“Heh heh... no, ho ho ho. Then I’ll be going now. The students are waiting for me.”
Lee Han almost gave his usual insincere Einroguard-style laugh, then quickly changed it.
He had been criticized for that laugh several times recently, so it had started bothering him.
‘I don’t understand. There’s hardly any laugh better for winning people over than <heh heh heh>.’
Even though “ho ho ho” was a step below “heh heh heh” as a laugh, there was nothing he could do.
“Professor Wardanaz. It’s good that you care so much about your students, but resting is important too. If you keep this up, you might collapse first.”
“It’s fine because I can eat as much rich food as I want outside.”
“?”
“I said it’s fine because I’m resting well outside.”
‘I’m pretty sure he said something different just now?’
Lord Amaset wondered about it inwardly, but did not bother asking.
Geniuses were, by nature, a little difficult to understand.
And people from Einroguard were even harder to understand, so there was no need to say anything about a genius from Einroguard.
The elderly Imperial etiquette professor beside him supported the principal and said,
“Since you’re here to rest anyway, why not tell everyone here a little about your lectures?”
Everyone agreed.
They were all curious what kind of results the newly arrived, renowned mage had produced with the Valdrogard students.
It was common knowledge that among Valdrogard’s courses, magic lectures were the least popular.
Had Professor Wardanaz managed to overcome that?
“It wasn’t difficult. Hmm. All the students currently attending have completed their basic tests, chosen their schools, and are now studying in earnest...”
Crash!
The loud sound of a chair falling echoed through the room. Someone among those present seemed to have knocked one over.
“Th-That’s impossible!”
“They’ve entered the 1st Circle? The semester hasn’t even started yet!”
“Gods above! I can hardly believe it!”
“......”
Lee Han looked uncomfortable.
‘Is this really something worth reacting this strongly to?’
Of course, the Valdrogard students had progressed faster than expected, but objectively speaking, learning the 1st-Circle spells of their respective schools at this point was absolutely not something astonishing enough to justify such a reaction.
If you gathered people with talent for magic and pushed them hard, this was the sort of result you ought to get.
But the people who had never once pushed the Valdrogard students before were too shocked to recover.
“Professor Wardanaz! What kind of person are you?! Every single student attending your lectures has entered the 1st Circle?!”
“...Do you perhaps not know what 1st-Circle magic is?”
“To think I brought in a professor like this! I must write to Valdrogard’s patrons immediately!”
“Please don’t. I mean that sincerely.”
Lee Han felt dizzy, as if common sense itself were collapsing.
If there had been even the slightest sense of something being off around him, he would have suspected a mental attack by an evil-god worshiper.
Yet even after Lee Han said that, the people of Valdrogard remained astonished and eager to spread the news.
‘If they receive a letter like that, won’t they think it’s sarcasm...?’
Even Lee Han was not sure how people across the Empire would react to the news that every Valdrogard student had entered the 1st Circle.
Boom!
“What was that?”
“It sounded like something exploded...”
Everyone looked puzzled at the faint sound of an explosion coming from far away.
At first they thought it might be fireworks for a banquet, but the sound was far too crude for that, and more importantly, there was no visible sign of anything nearby.
If fireworks had gone off, brilliant flames should have decorated the sky.
At that moment, a paper bird flew toward Lee Han. It had been sent by his friends.
...Valdrogard students used a newly arrived student’s artifact to attempt to blow open the outer wall of the second floor...
‘Already? It hasn’t even been that long.’
Lee Han was genuinely surprised.
The Valdrogard students certainly carried around strings of expensive artifacts and reagents.
Whenever new students came in, the students already trapped inside would become fiercely determined to find some way to produce enough firepower.
Apparently their efforts had finally paid off while Lee Han was away.
‘But their perspective is still too narrow. Secrecy is the most important thing in an escape attempt like this.’
Lee Han rose from his seat.
Just in case, he planned to return to the scene personally and stop the escape.
After spending every day on the side trying to run away, being on the side that had to stop escape attempts was remarkably annoying.
‘Was the Principal like this too? No. What kind of insane thought am I having?’
It was like a mouse worrying about a cat.
“I’ll be going now. The students will be waiting for me.”
“Professor Wardanaz! You are truly the model and pride of Valdrogard professors!”
***
In truth, the Valdrogard students were a little cleverer than Lee Han had assumed.
The reason they had noisily blown through the wall without caring about the method was not to escape.
It was to send word outside.
“Look at this. It’s exactly like the magic book says. If you remove the safety mechanism from the magic circle and circulate mana through it, it overheats and goes out of control almost immediately! Magic really is an incredible field. I never imagined the cold-prevention artifact I always carried around could become a bomb like this.”
“Wait. I still don’t understand. Why are you doing anything with my artifact in the first place? And why do all of you look like that? You look like you’ve been imprisoned.”
“It’s a long story. We don’t have time, so I’ll tell you later. What about the ruby? Did you cut it into a regular dodecahedron? It has to be exact. According to the magic book, if there’s even a small mistake, the mana won’t condense and will disperse.”
“Wh-What happened to all of you? You read a magic book?”
The Valdrogard student who had just arrived only to have their artifact taken by their friends widened their eyes.
No matter how they looked at it, their friends were acting far too strangely.
It had not even been a few months since they had last seen one another, yet their eyes were blazing and their appearance was almost barbaric.
“The regular dodecahedron is finished... the reagents are all combined... Good. The concentrated fire mana will pierce through the wall like a spear!”
