Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 686

A creaking sound echoed from inside the workshop, the sound of a sliding door being pulled open.

A figure stepped out, scattering dry leaves onto the oak floor. It was Ilendil, a senior student who was part Dryad, a tree spirit. He spotted Ethan and was overjoyed.

“Ethan! Ethan Wardanaz, is that really you?”

“Yes.”

Ilendil, recalling his junior while pointing, continued in a slow tone.

“Ah, yes! You’re the one who got mixed up with that dark spirit, aren’t you? The one who helped it last time…”

That’s not exactly how it happened, Ethan thought.

To be precise, it was more like attacking and subduing a rampaging dark spirit, then forcibly making a contract.

And it seemed like the contract wasn’t Ethan’s idea, but rather Ilendil pressured him into it…

“Ah. Yes, that’s right.”

“And the person next to you is… Ugh.”

Ilendil quickly stepped back upon seeing Dirette’s face.

“H-hello… Senior…”

“Y-yes. Hello.”

Dirette waved with an awkward expression.

Ilendil, also with an awkward expression, hid behind the workshop’s bellows and bowed his head.

The atmosphere suddenly became as suffocating as a tea party with Adenart and his followers, Ethan looked around.

Unfortunately, there were no other juniors present besides Ethan.

‘I need to move up to the second year quickly.’

Ethan sighed deeply. If there were no juniors, Ethan would have to resolve the situation himself.

“Dirette Senior, what happened between you two?”

At the junior’s whispered question, Dirette, eyeing Ilendil, replied in a hushed voice.

“I told you before, didn’t I? When the black magic school kids went into the forest to gather reagents, Ilendil attacked me.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Ethan recall the past conflict between the black magic school and Ilendil.

In fact, it wasn’t limited to just the black magic school.

Every school in Einroguard needed reagents from the forest.

It was common for students entering the forest to damage it out of greed, and it was only natural for Ilendil, who was trying to protect the forest, to clash with them.

“Oh, but Senior, if other seniors are awkward, I can understand, but why is Dirette Senior awkward?”

“Well, I went to rescue them since we’re in the same school…”

Dirette brought up the backstory of the incident that he hadn’t told before.

When the black magic school students attacked by Ilendil were captured, Dirette naturally went to rescue them as a senior.

When he arrived, the black magic school students were being held by forest golems…

…Dirette had no choice but to destroy all the forest golems and rescue the students.

“Oh, doesn’t it take quite a bit of effort to create golem-type summons? You destroyed them all?”

“I had no choice in that situation! The golems were quite violent.”

‘Senior is quite extreme too.’

Thinking that Dirette would grab him by the collar and say, ‘Are you one to talk?’, Ethan nodded.

Ilendil, who had been staring at the two from behind the workshop’s bellows, asked cautiously.

“You seem… close to the black magic school…”

“I’m also listening to black magic, you know.”

“Wh-what?! Why…!?”

“Well, I can listen, can’t I?”

Dirette replied, a little annoyed.

Why is it so surprising to hear black magic?

…Of course, it was surprising…

At that reaction, Ilendil was horrified and lowered his stance.

“Eek.”

“…N-no, I’m not angry. Junior. Look. I’m not angry, see?”

“Isn’t that what people who are usually angry say?”

“Whose side are you on?”

“…Senior! Dirette Senior isn’t angry! Look! You can come out!”

Ilendil hesitantly stood up.

However, his eyes still seemed full of wariness towards Dirette.

“Just how did you destroy the forest golems…”

“Hey, Junior. It’s because you didn’t see it back then! I didn’t say it, but he’s also a crazy junior!”

Dirette was taken aback.

As a senior, he didn’t want to badmouth a junior from another school, but Ilendil was also one crazy junior.

Without a word, he tried to smash Dirette’s undead army with the forest golems.

Dirette also wanted to resolve it peacefully, but because he was ambushed, he had no choice but to explode the undead army and blow away the entire vicinity.

“What brings you here…?”

“Ah. Well, you see.”

Ethan pointed outside the workshop window, indicating the ominous group of wizards gathering.

Still unable to give up, they were wandering around looking for Ethan, resembling a cult group.

Ilendil seemed to think so too, as he asked back in horror.

“Cultists?!”

“It’s not that.”

Ethan chose only the less strange parts of what had happened today to explain.

Because he was active in the exchange meeting, all sorts of wizards were chasing after him…

“Ah. I’ve had that happen to me too.”

Ilendil slowly nodded, agreeing with Ethan’s words.

He had gone to an alchemists’ society in the past and was quite bothered by all the scout offers.

“That must have been tough… Wait.”

Ilendil frowned as if he had spotted someone outside the window.

It was Yukbeltire.

Revealing animosity that didn’t suit his usual indifferent and slow attitude, Ilendil asked.

“That evil wizard came too?”

“……”

“……”

Ethan and Dirette exchanged glances.

‘I guess we should hide that we’re close?’

‘Yeah…’

Ilendil said firmly.

“You’ve come to the right place. Make yourself at home.”

“Thank you, Senior.”

Ilendil, having finished talking to Ethan, looked at Dirette.

Unlike his earlier wariness, respect could be seen in his eyes.

To think he would enter another school’s workshop to protect his junior from someone like Yukbeltire.

“I didn’t know you were such a warm person, Senior.”

“Hmm.”

Dirette was embarrassed.

