Chapter 95

Chapter 095

"I have no intention of leaving at all. But if you feel better by doing so, I am willing to listen to that information."

Lee Han said with a serious expression.

With his chiseled face, he spoke without a hint of a joke, which made Salco feel confused without realizing it.

'Has he really never gone out at night?'

Salco turned his gaze to another friend from the Black Turtle Tower. The friend shook his head.

It was a warning not to be fooled.

"......"

Salco's expression turned slightly grim. After all, it was dangerous to trust these smooth-talking nobles.

"...Follow me. I'll explain."

Then Salco whispered something to his Black Turtle Tower friends.

Lee Han, curious, subtly asked a friend he had eaten vegetable stew with before.

"What did Tutantha say?"

The other person replied with an apologetic look.

"...Not to talk to you alone when I'm not around..."

"......"

* * *

In fact, it wasn't just Lee Han who wandered around at night. Most students were now gradually venturing outside the tower.

They had realized that just sleeping quietly at night wouldn't allow them to survive in this school.

Whether for food, assignments, or even an escape, they had to wander around the school and search for anything.

Naturally, Salco was doing the same.

"Complaining about me while secretly wandering around the school at night?"

"...I've never complained."

Salco said with a look of disbelief.

Upon reflection, it was true.

"Got it. Continue."

"......"

Salco continued his story.

The place Salco and his friends had been challenging recently was the third floor of the main building.

The main building, the largest and most mysterious of all the magic school buildings.

According to rumors, even the principal didn't know everything that was inside this main building.

As if to prove this rumor, the third floor of the main building kept changing every time they visited.

Sometimes there were five corridors, sometimes the stairs leading to it disappeared, and sometimes a few steps in, they were blocked by a wall...

But Salco, with the tenacity of someone from the stonemason guild, had found a way to enter to some extent.

"How do you get in?"

"When the hour and minute are odd, when there are no clouds in the sky, and when you hold the staff in your left hand. Only then does the third-floor corridor open properly."

"......"

For a moment, Lee Han thought Salco was joking. But Salco was very serious.

"Th... That's right."

After all, in a magic school, anything was possible.

Lee Han was grateful that the conditions for the third-floor corridor to open properly at night didn't involve riding a unicycle while roasting peanuts with lightning and jumping over a ring of fire.

"Thanks. It's useful information."

Lee Han needed to find the stables located in the upper floors of the main building. The information about the third floor was quite helpful.

"The information isn't over yet. There's something on that third floor that could help you."

"It's not the lightning spirit, is it?"

"?"

"No. Just a joke. What is it?"

Lee Han was curious.

Even if it was a magical being, the magic school was already full of all sorts of strange entities.

Liches, troll hybrids, vampires, lightning spirits, and so on...

And most of them probably wouldn't be pleasant to talk to. Lee Han could bet on it.

"I can't tell you."

"......"

"I've sworn not to reveal its identity."

"Got it. You want me to go and check it out myself?"

"No. Finding that being is more complicated and difficult than entering the third-floor corridor. I need to go with you. If you decide, I'll take you to the third-floor corridor and guide you to it."

Salco said this with a rock-solid attitude. But Lee Han was suspicious.

'Is this a trap?'

After being attacked unfairly by other students so many times, he was naturally suspicious.

Besides, Salco didn't dislike nobles and knights, did he?

When they went to the third-floor corridor, the Black Turtle Tower students might be waiting in masks.

Or the being on the third floor might want to offer a student as a sacrifice, and Salco chose Lee Han...

"Why are you doing this?"

Salco, who had no idea that Lee Han was suspecting him, asked in return.

"If I guide you, won't it go against the oath I made to that being?"

"No. As long as I don't reveal its identity, bringing new students is fine. I confirmed it again in the 'Basic Imperial Language and Logic' lecture, just in case."

'Tsk.'

The other person was as diligent a student as Lee Han. He couldn't be toyed with easily like Gai Nan.

"Do you really think it will help?"

"On my family's honor, I believe it will. Of course, my judgment isn't always right."

Salco stroked his beard, like a dwarf, and spoke seriously.

'Information is needed in any situation.'

After some thought, Lee Han nodded.

To find the way to the stables in the upper floors of the main building, he couldn't afford to be picky.

"Alright. When do you want to go?"

"Tonight."

* * *

Saturday evening.

It was the time when other students would be in the lounge, wrapped in blankets, basking in the warm bonfire, a steaming cup of tea or coffee in one hand, and a quill, chess piece, or card in the other.

But at that time, Lee Han was climbing the dark stairs of the main building with Salco.

'There doesn't seem to be anyone else around.'

Lee Han checked his surroundings, wary of any ambush. The Black Turtle Tower students didn't seem to be following.

Salco held a staff in one hand and a hammer at his waist.

