Episode 736
Episode 736
"Hey. This feels like a trap."
"Markang! Snap out of it! It's a trap!"
At Elde's shout, the other students in solitary confinement sensed something fishy and tried to stop him.
No matter how they thought about it, the situation was bizarre.
Someone calling Elde "senior" was wandering around the Punishment Room?
It made no logical sense.
"It's not a trap! A junior I worked with came to see me!"
"......"
"...This bastard's so deep in his own lie that he's started believing it himself!"
The other students sighed in exasperation.
They should've slapped him back to his senses when he was bragging about contraband outside, but because they left him alone, his condition had worsened.
The Punishment Room was such a lonely and miserable place that students locked inside often descended into madness.
"Markang. I don't particularly like you as a fellow Tower student, but as a comrade in the Punishment Room, I'll give you some advice. The worst kind of lie is the one you start believing yourself."
"True. When I first got sent to the Punishment Room, I lied about breaking into the Headmaster's office. That lie bred more lies until I actually had to break into his office for real."
"Who the hell are you lunatics calling delusional?! I'm telling the truth—it really is my junior!"
Naturally, Elde flared up in anger.
His brilliant junior from the Wardanaz family had come to see him, and these despicable bastards were slandering him.
"Markang. Put a hand on your heart and think. If you were a junior, would you really navigate this dangerous, labyrinthine Punishment Room just to see you? Honestly?"
"He's right. That's a trap. Might even be the Headmaster's new lackey."
"......"
Elde began to waver slightly at his solitary comrades' words.
Now that he thought about it, no matter how talented someone was, it was hard to believe a mere second-year could navigate the Punishment Room's maze and come all the way here.
Could it really be a lackey sent by the Headmaster?
"...But what's the point of disguising like that? There's nothing they can do. We're already in the Punishment Room."
"They probably just want to watch you suffer. You know it's the Headmaster's hobby."
The convincing argument made Elde waver even more.
Just then, Lee Han arrived at the end of the corridor after descending the stairs.
Seeing the solitary cells packed with seniors on either side of the hallway, Lee Han let out a sigh of relief.
"Ah, you're all here."
"...!"
"!!"
Without a word, the students swiftly turned their backs to him and faced the wall.
If this was the Skeleton Principal's new lackey, engaging with them at all would be dangerous.
"Senior Elde?"
"......"
"Are you upset because you're locked up?"
Elde steadied his wavering resolve and pretended not to hear.
Though puzzled, Lee Han proceeded to take out the things he had prepared, one by one.
"I brought some snacks. I'll leave them here—feel free to eat them if you're bored."
Inside the basket were freshly baked white bread, honey for dipping, strawberry jam, simple ham-and-egg sandwiches, canned pork, and canned beef, among other things.
Outside, he'd have to sell these for money, but Lee Han wasn't cold-hearted enough to demand payment from a senior who had sacrificed for the success of their work.
"Does anyone want some? I brought plenty. No gold coins needed—just take them."
"......"
The seniors' fear peaked.
A lackey offering food without demanding gold coins?
They couldn't even begin to guess what kind of scheme this was.
"Are you all angry? Well, I'll take my leave then. Senior, I'll see you when you get out of the Punishment Room."
When no one answered, Lee Han tilted his head in confusion and turned back toward the stairs.
Just then, a Death Knight descending from above spotted him and shouted.
-Wait!
"!"
-Not that way—the hidden path in that wall is faster.
"Thank you."
'Just as I thought!'
The fact that the Death Knight didn't arrest him but instead gave directions only deepened the students' conviction.
Only after their junior had completely disappeared did the students in the Punishment Room finally let out a deep sigh.
"Phew. That was a vicious trap."
"I almost answered without thinking."
"Markang. Don't eat it. I swear on my life, that's definitely poisoned!"
At first, Elde thought the same and didn't even touch the basket.
But maintaining that level of patience in the Punishment Room wasn't easy.
After trying every possible magic to verify its safety, Elde finally took a bite of the bread.
"...It's delicious?"
"What? You actually ate it?"
"This one's fine too, and this one's fine too... Hey, you idiots!! He really was our junior!!!"
Elde belatedly realized it had genuinely been their junior and let out a shout.
But the other students still couldn't bring themselves to believe Elde's claim.
"A junior bringing us food? Does that even make sense?"
"It must be a delayed-acting poison."
"Markang. Then explain this. If that really was our junior, how did he get in here, and how was he on such friendly terms with the Death Knight?"
Frustrated but unable to refute, Elde had no answer.
It was just too logical.
'Tch. How the hell did he even get in?'
* * *
As Lee Han was leaving after class, he spotted Senior Perse and her friends.
"Good afternoon, Senior."
"......"
Perse stared blankly, unable to respond. Her friends beside her quickly explained.
"Sorry. Perse accidentally transformed into an invertebrate during class earlier, and she's still recovering."
"I... see."
But even accounting for the failed transformation, the seniors' expressions looked dark and exhausted.
Wanting to cheer them up, Lee Han said,
"Hang in there, everyone. The weekend's almost here."
"...I have classes on the weekend too."
"!"
Lee Han was taken aback by the senior's gloomy reply.
Classes on the weekend?
'How does that even make sense?'
