Chapter 1150
“......”
“......”
The guild members who arrived at the site fell silent.
As though they had all made a promise, every one of them closed their mouths.
A moment later, one guild member who was the first to regain the senses muttered.
“Giants...”
“...Sirens too...”
The guild members, who had wondered what on earth the letters meant when they received them, realized that Lee Han had not omitted a single detail from the letters.
There really were giants and sirens at the site!
Lee Han, who had been playing diligently between them, paused when he saw the guild members.
“Oh. What brings you here?”
-Boo! The playing stopped! We are losing strength!
-We will sing instead!
At the giants’ shouts, the sirens desperately waved their fins. As water splashed all the way up in front of his face, Lee Han quickly dodged and said.
“I will continue playing, so neither side needs to worry! I am sorry, but please wait for a moment. I will come over after finishing this work.”
“P-Please, take your time. We will look around.”
Lee Han was working so diligently that the guild members felt sorry to interrupt him.
Instead of speaking to Lee Han, the members of the stonemason guild decided to inspect the completed portions of the lighthouse themselves.
“Greetings.”
“...Hey! Enchantment magic school! The people who commissioned the work are here!”
As they approached the lighthouse, the Einroguard students shouted in surprise.
Sigunting, who had been doing plasterwork inside, hurriedly called for the senior.
“Senior. It seems the members of the stonemason guild have arrived. What should we do? Should we put up a smoke screen first?”
“Sigunting. This is not a commission being handled by Professor Verdus. There is absolutely no need to hide anything.”
Einroguard students generally had a habit of concealing or hiding things first whenever a client came to visit.
It was not necessarily because they had done something wrong, but because there was nothing to lose by covering things up first.
Especially when they had done something wrong, that habit became even more useful.
Commissions handled by the enchantment magic school, and especially by Professor Verdus, usually ignored the client’s demands and ran wild according to the professor’s whims, so it was only natural that Sigunting tried to put up a smoke screen first.
“R-Really?”
“Yes. If anything, we are ahead of schedule, not behind.”
“What if the durability is insufficient, or there is a section we accidentally missed?”
“I checked everything by comparing it at dawn. There was nothing.”
At Anpagon’s firm answer, Sigunting let out a sigh of relief.
This senior, who also belonged to the Stonemason Club, was thorough in matters like this and could be trusted.
“Wait, then did you check it at dawn without sleeping?”
“No. Wardanaz did. He went out at dawn, checked it, and came back.”
“......”
'Does this guy never collapse?'
Sigunting wondered inwardly.
Of course, taking courses from every school itself meant that Lee Han was far more physically resilient than an ordinary mage, but even taking that into account, this guy really...
“Is no one there?”
“We are coming down now!”
While they had been talking, the members of the capital’s stonemason guild had already arrived in front of the lighthouse.
Sigunting hurriedly climbed down the rope. One friend from another school was gesturing, ‘Should I bring a fainting or hallucination potion?’
Sigunting replied that ‘it was still fine.’
“What brings you here? The work is progressing well. There is still time remaining...”
No one liked a client who visited frequently. Sigunting was subtly pointing that out.
It was not as though the guild members did not know that...
“We heard giants and sirens were participating in the work, so we came because we wanted to see.”
“...Ah!”
Sigunting had no choice but to understand.
Honestly, even Sigunting would probably have forced a visit for that reason.
'If that is the reason, it cannot be helped.'
“Junior Wardanaz is originally somewhat sociable. That is unusual for our school. Wardanaz is acquainted with beings such as giants, sirens, Professor Verdus, Senior Yukbeltire, and dragons.”
'Is that something one can accomplish by merely being somewhat sociable?'
'More importantly, I think there was a strange example among those.'
The members of the stonemason guild looked at one another in bewilderment. There were more than one or two things worth pointing out.
“I-I see... In any case, that is very remarkable.”
“Since you are here, would you inspect it?”
