Episode 460
Episode 460
Lee Han was stunned by the absurd misunderstanding.
Turning Professor Verdus into an undead?
That was even more ridiculous than the nonsense spouted by those White Tiger Tower brats.
"Huh? That wasn't it?"
Lee Han smacked the back of Gainando's head again and said,
"It's just someone with the same name."
"That's so tragic! Of all people, to share a name with Professor Verdus!"
When Gainando expressed genuine sympathy, Lee Han was slightly taken aback.
"Uh... It's not that bad, is it?"
"No. It's so tragic."
From a distance, two familiar seniors came sprinting over, panting heavily.
Lee Han greeted them cheerfully.
"Hello."
"Huff... Puff... W-what were you doing?"
"We were feeling sorry for Lee Han because the undead mage he summoned was named Verdus."
At Gainando's answer, Coholti was horrified.
"You turned Professor Verdus into an undead!?"
"......"
Once the truth came to light, Coholti wanted to crawl into a mouse hole.
Ogoldos whispered beside him,
"Senior. There are plenty of pits here that undead have crawled into. You could probably hide in one of those."
"Shut up..."
He wasn't a first-year—he was a fourth-year—and yet he'd made such an absurd mistake.
But Coholti had an excuse.
"I suddenly heard rumors that Professor Verdus had disappeared! That's why..."
'Even if the professor disappeared, isn't it a bit too extreme to connect that to me?'
Though Lee Han thought that, he refrained from saying anything out of consideration for his senior.
But what Lee Han didn't know was this:
To Coholti and a few others, Lee Han was already being treated as the direct successor—no, the direct disciple—of the Skeleton Principal, the next in line to inherit his madness!
"The professor went to the Punishment Room."
At Lee Han's explanation, Coholti nodded with a look that said, That makes sense.
"Ah, right. I was wondering where he went."
"Couldn't you have just asked the other seniors?"
At Gainando's question, Coholti answered awkwardly,
"All the Enchantment Magic students said they didn't know and didn't care."
"......"
"......"
An awkward silence lingered.
Lee Han changed the subject.
"By the way, Senior. Since we stopped the undead, does that mean the exam is over?"
"Huh? No. The exam is something else. The <Drunkard's Curse> is the exam."
A curse-type spell that induces intense intoxication in the target.
Though it was a second-circle spell, it was relatively low in difficulty, and even if one hadn't mastered it, casting it was still possible. As such, it was often used as the next teaching material for novice Black Magic practitioners learning their first few curses.
"...Wait, so the undead attack had absolutely nothing to do with the exam?"
Lee Han was slightly stunned.
He had heard that it was just a demonstration before the midterms, but he still thought it had some connection to the exam.
If it wasn't related... then why?
"......"
"......"
Coholti and Ogoldos exchanged glances.
Ogoldos pretended not to notice and lowered his head.
Wasn't the senior student supposed to take responsibility in situations like this?
"...W-well, Wardanaz, how about I take responsibility and give you full marks?"
"No..."
Lee Han was bewildered by his senior's sudden strange offer.
After the exam ended (Gainando and Raphael accidentally cursed each other and were now drunkenly staggering around), Lee Han was about to leave when he paused.
Coholti was sighing as he surveyed the battlefield littered with shattered undead.
"What's wrong, Senior?"
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing. Hurry back. If you stay too long, the Headmaster will find something to nitpick."
'No matter how I look at it, something's clearly wrong.'
Coholti had the expression of a senior who'd secretly caused trouble behind the professor's back.
Just in case, Lee Han asked again.
"Senior. I am a student taking Black Magic, you know. If something's wrong, I'd appreciate it if you told me."
"N-no, it's nothing. This isn't something a junior should worry about."
Ogoldos, who had been scraping at the dirt nearby, muttered under his breath,
"Guess we know who took on the Frost Giant King, huh."
"......"
Coholti kicked Ogoldos with his foot, sending him tumbling back into the pit.
"Senior?"
"Ah, no. My foot slipped. I don't usually do this. Don't misunderstand. You won't misunderstand, right? Our school isn't normally like this!"
Coholti was deeply worried that Lee Han might see this and think, 'Do Black Magic seniors beat up their juniors?'
If such a misunderstanding spread, both the Black Magic professor and his peers would surely beat Coholti up!
"If you just tell me honestly, I won't misunderstand."
"It's... well... sigh."
Coholti decided to come clean, afraid that if he kept hiding it, this junior might run away.
But even as he spoke, he couldn't help thinking:
'Isn't this too pathetic? Is this really okay?'
If just one Undead Wave demonstration had shaken the school's reagent reserves this badly, how embarrassingly low must they be?
However, Lee Han empathized with Coholti's plight far more deeply than expected.
"That's... terrible!"
Lee Han's heart ached.
The lack of reagents was due to Professor Modrum's incompetence, not the seniors' fault.
If he were skilled at political maneuvering to secure funding or even stealing it, fine—but failing at that and making students suffer like this?
"The professor is really going too far!"
"Ah... no. It's not that bad? Honestly, our professor is still better than someone like Professor Verdus..."
Lee Han felt even more pity.
Clearly, the seniors had been at Einrogard so long that the part of their brains responsible for comparison had deteriorated.
"No, I'm sorry. I didn't know the situation and ended up destroying all the undead."
"Well, that couldn't be helped... no... I mean... Wardanaz, I appreciate you taking my side, but..."
Coholti grew even more flustered.
The raw, heartfelt emotion this first-year was showing was overwhelming.
