Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 320

“You had a vampire friend?”

Gainan, still looking confused, tilted his head. He didn’t seem to understand what was happening.

Ethan seriously considered staying at Gainan’s house that night. It seemed better than dealing with his current situation.

“You’ve arrived,” Professor Volardi said, interrupting Ethan’s thoughts.

Gainan was surprised to see Professor Volardi walking out of the house. He exclaimed,

“Professor, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t we call the guards and have them kick you out?”

For a moment, Ethan was tempted to agree, but he stopped himself.

“Professor!” Ethan said, forcing a smile. “What a pleasure to see you at my humble home! I’m overjoyed!”

“Not so humble, I’d say.”

“What does ‘humble’ mean, anyway?”

Ignoring Gainan’s question, Ethan put on a fake smile and asked, “How did you know to come here, Professor?”

“The Headmaster told me.”

Ethan thought, ‘Should I just kill him?’

Ethan thought that while he was at it, now that he had defeated the evil King of Ghouls, maybe he should also defeat the evil lich of Einroguard.

“Wait,” Ethan said. “Did the Headmaster tell the other professors as well?”

Professor Volardi nodded.

Ethan felt dizzy.

‘This is insane,’ he thought.

Which professors were likely to visit the mansion now…

‘Professor Garcia is fine. I should treat him with respect. Professor Swiftfoot… well… I can manage. Professor Lightningfoot probably won’t come, given his personality. If Professor Emberdell came, Alarlong would be happy, I think.’

After thinking about it, there were two professors who were the most dangerous and difficult: Professor Volardi and Professor Verdus.

And one of them was standing right in front of him.

“But why are you here, Professor, during the holidays?” Gainan asked innocently. Ethan thought he had been right to buy Gainan cotton candy earlier.

‘He’s earning his cotton candy,’ Ethan thought.

“I have something to discuss.”

“Can’t you just send a letter?”

“It’s difficult to explain in a letter.”

“Why?”

“There’s too much to discuss.”

“Can’t you just write a long letter?”

Professor Volardi made a small gesture. Gainan, silenced by the spell, waved his hands angrily.

To dare attack a royal outside of Einroguard!

‘Protest! Ethan! For the honor of the royal family!’

‘I’m sorry,’ Ethan thought.

Ethan avoided looking at Gainan. How could he interfere with what the professor was doing, as the professor’s student?

“Please, come inside, Professor.”

“Very well.”

Instead of the servants, Ethan carried the teacups and teapot himself.

“I will carry those instead,” Ethan said.

“Master Ethan… you are truly admirable,” one of the servants said.

Despite being of noble blood, the servants were touched by Ethan’s gracious gesture of personally serving his teacher.

Ethan almost dropped the teacup saucer.

‘Don’t take it out on innocent people,’ he thought.

Professor Volardi sipped the green tea he was served, then slowly began to speak.

“I heard you caught a basilisk.”

“Cough!” Ethan choked on his green tea. It felt like the hot tea was burning his throat.

“That’s… a misunderstanding.”

“What’s the misunderstanding?”

“That basilisk wasn’t even fully grown…”

“A newly hatched basilisk, enhanced with potions, forcibly attempting the Evil Eye, then collapsing from rebound. Is anything wrong?”

“Ah. That’s correct.”

Ethan was relieved that Professor Volardi understood the situation so accurately. He had been worried that there might be some ridiculous misunderstanding.

“I didn’t expect you to be able to deflect the Evil Eye with just magic power.”

“…Could it be because it was newly hatched?”

“Perhaps. The power of the Evil Eye shouldn’t be that different.”

Professor Volardi carefully lifted the cage he had placed behind him. Inside, a familiar egg rested comfortably in a soft nest.

It was the basilisk egg that Professor Volardi had obtained during his last outing.

“I was planning to use it for the second semester lectures, but I’m worried.”

“…You don’t need to worry too much. That basilisk from before was just overly careless…”

Despite Ethan’s attempts to reassure him, Professor Volardi remained worried.

Ethan, trying to persuade him, suddenly felt disgusted with himself.

‘Why am I trying so hard to convince him that I want to face a basilisk in the second semester?’ he wondered.

If he succeeded in persuading the professor, he would just end up facing a basilisk in the future. The thought was bitter.

But if he didn’t, given Professor Volardi’s personality, he would bring an even crazier monster…

“I heard you defeated the King of Ghouls.”

“Cough.”

“Are you not feeling well?” Professor Volardi asked, raising his eyebrows as Ethan choked for the second time.

“No… I’m fine,” Ethan said.

Ethan coughed a few more times and regained his composure. Just like with the basilisk, Professor Volardi, unlike others, probably knew the exact truth.

If so, there was no reason to be more afraid than necessary.

“I heard you overwhelmed the King of Ghouls. Is that true?”

“Cough, cough.”

“You really don’t seem well.”

Professor Volardi was genuinely concerned. “Unlike in Einroguard, where you can recover even if you make mistakes due to impatience, that’s not possible outside. Try to control your impatience.”

“…Ah. Yes,” Ethan replied.

Ethan wanted to say, ‘I’m not the kind of person who seeks out basilisks and the King of Ghouls to become stronger, like you think I am,’ but he didn’t. It would be pointless.

“I didn’t overwhelm him. The opponent was in a very incomplete state, so…”

“Yes. He was in an incomplete state, so you overwhelmed him. But you did overwhelm him, didn’t you?”

After defeating the King of Ghouls, Ethan had neatly taken care of the nearby requests, so it was clear that he had overwhelmed him. If he hadn’t, he would have collapsed near the cave.

Ethan, speechless at Professor Volardi’s logic, regretted it.

