Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 578

Fortunately, Headmaster Skull didn’t even twitch as the Death Knights whispered and snickered, trying to cause trouble as usual. He stared out of the tall window of his office, his brow furrowed.

He was probably lost in thought, worrying about meeting the Emperor. *This is bad,* Skull thought, a knot tightening in his stomach.

Finally, after a long silence, the Headmaster groaned, a sound like rocks grinding together. “No,” he muttered to himself, “no matter how I look at it, taking Yihan to see His Imperial Majesty is going to be a disaster.”

“If we explain it well to Student Wodanaz… wouldn’t that work?”

Yunrade cautiously spoke, carefully watching the Headmaster to see how he reacted.

In truth, Yunrade didn’t quite grasp why Headmaster Skull was so worried.

“Of course, he was very busy for a first-year student, even in the second semester, but surely His Imperial Majesty would generously understand that much. And the summer vacation incident was truly unavoidable, wasn’t it?”

-Hey. Yunrade, do you know he caught a Sea Serpent?

-For your information, there’s more than just that.

“Yes?”

Yunrade paused.

After a moment’s thought, Yunrade immediately said,

“If we explain it well to Student Wodanaz and everyone keeps their mouths shut, how would His Imperial Majesty even find out?”

-Of course, he’s from Einroguard.

-Look at that dreadful idea.

The Death Knights murmured amongst themselves, but Yunrade paid them no mind.

Isn’t all this done to survive?

Someone slow to react couldn’t survive in Einroguard.

Keeping quiet was a given. From the start, there was no need to worry about Wodanaz letting anything slip…

Many geniuses had come to Einroguard before. But Yihan was different. He was quick-thinking, friendly, and good at everything. This was very rare.

Usually, geniuses were those whose abilities were sharply focused on one field they loved, so Yihan’s well-roundedness was even more noticeable.

“Then isn’t that even better?”

That’s why you can’t be the top student.

‘No…’

Yunrade felt unfairly treated.

To be scolded about grades even after graduating?

-Master, I’m curious about what you’re worried about.

-That’s right. If it’s Wodanaz, he’ll cooperate well if you explain the situation.

You might be right.

Headmaster Skull readily admitted.

That attitude surprised the others even more.

But there are parts of his madness that are hard for even a kind magic teacher like me to predict…

‘What ridiculous slander.’

Yunrade scoffed inwardly.

Headmaster Skull calling someone else mad?

Especially to a good freshman like Student Wodanaz?

He’s probably cursing me in his mind right now. Yunrade.

“Ah, no!”

I understand. It’s a realm that someone who’s never been top student like you can’t understand. But to me, his madness is…

Boom!!!

A loud BANG ripped through the air, and a cloud of grey smoke billowed from the front yard of the main building.

The Headmaster, Yunrade, and the Death Knights rushed to the window and looked down.

A golem made of rusty metal, broken pots, and bits of wood lumbered forward, clanking and groaning.

-Professor Verdus. Please help! We have to stop it!

-Why? It’s rolling along just fine. Stopping it now would damage the golem, wouldn’t it?

-If it keeps going like this, it’s going to smash everything in its path!

-Why are you saying that now? You knew that too, didn’t you?

-No, the professor said it was okay! He told me to make it because it was okay…

-Yes. I said it’s okay, didn’t I? Ignore it and keep making the golem. Don’t stop.

“…Th-that. Did he make a golem out of scrap??”

Yunrade couldn’t believe his eyes.

He himself had taken a test during the first-year final exam to create impromptu artifacts from discarded and broken items, but at best, they were only water purification artifacts or location detection artifacts.

Even if it was low-grade and temporary, for a mere first-year student to create a golem that had a power source and could roll around…

And out of scrap???! Did you see that?

Headmaster Skull said without surprise.

That’s his madness.

Even if he seems normal, Wodanaz’s problem was that he would do crazy things at the slightest opportunity.

If they went to the Imperial Palace and a government official jokingly said, ‘You learned from Gonadaltez, so you can catch a demon duke, haha,’ he might say, ‘Understood, I’ll try to catch one,’ and start brandishing his sword.

‘And the Emperor and the officials would hold me responsible.’

