Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 852

Seviuseu was the most calm as he checked the sixth compartment of the backpack.

Even as Jandannee was touched by the idea of friendship and Leehahn looked serious, Seviuseu calmly examined the inside.

“…Wait a moment,” he said.

“What is it?” Leehahn asked.

“It looks like someone opened it before. Look here.” Seviuseu cast a spell to show the sixth compartment as a magical picture. The enlarged view of the compartment appeared before them.

It looked like the workshop of a wizard who had retired. But instead of taking his things, he seemed to have left them for someone else.

There was a birch workbench for examining magic ingredients, a fancy alchemy pot with eight burners, drawers of reagent jewels organized by color, a bookshelf with wands and spellbooks, and a box filled with gold and silver coins.

Leehahn looked puzzled and asked, “Could it be that the Einroguard senior filled this up before closing the space?”

“No. That’s…” Seviuseu started.

“Ah! That’s definitely strange! It doesn’t make sense that an Einroguard student would have piled up those jewels, gold, and silver coins here,” Leehahn said, hitting his fist into his palm as if he understood.

Seviuseu glared at him and said, “…Look next to it, too.”

“?” Leehahn turned to look. There were letters written on the wall of the sixth compartment.

‘To remember my friendship with my good Einroguard friend, I leave my passion for the Einroguard student who opens this backpack instead of a Baldroguard student. I hope you use it well. And please forgive the Baldroguard student if they mess things up.’ -Ipfeldrem

“S-Senior!” Jandannee shouted, surprised by the name of the legendary Baldroguard senior. “It’s the senior’s name! The one who passed down this bag!”

“…Why are those letters written there?” Leehahn wondered.

“That’s… Could it be that the senior knew something like this would happen?” Jandannee said, offering an idea.

He thought that if the senior had opened the interdimensional maze and heard the message from his friend, he would have been touched by their friendship, even if it was late.

And then he would have thought, ‘Einroguard and Baldroguard are supposed to work together to lead the empire…’

“…Ah, this guy, really,” Seviuseu muttered.

“Senior! Why are you doing this!” Leehahn tried to hit him, but Seviuseu stopped him. It was scary when someone who was usually calm suddenly got angry.

Jandannee asked, surprised, “Why, why are you doing this?”

“Keep going, but leave out the part about working together!” Seviuseu said.

“…Anyway, the senior might have thought that the misunderstanding between Einroguard and Baldroguard should be fixed so they could become closer. ‘Einroguard students have magic, and Baldroguard students have honor…’”

“……”

“……”

Jandannee flinched at the angry looks from the two wizards. “D-Did I say something wrong again?”

“Continue,” Seviuseu said.

“…that can be shared.”

But misunderstandings are not easily fixed.

So the senior closed the backpack again and left it for his juniors, hoping that one day they would open it and be touched by the goodwill of the Einroguard friend.

“Then why leave it for the Einroguard students?” Leehahn asked.

“It’s simple. The Baldroguard students won’t be able to open it, so they’ll ask an Einroguard student for help, and then they’ll see this together,” Jandannee explained.

“…What nonsense… Does that make sense?” Leehahn asked.

“But it happened like this…” Jandannee said, hesitant but still trying to explain.

“…Really?” Leehahn wondered.

“Senior, tell me that’s not right!” Leehahn pleaded.

“…Um,” Seviuseu mumbled.

“Senior!” Leehahn shouted.

But Seviuseu stayed quiet, unable to argue.

Garal, still surprised, said, “So, the Baldroguard senior opened this himself, read his friend’s message, filled it with gifts, and then closed it again?”

“Yes!” Jandannee confirmed.

“A wizard that skilled was in Baldroguard?” Garal asked.

“…What do you mean?” Jandannee asked.

“Ah, no…” Garal said, looking away from Jandannee’s glare.

Leehahn, who had recovered a bit, whispered to Seviuseu, “Then that wizard, Ipfeldrem, must have met his Einroguard friend again, right?”

“Probably,” Seviuseu replied.

“That’s a relief,” Leehahn said.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Seviuseu said.

“Yes? Why? Because he kept being friends with a Baldroguard student?” Leehahn asked.

“…Not that, but if he went to meet the Einroguard senior, he would have been dragged to the disciplinary chamber. The headmaster wouldn’t have let it go,” Seviuseu explained.

The Skull Headmaster was nice to outsiders, but other magic school students were different. If he secretly met a student in the disciplinary chamber, the Headmaster would have locked him up.

“Hey, that’s nothing. Everyone goes to the disciplinary chamber at least once, right?” Leehahn said.

“……”

Seviuseu almost said, ‘Outsiders never come back after going to the disciplinary chamber,’ but stopped himself.

“It’s good that the misunderstanding ended well,” Seviuseu said.

“That’s true,” Leehahn agreed.

“But just giving this backpack to any Einroguard student and then blocking the space again… it seems he didn’t learn anything from the disciplinary chamber,” Seviuseu said.

‘He’s my junior, but he can be scary sometimes,’ Seviuseu thought, shuddering at Leehahn’s coldness. How could he say that after seeing all this?

“Here, please take this,” Jandannee said, holding out the backpack. After seeing the senior’s message, he understood why it was left for the Baldroguard students. It was meant to be given to an Einroguard student who could share friendship.

‘Senior, I think I understand your intentions now,’ Jandannee thought.

