Episode 11. A Special Lesson Proposal
“A special lesson?”
Binaeril asked back, puzzled.
It was entirely different from what he had been worried about—getting scolded.
Dean Yulio was making an unexpected proposal.
“What kind of lesson is it?”
“It’s a class I run separately for special students. What do you say? Would you like to be taught by me?”
Binaeril hesitated to answer readily.
It was not for any other reason. It was just… because the conditions were too good.
The dean of Elfenbein was not a position to be taken lightly. A mage who had reached the 5th Tier was a being of whom only a handful existed, even if one searched the entire world.
If he could receive Yulio’s instruction, perhaps the problem Binaeril was facing could be solved.
However, Binaeril was the type to doubt groundless favor. Why would he make such a proposal to him?
“Should I pay you or something?”
At the utterly unexpected reaction, Dean Yulio blinked for a moment.
“Hehehe, hehehehe!”
He held his belly and laughed, then wiped away the few tears that had trickled out shortly after.
“There is no need for that. Do you think I do this to earn petty change?”
A mage of this level would never be obsessed with mere money. The dean saw the boy’s expression, still unable to cast aside his suspicion toward the monocle.
‘It seems he hasn’t had a single place to comfortably lean on.’
He recalled the records of Binaeril he had checked in the documents.
For three years in the junior classes, he had been treated as an outcast. The professor in charge of guiding him was as good as useless, and he had heard that Binaeril lived as a loner without a single friend by his side.
The dean understood his predicament.
“I truly do not need it. Rather, it is the opposite. If you are prepared to learn properly, I will waive all your tuition fees from now on.”
The conditions gradually grew bizarre.
No, they had become unprecedented, but to Binaeril, they seemed to be growing increasingly strange.
No matter how much he thought about it, he could not find a reason why Dean Yulio would show him such favor.
“Then what should I do? If I accept your… condition?”
“A condition? I place no conditions. I simply wish to nurture a talented mage. Ah, but if we are talking about wishes, there is one thing I would like.”
Binaeril grew tense. What could someone offering such preferential treatment possibly want?
“I wish you would get along well with the friends in the same class.”
“You are not the only one I teach. If you accept, there will be three of you in total.”
Unless his classmates were the worst freaks in history, it could not possibly get worse than Binaeril’s current relationships with his peers.
If they were terrible people, the dean would not be teaching them in the first place. This was not a difficult condition.
“Who are the other students taking it with me?”
The dean blinked briefly. He seemed reluctant to reveal their identities.
“They are both female students. Their names are Rike and Silvia. I am teaching them because of special circumstances.”
Binaeril was surprised to hear a familiar name.
To his recollection, Rike was not such an outstanding student.
Though she showed decent skill in other magic classes, that was all.
Binaeril tried to guess what the “special circumstances” the dean mentioned were.
*—She is a princess of the Empire.*
Veritas, who had been silent, abruptly tossed out the unexpected truth.
Empire? There was only one place on this land called the Empire. The Albrecht Grand Empire.
She was a princess of that place?
“Rike is an Imperial Princess?”
The dean was the one more surprised by the thoughtless words Binaeril blurted out reflexively.
He started in surprise and marveled at Binaeril’s extraordinary deductive ability.
“How did you know? It is Her Highness, the Second Princess Friederike.”
“Really?”
Binaeril’s surprise was not solely due to her status as a princess.
It was also because the Albrecht Empire was the only nation that oppressed magic and mages.
Dean Yulio quickly added an explanation as if defending her.
“The Empire’s situation has changed greatly of late. Of course, the high-ranking nobles still believe the Magic Tower usurped the Empire’s power… but at least the current First and Second Princesses do not think so.”
The reason the Albrecht Empire hated the Magic Tower was nothing special.
After the appearance of monsters, the Magic Tower and mages had rapidly expanded their power into the weakened Empire’s place.
Thus, the Old Empire remained the place where diplomacy with Elfenbein was the most awkward.
The frontier nobles of the Empire had tried to enroll their children to forge ties with the Magic Tower, but the central nobles still rejected magic.
And yet a princess of Albrecht was here?
“A princess of the Old Empire? No way, that timid girl? How? Then why don’t the other students know?”
“Watch your tongue. What slander is that against Her Highness?”
“…Of course, she does have a rather quiet and docile personality.”
“She could barely even speak.”
“I wasn’t even sure she existed.”
“Ah, is that exactly why she has been attending without being found out?”
“But shouldn’t that friend not be here? The Emperor won’t let this slide.”
“The current king of Albrecht is not governing due to illness. The First Princess—that is, the Lady who is Friederike’s older sister—is acting as regent.”
“Then won’t she get scolded by her sister?”
“No, on the contrary, it was she who sent the Second Princess here.”
Dean Yulio recalled events from a few years ago.
Princess Friederike and her older sister, Princess Charlotte, had been in quite a precarious position in their homeland.
The previous king had only them as his children. There was no son to inherit the throne.
