Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 796

Ragesa and the Chainsaw Pirates pulled out their rusty axes and hooked blades, ready to jump. They stood still and silent, like hunters hidden in the trees, waiting for a deer to wander into their trap.

*Almost professional,* Ihan thought, impressed. He already respected these pirates, but seeing them so focused made him admire them even more.

Professor Verdus, not noticing the danger, walked by with a calm look on his face.

“That Gonadal Tes is such a fool. Did I ask for much? Just five crates of diamonds for fuel, and he refuses! Is he even a wizard!?”

“Attack! Get that swindling conman!!!”

Ragesa roared, and pirates exploded from the dark hallways. Professor Verdus jumped, yelling,

“What!? What is it!?”

“Give back my gold coins, you conning scoundrel!”

“A failed investment is the investor’s responsibility!”

Professor Verdus did not panic when the pirates attacked. He had been attacked like this many times before.

The professor’s belt and amulet flashed with a blinding white light, pushing the pirates back.

Instantly, the distance between Professor Verdus and the pirates grew.

“You conning scoundrel! What? You promised to build me a flying pirate ship? Where is that pirate ship!”

“Great magic requires trial and error!”

Ihan watched, his eyebrows furrowing. *A conman?* he thought, a frown growing on his face. *Conning pirates? That’s even lower than being a pirate.*

Professor Verdus’s skin turned pale and swelled with a bluish hue. Ragesa had messed with the professor’s blood, stopping it from flowing.

The professor gasped for breath, barely able to twitch his boots. Then, a Curse Expulsion Wave was used, and the problem vanished.

Meanwhile, pirates with chains rushed forward.

Ragesa shouted loudly,

“Whoever catches him first will be freed!”

The pirates’ eyes burned like hot coals.

For those captured while pirating and forced to work, freedom was the only thing they dreamed of.

*An item with magic resistance, I see.*

Ihan realized this as he watched the pirates withstand the magic missiles fired by Professor Verdus and keep moving forward.

The chains not only held back the pirates but also acted as a shield, protecting them from magic. It was a special item rarely seen even in Einrogard.

Clang!

The pirates swung enchanted axes and cutlasses, trying to break the force field.

Professor Verdus cried out urgently from within,

“Inside Einrogard, I am protected by the law of the territory, not the Empire! You can’t do this!”

“I came with basic permission from the lord, you conman. Drop the force field! I’ll just rough you up a bit and take what you have!”

“Who called these pirates?!”

Professor Verdus grumbled and started summoning items from his pocket dimension.

Luckily, after being betrayed and attacked by nasty fellow professors, his defenses were stronger.

Seeing this, Ragesa became even angrier.

“How many people have you conned to be walking around so heavily armed!”

Someone who doesn’t know much about magic might think that a wizard can easily use magic.

They might imagine that flying swords and shields can be summoned with a simple gesture.

But behind the amazing magic, a lot of effort is needed.

Those items, for example, need constant care, charging, and daily checks.

Waking up in the morning means checking each item, preparing them for the day, and thinking about combinations that work well together…

Right now, Professor Verdus was more heavily defended than most pirate captains.

To think that he took all that money and couldn’t even make a single sail for a pirate ship, yet he was so careful with his own defense—it made her even angrier.

“Magic, swirl and shake the magic!”

The pirate crone waved her sword and chanted.

Ihan’s eyes widened at the amazing sight.

*The magic is being mixed up!*

The flow of magic in any space is supposed to follow certain rules.

Wizards read and use that flow of magic to cast spells.

But now, Ragesa was making that flow irregular, turning the surroundings into chaos.

As a result, the spells that had been cast began to mix and become confused.

The sword that Professor Verdus had summoned, a wedge of light meant to block the enemy, faltered, lost its direction, and plunged into the ceiling. The magic missiles that had been firing wildly also twisted strangely, hitting the walls and floor.

That wasn’t all. The force field protecting the professor collided with itself, creaking and creating gaps. Professor Verdus, very alarmed, began to reinforce it.

*I think I know why Professor Begreck called for her.*

Ragesa’s magic was like a storm, wild and unpredictable, unlike the calm, controlled magic Ihan knew.

If Yumidihus had attacked Professor Verdus, he would have cast a counter-spell to stop the item or fought head-on to break through it.

But Ragesa dragged her opponent into a chaotic, muddy brawl rather than a direct fight.

In such cases, the situation could become bad for her. The magic mixing from just now could easily backfire.

But Ragesa, like a true pirate, didn’t care about the chaos. She actually liked it. She thought the more chaotic things were, the better for her.

*There’s much to learn if I fight a stronger wizard than the skeletal headmaster—no, why did the skeletal headmaster’s name come up just now? Anyway, a stronger wizard than me.*

When fighting someone stronger, you can’t win with a head-on fight. You have to somehow shake things up and create surprises.

“…Eit!”