Honestly, the hammer felt more threatening than the wooden swords the White Tiger Tower students carried.

"I asked the other students. Wodanaz."

Salco spoke in a low voice, reminiscent of granite.

"What did you ask?"

"About you."

"......"

Lee Han checked his surroundings again.

He was worried that Salco might shout, "Die, Wodanaz! Your evil deeds end here!" and the ambushed students would jump out.

Fortunately, that didn't happen.

"I heard you take care of the other students' food. All the students of the Blue Dragon Tower, and even those from other towers."

"Right."

"Good deeds are respected, but I want to discourage this. People who haven't worked for their own food and clothing won't appreciate it, no matter who provides it."

Lee Han nodded without realizing it.

It was a very true statement.

"......"

Salco was taken aback when Lee Han nodded.

He hadn't expected Wodanaz, from the Wodanaz family, to agree so readily.

"Do you... understand?"

"There's no wrong part in that. People who haven't worked for something don't appreciate it."

"True. Do the noble and knight brats know how sacred labor is? All they know is to strut around with their swords?"

"I think, fundamentally, the noble and knight brats should be sent to the fields to plow. They learn swordsmanship as part of their education; there's no reason they can't learn farming."

The two young laborers were in passionate agreement.

When the conversation ended, Lee Han and Salco looked at each other with mutual respect. Salco's rock-like face softened slightly.

"I seem to have misunderstood you. I apologize, Wodanaz. Some of the White Tiger Tower students said you were a heartless and evil archmage..."

"......"

"...That was just the arrogant knight brats' rumors."

"Right. Such rumors often cloud our judgment, and we must always be cautious, as magicians."

"That's true."

Salco nodded in a reflective manner.

Lee Han thought to himself.

'No matter what rumors spread in the future, I can always claim they're just rumors.'

Salco looked at Lee Han's hands. They were hardened from tending the garden and various tasks. Nobles couldn't have such hands.

People with the same hands recognize each other. Salco completely accepted Lee Han.

Then Salco became curious.

Why would a student like Lee Han take care of other lazy trash?

"Wodanaz, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Why do you take care of the students in the same tower?"

"......"

Lee Han was flustered.

Well...

'It's for the money...'

He did it for the money. If he didn't get paid, he wouldn't cook breakfast or go to their rooms to feed them.

It was obviously for the money.

But Lee Han thought it wouldn't be good to say it was for the money when Salco was currently evaluating him highly.

Lee Han decided to answer ambiguously.

"Because they're friends."

"......"

Salco was deeply impressed by this answer.

He had thought the students who followed Wodanaz did so because of his magic skills, but it seemed there was more to it.

"I could never do that... But because of that, I think I understand a little what you nobles mean by honor. It's not entirely nonexistent."

"......"

Lee Han tucked the ledger in his pocket a bit deeper.

If it were discovered, Salco would never trust nobles again.

Salco, who had been leading the way down the third-floor corridor of the main building, suddenly stopped. He pointed to a statue in the corridor. It was a statue of an unknown magician.

Though old and faded, and broken in places, it was still breathtakingly beautiful.

So beautiful that it didn't seem human.

'Strange. Why does it feel familiar?'

"Can you see that the statue is broken, Wodanaz?"

Salco took out his hammer. Lee Han stepped back a step, put his hand on his waist, and nodded.

"I repaired this statue last time. I couldn't just leave a broken statue like that."

'Workaholic.'

But Lee Han understood.

Just as Yoner wanted to water plants when he saw them, and Nillia wanted to hunt when she saw prey, and Lee Han wanted to bow when he saw a professor...

Salco had a similar occupational compulsion.

"But it's broken again?"

"Yes. This statue keeps breaking, and that's the key to opening this hidden door."

Salco carefully repaired the broken statue.

Then, in the darkness, the sound of rolling stones was heard, and the statue rotated once. At the same time, a hidden passage opened.

"Go inside, Wodanaz. From here, you must go alone."

"Tutantha... I trust you."

"I know. That's why you came this far."

"I really trust you."

"Why are you repeating it?"

Salco tilted his head, not realizing that Lee Han was reading his reaction.

* * *

A new student has come.

"!"

Inside the passage was a statue. A statue that looked like a mix of various animals.

Welcome. I am the statue of the forgotten beast. I have been in this school for quite a long time. Student who repaired the statue and entered, will you swear not to reveal my identity to anyone?

"...I swear."

When Lee Han answered, the tail of the dog in the statue happily wagged.

"May I ask what you are doing here?"

I'm just passing the time. The room I was guarding was closed 187 years ago. Since then, I've been wandering around the cool spots in the school.

"I'm curious why you can't tell anyone..."

Well, the professors could assign me tasks again if they knew.

"Truly wise...!"

Thank you for understanding.

Lee Han was certain that this statue was truly wise.