Chapter 26

Most students who entered the magic school thought of magic as a goal rather than a means. They didn't usually think, "I'll learn fire creation magic to start a fire while camping and water creation magic to drink water for free when I'm thirsty." Instead, they often harbored ambitions like, "After mastering the basics, I'll learn the magic I want and open up new fields and gain enlightenment."

To that extent, Nilia had little interest in fire creation magic. After all, starting a fire was something she could do without a wand or spell. Given a stone and a twig, Nilia was confident she could start a fire. She would have preferred if her aptitude matched her long-standing interest in water magic.

"Nilia, be grateful for the magic you have."

"Huh? What? Oh, right."

Overwhelmed by the atmosphere Lee Han exuded, Nilia nodded unconsciously.

'Is he praising my magic??'

As a member of the Wodanaz family, a renowned magic lineage, Nilia could not tolerate thinking of her own magic as trivial. Nilia turned her head slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Of course, Lee Han was grumbling inwardly.

'If only I could control mana, I would start with fire magic. I'm envious.'

* * *

Warming their cold limbs, quenching their burning thirst, and warming bread and cheese in their mouths, the group's fatigue eased somewhat.

'Soon, I need to go outside and check if the undead are still around.'

Lee Han thought he needed to go outside and see if the undead were still there. Given the principal's crazy nature, they might still be around.

"Nilia."

"Sure. Let's go."

Nilia, who seemed to have picked up on Lee Han's thoughts, sprang up from her seat.

As they emerged from the cave, darkness greeted them.

After walking a short distance, they knew.

"......"

"Damn."

The distant mountain below was still bright, as if a belt of fire encircled it. It was the encirclement formed by the undead summons.

"Is he really crazy?"

"Yeah... he is, but can we really say that?"

Nilia shivered slightly, afraid to curse the skeletal principal.

"It's fine. No one is listening. You can curse him."

"R-Really?"

"Nilia, magic comes from free thinking. The principal probably wants us to curse him and think freely."

Lee Han had a talent for delivering nonsense with a serious face.

With his chiseled face, delivering nonsense seriously, Nilia, who knew little about magic, began to waver.

R-Really?

"Principal, you're a bad guy! A bear on fire! Wolves will catch you at night..."

Rustle—

"Aaaah! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

As soon as a rustling sound came from ahead, Nilia clung to Lee Han, sobbing.

Lee Han slowly peeled Nilia off his chest like a leech and cast a wary glance.

"Nilia, be careful. Someone is there."

The other party seemed to have also detected Lee Han, as a voice came from the darkness.

"...Who's there?"

"You speak first."

"White Tiger Tower."

"Damn. Not all of them were caught."

Lee Han clicked his tongue.

No wonder the undead didn't disappear. Some students from the White Tiger Tower had escaped and were still on the loose amidst the chaos.

Another rustling sound, and the students from the White Tiger Tower appeared, looking completely disheveled, almost like beggars.

"Beggars?"

"No. They're from the White Tiger Tower."

* * *

- Punish the students who disobeyed the great principal's orders and fled.

- Punish the students who disobeyed the great principal's orders and fled.

Unlike Lee Han's group, the students from the White Tiger Tower who rushed out to break the encirclement were met with countless skeletons.

The bone trackers approached with a clattering sound, uttering chilling words as they attacked.

Moreover, the bone clubs they wielded, though not fatal, slowed movement with one hit, stopped movement with two hits, and knocked down with three hits.

"Argh!"

"These bastards are cowardly, using numbers... Gah!"

Despite showcasing their honed sword skills, the students from the White Tiger Tower eventually fell one by one.

- Suppression complete.

- Suppression complete.

"...Up! Escape up!"

The first to grasp the situation among the White Tiger Tower students was Jizel.

'This wasn't meant to be broken!'

Lee Han didn't trust the principal at all, but Jizel, having believed the principal's words without thinking, mistakenly thought they could break the encirclement.

Continuing downward would only lead to capture.

Jizel began leading the remaining students up the mountain.

Fortunately, the bone trackers did not pursue them up the mountain.

"Huff... huff..."

"Moradi. Can we... huff. Escape up here? There's no path."

"Summoned creatures by mages can't last long. They'll disappear with time."

If Lee Han had been there, he would have pointed out, "That's for mediocre mages. Would the principal's summons be that weak?" Unfortunately, the students from the White Tiger Tower had very limited knowledge of magic.

They nodded, thinking Jizel's words made sense.

"What do we do in the meantime?"

"Wait. Rest and recover. Start a fire... no. We need to find a place to rest first. Find a spot to shelter from the wind."

Following Jizel's words, the students from the White Tiger Tower began searching the surroundings.

Though not as skilled in the dark or mountain navigation as Nilia, the students from the White Tiger Tower had physical strength.

Despite their muscles aching from fatigue and their throats parched from thirst, they continued moving without stopping.

Rustle—

"I hear a sound over there."

"Is it a wild animal?"

"If it's a wild animal, let's catch it. I feel like my stomach is attached to my back."

However, the sound was not that of an animal but a human voice.

The students from the White Tiger Tower looked shocked.

