Chapter 612

Yi-Han paid no heed to the skull principal's scolding.

This was a more important issue than he had thought.

Of course, Einroguard was a good place in terms of opportunity, but not everyone coveted the best opportunity.

"...Einroguard is a place full of violence, struggle, blood, and pain. You should know that before you choose."

'That's quite an exaggeration.'

The skull principal was dumbfounded by Yi-Han's exaggeration.

Anyone who heard that would think Einroguard was a lawless zone without imperial law.

"Fight and eat! Fight and eat!"

Eandurde's eyes sparkled as she pounded the table with both hands.

Yi-Han's explanation had actually excited Eandurde.

Full of strong enemies, struggle, and meals!

"W-well. If you've decided... No, but why don't you think about it again? Just think one more time."

"You're teaching your junior such a good thing."

The skull principal mocked from afar.

As a senior, he should confidently say, 'If you don't enter Einroguard, you're a loser and a failure!', not act so insecurely.

"But Einroguard is a bit harsh, isn't it?"

"Only those who grew up in abundance would find it harsh. It probably won't be that harsh for a kid like her."

Yi-Han had to admit the skull principal was right.

Compared to the life this junior had experienced, Einroguard might not be that difficult.

"You're right."

"Seems like you understand now. Then feed her and educate her a bit. She should at least be able to read and write her own name."

"...Uh, am I doing it?"

"Originally, the death knights did it. If you don't like it, I can leave it to the death knights."

Yi-Han looked at his junior, who was staring at the empty plate with an innocent expression.

He looked like a junior who had only struggled without learning anything about the empire.

Would it be right to entrust such a junior to knights who had been dead for hundreds of years and couldn't keep up with the changing times?

"I'll just do it myself."

"Tsk tsk. Wasting time because of sympathy."

'You're the one who told me to do it...'

Yi-Han was dumbfounded, but the skull principal was already walking out, preparing to leave.

"Where are you going today?"

"I'm going to persuade those who have new students. I won't need your help today, so play with your junior."

"Ah. Are there only places that are easy to persuade?"

"No. There are only those who don't need persuasion."

The skull principal was about to put on a white coat but hesitated for a moment and put it down.

"Hmm... It would be troublesome if blood splattered."

Yi-Han averted his gaze as the skull principal put on a black coat and looked at his junior.

"Now, let's start studying orthography."

***

The junior was quite smart.

After studying for a short time, she completely mastered the imperial letters and could write her own name.

"Now, copy this. Einroguard."

"Einroguard."

"Os Gonadaltes."

"Os Gonadaltes."

"Crazy person."

"Crazy person."

"No. Forget that last one. It came out habitually. Anyway, you did really well. I'll prepare a meal for you."

Yi-Han headed to the kitchen of the villa.

Except for the excessive amount of sardines, the kitchen pantry was quite abundant.

Potatoes, canned sardines, carrots, dried sardines, cabbage, frozen sardines, chicken, pickled sardines...

'I should put the sardines aside.'

It was insufficient and modest for preparing a banquet to noble tastes, but in the eyes of a skilled Einroguard student, this was enough for a feast.

Yi-Han prepared the menu thinking of his junior who probably hadn't eaten warm food for a long time.

Growl-

"Wait just a moment."

"Understood."

First, for his hungry junior, he put chunks of meat on the fire, stir-fried them with vegetables, and then seasoned them simply with pepper and salt before serving.

However, the junior didn't eat right away and waited.

"You can eat now?"

"Didn't win?"

"...From now on, you can eat even if you don't win. And you just memorized the letters well. That's winning."

"!"

Thinking Yi-Han's words made quite a bit of sense, the junior started to dig into the food.

Seeing the plate emptying in an instant, Yi-Han quickly served more dishes.

A baked dish with cheese inserted between potatoes and baked golden brown in the oven, a hot potato soup with onions sautéed in butter and ground in, a sardine dish stir-fried with cabbage and generously sprinkled with spices...

'Oops. I ended up using sardines.'

He wasn't going to make a sardine dish, but there were so many that he ended up using them.

However, the junior ate it deliciously. Yi-Han looked at his junior with a satisfied expression.

"Oh. Were you in the middle of a meal?"

Alcicle came out yawning.

Having struggled following the skull principal and Yi-Han for a while, Alcicle had recently been immersed in magic research again.

And strangely, magic research tended to go better at night.

Alcicle, who had stayed up all night and woken up during the day, said with a bright expression at the table that was different from usual.

"Wow, did you prepare this yourself? Can I eat a little too?"

"Of course."

Alcicle excitedly tried to scoop up some of the sardine dish...

Slap!

Sniff!

Eandurde swatted away Alcicle's flipper and growled.

"Wh-why?"

"Hey! You can't do that to Mr. Alcicle. Apologize."

"??"

At Yi-Han's words, the junior tilted her head as if she didn't understand.

In Eandurde's mind, the hierarchy of 'Yi-Han > herself > penguin mixed-blood' was already established.

"I'm sorry..."

"No. It's okay. You must like sardines. I've eaten a lot of sardines, so I'll have this meat dish..."

Slap!

Sniff!

Seeing the gorgon mixed-blood growl once again, Alcicle was dumbfounded.

He had heard from the skull principal that 'he picked up a quite roughly raised kid,' but he didn't know it would be to this extent.

