SRS 122

“…Final evaluations for the semester?”

Yohan asked back, but there was no response. He felt the headmaster’s stubbornness, the latter didn’t want to answer to more than three questions. Yohan swallowed his greed. He still had a mountain of things he was curious about, but the headmaster had no obligation to resolve them for him.

“Thank you for the answers.”

“Don’t mention it. Then, shall we talk about the timing of professor Ariel’s appointment? Hmm… according to the records, it was exactly a hundred years ago.”

“…As I thought.”

If that was the case, the symptoms Lord Gerog suffered from weren’t a dragon’s curse. It was more likely that his body unconsciously recognized a dragon’s presence nearby and pulled up past fears to create those symptoms.

Now that Yohan knew it wasn’t a curse, the solution he had to research changed from breaking a curse to psychological treatment.

The path forward became clear, and Yohan’s expression brightened. The headmaster laughed softly.

“I’ve paid all the costs. I hope you’re with the divine beast the next time we meet.”

“I will.”

The deal was over. Now they had to return to their status as headmaster and student. Yohan bowed and turned around. Just as he was about to leave the office, the headmaster spoke.

“Take care of Lord Gerog. It’s quite nice to see a student like Yohan who creates his own assignments.”

“……!”

Yohan had never told the headmaster that Gerog was the problem. He turned his head in surprise at the one who spoke as if he knew everything, only to see the headmaster waving his hand.

Yohan’s body rose into the air. Before he could ask any more questions, he was pushed out of the office.

Creak.

The pure white door closed. Yohan could only step back onto the ground after the doorknob clicked shut.

“…He already knew everything?”

Yohan muttered and scratched his head in embarrassment. The order in which the headmaster paid the price and that meaningful final remark, he was surprisingly skillful. Before Yohan even realized it, his focus had shifted from the three questions toward Gerog.

Yohan realized the man didn’t become the headmaster for nothing. He sighed and headed to the classroom.

He had gained extraordinary information in many ways, but Yohan was just a student and a first-year. There wasn’t much he could do. For now, solving the task at hand was the priority.

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“What? It was really a hundred years ago?”

After the daily routine ended, the students of Room 304 gathered on Yohan’s bed. When Yohan shared the answer from the headmaster, Suhyeok banged his head against the wall.

“Ah, this is good but tricky. It’s good, but tricky! If it’s a curse, there’s a clear path to lift it, but a psychological problem is harder to approach.”

“But it’ll be easier than solving a dragon’s curse.”

“I know. That’s why I said it’s good but tricky.”

The four put their heads together to search for a solution. Suddenly, Suhyeok grabbed Yohan’s hand.

“Yohan. I believe in you.”

“Huh?”

“You were a priest, right? Then you must have listened to people’s worries and answered questions to soothe anxious souls. Isn’t that what they usually do?”

“Uh… they usually do.”

That was true for ordinary priests.

However, Yohan was a High Priest. A High Priest doesn’t counsel believers. He carried the heavy responsibility of protecting the empire and the entire continent, so he didn’t have time for counseling.

And since Yohan rose to the position of High Priest at a very young age, no believers had sought him out for counseling even before he reached that rank.

“…But I’ve never done that kind of counseling.”

“What?”

When Yohan told the truth, Suhyeok raised his voice in surprise and then looked disappointed. Yohan glanced at Mikael. He wondered if things were different for an angel, but Mikael shook his head. It seemed Mikael didn’t have any relevant experience either.

“…Then that means none of us major in psychology.”

“Uhm… I guess so.”

If they had abilities to explore mental realms like hypnosis, they might know psychology well, but Yohan and his friends didn’t. Because of this, the students of Room 304 worried for a long time before they changed their method.

“Let’s do this. We can’t just try psychological treatment on Lord Gerog with our abilities. It won’t work if we tell him to get treatment because it’s just a psychological problem when he locked himself in his house. So, let’s try drug therapy. Where I lived, drug therapy helps ease mental symptoms.”

They couldn’t solve the root cause of all Gerog’s fear, nor could they heal the fearful heart. If so, they had to set up a temporary fix with medicine.

“That’s the best idea out of all the opinions so far.”

“Right. Maybe it’s because I just heard someone suggest we kick professor Ariel out of the school. This looks quite possible.”

