Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 239

“Why is everyone acting like this? Surely you’re not short on funds?”

A merchant, sensing the unease, tried to lighten the mood with a joke.

“Yes…”

“Sorry… it’s a school rule…”

The merchants were shocked because the White Tiger Tower students answered in an unsure way.

What kind of rule was this? The merchants had heard whispers of strict rules at the school, but this was strange.

One merchant, a man with a worried frown, spoke up. “B-but… that doesn’t make sense, does it? If you can’t bring coins to school… how do you pay when you go outside?”

‘Good question,’ Leehan thought, nodding slightly.

“That’s not the important thing right now.”

“Y-yes, right. Well… um…”

The merchants were confused and didn’t know what to do. Then, a White Tiger Tower student made a suggestion.

“Could we perhaps pay you back during the holidays? I promise on my family’s name…”

The Death Knight beside him unleashed an angry speech. “How dare you try to ask for credit in the sacred lands of Einroguard? Do you have no honor, no pride? And you call yourself a wizard?”

The White Tiger Tower student, having said one wrong word, was now called a scoundrel and quickly stepped back.

“N-no… Death Knight. We’re fine…”

The Death Knight continued, “Nonsense! There’s no good in being too soft on students. They must be taught strictly. As the old tales say, spoiled children waste their family’s wealth as if it were their own.”

“I hardly think buying a few ingredients will bankrupt anyone…” The merchants muttered, but the Death Knights ignored them, pretending not to hear.

‘Looks like Headmaster Skull sent them.’ Thinking about it, there was no way Headmaster Skull would easily allow merchants to enter from the outside, not with his personality.

He probably expected this situation and sent them in with a plan: To have the Death Knights forbid any credit!

“Well, can I at least buy my things first?” Leehan spoke up, sensing the conversation was about to drag on.

The merchants were surprised.

“You have money now?”

“Yes.”

“How… well… it’s only natural, I suppose… but we’d be grateful if you did!” The merchants’ faces lit up at the fact that at least one student had money.

“Oh? If Wodanaz has money… can’t we just borrow from Wodanaz?”

The Death Knight shouted, “How dare you try to do money deals between friends in the sacred lands of Einroguard? Are you not afraid of ruining your friendship? And you call yourself a wizard?”

“I… I apologize.”

‘What an idiot.’ Leehan was annoyed at the White Tiger Tower student.

If he was going to borrow, he should have done it secretly, away from the Death Knights’ prying eyes, not so openly.

“Why are you all standing around?” Professor Verdus approached, puzzled by the students’ way of acting.

“…Professor, we don’t have any money. You might have forgotten.”

“Of course. Bringing silver coins into the school is forbidden, isn’t it?”

The students were even more confused by Professor Verdus’s words.

Why was someone who knew this acting this way?

Did he just want to see the students frustrated and suffering?

Considering the Headmaster’s personality, it was a possible idea…

“Work for it. Your seniors did the same.”

“Pardon?”

“Work. W-O-R-K. Understand?”

The merchants and students were all surprised by the unexpected solution.

It wasn’t entirely absurd.

Wizards were among the most highly skilled people in the Empire.

A capable wizard was priceless, and even if you had money, you couldn’t just order them around.

Even Einroguard first-year students were far better than the average spell-slingers out there…

“I-is that really alright?”

“It’s fine. Order them to do anything.”

“No…” The students’ voices trembled, touched by Professor Verdus’s kindness in answering for them.

Professor Verdus looked at Leehan and was startled.

“Why do you have money?!”

‘Indeed, why?’ For the first time, the other students felt sorry for Professor Verdus.

“Well, that’s…”

“Come to think of it, I don’t really care. Pay up and go. Hurry up and make that artifact. I’m looking forward to the Floating Steel Shield.”

“Already working on such an artifact?!” The merchants beside him were astonished, but Leehan no longer had the energy to explain.

“I’ll just pay with work too.”

“Huh? Why would you…?” The merchants were puzzled.

The Death Knights kindly explained.

“-Friendship, it is.”

“-Honourable friendship.”

“Ah…!”

“Wodanaz…!” The merchants and the other students were impressed.

Regardless, Leehan did some calculations.

‘The price of those materials is roughly…’ It was definitely a bargain if he could pay with work.

Why waste silver coins?

‘Why is that guy really trying to pay with work?’ Giselle stared at Leehan in disbelief.

It certainly wasn’t because of friendship (Giselle wasn’t as dumb as the Death Knights), and there was no way someone from the Wodanaz family would be so stingy with money…

Then what?

“If I do more work than the materials cost, will I get a refund?”

“Pardon?”

Gainando sprang from the sofa, cushions flying as he landed on his feet, his eyes wide with surprise. “What?! Merchants came to the school?!”

“Not the kind of merchants you’re thinking of, Gainando.”

“That’s right. They only sell reagents needed for magic.”

“Don’t they have at least one snack?”

“Nope. Oh, they do sell bait for luring beasts, though.”

After a day, the merchants’ visit became quite the topic.

In such a closed-off environment, everyone was bound to be interested in guests from the outside.

Of course, the students quickly lost interest once they learned the truth.

“Nothing useful there.”

“You should prepare in advance.”

Leehan advised his friends.

