Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 460

Lee Han was shocked by how silly the misunderstanding was.

Professor Verdus, turned into an undead?

This was even more ridiculous than anything he had heard before.

“Huh? Wasn’t he?”

Lee Han smacked Gainan’s head again and said,

“It’s just someone with the same name.”

“How pitiful! To share a name with Professor Verdus of all people!”

Lee Han was slightly taken aback by Gainan’s heartfelt sympathy.

“It’s… it’s not that bad, is it?”

“Yes, it is. It’s so pitiful.”

Dust swirled around their feet in the training ground as two older students ran towards them, breathing hard. Lee Han smiled and waved.

“Hello!”

One of them, Cohorti, gasped, “What… what were you doing?”

Gainan, always quick to explain, said, “Lee Han felt bad because he thought he had turned Professor Verdus into an undead wizard!”

Cohorti’s eyes went wide. “You turned Professor Verdus into an undead?!”

When Cohorti understood what happened, he wanted to vanish.

Ogoldos whispered from the side,

“Senior. There are many pits here where the undead fell. You could go into one of those.”

“Shut it…”

To be a fourth-year student and make such a ridiculous mistake!

But Cohorti had an excuse.

“I heard that Professor Verdus had suddenly disappeared. That’s why…”

‘Even if the professor disappeared, associating it with me is a bit much, isn’t it?’

Lee Han had that thought, but he didn’t say anything out of consideration for his senior.

However, Lee Han didn’t know.

To Cohorti and several others, Lee Han was already considered the direct successor to the Mad Headmaster’s legacy… no, his direct disciple!

“The professor is in the punishment chamber.”

Cohorti understood with a ‘that’s more like it’ expression at Lee Han’s explanation.

“Indeed. I was wondering where he’d gone.”

“You could just ask the other seniors, couldn’t you?”

Cohorti replied in an embarrassed voice to Gainan’s question,

“Those enchantment magic students all said they didn’t know and didn’t care.”

Silence hung in the air.

Lee Han opened his mouth to change the subject.

“By the way, Senior. Is the test over now that we’ve stopped the undead?”

“Huh? No. The test is something else. It’s the Drunken Curse.”

It was a magic curse called the ‘Drunken Curse’. It made people very drunk. It was a simple spell, good for students learning dark magic.

“…Oh, so the undead attack really had nothing to do with the test at all?”

Lee Han was slightly taken aback.

Of course, he had heard it was a demonstration before the midterm, but he still thought it would be somewhat related to the test.

If it wasn’t related, then why?

Cohorti and Ogoldos looked at each other.

Ogoldos looked down, pretending not to see.

Wasn’t the senior the one responsible in these situations?

“…W-Wordernaz, should I take responsibility and give you full marks?”

“No…”

Lee Han was flustered by his senior’s sudden strange words.

After the test was over (Gainan and Raphaelle were tipsy because they had accidentally cursed each other), Lee Han was about to leave but paused.

Cohorti was looking around the battlefield where the undead had been smashed, sighing.

“What’s wrong, Senior?”

“Huh? Ah, it’s nothing. Go back quickly. The Headmaster will find fault if you stay too long.”

‘It looks like something’s wrong, no matter how I look at it.’

Cohorti had the face of a senior who had caused an accident without the professor knowing.

Lee Han asked again, just in case.

“Senior. I’m also a student taking dark magic. I hope you’ll tell me if something’s wrong.”

“Ah, no. This isn’t something a junior should worry about.”

Ogoldos, who was scraping up dirt next to him, muttered,

“Now I know who fought the King of the Frost Giants.”

Cohorti kicked Ogoldos into a pit.

“Senior?”

“Ah, no. My foot slipped. I’m not usually like this. Don’t misunderstand. You won’t misunderstand, will you? Our school isn’t usually like this!”

Cohorti was very worried that Lee Han would see this and misunderstand, thinking, ‘Do dark magic school seniors beat up their juniors?’

If he did misunderstand, the dark magic school’s professor and classmates would beat up Cohorti!

“I don’t think I’ll misunderstand if you tell me honestly.”

“That’s… well… sigh.”

Cohorti told him honestly, afraid that this junior would run away if he hid it any longer.

But he couldn’t help but think this as he spoke.

‘Isn’t this too pathetic? Is this okay?’

If the school’s reagents were running low just from one undead wave, how pathetic would that look?

However, Lee Han sympathized with Cohorti’s pain more deeply than he expected.

“Oh dear…!”

Lee Han’s heart ached.

The lack of reagents was due to Professor Mortoom’s incompetence, not the seniors’ fault.

He should have asked for money in a clever way, or even taken it secretly, instead of making the students suffer because he couldn’t do that.

“The professor is really too much!”

“Ah… no. It’s not that bad? Honestly, our professor is better than someone like Professor Verdus…”

Lee Han felt even more sorry for them.

The seniors had been at Einrogard so long, they had forgotten what ‘normal’ was.

“No. I’m the one who’s sorry. I didn’t know about the seniors’ situation and destroyed all the undead.”

“That was unavoidable… no… that’s… Wordernaz, I appreciate you taking my side, but…”

Cohorti was even more flustered.

The emotions this first-year student was showing were too sincere and heartfelt.

It was as if he had been studying in the dark magic school for years.

He was grateful, but it was also embarrassing.

