Chapter 1291

Lee Han spoke calmly as if he had seen nothing.

“Look over there, Gainando. The sky is really beautiful today.”

“...No! Someone was just dragged away!”

Gainando shouted in disbelief.

His friend was so calm that Gainando almost wondered whether he alone had seen a hallucination.

“Well... People get dragged away at Einroguard all the time. Professor Verdus too.”

“Th-that’s true, but... still... still...!”

Watching Professor Verdus get dragged away after trying to escape and watching a fourth-year student who had failed to graduate get dragged away were entirely different kinds of shocks.

For some reason, the latter was much more frightening.

“Gainando. I think I know why you’re acting like this.”

“Right!? Einroguard really is strange, isn’t it?!”

“What you’re afraid of comes from anxiety somewhere in your subconscious. The fact that you’re still unprepared even with third and fourth year approaching is making you uneasy. The more you feel that way, the more you need to hone your magic and face it.”

“...No. I’m just scared because the knights dragged that senior away.”

Gainando answered with a completely serious expression.

***

Lee Han took Gainando around to inspect the places he had been unable to check during the semester.

His private room in the Blue Dragon Tower, the second-years’ communal storage room...

“Darn. The storage room is completely empty.”

“I-I wasn’t the only one who ate everything.”

“I wasn’t particularly blaming you. There are a lot of people eating from it, so of course supplies get used up quickly.”

...Wardanaz’s secret base, the basement inside the backpack, the club management area on the seventh floor of the main building, the temporary campsites and cabins hidden throughout the forest...

“Write this down, Gainando. Two sacks of flour, five jars of fairy honey, twelve stacks of firewood, eight coats, gloves and hats too, pots and jars, cauldrons... No. What lunatic punched a hole through this cauldron? You’re not first-years anymore.”

Gainando flinched as he wrote it down.

Since the dark magic school often dealt with poison, statistically speaking its students had a slightly higher chance of putting holes through cauldrons.

Of course, by that logic, the same could be said for alchemy and various other schools as well, so Gainando kept quiet instead of making excuses.

“The salt and spice sets are still fine. Since we’re here, I should smoke some meat before we leave.”

“There’s meat?”

“Wait here. I’ll catch some.”

“Come on, Lee Han. I can do that much.”

Glancing repeatedly at the hole in the cauldron, Gainando volunteered.

A deer might be too much for him, but if he caught a few rabbits, perhaps his guilt would lessen a little.

“It’s fine. Don’t waste your mana unnecessarily. We still have plenty of places to visit.”

Lee Han had his friend rest inside the cabin, then went outside.

Living at Einroguard made it easy to understand why Professor Thunderwalk had been so obsessed with cabins and vegetable gardens.

If you did not continually grow vegetables and bring back meat, the diet at Einroguard became extremely poor.

To avoid that, you needed to steadily add more campsites and cabins whenever you had time, expanding your food-gathering routes.

‘Wait. But Professor Thunderwalk can leave whenever he wants, can’t he? So it was just an indulgent hobby.’

Thirty minutes later.

THUD!

Gainando tilted his head at the sound coming from outside the cabin.

Wasn’t that a little loud?

“Lee Han. What did you catch... Aaaagh! That’s a drake!”

“Looks like it came down from the mountains.”

Lee Han wiped the blood from his face with a slightly tired expression.

Behind him lay the enormous body of a drake.

The sight was so unreal that Gainando was left speechless.

“It was destroying the wild boars’ habitat. I had no choice but to stop it.”

“R-right. Lee Han. Actually, I was the one who put the hole in the cauldron.”

Overwhelmed by the sight of his blood-covered friend, Gainando immediately confessed the truth.

“You did? You should’ve been more careful.”

“Sh-should I put the same kind of hole through my palm?”

“What? No... Why would you say something that insane? Just help me butcher this. You can weaken the hide and fascia, right?”

Students from other magic schools sometimes joked that ‘the dark magic school can only kill people and raise them afterward,’ but that was a huge misconception.

In fact, because dark magic had existed since ancient times, it possessed a wide variety of spells corresponding to many different schools.

With various poisons and curses, even the toughest and hardest monster meat could be butchered with ease.

Of course, mages outside the dark magic school tended to give uneasy looks when poison and curses were brought out during butchering.

“Hmm. There’s more than I expected.”

With Gainando’s help, Lee Han quickly salted, smoked, dried, and preserved the meat in oil before calculating what remained.

Salt, oil, and spices were not infinite either.

Their stocks had to be continually replenished.

“Should I go get some from the Blue Dragon Tower?”

“No. That’s too far. I’ll borrow some from Professor Thunderwalk.”

Lee Han disappeared again and returned a short while later.

An entire shelf from the cabin floated through the air beside him.

“Gainando. You must be tired. Eat some of this before we continue.”

Among the glass jars filled with honey and candied preserves and the small pots containing dried fruit, Lee Han pulled out a jar of preserved spirit peaches and tossed it over.

Gainando was startled.

“Where was this!? I’m sure it wasn’t there when I searched with the others last time...?!”

“The professor hid it. Most of the illusions are cast through fragrance, so it’s best to hold your nose when you enter the cabin.”

Even while his friend happily ate the snacks, Lee Han did not stop moving.

First he stored the finished meat in this cabin, then divided more among other campsites and cabins, then stored still more in the secret base, communal storage room, and basement...

One thing Einroguard taught over and over again was never to put all your eggs in one basket.

If you did, there was no telling when the Skull Principal might find out and come after that basket.

After thoroughly replenishing the stocks with various vegetables, fruits, and mushrooms as well, Lee Han wiped the sweat from his forehead and called Gainando again.

