At the more violent reaction than expected, Lee Han felt wronged.

The seniors had rushed him into making a quick decision, and this was the response he got?

And he also did not understand why the alias Gonadaltes was such a problem.

They were all using aliases based on ancient figures—Baquantala, Iactus, and the like—so why was Lee Han the only one who was not allowed to?

Gonadaltes: Is there a problem?

Iactus: Everything is a problem. This Gona… wow. I can’t even write it. It seriously gives me chills.

Iactus shuddered as he tried to point out the problem with Lee Han’s alias.

It was a name so ominous it was hard even to write.

Magic was a theoretical and logical discipline, but at the same time, it was also a craft heavily influenced by a mage’s emotional realm.

No matter how much it was just an alias, it was still the most ominous name in the Empire.

Baquantala: An alias… is each person’s freedom. There’s nothing we can really say about it.

Iactus: Seriously? Freedom or not, there are limits. You want us to feel like we’re talking to the Skull Principal every single time?

Baquantala: I assume everyone here has enough intelligence to distinguish between an alias and reality.

Iactus: Be honest, Baquantala. You wouldn’t want to talk to Gonadaltes either. I can talk to Baquantala. Why? Because Baquantala isn’t going to break down my dorm door and drag me to the punishment ward. But Gonadaltes is a different story!

Gonadaltes: Then should I change it to Verdus?

Iactus: ……

Iactus realized that the new member was not just ordinarily insane.

What the hell is this bastard, really?

Einroguard might be vast, but to think there was a madman like this in it.

Could this be a fifth-year or sixth-year senior?

Using the Skull Principal’s name as an alias like that was impossible with ordinary madness.

Maybe only a fifth-year—no, maybe only a sixth-year—could manage something like that.

To be honest, Iactus felt like even if he reached sixth year, he still would not dare casually use the name Gonadaltes, but…

Well, that’s not something I can know.

From the standpoint of Iactus, who would absolutely never advance to fifth year, it was not something he could judge recklessly.

Iactus casually probed the new member.

Iactus: Could it be the enchantment magic school?

Gonadaltes: Correct. How did you know?

No, then.

Iactus clicked his tongue.

Professor Verdus’s infamy was not limited to the enchantment magic school. Students of other schools all knew very well about Professor Verdus’s notoriety too.

Most likely, the reason this insane senior had brought up Professor Verdus’s name was precisely because he was not from the enchantment magic school.

If he were from the enchantment magic school, he would have avoided it on purpose.

Iactus himself had deliberately chosen an unrelated alias, so he was certain.

Baquantala: In any case, we all gathered here to stand against the tyranny of a despot, did we not? We cannot go on trembling forever over a single alias. This seems like a good opportunity. Let everyone overcome their fear this time.

Iactus: That’s not wrong, I guess. Why stop there? Why not hang a skull from your ceiling while you sleep too?

Though he grumbled, Iactus had half given up on changing the alias of the newly joined member.

There was no way a senior with a personality like that would give up such stubbornness over a few words from Iactus.

Besides, by the club’s own rules, what alias one used was each member’s freedom, so there was not much more he could say.

Iactus: Do whatever you want, whatever you want. I’m just worried everyone’s going to drop dead of heart failure later.

Baquantala: If they’re members here, they should be able to endure that much.

Gonadaltes: Right, right.

Iactus: ……

It felt like the insane new senior was giving him a headache already. Iactus made up his mind quickly.

I need to change the subject fast.

Iactus: So then, do you happen to have any news you can share to celebrate joining?

Gonadaltes: What kind of thing?

Iactus: Anything’s fine. Like a missing professor returning, or a forgotten lecture starting up again, or where the Skull Principal’s treasure is hidden… I’ll pay well, so go ahead and say whatever you’ve got.

Gonadaltes: Professor Bendozol has returned. And the time magic lecture has started again.

“!!!!”

Iactus was startled by information beyond anything he had expected.

Professor Bendozol had returned, and the time magic lecture had started again?!

The latter had little to do with him, but the former did.

Just how did Gonadaltes know facts like these?

That makes sixth year almost certain.

Iactus: Is that really true?!

Gonadaltes: I’m not the type to lie about something that could be confirmed with just a little checking.

After writing that far, Lee Han quietly began scheming.

Now that he had gotten a rough grasp of what kind of place the Watchers club was, he decided to probe for information on the other members in return.

Gonadaltes: I heard there are quite a few students taking the time magic lecture. Why don’t you try taking it too?

There were two reasons Lee Han had written that just now.

The first was to avoid suspicion, since Lee Han himself was taking time magic.

If he got the number of students taking the lecture wrong, they would assume he had only gotten the information indirectly.

Then Lee Han would naturally fall out of suspicion.

The second was to put any students newly entering the time magic lecture under suspicion.

If someone newly came to take the lecture, there was a high chance that person was already an existing member of the Watchers club.

Iactus: I’ll pass. I don’t even have enough hours in the day for the magic I’m already learning.

Baquantala: Time magic is excellent magic, but even learning it simply demands too much time and effort. It is inefficient.

Iactus: Exactly. Time magic is a waste of time.

Iactus: Friends, that was a joke just now. Would you mind laughing?

Gonadaltes: (ROARING LAUGHTER)

Iactus: Thank you. Go-go-Sk-Sk-Gonadaltes.

Baquantala: Did you spill ink?

Iactus: No. My hand shook while writing the Skull Principal’s name, so I had to write it again. It really is hard to write.

Failed.

Lee Han felt bitter. It seemed there really were not many people interested in time magic.

