Chapter 1351

The Valdrogard students shuddered at an unfamiliar emotion.

They did not know it yet, but that emotion was called 'fear.'

Jandanni could not bring themself to abandon the juniors, so they spoke again.

"Um, Professor. I'm still fine, but there are quite a few students here with no experience in magic. Even if the students with magical experience stay and continue, wouldn't it be better to let the students without any magical experience rest?"

"That's a good idea."

When Lee Han agreed, the faces of the Valdrogard students, starting with Jandanni, brightened.

As expected, the new professor was a person of common sense and dignity worthy of his reputation.

"Then the tired students may rest for a while. Anyone who has depleted a lot of mana can go to that cauldron over there and drink a potion. Ah. The blue potion. The green one is a hallucinogenic poison from the dark magic school, so don't drink that."

"W-Wait a moment, Professor!"

"?"

Lee Han tilted his head and looked at Jandanni again.

His gaze was so utterly pure and clear that Jandanni nearly wondered whether they had misunderstood something.

"What you just... um... said..."

"Ah. You're talking about the green potion. It smells sweet, and it actually tastes sweet too, but that's because Einroguard modified it to make it easier to feed to other people. Normally, hallucinogenic poisons tend to smell foul and taste bitter."

"No, not the hallucinogenic poison! ...Wait, you modified it to make it easier to feed to someone?"

As the top student of Valdrogard's alchemy school in their own right, Jandanni was surprised by Lee Han's words.

Modifications that strengthened a potion's effect or extended its duration were common throughout the Empire, and Jandanni knew several methods as well.

You simply had to use more expensive and rarer gemstones.

But modifying one to make it easier to feed to someone was something Jandanni had never heard of before.

"Basically, the reagents used to make low-grade hallucinogenic potions in the Empire follow fairly established rules. Dreamhorn mushrooms, powdered Silver-Blood Moth, water drawn during the dark moon..."

"Don't you also use opal powder?"

"...That's expensive. In any case, if you over-infuse it with mana here, the effect increases..."

"Using rarer gemstone powder increases the effect too!"

"...Having someone like you around really puts me at ease, Student Jandanni."

Jandanni's face flushed with pride.

Studying magic instead of letting friends tempt them into horse racing or polo tournaments had paid off.

"In any case, rather than focusing only on strengthening effects like this, it isn't a bad idea to explore the principles by varying the reagents. New discoveries can come out of that process."

Trying different things instead of using reagents strictly according to a formula broadened a mage's perspective.

That was especially true for Einroguard students.

They often had no reagents at all or had to find substitutes.

-I see. So Moon-Eye Sap can somehow make it work too.

-Stealing this obsidian ink from an upper-year would be better.

-Agh! I shouldn't use spoiled Purgatory Milk!

Unaware of such circumstances, Jandanni could only find it admirable.

"I respect that, Professor. So this modification that makes it easier to feed was also born from an attempt to push beyond the limitations of potions."

"No. A dark magic student modified it because there were no snacks and they wanted something to eat."

"???"

The Valdrogard students blinked, wondering whether the professor was making a joke.

A joke...

...right?

Jandanni took it as a joke and nodded.

"I'll try making a modification like that too, Professor."

"I'll be rooting for you, Student Jandanni."

"Senior...!"

'Ah.'

Jandanni realized their mistake once again.

Talking with this professor kept drawing them in.

'Get a grip, Aljadk! You're the Valdrogard upper-year leading these juniors!'

"Professor. But that wasn't what I was trying to ask about. I was asking about the students resting. If they're going to rest, shouldn't they go outside? Rather than stay inside the classroom..."

The students nodded as a group.

Please let us out of the palace!

Lee Han answered as if he still had no idea what they meant.

"Then you're free to go outside and rest."

"But the palace doors haven't been repaired."

"Then I suppose you'll have to wait."

"If you... opened the palace doors for us, Professor..."

"Unfortunately, I can't do that. We're in the middle of a lecture. I can't abandon the students and go repair the palace doors."

"We're fi—!"

One Valdrogard student who was about to shout urgently was struck with silence.

Lee Han had cast <Crow's Evil Eye>.

Once this spell was mastered, there was no need to scatter poison or feed it to someone; it could be activated through sight as the medium.

Lee Han activated the stored evil-eye magic in advance on the students who were about to say they were fine, swiftly finished suppressing them, and asked,

"Those of you practicing right now wouldn't want that, would you? Raise your hand if you don't."

Everyone's hands rose naturally.

It was <Wardanaz's Telekinetic Force>, a fifth-circle spell cast without a single incantation.

The Valdrogard students wore expressions as though they had been bewitched by ghosts.

"With everyone feeling this way, there's no helping it. Please wait until the lecture ends."

"Wh-When does the lecture end?"

"It'll end when the students achieve their objectives."

"......"

"......"

The Valdrogard students were not idiots.

They simply had a great deal of interest in every field except magic. There was no way they would fail to notice something was wrong when a student trying to speak was suddenly silenced and everyone's hands abruptly rose on their own.

This mysterious state of palace lockdown had clearly been orchestrated by the newly arrived professor, or at the very least was being deliberately ignored by him.

"Pr-Professor."

Jandanni had realized it too, and tried to persuade Lee Han.

A lecture was supposed to end when its allotted time was over, not when everyone achieved some objective.

What kind of insane lecture worked like that?

"Student Jandanni. Even so, I'm fortunate."

