Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 1101

“If a baby Barghest tries to bite you, don’t worry. Just let it happen. Their teeth are poisonous, but we can give you medicine after…”

Professor Bendozol stopped talking. He had been giving his students some very unusual advice.

His best student, from the Einroguard class, was holding something.

What could it be?

“…You! Hey! What are you holding there?!”

The loud shout made the baby Barghest jump from Leehahn’s arms. Leehahn looked at Professor Bendozol, confused.

“Why are you yelling? You scared the Barghest.”

“How did you already calm it down? I haven’t even given it the special drink yet!” Professor Bendozol exclaimed.

Leehahn blinked.

*Oh.* Now he understood. Gisele wasn’t trying to argue earlier. She was pointing out that he was already holding the baby Barghest.

“Why didn’t you just say so clearly?” Leehahn said to Gisele, a little annoyed. “You made it sound confusing.”

“……”

Gisele, who had been quietly watching, just stared at Leehahn. *Is he serious?* she thought, feeling angry for being told off for no reason. She wanted to shout back, but Professor Bendozol stepped forward.

Professor Bendozol moved closer to the baby Barghest, which was now on the ground. The creature growled softly, warning him to stay away.

“Blast it, it’s frightened!”

“It’s because you shouted, Professor,” Leehahn pointed out.

“I know, I know! Never mind. Here.” Professor Bendozol pulled out a thick whip and gave it to Leehahn.

Leehahn looked at the whip, his face asking, *What am I supposed to do with this?*

“Why are you giving me this?”

“Take it and hit me!”

“Huh?” Leehahn was surprised. *Is this some kind of trick?* he wondered.

But Professor Bendozol was serious. When Leehahn didn’t move, he shouted again, sounding annoyed. “You need to show the Barghest that you – the one it likes – can control me! Then it will feel safe and come out again!”

“Oh, I see.” Leehahn understood now. He took the whip and swung it gently. “Hiyah!”

“…Do you think Barghests are as dumb as you are? Do you think it will believe that? Hit me harder!”

“But Professor, you’ll get hurt…”

“Just hit me! I’m using magic to protect myself!”

“Hiyah! Okay.” Leehahn nodded.

Professor Bendozol forgot one thing: Leehahn was incredibly strong. He could easily defeat even the best students from the White Tiger Tower, even knights would struggle against him.

As Leehahn put magic into the whip, it started to hum even before he swung it.

*Whack!*

“Ugh!”

Professor Bendozol had made his skin tough with magic and tried to make his muscles springy to lessen the blow. But he still screamed as the hit went right through to his bones.

Leehahn hit him again. *Whack!* It sounded like hitting something hard and solid.

“Ugh, cough, hack, ugh!” Professor Bendozol groaned and coughed.

*The professor is really acting well,* Leehahn thought, impressed as Professor Bendozol rolled around on the floor. *Maybe his love for monsters makes him such a good actor?*

The baby Barghest, which had been hiding, slowly came out again and crawled back into Leehahn’s arms.

“Professor! Look! It feels safe now and it’s back!”

“Good, very good,” Professor Bendozol said, struggling to stand up. He felt like every part of his body was aching.

He wanted to yell at Leehahn, *“You crazy guy, you’re way too strong!”* but then he remembered the dragon was watching.

Professor Bendozol looked at Wooman and forced a big smile, trying to show that the lesson was going perfectly.

*Hmm. Professor Bendozol is a very good wizard, but he’s also very strange,* Wooman thought. *I should be careful around him.*

He knew lessons at Einroguard were unusual, but this was very odd!

While the dragon was thinking things that would make the professor very sad if he knew, Leehahn asked again, “Is this one special?”

Right after he spoke, another baby Barghest got out of its cage and jumped onto Leehahn.

Professor Bendozol’s mouth tightened with jealousy.

“Professor Bendozol,” Wooman said carefully, “May I say something?”

Wooman was being polite. He knew it wasn’t right for someone from outside to talk too much during a lesson. Even if the professor was strange, he deserved respect.

“Of course! Please do! What is it?”

“Wooman thinks that maybe these baby Barghests are just very impressed by pure magic power. That’s why they are coming to him.”

Dragons knew that strong magic could make some monsters feel small and obedient. Pure magic could be very impressive.

“Yes… that’s very likely,” Professor Bendozol agreed, nodding quickly.

-*Why is he looking at me like that?* the baby Basilisk thought from inside Leehahn’s sleeve. *Shouldn’t Leehahn and I be close like family, magic or no magic?*

“If Professor Bendozol brought the baby Barghests to show this,” Wooman continued, “then he is very clever. If they were grown-up Barghests, they would fight back instead of giving in.”

“Th-thank you!” Professor Bendozol almost cried. He couldn’t believe his lesson, which he thought was a disaster, was actually being praised.

“Then, Professor Bendozol,” Wooman said, “Will you now show the students how to calm the baby Barghests with special drinks and magic?”

“…Yes! Yes, I will!” The professor looked at all the students. Now he was determined to make the rest of the lesson work.

“Now, you little rasc…” Professor Bendozol started to say, about to threaten them if they failed. But then he stopped. He remembered the dragon might not like to hear such words.

“You… excellent… students… um… Wodanaz!” Professor Bendozol just called out Leehahn’s name. He couldn’t think of any nice words to encourage everyone else.

