Episode 977
Episode 977
At first, Golem Senior thought it might be a joke.
But his junior's eyes were deadly serious. Overwhelmed by that gaze, Golem Senior did his best to answer.
"Ah, I think it might be difficult. Predicting divination mages superior to yourself is inherently challenging, you see."
Fundamentally, divination magic was born from peering into uncertain futures, making its foundation fragile and precarious.
Even predicting relatively stable futures required meticulous preparation—so what about futures entangled with multiple unpredictable variables like other divination mages?
From that point onward, the strain on the mage increased exponentially.
Needless to say, predicting divination mages superior to oneself was an entirely different matter.
'Ugh.'
Lee Han gritted his teeth in frustration.
"...The more I learn magic, the more I tremble at the inherent incompleteness of this discipline."
"What excellent insight."
The passing Crazy Doppelganger praised him with evident satisfaction.
Lately, he'd been quite pleased seeing his disciple abandon pointless distractions and devote himself to magic.
Perhaps he'd finally come to his senses.
'I want to punch him.'
As Lee Han glared disrespectfully at the back of his teacher's head, the Brass Golem hastily called his junior over.
"Junior. Come here. I'll teach you diligently, like the radiant heat of a newborn star."
"...You really don't need to take those words seriously. Just forget about them."
But Golem Senior had already made up his mind.
Truthfully, from the Brass Golem's perspective, there wasn't much difference between the Skeleton Principal and his Crazy Doppelganger.
Both were archmages, both were eccentric, and both were highly likely to raise hell if disobeyed.
If he'd been ordered to teach diligently, then teach diligently he must.
"Guest stars are inherently harder to observe than regular stars."
"That's what I figured."
Lee Han replied in a resigned tone.
If they were easier to observe than ordinary stars, why would the Crazy Doppelganger have assigned this task?
"But precisely because of that, they can foresee more destructive and anomalous futures. Many historically renowned divination mages excelled at augury using guest stars. There were times they foresaw futures other mages couldn't perceive."
Lee Han wanted to ask how many of them had contracted with Guest Star Arna, but he held back.
Hearing the answer would only depress him further.
"If you learn to read omens of the future from a guest star's movements, junior, you'll be able to avoid many misfortunes yet to come."
"Including my teacher's approaches?"
"Like I said, predicting divination mages superior to yourself is difficult."
The senior remained as unyielding as a golem should be. He wouldn't falsely confirm what was clearly untrue.
"Now. Grab your observation artifact and try to detect any trace of a guest star. Otherwise, who knows what the Headmaster might do."
A skilled divination mage knows not to rely solely on magic.
The Brass Golem Senior predicted the future without even using divination magic.
Not that it helped Lee Han much.
'I miss Senior Diret...'
To think a senior would cave to authority and sell out his junior like this.
Then again, it was Diret Senior who was the unusual one—the Brass Golem Senior wasn't inherently bad.
What Einrogard student would dare defy the Skeleton Principal's (or his clone's) orders? Lee Han himself was following them obediently after all.
Grumbling to himself, Lee Han grasped the elongated telescope-shaped artifact, <Star Guide>.
Thanks to the Yacha King, he knew exactly how to use it.
The thought that the damned yacha might later boast about being the reason for his success made him inexplicably irritated.
'This one.'
As Lee Han manipulated the artifact, he spotted a star moving with a long trailing tail—distinct in both movement and appearance from nearby stars.
Yet simply finding the star didn't immediately reveal the future. Lee Han took his time observing carefully.
'Huh... I think I see something?'
The comet's motion twisted as if conjuring illusions. Blinking, Lee Han realized the comet's movement hadn't actually changed.
It was only his own vision that had changed.
'...'
So this is how it is? It's not as difficult as I thought.'
Making a contract with a star had been far more challenging than this.
He'd had to search through countless stars to find one willing to form a contract with him.
After countless hardships, Lee Han had finally found the Guest Star Arna—but that wasn't the end of it.
He'd had to endure its scorching power until the contract was fully established.
It was only thanks to his mana holding out that he hadn't been burned to ashes along the way.
Compared to that, divining the future by observing a star's movements was much easier.
All he had to do was find the star, observe its movements, and wait until the vision of the future appeared.
'I should look again.'
-&@$^(!*!&!-$@%%$!
'...?'
A noise echoed from afar.
In this silent sea of stars and darkness, such a disturbance shouldn't have been possible—so it had to be coming from the classroom.
Lee Han stopped focusing and turned off the artifact. Then, he turned around.
"What's going on?"
Whoosh—!
"Aaaah! Rebound! It's rebounding!"
"I told you not to stare at the scorching stars too much!"
"......"
One of the seniors was now ablaze due to a star's curse.
Divination was fundamentally a type of magic with strong backlash, and even when borrowing a star's power, that backlash didn't disappear entirely.
If one let their guard down too much, they could end up suffering like this.
The Brass Golem Senior grabbed the burning junior and extinguished the flames before speaking.
"I did tell you to transform into a Flame Maw this month."
"B-but that's just too ugly..."
"Ah. Junior, were we too loud?"
The Golem Senior noticed Lee Han's gaze and asked. Lee Han shook his head.
"I was just wondering what was happening."
"You didn't lose the trail because of this, did you?"
"No."
'Guess he hasn't found it yet.'
From the junior's answer, the Brass Golem concluded that he still hadn't found the trace.
Not that it was surprising.
Wandering stars were among the hardest to locate, and finding one that resonated with one's own spiritual energy was even more difficult.
