Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 342

“He has no conscience!” Lee Han thought angrily.

Lee Han had been very polite to the Duke, respecting his title. But the Duke had betrayed him!

Who else could be the target of the Venomous Contamination, if not Duke Icaldoren?

Lee Han thought, *I stopped that poison attack! Shouldn’t the Duke have said “Thank you”? Something like, “I’m grateful! You students from Einroguard are brave!” And then give me a reward!*

Of course, Lee Han had stepped in knowing that the Skull Headmaster was behind it, but that wasn’t the point. The result was all that mattered.

But the Duke was talking rubbish about being positive and trying to walk away.

No matter how he looked at it, there was only one explanation.

He was trying to avoid paying a reward.

‘Unforgivable.’

He could understand if the man were poor, but this was a fellow who lavishly showered Adenart with gold under the guise of pointless riddles, yet he was stingy when it came to saving his own life.

“There couldn’t be a more brazen and shameless noble in the entire Empire. Disgusting.”

“…Ah, no. Wodanaz. Duke Icaldoren is rude, but… well…?” Rowena had initially been pleased that Lee Han was joining in her complaints, but she was starting to feel awkward.

Rowena started to feel uneasy. *Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed with Lee Han so quickly,* she thought. *Duke Icaldoren is rude, but he’s not usually this bad… is he?*

“Rowena, I think I understand a little better why you consider Duke Icaldoren your lifelong enemy.”

“Pardon? I, I didn’t say anything like that.”

Ignoring Rowena’s explanation, Lee Han started walking.

The Duke had already gone far ahead, but several of his guards remained, tidying up the area.

The Duke’s guards moved quickly and efficiently. The air still smelled faintly of burnt magic and something acrid, like poison. Blackened patches marked where the Venomous Contamination had been, and the guards carefully collected strange, glassy fragments from the ground. Their practiced movements suggested they had done this more than once or twice.

Seeing this, Lee Han became even more convinced.

‘He was the target, alright.’

He clicked his tongue.

He should have just watched. Instead, he interfered and ruined his clothes…

“Did the Duke… did he leave any message for me?” Lee Han asked the guards, just in case. They stopped cleaning up the black marks on the ground and stood straighter, adjusting their uniforms.

It wasn’t just because Lee Han was from the important Wodanaz family. They had seen him fight. Anyone who could move like *that*, especially a first-year student, was going to be a powerful mage one day.

And Duke Icaldoren himself seemed to think highly of Lee Han. Hadn’t he said he’d “think positively” about whatever Lee Han was suggesting? The Duke was a man of his word.

“Lord Wodanaz,” one of the guards said, nodding respectfully.

“Yes?” Lee Han prompted. “Did he leave…”

“No, sir. No message like that.”

Lee Han’s face tightened. *No message?*

The guards didn’t seem to notice his growing annoyance. They exchanged quick glances. “Don’t worry about it, sir,” one said with a small smile. “You’ll be talking to him again soon anyway.”

“…” Lee Han frowned. *What was going on?* Were these guards losing their minds? Why were they suddenly being so overly polite?

‘Has the master gone mad along with his entire retinue?’

“You’ve worked hard, Wodanaz.”

After the guards finished cleaning up and the Duke’s escorts departed, Cultran praised Lee Han.

Cultran didn’t have as much experience as the Duke’s guards, but he could vaguely sense how well Lee Han had fought.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Lee Han extended his hand. Cultran took it.

Then, Lee Han withdrew his hand and snatched Cultran’s cloak.

“I meant to borrow your cloak.”

“…O-oh, okay.” Lee Han’s top and cloak were tattered from the fight with the Venomous Contamination. He draped Cultran’s cloak over himself and said,

“Cultran, you’re from the White Tiger Tower, so you’ll probably be taking on requests during the holidays.”

“I suppose so?”

“Don’t accept any requests from Duke Icaldoren. He’s a terribly stingy man.”

“I… is he? More importantly, Wodanaz, the riddle…”

“Riddle, my foot. Even if you solve it, you might not get anything.”

Lee Han grumbled, but deep down, he knew that wasn’t true.

Even if Duke Icaldoren skipped out on the reward for Lee Han, he would certainly give a reward to the Princess.

Gold had been given last time, so it would likely be the same this time.

‘Thinking about it makes me even angrier.’

“If we solve it together, do I get a share?”

“Well, yes, but gold isn’t exactly important to you, is it? Unlike someone like me.”

At Cultran’s words, Lee Han almost scolded Gainan as well, but he held back.

He would let it slide this once, since Cultran had lent him his cloak.

“Very well, Your Highness. Let us solve it together.”

“I knew you would say that, Wodanaz.”

Cultran grinned, his usual cheerful expression returning.

He was beginning to understand what kind of person Wodanaz was.

Wodanaz might speak coldly on the surface, but his actions were often warm.

‘There’s a reason Dergyu said that.’

He had naturally assumed that Lee Han would participate in this as well.

Even if he grumbled outwardly, Wodanaz wouldn’t simply ignore something related to his friends.

As expected…

“What do you know, you little brat? I’m already pissed off because of the Duke, are you trying to provoke me?”

“S-sorry.”

Cultran flinched for a moment.

Even if he knew it in his head, he couldn’t help but be afraid.

Lee Han wrapped Cultran’s cloak around himself. The soft fabric felt a little better against his skin. He was still annoyed at the Duke, but the immediate anger was starting to fade. As they walked towards a nearby cafe, the thought of coffee and cake did make him feel a little better.

Lee Han and his friends entered a small cafe with warm lighting and the smell of coffee and sweet pastries. Soft music played in the background, and the chatter of other customers filled the air. They sat down.

