Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 129

The skeletal Headmaster finished speaking and disappeared as the sky got brighter. The students all sighed in relief.

“Wait a minute! What if he’s just pretending to disappear? He could be using a spell to make himself invisible and is still nearby!”

“He could be hiding close by! Just in case, let’s throw some stones!”

Someone muttered, “This magic school is bad for the Empire’s best students.”

Leihan felt sorry for his friends. They were starting to believe strange and untrue ideas.

“It’s still too bad. Some students from the Phoenix Tower were caught…”

The Blue Dragon Tower students had a perfect score because none of them were captured, but the Phoenix Tower wasn’t so lucky.

Some priests were caught during the escape, which meant they were going to lose points.

Priest Tizling said in a serious and holy voice, “What we learn is important, not just the scores. So it’s okay.” Leihan was surprised.

‘Don’t the scores matter?’

After all, the scores are what get recorded.

And teachings are only as good as the lesson, but what important lesson could come from lectures like these?

The lessons they learned were simple things like, ‘Don’t spend time with liches,’ ‘Don’t trust everyone,’ and ‘Be careful of undead creatures at night.’

“Er… right. The teachings are what matter.”

Tizling looked puzzled when Leihan’s reply came strangely late.

‘Why did he take so long to answer?’

“Oh, right. The priests will be visiting the school this weekend.”

Leihan’s face lit up.

When the priests of the Imperial Order visited the school, it wasn’t just about sharing food and drink.

More than anything, the skeletal Headmaster’s challenging lessons would be reduced a bit.

The priests from the Empire were making the school better!

‘I might be able to relax a bit this weekend.’

Besides, Leihan had decided to join as many orders as possible, not just the Freisinga Order.

Since the priests were visiting this weekend, he was planning to visit them directly and look for new orders to join.

Leihan thought, ‘Why doesn’t my family, the Wodanaz family, help the school like other rich families do? They could give money and support.’

Leihan grumbled to himself.

Look at Yoner’s family, the Maykin family!

They were helping the Flamen Order so that their family’s bloodline could benefit.

‘Can’t my family offer some help, even if they don’t believe in it? He felt a little resentful. He wanted to prove himself even without their help.’

‘There’s no point in complaining. I’ll make my own way.’

Even if the family didn’t help, Leihan would forge his own path.

Leihan looked at Priest Tizling.

Priest Tizling was slightly nervous at Leihan’s strong gaze.

“Is there something you wish to say…?”

“Priest Tizling, you’ve gotten terribly thin since I last saw you.”

‘I haven’t, though?’

“It hasn’t even been a day, there’s no way I could have gotten thin…”

“Since I’m here at the Blue Dragon Tower, I should eat something more before I leave.”

Thanks to Leihan, who periodically summoned him and said, ‘I brought some tea with meat broth in a pot,’ Tizling had no nutritional problems whatsoever.

And no matter how little someone ate, there was no way they could get thin in less than a day after meeting someone.

“Now, go and sit down.”

“It is a sin for a priest serving Freisinga to enjoy fancy meals, but…”

“Indeed. But if you don’t eat, I’ll starve Gainando along with you.”

Gainando, who was clearing the barricade next to him, looked at Leihan with shocked eyes, as if struck by a sudden spark.

‘Why me?!’

“Priest…! I get really hungry if I miss even one meal!” Gainando cried out, his eyes wide with alarm.

Tizling sighed. He knew he couldn’t argue with Leihan. He slowly sat down on the chair.

Leihan nodded, his face serious, almost like the Headmaster when he was about to give a harsh punishment. “Good. Now, I need to get the other priests to sit down too.”

Tizling’s shoulders slumped. “But Leihan,” he said, his voice a little whiny, “most of the priests here are very simple people. They think fancy meals are wrong.”

“Perhaps, Priest Tizling… is it because I threatened you with Gainando?”

“No, it isn’t.”

He said no, but it didn’t seem genuine. Gainando spoke as if he couldn’t understand.

“But the meals we eat are really simple….”

Students from the Blue Dragon Tower who were passing by looked at Gainando as if he were crazy.

‘Has this bloke already forgotten about the simple meals?’

Leihan nodded.

Of course, it wasn’t like Leihan had ingredients to spare.

He had already gone too far with the White Tiger Tower.

His relationship with the Black Tortoise Tower students was relatively smooth, but sometimes they misunderstood Leihan because of the rumors spread by the White Tiger Tower students.

But not the wise and virtuous priests of the Phoenix Tower.

They wouldn’t be fooled by rumors and would trust Leihan.

And more than anything, if they were treated to a hearty meal, wouldn’t they say good things to the priests who would be visiting on the weekend?

Whether the Phoenix Tower students liked it or not, they had to eat. Leihan’s eyes shone with determination.

“Gainando, come with me. You’ll have to help persuade them.”

Gainando didn’t understand why Leihan was calling him, but Priest Tizling realized and was horrified.

Leihan took out the food he had piled up in the food storage.

Honey and sweet tree sap, which could be eaten with white bread spread with butter and warmed, were placed on the table. The smell of the roasting pork and beef filled the air, the glistening fat and colors of the vegetables were very appealing. Salted and smoked meats were also placed next to them. Canned fish were thinly sliced and placed on plates.

He also took out a jar of fresh milk that he had borrowed from Professor Uregeoreum’s cabin.

He scooped jam from glass jars filled with various fruit jams, then stirred it into the cold milk to make a drink. It was a sweet drink that was hard to come by at school.

