Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 1180

After sending his friends on ahead, Lee Han picked up the box. Inside was the cloth that seemed to absorb all light, creating a patch of jet-black darkness.

He had been outside the school more often than other students. He felt he should give the professors gifts when he had the chance. He was aware of their presence.

“By the way, what is this cloth made of? It looks like a composite material…” Dirette asked.

Lee Han replied, “Right? You can’t buy it in the market. Do you think they used something the students made at Einroguard? Not many places make dark cloth like this, except for the Black Magic Department.”

Dirette looked puzzled, as if he had the same thought.

The Buyeo Magic Department often put magic into cloth. But using dark magic on cloth was unusual for them.

If it wasn’t the Black Magic Department, not many people would bother with it, so why this cloth?

‘Could it be a cloth that former graduates made and left behind?’ Lee Han wondered.

“It doesn’t seem like former graduates made it,” Lee Han said.

Dirette was surprised. “Why do you say that?” he asked.

“If the graduates made it, they would have used it. The Black Magic Department isn’t generous enough to leave something like this unused,” Lee Han explained.

“…W-we sometimes leave things unused, why…” Dirette answered back, his voice getting quieter.

He knew that things were worse when the senior students were around, not better.

‘These young whippersnappers!’ The Ninth almost shouted from inside the box.

The black wizards who were supposed to lead the Einroguard Black Magic Department were acting so spinelessly.

He wanted to scold them. A real black wizard should be able to confidently take whatever they want, even from a family tomb.

He couldn’t understand why the young wizards these days were so timid and weak.

‘Don’t worry. I will soon pass on my teachings,’ The Ninth thought, ready to show his true self as soon as he was alone with the young wizard from the Wodanaz family.

He never expected to end up inside Einroguard, but a great black wizard could use any coincidence to their advantage.

“By the way, junior, aren’t you going to use this cloth yourself? It seems like you could use it,” Dirette said.

The Ninth nodded, pleased with those words.

‘Who made this cloth? I did,’ he thought. It was natural for them to react this way.

“That’s true, but I went outside, and I thought it would be bad to visit the professor empty-handed,” Lee Han replied.

“Indeed… What? What are you talking about?” Dirette tried to ignore it but then reacted strongly. Lee Han looked confused at his senior’s harsh words.

“Did I do something wrong?” Lee Han asked.

“Wrong? Besides you coming to the Black Magic Department? No. But why are you so worried about the professor? Give it here. Forget about giving it to the professor,” Dirette said, snatching the box. He realized his junior was trying to give a gift for such a ridiculous reason.

Lee Han, flustered, grabbed it back. “No, it’s not just for that reason. I just don’t have a use for it right now,” he said.

Dirette snatched it again. “Then you can think about it now,” he said.

Lee Han quickly took back the box, using a knight’s mana technique. Then he said, “I’ll ask for it later if I need it. You just said the professor needed this kind of cloth.”

“That’s a lie… Hey! Use magic! That’s cheating!” Dirette got angry because Lee Han dodged him using knight techniques, which he thought was cheating.

The Ninth, being shaken back and forth, cursed at them in his mind.

‘Black wizards fighting over such pathetic reasons,’ he thought.

Fortunately, the fight ended soon. Dirette eventually lost to his junior’s stubbornness.

“Don’t give it all to the professor. Save some for yourself,” Dirette said.

Lee Han thought, ‘Shouldn’t the senior do that first?’

“You’re thinking, ‘You should do well yourself, senior,’ right now,” Dirette said.

“?!!!”

“…I’m telling you to do well because I didn’t do well!” Dirette said, using his senior status to justify his words. Lee Han grumbled to himself.

He was definitely going to pay it back to his juniors in the future.

“Professor, we’ve come…” Lee Han announced.

“Cough, welcome,” Professor Mortuum replied.

Lee Han and Dirette opened the door to the first floor of the Black Darkness Hall and were speechless at the sight of the luxuriously decorated tower.

Lights were on everywhere, like a festival, and all sorts of food were piled high on the table. It was a truly surreal sight.

If you looked closely, you could see it was still the usual Black Darkness Hall. The lights were candles inside the skulls that usually rolled around, and the round table where the food was piled up was dark and murky, usually covered in spilled poisons.

“Dirette, are you thinking of transferring to another department?” Lee Han asked, confused.

Where did Professor Mortuum get the money to prepare all this?

That question made Dirette explode. “…It’s you! You! It’s you, junior! I’m a fifth-year, why would I transfer to another department! Who transfers when they’re almost done with fifth year?!”

“Sorry,” Lee Han said.

Dirette realized he was getting angry at his junior for something shameful he had done in the North.

“But, senior…” Lee Han started.

“…Why?” Dirette asked.

“Even if another department is impossible, you can still go to another black magic organization,” Lee Han suggested.

“Cough. Wodanaz. Dirette won’t do that because he has a responsibility to continue the Einroguard Black Magic Department,” Professor Mortuum interrupted.

“Hey, if the conditions are good, go. I heard the Obsidian Magic Tower has a lot of money,” Lee Han said without hesitation.

The good-natured Black Magic Department students had a habit of wanting to help others escape, even if they couldn’t escape themselves.

Professor Mortuum quickly intervened, afraid of losing his current talent while trying to protect future talent. “Cough! Our department isn’t that different anymore!” he said.

“Hey, don’t say such nonsense… If that were true, the Gainan family and a beggar wouldn’t have much difference in wealth,” Lee Han retorted.

‘He said he wanted to make a good impression on the professor…’ Dirette thought.

