But Agdung did not stop answering.

As a senior from the same dark magic school, Agdung couldn’t suppress someone «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» else’s academic curiosity…

…And if the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple said the questions were for extermination purposes, what could Agdung do?

All Agdung could do was hope things went well.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: How did you finish the analysis so fast? I honestly can’t believe it…

“This map and analysis are really incredible, Senior. Does Kalarogard have some kind of special training?”

“An Einroguard student really shouldn’t be asking whether we have special training… and besides, that was written by the professor.”

I see.

Lee Han, who had asked just in case because the other side seemed more shocked than expected, understood at once.

Since this was based on something a Kalarogard professor had analyzed and written beforehand, it was only natural that the other side was so astonished.

Gonadaltes: Hah. This much is basic. Why can’t an Einroguard student even manage this much?

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: ■■ ■■ ■■…

Instead of writing out a curse, the other side filled the page with black squares.

That alone made it perfectly clear what Beaver-Penguin-Fox wanted to say.

This senior definitely has a filthy temper.

Lee Han complained inwardly.

Lee Han had only disguised the self as an ordinary senior, and yet the reaction was that bad.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: More importantly… could you really be… the pr… prin… never mind.

The other side started to scribble something, then gave up and blotted it out again before returning to the main point.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Do you happen to know a method for purifying the contamination source too?

“Senior. Do you have any advice on purification?”

“Hmm. Just a moment… here it is. Apparently the professor, just in case, left behind a wand artifact made of peach wood somewhere nearby.”

“Oh. What kind of artifact is it?”

Professor Taswan was someone who knew very well that Einroguard was the sort of place that could become evil and violent at any moment.

If students ever visited the place by themselves someday, things could go wrong, so Professor Taswan had set up an artifact nearby in preparation for that possibility.

“Let’s see… this artifact is… ah, damn it. Why does the professor like writing in Three Kingdoms script so much?”

Agdung was kind by nature, but even Agdung could not help getting annoyed when the professor had scrawled everything in old script instead of standard Imperial writing.

“This is… what was it… essence? Purification? Spirit?”

“That looks more like West Harin Kingdom script than Three Kingdoms script.”

“Ah. Right.”

Agdung nodded at Lee Han’s correction, then paused.

“You did say you were a second-year, right?”

“Yes.”

“…It’s nothing. Let’s read it again… ah. It’s a suction artifact.”

The artifact Professor Taswan had left behind long ago was a powerful one that could gather all nearby sources of contamination in a single sweep.

Instead of searching one by one for every contamination source scattered underground nearby, it would make things far easier if they could churn up the soil and water and pull all the contamination out at once.

Isn’t that a little excessive?

Lee Han was startled.

An artifact on that level would take a fair amount of time and effort to make no matter how skilled a professor was.

And yet Professor Taswan had simply left something like that on the seventh floor of Einroguard and gone home.

Could it be that, unlike Einroguard’s dark magic school, Kalarogard was actually a wealthy magic school???

Please don’t let that be true… Hah! What am I even thinking?

Lee Han deeply reflected on the wickedness of that thought.

If other dark mages lived well too, that was a good thing. It was wrong to feel jealous of it.

“Senior. May I ask one more thing?”

“Anything. Ask whatever you like.”

“How is Kalarogard financially?”

“Ck—khk.”

Agdung nearly spilled the water from the cup in hand.

I should set this down.

It wasn’t as if Agdung could drink water in skeletal form anyway. Agdung had just been holding the cup for the mood of it, and nearly caused trouble for no reason.

“Ka… Kalarogard isn’t as well-off as those Valdro-bastards, but we help each other out and get by.”

“?”

Lee Han found two parts of that strange.

First was the we’re not as well-off as them, but we help each other out and get by part.

That was usually…

…something you heard from a poor school.

Einroguard’s dark magic school often said things like, We may not be as comfortable as the other schools, but at least we help each other and get by, haha.

Usually followed by things like, Shut up, Koholti.

And the second strange part was…

“Did you just say ‘Valdro-bastards’?”

“What are you talking about? I said Valdrogard.”

“You said ‘Valdro-bastards’…”

“No, no! Why would I say something like that? Wardanaz! I’m deeply hurt you’d misunderstand me like that. Is it because I’m from Kalarogard?”

“……”

Lee Han stared at Agdung as if dumbfounded.

An amateur like Gainando might have fallen for that kind of trick, but Lee Han would not. In the first place, Lee Han was a master of exactly that kind of trick.

—Good work, Gainando. Open the next volume and keep studying.

—Huh? Wha?? Wasn’t there supposed to be a snack after I finished this one?

—What are you talking about? It was after the next volume too.

—No it wasn’t?! You definitely said after this one?!

—Gainando… are you trying to deceive me right now, when you know I’m exhausted after listening to lectures all day? Even so, I still prepared dinner for all of you?! How could you do that to me?

—N-no…! No… I-I’ll keep studying.

You absolutely said Valdro-bastards.

Perhaps sensing the suspicious look, Agdung hurriedly changed the subject.

Those embarrassing private thoughts about another magic school could not be exposed in front of juniors.

“So why were you asking?”

“Ah. The artifact you mentioned sounded quite expensive, and I couldn’t understand why someone would install that here and just leave it behind.”

“Ahh.”

Only then did Agdung realize what misunderstanding the Imperial Mage Marshal’s disciple had fallen into. Agdung laughed, bones clattering.

“It wasn’t because Kalarogard had so much money that the professor left an artifact like that behind. It was because Einroguard is such a crazily dangerous place that there was no choice but to invest in an artifact!”

