Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 1179

Professor Garcia sighed. Where should he even start?

It wasn’t unusual for professors to vanish from Einroguard. Professor Vendozol was a perfect example of that. But students didn’t normally put up wanted posters all over the Empire when it happened.

If they did, everyone would think Einroguard was even more chaotic than it already was.

“I bet most students are happy when a professor disappears,” Garcia thought to himself.

Usually, they were glad to see them go and wouldn’t try to find them again.

“Leehan, aren’t you escalating things a bit too much? I understand your concern for Professor Begreck, but the Headmaster is already looking for him. His informants are all over the Empire, you know.”

“But you’re not telling me anything about the situation.”

“-We’ll tell you when we know something.”

“-Just trust us, okay?”

The Death Knights outside the carriage suddenly leaned in, showing their loyalty.

“Um, please don’t interrupt the conversation.”

Professor Garcia frowned, his eyebrows pulled together in annoyance. He was trying to have a serious discussion with his student, and this was…

“And Leehan, you know the Headmaster’s informants are not something he can share with others, right? Some things, no matter how much you trust someone, you simply cannot reveal.”

The Skull Headmaster’s network of informants across the Empire…

“I know that. That’s why I’m not asking you to tell me; I’m finding out on my own.”

“The knights must be busy…”

“As I said, they offered to help first.”

“……”

Professor Garcia sighed. “Sometimes,” he thought, “it’s too much when a student is *too* good.”

An ordinary second-year student wouldn’t have many ways to search, but this boy from the Wodanaz family had too many.

“Why did the knights offer to help first?”

“Oh… I don’t know? I hadn’t really thought about it.”

Leehan paused for a moment.

The fact that the knights were helping was important, but he hadn’t considered why they would offer in the first place.

Imperial Knights were never idle. They were the first to rush to the capital to report anomalies, bravely fought monsters, and sometimes had to sneak out, avoiding newly built watchtowers.

So why would such knights offer to help?

You could hire adventurers or explorers with money, but it wasn’t easy to do the same with knights.

“Maybe they’re helping because of my friends from the White Tiger Tower.”

Professor Garcia doubted it. Knights weren’t that kind just because students asked.

It was more likely that Leehan was highly regarded among the knights and had done many things for them.

The problem was, he had no idea what those things were.

“There are too many possibilities!”

“Anyway, Leehan, even with the knights’ help, finding Professor Begreck’s trail in this vast Empire won’t be easy. Don’t get too focused on it, and focus on your studies… Wait, what’s that map?”

“It’s a map recording the locations the knights testified to. Places where they said they saw someone resembling Professor Begreck…”

On the map, several cities in the western and northern parts of the Empire were marked.

Professor Garcia couldn’t help but be thrilled by the knights’ skill.

They hadn’t even officially distributed wanted posters yet, but they had already collected such testimonies just through communication among themselves.

If he fully deployed the knights and gathered more testimonies, Leehan might run off at any moment.

Professor Kirmin had told him to trust his student and let him grow on his own, but Professor Garcia wasn’t ready for that yet.

“Leehan, now that I think about it, the midterm exams aren’t that far away. Are you preparing well for them?”

The Death Knight driving the carriage shuddered inwardly.

He understood the concern for the student, but to tie him down with such a brutal method…

Considering the time Wodanaz had spent on the commission, there was no way he could be properly prepared for the exams.

“Ah. Yes. I’m confident.”

“Confident?!”

“There’s a lot that builds on the magic I learned in the first semester, and I’ve been preparing in my spare time…”

“Leehan, since when have you become so bold!”

Professor Garcia recalled his student’s old self and was shocked.

Where had the Leehan who would put his all into even an exam he could pass with his eyes closed gone?

People grew, but this student’s growth rate was too fast, leaving Professor Garcia bewildered.

“He learned magic so quickly in the first semester…”

“Still, considering the exam period, shouldn’t you stay at school for a while?”

The professor made one last attempt. He would use any means necessary to keep his student at Einroguard.

However, Professor Garcia’s student was also using any means necessary.

“I’ve thought of that too.”

“I’m scared to ask… what are you thinking, Leehan?”

“I can create free time by taking the exams before the exam period starts.”

“……”

The Death Knights turned their heads again, staring intently into the carriage. They seemed to be begging to add a word to the conversation.

Professor Garcia, looking distressed, called for Dirette. He couldn’t handle it alone.

“Dirette? Dirette? Can you help me?”

But there was no response from Dirette. Professor Garcia asked in surprise.

“Dirette? What’s wrong?!”

Dirette sat slumped in his seat, his usual bright eyes clouded with sadness. Professor Garcia wondered if he had heard bad things said from other black magicians.

