Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 435

Meanwhile, the knights were opening bottles and eagerly pouring wine into their glasses.

As servants appeared carrying steaming roasted boars on large platters, the knights, unable to wait, jumped up and grabbed the dishes.

“???”

Before Lee Han could even understand what was happening, the knights who had grabbed the platters pulled out their daggers and stabbed them into the meat. One knight quickly ate a big, shiny piece of meat in one gulp.

‘Huh?’ Lee Han was surprised.

This gathering was different from any he had been to before.

Usually, at these events, people greeted each other, talked, played games, and then ate together.

But here, food and drink came first.

He looked to his side and saw Angalo and Batruk quickly grabbing plates and piling food on them.

“Moradi, I don’t want to be rude, but I have to ask… Is this normal for knight parties?”

“…Yes. Why?”

“Oh, nothing. I’m just surprised. They’re eating with so much energy.”

“……”

Giselle tried not to show it, but she felt embarrassed. The Beech Knights liked to think of themselves as fancy nobles, but when it came to eating, their true knightly selves always came out.

She had never been ashamed of being a knight—being brave and strong was something to be proud of! But this clumsy attempt to be refined, followed by such messy eating, made Giselle cringe inside.

‘Why were they so fussy and formal before, if they were just going to eat like this?’ Lee Han wondered to himself.

If the knights had been this relaxed from the start, Lee Han wouldn’t have had to follow so many unnecessary rules outside.

“So, do you eat and drink first, and then talk?” Giselle nodded.

“This is much better. It would have been nice if it had been like this from the beginning.”

“…?!?!?!?!!”

Giselle stared at Lee Han with wide eyes as Jang Cliff returned.

After greeting the knights, Jang Cliff came back with a bottle of wine in one hand and a glass in the other.

“I want to make a toast! To the one who helped the Beech Knights!”

“Ah, thank you.” Lee Han took the glass. The shimmering wine filled it to the top.

Jang Cliff’s glass and Giselle’s were also filled. The three raised their glasses together.

At that moment, Jang Cliff’s face twisted, and he shouted.

“It’s poison!!!!!”

Clang!

Giselle reacted the fastest. As soon as she heard Jang Cliff’s words, she threw her half-finished glass to the floor.

‘This can’t be happening!’ Giselle’s eyes were filled with shock.

It was shocking that someone had poisoned the knights’ party. But it was even more shocking that Giselle hadn’t noticed the poison.

Unlike the knights, Giselle and the White Tiger Tower students were being trained as mages, weren’t they?

Because the poison was foreign, she should have noticed it.

How could this be?

‘What kind of poison is it?’ Giselle quickly looked around. She saw Angalo and Batruk, already drunk and shaking empty wine bottles, frozen in place. Giselle quickly gave up on them and turned to Lee Han.

‘If it were Wodanaz, he might have noticed…!’ But Lee Han’s glass was empty. Giselle was speechless and shrieked.

“You drank it all!!”

“I had to because of manners…”

“Are you kidding me? Did you get careless just because you’re outside the school?!”

Lee Han felt truly wronged.

The person who made the poison had a big advantage if they made it well and used it correctly.

“Everyone, stay still and put down your drinks! You there, put down the drink!” Jang Cliff threw a knife from the table and broke a wine bottle. A knight who was about to drink from it jumped in surprise.

“Sir Jang Cliff! What’s going on?”

“Are you mistaken? Poison? We don’t feel anything wrong.”

The drunken knights were confused by Jang Cliff’s shout.

They knew a little about poison.

But they had never heard of a poison that didn’t affect the body.

Could Sir Jang Cliff be wrong?

“Damn it, I heard about it from an alchemist in the capital. It doesn’t do anything now, but when a part added to the food mixes with a part added to the wine, and time passes…”

Jang Cliff, who had good connections, had learned about a new poison when he went to the capital.

It was a poison made from Sanhwan mushrooms, and the alchemist had excitedly said it was very unique.

-Several parts, which don’t do anything alone, turn into poison when mixed together over time. This makes it a rare and clever poison.

To find this kind of poison, which is made by mixing inside the body, you had to know all the parts or know how the poison was put together.

Luckily, Jang Cliff had heard the story from the alchemist and remembered the taste of all the parts.

‘He remembered all that?’ Lee Han was shocked by the knight’s simple method.

It would have been less surprising if he had known all the parts and felt something was wrong.

“I’ll call a healing mage!” The knights, realizing this was serious, shouted in fear.

Poison was a race against time.

Even a small delay could cause many deaths.

But Lee Han stayed calm.

‘That kind of poison isn’t very strong,’ Lee Han thought calmly. *They wanted to be sneaky, not deadly. That means weaker ingredients.*

“Sir Jang Cliff. What does the poison do?”

“It stops you from using magic for a while.”

The knights sighed in relief.

If it only stopped magic, it wasn’t too dangerous.

“Who…?”

“Servants, don’t move! I’ll check you one by one!”

“We’ll check the porters too.”

“Who would put poison here? Could it have been an accident?”

