Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 1021

While the students in each carriage were secretly writing letters using magic so no one could know who wrote them, Gainando saw a strange sight outside the carriage.

Several groups of people were gathered in a quiet spot just outside the city walls.

And among them, Gainando thought he saw a face he knew…!

“Huh?!”

“Gainando, please focus on your letter. We need to finish soon,” one of the priests said gently.

“You need to write quickly,” added the other priest.

Even though Phoenix Tower students were usually treated kindly, Gainando was different. He had tried to escape many times, so even the priests were losing patience with him.

“No, it’s just that… I think I saw Ihan over there…”

“Gainando…” one of his Blue Dragon Tower friends sighed.

“The priest is getting annoyed.”

“Stop telling silly stories, Gainando,” another friend whispered, looking away, embarrassed.

It was lucky the priests were in the carriage. If students from White Tiger Tower or Black Tortoise Tower were here, Gainando’s tower would be even more ashamed.

“But I’m telling you, it’s real! Look!” Gainando jumped up and down, trying to see better. His friends reluctantly leaned out of the carriage to look.

Then, they asked someone walking by, “Excuse me, can we ask you something? Is something happening over there?”

“Someone said a monster from another world messed up the underground,” the person replied. “Wizards are there to clean it up.”

“Thank you.” Gainando turned to his friends, “See?!”

His friends looked back at Gainando, sure that Ihan would not be there.

“Uh…” Siana hesitated. Suddenly, a thought came to her mind. ‘Could Ihan really be there? It’s probably not him. But… what if it is?’

Siana looked at Tizling, who was writing quickly next to her. Tizling was writing, ‘The Lord of Einroguard is making his students fight monsters!’ over and over. He looked up and saw Siana looking at him.

“What is it?” Tizling asked.

“Ah, it’s nothing,” Siana said quietly, giving up on her question. It didn’t seem like the right time to ask.

“Wait a minute! Ihan *might* be there!”

But his friends just told him, “Don’t be silly, Gainando.”

“Have you forgotten why Wodanaz is in the capital? Even if it’s Wodanaz, he would have finished helping the headmaster already and be working there?”

Wodanaz? He’s probably out there helping to finish up the monster problem.

“……”

“……”

The Einroguard students, who had met Headmaster Skull in front of the royal palace, stared in surprise at his answer.

“…Don’t lie!”

“Look at you, acting brave outside of school,” Headmaster Skull said.

“But it’s the truth.”

“Wasn’t Wodanaz supposed to be here helping the headmaster with his work?”

“I’m telling you, he finished all that work and left.”

“……”

“……”

The friends were even more surprised than when they heard that Ihan had left early to help Headmaster Skull.

“He’s already finished??”

“You didn’t rob someone with Wodanaz, did you?”

“There were no robberies on the news…”

“Didn’t you do it without getting caught?”

“I can hear everything,” Headmaster Skull said in a calm voice.

The idea that he got money by robbing someone was funny, but it wasn’t true.

“And I really convinced everyone. If you don’t believe me, go and ask them yourselves.”

“No way!”

“Could it be you sold Wodanaz after he graduates, promised to send him somewhere, and got gold coins?”

“Surely… even the headmaster wouldn’t do something like that.”

While the students were guessing parts of the truth, Gainando suddenly asked, “Uh, were even my mom convinced? She said she would cut off her own finger if she gave more money to Einroguard??”

“…Did she really say that?” Headmaster Skull was a little hurt.

To think that Mrs. Kraha, who gave so much money, would say that.

“Do you remember when she said that? Was it after the Western Jewel Palace robbery two months ago? Or the Eternal Ice Contact Ship disappearance five months ago? Or…”

Headmaster Skull listed the accidents caused by Einroguard graduates that had been on the news.

But Gainando shook his head. “I, I don’t really know. But how did you really convince her?” He wanted to learn from Headmaster Skull to use it later.

“She just listened because Wodanaz asked her to.”

“…Uh, just with that?” Gainando looked at his friends, hoping they would shout ‘Don’t lie!’ with him.

But his friends understood right away.

“That’s definitely possible.”

“I would have listened too.”

“!?”

“See?” Headmaster Skull said. “Anyway, if you want to see Wodanaz, go to the monster site outside the city. Go practice your magic a bit. Your headmaster is too busy to even blink.”

“Is there still work left even though the Einroguard money problem is solved?” Yoner asked, a little worried.

First-year students might not know, but second-year students knew. If Einroguard’s money gets low, the students will be affected!

“Don’t worry. All that’s left is some small explanations.”

“Ah, so that’s why you came to the royal palace.”

“No. I came to the royal palace now because of Professor Voladi. I have to stop him from going into the royal palace and telling on me.”

“????”

‘What is he talking about?’ The students didn’t understand. Headmaster Skull clicked his jaw as if he was annoyed to explain.

“Don’t be too upset when you see Professor Voladi. Teaching students is a job where you expect to get hurt…”

“We get hurt a lot, though,” Gainando mumbled.

“Not you. You cheeky little rascal.” Headmaster Skull hung Gainando upside down again, then got ready to float away. Seeing the students talking and planning to find Ihan, Headmaster Skull spoke again.

“By the way.”

“Yes?”

“What are those bundles of paper you’re holding?”

