Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 61

Professor Thunderstride sighed. The students were starting to doubt him, and he hadn’t expected that.

But that was that, and curiosity remained. Professor Thunderstride looked for his best student, Ethan.

“Wodanaz.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“You believe me, right?”

Ethan nodded.

“Yes! I believe you! How could I ever doubt you, Professor!”

“…Just say you don’t believe me, you little rascal,” Professor Thunderstride grumbled.

He preferred students who were direct. Ethan’s polite way of speaking irritated him.

“But really, you didn’t see the bull? That’s strange. It cost me a lot… Why did a mud golem appear instead?”

“…Wait. What are you talking about?”

Professor Inglewood, hearing Professor Thunderstride’s quiet talking, turned serious.

Professor Thunderstride quickly made excuses.

“Haha… Professor Inglewood. There seems to be a misunderstanding. Actually, I prepared both the bull and the mud golem, but that blasted bull seems to have wandered off somewhere.”

Professor Inglewood’s gaze remained icy.

There was nothing quite as frightening as a swordsman with a crazed look in his eyes.

Professor Thunderstride hurriedly pulled Ethan over.

“Wodanaz. You tell him. Who do you think prepared the mud golem?!”

Ethan was surprised by the sudden change, but he played along.

Professor Thunderstride’s eyes were too serious.

“Of course, the Professor prepared it.”

“See? Professor Inglewood. Look, even the clever Wodanaz says so.”

“I see. But do you think a mud golem is a good test for new students?”

Professor Thunderstride looked at Ethan again, but Ethan had already hurried away with his friends.

Saturday arrived, but instead of going out or exploring, the Blue Dragon Tower friends were in the common room, thinking hard.

The assignments that had piled up during the week were many.

“Blast it… What’s the logical flaw in this book? Wait, isn’t the very fact that someone of my noble status has to read this book and struggle with it an absurd flaw in itself?”

“Ugh, how am I supposed to know how much it costs to make a magic circle? Just use the money left in the family, don’t be so cheap!”

The students clutched their heads and groaned.

Each assignment was difficult and not easily solved.

Thanks to this, the snacks that Ethan had piled up in his cupboard were selling very quickly.

Because he was tired of it, Ethan placed various sweets and candies in a basket next to the fireplace and put up a sign.

Apple-flavored candy – One silver coin Apricot jam cookie – Two silver coins Sweet piece of chocolate from the Maykin family – Four silver coins A cup of sugared black tea – One silver coin

The prices were high, but the students didn’t complain.

The happiness lay in being able to get them at all.

Right now, outside, the Black Tortoise Tower students were struggling by making fake sweets, fake candies, and fake gum…

“Hmph. It’s because you guys don’t take Alchemy and only take easy classes.”

“You guys find the assignments difficult? After taking Alchemy, this is like a sweet dessert to me.”

Some of the Blue Dragon Tower students taking the Alchemy class were boasting to their friends who were struggling with their assignments.

You could see the arrogance in their expressions, as if they were very proud of themselves.

“Those guys… Wodanaz probably did all the work…”

“Feel sorry for them. They had to face a mud golem.”

“Indeed. It’s a crazy class. How can they tell us to fight a mud golem?”

The other friends listened patiently instead of saying, ‘Give it a rest.’

It was thanks to honor and friendship.

They think they won’t experience such things…

Ethan shook his head with a bitter expression.

The students who hadn’t taken the Alchemy class thought, ‘We’ll be fine since we don’t take Alchemy, right?’

But as one could see from just the basic Creature Riding class, professors in this school were expected to be crazy.

Even if one avoided one crazy class, another class would come looking for them.

They would realize it when that time came!

Bubble bubble bubble—

“Ogrebell flower and Smallfeather mushroom. Is that right? Put this in and…”

“Ugh, the smell is strong, is this really right?? Is this right…?”

The students taking the Alchemy class each spread out their cauldrons and put their heads together, thinking.

They had gathered the ingredients to make the assignment, but they had only just begun Alchemy.

Getting the ingredients was hard, but mixing them was also hard.

Moreover, as the ingredients were limited, their hands were shaking.

Bang!

“Ack!!”

Pop pop pop! Bang!

“Kraaah!”

“Wait.”

Ethan reached out and stopped the students.

As he had learned in the lecture, he already knew that alchemy could fail due to minor movement mistakes or differences in timing.

But… Something’s strange?

The current situation was a bit odd.

In Ethan’s view, even the students who had worked quite well were constantly popping and exploding, with smoke billowing from their cauldrons.

Ethan knew that small mistakes could change the potion. But usually, it would still be similar to the correct potion. However, these potions were completely different from what they should be.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Professor Thunderstride didn’t teach us the wrong recipe, did he?”

The room became quiet and tense.

A friend who was doing another assignment next to him said as if it was absurd.

“Nah, no matter how you look at it…”

“No. It makes sense! It’s 100% likely!”

Friends who would have said ‘no way’ in the past now suspected the professors even more than Ethan did.

They had truly become students of this school.