“……”

“……”

Not only Lee Han but even the friends looked at Agdung with sorrowful expressions.

Even the students seated at other tables in the teahouse were looking over with gloomy faces.

Agdung belatedly cried out,

“…Of course, Einroguard is also the Empire’s finest magic school, with just that many opportunities to learn! H-ha! Hahaha!”

“It’s all right, Senior. Our school really is pretty dangerous.”

With a bitter look, Lee Han contacted Beaver-Penguin-Fox.

Gonadaltes: An artifact that draws in nearby contamination sources was installed around there. If it’s activated, it should overturn the soil and water and pull all the contamination into one place.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: …D-don’t scam me.

The reaction was more intense than Lee Han had expected. Lee Han answered calmly.

Gonadaltes: If you pay the price, I’ll activate it for you too.

Since this was a transaction anyway, Lee Han was willing to go as far as activating the artifact if the price was right.

The mushroom field was protected now, so if Lee Han entered by that route, reaching the artifact’s location marked on the map would be relatively easy.

Besides, there was also a dependable senior from Kalarogard nearby.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: …Wait! I need to go ask something first.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox abruptly vanished in the middle of the exchange. Lee Han guessed that Beaver-Penguin-Fox was privately messaging Baquantalana.

Since Baquantalana was the one who brought me in, there’s a good chance Beaver-Penguin-Fox is asking whether I can be trusted.

It made no difference to Lee Han how the other side decided. Lee Han would be satisfied just taking payment for the answers given so far.

If this senior tried to play games just because of seniority, Lee Han intended to cause an uproar in the middle of the Watchers Club where everyone could see it.

Lee Han had more mana than most, and so could stay connected to this artifact longer and more stubbornly than anyone else.

Having a lot of mana has its advantages sometimes too.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: O-okay. O-okay… let’s trade.

Gonadaltes: First, I’d like to settle payment for the help I’ve already given.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Come to the Tower of Illusion on the seventh floor. I’ll leave the goods under the red-and-green flag.

“?”

Lee Han paused, unfamiliar with the Tower of Illusion on the seventh floor.

Is it a trap?

The other side might be trying to lure Lee Han in and ambush the self.

In the worst case, they might even try to rob Lee Han of Imperial gold too…

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Ah, right. You’re new. You probably don’t know how to use the Tower of Illusion. I’ll tell Baquantalana.

A message soon arrived from Baquantalana.

The Tower of Illusion on the seventh floor was a magical building used by members of the Watchers Club when conducting transactions. It had been created for members who did not want to reveal who they were—and had no desire to know who anyone else was either.

As such, even the method of entry had been optimized to conceal identities.

Baquantalana: Anywhere on the seventh floor will do. Hold up a mirror and let it reflect the bell tower at the top of the Tower of Illusion. When the light flashes three times, entry is complete. Then look into the mirror. The tower will be inside it.

Following the instructions, Lee Han took out a mirror and, from the second-floor terrace of the teahouse, looked over the higher districts of the Exiles’ Village on the seventh floor.

One flying tainted one was burning to death against the village’s defensive magic, and farther inside there was a workshop spewing steam madly from eight chimneys because someone had mishandled magic.

“You bastard who deserves to be locked in the punishment cells for life, what were you thinking running an experiment like that upstairs?! I can’t see a thing through all this steam!”

“It’ll be gone soon, so wait a little, you impatient brat! Want me to throw you outside next to the tainted ones?!”

As Lee Han followed the upper levels of the Exiles’ Village, where accidents and disasters were breaking out in every direction, towers gradually began to come into view.

The towers some old seniors had thrown together without order were more than half abandoned, and only a few were still functioning properly.

One of them was the Tower of Illusion. Lee Han adjusted the angle until the Tower of Illusion fit inside the mirror.

Once, twice, three times.

“!”

Lee Han felt it instinctively: the Tower of Illusion had just cast powerful magic on the mirror.

Mirrors were certainly items that responded easily to magic, but to establish a link this simply, over this distance, with such minimal conditions!

When Lee Han looked inside the mirror, the interior of the tower rippled. Each time the mirror shifted, the view changed too, as if the position had changed along with it.

The tower appeared to consist of a giant spiral staircase, because whether Lee Han looked up or down, only similar scenes repeated endlessly.

Red-and-green, red-and-green…

Searching through the countless flags hanging on every level for the red-and-green one, Lee Han continued moving up and down through the tower.

Found it.

Once inside the room, Lee Han saw the piled-up supplies and realized Beaver-Penguin-Fox had not been lying.

So this was the payment.

Swish—

Lee Han reached a hand into the mirror and began pulling out the supplies one by one.

*****

“Why isn’t Lee Han coming down?”

“Isn’t it because you were being noisy?”

“You were all talking too!”

When the friend went up alone to the empty second floor and didn’t come back down, Gainando, who had been about to toss the mage yut sticks, stopped with a serious expression.

“I should go check.”

“You’re only saying that because you think you’re about to lose, aren’t you?”

“N-no! That’s why I said we should play Mage Cards instead!”

“That’s hard to do with this many people. And I don’t even have cards.”

“What are you, a barbarian?! You don’t even have Mage Cards?!”

Gainando blamed Raphaedel for not having any Mage Cards. Raphaedel urged Gainando on flatly.

“Jousting is better than Mage Cards. Just throw the yut sticks. I need to capture your piece already.”

“That’s right, Gainando. And Lee Han said if Lee Han comes into contact with you, bad luck will follow. So someone other than you should—”

Before the sentence even finished, Lee Han came down from the second floor carrying huge bundles with telekinesis.

The friends stared blankly at the sight.

“…D-did you rob the second floor?”