“Wardanaz. It’s fine.”
“We really don’t mind.”
Fortunately, the power of friendship proved stronger than expected.
Lee Han was genuinely touched when his friends reassured him and told him not to worry.
“You guys...”
“Wardanaz, you’ve always been that kind of person. It’s not even surprising anymore.”
“Yeah. Last time, you mastered it the moment you sat down.”
“...”
Lee Han faltered at the somewhat different kind of friendship he had been expecting.
“It, it’s not that bad, is it?”
“What are you talking about? You’ve mastered things before even sitting down.”
“That’s true. Honestly, what I said earlier was already understating it.”
As his friends grumbled, Lee Han wanted to defend himself by saying, I struggle while learning magic too, just like everyone else—but no examples came to mind.
Cornered, he unconsciously blurted out:
“Small Wor—”
“Hm? What was that?”
“...Nothing.”
No matter how he thought about it, saying I’ve been having trouble learning Personal World magic lately too would sound completely insane. Lee Han quickly came to his senses.
“Now then! Let’s begin today’s lecture! Everyone, give a round of applause to Gonadaltes for graciously agreeing to assist us!”
“Stop.”
Clap...
Gainando, who had started clapping, looked around awkwardly and quietly lowered his hands.
Despite the insane duplicate’s cold response, Professor Rozine remained unfazed.
After all, she came from the Empire’s bureaucracy. People from the bureaucracy were practically experts at dealing with deranged mages.
“Still, gratitude should be acknowledged.”
“That’s right, Master. This is what proper etiquette looks like these days.”
Are you insane?
Professor Rozine stared at her disciple in shock.
Her reaction was understandable.
At least she herself had spoken carefully and tactfully. The boy from House Wardanaz, meanwhile...
...was practically provoking him outright.
“Hmph. Fine. Hurry up.”
Clap clap clap clap clap clap...
The bleakest applause in Einroguard’s history filled the lecture hall.
The insane duplicate looked toward Gainando and reproached him.
“That’s all the sincerity you can muster while clapping? Mage, is your gratitude worth no more than this?”
“Hik!”
Gainando nearly burst into tears as he clapped frantically.
“Now then! Let’s continue with the ancient characters we covered on the previous exam. Unlike the mages of the past, modern mages must learn even more scripts and languages. It’s unfair, but what can we do?”
“That is correct. And mages must never forget this. Languages and scripts are constantly lost and accumulated with the passage of time. In every era, there have always been countless scripts and languages that mages were required to learn.”
“Wonderful words, Gonadaltes! Did everyone hear that? No more complaining from now on.”
Professor Rozine was delighted by the unexpected support from the ancient archmage.
Oriphyulas would usually derail lessons by saying things like, Why bother learning languages when you can just contract a demon who already knows them? But the Skull Principal’s duplicate was different after all.
“Isn’t there magic that lets you learn languages and scripts instantly?”
Gainando asked stubbornly, still refusing to give up.
Despite being constantly told by professors and classmates that magic wasn’t some all-purpose convenience, he clung to the idea with the persistence unique to mages.
Perhaps rewarding that persistence, the insane duplicate answered readily.
“There is.”
“...What!?”
“There’s really magic like that!?”
Not just Gainando—even the other students were stunned.
Magic like that actually existed?
Lee Han asked in disbelief.
“How could such magic exist? Replacing that enormous amount of unknown information with magic alone...”
“You’re still trying to impose limits on magic. You can simply use a Personal World.”
“...Ah. Right.”
The students instantly lost interest.
No matter how lazy Einroguard students were, none of them were insane enough to learn Personal World magic just to avoid studying ancient languages.
Still, Gainando whispered stubbornly to Yonair.
“Maybe Lee Han could learn it for us?”
“...Never say that in front of Lee Han...”
Unfortunately, Lee Han had already heard everything.
As Lee Han mentally reduced Gainando’s snack portions by thirty percent, Professor Rozine resumed the lecture with satisfaction.
“You all heard him, didn’t you? There is no royal road in magic. Now then, Lee Han! Since you received full marks on the last exam, why don’t you explain to your classmates how you deciphered the text and what references you used?”
The previous midterm had required students to independently decipher a set of ancient characters.
Since it wasn’t the kind of problem that could be solved entirely on the spot, the purpose of the exam naturally lay elsewhere beyond mere memory or quick thinking.
Ancient languages and scripts still remained scattered throughout the Empire in countless forms.
The true purpose of the exam was to build experience—learning how to investigate and decipher unfamiliar material without panicking.
Professor Rozine wanted the boy from House Wardanaz to share the names of the reference books he had used. It would undoubtedly help the other students as well.
“Uh... well...”
“It was a rather classical interpretation, wasn’t it? Judging by your answer, it seemed you consulted older texts instead of recent studies. Am I correct?”
“Well...”
Lee Han hesitated.
The insane duplicate snapped impatiently at his disciple.
“Answer already.”
“...Actually, I asked a confined magical criminal...”
“...”
“...”
The lecture hall froze instantly.
Even his friends—who normally responded to anything Lee Han did with That’s just Wardanaz—fell silent.
“T-there was a confined magical criminal? Where?”
“Did Wardanaz lock one up in his dorm room?”
As the students whispered among themselves, Gainando indignantly defended his friend.
“No! That’s not it! Lee Han has never locked a magical criminal in his dorm room! He’s just somewhat friendly with the magical criminal confined in the workshop!”
