Chapter 1265

In truth, the ones feeling even more awkward and dumbfounded than Gainando were the Rockbreaker Band warriors led by Taarad.

The moment they triumphantly drew their weapons, they had been swept up in a storm of magic and subdued. It was such a disgrace that even in an Imperial prison, people would probably point at them and say, ‘Aren’t those the idiots?’

“You coward, putting on an act. This is why mages are impossible to deal with.”

Even while tightly sealed by magic, Taarad refused to lose heart and growled.

Gainando flared up and cast a curse at him. It was a curse of pain and dizziness.

But the warrior shook his head a few times, then spoke triumphantly.

“Dark mage. Curses like this cannot break the convictions of our warriors. Is that all you have?”

“You... Fine. Let’s see how you like this!”

“Stop. What are you doing?”

Lee Han stopped Gainando as he was about to pull out a new curse.

Why waste curses trying to defeat people they had already knocked down?

Persuaded by his friend’s point, Gainando put away the curse he had been about to use. At the sight, the warriors regained their confidence.

“What is it, dark mage? You’re not going to do it? With such a shallow curse...”

“Stop provoking him. Those curses are the ‘Curse of Aging,’ ‘Curse of Misfortune,’ and ‘Curse of Faith Confusion.’ If you’re properly hit by them, you’ll probably stop wanting to live.”

Lee Han explained the curses Gainando had been about to use.

Even within the dark magic school, not everyone researched the same kind of dark magic. Recently, Gainando seemed to have become obsessed with curses and had been enthusiastically recreating the curses recorded in old books one by one.

The Curse of Aging literally made the body grow decrepit, the Curse of Misfortune caused all sorts of accidents to befall the target like the golem upper-year student, and the Curse of Faith Confusion actually twisted the target’s faith. In the worst case, it was even possible to connect them to an evil god.

Of course, Gainando was not yet at a level where he could perfectly handle those curses. If he were, Gainando should already have been entering his fifth year.

If Gainando used them now, maybe the body would feel a little tired, or the target would keep losing at dice gambling?

But the captured prisoners did not know such details, so they trembled in fear.

‘Terrifying...!’

‘That dark mage bastard. He has such a soft-looking face, yet he’s utterly wicked!’

What Lee Han had just shown was not something an ordinary mage could do. Only a powerful combat mage could display that level of force.

Since the dark mage was accompanying such a mage, they had no choice but to rate him highly as well.

Even Gainando’s slightly vacant-looking demeanor felt like a wicked scheme meant to make the enemy lower their guard.

“The knight order will be here soon. Don’t struggle for no reason. Just let yourselves be taken away.”

“Ha! You seem to think we’re all there is.”

Taarad spoke while struggling to hold his head proudly upright.

Lee Han honestly did not particularly want to deal with him(in the first place, anyone trying to contact the yaksha hardly seemed normal), but he still played along in order to get something out of the other side.

“What do you mean? Don’t tell me there are more of you?”

“That’s right. Think carefully. How many people do you think bear grudges against the mages of Einroguard? And what about the madmen who worship evil gods?”

The moment Taarad thought the other side seemed afraid, his confidence immediately surged.

In fact, what he said was not wrong. Just as the Empire had many enemies, this festival had many enemies as well. All the more so when the people involved were mages of Einroguard.

If anything, the separatists trying to make contact with the yaksha could be said to have come with the mildest objective.

At least they had not intended to spill blood.

But other types of people were different. Evil-god worshipers in particular.

Lee Han did not understand and argued back.

“I don’t really understand. Don’t evil-god worshipers operate separately by order? Even if the Sanguros Order was destroyed, I don’t think there would be many people willing to take revenge for them.”

“The northern mountains!”

“???”

“The northern mountains!”

Taarad repeated the words sternly, as though he believed they would strike the other party and force them to realize the truth.

But neither Lee Han nor Gainando understood.

What about the northern mountains?

“Isn’t this guy crazy? Or maybe he doesn’t know anything and he’s just bluffing.”

As an expert in bluffing himself, Gainando immediately became suspicious. Taarad, offended, instantly took the bait and shouted.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know! The purge of evil-god worshipers in the northern mountains! There’s no way the Shadow Patrol acted independently, so those Einroguard bastards must have commissioned it!”

The sudden pursuit and hunting that had taken place in the northern mountains had dealt a major blow to worshipers of several evil-god orders.

The Frahgal Order in particular had suffered such a severe blow that one entire faction, while attempting to flee beyond the northern mountains, had been nearly annihilated.

The news was so famous that it had even reached the ears of Taarad, who was not an evil-god worshiper.

Experts all suspected Einroguard’s involvement. The only ones capable of setting a trap like that in the northern mountains were the mages of Einroguard.

‘Did the principal or the upper-year students do it?’

Lee Han found it strange, but accepted it for the moment.

Einroguard originally had a strong tendency for everyone to act independently, so it would not have been strange no matter what someone else had done.

Just as Lee Han’s upper-year students had been shocked and said, ‘What? The junior took down an evil god in the middle of the semester and came back?’ Lee Han also had to accept whatever the other upper-year students might have done.

“I see. So they’re trying to take revenge.”

“That’s right. Looks like the fear is finally starting to set in.”

“Well... It’s not like this is my first time seeing crazy people. Are there any others? Haven’t you heard anything about anti-magic extremists or magical criminals?”

Gainando, who had been listening from the side, snorted.

