Episode 855
Episode 855
"No. Not now."
After enduring once more, Lee Han suddenly felt afraid.
Was he being excessively patient now?
What if instead of saving it for the perfect opportunity that would come later, he ended up never using it until graduation?
'...That won't happen. The chance to use it will definitely come.'
"Start by learning <Vible's Departure Enchantment>. Hurry. Why haven't you learned it yet?"
"Then why haven't you completed the automatic flying sailing ship yet, Professor?"
"Th-that's because it's difficult!"
Professor Verdus felt an unbearable sense of injustice at his disciple's harsh words.
How could someone say something so cruel?
"Hmph. This is difficult too."
"This isn't difficult!"
"Then the sailing ship isn't difficult either?"
"I told you it's difficult!?"
Engaging in an argument that was hard to believe was between a dignified magic academy professor and his student, Lee Han quickly skimmed through the magic.
Fortunately, upon reading it carefully, <Vible's Departure Enchantment> wasn't as difficult as he thought.
'...Wait. What did I just think??'
Lee Han felt a chill run down his spine.
How could this complex, 4th-circle magic not feel difficult to him!?
Ever since his first year, he had been handling all sorts of miscellaneous tasks assigned by Professor Verdus, and in order to complete them, he had to learn additional magic on the side. As a result, his foundation had become excessively solid.
Starting with <Vible's Mana Emission Enchantment>, the spells he had been forced to learn were also helping him understand this one by sheer necessity.
"It's not difficult! Are you listening?"
When Professor Verdus snapped beside him, Lee Han snapped back.
"Damn it, it's not difficult! Happy now!?"
"Y-yeah."
Professor Verdus flinched when Lee Han suddenly flared up. He sensed the same murderous intent from his disciple that he occasionally felt from Professor Garcia.
Grumbling continuously, Lee Han mastered the spell.
"Not difficult... What the hell. This makes no sense."
'Is he insane?'
For the first time, Professor Verdus felt fear.
His disciple's inexplicable behavior, which defied all logic, terrified him.
"The magic embedded here is <Vible's Mana Amplification Enchantment>, right?"
"Yeah."
"And this is <Curvature>, this is <Acceleration>?"
"Yeah."
"Could you write properly?"
"If you could recognize it, then it's written properly. What are you talking about?"
"..."
"I'm done."
Lee Han abruptly stood up from his seat.
He was already furious that the magic was so easy, and now the professor had provoked him further.
Professor Verdus was startled.
"What? Why?"
"Because you don't write properly."
"But you recognized it! What's the problem?"
"I don't care. I'm leaving."
"I'll pay you for your work as promised with Kettle!?"
Professor Verdus scrambled, darting left and right to block Lee Han's path.
With any other student, he could have just let them go and found a replacement, but not this one.
Regardless, Lee Han ignored him, sidestepped, took out his staff, and dispelled the magical barrier.
"I'll write properly! I'll write properly!"
"Hmph. I'll be watching."
The disciple finally stopped and sat back down. Professor Verdus grumbled under his breath.
"If you recognized it, that's enough. Why be so inefficient..."
"I'm leaving."
"No! No! No!"
Bwoooong—
Watching the object floating in midair, Lee Han's eyes sparkled with admiration.
Then, suddenly curious, he asked:
"Professor. Why aren't we using a sailboat, and instead making me build a new one to float?"
The object currently hovering in the air was a hastily made wooden raft using one of the stable's pillars. Lee Han wondered if this was even acceptable.
'Probably not.'
He made a mental note to report Professor Verdus' name to the Spire Stablekeeper when they inevitably tracked down the culprit. Then, he asked:
"No! No! No!"
Whoooosh—
Lee Han watched the object floating in midair with an admiring gaze. Then suddenly, a question occurred to him.
"Professor. Why aren't you launching the sailboat yourself and making me create a new one to launch instead?"
