For a moment, every member of <Einroguard’s Watchers> watching the conversation had the exact same thought.

...Is this bastard really the Skull Principal?

However, Lee Han was not flustered. Had he not already received this kind of suspicion several times before?

Gonadaltes: How do I know, you ask? I’m more interested in the school and more active than you all, so naturally I know.

Iactus: Like sending students to the punishment cells, for example?

Gonadaltes: Iactus. Stop talking nonsense. If I were really the Principal, why would I keep doing this here? I would have caught you all already. Have I ever asked to meet any of you?

Baquantalana: A valid point. I must admit we are being overly suspicious because of Gonadaltes’s alias.

The members honestly acknowledged it.

If the new member’s alias had been something like <Cool Fourth-Year Student> instead of Gonadaltes, they probably would have been less suspicious.

However, as long as the alias was Gonadaltes, even perfectly ordinary words inevitably sounded suspicious.

Damn it. This is troublesome for me too.

Is this really not the Skull Principal?

What kind of insane student is this?

Rationally, everyone knew the Skull Principal would not engage in such bothersome activity.

If they assumed the Skull Principal had infiltrated the club, several contradictory circumstances appeared.

But...

Any student of Einroguard knew it in their bones.

The Skull Principal’s madness belonged to a realm they simply could not measure!

What if all of this was part of some grand plan the Skull Principal was drawing up, and they were being played?

Who could say such a possibility was completely impossible?

Gonadaltes: Honorable members of the Watchers! As mages, shouldn’t we judge coldly and rationally instead of being frightened by absurdly low possibilities? If we keep driving each other into corners like this, only distrust will spread through the club, and quality information will stop being shared.

Iactus: You’re right... Sorry. I said something unnecessary.

Unbreakable One: Right. I agree. And there’s no way a professor would be here. That’s ridiculous.

Seeing that everyone seemed to have calmed down, Lee Han drove the point home.

Gonadaltes: I happened to see Duke Ikalderen this year. From what I heard, he was caught trying to steal Einroguard’s treasures.

Baquantalana: Could it not have been someone else? No matter what, imprisoning a great noble and duke of the Empire at Einroguard seems...

Unbreakable One: If it’s the Principal, it’s possible... it is possible.

Iactus: I agree too. It’s hard to believe, but that makes it more credible. So Duke Ikalderen is participating as a guest? Why?

Unbreakable One: From what I know, he is spending gold as a form of atonement.

Wait. Who is this senior?

Lee Han was quite surprised by Unbreakable One’s information.

While the other seniors had not noticed, Lee Han knew very well that information about Duke Ikalderen was fairly secret even within Einroguard.

Even if this was a senior who had coincidentally seen the duke imprisoned, as Lee Han had claimed as an excuse...

...could that senior also know the reason Duke Ikalderen was participating as a guest?

Could this senior be in continuous contact with Duke Ikalderen? It’s not impossible.

After all, had Lee Han himself not built a friendship with the punishment-cell management spirit and secretly received a free pass?

Einroguard’s rules were strict, but exceptions always existed if one became friends with the guards.

If this senior had also found where Duke Ikalderen was imprisoned and figured out how to approach the duke...

What an impressive person. For a duke, the Skull Principal would have set up considerable security. How did this senior approach him?

Iactus: As a form of atonement...

Baquantalana: Instead of reducing his # Nоvеlight # sentence, he is being told to spend money on students. Very much like the Principal.

Gonadaltes: Thanks for the compliment.

Iactus: ...

Baquantalana: ...

Gonadaltes: That was a joke. Sorry.

Iactus: Never make that kind of damned joke again.

These seniors have no sense of humor.

Lee Han grumbled inwardly.

To react so violently to a light joke thrown out to change the mood...

Baquantalana: Thank you for the good information. To think a duke is participating.

Unbreakable One: Everyone, since we are honorable Watchers members, you won’t kidnap the duke or use violent methods to persuade him, right? Promise me you won’t.

Iactus: Unbreakable One. You didn’t need to tell us, since we were going to kidnap him anyway.

Unbreakable One: Hey!

Gonadaltes: Is it all right to kidnap him?

Iactus: What else could it mean that the Principal temporarily released him?

Einroguard students had an outstanding talent for grasping the Skull Principal’s true intentions.

The moment they heard Duke Ikalderen was participating as atonement, the members understood it as, “Ah, the Principal has given us permission to thoroughly fleece the duke.”

Of course, whether that was truly the Principal’s intention was impossible to know...

Then I can’t not do it either.

Lee Han made a note to remember to kidnap Duke Ikalderen too.

He could not let only the seniors do good things.

*****

“Senior. Is it true that the Kitchen Club invited people from the capital’s bakery guild and butcher guild this time?”

“Puhuh! How did you find out?!”

The large, pot-bellied senior, Palcrius, looked around in surprise.

“It’s a secret. If the others find out, they’ll try to intercept them before they even reach the seventh floor!”

“Could I possibly get some support for my research too?”

“Hmm.”

Palcrius, who had been chuckling while boiling plain-water soup, seriously pondered the junior’s question.

“That’s... hard for me to answer. Extorting, I mean, receiving gifts of other people’s gold has always been difficult.”

Senior Palcrius had been cheerful even when throwing punches at other club seniors and wielding kitchen knives, but grew very serious once talk turned to gold and support.

