Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 518

The Skull Headmaster frowned, his eyes sharp. “How could a first-year student possibly know about *that*?” he asked, his voice low and rumbling.

He sighed, shaking his head. “It’s always the rule-breakers,” he muttered, “they act like they’ve done nothing wrong.”

The Skull Headmaster glared at Anpagon, silencing him with just a look.

Koholt and Anpagon, the two students heading for punishment, were still laughing and joking, as if they were going for a walk, not to face their punishment.

Wizards always leave a little bit of magic behind, like a faint echo. Of course, this echo is so faint that you don’t need to worry about it. But be careful, because people who are sensitive to magic might react differently.

Lee Han understood what the Skull Headmaster meant.

Didn’t the spirits, who were sensitive to magic, run away screaming, ‘Aaargh! A monster!’ whenever they saw Lee Han?

“Are you talking about hiding my magic?”

Normally, yes…

The Skull Headmaster slowly looked Lee Han up and down.

Let’s start with you clearing away the magic echo when you use magic.

“Is hiding it that difficult?”

It’s very hard for *you*. You have so much magic inside you!

“……”

Leaving his frustrated student, the Skull Headmaster changed the subject.

From now on, watch the Bracelet of Ten Thousand Demons even more carefully. I thought it would take much longer, but one demon has already woken up. This means the chances of other demons waking up have increased.

The demons inside are like royalty, not like the weak, low-level demons you see in Dark Arts class.

Even though they are trapped in the Bracelet of Ten Thousand Demons, they are still powerful enough to take over the body of a young wizard like Lee Han, even for a short time.

The demon that appeared today was fairly weak, but we don’t know what kind of trouble the other demons might cause.

“Yes. Anpursa was already this bad, so I definitely won’t trust the other demons. I only granted his wish because he begged so much.”

Indeed. Demons must be controlled strictly… what?

The Skull Headmaster stopped.

Koholt and Anpagon also stopped.

What did you allow?

What are you talking about?

“The demon begged so much to let him fight just once…”

…A demon begged for a body… Ah.

The Skull Headmaster understood immediately.

He couldn’t understand why the demon begged instead of forcing his way in, but then he remembered this Wodanaz fellow’s special traits.

It wasn’t easy for a demon to take over the body of someone so full of magic.

But even with that in mind, one strange thing remained.

Do demons usually grant requests? If I keep begging, will they grant mine? Go to the capital and get some donations.

“Ah, I couldn’t help it. The seniors were in danger.”

Are you serious, or are you just saying silly things because you’re feeling good? Seniors should be worrying about juniors, not the other way around!

The Skull Headmaster was even more shocked.

If you’re a senior, you should do your job even if it kills you, not have your life saved by a junior.

Don’t you agree?

The Skull Headmaster glared at Koholt and Anpagon, who had been looking at Lee Han with admiration. They quickly nodded.

Fine. After being sickly for a while, you’ll learn the hard way that taking care of seniors is a waste of time.

“Sickly?”

Ah. Didn’t you know?

The Skull Headmaster summoned a Death Knight to send the two seniors to the punishment room and took Lee Han to the healing room.

All the muscles in your body are currently torn.

“……”

Lee Han was shocked.

No wonder the Skull Headmaster had been helping Lee Han walk since earlier…

‘Anpursa, you son of a—!’

Now that he thought about it, even if Anpursa was an excellent warrior, there was no way there wouldn’t be a reaction after causing such chaos with a mortal body that wasn’t fully trained.

In exchange for showing such power, his entire body had been severely strained.

“From now on, I will never listen to a demon’s words. I’ll just lock them up inside.”

No… don’t do that… isn’t it a waste?

The Skull Headmaster was slightly surprised.

The reason he gave such a valuable item like the Bracelet of Ten Thousand Demons was so Lee Han could learn how to handle the demons inside and gain wisdom.

Wouldn’t it be a waste to just ignore them?

A full-body muscle tear is not a big problem.

“……”

Lee Han was about to ask what a *big* problem would be if that was a small one, but he stopped himself.

“Ugh… ugh…”

Lee Han groaned in pain.

Healing magic wasn’t a cure-all.

Especially in severe cases like Lee Han’s, healing magic didn’t fix everything at once. Doing so would put too much stress on the body.

The usual method was to only heal the parts that needed immediate attention, and then use restorative potions to help the body recover naturally.

That was the standard treatment.

Of course, from Lee Han’s point of view, who had to walk, it was painful enough to curse Anpursa, the Skull Headmaster, and all the demons in the healing room.

Every time he took a step or used his muscles, pain shot through him as if he had been beaten.

Priest Nigisor and Priest Sharukal supported Lee Han on either side, saying,

“What on earth happened at the festival…”

“Shouldn’t you rest a bit more?”

“I already rested for a day.”

Lee Han sighed and said.

He had already learned from his last request that the more he rested, the more he had to deal with the problems himself!

“Thanks for bringing me. I can go alone from here.”

“Call us if anything happens.”

“Thanks. And…”

Lee Han lowered his voice, and the two priests tilted their heads, curious.

What was he going to say?

“Keep it a secret from the White Tiger Tower guys that I’m hurt.”

“……”

“…Yes…”

The two priests were surprised but decided to respect Lee Han’s wishes.

After they left, Lee Han sighed and used his staff as a crutch, taking a step forward.

His whole body ached, but he had many things to do.

‘First, the urgent stuff.’

The baby basilisk made a worried whimpering sound. Lee Han patted it gently to calm it down and entered the secret base.

