Professor Garcia was briefly flustered, but quickly pulled herself together and examined the relic more closely.

What mattered right now was rescuing the student, wasn’t it?

The Skull Principal also often said, “A great mage never hesitates over means when pursuing an end,” so surely the Skull Principal would understand.

…And even if the Skull Principal doesn’t, there’s nothing I can do about it!

“Wait. An ancient relic, a world-piercing force, a stone-shaped artifact the Skull Principal keeps… Isn’t this Saint Iactus’s Stone?”

The moment Professor Garcia identified the relic, she was startled all over again.

The savage magical power sealed inside the stone had not simply been crammed in by brute-force compression.

It was a world.

A whole new world had been constructed inside the stone out of overwhelming magical power.

And that world existed for one purpose only: penetration.

A stone created to pierce through every obstacle in front of it, containing a world of order built solely for penetration, and existing only to penetrate.

Any mage knew how absurd stories like “a spear that can pierce anything” really were.

But this stone made even those absurd tales come to mind.

It held that much destructive force.

“The Skull Principal called it by another name,” said Professor Bagreg.

“Isn’t that only because the Skull Principal thinks an artifact ought to bear the name of its maker rather than its user…?”

Professor Verdus let out a muffled mmph-mmph of agreement.

Artifacts were supposed to bear the name of the one who made them, not the one who used them.

But rules always had exceptions.

When a user was extraordinary enough, the name attached itself to that user instead of the maker.

“We can’t just use this outright, Professor Bagreg. It’ll burn your body away.”

Professor Garcia’s voice turned worried.

Even powerful artifacts burdened the user. So what about ancient relics—relics so great each one had its own name?

Saint Iactus’s Stone had already sounded dangerous enough when she had only heard the legends, or listened to the Skull Principal grumble about it. But now that she was seeing it with her own eyes, she could physically feel just how dangerous it was.

Neither Professor Garcia nor Professor Bagreg would be able to escape that price.

A relic like this needed some kind of trick or bypass prepared in advance…

“There is a way.”

Professor Voladi reached a hand toward Professor Verdus. The instant she saw that, Professor Garcia cried out in shock.

“No matter what, you can’t force Professor Bivle to use it!”

Kidnapping had been as far as Professor Garcia’s conscience would let her go, but forcing someone to use a relic and dumping the backlash onto that person—that was crossing a line.

At that outburst, Professor Voladi looked at Professor Garcia with the faintest trace of confusion.

“…Is that not what you thought?”

“No.”

Professor Garcia went red.

To think she had been the only one imagining human sacrifice.

Professor Voladi cut the sealing spell binding Professor Verdus’s arms.

The instant the restraint was broken, Professor Verdus formed a hand sign and tried to cast a spell.

Wham!

Professor Voladi subdued the other professor again just as quickly.

“Hold still.”

“Mrrmph…”

This time, even after being released, Professor Verdus did not move. Having accepted reality, Professor Verdus drooped in dejection like a beaver whose dam had collapsed.

“Use this relic.”

Professor Voladi took out another ancient relic and held it out to the beaver beastman.

The moment she saw the droplet-shaped jewel shining with limpid brilliance, Professor Garcia let out a shriek.

“Anabadalda’s Droplet?!”

It was the ancient relic that legend claimed would protect its owner from any blaze. Seeing Anabadalda’s Droplet with her own eyes, Professor Garcia was genuinely shocked.

“How in the world did you get that, Professor Bagreg?!”

“I borrowed it from the Skull Principal’s room.”

“……”

Professor Garcia was starting to get worried.

If it were just herself or Professor Verdus, it would not matter much whether they ended up in the punishment cells, the deeper punishment cells, or the eternal punishment cells.

But Professor Bagreg had only gotten dragged into this because of her.

And on top of that, she was worried about how badly the room must have been wrecked in the process of obtaining those two ancient relics. The more damaged the room was, the angrier the Skull Principal would be.

“Let us proceed.”

“Ah, yes. We should go in while the students are away.”

Professor Garcia intended to handle this as quietly as possible.

Normally, even if an Einroguard student went missing, professors did not go looking in person.

That was exactly why she felt a little sorry at the thought of other students seeing three professors—one of them even sealed up—coming here to rescue Lee Han.

Still, Professor Garcia had her own excuse.

…No Einroguard student who vanished before this was ever kidnapped by one of the Skull Principal’s insane duplicates!

All students of Einroguard were unfortunate, but some students were a little more unfortunate than others.

Professor Garcia believed exceptional rules ought to apply to students like that.

“Now.”

The three professors cast invisibility magic and slipped lightly into the camp.

Perhaps because it was midday on a weekday, there were no students in sight. They had left their work behind and gone back to the academy for the time being.

The students were not even skipping class, yet Professor Garcia herself had sneaked up here after skipping her own responsibilities, and a guilty look crossed her face.

“Ahh… I feel bad for the other students…”

“?”

“?”

Professor Verdus and Professor Voladi looked at Professor Garcia as if asking what in the world she was talking about.

Professor Garcia realized that the two people in front of her were about the last people she should be discussing her guilty conscience with, and quickly changed the subject.

“…Shall we get to work?”

“This seems like the right place.”

Professor Voladi pointed at the magic tent the fifth-years had been using.

The magic tent, which held an enormous amount of space within it, had been set up directly in front of the weak point in the grand spell spread across the mountain range, making it a convenient place to proceed.

Grateful for how capable the students had been, Professor Garcia stepped inside. The three professors released their invisibility spell and looked around the interior.

“This is…”

“Mmph?”

Professor Voladi removed Professor Verdus’s gag.

