Chapter 1154
Professor Kirmin had been teaching the White Tiger Tower students how to handle the aftermath in situations like this when he was called over and came running.
However, after hearing the explanation, Professor Kirmin’s reaction was slightly different from what Professor Garcia had wanted.
“Hmm. It might not be a bad idea to let Wardanaz handle it once...”
“What????”
When an answer different from what she had expected came out, Professor Garcia jumped.
“Professor! No matter how angry Student Lee Han may be, shouldn’t he have calmed down quite a lot by now? I think it is about time he started restraining himself!”
Professor Garcia desperately burned her gaze, trying to convey her intentions to the other person.
When the bones in the shoulder being gripped screamed, Professor Kirmin quickly whispered.
“Professor Kim. It hurts.”
“Ah. I’m sorry.”
Professor Kirmin slowly rubbed his shoulder and said,
“If what is spreading through the city of Marheim truly has the symptoms of a curse-based plague, approaching it with soul-devouring magic might not be a bad idea. Wardanaz has the strongest resistance here, after all.”
“That is... true, but... Student Lee Han is still only a second-year.”
“There are few second-years who do not stand out even when mingling with fourth-years.”
'I should not have brought this person.'
Professor Garcia cursed inwardly.
When they had accompanied each other before, Professor Kirmin had clearly agreed to take on the role of restraining Professor Voladi together with Professor Garcia, but the moment the professor disappeared, was Professor Kirmin not taking on Professor Voladi’s role instead?
She had sensed signs of it since the last commission, and this was the price she was paying for carelessly letting down her guard.
The Empire’s mages were divided into those who taught a friend’s disciple more leniently and those who taught them more strictly, and unfortunately, Professor Kirmin belonged to the latter.
“No matter how much we stop him, Wardanaz will steadily launch preemptive attacks against the order’s wicked people, so there is nothing good about only trying to stop him.”
“Professor!”
Lee Han shouted in a slightly moved voice.
“Professor!”
Professor Garcia shouted in exactly the same way, but her voice sounded slightly like a growl.
It was enough to make the Death Knights standing behind them flinch without realizing it.
“Please calm down, Professor Kim. There are several more reasons. I investigated the people captured by the White Tiger Tower students, and they said there were rumors of a suspicious priest in the city of Marheim.”
Lee Han’s eyes blazed like stars. Professor Garcia shouted again.
“Professor...!”
Was this not practically pouring oil onto a fire?
Before his shoulder bones were shattered, Professor Kirmin quickly finished what he wanted to say.
“Distributing potions to the people who need them would require that much time and preparation, and we cannot focus only on that right now, can we? Besides, if we did that, rumors would spread quickly as well.”
“Professor. Thank you. I will go and prepare immediately.”
“Wardanaz. Wait...”
When Lee Han tried to leave, Professor Kirmin attempted to stop him.
If the disciple disappeared now, Professor Kirmin would have to endure the furious Professor Garcia’s attacks alone.
However, the disciple, just as coldhearted as his teacher, happily left.
Professor Kirmin sighed.
“Professor.”
“Professor Kim. You must acknowledge it. Wardanaz is now a mage who deserves this degree of autonomy.”
“...That is true.”
Professor Garcia sighed.
Because her disciple’s growth was so fast, there were times when, as the person who had watched him from closest by, she could not adjust to it.
Perhaps Professor Kirmin, who had watched from a slight distance, was treating him appropriately and objectively.
“Thank you for understanding, Professor Kim.”
“Ah. From the next commission onward, do not come, Professor. Professor Bagreg is not here either, so there is no reason for you to come.”
“......”
At the sight of Professor Garcia’s old temper emerging, Professor Kirmin had no choice but to remain quietly silent.
He would simply have to persuade her again later, once her anger had subsided!
'Do your best, Wardanaz.'
What Professor Kirmin had just said to Professor Garcia was sincere.
Objectively, he believed that Wardanaz deserved this degree of autonomy.
And apart from that, he also wanted to see Wardanaz, one of his friend’s only... no, one of his friend’s two disciples, show clear growth.
Only then, when he met his friend again later, would he be able to scold him by saying, ‘Why do you act rashly when you do not even understand your disciple’s abilities?’
“No. Would you rather go back starting with this commission?”
“...I will apologize, so please calm down, Professor Kim.”
***
“So, Wardanaz, you will visit the places where the sick people are and treat them, while we check whether there are any suspicious people nearby. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“That is not difficult.”
The White Tiger Tower students listened to the instructions and readily nodded.
A scheme this simple and easy was something even first-years could manage at Einroguard.
“Hide your weapons and act as unthreatening as possible.”
“Because the sick people might become frightened?”
“No. Because I want to increase the probability of the suspicious people attacking us even slightly.”
“Uh...”
Shuddering at the persistence they had never expected, the White Tiger Tower students each moved to their positions.
So that was why he had made the professors and knights wait far behind them...!
Giselle tilted her head.
“But Wardanaz.”
“What is it?”
“I am not an expert in healing magic, but as far as I know, it is rare to work alone.”
It was rare for mages of the healing school to work alone.
Since healing magic rapidly consumed concentration and mana, it was advantageous for several people to divide the burden.
However, Wardanaz had now stepped forward alone while saying that he would cure a curse-based plague.
She had wondered whether he had prepared an antidote in advance through alchemy, but there were no signs of that either...
What was it?
“Heh. There is a secret magic.”
Lee Han spoke with a strangely proud expression.
Rather than becoming angry at the attitude of boasting about his friend’s magic, something that was rarely seen from him, Giselle was slightly bewildered.
'What is wrong with this bastard?'
“. In fact, you have seen it before as well. It is the magic I used to cure the enemy’s poisoning when we fought the Frost Giants last time.”
