Chapter 1307

The chilling realization made Lee Han deny it first.

People naturally tended to reject realizations that were too dangerous, even without realizing it themselves.

'No, no. It could easily be a coincidence. Professor Tosre might have already liked that mage tower, or perhaps a new research topic occurred to him.'

Even so, ominous images kept flickering through Lee Han's mind.

Professor Tosre slinging a massive sack of gold coins over his back, spitting in the direction of Valdrogard, and walking away...

“Right. Professor Wardanaz. Take this.”

“What is this?”

Lee Han tilted his head when Amaset held out a small pouch.

'Gold coins? No. They aren't gold coins?'

Lee Han considered himself something of an expert on gold coins.

His senses were sharp enough that even Sebius, the upper-year student from the Spatial Movement Club, had once stared at him in disbelief and asked, 'Wardanaz, how in the world can you tell how many gold coins are inside a pouch without even looking?'

And to the eye of such an expert, those were not gold coins.

Clatter-

What was inside the pouch were glittering gemstones. Lee Han's hand suddenly went weak, and he nearly dropped the pouch before barely managing to hold it in place with telekinetic magic.

Magic honed through diligent practice never betrayed its master.

“W-w-w-what exactly is this?”

“Your weekly pay?”

Amaset looked at Lee Han as though wondering what he was talking about.

Now that he was working as a Valdrogard professor, the rule was that he received his salary every week.

“...Just leave it to me. Even if I have to lock the students inside the classroom and starve them, I'll teach them magic!”

“P-Professor Wardanaz. That was a joke, right? You were joking, weren't you?!”

“Of course. Please don't worry.”

If Gainando had been there, he would have shouted, 'Look at Lee Han's eyes! You have to stop him!' but Amaset had not yet reached that level.

Amaset failed to notice the flames blazing in Lee Han's eyes.

'It doesn't matter whether professors who teach magic leave quickly or whether the students have no interest. I will simply fulfill my responsibilities and duties as a professor of Valdrogard!'

Even if this had been the payment for the entire semester, Lee Han's motivation would have burned brightly. Now that he had received it as a weekly wage, he had no intention of complaining about anything.

Even if every single student behaved like Gainando, he would do his absolute best without complaint!

Tap, tap-

Someone poked Lee Han from behind.

“What are you doing?”

“I was thinking about how to gather the Valdrogard students and teach them.”

“...Don't lie. You're saying that on purpose to make me angry, aren't you? I know very well that you're not idle enough to be worrying about something like that.”

'Ah.'

Only then did Lee Han recognize who it was.

It was the Skull Principal, staring at him coldly. Since the eyes were not golden, this one was definitely the real one.

“No. I was serious. Look at this. They're all gemstones. By the way, what kind of weekly salary do Einroguard professors get?”

“That's not what's important right now, Wardanaz.”

The Skull Principal changed the subject as soon as an unfavorable topic came up.

“There are matters hundreds of times more important than thinking about how to gather Valdrogard students.”

“Thinking about how to teach them?”

The Skull Principal decided that once they returned to the banquet hall, he should kick Duke Ikalderen a few more times.

“I mean persuading the other magic schools to participate in the grand festival.”

“Ah. Right, that.”

“Right, that?”

“Ah! Right, that!”

“...Much better.”

The Skull Principal no longer reproached his disciple despite the blatantly insincere reaction.

To be frank, he had been afraid the boy might start spouting nonsense about focusing on this semester.

Lee Han changed the subject to soothe the visibly troubled Skull Principal.

“Come to think of it, this happened because we tried to persuade the Valdrogard mages a little more. Haha. Mages from the other magic schools would probably laugh in disbelief if they heard about this.”

“If mages from the other magic schools laugh, I'll kill them.”

“......”

“I'm joking.”

“I think that one was a little worse than the joke I made earlier.”

“What joke did you make?”

This time, it was Lee Han's turn to change the subject.

“So which magic school are we visiting next?”

“Hmm. It would probably be best to visit one that won't steal someone else's student and turn him into a professor.”

“Surely there can't be another place like that besides Valdrogard?”

“Ha. Give them as much gold as Valdrogard has, and they'd all do it without hesitation. Anyway, I'm glad you've stopped talking nonsense. If you'd said you were staying here to prepare your lectures, I was planning to tie the duke to the bottom of the lake and leave...”

“I was planning to prepare my lectures in the carriage while we traveled.”

“Then instead of the bottom of the lake, I suppose I'll bury him in a pit. Out of generosity, I'll leave his head above ground.”

Lee Han mostly let the Skull Principal's words go in one ear and out the other.

If the target had been an Einroguard student, Lee Han would have stepped in to save them, but Duke Ikalderen was a dignified noble.

Surely he could take care of his own life.

...Probably!

'I'll have to prepare by asking questions through letters while we're in the carriage.'

It was fortunate that Valdrogard was so generous about letting its professors go.

Thanks to that, Lee Han could continue helping the Skull Principal without needing any separate persuasion or permission.

Though he did wonder, just a little, whether they were being too generous...

Flap-flap!

When the sound of a flock of birds approaching from afar reached him, Lee Han stopped packing and gazed out the window with a sentimental expression.

The birds flying in over the brilliant lights of the palaces blended beautifully with Valdrogard's scenery, as though they were part of a painting.

“Principal. Whatever else you might say about Valdrogard, the scenery is quite ni—”

“They're paper birds. Burn them all!”

At the Skull Principal's command, vengeful spirits and ghosts surged from his sleeves and shot into the sky.

What Lee Han had thought was a flock of birds was actually a swarm of paper birds flying toward them.

