Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 1157

The people who hate magic were strong. What was surprising was that they somehow convinced Ethan of something. Even though they were shouting, these anti-magic people showed they were just villains who meant well, and not connected to Sanguis.

“The Prahgal Order?” Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Y-yes, that’s right,” one of them stammered.

“…You don’t think these Prahgal people are working with Sanguis, do you?” Ethan continued.

“We wouldn’t know anything about that… Aaaah!”

Giselle, who had been sitting nearby, made a clicking sound with her tongue, annoyed. “What bad luck!” she muttered. It was true they were criminals who worshipped evil gods, but it turned out to be a *different* evil god’s group!

Just then, Katen and other students from the White Tiger Tower arrived, looking confused.

“How can someone be *this* unlucky?” one student whispered.

“Are they even telling the truth?” another wondered aloud.

Ethan heard Angalo’s quiet words and turned to the prisoners. “Is that what you really think?”

“N-no! No!!” one of them yelled, his voice shaking. “You cursed person! Why are you trying to cause trouble between us?” The frightened man glared at Angalo.

Angalo, surprised, quickly said, “M-my mistake.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Ethan said firmly. “Actually, no. Being against magic and worshipping an evil god is *your* fault!” Ethan thought about it and got angrier. “They should be in prison for life for what they’ve done! How dare they blame someone else?”

While Ethan questioned the prisoners, Katen carefully looked around, checking for traps. He trusted Ethan, but a good wizard should always be careful.

“Senior, I really admire you,” Angalo said, looking at Katen with respect. Katen looked kind, like Professor Verdus or someone from the Pengaerin family. But when he spoke, he sounded like a tough, experienced fighter. “Where did you learn to be so thorough?” Angalo asked.

“Ah, Junior,” Katen replied, “I learned it in the punishment chamber. You can learn a lot there, you see.”

The White Tiger Tower students went quiet, looking confused. Katen didn’t notice and continued giving advice. “The normal punishment chamber is one thing, but the *deep* punishment chamber is different. It’s full of all sorts of prisoners. They all have different ways of trying to trick you or attack.”

“W-wait, the Headmaster put you in the deep punishment chamber?!” one student asked, shocked. “That’s too harsh!” The deep punishment chamber wasn’t for normal students. It was for dangerous criminals or people like Professor Verdus. Being sent there just for being bad at magic seemed unfair.

“Oh, no, that’s not why,” Katen said.

“Really? Then…?”

“I just went down there because I was bored and lonely. The regular punishment chamber gets boring quickly, you know?”

The students stared at him, speechless. Katen, not noticing their surprise, went on to explain how to fight many enemies at once.

“Ah, is this body… did a student from the Moradi family make it?” Katen asked, looking at the corpse.

“Yes, it was me,” Giselle answered politely. Even though she would shout and kick her friends, Giselle acted like a perfect noble when talking to older students. This change had its benefits. Giselle carefully moved to cover Hallenken’s cut-off head. She didn’t want Katen to see that she might have used tricks to win.

But Katen didn’t care at all. He had already figured out what happened just by looking at the body. And Katen didn’t mind if someone won with tricks or traps.

“You used your aura very well!” Katen praised.

“Really?” Giselle’s face lit up. Her friends looked at her with admiration and jealousy. Praise from Senior Katen was a big deal!

“Can I ask when you first used your aura?” Katen asked.

“Actually…” Giselle started to say she had just used it in the fight, but stopped. Saying it like that might make her seem too eager to impress. She would have used her aura when facing any strong enemy, not just because of Wodanaz. “…I knew I could use it even before the fight,” she said instead.

“Ooh!”

“Moradi! You kept it a secret!” her friends exclaimed. They were even more amazed by Giselle’s cleverness. If this hadn’t happened, she would have hidden her aura and tricked them all, wouldn’t she? They shivered thinking about how she might have bet on whether they could use aura and taken all their money.

“One in the market alley near the south gate, and another in the eastern temple district… Wow, they are brave. Okay, I believe you.” While the White Tiger Tower students talked quietly, Ethan finished questioning the prisoners. Now he knew where their hideouts were. He planned to attack right away, not giving them any time to rest. He would also tell Garcia, the Knight Commander waiting outside, and his Death Knights. *‘Oh, I almost thought of the Professor as the knight leader again,’* Ethan thought to himself.

“I’m going to take out the worm now,” Ethan announced.

“Wait, wait!” the prisoners cried, sounding scared. Of course, they wanted the evil god’s worm taken out of their souls as soon as possible. It was because of the worm that they were weak against this young wizard and losing. But they were terrified of ending up like Hallenken.

“Don’t worry,” Ethan said. “Hallenken died because he didn’t know the curse was growing. I’ll remove the curse first, then take out the worm.”

