Episode 527
Episode 527
At first, I thought it might be a common mistake made by the Skeleton Principal's subordinates—a simple confusion caused by mana.
But the meaning behind Professor Paselet's words felt slightly different.
This wasn't a case of mistaking mana for something else—it felt like he was seeing some other truth.
Priestess Dijiling asked in a curious voice:
"Have you perhaps... lost your way?"
Of course, when Priestess Dijiling said "lost your way," he wasn't referring to reality.
As one of the most esoteric and eccentric branches of magic, Divination mages often suffered from various side effects.
One of them was losing the distinction between past, present, and future after delving too deeply into prophecy, becoming adrift within fate itself.
Divination mages referred to this phenomenon as "losing one's way."
"If someone as great as the Professor has reached that state..."
Though it was called a side effect, this phenomenon wasn't something just anyone could experience. In a way, it was close to a supreme state of enlightenment.
Ordinary Divination mages would just vomit blood or lose their lives—they couldn't drift between past, present, and future like that.
Just foreseeing tomorrow's events was already an incredibly difficult task.
So it wasn't surprising that Priestess Dijiling looked at Professor Paselet with a mix of awe and respect.
A state that one might never reach even after a lifetime of training in Divination magic.
Someday, Priestess Dijiling also wanted to reach such truths...
"No. He's just gone insane."
Lee Han denied it firmly.
"......"
Priestess Dijiling, who was always kind and gentle, wore an uncharacteristically awkward expression as he asked:
"Do you have any particular reason for thinking that?"
"The professors were already insane to begin with."
"......"
Priestess Dijiling stared at Lee Han with an even more awkward expression.
If it had been Gainando or Angrago looking at him like that, Lee Han would've smacked them with his staff—but since it was someone like Priestess Dijiling, he felt pressured to elaborate.
"Actually, Priestess Dijiling. I already know my future."
"Th-that... is that truly so?"
Priestess Dijiling raised her voice in surprise. He seemed genuinely shocked—his eyes flickered slightly.
People who knew their own future were rare. No, they simply didn't exist.
How could a mortal being possibly know their own future in advance?
But Priestess Dijiling knew that the boy before him was from the Wardanaz family.
The Empire held many secrets even its own priests weren't aware of.
If it was the Wardanaz family, they might possess such knowledge... 'Could he have received a prophecy? But how? By what means?'
"Yeah."
Lee Han lowered his voice so only Priestess Dijiling could hear.
His serious demeanor made Priestess Dijiling unconsciously lean in, fully focused.
Just what kind of future could it be?
"After graduation, I'll use my connections and exceptional business sense to multiply my assets dozens of times over, then rise to fame as the Empire's newest tycoon and live the rest of my life in leisure."
"......"
Priestess Dijiling lost his composure and glared at Lee Han.
Though he still had much to learn about Divination magic, he instinctively knew that the future the boy described was wrong.
Fortunately, Professor Paselet soon regained consciousness.
Wearing an expression of agony—as if he had drunk ten bottles of cheap liquor the night before—the professor looked at the two students.
"...Don't tell me I attacked you two...?"
"No."
"You just performed some divination."
"You didn't even do that. You just said some weird things."
"......"
Priestess Dijiling opened his mouth to say something but stopped upon seeing Lee Han desperately denying it.
Professor Paselet let out a sigh of relief.
"That's good. That's really good. If I'd attacked you... I've been preparing a grand spell lately, so things have been a bit dangerous."
"A grand spell?"
Lee Han asked, unable to hide his wariness.
"Whether it's professors or seniors, preparing for grand magic within Einrogard never bodes well for first-year students."
"If someone makes even the slightest mistake, everyone ends up suffering the consequences together."
"That's right. We need to pinpoint the locations of next year's incoming students. The Headmaster is presiding over it, but that doesn't mean there's no burden on me either."
"...!"
Lee Han realized what this meant and was horrified.
'Divination magic can even do something like that??'
Now that he thought about it, Einrogard gathered new students from all over the empire—of course, they would use magic to locate them.
And naturally, tracking down these prospective students fell under the domain of Divination Magic.
Yet, there was one reason Lee Han had never even considered this possibility.
The sheer scale of the magic was absurdly immense.
'Even if they're tapping into the accumulated power of Einrogard, using divination to locate qualified individuals across the entire empire...'
Priestess Dijiling seemed just as shocked, his eyes wide and speechless.
That was how staggering the Skeleton Principal's magic was.
"The rebound... must be extremely severe..."
When Dijiling hesitantly spoke up, Professor Paselet chuckled and gave the timid half-demon priest an approving look.
"Most of the backlash is handled by the Headmaster and his prisoners, so there's nothing to worry about."
'Wait, did he just say something weird?'
"By the way, did I really only spout nonsense earlier? I feel like I went pretty deep into the vision..."
Professor Paselet trailed off, slightly puzzled.
Usually, when he delved this deeply into divination, he'd ramble a lot of nonsense but still manage to extract a few useful words.
But this time, there had been nothing.
"There was nothing."
"......"
Dijiling's oddly silent reaction was unsettling, but the professor decided not to press further.
"Ah, what a shame. Sometimes I manage to fish out something useful."
Sighing in disappointment, the professor glanced around and waved his staff, dispersing the opaque gray mist clinging to the forest trees.
