Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 756

For a while, no one in the Watchers’ Club spoke. This was a group known for spreading rumors.

Iactus was still shocked. He slowly wrote shaky letters:

Iactus: …He’s really not the Headmaster, is he??

While the members of the Watchers’ Club were whispering about the identity of the new member, Ethan closed his book, left the tower, and moved on.

He had always been cautious about running into new students, but now he was even more so.

‘From now on, I should try to stay near the main building as much as possible,’ Ethan thought.

Ethan had questioned it when his seniors initially said, ‘As you go up in grades, you’ll only be active inside the main building.’

Of course, the inside of Einroguard’s main building was huge and confusing, like a maze that was much bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside.

Still, weren’t there many things that could only be found in the territory outside the main building?

Even if one became a senior student with little time and a difficult life, not going outside the main building?

But now he understood.

‘How can I go far when madmen like the Skull Headmaster’s clones come looking for you periodically?’

One had to be careful, as they could be kidnapped by a strange archmage at any moment.

…Of course, the reasons of the other students were very different from Ethan’s…

“Are you there?”

Ethan pushed open the heavy wooden door to Professor Verdus’s workshop, also a magic tower called the Hall of Holy Engravings, and went inside. The air inside smelled of burnt wood and bubbling potions. He stepped into the hall, the magic tower feeling cold and ancient around him.

As he went up to the second floor, he saw three senior enchantment magic students scattered around the wide workshop area. The senior students were hunched over their workbenches, their noses practically touching the glowing artifacts they were working on.

Ethan asked politely, “Excuse me, seniors. Do you know where Senior Yook-bel-ti-re’s workshop is?”

The seniors didn’t even look up from their work.

Ethan waited a moment, then spoke a little louder, “Seniors?”

Ethan thought he would have to use the same method he had used on Professor Verdus when the seniors didn’t answer.

“Senior!!!”

One of them jumped, startled. “What?! What do you want?!”

“Hello!”

“Why are you calling so loudly? Call quietly!”

“I’m sorry. I’ll keep that in mind next time. Do you happen to know where Senior Yook-bel-ti-re’s workshop is?”

“Uh. Don’t know.”

Ethan was slightly taken aback.

There was no way that an enchantment magic wizard of Yook-bel-ti-re’s caliber wouldn’t have a workshop in the Hall of Holy Engravings.

“You don’t have a workshop here in the Hall of Holy Engravings?”

“She probably does?”

“But you don’t know where she is?”

“Nope.”

Ethan asked with a smile.

“Do you happen to know where Professor Verdus’s workshop is?”

“Don’t know? Why would I?”

“I see. Thank you.”

Ethan sighed. ‘Great,’ he thought, ‘Just what I wanted – to wander around this giant tower looking for a workshop I can’t even pronounce the name of.’

The enchantment magic students might not even know each other’s names.

“Senior Yook-bel-ti-re?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not Senior Yook-bel-ti-re, are you?”

“Nope.”

“…Have a good day.”

“Yeah.”

After getting past the unhelpful magic students, Ethan was finally able to find Yook-bel-ti-re’s workshop.

The princess was using the entire third basement floor to conduct her research.

“Senior, are you there?”

“Come in.”

Yook-bel-ti-re put her jade glasses on the table and gestured.

Then, as if she expected it, she said,

“Yes. You must be interested in my research.”

Ethan was dumbfounded by her unfounded confidence.

“Senior. I was kidnapped by a clone until yesterday.”

“Hmm.”

Yook-bel-ti-re didn’t understand the meaning of Ethan’s words and pondered.

Then, as if she understood, she clapped her hands lightly.

“You were learning magic under the Headmaster’s clone, so you got inspiration. That inspiration is related to my research. Am I right?”

“…Actually, I came to ask you not to bother Senior Di-ret.”

Ethan took out the food basket he had brought as a bribe.

He had hoped that a food bribe would work, since she was Aden-art’s sister and related to Gai-nan-do.

Yook-bel-ti-re immediately replied as if it were absurd.

“You seem to be mistaken, but Di-ret is always the one bothering me. I have never bothered Di-ret. I have always respected her.”

Ethan recited three times in his mind, ‘The other party is a senior, and this is the senior’s workshop, so if I attack rashly, I might get hit back,’ and then opened his mouth.

“Actually, I don’t want to debate the definition of ‘bothering,’ Senior.”

“Listen. You’ll understand if you listen too. When we entered the school, Di-ret majored in black magic. I advised Di-ret. There’s no future for you in that major, come to enchantment magic. Then Di-ret cast a curse on my face. So. Who do you think bothered whom?”

“I think Senior bothered Senior Di-ret.”

“Ha!”

Yook-bel-ti-re sighed coldly, as if she were disappointed.

To think that a junior whose abilities she had acknowledged would say such foolish things.

“Senior. Didn’t I ask for Senior Di-ret’s help in exchange for helping with the rescue? But frankly, how effective was your help?”

“That’s a sharp point. You’re right. The output was too insufficient.”

Yook-bel-ti-re readily admitted it.

She had prepared a way to find and destroy the weak point of the magic, but she didn’t have the means to do so.

“I’ll help you as much as I can, so please don’t call Senior Di-ret to this research anymore.”

“Alright.”

Yook-bel-ti-re surprisingly admitted it readily.

Ethan asked in surprise.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Really, you won’t need Senior Di-ret’s help in the future?”

“Di-ret doesn’t help with the research anyway?”

For a moment, Ethan wondered if he had misheard.

She doesn’t help?

“Wait. Wasn’t Senior Di-ret supposed to help with the research in exchange for helping with the rescue?”

