Episode 825
Episode 825
Fortunately, Falkrius heard his junior's call.
"Oh, Professor. May I step out for a moment?"
"Fine. Since no more feet are growing from the patient's wrist... Everyone can take a short break."
"Thank you. I'm a bit worried, you see. There's that wizard from the Water-Horse Mountains Magic Tower, right? I left him with my junior for a while."
"Falkrius."
"Yes, Professor."
Professor Alkasis, while burning the severed feet, said:
"Your junior will handle it just fine, so focus on your own work."
"But... he's still a second-year..."
Falkrius was flustered for the first time in a while.
Of course, Falkrius himself sometimes forgot whether Lee Han was a first or second-year, but still, he was technically a second-year.
The wizard from the Water-Horse Mountains Magic Tower was quite a tricky case—there was no telling when or how his condition might worsen.
"He's the one who cursed himself. You never know when or how things might go wrong, right?"
"That's why I said he'll handle it."
Professor Alkasis suppressed a yawn and spoke in a rough, hoarse voice.
Having gone without sleep for so long, even chugging undiluted sleep-suppressing potions mixed with insomnia curse potions couldn't stop the yawns from coming.
"Professor, if you keep this up, the students might desert you! I'll be right back!"
Falkrius flared up and stormed out of the room.
"Wait... Falkrius! Falkrius!"
The professor panicked and called after his student, but Falkrius didn't stop and left.
"Don't think you can just pretend to be angry and not come back! We're resuming in thirty minutes!"
"..."
I know!
"Falkrius huffed in response to the professor's shout."
Alkasis of the Lagrinde family was undoubtedly a respectable mage, but at times like this, he really seemed excessively harsh.
While it was true that fragile mages couldn't last long as healing mages and needed to be weeded out quickly, there had to be limits, didn't there?
At the very least, he could wait until the juniors had toughened up a bit.
If he treated them like this from the start, the already small number of second-year juniors might dwindle even further. And in Wardanaz's case, he was already attending lectures from other schools too...
"Uh, what are you doing?"
Falkrius blinked stupidly as he uttered the foolish question.
The Water-Horse Mountains Magic Tower wizard, Bajun, was pinned down, flailing and struggling in mid-air.
"Grrk! I only lost because I was ambushed! I let my guard down! If we fought properly, a second-year student wouldn't be able to subdue me like this!"
"Understood. Please stay still."
"Let me go! Let's try again!"
"No. We need to check if there's something wrong with your head first. Until then, I can't release you."
"I'm perfectly fine!? Give me back my staff!"
"Judging by your words, you don't seem fine at all. This is a warning—stay still."
"What if I don't stay sti—Ghk! Keuhk! Hahk, I surrender!"
Bajun, who had no idea that the psychokinesis restraining him was being used at a lenient level, quickly cried out as the force tightened around his neck, arms, and legs.
What kind of second-year could wield such powerful magic?
"Ah, Senior. Did you see?"
"Uh..."
Uh-huh. I'm here. But... uh... did the curse reach his head?
"Falkrius wondered if Bajun had gone berserk due to the curse and Lee Han had subdued him while he wasn't looking."
No. I already healed the curse, but he suddenly started saying strange things, so I called you. Could you check on him?
"?"
Hearing his junior's words, Falkrius was at a loss for where to even begin pointing things out.
"What did you just say?"
"About the strange things he said?"
"No. Before that. You healed the curse?"
"Yes."
"......"
Falkrius rushed over to Bajun in an instant.
Bajun, now gripped by Falkrius's pot-lid-sized hands, coughed and wheezed as he shouted:
"G-gently... please..."
"I am holding back."
"Ah. My apologies. I was holding you with Psychokinesis."
Lee Han apologized and released Bajun's collar. Bajun shot him a sidelong glare.
Falkrius quickly performed several magical examinations on the patient, starting with trauma checks, then moving on to soul inspections, astral projections, and even Spirit detection.
And incredibly, not a single trace of the curse remained. Bajun was perfectly fine.
"Com... completely cured, junior! What on earth did you do?!"
"Huh? Is his head alright too?"
"Yes!"
"See, I told you so!!"
Lee Han released the remaining Psychokinesis with a suspicious look in his eyes. Bajun huffed and stood up.
"You definitely said some strange things earlier... Like asking where the prisoner was..."
"T-that was just because I was shocked!"
"And then you suddenly called me a saint..."
"W-well... isn't that just a natural, conscientious reaction?!"
Bajun, who had been trying to defend himself, suddenly choked up.
No matter what else, this wasn't a slip of the tongue—it was a perfectly justified response. Anyone in his position would've said the same thing!
"Why would a saint appear out of nowhere?"
Falkrius looked at Lee Han with a bewildered expression.
"That kid didn't purify or weaken the curse—he just absorbed it into himself! Calling him a saint is only natural... Gahk!"
Before he could even finish speaking, Falkrius grabbed Bajun's collar with both fists and lifted him into the air.
"Did you put him up to this?!"
"Gahk, no! No...! He did it on his own...!"
"How the hell would a second-year know how to do something like that, you damn Water-Horse Mountain lunatic?!"
"Uh. I did it on my own, Senior."
"...Oh. Really?"
Falkrius, flustered by Lee Han's words, quickly set the patient back down. Then, clearing his throat awkwardly, he added,
"Seems there was a bit of a misunderstanding. Ahem."
"Einrogard folks are all freaks, I swear..."
Bajun grumbled while rubbing his neck. He had no idea how many times he'd nearly been choked today.
Lee Han smiled amiably and said,
"It was an emergency, so mistakes were bound to happen."
'Was it really an emergency?' Bajun honestly didn't agree, but he decided to let it slide.
