Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 983

‘Oh. I’m spacing out again.’

The conversation happening next to him was so interesting that even a brief glance made him stare, as if bewitched.

Illeniel shook his head and refocused on the Valdrogard student.

‘Friendly… is he? Well… I suppose you could say he’s friendly…’

That junior from the Wodanaz family was certainly sociable and had a wide circle of friends.

Illeniel, who had few relationships beyond a couple of juniors (and even those juniors he didn’t feel particularly comfortable around), could sense it instinctively.

That junior was the complete opposite of him!

In the first place, it was hard not to be well-connected when taking courses from all the different schools. The fact that it applied to Valdrogard students as well was a bit surprising, though…

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: I see. Anyway, he’s a senior I don’t know well. I’ll let you know if I find him.

‘Probably won’t find him in this lifetime, though.’

Ifeldrem: Thank you!

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Ask Gonadaltez. Gonadaltez knows about things like that.

To reconcile the two, Illeniel did his best, however inadequate his skills might be.

Ifeldrem, who was wary of Gonadaltez, seemed slightly swayed by the prospect of finding the 6th-year Wodanaz senior.

Ifeldrem: I don’t want to associate with him because he’s grumpy and mean… but I understand. I’ll think about it.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: A wizard should learn how to associate even with people they don’t like.

“I cannot allow another artificial demigod.”

“Why not!”

“Learn to control it. To change it because it is difficult to handle is the act of a coward, not something a disciple of the royal family should do.”

Coincidentally, next to him, he saw a junior associating with someone he didn’t like, or rather, an artificial demigod.

Seeing that, Illeniel felt even more certain about what he had said.

Ifeldrem: That’s a good point! You’re absolutely right! Actually, I’ve had a similar experience. When I enrolled in Valdrogard, I bought a new mansion nearby, but I just didn’t get along with the newly hired maids. I guess it’s because it’s the western part of the Empire, so the customs were a bit unfamiliar.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Wow… that must have been really tough.

Illeniel sincerely regretted not being a member of the Black Magic School.

If he had mastered high-level curses, he could have easily cursed someone he didn’t even know.

Ifeldrem: But as time passed, we became friends. And once we became friends, I realized their good qualities.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Okay. Can we stop talking now?

Illeniel was starting to want to end the conversation.

The more they talked, the more her insides would churn.

However, Ifeldrem had no intention of letting the Einrogard student, who had taken the trouble to talk to her, go so easily.

Ifeldrem: Um, would you mind if I asked you a few questions about magic?

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Why don’t you ask a Valdrogard senior or a professor?

Illeniel retorted with a hint of spite.

If it was a truly profound question about magic, it wouldn’t be easy for the Valdrogard wizards to answer.

But the answer that came back was unexpected.

Ifeldrem: Right now, all the seniors and professors have gone on a spring flower memorial imperial carriage trip.

“……”

Illeniel felt a surge of intense murderous intent rising within him, as if he were looking at an outsider destroying the forest.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: …Ask away. Wait, why didn’t you go?

Ifeldrem: Oh, it’s because the magic I’m researching right now is so interesting!

“?”

Illeniel tilted his head.

Then, unable to understand, he called out to Ihan.

“Um, excuse me…”

The mad doppelganger glared coldly at him for disturbing his disciple who was diligently learning magic with the artificial demigod.

Illeniel, cowed by the look, lowered his head.

“Ah, it’s nothing…”

“I see. Make sure it continues to be nothing.”

“Yes, sir.”

Illeniel obediently averted his gaze.

A Valdrogard student stopping playing because magic is fun.

‘It must be a coincidence or a misunderstanding…?’

Ifeldrem: Right now, I’m designing compressed magic circles and laminated magic circles myself. Basically, the sum of the increase and decrease in magic power within a closed magic circle should be the same, right? But if you look here, the magic power is spiking in reverse only in the rhombic dodecahedron ruby reagent part. I don’t know where I made a mistake.

“!??!?!”

Compressed magic circles were a technique of compressing and engraving more than a dozen magic circles into one.

A high-level technique that even Einrogard Enchantment School students usually only began to learn in their senior years!

Laminated magic circles were the same. They involved stacking different magic circles vertically and creating synergistic and linked effects, which was more difficult, if not impossible, than compressed magic circles.

And yet, this Valdrogard student was asking about it.

Illeniel wondered if he was being deceived.

Was the other person perhaps an Einrogard student pretending to be a Valdrogard student??

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: How many years have you been in school again?

Ifeldrem: Me? I’m a third-year.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: When you entered Valdrogard… did you receive offers from other magic schools?

Ifeldrem: Oh? How did you know? I received an invitation from Petrograd.

Petrograd Magic School was definitely not just a magic school in name only, like Valdrogard.

It was a place that cultivated outstanding magic item artisans.

If he had received an offer from such a place, it was understandable that he was showing that level of magic despite being a third-year at Valdrogard.

A third-year at Petrograd…

‘No, still, that’s amazing, isn’t it?’

At that level, he was likely one of the most outstanding geniuses even in Petrograd. Illeniel, unable to understand, asked again.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Why didn’t you go to Petrograd?

Ifeldrem: Because all my friends decided to go to Valdrogard.

“……”

Illeniel unknowingly let out a deep sigh.

The officials of the Empire regarded Einrogard as a thorn in their side, but in reality, the real thorn was Valdrogard.

A hellish place that took in wizards who might have talent and let those sprouts rot!

“Have you finished persuading him?”

