Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 694

Lee Han and his friends rode the carriage through the underground passage.

With each bump of the carriage wheels on the stone floor, echoes filled the high passage.

Olde thought to himself, watching the lights shine on the long, winding path.

It was true that there were so many secret paths under Einrogaard that even the Headmaster didn’t know them all.

‘I can’t believe there’s a path like this here.’

“This reminds me of a path I found last year,” Olde said.

“A passage? Really?” Lee Han asked, his face looking brighter.

Seeing Lee Han’s face look less sad, Olde felt a little better and said, “Yes. Do you remember the flood last year?”

“Yes, I remember,” Lee Han replied.

How could he forget? Lee Han and the first-year students had suffered a lot. Lee Han even had to face an angry spirit to fix the problem.

“Bad things happen at Einrogaard, like storms, but they also give students chances to learn,” Olde said.

‘He sounds like the Headmaster,’ Lee Han thought.

Lee Han thought about saying something to make Olde feel sad.

“When things get messy at school, like after a flood, secret paths are found. It was the same back then,” Olde explained.

“You were lucky,” Lee Han said.

“Well…” Olde looked unhappy.

“The path was a path, but it was a sewer with magical waste flowing through it. I got caught and failed anyway,” Olde admitted.

Escaping from Einrogaard always had many failures and dangers. Just because a path appears doesn’t mean you will succeed.

“Junior, I know you’re good, but be careful. Einrogaard is like a swamp. If you are not careful, you will get stuck very quickly,” Olde warned.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lee Han replied.

“I hope nothing goes wrong,” Olde said, looking worried.

He was worried about what was ahead and what was behind them.

This plan needed to happen quickly, so any problem could ruin everything. He wasn’t sure if the first-year students guarding the back would do as well as Lee Han.

“It’ll be fine. My friends are all as good as I am,” Lee Han said confidently.

“Yes, the potions are very impressive. Professor Woolegrit will be happy,” Olde agreed.

“Siana, who made them, is in the back,” Lee Han added.

“That’s good to know. What about your other friends?” Olde asked.

“Dirghyu is a great knight. He’s as good at swords as I am,” Lee Han said.

“Really… oh?” Olde paused.

He thought that being as good at swords as a Blue Dragon Tower student wasn’t very impressive.

“I see. And…?” Olde asked.

“Nilia is a hunter from the Shadow Patrol,” Lee Han said.

“What’s the Shadow Patrol?” Olde asked.

Lee Han was surprised by Olde’s question. He said, “What do you mean you don’t know the Empire’s best patrols who guard the northern mountains?”

“Sorry. I’m from the south,” Olde replied.

“Really? Everyone knows about them!” Lee Han exclaimed.

“I’ll remember that. Another friend?” Olde asked.

“Hmm. I think I’ve told you about everyone…” Lee Han said.

Yoner, who was driving the carriage behind them, spoke quietly, “Gainando, too.”

“Ah, Gainando. Gainando is a good friend as well,” Lee Han said.

“Didn’t you just forget him…?” Yoner asked.

“I made a mistake because I was nervous,” Lee Han explained.

“So, what’s so great about that friend?” Olde asked.

“Senior, your voice is too loud. Please be quiet,” Lee Han said.

Olde was thinking, ‘Is this kid…?’

“Will it be alright?” Gainando asked.

“It will be alright,” Nilia replied.

“Will it be alright?” Gainando asked again.

“It will be alright,” Dirghyu said.

“Will it be alright?” Gainando repeated.

“It will be alright,” Siana answered.

“Will it be…”

Nilia, Dirghyu, and Siana looked at each other. Then, they quickly grabbed Gainando’s arms and put a cloth in his mouth.

“Mmph! Mmph mmph mmph!” Gainando made muffled noises through the cloth.

Even though they tried to be patient, Gainando worrying about their friends every five seconds was too much.

When Gainando signaled to be let go, Dirghyu carefully took out the cloth.

“Gainando, if you keep doing that, we’ll have to tie you up again,” Dirghyu warned.

“Sniff. I’m just worried,” Gainando said.

“I’m worried too, Gainando. But it’ll be alright. Lee Han went,” Nilia reassured him.

“Yoner might get caught, but I hope Lee Han gets away,” Gainando muttered.

Nilia and Siana looked at Gainando with disgust.

‘What a piece of trash!’ they thought.

“Tell the senior to get caught instead,” Siana suggested.