Truthfully, if someone had cured a curse that difficult to fix, getting his collar grabbed a few times was still a bargain.
"Right. Anyway, thanks a ton for fixing me up. And what's the big deal about being called a saint? Anyone who risks their life to save someone on the verge of ending up like Professor Verdus is a saint in my book. You are a saint, you little brat."
"Are you sure his head's alright?"
Lee Han ignored the remark and whispered to Falkrius, who gave a small nod.
"Thanks again, and I'll keep my promise. You have to visit the Water-Horse Mountains sometime. But I should get going now—my research is way behind. See you later!"
Bajun didn't even bother putting his shoes on properly before dashing toward the upper flight deck of the magic tower.
Then, he hooked a magical chain onto the talons of a passing Wyvern and was whisked away.
"You crazy mage! What the hell are you doing?! You'll be held responsible if the Wyvern's talons break!"
"Sorry! Let's go together! Just drop me off on the way to the Water-Horse Mountains!"
"Wardanaz. You absorbed someone else's curse?"
"Yes. But my resistance is strong, so it's fine."
"......"
Just because one had strong resistance didn't mean anyone could casually absorb another's curse without hesitation.
It wasn't something one could do without a strong sense of responsibility and resolve toward others.
'Professor. You were right after all.'
Falkrius realized that Professor Alkasis had indeed been observing his students properly.
He'd thought the professor was so worn out by work and fatigue that he couldn't even tell whether he was drinking coffee or black tea—but it turned out he'd been wrong.
'But why didn't he recognize it last time?'
In truth, during last winter break, Professor Alkasis had once run into Healing Magic students dressed in civilian clothes.
And he had walked right past them without recognizing them.
It was still such a shocking anecdote that it was frequently brought up among the Healing Magic students.
"Professor, you really didn't recognize us back then, right?"
"Honestly, I still suspect he doesn't remember even now..."
'He must've just been too bothered to deal with us. We misunderstood.'
Falkrius resolved to pass on what he'd just realized to his juniors.
If he was this attentive to Wardanaz, who had just arrived, there was no way he wouldn't know about the other juniors.
"Senior."
When Falkrius remained silent, Lee Han cautiously called out to him.
"Huh? What?"
"Are you angry because I treated the patient?"
"What!? No?! Why would you think that?"
"You were excited about researching unusual and interesting diseases for the past year."
"..."
Well, that's true. But that doesn't mean I'm angry you treated him!
"Flustered, Falkrius began to suspect that this junior might think of him as some kind of weirdo."
Honestly, if they were talking about weirdness, this junior—who was only a second-year—had absorbed an incompletely analyzed curse into his own body. That was far more...
"Junior. Just in case, let me warn you—you shouldn't recklessly absorb other people's curses."
Realizing that this junior was far stranger than he'd thought, Falkrius quickly issued the warning.
It was obvious advice, but it was also absolutely necessary.
"Why would I ever do something like that?"
"Then what do you call what you just did?"
"That..."
was an exception.
"Then don't absorb even exceptions so carelessly. Got it?"
"Yes..."
'He seems angry.'
"Ugh, my back hurts."
Lagesa grumbled every three seconds. Eventually, Lee Han gave in and apologized.
"I'm sorry. I called you for no reason."
"Brat. You called me on purpose, didn't you?"
"No! What kind of misunderstanding is this!?"
"Like a seasoned Einrogard student, Lee Han absolutely refused to admit it."
Lagesa smiled like a kindly grandmother and said,
"Kihihi. I was just impressed and asked out of curiosity. You can be honest. Do you really think I'd get angry over something like this? Me, the daughter of Torgerd?"
'Yes.'
Lee Han answered instantly in his mind before speaking insincerely.
"I really just called to introduce you to Lady Lagesa."
"Tch."
Lagesa clicked her tongue.
This brat wasn't just ordinarily cunning—he wouldn't fall for any trap unless it was exceptionally well-laid. If he'd been a pirate, he would've become a pirate hunter.
"I was too busy helping Alkasis to properly look around. Anything interesting happen?"
"Nothing much. There was a mage from the Water-Horse Mountains..."
"Ah, you mean Bajun? We once made bets on how many curses that brat could withstand."
Lee Han was slightly surprised to hear the name of a more famous mage than he'd expected.
"Yes. That's him. I treated him."
"How? It couldn't have been easy."
"I absorbed the curse."
"......"
Lagesa was too shocked to speak.
From the sheer audacity to absorb a curse severe enough to warrant being brought to Einrogard, to actually possessing the magic capable of absorbing it—
Both were unbelievable feats.
But the most shocking thing was that all of this had happened right behind her back without her noticing at all.
"You should've told me, you brat! Should I hang you from the mast!? Or turn you into another Bible!?"
"Ah, no! You were busy!"
"No matter how busy I was, I should've seen that! That's the whole reason I came! Now I've just become some work-obsessed fool!"
After fuming for a while, Lagesa calmed down and asked,
"When's your next lecture?"
"1..."
"1 hour later?"
"No. 1 minute later. You'll have to run."
"..."
R-Right.
"Lee Han, who had been running ahead, suddenly stopped."
What's wrong?
"Uh, I think it's better if I go to this lecture alone. Lady Lagesa, wouldn't you prefer to keep sightseeing on the 7th floor?"
"What's this about, brat?"
Lagesa grinned widely and snatched the timetable from Lee Han's hand.
She couldn't even begin to guess what kind of lecture this cunning brat wouldn't want her to attend.
'Is there a subject he's not confident in?'
It might've been something unexpected, like a liberal arts course. Magic-obsessed people were usually terrible at the Empire's etiquette.
<Staff Materials and Magic Amplification>
Professor: Vible Verdus
"......"
Lagesa's face twisted into the grimace of a pirate caught in a storm.