Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 51

“Ahem. You, student, come to my workshop during the break.”

“?????”

Professor Mortoom spoke to Gainando while coughing.

Gainando looked as if he’d been slapped.

Why?

What did I do wrong??

Could he possibly have a grudge against the Imperial family???

“And you as well, student.”

Professor Mortoom pointed at Lee Han.

Lee Han wasn’t as shocked as Gainando.

From the start, he had been seriously considering black magic as an option for managing his grades.

However, the students of the Blue Dragon Tower took it differently.

“Gainando, you idiot! Because of you, Lee Han is getting dragged in too!”

“Can’t you even die alone, you fool?!”

“Quick, tell him you’ll go alone!”

They misunderstood, thinking Lee Han was being forcibly dragged along because he was friends with Gainando.

The students were furious.

Lee Han had several things to take responsibility for, so why was Gainando pulling Lee Han into trouble instead of going alone?

“Y-you guys… I’m not going alone! I’m going with him!”

Gainando was overwhelmed by his friends’ scolding.

“Take it back!”

“No!”

“I said, take it back!”

“Everyone, Professor Mortoom has already left.”

Professor Garcia looked at the Blue Dragon Tower students with a look of disdain.

A wizard’s workshop was, simply put, a kind of laboratory.

It was a place where a wizard’s disciples voluntarily explored topics of interest to the wizard through various experiments and explorations, practically 24/7.

Of course, saying it like this made it sound like a hellish place where people were worn out and ground down, and that was actually the case.

It varied greatly depending on the wizard’s workshop, but basically, the lives of the disciples learning under a wizard were bound to be difficult.

Lee Han had heard quite a few stories about the disciples of wizards studying in workshops when he was in the family.

-Once upon a time, there was a disciple who was learning magic under a wizard. When this disciple woke up in the morning, he had to trim his wand, prepare the reagents for the experiment according to the magic recipes, adjust the amount of magic power to enter the magic circle, and then go outside to find the necessary ingredients and collect them before lunch. This disciple was smart, so he solved lunch simply while walking around, and thanks to that, he saved time and could do the next thing quickly. So then…

-Perhaps the ending of this story is that the disciple kills the wizard and takes the workshop?

-Young master, what kind of ridiculous joke are you making? The ending is, of course, that this disciple, who studied hard, becomes a great wizard.

-……

There was no paradise for learners in any world.

But fortunately, there was no need to worry about that now.

Lee Han was a freshman now!

Now that it wasn’t decided which professor he would learn under, there was no reason to fear anyone.

If he thought the professor was crazy, he could quietly walk backwards.

“Sniff sniff…”

“…Are you really crying?”

Lee Han was taken aback.

Gainando’s eyes were actually red.

“What did I do wrong… to be called separately to a place this dark and remote…”

“There’s no guarantee you were called because you did something wrong, is there?”

“Then what else could it be!! Huh! He must be twisted, like someone who’s mastered black magic, and he’s calling me separately to bully me!”

The two were now heading to the place Professor Mortoom had told them about.

And from Lee Han’s point of view, there was something wrong with the location of Professor Mortoom’s workshop.

‘It’s excessively eerie?’

The path became increasingly desolate and tranquil, the sound of the wind grew stronger, and it seemed like he could hear ghostly noises from the forest next to the road…

There were even a few graves.

Of course, it wasn’t incomprehensible.

Black magic would basically require dark magic energy, and if you wanted to study the undead, you’d need corpses…

If you met all those conditions, it was inevitable that it would be this gruesome.

‘But if you make it like this and then complain about why new students don’t come, that’s just shameless…’

In the distance, Professor Mortoom’s workshop, also known as Darkness Hall, came into view.

On the outside, it looked like an ordinary four-story tower, but it was common knowledge that you couldn’t judge a wizard’s building by its appearance alone.

And there were already a few hints near the tower.

Broken skulls and bones scattered around.

Simple stone markers for graves.

A box of poisonous liquid bottles with a sign that read >Poison! Handle with care. Death if touched.

He could roughly guess what kind of experiments and research were being done in this workshop.

Gainando’s face, sensing the atmosphere, had already turned as pale as an undead.

“Hello?”

Creak-

The door opened on its own when he knocked. Lee Han entered with Gainando.

Gainando trembled and tried to grab Lee Han’s sleeve. Lee Han moved Gainando’s hand away, annoyed. Gainando wore a betrayed expression.

“Ahem, ahem… you’ve come.”

The workshop was filled with black and blue smoke, making it impossible to see even an inch ahead. Professor Mortoom’s voice was heard from within the smoke.

“Diret, guide the freshmen.”

“Are you out of your mind, Professor? The headmaster told the upperclassmen not to contact the freshmen.”

“Ah. That’s right. Ahem. How annoying… Can’t we just secretly ignore it?”

“I haven’t been out of prison for very long, you know? Are you telling me to go back to prison again?”

“Not prison, but the detention room… Ahem. I understand. Go inside.”

Professor Mortoom waved his wand and swept the smoke out.

Then the inside came into view.

The inside was more decent than he thought.

Maybe it was arranged like this to entice the freshmen…

Tables, chairs, and bookshelves.

It was a place that gave off a library-like atmosphere.

‘…No. It’s all bones?’

Lee Han belatedly realized and was shocked.

