Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 366

The Beechwood Knights were not famous for fighting. Still, you would expect a real knight to be much better than a student learning magic at Einroguard.

Of course, the Beechwood Knights had to be careful because people were watching, so they held back. But even so, the students seemed to be at a big disadvantage.

Hain couldn’t understand why the students were so excited.

“Let’s crush those rude fools, Wodanaz! Show them no mercy!”

“They probably don’t even know you can use a sword. Keep it hidden and beat them all at once!”

“If you attack with magic first and then pull out your sword, they’ll be too surprised to react!”

The other students from different towers looked confused. They frowned and whispered to each other, watching the White Tiger Tower students’ shouts. Some even shook their heads in disbelief.

Salco muttered,

“Are those guys even knights?”

Some of the White Tiger Tower students felt ashamed of their friends and couldn’t look up.

They weren’t even fighting themselves, just depending on Wodanaz while acting all high and mighty…

“A-are you really okay with this?” Hain asked hesitantly.

“Don’t worry! We have Wodanaz here!”

“Uh… isn’t the mage supposed to go out?”

Hain asked, his voice quiet, “Uh… isn’t the mage supposed to go out?” The noisy White Tiger Tower students suddenly went silent. They looked at each other, their faces changing.

“W-we’re weaker than Wodanaz…”

“Ah, aha. I see.”

Feeling awkward, Hain shouted to make things better.

“I think if we’re friends, we should help each other! Isn’t that what friendship is all about?”

“W-we’re not exactly friends…”

In the awkward silence, the White Tiger Tower students looked at Ihan without thinking.

“Y-you’ll go out for us, right? Wodanaz?”

“We can’t just remove you from the White Tiger Tower’s team.”

“Hey, you crazy fool. Wodanaz is from the Blue Dragon Tower.”

“Ah, whoops. It’s just a habit…”

Ihan took the challenge seriously, no matter what the White Tiger Tower students did.

Before the competition, he asked Dergyu and Giselle to carefully check the other team’s strength.

“The Beechwood Knights aren’t that strong or well-known.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Are you really sure?”

“…Why do you ask again?”

Giselle didn’t say ‘you little brat’ or ‘you son of a gun’, even though she wanted to.

Ihan looked at Dergyu instead of answering. Dergyu saw Giselle’s look and nodded.

“It’s true, Ihan. They’re not a very good knight order.”

“That’s good to know.”

“But Ihan… even if they’re not as good as Bickelintz or Professor Ingeldel, if they’re sending someone to represent the knights, they won’t be easy to beat.”

Dergyu said, worried.

Unlike the other White Tiger Tower students, who dreamed Ihan could beat anyone (some even joked he could fight Headmaster Skull!), Dergyu and Giselle were realistic.

Ihan was strong, but he was still a student.

The other guy was an experienced knight. Knights usually beat mages.

“Don’t worry, Dergyu. I have a plan,” Ihan said, a small smile on his lips. Giselle raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious. ‘What is he going to do now?’ she wondered.

Now that things had gone this far, Ihan wasn’t going to let it go easily.

They were too focused on the banquet hall. He was going to show them what’s what, no matter what they were thinking.

“What are you planning to do?” Giselle asked, really curious.

She knew Ihan was clever, tricky, and careful, but she couldn’t guess what he would do in this situation.

“Just watch.”

Ihan went to Hain and whispered.

“It’s not fair for students to fight knights. We need to give them some more advantages. Tell them that nicely.”

Hain blinked, confused. He looked at the silver coin in his sleeve, then back at Ihan. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy or worried.

Not even this?

“O-of course, this is what I should be doing. You don’t have to give me the silver coin. I’ll do my best.”

“Oh, no. It’s okay. Keep it. Keep it.”

Ihan grabbed Hain, who was resisting, and stuffed the silver coin into his pocket.

Hain finally gave up and took the silver coin. He went outside and came back a little later.

“They said you can prepare your magic ahead of time.”

“Thank you.”

Giselle seemed to understand now.

It was a simple but effective trick.

Of course, it wasn’t something a noble would do.

‘Is he crazy?’

“Here, take one more.”

“Yes!? Really, it’s alright…”

“Go back and tell them that the students might refuse the offer, so we need to give them even more advantages.”

Hain went out looking confused, not knowing what he was doing.

Then he came back and said,

“They said you can fight three of them at once.”

“I see. Wait, don’t go. The students ate so much today that they’re feeling heavy, so we need to give them even more advantages…”

“Wodanaz, this is bad!”

The three students turned to see who was shouting.

“It’s not just the Beechwood Knights! The Aspen Knights are here too! Those guys who came to the school last time!”

Ihan was surprised.

This was a problem.

If the Aspen Knights’ apprentice knights told everyone what happened…

‘It’ll be harder to trick them by pretending to be weak!’

“But we shared swords last time, maybe they’ll keep our secret?”

Dergyu and Giselle shook their heads.

