Episode 654
Episode 654
"Over here! Please wait a moment."
The gatekeepers guarding the Kraha Family mansion immediately summoned servants upon the arrival of the Baldrogard students.
The students marveled anew at the vast estate grounds. Among the long-standing noble families, few could match the Kraha Family's wealth.
"The Kraha Family is truly impressive. It would've been great if someone from their family had enrolled at Baldrogard."
"Exactly. I agree. There's one mage around our age from their family, but I heard they went to Einrogard instead."
"Ah. You must mean the prince."
"Hmph. I don't care for the imperial family. For all their numbers, their noses are stuck too high in the air."
"Watch your tongue, Vasio! The imperial family carries the bloodline of His Majesty the Great Emperor. They deserve respect."
The empire's nobility could largely be divided into three factions.
First, the Loyalist Faction who believed in and supported outstanding imperial family members as future emperors.
Second, the Noble Faction who, while supporting the imperial family, advocated for alliances among nobles instead.
Lastly, the Neutral Faction who remained indifferent to both - families like the Wardanaz being prime examples.
Ingsen came from a Loyalist family while Vasio hailed from a Noble family, so despite their close friendship, compromise on such matters was impossible.
"Ingsen. Out of respect for your honor, I'll retract my earlier statement. Some imperial family members certainly deserve recognition! But what about the others?"
"I won't claim all imperial family members are exceptional! But the lazy and dissolute ones are few. They're the ones tarnishing the imperial honor! The Kraha Family's prince must surely be someone worthy of respect."
"Hmph. Maybe if he were a Baldrogard student, but as an Einrogard student? I can't acknowledge that. He's probably just another scheming, twisted individual."
"No. Coming from the Kraha Family, even if Einrogard seniors are base and vulgar, he wouldn't easily be corrupted."
Ingsen trusted in the Kraha Family name.
An imperial prince bearing Kraha blood surely deserved the Loyalist families' faith.
"Ah, damn it all!"
"?"
"Nothing would've been better than this. That place was just rotten soil... Gah. What am I saying! This cursed mouth, this cursed mouth!"
A golden-haired boy in shabby clothes was digging through shadowed earth with a hoe and shovel.
Intrigued, the two dismounted and approached.
"Vasio. What do you think he's doing?"
"Hmm. Judging by his clothes, he looks like a mansion servant... Digging out rotten soil?"
"Could it be for magical reagents?"
"Do spells even use rotten soil?"
Baldrogard didn't teach Black Magic, so the students were puzzled by the idea of using decayed earth in spells.
"The empire's full of all sorts of strange magic... Could be possible."
"Vasio. Let's help him."
Ingsen gripped his staff as he spoke. Vasio looked at him incredulously.
"Help a servant with his work? I must've misheard."
For nobles to assist servants was considered shameful.
With capable servants here, why should visiting nobles stoop to such menial labor?
"You heard right. But what you're missing is that we'll help with magic."
"Ingsen, your wisdom never ceases to amaze me!"
Vasio admired his friend's cleverness.
While nobles squatting to dig dirt alongside servants would be disgraceful, magically assisting the digging would be seen as noble benevolence.
Imagine how the helped servant would spread word through the mansion!
"Hey, you there!"
Ingsen called to the servant boy. Gainando turned his head in confusion.
"You seem to need help digging. We'll assist. Now, step aside!"
"Wha...?"
"Gather, earth. Gather, earth. Gather, earth..."
Ingsen chanted the spell with intense concentration.
Gainando, blinking in confusion at the slow casting speed, belatedly realized what was happening.
"Wait, you don't mean to—"
"...Gather!"
Whoosh!
With the spell, the rotten soil Gainando had been digging underground surged upward.
It was a sufficient quantity of decayed earth.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Ingsen smiled smugly.
"How's that? This should be more than enough for your needs."
"...What nonsense is this, you bastard!"
Gainando shouted in fury.
"?!"
Ingsen and Bashew were too shocked to respond. They never expected to hear such words from a servant in a mansion they were visiting as guests.
"H-How... How dare you speak like that—"
"How dare I? I'll say it a hundred times! You brainless fools! You maggots not even worth sending to the Punishment Hall!"
Gainando stomped his feet in frustration.
As the curses he'd learned from Professor Mortum spilled out, the two noble boys' minds went blank.
"You... You dare insult us after we helped you—"
"Helped? Who said I needed help digging?! Gather, earth!"
Swinging his staff and chanting the spell, earth erupted right beside them.
The two were too stunned to speak.
This was even more shocking than being cursed at by a servant.
A servant capable of casting magic.
And faster and more precisely than them!
"H-How...?!"
"What do you mean 'how'? Such a simple spell! Are you really this stupid? Magic reduces this soil's potency! You need Grave Iron tools to preserve its effects!"
"Th-That's..."
"We... We didn't know."
"Not knowing doesn't excuse it! What were you thinking?! I've spent all day searching for this rotten soil!"
Gainando jumped up and down in rage.
