“Lee Han! Senior Diret! Principal!”
Gainando ignored the evil dark mage’s words and called out, one by one, for the most dependable people he knew.
The Ninth Descendant of Ahrak heard that and became puzzled.
‘Wasn’t he Mortum’s disciple? Why isn’t he calling for Mortum?’
It was not a particularly important question. The old dark mage simply assumed Gainando was so terrified that he had gotten confused.
-Listen carefully. You rescued me when I was trapped in that basement by a wicked scheme. I swore that I would pass all of my dark magic on to you, so naturally I must fulfill that oath!
“C-Couldn’t I just take you back to the basement and have you cancel the oath?”
The Ninth Descendant of Ahrak nearly cursed.
As expected of an Einroguard student, this brat knew exactly how to make someone unpleasant.
-Hmph. If you want to get eaten by that monster, do as you please.
“Aaagh! Aaaaaagh!”
While they were talking, the gigantic undead monster with forty-four limbs completely closed the distance.
Terrified, Gainando spotted a shallow pit nearby filled with rotten fallen leaves and threw himself into it.
-You call that camouflage? Seriously?
The Ninth Descendant spat the words out in a voice full of contempt.
No matter how frightened he was, for someone who called himself a dark mage to try shaking off pursuit with such a pathetic method...
Apparently he would only come to his senses after being eaten a few times.
But Gainando ignored the evil dark mage’s whispering and pulled ink and pigments from his reagent pouch.
-?
“Please, please, please...”
-What are you doing?
Gainando swung the ink- and pigment-covered tip of his staff and drew a pattern around the pit.
This was a spell he had discovered before while visiting the White Tiger Tower students’ food storage.
He had only been looking at some sausages and pickles, yet the vicious White Tiger Tower students had chased him with real swords, forcing Gainando to hide in a panic. In the process, his ink and pigments had spilled and formed a peculiar pattern.
Amazingly, that pattern interfered with the White Tiger Tower students’ perception and defended against detection. Even though the White Tiger Tower students had used all kinds of tracking magic, they had failed to find him.
He had not thought much of it at the time, but now this was the only method he had left.
All his other dark magic had already been broken through, so he had no choice but to place his hopes on this!
“Was it like this? No, I think it was a little different? Or maybe it was this...”
-!
As the pattern took shape, the old dark mage was startled.
‘Primitive dark magic! Someone who isn’t even one of Petroguard’s eccentrics is using primitive dark magic?!’
These days, mages who researched primitive magic requiring this kind of inspiration and luck could only be found in places like Petroguard.
There was a reason the word ‘primitive’ was attached to it.
There was also a reason no one used it anymore.
And yet this foolish-looking dark mage was reproducing primitive magic with nothing more than a handful of reagents.
The effect was excellent, too.
To reproduce this primitive magic within the current Imperial dark-magic system, one would have to combine all sorts of curses: visual distortion, auditory distortion, olfactory distortion, body-temperature distortion, perception interference, and more.
Even a low-level mage, if blessed with enough inspiration and luck, could create in a single spell an effect comparable to more than a dozen spells.
That was the true strength of primitive magic.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr...
Unable to find Gainando, the gigantic undead monster turned away as if disappointed. Gainando sniffled inside the pile of leaves.
“I rescued you... I rescued you, and this is what happens to me...”
-Listen carefully.
“It’s vacation and I still can’t even leave...”
‘That isn’t my fault, is it?’
The Ninth Descendant was dumbfounded inside.
Why was he bringing up not being able to leave during vacation here?
Still, the dark mage’s tone had grown considerably gentler.
The spell Gainando had just shown had pleased him quite a bit.
-As I said, you have talent. Stop whining and learn under me so you can become a great dark mage.
“No! How am I supposed to trust someone who summoned the Wraith Forest and trapped me here however he pleased!”
-Summoned the Wraith Forest however I pleased? What are you talking about? You summoned this.