The thought of the officials and even the Emperor saying things like, ‘What kind of education are you giving him?’ or ‘That shameless archmage is abusing his disciple in the ancient way’ made his heart pound with anger.

Why is it his fault that his disciple is doing crazy things on his own?

“Shouldn’t you stop him? There will be an accident if that golem explodes!”

The reason the golem was dangerous was because of its power source.

In order to move something of that size, the amount of power needed inevitably increased, and that meant that the power source had to be a considerably powerful artifact…

He imagined the newspaper headlines: ‘Another explosion at the Golem Guild!’ The city might even kick the Golem Guild out of town!

“Leave him be. He’ll take care of it.”

“No… we’re meeting His Majesty soon, you have to stop him!”

No matter how he thought about it, an explosion a few weeks before meeting the Emperor couldn’t be good for their mental state.

How much better would the atmosphere be if they met the Emperor and said, ‘I experienced an explosion a few weeks ago’?

Kee-gee-geek-!

However, the golem lost power and stopped precisely, Yunrade’s shout didn’t matter.

The freshman from the Wodanaz family, who had been standing on top of the golem stopped in the front yard of the main building far away, landed with a curse.

In his hand was the golem’s power source.

Surprisingly, that freshman had removed the power source from the moving golem’s body!

It was amazing, even when you saw it happen.

-I’m never trusting a professor’s suggestion again!

-Huh? Why? Why are you angry? Didn’t you make the golem thanks to me?

-Is this what you call making it! I almost died!

-But you stopped it well, didn’t you?

The conversation ended there.

This was because Yihan, who was about to rush at Professor Verdus, was hurriedly stopped by his other friends.

-Hold on, Wodanaz!

-He’s a professor! A professor!!

Yihan thought again about a thought he had many times since starting at Einroguard.

‘To trust a professor!’

“…Cheer up, Wodanaz.”

“At least the test is over.”

Exams were finally finished. Ethan let out a long breath, but the relief didn’t last. Accepting Professor Verdus’s extra task during the final exam now felt like a big mistake.

-All done, Professor.

-Huh? Is that all?

-…Didn’t I make it well? It’s reasonably defensive…

-Eh. Let’s make something more fun. You can do it.

-Wait. You let the other students pass, so why only me…

-Look at this. See this? What do you think it is?

-I don’t know?

-It’s the part used for the leg of the wood golem. And this? It’s the arm of the bronze cleaning golem. And… here it is. This is the helmet of the close-combat golem. Now. Do you understand?

-…I still don’t understand??

-Honestly, are you slow? I’m saying use these parts to build a golem!

-…Pardon?? Is that even possible? I’ve never made a golem before, and shouldn’t golems not be made like this, all patched up…

-It’s alright. It’s alright. Look. There are magic circles left here. Combining some of these is much easier than making one from scratch.

-Certainly, assembling is easier than creating something from nothing, but isn’t that only when they were originally made as the same golem? I’ve heard that combining parts from different golems could cause some bad things. No, in the first place, it probably won’t even work…

-No. It’s fine. It looks alright to me.

-Is it really alright?

-Of course!

-…Then I’ll try it once, but…

Yielding to Professor Verdus’s wicked and irresponsible whispers, Ethan somehow bound, combined, and connected parts from different golems.

When parts didn’t fit or magic circuits clashed, Ethan didn’t try to be delicate. He forced them together, pouring raw magic power into the problem areas. It was a messy, forceful way to fix things, like hammering nails with a rock.

The power source was half-broken. Ethan fixed it as best he could. Then, he focused all his magic power and poured it in. He just wanted to make it work.

-It’s moving! No, I really didn’t think it would move…

-I told you to make it.

-Professor, wait! It’s moving! What are the words to control it?

When creating a golem, inserting activation words or commands to activate and control the golem was basic common sense.

In the case of this chimera golem, pieced together from different parts, Professor Verdus would have figured it out in advance.

-Words? There aren’t any,

-Pardon?

-I said there aren’t any. There’s no way there would be any since I connected different parts.

-Then how do I command it?

-You have to create them and put them in now.

-…It’s moving right now?

-Create them above and insert them.

