Chapter 1247

'Maybe Professor Thunderwalk is the one who needs foresight magic right now.'

He might deny it himself, but lately, that professor from the alchemy school had been having an almost bizarre run of bad luck.

Perhaps he needed to choose a method of avoiding misfortune and drawing in good fortune, like that golem upper-year student did.

"Why is the professor running off like that?"

Yonair, who had arrived late, asked in confusion while mimicking the gesture of covering both ears.

Einroguard was originally a place where professors and students alike did strange things on a regular basis, but even here, seeing someone run off with their ears covered like Professor Thunderwalk was unusual.

Lee Han sighed regretfully and explained what had happened.

"......"

After hearing the entire explanation, Yonair merely shook her head from side to side.

How could one person possibly be that unlucky!

"But Lee Han. It's not all bad."

"What?"

Lee Han looked puzzled at his friend's words.

Was there actually a positive side to Professor Thunderwalk's current situation?

"Thanks to this, I can finish my final exam early too and leave with you."

"Ah. You weren't saying there was something good for Professor Thunderwalk."

"That... can't be helped."

Professor Thunderwalk might suffer another blow to his pride, but that wasn't something the students could do anything about.

The two alchemy school students shook their heads regretfully once more.

"Lee Han."

Gainando's voice came from the top of the stairs. Lee Han shouted from inside the solitary cell.

"I can hear you, so hurry up and come down."

"Do you happen to know how to undo a mud-dyeing potion?"

"You want to undo a mud-dyeing potion? It's not difficult, but why are you suddenly asking?"

Lee Han wondered why his friend was asking about something like that, but soon found out.

A mud monster—no, Gainando—appeared in front of the corridor with a miserable expression.

"Undo it..."

"What happened to you?!"

Yonair shouted in surprise. Gainando answered in a sorrowful voice.

"Professor Thunderwalk was walking away with his ears covered, so I wondered if he really couldn't hear and shouted, 'The young Principal is chasing you from behind!' Then he punished me..."

"......"

"......"

Lee Han and Yonair silently prepared the antidote. After returning to normal while leaving a few spots of mud on the corridor, Gainando blew his nose with a honk.

"What a petty professor! What were you two talking about?"

"The alchemy final exam. Professor Thunderwalk must have gotten something mixed up, because he chose something my sister published as the exam question."

Gainando's face brightened.

"That's great! Can I come watch when you submit the results?!"

"No. Anyway, I'm planning to go with Lee Han when he follows Professor Garcia."

"!"

Gainando's eyes widened at his red-haired friend's betrayal.

"What about me?!"

"You can come too. If you finish your final exams early."

"...That's the same as telling me not to come!"

Gainando shouted indignantly. At that shameless attitude, Yonair thought to herself.

'I should've given him the antidote later.'

Lee Han, who had been listening to their conversation, cut in.

"If you want to come too, you can take your dark magic final exam early. Gainando. Actually, I'd be glad if you came with us."

"What? Why? Are you insane?"

'Isn't that a little harsh...'

Lee Han was slightly taken aback by Yonair's reaction.

He's still your relative!

"We're going to meet His Majesty the Emperor. It'd probably be better to have a member of the Imperial Family with us."

"Wouldn't Adenart be better, then?"

"Adenart is taking a lot of lectures, so it'll probably be hard for her to take all her exams early and leave."

"...?"

Yonair sensed some sort of contradiction in what her friend had just said.

Wasn't it a little strange for the friend taking classes from every school of magic to worry about the friend taking classes from three schools?

Lee Han seemed to notice something strange about it as well, because he cleared his throat awkwardly.

"She does a lot of activities besides exams too. Commissions and club activities and things like that."

"???"

"Stop."

"All right. All right. Then... what about Princess Yukbeltire?"

After thinking for a moment, Yonair brought up another member of the Imperial Family.

This fifth-year student was also an Imperial, and in terms of overall ability and reputation, there were aspects in which she actually overwhelmed both Adenart and Gainando.

