Episode 26
Episode 26
Most students who entered the Magic School considered magic not as a means, but as an end in itself.
Most didn't think along the lines of, 'Hey, I'll learn Flame Creation magic to light campfires and Water Creation magic to drink free water when I'm thirsty.'
Typically, they harbored ambitions like, 'After honing my fundamentals, I'll learn the magic I desire to pioneer new frontiers and attain enlightenment!'
As such, Nilia had little interest in Flame Creation magic.
After all, lighting fires was something she could do even without a wand or incantations. Given just a stone and some wood, Nilia was confident she could start a fire.
She would've much preferred if she'd had an affinity for water magic, which she'd been interested in for a long time...
"Nilia. Be grateful for the magic you possess."
"Uh... huh? Y-yeah."
Overwhelmed by the aura Lee Han was exuding, Nilia instinctively nodded.
'Did he just compliment my magic??'
As a scion of the Wardanaz family, a prestigious magical lineage, it was clear he wouldn't tolerate her belittling her own magic.
Nilia turned her head away slightly, feeling awkward.
Of course, Lee Han was grumbling internally.
'If only I knew how to control mana, I'd be learning fire magic first. How enviable.'
After thawing their frozen limbs, quenching their burning thirst with water, and warming bread and cheese to eat, the group's fatigue had somewhat eased.
'We should head out soon to check if those undead are still around.'
Lee Han thought he should go outside to verify whether the undead were still present.
Given the Headmaster's insane personality, there was a good chance they might still be there.
"Nilia."
"Got it. Let's go."
As if sensing Lee Han's thoughts, Nilia sprang up from her seat.
When they stepped out of the cave, pitch-black darkness greeted them.
They didn't have to walk far to realize.
"......"
"Damn it."
The distant lower slopes of the mountain were still illuminated. It was as if a ring of fire had been wrapped around the base—a perimeter formed by the undead summons.
"Isn't he actually insane?"
"Y-yeah... but is it okay to say that out loud?"
Nilia trembled slightly, afraid of cursing the Skeleton Principal.
"It's fine. No one's listening. You can curse him."
"R-really?"
"Nilia. Magic stems from free thought. The Headmaster probably wants us to curse him and think freely."
Lee Han had an exceptional talent for spouting nonsense with a straight face.
With his sculpted features delivering the absurdity so earnestly, Nilia—who knew little about magic—began wavering again.
W-was that how it worked?
"H-horrible Headmaster! Bear-faced bastard! May wolves drag you away at ni—"
Rustle—
"Waaah! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
The moment she heard rustling ahead, Nilia clung to Lee Han, sniffling.
Lee Han slowly peeled her off his chest like removing leeches and cast a wary glance forward.
"Nilia. Be careful. Someone's here."
The other party seemed to have noticed them too, as a voice called out.
"...Who's there?"
"You first."
"White Tiger Tower."
"Damn it. So not all of you were caught."
Lee Han clicked his tongue.
No wonder the undead hadn't dispersed—amidst all the chaos, some White Tiger Tower students had managed to escape capture.
Another rustling sound followed, and the White Tiger Tower students emerged in utterly disheveled states, looking almost like beggars.
"B-beggars?"
"No. We're White Tiger Tower."
-Punishment for students who defy the Great Headmaster's orders and flee.
-Punishment for students who defy the Great Headmaster's orders and flee.
Unlike Lee Han's group, the White Tiger Tower students who had charged out to break through the encirclement were met with countless skeletons.
The Bone Trackers advanced with eerie rattling sounds, uttering chilling words.
Moreover, the bone clubs they wielded weren't fatal, but one hit slowed movement, two hits paralyzed the legs, and three hits brought you down.
"Argh!"
"These bastards are playing dirty with their numbers... Ugh!"
Even the White Tiger Tower students, who had been skillfully wielding their wooden swords to take down the Bone Trackers, eventually collapsed one by one.
-Subjugation complete.
-Subjugation complete.
"...Up! Retreat upward!"
And among the White Tiger Tower students, Giselle was the first to grasp the situation.
'This wasn't set up to be breakable!'
Unlike Lee Han, who didn't trust the Headmaster at all, Giselle had unconsciously believed his words and mistakenly assumed they could break through the encirclement.
If they kept trying to descend, the only outcome would be capture.
Giselle began leading the remaining students upward along the mountain.
Fortunately, the Bone Trackers didn't pursue them all the way up.
"Pant... Huff... Huff..."
"Moradi. Even if we... huff... flee upward... there's no path."
"Summons conjured by mages don't last long. They'll disappear after some time."
Had Lee Han been there, he would've retorted, 'That's true for mediocre mages, but do you really think the Headmaster's summons would be that weak?' Unfortunately, the White Tiger Tower students' knowledge of magic was sorely lacking.
They found Giselle's reasoning plausible and kept nodding in agreement.
"What do we do in the meantime?"
"We wait. Rest and recover our stamina. Light a fi— No. First, we need to find shelter. Somewhere to block the wind."
At Giselle's words, the White Tiger Tower students began scouring their surroundings.
They weren't as adept as Nilia at navigating darkness or traversing mountains, but they had stamina to spare.
Despite their muscles aching with fatigue and their throats parched with thirst, the White Tiger Tower students pressed on without stopping.
Rustle—
"I heard something over there."
"Could it be a mountain beast?"
"If it is, let's just catch it. I feel like my stomach's glued to my spine."
But the sound wasn't from an animal—it was human speech.
The White Tiger Tower students exchanged shocked expressions.
