However, after hearing the explanation, Alshicle could understand why Lee Han had gotten angry.
Anyone would be furious if told to simply go and try spacetime magic that specified a desired space.
If Alshicle had heard such a thing, he would have thrown sardines in that person’s face.
“S-sorry.”
“I was originally going to ask Professor Garcia, but now that I think about it, the professor seems busy. The Principal would be better, right?”
“?”
“???”
The nearby Black Turtle Tower friends and Phoenix Tower friends all had question marks on their faces.
Priest Siana whispered to Priest Tiziling.
“Do people usually ask the Principal even when they don’t know something?”
“Shh. Priest Siana. Everyone will hear…”
Alshicle spoke firmly to his junior.
“It would definitely be better to ask Professor Garcia. I’ll deliver the message.”
“Why? Ah. Come to think of it, the Principal must be busy too…”
“No. I just don’t want Gonadaltes to come here.”
“…”
It was an absurd reason, but Alshicle was so serious that Lee Han was overwhelmed.
Alshicle quickly wrote a letter.
Mages who exchanged paper birds over long distances carried separate artifacts that emitted mana resonance so the birds could fly to their location, then informed the other party of that mana pattern.
Since Alshicle regularly exchanged paper birds with Professor Garcia, he easily sent off the letter.
“Let’s wait three days… no, four days! Wardanaz, you can go to the market during that time!”
“Eh. I don’t have anything to buy right now, so that seems like a waste of time.”
‘You just told the priests to go sightseeing at the capital market…’
Salco was exasperated inside.
This crazy magic addict!
“Still, I understand. While we wait, I’ll check the remaining parts of the mansion…”
Whoosh—
“!”
The students were surprised when a paper bird returned over the mansion not long after Alshicle had sent one.
What?
“Is it a different paper bird?”
“No… it’s definitely from Professor Garcia? What? Is Professor Garcia in the capital?”
With a surprised expression, the penguin beastkin mage checked the letter.
To Alshicle of House Pengerine!!
I heard from the Principal!!!
To think you brought student Lee Han along to track extradimensional monsters. If the other professors find out, they will never forgive—
Whoosh!
Alshicle quickly burned the first page to destroy the evidence. The students asked in confusion.
“Why are you burning it?”
“Professor Garcia told me to burn the first page.”
Avoiding their gazes, Alshicle hurriedly read the next part.
Fortunately, Professor Garcia had only vented anger on the first page and had written normal content afterward.
…I am currently in the capital on magic school business. If student Lee Han has questions, tell him to come to the Rock Spirit’s Apple Jam Cafe…
“The professor says to come to the Rock Spirit’s Apple Jam Cafe?”
“Oh. Thank you.”
…But is this really a problem student Lee Han cannot solve? Just in case, tell him to try once more before coming.
‘I should pretend I didn’t see this.’
Alshicle burned the final postscript too.
If Lee Han saw it, he might jump up and down in rage.
“Then I’ll be going now. Alshicle.”
“Yeah. Have a safe trip!”
After seeing Lee Han off, Alshicle strongly felt as if he were forgetting something.
What was it?
‘What is it? Why do I feel strange…?’
Alshicle started walking around to check whether there was anything strange in the mansion.
The mage ghost in the basement was still quiet, perhaps because Lee Han had asked it to wait, and the other areas were quickly returning to their original state thanks to the combined efforts of the Einroguard students.
“Pengerine! A guest has arrived!”
“Is it Erindarvel? My goodness. That person should at least check once before giving away mansions. Even if Erindarvel gets along with Wardanaz, this is too much…”
“No. It’s Professor Voladi Bagreg.”
“…!!!!!!”
Only then did Alshicle realize what he had forgotten.
He had been keeping Lee Han nearby because of Professor Voladi Bagreg in the first place!
***
“Wow. This stone soup really tastes excellent!”
“Indeed.”
The mages from the magic school Petroguard were amazed by the taste of the stone soup.
The shabby-looking stone soup brought out by the rock spirit had an unbelievably rich soul flavor.
Kigigik.
When a passing rock spirit became shy, one of the mages whistled in admiration.
“Here it is, Professor Garcia!”
“Hello, everyone!”
Professor Garcia, who arrived late at the cafe, politely greeted and welcomed the guests from another magic school.
Since Professor Garcia had called them because a favor was needed, the attitude had to be even more courteous than usual.
“You look more haggard than when I saw you last time.”
A mage with a mustache, wearing a hat and silk vest and dressed like a typical Empire gentleman, spoke with apparent concern.
“Oh, no.”
“If Professor Garcia collapses, we won’t have anyone we can communicate with at Einroguard.”
Another mage chimed in. Unlike the colleague beside him, this mage wore free-spirited clothing.
Actually, calling it free-spirited clothing was being very generous. If one had to categorize it, it was closer to Einroguard student attire.
Shabby patchwork rags draped like a cloak, indistinguishable from a beggar’s!
“What… that is definitely not the case. There are so many good professors at Einroguard.”
“Who are you referring to?”
“Who?”
“…”
Professor Garcia subtly changed the subject.
“So, you two. Have you considered the exchange meeting or competition proposal?”
The Empire’s magic schools did not exchange with one another very often.
It was not because frequent exchanges would be disadvantageous, though for certain magic schools, exchanges were indeed disadvantageous. Rather, each magic school had its own circumstances.
In Einroguard’s case, there was the astonishing circumstance that most professors were not interested.
And in Petroguard’s case…
“The proposal is an honor, Professor Garcia. However, I do not think our mages will accept it.”
“I think so too.”
The two mages answered apologetically.
Both held favorable feelings toward Professor Garcia, an excellent mage, but they could not arbitrarily decide matters between schools.