Green flames flared, and the paper birds were shot down in midair. The Skull Principal spoke to Lee Han as well.

“You'd better stop receiving paper birds for a while too.”

“......”

Watching the burning scraps fall, Lee Han slowly began to worry.

...How was he supposed to explain this to his friends?

* * *

Hey! You damn prince! What do you mean Wardanaz became a Valdrogard professor?!

I heard Lee Han took a position as a Valdrogard professor. That's just a stupid rumor, right? He's still with you right now, isn't he? If he's with you and you actually let him take the position, don't call yourself my relative inside the tower anymore. We don't know each other, understood?

I sent this letter because there is one thing I would like to ask Lord Gainando. Right now, at Valdrogard...

GaimamdoGaimalloGainado? Junior Gainando. I'm writing because I have something to ask. Did your close friend Wardanaz participate in the capital festival this time? If so, leave a reply in my workshop in Enchantment Hall. If you say Yukbeltire's name, the workshop door will open...

Gainando's irritation exploded at the endless stream of paper-bird letters.

“Where are these ridiculous rumors even coming from?!”

At present, Gainando was actually studying magic at the dark magic school's mage tower.

The reason was simple.

There was truly nothing else for him to do alone.

Mage cards, chess, magical yut, whatever it was, there was a limit to how long one could play alone.

Gainando had learned for the first time that when a person had absolutely nothing else to do, they could even end up studying magic.

Then, at some point, paper birds had suddenly started arriving.

The wicked, evil, despicable friends who had left school must have heard some bizarre nonsense somewhere, because they kept sending him letters and bothering him. Gainando was thoroughly furious.

'Those bastards. They're definitely making fun of me because they're outside!'

He crumpled the paper birds into balls, threw them into a corner, and was just reaching again for his dark-magic grimoire when—

Footsteps sounded from above.

A resentful evil spirit that haunted the dark magic school's mage tower...

...No. It was upper-year student Diret.

'Gasp. I thought it was an evil spirit.'

Gainando inwardly clutched his chest in relief. Even though he had run into Diret several times already, he still had not quite gotten used to it.

“Ah... you're still studying magic?”

“Yes!”

“Anything difficult?”

“Lee Han wrote everything down for me before he left, so I'm fine. But upper-year student, can you put a curse powerful enough to affect a mage into a letter?”

“That depends on who the target is. Is it Lee Han?”

“No?!”

“That's a relief. Nothing you do would work very well on the junior anyway. Normally, you'd need some fairly powerful stationery... but is it really worth going that far?”

“I was going to ignore it at first, but these bastards keep making fun of me!”

Gainando complained bitterly about everything that had happened to him.

At first Diret listened while half-asleep, but after hearing the contents of the letters repeated several times, suddenly became fully alert.

“He became a Valdrogard professor?”

“Yes! What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that!”

“...Didn't he say he was going to Valdrogard?”

“He said he was visiting several magic schools. But that doesn't mean he'd become a Valdrogard professor. I'm sure the people of Valdrogard are spreading vicious rumors!”

Gainando shouted indignantly.

No matter how he thought about it, that was the most plausible explanation.

Since they could never invite Lee Han through merit alone, they must be trying to lure his friend in by spreading ridiculous rumors.

“But there's something those people don't know. Lee Han is shameless, so no matter how much they insist the rumor is already everywhere, it won't work on him at all!”

“...That was a compliment, right?”

“What? Yes.”

“R-right. I see. What's this letter?”

Among the paper birds, Diret spotted familiar stationery and handwriting. This one was from Yukbeltire.

“A letter from upper-year student Yukbeltire.”

“...Did you read it?”

“No. I figured it would just be more nonsense about Lee Han anyway, so I didn't.”

“Good. From now on, you can ignore any letters Yukbeltire sends.”

“Ah. Lee Han told me something like that before too!”

“......”

For a moment, Diret felt slightly guilty toward a friend.

'Am I being too harsh? No. This is a problem with Yukbeltire's character. If even a junior from the same tower can be convinced this easily...'

“It's obviously just a ridiculous rumor, but they went out of their way to send all this just to annoy me. Just wait until next semester!”

Gainando muttered, still not fully over his anger.

For some reason, however, Diret felt uneasy.

'One letter could be a prank. But if several letters arrive with the exact same story...'

Yukbeltire's letter had contained something different, but every other letter pointed to the same thing.

The junior had accepted a position as a Valdrogard professor!

Diret's thoughts were similar to Gainando's.

No matter how skilled Valdrogard was, making the junior into a professor should have been impossible.

But there was no such thing as absolute impossibility in magic, was there?

'The junior definitely said he was visiting Valdrogard too. What if something happened at Valdrogard? What if they ambushed him and threatened him? What if they took the Principal's life hostage... That's genuinely absurd. Have I gone insane from not sleeping for three days?'

While questioning the state of their own mind, Diret suddenly realized there was a much faster way to ask the junior than sending a paper bird.

It was the artifact the junior carried.

Since Diret also possessed an artifact connected to the <Einroguard's Watchers> club, they could ask the junior directly, one-on-one.

Junior. Nothing happened at Valdrogard, right? They didn't offer you a professor position or anything...

No reply came.

'Must be busy.'

The artifact did allow direct one-on-one communication, but it was difficult to get an answer when the other person was busy.

Besides, the junior was probably traveling around with the Principal right now...

“?”

Diret saw a single dot of ink appear on the paper, then hurriedly vanish.

“......”

Junior. You didn't just put a dot there and erase it, did you? You're not looking at this and pretending you aren't, are you...?