When his thoughts reached that point, Professor Garcia quietly broached the subject.

“Student Lee Han. Did you know that quite a few students at Valdrogard are interested in incantation studies?”

“?”

Lee Han could not understand why Professor Garcia was suddenly bringing that up.

So suddenly?

What? Does that mean I shouldn’t dislike the Valdrogard students?

Even if that was what she meant, it was far too abrupt. Just because they were interested in incantation studies did not mean he would dislike them any less.

“Oh, I see. Incantations are important in magic.”

For mages, incantations were not merely tools of concentration that resonated with the soul.

Broadly speaking, they were also powerful frameworks that defined the form of magic itself.

Mages who simply used existing magic as it was did not have to worry about that too deeply, but those who sought to create or improve new magic always had to understand how to make realistic compromises among infinite possibilities.

Magic’s possibilities were endless, but the mages who cast it were beings of reality.

That was why incantations served as anchors that protected mages.

They became barriers that prevented possibilities from running wild or control from slipping away in ways even the mages themselves had never intended.

“I’m interested in incantation studies too.”

Lee Han liked efficient, compressed incantations.

Incantations related to ancient magic were useful for quickly concentrating and drawing up mana, since merely calling their names served as simple summaries.

“No, no. The Valdrogard students prefer the beauty of incantations themselves.”

“Pardon?”

“I mean the rhythm and melody of the incantations themselves, and the inherent magical effects that arise from them...”

As she spoke, Professor Garcia sent her disciple a look, hoping he would understand.

If he was a clever disciple, he ought to realize what kind of magic this connected to.

Music Magic, which created effects through the incantations themselves!

“Wow. Do they really have that much free time?”

“...”

“I’m sorry, Professor. I spoke without thinking.”

“It’s all right, Student Lee Han.”

Professor Garcia felt slightly deflated.

Since they had come all this way, she had wanted to leave him with a good impression of Valdrogard, but it did not seem easy.

“We’ve arrived.”

Dalseur pointed ahead.

In the flat fields before them, dozens of carriages covered with waterproof cloth roofs were gathered in a circle. They looked more like wandering merchants or pioneers than mages.

However, something about the scene was strange.

If they had been merchants or pioneers, all sorts of luggage, camping supplies, and lit campfires should have filled the space inside the circle of carriages, but there was none of that.

“Let’s go in.” 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

“Where?”

“Ah. You can just lift the cover of any carriage and step inside.”

As Dalseur said that, the Valdrogard mages abruptly entered a nearby carriage.

Professor Garcia, Professor Voladi Bagreg, and Alshicle Pengerine moved as though none of this surprised them at all. The students carefully followed after them.

Whoosh!

Gainando flinched.

The moment he entered the carriage, an entirely different landscape greeted him.

All the carriages were magical passages!

He had wondered how a magic school like Valdrogard could travel around the entire Empire, but this made sense.

The magic school’s territory existed as an independent magical space, and only the carriages that served as entrances traveled leisurely across the land.

Valdrogard’s territory had a completely different atmosphere from Einroguard.

First, there was no main building. Instead, buildings with no sense of unity were scattered across the territory as though someone had tossed them there at random.

There were buildings shaped like demon horns, buildings perched atop growing giant trees, buildings floating on lakes, and buildings that were nothing more than tents with signs reading 【Valdrogard Lecture Hall】 draped over them.

Gainando called to Lee Han beside him.

“It’s really unique, isn’t it? Lee Han? ...Lee Han?”

Gainando looked around. He could see the others, but Lee Han was nowhere to be found.

“Where did Lee Han go?!?!”

“What are you talking about? He came in with... Wait, where did he really go?!”

***

At first, Lee Han thought Valdrogard was a truly unique magic school.

To think the school was actually in a basement.

But that was not it.

When the mage ghost he had met before appeared beside him with a swoosh, Lee Han realized something had gone wrong.

-You promised... to break the magic... didn’t you...

The ghost’s voice seemed to have gained both intelligence and resentment since the last time, and Lee Han immediately began making excuses.

“No, I’m working on it. It just takes time. It’s a difficult problem that other mages couldn’t solve either.”

Who would have thought the ghost would suddenly kidnap him like this just because he had not broken the magic yet?

Lee Han spoke carefully, trying not to provoke the other party.

“But how can you kidnap me like this?”

-Kidnap...?

The ghost reacted as though it did not understand what kidnapping meant.

“You brought me here. ...Wait, there were professors on both sides of me, so how?”

One of them was even Einroguard’s archmage, and the other was Professor Voladi Bagreg. How had the ghost kidnapped him right under their noses?

-I... didn’t kidnap you... You... visited...

“...??!”

Lee Han grabbed the mad mage’s ghost and kept asking questions, trying to understand the situation.

Since the other party was incapable of rational conversation, it was not easy, but as the questions piled up, he managed to grasp the gist of it.

So...

I was using relocation and accidentally got pulled into this basement?

Mages who traveled through dimensions sometimes fell under troublesome curses.

A monster might catch the scent of a mage’s soul and chase that mage across dimensions, or their physical form might be altered while crossing dimensions...

Lee Han’s case was a little different, but it was similarly troublesome.

To think he had accidentally flown into this basement while using relocation.

Did that mean he could accidentally end up in the basement of this capital villa every time he used relocation from now on?

He did not use relocation that often, but it was still a subtly annoying restriction.

Is it because I accepted the ghost’s proposal?

Lee Han wanted to confirm what magical principle had brought him here, but it was not easy.

Since other mages had given up on solving it and simply destroyed it instead, traces connected to this complex spatial labyrinth were extremely difficult to find.