“What would someone like that know? Honestly, I don’t even believe what he just said.”

“...You insolent dark mage bastard! Do not insult a warrior of noble blood! Once we throw off the Empire’s oppression, you will be of such low status that you would never even dare raise your head before me!”

“What purge happened in the north? I know the people over there pretty well, and they don’t move around for no reason during this season.”

Gainando pointed it out one fact at a time.

Thanks to Nillia, Gainando was practically half an expert on the Shadow Patrol in the northern mountains. He knew at least when and how they moved.

That only made Taarad even angrier.

As a warrior of noble blood who would receive the title of duke once the new kingdom was established, he could not endure being insulted by some dark mage like this.

“You dare speak when you don’t even know that anti-magic extremists are gathering nearby!”

“Oh.”

Lee Han looked at Gainando in surprise.

Who would have thought Gainando’s interrogation would be this effective?

* * *

“Professor Bagreg. Please.”

Professor Voladi moved before Uman had even finished speaking.

A short while later, Professor Voladi appeared dragging six criminals behind him. Bound in ropes made of mana, they trembled so badly that it was hard to believe they had been causing a disturbance only moments ago.

“Spare us! Please!”

“Please don’t take us to Einroguard!”

Even hardened criminals who would have scoffed at being dragged into those terrible Imperial underground prisons stopped laughing the moment they heard they might be taken to Einroguard.

Uman was about to explain that Einroguard was not actually such a dangerous place, then stopped.

Right now, Einroguard’s terrible reputation was useful.

“All who have committed crimes will rot in Einroguard’s deepest punishment chambers!”

“No! No! Please!”

“Please don’t turn me into a toad! I hate toads! I hate them!”

“......”

Uman’s expression grew complicated as he watched them being dragged away to the side.

The larger a festival became, the more suspicious and wicked people inevitably gathered there as well.

Some of those causing disturbances were insignificant petty criminals, but others were suspicious at a glance.

If Professor Voladi had not immediately gone and subdued them, there was no telling what incidents they might have caused.

“I cannot imagine how officials and the orders manage to control this kind of chaos. No matter how many knights there are...”

At Uman’s words, Professor Voladi remained silent.

This young dragon possessed exceptional ability and was capable of reaching realizations on his own even without any separate instruction.

More importantly, Uman was not his disciple. Professor Voladi was not the sort of person who meddled enough to offer unnecessary advice to an Inspector who had come from outside.

“Uman has said something shameful. Professor. Uman believes he understands perfectly well what you intended to say.”

When the other party remained silent, Uman nodded as though he understood.

Even races with bodies weaker than his own were refusing to give up and working that hard.

Then Uman also had no time to complain. He had to move.

“Then {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Uman will get moving, Professor Bagreg! Uman will personally patrol the areas and check the situation!”

Professor Voladi did not say anything, but Uman took it as encouragement.

Then they began going around the areas assigned to the students one by one.

“The alchemists have no problems. The quality of their work is also truly high.”

“The enchantment mages are the same. More importantly, who would have thought they could get along so well? Why is the Einroguard enchantment magic school... Ah. Please forget Uman’s careless remark. Uman did not mean to belittle Einroguard.”

“The foresight mages are also working truly hard. Who are they divining over there?”

“There are mages here too... Ah, no. What is my elder sister doing over there?”

While going through the areas one by one, Uman was startled when he saw Jowrin surrounded by people.

It was not simply the crowd that surprised him. It was the title the people were using to address Jowrin.

“I can only marvel at Lady Yukbeltire’s insight! To replace a complicated magic formula with raw mana instead!”

“Mm! Yukbeltire thinks so!”

“Was Lady Yukbeltire always someone who made arguments like that? It seems completely different from what she presented before...”

Completely bewildered, Uman looked around. Unfortunately, the mage of House Wardanaz who could have helped him was nowhere to be seen.

“P-Professor. Do you understand what is going on here?”

Professor Voladi answered briefly and simply.

“I do not.”

“......”

Uman looked around once again, clinging to the faint possibility that perhaps he had simply missed Lee Han just now.

Of course, Lee Han was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

“What? Another mage showed up earlier and took them away?”

“Yes. He was an extremely vicious mage.”

“A vicious mage? What knight order was he from?”

The traveler vividly described the appearance of the mage he had seen. Lee Han, who had been listening without much thought, stiffened when the description began to sound familiar.

“...Was he really that vicious?”

“One mercenary tried to run away, and then suddenly it was like he’d been possessed by an evil spirit and just...!”

“There’s no need to describe it.”

Feeling the situation turning against him, Lee Han quickly cut the other person off. It did not seem like hearing the details would do him any good.

‘Well, Professor Bagreg is working too, so I suppose that’s only natural.’

With the foresight mages running their magic and Uman and Professor Voladi standing by, it was only natural that suspicious people would be caught first.

Lee Han started to think that perhaps the separatists from earlier had simply been fish lucky enough to slip through the net.

“Gainando. I think I may have worried too mu—”

No, you should be worried! This old woman has been watching, and you’ve been handling things terribly carelessly!

“W-Who is that?!”

At the chilling voice, Gainando screamed and jumped. Lee Han explained without the slightest change in expression.

“One of the other-dimensional beings I contracted with last time. The...”

“Why do you only make contracts with such weird people!?”

“......”

Lee Han was left speechless by his friend’s difficult-to-refute words.

Exactly!