Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 1183

Professor Thunderstride stopped in his tracks, eyes wide. “What in the world is *that* on your head?” he boomed, his voice echoing in the potion room.

Yihan glanced up, unfazed, a tiny hamster clinging to his hair. “Alchemy practice, Professor,” he said calmly. “This is a wizard who infiltrated the school. He’s… helping me. In hamster form.”

Professor Thunderstride blinked, then let out a short laugh. “A wizard-hamster? Really?”

The hamster on Yihan’s head twitched its nose and swayed precariously, almost losing its grip. It peered around the room with bright, beady eyes. *Alcohol,* it seemed to think, *surely a place like this has some decent spirits hidden away.*

It wasn’t a secret, of course. Headmaster Skull himself knew about the trapped wizard-turned-hamster. The professors at Einroguard were bound to have heard the rumors. But hearing it stated so plainly, so matter-of-factly, while a hamster wobbled on his student’s head… it was still quite something.

“Ah. That magical criminal. You’re seeking his advice, are you?” Professor Thunderstride, understanding the situation, gave a derisive snort. There was a certain pride in that snort.

Professor Thunderstride thought, with pride. *Even a famous magical criminal, even one as powerful as an Archmage, can’t be good at everything.* Especially criminals who stay away from the Imperial schools. They miss out on important knowledge.

An Einroguard professor wouldn’t easily shrink away even when meeting an Archmage, let alone a magical criminal…

“I wonder if he’ll really be of any help?”

“You don’t have to worry, Professor. I’ll only have him oversee simple tasks.”

Professor Thunderstride had no idea that the young prince had already finished receiving all the necessary advice.

Regardless, the hamster wanted to bite his tongue in humiliation.

*To be ignored by that brat was shameful enough, but now even by this dwarf! Oversee simple tasks, what’s that supposed to mean?*

Professor Thunderstride, intrigued, dragged a round iron chair over, plopping down heavily. Taking out his pipe and lighting it, the professor gestured with one hand. “I’ll watch from here, so go on and do it.”

“Oh, Professor.”

“What?”

“I was wondering if it would be alright if I increased my time off-campus.”

“Oh dear. You must have a lot of requests piling up.”

Professor Thunderstride wasn’t particularly surprised by his student’s words. In this semester where external requests were allowed, the young man from the Wodanaz family had received the most requests. The number far surpassed the record previously set by Professor Garcia.

As such, it was understandable that he would want to increase the time he spent off-campus. Even if he only accepted the requests that he really couldn’t refuse from the current pile, an entire semester would simply fly by.

“Do as you please. The first-years are taking care of the garden anyway, and you won’t fall behind in your studies just because you spend a little more time outside.”

Professor Thunderstride clicked his tongue in disappointment.

Nothing in the world was truly eternal, but he couldn’t help but make comparisons. Comparing the current first-years with Yihan during his first year, no matter how hard the first-years worked, there was a clear difference between them and their senior.

“The first-years are taking care of it?”

“Yes. They need to learn how to work, too.”

Yihan thought, *Wasn’t the professor just too lazy to do it himself?* Even as he thought this, Yihan continued his work, boiling water in the distiller to evaporate the reagents.

Of course, there were things to be learned from managing an alchemist’s garden. But that was that, and this was this. The fact that Professor Thunderstride was passing off work to his students remained unchanged.

*I should pack some groceries near the garden.*

Thanks to His Highness Uman, the first-years’ diet had improved a bit, but they were still struggling. Yihan resolved to set aside various preserved foods, starting with high-calorie and filling canned goods, to leave behind.

The juniors probably wouldn’t know how to sneak food out of Professor Thunderstride’s basement…

“Separate now,” Yihan murmured to himself, focusing on the potion. Alchemy was often called a ‘composite magic’ by alchemists.

That was how diverse the abilities required for alchemy were. They had to memorize magic spells, various combinations, and structural formulas, and sometimes they had to show a sense that went beyond calculation.

It was like that now. Today, the mana concentration in the potion room was slightly higher than usual, and perhaps because of that, the reagent was evaporating faster when mixed with basilisk oil. In this case, there was a risk that the properties could change.

However, Yihan didn’t miss a single step of this process even while talking to the professor. Noticing the change in mana with his sensitive senses, he lowered the heat and separated the evaporated reagent first.

‘Such an unadorable fellow.’ Professor Thunderstride grumbled inwardly.

There was something all Einroguard professors (except Professor Garcia, of course) secretly wished for: to see Wodanaz make a mistake and look annoyed.

Just show it to me once before you graduate!

Hiding such wicked thoughts, Professor Thunderstride opened his mouth again.

“It was easier when I could exploit Professor Bendozol.”

“Even after fighting so much?”

“I won’t deny that that fellow turned my insides out. But he was still a professor. You can’t compare his skills to a student.”

Professor Thunderstride puffed out smoke, wearing a wistful expression. It was Professor Bendozol who had personally taken over the chores to make time for Yihan to take care of the unicorn.

In the second semester, with the inspector newly arrived and the first-years available to be ordered around, there was no longer any excuse to exploit him, so he had given up, but it was still a pretty good memory.

Of course, the person himself ground his teeth when he thought about it…

“This year’s first-years are a bit disappointing. Of course, the blockheads are always disappointing, but… that’s right, you. Weren’t you close to Eandurde?”