In fact, he was also friends with that evil wizard outside, but if he said that, he would probably never become friends with this alchemy school junior.

“I… just did what I had to do.”

“That’s what’s amazing.”

Feeling like he couldn’t bear the guilt any longer if he heard any more praise, Dirette changed the subject.

“I’ll keep an eye on whether that evil wizard is coming from over there.”

“……”

Ethan was dumbfounded as he watched Dirette slip away.

Even so, what kind of excuse is that?

“What were you doing?”

“Making potions… I need to secure research funding for this year.”

Ilendil, who prioritised the forest regardless of his alchemy skills, had limited requests he could take.

As such, he had no choice but to focus more on potion-making requests like this.

“I want to conduct research on the species that trolls prefer as food…”

“……”

Ethan was even more shocked than when he met the Pride Duke today.

Was it Ilendil Senior who proposed that crazy research!?

“Wh… why is that?”

Ilendil’s face brightened as the commendable junior showed interest in the research.

“Are you perhaps interested?”

“I was just curious about what kind of research it is.”

Ethan, terrified, quickly changed his words, but Ilendil had already interpreted it as he pleased.

“Forest trolls are powerful monsters, but… at the same time, they’re also monsters that maintain the forest’s ecosystem. They also play a role in dealing with enemies coming from outside…”

“…S-so, you’re trying to research the species they prefer as food in order to raise those forest trolls?”

At Ethan’s words, Ilendil paused. It was quite an interesting idea.

“I’ve never thought about it, but… maybe we could think about it that way.”

“Ah, no. I think I was wrong.”

“Really? That’s also a good idea…”

Ilendil slowly unfolded the research he had written.

As forest trolls were threatening monsters, there was also a lot of damage caused by them.

In the midst of this, Ilendil noted that the damage to some species was particularly severe.

Perhaps there were species that forest trolls preferred as food?

If he could figure that out, adventurers or forest keepers entering places where forest trolls appeared could approach more safely.

If there were no species that they preferred as food in the party, the forest trolls wouldn’t react either.

‘It was a more normal study than I thought?’

It was a normal study to analyse forest trolls more deeply in order to reduce the damage caused by forest trolls.

It’s just that the title was a bit strange…

“That sounds like a fun study.”

“Really?!”

Ilendil was overjoyed.

Although it wasn’t very noticeable because his movements were slow.

“Then would you like to participate in the study? It’ll definitely be fun.”

Dirette, who was standing by the window in the distance, waved his hand in horror.

It was a signal to refuse unconditionally.

In the first place, there was nothing good about a second-year Einroguard student participating in the research of seniors.

Of course, it wasn’t like there was nothing to gain.

By helping the magic of seniors who were better than him, he could also grow.

However, in Dirette’s opinion, Ethan now had too many opportunities to grow by helping the magic of magicians who were better than him.

Starting with the professor right away…

‘If you help the seniors too, you definitely won’t be able to handle it!’

“W-well, I’ll think about it.”

“I knew you’d be interested…!”

“I didn’t agree, I said I’d think about it.”

Ethan suddenly noticed Yukbeltire walking far away on the main street.

And then he looked at Ilendil in front of him.

‘…Wait. Aren’t the two of them not that different?’

It seemed like he would only be digging his own grave if he talked more about the research, so Ethan changed the subject.

“Come to think of it, what kind of potion did you get a request for?”

“Ah. This is… a potion I developed. I call it >Liberation from the Skull>.”

“That’s a unique name. What kind of effect does it have?”

“It has the effect of temporarily paralysing the magic that the headmaster has cast.”

“……”

Ethan was taken aback by the unexpected effect of the potion.

Come to think of it, Ilendil had a history of appearing in front of his juniors in the forest last time.

He wouldn’t have been able to do that if it wasn’t for the potion he made.

“Wait, who’s buying this?”

“Other Einroguard students will buy it.”

Dirette answered instead, with his arms crossed.

Ilendil’s potion was already famous among some students who knew about it.

“Is this that useful? I’ve never seen any seniors use it…”

“It’s not used to meet juniors, it’s used to avoid the headmaster’s henchmen. Among the headmaster’s henchmen, there are guys who smell the magic that the headmaster has cast and chase after you.”

‘It’s really not easy!’

Ethan regretted thinking that he ‘now knew a little about Einroguard’ after finishing his first year.

It seemed like he would never be able to know Einroguard. Not even after graduating.

‘But I’m glad I found out about it this time.’

“Can you teach me too?”

You have to learn in advance at times like this, so that you have at least one chance to escape from the Skull Headmaster’s grasp later on.

Ethan asked politely. Fortunately, Ilendil readily agreed.

“Yeah… it’s not difficult.”

‘It’s going to be very difficult…?’

Dirette thought to himself at Ilendil’s words.

If it really wasn’t difficult, Einroguard students wouldn’t need to pay Ilendil a lot of money to buy it.

Alchemy potions may seem simple on the surface, but they become infinitely difficult, so Dirette, who has some knowledge of them, doesn’t try to make them himself when they become difficult, but entrusts them to an expert.

“Is this how you do it?”

“Not bad…”

“Like this here?”

“Good… keep going.”

“Is this finished?”

“Wait a minute. Let me check… That’s right. It’s finished.”

“!?”

Dirette jumped up as he listened to their conversation.

Who just finished what now?!