“W-Wardanaz.”

“Did you really think this through?”

Imirg and Raphaedel hesitated behind Lee Han and whispered.

No matter how generously anyone tried to look at it, it was hard to take an empty vault as “financially well-off.”

Lee Han nodded coolly.

“Yes. The dark magic school has plenty of money.”

“…??”

“???”

The two wondered whether Wardanaz had found some secret assets or hidden treasury of the dark magic school that they didn’t know about.

But Lee Han had his own reasoning.

Even if we raise the prices a lot, all that’ll do is reduce the number of buyers. And on top of that, we’d just be loudly advertising that the dark magic school is poor.

Even if they raised the prices in the mushroom field, the students of Einroguard would be far more likely to grit their teeth, steal them, or try to get them elsewhere instead of buying them.

And if rumors started spreading that the dark magic school was poor?

We’d lose out in every deal.

Lee Han was still only a second-year, but he had already learned the brutal economic ecosystem of Einroguard with alarming speed.

This too was a world of the strong devouring the weak the moment they showed weakness.

“Senior Agdung. Would you explain our dark magic school’s abundance to these people?”

“Huh?”

Agdung was flustered at the sudden call.

Agdung didn’t actually know much about the financial state of Einroguard’s dark magic school.

“I’d appreciate it.”

“Mm.”

Still, Agdung couldn’t dare ignore something said by the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple.

Feeling an actual threat to life, Agdung desperately worked the mind as hard as possible.

“How abundant the dark magic school is… ah, the moment I arrived, I was served honey tea.”

“That is impressive!”

It really was impressive, so the other upperclassmen were startled.

If it had been the enchantment magic school, it wouldn’t have mattered whether outsiders came or not—they wouldn’t have offered even a cup of water.

Was the dark magic school richer than I thought?

“That honey tea was made for Senior Diret and the others to drink…”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing. Please continue.”

Lee Han looked conflicted.

He had prepared that tea for the seniors who were working themselves to the bone, and yet the professor had used it to curry favor with outsiders.

Still, nothing could be done about it. This too was a fate he had to bear as a professor’s disciple.

“And the number of new disciples is several times greater than ours at Kalarogard.”

“Is that so?!”

“??”

Not just the upperclassmen—even Lee Han was mildly surprised.

Was it?

Well… if both sides have zero, I guess ‘several times’ is still technically true…

“And the upper-year students in the school are so busy with commissions flooding in that they barely have time to breathe. You can tell just by looking at this second-year helping with my work.”

“Senior Agdung. I think that will be enough.”

Lee Han quickly cut in.

If this went any further, it felt like the Einroguard upperclassmen might start noticing that something was off.

*****

“Everyone, watch your breathing when you dig up the mountain-ring mushrooms.”

After the deal was done and they began harvesting mushrooms from the field, Agdung offered advice.

Mountain-ring mushrooms themselves were reagents used in curses that scattered or weakened mana, so if a mage inhaled the powder they released, it would damage the mage’s mana as well.

“The best thing is to cover your face with cloth. It’s even better if you add a simple wind-blocking spell.”

“I see…”

Lee Han nodded at Agdung’s advice in thanks, then began plucking mountain-ring mushrooms barehanded and dropping them into a basket.

“……”

Agdung stared in shock at the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple walking away.

As expected of the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple—every action was extraordinary.

Come to think of it, maybe the friends in the same year are unusual too.

That thought suddenly struck Agdung, so Agdung looked around at the others.

“Gainando. Didn’t I tell you mistcloud mushrooms are sensitive to temperature? If you touch them wrong, they vaporize. I gave you ice.”

“Waaah. It’s cold.”

“You learned cold-resistance magic just to use it while eating shaved ice? Cast it already!”

“……”

Maybe not.

While Agdung was still slightly confused, a streak of sinister mana rolled in from far away.

At that wave, Agdung frowned. As a mage of the dark magic school, it was a familiar sort of disturbance.

A tainted one or a fallen one?

Tainted ones were monsters that were reborn as separate mutants when mana-bearing matter from the continent accidentally fused with mana of a different nature.

The classic example was wastewater or slimes carelessly dumped from mages’ workshops causing trouble.

Fallen ones were monsters born when beings from another dimension ended up on the continent and, unable to endure the environment of this alien world, lost their essence.

Rampaging spirits, demons, and, very rarely, even beings like angels could be seen among fallen ones.

Both could become troublesome enemies, but an experienced mage always had ways to deal with them.

And the dark magic school specialized in dealing with exactly those kinds of tainted and fallen beings.

“What is it?”

Lee Han hurried over to Agdung’s side, clearly having sensed that something was wrong.

Lee Han had been farther away, but the senses for mana were so sharp that even from that distance, Lee Han had picked up the wave.

Agdung wasn’t surprised.

If it was the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple, it wouldn’t have been strange even if Lee Han had detected it far earlier than Agdung had.

“It looks like a tainted one or a fallen o—… fallen one. I’m trying to decide whether I should start with <Tainted Ones, Begone!> or <Resolve Toward the Fallen>. Which would you choose first?”

Agdung forced down the honorifics that kept trying to slip out and asked.

The question caught Lee Han off guard.

“…I don’t know either of those spells.”

“?!?!”

Lee Han’s answer shocked Agdung.

Agdung had assumed it so naturally that the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple would, of course, have already mastered them.

<Tainted Ones, Begone!> was a third-circle defensive spell that blocked the approach of tainted ones, while <Resolve Toward the Fallen> was a fourth-circle defensive spell that blocked the approach of fallen ones. Both were defensive spells suited to repelling them.

