Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 801

Lee Han’s friends argued loudly. “Take it out!” one yelled. “All of it!” cried another. Even Lee Han, who was usually very calm, felt his patience wearing thin. “Wait,” he said, his voice rising. “If we remove everything, how will people want to give us money?” Silence fell. His friends just stared at him, looking tired and annoyed. Finally, one of them burst out, “It’s already too much!”

Lee Han, feeling annoyed by his friends, saw Senior Falcrius walking past. Falcrius was carrying a heavy, black iron pot. Lee Han called out, “Senior Falcrius, if you want people to help you or give you money, can you ever be truly ready?”

Falcrius stopped, chuckled, and said, “Hah! Never! You can always do more. Prepare a lot. Prepare too much! Even then, you will still need more!”

“Thank you, Senior,” Lee Han said.

“Don’t worry about it!” Falcrius replied, grinning, and continued on his way with his pot.

Falcrius’s words stopped Lee Han’s friends from arguing for a moment. “Wait,” one of them said, “Senior! We need to talk too!” But Falcrius was already walking away. “He heard us,” Lee Han said, a small smile on his face. “He said you can never prepare enough, remember?” His friends just glared at him. They knew that if they put everything Lee Han wanted into the self-introduction, people might think Einroguard was strange.

Yoner, looking worried, slowly raised his hand. “Lee Han,” he said quietly.

“Yes, Yoner?” Lee Han asked.

“What do you think about the Headmaster’s achievements when he was younger?”

Lee Han blinked, confused. The Headmaster? He thought for a moment. “He was… a very wild wizard?”

Yoner nodded slowly. “Maybe,” he said softly, “if people read what you wrote, they might think the same about you…”

Lee Han’s face fell. He looked hurt. Yoner felt bad for saying it and looked away. The other friends whispered, surprised. “Was that too harsh?” one murmured. “Comparing him to *that* Headmaster…”

“Quiet, everyone,” Lee Han said, trying to sound strong, “I just wrote what was needed!”

Finally, Lee Han finished a much shorter self-introduction. It mentioned that he was doing well in all his classes, had worked with wizards from outside the school, talked to older students, and learned advanced magic. ‘Hmm,’ Lee Han thought, feeling unsure. ‘Is this good enough?’

As he worried, Yukbertire and some other students from the Enchantment Magic School came out of the Blue Dragon Tower. This tower was connected to the village on the 7th floor. Lee Han didn’t really want to talk to them, especially Yukbertire, but they were older students, so he said hello anyway.

“Hello, Seniors.”

Yukbertire stopped and looked at him. “What are you doing?” he asked, his voice flat.

“We are preparing a self-introduction for visitors for Club Week,” Lee Han explained.

“I wasn’t really asking because I was interested,” Yukbertire said. “It was a way of telling you to help me with my research. Was that too hard to understand?”

Lee Han just stared at him, then glanced at the other Enchantment Magic School seniors behind Yukbertire. He was silently asking them for help. But these seniors, who had chosen to study Enchantment Magic even after knowing Professor Verdus, were different. They didn’t even seem to notice Yukbertire. They were all looking down at papers in their hands, completely lost in their own thoughts, ignoring Lee Han and Yukbertire completely.

‘What a terrible school,’ Lee Han thought angrily. ‘Even if they gave me mountains of gold, I wouldn’t give a single coin to the Enchantment Magic School.’

“Senior Diret told me I shouldn’t go to your workshop,” Lee Han said, remembering Diret’s warning.

“You could just sneak in,” Yukbertire replied, as if it was obvious.

“…What are you doing here, Senior?” Lee Han asked, changing the subject.

“The same reason as you, Club Week,” Yukbertire said. “Oh, and speaking of which, you don’t have many friends, do you?”

Lee Han was so surprised he couldn’t speak for a moment. This was coming from someone who seemed to only have one friend in the entire school – Diret!

“That’s not true,” Lee Han finally said.

“You are strange enough to be friends with Ilendil, and you are in the Black Magic School,” Yukbertire continued, ignoring Lee Han’s denial. “So your friendships are probably few and difficult, right? It doesn’t matter. Friends are not important for a wizard. But sometimes, you need to be social. To prepare for those times, I am inviting you to join my club.”

“What the…” Lee Han thought, realizing something. When someone talks nonsense, they don’t just say one thing, but many things at once. This makes it hard to argue back, and you react slower.