Professor Verdus looked over the magic circles and the work inside the tent, then said, “This looks like Yukbeltire’s handiwork.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Professor Bivle. There’s no way Student Yukbeltire came here to help Student Lee Han.”

“B-but this really does look like Yukbeltire’s work… what is this?”

Professor Verdus fell into confusion.

Princess Yukbeltire was not the kind of person who would come here to help a junior.

And yet this was unmistakably Princess Yukbeltire’s magic.

Those two conflicting facts caused a logic error in Professor Verdus’s thought process.

“And that isn’t what matters right now. What matters is whether we can borrow it.”

“Correct.”

“Exactly. We can begin at once.”

“Then let’s do it right away.”

Professor Garcia picked up the stone and the droplet.

At that moment, the tent flap opened and Diret entered ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) alone.

“That bastard. Not even a friend. Time is this tight, and that idiot went back just to check on personal research…!”

Diret came in cursing an anonymous Blue Dragon Tower friend, only to freeze in surprise when Diret saw three professors standing inside the tent.

“…What are you doing here?”

“Uh… well…”

The three professors were every bit as startled as Diret.

“We’re working.”

“We were preparing a rescue.”

In truth, only Professor Garcia was flustered.

Professor Verdus and Professor Voladi were not so much flustered as unapologetically confident.

Fortunately, instead of making a scene with something like The professors of Einroguard are only here to save a junior from House Wardanaz! or Skull Principal! Look at what these professors are doing!, Diret swiftly grasped the situation.

“You came to help our junior?!”

“Shh, shh…! Student Diret, keep your voice down.”

“I never imagined all three of you would come to help…!”

Diret was sincerely moved.

Upperclassmen were one thing, and the junior’s friends were another, but to think even the professors would come like this.

And not just any professors, either, but Professor Voladi and even Professor Verdus.

“Not me. I was kidna— Ghk.”

The moment Professor Verdus started speaking, Professor Garcia lightly smacked Professor Verdus in the back. Professor Verdus let out a dying squeal and folded over.

“That’s right, Student Diret. The three of us came. Of course, even if an Einroguard student disappears, that student should normally escape by personal effort, but against one of the Skull Principal’s duplicates…”

“I agree completely!”

Diret shouted with feeling.

After talking with that bloodless, tearless anonymous Blue Dragon Tower friend, speaking with a normal person like Professor Garcia felt almost joyful.

Rules or no rules, exceptions existed, didn’t they?

No matter how Direkt thought about it, being kidnapped by one of the Skull Principal’s duplicates absolutely counted as an exceptional situation.

“But Professor. At the level I and my friends can manage, this is the limit. Do you know any way to break through this, or any kind of counter-magic?”

“There is a way.”

“!”

Diret was impressed.

As expected, the range of magic possessed by Einroguard’s professors was truly impossible to guess.

Diret had made it to the fifth year, but still found it hard to imagine ever possessing that kind of insight.

“We’re going to break through it with these ancient relics.”

“……”

Diret was a little thrown off by the answer, which was different from what had been expected, but accepted it positively.

As expected of professors, apparently they each kept ancient relics like this on hand.

“That’s amazing. To actually make relics like these.”

“We stole them from the Skull Principal’s room.”

“……”

Professor Verdus’s words made the atmosphere awkward.

Diret gave an embarrassed smile and answered, “I-I steal things too, if I need them.”

“So do I.”

“…Let’s just get on with it.”

“Ah. Wait a moment. I’ll contact our junior first. The situation inside has to be brutal right now.”

*****

Lee Han set bacon onto a frying pan heated over fire, using telekinesis. It sizzled, and droplets of bacon grease spat outward.

Crack—

The eggs sitting behind him rose into the air, then split open by themselves and dropped neatly into the pan. Lee Han apportioned half the precious grease to the eggs and saved the other half for toasting bread.

After spending enough time at Einroguard, even oil became something worth conserving.

“……”

Watching this, Antagondals stared at Lee Han as though Lee Han were the most pathetic and idiotic mage in the world.

If the silver mask had not been covering the face, the look of contempt would have been even more vicious.

“Would you like some?”

“No. I have no need of meals. More importantly, what exactly are you using telekinesis for?”

“Huh? Other mages don’t use telekinesis for chores?”

“They do. But not for cooking!!”

Antagondals spoke in the voice of someone witnessing an insult to magic itself.

Using telekinesis in alchemy, or in preparatory work for magic, was one thing.

But no mage used fifth-circle magic just to fry eggs and cook bacon.

If someone possessed that kind of ability, that person usually made servants or slaves do such things instead.

“I’m not an archmage, so it’s fine.”

“What kind of lunatic nonsense is tha—”

Before the sentence was finished, the Skull Principal’s insane duplicate abruptly entered.

After plating his own portion, Lee Han looked at the duplicate and asked, “Would you like some?”

In truth, he did not want to share at all, but the more he hated someone, the more courtesy he had to show to keep that person from finding fault with him.

Otherwise, even the food he meant to eat himself might get taken away.

At those words, Antagondals turned in shock to stare at Lee Han.

Does the boy have no fear at all?

This was someone who should have been acting as cautiously as possible before even thinking about escape, and yet Lee Han was casually mouthing off to the insane duplicate too.

But instead of getting angry, the insane duplicate accepted.

“Bring it.”

“Yes.”

Lee Han set down the meal in front of the duplicate, along with freshly brewed coffee.

The insane duplicate quietly picked up the food with bare hands and put it into the mouth.

…Have I gone mad?

Antagondals was sincerely afraid. This surreal sight was so incomprehensible that Antagondals could barely process it.