“This is really cruel…! How can they deliberately teach us the wrong recipe?!”

“Figure it out yourself? Are you kidding me?!”

While the students were venting their anger, Ethan quietly pondered with Yoner.

Anger was anger, and grades were grades.

Even if they wanted to grab the professor by the collar, they had to submit the assignment.

“We’ll have to experiment by changing the potion recipe the professor gave us one by one. Yoner, do you have any guesses?”

“Devil’s Beard Flower, Troll Mushroom, Malene, and Jade Dragon Flower in the recipe are suspicious… Actually, as far as I know, these have nothing to do with spirits.”

“Is this all a trap?”

“I don’t think so. At most, it’ll be one or two, right? Even if they have nothing to do with spirits, they may be useful in amplifying the power to summon spirits or strengthening the user’s mind.”

Ethan thought Yoner was very clever.

Ethan was also a fairly skilled experimenter, but he couldn’t keep up with Yoner’s extensive knowledge, who had lived with alchemy material books since he was young.

Should I have read alchemy books instead of the newspaper?

“The fastest way is to experiment by removing them one by one, but the problem is… then we’ll run out of ingredients.”

Ethan was lost in thought.

What was Professor Thunderstride thinking when he put traps in the recipe?

“I think we’ll have to search through alchemy books and compare them with old recipes to find out what’s wrong…” Yoner muttered in a dejected voice.

At those words, Ethan seemed to know what the professor was thinking.

He’s saying don’t rely on recipes made by others, but realize it by searching and finding it yourself.

Knowledge gained by studying and realizing it yourself lasts longer than knowledge taught by others.

When he realized this, Ethan felt a chill.

He was starting to think like Professor Thunderstride, and that was a little scary.

Ethan shook his head to get rid of the scary thought.

I need to stop being controlled by the professors.

“Shall we go look for books?”

“Yoner. If we try to find it in books, won’t it take up the whole weekend?”

“Probably…”

“I absolutely can’t do that. I have to go out tomorrow.”

Ethan looked determined. He was not going to miss his day off.

Yoner almost felt emotional at that resolution.

Is it okay to be so moved by the word ‘outing’?

“Everyone, stop making potions and gather in one place!”

“We’ll find the right way by trying things out.”

“We’ll run out of ingredients, though?”

“We’ll gather all the ingredients here and make as much as possible with the remaining amount. I’ll have to go to the other towers, too.”

Asan thought it was a great idea.

One person’s ingredients alone wouldn’t be enough to experiment multiple times, but if they gathered all the students’ ingredients, the story would be different.

The amount of remaining ingredients would increase that much.

Yoner also nodded.

“If the other tower students join us, it’ll be helpful. Other people can point out what I don’t know.”

“Priestess Siana would be good.”

“She’s from the Phoenix Tower, would she come?”

“She praised Wodanaz a lot, wouldn’t she come if Wodanaz asked?”

Leaving his friends’ voices behind, Ethan confidently left the common room.

He looked like he was sure he would get his day off.

“Wodanaz…! I’m counting on you!”

“I’ll be back.”

“Oh, right, Wodanaz. Bring the Princess too.”

“…Can’t you guys do that much?” Ethan asked in disbelief.

“No… We’re not close to the Princess…”

“You’re the closest to her.”

“I guess because she’s royalty, it’s a bit difficult to approach her.”

“Okay, I understand.”

It wasn’t a difficult task, so Ethan nodded.

Ethan was very surprised by the sight.

Princess. It’s Wodanaz.

When Ethan knocked on the door, the Princess looked at Ethan’s hand with expectant eyes.

But Ethan’s hand held no snacks.

The Princess listened to the explanation and nodded, then went down to the common room below, but she felt sad.

Ethan felt sorry, even though he didn’t need to.

I should bring something when I go up next time…

Since the other friends were writing the ledger anyway, giving more snacks would be beneficial to Ethan.

Ethan felt a little guilty for using his friends.

Is it here?

Ethan looked around at his destination.

As he was from the Blue Dragon Tower, he didn’t have many opportunities to come to the other towers.

The Blue Dragon Tower felt very fancy, but the Phoenix Tower felt holy. Perhaps it was due to the difference in students.

Wait. How do I get in?

Ethan, having arrived in front of the Phoenix Tower, realized that he didn’t know how to enter.

Ethan decided to try testing it once without thinking.

Thud- As if there was some invisible barrier at the main gate of the tower, Ethan was pushed back.

Is it a magic that blocks people who shouldn’t be there? Well, of course it would be.

It would be chaos if people who weren’t from the Phoenix Tower could enter.

“Are you Ethan from the Wodanaz family?”

A familiar voice called out from behind. A snake-kin student wearing a priest’s robe tilted his head.

As soon as Ethan saw Priestess Siana, he instinctively put flattery first and said, “Priestess Siana, who made that excellent potion last time!”

“Oh, my. You’re too generous with your compliments.”

“It wasn’t a compliment, it was a statement of fact.”

“I made a potion this time, so take some. It’ll help you feel less tired.” Priestess Siana handed over the potion with a bright smile.