Episode 280
Episode 280
The Cycle of Recurrence caused by an ill-posed question.
For a divination mage, this was a nightmare scenario.
And the best way to prepare for such a situation was...
'Not to step into it in the first place.'
Though it was a somewhat absurd answer, it was the correct one.
Rather than immediately attempting divination magic, the key was to recognize the trap hidden within the question and respond accordingly.
They didn't even expect freshmen to master advanced techniques—like leaving behind personal markers within the divination to escape the Cycle of Recurrence or forcibly shifting the divination's focus further into the future.
Simply being able to detect and react to the trap in the question was enough to earn high marks.
In contrast, the worst possible response was recklessly attempting divination magic right away.
If a freshman, unprepared, plunged into a trapped question, they would inevitably flail about in the Cycle of Recurrence until their mana was exhausted and they collapsed.
That was how it was supposed to be...
Yet Lee Han swung his staff without hesitation, attempting divination magic again and again and again.
Even Professor Paselet was momentarily baffled by what was happening.
'What in the...?'
Unaware of the professor's bewildered gaze from the front, Lee Han cast divination magic once more.
But no clear vision of the future appeared.
Seeing nothing before his eyes, Lee Han tilted his head and canceled the spell.
It was as natural as breathing.
Of course, a considerable amount of mana had been consumed in the process, but it barely affected Lee Han.
'Was this not the right way to approach the problem?'
"Uuuuaaagh!"
"!"
Lee Han's ears perked up at the agonized groans coming from beside him.
Though the professor's illusionary veil prevented him from seeing his classmates, he could still hear them.
This was the kind of tortured sound one only made after a catastrophic magical failure.
"Ghk—"
"Keeeeegh!"
Thud!
Not just pained groans—now the sound of bodies hitting the floor.
Thanks to Professor Voladi's brutal training, Lee Han could still assess the situation even with his vision blocked, relying on his other senses.
The sound of someone being dragged away, followed by silence...
'Failing the test and getting eliminated?!'
Lee Han couldn't understand it.
Sure, it wasn't an easy problem, but this wasn't one of Professor Voladi's tests—there was no reason to collapse from it.
'Wait...'
Lee Han quickly pieced it together.
It seemed this divination magic test wasn't just a simple examination—it was about detecting the trap hidden within.
If you failed to recognize the trap and charged in recklessly, you'd end up collapsing like the classmates being dragged away.
...Of course, Lee Han had already attempted it several times!
'Guess I got lucky. Must've had enough mana to endure.'
Lee Han patted his chest in relief.
Considering the mana consumed by the divination attempts, it was no surprise his classmates had collapsed.
Now he needed to approach this more carefully.
'Did he figure it out?'
Professor Paselet raised an eyebrow as Lee Han stopped casting.
Though a beat late, his reaction clearly showed he'd grasped the true purpose of the test.
'Good. Now he'll stop the divination and point out the trap in this test... No!'
Lee Han cast divination magic again.
Professor Paselet was even more stunned than before.
Why?!
If he'd realized it was a trap, why was he still doing this?
'Now that I think about it, there's no need to hold back on attempts.'
Lee Han's reason for casting again was simple.
Upon reflection, he didn't need to be cautious.
Because he had mana to spare!
As he continued casting, Lee Han pondered how to break through this Cycle of Recurrence.
Technically, he could've just thought about it without casting, but with mana to burn, he naturally kept trying.
Only then did Professor Paselet grasp the situation, and it was so absurd he nearly let out a bitter laugh.
'What kind of brute-force nonsense...'
It was good that he'd noticed something was off about the question, but trying to bulldoze through it with raw power instead of approaching it differently—what kind of solution was that?
"Professor. I think I've found the answer."
"!"
Lee Han finally spoke up after repeated attempts.
Professor Paselet, both surprised and ready, prepared to hear his response.
"Go ahead."
"I believe the answer was to recognize the trap hidden in the question. Such a question shouldn't be approached carelessly with divination magic."
"Correct."
Professor Paselet nodded.
It was a good answer.
The problem was...
'Then why on earth did he keep casting divination magic?!'
Normally, he should have given the answer right after realizing it earlier, but he kept casting divination spells even afterward before finally speaking up. It was impossible not to be curious.
Unable to suppress his curiosity, Professor Paselet finally asked.
"But how exactly did you figure it out? Was it through logical deduction?"
"I did use some logical deduction... but I also used divination magic."
"So, in what way?"
Professor Paselet's voice grew slightly rougher with impatience.
"Since the given question made it difficult to find the answer, I shifted the viewpoint further into the future. I divined a point after the exam had ended and deduced the answer from that."
"......"
For a moment, Professor Paselet was at a loss for words.
He had suspected it, but he never imagined the kid would actually pull off that absurd method.
Breaking free from the Cycle of Recurrence, or peering even further beyond it to find clues—those were technically possible solutions, but...
That wasn't something you expected from a freshman. No matter how talented, this was ridiculous.
For one thing, the further ahead you looked, the more uncertain divination became.
Moreover, since it was a future unrelated to the question, finding clues there to solve it was no ordinary feat.
That was a technique only seasoned divination mages could manage...