“By any chance, could you tie up Professor Bivle tightly and send Professor Bivle to our school? If you did that, we could truly do anything for you. We could even make twice the number of magic items you requested last time and send them to you.”
“Th-that is a bit…”
Professor Garcia clenched both fists tightly to avoid being swayed.
One of the greatest temptations when going outside Einroguard was the offers from suspiciously wealthy people of the Empire to sell Professor Bivle.
-If you bring me just Professor Bivle’s head, I shall bestow upon you enough gold to fill an entire castle!
And the magic school Petroguard was no exception.
Because Professor Bivle had caused them trouble several times in the past, the Petroguard mages were still grinding their teeth.
“But this is truly a good opportunity, everyone. You know how important it is for magic schools to increase exchanges and let people throughout the Empire know what role mages play.”
Professor Garcia wanted to increase exchanges between the various magic schools that had been cut off from one another for some time.
Publicly, it was to inform the people of the Empire, especially bureaucrats, that magic schools had this sort of value.
And privately…
“His Majesty also said he would provide massive support.”
“Hmm.”
“We did receive that too.”
Unlike the bureaucrats who ground their teeth at the mere sight of magic schools, the Emperor valued mages and magic schools highly.
As such, he consistently supported magic schools and tried to establish them in the sunny places of the Empire.
The problem was that the magic schools were damnably stubborn and refused to listen.
One could guess as much simply from the fact that Professor Garcia had stepped forward on Einroguard’s behalf.
‘Surely Lord Gonadaltes pretended not to hear His Majesty’s words and ignored them…’
Since even Petroguard, which lacked nothing, had pretended not to see the letters asking them to consider exchanges or friendly competitions, it was obvious what Einroguard’s even more unruly Imperial Mage Marshal would have done.
“It can’t be helped. Sigh. If even Petroguard is hard to persuade, the other magic schools will be even harder…”
“No! Don’t tell me those Valdrogard fellows refused!?”
The mage, despite having refused as well, became angry at the fact that Valdrogard had rejected Einroguard’s proposal.
Professor Garcia answered in confusion.
“Oh, no. The Valdrogard people always say yes.”
“That’s a relief. Of course they should!”
“…”
At that intense reaction, Professor Garcia thought to himself.
Even so, was that not too harsh toward Valdrogard?
“Anyway, I understand. Thank you both for coming here today…”
“Oh, no, Professor Garcia. Do you think we would have called you all the way here just to refuse? We also have a proposal.”
“?”
Professor Garcia suddenly sent them a wary look.
“We cannot give you Professor Bivle.”
“…That is not it!”
“Even we would not deceive Professor Garcia and steal Professor Bivle!”
The two Petroguard mages protested strongly. However, Professor Garcia did not drop the suspicion.
Until now, people who wanted Professor Bivle’s head had deployed all sorts of cunning schemes.
“Actually, there is an Archmage visiting Petroguard right now.”
“Oh! Who is it?”
Professor Garcia was pleased.
Most of the Archmages known throughout the Empire had ambiguous whereabouts.
Lord Gonadaltes and Lord Erindarvel were exceptional cases, and Archmages usually moved mysteriously throughout the Empire, beyond the Empire, or even across dimensions because of the mysteries they pursued.
But to think such an Archmage was staying at Petroguard. Professor Garcia could not help but be interested.
“Well… the skill is definitely that of an Archmage, but… the person is a bit suspicious.”
“…Is it a magical criminal?”
Professor Garcia tensed.
There were Archmages among magical criminals as well.
If that was the case, they needed to approach carefully so the Petroguard mages would not get hurt.
“That’s not it! Or… since we don’t know the identity, could it be a magical criminal…? Well… um… I’ll be honest with you. We suspect this person might be a former disciple of Lord Gonadaltes.”
“What?!”
Petroguard was a wandering magic school that moved throughout the Empire instead of having a separate fixed school territory.
But one day, a mage came to that Petroguard. The mage, with extraordinary skill and aesthetic sense, instantly captivated the Petroguard mages.
-Amazing! This magic I’ve never seen before…
-It is nothing special.
-Lord Gonadaltes used to use magic like this, so are you perhaps related?
-…Get out of my sight!!
Crash!
-???!
An Archmage who was suspiciously skilled in magic, proficient in ancient magic rarely found in the Empire, and became extremely angry whenever Gonadaltes’s name came up.
In the best case, this was a magical criminal. In the worst case, it was a former disciple of the Skull Principal.
“No matter how much we searched, no one matching that description appeared among the magical criminals. So we tried to subtly send this person away, but…”
“Refused?”
“Yes. Said they would stay until they felt like leaving.”
Because of this, the Petroguard mages had also split into two groups.
The “Are we crazy enough to keep someone presumed to be the Skull Principal’s former disciple at our school?” faction, and the “It is not certain yet, and this person might just be a magical criminal, so could we not keep this person at school a little longer?” faction.
Naturally, these two belonged to the former.
“At first, we thought about calling Lord Gonadaltes, but it seemed like that would backfire.”
“…That is true…”
Professor Garcia immediately understood.
If this person was the Skull Principal’s former disciple, that is, Professor Garcia’s senior, then merely seeing the Principal would likely cause extreme fury.
“But don’t the Lord’s disciples care for one another? Please, Professor Garcia, persuade this person! Then we will also do our best to implement your proposal!”
“Well… seniors do pity their juniors, but… since I have already become an Einroguard professor, this person will probably treat me like the Principal’s lackey…”
Professor Garcia, who had been trailing off, spotted the boy from House Wardanaz walking over from afar.
If this really was a senior disciple, then that boy was the youngest top student of the Skull Principal’s school, someone this senior would feel the purest pity for.
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