Novel Full Chapter 689
Once the small commotion at the estate ended, Lee Han’s group began preparing quickly.
Thanks to Lady Kraha’s kindness, the time needed to secure supplies in Plaher City was greatly reduced.
At the same time, some unnecessary supplies were added as well.
“-Whoever put mage cards in the silver pot, Gainando, come out here.”
-Why, why me? It could’ve been someone else!
“All set? Depart! Depart!”
After the final check, Lee Han climbed onto the carriage and signaled.
CLOP-CLOP-CLOP-
Inside the carriage, the friends were already discussing with grave expressions which of the supplies they’d secured should be brought into Einroguard first.
“Shouldn’t food come first?”
“My thought is a little different. From second year on, we can meet seniors, right? Seniors will have more food than we do, so food might not be as scarce as it was in first year. It might be better for trading to bring in luxuries like coffee, tea leaves, or sugar instead.”
“Wouldn’t seniors share some food?”
“I don’t think… they would.”
“If I were a senior, I don’t think I’d hand food out to juniors either.”
“Food and treats are important, but I’m worried about second-year classes. I heard the difficulty goes up starting in second year, and club activities get added too. And we have to do our own research and secure research funding—can we really not prepare?”
“As Yonair says, it might be better to bring in outside spellbooks or artifacts, or at least reagents.”
“But magazines and mage cards would be good trade goods for seniors starving for entertainment—”
‘You idiots. If only you focused like that on exam prep.’
Lee Han shot the friends a look.
Of course it was right for everyone to think seriously together, but if they’d thought this seriously during exams, how nice would that have been?
“Wardanaz. Do you have something on your mind? Why is your expression—”
“Haha. I just suddenly got tense because the new semester’s coming soon.”
Lee Han lightly steered the topic aside and sat down.
Siana smiled and said,
“Haha. There’s no way Wardanaz would get tense over something like that. What a joke.”
“…No, I can get tense too…”
“Lee Han. What do you think?”
“Hm?”
Dergeu, who had been talking with Ratford, called Lee Han. Both had serious expressions.
“This isn’t going to be something useless, right? Like which mage card is good.”
“As if we’d call you for that.”
The two looked dumbfounded.
At that reaction, Gainando flinched. Whenever an argument broke out over that kind of thing with the Blue Dragon Tower friends, they usually called Lee Han.
“What we were talking about is the seniors.”
Choosing what to prioritize when smuggling was important, but even more important was what methods they would use.
On this point, Lee Han’s friends thought they needed to borrow the power of seniors.
Seniors had tried more methods, could use more magic, and would have a wider view.
The problem was which seniors to borrow strength from.
Dergeu wanted help from White Tiger Tower seniors skilled in transformation magic or enhancement magic, while Ratford wanted help from Black Turtle Tower seniors who would surely have exceptional thieves.
“None of the priestess seniors I know would be good at smuggling, right…? Hng.”
‘Isn’t that a good thing?’
Nillia thought inwardly while looking at Siana sulking.
“Wait.”
Lee Han pulled out a rolled-up sheet of paper from the coat pocket. Yonair asked, puzzled.
“What’s that?”
“A senior gave it to me, said to use it as a reference when smuggling.”
“It doesn’t say, ‘Endure,’ does it? The Shadow Patrol does that a lot.”
“…Th-That could be possible, but it’s not that kind of senior.”
Lee Han answered, trusting Diret.
Einroguard seniors could do that, but Diret wasn’t like that.
…Probably.
Smuggling cautions (burn after reading)
“……”
“……”
“Let’s do it ourselves…”
“…That’s probably better.”
The students bitterly reflected on how naïve they’d been.
Thinking about it, seniors weren’t going to purely help juniors just because juniors paid a price.
If it was an Einroguard senior, that senior could easily use juniors as bait and betray them!
*****
Granden City, right before a new year at Einroguard began, had a different atmosphere than usual.
For one thing, professors were waiting on top of the city gate.
“Professor Thunderwalk. Hello.”
“Yeah. Dreumcha, you’ve been doing well?”
“Yes! I’ve gathered quite a bit over winter break.”
“Then all that practice paid off. Go ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) in. Don’t cause trouble.”
On top of the gate, Professor Thunderwalk yawned.
Students who had spent first and second year at Einroguard usually arrived far earlier than right before the first semester of the new year began.
The intention—preparing smuggling—was obvious, but the professors didn’t care much.
Even if students smuggled, it only irritated the Skull Principal. It didn’t irritate professors that much.
More important was managing Granden City’s magic.
If they let students run wild and left accidents unattended, even the tolerant people of Granden City might add “Einroguard students banned from entry” to city law.
“Professor Bagreg. Hello. Did you spend break well?”
“I visited a new duel club.”
“…There are still duel clubs that haven’t banned you?!””
Dreumcha ignored the professors’ conversation behind and headed to the meeting spot.
There was a place set to meet other Black Turtle Tower students.
“Dreumcha, over here!”
“You all got here already.”
“Who would be late? We’re not idiots.”
The Black Turtle Tower students, who had finished second year and were now moving up into third year, had firm, unshakable eyes.
The meaning behind those eyes was this:
‘We can’t be the only ones getting played.’
That was right.
When first year ended, they had come to Granden City early—and been tricked by seniors into serving as bait. It was a bitter experience.
-Are you first-year Einroguard students?