“Gainando. Finished eating? Let’s go. We’re going to check the school facilities on the seventh floor. I wonder whether the dark magic school’s mushroom garden is doing all right.”

‘That’s strange. Isn’t Lee Han a second-year?’

For a moment, Gainando had doubts.

Wasn’t this normally something a fifth-year did?

“What’s wrong? Is there something else you put a hole through?”

“N-no. Nothing. Come to think of it, don’t we need to check the cabins around Stream Forest and Dark Forest too?”

“I already did. Let’s go.”

“......”

Could his friend perhaps be using time magic?

Gainando seriously considered the possibility.

***

“Lee Han. Come to think of it, the fifth-year seniors might still be at school.”

“That’s probably true.”

Lee Han nodded.

The fifth-year seniors were preparing to advance to the year obtained by adding two to four, so at this point vacation had practically lost all meaning for them.

They would probably become even harder to see next year, since they would have to travel all over the Empire preparing their magic.

“Lee Han. I said the fifth-year seniors might still be at school.”

“??”

Lee Han could not understand why Gainando kept repeating himself.

So what?

“So what?”

“...I-I was thinking maybe we could leave the school facilities on the seventh floor to the seniors...”

Gainando answered timidly.

As he spoke, he somehow felt as though he were saying something very strange and incorrect.

Even though it was an extremely reasonable suggestion!

“Gainando. Don’t you feel sorry for Senior Diret? Senior Diret just spent an entire year as a fifth-year. If you’re human, you should have some consideration.”

“LeeHanyouspentayearfightinganevilgod...”

Gainando muttered so quietly that his friend could not hear him.

He understood that fifth year was difficult, but directly confronting an evil god was not exactly easy either.

After doing something like that, shouldn’t Lee Han be allowed to rest during vacation?

Besides, his friend would definitely become a fifth-year eventually, and when that happened, Gainando doubted the second-year juniors would have such admirable thoughts.

“What did you just say?”

“N-nothing! I didn’t say anything! Th-then I guess we can manage all the other schools’ facilities too! How exciting!”

“Not all of them. The enchantment magic school facilities should be handled by Senior Yukbeltire or Professor Verdus.”

‘Hmm. I guess Lee Han hasn’t completely lost his mind yet.’

Gainando felt slightly relieved.

If his friend had volunteered to handle even those, he really would have started worrying.

***

Lee Han generously used reagents as he tended the dark magic school’s mushroom garden.

The soil, which had been withering for some time due to reduced negative mana, visibly regained its richness.

Gainando suddenly wondered about something and asked,

“Where did you get all those reagents?”

“A senior gave them to me.”

“Which senior? Senior Diret?”

“No.”

“Senior Yukbeltire... No, that can’t be it. Then...”

“You know. The senior who graduated. The one we met at Petroguard.”

“Ah. That person.”

Gainando belatedly remembered the great artist.

That senior, who had completely cleaned out the auction house’s reagent supplies, had given Lee Han a generous gift before disappearing as well.

The person had certainly been generous, but there was no denying that they were strange and eccentric.

‘Lee Han isn’t going to become a mage like that later, right?’

Now that he thought about it, there already seemed to be a few signs.

If Lee Han fought the Skull Principal a little more next year and then escaped, maybe he really would end up like that...

‘No! The Principal becoming a criminal would be one thing, but Lee Han can’t become one.’

While Gainando was lost in thought, a familiar mage entered his field of vision.

The sight of the figure toddling along somehow inspired both affection and hatred at the same time.

“P-P-P-P-P-Professor Verdus!”

“There Professor Verdus is. Did the professor come to take care of the facilities?”

Lee Han was slightly puzzled, but not particularly surprised.

Because of the escape attempt during finals, Professor Verdus was under strict surveillance.

Under circumstances like these, even Professor Verdus could work diligently.

Professor Verdus rubbed the badly bruised area around one eye and grumbled.

“I think I’ve been unlucky lately. Weird enemies keep coming after me.”

“The Principal?”

“No! Some frost giant suddenly attacked me through a painting.”

“......”

“......”

Lee Han and Gainando exchanged looks.

Then they gave short nods.

“Frost giants are naturally violent. It wouldn’t be strange for something like that to happen.”

“Lee Han’s right. Frost giants are really vicious.”

“Ugh. That’s true, but they’re not the sort to attack someone for no reason like that...”

Professor Verdus tilted their head, unable to understand.

The shackles around the professor’s wrists and ankles rattled as a result.

They looked incredibly heavy.

“Oh, right. Wardanaz. You said you’re staying during vacation, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“I haven’t even said anything yet?!”

Professor Verdus shouted, baffled by the disciple’s merciless refusal.

“I see. Still no.”

“I’m not trying to make you work! Just come to my workshop for a little while. I have something to show you.”

“You’re going to show me your work and then give me time to rest by casting enchantment magic, aren’t you? No.”

“I said that’s not it!”

Professor Verdus could not understand this absurdly suspicious disciple.

It was not as if Lee Han had spent his entire life being deceived, so why was he so suspicious?

“Have I ever lied to you?”

“Yes.”

‘Wow. Truly incredible.’

Gainando was slightly impressed.

Since Professor Verdus was not his professor and he had not spoken to them for a while, he had forgotten, but that level of shamelessness was genuinely worthy of respect.

He wanted to learn it!

“That’s strange? I’ve never lied. Anyway, what I want to show you is microcosm magic. Professor Garcia said you’ve started seriously attempting microcosm magic?”

“!”

Gainando was startled by those words.

Lee Han seriously attempting microcosm magic was not especially surprising.

What was extremely surprising was that Professor Verdus had come all the way here to help.

This person...

Really was an Einroguard professor after all!

“No? I think you heard wrong.”

“......”