Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 812

I won.

Lee Han sighed in relief.

Bakwantallana and Bulgasari, who had been punished for trying to tell the truth, quietly disappeared.

‘I’m sorry. Blame me when the truth comes out later.’

Lee Han promised himself that if the truth ever came out and people started yelling, “Hey, liar!”, he would stay silent.

Lee Han won this time because he was lucky.

The students at Valdrogard had spread a rumor that he was older, maybe a fifth or sixth grader.

‘If people think I’m older and more powerful, they won’t suspect a second-year student of doing something amazing… or suspicious.’

In that way, Bulgasari was a strange person.

How could he suspect Lee Han in this situation?

Did he have a good sense for these things, or did he know something Lee Han didn’t?

‘I should have made him seem like more of a liar. I need to buy time for the rumor to spread.’

It didn’t matter if the truth came out later, but the rumor needed to spread a little more first.

It would be easier to make excuses if that happened.

“Hey, junior. What are you doing here?”

Lee Han, who was alone in the empty classroom trying to change what people thought, jumped at the sound of the voice.

Dirette walked down the hallway. She saw her junior, Lee Han, and stopped to ask a question.

“I was looking at magic for next week!”

“…Oh, really.”

‘Oops.’

Lee Han realized he had spoken without thinking when he saw the look on his senior’s face.

He was looking at magic alone in the classroom on a weekend when the festival was happening.

Anyone who saw him would think he was obsessed with magic.

“I was just doing it for a bit! Just a bit! It just came to me!”

“It’s not often that someone studies because it just comes to them, but… okay. Junior, come with me for a bit. I’ll show you something.”

Dirette gestured like it was a good thing.

Usually, Dirette looked tired, annoyed, or like she felt sorry for everyone. But today was different. She was smiling, actually smiling, with real joy in her eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

“Oh? Really? Does it show? Hehe.”

‘Did he really get locked up?’

Lee Han was even more confused when Dirette spoke with excitement.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen the skeleton headmaster lately.

“Should I tell you? No. Junior. It’s better to wait a bit and see it for yourself… No. Should I just tell you now?”

“Are you okay?”

“Ah. I’m okay. Was I talking nonsense?”

Dirette cleared her throat and tried to calm down.

No matter how excited she was, she had to act like a respectable senior.

When her wings stopped fluttering, Dirette started to explain again.

“Junior. Don’t be surprised when you hear this. Okay? Don’t faint. Promise.”

“…Di, Did the headmaster really get locked up?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing. So, what is it?”

“…The Dark Magic Department got a donation!!”

“Ah.”

Lee Han finally understood.

The news that the Intarendals (Dalcard) family had donated gold coins must have just reached Dirette.

“…Aren’t you happy? Don’t you care?”

Dirette looked at her junior with a mix of disappointment and embarrassment.

She was sure that her junior would be very happy when he heard this news.

She already felt bad that her second-year junior was earning gold coins with his small hands and filling the Dark Magic Department’s vault.

She thought that the Dark Magic Department wouldn’t have to do such dirty things anymore…

Lee Han realized his mistake and threw himself backward.

He fell backward and shouted, and the baby basilisk in his sleeve was startled and screamed.

“…You’re really bad at acting.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’m so surprised that I don’t understand!”

“Hey. Stop it. More than that, did you know about this?”

“Yes.”

“How?? I just heard about it, and you weren’t even there?”

“Um. You have to keep this a secret.”

“I promise! Tell me.”

Lee Han briefly explained what had happened this weekend.

A crazy doppelganger bringing back an old servant, and the old servant using the family’s money to get in…

Dirette fell backward in surprise.

“Oh, so there was a reason to act just now?”

“This is a real surprise… You stupid junior!”

She grumbled, took Lee Han’s hand, and got up from the hallway.

Dirette was upset.

No matter how she looked at it, it felt like she had taken money that felt wrong for selling her junior.

The happy feeling she had when she heard the news of the donation disappeared, and she only felt sad.

“Wait. Junior. Did you show ancient magic to the other school kids?”

“…Yes? I don’t know. Maybe You-know-who…”

“Youkbeltire came to bother me, so I asked him what was going on. He said it was nothing, but that couldn’t be true, so I kept asking him, and he said there was a rumor that he used forbidden ancient magic, what’s that about?”

“…Gasp!”

‘The rumor is spreading faster than I thought.’

Lee Han was a little impressed.

The members of the Watcher’s Club seemed to talk more than he thought. It had already reached Youkbeltire himself.

“Isn’t that a good thing? Isn’t your reputation spreading far and wide?”

“…Junior, you… that’s not how a normal second-year student thinks… ?”

“Actually, I heard it from Senior Falcarius.”

Lee Han didn’t hesitate to blame someone else.

He was starting to feel like he was walking on a tightrope, but he couldn’t help it.