“Did the Descendants of Ahrak laugh at the Einroguard School of Black Magic for being poor? Or did the Oondorgu Legion laugh at the Einroguard School of Black Magic for being small…”

“Neither. Wait, did they laugh at the School of Black Magic without me knowing?”

Dirette paused.

He suddenly felt left out. It seemed the other black magicians were planning something without him.

“…Of course not! I was just giving examples!”

Professor Garcia quickly replied. A cold sweat ran down his spine.

“Then why were you so gloomy, Dirette?”

“Um. Well… this isn’t my story.”

‘It’s Dirette’s story.’

Professor Garcia, and even the Death Knights, thought to themselves.

“There’s a magician I know, and this magician’s junior received an invitation from a suspicious magician group. So the magician actively tried to stop them, but as time passed, they wondered if they had interfered too much…”

Dirette said the magician worried if he stopped them for the right reason. Was it because the group was bad, or was the magician just jealous?

“Hey. You did well to stop them, Dirette. The Descendants of Ahrak or the Oondorgu Legion are not places to go. The Obsidian Magic Tower either. Leehan will keep clashing with the rules if he goes to such places.”

The former was too strange, and the latter was very rule-focused.

It wasn’t just because he was an Einroguard professor, but Einroguard was one of the few places that suited Leehan.

“I said it’s not me, but a magician I know.”

“Yes, yes. A magician Dirette knows did well to stop them.”

“……”

He glared slightly, but Dirette was able to cheer up a bit.

As the student seemed to have regained his spirits, Professor Garcia asked again.

“Dirette, I’m honestly worried about Leehan going out because of the commission, but now he’s even trying to distribute wanted posters and then go out to find him himself.”

“Wait. Isn’t it almost exam time?”

“He says he’ll take the exams first and then go out.”

Professor Garcia complained about Leehan to Dirette.

How could he do such a crazy thing?

Dirette widened his eyes in surprise.

“Before the exam period?”

“That’s what I’m saying! Whose student is he!”

‘Is he joking…?’

Dirette, not knowing how to react, decided to pretend he didn’t hear it.

“If you want to stop him… how about this? Increase the difficulty of the exams so he can’t finish them quickly.”

“I’m scared that Leehan will somehow solve them anyway.”

“……”

Dirette couldn’t deny it as a senior.

Honestly, when he saw him solving them anyway, there were times when he wanted to pretend not to know and give him problems of unimaginable difficulty.

‘Could he solve this too?’

‘Or this?’

Rattle!

The carriage shook slightly. It was unusual since it was protected from shocks and vibrations by magic.

“What’s going on outside?”

“-Nothing. It seems there was just a large bump.”

Professor Garcia, hearing the knights’ response, didn’t pay any more attention and returned to the original topic.

However, this time the Death Knights were wrong, and Professor Garcia was right.

A stranger had secretly clung to the carriage’s cargo hold.

The ninth descendant of Ahrak had transformed into a box filled with neatly stacked cloths.

He wanted to turn back into a human right away, open the carriage door, and shout, ‘Let’s go to the Descendants of Ahrak together!’ but this ninth descendant wasn’t that stupid.

There were too many powerful enemies around this carriage party. From high-level undead like the Death Knights to the professors and students of Einroguard.

No matter how outstanding the ninth descendant’s magic was, he could be discovered if he acted quickly in this situation.

His mind was sharp and cold, like ice. He wouldn’t rush. He would wait for the perfect moment.

He became even more determined because the other descendants of Ahrak had made fun of him for being impossible.

Now that it had come to this, he would not just invite him, but definitely make that human magician his disciple!

If he did, none of the descendants of Ahrak would be able to make fun of the ninth descendant anymore.

‘Heh. Their movements have become rough. Are they getting tired?’

The ninth descendant, transformed into a cloth box and placed among other crates, felt that the carriage’s movements had become rough.

When you become a master of magic, you can grasp the situation without seeing it with your eyes or using magic.

There was only one reason why the carriage’s movements, which had been going smoothly, would suddenly become rough: fatigue.

‘The movement has stopped. Is it to take a break?’

The ninth descendant felt with his natural feeling that opportunities were coming more and more.

This ninth descendant’s natural feeling was very sensitive and outstanding, to the point where other black magicians said he was close to a beast or wild animal.

‘When they scatter to rest, I’ll return to my original form and make contact.’

“What should we do with the boxes in this carriage?”

“-They are supplies we brought just in case, but we didn’t use them, so you can take them.”

“Really!? I should divide them with my friends…”

The ninth descendant of Ahrak was an excellent black magician, but he made one mistake: clinging to the carriage too late.

The rough movement or stop for rest that the ninth descendant thought of was actually evidence that they had arrived at Einroguard.

“Dirette, how about taking this cloth box to the Black Stone Hall? Professor Mortum will be pleased.”

“Junior. Good idea. The professor happens to be looking for such cloth.”