Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 153

The magical combat practice didn’t end with just one session.

Yumidihus had spotted other third-year students.

Yumidihus smiled. ‘This is good practice, Lee Han. We need to learn to take what we need, quickly and quietly.’

“Those students over there are hiding stolen goods too,” Yumidihus said.

‘Is this school just full of thieves?’ Lee Han wondered, a frown hidden behind his mask. He looked around at the students nervously trying to hide things. It felt wrong.

Were there many thieves in the school? Or was the school making students become thieves? It was hard to know.

Yumidihus pointed to the students trying to conceal ingredients and reagents. “Bring those here as well,” he said, his eyes gleaming with interest.

“Yes,” Lee Han replied.

Doing it again was easier. Lee Han felt less nervous this time.

Lee Han approached again, but this time it wasn’t as smooth as before.

Caw! Caw! A loud, annoying bird cry suddenly broke the quiet mountain air as Lee Han moved closer. It echoed off the rocks, making him jump.

At the same moment, a bright flash of light, like a small firework, burst from the air near the two third-year students. It was the alarm spell, screaming a warning.

“Hey! Who’s there?” one of them shouted, his voice echoing in the mountains. “Show yourself!”

“!” Lee Han was impressed. He had expected the third-years to be clever, and they were.

The alarm spell had worked perfectly, and they instantly knew someone was hidden nearby, casting a spell to make invisible things visible. ‘Next time,’ Lee Han thought quickly, ‘I need to stop those alarm spells first.’

The two upperclassmen were surprised to see Lee Han in a mask.

He was different from the pursuer they had imagined.

“What?” one of them asked.

“Did the Headmaster send you?”

“Of course, the Headmaster sent him! Don’t listen to him! He’s trying to trick us!” the other one shouted.

Lee Han didn’t bother correcting their misunderstanding.

“…That’s right! How dare you try to steal Gonadaltes’s belongings!” Lee Han said.

“Kuh…!”

“You’re practically forcing us! Soar forth…”

The third-year students tried to resist, feeling wronged, but Lee Han was one step ahead.

Suddenly, small, clear beads of water shot out from behind a rock. They curved through the air like tiny, fast arrows and knocked the wands out of the upperclassmen’s hands.

Wham!

Surprisingly, the upperclassmen were quite sloppy when it came to magical combat. Their magical skills were excellent, but they had too many openings.

Professor Volardi would have immediately guarded his blind spots.

To a student who had undergone rigorous magical combat training like Lee Han, the third-year students were like hothouse flowers.

“Ugh!”

“Kuh-ugh!”

“……”

Seeing the unconscious upperclassmen, Lee Han suddenly came to his senses.

‘…Can I handle what happens after this?’ he wondered.

Surely the upperclassmen won’t be able to find the culprit, right?

Satisfied, Yumidihus descended the mountain with Lee Han.

On the way down, Yumidihus spotted the White Tiger Tower freshmen.

They were clutching one of the boxes the Skull Headmaster had hidden, discussing where to open it.

‘If they’re freshmen… I guess they’re unnecessary,’ Yumidihus thought.

The boy from the Wodanaz family needed as much magical combat experience as possible, but there were limits.

In Yumidihus’s view, students of the same year wouldn’t provide Lee Han with any meaningful experience. A definite overestimation.

However, Lee Han stated firmly.

“Please allow me to face them,” Lee Han requested.

“But you won’t learn much…?” Yumidihus asked.

“There’s always something to learn, no matter who the opponent is,” Lee Han said, looking at the Skull Headmaster’s box that his White Tiger Tower friends possessed.

Lee Han hadn’t opened the one box he had obtained yet, as it was left at Professor Thunderfoot’s cabin…

The more boxes, the better.

A real smile finally touched Lee Han’s face. “In that case, go!” Yumidihus said.

“Yes!”

Lee Han moved forward with more energy than he’d shown all day. He was actually looking forward to this.

Thwack! Thwack thwack thwack!

The White Tiger Tower students, ambushed by an invisible attack, collapsed.

However, the first-year students were different from the upperclassmen.

“You… you… you bastard… Wodanaz…?! Kuh…” one of them gasped.

‘No. How did they know?!’ Lee Han was shocked that his friends had guessed his identity without even seeing him.

He wanted to ask how they knew, but his friends had already fainted.

Wednesday.

Asan yawned, stretching his arms above his head. “Speaking of which, Wodanaz,” he said, “did you even get to enjoy the festival yesterday? I was so busy with my own stuff, I didn’t see you around much.”

“Yeah,” Lee Han replied.

“What did you do?” Asan asked.

