Chapter 1241

'Ah.'

Lee Han realized that the other person did not know that much about him.

Perhaps because Oculoguard was such a closed-off magic academy, rumors did not seem to spread there very widely.

Whenever Lee Han met outsiders, he was so used to hearing things like, 'Are you that Wardanaz who's taking every school of magic?' or 'Are you the Wardanaz who's taking every school of magic?' that this reaction felt remarkably fresh.

'This is an opportunity. If I explain it well here, I can smooth things over to some extent.'

Of course, even if he explained things well, there was no hiding things that had already been said, like <Mad Rider of the Apocalypse> or <Monster That Devours Foresight>, but this was still something.

"Well, just this and that, more or less..."

"Lee Han is taking every school of magic. It's an achievement an Oculoguard student like you couldn't even dream of matching!"

"......"

Enraged, Lee Han mercilessly smacked Gainando across the back. Gainando fled with a howl.

"Why!? Why?!?"

"T-that's truly amazing! You study the magic of every school for the sake of foresight magic. Is that Einroguard's unique method?"

"Well, to some extent, you could say..."

"Absolutely not. That junior is the only one like that."

The golem upper-year student answered firmly.

It would be even more troublesome if an outsider developed some strange fantasy about Einroguard's foresight magic school.

But Lee Han glared at the upper-year student with eyes full of betrayal. The golem upper-year student flinched at the look.

'Why!?'

Was the upper-year student supposed to lie and say something like, 'It's a perfectly normal method. There are several students taking every school of magic'?

There was no way anyone would believe that...

"...It's not only because of foresight magic... Things just happened that way, and I ended up taking every school of magic."

"That's truly astonishing. Could it perhaps be one of the causes behind your abnormal influence on the future?"

"I don't know. Maybe your foresight is simply wrong."

Lee Han insisted shamelessly.

In truth, that was not entirely wrong either.

Einroguard's foresight mages managed their foresight perfectly well even with Lee Han around them(although they did avoid him from time to time), while evil-god worshipers and Oculoguard seemed to be acting excessively sensitive about him.

Perhaps they simply lacked skill and were blaming Lee Han for it.

"That possibility cannot be completely denied either. Absolute foresight magic does not exist, after all."

Unexpectedly, Paridim did not strongly object to Lee Han's words or stubbornly insist otherwise.

Lee Han softened slightly at that attitude.

"So what would you like me to help you with?"

"One moment. There is something I need to do first."

"?"

Paridim took out a broom and wand, then began cleaning inside the solitary cell and the corridor. The Einroguard students stared in confusion.

'Are they a neat freak?'

"Gainando. You should learn from that. Cleaning up your surroundings before studying helps you concentrate."

"Even the Oculoguard mages couldn't have foreseen that I'd get scolded here..."

Gainando muttered resentfully.

To think he would get scolded here of all places.

Now that he felt wronged anyway, Gainando spoke to Paridim, intending to find something to pick at.

"Why are you cleaning?"

"It's part of our daily routine. An Oculoguard student has a responsibility to take charge of and maintain a designated area."

"We have something similar too."

Einroguard also had miscellaneous chores that the students had to take care of themselves. Gainando suddenly felt a sense of kinship with the other student.

"If you don't do the work, does the head of your dormitory bully you too?"

"Gainando. I can hear you."

Gainando flinched. Fortunately, Paridim answered immediately, so Lee Han did not press him any further.

"We don't do that."

"I'm jealous of Oculoguard!"

"Instead, we are sent to the punishment room."

"...Uh, j-just for that?"

Of course, Einroguard also sent students to punishment rooms rather frequently, but...

...They sent students straight to a punishment room just for neglecting a few chores?

"Do you only get sent there if you keep disobeying orders?"

"Ah. No. Usually, you are sent there if your assigned area has not been properly maintained."

"That's ridiculous! People make mistakes!"

As a student who made plenty of mistakes himself, Gainando protested strongly.

"If they send you there for something like that, next you'll tell me they send you there because your friend failed to maintain their area properly and you didn't help them!"

"Yes? You are sent there for that as well. Even if another student fails to do their work properly, everyone together..."

"???"

Gainando blinked.

He could not quite understand what he had just heard.

"Lee Han. I didn't hear that wrong, did I? They said you go to the punishment room even when another student doesn't do their work properly?"

"You heard correctly. I heard it too."

"Why in the world do you have a rule like that?"

Gainando could hardly believe it.

The first one was one thing, but being sent to the punishment room merely because another student failed to do something?

"Are you some kind of dormitory leader?"

"No. Rather, you bear responsibility for failing to properly supervise the other students."

Paridim kindly explained.

Because Oculoguard sought to control the future through disciplined collective behavior, the mages' rules were extremely strict.

Even minor violations could land someone in a punishment room, and the other students assigned to the same group would be dragged there with them.

The more Gainando heard, the more horrified he became.

"There was a magic academy even... worse than Einroguard?"

"Every place has its advantages and disadvantages. At least Oculoguard's principal probably doesn't deliberately go around setting traps."

Paridim wondered whether Lee Han was making a joke.

There was no way a principal would deliberately go around setting traps.

"Why do you even need to go that far?"

"The reason is..."

After thinking for a moment, the Oculoguard student took out an Imperial silver coin.

Then Paridim flicked it into the air. Heads.

"???"

Gainando did not understand why the other student had suddenly done that.

Were they deciding who would go first in a mage-card game?