“That’s right. The senior will be fine,” Nilia agreed.

“Well, maybe the senior will be alright…” Gainando said.

While they were deciding who should be the scapegoat, a faint light appeared in the distance.

Nilia felt worried when she saw the light.

“A… a carriage!” she exclaimed.

“What? No way. It shouldn’t be here yet!” Dirghyu said in surprise.

Nilia jumped down from the tree and whispered, “Three of them. Two lanterns per carriage. It’s definitely a merchant carriage.”

“Damn it, Plamen!” Dirghyu cursed.

“Huh?” Gainando tilted his head.

Dirghyu didn’t have time to explain. The arrival of a merchant carriage at this time was the worst thing they had expected.

Lee Han had gone into the merchant guild and faked the Headmaster’s and Professor Verdus’s signatures to send a fake message. The message said to delay the real carriage arrival time by about three hours. Lee Han and his group planned to use that time to attack quickly…

“It seems they wanted to arrive early and wait, since they’re bringing supplies to Einrogaard,” Nilia said.

“Why is Einrogaard so famous for bad things?” Dirghyu wondered.

“It can’t be helped. Get out what we prepared! Gainando, can you do it?” Nilia asked.

“W, well,” Gainando stuttered.

Gainando was nervous because the situation he had prepared for was actually happening.

Dirghyu grabbed Gainando’s shoulders and said firmly, “You have to do it, Gainando! If you fail, Lee Han might get caught!”

“Alright. I’ll do it! Let’s go!” Gainando agreed.

“Good. Everyone, get to your positions!” Nilia ordered.

The merchant carriage came closer, making a rattling sound.

The workers, who usually sang songs during these trips, were quiet today. They were just muttering very softly.

—Please let us drop it off safely and leave…

—Please let us drop it off safely…

Delivering supplies to Einrogaard was scary no matter how many times they did it.

“H, help me!” Nilia shouted.

The workers looked confused. Inside the bushes, there was a blonde boy collapsed and foaming at the mouth.

“What’s wrong?” one of the workers asked.

“We came out to see the moon squirrel that only comes out at night, but he accidentally ate a strange flower!” Nilia explained.

“Why would you eat something like that!?” the worker asked.

The workers were angry without realizing it. They were surprised and angry even though the boy seemed rich.

“S, sorry. It just… looked pretty…” the blonde boy said.

“Don’t eat that!” a worker shouted.

“How can you just pick up and eat anything because it looks pretty!” He rushed towards Gainando, who had just put a colourful flower in his mouth.

The worried workers rushed over to check on Gainando’s condition.

Gainando, who was always looking for ways to avoid work, closed his eyes and thought about times he had pretended to be sick to skip studying.

‘I am sick. I am sick.’

Gainando tried to make it look real. He made white foam come out of his mouth and shook his body like a leaf in the wind.

The workers became serious at the sight.

“Oh no! He looks really sick,” one worker said, his voice full of worry.

“Could it be a Kalaibi flower? Or maybe a Lanaton flower? They grow wild around here,” another worker wondered aloud.

“We need to get them both to the village, quickly!” the first worker decided.

Upon hearing the workers’ worried report, the person in charge frowned. He thought for a moment.

“A wagon it is! It will be bumpy in the baggage wagon, but we don’t have much choice. Luckily, we are leaving soon anyway.”

The students’ faces brightened. Their plan to delay leaving the area was working!

Clop, clop—

As they heard the sound of hooves from another direction, the workers and students turned their heads.

Just then, of all times, a traveler appeared!

The students groaned inwardly. Couldn’t anyone see they were trying to trick the workers?

“Excuse me. Is there anyone injured? I was passing by the upper road and it sounded like someone was hurt…”

“Are you perhaps a healing mage?”

“Yes. I am Phil, a healing mage from Einroguard.”

The workers beamed, while the students despaired.

“From Einroguard! That’s so fortunate! Someone here collapsed after eating a strange flower!”

“Why on earth did he eat a flower he didn’t know?” Phil asked, surprised but calm.

“We have no idea! He just did it!” a worker replied, throwing his hands up in the air.

“I understand. I’ll go!”

The students, who were pretending to be helpful, exchanged horrified glances. Their plan was falling apart right before their eyes!

At that moment, Gainando whispered to Siana.

“Siana, priestess.”

“Yes?” Siana replied, her eyes wide.

“Give… give me that… quickly,” Gainando gasped.