"Absolutely not."

Lee Han immediately turned serious.

He might be able to tolerate taking Gainando along, but he had no desire whatsoever to travel together with Princess Yukbeltire.

"...S-sorry."

"Guys. Can't we talk about my dark magic final exam instead?"

Gainando spoke with a dejected expression.

The prince had become so depressed that he couldn't even object to Yonair insulting him.

"I told you. Take it early."

"That's the same as telling me not to co—"

"Listen to the end. I'm saying I'll help you."

"!"

Gainando's eyes sparkled, then he tilted his head.

Huh?

"Lee Han, you and I are taking different lectures."

There were some lectures Lee Han took together with the other second-year students.

But a considerable number of his lectures were taken with third-years, or fourth-years, and there were even some he attended completely alone.

The dark magic lecture Lee Han was currently taking was clearly <Forbidden Secret Arts of Dark Magic (Not a Lecture That Teaches Them)>.

Meanwhile, the lecture Gainando was taking was <Beings of the Undead Realm and Negotiations with Them>. ℯ

How was he going to help with the final exam?

'Doesn't he not know what we're learning?'

"It's <Beings of the Undead Realm and Negotiations with Them>, right? I heard from Diret what they teach there, so I know the material. I know the final-exam topic too."

"!!!"

Gainando shot to his feet.

He had once again realized just how much influence his friend possessed within the dark magic school.

"Lee Han!!"

'Is the dark magic school really okay like this?'

Yonair thought to herself.

No matter how few people there were in the dark magic school and how much of a family-like atmosphere they had, leaking all the exam material to a student in the same year was a bit much.

"You're going to tell me all the answers!?"

"What? What kind of insane nonsense is that?"

"Huh?"

Gainando, who had been excited, suddenly came to his senses as though someone had dumped cold water over him.

Huh?

"Uh... since you know the final-exam topic, I thought... you'd tell me all the answers... and I'd go to Professor Mortum... and throw the exam paper in his face when I was done...?"

Gainando had a modest dream of throwing his exam paper in his professor's face if he ever became the top student of his year.

Of course, the top student of the year had no such privilege, but Gainando had no way of knowing that.

He had never been the top student of the year.

"Of course not. That's cheating. I said I'd help you. Did I say I'd take the exam for you?"

"......"

Gainando felt a chill crawl up his spine.

"All right. Sit down. From now on, I'll name monsters that come from the undead realm, and you tell me their characteristics and how to deal with them. Every time you get one wrong..."

Lee Han glanced toward the neighboring room where Professor Voladi was. His two friends thought to themselves.

'Why is he looking over there?'

"I'll attack you with water spheres. That way you'll prepare for the exam and get magic training at the same time."

"......"

Gainando's mouth fell wide open.

"What kind of insane studying is that?!"

"Hm? Gainando. You're allowed to defend yourself. I'm not forbidding you from defending."

"That's not what I'm complaining about?!"

The fact that his friend seemed completely serious made Gainando even more frightened.

"But Gainando. If we're going to finish in time, I have to teach you strictly. Right, Professor?"

Lee Han called out to Professor Voladi in the neighboring room. Professor Voladi nodded and answered.

"An excellent method."

"See? Professor Bagreg says it's a good method too."

"......"

Gainando understood.

This was why people in the Empire insisted that the roots of evil had to be torn out before they could grow!

If these people were left alone, they would amplify one another and return as uncontrollable monsters.

Einroguard's combat magic school was exactly like that right now.

'I should've stopped Lee Han from going to take those classes alone in his first year...!'

He hadn't thought anything of it at the time, only for it to come back and trip him up now.

"Gainando. What Authorities does the Blasphemer primarily use?"

"Huh? Ack!"

"Wrong. Again. How do you deal with it?"

"Ack!"

"How many eyes are attached to its torso?"

"How would I know that! That seriously isn't even written in the books!!"