“...”
That explanation somehow sounded even worse.
Lee Han let out a deep sigh.
“How are you even friendly with a magical criminal confined in a workshop? Prince, are you misunderstanding something?”
“Maybe the criminal mistook getting beaten up by Wardanaz for friendship...”
“Well, those White Tiger Tower guys always think they’re friends while beating each other up.”
“What did you just say, bastard?”
“Enough. I only transformed him into a hamster and confined him there. I just asked questions while feeding him.”
It was the sort of statement that could permanently traumatize even the world’s greatest hamster lover.
The insane duplicate spoke with displeasure.
“There was no need to ask such a lowly slave.”
“The question was too trivial to trouble Master with.”
In truth, the insane duplicate ignored even important questions whenever he pleased, but Lee Han smoothly flattered him like an experienced disciple.
Meanwhile, Professor Rozine finally recovered from her shock.
“A living mage would naturally teach more effectively than books or scrolls! Excellent work, Lee Han!”
“Professor... but isn’t using a hamster magical criminal a bit...”
One student cautiously tried to object, but Professor Rozine immediately pretended not to hear.
To be honest, she herself was too stunned to know how to respond.
-Cough!
A sudden coughing sound echoed from behind.
Lee Han turned reflexively—
—and froze.
The one coughing into his hand was none other than the insane duplicate.
What?!
Gainando might catch a cold from kicking off his blanket at night, but the insane duplicate didn’t even possess a real physical body.
Yet he was coughing?
Lee Han asked in alarm.
“Master. Are you alright?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“You coughed just now, as though you were ill.”
“I did no such thing. Focus on your studies. You’ve become far too lax lately if you have time to babble nonsense.”
“...”
The old Lee Han might have flinched.
Now, however, he simply narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
That reaction makes it even more suspicious.
“Master. Did you perhaps eat or drink something?”
Professor Thunderstep was cunning and vicious enough that poisoning someone without their knowledge would hardly be surprising.
In front of Einroguard’s professors, Lee Han was always humble. They were beings capable of exceeding his expectations in the worst possible ways.
“Your insolence has gone too far. Do you think I won’t punish you simply because you are my direct disciple?”
The insane duplicate finished speaking, frowned—
—and coughed again.
Lee Han turned pale.
“It’s poison!”
“What!? Where!?”
“Did that Prince bastard spill something!?”
“Hey! We should suspect the alchemy school first!”
“The dark magic school seems more suspicious...”
“Professor! Master appears to have been poisoned! I’ll take him outside for a moment!”
“Student Lee Han! Wai—”
Professor Rozine sensed something deeply wrong and tried to stop him.
After all, the idea that a projection of the Skull Principal—an archmage of that level—could be poisoned without anyone noticing was absurd.
But before she could stop him, Lee Han had already rushed out carrying the insane duplicate away.
As soon as he got outside, he sent a paper bird to Intarendals.
“Lord Intarendals! Over here!”
“Lord Lee Han. What exactly is...”
Intarendals, who had hurried over immediately after receiving the message, stared in shock.
Lee Han was sprinting while levitating the insane duplicate over his head with telekinesis.
It was an utterly surreal sight.
“Master appears to have been ambushed! Even when I carried him like this, he didn’t resist!”
“Ah... even so, carrying him in such a manner...”
Intarendals hurriedly took hold of the insane duplicate and carefully supported him with both hands.
Even for mages, creatures obsessed with efficiency, that had gone a bit too far.
“Let’s head to the workshop. I also have something I need to discuss with you, Lord Lee Han.”
***
Once they arrived at the workshop hidden within the mountain range, Intarendals respectfully escorted the insane duplicate inside.
Told to wait outside for a moment, Lee Han gradually regained his composure.
...Maybe it wasn’t Professor Thunderstep after all.
Now that he thought about it, Professor Thunderstep’s involvement did seem unlikely.
The motives were weak, and the circumstances unfavorable.
Rather—
-What happened?
“Master collapsed.”
-Much sooner than expected.
The hamster answered coldly from within the sawdust.
Lee Han stared in shock.
“You knew!?”
-Of course I knew. Don’t tell me you didn’t.
The hamster sounded genuinely bewildered.
Thought-forms were certainly rare beings, but it was unbelievable that a formal disciple wouldn’t know something this basic.
“Don’t tell me...”
-So you finally figured it out. Exactly.
“...Lord Intarendals is the culprit!”
-Thought-forms cannot endure for long in the material world. If they could remain permanently, Gonadaltes’ projections would already have spread across the Empire ruling territories everywhere.
“...Ah. Because he’s a thought-form.”
-What did you just say?
“Nothing at all. Naturally. I had already suspected as much.”
Lee Han quickly improvised an excuse while organizing his thoughts.
As he listened to the hamster, everything suddenly clicked into place.
The insane duplicate’s behavior had definitely been strange lately.
And if his existence itself was beginning to collapse...
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
This bastard. Am I your master?
The hamster nearly exploded with frustration but held it back.
Lee Han was a mage holding grapes.
He himself was a hamster.
-You need to sever his lifeline immediately.
Thwack!
A grape slammed directly into the hamster’s back.
The hamster squealed.
-Why!?
“Is that seriously the advice you give right now?”
-It’s the truth, you idiot rookie! Do you think a thought-form will quietly disappear if left alone? Before it fades away completely, it’ll devastate everything around it— Stop throwing grapes!