-I’ve never learned that!

-Really? Here’s a book.

-Professor Verdus. Please help me! We have to stop it!

-Why? It’s rolling along nicely. If you stop it now, it’ll damage the golem?

…In the end, these were the kinds of things that happened.

It was fortunate that he could touch the golem’s magic circuit, pour magic power into it, stop its movement with force, and then barely manage to extract the power source; otherwise, either the forest would have been destroyed, Ethan would have been destroyed, or Professor Verdus would have been destroyed.

“I should have just submitted it as is.”

He tried to shake off the stress of the golem exam as he walked with Salco and his other friend towards the next challenge.

‘Isn’t there something a bit wrong with Wodanaz too?’

Salco thought seriously.

If it were Salco, he would never have accepted it when Professor Verdus said such a thing.

Ordering someone to assemble scraps and activate a golem was an impossible request.

“Salco? What are you thinking about?”

“Ah, no. I was thinking that Professor Verdus is a truly wicked person. If it were our Stonemason Guild, we would have made someone like that kneel and placed a large rock on top of them for the crushing punishment!”

“-Crushing punishment with a rock…?” Ethan repeated slowly, a thoughtful look on his face. “That *does* sound effective.”

Salco, seeing Ethan’s expression, quickly changed the subject. “Right! Professor Lightningfoot’s exam next. Let’s go, Wodanaz. Forget about Professor Verdus for now.”

“That’s right. Forget about Professor Verdus.”

With his friends’ encouragement, Ethan’s expression also eased a little.

At that moment, students who were not affected by the enchantment magic appeared in the distance.

“Hey. I heard you caused an accident during the exam?”

“What kind of mistake did you make that a golem crawled out? Study enchantment magic properly… Ack! Ack! Wodanaz! Why are you doing this! What did we do wrong!”

Phonryg, peeking out from Ethan’s sleeve, hissed softly.

The students, who were just trying to tease lightly, were horrified and ran away from the savagely flying water droplets.

They hadn’t even considered that it was Wodanaz’s mistake.

“Pegasus!!!!”

Even before arriving at the exam site, the excited voices of other students could be heard.

The friends who were walking with Ethan also widened their eyes at the word Pegasus.

“Pegasus?!”

“That Pegasus…!?”

There were many rare mythical creatures in the Empire, but Pegasus was among the most popular.

Various flying mounts, such as wyverns or griffins, were constantly threatening and eating their owners, according to rumors in the Imperial newspaper…

…Pegasus, on the other hand, had a relatively gentlemanly and polite personality.

“How on earth did Professor Lightningfoot borrow so many Pegasi?”

“The professor is one of the Empire’s leading explorers. He must have borrowed them through his connections.”

The students looked at Professor Lightningfoot with eyes full of respect.

These Pegasi were priceless, so it was difficult to obtain them even with money.

But to prepare them for the students like this…

“Don’t look at it that way too much. I was just lucky.”

“Professor… I respect you the most…!”

“It’s best not to say that in front of other professors, alright? Now. The exam you have to take today is to persuade this Pegasus. By the way, don’t be too bold and mistaken. Pegasus is kinder than Wyvern, but it’s definitely not an easy creature.”

Ethan was not surprised.

Pegasus might not directly eat its owner, but it was not easy enough to just let anyone ride on its back and wander around.

The Empire’s mythical creatures always judged the qualifications of their owners, and to be recognized, one had to pass the other’s test.

‘Pegasus is… sincerity and honor.’

How well have you taken care of animals for a year, and how honorable have you been in your daily actions?

Pegasus could glimpse those traces in the soul of a qualified person.

Ethan made eye contact with one of the Pegasi. The creature then blinked very favorably and sent a gaze. It was a look that knew what Ethan had been doing.

‘It recognizes me!’

Just as he was about to move his steps, grateful for everything he had done so far, Professor Lightningfoot called out to Ethan.

“Wait. Wodanaz.”

“Yes?”

“You can’t go near them.”

“Why not!?”

“Well, Phonryg will be jealous…?”

“……”

Ethan was speechless at the unimaginable words.

From within his sleeve, the basilisk made a sound as if it very much agreed.