Yukbeltire was shocked when she saw the magic circle her junior had brought back.

Currently, there were two spells Yukbeltire was trying to fuse.

One was Baquantalana’s Dimensional Rod.

Despite its ordinary-sounding name, it was an extremely difficult spell. Even Yukbeltire implemented it indirectly by borrowing the power of multiple magic circles rather than casting it directly.

In the process of dimensions shifting and overlapping, even solid reality would inevitably be torn apart and shaken like paper.

Baquantalana’s Dimensional Rod was a spell that temporarily created immutability in the form of a rod, a fixed axis that no change could invade during such moments.

Such stabilizing magic was essential when quickly summoning and modifying multiple dimensions.

The other was Ahriman’s Refraction.

This spell was just as difficult as Baquantalana’s Dimensional Rod. It connected dimensions that would normally never connect through a powerful refraction formation.

Ordinarily, Yukbeltire would not have forcibly combined such difficult spells.

Yukbeltire was a genius, but she was not a mage who did needlessly inefficient things.

But this time, she had to combine the two spells to increase efficiency and secure additional dimensions with the remaining mana, so she had been trying to attempt it somehow.

How can this be?!

Yukbeltire’s eyes trembled with shock after she checked all the magic circles.

She knew her junior was an outstanding mage, far beyond his year.

But this was too far beyond imagination.

To think he would produce improvements on the spot that even Yukbeltire herself had not been able to make.

“How... how did you do this? Ah, I see. It was Professor Garcia, wasn’t it? Right?”

Yukbeltire, her usual calm nowhere to be found, was flustered and struggling desperately to understand.

“No. Professor Garcia left earlier.”

“Then it must have been the Principal.”

“The Principal left even earlier.”

“That... that can’t be?”

Lee Han did not tell her the truth.

Actually, this was also consideration for his senior. The fact that there was a portrait of the young Skull Principal deep in the basement of the spatial labyrinth was a truth rather difficult to accept.

Senior Yukbeltire might collapse if she saw it.

“I... I came up with magic inferior to my junior’s...”

“...What should we do next?”

Lee Han tried hard to change the subject.

That was how shocked the senior in front of him seemed.

However, Yukbeltire could not recover from the shock. She kept muttering things like, “Am I not qualified?”

“Senior. Then I’ll start working on the blueprints above first!”

Thinking this would not do, Lee Han grabbed the blueprints and quickly left his seat.

He planned to hurry over to the young Skull Principal and ask for advice.

***

“Now. Try repeating after me. I will abandon my lingering attachments and no longer obsess over them. Of course, I understand the mage’s resentment. But that is the mage’s magic. You cannot pass that burden on to your disciple.”

“Take... me... out...”

Hmm. It’s a surreal sight every time I see it.

Lee Han, who had visited the basement, shuddered at the sight of the ghost wailing inside the old chest and the portrait of the young prince lecturing in front of it.

It was a scene he could never get used to, no matter how many times he saw it. He could endure it only because he was Lee Han; an ordinary Einroguard student would have collapsed long ago.

“Ah. My disciple! You’ve come again!”

The young prince smiled more brilliantly than the most beautiful flower in the Empire.

Seeing that, Lee Han suddenly remembered how his friends had acted when they had been affected by illusion magic or dark magic and gone mad.

Is this how my friends felt back then?

Perhaps this was karma for being complacent just because he had a lot of mana.

“Master. Um... it would sound strange if I asked you to treat me harshly, wouldn’t it?”

“What on earth are you talking about, my disciple?”

“I don’t really know what I’m talking about either. Please forget it.”

Lee Han quickly changed the subject and took out the blueprints.

“About the compressed magic circle you newly fused earlier. I wanted to ask where I should start.”

“Hmm. Well... what kind of beginning would suit my disciple...”

The young prince in the painting tilted his head and pondered. Then the basement seemed to brighten even though he had not used light-based magic.

At that moment, a wailing voice came again from the old chest.

“Take... me... out...”

Lee Han unconsciously nodded. He could understand those feelings.

Someone please take me out too!

“Since the difficulty of this magic is excessively high...”

“Ah. Then should I tell them not to do it?”

“I cannot become a hindrance when my disciple is taking on a challenge, let alone fail to be of help. There are several methods.”

Tch.

“Is this stone mirror currently withstanding the pressure generated by dimensional distortion?”

In the current blueprint, the artifact Yukbeltire’s Stone Mirror had been placed to handle the distortion and pressure generated while the magic was fused and cast.

“Yes. Ideally, I’d like to build a structure like a mage tower to disperse it, but we don’t have that luxury...”

“Getting into the habit of wasteful inefficiency is the habit of incompetent mages. It is fine, my disciple. This artifact should work reasonably well. Instead, it seems we need to make some improvements. Shall I give you several points to watch out for?”

The young prince was trying to improve the artifact placed at the starting point of the work.

If the amount of distortion this artifact could handle increased, there were several spells his clever disciple could try in order to complete the magic in the blueprint.

“...Master. But you see.”

Lee Han hesitated.

Actually, he did not want to make ungrateful complaints in front of someone who was teaching him so kindly and generously. But when he thought of the shock his senior had received earlier, he could not help but speak up.

“If the other mage hears these points to watch out for, how shocked would she be?”

“Huh?”

The young prince in the portrait was flustered, but still considered the matter seriously.

Eventually, the prince answered.

