Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 135

Professor Skull Headmaster’s words were sharp, almost rude. “You have no popular students either, Garcia,” he’d said. Professor Garcia knew it was true, and hard to argue against. If the competition was about who had the fewest popular students between the Skull Headmaster and Professor Voladi, it would be a fierce battle.

Professor Garcia asked, “Well, why are you asking about students?”

Professor Garcia sighed. “Professor Voladi, also known as Professor Baegreg, will be in charge of something at the festival. Seeing him rush past looking so stressed makes me worried.”

“Oh, he’ll be fine,” Professor Garcia said, trying to sound positive.

The Skull Headmaster’s voice was cold. “No. You’re misunderstanding me, Professor Garcia.”

The Skull Headmaster continued, “Professor Voladi, like me, doesn’t have many popular students. So, he will probably ask Lee Han, the boy from the Wodanaz family, to help.”

“…Ah.”

Professor Garcia finally understood. Both Skull Headmaster and Professor Voladi only had one student they really relied on – Lee Han. This meant Lee Han would likely be asked to do extra work for *both* of them during the festival. “Poor Lee Han,” Professor Garcia thought.

Professor Garcia, trying to be helpful, suggested, “Headmaster, maybe you could give in this time?”

The Skull Headmaster stopped and stared. “Did you just suggest *I* give in?” He sounded like he couldn’t believe his ears.

Professor Garcia sighed. “Never mind. Of course not.”

Professor Skull Headmaster called out, “Professor Voladi! Professor Voladi!” Professor Voladi, the pale vampire wizard, turned around slowly. His face was as white as bone, and his eyes were dark and cold. He walked towards them without a single change in his expression.

Skull Headmaster explained quickly, “…So, this is the problem. Do you understand?”

Professor Garcia tried again, “Wouldn’t it be easier if you, Headmaster, just gave in?”

Professor Voladi chuckled, a dry, humorless sound. “Don’t be ridiculous, Garcia.”

Professor Garcia rubbed his temples. He could already feel a headache coming. These two wizards were famous for never agreeing on anything. But surprisingly, they didn’t start arguing. Instead, Professor Voladi suggested, “Perhaps we can compromise? We could divide the time in half.”

Skull Headmaster considered this for a moment, then simply said, “Good.”

It was like watching two powerful animals agree on sharing hunting grounds. The only ones who would suffer were the poor students caught in the middle.

Professor Garcia panicked. “Wait! Professor Thunderstep has lots of popular students! Let’s just leave him out of this!” He knew dividing the work between three professors would be even worse for the students.

Lee Han didn’t know about the extra work the professors had planned for him. He was busy thinking about the magic circle with Asan.

Asan pointed at the diagram in the old book Professor Alpen had given them. “So, if we get this right, balls of light will float along the hallway, and a magical statue will appear in the middle, right?” Asan, trying to sound confident even though he looked worried, said, “I think so.”

Then he muttered under his breath, “Wodanaz, Professor Knighton is completely insane!”

Lee Han just wondered if he could fill the spheres of light with his own magic power and bring in an actual sculpture instead of the illusionary one.

“**Imperial Banquet Magic Circle – Instructions** Wizards who are not good at talking can use amazing magic to impress people at parties. Some silly wizards don’t think making friends at parties is important. But they are wrong! Getting rich nobles to support you is very important for wizards. Let me tell you a story to show you why…”

‘It’s quite interesting, considering how much unnecessary talk there is.’ Wizards’ books never simply wrote down the main points, even if the content was simple. They would write about their personal affairs, what they ate yesterday, what the weather was like today, badmouth other competitors, and then finally get to the point. The book Professor Alpen gave him was like that, but the content was quite relatable.

“How to get money from nobles…” Lee Han thought. Magic research costs a lot of money. Magic is the most expensive thing to study in the Empire. Rare ingredients are incredibly expensive, and magical objects are so rare and costly you can’t even buy them with money. Who has this kind of money? Rich nobles and wealthy people, of course. Lee Han wasn’t really interested in research, but he was very interested in getting money.

‘Impress them with illusion magic and dance… music… literature… art… hmm… isn’t there an easier way?’

“Wodanaz?”

“Ah. Sorry. I was concentrating.”

Lee Han came to his senses. Asan was scribbling with a quill, lost in thought. The problem wasn’t over just by reading the specification.

“…Draw this pattern exactly. Then, put in magic power – about as much power as two small animals. If you do that, it should work well. Use special stones that glow with light, but don’t use too much magic power. If the magic stops flowing because of the room, you can fix it by adding a tiny bit of these special powders…”

As much as it was full of metaphors and explanations that only he knew, most of it had to be done directly even if you read it all.

Unlike Asan, who was muttering curses at the professor and cursing the world, Lee Han silently began preparations. For Lee Han, this kind of irrationality was already like fate.

“Let’s prepare.”

“…I’m really glad you’re helping me, Wodanaz.”

Asan also cheered up and began to prepare.

He carefully drew white lines on the floor with a special ink that glowed and carried magic well. He had to put magic power into the lines very slowly. Not enough power, and the lines wouldn’t work. Too much, and they would break. And worst of all…

“…Cough.”

Asan collapsed to the side with a pale face. Trembling, Asan took out a potion bottle from his coat. It was a low-grade magic recovery potion made during Professor Thunderstep’s class.

