Chapter 1267

At Jowrin’s words, Lee Han came back to his senses and wore a pleased expression.

Even if it was the same praise, praise from a kind-hearted dragon and praise from that beaver beastkin were completely different things.

Professor Verdus saying, “Wow, it looks like it’s alive! Make another one!” and Jowrin saying, “It looks alive!” could not possibly sound the same.

‘At least there was some point to being worked to death under Professor Verdus.’

Lee Han thought he understood why Jowrin was surprised.

Just how many of Professor Verdus’s unique spells had Lee Han been forced to learn?

<Bivle’s Mana Emission Enchantment>, <Bivle’s Mana Absorption Enchantment>, <Bivle’s Mana Amplification Enchantment>, <Bivle’s Mana Increase Enchantment>, <Bivle’s Mana Acceleration Enchantment>...

All of them had been magic created for Professor Verdus’s wicked ambitions, but there was no denying that they had dramatically improved Lee Han’s enchantment skills as a result.

Even if it was the same magic statue, if magic was applied meticulously to each individual part and linked together, it would look as though it were alive and moving.

“Your Highness. This is the power of magic. To explain more specifically, when knowledge and experience are combined, it becomes possible to make things this detailed...”

-Master.

“...No, it really is alive and moving!?!?”

At Lee Han’s scream, Jowrin puffed out her cheeks.

She had been telling him from the start that it was alive and moving!

-Master. Thank you for creating me.

The beautiful black dragon statue, its scales gleaming like black jade, opened its mouth in a solemn voice.

-I hereby swear upon my honor and bloodline. I shall protect the weak and defend the sacred domain.

“......”

“......”

Jowrin grabbed the stunned Lee Han and shook him. There was something more important to Jowrin right now.

“Lee Han, Lee Han.”

“Y-Yes...?”

“Why did a black dragon get completed? Even its personality is like Uman.”

Jowrin had clearly intended to carve a gold dragon the same color as herself.

But as Lee Han cast this spell and that spell, at some point a living, moving black dragon statue had been born.

What was even more irritating was that its personality was like Uman’s too. If the other party had not merely been a weak statue, Jowrin might have thrown a strike at it.

“...I’m not sure. Magic truly is mysterious and difficult to understand...”

Having regained his composure, Lee Han made excuses while cold sweat poured down his back.

He had already transformed into a black dragon before, and now even the statue had turned out like this. There was no way he would not break into a cold sweat.

If Jowrin learned the truth, she would probably attack Uman at the very least.

‘Professor Garcia. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have forgotten what you told me...!’

Lee Han blamed himself heavily.

Had Professor Garcia not taught him this from the moment he entered the academy?

That magic had to be faced with endless humility.

He had gotten a little familiar with it, grown arrogant enough to cast magic while thinking about something else, and this was the result!

‘Calm down. Right. It’s not like there’s no reason for this.’

In fact, Lee Han had already witnessed a phenomenon similar to this before.

At Petroguard, the magic academy where brilliant and sensitive enchantment mages gathered.

The mages of Petroguard borrowed the power of inspiration and luck as they searched for the path of primitive magic now lost to the modern age—that is, magic that bestowed eternal life upon a work.

The statue moving alive before him now, or the portrait of the young prince painted by the great artist, were good examples.

Even if they could not grant eternal life, they had succeeded in bestowing limited life and making the work move.

And that alone was an incredible achievement. Hadn’t even the great artist, Lee Han’s upper-year schoolmate and a powerful mage, struggled because the result would not come out as intended?

‘...The problem is why it happened now.’

Lee Han sank into deep confusion.

He had truly never imagined that briefly losing focus on the magic would produce such an unexpected result.

Was that really such a serious mistake?

Other people who lost focus just had their spells fail or the tips of their hair catch fire a little...

‘What spells did I cast again? Synergy? Overlapping effects? Or was it because I unconsciously thought about something else?’

-Great ancestral dragon contracted with Master! It is an honor for a lowly dragon such as myself merely to stand before you.

“N-No. Jowrin is not that great.”

Jowrin, who had been glaring at the other party with her fist clenched, instead became flustered.

It was so polite that it was practically servile.

-No. Though I was born with the bloodline of a dragon, I am incomplete, essentially only half a being. Before a true dragon, I do not even have the right to call myself a dragon.

“...No! Don’t say things like that!”

Jowrin angrily scolded the statue.

“If anyone says such a thing to you, Jowrin will go and strike them down! You are a fine dragon too!”

-Ancestor...!

“Yes!”

After comforting the statue, whose self-deprecation was severe enough to be almost servile, Jowrin seemed to feel a little better.

“Mm. Jowrin seems to have misunderstood. That dragon is kinder than Uman.”

“...??”

Lee Han was slightly taken aback.

The Inspector who had newly arrived this year had certainly made all sorts of large and small mistakes at Einroguard...

...But wasn’t he still a pretty kind younger brother to Jowrin?

“His Highness Uman is also quite ki—”

“Mm?”

Jowrin turned her head. As a mage of the foresight school, Lee Han instinctively sensed an ominous future.

Danger!

“...kind, but he does seem somewhat less kind than that statue.”

“That is exactly right! Uman makes Jowrin do difficult things, does not let Jowrin play with her contractor, and even tries to steal the contractor away.”