Sigunting asked while pointing at the lighthouse structure behind them.
Having received a firm assurance from Anpagon, Sigunting’s attitude overflowed with confidence.
The members of the stonemason guild seemed to sense that confidence as well. They grinned.
“It seems the work is proceeding very well.”
“Hehe. It is.”
“Only a confident mage can invite us to inspect it first like this. That bastard Professor Verdus...”
“Let us stop that story.”
The other colleagues stopped the guild member.
There was no need to bring up incidents from the past when the atmosphere was good.
“Yes. You are right. Let us take a look... It seems magic has already been cast on the outer wall near the entrance. It does not move even when pushed.”
The members of the stonemason guild admired the Einroguard students’ rapid work speed.
The outer wall near the lighthouse entrance required many spells and just as many reagents, making it a section that was difficult to finish early.
And yet the work was already complete.
“?”
Sigunting paused.
Huh?
“...What is this? Did anyone work here?”
“We agreed to do it all at once at the end.”
Sigunting caught a passing friend and asked, but only received the answer that Sigunting was talking nonsense.
Flustered, Sigunting called the senior and asked again.
“Senior Anpagon! Did you work here?”
“Can you not see that I am working on the ceiling right now? When and how would I have done that?”
“...Did you perhaps secretly come out at dawn and do it like Wardanaz?”
Sigunting regretted the question immediately after asking it.
Anpagon was not an idiot. Why would the senior do something like that?
Apparently Anpagon thought the same, because a sharp reply immediately came down from above.
“Am I Wardanaz?”
“That is true... I am sorry. Then could Wardanaz have done it at dawn?”
“No. That is not possible when considering the other work Wardanaz did at dawn.”
The members of the capital’s stonemason guild, who were listening to the conversation, became slightly confused.
Why did no one find it strange that Student Wardanaz secretly came out at dawn and worked?
Sigunting caught the other seniors and asked them. However, not a single person said they had done the work.
“Puh. The work is done, but no one did it?”
Eventually, the question even reached Palcrius and Jarun, who were working in the basement.
Palcrius immediately asked in return.
“Did Wardanaz not do it at dawn?”
“Apparently not.”
“That is a shame. I thought it would be Wardanaz!”
“......”
The expressions in the stonemason guild members’ eyes became increasingly bewildered, but the students did not notice.
“Puh. Could it perhaps have been Senior Yukbeltire?”
“Pardon?”
At Palcrius’s words, not only Sigunting but even Jarun looked bewildered.
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
“Wahahaha! It was a joke! There is absolutely no chance of that!”
Sigunting burst into laughter at Palcrius’s joke. Even the corners of Jarun’s mouth rose slightly.
Of course, the members of the stonemason guild could not laugh at all.
'What on earth are they talking about?'
Jarun, who had been quietly standing alone, spoke.
“Could it be some kind of primitive magical phenomenon?”
“Primitive magic?”
Magic cast through methods other than the current Imperial system of magic.
Beginning with ancient magic, various forms of magic fell into this category. These forms of magic each had different characteristics, but most shared the common trait of being difficult to measure or theorize.
“Giants have been walking around here, sirens have been walking around here, a dragon has been walking around here, and also...”
“Hmm. This was originally a place occupied by an insane forest as well.”
Jarun nodded at Palcrius’s words.
When several rare races gathered and collided like this, it would not be strange for a primitive magical phenomenon whose nature they had not yet identified to occur.
“Junior Wardanaz also subdued the giants with musical magic.”
There were quite a few possible causes of the primitive magical phenomenon.
Giants, sirens, an angry Professor Verdus, Senior Yukbeltire being forced to work, a dragon, the junior’s performance...
Jarun nodded and then said.
“There is only one method to confirm this. Palcrius.”
“Puh. I was thinking the same thing. We destroy the outer wall near the entrance and repeat exactly what happened.”