Luckily, the lesson ended well. It was because of Professor Bendozol’s secret methods and one student who worked very hard throughout the whole thing.

Wooman thought some parts were not great (the professor’s strange personality and making one student do all the work), but he still said very nice things to the professor and left.

“…Come here,” Professor Bendozol said as soon as the dragon was gone.

Leehahn was playing with the baby Barghests with his friends. He made it very clear he didn’t want to go to the professor.

“Just pretend you didn’t hear him, Wodanaz,” one friend whispered. “He’s going to get back at you now that the inspector is gone.”

“Hey, Wodanaz,” another friend said. “Weren’t you a bit too strong just now? I thought I heard bones cracking.”

Some of the White Tiger Tower students looked worried about how hard Leehahn had hit the professor. It seemed way too much for just a demonstration.

“But the professor told me to hit him hard?” Leehahn said, sounding confused.

“Yeah, but still, that sound…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Leehahn said. “The professor used magic to protect himself. He wasn’t really hurt.”

“Oh, is that right?” His friends looked unsure but accepted it. They knew Wodanaz understood magic better than them.

*Well, the one who got hit knows best,* one friend thought.

“Hey! You! Come here!” Professor Bendozol stomped over to them, breathing heavily. Leehahn pretended to be surprised.

“Professor! Oh, sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

“Do you think I’m stupid? Here, take this.” The professor pushed a rolled-up paper into Leehahn’s hand.

Leehahn didn’t open it. He looked at the paper carefully, as if it might bite him. “What is it? Just so you know, magic curses don’t work on me.”

“……” Professor Bendozol really wanted to hit him with the whip again, but he stopped himself. He snatched the paper back, opened it, and showed it to Leehahn. “It’s a request. From the Lucerne Pasture.”

The other students at Einroguard thought Professor Bendozol was a bit crazy (and they were kind of right). But outside the school, he was known as an expert on all kinds of animals and monsters.

He didn’t care about being famous and usually ignored requests. If someone asked him to help sick or hurt wild animals, he would rush to help for free. But those kinds of requests were rare. Most were from zoos in the Empire, asking for advice like, ‘I’m raising this animal, can you give me tips?’ Professor Bendozol hated the idea of people keeping animals in cages, so he never helped.

“This request…” Professor Bendozol said, sounding a little reluctant. “Even the older students really wanted this one. You should go and do it.”

The Lucerne Pasture was very famous in the Empire. Even Ka Mo, a top student from the White Tiger Tower, had wanted this request. Even if you didn’t care about riding animals, going there and seeing all the creatures would be a great experience.

*Tch. Now that I’m giving it away, I don’t like it,* Professor Bendozol thought, feeling a little sad. He hadn’t planned to go himself, but giving it to a student felt different. Even if Leehahn was his best student, how could he give up a chance to see so many amazing animals in the Empire? It felt wrong, even if it made his stomach hurt. Professor Bendozol was usually selfish, but giving this away was a big change for him. And to give it to the student he was most jealous of…

“Wow. Thank you, Professor,” Leehahn said calmly.

“…Is that all?” Professor Bendozol was surprised Leehahn wasn’t more excited. He didn’t expect tears or a big emotional thank you, but he thought Leehahn would be a little more surprised.

“Actually,” Leehahn said, “I need to tell you something too.”

“What is it?”

“I already have a lot of requests right now, so I’m not sure if I’ll have time for this one…”

“…GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!” Professor Bendozol roared.

*Why did he have to get so angry?* Leehahn wondered, shaking his head at the professor’s strange behavior. He left the lecture hall. What could he do? He really did have a lot of requests already. It wasn’t his fault. *That’s probably why dragons don’t like him,* Leehahn thought, a little meanly.

He arrived at Professor Voladi’s lecture hall in the basement. He could find it with his eyes closed now.

“?” Leehahn stopped, confused as he opened the door. Professor Voladi’s lecture hall was usually changed into all sorts of strange places to… well, to train Leehahn. But today, it was…

*Normal?* It looked like a regular classroom, with desks and chairs. Leehahn became alert, wondering if it was a trick. Maybe there was a trap, or even a monster that Professor Voladi had grown to look like a desk.

“Sit down,” Professor Voladi said, pointing to a chair. Leehahn slowly sat, still looking around suspiciously. *Is there a trap that will start when I sit down?*

“I heard you have many requests this semester,” Professor Voladi said. “It will be hard for you to find time for lessons.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Leehahn agreed. Requests usually took time. And Leehahn had gotten many invitations, so it was even harder. If a student had some free time, they could manage, but Leehahn’s schedule was packed tighter than his test papers were empty.

“I was planning to catch up on the lessons I miss later, like last semester,” Leehahn explained.

Professor Voladi nodded. Then he said, “I will teach you the lesson little by little, during our regular class time.”

“…Professor!” Leehahn was surprised. He didn’t expect Professor Voladi to be so thoughtful.

“Wait,” Leehahn said, “Did someone tell you to do this?”

“Professor Garcia asked me to,” Professor Voladi replied.

“Ah.” Leehahn understood now. It was still kind of nice, even if it was less impressive now. Professor Voladi was taking time from his own lessons to help him.

*Wait a minute,* Leehahn thought. *Does this mean I have to do lessons even when I’m away on requests?*