"...I'll just prepare something separately for myself."

It wasn't fitting for the dignity of the Pengerin family to fight over food with a young mage who hadn't been properly trained yet.

Alcicle opened a can of sardines and held it in his beak.

Yi-Han unknowingly stared as if entranced.

It wasn't for nothing that other nobles gave donations just to see this. There was strong mana in the way Alcicle swallowed fish.

Eandurde was puzzled by the sight of Yi-Han staring intently at Alcicle's sardine absorption.

Then she opened a can of sardines herself and tried to swallow it whole.

"...Wait! You don't need to do that!"

"??"

"You can just eat normally."

'So I didn't eat normally?'

Alcicle grumbled inwardly.

As a penguin mixed-blood with thick blood, popularity was like fate, but the reactions of liking it every time he swallowed fish were sometimes annoying.

"Have you eaten?"

"I was about to eat now."

Yi-Han was just going to make a sandwich or something.

Then his junior looked at him and held out the plate in front of him.

"No... You eat. I'm fine."

"Winner eats? Why aren't you eating?"

"A true winner sometimes doesn't steal others' meals and takes care of them instead. Come on. Eat it all and let's study next."

Eandurde didn't fully understand but nodded and inhaled the rest of the meal.

Watching this, Alcicle said.

"It seems we need to teach table manners too."

Sniff!

The junior glared at Alcicle again and growled. Alcicle explained in bewilderment.

"No, table manners are necessary, you brat."

"Junior. You do need to learn table manners."

"Understood."

"..."

Alcicle was shocked by that gorgon mixed-blood kid's reaction.

He realized how that beast-like kid had established the hierarchy.

'That kid?!'

***

Yi-Han started intensive education with Alcicle's help.

"First, we'll need basic imperial moral common sense. Like, you can't just take what you need without permission."

"But in Einroguard, if you need something, you take it by force, right?"

"Mr. Alcicle, where did you hear such a groundless rumor?"

"Mr. Gonadaltes told me."

"...Besides that, simple customs of each region of the empire, basic arithmetic."

"Etiquette. Make sure to teach etiquette."

"Understood."

"Also etiquette to be observed at noble gatherings."

"To that extent?"

"It's all useful to learn."

Alcicle strongly advocated for an advanced etiquette learning course at the sight of the annoying gorgon mixed-blood kid.

In Alcicle's view, that kid was severely lacking in basic imperial morals.

She needed to learn advanced morals to deeply feel how great and dignified the empire's nobles were, and also to realize how rude her actions had been.

"Hmm. Alright."

Yi-Han was puzzled but agreed for now.

Since he himself had learned it in the Wardanaz family, it wouldn't be too difficult to teach.

"Oh. I think we should also teach her how to control her strength."

Eandurde's most powerful weapons were her evil eye imbued with the petrification curse and her hair that transformed into snakes.

An experienced and skilled warrior could control this themselves, but such expectations couldn't be placed on that junior.

"There's no need to worry about that. The principal will solve it with an artifact."

Alcicle said, flapping his flippers.

The skull principal had dealt with students with difficult backgrounds and origins more than once or twice.

Racial abilities of that level were beyond easy and could probably be solved while yawning.

"Uh, but I have a lot of mana and he didn't do anything for me."

"Wow, there are two sardines in this can!"

"..."

Yi-Han grumbled that he shouldn't have said anything and organized what to teach his junior.

'I'll have her read a few more texts before entering, and hmm. Just in case, should I have her learn some useful alchemy potion recipes? Edible grasses and herbs would be quite useful too. This kid probably doesn't have hunting experience, should I teach her hunting too...'

"Stay silent and still. Stay silent and still. Nod and smile. Nod and smile."

Eandurde recited etiquette while making "mm-hmm" sounds.

It seemed like this would be enough for where they were going now.

Don't attack first, but counterattack when attacked, behave politely usually, show respect when meeting the leader, don't eat gifts from school without thinking...

Yi-Han looked at what his junior had noted down and felt proud.

"It says to show respect to the principal when you meet him. You're very smart, aren't you?"

"What's a principal?"

"...Wait. Then who is this leader..."

Bang!

The door opened and the skull principal returned with a tired look.

"What troublesome bastards."

"Oh. Mr. Gonadaltes. You have blood on you."

"It's not my blood."

"..."

Alcicle regretted pointing it out.

"But you killed them all!"

"Pardon?"

"Ah. I meant it's all over. I meant I persuaded them all."

"..."

"..."

At that moment, a paper bird flew in through the window. The skull principal frowned deeply as he received the letter.

"What kind of letter is it?"

"A guy who said he'd enroll is suddenly being capricious. I thought it was all over, but how annoying..."

Alcicle asked curiously.

"That's unusual. There wouldn't be many people who say they'll enroll and then change their minds. Who is it?"

"It's your family."

"...!"

Alcicle thought of the relatives in his family who were of age to enter Einroguard.

"Ah. I think I know who it is. They probably think they can study on their own with their talent even without entering Einroguard..."

"Why are all the guys from your family so overconfident?"

"It's not just our family..."

"Enough. There's a special remedy for such a guy."

"Are you going to beat him?"

"No. Wardanaz. Grab your coat. Let's go."

"..."

Alcicle had to admit the skull principal's special remedy.

The effect would surely be terribly good!