Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 214

The White Tiger Tower students whispered amongst themselves, seriously considering Gainando’s idea.

“Give it a rest, you lot,” Giselle said sharply. “If the library could be shut down just because a first-year set it on fire, it would have been rubble long ago.”

The White Tiger Tower students openly showed their disappointment.

Still, Gainando didn’t give up.

“What if we set it on fire more intensely? Wouldn’t Lee Han be able to do it?”

“Oi, Gainando. Do you think Wodanaz is a dragon or something?”

Professor Garcia looked worried. The students’ talk about fire made him nervous.

The students nodded.

“Of course, Professor.”

“We would never set it on fire.”

“…You really mustn’t set it on fire. You might have to stay in the punishment room even during the holidays.”

“……”

“We, we really won’t set it on fire. Really.”

The fear of being trapped in the punishment room, even during the holidays, frightened the students more than any threat.

Even the most radical students gave up on setting a fire after that.

‘This is a problem,’ Lee Han thought to himself.

Surprisingly, until now, the professors had been considerate of the students, so they hadn’t used the library’s books much. From now on, they would be using the library’s books more often.

It wasn’t just that the lectures were becoming more difficult and the amount of material to study was increasing.

At Einroguard Magic School, entering the library, finding a book, and taking it out was a challenge in itself.

It took ages just to find a book near the entrance, so how long would it take to find a book deeper inside…

‘Can’t I just go out and buy it?’

Of course, there might be rare magical books that were only available in the magic school’s library, but surely some of them were sold outside.

If they just opened the main gate, he could go and buy them!

“Professor, come in,” Professor Garcia said, thinking that he needed to proceed with today’s lecture quickly before the students became even more despondent. He opened the door and called the professor outside.

‘A spirit hybrid?’ Lee Han’s eyes widened with interest as he sensed a spirit-like aura from the professor who entered.

He knew some people at Einroguard were ‘hybrids’ – students and even professors with magical blood from different beings, like spirits, angels, or demons.

‘Doesn’t seem like a spirit, though.’

“Professor Pacelette Kraer. An expert in divination magic.”

“!”

Divination magic. It was known as the most mysterious and difficult type of magic, even among other mysterious and difficult types.

Lee Han had heard quite a lot about other types of magic while staying at the family’s mansion, but he had only heard brief snippets about divination magic.

-A divination mage stepped in to solve the ruby necklace theft case that occurred in the Jojeon family. Using coins, they guessed the location of the ruby necklace…

-Did you hear that those fussy merchants took a bag of gold coins and knelt before the mage? Just to ask for a single divination.

-They say that an excellent divination mage can know what they will eat for lunch when they wake up in the morning.

-The talent required for divination magic is completely different from the talent required for other magic. Only a flash of intuition is the guiding light.

He didn’t yet know exactly what kind of magic it was, but Lee Han was quite interested in divination magic.

‘They say that excellent divination mages are so popular?’

Mages who changed reality with their own will were feared and respected in the Empire, but among them, excellent divination mages were especially highly regarded.

Everyone feared the uncertain future.

How could they not respect someone who could read that future?

Lee Han didn’t have a desire to master the future, but he did have a desire to go somewhere and say, ‘I am a mage who has mastered divination magic.’

He would be treated much better than if he said he was a dark mage.

-I am a divination mage.

-Oh my! A great mage has come to the village! Mage, could you perhaps divine my child’s future?

-I am a dark mage.

-…Hey. Did we lock the gate to our village cemetery?

“Professor Kraer?” Professor Garcia asked again, a little louder this time. Professor Kraer blinked, as if waking from a dream, and gave a slow nod.

“…Professor. I asked you to visit with a sincere personality today.”

“You did. But the future is unknowable.”

“Professor. I asked you,” Professor Garcia’s voice gained strength.

Professor Kraer’s eyes flashed, and suddenly her expression changed.

“Ah. Right. Divination magic. I was supposed to lecture.”

‘…Multiple personalities?!’ Lee Han was quite surprised by Professor Kraer’s behavior, which was as sincere as if she were a different person.

‘Well, it’s not that strange.’

All the professors had multiple personalities to some extent.

He just had to think that Professor Kraer was a bit extreme.

“Pleased to meet you all. I’m Pacelette Kraer. I’m a banshee hybrid. I majored in divination magic.”

“We are pleased to meet you, Professor!” The students greeted in unison.

Professor Kraer tossed her head, her long hair swirling around her face like dark smoke before she pushed it back impatiently.

“Does anyone know about Jundaer Dolphram?”

Asan, who was next to Lee Han, raised his hand and shouted.

“He is a great mage who laid the foundation for imperial divination magic!”

“Smart. Do you also know that Jundaer Dolphram committed suicide in Imperial Year 131?”

“Uh… no?”

“I see. Keep that in mind. I also wonder if anyone knows about Jundaer Dolphram’s disciple, Kelten Inan?”

Lee Han had also heard of that mage. Several people, including the princess, raised their hands. Even Gainando.

Lee Han was surprised.

“You know Kelten Inan?”

“Lee Han. He’s my deck’s main card.”

“Ah. Sorry. I always finish before he comes out, so I didn’t know.”

Gainando glared at Lee Han with tearful eyes, panting. Lee Han apologized at his sincere and resentful expression.

