Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 334

‘I absolutely mustn’t let my guard down!’

In the royal family, no one trusted anyone.

Everyone was plotting and scheming.

And the family members themselves? They were the most cunning and cruel of all.

Yet, to momentarily put those imperial family members off their guard and deceive them…

This wasn’t something just anyone could do. Bogeojun sharply raised his vigilance towards Gainando.

‘To evade suspicion by pretending to be foolish…’

It might be called acting the fool, but it wasn’t something just anyone could do.

One had to possess an iron-like tenacity to endure all the infamy and harsh criticism directed at oneself.

Thinking about that, Bogeojun felt a chill down his spine.

To have been evading the vigilance of other imperial family members for so long by playing the fool, and behind the scenes, gathering powerful nobles who could become his strength…

Perhaps this young brother was the most dangerous competitor among the imperial family members.

Gainando pushed open the heavy wooden door and stepped inside, a deck of cards clutched in his hand. “After weeks of thinking, I’ve finally made the perfect deck… huh?” He stopped short, surprised to see Prince Bogeojun standing there.

Bogeojun turned, his sharp eyes narrowing slightly. “Who are you?” he demanded, his voice cold.

Lee Han, standing behind Gainando, felt his jaw drop. *Seriously?* he thought. *How long has it been since they last met?* He was speechless for a moment.

Royal family members often teased each other, but there were rules.

A normal insult would be like, ‘Too bad your last plan failed!’ But saying ‘Who are you?’ was incredibly rude. It was like saying they were not even important enough to remember.

Lee Han was grateful that there were no other nobles in this place.

‘It’s fortunate that there are only three of us.’

“Kuh… Heh heh heh!”

At the sight of Gainando revealing his true colors, Bogeojun burst into laughter.

He thought that his wicked and sinister brother had finally thrown off his mask.

Of course, Gainando was flustered by that laughter.

‘Is he crazy?’

“Are you a professor?”

“…You are His Highness, Gainando? Don’t joke around.”

Lee Han placed his hand on Gainando’s shoulder. The pain of his shoulder blade twisting activated Gainando’s brain cells.

“Ah! Ack! I remember! Your Highness! You were His Highness!!”

“Yes. I apologize, Your Highness. Gainando likes to joke around.”

“There’s no need to hide it any longer, Wodanaz-nim.”

Bogeojun said as he stood up from his seat.

In his eyes, there wasn’t even a hint of disregard for Gainando.

Rather, they were filled with a burning desire, seeing him as a powerful competitor.

‘Whatever it is, it’s not good.’

Lee Han felt uneasy.

It seemed that Prince Bogeojun was having strange thoughts about Gainando’s visit, and it wouldn’t be good to leave it as it was.

Gainando had a tendency to damage his reputation the more opportunities he had to speak.

-Gainando. Do as you did last time, *like when we met the other prince*.

Lee Han held up three fingers.

It meant to answer only with ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ or ‘Heh heh.’ Gainando rubbed his shoulder and nodded.

“I already see how ambitious you are, Prince Gainando.”

“No…”

Lee Han hurriedly sent a look.

It meant to deny it quickly.

‘Say no quickly!’

“Heh heh.”

“……”

Gainando took Lee Han’s gaze in a different meaning.

Bogeojun nodded as if he expected it.

“Wodanaz-nim. As someone from the same Einrogard, it’s only natural to support your friend.”

“I don’t support him.”

“But I know. If someone with excellent insight like Wodanaz-nim were to see a more qualified member of the imperial family appear, you would support that member.”

“No, I’m not interested in supporting or anything…”

“Please wait. I will soon prove that I am qualified.”

Bogeojun declared proudly.

Of course, Gainando didn’t understand what he was saying, and Lee Han was dumbfounded, so it didn’t have much effect.

“Then let’s meet at the gathering. Prince Gainando.”

“Yes.”

“……”

Lee Han sighed deeply inwardly.

Even narrowing down the answers to three had the opposite effect.

‘Should I just sew his mouth shut?’

“Um… Young Master. Another guest has arrived.”

At the servant’s cry, Lee Han thought about putting up a sign saying >No Guests> on the mansion’s front gate.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Princess Judrantas…”

“Hmph. One step too late.”

Bogeojun sneered at Judrantas.

Perhaps Judrantas would also be surprised when she came here.

Bogeojun might have been thinking… but she would realize that the truly dangerous competitor was among those young members of the imperial family!

“!!!”

As expected, Judrantas was just as surprised and acted just like Bogeojun.

And even said the same thing.

“…does that mean you would support that imperial family member if a more qualified one appeared?”

“Exactly!”

“It’s not that I agree with that…”

“Please wait. I will soon prove that I am qualified.”

‘Are those two close, actually?’

Seeing the two imperial family members saying the same thing, Lee Han was now too annoyed to even respond.

“I understand.”

“Then let’s meet at the…”

After all the imperial family members had left, Gainando took out his deck with a bright expression.

“I made a new deck, wanna play… Ack! Why are you hitting me!”

Lee Han picked up his staff and started hitting Gainando’s back. Gainando screamed and ran around the room.

An hour later.

Lee Han sighed and held the wizard card in his hand.

They say they grant the wishes of the dead, so he could at least grant the wish of a friend who had been hit dozens of times on the back.

“Heh heh. It’ll be different this time.”

“Shut your mouth and be quiet.”

“Okay…”

Gainando quietly drew a card.

This game called Wizard Card required players to summon minions and use magic spells to reduce the opponent wizard’s life to 0 to win.