A junior’s voice came from behind him.

Turning around, he saw that the collar of his neck was badly scorched, as if it had been hit by flames. Illeniel asked in surprise.

“The, the doppelganger…?”

“Huh? Ah. No. I made a mistake while practicing magic because I got too excited.”

Ignoring the artificial demigod’s claim that it was useless, Ihan went into his own magic training.

When he thought about it, there was no reason to listen to the artificial demigod or the mad doppelganger telling him to learn powerful and evil magic.

Ihan just had to do the magic he wanted to do.

And as a result, he realized something unexpected.

That the power of the artificial demigod was much more useful than he had thought.

-The success rate has really gone up! Amazing!

-Too boring…

-Please continue to do so in the future.

-When will you dominate the continent…

There was no need to draw out or use power as extremely as the mad doppelganger did.

If he only used it as an assistant, it wasn’t very difficult, and it was much more useful to Ihan at the moment.

It increased the probability of success for difficult magic that had a high chance of failure during the current casting.

The good thing about divinity was that it allowed him to intuitively implement difficult phenomena that would normally require hundreds of processes and theories if it was magic.

Thanks to this, Ihan, who was excited, rode the momentum and almost burned his clothes while practicing a new fire attribute.

“I’m, I’m glad… I thought the doppelganger had attacked you.”

“Ah. Well, I thought you’d be angry that I was only practicing such easy magic.”

“That’s not what I meant…”

That wasn’t what Illeniel meant.

In the first place, all the magic that his junior was practicing now was not at a level that a second-year student should be doing.

“But surprisingly, you didn’t get angry.”

“Oh, really…?”

“Yes. You told me to do whatever I wanted?”

“?”

Illeniel tilted his head.

No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t believe that the mad doppelganger had said that.

“Ah! I get it! If it was a sarcastic remark…”

“So I asked if you were being sarcastic, and you got angry.”

“……”

Illeniel stared at Ihan with a look of astonishment.

The most mysterious thing about this junior was not his innate magic power or his innate talent for magic.

It was the madness to be able to say such things in front of the doppelganger of a mad archmage.

How could he say such things?

“Anyway, that’s not it. I think this is the right way to use it… Senior, why don’t you try using it too?”

“N-no, I’m fine.”

Illeniel answered immediately, shaking his head.

If he could borrow the power of divinity, he would just use it to revive and regenerate the forest, and he didn’t want to practice high-level magic by contacting a suspicious artificial demigod.

Who but a magic-crazed person would do such a thing?

“So, Senior. Did you persuade him well?”

“Oh? Oh, yeah…”

Illeniel summarized what had happened simply.

He spoke well to the other person, persuaded him, and it turned out that the other person was this kind of wizard…

“…What kind of ridiculous lies are you telling me?”

“It’s… it’s true!!!”

When his junior looked at him as if he was dumbfounded, Illeniel felt genuinely wronged.

There really was such a wizard in Valdrogard!

‘It’s just my guess, but my master seems to be in a pretty good mood right now.’

Ihan thought as he walked out.

If that wasn’t the case, some of the things that had happened recently couldn’t be explained.

Teaching other students in place of the professor, or not getting angry even when Ihan didn’t do what he was told and practiced easy (only from the mad doppelganger’s perspective) magic…

There was only one theory that explained all these mysterious phenomena.

The mad doppelganger was in a very good mood!

“…?”

The mad doppelganger looked at his disciple as if he was suspicious of something.

There was no evidence, but he felt that his disciple was having arrogant and impious thoughts.

Regardless, Ihan continued to think.

‘Then you’ll be able to understand what I’m about to do now.’

“Master!”

“What is it?”

“I’m about to go to the next lecture, is that okay with you?”

“…What kind of lecture is it that you’re asking me separately about it?”

The mad doppelganger’s understanding of his disciple had definitely increased.

The very fact that he was asking meant that it wasn’t a normal lecture.

“Swordsmanship lecture, [Sword and Life>…”

“……”

At the sight of the mad doppelganger’s face distorting, Ihan realized that he had misjudged.

That was definitely not the energy that someone in a good mood could emit.

‘Damn it. I misjudged.’

He had boldly spoken, thinking he was in a good mood, but he ended up losing out.

“To be taking a swordsmanship lecture in the midst of all this. Do you really not know what’s important right now?”

“I was already taking it…”

“Quiet! Even if the level of other magic is insignificant, you haven’t strayed from the path. But swordsmanship is a different story.”

“Doesn’t swordsmanship also help with magic when it reaches a high level?”

“That’s a ridiculously roundabout way. Why go around the path when the day is already setting?”

The mad doppelganger didn’t deny that there were parts where high-level swordsmanship was connected to magic.

After all, using power and changing the world was the same thing.

But it was foolish for a wizard to waste time learning swordsmanship just because of that commonality.

“Wait. Didn’t you also learn close combat, Master?”

Ihan recalled a memory from the past and asked.

You learned it yourself, but you’re telling your disciple that it’s a waste of time?

“It is because the royal family has learned it directly that I am saying there is no need to do so. When magic reaches its peak, trivial skills become unnecessary.”

The mad doppelganger was much more stubborn than he thought.

He didn’t waver at all even when he brought up the past.

“…The senior who teaches this lecture is quite unique, aren’t you curious?”

“I’m not curious.”

“He casts all sorts of magic with swordsmanship.”

The mad doppelganger paused for a moment.

Then he opened his mouth again.

“Lead the way.”

“!”