And honestly, if a first-year student had countered an undead wave, that was something to be praised, not something to be sorry about for using up reagents.

If Cohorti had achieved such a feat as a first-year student, he would have bragged about it to his friends every week until graduation.

“I’ll go get some reagents.”

“Huh? No. No. You mustn’t steal this.”

Kohlti tried to stop Ethan.

At Einroguard, students seemed to break rules all the time. But surprisingly, there were rules, even here.

One rule was: students could not steal from each other.

Taking things from the headmaster was almost okay, like it belonged to everyone. But if students stole from each other, it would cause big problems.

Getting away with it was possible, but secrets never stayed secret for long.

Especially dark magic ingredients, they are easy to notice.

“I wasn’t going to steal them, I was going to ask to bring them.”

“……”

“……”

Ogoltos, crawling out of the pit, stared at Kohlti as if he were pathetic.

Kohlti kicked Ogoltos back into the pit again and said,

“Asking is harder, you know? Would professors just give away school things they worked hard to get?”

“It doesn’t hurt to ask.”

Professors didn’t get paid in gold like normal jobs. They got money for their research instead. So, many didn’t really think about money much.

Because of this, if a friend asked, professors might just give them things.

Also, Ethan knew many professors. If he asked them nicely, he could get a lot.

Ethan was confident.

“No… um… I’m grateful, but… don’t push yourself too hard. Don’t take it too hard if a professor is rude. If you think it’s not going to work, stop, okay?”

“Yes. Thank you for your concern. Let’s go, then.”

Ethan said, looking at his friends.

Imirgue grabbed Gainan and Lapardiel, who had collapsed, by their collars and lifted them up one by one.

“…Sorry.”

“Ah, no. I’m glad I can help.”

“Should we just throw those guys in the water and leave?”

“Ah, no! They’re not heavy. I can carry them!”

Imirgue shouted hastily, afraid that Ethan might actually throw them into the water and leave.

Kohlti watched the backs of his first-year juniors with a pleased expression. He was pleased by their curse magic skills (even if they used it on each other) and their strong friendship.

The first-year juniors were all trustworthy. Especially Wodanaz.

Wodanaz worried about a senior like it was his own problem, even though it wasn’t.

He didn’t expect them to get much, but he felt warm inside anyway.

‘Even in the cold-hearted Einroguard, there’s such emotion.’

As Kohlti took out a handkerchief to hide his reddened eyes, Dirette appeared from behind with her minions.

She had finished getting her minions ready to collect ingredients and came to find him.

“Is the test already over?”

“Huh? Oh.”

“It ended faster than expected?”

“Oh…”

“…But why are the undead like this?”

Dirette asked expressionlessly. Kohlti found that expressionlessness even more frightening.

“That’s… well…”

Kohlti explained the situation as quickly as possible. But he couldn’t help but look at the minions Dirette had summoned. If those minions attacked, Kohlti wasn’t properly prepared to defend himself right now.

“…Haa.”

Having heard the explanation, Dirette sighed deeply, as if the ground was sinking.

“How can things get so twisted?”

“R-right?”

Kohlti twitched and stared intently at Dirette’s wand. Fortunately, Dirette showed no sign of attacking.

“It can’t be helped… let’s gather what we have.”

“…I-is it okay?”

“It’s not okay, but what can we do? No one could have predicted that a first-year junior would destroy everything like this.”

“Right?!”

Kohlti’s face brightened, now that he was sure Dirette wouldn’t attack.

“That’s right. It was an unpredictable, truly unfortunate disaster. In some ways, you could say it’s amazing?”

“…Are you enjoying this right now?”

As Dirette’s voice turned cold, Kohlti quickly put on a sad face.

“Ah, no. It’s just… just that. Of course, I’m sad too. Besides, a junior went to another school to get reagents. It’s admirable, but how sad.”

“…A junior went to another school to get reagents?”

“Yeah.”

“And you didn’t stop him and told him to go?”

“…Uh… well…”

Kohlti tried to make the excuse that he had tried to stop him, but he thought it would only irritate Dirette more, so he watched her carefully.

Thwack!

Ogoltos welcomed Kohlti, who had fallen on top of the pit he was in.

“Welcome.”

“Daktz…”

Feeling the clods of dirt falling on top of the pit, Kohlti prepared a breathing spell.

“Headmaster!”

The skeleton headmaster was taken aback by Ethan’s overly enthusiastic call. Ethan wasn’t usually a student who approached him so familiarly. He used to hate seeing the skeleton headmaster, and the skeleton headmaster liked that reaction…

What… what is it?

“I worked hard on the school’s maintenance last time, didn’t I?”

He did…?

“I found and protected the hidden staircase that the guests who came to the school missed. And the donation, too.”

“The wizards at the festival…”

Just tell me what you want.

The skeleton headmaster was dumbfounded, but he was willing to respect Ethan’s request. Just considering what he had said, he had certainly done a lot. Even though he was annoying, the skeleton headmaster didn’t deny that.

Is it an outing pass? How many did you come prepared to ask for?

“There’s still more.”

Your friends should use them too.

‘This brat.’

The skeleton headmaster missed the old Ethan who cared for his friends.

“The dark magic school in the school is short on reagents, so could you possibly provide some support?”

The skeleton headmaster was so surprised that he couldn’t even close his jaw.

“Headmaster?”

…Don’t tell me these crazy bastards made you beg for them?!?!?!