“You had this?!”

“Don’t ask me to do it usually, because I won’t.”

‘How did he know?!’

Leihan slapped the back of Gainando’s hand, who was trying to grab one first, and made him step back before checking the soup.

The aroma of the rich, boiling broth made the Blue Dragon Tower students happy.

“Sharkhan.”

Leihan threw a chunk of meat to Sharkhan. Gainando looked at it with envy, but lowered his eyes when Sharkhan growled and glared at him.

“It’s almost ready. Tell everyone to sit down.”

Leihan also used the juices from cooking the meat sparingly. He stir-fried the vegetables he was growing himself, then added flour to make a sauce.

‘Not bad.’

Leihan was impressed with his own talent after tasting it. He was making good use of the juices from cooking the meat.

This would definitely go well with the fresh vegetables from the garden…

‘…I should stop thinking about it.’

Strangely, his magic skills didn’t seem to be improving that quickly, but his cooking skills seemed to be improving a lot.

Yoner, who was helping with the preparations with the other friends, looked puzzled at the carrot cupcakes and butternut squash cookies that were being baked next to him.

“Where did you get these?”

“I made them with stuff from the garden.”

“…This isn’t exactly a professional or difficult dish. Yoner, it’s an easier dish than you think.”

‘I didn’t say anything…’

Yoner was flustered by Leihan’s sudden explanation.

“Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

He didn’t really know what he was supposed to get, but Yoner nodded, overwhelmed by Leihan’s forcefulness.

For some reason, Leihan seemed to want to insist that he wasn’t serious about cooking.

…In Yoner’s opinion, he was very serious…

Although they had been forced to sit down, the young priests who had been fighting all night were moved by the warm meal.

Leihan felt proud as he watched the student stuffing food into his mouth until his cheeks burst.

‘No, it was Gainando.’

On closer inspection, it wasn’t a Phoenix Tower student, but Gainando.

Fortunately, the Phoenix Tower students were also enjoying the meal.

The only sounds were the clattering of plates and dishes, without a single word being spoken.

“Thank you so much, Leihan of the Wodanaz family.”

“I was just doing what I had to do.”

In his heart, he was saying, ‘Please take care of me this weekend,’ but Leihan didn’t show it at all.

Instead, he nodded with noble dignity. The young priests were deeply impressed by his attitude.

“The Order’s priests will be visiting the school this weekend, and I would like to tell them about what Leihan of the Wodanaz family has done for us.”

“I see. I won’t stop you if you do.”

“But…”

Leihan was flustered when the other party hesitated.

‘Why?’

‘Could it be that the Wodanaz family is on some kind of blacklist??’

Judging from what the head of the family had said about the Imperial Orders, it wouldn’t be strange if the Orders disliked the Wodanaz family.

“Well, the priest would want to meet Leihan of the Wodanaz family in person and express his gratitude… but I was wondering if you weren’t already busy enough. Maybe you should rest on the weekends…”

“I’m not busy at all. In fact, I’m worried that I have too much free time on the weekends.”

“I, is that so?”

The young priests of the Phoenix Tower were taken aback by Leihan’s words.

No matter how they looked at it, he seemed incredibly busy…

Seeing him say that with such a serious face, it didn’t seem like a lie or a joke.

‘Is that so?’

‘I guess that’s really the case.’

“Dark magic?”

Leihan raised his hand at Professor Garcia’s question.

“Summoning magic?”

Leihan raised his hand again at the next question.

“Illusion magic?”

Leihan raised his hand again.

Then he made eye contact with the Phoenix Tower students sitting next to him.

“…I’m not busy at all. Understand?”

“Y… you seem busy, though.”

“Leihan… you are busy… you need to cut back.”

Not only the Phoenix Tower students, but also the Blue Dragon Tower friends had shocked expressions.

Before the quiz, Professor Garcia divided the students according to their interests.

And Leihan went into every field.

No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t right.

‘Isn’t he going to collapse at this rate?’

“Even I think you’re being too harsh on yourself, Wodanaz.”

“Even I think so…”

Even the Black Tortoise Tower and White Tiger Tower students chimed in.

However, Leihan didn’t waver at all.

“I still have plenty of energy.”

“Student Leihan should… cut back a bit…”

Professor Garcia said with a worried voice as he walked over.

Professor Garcia thought that very talented people, like Leihan, needed to be careful not to push themselves too hard. Sometimes, people with great talent can burn out quickly if they do too much.

‘Every word in that sentence seems to be the opposite of me.’

“It’s really tough.”

“Professor, did you also learn several magics at the same time like Leihan?”

“I did once.”

“Then shouldn’t Leihan be able to do it too?”

“Well… that’s true…”

Professor Garcia was speechless at Gainando’s unexpected words.

‘Huh?’

‘Is that so?’

When he thought about the difficult path he had taken, he wondered if he should stop the student from walking that path…

But when he thought about it, he wondered if Professor Garcia had the right to do that.

Especially for a wizard born with talent like Leihan.

“Well… but back then, there wasn’t someone like Professor Baegreuk… no, it’s nothing.”

Professor Garcia stopped abruptly because he couldn’t badmouth another professor to the students.

But Leihan immediately understood what Professor Garcia was trying to say.

“Well, Student Leihan is better than me, so he might be alright. Alright. I won’t say anything more.”

Professor Garcia clenched his fist and shook it as if to cheer him on, then walked away.

Leihan suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of unease, as if he had missed some kind of last chance.