While the two whispered among themselves, Princess Yukbeltire calmly began pulling out an item, apparently satisfied all by herself.

She loosened the string on a medium-sized blue silk pouch embroidered with a dragon. The moment the opening widened, something far larger than the pouch itself emerged from inside.

Space-expansion magic.

Lee Han looked at his senior from the same tower with envy.

Space-expansion magic alone was already difficult, but permanently enchanting it onto an item raised the difficulty to another level entirely.

Valdrogard students could simply buy such things at auctions with their allowance money, but Einroguard students had no such luxury. If they wanted one, they had to make it themselves.

...Or steal it.

I need to get one someday.

Lee Han traveled around often enough that he felt the need for a space-expansion backpack more keenly than anyone.

His bag was always overloaded because he habitually prepared for every possible contingency.

If he hadn’t constantly trained his body through swordsmanship and mana reinforcement, he would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.

THUD!

While Lee Han’s thoughts wandered elsewhere, the item Princess Yukbeltire had removed finally revealed itself.

It was a bronze golem roughly the size of a human.

“??”

Lee Han blinked in confusion.

This was not remotely what he had expected. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

“Senior. Weren’t you researching artificial dimension artifacts?”

Princess Yukbeltire turned her blue eyes toward him.

How impatient did someone have to be to immediately ask about the artificial dimension artifact the moment they arrived?

Still, she decided to be generous. He was a fairly capable junior, after all.

“You have no patience. Were you really that desperate to see the artificial dimension artifact?”

“This is driving me insane...”

As Diret muttered beside him, Lee Han quietly reconsidered something.

Ordinarily, he possessed an extraordinary tolerance for the nonsense of his superiors.

After all, he had silently endured not only the insane duplicate’s madness, but also the Skull Principal and Professor Voladi Bagreg.

The same went for Einroguard’s upperclassmen.

Since they were seniors worthy of respect, even when he wanted to punch them or felt deeply frustrated, he usually endured it.

But somehow, this evil Blue Dragon Tower senior made him think differently.

...Do I really need to put up with this person in particular?

He tolerated the insane duplicate and Professor Voladi Bagreg because he was genuinely afraid of them.

Princess Yukbeltire was another matter entirely.

Besides, he wasn’t close enough to other upperclassmen for rumors like Wardanaz has been terribly rude to seniors lately to spread around.

Lee Han had spent the beginning of his second year carefully reading the mood around him, but after getting bullied nonstop by insane mages lately, his perspective had changed somewhat.

Shouldn’t there be people you firmly drew lines with?

And coincidentally, this person was also Professor Verdus’s disciple.

Maybe it was best to treat her the same way he treated Professor Verdus.

“Senior.”

Lee Han raised a hand and spoke with complete seriousness. Princess Yukbeltire tilted her head slightly.

Why was he suddenly acting like this?

“I’ll be honest. I have absolutely no interest in the artificial dimension artifact you’re researching, so please don’t misunderstand.”

“...”

Princess Yukbeltire froze.

Normally her face was cold and expressionless to begin with, but now she looked like an ice sculpture.

A moment later, she slowly began moving again.

“But you said you’d help.”

“You’re my senior from the same tower, and Senior Diret is helping too, so I’m helping alongside him. I genuinely have no interest in it.”

“Are you using irony? Or some rhetorical metaphor...”

“No. I’m sincerely not interested. Senior. Just like Professor Verdus has no interest in students, I also have no interest in this.”

“...”

After a long silence, Princess Yukbeltire finally spoke.

“Well. If you fail to recognize the value of this magic, that is merely your own loss.”

Then she sharply turned away and began adjusting the item she had taken out.

Diret watched his friend, whose shoulders somehow seemed slightly slumped, with a complicated expression.

Lee Han cautiously whispered:

“Did I go too far?”

“No. Someone needs to speak honestly sometimes. If you keep giving in because you feel bad for people, you end up like me...”

Diret abruptly stopped talking, overcome with self-loathing.

“...Anyway, you weren’t wrong, Junior. The problem is that idiot who never listens to anyone and decides everything alone from the start. Don’t feel guilty. Just think of the other person as Professor Verdus.”

“Yes. I didn’t feel guilty at all anyway. I’ll think of her as Professor Verdus from now on and treat her accordingly.”

“...”

For just a brief moment, Diret thought he finally understood why the insane duplicate had chosen this Wardanaz boy as a disciple.

Then he immediately recoiled in horror.

What kind of insane thought was that?!

“Princess Yukbeltire. So what exactly is that bronze golem?”

Diret hurriedly raised his voice half an octave higher than usual to change the subject.

“It’s the magic I intend to use to persuade Ragesa.”

Princess Yukbeltire explained the bronze golem.

There were many methods for operating a golem, but like a proper enchantment mage, she had approached the problem through enchantment magic itself.

“Mobility enchantments on the arms and legs. Flexibility and bending enchantments on the joints. Voice-recognition enchantments on the head...”

“!”

Normally, unless a mage directly controlled a golem, only a single simple command was embedded into it.

The more independent behavior a golem possessed, the more exponentially difficult the enchantments became.

Yet Princess Yukbeltire had embedded dozens of commands into this bronze golem to create a highly advanced servant.

It was an acrobatic feat of astonishing precision.

Diret asked in disbelief:

“Did you really need to go this far?”

“I designed it as a servant.”

Not a golem meant for guarding gates or ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ fighting enemies.

A servant capable of obeying complicated instructions.

That was the magic Princess Yukbeltire had created.

Lee Han asked curiously:

“May I try giving it commands?”

“Do as you please.”

His curiosity piqued, Lee Han immediately began testing the bronze golem.

“Come here.”

“Go fetch the latest issue of Empire Lich from the bookshelf.”

“Can you make tea?”