“…I could try if it’s medicine. Professor Will is the Herbology professor. He’ll actively help us.”

Suhyeok’s proposal passed unanimously. Starting the next day, Yohan and Suhyeok stayed in the classroom after Herbology lectures to research potions that relieve fear.

“Yohan. How about a Potion of Joy and Delight?”

“That won’t work because it only makes you feel joy temporarily. The emotions of joy and fear can coexist.”

“Then the Potion of the Brave and Reckless Warrior?”

“That potion makes you believe in your own potential, so it might be hard to relieve fear with it.”

“How about ‘Goffin’s Elixir –1–’?”

“…Are you suggesting we make a Great Sage’s potion with our current skills?”

“…I know I said something stupid, so can you close those eyes? I’m afraid I’ll see them in my dreams. Your eyes look like they’re saying, ‘You’ll get an F because your head is empty.'”

“Sorry.”

Yohan pulled back his gaze at Suhyeok’s complaining. The latter made a fuss, saying it hurt more that Yohan didn’t deny it.

“Ugh… it’s hard.”

Yohan leaned back in his chair after searching through major books with his friend for a long time. The textbooks contained many potion recipes, and they learned many types in class, but strangely, a potion specifically for removing fear didn’t exist. If there was a similar function, it usually came with worrying effects or serious side effects. He couldn’t just pick any potion with a similar effect.

“No, didn’t you say potions originally came from Herbology? But why are there only dangerous potions like this? It feels like only 30% are normal, and the rest are all weird.”

“Well, they did come from Herbology, but Herbology itself is one of the academic fields.”

“Why does that matter?”

“…Scholars aren’t usually sane.”

“Ah.”

Suhyeok thought of the professors’ conditions in Fantasiademia.

Yohan couldn’t get any results after that, so he had no choice but to attend elective classes empty-handed before meeting his friends. Since they couldn’t find a way in the major books, two options remained.

They could ask professor Will or go to the library to find other books.

Suhyeok and Kylus voted to get professor Will’s help. Yohan shook his head and disagreed.

“…From my experience, it’s best to minimize owing the professors favors. We don’t know what they’ll demand as a price.”

“But professor Will asked for this. I think he’d give us some help.”

“He might just help us right now. But as time passes, he could use this help as an excuse to demand something else. I prefer not to provide a reason in the first place.”

“…Well, that makes sense. It’s a bit strange to hear that from you, Yohan.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t misunderstand. It’s just that you’re the first-year who traded with the professors or the headmaster the longest and most often.”

“…That’s true.”

Now that he thought about it, his actions might look funny to others. He went to the professors’ offices or the headmaster’s office whenever he could, yet he was advising the others to solve things voluntarily without giving them an excuse.

When Yohan looked down gloomily, Suhyeok waved his hands in a panic.

“I told you not to misunderstand! I just….”

“Suhyeok.”

Mikael called his friend’s name softly with narrowed eyes. Suhyeok eventually let out a sigh and apologized.

“No, Suhyeok isn’t wrong. I’m going to try to trust myself and work harder from now on.”

Yohan realized the atmosphere became strange because of his clumsy response and reflected quickly. He apologized to Suhyeok and thanked Mikael. He added a request that they didn’t have to do that in the future, and then they all headed to the library together.

[You, who thirst for knowledge, are the most beautiful. Welcome to the Library of Greed!]

The library Yohan visited a few times at the beginning of the semester was the same. The hanging banners and the atmosphere inside hadn’t changed.

There were two libraries in Fantasiademia, and the Library of Greed was the only one first-years could use.

They could only use the first floor of the three-story library. But the library was very wide, so there was no need to feel disappointed.

Yohan entered the potion corner. He decided it was impossible to go through the twenty bookshelves one by one, so he divided the people.

“Let’s scatter and look for potion books.”

“Yes.”

The four united and scattered between the bookshelves. He didn’t know how long he checked and scanned the book spines.

“…Huh?”

A book with a strange light sparkling on its edges caught Yohan’s eye.

Yohan pulled the book out and frowned after checking the cover.

[What a Potion Made by a Perfect Person Is]

[Author: The Nameless One]

Yohan tucked the book back in as if he hadn’t seen it.