Chapter 1298

But the junior had already hurriedly dashed outside. Diret found themselves slightly suspicious as to whether the junior had really failed to hear them.

‘N-no. He probably went outside because he has a lot of work to do. ...Definitely!’

***

The Descendants of Ahrak, who had swept in like a storm, disappeared like the receding tide.

While repairing and maintaining the magic tower and its surrounding grounds, they skillfully drilled into Lee Han the greatness of dark magic, the importance of dark-magic microcosms, why Professor Mortum was trash, and various other lessons.

As Lee Han listened, he found himself thinking, ‘At this point, shouldn’t these people be the professors?’

“If the Einroguard dark magic school doesn’t teach you a microcosm you like, write to us. As long as you join, we can teach you as much as you want.”

“...Yes... I understand. But why do you keep looking at the basement?”

“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about. The basement? Ah. Perhaps I was glaring at it because it’s exceptionally dusty and toxic. Just how does that Mortum bastard manage his magic tower!”

‘Is there really something in the basement??’

“Then we’ll be on our way. May we meet again on the next day when the moon grows faint!”

The dark mages left like that. Gainando watched their retreating backs and asked,

“Why do old dark mages always talk in ways that are hard to understand? Why say ‘the day when the moon grows faint’?”

“Who knows.”

“...I got it! Lee Han, it’s because it’s easier to steal corpses when there’s no moonlight!”

Gainando clapped his hands as though he had figured it out.

After studying in the dark magic school for two years, he felt like he was finally beginning to understand what dark magic was.

So this was a remnant of the old dark mages!

‘I hate that I can’t strongly deny that.’

Lee Han felt a sense of self-reproach inside and pretended not to hear him. Unlike usual, he was not confident he could refute this logically.

“More importantly, Gainando. I think there’s something beneath the dark magic tower. You should be careful.”

“There’s always something beneath a magic tower, isn’t there?”

Gainando looked puzzled at his friend for stating the obvious.

A considerable number of mages had a tendency to think that shoving everything out of sight into the basement counted as ‘cleaning.’

Gainando had thought the same way in first year, but after his private room was discovered a few times and his back was set on fire, he realized that was not ‘cleaning.’

Cleaning was the act of throwing trash outside, not hiding it inside.

In any case, unlike the current second-years of Blue Dragon Tower, mages who had never received such instruction still preferred the classical method of cleaning...

...And as a result, the basements of magic towers were quite often dangerous places where all sorts of junk rolled around and occasionally set off chain reactions.

“No. I think there’s something else. They kept looking toward the basement and whispering among themselves earlier.”

“...I-I got it! Lee Han! Theft! They stole reagents or corpses!! No! I worked so hard cleaning and stitching those corpses!!”

Gainando, who had become obsessed with deductions today, offered another blazing hypothesis.

Lee Han felt troubled by the fact that he was being persuaded yet again.

‘Could that really be it?’

No matter how ancient and experienced the Descendants of Ahrak were, they were still dark mages in the end.

Besides, having a lot of experience in the Imperial dark magic school was not exactly a compliment.

‘It does seem like the personalities of older dark mages are, on average, a little more wicked than those of younger dark mages...’

On one side there was the Skull Principal, and on the other there was Diret.

Maybe it was just his imagination, but the old dark mages seemed to regard theft, grave robbing, pillaging, and the like as their rightful privileges...

“I should at least check once.”

“But do we really have to do it right now? We’ve been working nonstop, so let’s have some fun.”

Gainando said this while shaking dust, soot, and reagents out of his stained hair.

Normally, Lee Han would have coldly said, ‘If you want to have fun, graduate from Einroguard first,’ but this time he could not bring himself to do that.

‘Hmm. Gainando really has been working hard managing the magic tower even with Professor Mortum gone. And he’ll have to stay at Einroguard throughout the entire vacation.’

No matter how thoroughly Einroguard dried up a person’s heart, it could not strip away every last trace of humanity.

“All right. What do you want to do? Should we play mage cards?”

“I can really play!?”

Gainando’s eyes widened, apparently not expecting Lee Han to actually agree.

As his friend, surely he should have said something like, ‘Gainando, are you insane? We need to practice magic twenty-seven hours a day, and we’re already short on time’?

“...I’m sorry. Fine. What do you want to do?”

“I’ll go get our mounts from the stable, so let’s race!”

“Ah. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Phoneig nearly enough lately either.”

Professor Thunderstep and the stable owner were taking good care of it (strictly speaking, Professor Bendozol was there too), and it had even made friends such as the unicorn, but that was no excuse for neglecting it.

Lee Han nodded and was about to go see Phoneig.

That was when it happened.

A voice suddenly came from behind them.

“A race sounds good. Start.”

“??!??!”

Gainando was horrified when his legs suddenly began sprinting forward of their own accord.

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-what is this?!”

When he turned around, the most wicked, vile, and vicious archmage in the Empire had returned to human form and was waving at him.

“Principal!! What are you doing!!”

“You said you wanted to race, didn’t you? Wardanaz and I will take one lap around the Empire, so you can compete to see who gets back first. Let’s go!”

“Principal!! If you don’t undo this right now... if you don’t, there isn’t actually much I can do about it... Undo it! I said undo it! Hey! Hey! Come back!”

Gainando wailed as he ran all the way to the stable, but the Skull Principal had long since departed with his friend.

Gainando ground his teeth at the sight.

‘Just you wait...! I don’t know how I’m supposed to make you wait, but seriously, just you wait!!’