“If they’re first-years, isn’t it possible for them to fight with each other? That’s how they become friends.”

At that absurd answer, not only the hamster but also Professor Thunderstride were at a loss for words.

“I haven’t said anything yet.”

“I’m sorry. Did Eandurde perhaps beat someone up?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he did.”

“As long as he’s not the one getting beaten up.”

If it had been Professor Garcia, he would have given a lecture, but Professor Thunderstride wasn’t particularly interested in the little ones throwing magic around at each other.

What the professor was interested in was something else.

“Eandurde was using the Maykin family’s alchemy? How did that happen?”

“Ah. I was with Yoner during the vacation, too.”

“I see… then what about Pengarin?”

“You mean Alsicle? Ah. You must mean Alhide.”

Yihan quickly realized that he was talking about a junior. There was one first-year junior from the Pengarin family.

“How is it that Alhide is also using the Maykin family’s alchemy?”

“I asked him during the vacation, and after getting Yoner’s permission, I taught him.”

“…Did you open some kind of Einroguard external tutoring center during the vacation?!” Professor Thunderstride was dumbfounded.

He wondered if this year’s first-years were too engrossed in magic instead of causing trouble or going out to play during the vacation. Perhaps it was because of the influence of their senior. Professor Thunderstride stared intently at Yihan.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Are there any other juniors besides those two who have shown any particular talent?”

“Talent? Hmm… there is Carle in the Phoenix Tower.”

“Oh.”

Yihan, who had been extracting components from the tightly compressed reagent, was surprised. To think that a familiar name would come up.

This junior, a squirrel beastkin from the Bildotskal Order, was a junior that Yihan had personally invited along with Headmaster Skull.

Even if they were the same juniors, the juniors he had invited while going around with Headmaster Skull were bound to garner a bit more attention.

“The priests of the Phoenix Tower are generally skilled in alchemy. I suppose they receive gifted education at the temple.”

“That blockhead stole all the reagents prepared in the potion room for the lecture.”

Yihan paused for a moment. Then he spoke again.

“Isn’t stealing also a skill? You clearly said that obtaining reagents is also one of the abilities of an alchemist, Professor. He’s quite the outstanding junior.”

‘What kind of bastard is this?’

It was such a biased defense that his arm was bent inwards to the point of breaking. Professor Thunderstride stared at his student as if he were dumbfounded.

Wasn’t stealing and securing only the reagents you needed completely different from stealing and hiding all the reagents needed for the lecture because you didn’t want to attend!

The former was an outstanding alchemist, while the latter was simply a disciplinary room talent.

“Did you teach him that??”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. As you know, contact between first-years and their seniors is prohibited by the rules.”

“The guy who’s breaking the rules the most is saying that… I almost forgot about the White Tiger Tower. There’s a fellow named Ulgan who’s quite talented there.”

“Oh.”

Yihan’s face lit up. Wasn’t Ulgan also a first-year that Yihan had gone to pick up with Headmaster Skull?

Looking at it this way, it seemed that Headmaster Skull definitely had an eye for talent. It was worth the effort to bring them along.

“It would be nice if he would stop fighting inside the tower.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? He’s not that kind of junior.”

Yihan strongly protested. Ulgan was affiliated with the White Tiger Tower, but he was also a rare case of not being from a knightly family, and above all, he had a peaceful personality who hated fighting.

He hated fighting so much that when his friends bickered, he would stop them and end up beating them up.

“…Don’t you hear what you’re saying? He *stops* fights by breaking things! The equipment gets destroyed!”

“Please emphasize the intention. Isn’t his heart commendable? Compared to those who only fight with each other…”

“Shut up.”

Yihan shut up. Professor Thunderstride, who had been watching him work, suddenly remembered something and asked again.

“By the way, how much more time off are you trying to get?”

Come to think of it, Yihan had already asked the professors for permission regarding the requests at the start of the semester. And now he was asking to increase it even more.

“I’m planning to finish everything before the midterm period starts and then go out.”

Professor Thunderstride was so surprised that he almost dropped his pipe.

‘What kind of bastard is this, really??’

He wasn’t just saying he would finish the exam, but that he would finish everything before the exam period even started and then leave. Of course, he was the kind of guy who was qualified to say such a thing. He had already shown his incredible power by finishing the exam before the exam last time.

But wasn’t he now going even further and shortening it even more!

At this point, even Professor Thunderstride, who wasn’t particularly responsible as a professor, was starting to feel a sense of pride and stubbornness.

*If you’re so good at magic, then try solving this…*

“It’s all done, Professor.”

“Oh? Yes. I see.”

Professor Thunderstride, who had been deeply immersed in thinking about how to increase the difficulty of the midterm exam, raised his head. Before he knew it, the fire in his pipe had gone out, and Wodanaz had finished the basic work and completed the second and third stages of the process.

“Would you mind checking the Knowledge Incense?”

“Yes… wait, you even made Knowledge Incense?!”

“Yes? Yes.”

Professor Thunderstride’s pupils trembled upon hearing that he had additionally created a high-difficulty synthetic incense when he had only expected him to create and practice basic ascension incense at best. For some reason, he had a bad feeling.

The professor himself didn’t know it, but it was a bad feeling that a part of his pride might crumble slightly if he confirmed it.