Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 528

“Doesn’t something seem off?” Priest Tizling asked, tilting his head. The air in the room felt heavy.

The strange light in Lee Han’s eyes hadn’t faded, even after all this time.

Professor Pazelett saw it too. He looked at Lee Han, his face showing worry.

“…Are you alright?”

Lee Han didn’t answer. He simply stared intently as if something were in the air, remaining silent.

Professor Pazelett also understood. His student was seeing the future, using a powerful magic. He spoke in a worried voice.

“This isn’t good…”

“What isn’t good?!” Priest Tizling’s voice became urgent.

“It’s supposed to last only a few seconds, but if it’s this long… the future he’s seeing becomes much longer.”

People who didn’t know much thought seeing the future was easy. But wizards with experience knew to be careful.

Seeing the future is like choosing one path from many. Once you see it, that path feels real and strong, like it must happen. It can control the wizard, like a puppet.

If you only see short, quick flashes of the future, it’s safer. But powerful precognition is different.

You see a more complete future, and it can trap you. And I always knew this student’s power was special…

“Then… stop him from seeing the future!” Priest Tizling shouted, his voice louder than usual.

Professor Pazelett’s voice grew fainter.

“Too much… magic power… Stopping him from outside… is too hard…”

“……” Priest Tizling wondered what he meant, but after thinking hard, he understood.

This boy, from the Wodanaz family, was too magically strong. Nothing could stop him from the outside?

“Then is there no other way?!”

“Only to wait…”

“How long?! And why is the effect lasting so long!”

“…Too much talent…?” Professor Pazelett mumbled, almost to himself.

He tried to call to his other personalities, his other voices, but they were silent, like mice.

The personalities that had been so eager when he gave the student the spring water were now silent as soon as a problem arose.

“Is it even possible for talent to make it last longer?”

“It’s generally almost impossible, so I didn’t account for it…”

Thud-

Lee Han, who had been staring into the air, lowered his head and then raised it again.

Then, he slowly opened his mouth.

“I understand.”

“…???”

“Wait! I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but what you’re thinking isn’t necessarily the absolute truth!” Professor Pazelett tried to stop his student.

Usually, wizards deeply immersed in precognition thought that the future they saw was the only correct answer and moved with absolute certainty.

But that was only one possibility, and there was no good in falling into overconfidence…

“Professor, I already know what I have to do.” Lee Han’s voice was calm, but it contained a strong belief that was not usually there.

Professor Pazelett was frustrated.

His student was about to experience the same cases that countless wizards had experienced before.

“Think carefully. Why don’t you want to believe the words of a more experienced and skilled wizard than you?”

“Professors keep deceiving us.”

“……” Professor Pazelett honestly had nothing to say, even if he had ten mouths.

“Priest Tizling, let’s go. We have work to do.”

“Ah, yes.”

Lee Han had always been noticeable, but now, touched by the future, he seemed to glow with a fierce, inner light.

Priest Tizling unconsciously stood straighter at the tone that would not allow even the slightest objection.

The White Tiger Tower students were talking in front of a work golem.

“So, Raphaël, why can’t you move this thing?”

“…I told you, just because you learn black magic doesn’t mean you can control golems!”

“So why learn black magic and then try to control a golem… Ack.”

“Stop them! Stop them!” When an angry Raphaël grabbed his friend by the collar, the White Tiger Tower students quickly rushed in to stop the fight.

“We have to move that golem somehow. There’s too much work.”

“That’s right. Why did we learn magic? We learned it to use it at times like this.”

The task assigned to the White Tiger Tower students this week was to clean the large warehouse on the west side of the main building.

The items stored inside were large building materials like boulders used for the ramparts, so it would take too long to move them all by hand.

Magic was needed, but this task was too difficult for the first-year students to do alone.

The best option was the golem they had found last time, but even this golem was not easy to control…

“Let’s just call Wodanaz. We’ve prepared the payment for Wodanaz too.”

