Episode 687
Episode 687
"What the hell was that?!"
At Diret's shout, Lee Han and Ilendil jumped in surprise.
"Did crazy seni— I mean, did Senior Yukveltire discover this place?"
"Did that bast— I mean, did Senior Yukveltire find this place?"
"..."
"Yukveltire left earlier. More importantly, didn't you just say you finished making the <Liberation from the Skeleton> potion?"
Lee Han answered the question, puzzled.
"Not yet."
"R-really?"
At his junior's reply, Diret wondered if he had misunderstood something and tried to sit back down.
"We've only completed the base solution. We still need to dilute it."
"......"
Diret was left speechless by his junior's absurd answer.
If they had finished the base solution right before dilution, that practically meant it was almost complete.
"How did you make it? <Liberation from the Skeleton> is supposed to be a pretty difficult potion."
"Thanks to my love for spirits..."
Ilendil tried to answer warmly with a pleased expression, but Lee Han replied first.
"There were similarities to the <Dobruk's Soul Return Potion> I helped make before, and many steps could be substituted with mana. Senior Ilendil also handled the complex groundwork in advance."
Ilendil waved his hand slowly as if it were nothing.
"More importantly, <Dobruk's Soul Return Potion>... where did you make that?"
Dobruk's Soul Return Potion was also notoriously difficult and tricky to brew—not something a first-year student would normally handle.
"I made it while assisting Lord Yoanen of the Maykin Family."
Clang!
Ilendil dropped the enamel bowl he was holding.
Then he stared at Lee Han in shock.
"Y-you worked under... the Maykin Family?"
'Does he have some grudge against Lord Yoanen?'
Lee Han was slightly taken aback by his senior's reaction. He hadn't expected such an intense response.
"Yes. I worked there before."
"How did you survive...?"
"......"
Lee Han couldn't answer immediately to Ilendil's muttering.
It was true that Yoanen's workshop was notoriously harsh.
"W-well, it wasn't as hard as you'd think."
"That place is nicknamed 'the grinder that chews up alchemists instead of reagents'..."
"Now that I think about it, Lord Yoanen was a bit terrifying. I was scared too."
Lee Han quickly distanced himself from Yoanen.
If he defended him carelessly, he might end up looking like a weirdo too.
Ilendil comforted Lee Han with a sympathetic look.
"You must have suffered a lot. To make potions in that workshop..."
"Actually, for our junior, that level of work probably wasn't a big deal. No need to worry so much."
Diret chimed in from the side.
Given everything Lee Han had done so far, brewing potions in a workshop was probably on the easier side for him.
Of course, Ilendil, unaware of this background, was inwardly horrified.
'As expected, he's terrifying...!'
Leading the Black Magic faction with an iron will, without shedding blood or tears, was truly not something just anyone could do.
The mages, who had been scurrying around like socialites, had long since given up and disappeared, and the first light of dawn began to break in the distance.
Lee Han, who had been diligently brewing potions with Ilendil (carefully packing every completed one into his backpack), looked outside and spoke.
"I think we can leave now."
"Right. Thanks again. I appreciate you welcoming me to the workshop like this."
At Diret's words, Ilendil acted bashful, as if it were nothing.
"Well, he is a junior from the same faction..."
'Mmm.'
Diret looked at Lee Han with a complicated expression.
While it was common to look out for juniors from the same faction, strictly speaking, Lee Han was practically a junior from every senior's faction.
'Better not say anything.'
For Ilendil's sake, Diret held back his words.
No matter how eccentric someone was, even they needed at least one competent junior.
"...Because I've been taking care of the Dark Spirit."
"!"
Lee Han froze.
'Oh no.'
Come to think of it, the promise he'd made when parting with Ilendil last time (after forcibly contracting it) was to take good care of the Dark Spirit.
'But I haven't summoned it since then...'
Normally, summoning a spirit requires a situation where it's truly needed.
The problem was that there had never been a situation where the Dark Spirit was particularly necessary.
While the Dark Element was among the most finicky and abstruse of all elements—often requiring a spirit's assistance when manipulating it—Lee Han had simply succeeded in wielding it on his own.
With spirits like Flame Spirits or Ice Spirits, you could at least assign them minor tasks, but even that was difficult with a Dark Spirit...
From Lee Han's perspective, not summoning it had been unavoidable.
"Can I meet it just once?"
Ilendil made the request with sparkling eyes.
Lee Han felt an immense pressure under that gaze.
'It already seemed to dislike me before. If I summon it now, won't it just attack me outright?'
Preparing to counterattack if it did strike, Lee Han cautiously summoned a low-tier Dark Spirit.
A spherical mass of condensed Dark Elemental Spirit materialized before them.
"H-Have you been... doing well?"
At Ilendil's call, the Dark Elemental Spirit spun around in place.
Though it had been in a frenzied state last time, it seemed to remember its creator to some degree and displayed a rather friendly attitude.
Moreover, as a half-Dryad, Ilendil naturally started off with an advantage in gaining spirits' favor.
"Were there any discomforts... or problems in the Spirit World? How about your elemental energy?"
Watching the two converse, Lee Han grew slightly nervous.
There was no telling when the Dark Spirit might expose him.
"Is the contract working fine?"
