Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 532

Lee Han’s friends shouted loudly.

Lee Han was surprised by how strongly his friends reacted.

“Why?” Lee Han asked.

Nilia answered quickly, “Why? Because it’s not allowed! It’s dangerous!”

Nilia waved her hand, showing she really didn’t like the idea of seeing the future.

Gainando nodded in agreement.

“Lee Han, I’ve heard stories of wizards who messed up their lives by using potions to see the future. You shouldn’t depend on things like that.”

“But didn’t you ask for a future-seeing potion before the exam?” Lee Han asked, teasing him.

Gainando looked away, acting like he hadn’t heard.

Lee Han thought about asking Yoner and Siana, who were good at potions. They were priests, and maybe they would have a different opinion than his friends who weren’t potion experts.

“No way!” Yoner said.

“Absolutely not,” Siana added.

“……” Lee Han felt a little annoyed. *I worked so hard to make it,* he thought to himself.

“Actually,” Wodanaz said, “I think differently.”

“That’s right! Drinking it all the time might be bad, but if you use it carefully when you really need it, it could be helpful, right?”

“Thank… no,” Lee Han started to say, then stopped when he saw his friends from the Blue Dragon Tower staring at him. Their eyes looked a little wild. *Wow, they look scary,* he thought.

“Why? Wodanaz, are you changing your mind? Should I get the potion now?” Wodanaz asked eagerly.

“Ah, no, no,” Lee Han said quickly. “It’s not even ready yet.”

Professor Alpen Knighton, who taught magic theory, frowned slightly. He knew students got restless as the weekend got closer, but today was especially noisy.

Professor Alpen said, “Everyone, quiet down.” He tried to continue his lesson. “So, when you practice magic outside…” A student interrupted, “No, but Professor, I’m telling you, setting a fire spell is a bad idea here!” Another student argued, “But when else are we going to get to practice fire spells?”

The professor sighed, looking disappointed at his usually well-behaved students. “Since no one seems to be listening today,” he said, “instead of a lesson, maybe we should have a quick quiz…”

“Sorry, Professor!” some students called out.

“Hey, be quiet!” others hissed. Students who were worried about tests quickly told their noisy friends to be quiet.

Gainando, who was secretly playing cards, suddenly got hit in the face by a Magic Missile spell and fell off his chair.

When the classroom became quiet, Professor Alpen nodded and started teaching again. “Careful math is very important when you get magic ready. Remember, if you don’t learn this now, you’ll have problems later. When you are second-year students, you will really start to lead and study magic…”

The professor always said this. Magic wasn’t just about saying spells and waving a wand. It also meant making potions, drawing magic circles, and figuring out how magic power moved.

A wizard who couldn’t do these basic things couldn’t become truly great.

“Today, we’re going to look at the plans for the gate of Gannistallas Castle. It’s a very famous gate, known as . Everyone knows it, but…” Gainando looked confused and asked, “Why is it called the ‘Miracle of the Three Wizards’?”

The professor didn’t get angry at Gainando’s question. He answered calmly, “The Lord of Gannistallas Castle had no money left because there had been many fights and attacks. So, when they built the new gate, he gave them only a tiny bit of the money they usually needed – less than one-tenth.”

*Thud!* Lee Han hit his desk hard. He was very angry. “How could they do that?!”

“……” Gainando was surprised. “Um… is it really something to get *that* angry about?” He felt a little awkward because of his friend’s strong reaction.

But Professor Alpen nodded, as if he understood why Lee Han was angry. “No, you’re right to be angry. It’s a sad story. If people had helped the Lord more, it wouldn’t have been so bad… Anyway, the three wizards finished the gate even though things were very difficult. It was almost a miracle. Now, the plans we’re looking at today are for that gate.”

Professor Alpen’s story made the students interested in the plans. But Lee Han wasn’t happy. *Is this supposed to be a nice story?* he thought. *The Lord gave them almost no money, but the wizards worked really hard and finished it, so we should learn from them?* It sounded good at first, but Lee Han knew there was something wrong with these kinds of stories.

*It’s always like this,* Lee Han thought. *The wizards who came before us, who were supposed to be great, made things hard for the wizards who came after, even if they didn’t mean to. If those three wizards built the gate with almost no money, we should be asking, ‘What was wrong with giving them so little money?’ But instead, they’re saying, ‘Let’s learn from their cleverness!’* Lee Han kept complaining to himself as he started to draw.

“Mr. Wodanaz,” Professor Alpen called.

“!” Lee Han jumped, thinking for a second that the professor had read his mind.

“Yes, Professor?” Lee Han answered.

“Mr. Wodanaz, you don’t need to look at these plans.”

“Oh, no… why not?” Lee Han asked quickly. “I really think the miracle of those three wizards is amazing! I want to be a wizard like that too!” Feeling a bit bad, Lee Han rushed to explain.

Professor Alpen smiled, happy to hear this. Unlike some wizards who didn’t worry about money and used too many potions, this student from the Wodanaz family seemed to think about the bigger picture.

“That’s very thoughtful of you… but it’s alright,” Professor Alpen said.

“Why?” Lee Han asked, confused.

“Because you already saw what was going to be on the test during the midterm exam,” the professor explained.

“……”

“……” Lee Han and Yoner, who was drawing next to him, both froze. Yoner’s pen fell from his hand. *Did I hear that right?* Yoner thought.

