Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 526

“Are we really going to be attacked?”

“I’m not sure I understand your question, Gainan-do,” Professor Garcia replied.

Professor Garcia didn’t directly answer Gainan-do’s question.

“However,” Professor Garcia continued, “in Einroguard, as the weather turns colder, we often see more undead attacks. Everyone should pay attention.”

“Huh? This is the first I’m hearing of it?” Gainan-do exclaimed.

“Hey. Be quiet,” one of his friends said.

His friends quickly hushed Gainan-do.

It was best not to interrupt Professor Garcia. He was giving important advice.

“Mmph, you guys don’t even know black magic… Mmph mmph!” Gainan-do mumbled, his mouth covered.

‘That sounds likely,’ Lee Han thought. He was lost in thought after Professor Garcia’s words.

Lee Han thought about Headmaster Skull’s personality. As the year ended, Skull probably felt he hadn’t caused enough trouble for the students. He would likely become even more active.

Perhaps Professor Garcia was hinting at that with his words.

“…And it’s not just undead,” Professor Garcia added, “sometimes other creatures attack too. So don’t only think about undead.”

“……”

“……”

One of the White Tiger Tower students, who had been biting on a quill, dropped it in shock. The quill clattered on the desk.

“What the…?!”

“Gainan-do. Help me,” a student pleaded.

“That’s right. Summon the undead quickly,” another added.

“No way, you guys! My skeleton is angry!” Gainan-do flared up.

These ungrateful friends had the nerve to reverse summon the skeleton warrior he had painstakingly summoned and were now whining for him to summon it again quickly.

“Summoning a creature is so difficult! Didn’t you learn that in summoning magic class!” Gainan-do exclaimed.

“Huh?”

“Er?”

Gainan-do looked at his astonished friends with a ‘did you only just realize that?’ expression.

“Undead are like that too?” one of the friends asked.

“…Get itchy! Get itchy!” Gainan-do chanted.

“Ack! That idiot is cursing us!” another student cried.

While Gainan-do was playing tag with another student, Asan said in amazement, “Wow. Undead have emotions like summoned creatures too.”

“……”

Yoner felt sorry for the students learning black magic in his heart. He even felt sorry for Gainan-do, who had once run his mouth about alchemy.

“Of course they do? You’re contracting with beings from another realm to summon them,” Yoner explained.

“But Wodanaz used the undead so carelessly?” Asan pointed at Lee Han.

Lee Han was summoning skeleton warriors to help his friends and explaining, “Now. As you can see with these skeleton warriors, these connecting parts are weak…”

Crack!

“-Woah, Wodanaz. Is it okay to treat summoned creatures so carelessly?” Asan asked.

“-Huh? Oh. Don’t worry about it,” Lee Han replied casually.

“…Lee Han’s method is a bit unique, so don’t worry about it. Lee Han is just unique,” Yoner said, resenting Lee Han for making the explanation difficult, and changed the subject.

-Undead extermination, undead extermination… Huh? Wodanaz. The skeleton warrior is just ignoring me and coming in?

-I’m forcing him to. It’s working out, so don’t worry about it.

-…If it works by forcing it, shouldn’t it not work? Shouldn’t you have to recast the spell?

-Nah. It’s supposed to work like that.

-???

Lee Han, who had taught his friends how to deal with the undead as diligently as possible, took a moment to catch his breath and sat down on a nearby bench.

Professor Garcia looked at Lee Han as if he was immensely proud.

“You’ve worked hard, Lee Han,” Professor Garcia said.

“It’s nothing, Professor. Compared to the professor who taught me…” Lee Han replied.

“I’m not sure what you mean?” Professor Garcia responded.

Silence.

A moment of silence lingered between the two priests.

Professor Garcia glanced at the lake and muttered in a voice that was neither too small nor too loud, “Box…”

“?”

“You might have to be careful about the food boxes someone gives you… because an enemy might be hiding inside,” Professor Garcia continued.

“……”

Professor Garcia’s most intelligent student recognized the hidden meaning in the muttering and was shocked.

Headmaster Skull often handed out snacks to students when important exam periods approached.

Of course, they weren’t ordinary snacks.

They were deadly snacks that made you fall asleep immediately upon eating them.