Any experienced orthodox dark mage normally learned them, but…

“You really haven’t learned those two spells?”

“I’m sorry.”

Normally, Gainando was the one apologizing for not having learned some spell, but this time, unusually, it was Lee Han.

Did I miss something?

Lee Han was baffled.

He was certain he had never heard about those spells during last year’s dark magic lectures.

Had he missed them because of that week he’d been absent?

Damn it. Should I have checked the dark magic lectures first?

“N-no. There’s nothing to apologize for! Don’t apologize! Don’t apologize!”

Agdung cried out in horror when the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple apologized.

Then Agdung explained what the two spells were.

“…They’re spells like this.”

“…Senior. I’m a second-year.”

“That’s right, isn’t it? …R-right. You are, huh?”

Only after meeting Lee Han’s stare did Agdung finally realize it.

The other person was still only a second-year!

Why did I not connect that obvious fact until now??

Agdung had known it in theory, but somehow had completely failed to link it to reality.

Because Agdung had been too fixated on the fact that Lee Han was the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple…

…Right. No matter if he’s the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple, he’s still a second-year…

Agdung reflected a little.

No matter who the other person was, suggesting spells the other person hadn’t even learned yet had been unreasonable.

“…Sorry. Could you call your friends over? I’m going to set up defensive magic around the field.”

“Yes. I’ll help too.”

“Thank you.”

At Lee Han’s answer, Agdung laughed, bones clattering.

This is mine to handle.

Even if they were from different schools, Agdung was the highest-year student present, and approached the incoming wave with a sense of responsibility.

Standing by Agdung’s side, Lee Han asked,

“Senior, do tainted ones and fallen ones give off the same kind of mana?”

“Ah. Not exactly. They both feel like violent, twisted mana, but if tainted ones feel more like existing mana that’s been corrupted, then fallen ones feel closer to something inverted…”

“I see. Senior, I think what’s coming right now is a tainted one.”

“!?”

When the junior answered so suddenly, Agdung was startled. The enemy still wasn’t close enough for the identity to be distinguished.

“Why do you think that?”

Don’t tell me he can distinguish it from here?

If Lee Han could feel the difference from this distance, that would be absurd.

It was already incredible enough that a mere second-year could sense a mana wave at all…

“First, this area is a place where Einroguard’s upperclassmen are constantly conducting magic and research, isn’t it? The odds of a tainted one showing up are much higher than the odds of a {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} fallen one. In general, fallen ones are far rarer too.”

“A sharp assessment.”

Agdung nodded the bony jaw in agreement.

Maybe because Lee Han was such a clever student, even in a situation that could have thrown someone into panic, Lee Han was still approaching it calmly.

“And I focused my senses, and the mana feels corrupted.”

“……”

“Senior?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

“Pardon?”

“No, I said it’s nothing. Then let’s prepare to cast <Tainted Ones, Begone!>!”

Agdung hastily changed the subject.

If Agdung let a few more slips come out here, the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple might come away thinking that Kalarogard as a school was some kind of bizarre place.

Of course, it was a bizarre place, but aside from Valdrogard, students at the Empire’s magic schools all tried to hide their schools’ embarrassing sides.

Their schools were always embarrassing, but that embarrassment was supposed to stay something they were ashamed of among themselves, not something outsiders found out about.

“Black stone, cloves, sacred bone fragments, golden hair. Damn. I’m out of golden hair.”

“Will that hair work?”

“Oh. That’s good, isn’t it?”

Lee Han called his friends over and told them to pluck a little of Gainando’s hair. Gainando’s scream drifted over from beyond the field.

“O tainted ones, fear the mage who wields your power. O tainted ones, fear the mage who wields your power…”

Repeated incantation.

It was a technique that increased a spell’s power by repeating the same incantation over and over.

To cast a defensive spell over a broad area like a mushroom field, it was better to take the extra time and strengthen it this way.

“Whew. Let’s rest a moment.”

Agdung stopped the chant briefly at the sensation of the joints aching.

Changing the body into undead form did free one somewhat from problems of stamina, but that didn’t mean there was no pain or wear.

“Hm. The bone in this arm is pretty worn down. I should replace it before it breaks.”

“Doesn’t that feel inconvenient?”

At Gainando’s question, Agdung laughed as if the question made no sense.

“When I can replace them like this, how is that not rational? You just… take the bone… out… put in… a new… one… there!”

Gainando wanted to say, If my skin gets scraped a little, I can just wait and it heals, but Agdung had gone through so much trouble to replace the bone that Gainando couldn’t bring the heart to say it.

Dark mages are all way too weird.

“Good. Let’s start again.”

“I’ll help too.”

While Agdung had been doing the first part of the work, Lee Han had watched closely from the side and figured out how the spell was being cast.

And with a senior dark mage present, even if Lee Han made a mistake, it was still a situation where it could be corrected.

Agdung knew that too, so Agdung readily accepted. Work like this, the sort that demanded stamina, was much easier with a dependable assistant.

“I’d appreciate that. The west side is almost done, so could you finish just the western end? I’ll start on the other sections—”

“O tainted ones, fear the mage who wields your power.”

With a single recitation, powerful magic wrapped around the mushroom field in a complete circle.

At the sight, Siana clenched a fist in frustration.

“I needed two repetitions…!”

“I-I thought it would take two for him too…”

“……”

Agdung could do nothing but stare blankly at the conversation of the Einroguard second-years.