But instead of explaining, Paridim tossed the silver coin again. Heads again.

And once more. Then again...

As heads continued to appear, Gainando's eyes grew wider and wider.

"I-isn't that cheating?!"

"It isn't cheating. It is a form of foresight magic. We control the future in a favorable direction."

"...!"

Gainando became completely captivated by the foresight magic Paridim had demonstrated.

He had never imagined magic like this was possible.

What in the world had Einroguard's foresight magic school been doing?

"Lee Han. I don't think Einroguard's foresight magic school is very good. How about transferring to Oculoguard's foresight magic school?"

The golem upper-year student coughed awkwardly at this horrifying statement, which could not possibly be ignored.

"...The method of causal induction magic used by Oculoguard is not particularly recommended. Its strengths and weaknesses are too obvious."

Twisting the future in whatever direction one wanted sounded tempting at first, but naturally, a price had to be paid.

Simply glimpsing the future already required a great price, so how much more would twisting it require?

The reason Oculoguard mages could use such magic was that every mage there followed strict rules with unwavering determination.

Because an unconscious primitive magic formed from that collective behavior, members of Oculoguard were able to use this kind of magic.

"Think about it carefully. Manipulating which side of a coin lands faceup is not particularly difficult. A skilled member of a thieves' guild could easily do it. Yet to reproduce something that trivial with magic requires that much determination and that many restrictions. How inefficient is that?"

The golem upper-year student earnestly tried to persuade the junior, just in case Lee Han actually defected.

And there was a fair amount of sincerity behind this persuasion. The golem upper-year student did not believe Oculoguard's method was correct either.

Oculoguard's approach was far too extreme.

If one mage acted correctly, the future would change correctly by the slightest amount.

Then what if more such mages were gathered together and made to behave even more correctly?

It might sound tempting, but anyone who understood magic could not help noticing the flaw hidden within it.

It was as impossibly vast and distant an undertaking as trying to fill the sea by pouring dirt into it.

As an Oculoguard student, Paridim stepped forward to argue back.

"We don't believe that we can control the future all the way to its very end either. Even if we can guide only the comparatively near future, isn't that meaningful enough?"

"Controlling what happens even one second from now is already extremely difficult, so what are you... And taking away mages' freedom and grinding them down just to accomplish that? Isn't that treating mages like rowers on a slave galley?"

"I heard Einroguard grinds down its mages just as badly."

"......"

The golem upper-year student was caught off guard yet again. At a loss for words, the upper-year student looked toward the juniors.

Argue back for me!

"Einroguard is... well, fairly free and tends to respect everyone's individual wishes."

"Though the principal does set traps."

"You could say it respects free will."

"Though the principal does torment us."

"Hey. Be quiet."

Unable to endure it any longer, Lee Han clamped a hand over Gainando's mouth. Gainando struggled and grumbled inwardly.

'What am I supposed to do when it's true!'

"Let's just respect each other's magic. How does that sound?"

"Fine. I think I went too far as well. And let's respect each other's students too. No taking students away from another academy."

"......"

Lee Han stared incredulously at the golem upper-year student's words. Embarrassed, the upper-year student avoided his gaze.

"Thank you, everyone. Now that the cleaning is finished, would you help me with my magic?"

"Of course. ...But isn't there no way for anyone to know whether you clean or not when you're outside?"

Lee Han suddenly became curious.

Now that he thought about it, the rules might be strict inside Oculoguard, but how would anyone know what happened outside?

"Because one of you might report me."

"......"

"......"

Instead of asking anything more about Oculoguard, Lee Han quietly sat down.

He was afraid that if he asked any more questions, Einroguard might start seeming like a nice place.

"What I intend to practice is divination."

"!"

At the unexpectedly normal subject of practice, Lee Han inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

Oculoguard might be a somewhat strange magic academy, but foresight magic was still broadly similar after all.

"Ah. So you needed someone to perform divination for."

"That's right. The field I'll read for you today is magic. I'm going to see what kind of magic would be best for you to learn right now."

"Oh..."

At Paridim's words, the people in the punishment area slowly began gathering around.

Not only Jowrin, but Uman, Professor Voladi, and even the golem upper-year student who had been about to leave all crowded over to watch.

Lee Han spoke in disbelief.

"Why are you all gathering around to watch something like this?"

"No. I'm just a little curious what will come out."

"Jowrin also believes that something like this would be more accurate if an outsider performed it."

If Professor Paserlet had performed the divination and judged that Lee Han should learn a particular kind of magic, people would have suspected bribery or threats.

But with an outsider mage here, the situation was different. That possibility was extremely unlikely.

"In the name of Oculoguard, I seek to see the future. In the name of Oculoguard, I seek to govern the future..."

Paridim chose mage cards as the tool for the divination.

To avoid the severe side effects of glimpsing the future, mages used various tools. Mage cards were one of the tools commonly used for that purpose.

"Mage cards come in many varieties and have numerous symbols, so interpreting them should be difficult. As expected of an Oculoguard student."

As the person responsible for mage cards, Uman showed interest.

Soon, Paridim turned over three cards, then, as though entranced, removed two of them and left only one.

The remaining card was the Skull Principal, reversed.

'I don't know what that means, but it looks extremely ominous.'

"The magic you should learn right now is..."

Everyone stared fixedly at Paridim's mouth.

"...Microcosm."

"Amazing!"

"As expected of Oculoguard!"