"Wrong. Seventeen. Remember it. I saw it myself and told Diret, so there's a chance it'll be on the exam."

Since Lee Han had even fought the Blasphemer that descended while he was dealing with Frahgal worshipers, he had shared every scrap of information he had about this powerful being from the undead realm with Diret.

Thanks to that, the information about the undead realm taught to the dark magic school's students had become even more vivid and extensive.

"...You were the culprit!??!"

Gainando shouted in horror.

No wonder Diret kept making them memorize extra material that wasn't even in the books!!

"Gainando. Instead of wasting time saying that, either give me the answer or defend yourself."

"Ack! Aaaack!"

***

-Aaaack!

Nillia, who had descended the stairs of the professors' punishment area and reached the corridor where her friend was, stopped in her tracks.

...Did they torture people in the professors' punishment area too?

'Isn't that seriously going too far?'

Nillia grew indignant.

Even if Wardanaz had ignored the Principal and the professors, after accomplishing something like that, couldn't they at least take the circumstances into consideration?

"Aaack! Why do these water spheres have so much penetrating power?!"

"Gainando. Take better care of your bone reagents normally. You're supposed to soak them in tear oil every day and then dry them."

'Ah. It's Gainando.'

Nillia's anger quickly subsided.

Well, if it was the prince...

The prince standing in the corridor was doing his best to evade the pursuing water spheres, summoning a shield of bone into the air and spreading a mist of curses.

But the water spheres pursued their target without the slightest deviation. And that was despite Lee Han not even leaving the solitary cell.

"How are you even hitting me?!"

"Short-term foresight magic."

"Then if I can just hold out a little longer, you won't be able to aim—"

"I knew you'd think that, so I prepared an automatic-tracking enchantment too. Gainando. I have far more methods than you do, so give up and get the answers right."

"Um. Hey. It's been a while..."

Nillia awkwardly called out to her friends while watching their reactions.

It had been so long that she strangely felt almost like a stranger.

"Nillia! You're back! How were the mountains?!"

"The mountains?"

"You took a commission in the mountains."

"What? The Shadow Patrol hardly ever takes commissions. There shouldn't be much they'd need help with."

Seeing her friend display an unnecessary amount of knowledge about the school's affairs thanks to having helped the Skull Principal, Nillia hurriedly changed the subject.

"This time was an exception! There was... an evil dragon! An evil dragon appeared!"

"???"

"That's not what's important right now."

"If an evil dragon appearing isn't important, then °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° what exactly—"

"Why is the prince being attacked like that?"

Nillia forced the question out.

She absolutely did not want to admit that she had gone to help her friend, only to capture a whole bunch of unrelated evil-god worshipers and come back.

By comparison, she wasn't particularly curious about why the prince was being attacked.

He probably said something stupid!

"Ah. He said he wanted to leave with us, so I'm helping him prepare for his final exam early."

"...Uh...?"

"It's a little complicated to explain. Nillia. Actually, while you were away on your commission, Professor Bagreg and I participated in the subjugation of an evil god..."

"I heard."

"Ah. You did? Well, I suppose you were outside the academy rather than inside."

"...Of course. Newspapers reach the northern mountain range too, you know."

In truth, Nillia hadn't heard a thing about outside events until she returned to the academy, but she bluffed.

"Newspapers? Did you bring a copy by any chance? I'm curious."

"...E-everyone reads them so thoroughly when they arrive that I couldn't bring one. What a shame."

"Really? Anyway, because of that incident, Professor Garcia received a summons from the capital too."

"Why!? Did the Principal tell on you?!"

Lee Han nodded. As expected of a friend who had once been a patrol member, the dark elf before him was exceptionally perceptive.

"That's the only possibility. So we're going to accompany Professor Garcia."

"Professor Garcia actually agreed to that?"

"...Uh... well... something like that."

Nillia's vision had been clouded by friendship.

She had forgotten exactly what crimes the prisoners locked inside this punishment area had been confined for.