The Golem Senior couldn't possibly have imagined that his junior had already contracted with the most powerful wandering star.
Unfortunately, when the junior had come to report to the professors last time, they had all fled the workshop.
Back then, Professor Verdus had made Professor Paselet so furious that even the Golem Senior had no choice but to retreat.
But unbeknownst to him, the junior had already moved past tracking traces and was now seeing visions in the star's movements.
Just as the Crazy Doppelganger had said, it was only possible because he was beloved by the wandering stars.
"Ah, Senior. What happens if you're interrupted while observing a star's future?"
The Golem Senior was taken aback by the junior's question.
Predicting the future through a star's movements was a form of divination—what did he think would happen if the divination was interrupted?
At best, he'd simply fail to see the result. At worst, the backlash would rebound onto the caster.
"That's what you're asking? You're a third-year... Wait, no, you're not. My bad."
"The chatter is getting long."
"My apologies. Everyone, back to your positions!"
The Golem Senior, who had been about to explain, quickly sent the juniors back to their places at the Crazy Doppelganger's words.
Lee Han tilted his head.
'Guess it's not a big deal.'
Even when he'd been interrupted earlier, there had clearly been no major issue. He picked up the artifact again and searched for the comet he'd seen before.
As he focused, a familiar vision slowly began to rise—
-&$$$
* * *
^!-$$@%%!
'Huh? What now?'
Distracted once more by the noise from the classroom, Lee Han stopped concentrating.
Beyond mere curiosity, as a mage, he was genuinely interested in what kind of backlashes one might face while observing stars.
Wouldn't it be better to know in advance so he could prepare?
As Lee Han turned off the artifact and stood up, the distant comet flickered faintly.
It was surely just a coincidence—but for some reason, that flicker carried a distinctly displeased emotion.
"...Did you find the trace?"
As the lecture was coming to an end, the Brass Golem helped up a collapsed student (who had unfortunately glimpsed a future where they wouldn't graduate) and approached Lee Han.
"Yes."
"Great!... Wait. What's wrong? Did something happen?"
The Golem Senior realized his junior was making an extremely serious expression.
He seemed to be glaring intensely at some doodles drawn on paper.
"What are these scribbles? Surely they're not... traces of stars you drew."
"It's a simple sketch of the future I saw."
"......"
As the senior stared hard at the doodles trying to comprehend what they depicted, Lee Han explained:
"It looks like this because I drew it simply. Given more time, it would turn out much better."
"Let's just use magic... Draw what you actually want to show!"
After sprinkling black powder and chanting a spell, the powder spread across the white paper to form an image.
The content of that image was truly shocking.
It depicted the humanoid Skeleton Principal and the junior engaged in battle against each other.
"......"
So shocked was the Brass Golem Senior that he completely overlooked the fact that his junior hadn't just found traces of a wandering star but had actually glimpsed the future.
Normally, this alone would have been astonishing enough, but the image before his eyes now was several times more shocking.
What in the world...?
"Is... is that really the Headmaster or just a doppelganger?"
"Does that matter?"
"Of course it mat... Hmm. Maybe it doesn't."
The Golem Senior understood his junior's point.
If you're seeing a future where you die, what matters is why you die - not whether it's by an Empire Western Mountain sword or Eastern Mountain sword.
"I tried divining again by focusing on the stars, but they wouldn't show me anything else."
"Stellar divination shows the future when the stars will it, not when the mage wills it. It's one of the more passive forms of divination magi... Wait, so you found a star and saw the future too?!"
"Senior. Is that really important right now?"
"Well... I suppose not."
The Golem Senior felt wronged but couldn't argue.
Honestly, what could possibly matter before such a shocking image? Even if an earthquake hit the workshop, he'd probably ignore it.
"Senior. Help me."
"H-how can I...? If I face the Headmaster, I'll be turned into a brass ingot with one finger."
"...I'm not asking you to fight for me. I'm asking for advice like last time - ways to change this future."
Lee Han was dead serious.
Truthfully, Lee Han wasn't as shocked as the Golem Senior.
Because that image actually had several possible interpretations.
For example: Lee Han keeps focusing on useless Einrogard exams until the enraged Crazy Doppelganger attacks him while he's learning magic...
Given how often similar things had happened before, their levels of shock were bound to differ. Though from the Golem Senior's perspective, this was still shocking. 'To see such a future and not go mad... Is this what genius looks like?' If it were him, he'd have gone running out screaming 'The end is commmmmmming!' upon seeing such a future. That level of composure...
Perhaps taking all those school courses had already driven him mad. The Golem Senior nodded with renewed determination.
"You're right! Trembling in fear won't help anything."
"This time I'll definitely be prepared. Even if I have to swing my staff at any imperial relatives who approach..."
Lee Han steeled his resolve to actually swing his staff this time whenever imperial family members got too close.
"No. Doing it like last time won't work."
"Huh? Why not?"
"This is a much clearer and stronger future prediction than before. A few prohibitions won't be enough to change something like this."
Seeing his junior's darkening expression, the Golem Senior spoke again:
"But it's not impossible. A true Divination mage relies not on magic but on wisdom. The answer lies in the future you saw, junior."
"!"
"Look. Here."
The Golem Senior pointed to the top right corner of the image.
A strange starlight was shining down upon Lee Han's head.
"This symbol can be interpreted two ways. Either you made a pact with the star to oppose the Headmaster, or you fell into the star's trap. Probably the latter since it's unlikely to be the former. So you should be careful of situations where..."
"...That's actually the star I made a contract with."