After laboring all day to prepare Black Magic reagents, some random lunatics had ruined everything.
If he returned empty-handed, Lee Han might suspect, 'Were you just fooling around?'
"Follow me! You're going to explain this!"
"W-We should get going now."
"Let's go!"
The two scrambled onto their horses in panic.
The magical boy demanding they follow had an unsettling aura.
"Where do you think you're going?! Get down here! Come back!"
"W-We're guests! Don't attack us!"
"What kind of madmen are you?!"
Though furious, Gainando refrained from casting a curse at their retreating backs.
They were still guests of his family, after all.
But his anger remained.
"Just wait till I catch you! I'll bury you upside down in a dirt pit!"
"F-Faster! Drive them faster!"
"He wasn't a servant. He must be a family mage!"
As they galloped away, the two realized the truth.
That boy wasn't a servant—he was clearly a mage affiliated with the Kraha family.
Nothing else explained such eccentric behavior.
Who else but imperial mages would disregard authority and order so capriciously?
"He looked young to be a family mage?"
"He must've taken age-concealing elixirs!"
"Mages are nothing but eccentric freaks. How fortunate we're at Baldrogard!"
* * *
"So let me get this straight—some random guests cast magic on the rotten soil you'd finally found, and it all went to waste?"
"Yep."
"......"
His friends stared at Gainando with odd expressions. Eandurde muttered under his breath.
"You're lying!"
"No! How dare you, a junior, doubt your senior?! If you don't believe me, come with me! I'll show you!"
"Calm down, Gainando."
Lee Han tried to soothe Gainando.
Truth be told, he didn't fully believe Gainando's words either. The boy had made similar false claims too many times before.
-Lee Han. The headmaster's lackey stole my homework.
-Lee Han. The headmaster's lackey chewed up and ate my magic tome.
-Lee Han. The headmaster's...
-Hey. Cut it out.
These lies were all the more effective because such things could actually happen at Einrogard.
Regardless of the truth, Lee Han took out what was needed now.
"Here. This should be enough, right?"
"Huh?! You had it with you?!"
"Since I know black magic too, I always carry reagents."
Lee Han pulled out a bottle of rotten soil from his reagent pouch and handed it to Gainando.
"Take it. It's high-quality soil, more than enough for casting black magic. Who knows when the Baldrogard students might show up? We should always have reagents ready."
"Lee Han...!"
Gainando's eyes welled up with emotion.
Yoner, however, looked puzzled at the soil. 'Where did he get this?' While Einrogard had black magic students who maintained their own magic tower and lived nearby, making it easy to obtain, it shouldn't be so simple outside.
"How did you get this?"
"I picked it up during spare time when visiting the Moradi family's territory."
"......"
Yoner was stunned by Lee Han's thoroughness—collecting rotten soil during spare time while visiting another family's estate. 'We must keep this from Moradi...' If Giselle found out, she'd rage, "Who in their right mind visits another family's estate and spends their free time digging up rotten soil?!"
"Gainando."
"Huh?"
"I believe in you."
"...Lee Han!"
Gainando choked up.
His worthless friends—no, they weren't even friends. His worthless Einrogard classmates never trusted him, but Lee Han was different.
"You're a true friend!"
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, since I believe in you, don't you dare lose to the Baldrogard students."
"......"
Sensing something off in the atmosphere, Gainando stopped being moved and grew wary.
Lee Han's face was as serious as a statue.
"...Uh, well, magic has its strengths and weaknesses, right?"
"True."
"So if luck's against me, I might lose to the Baldrogard students...?"
"True. But don't lose."
"......"
Gainando glanced at his friends for help, but they subtly averted their eyes.
They, too, were afraid of Lee Han right now.
"Gainando. If you have a weakness, just strike at theirs first. Just don't lose. If you do... Never mind. No need to know in advance."
"Lee Han...!"
Gainando suddenly felt like returning to Einrogard.
"Everyone. The Baldrogard students have arrived. They wish to see you—how shall I respond?"
"They're here."
At Lee Han's words, his friends tensed up unnecessarily.
They probably wouldn't lose to the Baldrogard students, but just in case... 'I might die alongside Gainando.' 'I might perish with Lord Gainando...' 'I don't want to die with Gainando!'
"Let them in. They'd run into us inside the estate anyway."
"This is Lord Yoner of the Maykin family. And this is..."
When nobles met, servants typically introduced their families and names.
Ingsen and Bashew, having finished their introductions first, listened intently as the Einrogard students were introduced one by one.
"...And this is Lord Gainando, descendant of the Kraha family and the imperial bloodline."
"Ghk."
"Kghk."
"You... you people...!"
Both of them—and even Gainando—were shocked.
Gainando wanted to shout, 'You soil destroyers!' but Lee Han's glare forced him to shut his mouth quietly. 'Wh-what?' 'I thought he was a family mage...?' The two struggled to make sense of their confusion, but it only left them feeling more tangled.
"And this is Lord Lee Han of the Wardanaz family."
"F-fifth year!"
"??"