Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 840

“Oh, no, I’m not,” Lee Han answered, a little too slowly, as if he was surprised by the question.

Professor Garcia sighed, a low grumble that sounded like he knew all the secrets of the universe. He leaned back in his wooden chair, the old wood creaking softly.

“You don’t have to cover for him, Lee Han,” Professor Garcia said, his voice gentle but firm. “Lagesa has always been like that. He’s one of those teachers who thinks it’s only fun if he’s making students miserable.”

*Oh, dear,* Lee Han thought to himself, his eyes widening slightly. He was speechless.

Lee Han thought, ‘Professor Garcia is so important to Einroguard. What would happen if he wasn’t here?’

It was a truly dangerous thought, but it could be worse than Valdrogard.

“Ignore such nonsense.”

“I am, Lee Han. Shall we take our quiz, then?”

“…Yes.”

“Just kidding. There’s no quiz.”

The lecture didn’t exactly have pop quizzes.

In Professor Garcia’s view, there was no need to create separate pop quizzes to test the students in this lecture.

“Professor!”

“Happy, aren’t you?”

“Well, I am happy, but I’m worried about you, Professor. Isn’t the Headmaster going to send you to the punishment room?”

Professor Garcia’s heart ached at the sight of his student, already too mature for a second-year.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going.”

“Really? Professor Verdus went to the punishment room for skipping a quiz without permission, didn’t he?”

Professor Garcia cursed Professor Verdus inwardly.

Professor Verdus was really teaching him all the right lessons.

“Professor Verdus, as you know, has his… own interests…”

“You mean that purpose of abandoning the students and wanting to research only his own magic?”

“…Thank you for putting it so concretely, Lee Han. Anyway, Professor Verdus has a lot of prior offenses, so he often goes to the punishment room. I don’t have any prior offenses.”

The Skeleton Headmaster enjoyed sending people to the punishment room, but he didn’t just send them without reason.

Especially the faculty. If one person was missing, there would be a gap in the lectures right away.

So, the Skeleton Headmaster sent people to the punishment room based on cold, hard judgment.

Professor Verdus skipped a pop quiz -> Professor Verdus would have done it with an evil intention, so off to the punishment room.

Professor Garcia skipped a pop quiz -> Professor Garcia would have done it with good intentions, so no problem.

“It’s like that.”

‘No. He’s surprisingly fair?’

Lee Han was slightly impressed.

As expected of the Headmaster, he was quite fair in these matters.

“And if I go to the punishment room, there will be a lot of gaps in the Einroguard’s work… For similar reasons, fifth-year students don’t go very often either.”

“What about Professor Verdus?”

“Professor Verdus isn’t missed much even when he’s away.”

Lee Han was speechless.

Just how much was he slacking off…!

“Thank you, Professor.”

“Eh. Lee Han doesn’t have to thank me separately. I decided that because I didn’t think the quiz was necessary. You’ll be busy this week anyway, so take it easy even for today’s lecture.”

Professor Garcia handed him a freshly brewed coffee.

Today, he was thinking of asking Lee Han how he had been doing rather than lecturing.

“Come to think of it, Lee Han. I heard that you all visited the Spirit King’s domain together.”

“Cough.”

Professor Garcia looked very worried when Lee Han choked.

“Are you okay!? Was the coffee too hot?!”

“Ah, no. I was just surprised. The information transfer between professors is too fast…”

“Ah. Teaching students is an important job, after all.”

It didn’t seem like he could just gloss over it with those words.

Lee Han calmed his tingling throat and put down the coffee cup.

“Is that the new staff?”

“Yes. It’s not finished yet. I have to process the black magnetite and fit it here.”

“Lee Han. This is too much of an ancient magic style, isn’t it? Did the Headmaster order you to do this?”

Professor Garcia was puzzled when he saw the half-finished Caduceus-shaped staff.

Most of the current staff forms in the Empire consisted of a special material that acted as the staff’s core and a stable material that wrapped around the outside of the material.

This structure allowed for efficient and stable magic.

However, if you didn’t create a separate core like this and just intertwined the two materials, the stability would be greatly reduced.

The magician had to be much more careful in exchange for output.

Moreover, he was using two ridiculous materials: black magnetite and the Spirit King’s sacred tree…

“Yes.”

Lee Han immediately agreed, as he had been blaming the Black Book. Professor Garcia was very upset by that answer and shouted.

“I don’t know why he’s recommending such an old-fashioned style for the staff! You’re already using sufficiently dangerous magic, and now he wants you to use even more dangerous magic!”

‘Seems right…’

Lee Han, who was thinking inwardly, asked cautiously.

“Can this form be changed?”

“It’s hard because there’s a strong spirit inside, Lee Han. You’d have to wake it up and then control it…”

Waking it up took a lot of effort, and controlling it took even more.

Lee Han recalled the appearance of the Fighting Victory Tree King when it was rampaging.

He had been beaten up and lowered his tail, but he was a guy who would attack Lee Han again if he regained his strength.

‘I’ll just have to give up and do it.’

“Well… if there are disadvantages, there are also advantages. I’m going to try to be satisfied with the advantages,” Lee Han said, trying not to grit his teeth. Professor Garcia nodded as if he understood.

“Then Professor Verdus will sh… I mean, please do it.”

“Do what?”

“Process the black magnetite. Professor Verdus is good at it.”

“Is that possible? Ah. In exchange?”

Professor Verdus was the type of person who wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to do, even if he was killed, but he was surprisingly willing to accept exchanges.