‘I should have pretended to be sick,’ he thought.

“The King of Ghouls wasn’t in the records.”

Even if they were beings from another dimension, those with noteworthy names were usually recorded, but there were always exceptions. A being like the King of Ghouls, who had descended long ago and been sealed, couldn’t have been recorded.

“Yes,” Ethan said.

“Even so, it’s best to be careful. Those kinds of beings are persistent.”

Ethan knew that, of course. If the King of Ghouls could be defeated by a beginner like Ethan and then be sent back to his own dimension, and still be okay with it, he wouldn’t be an evil being.

He was probably sharpening his sword while recovering his strength in his own dimension.

But Ethan wasn’t too worried.

‘There’s hardly any chance we’ll meet again, right?’

Having taken such damage and been reverse-summoned, he wouldn’t dare to come back for a while while he recovered. The only possibility was for Ethan to visit the dimension where the King of Ghouls was and seek him out directly…

Ethan would have to be crazy to do that.

“So I’ve prepared a way to deal with those beings,” Professor Volardi said.

“…!!” Ethan swallowed, enduring the hot tea burning his throat. He couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

“There’s… such a method?”

“Yes.”

Professor Volardi calmly began to explain. The path Ethan was currently walking was the path of complete combat magic, which involved mastering and combining all the magic from different schools.

Ethan didn’t think he was walking that path, but that wasn’t important. In any case, mastering each school was important for this path of complete combat magic, so Professor Volardi never rushed him. He knew Ethan was talented and could be impatient, but Professor Volardi understood as a teacher.

But considering the recent defeat of the King of Ghouls, it was safer to gain magical combat experience related to black magic now. That way, Ethan would have an advantage if he faced the King of Ghouls again.

“Indeed,” Ethan said, nodding even though he didn’t really understand.

“Can’t we just avoid it?”

“If you could avoid it, it wouldn’t be an enemy. I heard from Professor Mortum that you’ve already learned the four basic areas of black magic: curses, poisons, bones, and necromancy.”

“Yes…” Ethan nodded with a bitter smile. He wasn’t even surprised anymore.

‘I hope you cough more later,’ he thought.

“It’s not a bad choice. It’s the foundation of black magic. But it’s difficult to deal with beings like the King of Ghouls with just those areas.”

“That’s certainly true. He dodged the lightning element too easily, as if he knew it was coming, and I only had some effect when I used the fire element to spread area-of-effect attacks.”

“The powers of evil beings from other dimensions are often stronger than wizards realize,” Professor Volardi said, not surprised.

Beings summoned from other dimensions often had not only precognition but also strange powers that made precognition seem unimportant.

“But it’s not impossible to defeat them. One way is to use the dark element.”

“The dark element… you mean?” Ethan asked.

Among the different types of magic, the dark element was one of the most difficult to learn, like lightning or ice. Lightning was hard to control, ice was hard to maintain, and the dark element was hard for wizards to imagine.

“Those beings often use dark magic. If you learn dark magic, you can understand how they think and fight them better.”

“Indeed,” Ethan agreed.

Professor Volardi put down a book. The title was written in a familiar font: *On Basic Dark Elemental Magic and Its Applications*.

Ethan suddenly realized something.

‘Wait. Does giving me the book mean you don’t plan to teach me directly?’

“Are you not going to teach me directly?” Ethan asked.

“No. I have things to do. Learn it yourself,” Professor Volardi replied.

Ethan didn’t know if he should be happy or not. It was good that he could avoid Professor Volardi’s teaching methods, which felt like being chased with a knife…

But was it okay to learn the difficult dark element alone?

‘I’ll take it for now, and even if I can’t learn it, surely you won’t kill me,’ Ethan thought.

Ethan, who received the book, asked without thinking, “May I ask what you have to do?”

Professor Volardi stood up and answered, “I’m going to meet Yumidihus and prepare for the second semester lectures.”

“Indeed… Wait a minute, Professor!” Ethan exclaimed. “It’s getting dark, please stay the night! There are many rooms in the mansion!”

“No. I’ll come next time. I was well-treated,” Professor Volardi said.

Professor Volardi greeted the servants and left the mansion’s main gate. Ethan felt that the sight of Professor Volardi disappearing into the distance was an ominous sign.

‘I should have put sleeping pills in the green tea!’ he thought.

Ethan said to the servant next to him, “In the future, if any professors visit, except for the one who looks like a troll hybrid, tell them I’m not at the mansion.”

“Understood…?” the servant replied, finding Ethan’s order strange.

What on earth was going on?

Ethan had a late dinner with Yoner and Gainan, who were waiting. Gainan was picking at his food, looking like he had no appetite.

“What’s wrong? The cooks will be disappointed,” Ethan asked.

“I ate too much cotton candy earlier…” Gainan replied.

Yoner regretted bringing him to his friend’s house. Feeling Yoner’s gaze, Gainan pointed at Ethan.

“Ethan doesn’t have an appetite either!”

“Do you really think those are the same?” Yoner asked.

To compare having no appetite because he ate too much cotton candy to meeting a professor during the holidays and receiving extra assignments was ridiculous. Yoner thought Ethan would be justified in attacking Gainan.

“No. We should eat well, especially at times like this. Thank you, everyone,” Ethan said.

Ethan nodded and picked up his spoon. No matter how difficult things were, he should always eat well.

-Intruder! Catch him!

-Wait, wait! You’ll understand if you hear my name! I am Professor Bible Verdus of Einroguard!

Ethan slammed his spoon down in anger.

Startled, Gainan quickly picked up his spoon. “I, I’ll eat well,” he stammered.