Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 6

Lee Han saw Yoner’s stance. He knew fighting stances well, thanks to his family knight, Alarong, and his own training. Yoner looked ready to punch someone!

“Wait, hold on!” Lee Han stepped between them. He wanted to stop a fight.

“Don’t say alchemy is useless, Gainando.”

“But it *is* useless!” Gainando said, not noticing how angry Yoner was. “What’s so great about it?”

Lee Han knew magic was huge. There were so many kinds! Illusion magic, summoning magic, changing things magic, magic with elements like fire and water… You could spend your whole life learning just one type.

But many young wizards thought alchemy was boring. They wanted to summon amazing creatures or blast things with magic wands. Alchemy seemed quiet and small, like just mixing potions in a lab.

“That’s…” Gainando started to say.

“Just wait, Lee Han. Move aside,” Yoner said.

“I won’t do anything bad.”

“Okay,” Lee Han replied. He stepped back. Yoner walked right up to Gainando. Gainando looked confused.

“Why?”

“Don’t you *ever* ask for potions from the nurse! They are made with alchemy!”

*WHAM!*

Gainando crashed to the ground. Lee Han was impressed. That was a strong punch!

“Was it okay to hit him?” Lee Han asked.

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll just say sorry tomorrow,” Yoner replied. It seemed like Yoner had punched Gainando before. Cousins argue, but this seemed like a lot!

*Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped him,* Lee Han thought. If they fought again, he decided he would just watch.

“Wait, wait,” Yoner said quickly. “Don’t think I go around punching everyone! You know what I mean, right?” He looked like he thought Lee Han had the wrong idea about him. For nobles, especially from old, important families, being polite and proper was very important. Nobles didn’t usually punch people just for arguing.

“But… isn’t it okay to punch someone if you’re really angry?” Lee Han asked.

Yoner looked even more confused. *Does the Wodanaz family have rules like that?* he wondered. He knew knight families might be okay with fighting, but for one of the most important families in the Empire to allow punching… it was hard to believe.

*He must be really special,* Yoner thought about Lee Han. Lee Han did seem different from the other new nobles. They were all from noble families, but they were just new students, still very young. Lee Han was different. The way he acted, the way he talked – something set him apart. *He really is like someone from the Wodanaz family,* Yoner thought.

Yoner changed the subject. Lee Han didn’t want to talk about punching anymore, so Yoner moved on.

“So, are you sure you want to study alchemy? If you’re just doing it because of me, you can go study something else.”

“No, I’m interested in alchemy too,” Lee Han said.

“Oh… are you thinking about starting a business together?”

“I’m thinking about it,” Lee Han replied.

“!” Yoner was surprised. He couldn’t believe Lee Han changed his mind so fast.

“What made you change your mind?” Yoner asked.

“Well…” Lee Han thought about what to say. *I’m not very good at magic, so maybe I should try making money with alchemy.* But that sounded too cheap for a noble to say.

“No, it’s okay,” Yoner said quickly. “You don’t have to explain. You thought about it and saw that alchemy is important, right?”

“Huh?” Lee Han said.

“Alchemy is really interesting, isn’t it?” Yoner asked, his eyes shining.

“Oh… yeah, I guess so,” Lee Han said. Yoner seemed really happy all of a sudden, so Lee Han just agreed.

“People think alchemy is just being stuck in a dark basement, mixing potions,” Yoner said, “but it’s actually much bigger and deeper than that!”

“Uh-huh,” Lee Han said. He wasn’t bothered. He was good at listening to boring stories. He’d learned that skill a long time ago. *It’s like when someone asks you:* “Do you like walking in nature?” *And before you can answer, they say:* “Oh, nature walks are amazing! Let me tell you about this time I went to the mountains…” *And they talk and talk and talk.* Compared to those kinds of stories, Yoner’s talk about alchemy was actually kind of interesting.

“Did you maybe learn some alchemy before, when you were at your family’s house?” Lee Han asked.

Yoner quickly looked around without thinking. “…Yes,” he whispered. “But keep it secret! We weren’t supposed to learn magic early, but they weren’t as worried about alchemy.”

“You can always learn things early,” Lee Han said.

Yoner stared at Lee Han, confused. *Punching people is okay, learning magic early is okay…* He was definitely a strange person.

*It’s good he learned alchemy already,* Lee Han thought. A friend who was good at studying could be really helpful. If Yoner knew alchemy well, Lee Han could get help and get good marks.

“So, could you maybe teach me too?” Lee Han asked.

“…Of course!” Yoner’s face lit up, and he clapped Lee Han on the shoulder.