As if he'd studied in the Black Magic school for years...
He was grateful, but it was also undeniably awkward.
And honestly, if a first-year had countered an Undead Wave, that deserved praise, not apologies for reagent consumption.
If Coholti had achieved something like that in his first year, he'd have bragged about it weekly to his friends until graduation.
"I'll try to get reagents for you."
"Huh? No. No. You can't steal them."
Coholti stopped him.
It might seem like Einrogard students had no regard for laws or rules, but surprisingly, there were unspoken laws even here.
One of them was the prohibition of theft and plundering among students.
The headmaster's property was fair game as a kind of communal student resource, but once students started stealing from each other, the aftermath became messy.
Sure, if you didn't get caught, fine—but secrets never stayed hidden for long.
"Especially since reagents for Black Magic are really noticeable."
"I didn't mean stealing. I meant asking for them."
"......"
"......"
Ogoldos, who had crawled out of the pit, gave Coholti a look of utter disdain.
Coholti kicked him back in and said,
"Asking is even harder. Would you just hand over your hard-earned school resources to someone like that?"
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'll try asking around."
Most professors didn't earn money directly and relied on generous research grants, so their sense of financial value was often numb.
That meant if someone they were on good terms with asked, they might hand things over quite readily.
Plus, Lee Han knew quite a few professors—if he begged around, he could gather a decent amount.
He was confident.
"Well... thanks, but... don't push yourself too hard. If the professors refuse, don't take it too hard. If it seems impossible, just stop, okay?"
"Understood. Thanks for worrying about me. Let's go."
Lee Han turned to his friends.
He grabbed the collars of Gainando and Lafadell, who were still collapsed from Imirg's attack, and hoisted them up.
"...Sorry about this."
"Ah, no. I'm happy to help."
"Should we just throw those guys in the water and leave?"
"A-ah, no! They're not heavy. I can carry them!"
Imirg hastily shouted, genuinely worried that Lee Han might toss the two into the water and walk away.
Coholti watched the first-years' retreating backs with a satisfied expression.
Between the curse magic (though the two had collapsed from casting it at each other) and their evident camaraderie, the first-years were all quite reliable.
Especially someone from the Wardanaz family—even more so.
To worry about an upperclassman like that, treating his problems as their own when it wasn't even their business...
He hadn't expected much from the results, but the warmth in his chest was more than enough.
'Even in the blood-and-tearless Einrogard, such touching moments exist.'
As Coholti fumbled for a handkerchief to hide his reddening eyes, Diret appeared from behind with his minions in tow.
He had finished preparing the minions customized for reagent retrieval and had come to check on things.
"Already done with the test?"
"Huh? Yeah."
"Ended faster than expected?"
"Uh..."
"...But why are all the undead in this state?"
Diret asked expressionlessly.
That very lack of expression terrified Coholti even more.
"Well... you see..."
Coholti quickly explained the situation as fast as he could.
But he couldn't help his eyes darting toward the minions Diret had summoned.
If those minions attacked, Coholti wasn't properly prepared to defend himself right now.
"...Sigh."
After hearing everything, Diret let out a deep, earth-shaking sigh.
"Things can really spiral out of control in the worst ways."
"R-right?"
Coholti flinched repeatedly, eyeing Diret's staff warily.
Fortunately, Diret showed no signs of attacking.
"Can't be helped... Let's just salvage what we can."
"...So it's fine?"
"It's not fine, but what else can we do? No one could've predicted first-years would wreck everything like this."
"Right?!"
Coholti's face brightened as he grew confident Diret wouldn't attack.
"Exactly. An unforeseeable, truly unfortunate disaster. In a way, it's almost impressive, don't you think?"
"...You're not actually excited about this, are you?"
As Diret's voice turned icy, Coholti hastily put on a sorrowful expression.
"N-no! I mean... just saying. Of course I'm sad too. Besides, the juniors went to other departments to ask for reagents. Admirable, but also heartbreaking."
"...The juniors went to other departments to ask for reagents?"
"Yeah."
"And you just let them go without stopping them?"
"...Uh... Well..."
Coholti hesitated, about to say, 'I did try to stop them,' but decided against it, not wanting to provoke Diret further.
Thud!
Ogoldos welcomed Coholti as he fell into the pit where it was trapped.
"Welcome."
"Damn you..."
Feeling the dirt pile landing on him from above, Coholti prepared a breathing spell.
"Headmaster!"
???
The Skeleton Principal was taken aback by Lee Han's unusually enthusiastic call.
Lee Han wasn't the type of student to approach him so familiarly.
Normally, Lee Han would recoil at the sight of him—and the Headmaster quite liked that reaction, so...
What... what was this?
"Last time, I worked hard on the school repairs, didn't I?"
...He had, hadn't he?
"And I discovered and protected the missing shadow realm when guests visited the school. The donations were just a bonus."
......
"During the festival, the mages also..."
Just say what you want.
Though baffled, the Skeleton Principal was willing to humor Lee Han's request.
Judging by what he'd listed, he had indeed accomplished quite a lot.
Annoying as he was, even the Headmaster couldn't deny that.
An Outing Pass? How many was he angling for this time?
"There are still some left."
His friends need them too.
"They'll manage on their own."
'This brat.'
The Headmaster found himself missing the old Lee Han, who used to care so much for his friends.
"The Black Magic department is running low on reagents—could you possibly spare some support?"
......
The Skeleton Principal was so shocked he couldn't even close his jaw.
"Headmaster?"
...Don't tell me those lunatics sent you to beg for them?!?!?