To think there would be others out here in the middle of the night.

"...Who's there?"

"You speak first."

"White Tiger Tower."

"Damn. Not all of them were caught."

Surprisingly, it was the students from the Blue Dragon Tower.

* * *

"Come in."

The students from the White Tiger Tower hesitantly entered the cave.

Their expressions were filled with awkwardness.

Having fought each other not long ago, receiving help now would not be easy.

"Sit and eat and drink."

Lee Han spoke expressionlessly. Gaynando, who was beside him, whispered.

"We don't have any food, so why..."

"Shh."

Deregyu nudged Gaynando's side.

The sudden appearance of the students from the White Tiger Tower, looking like beggars, gave a sense of how much they had suffered in the middle of the night.

Originally, Lee Han could have driven them away.

Given the treatment they had received from the White Tiger Tower students, no one would have said anything if he had driven them away.

But seeing their pitiful state, Lee Han called them into the cave and shared food and drink.

It was genuinely touching.

'Lee Han is truly honorable!'

Being kind to allies was easy. The truly difficult thing was being kind to enemies.

Deregyu hoped that Lee Han's kindness would lead the students from the White Tiger Tower to reflect and reconcile.

"......"

In the cave, only the sound of swallowing could be heard quietly.

Jizel tried to carefully assess the situation around her.

'How did the Blue Dragon Tower students get here?'

Jizel didn't expect that Lee Han had followed her.

Who would have thought that students from the Blue Dragon Tower, not the Black Turtle Tower, would do something so despicable?

Instead, Jizel thought differently.

'...They must have seen the map too.'

Otherwise, there would be no reason for them to be here at night.

They must have come up earlier and hidden in the cave when the chaos below began.

Jizel gnawed on her lip, pondering what to do.

Despite Lee Han's kindness, a member of the Wodanaz family, it was still a different matter.

From the time she was in the Moradi family, she had been taught this.

-Jizel, as you know, the Moradi family never forgets a grudge. But there's a hidden meaning. It's that we repay kindness when we remember it.

A person swayed by feelings of gratitude was the most despised in the Moradi family.

A member of the Moradi family should be able to calmly refuse a desperate plea from someone who had saved their life.

'How can I use this? I need to win their favor first.'

Meanwhile, one of the students from the White Tiger Tower hesitantly spoke up, trying to ask Deregyu what had happened.

"Choi. Wha..."

Thud!

"?!?"

The student who had started to speak fell forward.

Deregyu was shocked.

'What?!'

At first, he thought the student had just collapsed from fatigue.

But it wasn't that.

Thud! Thud!

Other students also fell forward as if they had eaten something wrong.

"...Damn!"

Realizing too late, Jizel spat out the water she had been holding in her mouth.

But she was already dazed from having drunk a considerable amount of water.

'They drugged the water...?!'

"It's too late. You realized it too late."

Lee Han spoke coldly.

Even as her mind clouded, Jizel glared at Lee Han with a murderous look.

Instead of the soft, slender expression she had shown when they first met, a sharp, fierce expression appeared, one the students from the White Tiger Tower had never seen.

"Wait... and see, Wodanaz...!"

The last thing Jizel saw was the chiseled, cold face of the Wodanaz family boy looking down at her expressionlessly.

With that, Jizel fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

'Did I create an unnecessary grudge?'

Unlike Jizel's misunderstanding, Lee Han was slightly regretful inside.

The students from the White Tiger Tower would not forget this grudge.

But what could he do?

The ones who started it were the students from the White Tiger Tower.

If someone dislikes you for no reason, give them a reason!

"What, what, what, what, Lee Han?!"

"There's poison in the water!? I drank it too!?"

Deregyu was so shocked he couldn't speak properly. Gaynando felt the same way.

Lee Han had deliberately excluded them from his plan.

Both Deregyu and Gaynando were not good at hiding their expressions, and telling them could have caused problems.

"Gaynando, don't worry. It's not poison. And you didn't drink it. I'm going to tie them up and leave them where the bone trackers are."

Lee Han didn't drug the water out of personal grudge.

Who were the skeletons below looking for?

Clearly, they were looking for the students from the White Tiger Tower.

These guys need to be caught and handed over quickly!

"But... why use such means?"

"Deregyu, think about it. If we had confronted them directly, we would have been detected. Besides, would the Moradi family have just stood by? They would have held us back and made us all get caught."

Deregyu couldn't argue with Lee Han's logic.

Listening to Lee Han, Deregyu felt convinced again.

"But still, this is a bit... Where did you get the drugs?"

Yoner raised his hand slightly, looking a bit embarrassed.

"I found some sleeping herbs on the way up."

Yoner, who could identify most flowers and herbs, had spotted the white-stemmed sleeping herbs while climbing up.

-Oh, look at this.

-What is it?

-Sleeping herbs. Grind them and mix them in water to help you sleep.

-Should we take them?

-What?

-Yes, we should. We might need them.

-Will we need them?

Yoner, unsure if they would ever be needed, took the sleeping herbs.

But surprisingly, they were needed.

...Though he never imagined they would be used like this.