The kingdom’s nobles opposed the throne passing to daughters, and Charlotte Albrecht fought against those nobles.
It was fortunate that the two sisters’ personalities were complete opposites. Unlike Friederike, who was timid… no, quiet in nature, Charlotte was a strong woman, like a valiant female warrior.
She eventually seized the seat of regent. She declared unequivocally that while the former king lived, they would no longer bring up the issue of succession.
But that did not mean their safety was guaranteed. Even if Charlotte, who held the regency, was one matter, the younger sister was the problem.
So Charlotte devised a plan to evacuate her younger sister to the safest place from the kingdom’s grasp: Elfenbein.
Leaving behind a lengthy letter for Dean Yulio, who had ties to Charlotte from her childhood.
“Enough of that story. Student Binaeril Dalheim.”
Dean Yulio called Binaeril’s name and paused briefly before continuing.
As the sun set, yellow twilight poured through the laboratory window.
In the golden backlight, the old mage began speaking again.
“If you dislike it, you may forget everything said so far and leave the laboratory. I will not blame you for your decision. Now, what will you do?”
Binaeril swallowed. He felt his own body trembling faintly.
“I……”
“Did you call for me?”
Gaspelt Louis appeared, opening the laboratory door while making it blatantly obvious that he was annoyed.
Professor Freud Yeong was slumped in his chair, resting his chin on his fist, and received him without answering.
“Are the preparations for the subjugation practice going well?”
“Yes, well…… what is there to prepare? Just spending time training diligently as usual, doing what you ordered, Professor.”
“Is that all?”
“Is that all the preparation?”
*Why is he throwing a fit again?*
Gaspelt could not understand what exactly was unsatisfactory when he was training well as ordered.
He threw a fit whether Gaspelt did this or that. If he were not a professor, Gaspelt would have talked back, but of all people, that bastard had to be the one to end up as his advisor…
He had plenty of complaints but tried not to show them.
But in Professor Freud’s eyes, it already looked like Gaspelt’s lips were sticking out a mile.
*A brat who cannot even manage his expression.*
It was a relationship where resentment only piled up the more they conversed. Freud felt the need to skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point.
“Take this.”
“What is this?”
What he handed over was a small bottle. Inside the transparent bottle was something in a capsule form that looked like a pill.
“This is something I have prepared for you to take first place in this subjugation practice.”
“If I eat this, will I get strength like a troll or something?”
“Something like that.”
Though tossed out like a joke, Professor Freud answered seriously. He was in no mood to trade quips with the brat before his eyes.
“It is an elixir made by processing a demon stone. If you eat it, your mana will gush forth temporarily. No matter how lacking your skill, if mana surges like a river, you can take first place, can you not?”
He had subtly disparaged Gaspelt’s skills, but Gaspelt failed to notice.
The dull disciple merely looked at the contents of the bottle with an admiring expression.
Demon stones, which could be extracted from the corpses of monsters, were minerals usable in many ways.
And the greatest characteristic of these demon stones was that they contained mana proportional to the strength of the monster from which they were taken.
A high-purity demon stone obtained by hunting dangerous monsters was a gem of such value that the same volume of gold could be treated like a rock.
“I obtained this processed from a Grade 3 demon stone, especially for you. There is no way you would lose after eating this.”
Demon stones were classified into grades according to the purity and size of their mana. The lowest grade demon stone, rarely obtained while hunting small monsters, was Grade 1, and the higher the grade, the greater the purity of the mana it contained.
And of course, using such processed demon stone products was forbidden in Elfenbein’s classes or exams.
Not only were they difficult to obtain, but relying too heavily on demon stones could lead to mental contamination.
Gaspelt, of course, knew of these warnings but did not care. He was easily swayed by the thought of becoming stronger.
“To think such a thing existed while I trained like an idiot all this time! Haha, Professor! Thank you! I will definitely return with first place!”
“Be careful. You must not let anyone discover this. You will be suspected if you suddenly use mana beyond your level, so use it cautiously.”
“Yes, yes. Of course! Don’t you worry about that!”
Gaspelt answered confidently, but his demeanor only made him look more unreliable.
Professor Freud, confirming that his disciple had left the laboratory, let out a long, bitter sigh.
An exhausting weariness came flooding over him.
*Knock, knock, knock.*
Binaeril knocked on the door of the personal training room.
At Elfenbein, individuals of professor rank or higher were provided with personal training rooms for tempering their mana in addition to spaces for research.
This was Professor Yulio’s personal training room.
Although it was called a training “room,” a dean-level mage could blow up an entire building without a second thought, so it was closer to a large hall than a room.
“Yes, Professor.”
From inside came a voice he knew.
Binaeril remembered Dean Yulio’s request from yesterday.
*“Please keep the revelation of Her Highness’s identity a secret.”*
*“What? Why?”*
*“It is just a bit….”*
*“Didn’t you say she was a quiet and docile princess?”*
*“She is frightening when angry.”*
He had looked just like a grandfather doting on an exceedingly precious granddaughter.
Binaeril opened the training room door.