“Were you really planning to break it?”

Diret asked in disbelief.

No matter what, surely the junior was not that radical a mage...

“Yes? How else are we supposed to listen if we don’t break it?”

...That was true!

‘Could disguising himself as Stedal Nago have made his personality a little rougher?’

Diret was worried enough to wonder whether the junior’s disguise might have affected his original personality.

‘No. There’s probably a bigger reason than that.’

Diret looked at the friend standing blankly beside them.

If the junior’s personality had become rougher, it was probably due more to that friend or that friend’s school professor than to the disguised identity.

“Hmm. If we don’t break it, there’s no proper way...”

“Um, we don’t necessarily have to listen.”

“Ah. I thought of a good method.”

Lee Han immediately ran toward the stairs. Then he brought back Jowurin, who had been playing chess with Eandurde. It was a version of chess where the Gold Dragon could move diagonally in all directions and even use breath attacks.

Jowurin let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew. Thank goodness! Jowurin was losing!”

“?”

Lee Han was curious what one had to do to be losing at that sort of chess, but he went straight to the point.

“Your Majesty. I’d like to listen to the conversation inside. Could you possibly help us?”

“Yes!”

Jowurin nodded readily.

Showing competence to one’s contractor was one of every dragon’s pleasures.

“They’re probably discussing Wuman visiting the school.”

“...What? What’s going on?”

Lee Han, who had been about to bypass the soundproofing magic with Jowurin’s help, stopped.

Did he just hear something strange?

“Hehe. When the new semester starts, Jowurin wants to go to the lake!”

“There’s a kraken there, Your Majesty. But Wuman... do you mean His Majesty Wuman?”

“Yes.”

Jowurin, who had polymorphed into a human girl with golden hair, explained the role her younger sibling would take during the coming semester.

Acting as the Emperor’s representative in an inspector role, monitoring the Skull Principal and professors for one semester, and so on...

“...”

“...”

The students listening were too shocked to react immediately.

They could not tell whether this was good news or bad news.

“...Is this really okay? What if things get worse?”

“How could Einroguard possibly get worse? No matter how I think about it, this seems good. If a dragon is watching, even the principal won’t be able to do outrageous things.”

Since they could not predict how Einroguard would change, the students discussed the matter heatedly.

Lee Han also fell into serious thought, his expression grave.

‘I wondered why he was so generous with gold coins over something that wasn’t even his business, but he had this plan.’

In the middle of this, one of the students cautiously spoke up.

“Your Majesty. Will the newly arriving member of the Imperial Family interfere with our magic training?”

“You don’t need to worry about that! Wuman is absolutely not that kind of person.”

Jowurin declared confidently.

Since one of Wuman’s principles was “do not interfere with Einroguard’s students,” even coming as an inspector would not disrupt their studies.

Rather, he would avoid contact so thoroughly that the students would not even see Wuman.

“Is that so?”

Lee Han, who had been listening nearby, was surprised.

It was a little different from what he had expected.

“Then I also won’t be able to meet His Majesty and will have to act separately...?”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Absolutely not.”

Jowurin immediately answered in her usual informal tone.

Where had such a horrifying thought come from?

“Lee Han is an exception. You’re a contractor!”

“...”

Lee Han tilted his head.

Why would that be an exception?

‘Is it dragon law? Too complicated.’

Bang!

The reception room door opened again. The Skull Principal shouted from inside.

“Wardanaz, why are you just standing there instead of trying to bypass the soundproofing magic? I was waiting!”

The Skull Principal, who had boasted to the other professors, “That Wardanaz fellow will try to bypass it soon, watch carefully,” and then grown embarrassed, scolded his student.

Then the door closed again.

“...”

“...”

“Sh-should Jowurin go and get angry for you?”

“Please don’t.”

***

The fact that Wuman was coming for the new semester did not greatly change what Lee Han had to do.

“Hello, Master.”

-Welcome, my disciple.

The Young Prince’s voice greeted him warmly from behind a stack of wooden boxes.

Currently, the basement of the dimensional maze was so cluttered with all sorts of piled-up items that it was difficult to set foot inside.

As the owner of the basement, the Young Prince could have felt displeased, but he did not mind at all. Rather, he was considerate of Lee Han.

-There’s space on top of that box, so it wouldn’t be bad to put things there.

“Oh. That’s a good suggestion.”

-I’ll cast an expansion spell, so how about putting those crafting tools in the bronze jar? The Mage Cards are well packaged, so they won’t be damaged.

“...There were Mage Cards in the bronze jar? That bastard Gainando...”

Lee Han angrily searched inside the jar.

The Mage Cards really were cleverly hidden.

They had been slipped into dark magic reagent packaging so that they could even evade detection magic!

‘That bastard. He’s only getting better at useless things.’

-But, disciple, aren’t you packing anything for yourself?

“Do you have any recommendations?”

Lee Han asked back while moving boxes into the corner with telekinesis magic.

Actually, it was not as though Lee Han had packed nothing of his own.

He had already packed the necessary items first: food and various seasonings to consume during the first semester, reagents, magical tools, and so on.

But from the Young Prince’s perspective, his disciple had too little personal desire. Even those were items that other mages besides Lee Han would use.

Sacrifice and devotion were good, but enjoying life before youth faded was also important. The Prince did not want his disciple to sacrifice his entire life.