“What?”
Gainando, who had been sniffling, froze.
-Think back to when you rescued me. What did you say?
“I don’t really remember.”
-You said you wanted the power to take revenge on the friends who abandoned you here.
“I still don’t really remember.”
-So I said that since the curse was preventing me from returning to my original form, I would at least give you a grimoire containing one of my secret arts.
At present, the Ninth Descendant had transformed into a small wooden box about the size of a snuffbox.
Originally, he had wanted to return to human form immediately, but Gainando had been unable to fully unravel the curse some professor had treacherously placed on him, so for the moment he had only managed to transform into something about the size of a wooden box.
Normally, recovering his own body should have taken priority, but although this Ninth Descendant possessed an eccentric and twisted temperament, he was sincere about keeping his oaths.
When Gainando, who was supposed to inherit his dark magic, whined that he wanted power, the Ninth Descendant had pulled out whatever he could and handed it over.
That was the grimoire containing his secret art.
Gainando had excitedly grabbed it at once.
-And then the Wraith Forest manifested.
“...Liar! Liar! I really don’t remember anything after that! Didn’t you summon it while I was unconscious?!”
Gainando could no longer pretend ignorance and shouted at the top of his lungs.
To be honest, it was true that he had asked for power.
And maybe it was also true that he had complained about his friends a little?
But he genuinely knew nothing about the descent of an other-dimensional Wraith Forest.
To be precise, his memory after grabbing the grimoire was...
-If I could use mana smoothly enough to summon this forest, do you think I would still be stuck in the form of a wooden box?
The Ninth Descendant asked in disbelief.
He had barely managed to bring out the grimoire containing the secret art. There was no way he could summon the Wraith Forest of the undead realm.
-Losing control of a powerful grimoire and having it run wild is common. What matters is not the rampage itself, but the result of that rampage.
“I think the rampage itself matters.”
-An ordinary, talentless dark mage might lose control and summon two or three skeletons, but an outstanding, talented dark mage might lose control and spread a poison swamp around the area.
“...Which is more dangerous, the Wraith Forest or a poison swamp?”
-The Wraith Forest, obviously. Didn’t I tell you? You have talent for dark magic.
The dark mage belonging to the Descendants of Ahrak did his best to persuade Gainando.
Yes, the magic had run wild, but that was not a fault.
What mattered was what result the rampage produced.
He had summoned a Wraith Forest this enormous, so as a dark mage he was fully entitled to hold his head high with confidence!
Gainando’s face hardened at those words.
“This isn’t the time to talk about talent! If I get caught, I might be locked in the punishment room until graduation!”
Gainando liked praise, but at this moment he was not happy at all.
He had summoned a Wraith Forest of this scale onto Einroguard’s grounds, so there was surely an enormous commotion outside as well.
The evil Skull Principal would never listen to Gainando’s excuses.
-You wicked brat! You caused an accident like this because you couldn’t leave during vacation?!
...He would probably say something like that!
The Ninth Descendant offered serious advice regarding Gainando’s worries.
-If that frightens you, there is a way.
“What is it? ...Will you go to the punishment room instead of me?”
Gainando’s eyes sparkled like stars.
This dark mage had been mentioning the debt of gratitude he owed for being rescued this whole time.
Maybe he would even go to the punishment room in Gainando’s place.
-As I said, the Wraith Forest belongs to the undead realm. At present, this place can be said to be an overlap between the continent of the material realm and the undead realm. In other words, if you find the right path, you can flee into the undead realm.
“So... you’re telling me to run away into the undead realm?”
-Yes. Didn’t you say you don’t want to go to the punishment room?
“......”
For a moment, Gainando seriously considered taking out the wooden box and throwing it outside.
If not for the terrifying monsters roaming the forest, he might have done it immediately.
“I said I don’t want to go to the punishment room. I didn’t say I wanted to spend my life on the run in some dangerous dimension where I could die at any time!”
