Fortunately, Professor Garcia didn’t try to subdue his disciples by force.

It wasn’t because there were too many eyes watching, but simply because Professor Garcia himself disliked violence.

CRACK!

“...”

Angrago stared in horror as Professor Garcia casually crushed the metal railing attached to the stands with one hand.

Of course, Professor Garcia disliked violence, but there were always exceptions, weren’t there?

What if today happened to be the first day he decided otherwise?

“I-I was wrong! Please spare me, Professor!”

“It doesn’t seem like you actually did anything wrong. Hurry and bring Student Salko here.”

“Yes! Right away!”

Angrago rushed into the crowd, shoving spectators aside until he found Salko in the middle of the chaos, barking orders at everyone around him.

-You bastard! You’re one of those Granden City Jousting Club punks, aren’t you?!

-Beat him down!

After taking several hits from nearby spectators, Angrago shouted desperately.

“Cough! Cough! Tutanta, you idiot! The professor’s here! Professor Garcia is here!”

“...!!!”

Salko, who had been hurling mud balls indiscriminately, froze as though cold water had been dumped over his head.

“D-Don’t lie.”

“Look behind you!”

“...”

The moment Salko met the professor’s familiar gaze, he immediately lowered his staff.

“Everyone stop! Stop fighting!”

“What are you talking about?! We still need to stomp those Granden City Jousting Club bastards!”

“No, stop! I said stop!”

The drunken spectators ignored Salko’s desperate pleas and kept rampaging.

THUD!

Professor Garcia clicked his tongue and struck the floor with his staff.

Dozens of shadow tentacles instantly descended from above the stands and wrapped around the rioters’ faces.

“Ghk!”

“Urgh!”

The spectators who had ignored every attempt at restraint suddenly collapsed limply to the ground.

It was terrifyingly refined magic.

“You two.”

Professor Garcia turned toward them with a stern expression.

Both students swallowed hard.

“Run.”

“...?!”

Instead of scolding them, the professor immediately turned and sprinted down the stairs himself.

As an Einroguard mage, the most important thing wasn’t preserving appearances or lecturing students after causing trouble.

The important thing was escaping as quickly as possible afterward.

“L-Let’s go together, Professor!!”

***

The three mages barely managed to get far enough away from the scene.

-Who was that mage earlier?

-With magic like that, wasn’t he from Einroguard?

-Now that you mention it, those mages from before were probably from Einroguard too.

-Come to think of it, the brawl at the castle gates this morning was probably caused by Einroguard mages too.

‘The last one wasn’t us!’

Professor Garcia felt wronged.

Admittedly, Einroguard mages did statistically cause an absurd amount of trouble, but it still felt unfair to be blamed for incidents they had nothing to do with.

Why did people across the Empire immediately blame Einroguard whenever something incomprehensible and magical happened?

“Now then. You two students.”

“...Yes...”

“...I’m sorry, Professor. I forgot myself and got carried away.”

The two reflected sincerely.

Not necessarily because Professor Garcia’s hands happened to be resting on their shoulders.

Now that they had calmed down, they felt ashamed for causing such a disturbance.

“If you truly understand that, then that’s enough. Just don’t repeat it.”

Professor Garcia’s tone became far more lenient.

Compared to the disasters caused by certain upperclassmen, today’s incident barely even counted as trouble.

A little escape attempt and a disturbance in the arena were practically harmless by Einroguard standards.

“Let’s go find Student Lee Han.”

“Why Wardanaz?”

Angrago looked confused.

Unlike the two of them, Lee Han had legally gone outside. Wasn’t he currently participating as a member of the Jousting Club?

“Because Student Lee Han risked his life fighting evil deity worshippers inside Granden City’s palace.”

Professor Garcia stared meaningfully at the two students.

Cold sweat ran down their backs.

“T-This is the first I’m hearing about it.”

“M-Me too...”

“...”

Even seeing the shamelessness of students who had snuck out disguised as drama-club members while pretending ignorance about the palace incident, Professor Garcia didn’t become angry.

Students caused trouble. That was simply how things were.

...Though Student Lee Han’s incidents did tend to be unusually large in scale...

“Fine. We’ll leave it at that. Student Lee Han wasn’t injured, was he?”

“Haha. You know how tough Wardanaz is. Even after facing an otherworldly being head-on, he was perfectly fine after resting for a single day.”

“...”

“...”

Angrago stared at Salko in horror.

Are you insane?!

At a moment when they should have been insisting that nothing happened in the palace and Wardanaz merely played a minor supporting role, what nonsense was he saying?

Only after the atmosphere turned icy did Salko belatedly realize his mistake.

‘Damn it...! How did I screw that up...?!’

The excitement from the match must still have been lingering.

“...I’m glad he wasn’t hurt.”

“Yes...”

After that, the three mages walked silently through the corridor.

Meanwhile, the Einroguard Jousting Club section on the opposite side of the arena had already turned into utter chaos.

-Long live Einroguard! Long live silver coins!

-Let us see the players! Let us see the players!

“Excuse us. We need to pass through.”

-Get lost!

“...”

Once again, dozens of shadow tentacles descended from above.

A Jousting Club student who saw the spell immediately cried out in shock.

“Professor Garcia?!”

At the sight of someone recognizing him purely from his magic, Professor Garcia found himself reflexively making excuses.

“You probably recognized me because all the spectators collapsed, not because of the spell itself.”

“I recognized you from the spell! What brings you here? Did someone cause an accident...?”

The student stiffened midway through the sentence.

If even Professor Garcia had shown up personally, then just how serious was the incident?

