Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 900

“…Don’t joke around.”

“I’m not. Please, verify it.”

Lee Han presented the wooden box containing the fragrance. Professor Thunderstride exclaimed in disbelief.

“Surely you didn’t just brute-force it with magic?!”

“Oh, would that have been alright? I thought the box would break if I did that.”

“…Indeed.”

Professor Thunderstride, well aware of Lee Han’s magical prowess, had naturally taken that into account and set up additional traps.

If one were to crudely force it with magic, the wooden box itself would be shattered. Sandalwood was a very delicate and complex fragrance.

If Lee Han had come to him with a crestfallen face, saying, ‘The box broke,’ he would have said with feigned regret, ‘This test is about fragrance separation, not destruction. Don’t always try to break things with magic,’ but…?

Thump!

Snatching the wooden box, Professor Thunderstride paused before opening it. Then, he said to his student,

“Hold on. Step back three paces.”

“Yes. But why?”

“Just in case.”

“Wait. Surely you don’t think I’m going to attack you right now, Professor?”

Lee Han stared at the dwarf professor as if he couldn’t believe it.

No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t think of any other reason why Professor Thunderstride would tell him to step back.

Professor Thunderstride stroked his beard with an embarrassed look. This student truly had an extraordinary sense of perception.

“Well, one might say there’s a slight element of that.”

“Aren’t you being a bit harsh?”

“Don’t blame me. Blame your seniors.”

“There were seniors who tried to attack you like this?”

“What do you think?”

Professor Thunderstride took out a ring embedded with helvite and scanned it over the wooden box. Fortunately, there were no detectable threats.

“Oh, what a commendable student. I believed in you!”

“……”

Despite the professor’s praise, Lee Han looked rather displeased.

“Don’t take it too hard. In a way, this suspicion is a compliment. I don’t suspect the other second-years like this, do I?”

“Why not?”

“Because I usually start doing it from the third year…”

“Hmm. I see.”

Lee Han nodded as if he had learned something.

Professor Thunderstride had a sudden realization.

Could it be that he had just taught a baby dragon how to deceive others?

‘Still, Professor Verdus will probably be the first to fall victim.’

Thinking that, Professor Thunderstride opened the wooden box. A gentle fragrance wafted out in succession. They were the separated components of the sandalwood.

“……”

Professor Thunderstride stared at the separated fragrances, speechless. He honestly thought he’d be less shocked if Lee Han had just set off an explosion in his office!

Lee Han, the student from the Wodanaz family, was known for his surprises, but this was beyond anything he expected. How on earth had he separated the fragrance so perfectly?

“I… I am completely stunned,” Professor Thunderstride stammered, his voice barely above a whisper. “How did you do this? Did you secretly practice separating sandalwood over the holidays?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“It’s not just that you separated it! Even if you could do it, I thought it would be at least by the end of this weekend.”

Professor Thunderstride had created the test with Lee Han in mind, but he hadn’t completely dismissed his student’s abilities.

He had thought that he might be able to bring it just barely within the time limit.

But to bring it in so quickly, practically the moment the day changed.

Professor Thunderstride, so shocked that his beard bristled, began to ramble incoherently, saying whatever came to mind.

“You didn’t perhaps receive a dragonstone from Princess Zo-Urin, did you? No. That’s too absurd, even as I say it. No matter how much the Princess dotes on you, she wouldn’t give you everything.”

The professor shook his head, even as he spoke.

Zo-Urin was still a young and childish dragon, but even so, a dragon was a dragon.

They could immediately sense those who harbored malice or greed towards them through the power of their bloodline.

If Lee Han had said, ‘I’ll bake you a pie, so please give me a dragonstone,’ she would have mercilessly swung her forepaw.

“She did give me one.”

“What method… What?”

“She did give me one.”

Lee Han spoke with a gloomy face, like a frustrated eldest sibling whose youngest sibling had caused trouble.

Why did Zo-Urin keep acting on her own accord?

But to understand how Lee Han solved the test so quickly, we need to go back to the previous day…

Yesterday at dawn.

Having finished his other studies, Lee Han grabbed the wooden box to attempt Professor Thunderstride’s test.

He had seen some of his friends try this test and suffer miserably, so Lee Han was quite nervous.

‘Yoner was cursing that the test was made like a dog.’

Thinking that he might end up attacking Professor Thunderstride together with them after graduation, Lee Han carefully opened the lid.

Although alchemy was often represented by potions, it was actually a field of study related to the synthesis of all substances.

The target could be potions, metals, or even chimeras.

And Professor Thunderstride was a master of perfumery. This sandalwood was so well-made that it made his head ache the moment he saw it.

Lee Han was fortunate that he didn’t experience any ill effects from smelling the fragrance; other friends had to proceed while briefly experiencing their consciousness traveling to other dimensions.

‘Black Shadow Sand.’

Lee Han took out a handful of black sand from his reagent pouch and slowly sprinkled it over the sandalwood.

The sand left traces with a strange light.

‘Geranium on the traces.’

As geranium petals fell one by one onto the traces, the sandalwood inside the wooden box stirred and blew away the Black Shadow Sand.

“……”

Lee Han suppressed a curse and approached again. He had to somehow separate the fragrances one by one.

‘This won’t do. I’ll use turquoise, even if it’s a bit expensive.’

When people get angry, they tend to make emotional choices.

Lee Han set out to separate the fragrance using an expensive reagent that he wouldn’t normally use. There was no need to open the reagent pouch to check.

He knew what was inside, so he could take it out with just the sensation of his fingertips.

Tap-

Lee Han reached into his worn leather reagent pouch, its many compartments familiar to his touch. He grabbed the ore and carefully held it over the wooden box.