“What… club is it?” Lee Han asked, trying to catch up. “I didn’t know you were in any clubs, Senior.”

“The Einroguard Social Club,” Yukbertire announced.

Lee Han was even more shocked by the name. It seemed like the opposite of what someone like Yukbertire would be interested in. ‘Wait,’ he thought, ‘is it a *secret* club, not a *social* club?’ If it was some kind of evil group, Lee Han was ready to tell someone immediately. But no, surprisingly, it was really a *social* club.

Yukbertire explained, giving examples of why he started the club. “-Hey,” he said, imitating someone complaining, “This research presentation needs at least five enchanters in a group.”

“-What?” he continued in another voice, sounding confused. “Where am I going to find four other people?”

“-…You have so many people in your school, you idiot!” he said in an annoyed tone.

“-What does having lots of people in my school have to do with finding four people?” he replied in the confused voice again.

Yukbertire explained that it was easy to forget, if you were social like Lee Han, but many wizards in Einroguard were not social at all. Especially in the Enchantment Magic School, there were many wizards who preferred to be alone. This caused problems for them sometimes.

He gave more examples. “-Fancy party before the magic project… You need to bring a partner…”

“-I have no choice,” he said sadly, “I have to miss out on this project.”

“-The people giving money said they don’t want to support strange wizards who have no friends,” he said in a serious voice, “because they might cause accidents.”

“-What a strange person,” he said in a puzzled tone. “What do friends have to do with magic?”

Yukbertire himself had faced these kinds of problems, so he decided to find a solution. And that solution was the “Einroguard Social Club.”

He explained how it worked. “-Do you belong to any clubs?” someone might ask.

“-I am in the Einroguard Social Club,” you could reply proudly.

“-Do you have any hobbies?”

“-I am in the Einroguard Social Club.”

“-Do you have any close wizard friends?”

“-I am in the Einroguard Social Club.”

It was a strong defense against the difficult questions of social life. That was the “Einroguard Social Club.”

‘He really is crazy,’ Lee Han thought. He had always thought Yukbertire was strange, but now he realized he was even stranger than he thought.

“So, what kind of things does the club do?” Lee Han asked, trying to understand.

“Activities?” Yukbertire repeated, sounding confused.

“…Don’t clubs usually have activities?” Lee Han asked, surprised. Even the Location Movement Club had regular meetings and events.

“We just put our names on a list when we need more people,” Yukbertire explained.

“That’s not really an activity…” Lee Han said, but then stopped. “Okay, I understand. Anything else?”

“Not really,” Yukbertire said. “Spending too much time on club activities doesn’t help with magic.”

“Are there any rules?” Lee Han asked.

“Yes,” Yukbertire said.

“What are they?”

“No small talk,” Yukbertire stated firmly.

A social club with no small talk. It was certainly unusual. Lee Han tried to keep a straight face. “I’m already in many clubs,” he said, “so I’m fine.”

“Really?” Yukbertire said, sounding surprised. “That’s unexpected.”

‘Don’t ask why it’s unexpected,’ Lee Han thought quickly. ‘Don’t ask, don’t ask…’ He tried not to get angry at this strange senior. Talking to him was like walking into a swamp.

“I think I told you before…” Lee Han started to say, about being busy.

Yukbertire tilted his head, looking blank. He clearly didn’t remember anything Lee Han said unless it was important to him.

“…It’s nothing,” Lee Han sighed. “Anyway, is *that* why you came out here, Senior? Wait, you said there are no activities except for adding names to lists?”

“Donations are different,” Yukbertire corrected him.

Surprisingly, the “Einroguard Social Club” received money from people outside the school regularly. Because of the members’ amazing magic skills (mostly students from the Enchantment Magic School), their “social activities” (which were carefully described in documents), and other things, many people were impressed and wanted to give them money.

“People give money to *this* club?!” Lee Han asked, shocked.

“Excellent members. Perfect slogans. Great work,” Yukbertire said proudly. “It would be strange if we *didn’t* get donations.”

“Do you share all the money?” Lee Han asked, his eyes widening slightly.

Yukbertire nodded.

Hearing this, Lee Han immediately changed his mind. “Actually,” he said quickly, “I don’t have any friends at all, Senior. Please, help me.”

“I knew it,” Yukbertire said, nodding again. “I’ll add your name to the club list too.”

