Chapter 1296

‘I can’t tell whether they didn’t hear me or are pretending not to.’

Lee Han thought as he glanced at the Bracelet of Ten Thousand Demons.

In truth, even if he really could wake the demons whenever he pleased and drag them out, he would not have used them as fuel for Pentagrammaton.

The Descendants of Ahrak might have had neither blood nor tears, but Lee Han still had both.

“Anyway, I’ll figure out how to complete Pentagrammaton on my own.”

“When? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow? Today?”

“...Would you like some more tea?”

Lee Han pretended not to hear and changed the subject. The elderly dark mages grumbled as they held out their teacups.

Gainando, who had been crunching sugar cubes beside them, suddenly thought of something and spoke.

“If you want Lee Han to learn a dark-magic microcosm, why don’t you help with something else?”

“What do you mean? A map of demon dimensions? A demon registry? The severed arm of a demon archduke? Dried demon blood?”

“...T-that would be good too, but, um, if you could help clean this mage tower a little...”

Slightly frightened by names far more terrifying than he had expected, Gainando answered hesitantly.

Lee Han and Diret stared at him in disbelief.

‘Does he think those dark mages are first-year freshmen?’

‘There’s no way they’d fall for such a childish trick...’

“I see. That certainly makes sense. What should we clean?”

“......”

“......”

The two were left speechless.

That worked!?

***

The Descendants of Ahrak began repairing Black Dark Hall while periodically criticizing Professor Mortum’s incompetence and laziness.

Originally, the work would have been done by Professor Mortum... no, by Diret, by Lee Han who felt sorry for the senior, and by Gainando, who had been unfairly dragged into it by his friend.

As expected, the elderly dark mages possessed extraordinary skill. In no time at all, they identified the tower’s problems and proposed solutions.

“All the shadow ivy on this side has dried up and died. How have you been managing this place? Bring mortar and obsidian powder.”

“Here.”

“Why is this aerial staircase missing a section in the middle?”

“You’re originally supposed to jump across there...”

SMACK!

“This is why people look down on dark mages as paupers. You idiot! Bring wraith teeth and regeneration magic!”

After being struck once with a staff, Gainando hurried downstairs to fetch the reagents.

They repaired magic circles where the lights had gone out, checked the condition of the archive that maintained sealed books, inspected the reagent-aging room and storage rooms...

The Descendants of Ahrak spoke with slight surprise.

“It’s not as poor as I expected. I thought everything would be empty, but there are some fairly high-grade reagents too.”

“Einroguard’s dark magic school is by no means poor.”

Diret showed a faint trace of pride.

Thanks to the recent exploits of a certain junior, there was now always a small amount of gold mixed into the school’s treasury. It was completely different from the old days, when not even a glimmer of gold could be found.

“How did you get Soul Candles and Mirrors of the Abyssal Chain?”

One of the dark mages found extremely rare reagents in a reagent box and looked puzzled.

Things like these were meant to be bought one at a time at auctions and secretly hidden in one’s own pocket, not placed in a mage tower’s reagent drawer.

What other mage bastard would be generous enough to put something like this in here?

“That’s... Wait. Why is that here? I’ve never bought anything that expensive.”

Diret started to answer, then noticed something was strange.

Even if the dark magic school’s income had risen sharply, it had only risen by the standards of the dark magic school. Compared to Einroguard as a whole, it still ranked near the bottom.

Because of that, Diret tightly controlled reagent purchases for the dark magic mage tower and economized thoroughly. Waste was unthinkable.

WHIP!

Diret’s head snapped around toward the junior. Lee Han spoke without changing expression.

“What is it, Senior?”

“......”

“Is something wrong?”

“There are expensive reagents stocked over there. What do you think about that?”

“Didn’t Professor Mortum stock them?”

Lee Han was shameless enough, but unfortunately the Descendants of Ahrak were right beside him.

The dark mages became furious and shouted.

“Absolutely impossible! How could that make any sense!”

“If Mortum put those here instead of in his own reagent pouch, I’ll change my affiliation to the Legion of Oondorgu!”

‘Hmm.’

Lee Han considered whether he should insist, ‘Professor Mortum could have done that,’ or, ‘Perhaps one of those monsters from fairy tales that helps dark mages came by.’

The latter seemed more convincing.

Before he could do so, however, Diret had already taken the reagents out and placed them in a separate pouch. Then they wrote Lee Han’s name on it, with ‘No one else is to touch this’ underneath.

After thinking briefly, they added another line beneath it.

‘Touch it and I’ll actually kill you.’

The dark mages beside them offered advice.

“You should put a curse on it too. People only learn after suffering once.”

“...People in our school understand when you tell them verbally. Probably. And Junior, from now on, you don’t need to stock this place with your own reagents.”

Diret whispered so only Lee Han could hear. If the Descendants of Ahrak overheard, there was a one-hundred-percent chance they would become annoying and ask, ‘Why in the world would you do that?’

“I don’t know what you mean, Senior.”

“Right. I knew you’d say that.”

Diret had not expected the junior to admit it anyway, so they merely patted him on the back and returned to their place.

The dark mages were still diligently maintaining the mage tower.

Watching them, Diret became slightly worried.

‘They won’t cause a scene when they realize they were tricked, will they?’

“Um, may I ask just one thing? Do you really, sincerely believe that if you clean the mage tower like this, Junior will immediately learn a dark-magic microcosm?”

