Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 388

Okay, everyone…

Sharukal was about to speak, but then Lee Han’s divine power suddenly disappeared. It was like a light turning off.

Lee Han had made divine power, which was amazing, but he couldn’t turn it into magic yet.

Even making divine power at all was a big deal. Most people who believe in gods can’t even do that.

Divine power is needed to make divine magic.

If you can make divine power, you will probably learn divine magic later.

“Huu…”

“Hoo…”

People sighed with relief all around the room. It was clear they were thinking, ‘Phew, thank goodness it didn’t work!’

“…You guys are happy it didn’t work, aren’t you?” Sharukal asked, sounding a little grumpy.

Shouldn’t priests be happy when someone learns divine magic, even if it’s from a different group? They all believe in gods, right? They should be on the same side!

“Ah, no, not at all!” one priest said quickly.

“Of course not,” said another.

“Well, maybe a little…” a third priest started to say, but the others stopped him.

If it was anyone else, they would just say “Congratulations!” for learning divine magic. But Lee Han was different.

If Lee Han learned divine magic from the Aglataqua group, he might only be interested in them. He might think, ‘Oh, maybe Aglataqua is the right god for me after all.’

For the other priests, that would mean they lost their chance to get Lee Han to believe in *their* gods.

Also, there was another reason. Lee Han making divine power meant he was good at believing and having faith. That’s rare! Most people can’t even make divine power.

So… if they could talk to him now and convince him, maybe he could learn *their* divine magic instead!

The Nigisor priest, even though the others tried to stop him, said what he was thinking. “Since you made divine power but not divine magic, maybe it’s because you should believe in a different god than Aglataqua?”

“Be quiet!” The Tijiling priest told him, making him stop talking.

While the priests were talking quickly, Professor Garcia walked over. He looked confused.

Students from Phoenix Tower usually didn’t stand around talking during class.

“What’s going on here?” Professor Garcia asked. “Are you stuck on something?”

“Ah, Professor,” one priest said. “We were just talking about which group’s divine magic Lee Han Wodanaz will learn.”

“…Is my lesson not interesting?” Professor Garcia asked, raising an eyebrow.

After that, the students quickly went back to learning underwater breathing magic.

It wasn’t really because they were scared of Professor Garcia. It was because they liked him and didn’t want to let him down. He was always nice to them.

“Lee Han, you’re coming to the Phoenix Tower lounge, right?” Gainan Do asked.

“Nope?” Lee Han replied.

“…The Phoenix Tower lounge… you *are* going. Yes. That’s right,” Gainan Do said, looking away.

“I’m going to work in the garden,” Lee Han said.

“Ah!” Gainan Do’s face lit up. “Great! You can help me too!”

“Ah,” Lee Han said.

Gainan Do’s smile disappeared. “Actually, I have something to do…”

“Gainan Do has nothing to do,” one of his Blue Dragon Tower friends said. “He said he was going to make a new card game this afternoon.”

Lee Han nodded. “If you’re free, you can help.”

“…But I had duty yesterday!” Gainan Do complained.

“Duty?” Lee Han looked confused.

“Did you guys start doing chores while I was gone?” Lee Han thought. “That’s really good of them!”

He was actually impressed.

Students from Black Tortoise Tower would laugh if they heard this. But the Blue Dragon Tower students were the type who probably never even made their own beds.

They seemed to think the messy lounge would magically clean itself if Lee Han didn’t tell them what to do.

So, the fact that they were giving each other chores and working hard in the second semester was really surprising and nice.

‘Einrogaard is having a good effect on them,’ Lee Han thought.

“Ah, that’s not what I meant…” Gainan Do mumbled.

“Huh?” Lee Han asked.

“Let me explain,” a voice boomed.

Several Blue Dragon Tower students screamed and almost fell over.

The Skull Headmaster floated down from above them. He always found new ways to scare them.

“You wouldn’t know, Lee Han, because you were gone. But you ‘iron-heads’ have been here for a semester now,” the Skull Headmaster said. “Surely, a little bit of smartness has grown in those empty heads of yours. Though, probably lighter than a feather!”