“It’s not bad, but Youkbeltire has a bigger ego than you think. He gets really upset when he gets praised for something he didn’t do. Even before, he couldn’t finish his assignment on time and collapsed, so I secretly helped him, and he was really sulky and didn’t talk to me for a week.”

“That’s terrible!”

“Th, that’s not… right? It might be for you.”

Dirette remembered what Youkbeltire had done to her junior and wasn’t sure if she should defend him or not.

“…Anyway. You did it, right? The moment I heard it from Youkbeltire, I thought of you, junior, but I just couldn’t believe where you would have learned such ancient magic.”

“Yes. Actually, I did it.”

Lee Han gave up and admitted it.

He explained as best he could that the crazy doppelganger was holding a wand and threatening him, so he couldn’t help it.

Dirette felt sorry for her junior.

“That damn doppelganger really…! We need to get rid of him quickly.”

“You’re right!”

“But junior. Can you explain in detail what kind of magic it was?”

Dirette looked at her junior, her black eyes shining with curiosity.

“Ah, no. I just want to learn more about it… It’s forbidden dark magic from ancient times… I’m curious… No. Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

Still, Lee Han started to explain about the Black Emperor’s Crown.

About a third of the explanation was about cursing the crazy doppelganger, Callarogard, and Valdrogard students.

Dirette didn’t say anything because she felt guilty for making her junior, who had gone through a difficult time, talk about magic.

“How can a fourth-year student come here? Those Valdro jerks! I heard that Valdrogard is different if you’re a fourth-year student, but I was completely fooled!”

“Ah. Well… that’s… that’s right. It’s not that there aren’t students in Valdrogard who sometimes study magic seriously…”

“Really?”

Lee Han reacted like he didn’t believe it, just like when he heard the words, ‘There are also good professors in the Empire.’

Did they really exist?

“…That kind of guy usually doesn’t come to Einrogard to play during this festival season.”

That was definitely true.

If he was a Valdrogard student who studied magic seriously, he would value every day and study, not hire people to come to Einrogard to play.

“Anyway, this is how you summon it. I heard that the demigod’s power can be controlled by the wizard. In the past, dark wizards created a demigod to control the water to create an underwater city…”

Dirette wrote down her junior’s words on the paper, her eyes shining brightly.

How many more chances would she have to hear the secrets that had been lost to the ancient dark wizards?

“Senior. Aren’t you enjoying this too much?”

“…Th, there’s no harm in learning.”

Click!

At that moment, the Stone of Echoes shone again, and a vision appeared.

The crazy doppelganger glared at Lee Han like he couldn’t believe it and said.

“You figured out the structure.”

“My student touched this and that by accident… I’m sorry.”

“Is this a dark wizard’s workshop?”

The crazy doppelganger looked around, noticing the feeling coming from Professor Mortum’s Tower, the Black Rock Hall.

“It seems to have been made by a pretty good dark wizard.”

Lee Han was surprised by the crazy doppelganger’s words. It was rare for him to praise a wizard like that.

‘Well, if you think about it, he’s a distant student.’

The doppelganger had been separated from the skeleton headmaster a long time ago, and Professor Mortum was now a student who learned from the skeleton headmaster, so it wasn’t strange that the crazy doppelganger liked Professor Mortum’s magic.

But there was one strange thing.

“What is it?”

“It’s too empty. Has it been robbed by thieves?”

The two dark magic department students were silent.

Lee Han couldn’t explain directly, so he said it indirectly.

“I think so.”

“Those trash dare… commoners. Find those thieves and make them pay.”

“Yes! I’ll erase them from this world!”

Dirette looked at her junior with pity.

The crazy doppelganger saw Dirette. He looked at her coldly and said.

“Is she the workshop owner’s student? You’re pretty good too.”

“No!”

Lee Han shouted in surprise.

If the crazy doppelganger took not only him but also Dirette as a student…

She was already unhappy enough as a fifth-year student. That was too much.

“What are you talking about?”

“Weren’t you going to take her as a student?”

“…commoner. If you say nonsense one more time, I’ll turn your tongue into lead. Would I take a pebble on the street as a student? She’s weak and doesn’t have a cruel nature. It’s a fatal weakness.”

“That’s not a compliment…”

Lee Han stopped before he could argue.

‘Wait. Then what about me?’

While he was feeling bad, the crazy doppelganger asked again.

“Who is the owner of this workshop?”

“It’s Professor Mortum.”

“What’s that?”

Dirette answered instead.

She was very blunt because she was angry at the ancient being who was bothering her junior.

“He’s a senior in the same department.”

“I see. Knock both of them do…”

Pop!

Lee Han turned off the Stone of Echoes again.

“Humph. Tell your nonsense to someone else.”

Dirette was embarrassed by what she saw.

…Is it okay to do this to an ancient being?!