Novel Full Chapter 901
The Blue Dragon Tower students felt sorry for how pitifully the creature was crying.
“…Wait. Stop crying!”
“Dalcard. Can you really call yourself an honorable Blue Dragon Tower student after saying that? How can you tell something crying that pitifully to stop?”
“No, you idiots! It’s a basilisk! If we fail to calm it down, we’re all going to die!”
The baby basilisk had grown enough that it no longer sprayed petrifying gazes or poison around uncontrollably.
But that only applied when it was calm.
At this rate, it wouldn’t have been strange if poison started pouring out instead of tears.
The students who understood Asan’s meaning immediately went pale.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Please calm down!”
“While you’re calming down, please calm the basilisk too!”
Waaahhh! Jowrin can’t calm down!
“Please! Your Majesty can do it!”
“We believe in Your Majesty!”
Sniffling, Jowurin finally stopped crying at the students’ encouragement.
Then, with eyes still brimming with sadness, she spoke quietly.
Then Jowrin also has a request.
“We’ll do anything!”
Please go upstairs and persuade Lee Han…
“……”
“……”
The instant she finished speaking, the students immediately turned away.
Jowurin panicked at the speed of their reaction.
W-Why?!
“We’re just as scared as Your Majesty is!”
……
Even through her misery, Jowurin looked utterly dumbfounded by the pathetic response.
Are you really his friends?
But the Blue Dragon Tower students were wise.
Also cowardly.
They knew from painful experience that when the boy from House Wardanaz entered level-five anger mode, it was always safer to stay far away rather than approach him.
-Why do those people even attend Einroguard?
The baby basilisk grumbled while watching the fleeing students.
At some point, its own crying had stopped as well.
Jowrin… Jowrin only wanted praise…
-…Your Majesty…!
…She only wanted praise for being a genius dragon, Lee Han admitting he was wrong, him agreeing to listen to wise Jowrin from now on, and a promise to invite her again next semester…
-…Your Majesty??
The baby basilisk became slightly alarmed by the sheer scale of Jowurin’s greed.
So that had been the goal all along.
Still, seeing how devastated the young dragon looked, it hurriedly tried to comfort her.
-B-but! There are good parts too!
What?
Jowurin tilted her head.
The baby basilisk, which hadn’t actually thought of any good points whatsoever, awkwardly wagged # Nоvеlight # its tail while scrambling for an answer.
-Uh… well… Master spoke casually to Your Majesty! Very comfortably too!
…Waaaaaaaaahhhhhh!
The moment the dragon burst into genuine tears, water began flooding the common room.
***
“So at dawn we ended up repairing the flooded common room.”
“Wait. Dragon tears are valuable reagents too. You didn’t just throw them away, did you?”
“……”
Lee Han looked at the professor with a gaze containing contempt, disgust, disappointment, and several other emotions mixed together.
It was more effective than any threat or spell.
Professor Thunderstep coughed awkwardly.
“I was merely asking out of academic curiosity.”
“I didn’t expect to hear the exact same question Professor Verdus would ask.”
‘You inhuman bastard.’
Professor Thunderstep cursed inwardly.
To compare his own master to Professor Verdus over one small mistake—this disciple was far too cruel.
“I’m already worried enough about the dragon stone as it is, and now you ask something like that…”
“Sorry. I apologize. But isn’t your reaction a little extreme? His Majesty ignored your objections, yes, but he still did it because he cared about you…”
“Does that look like caring to you?!”
Lee Han exploded.
“Huh? What? Did I say something wrong?”
“I begged him repeatedly not to do it, and yet he secretly tore out a dragon stone and shoved it into my pouch anyway! At this rate, next week he might rip out bones for somebody, and next month he might hand over his heart. How am I supposed not to worry?!”
Professor Thunderstep looked both bewildered and flustered by the horrifying hypothetical.
“That’s… isn’t that taking it too far…?”
“Hmph. You failed to predict the dragon stone too, Professor.”
“……”
Professor Thunderstep faltered after taking a direct hit to the weak point.
It was true.
He hadn’t predicted the dragon stone either.
Who could possibly have predicted that a dragon would casually tear out a dragon stone over something so trivial?
‘Still, this is unbelievably unfair…!’
Not only had his carefully prepared assignment been completely ruined, but now he had to sit there listening to criticism afterward.
No one could have predicted this.
There was a reason people said dragons were impossible to understand.
“…Of course I couldn’t predict the dragon stone. Fine. I admit it! But His Majesty only did that because he treasures you. He’s not going to start handing out bones or hearts to random people.”
Young dragons might lack maturity and common sense, but their instincts surpassed all of that.
Jowurin had produced the dragon stone because she genuinely cared for Lee Han.
There was no chance she would tear herself apart for some evil outsider like Professor Verdus.
“Professor Verdus?”
“What are you talking about? I said evil mages. Don’t fixate on insignificant details.”
“…Honestly, I’m more worried about myself than other people.”
“Hm?”
Despite his complaints, Lee Han trusted Jowurin to some degree.
She wouldn’t suddenly carve off flesh for Professor Verdus or some other outsider.
Not even for Gainando.
But—
“What if next time I’m taking a test, she decides on her own that I need bones too? What if one day I’m dueling the principal and she suddenly decides I need a heart?”
“Why are you dueling the principal?”
“It was an example. Don’t obsess over insignificant details.”
‘How am I supposed to ignore that?’
Professor Thunderstep grumbled inwardly, but he had to admit the concern made sense.