“Ugh. We need to save money as the finals are coming up. If we call Wodanaz to study for the finals, it’ll cost us more money.”

“……”

Raphaël wondered if he should point out that his friends were calling groceries money, or if he should point out that they were trying to get help from Wodanaz when studying for the finals.

“Why isn’t it working? I’ve put in quite a bit of magic power…”

“Amplify it a bit more.”

“What if it breaks?”

“Do you think it’ll break that easily? It even withstood Wodanaz’s magic power…”

Tap tap-

Lee Han, who had arrived at the scene, lightly tapped the floor with his staff.

The White Tiger Tower students were startled.

“Wo… Wodanaz!”

“What brings you here?”

“Did someone call you?”

Regardless of whether his friends were flustered or not, Lee Han looked around and said coldly.

“Follow me.”

“…?”

“????”

Lee Han turned around without saying anything more.

At that sight, the White Tiger Tower students got angry and shouted.

“Hey, Wodanaz! You should at least explain properly!”

“That’s right! Do you think we have to follow you just because you tell us to? Is that how you see us?!”

The students shouted like that and chased after Lee Han, who was walking ahead.

“……” Priest Tizling, who was next to Lee Han, looked at the White Tiger Tower students with a confused look.

‘They’re following him?’

He couldn’t understand why they were grumbling like that while following him.

Judging by what they were saying, it was clearly a refusal to follow him…?

“Tutankha,” one student whispered, looking worried. “Does Wodanaz know why he’s acting so strange?”

“No, Moradi,” another replied, equally puzzled. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

Students from all the towers huddled together in the dark. Whispers of confusion floated in the night air. Lee Han, his face set in a hard line, had gone from dorm to dorm, a sharp knock on each door, telling them to follow. Now they were here, shivering slightly in the cool night, wondering what was happening.

Guinan stretched, a big yawn escaping him. He glanced at the two leaders from the other towers. “Alright, spill it. What’s going on? You two dragged here in the middle of the night too?”

“Yeah,” one of them, called Prince, grumbled. “Any idea what this is about?”

“Nope, not a clue,” Guinan replied. “But wait… if you guys are clueless too, did you come for the *same* reason as me?”

“Same reason?” Giselle frowned, confused. “What other reason could there be?” Guinan was close to Wodanaz; maybe he knew something they didn’t.

Guinan grinned mischievously. “You came because you were terrified of getting yelled at by Lee Han, right?”

Silence hung in the air. Prince and the other leader glared at Guinan.

“Oh,” Guinan said, his grin widening. “Was I wrong?”

Suddenly, Prince lunged at Guinan, but Guinan yelped and darted behind the taller students from the Blue Dragon Tower, using them as a shield.

Guinan didn’t even know it, but he had guessed exactly right. Prince and his friend weren’t usually ones to jump when someone told them to. But Lee Han… he had been different tonight. He had seemed… changed. More serious, almost scary.

Guinan’s words made them realize this, and shame and annoyance burned in their cheeks.

Just then, a voice, quiet and serious, cut through the murmuring. “Excuse me,” Priest Tizling said, beckoning them closer. “I need to speak with you.”

The priest’s face was worried as he spoke, lowering his voice so the other students wouldn’t overhear.

“Wodanaz’s state right now…” Priest Tizling began, his voice hushed, “…is not normal.”

“We knew it!” Prince blurted out.

“Actually,” his friend added, nodding seriously, “I suspected it.”

Priest Tizling blinked, surprised. “You… you did? How?”

Prince puffed out his chest. “Priest, I’ve worked in the Adventurer’s Guild for years. You learn to spot when someone’s acting off just by looking at their face.”

*Priest Tizling thought: Working in a guild tells you that?*

“And,” Prince’s friend continued, “I come from a long line of knights in the North. Raised with swords, you see things in people’s eyes. You can tell their state of mind.”

