Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 736

The punishment block was cold and dark. Echoes bounced off the stone walls. “Hey. This feels like a trap,” one student mumbled.

“Marcane! Wake up! It’s a trap!” Alde yelled. His voice bounced down the silent corridor. Other students in their lonely cells heard him and warned him too. They felt something was wrong.

“It’s not a trap! A junior who worked with me is here to see me!”

“……”

“…This guy is so lost in his lies, he believes them himself!” The other students sighed heavily. They should have stopped him when he was bragging about having secret things outside. But they ignored it, and now he was getting worse.

The punishment block was a sad, lonely place. Days felt like weeks here. Students trapped here sometimes started seeing things, or believing strange ideas just to feel something.

“Marcane, I don’t really like you, since you’re from a different tower, but listen to me. As someone stuck here too, I’m telling you. The worst lie is when you start believing it yourself.”

“Yeah, when I first got here, I lied and said I was caught robbing the headmaster’s office. One lie led to another, and guess what? I actually had to try and rob his office later!”

“Are you guys trying to make me sound crazy?! He really IS my junior!”

Alde got angry. *A great junior from the Wodanaz family came all the way to see me!* he thought. *And these awful guys are insulting me!*

“Marcane, be honest with yourself. If you were a junior, would you really risk going through this confusing punishment block maze just to see *me*? Really?”

“He’s right. It’s a trap. Maybe he’s the headmaster’s new helper.”

“……”

Alde started to doubt himself because of what his cellmates said.

*Thinking about it,* he thought, *it’s hard to believe a second-year student could find his way through the punishment block maze, no matter how good they are.*

*Could he really be a helper sent by the headmaster?*

“…But what can he even do? We’re already locked up.”

“Just wants to watch us suffer. That’s the headmaster’s favorite thing, isn’t it?”

Alde doubted himself more and more as their words sounded more and more likely.

Just then, Leahan came down the stairs and reached the end of the corridor.

Leahan saw the corridor full of cells with seniors. He sighed in relief. “Everyone’s here then.”

“…!”

“!!”

Without a word, the students quickly turned to face the wall. *Dealing with the Headmaster’s helper could be dangerous,* they thought.

“Senior Alde?”

“……”

“Are you angry because you’re locked up?”

Alde tried to stay strong and pretended not to hear. Leahan was confused. But he was here now, so he started taking out the things he brought, one by one.

“I brought some snacks. I’ll leave them here. Eat them if you’re bored.”

Inside the basket was the smell of freshly baked white bread, still warm. There was a jar of golden honey, a pot of bright red strawberry jam, simple sandwiches with ham and egg, and tins of pork and beef. Leahan would normally sell these to make money. But he wasn’t mean enough to make the senior who had helped him pay for them.

“Does anyone want to eat? I brought lots. It’s free, no gold needed.”

“……”

The seniors were terrified. *Free food from the headmaster’s helper?* Their fear grew. *What kind of trap is this?* They couldn’t even imagine.

“Are you all angry? Then I’ll be on my way. See you when you get out of the punishment block, senior.”

When no one answered, Leahan tilted his head, then headed back to the stairs.

The Death Knight, who was coming down from above, spotted Leahan and called out loudly.

-Hold on!

“!”

-The hidden path on that wall over there is faster.

“Thank you.”

‘I knew it!’

The students’ conviction deepened when the Death Knight gave directions instead of arresting him.

Only when the junior was completely gone did the students in the punishment block finally relax.

“Phew. That was a scary trap.”

“I almost spoke without thinking.”

“Marcane, don’t eat it! I bet it’s poison!”

Alde thought so too at first. He didn’t even touch the basket. But it was hard to be patient when you were stuck in the punishment block. He used all sorts of magic to check the food. Finally, Alde took a bite of the bread.

“…It’s delicious?”

“What? You ate it?”

“This is good too, and this is good too… Hey, you stupid guys!! He really IS my junior!!!”

Alde suddenly understood. He shouted, “He really is my junior!” But the other students still didn’t believe him.

“A junior bringing food? That’s impossible.”

“It must be slow poison.”

“Marcane, you explain it then! If he’s really your junior, how did he get in here? And why was he friendly with the Death Knight?”

Alde was annoyed, but he had no answer. *Ugh. How did he get in here?*

After his lecture, Leahan saw Senior Perse and his friends.

“Hello, seniors.”

“……”

Perse couldn’t answer. His eyes were blank. His friends explained, “Sorry. Perse changed into a creature without a backbone in class. He’s still feeling the effects.”

“Ah, I see.”

But even though their friend had messed up the transformation, the seniors looked very tired and sad. Leahan tried to cheer them up.

“Hang in there, everyone! It’s almost the weekend.”

“…I have classes even on the weekend.”

“!”

Leahan was surprised by the senior’s sad answer. Classes on the weekend? *How is that possible?*

“Why do you have classes on the weekend?”