The furniture was all made of bones.

Of course, making furniture out of bones was a very cost-effective choice for a black magician who was good at handling bone summoning.

It was just a bit bizarre.

Gainando, not noticing that it was bones, sat on the chair cautiously.

Professor Mortoom tried his best to make a friendly expression and said.

“Ahem. I’m sure you already know why I called you here?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, Professor!”

“I called you both because I think you have outstanding talent in black magic. Wait, what did you just say?”

“It’s nothing.”

Gainando shut his mouth.

It was a bit different from what he had expected.

‘I have outstanding talent in black magic?’

“Lee Han. He says I have outstanding talent in black magic?”

“I have ears too. I was next to you, so I heard it.”

“Ah… what should I do? I’m not interested in black magic. He says I have talent? Ah… what should I do?”

……

Lee Han couldn’t help but be amazed by Gainando’s shallow mind.

How could he be so easily swayed?

Professor Mortoom rubbed his palms together and took out a few candies from somewhere. They were candies with skull wrappers.

“Have some while you listen. Here. Since you both have outstanding talent in black magic, I thought it would be good to call you here to hear directly about how good black magic is. There are many misunderstandings about black magic, but that’s really a misunderstanding. Ahem. Ahem. Black magic is the most beautiful and profound field in magic.”

……

Gainando had a partly hypnotized look, but Lee Han was listening with a feeling sorry for him.

It was a story he had heard often.

Professors in popular fields were arrogant and cold.

-You want to learn under me? I’ll think about it once I see your talent.

But if there were popular fields, there were also unpopular fields.

Professors in unpopular fields were truly tearful and pathetic.

-The advantage of our department is… there’s nowhere else to go down.

-……

-Isn’t it nice to think that there’s only going up from now on?

-……

Professor Mortoom’s words were filled with the pitifulness of a typical unpopular field professor.

Seeing someone who couldn’t even coax students well giving out candy and saying that…

“…That’s why black magic is the magic of magic and the king of magic. Do you understand?”

“I’ve become interested in black magic!!”

“I didn’t know black magic was such a great magic.”

At Gainando and Lee Han’s answers, a smile bloomed on Professor Mortoom’s face.

“Ah, should I learn black magic? I didn’t know I had so much talent. But black magic has a bit of an image. But if I’m really needed. Ah. Still a bit…”

Ignoring Gainando, who was humming excitedly next to him, Lee Han looked over the gift he had received from Professor Mortoom.

Professor Mortoom gave a carefully wrapped gift to the two students who gave positive answers.

…It was an unidentified bone.

-What is this?

-When you return to your room, look at this bone. Then you’ll think of black magic.

-No… what is it, I’m asking?

-Hehe. Ahem, ahem.

Professor Mortoom wiped under his nose with an embarrassed expression.

As if he couldn’t take away the pleasure of figuring out this secret from the student.

Of course, from Lee Han’s point of view, it was a somewhat creepy gift.

What bone is this anyway?

‘Is it filled with magic?’

Lee Han’s first guess was that it was a simple artifact filled with magic.

Hadn’t he already been tricked once by the book the headmaster gave him in the detention room?

Maybe it was common for professors at this magic school to secretly give students artifacts filled with magic as gifts without explanation.

Like giving a lover something sweet on an anniversary…

‘I thought of it, but that’s a really terrible comparison.’

Lee Han thought he should study it later when he got back.

“Lee Han. Lee Han.”

“?”

“If I start learning black magic, it’s absolutely a secret from Maykin?”

Lee Han realized what Gainando was thinking.

It was Gainando who had teased Yoner for learning alchemy.

How much would he be teased if he, himself, learned black magic?

Lee Han answered with a smile.

“Of course.”

‘I should tell him right away.’

The elf swordsman, Professor Inguldel, was a professor who taught basic swordsmanship and basic physical training.

And these lectures were mainly attended by students from the White Tiger Tower.

Lee Han, who was from the Blue Dragon Tower, stood out very, very much in such lectures.

However, the atmosphere was a bit different from the last swordsmanship class.

In the last swordsmanship class, everyone was desperate to pick a fight with him, but in this class, everyone avoided making eye contact with Lee Han.

If they messed with him, they’d be crushed!

‘Comfortable.’

Lee Han thought it was good that he had acted up.

As expected, sometimes people need to act up to make their lives easier.

Of course, such actions didn’t lower the difficulty of the lecture.

“Everyone, run without stopping. Without stopping! It’s important to use the muscles of your whole body, but don’t forget to feel the magic power with your breath. If you keep moving the magic energy inside your body, you’ll be able to use your muscles much more efficiently.”

Magicians used magic power only for magic, but swordsmen used it for their bodies.

Magic power that flowed and circulated like a river without stopping inside the body prevented fatigue from accumulating in the body and created an effect that defended against external toxins.

…Of course, that didn’t mean that the young freshmen could do it just because he said so.

Everyone was just panting and running, not caring about magic power or circulation.

“Professor, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

Professor Inguldel greeted Lee Han, who was talking to him, and answered.

What could he be asking?

“I’m, going to, enter the mountains, to get materials, this time, do you have any, advice for me…”

“Hmm. I recommend you stop.”

“……”

“I really recommend you stop.”

Lee Han became uneasy at Professor Inguldel’s serious advice.