"Why are there classes on the weekend?"
"Who knows? Too much material to cover? Not enough training? The professor's gone mad?"
"Even so, that seems excessively harsh..."
"You're taking magic from every school. That's what's excessively harsh."
"......"
Lee Han felt wounded by the senior's words. Another friend nearby scolded her.
"Why are you taking out your cursed schedule on the junior?"
"Hmph. It's the truth."
'I shouldn't have greeted them.'
Lee Han decided that from now on, he'd avoid initiating conversations with seniors who looked tired.
When exhausted, they tended to be sharper than usual.
'This must be Professor Bendozol's class, right?'
Shifting his gaze to the next class, the name Terribly Beautiful Creatures caught his eye.
Just from the title alone, it was highly likely to be Professor Bendozol's doing.
Even the location—the western Nightmare Echo Forest, quite far from the main building—was suspicious.
This forest had gained notoriety among even second-years after a group of White Tiger Tower and Black Turtle Tower students nearly went missing last year while foraging for food.
All sorts of vengeful spirits and spectral monsters roamed freely, driving out any intruders.
While most professors at Einrogard weren't exactly sane, one who'd hold class in such a place was rare even among them.
Lee Han followed the narrow path. The route itself wasn't particularly difficult, as he'd been here several times before.
Unless one ventured deep into the mountain range, a second-year at Einrogard wouldn't get lost on flat ground.
'It's strangely quiet.'
Having recently stepped into a trap left behind by a mad mage's clone in the Dark Forest with Diret, Lee Han couldn't help but feel cautious.
"Sharkan."
Summoning his familiar, Lee Han proceeded slowly, scanning his surroundings.
Not stopping at just summoning Sharkan, he also conjured a Light Orb atop his staff and cast several Enhancement Magic spells.
Yet despite all these precautions, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
'Was I overreacting?'
If there had been any threat or enemy, they would've shown themselves by now. With no attacks or sensed presences, Lee Han wondered if he'd been mistaken.
After walking for some time,
a large clearing within the forest came into view. It was the designated location for today's lecture.
As expected, Professor Bendozol stood there with his arms crossed, waiting for the students with a displeased expression.
"Professor. Good day."
"...Gah, what the—?! How did you get here?!"
At Lee Han's greeting, the professor startled and shouted in surprise. He hadn't anticipated any student arriving this quickly.
Lee Han, in turn, was even more bewildered by the reaction.
"The lecture is about to start, isn't it? Of course I arrived. But..."
Lee Han glanced around the clearing and belatedly realized there was no one else there.
Something was off.
If this were a Black Magic lecture, he could understand attending it alone. But even if Professor Bendozol was eccentric, a course like Terribly Beautiful Creatures usually had some degree of popularity.
So why was the clearing empty?
"Why is there no one else here?"
"Because they haven't arrived yet. Is that even a question? More importantly, how did you get here?"
"...Were there traps along the way?"
"Traps?! Those weren't even traps! Just a little test!"
Lee Han pressed relentlessly, recognizing the professor's shameless words from somewhere recent.
As a result, he managed to grasp a little of what this Terribly Beautiful Creatures course was about.
Originally, this lecture was always held in dangerous locations within Einrogard's territory.
Under normal circumstances, the creatures could have been brought to the students, but Professor Bendozol had put a bit more thought into it.
The rarer and more powerful the creature, the more likely it was to inhabit dangerous areas—so visiting them in person was more beneficial.
Of course, the students weren't easily convinced by Professor Bendozol's reasoning. Many would always arrive late or drop out entirely.
Though his heart ached at times from such irresponsible students, the professor stubbornly stuck to his teaching methods.
This time, for instance, he had specifically chosen a day when the mana lingering in the Nightmare Echo Forest was at its peak and had even riled up the monsters to make them more aggressive.
Without his own philosophy on education, it would have been impossible to remain this dedicated.
'...'
This is bad. It's even crazier than I expected.'
Lee Han felt his stomach drop.
He had anticipated some level of madness from Professor Bendozol's lecture, but this surpassed his expectations.
Having to venture into a new dangerous location for every lecture?
"Why aren't you answering?! How did you get here?!"
"I just walked."
"You just walked? No ambushes? No vengeful spirits? No ghostly hordes?"
"None."
"......"
Professor Bendozol stared at Lee Han with eyes full of shock and disbelief.
He couldn't accept that all his meticulous preparations had had no effect on this student.
"Impossible! You damned spirits! Don't tell me you're cowardly picking your targets?!"
As the professor flailed about, analyzing where he had gone wrong, Lee Han posed another question.
"Professor. I have something I'm curious about."
"Griffin? Basilisk? Unicorn?"
"None of those."
"Then what is it?!"
"Just wondering—if the other students arrive late, how will the lecture proceed?"
"If they can't make it in time, we'll just hold it on the weekend."
Professor Bendozol answered irritably.
He had no desire to teach students on weekends, but Einrogard's rules left him no choice.
A truly unfortunate affair.
"I see."
"Wait, come here! I need to check why the monsters didn't even show up—"
Mid-sentence, Professor Bendozol realized the boy from the Wardanaz family had already vanished back into the forest.
To his astonishment, the boy had gone to fetch the other students!