*Priest Tizling wondered: Do knights really have a special eye-reading ability?* He shook his head. No matter. He had to focus on the problem.

“Right, well, since you already suspected something,” Priest Tizling said, “it will be easier to explain.” He quickly told them about Wodanaz’s condition.

Salco’s eyes widened. He had imagined all sorts of things – maybe Wodanaz had summoned a spirit, or even a demon, and lost control. “So, he’s… like, in a trance? Completely focused on this future he saw?”

“Something like that,” Priest Tizling confirmed. Just then, Yoner walked over, his face long. “I tried to give him the potion to make him sick, but he wouldn’t take it.”

“That won’t work,” Priest Tizling sighed. “If his future-seeing power gets weaker now, it will mess up his plan. Oh, right, Makin,” he said, turning to Yoner. “These two said they already knew something was wrong.”

“What? Really?” Yoner looked at Prince and his friend, surprised. He couldn’t understand how they could have guessed.

“Well, we didn’t exactly *know*,” Prince admitted, “we just… guessed.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” Priest Tizling said quickly. “Makin, could we force him to drink the potion?”

Yoner tilted his head, thinking. “I don’t know… ” Wodanaz was already incredibly strong in a fight. And now, with this future-seeing ability, he could probably see any attack coming.

Silence fell as they all realized the problem.

“Is everyone here?” Lee Han asked, his voice flat, not waiting for an answer. He turned and started walking.

Just then, a student from the White Tiger Tower, eyes darting nervously, dropped to his hands and knees and began to crawl towards the bushes. *I can’t spend another minute working!* he thought desperately.

*Thwack!*

Without even looking back, Lee Han flicked his wrist. A ball of water, hard as stone, shot out and slammed into the escaping student, pinning him to the ground.

Everyone gasped. They stared at Lee Han, then at the student struggling on the ground.

*No opening at all!* someone thought, terrified.

*And his magic is so fast! Faster than ever!*

The Lee Han they knew, already incredibly strong, had become something else entirely. The air around him felt heavy, pressing down on them.

“…Maybe,” Salco said slowly, trying to sound hopeful, “maybe Wodanaz saw a future that’s good for all of us?”

Giselle bit her lip, considering this. Wodanaz was strange, yes, but he wasn’t mean-spirited. Could he really be working towards something that would help everyone?

“Wait,” someone whispered, unease creeping into their voice. “This place…”

“Could it be…?”

Following Lee Han into the main building, a cold feeling settled over the students. The second floor… the storage room… that hidden passage…?

Suddenly, a deep voice boomed, echoing through the hall. “-Welcome, challengers.”

A giant statue, stone and imposing, stepped into view, moving towards them as if to greet them. It was *that* statue. The one that had defeated Lee Han and his friends so easily before.

The students froze, fear gripping them as they stared at the looming figure.

“What is it?” someone whispered, fear in their voice. “What’s wrong?”

“What *is* that thing?” another student asked, pointing at the statue.

Those who hadn’t faced the statue before were still confused, not realizing the danger. They stood there, unguarded, as it lumbered closer.

*Pop!*

In a blink, the statue’s stone hand shot out, and a student’s wooden staff vanished from their grip, appearing instantly in the statue’s own hand.

“…?!” The student stared at their empty hands, eyes wide with shock.

“Wh-what just happened?!” someone stammered.

Even students who knew little about magic felt a chill run down their spines. This was no ordinary statue.

“Don’t back down,” Lee Han said, his voice flat and cold, devoid of any feeling. “This enemy is not unbeatable. We *can* defeat it.”

“Wodanaz,” someone muttered nervously, “I think I’m more scared of *you* right now…”

His friends hesitated, caught between the terrifying statue in front of them and the even more unsettling Wodanaz behind them.

“Advance!” Lee Han roared, shoving them forward, pushing them towards the statue. “Move! We will defeat this statue today, and we will find out what it’s hiding!”