“Wo… Wodanaz. If I fall… take revenge on Knighton Professor for me…”

“Rest.”

Lee Han laid Asan down next to him and began testing alone. Having a lot of magic power wasn’t always a disadvantage. During this simple repetitive work, Lee Han didn’t need to take a forced break due to lack of magic power, even if other wizards did.

‘…Why do I feel lonely? That’s strange.’

Shaking off unnecessary thoughts, Lee Han repeatedly injected magic power and gradually completed the magic circle.

Click – the classroom door opened. Lee Han and Asan looked up, startled. Standing in the doorway was a girl with long, silver hair that shone like moonlight. It was Princess Adenarte, with her usual group of followers behind her. She looked around the messy classroom, surprised.

“Mr. Wodanaz!”

“Nice to see you.”

“What are you doing on the weekend… Ah!”

One of the followers nodded as if he understood. “You were studying without rest even on the weekend. I’m impressed.”

“……”

“No! Are you blind!” Asan flared up. Of course, Lee Han was one of the most studious students in the Blue Dragon Tower, but this wasn’t it. Who would be doing this because they liked it?

“The professor made us do it!”

“The professor? Why?”

“A friend is coming…” The princess’s followers listened attentively to Asan’s explanation. And then they were impressed again.

“Amazing!”

“Hmm. It is amazing, but.”

Asan made an annoyed expression, but he couldn’t retort any further. In fact, it was amazing. Not just anyone could do it. But if you’re doing this on a golden weekend, you’d want to fire a magic missile at Knighton Professor’s face, amazing or not.

“Ah. Wodanaz. I thought of a good way, would you like to hear it?”

“Tell me.”

“Let’s mobilize that princess and her friends. Wouldn’t that be much more helpful? I think there’s a 96% chance it will be helpful.”

“Oh… but no.”

Lee Han refused outright. Asan was flustered.

“Why?”

“Well…” The reason Lee Han was helping Asan instead of finding a way to escape school this weekend was simple. Wasn’t it to get into the eyes of the professor and the professor’s friend? But if the princess participates together…

-Oh, who is that? Isn’t that the princess? It’s an honor to meet you like this. You certainly have abilities befitting your reputation. You’re still a freshman, but you’ve already completed such a sophisticated magic circle!

…There was a high possibility that such a situation would occur. Among the many royals, Adenarte was quite famous, so there was no way the imperial officials wouldn’t know her.

‘Sorry. For my success, the princess cannot participate in this annoying and tedious work.’

“Because the professor entrusted this to the two of us.”

“Kugh. I see. If you say so, I can’t help it.”

Asan respected Lee Han’s wishes. If he didn’t listen to the friend who came to help him, giving up his weekend, whose words would he listen to?

However, things didn’t go as expected.

“Um. Mr. Wodanaz.”

“What?”

“The princess said she wants to help, can we help you together?”

Lee Han was flustered. Why does she want to help with this?

‘Does this look fun?’ If Gainan was also a royal, he would have run away just by looking at the magic circle, not wanting to do errands, but she was approaching because she wanted to do this. He couldn’t believe it.

Fortunately, Asan stepped in.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t. This is a task entrusted to the two of us.”

“Mr. Dalcard. Mr. Wodanaz’s thoughts may be different.”

“Wodanaz’s thoughts will be similar to mine.”

The princess stared at Asan coldly. It didn’t seem to contain very good intentions. The princess, who was cursing with her eyes, whispered to her follower. The follower who heard everything approached.

“Mr. Wodanaz.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Um… the princess said she would give you snacks, so she wants you to say she can participate in the work.”

“Th, that!” Asan was even more surprised. She’s going to give us snacks! It was an unimaginable determination.

“Wodanaz. I didn’t know she would say that much…!”

‘Is his magic power recovery not complete yet?’ Lee Han was dumbfounded, looking at Asan, who was speaking solemnly. It seemed like his intelligence had slightly decreased due to the lack of magic power.

‘Hmm.’ Lee Han was lost in thought. ‘If I refuse here, the princess will hold a grudge.’ Originally, the higher the status you were born with, the narrower your mind tended to be. You could tell just by looking at Gainan. And unlike Gainan, the princess had many people around her. Someone who could concretely mess up Lee Han’s life…

‘Those cowardly royals.’

“What are you doing now?” Professor Alpen, who was passing by, looked at the students gathered in the classroom and wondered.

“Other friends were saying they would help,” Lee Han said, slightly expecting it. With Professor Alpen’s fussy personality, there was no way he would let this go. Please kick them out!

“Excellent.” Professor Alpen looked at Lee Han, relaxed his strict expression, and smiled slightly.

“Other friends are stepping up to help. You have good friends. It’s also an ability to receive help from others. Now that it’s come to this, try to create it by directing the other students. Directing many people is also an ability.” Professor Alpen said that and left. Asan looked at Lee Han and said.

“It seems like it’ll be okay since he’s saying that? Wodanaz. It’ll be okay, right? Even if we let them participate?”

“Asan.”

“What?”

“We need to bring more guys who are resting in the dormitory.”

“Th… that much?” Asan was surprised. It seems like it’ll be enough with this…!

‘He’s really thorough. I need to learn from him.’

‘Since he said that, I’ll increase the number to get a higher evaluation.’