-Disciple, aren’t you interested in Mage Cards?

“No.”

-I see...

The Young Prince became slightly dejected at the immediate answer.

They looked fun, though!

-What do you do in your spare time, disciple?

“I mainly study the magic I missed.”

Lee Han was about to add “that the Skull Principal forced me to do,” but held back.

He wanted to tattle, but doing it about himself seemed a little wrong.

-Disciple, when I said spare time, I meant spare time excluding magic study.

“Huh? That’s what that means?”

Lee Han was greatly surprised.

Was that how spare time was originally calculated?

“If you exclude that too... well... I calculate the gold coins I’ve collected.”

-What do you do with that?

“After calculating? I figure out which workshops I could rent in the Imperial Capital or the great cities.”

When the amount of gold coins was only in the dozens, Lee Han’s imagination had been quite modest. But after the amount he had collected broke through four digits, his imagination had grown rather aggressive as well.

If he rented a staff workshop in the capital, then hired a separate manager and made items to supply in his spare time, he could earn profit as a side business...

‘Heh. I don’t necessarily need to participate directly. An excellent businessman can dominate the capital’s staff-workshop industry even while his body is in Einroguard.’

Since he had inherited that will from the Projection of Honor’s Desire, he could not leave Einroguard right away, but that did not mean he had completely given up on his dreams.

A wise mage always had contingency plans.

-...

Tears welled up in the Young Prince’s eyes. His heart ached with pity for his disciple.

-Disciple, you may already be too far gone...

“Huh?”

-It’s nothing. In any case, I now understand very well that you’re only interested in magic.

“That’s not true, though.”

Lee Han protested, but the Prince ignored him and continued speaking.

-Then take an artifact with you before you go in. It’s an outer garment I often wore in my youth, and it has quite good defensive power.

“!”

Lee Han was startled by the mention of such an unexpected treasure.

An artifact used by the Young Prince.

By current standards, would that not be an ancient relic? He could not help being surprised.

“Would that still be there now?”

-Since it isn’t something that could be taken away easily, I think there’s a fairly high possibility it’s still there. Oh. Could you take out that notebook artifact?

“??”

Lee Han wondered what the Prince meant for a moment, then realized belatedly. The Prince was talking about <Whispers of Einroguard>.

The communication artifact he used to communicate with <Einroguard’s Watchers>, Senior Diret, and his fellow second-year friends.

“Here it is. Why do you need this...?”

Flutter!

Suddenly, the notebook opened and fixed itself on the page for <Einroguard’s Watchers>.

Then unfamiliar handwriting began to appear.

Hello, everyone. Please treat me well.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Who are you?

Ipelldrem: Wow! Is this a new member?

Baquantalana: Wait. How did you get in? There’s no artifact connected on your side right now?

The members of <Einroguard’s Watchers> each showed different reactions. Among them, Baquantalana, who was acting as administrator, was greatly flustered.

If someone new entered, traces of which artifact they had used to access the space should have been visible. But this new member had appeared suddenly, as if falling from the sky.

Could it mean the newcomer was such an excellent mage that Baquantalana’s eyes had been completely deceived?

‘That’s impossible! It absolutely can’t be!’

Lee Han, who belatedly came to his senses, called out to the Prince in panic.

“M-Master. This is a secret club.”

-Ah. Sorry, Disciple. It seems we’ll need to talk outside this basement too in order to find the artifact, and there aren’t many ways to communicate.

<Whispers of Einroguard> was a well-made artifact, and <Einroguard’s Watchers> within it was particularly convenient.

Since it was a space composed of the mana of different participants, it was perfect for the Young Prince, who could not use mana from outside, to borrow that power arbitrarily.

“Why don’t you just use my mana...”

-I can’t do that. I’ll only borrow this briefly until the matter is finished.

Baquantalana: Everyone, be careful. I don’t know what means this new member used to enter, but they are definitely not friendly...

Baquantalana’s writing was cut off right there. Lee Han realized that the Young Prince had blocked the other person’s speaking privileges.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: What? What is it?

Unbreakable One: What on earth is happening?? Who entered?

When the other mages kept chattering in the conversational space, the Prince blocked their speaking privileges once again. Not satisfied with that, he even took away their reading privileges.

Now they all won’t be able to see, so we can talk here. Disciple.

“...I have a feeling I absolutely can’t let them find out I did this.”

Lee Han was slightly worried.

Would he get kicked out of the club if this was discovered?

“Wait. Now that I think about it, Master. Since you’ve taken away their privileges... could you perhaps also obtain information about the other members?”

<Einroguard’s Watchers> was a secret society meeting passed down within Einroguard. Baquantalana was also merely someone who had inherited the administrator role, not the founder.

Even if Baquantalana had been the founder, it would have been impossible to arbitrarily find out the members’ identities. The magic was structurally designed so that members could not know one another’s identities in the first place.

However, administrators could obtain relatively limited information to some extent.

Which artifact someone had entered with, which artifact someone was speaking through...

Without that information, performing the administrator role itself would be impossible, so it was unavoidable.

What are you curious about?

“Could you tell me which artifacts the members who are currently speaking are each using? And...”

I understand, Disciple. Since I’ve taken away their privileges, you want me to impersonate other members and approach them.

“...I never had such a thought, though.”

Lee Han shuddered at his master’s deep and broad wisdom.