Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 651

“Wow, what an incredibly kind village!” Siana the priestess exclaimed, clearly impressed by the warm welcome they had received.

The other priests of the Order seemed to agree, equally astonished by the villagers’ hospitality.

It was rare to find villagers who went to such lengths for travelers from outside.

“This would be a wonderful place to build a temple,” one priest commented.

“I agree, Priestess Siana,” another added.

Though faith should be spread equally everywhere, it was only natural to feel happier if the village was warm and kind.

Suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere shattered.

“Thief! He’s getting away!” someone yelled.

“Catch him! If we don’t catch him today, the Blackwood family will send their guards!” another voice shouted.

“Hey, everyone! Come out quickly! The priests are here! We have to catch him before they come in! Do you want our village to be known as a haven for thieves in the Silver Empire?!” a woman cried.

“Why today, of all days! Why not on a peaceful day!” someone grumbled.

Yihan, along with the priests, looked around, confused by the sudden commotion.

To help his junior colleague, who kept grumbling about his inability to understand it, Alsicle began explaining the basics of time magic.

It wasn’t his specialty, but the magic was so well-known that he knew a fair bit about it.

“Wodanaz, the beginning of any magic is detection or recognition,” Alsicle explained.

“Yes,” Yihan nodded.

Newbie wizards always dreamed of dropping meteorites with a flick of their fingers and stunning professors—or rather, enemies—with a whistle, but in reality, that was a high-level feat that even skilled wizards found difficult to demonstrate. Magic always started with the ordinary and basic.

With elemental magic, it was feeling the elements. With illusion magic, it was seeing illusions. With healing magic, it was recognizing the illness. Similarly, space-time magic began with detection or recognition.

“ or . Actually, quite a few wizards who don’t delve into space-time magic learn these two spells. They’re useful.”

“That’s right. I’ve learned ,” Yihan replied.

Alsicle stared at Yihan in astonishment. He hadn’t expected a student who had just finished his first year to agree.

“You’ve learned ? How on earth?”

, which precisely mapped the space around a wizard in their mind, was a 1st Circle spell, but it was more difficult than most 2nd Circle spells. Occasionally, there were spells with bizarre difficulty that transcended Circles. Naturally, this kind of spell wasn’t learned alongside the 1st Circle spells, but when learning 3rd Circle spells…

“A senior taught me?” Yihan offered.

“I don’t know who it was, but you’d better not associate with someone like that,” Alsicle said, appalled.

Balfatan of the Moradi family, who had reluctantly taught Yihan in order to escape, was suddenly being treated as a crazy senior. Even though Yihan had asked to be taught first!

“Hey, he’s not a bad person,” Yihan protested.

“Gonadaltez isn’t a bad person either,” Alsicle retorted. ‘Isn’t he just bad?’ he thought.

“Knowing will make the explanation easier. is similar.”

, which allowed one to accurately grasp the location of objects nearby and the distances between them, was useful for combat wizards who often faced quick enemies, as well as adventurers exploring ruins with spatial magic. was similar.

Casting this spell allowed one to accurately perceive the passage of time in seconds, minutes, and hours without a clock, and to measure the duration of an event from start to finish without the slightest error. This was also a useful spell for alchemists making precise potions or combat wizards who needed to understand their opponent’s magic.

“For the record, I’ve also learned ,” Yihan added.

“You haven’t learned ?” Alsicle asked.

“Nope. No need,” Yihan replied.

Suddenly, silence fell. It wasn’t exactly Alsicle’s fault; sometimes, gatherings of people just became strangely quiet. Times when everyone simultaneously ran out of things to say.

“I really didn’t learn it because I didn’t need to!” Alsicle insisted, feeling a blush creep up his neck.

“Yes?” Yihan tilted his head.

“What are you talking about…?” Yoner and Nilia, who had been discussing ‘What clubs are there in Einroguard?’, turned their attention to him.

Alsicle, belatedly realizing their misunderstanding, blushed. “I mean, I didn’t learn it because I didn’t need to. I don’t do combat or adventuring…”

“I see,” Yoner said slowly.

“That’s definitely true. It’s strange that Wodanaz learns everything,” Nilia added.

Unlike the two, Gainando and Eandurde stared intently at Alsicle. They didn’t say anything, but he could feel that they understood each other. ‘Agh, these clueless youngsters,’ Alsicle thought.

“…Wodanaz, let’s learn .”

“Yes. I’ve already learned it,” Yihan replied.

Yihan, having received the spell and the magic flow during casting from Alsicle, learned while the senior wizard was rambling on.

Seeing that, Alsicle resolved to leave the Wodanaz mansion within the week. Otherwise, he might go crazy. ‘This is a hellish mansion…!’

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t learn it yesterday?” Alsicle asked, bewildered.

“That’s what I thought. But you said that many other wizards learn and , didn’t you? We should see this as a separate case,” Yihan explained.

Alsicle felt a strong urge to slap Yihan’s mouth with his wing. Alsicle himself didn’t know it, but this was an impulse that the skeletal headmaster often felt as well.

“What’s next?” Yihan asked eagerly.

“Nnext is ggoing…” Alsicle stammered.

“Yes?”

“Next, we’ll go back in time and read it,” Alsicle said, regaining his composure. From here on out, it was a professional field of time magic that Alsicle hadn’t learned either, and most other wizards hadn’t learned either.

“Let’s look at this wizard card. Where was this wizard card a year ago?”