“Th-thank you,” they mumbled. The prisoners quickly looked at each other secretly. If both the curse and the worm were gone, they would have nothing to lose. They planned to run away through the back wall as soon as they could. But this young wizard was much more clever than they thought.

“Senior? You all, stop talking and come here,” Ethan called out. Katen and his friends hurried over. Ethan pointed at the prisoners. “Keep your swords pointed at them,” he ordered. “If they look like they’re going to do something, cut them down right away.” Katen understood immediately and nodded. The anti-magic people lowered their heads, their faces pale. They thought they were being sneaky, but he had already figured everything out.

“Okay. I’ll take it out now,” Ethan said. *Crack!* A cracking sound, like the one from Hallenken, came from their souls. The prisoners shivered and then froze. At the same moment, several worms gathered in Ethan’s hand and became one big worm. The worm tried to get away, fighting back, but it was weak against Ethan, who had already taken the evil god’s power. It quickly lost control and gave in. *‘Got it,’* Ethan thought. Just then, the worm opened its mouth and spoke in a strange voice. “Who are you?”

“!” Everyone jumped back, surprised. Ethan was the first to speak. “Who are you? Are you one of the evil god’s servants?”

“You can call me that, if you want, you humans who don’t understand,” the worm replied calmly, even though Ethan was trying to provoke it. Ethan clicked his tongue to himself. *‘This isn’t going to be easy.’* The scariest enemies were always the ones who didn’t get angry and always acted the same. Evil god worshippers were usually crazy and wild, but this one was so cold and detached.

“I don’t remember ever having a problem with you wizards recently. But you attacked me first. Aren’t you afraid of what will happen?” the worm asked.

“No problem with wizards? What are you talking about…” Ethan was confused. Weren’t these the same people who summoned a monster from the undead world just this year?

Just then, Giselle gently kicked Ethan’s foot. “?”

*‘Wake up. That was when you were Stedal Nago,’* she whispered. Ethan suddenly remembered. Right, he had been using the name Stedal Nago back then.

“You sneaky thing,” Ethan said to the worm. “Trying to trick me with simple words.”

*‘I don’t think that’s what he’s doing,’* Giselle thought, puzzled. But Ethan had already made up his mind. “Don’t try any weak tricks. You should be worried about what will happen to *you*.”

“Haha…” the worm chuckled. “You’re quite brave for a wizard. Haven’t you heard? There’s a plague spreading in the city.” The undead worm laughed at Ethan. No matter how he caught the worm of power, the plague was already spreading. Even if there were no more worms, the sick people would spread it to others.

“……”

“……” Ethan and his friends looked at each other, worried. He thought about telling them he had cured the plague before catching the worm, but then wondered why he should be nice to this creature.

“I don’t care if something even worse than the plague happens,” Ethan said firmly.

“Indeed. You must be a real wizard. It seems some wizards are not weak after all. But remember this: the Great Healer’s plan cannot be stopped by humans like you. You will be marked! I will remember what you did today.”

“Do what you want,” Ethan replied. “And I’ll remember that you bothered me today.”

“The plague is not a bother. It’s progress. For imperfect beings…”

“I’m talking about the Sanguis group, not the plague,” Ethan interrupted, annoyed. He used to be scared of evil god worshippers, but now he was just irritated. Why did these people who hid in the dark and used cheap tricks talk so much?

“Sanguis?” The bishop of the Prahgal Order seemed surprised by the name. This fanatic was usually unshakable, so this was unexpected. “Why are they being mentioned here?”

“We were chasing those guys, but your group was hanging around and got caught,” Ethan explained.

…… The undead worm was silent, feeling insulted for the first time in a long time. He was an undead being who didn’t care about insults, but this…!

“You’re lying. Lies like that…”

“See for yourself if it’s a lie,” Ethan said. “If you don’t want me to control you later, don’t ever show your face to me again.” Ethan, not wanting to talk anymore, destroyed the worm of power.

…! The undead felt it instantly. The power worm was completely destroyed, even in his own dimension. It was like a piece of his soul, broken into tiny bits, and when it was destroyed, the pain came right back to him. The undead grunted, surprised by the sudden attack. He had been hurt. *How could this happen?*

He knew the wizard had taken out the worm, but he thought it was just a normal magic trick. But now it was obvious: the wizard was controlling the power itself. He had destroyed the worm right away, without giving him any time to react or fight back.

Even a very good wizard couldn’t steal power from the holy magic system. So what kind of person was this? *‘Could the Sanguis story be true…? No. It must be a trick.’*

The undead felt unsure for the first time. He was even more worried because he knew that the Sanguis people had been attacking everywhere lately, without fear. His plan, which was almost ready, wouldn’t be ruined by this, but if there was trouble, how should he fight back against these Sanguis people?