As long as Palcrius was also a mage, this was a task that would have to be carried for life.

“There were times I thought it was one hundred percent certain but received no gold, and times I thought it was completely hopeless but received gold anyway. The psychology of people with gold is too difficult. More difficult than great magic.”

“I completely agree, Senior.”

Lee Han nodded with deep sympathy.

Originally, receiving financial support from others as a researcher was truly difficult work.

Money was limited, while those who wanted to conduct research overflowed, so they had no choice but to fight fiercely among themselves.

“Puhuh. There’s only one thing I can tell you. If you sincerely prepare your research...”

“...the people who come will surely understand?”

“Huh? No. If you sincerely prepare your research, people won’t be interested, so you need to deceive them with flashy tricks.”

“...Thank you. I learned something.”

“Puhuhuh. That’s fortunate!”

At Palcrius’s words, Lee Han came to his senses.

Come to think of it, there was nothing more foolish than trying to use honest methods against people with gold.

Senior is right. I need to sell flashiness.

Lee Han fell deep into thought.

How could he, still learning magic through his body without a single proper research achievement, possibly pull off such flashy deception?

Seeing Lee Han sitting at the Kitchen Club dining table and scribbling with a quill pen, his same-year friends grew puzzled.

“Why is Lee Han doing that?”

“He says he’s preparing for next week.”

“Ah. Club week!”

Gainando’s face brightened slightly, then darkened.

Having outside guests come was enjoyable, but the club Gainando currently belonged to was not the club he wanted.

“Gainando, who’s coming to your club?”

“Some famous collector is coming... I don’t know. I’m not interested.”

“Why aren’t you interested? It would be good to get close and receive support for magic research.”

“Ugh. I don’t want to take dirty money earned from Mage Cards...”

“...”

“...”

The Blue Dragon Tower friends exchanged glances. One of them tapped a finger against his head.

Isn’t he crazy?

Leave him be. Wardanaz will scold him properly.

Ignoring Gainando, the friends approached Lee Han.

“Wardanaz. What are you doing now? Should we help?”

“Ah. I was preparing a self-introduction to use as a greeting when outside guests come next week. I’ve roughly finished it. Want to listen once?”

“Oh...!”

“Self-introductions are important.”

The friends nodded.

When meeting someone for the first time, a mage had to introduce who they were. Especially if there was gold to be extracted from that person.

Which school they belonged to, who they had learned under, what achievements they had...

In the end, people of the Empire liked numbers.

“I researched skin-color changes when casting troll transformation magic for a whole month!” worked less well than “I am second in the transformation magic school!”

As expected of Wardanaz, he was already preparing before the weekend had even started.

“I am Lee Han of House Wardanaz...”

—I want to give points right from the start.

—But couldn’t House Wardanaz feel a little dangerous?

—Dangerous, but worth revealing. There are definitely people who place expectations on the name of a prestigious magic family.

The friends scored him coldly. Yonair thought to Yonairself.

He usually doesn’t even use his family name.

It hurt to see his friend, who usually did not care about the family name, immediately bring it out once gold-related matters were involved.

He truly seemed determined not to choose his means or methods.

“I am the top student of Einroguard’s second year.”

—A bit annoying, but I’ll give additional points for this too.

—Everyone has to acknowledge this one.

The Blue Dragon Tower friends added points with slight jealousy.

“Furthermore, I am taking courses in every school at Einroguard.”

—Doesn’t this feel a bit unrealistic?

—But there’s plenty of evidence, so it’s fine. And it only feels unrealistic to mages. It’ll actually work on ordinary people.

—Indeed.

“I have also taken first place in every school...”

—...

—...

“Last year, I helped with work at Master Puyo’s staff workshop, Yoanen Meikin’s alchemy workshop, and so on.”

—...Meikin. What did you make your friend do? If it’s Yoanen Meikin, isn’t that the one who drove thirteen alchemists insane...

—There seems to be a misunderstanding. First, it wasn’t thirteen but fourteen, and Lee Han...

Lee Han frowned as his friends started talking about useless things.

“Can’t you focus?”

—S-sorry.

—I’ll focus. Continue.

“Last year, I faced the following enemies. Rock Drake, Frost Giant King, Ghoul King, basilisk, sea serpent, and so on...”

—...

—Wait. Wait a moment.

“Hm?”

When his friends stopped him, Lee Han was puzzled.

“Is there a problem?”

“That part just now was a little too...”

“...absurd? Like a lie? Exaggerated?”

“Right, right. It might sound a bit strange.”

“But those are all things I really experienced.”

Lee Han felt slightly wronged.

He had not even started exaggerating yet, and he was already hearing such words.

“W-we believe you, Wardanaz. We believe you!”

“Actually, hearing it summarized like that does make it hard to believe... Anyway, it might be a bit shocking to outsiders.”

When his friends spoke seriously and did not back down, Lee Han wavered.

“Really? Then which parts should I fix?”

“Rock Drake, Ghoul King, basilisk, sea serpent.”

“You want me to leave only those?”

“No. Let’s remove all of those. Just the Frost Giant King alone is shocking enough.”

“...”

Lee Han made a displeased expression, but for now, he removed them according to his friends’ advice.

“Last year, I faced the Frost Giant King and passed the trial. This is the proof.”

—Good!

—Clean and excellent!

“And this year, I met the magical criminal Antagondals and an insane duplicate of an ancient archmage...”

—...

—...