The entrance was closed, and the search began, but it was chaotic.

The anti-magic zealot, dressed as a porter, sneered to himself.

‘You’ll never find it, no matter what you do.’

They had planned carefully and worked hard.

For weeks, they had checked the meeting’s food and drinks, dividing and adding the parts of the Sanhwan mushroom poison.

It was a good revenge for the knights who had ruined their plan.

‘The signal has already been sent!’ The porter had sent the signal as soon as the knights started eating and drinking.

It was unexpected that the knight Jang Cliff had noticed, but it didn’t matter since they had already drunk it…

Besides the knights, there were a few invited students, but they were just young and inexperienced.

Also, they were mages whose magic had been weakened by the poison.

In some ways, they were easier to attack than the knights.

The plan was already eighty percent done.

“Emerge, emotions.”

“???”

One of the students suddenly waved his staff and cast a spell on a servant.

The anti-magic zealot snorted, not believing it.

‘Digging his own grave!’

Because mages were the most skilled people in the Empire, these kinds of questions were possible.

But these spells weren’t all-powerful. The anti-magic zealot knew what kind of spells they were.

They used a lot of magic and mental strength, so they had to be used on only a few people.

To cast them randomly now, in such a hurry…

He was a student for a reason.

“Emerge, emotions.”

“Emerge, emotions.”

“Emerge, emerge, emerge…”

“????”

The anti-magic zealot was confused.

What was this?

‘Is it a trick? Ah, I see! He’s bluffing! Trying to be clever…’

Pretending to chant a fake spell to see how the other person reacted.

He was trying to be clever for a student.

But the anti-magic zealot wasn’t fooled.

‘Go ahead and try.’ The anti-magic zealot kept his face calm, sneering inside.

“Emerge, emotions… ??”

Lee Han looked at the porter. Then, looking surprised, he said.

“It’s this person?”

“Seize him!!!”

The angry knights rushed forward. The anti-magic zealot screamed.

How could this be!?! * * * *

The knights were good at interrogation. The beaten anti-magic zealot told them everything about the gang waiting outside.

“What nonsense…!”

“To hate us for doing our duty as knights! This is why mercenaries are…!”

The Beech Knights, who didn’t know the whole story, were angry.

If it was a reasonable grudge, they would at least respect them as enemies, but this was taking out a completely unrelated grudge on them.

“Anti-magic zealots are always like that! Seeds of evil that ruin the Empire!”

“……”

Lee Han was sweating.

Not because of the poison, but because he understood the situation.

‘…Did I ask the knights for help for nothing?’

He had gotten the knights’ help to make things easier, but this was how it had turned out.

Lee Han wouldn’t feel good if the knights got hurt.

“This is not the time for this. We need to get ready for an attack.”

“I know.” Jang Cliff’s face turned serious. He was a leader in moments like these. ‘It’s dangerous. The knights here are not used to this kind of fight.’

‘He knew?’ Lee Han was surprised to see Jang Cliff’s unexpectedly honest opinion of his own knightly order.

Since the Beech Knights were mostly about friendship and socializing, they were even more at a disadvantage in this situation.

“Wodanaz. My magic…”

“It won’t gather.” Angalo and Batruk’s faces were also dark. The other knights were the same. The Sanhwan mushroom poison was slowly working and spreading.

Jang Cliff was also using his own magic to resist, but he didn’t look well.

“I see. I understand. Wait. I’ll make an antidote. I don’t know how much I can make before the attack starts, but…”

“…What?”

“What did you say?!” Not only Jang Cliff, who was worried about how to prepare for the fight, but even his friends were shocked.

He knew how to make an antidote?!

“H-how!? Did you know about this poison?”

“No… I don’t. And it’s not a complete antidote either. It’s made with divine magic, so I’ll have to see how well it works.”

Lee Han raised his staff and prepared divine magic.

He never thought that Siana Priest’s semi-coercion would be helpful in this situation.

If Lee Han’s awakened Aphah Order’s divine magic was White Flame Transformation, the Plamen Order’s divine magic was antidote creation.

“Divine magic… Were you a devout believer…? No… wait… Are you from the Wodanaz family…? This is not the time… Wait, wait. You mustn’t force yourself to use it when you don’t have enough magic!” Jang Cliff, who had been muttering, was worried and stopped Lee Han.

No matter how urgent it was, it was dangerous to use magic that used so much power, like divine magic, when there was no magic power.

But before he could stop him, Lee Han created an antidote. The wine in the wine bottle turned clear.

“Sir Jang Cliff first!”

“A-alright.” Sir Jang Cliff quickly drank the colorless antidote.

Then, surprisingly, he felt his magic returning.

“Then I’ll make the next antidote.” Angalo stood next to him, ready to drink it as soon as it was done.

Then Lee Han pushed Angalo away and pulled Giselle.

In this situation, the strong Moradi was much more reliable.

Angalo shouted, embarrassed.

“Moradi drank less, so she’s still in good condition?!”

“…No, Angalo. As the top alchemist, I think Moradi’s condition looks worse.”

“??!”

R-really?