Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 364

A strangled cry, like “Kkweeeek,” burst from a White Tiger Tower student. He crumpled to the floor, completely surprised.

The student next to him jumped back, eyes wide. “Wodanaz!” he yelled. “What are you doing?!”

Lee Han stood calmly, wand in hand. “Yes, it’s me.”

“But… why are you attacking us? Are you mad?”

“Wasn’t that your turkey that just hit me?” Lee Han asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, no! We were just joking around! It was just a bit of fun!”

“A prank, you say?” Lee Han repeated, his voice quiet.

“Yes! Exactly!”

“I see,” Lee Han said slowly. He raised his wand again and spoke a few words in a low voice.

Suddenly, the wine in a nearby barrel began to froth and bubble. It rose up, swirling and glowing with a faint blue light, forming itself into a shimmering sphere of liquid.

The White Tiger Tower student’s face drained of color, leaving him as pale as parchment. Even in his drunken stupor, he felt the alcohol wearing off.

Every White Tiger Tower student knew about Wodanaz’s water elemental magic!

“Everyone, get a…!”

“Get what, you crazy fools?”

“Wodanaz is here! Hey! Stop drinking, everyone! Wodanaz is here!”

The White Tiger Tower students sitting near the banquet hall’s corridor realized what was happening and screamed, but the banquet hall was too noisy for their voices to carry.

The White Tiger Tower students, who had been gleefully throwing food at each other across the vast banquet hall, belatedly noticed Lee Han.

“What…!”

“This…!”

“Why…!”

“Help! It’s Wodanaz!”

Salko, finally regaining his senses, shouted fiercely.

As if on cue, Black Tortoise Tower students rushed into the hall and attacked the White Tiger Tower students.

No matter how skilled the White Tiger Tower students were in close combat, they were no match in their drunken state.

“Cowa… Cowardly fools…! Taking advantage of us when we’re drunk and off guard… Hic!”

Giselle rose from her seat and moved towards the Duke.

She didn’t want to get caught up in that pathetic mess.

“I apologize, Duke Icalodren. It seems everyone got a little carried away with their games.”

Lee Han pushed the White Tiger Tower students aside and apologized.

In truth, Lee Han had only realized that Duke Icalodren was sitting at the head table a little after the fight had started.

The White Tiger Tower fellows were playing so freely that he hadn’t even considered the Duke might be in the banquet hall.

‘Are they really crazy?’ Lee Han wondered.

To throw wine glasses and food around while the Duke was present seemed like utter madness.

In any case, with the Duke present, he had to apologize for the brawl, at least out of courtesy. Lee Han bowed his head.

“Not at all. I enjoyed feeling the boiling blood of young talents.”

A genuine smile spread across the Duke’s face, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

Lee Han thought to himself, ‘The Duke has strange tastes.’

To think he would enjoy watching White Tiger Tower students throwing pies and cakes at each other, creating such a mess.

Duke Icalodren looked at Lee Han with great delight.

He had been eyeing him as a potential talent, and the scene he had shown today was very impressive.

How pleasing it was to see those rowdy students being put in their place…

Everything was cleaned up, and the chaotic banquet hall was instantly spotless. Lee Han and his friends trooped in and took their seats.

“Shouldn’t we wake them up?”

The White Tiger Tower students were lying in a corner of the banquet hall, snoring away.

Lee Han and the Duke both ignored them, pretending not to see.

“To think so many Einroguard students would visit… I am truly pleased.”

“If you wish, I can invite and bring even more next time.”

At Lee Han’s words, Duke Icalodren’s eyes flashed sharply.

The Duke knew that Einroguard was divided into towers and that they didn’t mix with each other.

Yet, Wodanaz, who belonged to the Blue Dragon Tower, had brought students from other towers (although it seemed he was on very bad terms with the White Tiger Tower).

It was an amazing display of personnel management!

‘He’s just a freshman… His future is frightening,’ the Duke thought.

“Shall I bring you something to drink?” the servant asked.

Lee Han said firmly, “Please prepare a meal.”

“…Yes,” the servant replied.

The servant retreated to contact the kitchen.

‘He refused the drinks and asked for a meal? Why?’ Duke Icalodren wondered.

Seeing this, Dergyu asked Giselle in an anxious voice, “Is he angry?”

“Are you going to keep asking questions that anyone with eyes could answer? If you are, pay me in silver coins.”

Lee Han whispered to Salko, “Eat as much as you can, Salko. It’s free.”

“Wodanaz. You really should have come to the Black Tortoise Tower.”

It was a fortunate thing for the servants.

The meal for the three towers’ students was much more peaceful and quiet.

The priests carefully used their knives to cut the steak and thanked the Duke politely with every bite.

Duke Icalodren was not usually moved by such greetings, but after seeing the White Tiger Tower students’ antics earlier, he couldn’t help but feel pleased. The Duke decided to send donations to each temple after this banquet.

The Black Tortoise Tower students’ meal was noisier than the priests’, but it was still friendly. Considering they were students, their freshness was rather pleasing.

“How do you eat this?”