The object currently floating in the air was a hastily made wooden raft using one of the stable pillars. Lee Han wondered if this was even acceptable. 'Probably not.' He resolved that if the stablemaster later tracked down the culprit, he would definitely report Professor Verdus' name. With that thought, Lee Han asked his question.
"You'll only understand the exact difference if you try it yourself."
Professor Verdus' reason for bringing Lee Han along was simple.
1. Board Lee Han onto the small sailboat.
2. Have Lee Han overload the magic circle installed on the small sailboat with mana.
3. Use the secured mana to test spells like <Vible's Departure Enchantment> or <Vible's Flight Enchantment>.
4. If unexpected situations arise, Lee Han on the sailboat immediately stabilizes it by injecting mana into the backup magic circle.
5. If even that fails, take over control.
6. Under no circumstances should it be destroyed!
"So you're really just recording from below, Professor?"
"I'll be casting spells too."
"And the mana will be maintained using the mana I provide?"
"Yep."
Instead of getting angry anew, Lee Han simply nodded. Truthfully, there was no reason to be upset that the professor was entrusting everything—preparation, execution, verification, and recording—to his student.
That was just the kind of person the professor was.
"Then let's begin."
"Clear the empty space in the center of the deck. Casting now!"
Professor Verdus pulled out a spell scroll and precisely threw it into the empty space at the center of the deck.
This empty space was part of the ship's magic circle, modified so that it could be moved solely by the professor's magic instead of steering the wheel.
The moment a spell was cast here, the departure would begin.
Whooooom—
Mana was drawn out from the mana-securing magic circle installed on the small sailboat.
Thanks to Lee Han's additional mana overloading, securing surplus mana was easily achievable.
If not, they would have had to dismantle the entire magic circle and reconstruct it for autonomous operation. Artifacts like this required extremely precise mana calculations, making the addition of new spells quite complex.
"Go! Departure Enchantment!"
Professor Verdus shouted while bouncing excitedly.
The small sailboat began to rise purely by the force of magic, untouched by Lee Han. Lee Han observed its movements intently.
If it ascended differently from the wooden raft he had cast earlier, it would mean an unexpected situation had occurred.
'It matches.'
"How is it?! It matches, right?!"
"Yes!"
"Great!"
Professor Verdus signaled for a landing. When Lee Han dropped the anchor inside, the sailboat slowly descended.
"This is amazing. Just seeing it float in the air—doesn't that mean it's fully autonomous?"
"That's the easiest part. Plus, small sailboats like this have fewer margins for error."
The more spells overlapped, the more conflicts and errors increased.
It was only natural that a much smaller sailboat would function better than a massive sailing ship.
"Alright. Next is <Vible's Flight Enchantment>."
"Understood. What should I do?"
"Same as before—learn it again."
"......"
Lee Han glared at Professor Verdus with murderous intent. The professor flusteredly defended himself.
"It's only natural!"
Grumbling with palpable irritation, the professor's student began learning again.
After an even shorter learning period than before, Lee Han succeeded in casting <Vible's Flight Enchantment> on the wooden raft.
"Oh. It's moving. Can't we increase the speed further from here?"
"That requires adding more spells. Fun, isn't it?"
"No."
Though Lee Han found it somewhat entertaining, he flatly denied it. Professor Verdus grumbled.
"You're having fun..."
"I'm leaving."
"W-Wait! No! Fine, let's do something boring! Here, get back on!"
Afraid his student might flee, Professor Verdus hurriedly boarded him onto the sailboat again.
Once aboard, Lee Han activated the departure spell scroll as before, and after ascending, he triggered the flight spell scroll.
The sailboat began moving through the sky without any commands. Unlike earlier, there were jerky, wobbling movements.
'The mana is fluctuating.'
Being on the sailboat, Lee Han could react far faster than Professor Verdus.
There were several spots on the sailboat's magic circles where the mana was flickering. It was clear that the newly added magic was causing issues.
'Is this hull reinforcement magic? This one seems like wind resistance magic. No. Why would we need corrosion prevention magic when we're flying over the sea? If it really doesn't work, I should just turn it off. For now, it seems manageable.'