“Helped Professor Volardi at his tent… got called by the Headmaster to make fireworks,” Lee Han explained.

Asan nodded.

It seemed his friend had been very busy yesterday.

Well, Lee Han was one of the most outstanding students in the grade, so it was understandable that he was so busy.

“Got some teachings from Yumidihus, trained in fire magic at the Aphah Order…” Lee Han continued.

“…?” Asan, who had been listening, felt something was off.

Huh?

‘If he’s just working like that, when did he enjoy the festival?’

“Something like that?” Lee Han asked.

“Wodanaz. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t sound like you enjoyed the festival,” Asan said.

“What do you mean? The festival…” Lee Han, who had been replying as if Asan’s words were absurd, paused.

Surprisingly, Lee Han himself hadn’t noticed it until now!

“…I didn’t enjoy it,” Lee Han admitted.

“…I’m sorry,” Asan replied.

“No, it’s okay. I wanted to help with this, so…” Lee Han said that and continued drawing the magic circle. However, his back looked slightly dejected.

Asan felt very sorry when he saw that.

‘Because of me…!’

He couldn’t help but feel sorry for his friend’s dark circles, who was suffering from making Professor Knighton’s magic circle since morning.

But in fact, Lee Han’s dark circles were caused by a slightly different reason.

‘If you’re going to put it in a box, why not just give it to me instead of encoding it with a cipher?’

Lee Han obtained a total of two boxes from the Skull Headmaster.

The one he took from the White Tiger Tower students was surprisingly a dud.

All that glitters is not gold.

-Osu Gonadaltes

He had expected that there wouldn’t be no duds, but he was honestly annoyed when he saw it directly.

And what’s even more frustrating is…

‘Even if I tell those White Tiger Tower guys it’s a dud, they won’t believe me!’

At least the other box contained a three-page magic spell.

…With complex ancient characters and a jumbled cipher.

Many spellbooks are hard to understand, full of complicated words. Ihan knew the headmaster, who was a skeleton, could write clearly if he wanted to. But Ihan felt the headmaster was making this spellbook difficult on purpose.

Because the spellbook was so confusing, Ihan had to stay up late to understand the magic.

He still had half of the spellbook to read. ‘Another sleepless night,’ Ihan thought.

Ihan and Asan had arrived early in the morning. Soon, other new students came into the lecture hall, talking loudly.

Ihan noticed the new students had serious faces and were whispering to each other. Something was definitely happening.

Ihan frowned, puzzled. ‘What’s going on?’ he wondered. ‘Did the skeleton headmaster let loose some undead creatures or something?’

Ihan asked, ‘What’s happening?’

Another student replied, ‘Priest Tijilling found an outing pass in a box.’

An outing pass was a rare ticket that allowed students to leave the school grounds for a short time.

Ihan and Asan froze, their faces becoming serious.

‘No way!’ Ihan thought. ‘Could luck be more important than magic and hard work?’

Ihan watched his classmates come into the lecture hall. He felt a bitter taste in his mouth. Already, a crowd of students had gathered around Priest Tijilling, all trying to get his attention and make deals.

‘Priest Tijilling!’ one student yelled, ‘If you don’t want to use that outing pass, sell it to me! I’ll give you fifty loaves of bread from the dining hall!’

Another student shouted even louder, ‘Are you crazy? Priest Tijilling, I’ll give you FIVE HUNDRED loaves! And cheese and sausage too!’

‘I have to stop this,’ Ihan thought to himself. He sighed and started to walk towards the crowd. ‘Whenever someone finds something valuable, everyone else becomes greedy,’ he thought. He felt like he was the only one who could do the right thing.

But before Ihan could say anything, Priest Tijilling spoke.

‘Please,’ he said, holding out the outing pass, ‘Please, accept this.’

Ihan’s eyes widened. It felt like being tempted by the devil himself.

It wasn’t just because Priest Tijilling was said to have some devil blood in him that Ihan felt tempted… ‘I really want to take it,’ Ihan thought, fighting with himself. He had been trying hard to get an outing pass himself, but taking it from Priest Tijilling, who didn’t even seem to understand what it was, felt wrong.

Also, they were both part of the Freisinger Order, a group of priests-in-training. If Ihan stole Priest Tijilling’s pass, he would be too ashamed to face the other members later.

‘…No,’ Ihan said, trying to sound firm. ‘It’s alright.’

His friends groaned in disappointment.

‘Wodanaz, why not?’ one complained.

‘Priest, if you don’t want it, I’ll take it!’ another offered quickly.

Everyone, be quiet!’ Ihan said, raising his voice. ‘You have no shame!’