“Who knows? Too much to teach? Not enough practice? Maybe the professor is crazy?”

“Still, that sounds really tough…”

“*You’re* taking all the magic classes! *That’s* tough!”

“……”

Leahan felt a little hurt by what the senior said. Another friend scolded the senior.

“Hey, why are you being mean to the junior just because your class is awful?”

“Hmph. But it’s true.”

*Maybe I shouldn’t have said hello,* Leahan thought. He decided to avoid talking to tired seniors in the future. They were often more grumpy and quick to say mean things when they were tired.

*This must be Professor Bendozol’s class?*’ Leahan thought. He looked at the next lecture. The name jumped out at him: >Viciously Beautiful Creatures<. *Yep, that sounds like Professor Bendozol,* he thought. The class was in the Western Nightmare Echo Forest, far from the school buildings. This forest was famous for being dangerous, even for second-year students. Last year, some students from the White Tiger and Black Turtle towers went there to find food and almost got lost forever. People said all sorts of evil spirits and ghost monsters lived there, attacking anyone who entered. Leahan walked along the path. The air was still and heavy. The trees were tall and blocked out most of the sunlight. *It’s too quiet,* he thought. It wasn’t too hard to follow, he’d been here a few times. Second-year students at Einrogaard didn’t usually get lost on flat ground, unless they went into the mountains. *It’s too quiet,* he thought. Leahan felt uneasy, even though he didn’t know why. He remembered going to the Dark Forest with Dirett recently and stepping on a trap set by a crazy wizard’s copy. "Sharkhan." Leahan called his familiar and walked slowly, looking around carefully. He didn’t just summon Sharkhan. He also made a ball of light on his staff and used spells to make himself stronger and more alert. But nothing happened. *Am I just imagining things?* he wondered. If there was danger, it would have appeared by now. But there were no attacks, no enemies. Maybe he was wrong. How long had he walked like that? A large clearing appeared in the forest. It was the location of this lecture, his destination. Sure enough, Professor Bendozol was waiting for the students with his arms crossed and a displeased look on his face. "Professor. Good morning." "...Gasp, what?! How did you get here?!" The professor was startled by Leahan’s greeting and shouted. He hadn’t expected any students to arrive this quickly. Leahan was even more taken aback by the reaction. "The lecture’s about to start, isn’t it? Of course I’d arrive. But…" Leahan looked around the clearing and belatedly realised that there was no one else there. Something was wrong. If this class was about dark magic, being alone would make sense. But even though Professor Bendozol was crazy, classes like >Viciously Beautiful Creatures< were usually quite popular. So why was no one else here? "Why is no one here?" "They’re not here because they haven’t arrived yet! Is that even a question? More importantly, how did *you* get here?" "...Was there maybe a trap on the path?" "A trap? What trap! That’s not a trap! It’s more like… a test!" Leahan kept asking questions to the confident professor, who sounded like he was repeating something he’d heard before. Leahan started to understand what kind of class >Viciously Beautiful Creatures< really was. This class was always held in dangerous places around Einrogaard. Professor Bendozol could have just brought the creatures to class. But he was very careful and wanted to do things properly. He thought that the rarest and strongest creatures lived in dangerous places. So, it was better to go to them and see them in their own homes. Of course, students didn’t always agree with Professor Bendozol’s ideas. Many students were always late or stopped coming to class. Professor Bendozol was often sad because the students didn’t care enough. But he kept teaching the way he believed was right. Just now, Professor Bendozol had picked a day when the magic in the forest was strong. He had even made the monsters in the Nightmare Echo Forest angrier and more dangerous! He must really believe in his way of teaching to work this hard. *…This is bad,* Leahan thought. *This class is even crazier than I thought.*' Leahan’s heart sank. He knew Professor Bendozol’s classes would be a bit crazy, but this was too much. He had to go to a new dangerous place for every class! "Why aren’t you answering me! How did you get here?!" "I just walked." "You just walked? No attacks? No evil spirits? No swarms of ghosts or anything?" "Nope." "……" Professor Bendozol stared at Leahan, shocked and not believing him. He couldn’t believe he had tried so hard, but it didn’t affect the student at all. "No way! These evil spirits… Don’t tell me they are too scared to attack you!" While Professor Bendozol was getting angry and trying to figure out what he did wrong, Leahan asked another question. "Professor, I have a question." "Griffin? Basilisk? Unicorn?" "No, not those." "Then what do you want to know?!" "It’s just… if all the students are late, how will you do the class?" "If I can’t teach everything, I’ll do it on the weekend." Professor Bendozol answered quickly, sounding annoyed. He didn’t want to teach on the weekend either, but Einrogaard’s rules made him do it. He really didn’t like it. "I see." "Come here! I need to see why the monsters didn’t even show up…" Professor Bendozol started to say. Then he noticed the boy from the Wodanaz family had run back into the forest. Unbelievably, the boy was going to bring the other students!