-Yes. Are you a senior—
-That’s right! But do you know about smuggling?
-Smuggling?
-Oh dear. There’s a tradition in Einroguard—
-Gasp! We didn’t prepare at all.
-Don’t worry. You can join our group. How about it?
-Th… thank you!
At first, they’d been moved by the seniors kindly teaching them and thought, “So even in Einroguard, that slaughterhouse of the Skull Principal, faith and trust still remain.”
That had been an illusion.
In Einroguard, the senior who spoke kindly to you was the most dangerous.
The moment they passed through the main gate, Dreumcha and friends’ pile of luggage suddenly transformed into gargoyles and started attacking the Principal and the Principal’s minions.
Using that chaos, the seniors quickly smuggled in what they needed!
And from that incident, Dreumcha and friends learned a priceless lesson.
And this year, they planned to pass that lesson on to juniors.
“You know it, Dreumcha. We have to approach them first.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Dreumcha nodded.
They weren’t the only rotten seniors planning to use first-years as bait.
Around here, there would be at least two or three more groups.
To get ahead of them, they had to approach quickly and earn goodwill first.
Fortunately, Dreumcha had a weapon.
As a dwarf, Dreumcha had the typical face of a dwarf craftsman—stubborn, and like someone who wouldn’t lie.
So much so that one senior had mistaken Dreumcha for someone from the blacksmith guild, handed over a commission, and lost money.
That kind of impression was especially effective when dealing with other races.
“Just watch. I’ll—”
“Dreumcha, over there! There!”
“!”
The students’ eyes opened wide and sparkled.
In the distance, a group of students was walking over.
They were obviously Einroguard mages, but their faces were young and unfamiliar.
They had to be first-years about to rise into second year.
‘Huh?’
Dreumcha felt puzzled.
The first-years’ composition looked strange.
They looked like Blue Dragon Tower, like Phoenix Tower, like White Tiger Tower, like Black Turtle Tower…
Dreumcha wondered if they were all mixed together, but that couldn’t be. Why would students from different towers walk together?
“Dreumcha! Hurry!”
“Got it. I’m going!”
Dreumcha cleared the throat and ran out in a hurry.
Then Dreumcha shouted,
“Wait—are you Einroguard students?”
“Are you a senior?”
“I’m not suspicious, I’m—huh. Wait, how did you know I’m a senior?”
Dreumcha was slightly flustered at the words of the noble boy in front, who looked like he’d been carved.
The usual reaction here was, “Who are you?” or “Are you one of the Skull Principal’s minions, damn it!”
“You look like an Einroguard student. Then you must be a senior no matter what, compared to me.”
“…Oh… impressive. That’s right.”
Dreumcha introduced Dreumcha. Lee Han introduced Lee Han in turn.
“I’m Lee Han of House Wardanaz.”
“What house?”
“House Wardanaz.”
Maybe because it was noisy around them, Dreumcha couldn’t hear well. And since the family name wasn’t important anyway, Dreumcha nodded.
‘A Blue Dragon Tower student. This one will be easier to trick.’
“Follow me. There’s something important to tell you.”
“What could it be—”
“A secret hidden in Einroguard!”
Dreumcha brought Lee Han to the <Ten Thousand Schemes Inn>.
It was in a remote, gloomy place, with the windows blocked even in broad daylight—so it was popular with Einroguard students.
“…So… smuggling… Einroguard’s tradition…”
“…Gasp… we… nothing… how could this… what do we do…”
“…Not too late…”
“…Thank… you…”
After about an hour of conversation, Dreumcha was confident the junior in front was completely taken in.
“Thank you, Senior Dreumcha! Meeting Senior Dreumcha is the luckiest thing in my life!”
“It’s nothing. Accepting advice is also your luck. There are idiots who can’t even believe you when you advise them.”
Dreumcha answered while maintaining the dignity of a fake craftsman.
“Then on the day the school gates open, I’ll see you at the meeting place!”
Lee Han nodded, then stared hard at a pile of luggage stacked in the corner of the inn.
At that gaze, Dreumcha flinched.
Part of that pile of luggage was something bone-catching parrots had transformed into—if given the order, they’d revert to parrots and shout, “SKULL PRINCIPAL, YOU IDIOT!” to make the area noisy.
Of course Dreumcha’s group couldn’t put them into their own luggage pile. They were meant to be planted into the juniors’ luggage.
So with the junior staring at them, Dreumcha couldn’t help flinching.
“…What is it?”
“You seniors have already finished preparing everything. I respect you.”
“R-Right. If you spend more time, you’ll become more prepared too.”
“I’m truly awed, moved, and overwhelmed!”
“What, over something like this.”
Dreumcha saw Lee Han off with a satisfied feeling.
‘…But is this kid really from Blue Dragon Tower?’
For one, Lee Han was too polite…
*****
“What’s Lee Han doing right now?”
“They said he memorized the seniors’ magic and brought it back to analyze.”
“I see.”
Gainando stuffed mage cards away and turned around. At that, Siana asked with disbelief,
“N-No. Shouldn’t you be more shocked?”
Siana had been horrified at the fact that Lee Han was memorizing magic seen on the spot and analyzing it.
How was that even possible?
But Gainando looked at Siana, bewildered.
“Huh? Did it fail?”
“No, it didn’t fail, it’s just—”
“Then why should I be shocked?”
From inside, Lee Han’s voice could be heard shouting, “It’s done!”