Episode 1247
Episode 1247
'Perhaps Professor Thunderstep might need divination magic right now.'
Though he might deny it himself, the alchemy school professor had been experiencing unusually bad luck lately.
Maybe he should consider adopting methods to avoid misfortune and attract good luck, like Golem Senior does.
"Why is the professor running like that while covering his ears?"
Yoner, who arrived late, asked curiously while mimicking covering her ears with both hands.
While it was true that both professors and students at Einrogard periodically did strange things, seeing Professor Thunderstep running while covering his ears was quite unusual.
Lee Han sighed regretfully and explained what had happened.
"......"
After hearing the explanation, Yoner could only shake her head repeatedly.
How could someone possibly have such terrible luck!
"But Lee Han. It's not entirely bad."
"Huh?"
Lee Han looked puzzled at his friend's words.
Was there actually a positive side to Professor Thunderstep's current situation?
"Thanks to this, I can finish my final exam early and leave with you."
"Oh. So you didn't mean it was good news for Professor Thunderstep."
"Well... that can't be helped."
Professor Thunderstep might suffer another blow to his pride, but there wasn't much the students could do about that.
The two alchemy school students shook their heads again sympathetically.
"Lee Han."
Gainando's voice came from upstairs. Lee Han shouted back from inside the private room.
"I can hear you. Hurry up and come down."
"Do you know how to neutralize a mud dye potion?"
"You want to neutralize a mud dye potion? It's not difficult, but why are you suddenly asking?"
Lee Han wondered why his friend was asking such a thing, but he soon found out the reason.
A mud monster—no, Gainando—appeared in the hallway with a pitiful expression.
"Help me out..."
"What happened to you?!"
Yoner exclaimed in shock. Gainando replied in a sorrowful voice.
"Professor Thunderstep was covering his ears while walking, so I got curious if he really couldn't hear anything and shouted, 'The young headmaster is chasing you from behind!'... and got punished."
"......"
"......"
Lee Han and Yoner silently prepared the antidote. After leaving a few mud stains in the hallway, Gainando returned to normal and blew his nose with a "Pfft."
"What a petty professor! What were you two talking about?"
"The alchemy final exam. For some reason, the professor mistook what my sister presented as part of the exam questions."
Gainando's face brightened.
"That's great! Can I come watch when you submit the results?!"
"No. Anyway, I plan to follow Lee Han when he goes after Professor Garcia."
"!"
Gainando's eyes widened at his red-haired friend's betrayal.
"What about me?!"
"You can come too if you finish your final exam first."
"...That's just telling me not to come!"
Gainando shouted indignantly. Watching his shameless attitude, Yoner thought to herself,
'I should've given him the antidote later.'
Lee Han, who had been listening, interjected.
"If you want to come, just take your black magic final exam first, Gainando. Actually, I'd be happy if you came along."
"What? Why? Are you crazy?"
'Isn't that a bit too harsh...'
Lee Han was slightly taken aback by Yoner's reaction.
He's still your cousin!
"We're going to meet His Majesty the Emperor. Having a royal family member there would be helpful."
"Wouldn't Adenart be better then?"
"Adenart is taking multiple courses, so it'll be hard for her to finish her exams early and leave."
"...?"
Yoner sensed something contradictory in her friend's words just now.
Wasn't it a bit odd for a student taking one course to worry about a student taking three?
Perhaps noticing the awkwardness, Lee Han coughed awkwardly.
"She's also involved in other activities besides exams. Like requests and club activities."
"???"
"Stop it."
"I get it. I get it. Then... what about Princess Yukveltire?"
Yoner, who had been pondering, brought up another imperial family member as an option.
This fifth-year student was also royalty, and in terms of overall abilities and reputation, she even surpassed Adenart and Gainando in some aspects.
"Absolutely not."
Lee Han immediately turned serious.
He might consider bringing Gainando along, but he had no desire to move around with Senior Yukveltire.
"...S-sorry."
"Guys. Can we just talk about my Black Magic final exam instead?"
Gainando said with a sullen face.
This prince was so dejected that he couldn't even refute Yoner's insults.
"I told you. Take it first."
"That's just another way of telling me not to go—"
"Listen to the end. I'm saying I'll help you."
"!"
Gainando's eyes sparkled for a moment before he tilted his head in confusion.
Huh?
"Lee Han, you're taking different classes than me, aren't you?"
It was true that Lee Han took some classes with second-year students.
However, most were either with third-years, fourth-years, or even classes he attended alone.
The Black Magic class Lee Han was currently taking was clearly <Forbidden Arts of Black Magic (Not a Teaching Class)>.
In contrast, Gainando was taking <Negotiating with Entities of the Undead Realm>.
How could he possibly help with the final exam?
'Doesn't he not know the course material?'
"<Negotiating with Entities of the Undead Realm>, right? I heard about it from Senior Diret, so I know what it covers. I even know the exam topic."
"!!!"
Gainando shot up from his seat.
He was struck anew by the realization of just how much influence his friend wielded within the Black Magic department.
"Lee Han!!"
'Is the Black Magic department really okay with this?'
Yoner thought to herself.
No matter how small the Black Magic department was or how familial the atmosphere, leaking the entire exam content to a fellow student was...
"You're going to tell me all the answers!?"
"What? What kind of insane nonsense is that?"
"Huh?"
Gainando, who had been excited, suddenly snapped back to reality as if doused with cold water.
Huh?
"Uh... since you know the exam topic, Lee Han... you'd tell me all the answers... and then I'd go to Professor Mortum... and throw the exam paper in his face, right?"
