do you raise it? Talk to it?”

If that was all it took, Lee Han could sing lullabies every night: “Become a precious, valuable jewel~”.

“Do you see any ears on orichalcum?”

“…None, actually.”

“There’s only one way to raise orichalcum as you wish: the miner’s character.”

Long ago, a group of evil dwarf miners went searching for unfinished orichalcum to make the demon sword they desired.

When they finally found it, they performed a bloody ritual in front of the orichalcum.

They executed captives, tortured them, performed human sacrifices—all of it.

In the end, to complete the orichalcum, they even swung their hammers at one another.

“What happened to that orichalcum in the end?”

“It became just what the dwarves wanted: an evil and wicked metal. And as repayment, it killed the last dwarf remaining.”

The sole surviving wicked dwarf miner met an anticlimactic end.

Before he could even finish making the demon sword, the corrupted orichalcum transformed into a weapon and killed him.

In some ways, the dwarf miners’ purpose was achieved. Just not in the sense they probably imagined.

‘How is that “raising it as you wish”?’

Lee Han was dumbfounded.

“Raising it as you wish” sounded more like something you’d say about a potted plant.

From what he’d heard, orichalcum could turn into a sword and stab its master if it didn’t like them…

By Lee Han’s standards, that wasn’t letting you raise it how you wanted at all.

“…So to raise orichalcum as you wish, do you just have to show it as much goodness as possible?”

“Wrong. Rather than wasting time on such pretense, it’s better to command it with your pure will.”

‘…Does that exist?’

Pure will, he thought.

No matter how he considered it, all he could picture was a month-old orichalcum saying, “Give me gold.”

With a basilisk whining for food from one sleeve, and orichalcum in the other sleeve nagging him for gold…

‘That would be terrible.’

“Uh…”

“Enough. You’re wasting a royal’s time. How are the other spells coming?”

“It’s… so-so.”

Mad Clone clicked his tongue openly.

He looked quite dissatisfied, but Lee Han didn’t care.

A disciple’s role was to disappoint his master.

If you never disappointed your master, you couldn’t really be called a disciple!

Otherwise, what’s the point of learning under a master?

“Wasting time like this, that’s why…”

Mad Clone stopped mid-sentence.

A message from another dimension had arrived.

“This side must have time to burn, too.”

“?!”

With a cynical tone, the master drew a magical script in the air, and Lee Han felt an ominous chill.

How many people could contact Mad Clone this way?

He could only think of one, no matter how hard he tried…

“Is it King Yacha?”

“Yes. From your question, you seem interested in learning the yacha script.”

‘No, I’m not.’

He had no intention whatsoever, but because Mad Clone read aloud the script only he understood and nodded, Lee Han felt a bit stifled.

Should he have just learned it?

“I see.”

“…What’s it about?”

“He says you’ve started to initiate into Small World.”

Mad Clone didn’t show a hint of emotion. That made Lee Han all the more scared.

‘That damn yacha bastard…’

Lee Han gnashed his teeth.

Despite all the underhanded tricks he’d endured, Lee Han had responded generously.

To be rewarded with this kind of ambush…

What a thoroughly wicked existence.

“It’s not initiation—it was just a bit of explanation. I don’t even have a grasp of it yet.”

Mad Clone didn’t answer.

Instead, he looked Lee Han up and down and sank into thought. That silence frightened Lee Han even more.

“Basilios?”

“…Yes, but I really only got an explanation…”

“I see. As expected.”

Mad Clone fell into thought again. As the silence dragged on, Lee Han seriously considered escape routes.

“Excellent.”

“?!”

Lee Han was startled by the sudden compliment.

“Excuse me?”

“I said excellent. I understand you’d want to be praised by royalty twice, but don’t be so greedy.”

“…That’s not it. I just can’t understand how you’re praising me when I don’t even have a feel for it yet.”

Mad Clone fell into thought one last time.

After a long silence, he finally spoke.

“No. Just keep doing as you have been. That will suffice.”

“????”

Lee Han felt more confused than ever.

Was this guy misunderstanding something?

“I don’t really get what you mean by “keep doing as I have been”… Is that really possible?”

