Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 272

Smoke still hung in the air, smelling of burnt paper, but thankfully, there was no fire. Ethan had been quick. He’d shouted for everyone to close the windows, his voice cutting through the panic, and together they’d stamped out the small flames before they could spread. The relief was heavy in the room, mixed with the lingering smell of smoke.

“My… my assignment…”

“When I get back to the mansion, I’m throwing away all the phoenix fairy tales!”

The students, utterly distraught, glanced out the window, gasping for breath.

The phoenix, as if wondering what was wrong, looked back at them and flapped its wings.

Flap! Flap!

“Why is it doing that? Why is it doing that?!”

“Isn’t it asking us to open the window? It’s pointing at the window!”

“Didn’t the wizard who granted the phoenix’s wish in the fairy tale receive a great reward?”

“Don’t open it, no matter what!”

At Guinan’s words, his friends growled in agreement.

Guinan said they couldn’t be tricked again. “We’re wizards, not fools!”

Suddenly, the phoenix began to chirp. It was more of a song than a chirp, a sorrowful melody.

The phoenix’s song even quelled the anger of the student whose assignment had just been burned.

“…Should we open it?”

Whack!

“Ack!”

“Get a grip.”

Ethan struck his friend in the solar plexus with his wand.

Looking around, he was surprised to see that all the students had calmed down.

Ethan thought, ‘This song… is it magic? Is it changing how we think?’

No matter how beautiful the song, it shouldn’t be able to soothe the anger caused by a burned assignment. There was definitely some kind of magical power at play.

Some monsters could bewitch people’s minds with sound.

If the phoenix’s song had such power…

“Cover your ears.”

Ethan personally stuffed cotton in his friends’ ears. The student who was calm suddenly got angry again.

“Is that bird playing with me?!”

‘The song was the cause.’

The students covered their ears and waited. When the song ended, Ethan spoke again.

“It’s over.”

“Wodanaz! Give us instructions!”

The student holding the burned assignment said with eyes blazing.

“Instructions?”

“Yes!”

“I’ll do anything!”

At his friends’ fervent cries, Ethan answered solemnly.

“Then… let’s sit down and study again.”

“……”

“…Huh?”

“What ‘huh’? I said sit down and study again.”

“No, I mean. Weren’t we going to catch the phoenix?”

“How am I supposed to catch a phoenix?”

At Ethan’s question, his friends were speechless.

‘Come to think of it?’

‘Indeed, now that I think about it…’

Without realizing it, they had assumed Wodanaz would catch it, but on closer inspection, the phoenix wasn’t a monster that first-year students could handle.

“Why did I think Wodanaz would catch it?”

“Me too.”

“You probably just didn’t want to study. Hurry up and sit down.”

The students who had been putting on their coats dejectedly hung them back up. The princess secretly returned the flame-resistant potion she had taken out of the box.

“Still, it’s brighter now, so it’s easier to concentrate. Don’t you think?”

Guinan watched Ethan and picked up his quill. ‘Ethan is my friend,’ he thought, ‘but he can be really crazy sometimes.’

Contrary to the expectations of some friends (actually, more than a few), Ethan had no intention of catching the phoenix.

In fact, he had no idea how to catch a phoenix even if he wanted to.

How could a first-year student catch a mythical creature with eternal life that revived no matter what attack it suffered?

However, when the phoenix blocked his path to morning class, he seriously considered whether he should ‘catch it’.

The phoenix chirped and circled in front of the students. Its feathers shimmered with gold, red, and orange, like a living flame. The sound of its wings was like rustling silk mixed with fire, and its eyes were bright and curious.

It looked comical, as if it were playing a prank, but they couldn’t laugh when they saw the fire crackling beneath it each time it circled.

“T, this is a sign from the heavens telling us not to go to class!”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Everyone, scatter! Attract its attention!”

Professors never understood tardiness.

Professors wouldn’t even consider it if the world ended on the way, so there was no way they’d understand because of a mere phoenix.

“Freeze!” Ethan commanded.

“Wait, Wodanaz. Right now, ice magic is because of the phoenix…”

Crack!

“…can be said to be a very effective choice.”

“You were just about to say that ice magic wouldn’t work because of the phoenix, weren’t you?”

“N, no, I never did.”

The Blue Dragon Tower student, seeing the ice shards forming in the air, changed the subject.

Yoner whispered urgently.

“Ethan. You might put yourself in danger if you provoke it unnecessarily.”

The relatively realistic Yoner wasn’t even thinking about catching the phoenix.

That was something only his friends who had sawdust for brains would think about now…

“That’s definitely true, Wodanaz. Even if we try, let’s set up bait just in case. Another bait for the phoenix to chase.”

Guinan nodded, thinking Asan’s words made sense. Then he asked.

“How do we set up the bait?”

“Well…”

“?”

Ethan stopped the conversation before they could start fighting.

“We’re not trying to attack it. We’re trying to get its attention.”

With those words, ice shards began to float in the air. The phoenix, which had been blocking the students’ path and whining as if asking to play, showed interest in the ice shards and chased after them.

“Run!”

The ice shards didn’t last long before melting. Ethan threw another ice shard to distract the phoenix and ran.

Guinan shouted, panting.

“Why, do we have to, go this far, just to study!?”

The Blue Dragon Tower students running with him nodded without realizing it.

“Everyone has worked hard this semester. If you learned the magic of various schools this semester, next semester you will learn basic and practical magic that does not belong to any school.”

Instead of cramming knowledge into the students’ heads until the last lecture of the semester, Professor Garcia took the time to answer questions from the students.