“…”

“…”

The students frowned. “Heartwarming praise,” they thought sarcastically.

“So,” the Skull Headmaster continued in a sweet voice that didn’t fool anyone, “we decided to give you more freedom in the second semester.”

Lee Han, still confused, asked, “What kind of freedom? Like, can we go out every weekend now?”

“Did you lose your mind while you were gone?” the Skull Headmaster snapped. “You sound like a professor!”

“…Then what is it?” Lee Han asked.

“The freedom to be responsible and do school work yourselves!” the Skull Headmaster said kindly.

The other first-year students already knew about this. The Skull Headmaster had told them while Lee Han was away.

Each tower would take turns doing chores for the school.

Cleaning the messy place in the alchemy workshop, organizing the kitchen storage, cleaning classrooms after experiments, tidying up near the animal stables, and so on.

Einrogaard was huge, with buildings everywhere. There were always chores to do.

The Skull Headmaster was giving them the “freedom” to do these chores.

“Wow,” Lee Han said flatly.

“Sometimes students don’t understand our magic school,” the Skull Headmaster said. “This isn’t a prison! We only give you freedom when you are ready for it. If we let you go free before you’re ready, and you get hurt, it would break my heart!”

“You’re really something,” Lee Han said, not sure what else to say.

“Isn’t that right?” the Skull Headmaster asked, sounding pleased with himself.

Thinking he had made the students’ day much worse, the Skull Headmaster floated back up into the air and away.

Gainan Do looked at Lee Han, his face sad. “I couldn’t even play yesterday because I had to clean up slime that just appeared by itself.”

“I see,” Lee Han said. “Come on, help me.”

“Huh?!” Gainan Do was shocked. He thought Lee Han was going to let him off the hook!

‘Wasn’t he going to let me go?’ Gainan Do thought.

“So, what chores does Phoenix Tower have to do?” Lee Han asked.

“Ah, we find out tonight,” Gainan Do said.

“Okay. I haven’t done anything for two weeks, so I want to help,” Lee Han said.

Suddenly, the priests’ faces changed. They looked serious. Lee Han stopped.

‘Did I say something wrong?’ he wondered.

“Can I help too?” Lee Han asked them.

“What are you talking about?” one priest said quickly. “You worked so hard last week! You need to rest this week. I’m supposed to do it this week.”

“Helping with chores is for everyone, right? Haha,” Lee Han said, confused.

“You’ll get sick if you work too much! Rest!” another priest insisted.

Lee Han just shook his head and walked away, wondering why the priests were so eager to do chores.

Gainan Do, who didn’t know why the priests were acting like that, was jealous. “Wow,” he whispered. “The priests are volunteering to work. I wish I was them.”

“Be quiet and let’s go,” Lee Han said, pulling him along.

Professor Thunderstep’s garden behind his small house was a mess. Weeds were everywhere, and the chicken coop looked dusty. It had been a while since Lee Han was last there.

Lee Han and Gainan Do started cleaning up. They pulled weeds, swept paths, and then went to feed the chickens.

The chickens, with their bright red combs and yellow beaks, seemed to remember Lee Han. They made happy “cluck-cluck” sounds when they saw him.

Gainan Do stepped back, looking nervous. “Are you going to catch those things?” he asked.

“We just take their eggs,” Lee Han said.

“Hing,” Gainan Do mumbled. He still thought eggs were better than nothing. He carefully reached out to pet a chicken.

But the chicken didn’t like that. It saw Gainan Do’s hand as a threat and pecked him hard on the finger!

“Ack! You little monsters!” Gainan Do yelled, pulling his hand back.

“Gainan Do,” Lee Han said, trying not to laugh. “Stop playing with the chickens and come pull weeds. I need to plant new seeds here.”

Gainan Do, breathing heavily from working, suddenly had an idea. “Wait!” he said. “Can’t we call undead creatures? They can do work too!”

“That’s a good idea,” Lee Han said. “But undead aren’t good for this kind of work. Bad magic sticks to them.”

“…”

Gainan Do cursed black magic in his head. ‘It’s magic that’s useless for real life!’ he thought.