'Don't tell me...!'
Professor Paselet finally understood.
Why Lee Han had kept casting divination spells even after realizing the answer.
"Don't tell me you just kept casting divination magic until the answer came to you?"
"That's correct."
Lee Han answered with an expression of pure admiration now that the professor had figured out his method.
As expected of a professor. To deduce how he'd arrived at the answer after just a few exchanges.
"......"
Professor Paselet felt a headache coming on, wondering where and how he was even supposed to begin teaching this absurd student.
What kind of nonsense was this...?
And the fact that the perpetrator just stood there with an innocent look, as if asking, 'Was there something wrong?' only made the headache worse.
"Sigh... Well done. You did well... but it seems there are still a few things you need to learn."
"Ah. Is that so?"
"Next week—"
"Next week is vacation, Professor."
Lee Han suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
Surely he wasn't about to spout nonsense about coming to the magic school during break?
'If he says something like that, I might actually have to file a complaint to His Majesty the Emperor.'
"...Then next semester."
"Ah. Right. That's fine."
"You must attend."
"Yes. Understood."
"You must attend, understand? Swear it again, properly this time."
"......"
Unbeknownst to Professor Paselet, the look in Lee Han's eyes had shifted subtly as he stared at him.
'Does he not have enough students?'
Professors—no, instructors—with few disciples tended to be extremely sensitive about new students running away.
If a student simply decided not to attend at the start of a new semester, there wasn't much a professor could realistically do.
Sure, they could resort to threats or persuasion, but once a mage made up their mind, it wasn't easily swayed.
Professors with plenty of students could afford to be lax—"Don't like it? Fine, I don't care"—but those with few had to be careful, or they might end up with no one at all.
Of course, there were occasionally professors who confidently sat in the lecture hall even without a single student, but those were exceptional cases.
'Well, I'm going to take the class anyway, so I might as well be considerate.'
Since he was going to attend regardless, there was no harm in being mindful of the professor's position.
Lee Han spoke kindly.
"Don't worry, Professor. Why wouldn't I attend?"
"You're already taking Black Magic, Summoning Magic, Illusion Magic, Enchantment Magic, Transformation Magic, and Healing Magic."
Lee Han was left speechless.
Truly befitting an outstanding Divination mage, the professor was exceptionally sharp.
'That's definitely true!'
Diret stifled a yawn as he swung his staff.
He had to be fully prepared for the first-year students taking their Black Magic final exam.
Coholti, a fellow fourth-year, also swung his staff.
"All set?"
"Yeah. But don't you think there aren't enough bones? Shouldn't we bring more? And the poison vials seem a bit lacking too."
"It's fine. There aren't even five freshmen learning Black Magic this time."
"......"
At Diret's response, Coholti's expression grew complicated.
It wasn't strictly necessary to have many juniors, but if too few were learning the same magic as him, it still felt oddly unsettling.
"Why isn't anyone interested in Black Magic?"
"Isn't it because you summoned the Frost Giant King in the hallway last time?"
"Th-that was an artifact issue, unrelated to Black Magic!"
Coholti's face turned red.
Of course, Diret knew all too well why Black Magic was unpopular.
'If it were popular, that'd be strange.'
If Diret ever saw an article in the Imperial Gazette like "Young Black Mages on the Rise... Is Black Magic Leading the Empire's Magical Trends?", he'd think, "Is the Empire doomed?"
Frankly, every aspect of it seemed inherently unpopular...
"Ah. They're coming in."
As first-year students began trickling in, the fourth-years quickly retreated to the back of the lecture hall.
They hid within the Magic Circle of Perception Reduction, making them invisible to the freshmen.
"Hmm. Isn't the difficulty too high?"
Coholti suddenly grew concerned as he watched the first-years and muttered those words.
This Black Magic final exam was a comprehensive test of everything learned in the first semester.
Curses, poisons, bones.
An examination covering all three fundamentals.
It sounded simple, but such tests were always the hardest.
Since they had to tackle all three branches of Black Magic head-on, lacking in even one left no room for substitution.
"This should be fine. We already discussed and agreed on it with the professor. Why bring it up now?"
"Well... There aren't even five of them. What if more drop out...?"
"......"
That was undeniably true.
Diret was surprised Coholti had made a rare, valid point.
Of course, it was too late to change things now...
Thud—
The door opened, and a student entered.
The student immediately cast curse after curse at the curse practice dummies, knocking them down, then tossed bone fragments onto the desk to unleash Bone Magic.
A storm of bones erupted in the spacious lecture hall, sending bone dummies tumbling everywhere.
Crash! Bang! Thud!
All this in mere seconds.
Coholti stood there, mouth agape, utterly dumbfounded.
'What the—?!'
The freshman didn't stop there. Without pause, they summoned poison midair and poured it into a vial.
The vial, reacting to properly brewed poison, spewed thick smoke. The higher the poison's quality, the denser the smoke—so much that it soon obscured the entire lecture hall.
"W-was that... too easy? Huh? That's weird? Are the freshmen's standards...?"
"No. It's just that one's unusual."
Diret, belatedly recognizing the familiar face of the junior, answered coolly.