“It would be confusing. Only because my disciple is so dull-witted must royalty show mercy.”

“Oh. What sort of mercy?”

Lee Han brightened.

Was there maybe a book called -Small World: Easy and Fast Starter’s Guide-?

• * *

‘Heh heh.’

A new week began.

Direte, feeling pleased, hung a toad-leather balloon at the entrance to the Underground Floor 2 -Poison, Bone, Blood- classroom.

He thought it was quite well done.

Next to him, Yukveltire was painting the classroom wall with darkness and asked, perplexed,

“Doing all this pointless stuff doesn’t help your magic at all…”

“Shut up.”

“But it really doesn’t help with your magic…”

“Quiet.”

“Cutting me off illogically doesn’t make your argument right, Direte…”

“Hey. Be quiet.”

“……”

With his face just a touch poutier, Yukveltire quietly finished painting the wall.

Direte was an excellent magician, but he sometimes made foolish choices—like now.

Allowing Yukveltire’s favor-debt to be used on this kind of preparation was like swinging a sword made to kill a dragon at a mouse.

But there was no helping it. Save for a few unique cases, all students eventually thought, ‘If I become a professor, I’ll do things differently.’

Direte was no exception.

Though he had studied under those cold professors—including a certain unnamed one—he had sworn that if the day came for him to teach, he would do it differently.

He would deliver a class where students burst out laughing with joy, a class that made everyone happy!

But reality was merciless.

Once the semester had started, just preparing the class left Direte struggling. If his unusually competent junior hadn’t handled everything from self-study to club funds, it would’ve been many times harder.

For a while, he barely had time to breathe—but finally, an opportunity came.

Because of Club Week, classes were briefly on hold.

Direte took the time to prepare a few things.

A toad-leather balloon (to cheer up the normally gloomy underground classroom), the wall painted with darkness (if you stared long enough, sometimes undead faces peeked out and moved), strawberry slushies served in skull mugs (delicious), and so on.

It was too bad there was only one junior to appreciate this.

“Hmm. Should I summon some undead and seat them at the empty desks? Make it feel more festive?”

“……”

Yukveltire pretended not to hear. Direte prodded his friend until he finally snapped back.

“…This really feels completely pointless and meaningless to m—”

“Yeah. I’ll do it.”

“……”

Direte summoned undead and seated them in the chairs, whether Yukveltire’s fingertips trembled or not.

Preparing this, he thought he really should have done it for this year’s first-year juniors, too.

If he had, there’d be way more applicants to the Dark Magic School.

‘If the junior comes in and sees this, won’t he be so surprised he falls over?’

The festival-like (by dark magic standards) classroom atmosphere gave Direte this kind of confidence.

At this rate, it could be called a -Dark Mage Festival- in the city!

Creak—

As the door opened, the Wardanaz family junior walked in.

Lee Han paused, surprised at the unusually decorated classroom.

‘What’s this? A trap?’

“Surprised, right!”

Direte called out just as he’d been waiting to. Lee Han answered cautiously.

“Yes, I’m surprised. But, this is… exactly…?”

“I redecorated the classroom while we’re on break—so you can learn in a fun, happy environment!”

“Oh.”

Now Lee Han realized what the change was for.

A festival!!

‘So it wasn’t a trap.’

Once he knew the intent, answering was easy.

“It looks great, Senior! I bet this is the coolest classroom in Einrogard. If others found out I study here, they’d be so jealous!”

The seasoned junior’s practiced reaction made Direte happy.

“Really? You mean it?”

“Yes. By the way, Senior, there’s one thing I should mention… Would that be alright?”

“Junior, speak freely. We’re in the same school, you know?”

Direte, feeling happy, didn’t notice the “sir” had been added to his title.

“It’s just… I think there’ll be one more person auditing the class.”

“That’s fine. Who is it?”

At Einrogard, auditing wasn’t particularly difficult.

Even if it wasn’t your course, if you needed the knowledge you could drop in.

Direte thought it was just one of Lee Han’s friends who needed some dark magic knowledge.

“This person.”

“Wizard. Begin your lesson.”

While he was chatting with his junior, Mad Clone had quietly come in and taken a seat in the classroom, startling Direte so much he fell backward.