“It’s not that you’re bad… it’s just a game of luck.”

“R-right? Right? It has nothing to do with skill?”

“Yes. Maybe divination magic will help.”

In the meantime, another student answered instead. Professor Kraer nodded.

“Good job. But do you know that Kelten Inan committed suicide in Imperial Year 241?”

“…No?? Wasn’t he… missing?”

Professor Kraer said, her voice low, “If the records of divination mages say ‘missing,’ ‘disappeared,’ or ‘out of contact,’ it’s a secret code. It really means they committed suicide. Divination can be very dangerous to the mind.”

“……”

“……”

‘It feels colder than last week.’ Lee Han couldn’t help but admire the professor’s ability to make the school colder than the king of the Frost Giants with just a few words.

Despite the warning, Professor Kraer’s lecture was not that dangerous or difficult.

In fact, it was a bit easier compared to other professors’ lectures.

Because all they had to do was listen to the explanations instead of doing something or dodging incoming attacks.

“In fact, divination is a skill that even non-mages can do to some extent. A student who comes to the lecture hall without eating anything in the morning knows that they will be hungry by the end of the lecture. A professor who comes to the lecture hall with a lazy personality, despite Professor Garcia’s request, knows what will happen to them after the lecture.”

“Professor Kraer. The students will misunderstand,” Professor Garcia warned.

Professor Kraer said with a bit more caution, “Reading the future by using past information and present judgment, that’s divination. What makes a mage’s divination special is that they can use hidden information to make judgments. This information is not obvious to normal people, and sometimes even the mage doesn’t know where it comes from.”

According to the professor, divination magic was largely divided into divining the near future and divining the distant future.

Divining the near future, that is, the future a few seconds from now, was quite intuitive, accurate, and relatively easy magic.

However, divining the distant future, the future more than a few hours away, was difficult magic with high uncertainty and a tremendous burden on the mage themselves.

“You there. What did you feel here?” Asan was flustered by the question.

“W-well… divination magic is profound and has no end, so you must strive endlessly?”

“No. If you don’t want to go crazy, only divine the near future. Even more so if someone asks you to. If you keep trying to divine the distant future, you’ll end up like Jundaer Dolphram, Kelten Inan, and Pearljoon Jega.”

“Professor. I’ve never heard of a mage named Pearljoon Jega…”

“You wouldn’t have heard of them because they’re dead. So today, we’re going to divine the distant future.”

“???”

Lee Han was puzzled.

The other students seemed to be the same, tilting their heads.

You said not to divine the distant future?

Professor Kraer was cold.

“If I didn’t tell you not to, you wouldn’t be mages. It’s better to collapse in front of me now than to secretly divine the final exam questions and collapse while vomiting blood, isn’t it?”

“……”

“Indeed.”

“What do you mean, ‘indeed’?!” Asan was horrified when Lee Han nodded as if he understood.

What is that…!

‘I think that’s quite considerate.’

A faint blue magic circle glowed on the desk in front of each student. Small stones of red, blue, green, and yellow were scattered within the circle, looking like colorful pebbles on grey sand.

According to Professor Kraer, the more skilled you became in divination magic, the more you would find a divination method that suited you.

Of course, the freshmen who didn’t have such a thing chose the easiest method, stone divination.

“Grab a stone, chant the spell, and throw it lightly. The goal is to see what you will be doing a day from now.”

“Can’t you know in about a day?” Gainando whispered.

Professor Kraer said expressionlessly, “They say that an excellent divination mage can know what they will eat for lunch when they wake up in the morning. A day from now is a distant future. Stop talking nonsense and… throw!”

Swish-

Spells were cast along with the sound of stones being thrown from various places.

“Colored stones, show me my tomorrow.”

“Red, blue, green stones. My tomorrow…”

The students who cast the spell first stared blankly at the scattered stones.

Then they tilted their heads.

“Is it over?”

“It’s a failure if no image comes to mind. An image must come to mind.”

“Can I try again?”

“Of course,” Professor Kraer smiled.

At that moment, the student who spoke rolled to the side.

Thud!

“Ugh…!”

“There’s a price to pay for seeing the future. Magic power is a cheap price to pay.”

“I, I didn’t see anything?”

“Right. That’s why it’s only this much. If you had seen anything, you wouldn’t even be able to groan.”

“……”

The students who were about to wave their wands hesitated, starting to get scared.

No matter how attractive divination magic was, it looked like suicide magic at this point.

“Did I do well? Professor Garcia?”

“You could have done it a bit more delicately… but you gave a proper warning. You did well.”

“You have to do this much for the students to be seriously careful. Divination magic is originally good for vomiting blood while learning it alone… wait! What are you doing!” Professor Kraer shouted sharply, looking at Lee Han.

He had not only tried divination once, but he was trying it twice.

To do such a thing even after seeing another student collapse.

He must have been either very bold or arrogant, intoxicated with his own talent.

Lee Han hesitated and answered.

“I think… this much is okay.”

“Okay? The dead mages would be okay with it. Professor Garcia. Potion!”

“I think that much is okay…”

“?!?”

Professor Kraer was shocked to see the kind Professor Garcia being indifferent to something directly related to a student’s life.

It must have been a sign that the world was about to end. Lee Han, however, was just curious. He wanted to try divination again, to see if he could catch a glimpse of his own tomorrow.