“They don’t seem like they would.”

“If those guys do, then I’m not from the Moradi family, I’m from the Wodanaz family.”

‘Isn’t that a bit much?’

While Ihan was thinking, someone opened the back door of the banquet hall and carefully came in.

It was an Aspen Knights’ apprentice knight.

“Sp, spy…!”

“Shh! Be quiet. I snuck in. I came to give you information.”

The apprentice knight hid among the students, looking around nervously.

“But what did he just say? Spy?”

“…Maybe you misheard him smacking his lips?”

“Really?”

The apprentice knight turned to look at Ihan, not really interested.

Then, in a very quiet voice, he quickly said,

“Right now, the Beechwood Knights outside aren’t paying attention. They don’t know how evil Wodanaz you are…”

“Evil?”

“…I said the wrong word because I was in a hurry. They don’t know that you’re good at both swords and magic, and that you’re smart. The guy representing them uses a sword and shield, and he uses a left-handed sword, right? His swordsmanship is…”

Ihan looked at Dergyu and Giselle because the apprentice knight was so friendly and told them the weaknesses right away. They looked away.

Having finished his rest, the Duke opened the door and came out.

The guards and servants were waiting in front of the study, barely breathing.

It wasn’t necessary, but the Duke acted like it was normal.

“…?”

A loud noise was coming from the center of the first floor, below the grand staircase.

At first, he thought it was from the banquet hall, but it was coming from a different direction.

“What’s going on?”

The servants held their breath, not knowing what was happening.

They had been told not to bother the Duke while he was resting, so they waited quietly in front of the study and didn’t know what was going on.

“I’ll go check it out.”

One of the servants hurried down. He almost fell several times because he was going so fast.

The servant felt worried when he saw the knights and students gathered on the first floor, doing something like a duel.

“What on earth is going on here?”

“Th, there was a problem with where to use the banquet hall, so…”

Hain saw the servant’s serious face and knew what was happening, so he made excuses with a sad face.

“You told us not to come up, so we couldn’t help but…”

“You should have stopped them, not let them have a sword fight in the mansion?!”

“It’s, it’s not a sword fight, it’s just practice sparring…”

It was lucky that it wasn’t a sword fight, but it was still not good.

Everyone knew the knight would win against a student.

Even if they won quietly, the students would be upset with the Duke, and if the knight used too much strength, it would be terrible.

The servant ran to the Duke and explained everything.

Duke Icalodren listened and froze. He was past being angry.

“So?”

“So, why are you telling me this? Are you saying I have to fix it myself? Huh?”

“I’ll go fix it right away!”

The servants and guards shouted and ran downstairs.

They were going to stop it by beating up the knights, if they had to.

“Th-this is a foul!”

“I don’t see why it’s a foul.”

“You were… you were hiding your magic!”

“Didn’t we say you could use magic ahead of time?”

“…??”

But the guards saw something they didn’t expect.

Ihan, Dergyu, and Giselle were casting magic like crazy and walking out.

They were pretending to be as weak, scared, and nervous as they could.

“Dergyu, relax your eyes. You look strong.”

“S-sorry, Ihan. It’s hard to act…”

“Just think of yourself as Gainando.”

“I, I am Gainando. I am Gainando.”

It didn’t stop there.

Ihan made a water orb and asked for time to finish making it.

The knight didn’t know what kind of magic Ihan was making and agreed. He thought he would win because the three looked nervous.

Boom!

The knight broke through the window and flew into the garden.

“…”

“…Please tell me you didn’t send him flying on purpose, Ihan.”

“Sorry. I couldn’t control my strength.”

The knights protested.

“Th-this is a foul!”

He was going to fight fairly and let the knight say, ‘Haha, I didn’t think you were so good because you’re young,’ but Ihan accidentally sent him flying, so he didn’t have many choices.

Act without shame!

“I don’t see why it’s a foul.”

“You were… you were hiding your magic!”

“Didn’t we say you could use magic ahead of time?”

Ihan acted like he didn’t know anything.

The knights had nothing to say.

They had agreed to it before.

“Such a trick…!”

“Enough.”

“Your Grace!”

The knights were happy to see Duke Icalodren.

“We were just having a simple sparring match, and we were wondering if you could be the judge…”

“Why?”

“Yes?”

“I asked why you’re sparring in someone else’s mansion.”

The knights realized the situation was not normal and shut their mouths.

In their own territory, they acted important as knights, but they would be easily defeated if the Duke got angry.

“Y-your Grace. There’s a misunderstanding.”

“Are you saying I’m an idiot? That I can’t understand what you’re saying?”

“N-no, that’s not it…”

“I let your mistake go, but now you’re trying to insult me!”

The Duke was angry.

Ihan thought to himself.

‘He’s different from what I heard.’

He was laughing when the White Tiger Tower students were making noise, but he’s angry because of a sparring match.

He was strange and stingy.

Ihan thought, “This Duke was definitely not what he expected.”