“Can you clean this area too?”

“What about transcription work?”

To Lee Han’s surprise, the bronze golem passed every test flawlessly.

Amazing.

“Then why focus on this instead of the artificial dimension artifact?”

“Because simple and intuitive creations are easier to present to outsiders...”

“But if you’re going this far to create something capable of complex tasks, wouldn’t it be easier to summon an extradimensional being and form a contract? Like a demon...”

“...”

Lee Han paused.

The idea of summoning a demon to handle household chores had sounded disturbingly natural.

“Extradimensional beings can be neutralized or reverse-summoned under certain conditions. Compared to that, a bronze golem sustained entirely through internal enchantments is much more stable.”

“I see... It must have taken an enormous amount of work, but it definitely seems useful. How long did it take?”

“One day.”

“That took longer than I expected.”

“Several bizarre rumors started spreading midway through construction.”

While listening from the side, Lee Han hurriedly clapped in admiration and tried to steer the topic elsewhere.

“That’s still incredible. The range of commands it can follow is impressive, and you completed all this in a single day.”

“You’re saying that despite supposedly having absolutely no interest in it?”

She’s unbelievably petty...

Diret squeezed his eyes shut.

If you forced magic onto a junior and got kicked for it, you should reflect on yourself—not sulk like this afterward.

Unfortunately, Diret was still underestimating his junior.

Lee Han had escaped intact from the insane duplicate’s lair. Sulking on this level didn’t even register to him.

“I’m interested in this. You made it very well.”

“The artificial dimension artifact is even better...”

“No. I’m not interested in that.”

“The artificial dimension artifact is objectively superior...”

“I understand that. I’m still not interested.”

“...Just supply the mana.”

“Yes.”

Princess Yukbeltire sharply turned away again.

Watching the exchange, Diret felt two conflicting emotions.

One was the kindhearted urge to separate the two before things escalated further.

The other was the wicked thought that maybe, if his junior stayed around long enough, this awful friend of his might finally learn a lesson or two.

***

Lee Han diligently copied down notes on the enchantments engraved into the bronze golem.

Beside him, Diret tilted his head while helping optimize and stabilize the magic.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah. I want to try building one myself once I get back to the dormitory. It seems useful for the year common room.”

“...That’s what you got from seeing this?”

“Huh? Don’t you think so?”

Lee Han sounded genuinely confused.

To him, anyone would naturally want a high-performance servant golem like this.

Especially someone like Lee Han, whose mana reserves overflowed. If he built one properly, it would be useful for years to come.

“No. Never mind.”

Diret smiled vaguely and changed the subject.

Normally, a second-year student would see such a bronze golem and think Amazing.

Not I should build one myself.

Honestly, most third-years probably wouldn’t either.

Diret quietly shook his head.

Without him even noticing, his junior’s magical ability had risen to a truly absurd level.

“Princess Yukbeltire. It’s finished.”

“Not bad.”

Princess Yukbeltire carefully inspected the bronze golem.

One of the two had spouted nonsense while completely ignorant of the brilliance of artificial dimension artifacts, but their skills were still worth acknowledging.

“The junior handled this section.”

“...!”

Her eyelashes trembled faintly.

She had naturally assumed Diret completed the optimization work, so hearing that Lee Han had done it surprised her again.

“He did well, didn’t he? What do you think?”

“Not bad...”

“Tell him he did well.”

“But compared to me, he’s still lacking...”

“I said praise him.”

“...You did well.”

Only after Diret jabbed her in the ribs three separate times did Princess Yukbeltire finally praise her junior.

Lee Han looked puzzled seeing her clutch her side as though injured.

“Are you feeling unwell?”

“...A rude mage attacked me. More importantly, Duke Ikalderen. Apparently Duke Ikalderen was caught attempting to steal treasures from Einroguard.”

“I see. So that’s why he’s here.”

Only then did Diret understand the duke’s presence.

No matter how much confidence someone had in their title, attempting to rob Einroguard was still outrageously reckless.

“I really don’t understand why people like that appear every few years. We had one during our first year too.”

“That’s incredible. What a shocking story.”

Lee Han feigned surprise.

Princess Yukbeltire silently nodded before bringing up the next matter.

“There’s no need to persuade Duke Ikalderen. We’ll simply kidnap him.”

“That should work.”

“...”

Lee Han stared blankly.

Princess Yukbeltire proposing kidnapping wasn’t especially surprising. She was Professor Verdus’s disciple, after all.

But Diret immediately agreeing so casually was another matter.

“Uh... is that really okay?”

“He’s an outside criminal, isn’t he, Junior? The Principal probably allowed him into the school precisely so students would do something like this.”

“I see...”

Diret continued discussing kidnapping plans with his friend, completely oblivious to the increasingly subtle look in Lee Han’s eyes.

“Other students are probably targeting him too, right?”

“Most likely...”

“Then we should prepare for combat as well. Do you have anything useful?”

“I can deploy three combat golems. And eight artifacts.”

“That should be enough. Do you have any energy-based magic? I’ve seen more and more defensive spells of that type around Einroguard lately, so we should prepare for them.”

Lee Han listened with admiration to the experienced upperclassmen calmly discussing the logistics of kidnapping.

“This should be enough. Let’s go.”

As the conversation wrapped up, Princess Yukbeltire called for Lee Han as well.

He blinked in confusion.

“Where exactly?”

“To kidnap the duke. Do you perhaps suffer from some sort of auditory curse...”

“That’s not the issue. I’m allowed to come too?”

Since the discussion had naturally centered around the two fifth-years, Lee Han had assumed they intended to leave him behind.

“We need a combat mage like you.”

Hearing those words, Diret unconsciously nodded before suddenly meeting Lee Han’s stare.

“...W-would you prefer to stay behind here instead?”