Other than learning that Iactus had little talent for jokes, he had not learned much.

Baquantala seems like an upperclassman from the enchantment magic school… I should ask Professor Verdus later when I meet him.

Of course, it was possible Baquantala had deliberately chosen an alias unrelated to the truth, but the reverse control over artifacts that Baquantala had demonstrated was an ability that could not be shown without deep study in the enchantment magic school.

With ability at that level, Professor Verdus would definitely know the student.

Iactus: Anyway, so Professor Bendozol really did come back. That person’s lectures are way too harsh.

Baquantala: A person who cares more for animals than students.

Iactus: Damn it, I’ll probably end up meeting that professor this semester… Right. I promised payment, didn’t I? Listen carefully, both of you. This is really valuable information.

Baquantala: I’m listening.

Gonadaltes: Me too.

Iactus: Alde of House Markang. Blue Dragon Tower. Third year.

Baquantala: And what are we supposed to do with that?

Iactus: Hear me out to the end. Apparently this bastard is the only one who succeeded in smuggling this year. Looks like he stacked a mountain of supplies somewhere.

Baquantala: I see. Thank you. That really was valuable information.

“……”

Lee Han looked at the Watchers club with a skeptical gaze.

Isn’t there way too much false information here?

Senior Alde was still in the punishment ward and had not even gotten a share of the supplies yet…

*****

Lee Han could not tell exactly how the war among the official clubs was developing, but he realized the clubs had changed their strategy.

The seniors from each club had begun approaching him and recommending that he come observe at least once.

Of course, Lee Han avoided them as much as possible.

They called it observation, but there was no telling what might happen if he actually went.

But there were limits even to avoidance.

As Lee Han was coming out of the lecture <The Tragic History of Ancient Relics and Summoning Magic>, a senior he had seen once before on the seventh floor was standing there waiting with folded arms.

“Wardanaz?”

“Ah, Senior! I didn’t notice you at all. What brings you here?”

Inside, Lee Han lamented, I’m going to have to react faster from now on.

But naturally, he could not reveal thoughts like that in front of a senior.

Keeping himself polite and courteous to the last, Lee Han looked at the senior.

The other party was a fourth-year from the Black Turtle Tower.

Since the senior was a hamster beastkin, the senior was much shorter than Lee Han, and because the body was so gaunt, there was an oddly sharp, irritable air about the figure.

“Good to meet you. I’m Sebius.”

“I’m Lee Han.”

“I know. You wouldn’t know me, though. I’m a member of the Library Club. Do you happen to know what kind of club the Library Club is?”

“I don’t know much about it, but…”

“Come with me.”

Without realizing it, Lee Han checked for escape routes and began considering ways to get away.

Sebius, not noticing the thoughts running through the junior’s head, began speaking.

“You can relax. Unlike the other clubs, I have no intention of forcing you to join.”

“Yes.”

Of course, Lee Han did not trust the senior.

The only seniors harder to trust than seniors who tried to force students into clubs were seniors who said, “I’m not going to force you into a club.”

If this turns bad, I’ll attack.

“Our Library Club is a club that takes out books, stores books, and spreads books. You’ve been inside the Einroguard library before, haven’t you? Since you caught a Rock Drake.”

“I was lucky.”

“That’s not a creature a first-year catches with luck. The ★ 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ library is a labyrinth. The most complex and difficult labyrinth in all of Einroguard.”

At the hamster beastkin senior’s words, Lee Han nodded.

There was still much more Lee Han did not know about Einroguard than what he did know, but at least one thing he felt in his bones was that the library was no ordinary place.

A place where the terrain changed every time you entered, monsters appeared now and then, and if you got lost, you could remain trapped forever was not an ordinary library.

“From second year onward, the number of books you need keeps increasing. And most of those books are in the library. We make maps of the library, and we go in and retrieve grimoires from inside it.”

“!”

Lee Han was startled by Sebius’s words.

To keep going into that labyrinth and make maps of it and retrieve books from it.

It was a club rough and dangerous enough that the name Library Club hardly suited it.

“Just for the sake of other students?”

“That’s right. Though we do get paid.”

“……”

Lee Han understood immediately.

The Library Club’s source of income was the wallets of students who commissioned them to fetch books.

Sometimes even outsiders, who came seeking books from the Einroguard library with the Skull Principal’s permission, were customers.

“Is it really all right to give books to outsiders?”

“Once a book enters the Einroguard library, it never disappears forever. Even if it burns or gets taken out, enough time passes and it gets recreated.”

“That’s not what I meant. If you gave some dangerous grimoire to an outsider and it caused trouble…”

“Then that would be the Skull Principal’s fault for permitting it. Not ours.”

Well, that’s true.

Without realizing it, Lee Han found himself convinced.

As Sebius continued walking ahead, the senior spoke.

“You know the clubs are fighting right now, yes?”

“…Yes.”

“They’ll probably end up compromising. By making you join every club. It’s in the rules, so even if everyone hates it, there’s nothing they can do.”

“Couldn’t they fight more?”

Lee Han cautiously offered that hopeful observation, but Sebius acted as though it had not even been said.

“That’s why I said I have no intention of forcing you to join. If you join every club, the time you can spend on each one will drop drastically anyway, so there’s no point in forcing the matter.”

“!”

Hearing Sebius’s words, Lee Han was surprised.

He had not expected to receive consideration like this.

“Then has the Library Club decided not to recruit me at all?”

“Of course not. Then the bastards from the other clubs would be delighted. We’ll just sign you up anyway.”

“……”

Lee Han stared at the senior’s fluffy little back of the head with a deeply mixed expression.