The prince of noble blood trembled with vengeance.

This desire for revenge could not even be compared to the humiliation of losing at mage cards or having his snacks stolen.

He would absolutely have his revenge on the Skull Principal!

***

“Was there really any need to torment Gainando like that?”

“It was amusing.”

“......”

Lee Han looked at the Skull Principal with open contempt from inside the carriage.

The Skull Principal snickered and spoke again.

“Saying it was amusing was a joke...”

‘I don’t think that was a joke.’

“...Recently, while watching Her Highness Jowrin, I came to a realization.”

“What realization?”

Lee Han wondered whether the Skull Principal had perhaps realized that Einroguard’s educational policy was actually bad for mages.

‘No. That’s absolutely impossible, isn’t it? If that were possible, he wouldn’t be the Principal. He’d be the young prince.’

“That trials are the driving force that makes people grow.”

“......”

Lee Han was too dumbfounded to answer immediately.

The Skull Principal brushed his long, flowing hair aside and continued.

“Wardanaz, you seem to agree as well. Well, you watched Her Highness grow from right beside her, so you must have felt something.”

“Not at all. No, what trials has Her Highness even faced?!”

“What trials, you ask... She had to keep watching from right beside you as her own younger brother tried to steal the mage contracted to her, didn’t she? Isn’t that cruel? You’re her contractor, yet you’re so indifferent.”

The Skull Principal spoke reproachfully, as though Lee Han were truly a cold and heartless person.

Being criticized like that by the Skull Principal made Lee Han want to jump out of the carriage racing through the air.

“She grew far more during these past few months of facing trials than she did during more than ten years spent lazing around at the estate, so I too gained an insight.”

“Even if I concede a hundred steps and say that Her Highness Jowrin has grown a great deal recently...”

“It isn’t a concession. I’m telling you, she grew. Of course, it would have been better if she hadn’t sent that accusation letter, but then she would have been a celestial rather than a dragon.”

Unlike angels, whose attachments were faint, dragons had very clear values.

And honestly, if Jowrin had grown enough not to send the accusation letter, even the Skull Principal might have found it a little frightening. It was only natural to worry when someone changed too quickly.

Lee Han became indignant midway through speaking because of what the Skull Principal had said.

The Skull Principal was obviously the culprit who had sent the accusation letter that drove Uman away, yet he was still shamelessly pinning it on Jowrin?

“You’re still framing Her Highness? Isn’t that really too much?”

“...Think whatever you like.”

The Skull Principal looked at his disciple as though he were utterly pathetic.

The contractor still had not properly figured out his own dragon...

“Anyway, even if Her Highness has grown, what does that have to do with tormenting Gainando?”

“No. I explained it this much and you still don’t understand? How are you planning to become an Einroguard professor later?”

Lee Han became dizzy from the Skull Principal launching two mental attacks at once and could not argue back.

While he was wondering which one he should refute first, the Skull Principal continued.

“Her Highness Jowrin grew once she faced trials. On the other hand, that prince has been far too sheltered.”

“It hasn’t been that—”

“Quiet! The humiliation he suffered today, along with the loneliness of having to remain at Einroguard by himself during vacation, will become a powerful driving force for him.”

“I think Gainando will entertain himself perfectly well even on his own.”

“That could happen. In that case, I’ll simply have to give him a harsher trial.”

“......”

Lee Han felt a slight chill even though it had nothing to do with him.

Shouldn’t he stop this?

“By the way, why did you bring me out? Is it the new students again?”

“Aha. It seems you enjoyed traveling around looking for new students. Shall I put you in charge of it from now on?”

“......”

Lee Han glared at him furiously, but the Skull Principal continued smoothly.

“Finding new students is important too, but unlike last year, there don’t seem to be any troublemakers this year. What a shame, Wardanaz.”

“Yes... truly unfortunate.”

“The reason I brought you, a prisoner, out today is to visit the other magic schools.”

“!”

Lee Han’s eyes widened slightly at the surprising news.

“Didn’t you dump all of that on Professor Garcia?!”

“Don’t disguise criticism as a question.”

The Skull Principal replied in a listless voice.

This sly disciple was exceptionally skilled at insulting someone while pretending to ask a question.

“I did dump all of it on Garcia, but I can’t exactly refuse to help at all. I’d like Garcia to be a little happier next year.”

Holding a grand festival together with the Empire’s other magic schools was one of Professor Garcia’s long-held dreams.

The Skull Principal did not understand it at all. What was so good about those deficient and troublesome fools that anyone would want to gather together and laugh happily with them?

“Thinking that it’s for Professor Garcia suddenly fills me with motivation.”

“You brat. This time you’re criticizing me through a subtle metaphor. But I need your reputation, so I won’t punish you.”

The Skull Principal was a person who valued practical gain.

Since he needed to bring along the disciple who had caused the greatest stir among this year’s magic-school students and charm the mages of the other schools, he did not particularly care about his disciple’s rude remarks.

“Then where are we visiting first? Kalarogard? Dekarogard?”

“I can understand Kalarogard, since you, Wardanaz, are friendly with dark mages. But why those money-worshipers at Dekarogard?”

“Ha ha. I merely took a liking to the profound principles of transformation magic.”

“...Are you trying to plunder their gold? Sorry, but it’s neither of those. We’re visiting the most troublesome place first.”

“Don’t tell me...”

“Valdrogard.”

“......”

“Don’t curse at me with your expression. I can hear all of it.”