Chapter 530

 

The friends thought Yi-Han was testing them and sent a wary gaze.

 

However, Yi-Han looked at his friends as if he was genuinely puzzled and asked again.

 

"What are you all doing here, I asked?"

 

"You..."

 

"Forced us..."

 

"To fight..."

 

At his friends' resentful answers, Yi-Han hesitated.

 

"I forced you to fight?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"What nonsense are you saying."

 

Yi-Han chuckled.

 

"Are you guys the type to listen if someone forces you?"

 

"..."

 

"..."

 

The friends felt suffocated with injustice.

 

What was more unjust was that those words were somewhat true.

 

It was true, but...

 

It was true, but...!

 

"You really made us do it, Yi-Han!!"

 

Gainando shouted in a voice full of injustice.

 

"Look at this!!"

 

"?"

 

Yi-Han looked at the blue bruise around Gainando's eyes and asked.

 

"Did you get it while fighting?"

 

"No. This is from when the White Tiger Tower guy hit me while dodging an attack earlier. Not that, look at my clothes. My clothes are torn."

 

"I see. The fight wasn't very intense, I guess?"

 

At Yi-Han's words, the students reacted intensely.

 

"No!"

 

"That prince bastard was just lucky!"

 

"Can't you see the bandages now?!"

 

At the heated shouts, Yi-Han waved his hand as if he understood.

 

"Okay. Okay. Just a mo... Ugh."

 

Yi-Han belatedly felt a headache rushing in.

 

As if recalling something that happened during sleepwalking, the sensation of disconnected memories reviving rushed in.

 

Drinking suspicious spring water, suddenly having his whole mind filled with conviction, calling his friends and running here...

 

"Phew. Why did I do that?"

 

"..."

 

"..."

 

Some of the students wanted to curse but held it in.

 

If they cursed, the Wardanaz from earlier might appear again and attack them.

 

Yonaire asked in a worried voice.

 

"Yi-Han. Are you okay?"

 

"Yeah. It seems the duration has completely ended. Knowing the future is indeed dangerous..."

 

Knowing it in your head and directly experiencing it were definitely different.

 

After being captivated by the future once, he could feel that the blind sensation was not necessarily only positive.

 

Someone might say what's so wrong about moving towards the most rational future on the optimal path...

 

'That's not necessarily a good thing.'

 

Seeing his friends around him with bandages and splints, he definitely thought it could be dangerous.

 

"In my opinion, divining the future is indeed a very dangerous thing, Wardanaz."

 

"I think so too. We mages need to be even more humble."

 

Seeing the White Tiger Tower students, who usually had little interest in magic, talking at length, it seemed they had definitely developed a fear of divination magic.

 

Yonaire opened her mouth to change the mood.

 

"But if we look at the positive side... We somehow overcame the obstacle! It would have been impossible without that spring."

 

"Maykin. My ankle is broken."

 

"Maykin. My neck hasn't been turning sideways since earlier."

 

Ignoring her friends' words as if she hadn't heard them, Yonaire pointed ahead.

 

"Isn't everyone curious about what's behind? Such a strong enemy was blocking the way? There must be treasures left by the seniors."

 

"Certainly..."

 

Even the students who were groaning in pain were tempted and went along.

 

Having spent nearly a year at Einroguard, the students' common sense had been quite shattered.

 

Even with a broken ankle and a twisted neck that wouldn't turn, they ended up checking the spoils first.

 

"Right?"

 

Realizing that her friends' mood had turned around, Yonaire nodded her head.

 

Then she whispered to Yi-Han.

 

"But what's inside?"

 

"I don't know either."

 

"...Huh?"

 

"I don't know either. I haven't gone in, you know."

 

"..."

 

The enhanced divination Yi-Han had intuitively judged that 'the most urgent thing to do now is to defeat the statue and break through the underground passage to find what the seniors left behind', but the Yi-Han whose drug effect had ended couldn't understand why he had made that judgment.

 

"Perhaps there are records left by the seniors about the exams they took first?"

 

"That would be... a bit disappointing."

 

"What? What could be more important than that?"

 

Yi-Han was shocked at Yonaire's remark.

 

What could be more important to a student than information related to studying?

 

"I hope there's meat. Pork."

 

"I'd like some alcohol."

 

"Then pork soaked in alcohol?"

 

"No. You idiots. You can get meat anywhere. Sweets are the best! Cake."

 

"Prince, you ate candy during the day too, didn't you?"

 

"No, I didn't?"

 

"No. You did. You were showing off in front of us, weren't you?"

 

"...No, I didn't?"

 

Hearing the conversation behind him, Yi-Han said firmly.

 

"They're the weird ones."

 

'Yi-Han, you're also quite weird...'

 

Yonaire thought so but swallowed it inwardly for the sake of her friend who had been through a lot.

 

***

 

Creak-

 

Fortunately, there were no particular traps after the statue disappeared. The students carefully opened the heavy door and entered.

 

The large underground space, which had been used as a storage room by the seniors, smelled of dry dust.

 

"Wind..."

 

The princess summoned the wind and cleared the dust. Gainando next to her glared at Adenart while coughing.

 

"Check the shelves first."

 

"Wait. Be careful of traps."

 

At Salko's words, the Black Tortoise Tower students asked back.

 

"What magic should we use to check?"

 

"Just wait a moment."

 

At the reliable leader's answer, the students sent a gaze of respect.

 

One of the qualities a leader should possess was ability.

 

Only those who could immediately come up with a solution in the face of difficulties were qualified to be leaders.

 

"Wardanaz. Do you feel any mana from those shelves?"

 

"Not particularly?"

 

"Hmm. Thanks."

 

Salko came back and said to his friends.

 

"There are no traps."

 

"..."

 

"..."