He was too confident for someone who even brought a gift to impress the professor.

However, Professor Mortuum, who had many flaws, praised Lee Han instead of getting angry, no matter what he said. “Cough, your joking skills have improved as much as your black magic skills,” he said.

“I’m not jokin…” Lee Han started.

“What is this?” Professor Mortuum asked.

“Ah, I brought what was left over from using it outside this time. I thought the professor might need it,” Lee Han said.

“Indeed. Cough, I’ll take it to the basement warehouse,” Professor Mortuum said, carrying the box himself.

Dirette was impressed. Seeing someone who only coughed when he had to use his strength doing that, he could feel his sincerity.

“Such hypocrisy…” Dirette muttered.

“Junior, never be fooled,” Lee Han warned.

Dirette reflected slightly. He had been working under Professor Mortuum for so long that he was overvaluing even the smallest actions.

Creak-

Pretending not to hear his disciples’ harsh criticism, Professor Mortuum quickly entered the basement warehouse.

The demon Orlakh greeted the professor happily. “Ah, wizard, were you all satisfied with the meal? What did the young master say?”

Lee Han didn’t know, but this demon had prepared today’s feast.

He had even gone to the inspector, Uman, to get the ingredients (the fact that it was a treat for Lee Han was a big reason for his success) and diligently cooked, personally lighting the fire in the furnace.

It wasn’t because he liked the black wizards of this magic tower, but because of Lee Han.

If he could be recognized by the Wodanaz family’s pride, he would prepare such a feast thousands of times over.

“Cough. Oh? Yes. He praised your skills,” Professor Mortuum lied.

As a professor in the Black Magic Department, this wizard had no conscience.

He wouldn’t have been fooled normally, but Orlakh, blinded by greed, was overjoyed. “R-really! How specifically?!” he asked.

“He wanted to take you with him and make you his exclusive chef. Cough. But that’s not important. I have an important mission to entrust to you,” Professor Mortuum said.

“What is it?” Orlakh asked.

“This chest contains a very evil black wizard who has transformed, so you must prevent him from contacting Wodanaz,” Professor Mortuum explained.

“!”

-!

The Ninth was horrified that he had been discovered and tried to return to his original form.

However, the transformation didn’t end because Professor Mortuum had cast a spell.

‘Th-this little brat!’ The Ninth thought.

“A-an assassin?!” Orlakh exclaimed.

“Cough, an assassin? …Yes! An assassin! You can think of him as an assassin,” Professor Mortuum confirmed.

“I understand! I will make sure no one ever contacts him!” Orlakh promised to use all his authority as a demon to perfectly imprison this evil assassin.

The Ninth could only curse as he was dragged away in the chest.

The ruthless world of black wizards was like this. Once you let your guard down, you could never recover.

After returning and finishing his paperwork and checking the knights’ training, Lee Han immediately began preparing for the midterm exams.

What he had told Professor Garcia was not empty words. He planned to finish everything he needed before the midterm period and then go searching with the knights.

“Hmm…” Lee Han muttered.

The students of the Blue Dragon Tower quietly passed by, barely breathing, when they saw Lee Han thinking hard about the order in which to study, with the list of classes in front of him.

Just looking at that list seemed like their minds would be contaminated with madness.

“There’s a lot,” Lee Han said.

Yoner’s eyebrows twitched as he studied next to him.

Gainan gestured, ‘Shouldn’t we tell him to stop?’, but Yoner shook his head.

He wanted to say something, but he was still acting like his usual friend.

“I don’t know if I can finish all of this and go out,” Lee Han said.

Adenart wrote on a piece of paper, ‘Shouldn’t we stop him?’. Gainan clicked his tongue, frustrated.

‘What is this…!’ Gainan thought.

Just as Adenart was about to say something, Lee Han got up from his seat.

The students of the Blue Dragon Tower all lowered their heads and pretended to look at their books.

Fortunately, Lee Han headed to the private room upstairs, muttering to himself instead of looking at his friends. He seemed really focused.

“Sigh…” Lee Han sighed.

-Gainan. Don’t look at the book upside down.

Gainan looked annoyed at the voice coming from upstairs.

Sometimes he was his friend, but sometimes he was scary.

“Master,” Lee Han said.

-Oh. It’s been a while, disciple, the young prince, who was reading a book in the painting, greeted Lee Han happily.

“If you don’t mind, can I ask you a few things about magic…” Lee Han asked.

-Disciple, it makes me sadder to see you keeping your distance and being so polite than to have you bother me by asking about trivial things. Please feel free to ask me anything. I wouldn’t mind if you asked me what to eat for lunch today, the young prince said.

The skeleton headmaster and the crazy clone weren’t kind to pointless questions, but the young prince was so kind that it made the person asking feel suffocated.

It gave the pressure that you should never bother such a person with unnecessary questions.

-Are you perhaps asking about that architectural drawing you brought? the prince asked.

“Yes? Ah,” Lee Han said.

Lee Han looked at the thick book that the senior black wizards had forced on him. It was so thick that it was practically a book.

“This is trash that I was forced to receive. You don’t have to worry about it,” Lee Han said.

Lee Han threw the book into the corner. He wanted to ask about the classes, but he couldn’t listen to the black wizards’ pointless magic.

-That’s pretty good magic. Are you hiding it because you’re ashamed? the prince asked.

“Absolutely not,” Lee Han replied.

-If that’s the case… the young prince waved his hand and moved the book into the painting. He was planning to read it later and judge it.