When questioned, the Dark Spirit spun once before dramatically prostrating itself before Lee Han.
To any observer, it was clearly demonstrating loyalty.
"Seems like it's fine!"
"It's rare to see a spirit display such loyalty. You must've spent a long time together?"
Not just Ilendil, but even Diret looked impressed.
And Lee Han was equally baffled.
"???"
He couldn't comprehend why the Dark Spirit was acting this way when he'd never even summoned it before.
Especially since last time they'd met, it had been brimming with hostility!
"Um. Senior."
"Hm?"
When Lee Han whispered and called out, Diret turned his gaze.
"That Dark Spirit, you see..."
"Wow. Impressive. Gaining that level of loyalty from a spirit is hard enough, but a Dark Spirit? How did you manage it?"
Worried that mentioning Ilendil's involvement might make their relationship even more awkward, Lee Han deftly redirected the topic.
"After our first contract, I never summoned it even once. Why is it acting like this?"
"...What?"
Diret doubted his ears.
Normally, bonding with a spirit required time.
The time spent between a mage and a spirit.
That time is what solidly binds the two beings from different dimensions and forges their friendship.
But to never have summoned it even once?
"Why didn't you summon it?"
"I never had a reason to...?"
"You never needed the Dark Element? Didn't you summon skeletons by binding Dark Element to them?"
"I just cast that myself."
"......"
Diret realized that having too much talent could also be problematic.
He'd handled tasks that should've required a spirit's assistance all on his own.
Perhaps this junior's lack of closeness with spirits wasn't solely due to his mana.
"For it to show such submission without any time spent bonding is usually..."
"Usually?"
"Out of fear."
"...I didn't do anything to it."
"Even if you didn't directly do anything, spirits can keenly sense a mage's history just by their presence. Let's see, junior, you..."
Diret mentally retraced Lee Han's recent activities.
From the Sorrow Mountains to what he'd done at the Exchange Meeting...
There were far too many possibilities.
"That must be why it's scared."
"N-no. You said earlier it was loyalty."
"Loyalty born from fear and loyalty born from affection are more or less the same thing."
True to his nature as a Black Magic student, Diret showed no hesitation in subduing the summon through fear.
Fundamentally, since many summons from the undead dimension were violent creatures, black mages often had to wield fear like a whip to control them.
Of course, Lee Han couldn't help but feel awkward since he pursued a slightly different approach from such seniors.
"Maybe it was happy about your kindness because you didn't summon it..."
"Summons don't think like humans, junior. Just accept it. Some befriend their spirits, while others have no choice but to subdue them."
Lee Han shot a sidelong glare at his senior, who seemed determined to offer only the least helpful advice.
True to his nature as a friend of Yukveltire, he was truly infuriating.
Unaware of their conversation, Ilendil finished his talk with the Dark Spirit and even bid it farewell.
Sniff. "Seeing it so healthy makes me happy too..."
Watching Ilendil tear up with joy, Lee Han and Diret wore complicated expressions.
Diret quickly changed the subject.
"Junior, when are you heading to Granden City? It's about time to go, isn't it?"
"Huh? There's still plenty of time left."
As the vacation neared its end and the new semester approached, students usually gathered in Granden City, the largest city closest to Einrogard.
Lee Han and his friends naturally planned to go there too—just not now, with nearly two weeks still remaining.
Why would they stay so close to Einrogard when they didn't have to?
"Ah. Right. This is your first time, so you wouldn't know."
Diret belatedly realized Lee Han's ignorance and began explaining.
"Staying in Granden City during winter break usually isn't a good idea. Being so close to Einrogard means a higher chance of running into professors."
"I came all the way to Plaha City and still ran into one."
"That's because you're fated to attract professors, junior."
Diret replied bluntly. Lee Han gave him a wounded look.
How could he say something like that?
"Putting it off until the last minute before arriving in Granden City isn't a bad idea, but once you're past second year, everyone starts arriving early."
"Why's that?"
"To prepare the things they're bringing into school."
"!"
Lee Han was startled by Diret's words.
"W-wait, we can do that starting from second year?"
Einrogard wasn't the kind of school that required supplies.
Necessary books and equipment weren't provided by the school—students had to procure them themselves.
But bringing in supplies from second year onward?
Was it because the level of magic required had risen that much?
"That's surprising. I thought the Headmaster would forbid it. I didn't expect him to allow that starting from second year."
"......"
"......"
Diret and Ilendil stared blankly at Lee Han.
Under their gaze, Lee Han realized he had misjudged something.
"Wait, don't tell me..."
"Of course he doesn't allow it. What I just described was smuggling."
What Diret had mentioned wasn't about bringing things in officially—it was about smuggling.
The Skeleton Principal naturally forbade students from bringing in outside items. That rule didn't change whether you were a first-year or a sixth-year.
But any student who had spent over a year at Einrogard inevitably felt the need for outside supplies.
Where there's a need, there's magic.
Einrogard students spared no means or methods to sneak in as many supplies as possible at the start of the semester.
"Can't we just leave during the semester and bring stuff in then?"
"......Junior. You do know students like you, who come and go freely, aren't exactly common, right?"
Diret gave his junior a pitying look as he casually suggested something even more difficult.