The insane duplicate shot Lee Han a look of contempt at that lifeless answer, but the students from the dark magic school seemed deeply moved instead.

“I understand. There’s nothing more thrilling to a mage than watching truly great magic clash.”

These inferior creatures. These stupid, witless pieces of trash. What “great” magic...

“Shh. Master, please keep it down. If they found out I was learning from you, imagine how jealous they’d get.”

Lee Han whispered so only the staff hidden behind him could hear.

Naturally, the insane duplicate ignored him.

Jealous little vermin...

I’ll just have to keep hiding it.

“A mage is supposed to possess cold, rational judgment, but without passion like this, no one can ever reach higher realms!”

The students from Kalarogard seemed pleased by those words, and even the students from Valdrogard began cheering and applauding.

“That’s right!”

“Magic comes from the heart!”

The Kalarogard students responded warmly to the encouragement from their recent enemies.

“You idiots stay out of this.”

“Who said you could butt in?”

“...”

The resentment between the two magic schools ran too deep for the atmosphere to turn sentimental.

The Kalarogard students especially had no intention of tolerating any lecture about magic from the Valdrogard students.

How dare they?

“You crude, uncivilized bastards! We showed respect, and this is how you repay us?!”

“Unforgivable!”

When the students from Valdrogard drew their staffs, Lee Han was honestly a little surprised.

Oh. They can actually cast magic?

It was an incredibly rude thought, but the mere fact that the Valdrogard students were preparing spells was surprising on its own.

I guess even Valdrogard students manage to learn something by fourth year...

“Lord Galar! Punish them!”

“Teach them a lesson!”

“...”

“...”

Lee Han and Galar exchanged silent looks.

Galar spoke with his eyes.

Don’t pity me.

Understood.

Honestly, Galar was right.

What right did Lee Han have to pity someone who was walking their own path as a mage?

Besides, Lee Han wasn’t exactly in a position to pity anyone himself.

There were all of Einroguard’s deranged professors, for starters. Then there was the ancient lunatic trying to kill him. And Professor Verdus too...

Wait. The insane duplicate should’ve come after Professor Verdus. I mixed up the order.

He’d been ranking them by how terrible they were. How could he make a mistake like that?

Summon the Black Imperial Coffin. Make those bastards kneel.

“?”

The insane duplicate suddenly spoke again while Lee Han was lost in thought.

Lee Han blinked in confusion. He had no idea what a Black Imperial Coffin was.

The Black Imperial Coffin. ...Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of the Black Imperial Coffin?

“Yes.”

If you don’t even know that, then I truly have no idea what kind of garbage magic these trash are teaching you. Follow my instructions. I’ll teach you.

The insane duplicate began ordering him to prepare the spell step by step.

Lee Han wanted to ask what kind of magic it was, but the insane duplicate’s patience already seemed dangerously close to snapping, so he held back.

If it uses dark elements, then it’s probably summoning magic... but the structure’s way too complicated.

As Lee Han moved his staff and assembled the spell structure exactly as instructed, doubt suddenly crept into his mind.

Could he really cast something like this?

The insane duplicate always forced him into absurdly difficult magic.

Just look at how furious the ancient madman got whenever Lee Han failed to learn more fifth-circle spells.

And judging from the structure alone, this spell definitely wasn’t simple.

This looks like Three Kingdoms-period script.

The characters engraved throughout the magic circle were letters used during the Three Kingdoms period.

He couldn’t decipher everything, but as a second-year student, Lee Han could at least sense the general intent behind it.

This spell was designed to restrain and seal away something extremely powerful.

“Master. Can someone at my level really cast this?”

The insane duplicate ignored the question entirely instead of answering.

The ancient madman was gradually learning how to deal with his disciple. Lee Han grumbled inwardly.

“...Offering only the purest darkness as sacrifice...”

Once the spell structure was mostly complete, flames formed from dark elements burst into existence at several points around him, and space itself trembled.

A classic sign of summoning magic.

Lee Han’s eyes widened as he felt mana pouring out of him like a flood.

Mages frequently offered mana as payment when using summoning magic, so that part wasn’t strange.

But—

What the hell is this cost?!

Even Lee Han, who burned through mana recklessly compared to most mages, was shocked by the sheer amount being consumed.

Only then did he understand why the insane duplicate had chosen this spell for him.

The Black Imperial Coffin wasn’t difficult because of technical complexity alone. Once the preparations were complete, it was a spell that could essentially be forced through with overwhelming mana reserves.

It was undeniably well-suited to someone with absurd amounts of mana.

Lee Han found himself faintly impressed.

So he’s actually capable of this kind of consideration. Honestly, I expected him to force me into some impossible spell again.

Not bad for a first attempt. Continue.

Perhaps because of the nature of the spell, even the insane duplicate sounded satisfied.

Lee Han glanced sideways and asked carefully,

“Master. What kind of spell is this exactly?”

A spell meant to silence vermin pretending to be dark mages.

“...That’s not what I meant. I’m asking what the spell actually is.”

The insane duplicate stared at the summoning taking shape within the dark flames before speaking again.

What does it look like to you?

“It uses dark elements, the structure is ridiculously complicated, and it’s summoning magic... Hmm. I’m not sure. A Black Dragon?”

Not bad.

“That was the right answer?”

No. It was nonsense. Idiot. But I appreciate your ambition to summon a Black Dragon.

“I wasn’t saying I wanted to summon one...”

The Black Imperial Coffin is a coffin that seals away an artificially created demigod.

“???”

When his disciple still failed to understand, the insane duplicate explained with the patience of a man convinced he was the Empire’s greatest master.