“I… I understand,” Lee Han said. Unlike his shocked friends, Lee Han acted like he was used to this. He nodded calmly and looked like he was listening very carefully. But inside, he was thinking about how strange it was to have a different exam all alone in the middle of the term. *The professor is a bit crazy,* he thought, *but I can’t say that out loud. Professors can do whatever they want, I guess.*

“Follow me,” Professor Alpen said.

“Yes, Professor,” Lee Han replied. While his friends looked at the plans, Lee Han followed Professor Alpen out of the classroom. Outside the windows of the main school building, the cold winter sky was bright and clear. *I wonder if I can throw snowballs at the professor when it snows,* Lee Han thought. *Creak.* Professor Alpen opened a door to a different room and pointed to a chair for Lee Han to sit on.

Lee Han, who was still thinking about snowballs, quickly remembered where he was and sat down. This room was not like the professor’s usual office. Instead of soft chairs and lots of things that made it feel like a living room, there was only a big, strange object for talking to people far away. Lee Han wasn’t surprised because he had seen something like this mirror in the headmaster’s office before. He had used these talking objects when learning magic from Ogonin.

*Bzzzt!* A voice came from the mirror. “Administrator Knighton, Your Excellency!” The people in the mirror greeted Professor Alpen. The professor shook his head and said, “I’m not an administrator anymore. Just call me Professor.”

“Oh, sorry,” the voice said. *Who are these people?* Lee Han wondered, looking at them with interest. He didn’t know why Professor Alpen was showing him these people.

“We heard this before, but let me ask again to be sure. Is it true you got the job to build the Pocketknife Fortress?” a voice asked.

“Yes, that’s right,” Professor Alpen replied. “Maybe this person is…”

“Yes, that’s him,” Professor Alpen said, pointing to Lee Han. The people in the mirror looked at Lee Han, interested and curious. Then Lee Han understood who they were. *Builders?* he thought. People who build things, like the Stonemasons and Carpenters, were standing in the mirror, wearing their work clothes.

“It would be great if a student from Einroguard could help us!” one of the builders said happily. “What year are you in? Third year? Fourth year?” In the Empire, wizards were always seen as very skilled workers. And wizards who could do the math and magic needed for buildings were even rarer. Wizards who just fought in battles or learned magic on their own in the mountains couldn’t do this kind of teamwork. So, students from Einroguard were considered the best people you could get for this kind of job. Everyone wanted to hire them, but the students were always too busy.

The professor answered casually, “He’s in his first year.” The builders in the mirror went silent.

-……

-…??? They looked surprised and a little confused. Lee Han felt embarrassed too.

“Um, Professor,” he said, “isn’t it too soon for me to do this?”

“How modest,” Professor Alpen replied. *Why don’t these Einroguard professors understand when someone says no?* Lee Han thought, annoyed by the professor’s answer. Why did they always think he was just being modest when he said no? Couldn’t he really just be saying no?

“But Mr. Wodanaz is skilled enough to do this job,” Professor Alpen said.

“How do you know?” Lee Han asked.

“I saw your test in the middle of the term, remember?” Professor Alpen said.

“……” Lee Han didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t argue with that.

“Administrator… no, Professor,” one of the builders said. “Are you sure this is okay?”

“I promise you,” Professor Alpen said firmly. “Trust me.”

“No…” Lee Han felt a lot of pressure. The professor was putting his own reputation on the line without even asking him properly! *What if I mess it up?* he worried.

“Hmm,” one of the builders said. “If you, Professor, say so…”

“But even if he’s from Einroguard, can a first-year student really do this kind of building project?” another builder asked. “Usually, it’s for third-year students, right?”

“I thought so too,” said another. “But there are so many strange stories about Einroguard, aren’t there? Maybe we were wrong about what they can do.”

“Yeah, I even heard a crazy story that Einroguard students have to fight each other for food!” one builder laughed. “I guess I was wrong. Things must be really boring here if people make up stories like that.”

Lee Han listened to them talk, his face falling. He felt sad. He knew the truth about Einroguard, but he couldn’t tell them. It was even worse than he expected to keep quiet.

“Professor,” Lee Han asked, “what exactly will I have to do to build this fortress?”

“Hmm,” Professor Alpen said. “You’ll mostly be doing the math for the magic parts. Big buildings like fortresses need magic items inside them. Your job will be to figure out how much magic power these items need, find a way to give them that power, and put them in the right places so they work properly. Basically, it’s a lot of hard math work.”

*Just listening to this makes my head spin,* Lee Han thought. “…Can I finish it all in time?” he asked.

“Hmm… I think you can definitely finish it by the final exam,” Professor Alpen said. Lee Han felt something was wrong when he heard that. “By the final exam? Shouldn’t it be done *before* the final exam?”

“Mr. Wodanaz,” Professor Alpen chuckled. “You’re funny! Of course, if you’re working on this project, it will count as your final exam.”

The professor laughed at what Lee Han said. *Even if he’s really good,* Professor Alpen thought, *he’s trying to finish this huge job before the final exam and then take the exam too? He’s really confident!* Of course, Professor Alpen knew he had to make sure his student didn’t work too hard.

“Thank you, Professor,” Lee Han said. He felt a little better knowing he didn’t have to take the final exam. But then he felt bad about himself. *Damn it,* he thought. *This isn’t something to be happy about.* He realized he could do this job because he had already done harder exam questions in the middle of the term. He shouldn’t be thanking Professor Alpen at all.

“Professor,” Lee Han asked, “where should I send the money you get paid?” Professor Alpen answered like it was obvious, “We should get paid for doing work for people outside the school. The money will help you when you study magic next year.”

“…Can I get the papers for the fortress now? I’ll do my best,” Lee Han said.