Chapter 1306

‘Didn’t he refrain from drinking even a single glass?’

Every servant in the banquet hall was a professional among professionals with more than ten years of experience. They could remember a great deal about a guest after seeing them just once.

For a guest who was pleasantly drunk, a potion instead of alcohol; for a guest in high spirits, a special drink...

But none of the servants knew what they were supposed to give a duke who was clutching his shin and rolling around on the floor.

The Skull Principal spoke as though there was nothing to worry about.

“I’ll take care of him, so you may all go back to your work.”

“But, Your Grace...”

“Get up!”

The Skull Principal kicked the fallen duke as though booting a polo ball.

Miraculously, Duke Ikalderen sprang to his feet. He had realized that staying on the floor would only get him kicked more.

“See? There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Y-yes... yes!”

The servants fled like an ebbing tide in horror. The Death Knight watched them go with a bitter look.

‘Another infamous rumor will spread. Please, let people think it’s just a ridiculous rumor!’

At least, the story that the Skull Principal had kicked a duke lying on the floor did not seem like something many people would believe.

‘Though I suppose not many people will believe that the Successor became a Valdrogard professor either.’

The Death Knight looked sadly out the window at the palaces on the hill, blazing brightly enough to resemble a city that never slept.

How much suffering must the Successor be enduring right now?

***

“This is Professor Wardanaz!”

“Waaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The Valdrogard students clapped, stomped their feet, and cheered enthusiastically.

Having enjoyed countless plays and cultural activities, Valdrogard students knew very well how to respond when they encountered a great masterpiece.

Welcoming a great professor was much the same. The Valdrogard students showed pure enthusiasm, popping corks from wine bottles into the air and tearing scrolls to set off magical fireworks.

Seeing that, Lee Han felt some of the resentment he had held toward Valdrogard begin to melt away.

‘Maybe I’ve been too prejudiced against Valdrogard?’

“Sorry if the students are bothering you, Professor Wardanaz!”

“Ah. Lord Kraha.”

When the principal of Valdrogard approached him in a friendly manner, Lee Han greeted him with perfect courtesy.

The Skull Principal might address him however he pleased, but a youngster like Lee Han could hardly do the same.

However, the principal of Valdrogard burst into hearty laughter.

“Just call me Amaset!”

“......”

For a moment, Lee Han imagined himself calling out to the Skull Principal, ‘Hey, Osu!’ and shuddered.

No matter how powerful his magic became or how far he advanced into the realm of archmages, he did not think such a day would ever come in his lifetime.

“W-well, because of the position I hold, I would actually feel uncomfortable being too informal with you.”

“How can that be! Professor Wardanaz. I truly don’t mind...”

Amaset, the principal of Valdrogard, wanted to become the sort of principal who felt like a friendly companion to this newly arrived professor.

How delighted would he be if he could go around introducing himself as ‘a friend of Lee Han Wardanaz’?

“By the way, where are the professors?”

Lee Han said as he took a step back. The principal stretched out his arm and pointed toward one wall of the banquet hall.

“Over there!”

“...?”

For a moment, Lee Han wondered if he had seen something wrong.

‘There’s only one person?’

“Are some of the professors perhaps using invisibility abilities or concealment magic?”

“...Puhahaha! Professor Wardanaz, your sense of humor is truly outstanding! Everyone! Listen to this! Just now...!”

“Please don’t do this.”

Lee Han hurriedly stopped the principal in horror.

‘Do I have Stockholm syndrome? Why do I miss the Principal?’

It was a truly strange thing, but the Skull Principal, who was always snapping at him and tormenting him with blunt remarks, somehow felt easier to deal with than the overly kind principal of Valdrogard.

Lee Han himself could not understand it.

“Well, it’s vacation right now, so of course the professors aren’t here!”

“...??”

Lee Han tilted his head, even more confused.

Then he belatedly realized what Amaset must mean and said,

“Ah. They couldn’t attend the banquet because they’re all at their respective mage towers preparing for next semester?”

“No? What kind of absurd thing is that? Professors are people too. They need to enjoy life!”

Amaset’s eyes widened in astonishment at Lee Han’s ridiculous words.

When vacation came, Valdrogard students traveled all over the Empire to rest and recover from the fatigue of studying hard for an entire semester.

If the students did that, then naturally the professors deserved the same.

“...Then when do they prepare for next semester?”

“Professor Wardanaz. Look here.”

Amaset smiled and pointed at Lee Han’s chest.

“What do you see?”

“???”

“I can already see the lectures inside the professor!”

For a moment, Lee Han nearly said, ‘Aren’t you hallucinating?’

But the other person was the principal of Valdrogard and Lee Han’s superior. No matter how gentle he seemed, Lee Han could not act insolently toward him.

“Valdrogard’s academic tradition is naturalness. If a professor has to forcefully prepare in advance and manufacture something, then I believe that is wrong. A professor should naturally draw out what resides within! They should express themselves! The students will want that too!”

‘Amazing! It’s almost exactly the same nonsense Gainando spouts when he doesn’t want to study!’

Lee Han was horrified inwardly.

It was an extremely rude thought, but he almost wondered whether this was some oral tradition passed down through House Kraha.

It was always the ones who had not prepared who said things like, ‘I’ll win with naturalness,’ when in truth, naturalness was something that seeped out from meticulous and complete preparation.

‘I have to endure this. He isn’t Gainando.’