“It’s nothing like that. I merely heard some news while passing by and stopped in. Ah, right. Congratulations on your victory.”

“Thank you!”

The club members were completely drunk on victory.

Since it had been so long since their last win, the joy felt even more overwhelming. Gifts and congratulations were pouring in from every direction.

But one person was conspicuously absent.

“Where is Student Lee Han?”

“Ah. Wardanaz said he had somewhere to be and stepped out for a bit. Professor, Wardanaz really contributed a lot today, so please overlook this one outing...”

The upperclassman trailed off awkwardly.

Space itself was beginning to distort around Professor Garcia’s clenched fist.

“...That won’t be possible, right?? Rules are rules after all. Please punish him however you see fit!”

“No. Since we won today, a brief outing is acceptable.”

Professor Garcia sighed deeply at the realization that his disciple had already escaped.

When a disciple was overly clever, situations like this became extremely troublesome.

***

“Phoneig. You really did well today.”

-Puheung!

Phoneig, now transformed back into a horse, bobbed its head proudly.

The people who had bet on Einroguard’s Jousting Club thought they were the happiest individuals in the city right now, but they were mistaken.

No one was happier about today’s victory than this griffin.

It looked as though decades of resentment had finally been resolved.

I had no idea it loved jousting this much.

Lee Han silently brushed Phoneig’s mane.

Regardless of Phoneig’s personal preferences, thanks to it Lee Han had managed to win as well. Watching the upperclassmen cry afterward had simply been an added bonus.

“Here. Eat some more.”

As Phoneig happily crunched through snacks, the baby basilisk hidden inside Lee Han’s sleeve grew envious.

So if you participated in jousting matches, you received this much affection.

“But still... where should I go now?”

Lee Han fell into thought.

The merchant guild warehouse where he had originally been staying was dangerous now. Professor Garcia might trace him there.

But returning to the arena and staying with the Jousting Club members would practically be the same as saying, Please come arrest me.

“...?!”

While thinking, Lee Han suddenly spotted a familiar figure walking down the main road beyond the alley.

A senior from the Kitchen Club, Priest Palcrius, was carrying enormous sacks over both shoulders.

“Senior!”

“...Who’s there?”

“Ah, it’s me. Wardanaz.”

“...???”

Palcrius looked puzzled by Lee Han’s disguise at first, but soon nodded in understanding.

To begin with, Einroguard mages wandering around in disguises was such a common sight that it barely registered as strange anymore.

“Puh. I was wondering why you came out so early. But then again, you belong to multiple clubs, so it makes sense.”

“Yes. But Senior, why are you...”

The Kitchen Club’s outside activities were usually charity work.

Temples and sponsors provided generous support so they could distribute meals, and any leftover ingredients that would otherwise be discarded ended up feeding starving Einroguard students instead.

But there were still several days left before the scheduled event.

Why had Palcrius come out alone ahead of time?

“Uhaha. Because I need to gather a lot of ingredients.”

The senior laughed heartily as he explained.

Even with support from temples and sponsors, there were always countless hungry people.

If they could prepare more than the officially allocated amount, then they could feed even more people with warm meals.

Palcrius had volunteered separately because he didn’t want to trouble the younger students unnecessarily, and had headed out alone ahead of everyone else.

“...You should’ve told me. I would’ve helped.”

“Puh. The only person in the club busier than me is probably you, Wardanaz. Besides, I’m doing this because I enjoy it. The underclassmen don’t need to burden themselves.”

Palcrius patted his enormous belly — large enough that people often mistook him for an ogre hybrid — and laughed loudly.

“And honestly, the more leftover ingredients we get, the better it is for us too, right?”

“You’re not wrong. I’ll help too. Ah, wait. Senior. Have you seen Professor Garcia anywhere?”

“No? Why?”

“It’s nothing. I’ll help you.”

“Puh. Reliable as always. Thanks, Wardanaz.”

Palcrius grinned broadly.

Given his junior’s capabilities, it felt more reassuring than receiving support from ten ordinary students.

“Ah, # Nоvеlight # right. Wardanaz. Come to think of it, wouldn’t it be better to remove the disguise?”

“...Why?”

“Well...”

To collect more food, they would have to visit countless places and persuade people face-to-face.

And among those people, there would naturally be plenty who responded well to noble prestige and authority.

Palcrius himself didn’t look particularly authoritative — he looked exactly like a priest no matter who saw him — but...

“...?”

...his junior practically looked like the textbook image of a great noble heir.

If Lee Han removed the disguise and appeared openly, persuasion would likely become much easier.

“Hmm. But... hmm...”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m worried someone might recognize me.”

“Puh. It’s fine, it’s fine, Wardanaz. Granden City is enormous. There are mages everywhere. Even if you caused a little trouble, nobody’s going to recognize you.”

Among Einroguard students, disguising themselves before leaving school grounds was more common than most people realized.

Usually because they had already caused trouble outside.

Or because they planned to cause trouble soon.

Generally one of the two.

“That’s not exactly what I meant, but... fine.”

Lee Han removed the disguise.

If he intended to properly help Palcrius, then staying disguised would indeed make things difficult.

“Then let’s g—”

“Excuse me! Aren’t you Student Wardanaz?! From Einroguard’s Jousting Club?!”

“What?! Student Wardanaz is here?!”

“Student Wardanaz! Please sign my pocket watch!”

The moment someone shouted, people swarmed toward him like a tidal wave.

Everyone wanted autographs on their cloaks, brooches, and pocket watches to commemorate today’s match.

Palcrius froze in shock.

W-What is this?!