**Understanding Basic Alchemy.** Lee Han had already met a professor who was part troll in **Understanding Basic Magic**, so he thought he was ready for anything. And he was right. *He looks pretty normal,* Lee Han thought. The professor was a short dwarf, sitting in front of them. He was dressed like a hunter, moving easily, and even had a crossbow on his side.

“Is everyone here?” the dwarf asked loudly.

“Ugh, students from the Black Turtle Tower too,” Yoner whispered, sounding annoyed. It wasn’t that Yoner hated common people, but he just felt awkward around them. He felt more comfortable with students from his own Blue Dragon Tower. If students from other towers were here, it felt strange. And it looked like there were more students from the Black Turtle Tower than his own tower.

*I don’t like all this attention,* Lee Han thought. He knew how common people sometimes acted around nobles. Some were scared and didn’t want to talk to you. Others were angry and unfriendly. You didn’t see much of that outside school, but here, inside the school that talked about “everyone being equal,” it was different. They were already angry because nobles acted like they were better, and the noble students from the Blue Dragon Tower often looked down at them and made fun of them. So, they were often unfriendly.

“Hey, stop staring,” one student whispered to another. “And there’s someone from the Wodanaz family over there.”

“So what?” the other student replied. “Even the Wodanaz family can’t hurt us inside the school.”

“Yeah, but we won’t be in school forever. What if they get back at you later?”

“I’ll worry about that later,” the student said.

Lee Han made a *tsk* sound with his tongue. He didn’t like being disliked for no reason. *Being nice to them will probably just make things worse,* he thought. It seemed like he would have to spend time with the Blue Dragon Tower students for now.

“Everyone, quiet!” the short dwarf professor said loudly. Even though he was small, his voice was strong. “My name is Thunderstep Geumdar. Call me Professor Thunderstep. You’re probably all wondering why we’re in this grassy field, with no desks, when there are such *amazing* school buildings right over there!” He pointed back at the school. Lee Han thought, *Yeah, that’s right.* They were supposed to be learning **Understanding Basic Alchemy**, but they were outside on a hill.

Princess Adenarte raised her hand. Thunderstep just shrugged. “I wasn’t really asking for an answer. But go ahead, speak.”

“To feel the magic of nature,” Adenarte said. She thought that even though alchemy was about mixing things, magic was still important. Feeling the magic in nature was important for alchemists.

“Nope!” Professor Thunderstep said, looking at Adenarte like she was crazy. Adenarte’s pale face turned a little pink, and she looked down.

Lee Han asked Yoner quietly, “Isn’t it because we’re here to find ingredients?”

“No way, is it really that?” Yoner whispered back.

“Oh! Correct!” Professor Thunderstep shouted.

Lee Han and Yoner stared at the professor, surprised. But Thunderstep looked at Lee Han like he was very impressed. “It’s rare to find someone who gets it right away!” he said.

“But I’m just a new student…” Lee Han started to say.

“Yeah, yeah, new student, doesn’t matter! Good job! You have the talent to be a great alchemist!” Yoner looked jealous of Lee Han. Adenarte glared at Lee Han a little, like she saw him as a rival now.

*…This isn’t something to be jealous about,* Lee Han thought, confused. *Why would she be angry about this kind of answer?*

“We’re here to learn what skills you really need for alchemy,” Professor Thunderstep said. “You probably think you need to be super smart and control magic perfectly.”

*Hmm, do you need to control magic well for alchemy?* Lee Han wondered, surprised.

“But that’s not true!” Thunderstep said. “The most important skill for an alchemist is finding ingredients!”

Everyone was silent, surprised. That was not what they expected.

Adenarte raised her hand again, looking confused. “Professor,” she said, “we can grow some ingredients, and we can hire adventurers to find others. It doesn’t make sense to say alchemists have to find them *themselves*…”

“Oh, oh, oh, you’re like a baby bird who doesn’t know anything!” Professor Thunderstep said loudly. Adenarte’s face turned even redder. Professor Thunderstep made a *tsk* sound.

“Do you know how many ingredients alchemists use that you can grow yourself? Less than ten percent! You have to buy the rest. And is everything you buy good quality? Do you know why wizards join groups with adventurers when they hire them? It’s not for fun! It’s because adventurers are *terrible* at picking herbs! They just rip them out of the ground, when they should be picked carefully!” Thunderstep went on and on, sounding very angry.

“So, alchemists *must* know how to find ingredients themselves. Alchemists who just rely on others will never be great. Who will help you if you complain you don’t have ingredients when you’re doing important research?” The students nodded, looking a bit sad and understanding.

“Okay, that’s enough talking,” Professor Thunderstep said. “Now, go find them!”

“Find what?” someone asked.

“What do you mean, ‘find what’?! Go find the ingredients!” Thunderstep waved his staff. Pieces of paper appeared in the air and floated down to each student. On each paper was a picture of a blue-green plant.