Chapter 488

Yi-Han held out the cotton candy he was holding.

The White Tiger Tower students screamed and threw their bodies to the side. It was truly lamentable that it wasn't easy to dodge in the alley.

'Damn it! That Wardanaz guy. How cunning!'

It wasn't for nothing that he was one of the top combat experts among the 1st years.

A perfect tactic that targeted their most vulnerable moment!

...However, no magic flew. Yi-Han and his friends looked down at the White Tiger Tower students as if they were crazy.

"What are you doing?"

"..."

Bartreck, who had rolled on the muddy alley floor, quietly closed his mouth and got up from his spot.

Then he brushed off the dirt on his outerwear and said as dignifiedly as possible.

"...We were playing a game of catch."

"Here?"

"We usually do it in alleys."

The White Tiger Tower students behind him hesitated for a moment and then nodded.

Yi-Han acknowledged with a perplexed expression.

"O-Okay. I see. You liked playing catch in alleys... Take this."

"???"

Bartreck, who received the cotton candy Yi-Han handed over, was puzzled.

"What is this?"

"The snack I bought for you guys?"

"Where did you get the money...? Gasp. Did you steal it?"

"Why is stealing the first thing that comes to your mind? I got it from Professor Uregor."

"!?"

The students were more surprised than when they heard about stealing.

How?

"Gasp. He threatened...!"

"No. You crazy bastards."

Yi-Han briefly explained what had happened.

The students who heard the explanation were convinced...

...Not, and were inwardly shocked.

'How did he persuade him...'

'How on earth did he persuade him?'

Because Yi-Han explained it simply in one line, the students had no choice but to let their imagination run wild even more.

"Huh? Wait. Then why did we sneak out?"

"Right."

"..."

"..."

The students fell into self-loathing.

Especially those who had mud on their clothes fell into self-loathing as deep as the mud.

"Well. We can play now. I left silver coins for your share."

Tap tap-

Adenart, who was quietly listening to the conversation next to them, pointed to the cotton candy Bartreck had received.

Because he was standing there blankly, the cotton candy was melting.

Yi-Han was slightly surprised and asked in a small voice.

"...Are you telling Bartreck to hand over the cotton candy again?"

"H-Here it is."

Bartreck, still dazed by the situation, held out the cotton candy to the princess again.

Adenart felt anger welling up inside her.

"No!"

"But who is that person?"

"Ah. He's a really amazing divination mage."

Bartreck explained while glancing at the princess.

The princess was glaring at the two of them fiercely.

'I heard there was a power struggle between Wardanaz and the tower, is that true?'

"...He guessed my family like this too."

"Isn't it just a lucky guess?"

Yi-Han was puzzled.

As far as Yi-Han knew, divination magic of that method had a considerably high difficulty and cost.

Of course, there were primitive and ancient magics outside the system that Yi-Han didn't know about in the Empire, but even so, there were principles that ran through those magics, right?

In short, it was too unprofitable to use divination magic that could guess someone's family while sitting here in this back alley.

"I'm telling you, he's really amazing."

"Hoo... Hoho. If you don't believe it, why don't you try it once? I won't take any price."

Ianop thought it was just in time.

That talentless dwarf bastard kept pestering him, so it was an opportunity to change the subject.

Moreover, if what Ianop had just heard was correct, that boy was...

'The Wardanaz family!'

If it was the Wardanaz family, there was a high possibility that the talent Antagondal wanted would emerge.

Ianop suppressed his excited heart and called out.

"Wardanaz. You try it too. He says he'll give you a silver coin if he's wrong."

"What? Is that true?"

Yi-Han was startled.

Was he perhaps someone afflicted with a disease that made him waste silver coins in vain?

"Please guess this friend's family once!"

"Isn't it the Wardanaz family?"

"Oh my goodness...!"

Bartreck was surprised once again.

"...You kept calling him Wardanaz..."

"Are you an idiot?"

Yonaire and Priestess Siana asked seriously. Bartreck came to his senses belatedly.

"Ah. Right. Sorry. I got excited."

"Hmm."

However, Yi-Han was too preoccupied with other thoughts to pay attention.

'I was going to insist that it's the Moradi family and take the silver coin.'

He had thought about insisting that his name was Wardanaz but he was actually from the Moradi family and taking the silver coin, but the opportunity flew away because his friends reacted too quickly.

Now that the chance to earn a silver coin for free was gone, Yi-Han's interest also quickly disappeared.

"I'm good. Let's all go look at the stores. Bartreck. You need to buy a set of clothes."

"I have clothes I brought from school."

"Those aren't clothes, they're patched rags. I'll buy them, so change."

The White Tiger Tower friends were slightly moved by Yi-Han's straightforward words.

'Thank you. Wardanaz.'

'For getting rid of Bartreck's rag pieces...!'

Of course, Ianop was flustered.

"Wait a moment...! Aren't you curious about the future?"

"I already know my future well."

Yi-Han was cold.

In exchange for graduating from Einroguard a little more difficultly than others, after graduation, he would expand his assets dozens of times with his connections and outstanding business sense, gain fame as the Empire's emerging entrepreneur, and live a life of leisure.

And when he was bored, he would go find the skull principal and throw gold coins at his face.

It was too clear of a future.

"Rather, I think you should manage that table well. If the corner falls off, the magic circle inside will also be shaken."

"Huh? It was a magic table?"

"Yeah."

"I had no idea at all...!? Really?!"