"If it doesn't work, pour mana into the backup magic circle! It's shaking a lot!"
"It seems fine for now!"
Lee Han shouted downward and relayed what he had just figured out.
Seeing that his student was handling things better than expected, Professor Verdus, pleased, decided to gift him with additional work.
"Good job! If you can figure it out from there, just record it!"
"......"
Lee Han fell silent at the sight of his professor offloading even the one task he was solely responsible for onto his student. 'I shouldn't have said anything...'
As Lee Han recorded the findings, Professor Verdus grew excited at the sight of his capable student. Seeing him perform even better than expected, he thought he could entrust him with more tasks in the future.
"Landing!"
Professor Verdus signaled. Lee Han nodded and prepared to land.
"Ah!"
"What's wrong?"
"Look! It's Lagesa!"
Professor Verdus pointed far below. Unlike those leaving through the 7th floor, Lagesa was boldly heading toward the main gate with her pirate slaves in tow.
At the sight, Professor Verdus was slightly taken aback.
"She's leaving earlier than expected?"
"Should I deliver it now?"
"No! We just started! We haven't even fixed the issues that just came up! Come down now!"
Professor Verdus flatly refused his student's suggestion with a wave of his hand. Whether Lagesa was disappointed or not, the important thing was completing a better product.
"...Wait. Where are you going? Hey! Where are you going?!"
Professor Verdus, who had been waiting for his student to land, was stunned.
The small sailboat was flying not toward the stable but in the opposite direction!
"Come back! I said come back!"
Lagesa, walking toward the main gate, turned her surprised gaze toward the small dinghy flying toward her from behind. 'What's this? Is Vible attacking me or something?'
Judging by the sailboat's appearance, it was the one Professor Verdus had been working on.
When Lee Han suddenly leaped down from it, Lagesa was even more astonished.
"What's this?"
"Lady Lagesa. Professor Verdus has finally completed his work and sent me to deliver it."
"..."
Don't lie to me!"
'How did she know?' Lee Han was amazed at Lagesa's reaction. How did she figure it out?
"Actually, he hasn't finished it yet. I stole it to deliver it to you."
"..."
Explain in detail."
Lagesa spoke with a completely bewildered expression.
Lee Han briefly explained the situation—Professor Verdus had completed it to some extent, but in his own opinion, he was still being too greedy...
"Is this guy insane?!"
At Lagesa's reaction, even the pirate slaves chained behind her instinctively nodded in agreement.
Even to pirates who had plundered all sorts of things at sea, this sounded like madness.
Truly, all mages were nothing but lunatics.
"So?"
"If I left him to it, he'd just keep making more enemies for himself, so I stole it and brought it out like this."
Lagesa burst into laughter.
After laughing for a long while, the old pirate cackled and said,
"Vible may be lacking in many things, but he's got some real luck with his students. He always picks ones just like himself, but this time, it seems a stroke of good fortune blew his way..."
"Actually, I didn't do it for Professor Verdus. I brought it out for the sake of the Empire's justice."
"If you ever change your mind, come find me in the Southern Imperial Privateer Fleet. I'll let you plunder to your heart's content by the side of Torgerd's daughter."
Lee Han was briefly tempted but quickly dismissed the idea.
No matter how he thought about it, piracy was hardly a stable profession under the Empire.
"Thanks, kid. This was an unexpected gift. With this, my visit to Einrogard has been thoroughly satisfying."
As she spoke, Lagesa held out the sailboat to Lee Han.
Lee Han was startled.
"Are you giving it back to the professor?!"
"Are you out of your mind? Why would I give it to Vible?"
Lagesa's expression turned serious. Lee Han immediately apologized.
"My apologies."
"I'm giving it to you, kid. If what Vible said is true, you can improve it further, right?"
"I don't have the skill to refine it like Professor Verdus..."
"You'll have it in a year, I bet."
"......"
"Half a year? Three months?"
"No."