After working hard and sweating for almost two hours, they were almost done. Lee Han packed vegetables, mushrooms, eggs, cans of food, and jars of pickled meat into a basket. He gave it to Gainan Do.

“Take this and share it with everyone,” Lee Han said.

“G-great!” Gainan Do said, excited. “I’ll try to cook something good!”

“No,” Lee Han said quickly. “Don’t cook it. Just give it to them.”

“…”

Gainan Do’s face fell. “I can cook okay if I try…” he said quietly.

“Just give it to them,” Lee Han repeated, a little more gently this time.

“…Okay,” Gainan Do said, taking the basket. He looked inside, confused. He knew the vegetables, but the other things were strange.

“But… weren’t these things inside the professor’s house?” Gainan Do asked.

“Go on, go back quickly,” Lee Han said, waving him away. “I’ll finish cleaning up here.”

Lee Han practically pushed Gainan Do to leave.

Then, Lee Han saw Professor Thunderstep and Professor Lightningstep walking towards him from far away. Professor Lightningstep was carrying a heavy sack.

“Wow, it’s so clean here! You cleaned it up. Good job, Lee Han,” Professor Lightningstep said, laughing loudly and patting Lee Han on the back.

“You’ve been through a lot inside those ruins, huh? You actually found them?” Professor Thunderstep asked.

“I was lucky,” Lee Han said.

Professor Thunderstep raised his eyebrows. “You call that lucky?” he said, sounding doubtful.

“It’s lucky enough,” Lee Han said. “I found it and got out alive.”

“Hmm… By the way,” Professor Thunderstep said, looking at the empty basket Gainan Do had carried. “That prince guy left earlier… were those cans of food in his basket… maybe mine?”

“Anyway!” Lee Han said quickly, changing the subject. “It’s good to see you both!”

“Yeah,” Professor Thunderstep said. “If you’re a little late… you have to try really hard to catch up… no, not really hard… just do it easily. You’ll still catch up.”

“…” Lee Han stared at him, confused. “How can I catch up if I do it easily instead of working hard?”

“You’re the type who will work hard even if I tell you to take it easy,” Professor Thunderstep said with a shrug.

“Oh, by the way,” Professor Lightningstep said, putting the heavy sack down with a loud “Thump!” Lee Han saw writing on the sack: “BASILISK FOOD.”

“…I haven’t been to Professor Begreck yet,” Lee Han said slowly. “Why are you asking?”

“Huh? You’re going to raise a basilisk, right? Didn’t you hear?” Professor Lightningstep asked, surprised.

“…”

Lee Han’s face fell. He had completely forgotten about the basilisk.

Professor Voladi *had* brought a basilisk egg back from vacation. He had said something like, ‘You have to raise this thing well so it will try its best to kill you!’

Professor Voladi’s exact words were probably a bit nicer, but that was the idea.

‘If I ever catch a basilisk later,’ Lee Han thought angrily, ‘I’m throwing it at the Duke’s house!’

He sighed and said, “Yes… I knew about the egg.”

“Yeah,” Professor Lightningstep said. “Professor Begreck is trying to hatch it this semester. It’s a good egg, so it should work. It’ll be a good experience for you too!”

“Yes… great…” Lee Han said weakly.

‘Taking care of a basilisk that wants to kill me,’ he thought. ‘What a wonderful experience.’

Professor Lightningstep went inside the house to get drinks. Professor Thunderstep turned to him. “Professor Begreck is hatching a basilisk?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Professor Lightningstep called from inside.

“Professor Begreck?” Professor Thunderstep repeated, sounding doubtful. “I don’t think he can hatch it. He’s good at killing them, but hatching is hard work.”

Hatching a basilisk egg was not easy.

Professor Thunderstep knew Professor Voladi was better at fighting basilisks than raising them, even if they weren’t close friends. ‘Will he even listen to advice from Professor Lightningstep?’ he wondered.

Professor Lightningstep came back out with beers and took a drink. “He has a student to help him,” he said, as if that explained everything.

“Ah, right,” Professor Thunderstep said, nodding slowly.

“…”

Lee Han wanted to argue, to say, ‘What do you mean, “right”?!’ But he just stayed quiet.