If Lee Han asked him to process the black magnetite in exchange for his labor, he would be able to do it.

“Exchange? What are you going to exchange it for, Lee Han?”

“Helping you with your work or…”

“There’s no need for that. I helped Professor Verdus with something, so Professor Verdus should help me too.”

“…Professor…!”

Lee Han felt grateful for his teacher’s generosity.

Professor Garcia was trying to use his connection with Professor Verdus to get Lee Han’s staff fixed.

“Let’s go together after the lecture… No. It’s better to go alone.”

“Shall we go together? I think it would be better to show you the staff right away.”

“Hmm.”

Professor Garcia hesitated.

If he went to see Professor Verdus, there would definitely be some harsh conversations, and he didn’t want to take his student with him.

-Professor. Last time, I patrolled for you, graded the exams for you, prepared the assignments for you, made the artifacts to put on the criminals for you, and managed the materials for you, so can you please take a look at Lee Han’s staff?

-Huh? No.

-Hey!

…He didn’t want to let a second-year student hear such a conversation.

But Lee Han was no match for him. He had naturally expected it.

‘Professor Garcia is too kind, so he can be scammed if he meets an evil person like Professor Verdus.’

If Professor Verdus went to collect his debt and came back with more requests, Lee Han might collapse with his hands on the back of his neck.

Lee Han suddenly remembered Dirett, who was jumping up and down and getting angry.

‘…Huh. Is that why Dirett was angry every time he saw me?’

Lee Han shook his head as he pondered.

He was different from Professor Garcia.

Unlike the kind Professor Garcia, he was acting selfishly enough.

‘I’m definitely different.’

“Sigh. Okay, Lee Han. Let’s go together after the lecture. Was there anything else?”

“Um…”

Lee Han recalled the conversation he had with the crazy doppelganger just before he came here.

Besides the story of the Skeleton Headmaster’s past and the hour-long scolding, there were a few more stories.

-So, you cast the microcosm, you wretch?

-Yes. Dendrobium and Basilios…

-Then you can use it now.

-No?

-……

-I’m sorry. But I can’t even use 5-circle magic right now…

-Does saying sorry change the impossible magic? Hurry up, you wretch. When will you have at least the minimum honor as a disciple?

‘It seems like it’ll be hard even when the world ends.’

The crazy doppelganger advised him to use the microcosm a few more times using the Black Book.

There were often cases where high-level magic would bloom on its own if he forcibly put it into his brain and cast it, whether he vomited blood or not.

If it was the talent of the boy from the Wodanaz family, it was even more likely.

-But won’t I go crazy if I fail?

-Are you worried about madness before you even cast it?

-Ah, yes…

Lee Han, having finished his recollection, made a decision.

I shouldn’t tell Professor Garcia!

‘If I told him, he might be shocked and collapse.’

“Lee Han. Are you perhaps trying to cut out the dangerous things so that I don’t worry?”

‘Gasp.’

“No. Why would you think that?”

“I suddenly had that thought…”

“That’s not it, I was thinking about something else. Do you know about the Headmaster’s past?”

“There’s so much, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“…That, when he was alive. Did you know he was a prince of a small country?”

“Of course, I know.”

“!”

Lee Han was surprised.

“Ah. Did you see a history book?”

“No… The Headmaster tells me when he’s bored, Lee Han.”

Come to think of it, that was the case.

Professors, not students, had much longer contact hours, so they must have heard much more boasting.

“Then have you heard of this?”

Lee Han explained the goal that the crazy doppelganger was thinking about.

That goal of removing the poison from the world with the power of magic.

Professor Garcia listened to his student’s words with a serious expression.

“No. I’ve never heard of it.”

“What do you think?”

“Usually, those kinds of wizards become magic criminals…”

Lee Han was silent.

“Ah, no. I’m sorry. I should have thought about it a little more before I spoke, Lee Han.”

“Thank you for being honest with me…”

Professor Garcia wasn’t completely wrong.

Wizards who try to do impossible things often either work forever without success, or they become crazy and dangerous.

“I would have ignored it if it were another wizard, but I’m a little worried because the Headmaster’s doppelganger is doing that. I don’t know what he’s going to do when it’s impossible.”

“Is it really impossible?”

“Well, Lee Han. I don’t know everything about magic. The more I learn about magic, the more I feel like we know nothing about magic. It might really be possible. But rather than whether it’s possible or impossible, shouldn’t we be thinking about whether the method is right or wrong? Lee Han?”

“You’re right.”

Lee Han agreed with Professor Garcia’s words.

It’s not a question of whether it’s possible or impossible, but whether the path is right or wrong?

“He asked me to continue on the path, anyway. I think the reason he descended was because he had regrets in this area.”

“…You should have said that first!”

Professor Garcia shouted angrily.

What kind of nonchalant conversation was this when he might be burdened with that karma?

“Ah, no. It’s not confirmed yet. In my opinion, the doppelganger might give up because he’s frustrated with teaching me.”

“It doesn’t… seem… like…”

In the professor’s view, the least likely thing was that the crazy doppelganger would give up and go back because he didn’t like his disciple.

No matter how he thought about it, it wasn’t easy to find a disciple like Lee Han again.

“Sigh. That’s it, Lee Han. You won’t listen even if I stop you. You’re going to go find him again and learn magic.”

“No… I’m not.”

Lee Han was flustered when he saw the professor he trusted and followed showing clear signs of disappointment.