I won.

Lee Han let out a sigh of relief.

Baquantalana and Unbreakable One, who had only been cursed at for trying to tell the truth, quietly disappeared.

Sorry. When the truth comes out later, you can curse me then.

If the truth was exposed later and the two of them made a huge fuss yelling, “Gonadaltes, come out!” Lee Han resolved to keep his mouth firmly shut.

The reason he had won this time was because luck had been on his side.

If the Valdrogard students hadn’t spread rumors about fifth-years and sixth-years...

Hm. Even then, they probably wouldn’t have believed I did it, right? I’m still a second-year.

In that sense, Unbreakable One really was strange.

How had Unbreakable One suspected Lee Han himself in that situation?

Was that intuition just sharp, or was there something Lee Han didn’t know?

Maybe I should’ve pushed harder and made them look like liars. I need to buy time for the rumor to spread.

It didn’t matter if the truth came out later.

As long as the rumor had already spread somewhat by then, it would be much easier to make excuses.

“Junior. What are you doing here?”

“!”

Lee Han, who had slipped into an empty classroom to manipulate public opinion, flinched at the voice from ahead.

Diret, passing through the corridor, had spotted the junior and stopped to ask.

“I was previewing next week’s magic!”

“...I-I see.”

Oops.

The pity in the senior’s eyes told Lee Han he had misspoken.

It was the weekend, during a festival, and he was alone in a classroom previewing magic.

Anyone would think he was obsessed with magic.

“It was just for a moment. Just a moment! Something suddenly came to mind!”

“Well, people who suddenly think of something and start studying are rare... Right. Junior, follow me for a moment. There’s something I want to show you.”

Diret gestured as if this was perfect timing.

The expressions usually visible on the crow beastkin student’s face were fatigue, exhaustion, irritation, and pity.

Today, however, joy and happiness had taken their place for once.

“??”

Lee Han was puzzled.

Did the Skull Principal get locked up in an Imperial prison or something?

He couldn’t imagine any other reason for such a bright smile.

“Did something happen?”

“Hm? Yes. Is it that obvious? Hehe.”

Did he really get locked up?

Hearing Diret’s excited voice only made Lee Han more unsettled.

Come to think of it, the Skull Principal hadn’t been seen around much lately.

“Should I tell you? No, Junior. Wait and see for yourself... No. Should I just tell you now?”

“...Are you all right?”

“Ah. I’m fine. I was rambling a bit, wasn’t I?”

Diret coughed awkwardly and composed everything again.

No matter how excited a senior was, a certain dignity still had to be maintained.

Once the wings that had been fluttering behind Diret settled down, the explanation resumed.

“Junior. Listen calmly. Don’t be too shocked. All right? You can’t faint. Absolutely not.”

“...Did the Skull Principal really get locked up?”

“Hm? What are you talking about?”

“Nothing. Then what is it?”

“...A donation came in for the dark magic [N O V E L I G H T] school!!”

“Ah.”

Lee Han finally understood.

News that Intarendals had donated House Dalcard’s gold must have reached Diret.

“...Aren’t you happy?”

Diret stared at the junior with a mix of disappointment and bewilderment.

Diret had clearly expected Lee Han to be overjoyed.

It had been heartbreaking to watch a second-year junior earn gold with those small hands just to fill the dark magic school’s treasury.

Diret had thought the dark magic school would no longer need to make Lee Han do such shabby work.

“Wh-whoooooa! I’m so happy! What a miracle!”

Realizing his mistake, Lee Han boldly threw himself backward.

When he hit the floor with a thud and shouted, the baby basilisk hidden in his sleeve startled and shrieked.

“...You’re terrible at acting.”

“I have no idea what you mean! I’m so shocked I can’t understand anything!”

“Hey. Stop that. More importantly, did you already know?”

“Yes.”

“How?? I only just heard about it. You weren’t there, were you?”

“Hmm. You have to keep this secret.”

“I swear on my honor and my heart. Now tell me.”

Lee Han briefly explained what had happened over the weekend.

The insane duplicate had revived an ancient subordinate, and that ancient subordinate had used old blood and old wealth to enter the school legally...

Thud!

Diret fell backward in shock.

“Uh, did you have a reason to act just now?”

“I really fell because I was shocked, you stupid junior!”

Diret grumbled, then took Lee Han’s hand and got up from the corridor floor.

How long had it been since they last met, and the junior had already gone through something like this?

“So I arrested Intarendals with help from the Death Knights. After that, we negotiated, and Intarendals agreed to study remotely through this <Echo Stone>.”

“Wait. Then isn’t that House Dalcard’s gold?”

“What nonsense are you saying, Senior? Are you ignoring the will of the honorable Lord Intarendals, a noble of the Kingdom of Margada? If we returned that gold to House Dalcard on our own... sob. I might face terrifying retaliation.”

Lee Han covered his eyes and pretended to cry.

Diret hurriedly comforted the junior.

“N-no. I was too insensitive. Right. You’re tangled up with insane ancient beings.”

“Exactly.”

“...”

Diret glared at Lee Han, clearly feeling tricked, but Lee Han pretended not to notice and continued.

“Anyway, the dark magic school legally received the gold. We got lucky.”

“Can this... really be called lucky...?”

Diret agonized over it.

No matter how one looked at it, this felt like blood money earned by selling out a junior.

All the joy from hearing about the donation vanished, leaving only a heavy weight behind.

“Wait. Junior. Did you use ancient magic on students from other schools?”

“...Pardon? I’m not sure. Perhaps Yuk—”

“Yukbeltire came looking for me and kept bothering me, so I asked what was going on. Yukbeltire said it was nothing, but there was no way that was true, so I kept asking. Apparently, there’s a rumor going around that Yukbeltire used ancient forbidden magic.”