“I took it from a guest who came to the mansion!” Gainando yelled, jumping up and down. Alsicle tapped the wizard card with his staff as if to say he had spoken well.

“A year ago, it would have been with a guest who came to the mansion, and two years ago, it would have been with someone else. Reading the time this card has passed through can be said to be the true introduction to time magic.”

Handling time was on a different level from simply summoning and manipulating an element like other elements. It required a process of isolating and intervening in the wizard’s own domain, so even basic practice required tremendous difficulty.

This served to provide such basic practice, to allow the wizard to control the flow of time remaining on an object as they wished.

“Now, take this card and practice reading the past…”

Flap!

A giant golden eagle flew to the window of the mansion. The golden eagle had a crescent moon necklace around its neck.

“Ah. It’s here!” Yihan exclaimed.

“What is?” Alsicle asked.

“The item I bought at the Crescent Moon Auction. You have to pay for your helmet,” Yihan said, a little excited.

“Ah. You didn’t have to rush like this,” Alsicle replied.

While saying that, Yihan couldn’t help but feel a little excited. What kind of item had Alsicle bought?

Feeling his junior’s anticipation, Alsicle chuckled and unwrapped the package.

“Ta-da!”

A round silver shield the size of a buckler appeared from inside the package. The antique style and patterns made it feel like an artifact made long ago.

Yihan was startled. “Wasn’t this expensive?”

“It’s not that expensive. Because it has a lot of scratches, it’s old, it’s not a popular design these days, there are no jewels, and the effect is for practical use…”

Yihan was speechless at the all-too-realistic reasons.

“But I thought it would be quite useful for you, so I chose it. The magic on the shield was good.”

“What kind of magic is it?”

“Projectile Deceleration.”

Nilia paused at Alsicle’s words.

The magic wasn’t that rare. Of course, an artifact with the magic on it was a valuable item, but that was only the case for items with permanently engraved magic.

The Shadow Patrol hunters regularly went down the mountains to ask enchantment wizards for magic. It was to temporarily enchant their equipment before going hunting. One of the frequently seen magics at that time was . It was popular because it slowed down the heavy projectiles thrown by enemies, and above all, it was advantageous because it wasn’t that difficult, so most enchantment wizards could use it.

“Wodanaz,” Nilia whispered, tugging at Yihan’s sleeve. “Are you sure you weren’t tricked? This sounds like cheap magic.”

“…It’s called deceleration, but it’s different!” Alsicle bristled at his juniors’ reactions. As expected, the Einroguard natives were all violent and rude.

“Even with the same deceleration, the principles are different. Usually, projectile deceleration uses telekinesis or wind elements. But this decelerates projectiles with time magic.”

Yihan was surprised to hear Alsicle’s words. Nilia also asked in surprise, “Why block it in such a complicated way?”

“…Wizards originally do useless things. I don’t know. Maybe they were bored,” Alsicle shrugged. Asking a wizard ‘Why bother doing that with magic?’ was a question close to taboo. Basically, the moment you ask that question, more than half of the magic becomes unnecessary. Even though Alsicle himself didn’t make it!

“I thought this kind of shield would be good since you’ll be traveling around Einroguard. And it’ll be good for getting used to time magic.”

“Thank you, Pengarin. This kind of shield will definitely be a great help in Einroguard.”

“Why don’t you say anything about getting used to time magic,” Alsicle grumbled.

“Isn’t that obvious? Haha,” Yihan chuckled.

Yihan, having been caught in his thoughts, carefully took the silver shield. He didn’t know how useful this shield would be, but it was definitely more useful than the helmet.

“Yihan. Yihan.”

“Give me back the card…” Gainando whined.

Yihan returned the card, which he had taken to practice magic earlier, to Gainando. As soon as Gainando received the card, he put it deep inside his pocket and guarded his surroundings. ‘I won’t let anyone take it!’

“We’re here!” Dergyu announced as they arrived at the family’s mansion.

A tall golem made of smooth, grey stone greeted them at the gate. With a slow, creaking bow of its head, it turned and lumbered towards a beautiful garden filled with bright purple flowers and the sound of trickling water.

“Wow. Mr. Wodanaz. Does the golem work in the estate instead?” Siana asked, clearly impressed.

“That’s right,” Yihan confirmed.

“Truly befitting of the Empire’s magical family!”

Yihan didn’t bother to mention that demons occasionally appeared in the estate, because it wasn’t a particularly important fact.

“Did anything happen on the way here?” Yihan asked.

“The villagers were so kind,” Siana replied.

“That’s right. I was embarrassed because they kept giving me gifts,” Dergyu added.

Gainando grumbled, “My carriage… my coachman…”

“That’s not the villagers’ fault, Gainando,” Yihan said.

“Hmph. The villagers might have chased the coachman away,” Gainando muttered.

“Why would the villagers do that?” Yihan asked, confused.

Yihan was relieved that his friends seemed to have received proper treatment on their long journey (except for one). At this point, he wouldn’t feel too sorry as the person who invited them.

“Then, since everyone’s here, shall we go on an outing to the city tomorrow?” Yihan suggested.

“Tomorrow!? We just arrived today?” Priestess Siana was flustered.

“Then, the day after tomorrow?”

“Well, I need to greet the people in the mansion, visit the villages around the mansion and volunteer… It’ll take about a week…” Siana explained.

At Siana’s words, the friends exchanged complex glances.