Rowena ordered a juice made from five different vegetables, Cultran ordered an eggnog with extra rum, Lee Han ordered coffee, and the Princess, after hesitating between chocolate and vanilla, ordered a chocolate cake. Lee Han ordered another vanilla cake and subtly slid it in front of the Princess.

“So, the riddle is… um… To Her Most Honorable Highness Adenart, may this riddle alleviate Your Highness’s boredom. Here is a staff. When a mage held the staff and walked, the stream opened its path. After crossing the stream, the wind cleared the wall blocking the way. When the wall disappeared, night fell. Then, a flashing light illuminated the path. I wonder what kind of staff this is.”

“????” Lee Han finished reading and looked up.

“Are we supposed to guess what artifact it is?” Lee Han thought that the Duke, being as stingy as he was, also lacked talent in riddles.

Wasn’t guessing what artifact it was not a good riddle?

If that was a riddle, Lee Han could come up with riddles too.

‘What is the third card from the top of Gainan’s card deck?’

“Ah, that’s not it. It’s closer to meaning that you should try to make such a staff yourself.”

“…No, why is that a riddle… Never mind. That’s not important.” Lee Han felt anew how decent the talking oak tree’s riddle from the mountain range had been.

Wasn’t this just ‘Can you make this kind of staff?’ instead of a riddle?

“Water element, wind element, light element. Are you telling me to make an artifact staff with at least three elements? The difficulty is one thing, but the required power is too much, isn’t it?”

“Ah, that’s not it. That’s closer to a metaphor, and in reality, it doesn’t matter if the power is much weaker.”

“……” Lee Han felt a burning desire to point things out, even though it wasn’t his problem.

‘If you wrote that the stream opened its path, then it should be able to part a stream, what is this…’

Lee Han, who had been grumbling inwardly, paused when he realized he was sounding exactly like the professors of Einroguard.

The person giving the riddle and the person solving it were both satisfied, so there was no reason for Lee Han to spoil the mood.

‘Alright. They’re ending things on good terms, so there’s no harm in it. Let’s just take the gold and go.’

“If the power can be weak, then all we need to do is complete a staff with three imbued spells… Hmm. Isn’t it easy?” Lee Han, who had been considering the conditions, was puzzled.

If the power could be weak, then the difficulty was much lower than he had thought.

Of course, imbuing spells, and with three different elemental spells at that, wasn’t exactly easy.

The difficulty of casting increased with each layer of imbuing, and if it was a different elemental type, it increased even more.

But for Lee Han, who had already experienced the hellish Verdus course during the first semester, this was quite manageable.

Wasn’t it much better than creating a shield that floated, moved, and attacked and defended on its own?

“……”

“……” Rowena and Cultran became gloomy at Lee Han’s words.

Lee Han’s amazing skill made Rowena and Cultran feel a little sad about their own abilities.

“Ah, no. Thinking about it, it’s difficult.” Lee Han noticed their reactions and changed his words, but it was already too late.

“It’s alright, Lord Wodanaz. There’s no need to be considerate of us.”

“That’s right… Wodanaz. There’s no need to be considerate of us. It wouldn’t be strange if we looked like monkeys in your eyes.”

“That’s a misunderstanding, Cultran. I’ve never thought of you as monkeys. I have thought of you as worse than Gainan… No. Never mind. Anyway, it doesn’t seem that difficult.”

The Princess, who had finished her second cake, raised her hand and said,

“Even overlapping just two elements increases the difficulty of casting due to mutual interference, but three seems impossible.”

“You can use magic circles as auxiliary devices.”

“Magic circles… on an artifact like a staff?” The Princess raised the end of her eyebrow slightly as she asked.

The smaller the size and volume of an artifact, the more difficult it became to engrave magic on it.

Staves were not good tools for imbuing magic from that perspective.

Of course, truly outstanding imbuing mages could compress magic circles with skill and ingenuity and engrave them on staves, but that level of skill was beyond what a freshman could possibly achieve.

Then, Cultran answered instead.

“Wodanaz can definitely do it. Right?” Wow, Wodanaz is incredible! Making a staff with three elements sounds impossible to me.

“I can’t?”

“…You can’t?”

“Of course, I’ll have to omit the unnecessary parts. I’ll remove everything related to maintenance or duration.”

“???” The Princess tilted her head.

Rowena and Cultran also tilted their heads, but that was just because they couldn’t follow the conversation. The Princess tilted her head because there was something she didn’t understand.

If you removed everything related to maintenance or spell duration, wouldn’t the magic disappear a few seconds after being cast on the staff?

“Then the time…”

“You can make up for it with mana. If you pour in mana, the maintenance and duration will increase.”

“……” The Princess was confused as to whether she should agree with this crude method or not.

Logically, it was correct, but was it okay to do it with such a shortcut?

The Princess became curious about the other two’s opinions and turned her gaze.

“What do you two think…”

“Lord Wodanaz’s opinion seems correct.”

“Me too.”

“……” The Princess sighed silently at the sight of the two of them agreeing immediately because they didn’t want to be caught not following along.

Lee Han shook his head as he watched.

‘It’s inevitable that you’ll have trouble if you only have Gainan around you.’

The despair of understanding the assignment only by oneself in a group project.

This despair was something that only those who had experienced it could understand.

A situation where you couldn’t persuade others to participate no matter what method you used, and you had to solve it all by yourself!

Lee Han nodded, looking like he understood her problem. Adenart looked at him, her eyes showing she was a little upset, and nodded back.

Lee Han, who was sipping his coffee, suddenly became curious and asked Rowena.

“By the way, staves are quite expensive even for practice, so how do you plan to get one? If it’s difficult to get one, you could ask the professors to get broken staves and recycle them…”

“Ah. We can get them if we ask our sponsors.”

“……” Lee Han subtly pulled his chair back at the sight of the Princess’s group, whose way of thinking was different from his own.