Gainando had a simple dream—if he ever became the top of his year, he wanted to fling his exam paper at the professor's face.
Of course, the top student had no such privilege, but Gainando couldn't know that.
Because he had never been the top student.
"Of course not. That's cheating. I said I'd help you, not take the exam for you."
"......"
Gainando felt a chilling sensation crawl up his spine.
"Here. Sit down. I'll list the names of monsters from the Undead Realm, and you'll describe their characteristics and how to deal with them. If you get any wrong..."
Lee Han glanced toward the adjacent room where Professor Voladi was. The two friends thought to themselves:
'Why is he looking over there?'
"I'll attack you with a Water Orb. It'll be good for both exam prep and magic training."
"......"
Gainando's mouth fell open.
"What kind of insane studying is this?!"
"Hm? Gainando, you can defend yourself. I'm not forbidding that."
"That's not the point!!"
The fact that his friend seemed dead serious only made Gainando more terrified.
"But Gainando. If we want to finish within the time limit, we have to be strict. Right, Professor?"
Lee Han called out to Professor Voladi in the next room. The professor nodded in agreement.
"That's an excellent method."
"See? Even Professor Bagrak says it's a good idea."
"......"
Gainando finally understood.
This was why the Empire insisted on rooting out evil before it could take hold!
If left unchecked, these people would amplify each other's worst traits and become uncontrollable monsters.
The Combat Magic department at Einrogard was proof of that.
'I should've stopped Lee Han from taking those solo classes as a first-year...!'
Back then, he hadn't given it any thought—who knew it would come back to bite him like this?
"Gainando. What are the main Authorities the Profaner uses?"
"Huh? Ack!"
"Wrong. Again. What's the countermeasure?"
"Ack!"
"How many eyeballs are attached to its torso?"
"How should I know! That's not even written in any books!!"
"Wrong. Seventeen. Remember that. I saw it myself and told Senior Diret, so it might appear on the exam."
Having faced the Profaner when it descended during their battle against Prahgal's worshippers, Lee Han had shared every detail about this powerful entity of the Undead Realm with Diret.
Thanks to this, the information about the Undead Realm taught to Black Magic students became far more vivid and comprehensive.
"...So YOU were the culprit!??!"
Gainando shouted in shock.
No wonder Senior Diret kept making them memorize additional details that weren't even in the textbooks!!
"Gainando. Instead of saying that, you should either give the correct answer or defend yourself."
"Ack! Aaack!"
-Aaaah!
Nilia, who had descended the stairs of the Professor's Punishment Room and reached the corridor where her friends were, stopped abruptly.
...Are they actually torturing people in the Professor's Punishment Room?
'Isn't this going too far?'
Nilia was indignant.
No matter how much Wardanaz ignored the Headmaster and professors, given his achievements, couldn't they show some leniency?
"Aaah! Why is this Water Orb so penetrating!?"
"Gainando. You should properly maintain your bone reagents. They need to be soaked in tear oil and dried daily."
'Oh. It's just Gainando.'
Nilia's anger quickly subsided.
As for the Imperial Prince...
The Imperial Prince, standing in the corridor, did his best—summoning bone shields in midair and spreading cursed mist to evade the pursuing Water Orb.
Yet the orb chased its target without the slightest deviation. All while Lee Han remained inside his solitary confinement cell.
"How are you even hitting me!?"
"Short-term Divination Magic."
"Then if I just hold out a little longer, you won't be able to aim—"
"Anticipating that, I also prepared an auto-tracking Enchantment Magic. Gainando. I have far more methods than you, so just give up and answer correctly."
"Uh, hey. Um. Long time no see..."
Hesitantly gauging the situation, Nilia called out to her friends.
It had been so long that she felt oddly awkward.
"Nilia! You're back! How was the mountain range?"
"Mountain range?"
"We took a request there."
"Huh? The Shadow Patrol rarely accepts requests. There shouldn't be anything they'd need help with."
Flustered by her friend's unexpected familiarity with school affairs—thanks to assisting the Skeleton Principal—Nilia hastily deflected.
"This time was an exception! There was... an evil dragon! An evil dragon appeared!"
"???"
"That's not the important part right now."
"If an evil dragon appearing isn't important, then what—"
"Why is the Imperial Prince being attacked like that?"
Nilia forced the question.
She absolutely didn't want to admit that she'd gone to help her friend only to return after capturing a bunch of Evil God Worshippers instead.
Compared to that, she wasn't even curious about why the Imperial Prince was being attacked.
He probably just said something stupid!
"Oh. He said he wanted to come along, so we're preparing him for the Final Exam early."
"...Whaaat?"
"It's a long story. Nilia, actually, while you were away on your request, Professor Bagrak and I went on an Evil God Subjugation—"
"I heard about that."
"Oh, you did? Well, you were outside the school, so..."
"...Of course. News reaches even the northern mountain ranges."
In truth, she hadn't heard any outside news until returning to school, but Nilia bluffed.
"The newspaper? Did you bring a copy? I'm curious."
"...E-everyone was so eager to read it that I couldn't bring one back. Sorry."
"Really? Anyway, because of that incident, even Professor Garcia got summoned back from the capital."
"Why!? Did the Headmaster report her!?"
Lee Han nodded. As expected, his dark elf friend's sharp insight lived up to her Shadow Patrol background.
"What else could it be? So we decided to go together."
"Professor Garcia actually agreed to that?"
"...Well... you could say that."
Nilia's judgment was clouded by friendship.
She'd forgotten what crimes the prisoners in this Punishment Room had committed to end up here.