“The other classes will have pre-finals assignments soon. You should stock up on materials you think you’ll use a lot.”

“Really… really?”

“Maybe we should go buy some in advance.” Convinced, the Blue Dragon Tower students gathered their things and got up.

And went to find the merchants.

1 hour later.

“…We were tricked…”

“We were tricked by Wodanaz…”

“People will misunderstand if they hear that.”

Leehan scolded his friends sitting next to him.

At first, the merchants said, ‘We would never trick wizards.’ But now, they were definitely tricking them! Professionals were thorough, after all.

The merchants said, “-These are potions that failed during manufacturing. We want to separate them as much as possible and salvage the materials.”

The merchants continued, “-Can you pick out any items among these junk that still have magical power?”

The merchants added, “-We need someone to complete the groundwork for the scrolls. Can you help us? There are hundreds of them, though…”

The White Tiger Tower students who had been sitting there since earlier were just moving their hands with tired faces.

Just because it was easy work didn’t mean it wasn’t tiring.

Separating potions used magical power, finding magical items among junk used concentration, and the groundwork of drawing lines on scrolls was tiring.

“Were the assignments this difficult…?”

‘The assignment hasn’t even started yet.’ While his friends were tired from fatigue and lack of magical power, Leehan was the only one who was still energetic.

“All done.”

“No, already?!”

“Yes. Give me the next one.”

“You should rest a bit.”

The merchants tried to stop Leehan.

Of course, Leehan still looked fine, but they were worried about just continuing to make him work while the other students were tired.

“No. I can do more.”

“More than that… you seem to have done enough work to take the materials…?”

“No. I might fail, so I’m going to work harder in preparation.”

And take the rest in silver coins!

Professor Verdus, who was passing by, asked.

“Looking at your skills, it seems like you can just do it?”

“No.”

“It seems like you can just…”

“No. It’s not enough.”

“I said you can just do it!”

“It’s not enough!”

“D-don’t fight, you two.” The merchants were surprised by the sight of the master and student fighting.

Why were they fighting over something like that?

Professor Ingledell said with a look of pity at the students who looked like corpses, “Everyone seems to be struggling with the pre-finals assignments.”

“I have some good news to tell you. There are no pre-finals assignments in my class.”

“Professor Ingledell. You are a true educator!”

“I don’t feel particularly good about being praised for something like this… The final exams are just around the corner. Don’t let your guard down too much. They’ll be here after a few assignments.”

Leehan nodded.

Once the storm of pre-finals assignments that was currently raging one after another was over, there was a high possibility that the final exams would be upon them when they opened their eyes.

They couldn’t afford to be careless just because there were two or three weeks left.

“So, I’m going to tell you the contents of the final exam in advance.”

“Professor…! To go that far…!”

‘This isn’t a good thing.’ Unlike his moved friends, Leehan was nervous.

Even though Professor Ingledell seemed a little more reasonable than the other mad professors, Professor Ingledell was still a professor at Einroguard.

He was definitely not a lenient person to the students.

“Do you see that mountain range?” Professor Ingledell pointed to the mountain range behind the main building with the tip of his sword.

The students nodded.

Everyone had suffered there at least once, so there was no way they wouldn’t know the mountain range within the magic school.

“Hunting in groups of three there will be the final exam.”

“Oh…”

“What do we catch? Boars? Bulls?”

“Catch whatever you want. The stronger the prey you catch, the higher the grade you’ll get.”

The students’ faces hardened.

What…?

‘Shouldn’t we team up in secret?’ Leehan thought so and looked around, but quickly gave up.

Looking at the faces of the White Tiger Tower students, they were definitely not the kind of people he could team up with.

If he joined hands with them, they would immediately stab him in the back and find stronger prey themselves.

Especially since swordsmanship class was the pride of the White Tiger Tower students.

There was no way the words ‘Let’s not overdo it and get good grades together’ would work.

“Friends, think about it. We have a lot of pre-finals assignments right now. There’s also the final exam, so even if we burn our competitive spirit here… Forget it. What’s the point of me saying anything? Do whatever you want.”

Leehan gave up mid-sentence.

The White Tiger Tower students weren’t even listening.

The eventful week was coming to an end, but the lectures didn’t leave the students alone.

Pre-finals assignments began to pour out from essential liberal arts lectures and the students wore sick faces.

“Oh, Wodanaz. You’re making a floating steel shield?” Professor Alpen Knighton looked at Leehan with curious eyes.

“Somehow…”

“Even though it’s a simple artifact, the calculations won’t be easy. Show it to me when it’s finished. I’m curious to see how far you’ll complete it.”

“…Yes.”

‘They need to stop the professors from talking to each other at this school.’

Starting with Professor Volardy, Professor Verdus, and finally Professor Knighton, Leehan began to feel trapped as they all showed interest in when he would make the floating steel shield.

‘I really need to start right away.’

At this point, there was a high possibility that he wouldn’t be able to change the assignment topic even if he wanted to.

The thought of the professors saying things like, ‘Why don’t you try again?’ ‘It’s a shame, why don’t you try again?’ ‘It seems like you can do it if you just do a little more…’ made him dizzy.

…I’ll put this as the top priority and finish it this weekend no matter what!