Just as certain twisted mages—including the Skull Principal and the head of House Wardanaz—believed the source of divine magic lay not in gods themselves but in the faith offered by priests, the insane duplicate had reached a similar conclusion.

But the insane duplicate went one step further.

If priests could create divine magic through accumulated faith, then why couldn’t a mage achieve something similar?

Of course, replacing the faith of millions with one’s own power came with severe limitations...

...And yet, the insane duplicate ultimately completed the secret art.

An artificial demigod summoned not through faith, but through offerings of the purest dark elements.

That was the Black Imperial Coffin.

“...”

Lee Han felt overwhelmed after hearing the explanation.

As someone studying magic himself, he couldn’t help being shaken by the sheer scale of the idea.

It wasn’t just a matter of power or difficulty. The very concept itself was monstrous.

So this is what ancient mages were like...

Creating something godlike through magic alone and summoning it into ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) existence.

Not calling forth a being from another dimension through a contract, but creating an artificial existence entirely with one’s own hands.

No, more importantly—why are you using something like this just to intimidate dark mages?!

Only then did Lee Han finally remember why he was casting the spell in the first place.

He was doing this to show off in front of the Kalarogard dark mages.

“Wait. Then why’s it called a coffin?”

If it’s an artificial dark demigod, shouldn’t it be something like <Summon the Dark Emperor>? Why <Summon the Dark Emperor’s Coffin>?

Because it has to stay sealed. Or were you planning to let an artificial demigod roam around freely?

“Is it dangerous?”

No.

“Whew. That’s a relief. So you made it benevolent?”

The spell itself is not dangerous. Only the mage using it is in danger. Is the sun dangerous?

It absolutely is, you lunatic...

Lee Han almost brought up the story of the fool who flew too close to the sun before stopping himself.

Apparently this artificial demigod really was terrifyingly dangerous.

***

The students from Kalarogard, who had already forgotten Lee Han’s intervention and gone back to arguing with the students from Valdrogard, suddenly faltered.

The students from Valdrogard mistook that hesitation for victory and puffed themselves up smugly.

“So you finally understand how shallow your magic is!”

“...What the hell is that?”

Galar also sensed something strange and turned his head.

While everyone had been arguing, the second-year student from Einroguard had apparently summoned something bizarre.

A massive black coffin formed entirely from dark elements.

“???”

“What is that thing?”

The students from Valdrogard tilted their heads in confusion at the sight of the Dark Emperor’s Coffin.

It looked nothing like ordinary summoning magic.

Normally, whether summoning a living being from another dimension or calling forth an object, the spell’s purpose should be obvious at a glance.

But the purpose of that gigantic coffin was utterly incomprehensible.

The Kalarogard students, however, reacted differently.

As dark mages, they instinctively sensed the dreadful, unnatural presence radiating from it.

The density of dark elements is insane!

What in the world did he summon?!

Hiss—

Suddenly, the undead standing beside one of the Kalarogard students vanished in a reverse-summon.

No attack.

No warning.

It simply disappeared.

“???”

“What?!”

“...The Dark Emperor’s Coffin! It’s the Dark Emperor’s Coffin!”

One of the Kalarogard students specialized in researching ancient dark magic.

Though the student could barely believe it, there was no mistaking the spell.

In ancient times, this forbidden secret art created by an unknown archmage had spread through countless kingdoms like wildfire, driving dark mages into obsession.

A spell that created an artificial dark demigod, then sealed it inside a coffin to control it.

“There’s really magic like that?!”

“Why have I never heard of it? If something like that exists, I want to learn it too!”

Even if it was incomplete, sealed away, and artificially created, a god was still a god.

The ability to impose new laws upon the surrounding world and twist reality according to one’s will was irresistibly alluring.

And the demigod sealed within the Dark Emperor’s Coffin clearly possessed authority over all undead nearby.

“Well... I heard it was considered dangerously forbidden even back in ancient times...”

The amount of dark elements required for even a brief summoning was beyond absurd.

Dark mages attempting the spell inevitably ended up dabbling in horrific forbidden arts just to gather enough power.

And summoning it was only the beginning.

Things were manageable as long as the demigod obediently remained sealed inside the coffin.

But if the coffin shattered during battle and the sealed demigod emerged... no one could predict what would happen next.

The mage who created the demigod was not its master.

Ancient history was filled with catastrophes caused by demigods escaping their coffins and rampaging across entire regions with the authorities granted to them at creation.

And yet this Einroguard lunatic had somehow unearthed the lost spell and cast it without hesitation.

As expected of Einroguard.

Its madness truly stood unmatched.

“Why would he cast a lost forbidden spell like that?”

“I-I don’t know. Those Einroguard bastards were never sane to begin with...”

“Everyone. Do you see now?”

Completely unaware of the terror spreading through the other mages, Lee Han spoke confidently after summoning the Dark Emperor’s Coffin.

It was time to wrap this up and satisfy the insane duplicate.

“Can anyone here stand against this spell? If not, then I declare victory!”

The students from Kalarogard stared at him in disgust.

Their expressions carried only one message.

That crazy bastard.

To casually drag out a forbidden lost spell purely to show off his magical skill...

One of the Kalarogard students, trembling at Lee Han’s audacity and insanity, studied his face carefully before hesitating.

“Wait... are you perhaps Lee Han of House Wardanaz? The one Senior Agdung mentioned?”

“What? House Wardanaz?”

The students from Valdrogard reacted as well.

“That fourth-year?”

“Wasn’t he a fifth-year?”

“You idiots. He’s a sixth-year. Can’t any of you even count properly?”

“...”

Galar stared at the students from Valdrogard in disbelief.

He already knew they were idiots, but this was honestly unbelievable.