“Give it here. I’ll cut it for you. You don’t just hack at it; you cut the joint and peel off the skin.”

“Nilia…!”

“As expected, Nilia is different. Isn’t she?”

“She has such calmness. No wonder she can talk to important people.”

Gainando was about to bury his face in his plate when Ihan pulled him back by the scruff of his neck. Ihan then placed the plate in front of the princess.

Princess Adenarte had been quietly looking at a dish across the table. It was meat in clear jelly, and it looked shiny and tempting. When Ihan placed a plate with some in front of her, she nodded a little to thank him.

Rowena, seeing this, asked in surprise,

“How did you know what she wanted?”

“She kept glancing at it.”

“Is that so? I thought you were thinking about the riddle today…”

‘I doubt anyone thinks about riddles by staring at a plate.’

Rowena thought for a moment, then asked,

“If you take care of someone like this, aren’t you already friends?”

“Is that what you call friendship?”

“Ha! Sounds like you’re her servant!”

“A nanny.”

“A butler would be better.”

The other Blue Dragon Tower students added coldly, causing Rowena to sulk.

Ihan, having roughly taken care of everyone around him, turned his gaze to the Duke.

The Duke was waiting with a smile, his expression unchanging.

Seeing that, he seemed like a genuinely good person, except for his stinginess towards those who weren’t royalty.

“Duke Icardoren, I have a question about the riddle.”

“Ask away.”

As soon as Ihan spoke, the Duke’s face lit up as if he were a starving man receiving food.

“I thought the riddle you presented was a metaphor for something. Like the moon, for example…”

“You guessed it perfectly!”

In that instant, Ihan’s face froze. Yoneru’s face beside him also froze. They exchanged glances quickly.

‘…It really was a metaphorical riddle?’

‘I thought it was a bit odd…!’

Not noticing their serious faces, the Duke continued.

It was always awkward for the person who posed the riddle when the riddle wasn’t solved and a strange answer was given.

The Duke had been worried that he might have to make the riddle easier after the princess’s followers kept forcing answers, but…

Although the possibility was slim, he had been quite concerned about rumors like ‘Duke Icardoren was trying to please them and accepted the wrong answer as correct’…

But here he was, bringing the correct answer.

“That’s right. That was the correct answer.”

“Oh, I see.”

Without realizing it, Ihan glanced at the princess and her followers.

They seemed to be still eating and hadn’t heard the conversation between the Duke and Ihan.

“Rowena?”

“Yes?”

“Put the staff you brought down and don’t take it out, no matter what.”

“Yes? Why is that?”

“…Just don’t take it out.”

When Ihan became serious, Rowena was startled and nodded. Ihan thought he would have to apologize later.

When the meal ended, the Duke asked the students questions. The questions were mainly about Einroguard.

“How are you finding Einroguard?”

“Living there? It’s… fine,”

“Einroguard is… I can’t complain,”

The students, who initially tried to tell the truth, gave up and chose safe answers when their words were stopped by the oath.

‘What does protecting mystery and knowledge have to do with meals!’

‘Damn oath!’

“I’ve heard that the teachings of the wizards are quite harsh.”

“I think that’s because of rumors from the past.”

“That’s right… Those kinds of rumors tend to leave a strong impression, so even more…”

“…?”

The Duke was very confused.

He had clearly obtained information that life inside was quite difficult, but why did nothing match up, either this time or last time?

The more he learned, the more he felt like he was falling into a maze.

“Still, thanks to Wardanaz here… I was able to have a reasonably good life.”

“That’s right. If it weren’t for Ihan of the Wardanaz family, it might have been a little more difficult…”

When Ihan’s story came up, the Duke listened with interest.

He already knew that he was popular among the students, but he could still get information from a different perspective by listening like this.

“He even saved my life a few times. Some crazy guys came at me…”

“It was just luck.”

Ihan replied as if it was nothing much to Salco’s words.

But at that moment, the Duke was struck by lightning.

He was instinctively certain.

‘Could it be!’

The people the Duke had sent into the school. The crazy guys that the Black Tortoise Tower student was talking about had to be them.

There couldn’t be anyone else attacking students in a school like Einroguard, could there?

‘…Can that be possible!?’

Duke Icardoren, who rarely wavered, had been pushed past his limit this time.

He hadn’t sent just any bad guys; he had sent those expensive Maple Snake bastards.

They weren’t rookies either. They were veterans when it came to dealing with mages.

No matter how much it was a magic school and there were professors, how could they not defeat even one freshman?

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.

In the end, the Duke lost his patience and asked the question.

“Perhaps that attack was…”

“It was n- no, it wasn’t.”

“It was noth- It was nothing much.”

The other students ended it with bitter expressions, saying it wasn’t. The Duke couldn’t help but be even more confused.

And what was most confusing was…

‘Isn’t it too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence! The one who stopped the attack is approaching this Duke Icardoren…’

The Duke suddenly felt unable to breathe easily.

It was as if someone was controlling him.

It was a strong feeling of being controlled he had never felt except when facing the Emperor.