“To hell???”

“What? No!”

Lee Han was greatly flustered by his junior’s question.

Why had hell suddenly come up?

“What do you mean, hell?”

“You said you left him behind, Senior...”

Alhild displayed logic befitting the top student of the tower.

Senior Wardanaz was an amazing person.His relative, Alshicle, was also quite an amazing person.But Senior Wardanaz was shocked enough to say he had left him behind.Then it had to be somewhere like a hell dimension!‘Is this kid really the top student?’

Lee Han found himself slightly questioning the abilities of his fellow tower juniors.

“If it wasn’t a hell dimension, then was it a dimension of frost spirits or Frost Giants?”

“No... I meant I left him at Valdrogard. Another magic school.” 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

“...Is that really something to be so shocked about?”

Alhild tilted the head.

It was not as if Alshicle were a five-year-old child, and this was not a hell dimension but simply another magic school. Was there really any need to be that surprised?

“Well, that’s true. But... it feels wrong.”

“It’s fine. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

Alhild trusted the mage from the same family.

Surely, like Alhild, he would not cling to petty emotions or grudges on the grand path of magic!

***

“Voladi Bagreg!!!”

Alshicle, having realized the truth, roared.

Several Valdrogard students were deeply moved by that adorable roar. They almost wanted to ask Alshicle to stay as a model for a while.

“He really left?!”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Dalseur, a Valdrogard professor—or rather, a mage acting as a professor—apologized.

Actually, it was not Dalseur’s fault that the Einroguard students had all left in a rush...

...but that did not matter, given how upset Alshicle looked.

“No. Ugh. It’s not your fault.”

Alshicle fumed with anger.

Honestly, Alshicle could understand the other Einroguard students.

Lee Han and Professor Garcia would have been preoccupied dealing with the Skull Principal’s former disciple, so they might have forgotten.

But Professor Voladi was a different story.

Given Professor Voladi’s nature as a battle mage, there was no way such a minor change would have gone unnoticed.

Professor Voladi had definitely known and simply not said anything!

‘That petty, despicable...’

Alshicle felt truly wronged.

Was taking that disciple on a dangerous dimensional monster hunt such a grave sin?

...Come to think of it, it did seem like a grave sin.

Alshicle let out a deep sigh.

“Sigh. Getting angry will only hurt me. I’ll be going now.”

“You’re leaving already?”

The Valdrogard students who had grown close to Alshicle were very disappointed.

Even aside from being a model, this mage from House Pengerine was a senior mage of outstanding ability.

Especially when it came to knowledge of frost and ice-related magic, few within Valdrogard could compare.

“I have to go. It was fun, everyone.”

“B-by any chance...”

“What? If you have questions about magic, ask quickly.”

“Could you pluck just one feather for us?”

“...If you don’t step back five paces, I’ll freeze all of you.”

***

“Hmm. Alshicle really is quite generous, isn’t he?”

Though not to Alhild’s extent, Lee Han also soon recovered from the shock.

It was not the Skull Principal, and he did not think Alshicle would get that angry just because he had been left at Valdrogard.

“You seem to be right. Oh, right. Where is Eandurde?”

Lee Han’s search for his junior was not only because of the vacation.

There was also the matter concerning Jowurin.

-Oh! Do you happen to know any methods for tying up a mage? Actually, my sister asked me!

Jowurin’s younger brother, Wuman, had once asked Lee Han about methods for tying up a mage securely.

At the time, Lee Han had thought it was about the Skull Principal, but as time passed, that seemed less certain.

‘Come to think of it, that could have been aimed at Eandurde.’

Capturing the Skull Principal by force would be rather unlikely, even for Jowurin.

But Eandurde made sense.

He was Jowurin’s friend, and also someone worth tying up...

If that was the case, Lee Han needed to find him first and warn him. If Eandurde went in carelessly, he might end up staying in Jowurin’s cave for the entire vacation.

“You mean Eandurde? Eandurde got off the carriage as soon as we arrived in the capital.”

“Ah. That makes sense.”

Since Eandurde had been brought along through threats, there was no way he would leisurely follow Alhild around the auction house.

“Eandurde did ask a few things before that, though. It seemed like he was looking for a gift for a friend.”

“As expected! Alhild, I knew you were clever from the moment I first saw you.”

Alhild felt embarrassed by the senior’s praise.

Since Eandurde had received an invitation from a friend, it seemed he intended to prepare a gift before visiting.

And since he needed Imperial gold coins to buy a gift, he had said he would go to the underground fighting pit...

“Eandurde!!!”

Lee Han shouted the absent junior’s name out loud for the first time. Alhild looked puzzled.

“But Eandurde isn’t here.”

“Forget it. Anyway, he said he’d go to the underground fighting pit? I need to go see Professor Voladi.”

As a senior from the same school, Lee Han had to go find his junior together with the school professor. He ran toward where the two professors were waiting.

“Alhild. You come too. While we’re at it, take some gifts.”

Since Alhild was a junior from the same tower, Lee Han wanted to pick out some useful items from his bundle of gifts.

“But I have something I need to buy.”

“What is it?”

“It’s called Vagni’s Red Diamond, and I want to learn the magic contained within...”

“...Some nouveau riche bought that earlier. Let’s go! Follow me!”

***

After spilling out his bundle of gifts, Lee Han explained the situation to Professor Voladi.