"It's back again."
"Isn't that just fog?"
"More like residue. When you're conducting magic on such a massive scale, this kind of thing keeps forming. Be careful—if you touch it, you might start hallucinating."
"......"
Lee Han felt a surge of irritation at the professor only mentioning this now.
"Hmm..."
Unaware of the student's thoughts, Professor Paselet studied the two of them, lost in contemplation.
As the silence dragged on, Lee Han began to feel uneasy.
Generally speaking, whenever professors spent too long thinking about students, it rarely ended well.
"Uh, Professor. We still need to gather Rock Plantain for our duty shift, and it's taking longer than expected, so..."
"Didn't you say earlier you'd handle it with magic?"
"I did. But on second thought, it seems like too much of a mana waste."
"??"
But regardless of what Lee Han said, the professor, who hadn't been listening, made up his mind and spoke again.
"Well, since we've met like this, it must be fate. I should show you something while we're here. Both of you, follow me. Since you're learning Divination Magic, this should be interesting."
"......"
Professor Paselet wasn't usually one to pay much attention to his students, preferring a laissez-faire approach—those who wanted to learn would learn on their own.
But these two students were somewhat special.
Dijiling's talent was exceptional even among divination mages, and Wardanaz was just...
'He'll probably enjoy this.'
The professor's other personalities wholeheartedly agreed.
-Brilliant idea! Like I said before, you shouldn't bore a genius!
-I, I think so too...
Of course, Lee Han was deeply dismayed.
'I had a bad feeling the moment I saw the professor after sunset.'
He should've turned around and run right then. Letting his curiosity get the better of him had been a huge mistake.
Making errors like this just proved how far he still had to go as an Einrogard student.
"Do you know what the professor is trying to show us?"
As Lee Han slumped in despair, Priestess Dijiling tilted her head and asked.
As far as Priestess Dijiling was concerned, she couldn't even begin to guess.
"No. I don't know either."
"......"
Then why are you so despondent...?
A grand-scale spell powerful enough to affect the entire Empire wasn't something even the Skeleton Principal could cast on a whim.
Einrogard's magic, as ancient as the Skeleton Principal himself.
A terrain possessing one of the Empire's most concentrated ley lines of mana.
On top of that, the assistance of exceptional mages, various minions, and sacrificial criminals willing to cough up blood and die in his stead.
With preparations of this magnitude underway, unusual phenomena—things one would never normally witness—were occurring all across Einrogard.
Professor Paselet swung his staff again.
The mist they had seen earlier dispersed once more, revealing a path through the forest with startling clarity.
"My, my. Today's a bit extreme. Best if you just follow close behind me."
"...?"
Neither Lee Han nor Priestess Dijiling understood what he meant—but they soon found out.
The newly formed path vanished in an instant, swallowed up by dense trees.
Professor Paselet strode effortlessly through the indistinguishable maze of trees as if following invisible signposts.
He was navigating this natural labyrinth with the power of Divination Magic.
Crack!
One of the gemstones embedded in Professor Paselet's bracelet shattered.
Lee Han immediately drew his staff.
"Is it an enemy?"
"No, no. Not an enemy—misfortune. It blocked a stroke of bad luck from reaching me. This is a ward. You'll learn how to make one soon."
Diviners didn't just learn to foresee the future—they also learned ways to control it.
"Control" might sound grandiose. In truth, it was less about control and more like desperately diverting the course of a raging river by the tiniest margin.
But even that tiny margin was crucial to diviners—because foreseeing the future was that dangerous.
Wards like these were one of their countermeasures.
"It shatters when it detects misfortune. Might not seem very useful, but—"
"I absolutely want one!"
The usually un-materialistic student's earnest outburst left Professor Paselet momentarily flustered.
"W-Well, you'll learn soon enough. Hmm... Good. It's steeped just right."
Professor Paselet glanced around before finally spotting what he'd been searching for.
A spring.
But instead of clear water, it was filled with a murky, grayish liquid—rippling like the mist they'd seen earlier.
"Any guesses what this is?"
"A poisoned spring?"
Assuming Lee Han was joking, Professor Paselet let out a chuckle.
'He's not joking.'
"No. It's more like... residue from the grand spell being cast. Normally, it'd just induce mild hallucinations, but when it pools this densely—and if a mage capable of controlling it is present..."
Professor Paselet swung his staff and chanted an incantation.
The air grew heavier, and all sound faded away. Even the usual forest noises—insects chirping, birds calling—vanished.
"...it becomes a tool to sharpen one's foresight—if only for a brief moment."
The professor tossed a gourd dipper to Lee Han.
"Take a sip. It'll be an interesting experience."
As Lee Han cautiously approached the spring with the dipper, Priestess Dijiling asked:
"So this spring... enhances foresight?"
"Exactly. Fun, isn't it?"
"That's astonishing. How long does the effect last?"
"Shortest? Three seconds. Longest? Maybe ten."
Even that was an incredible feat.
Foresight wasn't an ability easily influenced by magic.
Gulp.
As Lee Han drank, Professor Paselet asked eagerly:
"Well? For that brief moment, you felt it, didn't you? That sensation of omniscience—like you could predict anything?"
"...?"
Lee Han hesitated.
The professor's stated duration had passed—yet the feeling hadn't faded.