Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 1082

“What? You came in person?”

Dirette, who had just stepped outside the mansion, frowned upon seeing his friend.

That was typical of Yukbeltyre. He never came when asked for help, but always appeared suddenly at times like this.

“Is that wizard someone you hired?”

“Huh? Well… sort of. Actually, it’s…”

“You should fire him immediately.”

Yukbeltyre stated firmly.

Such an impolite wizard. He was sure to behave rudely to Dirette as well.

Dirette stopped talking. He was going to tell Yukbeltyre who his junior really was. But Yukbeltyre was being annoying. *Maybe I shouldn’t tell him,* Dirette thought.

Lee Han, standing behind, apologized with his eyes. ‘I’m sorry. I got too into my role.’

‘No, no.’

Dirette changed his mind. On second thought, it might be better not to tell his friend. That way, his junior could occasionally disguise himself and take a breather when things got tough.

“No way.”

“…Huh?”

Yukbeltyre was taken aback by Dirette’s firm response. Why?

“Stedal of the Nago family here is an excellent combat wizard and a seasoned demon hunter.”

“…If you need a guard, there’s a junior from the Wodanaaz family in the capital.”

Dirette got very angry. Yukbeltyre was suggesting he use a young student as a guard! Dirette thought this was rude.

Lee Han felt the same. He cursed inwardly. ‘I should have spat when he came in. Does he have no conscience?’

Dirette winked at his junior, a mischievous glint in his eyes. It was a silent message: *Go ahead, have some fun.*

“???”

Lee Han didn’t understand immediately and tilted his head. What am I supposed to do?

Seeing his junior hesitate, Dirette spoke up.

“Oh, Yukbeltyre, I think Mr. Stedal has something to say.”

“W… wh… what?”

“He seems very angry? Oh dear. Feel free to speak your mind. Free expression of opinion is important for us wizards, after all.”

Lee Han, unsure if he had correctly understood Dirette’s signal, spoke cautiously.

“You… can’t even protect yourself? And you need a junior? Your skills must be… very bad?”

“!!!”

‘Well done.’

Yukbeltyre’s face went pale for a moment. He blinked, surprised by the rude words. But then, he straightened his shoulders and spoke firmly.

That felt so good!

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

It wasn’t easy to become a fifth-year student at Einroguard. Such far-fetched fault-finding had no effect on Yukbeltyre.

“The virtue of an enchantment wizard lies not in combat or guarding, but strictly in the purpose of the school. Don’t you even know that?”

“Hmph… maybe… you can’t even… do enchantment magic… alone… so you… called on… a junior…”

“!!!”

Yukbeltyre’s eyes widened. Not being able to protect himself was a stretch, but this time he had hit the nail on the head.

He had indeed received help from a junior (or rather, the junior’s teacher) to complete an unfinished spell, so the shock was bound to be significant.

The more prideful a wizard was, the more violently they reacted when their sore spots were poked.

“…Just you…”

“Just you?”

“…Wait and see!!”

Tap tap!

Yukbeltyre, his pride clearly hurt, turned quickly and almost ran back into the mansion. Dirette watched him go, a small smile on his face. *Perfect,* he thought.

Dirette nodded in satisfaction at his retreating figure. Yukbeltyre, with his pride wounded and spirit broken, would become a good friend who listened well for a while.

He hadn’t expected this much, but it was an unexpected success.

“Wow, well done, junior. I just told you to scold him because he was annoying, but I didn’t expect it to go this well.”

“S-shouldn’t you go and comfort him??”

Lee Han looked at Dirette, unsure. *Is he really okay?* he wondered. He felt a little bad for Yukbeltyre, even though he had been rude at first.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Yukbeltyre will just research magic and overcome it on his own. He’s also easier to handle in that state.”

“……”

Dirette, who had been rejoicing, realized that his junior was looking at him with slightly frightened eyes.

“Ah, no. I only do this to Yukbeltyre! I’m not like this to other people!”

“I… I see.”

But whether it was his imagination or not, Dirette felt that his junior had distanced himself a little. Perhaps their hearts had grown apart.

Dirette quickly changed the subject.

“Oh, right, junior. I’m curious about something.”

“Yes?”

“How much did you help Yukbeltyre with his magic? Judging by his reaction, it seems like you helped him a bit more than you said before. You didn’t do more than we talked about, did you?”

Even as he spoke, Dirette wondered if he was mistaken. Of course, it was a little strange that Yukbeltyre’s pride was so wounded, but his junior wasn’t an idiot either.

Knowing his friend’s leech-like persistence, there was no way he would dig his own grave by helping more than they had agreed in advance…

Tap tap!

Instead of answering, Stedal Nago scurried back into the mansion.

Dirette stared blankly at his retreating figure before his hands began to tremble. …These guys, really…!

“Yukbeltyre, senior. Is it alright to have an outsider here?”

Dirimpa asked cautiously, gauging the situation. He had seen the finicky nature of the crazy fifth-year student while helping Dirette with his work before.

-I cannot allow an outsider to attend. If there is a wizard with insufficient skill, problems may arise during the mana release.

-Yukbeltyre. These wizards are from Callarogard!

-So? What magic have they completed?

-They haven’t completed any magic yet, but they are properly learning the orthodox way…

-So you’re saying they have nothing to prove.

-Hey. Come outside for a moment.