“But this is something we took anyway…” Leehahn started.

“Shhh. Be quiet,” Seviuseu said, covering his mouth. There was no need to cause trouble when the other person was ending things well and even giving them something.

Leehahn carried the backpack and left the Visitor’s Lodging village with Seviuseu. Seviuseu surprisingly let him have the backpack without any complaints or payment.

“Are you really okay with this?” Leehahn asked.

“Yeah. I was going to bring it because I thought it was an Einroguard item. But it’s right for you to have it, according to the senior’s wishes,” Seviuseu said.

“?” Leehahn tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“It was left to a Baldroguard friend, and the Baldroguard friend left it to a future Einroguard friend,” Seviuseu explained.

Leehahn was shocked. “He’s not my friend???”

It wasn’t easy to become friends with a fourth-year Baldroguard student who acted like a sixth-year. Where should he even start?

Seviuseu replied, sounding annoyed, “Then go give it back.”

“Come to think of it, I guess I can consider him a friend,” Leehahn said, giving up immediately.

It wasn’t exciting, but he could handle it when he thought about the backpack and the things inside.

‘Alright, I got this artifact, I can be his friend,’ he thought.

Leehahn checked the items in the sixth compartment again. The magic items, reagent jewels, and box of gold coins were especially appealing.

‘Do Baldroguard guys pile up things like this in their workshops and do magic? That’s crazy,’ he thought. It was more like luxury than magic.

Seviuseu was quiet, deep in thought. Leehahn asked, “What’s wrong, Senior? Is there anything inside you want?”

If Seviuseu wanted to divide the items, Leehahn was willing to share. Seviuseu could take the items from the first to fifth compartments, and Leehahn would take the sixth.

“I was thinking about why the interdimensional maze was cursed earlier,” Seviuseu said.

“Didn’t he do it just in case?” Leehahn asked.

“If the headmaster or Professor Verdus had found it, they would have opened it right away,” Seviuseu explained. The Einroguard senior had to prepare for other situations besides his friend opening it normally, especially since it was made by stealing the Skull Headmaster and Professor Verdus’s things.

‘I need to be careful too,’ Leehahn thought, vowing to change the backpack’s appearance as soon as he got back. The headmaster and professor were persistent.

“It would have been cursed originally, but this was opened and closed again by a Baldroguard student. If he had re-cursed it, he would have known his juniors would be in danger,” Seviuseu pointed out.

If the juniors opened the bag later and were hit by a curse, friendship would be forgotten in favor of revenge.

Seviuseu couldn’t understand why it wasn’t cursed. “Instead of opening it by force like us, I think he would have left advice on how to open it properly… That’s strange.”

“Ah, I think I know,” Leehahn said.

“What is it?” Seviuseu asked.

“Baldroguard guys never read magic books, so the senior used the backpack but threw away the book with instructions, thinking it was a magic book. What do you think?” Leehahn suggested.

“……”

Seviuseu worried that Leehahn hated Baldroguard too much. ‘But… it does sound possible!’ he thought.

“Where did you get this bag?” Yoner asked.

“I got it from a Baldroguard student,” Leehahn replied.

“Indeed. You snatched it,” Yoner said.

“No, I said I received it,” Leehahn insisted.

“Yeah, I get it,” Yoner said sarcastically.

“……”

Leehahn looked upset at his friends’ reactions. “Yoner, does ‘received’ sound like ‘snatched’ to you?”

“Huh? Yeah,” Yoner replied.

“…I really received it,” Leehahn insisted.

“What? How?!” Yoner was even more surprised than when he first saw the artifact. “How did you just receive this?”

“So… we became friends by chance, as a token of friendship,” Leehahn explained.

“……”

Yoner didn’t believe him but wondered if he should pretend to believe him as a sign of friendship.

Leehahn shook his head. “It’s okay. Don’t believe me.”

“Ah, no. I believe you! I believe you, I tell you!” Yoner said quickly.

The friends began to empty the compartments and fill them with the necessary items.

“No, why are you putting in magic potions? Wodanaz doesn’t need them!” Leehahn protested.

“If you follow that logic, why are you putting in food? Wodanaz doesn’t eat most of the food he carries!” Yoner countered.

“…Let’s put in the magic potions,” Leehahn conceded.

“See!” Yoner exclaimed.

They replaced the good wines in the first compartment with potions, the toys in the second compartment with food, and the expensive clothes in the third compartment with survival gear. Then, in the fourth compartment…

“Ah, no! Who did this?!” Gainando shouted, seeing the rare, out-of-print Toveriz edition.

“Leehahn! Who gave you this?! What kind of person is he?!” Gainando asked.

“Gainando, is that important right now? Just pick out a magic book and put it in,” Leehahn said.

“Hey! This is amazing…!” Gainando exclaimed.

In the fifth compartment, they replaced the Quidditch gear with animal equipment and tools. They left the sixth compartment as it was for now, planning to use it later.

“?”

Leehahn was about to close the backpack when he noticed something new in the sixth compartment. ‘What is it? I didn’t see it earlier?’ he thought.

It was a letter from Jandannee, in the name of the Alzadk family, inviting him to visit Baldroguard sometime.

Leehahn sighed and took out a quill. “Leehahn, what are you doing?” Yoner asked.

“I’m writing a reply to the letter,” Leehahn said.