“Are you sure?” Siana asked, her voice shaking. She knew about the poison Gainando had asked her to make before they left. It was real poison, not just something to make him look sick.

“Quickly!”

“H-here.”

“Tell Leehan… I did this for the team! Tell him… I’m a hero… cough cough…!”

“I will!”

Gainando opened the lid of the real poison and gulped it down.

And then he started foaming at the mouth and convulsing.

“Kraaah!!”

“Oh, dear! Please come quickly! The patient’s condition is not good!”

Phil hurriedly arrived and checked Gainando’s condition. Then he looked shocked.

“He ate more than one type of flower! Many different flowers, it seems!”

“W-we don’t really know…”

“We need to get to the village! I might not have enough medicine here to help him!”

“Understood!”

“Just hang in there! I’ll heal you soon!”

As Phil held Gainando’s hand tightly and shouted, the other friends watched the scene with complicated expressions.

Please organize inside.

They reached the warehouse at the end of the dark tunnel.

“There’s no warehouse keeper!” Leehan whispered excitedly.

Leehan and Alde exchanged glances.

Alde nodded. “The Death Knight who is guarding this place doesn’t care about organizing things inside. He just makes sure no one steals anything from outside.”

Now, all they had to do was enter the warehouse and move as quickly as possible.

Luck was on their side.

Creak!

Leehan and his friends quickly started unloading the wagon. They moved boxes like they had been doing this job for years, their muscles straining with the effort.

“Yonel, Ratford. I’m counting on you. If I don’t come back…” Leehan said, his voice serious.

“Don’t say that! We’re in this together. If you get caught, we get caught,” Yonel replied firmly.

“No,” Leehan insisted. “At least you two can get the wagon away. If we all get punished, it’s even worse.”

In preparation for a possible situation, two people had to stay in the warehouse to make excuses.

Even though the Death Knights were indifferent to these things, it was a different story if no one was there.

Leehan used his magic. “Arise, warriors made of bone,” he whispered.

Suddenly, skeletons made of bones appeared, ready to work. He even called his strongest skeleton warrior, Gonadaltes, to lead them.

Alde was dumbfounded as he looked at the undead summons, then simply shut his mouth.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, let’s go!”

Leehan and Alde picked up the luggage and started running.

They dashed through the deserted underground warehouse area and up the stairs, revealing the area behind the central entrance.

An empty banquet hall, a large hall, and several closed doors.

“This way!”

From here, Alde knew the place, so they ran without hesitation.

They would go to the front area of the central entrance and go up to the second-floor warehouse of the main building through the stairs!

That was the original plan…

The two were startled.

“Damn Einroguard!” Alde cursed under his breath. “The layout has changed again!”

There was a wall in the place where the door to the front area should have been.

Leehan frowned. He knew Einroguard was a magical place where the paths and buildings sometimes moved around. But why now?

“We have to find the door!”

“It’s difficult without clues. In a situation like this…”

Leehan was not shaken by his senior’s words.

‘Even though the main building of Einroguard is ever-changing, the first floor, where outsiders frequently enter, does not change so easily. There must be a door not far from here.’

Leehan tried to sharpen his senses and feel the flow of magic around him.

Where there is magic, there is a way.

If he could find something that felt wrong, surely…

“Senior. This wall, it’s not a wall, it’s a door!”

“What?”

Alde reacted late and shook his staff.

Surprisingly, his junior was right.

It was not a wall, but a door cleverly disguised as a wall!

Alde was supposed to be good at illusion magic. He should have seen it first. But he was too worried. That’s why he missed it.

Alde’s face flushed with embarrassment.

“I’m sorry! I should have found it. I’ll release it right away.”

If he released the illusion wall, the door would appear. Alde knelt on one knee, placed his staff on the wall, and tried to say magic words.

“How long will it take?” Leehan asked, his voice tight with worry.

“Five to ten minutes, maybe!” Alde replied, starting to chant.

“Too slow! We don’t have that much time. Let’s break it down!” Leehan declared.

“Break it? With force? Are you crazy? This is illusion magic! You can’t just break it!” Alde exclaimed, shocked.

Leehan placed his staff on the wall and swung his magic hammer to blow away the illusion.

Thud!

Then the wall disappeared and the door appeared.

“Let’s go!”

“You… what did you just do…”

“It’s Valdororn’s Magic Hammer!”

“…You have to explain it to me in detail later!”

Alde ran, confused by the name of the illusion mage he had never heard before.