No!

Professor Garcia screamed inwardly at the sight of the innocent disciple approaching, completely unaware of the situation.

The professor hurriedly gestured at the delighted disciple who had recognized Professor Garcia’s face.

The gesture—forming a skull with one hand—was a “stay away, danger” signal any Einroguard student should have understood.

Please wait a moment, Student Lee Han!

“Hello, Professor.”

“No!”

Professor Garcia unconsciously let out a sigh when the gesture failed.

“Why did you come!”

“Huh? You told me to come to this café...”

“That’s not what I mean! My gesture just now...”

“Gesture? What do you mean?”

Lee Han looked puzzled, as if he had no idea what Professor Garcia was talking about.

Professor Garcia was shocked by his reaction.

...They don’t use that anymore these days!

The fact that a gesture from Professor Garcia’s own student days no longer worked was a painful blow, even to a mage like Professor Garcia.

Meanwhile, the Petroguard mages looked Lee Han up and down.

“Greetings. You appear to be an Einroguard student.”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m Lee Han of House Wardanaz.”

“!”

A great ripple passed through the two mages’ eyes.

There were truly many rumors attached to that name.

That he had faced the Ghoul King or the Frost Giant King, that he had fought bloody battles against magical criminals and anti-magic extremists...

But the rumor most important to the two mages was one thing.

The new disciple currently receiving the Skull Principal’s favor!

“By any chance, are you the one Lord Gonadaltes is personally teaching...?”

“Huh? Yes.”

“Are you the student who has supposedly been confirmed to join the Conical Tower after graduation?”

“That isn’t true, though?”

“Right. I thought it probably wasn’t.”

The Petroguard mage accepted it quickly.

To be honest, the words of the Conical Tower mages were not especially trustworthy. Hadn’t they spouted lies back then about Professor Garcia coming to their tower too?

“In any case, you are currently Lord Gonadaltes’s only disciple, correct?”

“What is with that unpleasant phrasing?”

Lee Han grew slightly displeased when the mages he had just met said something so ominous.

Despite being dressed like an Einroguard student, this mage spoke with the rudeness of an Einroguard professor.

“There are plenty of others besides me. There is Professor Garcia here, and Professor Bagreg, and Professor Mortum.”

“Ah, of course those people also studied under him, but they have now become independent as professors.”

Do they stop counting you as a disciple once you become a professor?

Lee Han was slightly intrigued.

So becoming a professor meant he would be freed from being called the Skull Principal’s only disciple.

“We have a request for Student Wardanaz, who currently maintains the sole pure disciple status!”

“...If you’re asking me to hand over Professor Verdus, that won’t happen.”

At the mages’ earnest request, Lee Han answered warily.

***

“Student Lee Han! Why did you do that!”

Professor Garcia exclaimed in a small voice so the two mages could not hear.

Surprisingly, this good-natured disciple had accepted the request from the mages of Petroguard!

From Professor Garcia’s perspective, after doing everything possible to keep him from getting involved, this was truly a bewildering outcome.

“Oh, but they said they would only help with your request if I did this, Professor.”

“Don’t tell me you did it because of me?!”

Professor Garcia was even more shocked.

Of course, it was true that Professor Garcia wanted to strengthen exchanges between magic schools, but that was not something to accomplish by sacrificing a poor disciple.

After all, hadn’t Einroguard been self-sufficient perfectly well until now?

“No. It’s not only because of that.”

“Then...?”

“Well, you said the reason for the current commotion is one of the principal’s former disciples.”

“That hasn’t been confirmed. If we’re lucky, it could be a magical criminal.”

Lee Han pretended not to hear Professor Garcia’s muttering and ignored it.

“If that is the case, I thought I had some obligation too... I wanted to help as much as I could.”

“...!!!”

Ever since inheriting so much from the projection of ambition, Lee Han had been feeling a considerable sense of duty regarding promises.

In the past, he would have said, “If one of the principal’s former disciples caused trouble, should I submit an anonymous tip?”...

...But now he was willing to step forward personally to help with the persuasion.

“And I can’t just leave you to deal with someone like that alone, Professor.”

“...Student Lee Han!”

Professor Garcia was deeply moved.

If not for a few friends whose bones had been broken during Professor Garcia’s student days, Professor Garcia might have hugged him tightly.

“But about that letter earlier. Magic even Student Lee Han couldn’t solve? What kind of magic is it?”

The mages were currently visiting the capital villa first, rather than leaving for Petroguard immediately.

Since Lee Han had said there was a magical problem at the mansion, they wanted to help with that first.

“Well, there is some insane mage ghost in the basement...”

Professor Garcia’s face gradually hardened as Professor Garcia listened to the explanation, having taken it lightly at first.

An infinite spatial labyrinth.

Could it be...

“Isn’t that Noenchenf, the insane mage???”

“Who?”

Lee Han looked puzzled.

An insane mage?

Aren’t there too many of those?

Honestly, it was a title that could be attached to most mages.

“There was a mage called Noenchenf, the insane mage, who caused a commotion in the past.”

Professor Garcia opened Professor Garcia’s mouth, recalling old memories.

Noenchenf, the insane mage, had caused an incident that appeared in the Empire’s newspapers when Professor Garcia was a student at Einroguard.

A strange building discovered near the west gate of Isran City! A mage’s curse?

An anonymous nearby mage testified that it seemed to be the work of an Einroguard graduate...

Also discovered in Plaher City! An alchemy shop with suspicious magic installed underground!

