Chapter 502

'If I leave it like this, it will become troublesome.'

The skull principal became slightly anxious as Ipadour began to take more and more interest in Yi-Han.

Ipadour's interest in Yi-Han itself was not a problem, but it would become quite troublesome if it got entangled with Einroguard.

-So how was the spirit flood resolved?-

-That guy Wardanaz...-

-There is still ice in this corridor. Wait! Lord Gonadaltes. Isn't this the ice of a frost giant!? Was a frost giant summoned to the school at some point!? Who solved it?-

-That was also that guy Wardanaz...-

Originally, a song praising a student would not be bad.

But in Yi-Han's case, it was a bit...

It was too much.

A song about 'a 1st-year student succeeding in lightning element magic' would make the Imperial people smile, but a song about 'a 1st-year student dueling the King of Frost Giants' would make the Imperial people gasp in shock.

The Emperor was already glaring at him, saying 'Tone it down a bit, Os,' and if a song like 'A 1st-year student fought the King of Frost Giants~' spread in the capital...

"Boy. Your face is full of fatigue!"

"Principal, the magic crimi... Mmph."

The skull principal summoned a skeletal hand in the air and covered Yi-Han's mouth.

Saying 'I learned secret techniques to fight against magic criminals' in front of Ipadour was not a very good idea.

"You worked hard! Go in and rest well now. I'm sorry for making you work hard at dawn!"

"I'm still fine though?"

"No! Go in and rest!"

Yi-Han was puzzled, not knowing the skull principal's true intentions.

He tried to do his best for what he received...

'Why is he doing that?'

Since the skull principal seemed desperate to send him in, Yi-Han nodded.

"I understand. Then I will see you next time. Lord Ipadour. It was an honor to meet you today."

"The honor was mine as well."

The old minstrel said with a satisfied smile.

It was not just a polite remark, but sincere.

As a minstrel, it was rare to find a student with such an interesting bundle of stories.

'I managed to send him away somehow.'

The skull principal relieved his worries inwardly.

Now that Wardanaz had left, Ipadour would also take interest in other parts of Einroguard.

...Although that was a problem in itself...

"Ah. Professor Uregor."

In the distance, the dwarf professor was seen walking with a handful of moonlit herbs in one hand.

Professor Uregor, who recognized Ipadour's face, spoke with great delight.

"Isn't that Lord Ipadour? I heard you were invited, but I didn't think you would actually come!"

"..."

The skull principal looked at Professor Uregor with a dismal gaze.

Of course, some quick-witted celebrities in the Empire sometimes declined invitations to Einroguard, but to say it so blatantly.

Fortunately, it seemed that Ipadour did not catch the meaning behind those words.

"I'm glad everyone is welcoming me."

Ipadour was delighted by Professor Uregor's welcome and gave a gentle, wrinkled smile.

"With the students and everyone welcoming me like this, I don't know how to repay the favor..."

"Oh. Did you meet the students as well?"

"Yes. A student from the Wardanaz family helped guide the way."

"Aha. Wardanaz. It hasn't been long since he went on a trip and fought the Sea Serpent, but he's quite diligent."

"The Sea Serpent, you say?!"

Ipadour was startled and took out a quill.

Seeing that, the skull principal sighed deeply enough for the ground to cave in.

'They're all equally unhelpful!'

Weekend afternoon.

"Wardanaz. Here."

The White Tiger Tower students brought a box and put it down in front of Yi-Han.

They had gone to check the location of the ingredients he had heard from the person on the other side of the mirror.

"No problems?"

"Huh? There weren't any."

'Hmm.'

Yi-Han was slightly surprised.

The person on the other side of the mirror didn't play any particular tricks as he had thought.

'They didn't play any tricks... Then there's a high possibility that it's really not the Black Tortoise Tower or the White Tiger Tower.'

Yi-Han subtly insulted the White Tiger Tower in front of the White Tiger Tower students.

"Alright. You all worked hard, take this."

When he pointed to the food supplies promised as the trade condition, the White Tiger Tower students quickly took them...

...But instead, they hesitated.

"?"

"Wardanaz. That..."

'What is it?'

It was not like them to hesitate like that, so Yi-Han was even more puzzled.

Did something happen while they were collecting the ingredients?

"Speak honestly. I won't say anything. Did something happen?"

At Yi-Han's kind words, the White Tiger Tower friends gained courage and asked.

"You met Lord Ipadour, right?"

"I heard you're helping Lord Ipadour with his work..."

"..."

Smack!

"Ack! Y-You told me to speak honestly! You said you wouldn't say anything!"

Smack! Smack!

Yi-Han hit them once more with his staff and waved his hand.

"Go. Don't talk nonsense."

He was already tense because he had to make a high-difficulty foresight potion, and they were talking nonsense.

The White Tiger Tower students left grumbling, and Yi-Han's real friend who would help him came.

Reliable friends who were achieving excellent grades in the alchemy lecture.

Yonaire pulled up a chair and sat next to him, asking.

"Ah. I heard Lord Ipadour came?"

"...Huh, you know Lord Ipadour?"

Yi-Han looked at Yonaire with a look of disbelief.

He thought Yonaire wouldn't know!

"Of course I know...? My family has invited him a few times. My sister likes his songs too."

"..."

When Yi-Han was slightly discouraged, Yonaire tilted her head as if asking why he was like that.

'I thought we were comrades.'

He thought they only read the economics section of the Imperial newspaper together, but the basic level of the Maykin family was on a different level from the basic level of the Wardanaz family.