“...Gasp!”

The rumor’s spreading faster than I expected.

Lee Han was slightly impressed.

The members of <Einroguard’s Watchers> seemed to have looser lips than he’d thought.

For it to reach Yukbeltire’s own ears already...

“Isn’t that good? Doesn’t that mean the reputation is spreading widely?”

“...Junior. That’s not how a normal second-year thinks.”

“Actually, I heard that from Senior Palcrius.”

Lee Han did not hesitate to throw his senior under the carriage.

He was starting to feel like he was performing a dangerous balancing act on a tightrope, but there was no helping it.

“It wouldn’t necessarily be bad, but Yukbeltire has more pride than you’d think. Yukbeltire gets really upset when praised for something not personally done. Once, when Yukbeltire collapsed after failing to finish an assignment on time, I secretly helped finish it, and Yukbeltire sulked so badly afterward that there was no talking to me for an entire week.”

“That’s complete trash behavior!”

“It’s... it’s not that bad... is it? Though Yukbeltire might do that to you...”

Diret wavered between defending Yukbeltire and agreeing with the junior.

“...Anyway. It was you, wasn’t it? The moment I heard the rumor from Yukbeltire, I thought of you, Junior. But no matter what, I couldn’t imagine where you would have learned ancient magic like that, so I dismissed it.”

“Yes. It was me.”

Lee Han gave up and confessed.

He did his best to explain that the insane duplicate had threatened him through the staff, so he had no choice.

Kind-hearted Diret looked heartbroken at the junior’s words.

“That damned duplicate really...! I’m telling you, we need to subjugate it as soon as possible.”

“You’re absolutely right!”

“But Junior. Could you explain exactly what kind of magic it was?”

Diret glanced at the junior, black eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“...”

“Ah, no. Academic curiosity... ancient forbidden dark magic... I was curious... No. Sorry. That was wrong of me.”

***

In the end, however, Lee Han began explaining the Dark Emperor.

About a third of the explanation consisted of cursing the insane duplicate, Kalarogard, and the Valdrogard students.

Diret, feeling guilty about extracting magical knowledge from a junior who had suffered so much, did not correct him at all.

“How does it make sense for fourth-years to come here like that? Those Valdro bastards! I heard before that Valdrogard fourth-years were different, but I was completely fooled!”

“Ah. That’s... well. It’s not as if Valdrogard has no students who occasionally come to their senses and study magic seriously...”

“Really?”

Lee Han reacted with the same lukewarm disbelief he’d shown when told there were kind professors in the Empire too.

Did such people really exist?

“...Those students usually don’t come to Einroguard to play during festival season.”

“...”

That was certainly true.

If Valdrogard students had truly come to their senses and started studying magic seriously, they would treasure every day for study, not hire people so they could come play at Einroguard.

“Anyway, this is how you summon it. From what I heard, a mage can also control the demigod’s authority. In the past, dark mages created a demigod that controlled water and used it to build an underwater city...”

Diret scribbled down the junior’s words, eyes bright and shining.

How many chances were there to hear the lost secrets of ancient dark mages directly?

“Senior. Aren’t you enjoying this a little too much?”

“...Kn-knowledge is not guilty.”

Clack!

At that moment, the <Echo Stone> glowed again, and a vision spilled out.

The insane duplicate glared at Lee Han in disbelief and spoke.

You actually managed to grasp the structure.

“My disciple accidentally touched a few things while exploring... I apologize.”

Is this a dark mage’s workshop?

Perhaps sensing the atmosphere flowing through Professor Mortum’s tower, the Dark Hall, the insane duplicate looked around.

It seems to have been made by a fairly capable dark mage.

“!”

Lee Han was surprised by the insane duplicate’s words.

It was rare for the insane duplicate to speak favorably of any mage.

Come to think of it, Professor Mortum would be something like a distant disciple.

The duplicate had split off from the Skull Principal long ago, and Professor Mortum was currently a disciple learning from the Skull Principal, so it wasn’t strange for the insane duplicate to view Professor Mortum’s magic favorably.

But there is one strange thing.

“What would that be?”

It is excessively impoverished. Did a band of thieves sweep through here?

“...”

“...”

The two students of the dark magic school fell silent at the same time.

Lee Han didn’t have the confidence to explain directly, so he answered indirectly.

“It seems that way.”

Those trash dare... Scoundrels. Find that band of thieves and make them pay the proper price.

“Yes! I’ll wipe them from this world!”

Diret looked at the junior with pity.

Meanwhile, the insane duplicate noticed Diret’s presence.

After examining Diret coldly, the duplicate spoke in an icy voice.

Are you the workshop owner’s disciple? You seem fairly capable too.

“No!”

Lee Han cried out in horror.

If the insane duplicate took not only him but Diret as a disciple...

Diret was already unfortunate enough as a fifth-year. That would be too cruel.

What nonsense are you babbling?

“Weren’t you about to take my senior as a disciple?”

...Scoundrel. Babble nonsense one more time and I’ll turn your tongue to lead. If you saw a useful stone on the roadside, would you take it as a disciple? That one is weak and lacks ruthlessness to begin with. A fatal flaw.

“That’s not really a compliment...”

Lee Han, about to object, hesitated.

Wait. Then what about me?

While Lee Han felt vaguely offended, the insane duplicate asked again.

Who owns this workshop?

“Professor Mortum.”

That one?

Diret answered instead.

Since this was an ancient being tormenting the junior, the answer came out extremely blunt.

“A senior from the same school.”

I see. I’ll defeat both of yo—

Pop!

Lee Han turned off the <Echo Stone> again.

“Hmph. Save that nonsense for Antagondals.”

Diret, who had been watching from the side, was genuinely flustered.

...Was it really all right to treat an ancient being like that?