Is this truly the work of a mage who graduated from Einroguard?

Some insane mage had installed bizarre spatial labyrinths that could not be entered in the basements of mansions and shop buildings throughout the Empire.

Naturally, an Einroguard graduate mage was the most likely sort of person to do something that strange, and indeed, the Skull Principal also thought it was a graduate’s doing and quickly deployed mages, while lecturing current students not to follow the graduates’ example.

However, surprisingly, the culprit was not an Einroguard graduate mage, but simply a mage who had been insane from the beginning.

A mage who had spent a lifetime researching space-time magic and embedded unsolved problems all over the Empire!

What a public nuisance.

Lee Han firmly resolved that, in the future, he would not embed any magic he failed to solve throughout the Empire.

What kind of public nuisance was that?

“Was it resolved?”

“No. If it had been resolved, there would be no problem with Student Lee Han’s villa basement either. That underground spatial labyrinth is all connected. It is one spell. If it were resolved, all the labyrinth mansions throughout the Empire would have returned to normal too.”

The choice made by mages who were not from Einroguard, when faced with a difficult problem that was hard to solve, was simple.

They would simply destroy the magic in the underground space and exorcise the ghost.

Since the magic installed in the underground space was, in any case, like an entrance to the spatial labyrinth, destroying it was not very difficult.

They could not solve the fundamental problem, but at least the mansion became peaceful.

“!”

Lee Han was delighted by the solution, which seemed to cut through a complicated tangled knot in one stroke.

Come to think of it, if one could not solve the problem, there was also a solution like this.

I think I could do something like that too.

The ghost’s combat ability was not especially strong either...

“However, Student Lee Han. If you use this method, the mansion will collapse.”

“...What????”

“Well, if you destroy the magic, there is no way the surrounding area will not be affected by the shock, so usually the ground, or even the first floor, ends up shaken.”

“...”

Lee Han, who had received an enormous shock, could not say anything.

Professor Garcia thought to Professor Garcia’s self.

He seems more shocked by this than by the story of the principal’s former disciple...

That couldn’t be right, could it?

“Then, Professor. What if we just leave it alone?”

“What?”

“Leaving the mage ghost alone and living together with it?”

“...If it isn’t threatening, it would be all right, but do you truly want to do that, Student Lee Han?”

Professor Garcia was flustered by the disciple’s resolve, which overflowed with madness.

No matter what, to be prepared to live together with such an insane mage ghost from now on.

“I’m fine with it. Previous mages did it too, so why couldn’t I?”

“???”

***

Without noticing the conversation between Professor Garcia and the disciple chattering behind them, the Petroguard mage Dalseur knocked on the door of the villa mansion.

“Wow, it’s very neat, isn’t it?”

“House Wardanaz is a great noble house, isn’t it? It’s only natural that their villa mansion would have dignity.”

Baron Benjamin of House Garnok, also from Petroguard, nodded as if there was nothing surprising about it.

“Let’s solve the problem quickly and visit Petroguard.”

“Indeed. Ah. There are other students too.”

The two mages discovered students moving around inside the mansion.

“You bastard, don’t you dare stop there?!”

“Ah, no. You damn prince! Is this really necessary just because I picked up and ate one meat pie! Unlike Wardanaz, you’re too petty!”

“Shut up! How dare you touch the food before the preparations are ready!”

“...Huh, aren’t those Einroguard students?”

Dalseur was slightly flustered.

If Dalseur had seen correctly, students from different towers were definitely gathered together in one place.

That shouldn’t happen at Einroguard, should it?

“What brings you here?”

“Ah, we came to visit together with Student Lee Han of House Wardanaz... He is coming behind us.”

“Please come in.”

Salko opened the door without concern.

Even if the prince or those White Tiger Tower people lost some face in front of outsiders, it had nothing to do with Salko.

“But why did you come here together with Wardanaz?”

“We heard there was unsolved magic in the basement, so we came to help.”

“...Huh, just the two of you?”

Salko looked the two up and down.

“Wardanaz failed too, but you two...”

“...We’re from Petroguard. Do you understand?”

“Yes. But Wardanaz failed too, so you two...”

“...”

Dalseur was dumbfounded.

Of course, Dalseur knew that Einroguard mages were exceptionally talented at overturning other mages’ dignity, but for a mere second-year student to show this level of ability.

“We are... well... if you must know, we act as Einroguard professors. At Petroguard.”

“Yes. I know that, but you two...”

“Just show us the way!”

As their voices rose, the other students turned their attention. Siana asked curiously.

“Oh. We have guests?”

“Hello. We are...”

“They came to solve the basement magic.”

“Just the two of you?”

“...”

The two Petroguard mages began to feel mentally confused and dizzy.

...Could Professor Garcia have invited them here for revenge?

Ah, no. This is not Lord Gonadaltes, and Professor Garcia would never be that kind of person...

“You two! Wait a moment!”

Professor Garcia, who arrived late, called out to them.

“Actually, the basement magic is...”

“Don’t worry, Professor Garcia. We’ll solve it right now and come back.”

Dalseur burned with rare enthusiasm. Professor Garcia tried anxiously to stop them.

“So that is not ordinary...”

“Please wait!”

The two Petroguard mages headed to the basement, their cloaks fluttering majestically.

Professor Garcia looked at them with a tearful expression and muttered.

“What if those people end up hating Einroguard too...”

“...I’ll go to Petroguard and work hard.”