“Everyone, the moment the wall opens, we act. Understood?”
The Valdrogard students gathered in a corner of the second floor nodded.
From paper birds to a secretly brewed <Volume-Increasing Potion>, they intended to use every means available to call for rescue from outside.
“D-Don’t tell me. You’re going to destroy the palace wall?! What are you doing?! Mmph, mmph!”
“Be quiet. You’ll be thanking us soon enough. Here we go!”
Boom!
The moment the wall was breached, there was an immediate reaction. The Einroguard students in the courtyard rushed over in an instant, while the sound of people running could also be heard from the corridor behind them.
The Valdrogard students swallowed hard, released the paper birds, and shouted loudly toward the outside.
“Sa-ve-us!”
But what happened next was completely different from what they had expected.
Huge writhing tentacles shot out from the moat below and neatly snatched the paper birds out of the air one after another.
“There was something like that too?!”
“Why in the world are you raising something like that in the palace!!”
The Valdrogard students, who had never lived at Einroguard, could do nothing but despair.
Why would anyone raise something like that?
“It’s not over yet! Someone must have heard all this commotion!”
But people came in from the corridor first.
Jandanni, Professor Wardanaz’s henchman and a traitor to the magic school, was staring sadly at the juniors together with several other mages.
“To think you would do something like this!”
“Hmph. Senior. It’s already over. Every night, we searched through magic books looking for spells that could give us enough destructive power. We learned that if you combine a heat-granting artifact with fire-element reagents, you can create an explosion.”
Alnoev glared at Jandanni as they spoke.
Being glared at by a junior who had always respected them so much made Jandanni’s heart ache.
Unfortunately, unlike Jandanni, Alnoev had still not accepted how valuable this opportunity was and continued desperately trying to escape.
The Einroguard students behind them whispered in surprise.
-They read books every night? Maybe there really is something to the Einroguard method...
-Will you shut up? Are you a spy for the Principal?
“Alnoev! Come over to this side even now. Look at what you accomplished! You can become an even better mage!”
“The paper birds may have been stopped, but they must have heard the sound. People will be coming here any moment now!”
Alnoev solemnly pointed toward Valdrogard’s magnificent palaces.
Any moment now, people would pour out from every palace...
...but no one came.
Alnoev looked flustered.
The Einroguard students standing behind Jandanni said calmly,
“Of course we put up magic so voices shouted outside wouldn’t carry. That’s one of the basics.”
Naturally, the Einroguard students had anticipated that the Valdrogard students might try to send signals outside using sound.
It was one of the most basic methods.
The explosion had been too loud to absorb completely, but the Valdrogard students’ shouts had been absorbed perfectly.
“...Impossible! You even put up magic like that?!”
“You must never underestimate the enemy, Student Alnoev. If anything, you should overestimate them. You destroyed the palace wall, so it’s the punishment room! Take them away!”
As the Einroguard students dragged the junior away, Jandanni called out in a voice full of sorrow.
“Alnoev! Even now, devote yourself to magic! With your magical ability, you could even aim for the top rank in your year!”
“Hmph! Don’t speak to me as if we’re close anymore! I will escape no matter what!”
“Alnoev!”
‘They already seem pretty devoted to magic, though?’
The Einroguard students thought that privately but said nothing.
Honestly, every trip to the punishment room would probably make their magical ability improve dramatically...
“We need to modify this so it can block explosion sounds completely too.”
“Wait! I think I just got inspiration for my research topic!”
“...Something like <Creating a Magical Prison>?”
“No, you lunatic! I was talking about the structure of a soundproofing barrier!”
***
After some time had passed, Lee Han became able to assess the results of the lectures fairly objectively.
The Valdrogard students who had entered the palace could be divided into three groups.
The first, and by far the largest, was the passive and reluctant group.
If pushed, they would follow along for the time being, but they did not try anything beyond that. They seemed to be simply waiting for the palace doors to open someday.
The next group was much smaller than the first, but far more active.
These were the type one often saw at Einroguard.
The ones who tried to escape whenever they got bored.
Their magical ability was still quite lacking, but because they fought using all kinds of bizarre artifacts and reagents, the Einroguard students could not let their guard down. If this group joined forces with the first group, a mass escape might occur.
The final group was the smallest and rarest of all.
Surprisingly, they neither avoided the lessons nor tried to escape, but actively attempted to learn magic.
At first, Lee Han suspected that they might be members of the second group in disguise.
Einroguard students often used this kind of trick.
-Professor. I like Einroguard as much as my own home. I have absolutely no desire to leave. So, by any chance, are there secret passages that only the professors use?
-Your senior used that trick, your senior’s senior used it, your senior’s senior’s senior used it, and even the professors used it.
-...Tch!
But surprisingly, even after quite a bit of time had passed, the student in front of him had not so much as mentioned the idea of escaping.
Lee Han wondered if the student might belong to the Phoenix Tower.
‘Does Valdrogard have priests too?’
“This may be a rude question, but is your family perhaps connected to one of the Imperial orders?”
At Lee Han’s question, the Valdrogard student stared blankly, then hesitated.
That only made Lee Han more curious.
“Professor. The truth is...”
“The truth?”
“...I’m not a noble.”
The student squeezed their eyes shut as they spoke.
But the professor’s reaction was completely different from what they had expected.
“No wonder...! I thought you were far too good at magic!”
“?!!”