Then, the sandalwood inside the wooden box stirred and suddenly began to divide into dozens of fragrances.

“?????”

Lee Han was so flustered by the changes inside the wooden box that he didn’t even notice that the color of the ore in his hand was golden, not turquoise.

In the meantime, the sandalwood was completely separated. The sight was so unbelievable that Lee Han thought he was dreaming.

‘What is it?’

As he pondered whether he had discovered a new use for turquoise, Lee Han belatedly realized that the ore in his hand was a bit strange.

The energy he felt from it was far too extraordinary.

First of all, the color was different (the turquoise was even in a separate part of the reagent pouch), and inside, it was as if the energy of hundreds, thousands of reagents were condensed in one place, changing endlessly, and a faint light emanated endlessly.

The dragonstone pulsed with a warm, golden light, radiating an energy that felt like the combined power of a thousand magical ingredients.

For one reagent to contain such a powerful energy that it could replace hundreds or thousands of reagents. It was like the Philosopher’s Stone.

Of course, the real Philosopher’s Stone couldn’t be left at room temperature like this and had to be stored with multiple layers of magical seals, so it couldn’t be the Philosopher’s Stone. If there was anything similar, it would be the legendary dragonstone…

“…Zo-Urin! Zo-Urin!!”

Belatedly realizing this, Lee Han kicked off his chair and stood up. The baby basilisk coiled in his sleeve opened its eyes in surprise and then closed them again.

“Zo-Urin, you!”

What’s going on?

Zo-Urin, who had been pretending to be asleep, opened her eyes, feigning ignorance.

Lee Han glared at the young dragon with a very stern look. The title ‘Your Highness’ had disappeared.

“There’s a dragonstone in my reagent pouch. Do you happen to know who put it there?”

Zo-Urin claimed not to know.

Zo-Urin replied, blinking innocently.

More than that, she was curious if the sandalwood had been resolved! How did it go?

“Be quiet. I’m asking you right now.”

……

Zo-Urin, slightly intimidated by Lee Han’s angrier-than-expected demeanor, folded her wings.

Still, Zo-Urin wasn’t completely frightened. She had something she was counting on.

“Zo-Urin. Dragonstones are very, very rare materials. Only dragons can make them.”

Zo-Urin knew that.

‘Is she crazy!?’

Gainando trembled at Zo-Urin’s retort.

The young dragon was provoking Lee Han by insisting, when she should be begging for forgiveness.

As someone with experience in arguing, Gainando knew that such retorts only led to miserable results.

It wasn’t just Gainando who was scared.

Some students who had tried arguing, such as ‘I have honed my intellect through chess, not playing around,’ or ‘I came to learn magic, so I will not do chores for the dormitory,’ and had been miserably suppressed, swallowed nervously and watched the conversation.

…Wodanaz is the type to flick a dragon’s forehead…!

“But a dragonstone that was definitely not in my reagent pouch until yesterday suddenly appeared today. And coincidentally, there’s a dragon in the lounge who mentioned dragonstones. Now. Who could the culprit be?”

Heh heh. Lee Han is missing one thing.

“…What am I missing? Tell me.”

As Gonadaldes said, and as Lee Han said, Einroguard is innocent without evidence! If she wasn’t caught in the act, Zo-Urin is innocent, no matter how suspicious she is!

Zo-Urin proudly brought up the rules of Einroguard.

This was what the young dragon was counting on.

Einroguard’s proud school rules guaranteed the freedom of students unless there was concrete evidence or they were caught in the act.

It was one of the two great freedoms that supported Einroguard, along with the freedom of the Headmaster to harass students.

“Indeed.”

Heh heh. Zo-Urin is smart. Now. Lee Han! How did the sandalwood go?

Spreading her wings wide again with a sense of victory, Zo-Urin shouted.

“You’re grounded.”

Lee Han said in a cold voice and turned away sharply.

Huh? Huh?

Zo-Urin was flustered.

The logic was perfect??!

Why!? Lee Han! According to the rules of Einroguard…

“Y-Your Highness. That’s… the rules of Einroguard, but… you’re missing one thing.”

What was Zo-Urin missing!?

Zo-Urin was on the verge of tears. The students hesitated and said,

“You can just ignore it…”

……

Einroguard students didn’t usually follow the rules very well.

Only then did Zo-Urin realize the flaw in her logic and belatedly called out to Lee Han.

“Lee Han! Lee Han! Zo-Urin was wrong!”

But Lee Han had already gone up the stairs.

Gainando shook his head.

“This is bad. It’s stage 5 anger.”

“…Stage 5 anger. That’s bad…”

Zo-Urin didn’t know what stage 5 anger was, but she could tell it wasn’t good.

“Servant! What should Zo-Urin do? What should she do to appease Lee Han?”

“Uh… that’s…”

Gainando was flustered.

If he knew, he wouldn’t be groveling all the time.

“I think you just have to assume you’re dead and beg…”

“Lee Han! Zo-Urin was wrong!”

Following the expert’s advice, Zo-Urin shouted up the stairs.

Creak-

The sound of the door to the private room opening was heard from above.

The young dragon’s face lit up.

“Servant! Lee Han came out!”

‘No way. He’s forgiving her for just begging like this!?’

Gainando felt unfairly treated.

Is it because she’s a real dragon that she’s getting special treatment!?

However, Lee Han did not come down the stairs. Instead, another creature trudged down.

It was the baby basilisk.

-Master kicked me out to live with Your Highness… Waaaaah…!!!-

…Waaaaah!

The lounge echoed with their cries, leaving the other students wondering what Lee Han would do next.