If its history and lineage were traced, this magic went all the way back to ancient times, and it was an exceedingly strange magic that transferred the target’s pain, curse, decay, and such things onto the caster.
When he had first learned it, Lee Han had thought, 'What kind of magic is this supposed to be?' But now he was quite proud of this magic.
“...What!? That was how you cured the Frost Giant?!”
She had been certain that he had analyzed the poison and created an antidote spell, but to think that he had cured it with such an ignorant method.
Giselle was speechless. She could not decide whether she should be impressed or dumbfounded.
“I knew you would be impressed. It is amazing, right?”
“N-No. It is... amazing, but why in the world would you use this kind of magic? No. More importantly, you intend to cure everyone with this magic?”
“Yes.”
“...?”
Giselle became puzzled again.
It was not that she could not understand Wardanaz’s words.
There was a powerful magic capable of absorbing the plague, and he intended to absorb it and overcome it with his own resistance.
The problem was that the sick people in the city were not necessarily ill only because of the plague.
There would be more varied symptoms than expected, and among them, were there not some things that could not be ignored through resistance alone?
'Well... Wardanaz is not an idiot. He must have thought everything through.'
Giselle stopped questioning him and decided to trust her friend.
Especially when it came to schemes like this, he rarely made mistakes.
Knock, knock.
“Is anyone there?”
“What... A-A mage?”
The door of a cramped row house located inside the alley opened, and an elf with a deeply sickly complexion stuck out their head.
The elf was startled by Lee Han’s visit, as he was dressed in clothing that made him look like a mage to anyone who saw him.
Ordinarily, mages rarely visited poor districts. When a mage suddenly appeared, the strongest thought that came to mind was whether he had come to extort money from them.
'It really is a curse-based plague.'
Lee Han opened even his soul sight and clearly confirmed the other person’s symptoms.
He did not know what bastard in the city had spread it or how, but judging from the energy slowly rising from them, it was definitely a curse.
“Have you recently felt tired for no reason, as though no strength returns to your body even after eating until you are full and sleeping, and as though you become exhausted for no reason?”
“H-How did you know that?”
“Here. Take my hand.”
Lee Han did not speak at unnecessary length or chatter this way and that, provoking the other person.
This situation was different from extracting information from suspicious criminals. Even if he questioned them, he first needed to calm the plague and then ask questions.
Flash!
The elf was startled by the energy that suddenly returned.
To think that their body could recover like this simply by taking his hand and hearing him mutter something briefly.
“Y-You were a healing mage!”
“That is correct. Are there any more sick people nearby? If there are, please tell me.”
“Please wait! I will bring them out immediately!”
Lee Han stood in front of the alley and immediately began absorbing the plague from the people who came out.
'Strange. The energy of this plague somehow feels familiar.'
Because it felt strangely familiar, Lee Han placed the responsibility on Professor Mortum.
Just how many curses had the dark magic school managed for a curse he had never seen before to feel familiar?
“That is enough. You may go.”
“O-Ohhh...!”
“Did you come from a particular order?”
“What? Frisinga... Afha... Flameng...”
“Wardanaz. I do not think they were asking which orders you have joined.”
Giselle whispered from behind him. Lee Han realized it belatedly as well.
'They were asking where I came from.'
The patients were bewildered, but they did not ask anything more.
They did not want to unnecessarily provoke this holy saint.
“Next. Come forward. ...Cough!”
Lee Han staggered.
He had absorbed it without thinking, but the other person had minor internal bleeding. Lee Han immediately cast healing magic and muttered.
“I see. There can be other symptoms as well.”
“......”
Giselle regretted not simply saying it earlier.
She had assumed he had naturally thought everything through...
'Isn’t Wardanaz rushing too much, unlike himself?'
Normally, he was far removed from making this sort of mistake.
And yet he was acting like this. Perhaps the fight against evil-god worshipers was making Wardanaz impatient.
...Then again, if he were not impatient, he would not be trying to capture every criminal in the city.
“A-Are you all right?”
“Yes. I healed it immediately. Next.”
Although there were several exceptions, Lee Han chose to break straight through instead of stopping.
Had he not learned healing magic precisely to use it at times like this?
At that ignorant method, Giselle’s expression gradually stiffened.
Perhaps she needed to strike him from behind and knock him unconscious even now.
While she agonized because of her friendship with him, people began gathering like clouds.
Rumors of a mage who cured the plague in an instant had caused even people from the opposite side of the city to come searching for him.
And when this many people gathered, naturally, someone eventually thought of Einroguard and asked about it.
“Did you perhaps come from Einroguard?”
'Damn it.'
At present, the students, including Lee Han, were wearing ordinary mage clothing instead of their rag-like Einroguard uniforms.
Even so, it seemed there were people who thought of Einroguard because of their outstanding magical skill and their actions without asking for payment.
Lee Han considered it briefly.
Should he admit it or deny it?
The group had been thoroughly disguised even before entering the city of Marheim.
The knights were disguised as porters, and the mages as merchants.
The moment they drove a carriage bearing Einroguard’s flag, criminals would come running from the far end of the Imperial road saying that they wanted to surrender, so it was only natural.
As such, he could deny it if he wished...
...But the number of people suffering from the plague was greater than he had expected.
Would it not be better to simply admit that he had come from Einroguard?
Then even the people who had not yet come out could trust that name and emerge.
“No. These days, [N O V E L I G H T] Einroguard mages go around slaughtering bandits.”
“That is right. I heard it too. Apparently, they travel through the west, hunting down and killing people with bounties on their heads. They purge them so viciously that the people who were there are fleeing elsewhere.”
“......”
Lee Han silently endured the gazes his friends sent him and quietly focused on healing.