Professor Verdus, realizing things were not going well, quickly reached into the air and plunged his hand into his pocket dimension.

Then, he grabbed whatever was inside and threw it.

Clink!

Imperial gold coins, jewels, rare ingredients, and items were thrown onto the floor.

Like a lizard cutting off its tail, Professor Verdus scattered treasures on the floor and ran away. Ragesa scoffed at the sight.

“Hmph. No need to chase him. I’ll forgive him this time.”

“Truly generous.”

Ihan quickly flattered her.

If he made a good impression, maybe he could be called to the lecture hall for the next Professor Verdus lecture?

*I want to show this to my seniors.*

“Kihhihi. You have an eye for things. Wait. Why didn’t you use the necklace?”

The pirate crone realized that Ihan hadn’t used the necklace he had received and was surprised.

“You told me to wear it, right?”

“…Usually, you wear it and use it. You little whelp! If I tell you to eat, will you just stuff bread in your mouth and not drink the wine?”

Ragesa was shocked by Ihan’s answer.

When Ragesa had mixed the magic of space, a wizard would have felt dizzy.

It was rare for a wizard not to feel dizzy when the surrounding magic was being reversed.

But this kid was standing there with a calm face without using the necklace.

“I will use it next time.”

“…Good! Good, I say!”

Impressed by his talent, Ragesa laughed and patted Ihan’s back hard. Ihan swayed back and forth, thinking,

*What’s so good about it?*

“Um. I have a question, Ragesa.”

“I know, I know.”

The pirate crone nodded.

She knew he was interested in her magic, and after seeing the fight, it would be hard to resist.

She would normally test someone who came with trials, but Ragesa decided to skip it this time.

He was a student of Yumidihus and Begreck, and she liked his clever and cunning ways.

“I have no choice! I have to explain the magic I showed you today.”

“Yes? Not that, I was just wondering how much Professor Verdus had conned…”

Ragesa stared at Ihan, shocked.

The pirates in chains behind them also looked surprised.

*Is that what he’s curious about right now?*

“Ah. Sorry. I’ll call him Professor Verdus.”

“That’s not why I’m surprised! Are you seriously curious about that? Hmm. Bibles took roughly… twenty crates of Imperial gold coins? Something like that, I think.”

Ihan’s eyes widened in shock and horror.

“Th-Then, you let him live?”

“I didn’t know it back then. I thought a flying pirate ship would be coming soon.”

Ragesa frowned, looking resentful even now.

“By the time I found out I was conned, he had already fled to Einrogard!”

*Maybe to catch magical criminals, you should search Einrogard instead of the Empire?*

“Don’t go investing recklessly.”

“Yes. I will receive investments.”

“Kihi. Right. You’re different from that Bibles, so I think you’ll be careful.”

Ihan looked away for a moment. Luckily, the great pirate didn’t notice.

“So, about the magic you asked about. Let’s see… where should I start?”

Ihan tilted his head.

*Did I ask about it?*

He didn’t think he had…

But Ihan remained still. The pirate seemed to be in a good mood.

“Do you remember me casting magic with one or two syllables in the underground lecture hall earlier?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think that is?”

“Spell shortening… isn’t it?”

At Ihan’s words, the pirate crone laughed as if she had been waiting for it. The crone, who had been clapping and stomping her feet, barely stopped giggling and said,

“Yes, yes! I knew you’d think that! Wizards who see it for the first time all think that way. But it’s not. This is pirate magic, our family’s pride.”

Spell shortening, which compressed spells into short utterances, and the magic that Ragesa cast with spells like ‘Ee-ha’ or ‘Eye-ya’ were very different.

*Now that I hear it, it’s true.*

Even with spell shortening, there was usually a word or abbreviation that symbolized the magic.

Since spells were tools to help wizards concentrate, they couldn’t be completely unrelated.

But spells like ‘Ee-ha’ or ‘Eye-ya’ seemed to have nothing to do with turning a chair into parrots or turning a back door into a wall.

“While the Imperial wizards were racking their brains, my ancestor simply trusted himself to the flow of magic. And then, he shouted like a pirate.”

Ihan’s expression turned strange as he listened.

So, now…?

*Are you telling me it’s random magic?*

Magic always required careful calculation and control.

Otherwise, the magic could hurt the wizard himself.

But Ragesa was denying the very basics of Imperial magic.

Roughly draw out magic and throw it freely!

“…Uh, then doesn’t the magic go out a bit randomly?”

“It tends to be a bit like that. Actually, I was hoping for a bald eagle earlier, but a parrot came out. But a parrot is a good bird too, isn’t it? A pirate’s friend.”

“What if the magic flows in an unexpected direction?”

“You have to enjoy that flow! Even ordinary magic sometimes flows in unexpected directions, doesn’t it?”

Ihan remembered the time when the fire magic was about to flow in an unexpected direction.

*Can you enjoy this?*