Originally, knowing that fact, you shouldn’t even touch them, but the students, being students of Einroguard, adapted to the environment.

They resisted by eating them after the exam, neutralizing them, or just eating them and sleeping like Gainan-do, and so on.

Delicious snacks in Einroguard were too tempting to resist.

Headmaster Skull had clearly set another trap, aiming for that.

When the students received the boxes, they would bring them to the lounge storage…

‘Does he really have to go this far?’ Lee Han wondered.

Lee Han answered gratefully, “I will keep that in mind. But how does the professor know all this…”

“My friends were caught,” Professor Garcia said.

“……”

“I was lucky enough to be fine even after eating them. Thank you for your concern,” Professor Garcia added.

“Oh, I see,” Lee Han said, pretending to be concerned, even though he wasn’t really.

Silence again.

Lee Han quietly waited for Professor Garcia’s mutterings.

“When it starts to snow… you might have to be careful of the piles of snow…” Professor Garcia warned.

“……”

“Professor. I’m thinking of raising chickens,” Lee Han said.

“Chickens?” Thunderstep Professor, who was walking over with a pipe in his mouth, was puzzled.

Lee Han already had chickens.

Of course, strictly speaking, they were Thunderstep Professor’s chickens, but while managing the vegetable garden next to the cabin, Lee Han had the authority to take them as he saw fit.

That included the eggs the chickens laid.

“Are you going to increase them? Wouldn’t it be hard to manage?” Thunderstep Professor asked.

Unlike other students, it seemed like it would be really dangerous for Lee Han to increase his workload any further.

“I’ll be careful on my own. Anyway, I’m thinking of raising chickens, and these are ghost chickens,” Lee Han explained.

Professor Thunderstep coughed, a harsh, hacking sound. He coughed because he breathed in smoke the wrong way.

“You caught a Ghost Chicken?” Professor Thunderstep asked. “Those are usually tricky. How did you do it?”

“Well,” Lee Han said, pretending to be unsure, “I think I caught one.”

“What? You haven’t caught it yet?” Professor Thunderstep looked disappointed.

If Lee Han caught one, he was going to ask to buy some eggs…

But it would be surprising if Lee Han caught the troublesome creature.

Lee Han wondered why the Ghost Chicken in the cabin was so calm. They were supposed to be wild. “Why would it be so docile, do you think?” he asked.

“Actually,” Professor Thunderstep said, trying to be helpful, “the caretaker probably knows more about Ghost Chickens than I do.”

“Ah, sorry,” Lee Han said with a sweet smile. “You’re just the professor I admire most, so I always think of you first!”

Lee Han asked questions slowly. He didn’t want Professor Thunderstep to think he was too curious.

Professor Thunderstep answered with a pleasant expression, whether the excuse worked or not.

“But I do know about Ghost Chickens,” Professor Thunderstep said. “Docile, you say? That’s not common. If its eyes are cloudy, or it’s lacking energy, or its comb is a different color, then it’s probably sick.”

“And if that’s not the case?”

“Hmm. Then it’s frightened, but it’s not easily scared. It’s a fierce, ill-tempered thing.”

“Hmm… I see. By the way, I heard it’s clever and cunning. If I catch it, is there a way to keep it from escaping?”

“Lay down some simple but threatening traps,” Professor Thunderstep said. “It’s not like it’ll fall into them, but if you block its path, it’ll realize and give up on escaping.”

“Indeed. Thank you, Professor.”

Lee Han picked up the basket filled with fresh vegetables and freshly caught fish and stood up.

Professor Thunderstep just grunted. He was too bothered to say more. At least the boy hadn’t stolen anything from his messy cabin.

“Goodness. I can see why Professor Willow likes him so much.”

After Lee Han left, Professor Thunderstep looked around and muttered to himself.

The garden was growing back fast. It was hard to believe a flood had just happened.

To make the plants in the garden and flowerbeds grow so quickly…

Professor Thunderstep knew some wizards could make plants grow. Some had nature spirit blood, others were just born with a gift. But Lee Han was different. His plants grew incredibly fast and strong. It was amazing.