-From what I have heard, he truly sounds like a terrible dragon. Ancestor. Though I am but a single weak being, I shall stand against him and fight!

Jowrin was deeply moved by the loyal statue.

Now that was a real younger brother!

“Jowrin must take that dragon home!”

However, Jowrin’s wish could not be fulfilled.

The people nearby had begun noticing the anomaly as well.

“W-Wait. What in the world... Is that the statue you were making?”

“Your Highness Yukbeltire! I have never once doubted Your Highness’s ability, but I never imagined even this would be possible... Isn’t this something only Petroguard mages can do?”

“Even in Petroguard, only a very small number can do this. If they find out, there will be an uproar! To think such a result came from Professor Verdus’s school, which they hate so much!”

The people who disliked Yukbeltire or had been skeptical of this commission were even more shocked than those who normally praised and flattered her.

Even if they acknowledged Yukbeltire’s ability, they had assumed nothing particularly impressive could come out of a commission meant merely for building connections.

But this statue truly was extraordinary. Even the mages who disliked Yukbeltire as a second Bivle Verdus had no choice but to admit it.

What was more, wasn’t this magic using a method completely different from Einroguard’s enchantment magic school?!

To reproduce Petroguard’s methods this perfectly. Perhaps the ones whose pride had been wounded most by this commission were the Petroguard mages.

They hated Professor Verdus and his school that much...

Until moments ago, Jowrin had confidently declared that she could disguise herself as Yukbeltire without any trouble, but when a crowd several times larger than all those who had approached before surged in and began speaking to her, her complexion changed.

There are this many!?

Two hours later.

“Huff, huff. Jowrin... no, Yukbeltire is truly exhausted...”

“You worked hard, Your Highness.”

In truth, if it had been Yukbeltire, she would not have needed to deal with all of them. She would simply have vanished or ordered them to leave.

Jowrin was simply too diligent to abandon them and walk away.

“...Come to think of it, Uman must be having a hard time too.”

Jowrin spoke with a slightly repentant expression.

She had been sulking because she had only thought about how much she had suffered because of her younger brother this semester, but the hardship she had just experienced changed her perspective a little.

Dealing with this many people alone was exhausting, difficult, and irritating, yet wasn’t Uman responsible for far more work than this?

As his elder sister, she began to feel sorry.

“!”

Sensing an opportunity, Lee Han opened his mouth.

Normally, she grumbled whenever he so much as mentioned Uman, so he had avoided bringing him up for fear it would backfire. He had not expected an opportunity like this to come.

If possible, he wanted to reconcile the two of them somewhat.

Though rather than reconciliation, it was closer to Jowrin being angry at Uman one-sidedly. Still!

“His Highness Uman certainly has a great deal of hardship as well.”

“Mmm.”

Lee Han began a lengthy speech about Einroguard’s wicked professors, wicked principal, and wicked students.

And about how difficult it was for the Inspector who had to stand against them, and how admirable he was.

Jowrin had been nodding along, absorbed in Lee Han’s vivid explanation, when she suddenly paused.

“But Lee Han. You said the students of Einroguard had done nothing wrong and were all good...”

“Your Highness. You must not interrupt while listening to a story.”

“Understood...”

Jowrin was confused, but nodded for the moment.

Certainly, the more she listened, the more she could feel just how hard Uman had been working.

It felt as though she could forgive him a little for returning to dragon form and tearing up the ground across Einroguard’s grounds, removing rotten trees, and repairing damaged facilities.

Not completely...

After hearing everything, Jowrin clenched her fist and declared,

“Jowrin has decided! From now on, Jowrin shall support Uman.”

“That is an excellent decision!”

The role of Inspector was difficult enough already. If Jowrin supported him, it would be a great help to Uman.

Then while you are supporting him, why not go and help with the magic as well?

The Devil Hag suddenly appeared again. Rather than being startled, Jowrin wrinkled her nose as though examining the other party’s aura.

“Jowrin senses an aura of dark magic similar to Gonadaltes, but more chaotic and murky.”

Not bad! As expected, the elder sister is better than the younger brother.

“!”

Jowrin began to wonder whether this might actually be quite a good person.

“What brings you back?”

Exactly what I said. The young dragon is working hard, but its abilities are not fully developed yet. Great magic is never easy.

“......”

Lee Han wore a conflicted expression.

Frankly, he was not confident that he could properly cast the Devil Hag’s secret art.

Hadn’t he just completed an unimaginable spell through a ridiculous mistake?

But Uman’s struggles had been weighing on his mind for a while now. Besides, after saying all that to Jowrin just now, what would she think if he did not go help?

“...All right! I’ll go help him now. Explain the secret art to me on the way. As slowly, simply, and thoroughly as possible, at the level of a second-year student...”

Stop putting on such a pathetic act.

As Jowrin trotted after Lee Han, who had set off ahead, she asked Professor Voladi,

“Jowrin does not understand why Lee Han does not simply ask Professor to do it.”

Professor Voladi nodded in agreement.

He had been waiting all this time, prepared to cast it in his disciple’s place if asked, but in the end his disciple had stepped forward to do it personally.

It was probably because of that distinctive initiative and ambition his disciple had toward magic.

Who could possibly stop that?