Professor Voladi was not particularly surprised by the mountain of gifts piled up and gave an immediate answer.

“Follow me.”

“What about Professor Garcia?”

When Lee Han asked whether Professor Garcia would be coming along, Professor Voladi shook the head.

“It would be more dangerous.”

For a mage who had not received combat magic training, the narrow, winding back alleys of the capital’s slums, perfect for ambushes, were not a good place to be.

Enemies could suddenly leap out from behind walls that seemed blocked off.

“Certainly, Professor Garcia could get hurt...”

“The surroundings could be destroyed.”

‘Ah. It was the opposite.’

Lee Han realized he had understood it backward. He had judged correctly up to the part about being ambushed by enemies, but what came after was different.

A mage of Professor Garcia’s level could still cast magic even after being ambushed. The problem was controlling the power of that magic.

Unless they planned to blow away the entire slum district on the capital’s outskirts, leaving Professor Garcia behind was the right choice.

“...Huh? Then what about me...”

“?”

“It’s nothing.”

Lee Han had been about to say, ‘Then am I not in danger?’ but simply gave up.

In Professor Voladi’s mind, the school’s top student mage would be skilled enough to follow along!

‘And considering the level of this place when I came here last year, it might be manageable.’

Lee Han chanted spells to cast enhancement magic, stored the remaining magic, then took the necessary reagents from his reagent pouch and moved them separately.

It was preparation work so he could pour out five or six spells simultaneously if combat broke out.

Last year, Lee Han had come to these slums on the outskirts of the capital with the Skull Principal to scout Eandurde for Einroguard.

In those gloomy alleys, where someone could die without anyone knowing, mercenaries with daggers and clubs had jumped out after only a few steps.

‘I’m sure back then there were people who recognized the Principal’s face and backed down, but this time...?’

As he stepped onto the filthy roads of the slum district, Lee Han looked at Professor Voladi’s back and wondered.

Would the mercenaries and criminal guild members here recognize Professor Voladi’s face the way they had recognized the Skull Principal’s?

-A customer has come.

-You fool! Do you know who that is?!

Someone tried to jump out from an alley between buildings with half-dried plaster, but another person dragged the attacker back in.

Lee Han nodded.

‘They recognize Professor Voladi.’

-That’s the guy who came with the Imperial Mage Marshal last year! Are you trying to get us all killed?!

“...”

Lee Han was shocked.

They recognized him, not Professor Voladi?

“That’s impossible!”

“?”

Professor Voladi, who had been walking ahead, looked at Lee Han with a puzzled expression.

“...It’s nothing. But do the people here recognize you, Professor?”

“I’m not sure.”

This slum district had a fast turnover of people. Though they called themselves guilds, unlike official guilds with proper imperial licenses, most were gatherings of escaped mercenaries and criminals.

As such, it would not be strange if there was no one who recognized Professor Voladi.

‘Indeed. I was just unlucky.’

Lee Han let out a sigh of relief.

The person who had recognized him earlier had probably done so because not even a year had passed since then...

-Aaaahhh! It’s the crazy hunter!!!

-The butcher’s here! The butcher has appeared! You idiots! Move!

-All the ones with bounties, get out!

Shouts echoed from various parts of the alley, followed by the thunderous sound of running feet.

A rickety wooden building on the left side of the road suddenly collapsed completely.

It had been a secret tavern where criminals with bounties gathered, but after hearing the rumors, all of them had tried to escape through the back door at once, causing the old building to collapse.

Lee Han used telekinesis to block the debris and keep the exit open. The criminal mercenaries who rushed out desperately expressed their gratitude.

“Th-thank...”

Thud!

Before they could finish their thanks, they collapsed. Professor Voladi had acted.

Professor Voladi took out a piece of paper, wrote that the bounty should be sent to Einroguard, and tossed it onto the fallen men.

The paper split in two, and one piece transformed into a paper bird that flew toward the capital guards.

“Good luring.”

The professor praised the disciple. Lee Han felt slightly wronged.

He had not intended to lure them!

Thinking about how the captured mercenaries would say, ‘Kugh, that mage really was in cahoots with Professor Bagreg,’ he felt even more wronged.

‘I really was trying to save them...’

While grumbling internally, Lee Han spotted people hiding behind round wooden barrels used to store fish in the fishy-smelling alley beside them, watching this way.

-Isn’t that the mage who came with the Imperial Mage Marshal last time?

-That’s right! And this time he even came with the hunter!

“...”

“This way.”

While Lee Han worried about how far the rumors would spread, Professor Voladi found the entrance to the underground fighting pit.

Every city in the Empire had such shadowy places, and entering them required meeting specific conditions.

Knowing the entrance, getting an introduction from a guild, and so on.

The entrance to the underground fighting pit Professor Voladi was trying to enter looked like a shabby leather merchant’s shop from the outside.

But once inside, a passage to the underground fighting pit, hidden by magic, would appear.

“Ahhh!”

When Professor Voladi entered, the merchant who had been tanning the hide of some unidentifiable monster screamed.

“Why!! Why did you come!! Why did you come again!!”

“For the passage.”

“What? Passage? Ah, the arena? ...You crazy mage! After you came last time and caused that mess, do you think it would still be running?! It went under ages ago!”

The leather merchant wondered what the professor was talking about, then belatedly realized and burst out in angry rebuke.

Professor Voladi turned to Lee Han and said,

“Let’s go to the next arena.”