He’d heard that he’d received a blessing from a spirit in the mountains, but this…

‘Could this boy be leaking magic?’ Professor Thunderstep thought suddenly. But he shook his head. ‘No, that’s impossible.’

It was impossible to leak enough magic to affect things on this scale, and Lee Han himself couldn’t possibly be unaware of it if he were leaking that much magic.

What bothered him more was the Ghost Chicken story.

‘That was oddly specific.’

Professor Thunderstep noticed something was strange.

There was no way he wouldn’t find it strange that Lee Han was asking such detailed questions.

‘Indeed…’

Professor Thunderstep thought about it and came to a conclusion.

There was only one explanation.

That fearless student of his, hearing only tales of its rarity, was planning to roam the mountains to catch a Ghost Chicken.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

Professor Thunderstep shook his head.

Catching a Ghost Chicken himself was far too reckless.

Perhaps because he’d never experienced failure, that student of his was quite fearless.

Stealing it would be better…

“Listen carefully,” Lee Han said to the Ghost Chicken, pointing at the traps. “It’s very dangerous outside. Stay here, okay?”

He summoned a skeleton warrior and put it in a trap to show how strong it was. What did the skeleton warrior look like? How did the Ghost Chicken react? Did it even blink?

The Ghost Chicken kept eating its food. It looked at Lee Han with eyes that seemed to see right through him, like it didn’t care at all.

When the Ghost Chicken didn’t move at all, Lee Han grumbled.

“That thing is very cunning. I must never let my guard down.”

The baby basilisk tilted its head, confused. The Ghost Chicken didn’t seem scary at all.

Lee Han checked the time and warned the Ghost Chicken one more time before leaving.

He had to take his turn at the tower that night.

Lee Han came out of the cabin’s no-entry barrier, brushed the dirt off his coat, and was about to leave when…

‘Gasp.’

Lee Han froze. There were few things more terrifying than bumping into a professor after dark. Especially when you were supposed to be somewhere else.

Lee Han, who had run into Professor Facellette Krauer, the Professor of Divination Magic, needed a good excuse, fast.

“Good evening, Professor.”

Professor Facellette didn’t answer.

For a moment, Lee Han thought the professor was angry, but she was staring up at the sky. Her eyes were wide open, but she didn’t seem to see Lee Han at all. She was lost in her own world.

‘Ah, is it something related to magic?’

Lee Han knew that Professor Facellette had multiple personalities and taught divination, the most difficult and strange magic.

It wouldn’t be strange for such a person to be out in the evening, lost in their own world.

Lee Han knew professors were strange. Some hid zombies in boxes just to scare students. Others threw heavy iron balls at people for ‘practice’. Professor Facellette being weird was normal.

‘I should just pass by without saying anything more.’

“Priest Tizling?”

Lee Han had to brace himself to keep from crying out in surprise.

Priest Tizling was standing behind him, looking puzzled.

“Priest Tizling, what brings you here?”

“I heard that rock plantain is good for getting rid of rats that attract lightning, so I came to gather some.”

“Ah,” Lee Han said, remembering his shift that day.

“Oh, you’re here for the lightning rats?” Lee Han said. “I was going to take care of them tonight. You didn’t need to come.”

“If you were going to gather them, shouldn’t you have done it together…?”

“Ah, I wasn’t going to gather them, I was going to wipe them out all at once. I read in a book that they come out when there’s a strong lightning strike, so I was going to cast lightning magic around their burrows and take them all out at once…”

Priest Tizling stared at Lee Han, mouth open. “Lightning magic? To kill rats?” He looked at Professor Facellette, raising an eyebrow as if to say, ‘Is this student serious?’

“Professor?”

“Oh? Oh. It’s the professor. She seems to be concentrating, so it’s best not to disturb her.”

As someone who was also learning divination magic, Tizling understood what Lee Han was saying.

“I understand. I’ll be going back…”

At that moment, Professor Facellette finished concentrating and opened her eyes.

The professor spotted Lee Han and said,

“I enjoyed the magic you gave me yesterday, Headmaster.”

“I think you’ve mistaken me for some…”

“Yes, you are worthy of being chosen as the successor by Lord Gonadaltes in the future.”

Lee Han’s heart pounded. “I think you really have the wrong person!” he blurted out, his voice louder than he meant it to be.