-I cannot do that. If I leave my post…

Through that incident, the students of the Black Magic School realized. Yukbeltyre wasn’t ignoring the other students; he was just giving the Einroguard students this much respect!

If Einroguard students were treated this way, they couldn’t even imagine how outsiders would be treated.

“…It’s alright.”

Yukbeltyre nodded with a gloomy face.

Dirimpa, as well as all the other students, were shocked.

Student 1: “Look at him! He’s like a different person.”

Student 2 (whispering): “Did something really bad happen to him?”

Student 3: “Maybe his experiment blew up… again?”

Cohlti nodded absentmindedly in agreement. The student thought that Dirette might get angry at Yukbeltyre for any small reason.

“If there is an angel nearby, this magic will allow us to make contact.”

Once everyone had gathered, Yukbeltyre took out an artifact. It was a strange device, made of dark metal, with six silver candlesticks placed in a circle. Each candlestick held a small, unlit candle. Strange symbols were carved into the metal, glowing faintly.

Lee Han was amazed by the magic concentrated within it.

‘It finds beings from other dimensions, contacts them, and even bypasses detection of their location?’

Seeing that, the interdimensional visits and approaches he had made in his first and second years felt primitive.

While the method of lower-grade Einroguard students was to open a door and wander around until a being from another dimension showed interest, the artifact Yukbeltyre created sent a magical detection signal beyond other dimensions to find a being.

On top of that, it was imbued with magic that confused the opponent by moving back and forth between dimensions to prevent reverse detection. It was truly amazing magic.

‘If I had that artifact, I might be able to find the spirits and approach them first!’

Lee Han paused at the first thought that came to mind. Then he felt deep self-loathing.

‘…What am I thinking? There’s no point in approaching them that way anyway.’

Even if he hid his appearance and just sent a signal to summon them, the spirits would be frightened if they saw Lee Han, so it was a pointless method.

Unless he forcibly captured them…

Lee Han firmly shook his head. No matter what, he didn’t want to become a wizard with a heart like Headmaster Skull.

Whoosh! Bright blue flames suddenly burst into life on the six candlesticks. Yukbeltyre began to chant, his voice low and powerful. In the center of the candlesticks, the air seemed to shimmer and twist, like heat rising from hot ground. A faint, swirling pathway of light opened up.

Suddenly, the flames flickered. Yukbeltyre said.

“Contact has been made. What should I say?”

“Identify yourself as a wizard of the Empire. Tell them that we have captured the demon they are chasing and will manage it.”

It might sound rude, but it was a natural statement for a wizard. There was no reason to yield to outsiders in the Empire’s dimension, of all places.

/sihTesuacebyamonedotdeednI/

A student from the Black Magic School said in surprise.

“Is that the language of angels?”

“No. Yukbeltyre set it up backwards, so the letters are coming out backwards.”

“……”

/ItonsihtgnisamayanedotdeednI/

The Black Magic School students looked at the strange words. ‘It’s backwards,’ one of them said, starting to read it slowly. ‘I… deed… not… need… to… die… maybe… because… This…’

The Black Magic School students, having read it correctly again, carefully exchanged opinions.

“It doesn’t seem like a hostile angel, does it?”

“In the first place, it’s harder to find hostile beings among angels. They are so focused on their own goals.”

“Is their goal to collect demons?”

-Young master. Please…! Don’t hand me over!

Orlahr, who had been watching, said in a desperate voice. If he had to be a slave, he wanted to do it in the Wodanaaz family, not be dragged away by some crazy angel he didn’t even know.

“Young master??”

Stedal, no, Lee Han, glared at Orlahr as if to kill him.

Orlahr wisely shut his mouth.

-Gasp.

‘Did the Nago family also employ demons?’

‘Amazing. I’ve never heard of it. Well, if he’s that skilled a wizard, his family must be extraordinary.’

The Black Magic School students didn’t show it, but they were very surprised inside. It seemed they had employed demons in the past, but there weren’t many families with that ability.

“First, answer like this. We are the Black Magic School affiliated with Einroguard, so we have experience and ability in managing demons.”

The answer came back soon.

/sdrawkcabscigamkcalbyltnemnoratfelosrehcetomesd/

“……”

The students were slightly taken aback. Of course, it was usually Black Magic School wizards who caused accidents related to demons. Since they directly handled demons, accidents were bound to happen.

But most of those accidents were caused by low-level black magic wizards. Those who had no knowledge of magic but were full of desire for power.

“Don’t you know Einroguard?”

-Well, he’s an angel, after all.

“…Demon. Be quiet.”

-S-sorry…

Orlahr was intimidated again and shut his mouth. Even the Pride Duke and Arsil of the Wodanaaz family had praised his eloquence, but it didn’t seem to work on these guys.

“What should we do, senior? Should we just cut it off and go in with force?”

“Just a moment. Let’s send it one more time.”

Dirette pondered deeply and then grabbed the artifact himself this time. The others were curious about what Dirette was going to send.

What exactly could it be?

/tpecceylliwenohttahtesugI/

“!!!”

Everyone in the room was greatly surprised. Everyone was buzzing and asking what had happened. Lee Han asked in a voice mixed with admiration, so that only Dirette could hear.

“What on earth did you say?”

“I also mentioned that a Wodanaaz family wizard is here.”

“……”

Oh…!