Of course, in the early stages, you didn’t have much magic power, so you could only use weak minions and spells, and in the later stages, you had plenty of magic power, so you could use strong minions and spells.

In other words, a good deck required a balanced mix of weak minions and spells that could be used in the early stages, and strong minions and spells that could be used in the later stages!

Of course, regardless of the rules, Gainando had always filled his deck with only the strong cards he liked.

‘Heh heh. But it’s different this time.’

Gainando put down a card with a confident expression.

Lee Han was puzzled when he saw the card.

‘Wait. Could this be…’

The victory condition wasn’t just reducing the opponent wizard’s life to 0.

You could also win if the cards remaining in the opponent’s deck were completely gone.

And the black magic spell card that Gainando had just played was a card that destroyed three cards from the opponent’s deck.

“Gainando. Did you perhaps make a deck destruction deck? *A deck that wins by making the other player run out of cards, not by fighting directly.*”

“Ah, no?”

Gainando, caught off guard, avoided eye contact and denied it.

“It’s better than that strange deck you had before… but don’t people dislike this?”

There were always unspoken rules in the world.

The same was true for the Wizard Card game.

Winning with that kind of deck destruction felt like cheating in a pleasant gathering where people were playing with good manners.

Of course, Lee Han didn’t care what it looked like…

“Who cares! I’m going to win!”

“Y-yeah, go ahead.”

Lee Han prepared his cards as he spoke.

He was planning to end the game by spamming spells that directly damaged the wizard as soon as Gainando finished his turn.

Unaware that he would be dead in a few seconds, Gainando was pondering very seriously.

“Are you two playing?”

Yoner opened the door and came in with Nilia.

The two looked around at the Wizard Card game and paused.

“Is that perhaps a black magic curse deck?”

“So?”

“…Wow. Gainando. This isn’t right. Really not right.”

Yoner looked at Gainando with a shocked expression.

No matter what Gainando had done until now, she had taken his side as a relative, but this was a bit much.

“Ah, no…! It’s enough if I win! Why!!”

“Of course, it’s enough if you win, but black magic curse decks are a bit of an exception…”

When Yoner didn’t take his side, Gainando looked at Nilia and asked.

“Is this that big of a deal!?”

“Black magic curse decks are a bit…”

“……”

Gainando became very upset.

“If you use a deck like that among hunters, you’ll get shot in the back with an arrow.”

“It’s not that bad!”

“It’s true.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Lee Han spammed spells on his turn and knocked Gainando down. Gainando opened his mouth wide and blinked his eyes.

“So, Yoner. What’s up?”

“Ah. There’s a social gathering being held in Granden City this time, right?”

Holding a social gathering wasn’t that difficult.

Even if Lee Han just called a few friends and they ate, drank, and played, that would also count as a social gathering.

As such, in a city the size of Granden City, dozens of social gatherings were held every day.

However, the social gathering that Yoner was talking about was a different story from those small-scale gatherings.

It was practically a gathering held in the name of Granden City, with the city’s influential families and even imperial officials participating.

And the main participants in this gathering were the first-year students of the magic school.

‘The gathering that the imperial family members were talking about earlier was this gathering.’

Lee Han understood why the imperial family members had come earlier.

It was only natural that they would want to enter such a place with a promising magic school student.

It was like declaring to others, ‘We’re close.’

“I don’t think it would be good to enter with Gainando.”

“Ah. I was thinking that too.”

Judging from the other imperial family members’ attitudes, it seemed like they would only become a nuisance to each other if they entered with Gainando.

“Why!? Is it because I brought a black magic curse deck?!”

Gainando asked with a shocked expression.

“No. If we go together, we might be misunderstood as a faction…”

“Just think of it as being because of the cards.”

Gainando grumbled at Yoner’s cold words.

“Everyone’s just jealous that my deck is strong.”

“But you lost…”

“Shut up!”

“…Since it has come to this, there’s nothing I can do.”

Lee Han said to Professor Verdus with a look of pity.

He didn’t like attending social gatherings, but if he could use it as an excuse to ditch Professor Verdus, there was no reason not to use it.

As expected, Professor Verdus asked as if he didn’t understand.

“Why would you attend such a useless gathering?”

“All the first-year students are invited. It seems they want to hear how the magic school students are doing.”

“Why would you attend such a useless gathering?”

‘Hmm. I shouldn’t have explained.’

Professor Verdus continued to grumble whether Lee Han explained or not.

“I don’t know why there’s a class that teaches dancing at the magic school. They should teach one more theory of enchantment magic instead.”

“I agree with that too… Wait. Is there dancing at this social gathering?”

“If it’s that scale, there must be, right?”

Professor Verdus answered as if it were obvious.

A small-scale social gathering might not, but a social gathering of that scale couldn’t possibly not have a ball.

Lee Han frowned.

‘I never thought there would be a time in my life when I would need to dance.’

It couldn’t be helped since Lee Han had taken one more magic school class when the other Blue Dragon Tower students were taking social dance classes.

He hadn’t really practiced dancing even when he was in the Wodanaz family…

‘I need to practice the basics as quickly as possible from now on.’

The goal was to not be embarrassed.

Lee Han made up his mind and looked at Professor Verdus.

“Professor, do you happen to be good at dancing?”

“No?”

“I thought so. Then I’ll go find someone to teach me.”

“…??”

Professor Verdus, who was left alone, tilted his head.

He felt somehow unpleasant.

Lee Han thought about how he would learn to dance. He felt a knot of worry in his stomach. *This is going to be harder than fighting a dragon,* he thought.