Not only Asan but also the White Tiger Tower and even the Immortal Phoenix Tower students talked about Ipadour.

"I saw it with my own two eyes. He took out a flute from his shell..."

"You got your song evaluated?"

"I was criticized for the lyrics, but I still received quite a bit of praise. I'm going to send it to my brother and sister too."

Yi-Han swallowed his gloomy feelings and sorted out the ingredients.

Seeing even the Imperial Princess talking about Ipadour, he must really be famous.

"Wardanaz. Wardanaz."

Nillia poked Yi-Han and whispered softly.

"Who is Ipadour?"

"...You're the only one, Nillia."

"Wh-Why are you suddenly like that?"

Even if all the ingredients were gathered, making a high-difficulty potion was not an easy task.

Even after using the entire Saturday and Sunday arrived, Yi-Han was still hanging over the cauldron.

"I'm worried about the amount of ingredients."

"If we fail one more time, it will definitely be like that."

Adding the exact amount of ingredients without the slightest error, finely controlling mana and chanting spells, stirring in the designated direction when the potion boils...

No matter how much genius talent Yi-Han possessed, he could not succeed in all these tasks at once. There had already been several failures.

Fortunately, there had never been a failure to the extent of having to start completely from the beginning.

However, it was true that the ingredients decreased with each repetition of minor failures. Yi-Han threw the blue myanil flower into the cauldron once again with a tense face.

And then he fed the basilisk egg next to him.

"..."

Priestess Siana, who was watching from the side, was dumbfounded.

He said he was tense, but seeing him calmly feeding the egg, he didn't seem tense at all.

'Is he really tense?'

That's when it happened.

Priestess Siana cried out in surprise.

"Uh... Uh-oh?! Mr. Wardanaz! Mr. Wardanaz!"

"I know. Priestess Siana! Don't worry!"

Yi-Han quickly added donghaso and poured cold fresh water to prevent the potion from boiling over the cauldron.

However, that was not enough. The potion that generated heat on its own boiled as if it would melt the cauldron.

'I knew this would happen!'

But Yi-Han was also prepared thanks to the experience of several failures.

He immediately cast cold magic and prevented the temperature of the cauldron from rising any further.

"Cold, be...!"

Originally, such heat generation during the alchemy process should be solved with a combination of ingredients or special reagents, not with separate magic.

If the proper cause was not known, even if magic was used to block it, the problem would recur.

However, Yi-Han fired magic as if he didn't care.

'If the problem recurs, I'll just block it with magic again!'

If he couldn't solve the problem with his brain, he was going to compete with the amount of mana.

"Mr. Wardanaz!"

"I blocked it all, Priestess Siana! I told you not to worry!"

"That's not it, look at the egg! The egg!"

"??"

Yi-Han turned his head without thinking.

Crack!

The surface of the basilisk egg was cracked in all directions. It looked like it would break at any moment.

Crack!

Suddenly, the egg cracked and something about the size of a scarf crawled out from inside.

The baby basilisk crawled towards Yi-Han as if happy to see him. It was like a newly hatched chick running towards its parent.

However, Yi-Han reacted differently from the basilisk's expectation.

"Priestess Siana, lie down and close your eyes!"

Yi-Han shouted while covering the baby basilisk's eyes with his hand. Priestess Siana hurriedly lay down in surprise.

-...-

The baby basilisk looked at Yi-Han with a hurt gaze.

After a brief commotion (three small cauldrons were knocked over and one chest was broken), Yi-Han realized that the baby basilisk did not randomly shoot its evil eye.

If it did not recognize someone as an enemy, it would not shoot its evil eye.

'But just in case, I should cover its eyes.'

Yi-Han tightly wrapped the baby basilisk's eyes with silk. The baby basilisk hit Yi-Han's wrist with its tail as if very dissatisfied.

"Priestess Siana. Are you okay?"

"Ah. Yes. I'm fine. But it was really a basilisk! I thought the White Tiger Tower people were talking nonsense..."

Priestess Siana was also quite sharp. Yi-Han nodded and said.

"I was raising it at the request of a professor. But... it came out much earlier than expected."

Yi-Han was not an authority on raising basilisks, but with what he had learned so far, he could tell that the basilisk had come out too early.

"Is that so? Didn't you give it too much food?"

"I gave it the proper amount..."

"Did you perhaps put the egg in a place with excessively strong mana?"

"There's no way I would put the egg in such a place..."

Yi-Han paused while speaking.

Come to think of it, he had been carrying the egg around a lot lately.

"...I did have it with me a lot."

At Yi-Han's words, Priestess Siana laughed.

"What nonsense are you saying, Mr. Wardanaz? If the basilisk egg absorbed Mr. Wardanaz's mana, of course Mr. Wardanaz would have noticed. Mr. Wardanaz is not an idiot, there's no way you wouldn't have noticed such a thing."

"..."

Yi-Han was slightly hurt. The basilisk, wrapped like a scarf, patted Yi-Han as if trying to comfort him.

"But you don't have to worry too much. Even if it comes out early, it will just be small in size, but it can still do its job."

Priestess Siana took out a sharply pointed brass syringe.

It was one of the alchemist's tools used to extract liquid by inserting it into plants or animals.

"Now. Mr. Wardanaz. Hold it."

"...Excuse me, Priestess Siana, what are you trying to do now?"

"Huh? Didn't you raise it to extract venom?"

The basilisk wrapped around his neck trembled as if sensing something ominous.