 

The Black Tortoise Tower students took out the items on the shelves with complicated expressions.

 

Is this...

 

really competence?

 

"Hmm."

 

Yi-Han looked around with a disappointed gaze.

 

A few bottles of alcohol brewed by the seniors that were also on the outside shelves, a few potions that had already expired. And a little bit of scribbles or notes.

 

[The grand plan to defeat the crazy skull will soon be completed…]

 

[Kukukuku... They will never even imagine what we are plotting…]

 

'There's no substance.'

 

Yi-Han frowned.

 

What Yi-Han wanted was systematic information about the upcoming exams for various lectures, not this lamentation.

 

Of course, if he thought about it, this wasn't strange.

 

The probability of having something useful in a warehouse that people hadn't used for a while was originally low.

 

But from the perspective of someone who had entered after a life-or-death duel with the statue, it was indeed disappointing.

 

He had expected there to be something more useful than outside at least...

 

"?"

 

As he moved his steps, Yi-Han realized that only the inside of the warehouse was unusually neatly organized.

 

Unlike the other dusty spaces, it was clear that this side was being protected by various magic circles.

 

'What is it?'

 

Yi-Han checked the inside with puzzlement.

 

From magic circles that blocked dust to various barriers, they were protecting the inner space.

 

And what occupied most of that space was a huge artifact of unknown purpose that he had never seen before.

 

The round-shaped artifact, which easily surpassed human height, looked like a gate made by weaving together various odds and ends.

 

'What kind of... artifact is it?'

 

[9/7]

 

[The artifact won't work at all! Damn it. I need to complete this before graduation. Otherwise, I won't be able to face the senior who passed this down to me.]

 

[9/13]

 

[I found a solution in the crazy skull's warehouse. The orihalcum latch solved the closure problem of the drive unit! Haha! Just watch. I will definitely solve the problem and tell the crazy skull to his face that I succeeded!]

 

[9/15]

 

[I am trash who doesn't deserve to enter Einroguard.]

 

[9/18]

 

[I shared some of the crazy skull's brandy with my friends and regained my energy. Damn Einroguard. Damn magic. I can't believe I'm already in the golden year. It feels like yesterday when I was an ironhead. Can I really complete this?]

 

[9/22]

 

[Spatial magic is like a plague of imperial magic. Such a thing should not have been researched in the first place.]

 

[10/2]

 

[Even after completing the related magic formula, I can't satisfy the mana at all. How can I reduce the mana amount further from here? Where do I get the lacking mana amount? Should I even ask my ancestors?]

 

[10/25]

 

[The three weeks of hard work have all been in vain. Even with the heart of a Behemoth, the mana amount couldn't be satisfied. Ah, if only I could use all the mana of Einroguard as I wish like the crazy skull!]

 

[11/10]

 

[Now that I've given up, I feel both relieved and sad. Burning one of the crazy skull's warehouses with my friends gave me some comfort. Maybe if we gather our strength together, as we have also improved a lot in magic, we might be able to land a blow on the crazy skull.]

 

[11/17]

 

[Damn it. There was an even more vicious punishment room. I shouldn't have messed with the crazy skull.]

 

[11/20]

 

[I was about to destroy the realm gate artifact but stopped. In the end, I couldn't destroy something I inherited from my senior. Although it's garbage that can't be operated, I cast magic to prevent it from being damaged.

 

If there is a junior who discovers this artifact, I sincerely want to ask them not to destroy it. Of course, they will destroy it. I also broke it and took what I needed. But this is a really great artifact that has been passed down for generations and completed…]

 

"...?!!!!"

 

Yi-Han, who had finished reading the journal stuck next to it, was startled.

 

'Realm gate... artifact??'

 

The illusion that magic turns the impossible into the possible disappeared quickly after learning magic for just 3 months.

 

Magic was a discipline that operated with even more vicious rules and theories than reality, not a shortcut that ignored rules and order.

 

One of the examples that made this known was spatial movement.

 

Space-time magic boasted an extremely high difficulty to the point where no school was formed within the empire, and spatial movement, being one of the representative magics among them, boasted an even more brutal difficulty.

 

Even a magic that moved matter one step ahead, if cast by an ordinary mage, would instantly shatter the brain and rupture the blood vessels.

 

And this difficulty increased exponentially as the distance lengthened and the targets increased.

 

As such, if it was a realm gate artifact, it wouldn't be very wrong to say realistically that it was 'impossible'.

 

'No wonder it looked like it would collapse at any moment.'

 

He wondered why the artifact was made as if various odds and ends were haphazardly woven together, but it turned out to be a desperate attempt to satisfy the necessary mana and activate the magic.

 

Even if it would shatter after a single use, it was impossible to cast it in the first place without doing this.

 

However, despite such a desperate attempt, the artifact was not completed. Yi-Han was honestly thrilled by the tenacity felt from this artifact.

 

'...They went this far to escape from the school.'

 

Looking at the design and records of the artifact, the destination was not that far from here in the first place.

 

The primary goal was simply to escape from the school.

 

If that was the case, there were many other methods, but they insisted on this method, which was truly mage-like.

 

'I can understand.'

 

Yi-Han understood the feelings of the seniors.

 

At first, they might have started lightly, but it gradually became complete, and then they inherited it, and in the middle, the skull principal might have sneered, saying, 'Is such a thing even possible'...

 

As time passed, the means could become the purpose.

 

Yi-Han, who had been lost in appreciation for a moment, turned his gaze.

 

'I should dismantle it.'

 

As the senior had left, this inoperable artifact contained many valuable materials.

 

Leaving it alone was a luxury.

 

Woooooooong-

 

"?"

 

"????"

 

At the huge roar coming from the artifact, everyone in the warehouse turned their gazes.