“Yes. Then we will be able to determine what caused it.”
“...Student Wardanaz! Student Wardanaz! It would be best if you came over here for a moment!”
The members of the stonemason guild were deeply grateful that they had visited today.
Otherwise, these lunatic Einroguard students would have interfered with the work for the sake of a pointless experiment!
***
The remaining work was completed before the weekend ended.
With every obstacle gone and different races joining forces to help, the speed increased even further.
After erecting a flawless structure at a speed worthy of being recorded in Einroguard’s history, Lee Han expressed gratitude to the seniors.
“Thank you, everyone.”
“We enjoyed it as well. Wardanaz. If there is another commission that can be completed this quickly, I will absolutely never accept it again.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah. My true feelings slipped out. Sorry. It was too exhausting.”
“......”
Several seniors expressed dissatisfaction with the harsh schedule, but surprisingly many of the seniors did not care.
If one considered every aspect of quality of life at Einroguard, there would be nothing one could do.
They had to be grateful for a commission that paid generously and could be completed by compressing the schedule.
“That fellow is a third-year, yet less mature than a second-year.”
“Leave it alone. Puh. The realization will come in the fourth year.”
-We enjoyed it too!
The giants shouted brightly.
They had come, eaten until they were full, and sung to their hearts’ content, so from the giants’ perspective there was nothing to dislike.
When even the giants shared their impressions, everyone present turned their gazes toward the riverbank.
Only the sirens remained.
-......
Parthenope truly did not want to write it, but wrote on the stone tablet that they had enjoyed it as well.
Several of the sirens behind Parthenope could not overcome their frustration and sniffled.
“The sirens are crying?”
“They must be crying because they are sad to part! I have never seen sirens act like that. Just how close are they...”
At the seniors’ whispered conversation, the sirens clenched their teeth.
They had to leave this place quickly so they would no longer have to hear the mages’ wicked chirping.
Seeing the sirens sniffling back tears, Lee Han felt sorry and said.
“If there is another commission like this next time, I will definitely call you...”
Splash!
The sirens quickly disappeared. The seniors gave Lee Han advice.
“Judging by how reluctant they were to leave, it would be best to invite them next time. Wardanaz.”
“Right. Sirens are naturally an eccentric and foul-tempered race. There is no telling what they will do if they build up a grudge.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
Sirens certainly were a race just as difficult as giants.
Even if they were acquainted now, if Lee Han acted carelessly while trusting only that, their relationship might grow distant later.
The seniors who had finished the work cheerfully exchanged farewells and returned to the main building by their respective methods. One senior returned through the river, while another transformed into an enormous bird and flew away.
And Jarun dug through the ground while searching for soft terrain. If Jarun wanted to break through at once and descend underground, it was better if there was no solid bedrock.
“Senior.”
“!”
Jarun leaped at the chilling voice of the junior.
Lee Han had already been an extremely dangerous fellow, and after Jarun suffered the attack of the flock of paper birds, the senior’s wariness had tripled.
“W-What is it! What do you want?”
“Ah, no. I only wanted to thank you for coming this time. Please accept this.”
Lee Han spoke sincerely.
Jarun, an outstanding transformation mage and member of the Stonemason Club, had contributed greatly to the work.
And this senior’s greatest advantage was having no friends.
Since Jarun did not waste time chatting like the other seniors, the amount of work completed was nearly double.
Without lowering his guard, Jarun accepted the junior’s gift. When Jarun opened the wrapping, a long dimensional astrolabe unexpectedly appeared inside.
Jarun did not know who had made it, but it was an exceptionally fine artifact. Even Jarun was impressed.
“Your research is , Senior. I brought this because I thought it would be helpful.”
“...Where did you get this? Something like this would hardly ever be sold.”
“I did take it out of Professor Verdus’s warehouse, but that is not particularly important.”
Jarun, who had been surprised, nodded.
Indeed, that was not particularly important.