When Ihan spoke sharply, his friends’ faces turned red with embarrassment. They suddenly seemed to remember their manners. ‘What have I done?’ one muttered to himself. ‘How embarrassing!’ another whispered. While his friends felt ashamed, Ihan bit his lip again, fighting his own desires. ‘I have to be strong,’ he told himself. ‘I must resist.’

Priest Tijilling still looked unsure. ‘But really, I don’t need it,’ he insisted. ‘And you’ve been so kind to me.’

Ihan’s firm resolve started to weaken. Priest Tijilling was making it very hard to refuse.

Just then, Asan stepped in to help. ‘No, Priest Tijilling,’ Asan said firmly. ‘Wodanaz is not the kind of person who would take something like that.’

Asan put a hand on Ihan’s shoulder and looked at Priest Tijilling. ‘Look at him. Does Wodanaz look like someone who would do something dishonorable?’

Priest Tijilling looked uncertain. But with Asan agreeing, he finally seemed convinced. ‘If that’s really the case…’ he mumbled, and put the outing pass back in his pocket.

Ihan looked at Asan, his eyes full of gratitude. ‘Thank you,’ he said sincerely.

‘What for?’ Asan asked, a little confused. ‘Everyone in our dormitory knows you’re like this.’

‘Thank you very much,’ Ihan repeated.

‘Okay, okay,’ Asan chuckled. ‘No need to say it twice.’

Ihan sighed in relief. Asan was right. If he hadn’t intervened, Ihan might have actually taken the outing pass.

Ihan said firmly, trying to hide his disappointment. ‘Priest Tijilling, listen to me. Don’t give that outing pass to anyone else, understand? You have to use it yourself.’

If Ihan couldn’t have it, then no one could.

Tijilling, who had been hesitating, nodded as Ihan spoke so strongly.

After that awkward conversation, Ihan turned to another student. She had a sly smile and quick movements, and some students called her ‘snake-like.’

‘Priest Siana,’ Ihan said, using her title formally, ‘I heard you’ve been given the important job of helping with Professor Thunderstep’s festival.’

‘Hello, Priest Siana,’ Ihan said, smiling politely. ‘I’m Ihan Wodanaz.’

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Priest Ihan,’ Siana replied smoothly. ‘I’ve heard good things about you.’

Asan watched, slightly impressed. ‘That’s how nobles greet each other,’ he thought. He knew that among noble families, giving elegant compliments was important. People who were good at it were always liked.

‘Actually, Priest Siana,’ Ihan continued, lowering his voice slightly, ‘there’s something I wanted to ask you. Would you mind?’

‘Go ahead, ask me anything,’ Siana said, her eyes curious.

Ihan glanced around the room, then gently steered Priest Siana towards a quiet corner. This was something he didn’t want everyone to overhear.

Ihan reached into his bag and pulled out a small pouch. ‘I found these earlier,’ he said, showing Siana the materials and powders he had collected. ‘I… uh… found them near some third-year students.’

He didn’t want to say he had *taken* them. He had noticed something strange earlier: even though he had found these materials in different places, they were all the same kind of things, and they seemed to belong to older students. ‘It looks like some kind of assignment,’ Ihan thought, ‘but what are they for?’

Ihan asked, ‘Do you know what these materials are for?’

Priest Siana took the pouch and carefully looked at the powders and ingredients. She frowned, thinking hard. Then, suddenly, she clapped her hands together. ‘I think I know!’ she exclaimed.

‘You’re amazing, Priest Siana!’ Ihan said, impressed. ‘You really are a genius of the Flamen Order!’

‘This,’ Siana said, holding up a small vial, ‘is for making a potion to sense enemies.’

‘A potion for sensing enemies?’ Ihan repeated, surprised. A potion to sense enemies. Siana explained, ‘Once you choose a target, this potion will help you find exactly where they are if they are nearby.’

‘But you just found this on the street?’ Siana asked, her eyebrows raised.

‘Yeah,’ Ihan replied. ‘But a potion for sensing enemies… that’s not something first-year students would usually make, is it?’ Siana said, sounding puzzled. ‘It’s not an easy potion, even for older students. Finding something like this just lying around… it’s very strange.’

‘Maybe the older students just dropped it by accident,’ Ihan suggested, trying to sound casual.

‘That’s still very strange,’ Siana said, shaking her head.

‘It is,’ Asan agreed, joining the conversation. ‘Really, all sorts of weird things happen in this school.’

Ihan and Siana exchanged a worried look. This potion, and the mystery of why older students were carrying it, felt like the beginning of something bigger.