Jowurin probably wouldn’t hand out body parts to other people, but when it came to the Wardanaz boy, the situation changed.
Hadn’t she already ignored direct pleas and forced the dragon stone on him anyway?
Jowurin was still mentally immature. The chances of her stubbornly doing something reckless again were extremely high.
If not a heart, then at least bones…
“That concern does seem valid.”
“Right?”
“Yes. If she ignored all your objections and ripped out a dragon stone anyway, I understand why you’re worried.”
“What should I do?”
At Lee Han’s question, Professor Thunderstep looked at him solemnly.
“Wardanaz.”
“Yes.”
“…I’m an alchemy professor.”
“So?”
“I have absolutely no idea how to raise dragons. Good luck.”
“……”
Lee Han looked at him with eyes full of emotions like pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, and more pathetic.
Professor Thunderstep remained unfazed. He had expected this reaction.
Honestly, who could answer a question like that?
It felt like the sort of impossible problem that wouldn’t have a solution anywhere in the Empire.
“Try asking Professor Lightningstep or Professor Bendozol… no, actually, ask Professor Lightningstep first. He might know something.”
“Thank you for the advice.”
“So are you still angry at His Majesty? You haven’t reconciled yet?”
“I’m not angry. I’m worried… I’m deliberately keeping some distance for now in case he decides to do something like this again the moment we make up.”
“Did he do anything besides cry? Hopefully he didn’t destroy too many buildings in Einroguard.”
“He’s under house arrest, so that part should be fine. Oh, and this morning he tried helping prepare meals for the students.”
Professor Thunderstep looked genuinely surprised.
A dragon trying to help with meal preparation?
That level of affection toward Lee Han aside, it still required a fundamentally kind disposition.
An evil dragon would have vented frustration by smashing apart the dormitory.
“Even if you haven’t reconciled yet, you praised him at least a little, right? If he tried that hard, surely you gave him a compliment or two…”
At those words, Lee Han answered with slight embarrassment.
“I got up early and prepared everything before he woke up, so there wasn’t anything left for him to do.”
“…I see…”
Professor Thunderstep suddenly felt oddly sorry for Jowurin.
How had that dragon ended up befriending someone like this?
“Well then, I’ll be going now, Professor. Oh, by the way, the upperclassmen said Nephertem would appear on the exam. They weren’t lying, were they?”
“…They were right. Don’t trust the upperclassmen too much.”
Professor Thunderstep clenched his fists while watching his infuriating disciple.
“I knew it. Though honestly, if the midterms are already this difficult, I’m worried about the finals.”
“The finals… probably won’t be this difficult.”
Professor Thunderstep answered bitterly. His voice carried complete defeat.
He had specifically tailored this assignment to target one person, only for it to collapse spectacularly.
At this point, increasing the difficulty further for the final exam felt like it would only punish the professor himself and the innocent students.
“Haha. Professors always say that before making things worse.”
“……”
***
‘Why did he suddenly get angry?’
Lee Han walked down the corridor in confusion.
Professor Thunderstep had abruptly exploded and chased him out while practically jumping around in fury. Lee Han genuinely couldn’t understand why.
When he returned to the dormitory, Professor Voladi and Professor Bendozol were standing silently in front of the tower, refusing to speak to one another.
They were guarding Jowurin during house arrest.
‘I should take the long way around.’
Not only Lee Han, but the other students also chose to avoid passing between the two professors. The atmosphere was that suffocating.
“Lee Han. Where are you headed?”
“I need to ask Professor Lightningstep something.”
“About the exam?”
“No. I want some advice regarding Prince Jowurin.”
“……”
His friends shuddered at the sight of Lee Han calmly worrying about something entirely unrelated despite it being midterm week.
Was this the composure of the top student in the year?
And Lee Han was taking several times more classes than everyone else.
“Oh. Student Lee Han.”
Professor Garcia spotted him in the corridor and greeted him warmly.
“Are you perhaps on your way to the time magic exam?”
“No. I was planning to visit Professor Lightningstep first.”
“…?”
Professor Garcia looked puzzled.
He saw no connection whatsoever between the exam and Professor Lightningstep.
“Wait. Where is His Majesty?”
“Actually, the reason I’m visiting Professor Lightningstep is because of His Majesty.”
“???”
Having encountered a trustworthy professor, Lee Han let out a deep sigh and poured out the entire story.
…So even after Lee Han desperately begged Jowurin not to remove the dragon stone, she secretly pulled it out anyway, and at this rate she might secretly tear out her own heart someday too…
‘That… probably won’t happen.’
“I… I see. So that’s why you’re going to see Professor Lightningstep.”
“Yes.”
“…Hm. Wait a moment, Student Lee Han. Isn’t our exam in one hour?”
Professor Garcia’s lecture—
<Understanding Extremely Difficult and Esoteric Arcane Magic (Those Lacking Confidence Should Refrain)>
—was scheduled to begin its exam in exactly one hour.
Normally, students would be frantically reviewing material or sitting quietly with their eyes closed trying to steady themselves.
Meanwhile, Lee Han was wandering around the academy searching for counseling advice.
“Yes. One hour is plenty of time to go talk and come back.”
“Student Lee Han. Just go after the exam is over. I’ll let you start early.”
Being too talented was a problem in its own way.
Professor Garcia genuinely didn’t want a promising student like Lee Han to suffer, but at the same time, Lee Han’s absurd composure compared to the other terrified students was starting to irritate him just a little.