Ugh. Should I have studied space-time magic more?

Thinking such an absurd thought, Lee Han looked around.

From the outside, there had seemed to be no way to enter this basement, but now that he was inside, it looked like an extremely ordinary basement.

“Is there any way to get out of here?”

-What... are you saying... Can’t you just go out through those stairs...

“?!”

Lee Han was flustered by that obvious, painfully obvious statement.

Certainly, it was impossible to enter from outside, but that did not necessarily mean it was impossible to leave.

Carefully, Lee Han climbed the stairs.

At that moment, space changed again. Lee Han dropped straight into Valdrogard territory, where he had originally meant to go.

***

Recently, a considerable number of Valdrogard’s students had become completely infatuated with someone called the “Great Artist.”

They knew neither this person’s name, status, age, gender, nor even face, but none of that mattered.

The abilities and charisma this person displayed were enough to captivate Valdrogard’s students.

“Thus shall you prosper happily in this land! ...This is both your right and your duty!”

The Great Artist overwhelmed the audience with a languid voice that contained tremendous power.

“To reach the great heights of magic, one must think only of oneself, only of one’s own self. Being utterly selfish is the ultimate good. You need not think of anything else. Do you understand?”

One of the Valdrogard mages listening raised a hand and asked.

“G-Great Artist, sir. My family not only pays my tuition, but I’m also squandering all the money they send me. Is that really all right?”

“It is fine. I forgive you. If you wish to do it, then it is good.”

“Great Artist, sir! My family tells me to build my career as a mage quickly and enter a decent government post or guild, but I don’t want to do that. The moment I go work at a place like that, I feel like my art will disappear!”

“It is fine. If you do not want to work, you do not have to work. If you wish to do that, then that too is good.”

Passionate cheers erupted from the gathered students. Their response was practically that of cultists.

The Great Artist lightly touched the obsidian placed in the center with a casual gesture.

This hard ore, which barely responded to ordinary refining methods because of its mana-absorbing properties, began to bloom like a flower and gracefully reveal its form with a single light gesture from the artist.

The students stamped their feet and cried out at this masterpiece of beauty, unable even to guess what magic had been used.

At that moment, one student quickly turned back and whispered.

This was a student the Great Artist had recruited in advance, asking to be informed if anything unusual happened at the school—for example, if a floating skeleton appeared.

“Great Artist, sir. Guests have visited the school.”

“What kind of guests?”

“They say they’re guests from Einroguard.”

“!”

Though his face was hidden by a mask, the Great Artist was visibly shaken.

“Is there a flying skeleton among them, by any chance?”

“No. There wasn’t.”

“...Then that’s fine. Wait. If it’s not the skeleton, then who has visited this land of happy hedonists?”

“I heard it’s Professor Garcia Kim and Professor Voladi Bagreg.”

“Those treacherous brats...!”

“Pardon?”

“No. It doesn’t matter anyway. Those brats cannot persuade me.”

Crash!

“???”

At the sudden commotion among the audience, the Great Artist turned his gaze.

A mage who clearly seemed to be from somewhere else was standing among the Valdrogard students, apologizing.

“I’m really sorry about this. I didn’t expect to suddenly fall in here.”

“Did the carriage’s spatial door malfunction? Anyway, it’s fine, so don’t worry. Actually, this worked out well. You’ve been given a very good opportunity.”

“Pardon?”

“The Great Artist, an archmage who came to teach us true art, was in the middle of giving a lecture. Do you know what he just told me? He said I don’t have to work for the rest of my life.”

“...Uh, that’s a lecture?”

Lee Han was bewildered.

What kind of Great Artist’s lecture was on Gainando’s level?

No, even Gainando was not that bad.

Even Gainando would look at me nervously after playing around for about a week and ask if there was anything he should study.

“Are you a guest from Einroguard?”

The Great Artist called out to Lee Han in a melodious voice.

Facing the archmage, whose identity was completely hidden by a mask, a spacious cloak, and the magic surrounding him, Lee Han tensed slightly.

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“Everyone, welcome the guest from Einroguard! Einroguard’s mages are pitiful souls of the Empire who deserve sympathy.”

Another person might have felt slightly insulted, but Lee Han reacted a little differently.

He was actually slightly moved.

Is he a good person?

“They learn magic for utterly ridiculous and nonsensical purposes. They throw themselves into those mysteries and devote themselves to them. And what remains as a result is nothing but a handful of completely useless magic.”

“I don’t think it’s quite that extreme.”

Lee Han was flustered by the absurd overestimation.

There were quite a few students at Einroguard who learned magic halfheartedly too.

The Great Artist seemed to know this as well and did not deny it.

“Quite a sharp observation! You’re right. Not all Einroguard mages are like that. There is some hope, I suppose. Any mage in their right mind would try to graduate as quickly as possible and never set foot on that cursed land again.”

“Actually, I felt that way too.”

“Is that truly so?”

The Great Artist reacted very favorably to Lee Han’s agreement.

“But that was in the past. Recently, my thoughts have changed a bit...”

“Why? How did they change?”

“Well...”

Lee Han, who had been about to mention what happened with the Skull Principal’s projection, hesitated.

He thought the other person might get angry if he was a former disciple of the Skull Principal.

“You won’t get angry at what I say, will you?”

The Great Artist burst into laughter.

“Me? I never get angry. Do you know why? Because I live for my own pleasure. Someone like that has no anger.”

“Actually, I learned magic from the Principal and his projection...”

Crash!

The Great Artist could not control his anger and hurled the obsidian flower to the floor.