If there were parts that were blocked in basic elemental magic, then basic elemental magic, if there were parts that were blocked in basic illusion magic, then basic illusion magic, if there were parts that were blocked in geometry and arithmetic, then geometry and arithmetic…

He was truly a genuine educator.

“Professor.”

“Ask away.”

“There’s a phoenix outside the lecture hall, how do we get rid of it?”

“I couldn’t sleep yesterday because of the phoenix!”

The victims weren’t just the Blue Dragon Tower students.

The eyes of the other tower students were bloodshot from the phoenix’s pranks, which had started in earnest the night before.

Even if they tried to sleep, they were awakened by the bright light like daytime, and when they went to class, it appeared and ran at them asking to play…

It was rare for someone to cleverly avoid it like Ethan, and the White Tiger Tower students had to come out 30 minutes late because of the phoenix.

Priest Nigisor looked around, confused. He didn’t understand why everyone was upset. ‘But… the phoenix is making everything bright and warm,’ he thought.

“Shhh. Be quiet.”

“Shut him up.”

The quick-witted priests covered Priest Nigisor’s mouth.

Just because they had been in the temple their whole lives didn’t mean they were clueless.

“Oh dear… what are we going to do? It would be impossible for you all to defeat the phoenix.” Professor Garcia said with a face full of pity.

“Even with Wodanaz? Is it impossible even if we use Wodanaz?”

Angaro looked confused. ‘Why do you think Ethan can catch it? Is ‘Wodanaz’ some kind of magic trick?’

“It’s impossible even for Ethan…”

‘Thank you, Professor.’ Ethan was filled with gratitude at Professor Garcia’s response, which was full of absurdity.

The other professors should learn from that.

“Basically, the phoenix isn’t a violent monster, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to defeat. Most attacks don’t work.”

Professor Garcia waved his wand and shot a rock spear at the phoenix outside the window.

The rock spear pierced the phoenix with a dull sound, but the rock spear burned and disappeared in an instant, and the phoenix flapped its wings as if nothing had happened.

It seemed like it didn’t feel pain at all, seeing how it was so nonchalant even after being pierced by the spear.

“Did you see that?”

“T… then do we have to live like this forever?”

“N… not forever. It will disappear over time. Mythical creatures that appear from other dimensions can’t stay in reality for long.”

“When will it disappear?”

“When its magic runs out?”

“……”

In less than two days, the phoenix had given the first-year students neurosis.

It woke them up when they slept, ran at them asking to play when they went outside to go to class, and burned their papers when they tried to study in the sun…

New rules were even created within the tower.

-Banned words of the month-

Phoenix

Festival

Bird

Chicken

Fire

Hot

Warm

The phoenix was giving the students a clear lesson.

What kind of disaster can befall just by the immature actions of wizards!

Who would have expected it to come like this just because they celebrated the festival in a small way?

“Is there really no way?”

“The phoenix… is impossible.”

Ethan heated a frying pan, poured oil and butter, and threw in mushrooms he had dug up near the garden. Mushrooms that absorbed oil and butter were bound to become crispy and moist.

However, despite this bribe, Professor Lightning-Walk didn’t give the answer he wanted.

“Tomorrow is the weekend, and if it’s like this on the weekend, next week’s exam will be a disaster. Did the headmaster summon it?”

“That’s an interesting conspiracy theory, but if the headmaster wanted to interfere with your exams, he would have done it in a cheaper way. Summoning a phoenix? It would be incredibly expensive if it was done artificially.”

Professor Lightning-Walk said, picking up a mushroom and eating it. He was realizing once again that the most genius talent of the student in front of him was not magic, but cooking.

“Still, you’ve definitely gotten the hang of avoiding the phoenix, haven’t you?”

“That’s true, but is there any other time in my life when I’ll need to know how to avoid a phoenix?”

“You won’t need it outside, but you might need it once or twice more in magic school.”

“……”

“Just kidding.” Professor Lightning-Walk said soothingly when Ethan became serious.

“It’s not that I’m deliberately not telling you, it’s just that there really isn’t a good way. A phoenix is a kind of… mythical creature close to a natural disaster. It would be difficult to answer if you asked me to teach you how to prevent droughts or floods. I couldn’t answer when Professor Begreck asked me either.”

‘Indeed…’ Ethan was listening to Professor Lightning-Walk, agreeing with him. Then he heard something that caught his attention. ‘Huh?’ He looked up quickly.

He was suddenly flustered when Professor Volardy came up.

“What did Professor Begreck ask you?”

“He wanted to capture the phoenix and use it for combat. It’s probably impossible.”

“……”

Ethan breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

He had narrowly escaped a deadly danger without even knowing it.

“I think so too.”

“Professor Begreck agreed. So he was thinking of borrowing Cerberus…”

“…Huh!??!”

Ethan’s eyes shook with betrayal.

He had cooked a hearty meal with delicious mushrooms, and this was the betrayal he got in return?

“I told him that Cerberus was a bit too precious to be used for combat.”

“…Thank you so much. Would you like some beer?”

“Sounds good. But why all of a sudden?”

Ethan opened the secret floor door that Professor Lightning-Walk had hidden and took out a keg.

“Oh, by the way. Isn’t Professor Thunder-Walk coming today?”

“Ah… he’s going to be a bit busy.”

“Is something wrong?”

“No. He’s racking his brain trying to make the final exam difficult.”

“…Please wait a moment. I’ll bring some snacks too.”

Ethan opened another secret floor door that Professor Thunder-Walk had hidden.