Saturday arrived. As the weekend began, visitors from outside the school started to arrive in the 7th-floor village. The students from the 2nd to 4th year, who were waiting for them, became excited.

“Look, it’s him!” one whispered loudly. “The master baker from the capital! He’s really here!”

“I can’t believe how much money he made from that magic dough that gets bigger when you bake it!” another student exclaimed.

Suddenly, students wearing aprons and carrying cooking pots rushed forward. “Get lost, everyone!” one of them shouted. “He’s a guest of the Kitchen Club! Anyone who comes near him will end up in the soup!” The Kitchen Club members stood guard, looking fierce, worried that other clubs would steal their important guest.

But the other students were just as determined. They were wizards, after all, and wizards didn’t give up easily. Suddenly, a loud *bang!* echoed through the village, followed by colorful sparks *pop pop pop!*

“Oh, what’s happening now?!” someone shouted. “A fusion spirit! Look, a fusion spirit has been summoned! It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event, my friend!”

“Wow! I have to see this!”

Older students, seniors, were desperately trying to get the visitors’ attention. They knew that if a visitor was curious and wanted to watch, the Kitchen Club couldn’t stop them.

“Interesting,” a visitor said, approaching the seniors. “May I take a look?”

“Tch, those guys…” muttered a Kitchen Club member, annoyed.

“Go ahead and try,” another senior called out to the Kitchen Club. “You won’t earn a single gold coin with your silly cooking tricks!”

“Be careful!” another student yelled to the visitor. “You might get kidnapped!”

“Haha, are you joking?” the visitor laughed.

“Is this your first time in Einroguard?” a student replied seriously. “You really *might* get kidnapped!”

‘It’s a festival,’ Lee Han thought to himself, watching the chaotic scene. ‘But it’s a pretty wild festival.’ He stood with his friends, waiting in the village, observing the seniors’ fierce competition. The air was filled with the smells of different foods, the sounds of excited voices, and the bright flashes of magic.

As more visitors, drawn by the noise and excitement, gathered around, the seniors used all sorts of tricks to attract them. “-Look at this poor little plant,” one senior said loudly, holding up a tiny, wilting sprout. “If you give it just a drop of this special liquid, it will come back to life, green and strong!”

“-What kind of liquid is it?” a visitor asked, curious.

“-Just a little…” the senior whispered dramatically, “…dragon’s blood…”

Lee Han and his friends watched, amused. “Shouldn’t we go and try to talk to some visitors too?” one of his friends asked.

“No,” Lee Han said. “Let’s wait a bit. If we go now, we’ll just get pushed around by those seniors.”

“Wodanaz,” another friend said, teasingly, “you’re not thinking of kidnapping anyone, are you?”

While they were talking, more visitors arrived, and even more seniors rushed towards them, eager to make their introductions. Soon, the self-introductions began, shouted out over the noise of the festival.

“Respected guests!” one senior announced loudly. “Welcome to our prestigious magic school! I am from the Summoning Magic School…”

Suddenly, someone yelled from the crowd, “Boo! Only 5th place!”

“5th place in Summoning Magic!” another voice shouted. “And he failed a class last year!”

“You are a disgrace to Einroguard!” someone else added.

Lee Han and his friends winced, embarrassed by the seniors’ unprofessional behavior. ‘I really don’t want to become like that,’ Lee Han thought.

Despite the chaotic introductions, some seniors were actually quite persuasive. Some visitors seemed interested and started to listen more closely. Suddenly, a voice spoke near Lee Han.

“Excuse me.”

Lee Han turned around. A visitor he had never seen before was standing there. The visitor wore clothes that were very different from anything Lee Han had seen in Einroguard. ‘Where are those clothes from?’ Lee Han wondered.

“I am looking for someone,” the visitor said, his voice calm.

“Ah, yes?” Lee Han replied. “Who are you looking for?”

“Lee Han of the Wodanaz family,” the visitor said. “Do you know him?”

“…I think I’ve heard of him,” Lee Han answered, without thinking. He realized that he was reacting more confidently now than he would have before coming to Einroguard. He had changed.

“But, excuse me,” Lee Han said, remembering his manners, “who are you?”

“I am Intarendals,” the visitor replied. “I have come on behalf of Gonadaltes.”

“…Ah,” Lee Han said, his eyes widening slightly. “You were a follower of the Headmaster?”

“Headmaster?” the visitor repeated, looking confused, as if he had never heard the word before. Lee Han’s face suddenly went pale.