Episode 403
Episode 403
'What on earth is he trying to summon that requires all this?'
Lee Han felt uneasy as he looked at the spot Professor Lightning Step had designated.
Digging a jar-shaped pit this deep...
This clearly meant something big enough to match this size was coming.
"Wardanaz?"
"Yes?"
"Supervise your friends' work."
"...Professor. I'm also a first-year..."
Lee Han protested, but Professor Lightning Step ignored him.
"We'll bring it, so don't touch it. No matter what sounds come from inside, you must never open it. Understood?"
"Do you really have to place something like that here?"
Professor Lightning Step ignored him again.
"Pant... pant..."
"Hey. Stop slacking."
"I'm out of mana!"
"Who told you to waste magic like that? At least move your hands."
"You bastard..."
The landscaping task assigned by Professor Lightning Step wasn't particularly difficult, but the workload was substantial.
They had to create new paths for beasts to roam across the plains and dig deep pits for who-knows-what.
Unless you were an experienced mage, it was common for first-year students to exhaust their mana before finishing.
Of course, running out of mana didn't mean they could rest. The Black Turtle Tower students urged their peers on.
"Pick up that shovel faster!"
"As a knight, wielding a shovel damages my honor—!"
"Knight or whatever, if you don't pick up that shovel, I'm telling the professor."
"As a noble, wielding a shovel damages my honor—"
"Hey. Wardanaz! These bastards are talking nonsense!"
"N-no! No! Don't call Wardanaz!"
Lee Han was one of the few who could keep using magic, but even he had limits to how much he could do alone.
"Dig, dig, dig..."
"Wardanaz."
"?"
A few White Tiger Tower students called out to him, and Lee Han paused his staff to respond.
"What is it?"
"Isn't this the perfect moment?"
"...What moment? Stop talking nonsense and get back to work."
Lee Han assumed they were trying to weasel out of work and eyed them warily.
The White Tiger Tower students protested with deeply aggrieved expressions.
"The golem! The golem!"
"Oh. That 'Desperately Flying Skull'?"
"Shh!!"
Unlike Lee Han, the White Tiger Tower students weren't so bold. They frantically hushed him, then shivered as they glanced around.
'These guys are way too cowardly for knights.'
"We're changing its name first. Anyway, that thing... it's pretty much finished now. If you give permission, we can bring it here."
Angrago and his friends had poured their passion into repairing the golem day and night.
They'd even skipped other lectures to work on it.
"...Couldn't you have done that after lectures?"
"Wardanaz. What's truly important in life? It's not lectures—it's true wisdom..."
"Usually, the ones who say that don't have any true wisdom either. Fine, whatever. If it's repaired enough to move, you can bring it."
Having the golem now would undoubtedly speed up the work.
Not just for night shifts—it would be incredibly useful for tasks like this in the future.
"We knew you'd say that, so we're bringing it now!"
"Want to get hit?"
"N-no... Look at the workload. At this rate, we won't finish today."
The White Tiger Tower students averted their eyes and muttered.
"Wardanaz! Over here!"
Angrago and his White Tiger Tower friends were sweating profusely as they hauled the golem on a wide cart.
Come to think of it, Lee Han had wondered how they'd transport it—apparently, they'd just laid down planks and attached wheels.
"You all talked properly to Wardanaz, right?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah."
"Mmm. Of course."
At Angrago's question, his friends stammered. But Angrago didn't notice and asked energetically:
"Alright then. Wardanaz! Activate the golem!"
"...Me?"
"...Huh? Uh? W-well, who else would do it besides you?"
At Angrago's utterly innocent question, Lee Han almost asked, 'You do know we're both first-years, right?' but stopped himself.
It would have been a meaningless question anyway.
"I've only read about handling golems in books."
"That should be enough for you, right?"
"...Hey. Come here for a sec."
"Wh-why?"
Perhaps sensing something ominous in Lee Han's tone, Angrago began slowly backing away. This was a different kind of wariness than what he showed toward Gainando.
'Where was the core located when it broke last time? Was it this side?'
Golems.
These artificial constructs created by mages had been used by practitioners of various magical schools.
Not just summoning mages, but even black mages would claim, "We're the ones who handle golems best," which showed just how many dozens of methods existed for operating them.
Among these, the most representative commonality was...
'Infuse mana into the core.'
Typically, a dormant golem would awaken when mana was channeled into its core.
Some golems required specific incantations or recognition of their master to activate, but given how this one had autonomously performed cleaning tasks before, it clearly had no such restrictions.
Fzzzt!
Despite channeling a considerable amount of mana into the core, there was no response.
Unbeknownst to Lee Han, the golem's core was old and damaged, suffering from severe mana leakage.
Core repair materials were exponentially rarer compared to other components, so the White Tiger Tower students had prioritized fixing the more readily obtainable limbs first.
The result was that over half the infused mana was now leaking out.
An ordinary mage would think, 'There must be something wrong with the golem—the core needs repairs,' but...
FWOOOOOSH!
Golem <Desperately Flying Skull> activated. Awaiting commands.
"It's, it's working!!"
"It's working!!!!"
Lee Han had simply brute-forced it by dumping in an obscene amount of mana.
'Do golems normally consume this much mana? This isn't normal.'
Watching the golem's eyes light up, Lee Han marveled at it.
From what he'd seen of other mages' golems, even the most mana-hungry ones operated within reasonable limits...