-The undead realm is not such a bad place once you adapt. There are dangerous regions, of course, but there are safe regions too. I’ll introduce you to the undead realm. First, a place called <Bone Bazaar> is good. Many living people visit there. But humans tend to be looked down on, so it would be better to smear some rotten mud on your face before going in...
“I-I said I’m not going! I’d rather just go to the punishment room!”
-You’ll go to the punishment room? That isn’t bad either. We can take our time learning dark magic.
The Ninth Descendant accommodated Gainando as much as possible in order to soothe him and make him learn dark magic.
If Gainando wanted to enter the punishment room, that was not bad either.
It was an excellent place to settle down and study dark magic seriously.
One advantage of dark magic was that it was easy to practice even in prison.
Other schools of magic did not have that luxury.
“......”
Gainando wondered whether this wooden box was actually Lee Han transformed into something else.
‘Could this be some evil artifact Lee Han secretly left behind so I wouldn’t slack off?’
“I’m not staying in the punishment room for long. Even if I have to write ten times as many reflection letters, I’m getting out quickly!”
-As long as you can learn dark magic, I don’t care.
“And I’m already learning a ton of magic, you know? It’s hard to add even more on top of that.”
If a friend taking two schools, three schools, or every single school heard that, they would have been furious.
But none of his friends were here, so Gainando could shamelessly insist on it.
-You’ll have to learn.
“Why?”
-The Wraith Forest’s negative energy will grow stronger as time passes, and the dark element will become more poisonous. It will not be easy to escape at your current level. Your only choice is to learn quickly.
“...Lee Han! Senior Diret! Principal!!!”
Gainando once again began shouting toward the outside of the forest.
***
Irendi of House Kraha, one of the rare Valdrogard students majoring in magic, had no idea that a distant relative of theirs was lost in the Wraith Forest and was instead fully focused on persuasion.
“Think carefully, Basiu. You were interested in magic too, weren’t you? Ingsen. Your Fire-Gold Bird summoning magic was praised by everyone. Come listen to the lectures with me!”
Irendi was deeply worried that the newly arriving Professor Wardanaz might become disappointed and leave Valdrogard.
Even from Irendi’s own perspective, there were far too few students who were genuinely enthusiastic about magic.
That was why students like Basiu and Ingsen, who had practiced magic before, were prime targets for active recruitment.
“Senior. I no longer have any aspirations toward magic. My heart belongs solely to theater.”
“...Why? You were good at magic...”
At those words, bitter smiles appeared on both their faces.
It was as though they were recalling painful, difficult memories.
“That’s what I thought. Before I met an Einroguard student.”
“......”
The two began recounting what had happened before.
To avenge the upper-years who had been treacherously ambushed during the festival, the two of them had gone looking for Einroguard students.
But the result had been miserable.
-S-Such magical skill. Are you perhaps the top student in your year?
-What? Gainando, top of the year? Are you people insane?
The student they had assumed was the top of the year turned out to be perfectly ordinary by Einroguard standards...
-Lord Lee Han of House Wardanaz. I will show you my magic!
-Is it perhaps Fire-Gold Bird Summoning? It would be better not to use cypress bark or corundum powder together with it. I can recommend a better method.
The secret spell they had proudly brought out had turned into the other person’s lecture topic.
After that, every single action of the Einroguard students brutally shattered the two students’ worldview.
“If not for a student named Nillia, we wouldn’t even have managed to escape the mansion. She told us that if we crawled through the bushes, we could leave through the front gate without leaving any traces.”
“Even thinking about it now, really...”
The two students’ eyes reddened.
Irendi regretted listening.
The fact that their juniors had escaped by crawling through bushes was something they had never wanted to know.
“But who exactly is this new professor that you’re recommending them so strongly?”
“They must be very famous.”
“Uh... um... well... not that famous! Their skill is definitely real, though! You might not know them?”