Who else would be out here in the dead of night?
"...Who's there?"
"You first."
"White Tiger Tower."
"Damn. So not all of you were caught."
Surprisingly, it was the Blue Dragon Tower students.
"Come in."
The White Tiger Tower students shuffled awkwardly into the cave.
Their expressions were stiff with discomfort.
It hadn't been long since they'd fought each other, and now they were receiving help—it was anything but comfortable.
"Sit down and eat something."
Lee Han spoke impassively. Gainando beside him muttered under his breath,
"We don't even have enough for ourselves, so why—"
"Shh."
Derqu smacked Gainando's side.
The sudden appearance of the White Tiger Tower students—seeing their ragged state, it was clear how much they'd suffered in the middle of the night.
Under normal circumstances, Lee Han could've turned them away.
After how the White Tiger Tower students had treated them, no one would've blamed him.
But after seeing their pitiful state, Lee Han had called them into the cave.
And then shared food and water with them.
It was honestly moving.
'Lee Han is truly honorable!'
Being kind to allies was easy. The truly difficult thing was showing kindness to enemies.
Derqu hoped this act of generosity would become an opportunity for the White Tiger Tower students to reflect and reconcile.
"......"
Only the sound of chewing filled the quiet cave.
Giselle cautiously tried to assess the situation.
'How did the Blue Dragon Tower bastards get here?'
She never would've guessed that Lee Han had followed her.
Who would've expected students from the Blue Dragon Tower—not even the Black Turtle Tower—to pull such a sneaky move?
Instead, Giselle arrived at a different conclusion.
'...They must've seen the map too.'
Otherwise, there was no reason for them to be here at this hour.
They must've climbed up before the White Tiger Tower students and hidden in the cave after the commotion below.
Giselle chewed on her lip, agonizing over what to do.
Though Lee Han of the Wardanaz family had shown her kindness, that was one thing and this was another.
Ever since her days in the Moradi family, Giselle had been raised with this teaching:
"Giselle. As you know, the Moradi family never forgets grudges. But there's a hidden meaning behind that. It means we repay favors when we remember them."
Those who were swayed by emotions like gratitude were the most despised within the Moradi family.
A true Moradi had to be capable of coldly rejecting even their savior's desperate pleas right before their eyes.
'How can I use this? First, I need to win their favor.'
Meanwhile, one of the White Tiger Tower students hesitantly opened his mouth.
It was Durgyu, the closest thing she had to a friend there, trying to ask what was going on.
"Choi. Wha—"
Thud!
"?!"
The White Tiger Tower student who'd been about to speak collapsed face-first.
Durgyu was startled by the sight.
'What the—?!'
At first, he thought the student had simply passed out from exhaustion.
But that wasn't it.
Thud! Thud!
Other students began collapsing forward as if they'd eaten something bad.
"...Damn it all!"
Realizing too late, Giselle spat out the water she'd been holding in her mouth with a sharp cry.
But having already drunk a considerable amount, her mind was growing hazy.
'They drugged the water...?!'
"Too late. You realized far too late."
Lee Han spoke coldly.
Even as her consciousness faded, Giselle glared at Lee Han with murderous intensity.
The soft, slender face she'd seen when they first met was gone—replaced by an expression as sharp and deadly as a honed blade.
It was the real Giselle, a face none of the White Tiger Tower students had ever seen before.
"Just... you wait. Wardanaz...!"
The last thing Giselle saw was the boy from the Wardanaz family gazing down at her with an expressionless, sculpted face as cold as ice.
With that final image, she succumbed to sleep.
'Did I just make an enemy for no reason?'
Contrary to Giselle's misunderstanding, Lee Han did feel a twinge of regret.
There was no way the White Tiger Tower students would forget this grudge after being tricked like this.
But what else could he have done?
They had struck first.
If someone hates you for no reason, give them a damn good reason to!
"Wh-what the hell, Lee Han?!"
"Was there poison in the water?! I drank some too?!"
Durgyu was so shocked he could barely speak. Gainando was the same.
Lee Han had deliberately excluded them from his scheme.
Neither Durgyu nor Gainando were good at keeping their expressions in check—telling them could have caused problems.
"Gainando, don't worry. It's not poison. And what you drank didn't have any in it. We're just going to tie them up and leave them where the Bone Trackers are."
Lee Han hadn't spiked the White Tiger Tower students' water out of personal spite.
Who do you think those skeletons down there are looking for?
They're clearly searching for these White Tiger Tower students.
We need to catch them quickly and hand them over!
"But...! Was this really necessary?!"
"Durgyu, think about it. If we'd confronted them head-on, the noise would have given us away. And do you really think this Moradi girl would've stayed quiet? She'd have dragged us down with her."
Durgyu was no match for Lee Han in an argument.
Listening to him, Durgyu once again found himself convinced.
"But still, this seems a bit... Wait, where did you even get the drug?"
Yoner raised her hand slightly with an awkward expression.
"I found some Sleep Herb on the way up."
Being able to identify most flowers and herbs, Yoner had spotted the white-stemmed Sleep Herb while climbing.
-Oh, look at this.
-What is it?
-Sleep Herb. Grind it into powder, mix it in water, and it'll make you sleepy.
-Let's take it.
-Huh?
-Let's take it. You never know when it might come in handy.
-When would we ever need this?
Yoner had tilted her head in confusion but pocketed the herb anyway, doubting they'd ever use it.
Yet surprisingly, they did.
...He just never imagined it would be like this.