“She was. But as you pointed out, her help wasn’t very effective. Di-ret pointed that out and persuaded me. I accepted it. Wait. I can use this as another piece of evidence that Di-ret is bothering me.”

Yook-bel-ti-re questioned in a cold voice.

After all, no matter how she thought about it, Di-ret was bothering her.

Such arbitrary stubbornness.

“So, even if I hadn’t helped, Senior Di-ret wouldn’t have participated in this research?”

“Well. Di-ret might have repented and come to help.”

“…Senior. Please keep it a secret from Senior Di-ret that I’m helping with the research.”

“?”

Yook-bel-ti-re tilted her head slightly, not understanding why her junior was saying such a thing.

The research was the same as he had seen during the last winter vacation: Artificial Dimension Artifact.

It was a grand project to artificially create a new, isolated dimension according to the wizard’s will.

“I learned something from the last failure.”

“Don’t trust other wizards?”

“That’s a good lesson too. I’ll tell Di-ret.”

Trusting other wizards was one of the causes of failure, but Yook-bel-ti-re also felt the need to improve the fundamental structure of the artifact.

The current artificial dimension artifact had a structure that continuously accelerated magic power by connecting dozens, even hundreds, of magic circles.

The magic power accelerated in the first magic circle was accelerated once more in the second magic circle, and accelerated again in the third magic circle…

Even if it was a very small size, creating an artificial dimension required that much power, so it was an inevitable choice.

However, this excessively detailed and complex structure would lead to irreversible results even with just one mistake in one of the magic circles.

There was no problem when Yook-bel-ti-re herself managed and supervised everything from beginning to end, but the moment external wizards participated, it became a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.

Just last time, it had been distorted into an elliptical shape due to a very minor mistake and connected to an uncertain dimension.

“I’m thinking of two main things. One is to simplify part of the structure. The other is a safety device to detect the dimension in advance.”

Reduce the number of magic circles and combine some to reduce the probability of mistakes, and at the same time, add an artifact that detects and detects in advance in case it connects to an uncertain dimension.

It was a rational improvement method that even Ethan, who had little interest in this research, could understand.

“I see. Is my role to inject magic power to replenish it when you combine a magic circle?”

“One of the roles.”

Yook-bel-ti-re was satisfied with her junior’s answer.

She was very pleased with how quickly he understood, unlike other juniors who had to be told five or ten times.

There would inevitably be a loss of magic power in the process of improving the connected magic circles into one magic circle, so a way to replenish it was needed.

Originally, it was quite complicated, but if there was a wizard who could inject magic power, it was a problem that could be solved in an instant.

“Then sit down and wait.”

“Yes.”

Ethan sat down and read >Escape from Einroguard> while waiting.

Yook-bel-ti-re shuffled and sorted through hundreds of stacked papers, constantly drawing new magic circles.

‘Hmm,’ Ethan thought.

After about an hour, Ethan wondered if he could ask if it was still far off.

But since his senior seemed to be so focused, he took out a toy from his pocket and played with the basilisk.

The baby basilisk was very happy, making a hissing sound.

‘By the way, those Watchers’ Club guys. They can’t even distinguish fake news,’ Ethan thought.

Ethan vowed to confront Beaver-Penguin-Fox next time he saw them.

It wasn’t for nothing that an ominous animal was included in the pseudonym. What if they brought rumors that hadn’t been properly confirmed?

Another hour or so passed like that.

Yook-bel-ti-re raised her head with the most tired face in the world. Her voice was half-hoarse.

“It’s done. Come over here and inject magic power.”

“Yes.”

Ethan approached the artifact as Yook-bel-ti-re instructed and injected magic power. A part of the artifact was newly modified with a flash of light.

A huge amount of magic power flowed out, but Ethan was not particularly affected.

“Is that… is that it?” Ethan asked, looking at the changed artifact.

Yook-bel-ti-re sighed. “Almost. Now,” she said, pointing to another stack of papers, “we have to do the next part.”

Yook-bel-ti-re sat back down at the table where hundreds of papers were stacked and began to draw new magic circles.

‘So, to improve all of this…?’ Ethan thought.

While he was calculating how many years it would take and whether he could graduate and escape before then, he heard a thud in front of him. Ethan was startled and raised his head.

Yook-bel-ti-re had collapsed.

“Are you alright?!”

“I’ve consumed too few nutrients…”

Ethan was dumbfounded by her cool way of saying she was starving.

Aden-art and Gai-nan-do both take good care of their meals, so what was she doing at the age of 5th grade?

“I happen to have brought some snacks, so please have some. Here. There are sandwiches.”

“Does it have cheese in it?”

Ethan was pleased, thinking that she was indeed a member of the royal family with her gluttony that identified ingredients like a ghost.

“Yes.”

“I don’t really like cheese.”

“…Oh, I see. Then please have this sandwich with ham and eggs.”

“I don’t really like ham either…”

Yook-bel-ti-re took out all the ingredients in the sandwich one by one and then munched on the bread crumbs with satisfaction.

“Your cooking skills are decent. You’re almost as good as the imperial chef.”

Yook-bel-ti-re, who had eaten a meal of one piece of bread and a sip of cocoa, immediately signaled that she was full.

While Ethan was dumbfounded, the door to the workshop opened and Di-ret came in.

“Hey. I’ll help you. You may have been incompetent, but you tried…”

Ethan, who made eye contact with Di-ret, froze on the spot.

Ethan said urgently.

“…I just came to see it by chance!”

“You came to help with the research, didn’t you?”

Ethan pushed the obstructive senior aside. Yook-bel-ti-re tumbled down under the sofa with a crash.