Is it supposed to be like this?
"What tasks can you perform?"
Lee Han inquired about possible commands. Golems couldn't execute orders beyond what their mage had pre-programmed.
I was born to handle all miscellaneous tasks within Einrogard.
"Incredible!"
"What a dutiful little...!"
The White Tiger Tower students who'd painstakingly gathered and rebuilt the golem's limbs wiped away tears, visibly moved.
Other tower students who'd come at the commotion were equally astonished by the golem's performance.
"Did the White Tiger Tower brats really make this? How in the world—?"
"Word is Wardanaz made it."
"Ah. That explains it."
"Wardanaz didn't make it!! He just helped repair it!!"
"Ugh, give it a rest, you pathetic lot. What could you lot possibly have contributed to that golem? At best, you handled the paint job."
While his friends bickered, Lee Han focused his mind.
Golems weren't clever spirits that could intelligently execute a single command on their own.
If given an order like 'Dig a pond,' a human would dig appropriately, but a golem might keep digging until the end of days.
Channeling his connection to the mana-infused golem, Lee Han issued his command:
"Dig this pit here."
Understood.
"...Eek! AAAAAH!"
As the golem suddenly lurched toward him, one dazed White Tiger Tower student screamed and rolled aside.
Lee Han apologized.
"My bad."
"An—apologies don't cut it, Wardanaz!"
"Then do you want to pilot it instead?"
At Lee Han's retort, the other friends immediately piled on the critic.
"Cut him some slack, idiot! Wardanaz can make mistakes too!"
"Don't you get it? If Wardanaz stops controlling that golem, we'll be stuck here till night! Save your bitching for the dorm!"
'They can all hear me...'
Lee Han focused his mind and issued another command to the golem.
Fortunately, without any accidents like before, the golem slowly began digging the pit.
"Huh? Where did that golem come from?"
Professor Lightning Steps, who had returned, looked surprised upon seeing the working golem.
No matter how he thought about it, this wasn't the level of summon a first-year student could create.
"The Wardanaz kid..."
"Ah-ha. The Wardanaz made it? You're quite the talented one, aren't you?"
"...I repaired it."
"Ah."
Professor Lightning Steps looked embarrassed.
Now that he heard it, he realized how strange it was to assume a first-year student had created it.
Why had he thought that?
"Controlling a golem is harder than it seems. You're managing to issue commands quite well."
Lee Han answered while focusing his nerves to maintain concentration.
"These are relatively simple tasks... so it seems possible."
"I suppose that makes sense."
Thud!
Professor Lightning Steps swung his staff. Then, the cages covered with cloth behind him neatly stacked up.
■■■■■■■■...
As an indistinct animalistic cry echoed from within, Lee Han grew very concerned.
'What the hell is in there?'
"Cough. Are you controlling that golem right now?"
"Ah! Professor Mortum."
Professor Lightning Steps stopped his work and greeted the newcomer with proper etiquette.
"Professor Lightning Steps... cough, are you currently controlling that golem?"
"That's correct."
Upon hearing the answer, Professor Mortum's eyes sparkled. Lee Han grew uneasy, sensing some misunderstanding.
"Wardanaz. You're already handling golems with Black Magic...! Cough, how admirable! Now I understand why Professor Garcia wants to kill me! To think I almost left behind such a student..."
"Excuse me? Who's killing wh—?"
Lee Han doubted his ears and tried to clarify, but Professor Mortum continued excitedly.
"Seeing this, Diret would be truly delighted. Diret also has a thing for golems—"
"Ah... Professor Millay."
Professor Lightning Steps flinched upon seeing Professor Millay, who had come to inspect the landscaping.
For some reason, he felt it wouldn't be good to have both professors here at once.
The elderly professor, walking over, first noticed the conspicuously visible golem from afar and looked startled before composing himself and calmly asking,
"Wardanaz. Have you succeeded in summoning a golem with Summoning Magic? Impressive."
"Uh..."
Lee Han glanced at Professor Mortum beside him.
Professor Mortum's eyes were pleading desperately.
Those eyes were begging him to say it was done through Black Magic, not Summoning Magic.
"You could even showcase this at the Summoners' Festival next week."
Unable to watch any longer, Professor Lightning Steps loudly cleared his throat.
Startled, Professor Millay turned his gaze and finally noticed Professor Mortum's presence.
"Ah. Was it... Black Magic?"
"Repaired. Both of you. Repaired."
"......"
"......"
The Black Magic professor and the Summoning Magic professor looked extremely awkward.
"Ah... well."
"That certainly makes sense."
The embarrassed professors nodded before offering Lee Han a few words of advice.
What to pay attention to when controlling a golem, which materials were more mana-efficient (though Professor Mortum visibly restrained himself from nitpicking Professor Millay's suggestions), how to issue commands effectively...
Once the two professors left, Professor Lightning Steps looked at Lee Han and said,
"...You had it rough. Truly."
"Professor."
"What is it?"
"Are outsiders coming again next week?"
The way Professor Millay mentioned the Summoners' Festival made Lee Han suspect it would be held within Einrogard, and his voice carried an edge.
Thinking about the festivals priests held, there was no reason to be upset—but Lee Han was certain this wouldn't be like that.
Why would mages come here for no reason!
"...Are you angry?"
"No? Why would I be angry? What do you mean?"