“This much should be fine, my disciple. A junior researching such excellent magic would not be shocked by hearing a few points to watch out for.”

Outstanding mages recognized other outstanding mages.

The young prince trusted Yukbeltire.

A person researching such magic would not be shocked by hearing improvement directions. Rather, she would receive fresh stimulation and become even more absorbed in her work.

“I see. Understood! I’ll convey it exactly as you said!”

***

Thud!

Upon hearing the improvement points, Yukbeltire collapsed sideways. Lee Han cried out in alarm.

“Senior!”

“...Don’t make a fuss. It’s just fatigue from the long journey.”

“For that to be true, your legs seem to have given out...”

Lee Han hurried to the kitchen and brought back warm hot chocolate. It had originally been Gainando’s portion, but this was an emergency, so it could not be helped.

Since it’s his family member, Gainando should be fine with it.

“Here. Drink this. Having something hot should restore some of your strength.”

“Chocolate...”

“Chocolate?”

Lee Han was puzzled when the other person muttered.

This is hot chocolate, though?

“...I want to eat cream wafer cookies...”

“...”

For a moment, Lee Han wondered if the person in front of him was Gainando in disguise. However, he could not sense any traces of magic.

It was truly astonishing.

“The ones you made last time...”

“No... when was that even... And making those is quite bothersome, you know.”

Come to think of it, he had once served homemade sweets to a senior who had stubbornly refused to eat proper meals.

Back then, she had barely nibbled at a few pieces, and now she wanted more?

Yukbeltire said nothing and simply stared at him with a pale face.

It was like a silent protest, as though she needed to eat those to regain the strength to get up.

Lee Han suppressed the urge to hit her and ran back to the kitchen.

Damn it. I should have just given the hot chocolate to Gainando.

“Huh? Lee Han, what are you doing?”

Gainando, who had just come out into the kitchen, looked at Lee Han curiously.

Lee Han answered curtly, “Making sweets.”

“Hmph. You’re making them for Prince Jowurin again.”

Gainando showed unexpected perceptiveness.

There was no reason for Lee Han to go out of his way to make sweets when Gainando had not done anything particularly well.

“A dragon being served sweets? Isn’t that too unfair? This isn’t some fairy tale. And in fairy tales, dragons like that all get their comeuppance... Hey, Lee Han. Where did the hot chocolate that was here go?”

“Your sister drank it.”

“...Adenart?!”

“No. The one above her.”

Lee Han finished answering and turned away. Gainando was bewildered with confusion and shock.

“What kind of person does that?! Stealing from a second-year student?!”

Leaving the shouting behind, Lee Han hurried back and tossed the sweets into his senior’s mouth.

“Hurry up and eat, then get up. These were originally meant for whoever finished their assignment first.”

“Mmph.”

“Anyway, do the improvement points make sense to you now?”

“...”

When she read the written improvement points again, Yukbeltire’s eyes lost focus.

Lee Han gave up and said, “Actually, the young Principal is in my basement. He’s the one giving the advice, so stop being shocked and get up.”

Thud!

Yukbeltire collapsed sideways again. Lee Han looked out the window with a gloomy expression.

For some reason, he found himself missing Senior Diret.

***

“Welcome, Mage.”

“...”

Yukbeltire’s pupils showed the most violent movement they had displayed all day. Lee Han whispered beside her.

“Please calm down. I told you about this.”

“I’m perfectly calm. You’re the one who should calm down.”

“I’m on your right, not your left.”

Lee Han made a wry expression at Yukbeltire, who was looking left while answering.

Was the shock too great?

The young prince in the painting smiled and spread both arms.

“The magic you proposed was certainly excellent. But I am curious about one thing... do you truly need to fuse these two spells right now?”

The young prince understood exactly what kind of magic Yukbeltire was trying to perform.

Fusing these two spells was one step in the process toward a greater goal, not the goal itself.

Of course, completing it would greatly shorten the process. But was it truly worth pushing so hard to attempt it?

“Even without fusing these two spells, there should be various possible methods if you take more time.”

“Is that so?”

Lee Han looked at his senior in puzzlement.

He had thought there had to be a specific reason to combine the two spells, increase efficiency, and secure additional dimensions. He had not considered that there might be other methods.

Could it be that this person deliberately chose a difficult method because I said I would help?

“There is a reason.”

“What reason is that?”

Yukbeltire quietly began her explanation.

In the school she belonged to, there was Professor Verdus, and an argument with this professor had served as the catalyst for the incident.

“It’s too difficult for your level! Do it an easier way!”

“I don’t think it’s quite that...”

“Ugh! You can’t do magic, so it’s impossible for you! If you manage to do it, I’ll crawl around on all fours like Bendozol for the entire next semester!”

“...”

Of course, Yukbeltire had no particular desire to make her school professor crawl around on all fours.

That would be a purely emotional and wasteful endeavor with no real benefit.

“But after thinking it through, I judged that this level of efficiency would be worth the investment...”

“Anyone can see you just want to make him crawl around on all fours!”

The young prince pointed this out as if he could not believe it.

To think she would even drag his disciple into attempting such difficult magic for such a petty reason.

“Mage. Of course, anger may be clouding your vision right now, but please let go of your feelings generously. Is your time not too precious to waste on such trivial arguments? Don’t you agree, disciple?”

“Actually, I really wanted to try this magic myself.”

“?!”