If Lee Han refuted him here, he might be tormented for an entire semester. Lee Han nodded and pretended to agree.

“I learned something. I suppose I shouldn’t force myself to prepare either, and should simply draw things out naturally.”

“It is truly an honor that I could be of even a little help to Professor Wardanaz! I’m delighted!”

‘I’ll prepare in secret.’

Lee Han thought inwardly.

In the first place, saying something like that to a mage from Einroguard had no persuasive power.

An Einroguard mage could only react with something like, ‘Then I should prepare without getting caught.’

“Then why is that professor here?”

“Ah. Professor Seden of House Nwalka! An outstanding dancer and a fine stage actor. He’s preparing a play over vacation with Valdrogard students! Truly an excellent person.”

“...He doesn’t teach magic?”

“No?”

“...Understood.”

Lee Han was beginning to worry.

‘Does this school not have anyone who teaches magic? I still need someone I can ask a few things.’

In the worst case, whenever Lee Han ran into trouble preparing as a professor, he might have to ask the Skull Principal.

No matter how shameless Lee Han could be, he still felt a little guilty about asking the thoroughly irritated Skull Principal ‘how to become a good Valdrogard professor.’

“Oh! Professor Wardanaz!”

The moment Professor Seden, a spider beastkin, spotted Lee Han, he bounded over on eight legs.

“Nice to mee—”

“I heard from Lord Pengerine that you were the professor who helped with that innovative reinterpretation!? I’ve really wanted to meet you!”

“Pardon?”

Lee Han paused at the completely unexpected words.

What innovative reinterpretation?

‘Is this about magic?’

Professor Seden excitedly poured out words as though dancing.

“The play, the play! That beautiful and daring performance! The one at <Palace of the Old King> in the city of Granden at the beginning of this year!”

“...If I remember correctly, wasn’t that when a monster from another dimension summoned by an evil-god worshiper appeared?”

For a moment, their memories were so different that Lee Han wondered whether Professor Seden was talking about something else.

He distinctly remembered evil-god worshipers summoning an undead monster from another dimension in the middle of a play in the city of Granden, forcing Lee Han to run around with Alshicle trying to stop it.

How much trouble had the other Einroguard students gone through evacuating the audience back then?

“Ah, of course the monster appeared too. But that illusion of the dragon! The passion to boldly adopt one of the hottest theories in Imperial historiography, that House Alkarmata had ties to a dragon! I fell in love with it!”

“...???”

Lee Han thought over what Professor Seden could possibly mean several times before finally understanding.

To stop the enemy, they had cast the illusion spell they had prepared in advance, <Illusion of the Rampaging Azirmo>, and sent it flying out, and the audience had apparently mistaken it for a carefully planned part of the play.

Back then, the ones there had been Alshicle and Stedal Nago...

“Wait. The ones who fought back then should have been Lord Pengerine and a violent mage named Stedal Nago who has absolutely nothing to do with me.”

“But when I asked Lord Pengerine, I was told that Professor Wardanaz helped too?”

‘Lord Pengerine!’

Lee Han blamed Alshicle inwardly.

No matter how annoying it had been, how could he dump it onto his junior!

Stedal Nago was probably an untraceable wanderer, while Alshicle’s identity was publicly known, so people must have kept bothering only Alshicle.

Then Alshicle, fed up with it, must have gone, ‘Fine! Wardanaz helped too!’ and spread the attention around...

‘That’s really too much. I even opened canned sardines for him.’

In truth, though Lee Han did not know it, Alshicle had done this out of goodwill.

It had been an accident, but Alshicle had felt a little guilty receiving all the praise alone from other people.

Since Stedal Nago’s identity could not be revealed, Alshicle had simply said that among the Einroguard students, Lee Han had also helped at the time...

“Professor Wardanaz! So what kind of idea led you to do it?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t do that for the play. I did it to lure the enemy.”

“So the secret was the boldness to disregard the content of the play entirely?”

“...Principal! Principal!”

Lee Han called for Amaset.

The principal of Valdrogard, who had been sharing drinks with graduates, came over cheerfully at Lee Han’s call.

“Oh, if it isn’t my favorite professor!”

“Are there perhaps any other professors? Ones who teach magic... Ah, Professor Tosre! Where is Professor Tosre?”

Lee Han somehow managed to recall the memory from last year.

The professor who had visited with Valdrogard students at the beginning of the previous year had definitely been named Tosre.

‘If someone went out of their way to bring Valdrogard students to Einroguard, they must have real enthusiasm for magic!’

“Ah. Professor Tosre... is no longer with us.”

At Lee Han’s question, not only Amaset but even the excited Professor Seden took on a gloomy expression.

Seeing their reactions, Lee Han realized his mistake.

Mages were, by nature, members of a profession with a high accident rate. Pushing spells whose failure could cause disaster right up to their dangerous limits and casting them anyway was an everyday occurrence, so it could hardly be helped.

He had only spoken with Professor Tosre a few times, but to think someone like that had lost their life in an accident. Lee Han grew solemn as well.

“At the beginning of this year, another mage tower invited him, so he moved there.”

“It’s truly unfortunate.”

Professor Seden spoke as though the pain still lingered.

In the end, Professor Seden had been forced to let Professor Tosre leave without ever teaching him the joy of dance or the joy of theater.

“......”

Lee Han felt a dangerous and shocking realization slowly creeping up on him.

Could it be...

‘...At this magic school, are the professors who actually teach magic the only ones with short tenures??’