"It's a useless artifact with no effect. Someone who was bored must have made it."

Yi-Han took his friends and left the alley.

Ianop was too shocked to even answer and blankly watched their retreating figures.

'Just now...?'

Did he mean that he noticed the hidden secret from that far distance without even touching the table?

That fact alone was unbelievable, but what was even more shocking was the reaction that followed.

What was that cynical reaction?

When Ianop heard the secret of this table from Antagondal and accurately felt the structure of the magic circle, he had stared at the manifestation of such beautiful and perfect magic without even blinking.

After that, for over half a year, he had skipped meals and sleep, embracing only this table and exploring its interior.

But that boy had grasped the structure just by glancing at it from a distance, so why did he show such a reaction?!

'Why? Isn't he curious about this? Why isn't he curious about this?!'

It seemed like he had found the talent Antagondal had spoken of, but at the same time, Ianop instinctively felt goosebumps at the incomprehensible behavior shown by that talent.

It was the same goosebumps he had felt long ago when he saw mages whose level he couldn't even dare to follow with his own abilities.

"Mage. Mage. I brought what you asked for."

The mercenaries who had been given a task ran up to Ianop.

"Among the students, there is a famous student. He's from a prestigious family in the Empire, and his skills are already very impressive..."

"Is he from the Wardanaz family?"

"That's right! As expected, you see through everything, Mage!"

Although they were mercenaries exuding a brutal and vicious atmosphere, they maintained a polite attitude in front of the mage, afraid of being caught.

They were thrilled by the mysteriousness of Ianop, who seemed to see through things a thousand miles away while sitting in his spot.

"This book... somehow deliver this book to that boy."

"..."

The mercenaries were silent.

Although they were mercenaries who stayed near the port and did all kinds of rough work without discrimination, there were things they feared too.

They didn't want to get involved with mages.

Moreover, if it was a mage from Einroguard, even more so.

Ianop thought about intimidating one of them by making them skinny to death, but soon changed his mind.

Now was not the time to wield the whip.

'If I scare them unnecessarily, they might run away.'

"Look. There is no magic cast on this book at all. It's a pure grimoire."

"We're blind, so we don't know even if we look at that..."

"What will happen if we get caught by the mages while handing it over?"

"Ask a merchant around here or hand it over to a servant. Surely the Empire's mages won't torture them?"

A low threat was gradually mixed into Ianop's voice.

Feeling that threat, the mercenaries hurriedly nodded and stuffed the grimoire into their rough leather outerwear.

"O-Okay."

"We'll try to deliver it somehow."

"I'll give a gold coin to the one who succeeds."

"...!"

"We'll do our best!"

Only then did the mercenaries' eyes flash with greed.

Although it was unsatisfactory, Ianop judged that he needed the mercenaries' help for now.

'They're still useful guys.'

The grimoire Ianop had handed over to the mercenaries was a grimoire written by Antagondal.

It was thin and didn't have much content. It was a book that recorded only one magic.

However, that one magic was a magic personally developed by Antagondal. This grimoire had also given Ianop a tremendous shock.

If the wisdom contained in this light and thin book was like this, what would Antagondal's own wisdom be like?

If he could obtain even a drop of that wisdom, Ianop could do anything.

'He will surely... be tempted when he reads it too!'

A heretical and brutal magic different from Einroguard's magic.

An arrogant genius would surely find it interesting.

While the students were sitting on the second-floor terrace of a brick cafe, enjoying chocolate cake and coffee, Yi-Han threw a question at Nillia to satisfy his curiosity.

"Nillia. The Shadow Patrol hunters..."

"Huh?! Why?! What?! Did they make a mistake?! They made a mistake, right?!"

"...No... I'm just curious. Is there a rule they follow when chasing their prey? Like they absolutely can't let it go."

"There's no such rule, but they tend to never let go of their own prey."

Nillia took a bite of the cake and frowned.

The cake was too sweet for Nillia, who was used to rough and bitter food in the mountains.

"If you don't like it, you don't have to eat it."

"Ah, no? I'm totally good at eating sweet things? I'm a dignified Imperial citizen?"

"..."

While Bartreck was distracted by other snacks, Yi-Han sneakily snatched the tiramisu Bartreck had ordered and placed it in front of Nillia.

Nillia, who hadn't noticed yet, continued.

"If they let it go, they lose face. As a hunter, their pride..."

"I see."

There were often sayings that ferocious monsters had strong pride and never let go of their prey and chased after them, but the Shadow Patrol scoffed at such sayings.

If you put it that way, the ones with the strongest pride and persistence in the mountains were them!

Once the hunters declared to the mountains that they would catch a monster, they never let that target go.

Some hunters would stay in the mountains for twenty years without returning to the outpost, searching for their prey.

'Is that why their eyes always rolled back whenever they saw a monster?'

Yi-Han thought that he should treat the Shadow Patrol hunters a little better the next time he met them.

Wouldn't it be troublesome for life if he was marked as an enemy for no reason?

"Mage!"

"Cough."

Yi-Han almost spat out the coffee he was drinking.

It wasn't from the cafe stairs behind him, but a Shadow Patrol hunter had jumped up from below the terrace.

Nillia was so embarrassed that she quickly went under the table and covered her body with her cloak.

"Wh-What is it?"

"We're trying to catch the Sea Serpent and need help. Can you assist us?"

"...Did Professor Uregor perhaps tell you?"