“……”

“Mr. Alsicle, why are you looking around so much?” Ihan asked. He was puzzled by Alsicle’s habit of casting a spell and then quickly looking around again.

Right now, all the wizards nearby were working to clean up the monster problem. All the strange stuff inside had been burned to ashes, but it wasn’t over. When worlds and dimensions overlap, they become unstable. They had to check and make the area stable again to stop another disaster.

“Voladi Beggret isn’t here, is he?” Alsicle whispered, his eyes darting around.

“No. Why would Professor Beggret be here?” Ihan asked.

“You don’t know because you don’t know,” Alsicle muttered. Alsicle, moving with short, quick steps like a penguin, cast the spell again and looked around three times. Professor Voladi was a combat wizard, which made Alsicle even more scared. Alsicle wasn’t a fighter, so he felt very uneasy around Voladi.

“If you’re so scared, why don’t you just go back to the mansion and rest?” Ihan said, waving his wand. “The rest of the work isn’t too dangerous. I can do it alone.”

This kind of work, making space stable, was easy for Ihan. He could sense the problems and fix them with magic. He walked around, found places that felt wrong, and fixed them.

“Space, become solid.”

He didn’t even need to call other wizards for help. Because Professor Garcia had taught him basic space-time magic, Ihan could do four or five times more work than other wizards alone.

“The mansion is more dangerous, you know?” Alsicle shook his head like a penguin. “It’s better to stay together, no matter what.” Alsicle was trusting in the fact that Ihan was Professor Voladi’s student. Surely, Voladi wouldn’t hurt him in front of his own student.

“Hey. You’re worrying too much,” Ihan said.

“Hmph. That’s because you’re his disciple,” Alsicle grumbled.

“I’ve been attacked a lot too, you know?” Ihan pushed the grumbling magician aside and went to a crack in space. “Space, become solid.”

“Th-there…” Just then, Archmage Erindalbell came over. She looked as sorry as anyone could possibly look.

“…Can I have a moment?” she asked quietly.

“Ah. Yes. What is it?” Ihan replied.

“I sincerely apologize for this mistake…” Erindalbell said.

The two exchanged glances. Ihan whispered in a small voice so that the other person couldn’t hear.

“But Ms. Erindalbell, you’re an archmage, so why are you so kind?”

“Not all archmages are evil… No, they are evil… Anyway, she’s a bit unique,” Alsicle whispered back.

While the two were whispering, Erindalbell reached into space and took out an object.

It was a gift she had brought to compensate for the damage she had caused this time, even if only a little.

“This artifact is the [Staff of Asen]. It has a magic that quickly restores magic power related to the light element. I’m giving this as a gift…”

“Uh, Ms. Erindalbell. But Wodanaz has so much magic power that it’s not very useful…”

“!” Erindalbell realized her mistake at Alsicle’s remark.

Come to think of it, the boy from the Wodanaz family here had an endless amount of magic power. An artifact that only restores light elemental magic power, no matter how good it is, would be meaningless.

‘I’ve made another mistake!’ As Erindalbell lowered her head again, Ihan poked Alsicle’s fluffy side.

“What are you doing!”

“Ah, no. Sorry…” Alsicle apologized. He couldn’t be helped that his beak automatically opened when something he knew as a magician came out.

“Still, you’re the one who’s going to receive it and use it, so you can’t receive something you don’t need. It’s from an archmage.”

“You can receive it and sell it. Please think about the other person’s feelings.”

” ? ”

Alsicle felt something was strange and tilted his head.

“…Wait, then you shouldn’t sell it…”

“Anyway, you have to say that the next gift is unconditionally good. Got it?”

“Al, alright.”

Erindalbell put the staff back in and rummaged through space again for a long time.

What came out after a long deliberation was a round egg.

“This is a Hippogriff egg.”

“That won’t do!” Ihan shouted urgently. Erindalbell, who was about to introduce the egg, paused.

“Why?” she asked.

While appeasing the baby basilisk that was tightly wrapping its arms around his arm as if begging not to be abandoned from inside his sleeve, Ihan quickly explained.

“I’m actually raising a griffin, so it’ll be very jealous.”

“I, I see… If that’s the case, then it can’t be helped.” Erindalbell lowered her head again. This time it was Alsicle’s turn to poke Ihan’s side.

“You told me to just accept it!”

“S-sorry. My griffin gets jealous often…”

“Really? I’ve never heard that griffins are jealous.”

“Maybe my griffin is a bit unique.”

-…… The baby basilisk wiggled, feeling sorry for Ponryg, who wasn’t here.

How wronged would he feel if he heard this conversation?

Alsicle, feeling sorry for the archmage who kept rummaging through space, advised.

“Um, Ms. Erindalbell. Wodanaz would be happy if you just gave him gold coins.”

“Don’t say ridiculous things, Mr. Pengarin.”

“……” Alsicle pouted at Erindalbell’s firm refusal.

“It’s true!”

As the deliberation grew longer, Erindalbell simply poured out the contents inside the space onto the floor. Then, she muttered one by one as she cleared them away.

“An angel statue made of pure gold… too ordinary. The three-story 수도 wizard villa I got last time… This also doesn’t seem very useful…”

“Mr. Alsicle. Please advise me to choose one of those.”

Ihan pleaded with a voice full of sincerity. If he just passed by those gifts and received a strange staff or a Hippogriff egg, he felt like he would really cry.