“No?”

“?!”

Diret was startled by the unexpected answer.

No?

The elderly dark mages spoke while waving their staffs and restoring broken and shattered undead.

“No matter how much work there is, he obviously won’t instantly learn a microcosm just because we did this in his place.”

“Th-then why?”

“Are you sincerely asking that, Diret? To think a dark mage could ask such an innocent question. Judging by that Wardanaz’s personality, if we pretend to be fooled and help with the work like this, he’ll subconsciously begin to feel responsible. If we steadily build things up this way, it will help us later when we compete with the Obsidian Magic Tower or the Legion of Oondorgu.”

“...Get out right now!”

“Even if you chase us out, because of the work we’ve already done, a certain amount of responsibility has already accumulated in Wardanaz’s heart. It’s too late. Hahahaha!”

Watching the Descendants of Ahrak cheerfully leave for another area, Diret covered their face with one hand as though they had a headache.

Lee Han felt strangely guilty and spoke.

“Don’t worry, Senior. Something like that doesn’t make me feel responsible at all.”

“......”

Diret stared intently at the junior.

That did not seem likely...

***

The Third Descendant of Ahrak hummed as they descended into the basement.

If one lacked persistence and patience, one could never practice dark magic.

Advancing while drawing the larger picture was the true duty of a dark mage.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

“????”

While organizing the basement, the dark mage saw a wooden crate shaking and for a moment thought it might be a mimic.

But it was not.

The familiar mana pattern of dark magic could be felt from the wooden crate.

“Ninth!? Is that you, Ninth?!”

-!!!

The Ninth, who had been transformed into a crate, wrapped tightly in chains, and sealed, could not speak, but shook their body to insist that it was.

The Third Descendant could not understand the situation at all and asked.

“Why are you doing this here? No. You can’t answer anyway. I’ll think it through myself. Hmm... Ah-ha. I understand. Did you transform into a crate to infiltrate Einroguard, only to get discovered and sealed like this instead?”

-!!!!!

The crate shook even harder.

As expected of people from the same mage tower, they understood each other’s intentions even without words.

In truth, the Descendants of Ahrak had not gotten along particularly well with one another back when they were still at the mage tower.

They were all stubborn dark mages with strong individual desires, so merely speaking to one another was enough to start arguments.

But now, seeing how they could understand each other even without words, they were reminded anew of just how strong the bonds between people from the same mage tower could be.

The Ninth deeply reflected on having acted eccentric and arrogant toward the other companions.

As expected, in times of danger, companions were all one had.

‘Wait?’

The Third Descendant paused.

The reason they had sent the Ninth in the first place had been to persuade Wardanaz and eventually bring him to their own mage tower.

But now that they thought about it...

‘Do we really need the Ninth anymore?’

They had received permission to visit Einroguard, had personally become fairly close with Wardanaz, and had even built up a sense of responsibility and guilt in his heart...

...And strictly speaking, they had not even sent the Ninth in the first place.

They had tried to stop them, and the Ninth had run off on their own.

Thinking about the past made the Third Descendant question even more whether releasing the Ninth now was really the right thing to do.

Frankly, while the Ninth had been gone, everyone at the mage tower had fought less, making the place considerably more pleasant.

“Hmm. It seems my guess was wrong.”

-?????

The crate shook as if asking what kind of nonsense that was.

‘Release me right now, you old, stupid, dimwitted skeleton! What are you talking about?!’

“Then shall I guess again? What? You weren’t captured, but infiltrated? I shouldn’t talk to you anymore because you might get discovered? Understood! I’ll do just that.”

-!!!!!!

The crate shook violently.

Without the chains, it looked ready to fly straight into the back of the elderly dark mage’s head.

Ignoring it, the Third turned around and went back upstairs.

Perhaps they could come collect the Ninth in a few years.

Or leave them there a little longer...

BANG BANG BANG-

Left alone in the basement, the crate raged furiously.

Betrayal by someone from the same mage tower always hurt several times more.

‘I swear upon my dark magic! If anyone releases me, I’ll teach them all of my dark magic! Those ungrateful bastards aren’t fellow Descendants at all!’

***

“Senior. Is there anything in the basement?”

“Probably not. Why?”

“The Descendants seem to have been whispering among themselves ever since they went down there.”

“They were probably surprised because there are so many items and reagents in the basement. It makes sense.”

Diret spoke with a bitter smile.

‘That doesn’t seem like it.’

Lee Han found it strange, but simply said he understood for now.

It was not particularly important.

“Orlach. Is there perhaps something in the basement...”

Lee Han was about to summon the demon and ask when he noticed a paper bird flying in through the window and flinched.

An ordinary paper bird would not have surprised him, but judging by the distinctive pattern and color of that paper, it was...

‘Senior Yukbeltire’s paper bird!’

“Why does she keep sending letters?”

Diret accepted the paper bird in an exhausted voice.

If Yukbeltire had taken time out of an already busy schedule to go to the capital, then she should simply do what she had gone there to do. Diret could not understand why she kept sending letters.

Lee Han slowly began backing away.

Unfortunately, the staircase was far too distant.

At this rate, there was no way he could disappear without making it obvious.

Diret began reading the letter, then suddenly snapped their head around and stared at the junior.

Then they read the letter again, looked at the junior, read the letter again, and looked at the junior once more.

“Junior... by any chance, in the capital...?”

“Please give me a chance to explain.”