"Pardon?"

"Because someone like you is helping me this much. To tell you the truth, when I was given a professor's position at Valdrogard, I worried a great deal. Whether my methods might be too harsh, whether the students would reject them..."

"Th-That's not true."

"It's all thanks to you persuading the others and bringing them here, Student Jandanni. Now that I think about it, becoming friends with you mage to mage was truly... a stroke of luck for me."

Lee Han gazed wistfully out the window.

More precisely, he gazed at the wooden boards firmly blocking the window.

The entire palace had been sealed off to prevent escape, so there was no scenery visible outside.

But the effect was more than sufficient.

Jandanni immediately stepped behind Lee Han and shouted,

"You worthless fools! Professor Wardanaz came all this way for us, and all you can do is complain!"

"Senior! What are you doing!"

"Come to your senses!! Senior!! You're being deceived right now!!"

"Hmph! This is exactly why the professors assigned to magic never stay long. I won't let Professor Wardanaz leave like Professor Tosre did! From now on, anyone who slanders Professor Wardanaz will be considered to be slandering me!"

Watching Jandanni throw away every friendship built since before enrollment and side with the professor, the Valdrogard students were horrified.

If the highest-year student does that, what are we supposed to do?!

'Heh. Easy.'

Lee Han arrogantly looked down at the Valdrogard students.

Frankly, this was easier than persuading his Einroguard friends back in first year.

"Professor! Please continue exactly as you are. I, Jandanni of House Aljadk, swear on my honor to stand with you until the very end."

"Thank you, Student Jandanni. Now. Then we'll resume the lecture. Students who wish to rest may rest. So, regarding the basic elements..."

The Valdrogard students inside the classroom realized it.

They were trapped here!

And perhaps they might never get out...

* * *

"Watch the paper birds. Someone might try sending one out through a crack."

"Don't worry. I've released dozens of summons to keep watch. You blocked all the telepathy magic, right? You're the one who shouldn't get careless. We don't know what kinds of artifacts they might have."

The rag-clad workers—or rather, the Einroguard students—had set up tents in the palace courtyard and were leisurely enjoying their rest.

After spending about two years at Einroguard, one became capable of camping comfortably even on steep cliffs or frozen glaciers in bitter cold.

Compared to places like that, this palace courtyard was practically a palace.

'Isn't that comparison a little strange?'

Yonair thought inwardly.

Camping in a palace courtyard while saying it was like a palace felt a little odd.

"This is insane...! How in the world did they cook this chicken? The umami in the sauce is one thing, but the fat... With this much oil, we could last half a year at Einroguard!"

"Could you please eat more quietly? What if they hear us inside?"

"I'm doing it so they do hear. Those Valdrogard bastards need to learn what hunger feels like too."

"Someone hearing you would misunderstand. We're not trying to torment the Valdrogard students. We're helping with the lecture."

The courtyard suddenly went quiet.

Then everyone burst into cackling laughter.

"That joke just now was excellent!"

"That could go in the Einroguard newspaper!"

Tap-

A paper bird flew in from inside.

Since it landed in the courtyard rather than outside, it was clearly a paper bird Lee Han had sent.

"What does Wardanaz say?"

"...He says to stop fooling around and study what we'll need for third year..."

"......"

The students grumbled inwardly.

Wasn't that a little harsh just because they'd laughed for a moment?

"But is it okay to keep the Valdrogard students locked up like this?"

"Of course it is. I hope Lee Han takes the students back with him to Einroguard after he finishes all his work as a professor."

"...That's not what I meant. I meant, won't outsiders discover this?"

As a ranger from the northern mountain range, Nillia knew quite a bit about imprisoning someone.

If you wanted to lock someone up, an isolated place was best.

Somewhere like the northern mountain range, where the only people one saw were hunters and rangers.

Sometimes, the Shadow Patrol would descend from the mountains and forcibly invite low-ranking nobles who had insulted them or embezzled supplies.

Such invitations had never been discovered.

But this place stood out far too much.

On top of that, there was a good chance everyone already knew where the students had gone.

"We should be able to hold out for a few days. If servants come looking for their masters, we can simply say they're so absorbed in the magic lecture that they refuse to leave the palace. In that case, they wouldn't dare interrupt."

As a member of the Imperial Family, Adenart was knowledgeable about the rules followed by people like this.

If someone was supposedly shut inside the palace, immersed in research, who would dare barge in and disturb them?

"But after a few days..."

"We can buy more time after that. We can forge letters. Unlike invitations, letters are much easier to forge. This is stationery used by members of the Imperial Family..."

Authority made people easy to deceive.

If not only Valdrogard students but even members of the Imperial Family were supposedly attending lectures inside the palace, people would once again back away.

The White Tiger Tower students were greatly impressed by the princess's resourcefulness, but the Black Tortoise Tower students tilted their heads.

'We're not really in a position to say this, but... is that okay?'

'Can a member of the Imperial Family impersonate the Imperial Family? ...No, if they're actually Imperial, does that mean it isn't impersonation?'

Since Asan was from the same tower, he asked without hesitation.

"Um, Princess. Are you allowed to impersonate something like this?"

"Strictly speaking, it isn't impersonation."

"......"

'We aren't going to get charged with something like insulting the Imperial Family or corrupting the Imperial Family later, are we?'

The Blue Dragon Tower students who had been thinking that shook their heads.

Come to think of it, if anyone was going to be charged with something like that, Gainando would be first.