Lee Han had originally worked in his dormitory room, but since the base was created, he had been moving things over little by little.

First…

‘It’s too much to do this in the dormitory room.’

Looking at the potion bubbling in the huge cauldron, Lee Han understood why the seniors had been so eager to search the school for warehouses and find secret bases.

No matter how comfortable the dormitory was, there were limits to what you could do.

Also, for someone like Lee Han, who was studying so many different kinds of magic, the dormitory was even more inconvenient.

If something went wrong, his friends would be in trouble…

‘The potion of foresight is going well.’

Lee Han checked the potion.

Thanks to all the trial and error, it was now steadily boiling past the beginning stage and into the middle stage.

‘The ingredients…’

After finishing the check, Lee Han moved on to the next task.

He was also making more potion ingredients next to the drawer where he kept them.

Dark Arts alone used a lot of ingredients, and dark wizards had to learn how to make them themselves.

Thud.

Lee Han placed a pouch of bone powder on the scale and checked the weight.

The weight had increased, so it seemed the work was going well.

Just as the power of bone magic changed depending on which bones were used, there was also a way to improve the quality of existing bones.

By adding different ingredients to make them better.

“Hmm. I need to get some more poison.”

Lee Han thought he should borrow some things from Professor Uregeoreum’s cabin.

He had gathered some poisonous mushrooms last time…

-Squeak.

The basilisk made a sound as if it were sorry. Lee Han was puzzled.

“Why…”

Whirr—

“!”

Lee Han, who was about to ask, turned to the message coming from the mirror.

He had forgotten that the magical object connected to the senior he didn’t know was in the base.

Lee Han used his staff as a crutch and slowly walked again.

On the way, he saw the books about the Water Prison Bullet that he had been using because of Professor Volardy. Lee Han covered the books, pretending not to see them.

‘I’ll do it later.’

Arriving in front of the mirror, Lee Han checked the message on it.

Do you know a first-year from the Wodanaz family?

“……”

Why did they find out?!

Thinking calmly, he realized he hadn’t been discovered yet.

Lee Han realized why the other person had asked the question.

‘It’s because of the stone-throwing festival.’

It was clear that they were curious because of what he had done at the Seong-something festival, whose name he couldn’t even remember.

Lee Han cursed Anpursa again.

‘I hope I don’t make a strange impression because of this guy.’

He didn’t have many chances to meet seniors now, but as soon as he became a second-year, the chances of meeting them would increase a lot.

Also, this was even more true for Lee Han, who was taking classes in multiple schools of magic.

So, the first impression he made on the seniors was important…

‘I’m scared because I can’t imagine how I looked.’

He wondered how a junior who drew a sword and went crazy would look in the eyes of the seniors.

At least, they probably didn’t have a good impression…

If you know him, I’ll trade information with you.

Lee Han refocused.

The problem he was facing was this senior whose identity he didn’t know.

How could he get through this situation?

‘It would look suspicious if I acted like I knew too much. The seniors who know me now…’

Fortunately, there were a few seniors who knew Lee Han.

If he thought and spoke based on what they knew, it would be possible to avoid suspicion.

While hiding his identity as much as possible, at the same time…

‘I have to let them know that I’m a good and hardworking junior.’

As soon as he sorted out his thoughts, Lee Han immediately tried to take care of his own interests.

No matter who the other person was, they would have friends and people around them.

It would be a good thing if good rumors about Lee Han spread.

-I know him. Some friends told me about him.

What kind of student is he?

-I heard he’s a junior who respects seniors, is polite, and does every task carefully with a smile.

That’s not what I asked. I asked about magic.

Lee Han grumbled to himself at the other person’s reaction.

‘Isn’t personality much more important?’

Even if you’re good at magic, if you have a terrible personality, wouldn’t you just become a magical criminal?

The people of Einroguard were too insensitive to personality.

-He’s okay at magic.

I heard rumors that he’s taking classes in multiple schools of magic. Do you know if it’s true?

‘I can say this much, right?’

The Dark Arts seniors and the Healing Magic seniors already knew.

The seniors who were friends with those seniors probably knew as well.

-Yes. I heard he’s taking classes in multiple schools.

The rumors were true. Amazing. Do you know why he’s not taking Enchantment Magic?

‘?’

Lee Han paused at the other person’s question.

He couldn’t understand what the question meant.

‘I’m taking it? What are they talking about?’

His head became confused, wondering if it was some kind of trick question.

Was there a reason to think that Lee Han wasn’t taking Enchantment Magic?

‘Let’s think calmly. Why would they ask that question?’

Instead of worrying, Lee Han went back to the beginning.

Why would the other person ask that question?

It was too much to think that the other person suspected Lee Han’s identity.

What was suspicious was…

‘The other person is someone who takes Enchantment Magic!’

It was clear that they were taking Enchantment Magic, and after seeing Lee Han at the festival, they wondered, ‘He’s taking classes in multiple schools, so why isn’t he taking Enchantment Magic?’

He couldn’t think of any other reason.

But the question still remained.

Why did they think Lee Han wasn’t taking Enchantment Magic?

‘I am taking it, though.’

Thinking carefully, he had a guess about this as well.

Didn’t Enchantment Magic students usually have no interest in others, like Professor Verdus?

In that case, they might not know that Lee Han was taking the class even though he was a student in the same school.

It was a bit strange that other people didn’t know even though he had met Anpagon, who was an Enchantment Magic senior…

‘Maybe the senior forgot to mention it, or forgot to ask.’