Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 951

“Help!” or “He’s gone mad!” That senior is finally showing he’s crazy! Hearing the shout, the friends waiting outside quickly kicked the door open.

These friends wanted to help Lee Han with his task. But if that task involved a crazy senior, that was different and more dangerous.

“I knew it!” The friends kicked open the door and stopped suddenly. Ilrendel was on the floor! Angalo quickly hid his sword behind his back, and Nilia pushed her short bow under her cloak.

“Wait, Wodanaz didn’t scream?”

“If he just fainted, it’s okay, right? Haha.”

Adenart frowned, tilting his head. *Is it really okay?* he thought. *Even if he’s a senior, I don’t think it’s fine…*

“The senior fainted.”

“Why? Was he trying to call a dark spirit again?”

Lee Han felt a little surprised. *Were his friends being mean to the senior?*

Lee Han was a little surprised by his friends’ coldness. Compared to other crazy seniors he had met, Ilrendel seemed quite normal.

“Yoner, potion, please?”

“Here you go. But Lee Han, maybe waking up a senior you knocked out isn’t a good idea.”

“…I didn’t knock him out.”

*Did I?* Lee Han felt a sudden pang of guilt.

Ilrendel probably fainted because he didn’t like talking to people and wasn’t very strong. But maybe, just maybe, he was shocked by Lee Han’s real identity.

Lee Han had been very polite to Ilrendel. Maybe Ilrendel was surprised to see Lee Han’s *real* self, so different from how he acted in the Watchers Club.

*Everyone hides who they really are,* Lee Han thought. *Wasn’t Ilrendel supposed to be someone who hated people, who just wanted to be alone with plants and spirits in the forest?* But even Ilrendel had been sharp and mean in the Watchers Club, especially to Lee Han, always making fun of his nickname.

“Senior, are you okay?”

“I… I think I had a crazy dream…”

“Did you dream the headmaster changed again?”

“…No,” Ilrendel said, staring at Lee Han. “It wasn’t a dream.” His face showed shock, confusion, and… was that disgust? “How… how can you be so different?” he whispered. “How can *you*, such a kind junior, be a Gonadaltes!”

“How are you so different?” Ilrendel asked again, his voice shaky.

“It’s a disguise,” Lee Han said simply.

“Is… is it?” Ilrendel wanted to believe him. It *did* make sense. The nice junior who loved spirits must have been pretending to be crazy to hide his real self. And Ilrendel hadn’t suspected a thing! It was a perfect disguise.

“I look forward to working with you, Senior,” Lee Han said, smiling slightly.

“U-uh-huh,” Ilrendel mumbled, nodding slowly.

“And remember,” Lee Han added, his smile widening a little, “agree with everything I say in the Watchers Club.”

“Uh-huh…” As Ilrendel agreed, a strange feeling went through him. It felt like sinking into mud, a cold, sticky dread creeping up his spine. *Huh?*

“Okay, so,” Lee Han said, bringing them back to the task, “what do we do to get the artifact back?”

“Ah!” Ilrendel blinked, still confused by his junior’s secret. He tried to focus on the problem.

“First,” Ilrendel began, counting on his fingers, “I told the knights and mages in Granden City. Just in case, I also contacted the Death Knights.” He paused, thinking. “And I told some of the friendly, popular students at Einroguard, so they can help if anything goes wrong when we go out.”

“How did you do all that so fast?” Lee Han asked, surprised.

“Huh? I asked the spirits,” Ilrendel repeated, as if it was obvious. Lee Han felt a familiar wave of annoyance. It was the same feeling he got when talking to Arsil – like he was always one step behind, always missing something obvious.

“But… a spirit working for mercenaries, telling you secrets? Can spirits even betray people like that?” Lee Han asked, just to be sure. *What if my spirit also starts helping Ilrendel?* he worried. *That would be awful.*

“Ah, no,” Ilrendel said quickly. “Spirits don’t betray.”

*Then who told him?* Lee Han wondered, looking at Ilrendel suspiciously. Seeing Lee Han’s look, Ilrendel tried to explain faster, but his words still came out slowly.

“I-it’s because,” Ilrendel stammered, “the mercenaries didn’t make a real agreement with the spirits. They… they trapped them. Spirits only betray people they *agree* to work with…”

“…Trapped them how?” Lee Han asked, raising an eyebrow. Ilrendel just blinked, confused.

“Never mind,” Lee Han sighed. “Let’s talk about the artifact.”

The artifact the mercenaries have is called the ‘Echo of the Demigod.’ And get this – it was made to talk to gods!

“Can you really talk to gods?” Lee Han asked, amazed.

“I know, right?” Ilrendel puffed out his chest a little, pleased with Lee Han’s reaction. “Some mages say gods aren’t all-powerful, but everyone knows they exist. No one really knows *how* their power works, but it’s real. And if there’s power, mages will try to use it! Of course, some mages tried to use the power of gods.”

*Wait a minute,* Lee Han thought. *People used to make fake demigods, didn’t they?* The Black Emperor magic was all about calling up a demigod, trapping it, and using its power. Compared to that, the ‘Echo of the Demigod’ seemed to just borrow power from a god that was already there.

“And the evil god worshippers… they’re twisting it and using it for bad things.” The Empire tries to stop the evil god worshippers, so it’s hard for them to get followers. But this artifact changes everything. Even mercenaries who didn’t believe in anything are now suddenly doing what this evil god wants.

“Still, it sounds like a really powerful artifact. Why would they just give it to mercenaries?” Lee Han wondered.

“Evil god worshippers think in a very strange way,” Ilrendel said, shaking his head. “You can’t understand them if you think normally. They’re just… crazy and twisted.”

Ilrendel thought they were probably too sure of themselves, thinking that because they were following God’s orders, they couldn’t fail!

“And mercenaries are usually good fighters,” Ilrendel added.

“But the one we caught was kind of clumsy,” Adenart pointed out.

“Maybe… maybe the evil god made him weird?” Nilia suggested.

“That’s possible,” Lee Han said, nodding. “I think you’re right, Senior.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Lee Han asked.

“Are all your friends helping?” Ilrendel asked, looking at the group.

“Yes,” Lee Han said. “Is that a problem?”

Ilrendel quickly shook his head. It wasn’t like they were all crammed into a tiny room. They were moving around, doing things. He wasn’t going to complain. Actually, he was wondering something else.

“How are you going to share the artifact?” Ilrendel asked. “If it was just two people, you could split it. But with so many… what about rewards? Won’t there be arguments later?”

“Oh,” Lee Han said, surprised. “They’re just helping.”

Ilrendel stared at Lee Han, amazed. He didn’t realize Lee Han, the ‘Gonadaltes’ from the Watchers Club, had so many friends who would just help him like that. Suddenly, Ilrendel felt a little lonely.

“Uh-huh… well, that’s good,” Ilrendel mumbled, still feeling a bit strange.

“Did I say something wrong?” Lee Han asked, noticing Ilrendel’s change in mood.

“No, no, it’s nothing,” Ilrendel said quickly.

Granden City was huge and bustling, a maze of tall buildings and crowded streets. The air was thick with the smells of food, horses, and something else, something metallic and sharp, that Lee Han couldn’t quite place. Finding experienced mercenaries in a city like this would be like finding a needle in a haystack, even for the best trackers.

“Heh heh. But we have someone from the Shadow Patrol,” Angalo said with a proud voice.

Nilia looked at her friend in horror. How could they find the mercenaries here, of all places?

‘That… that White Tiger Tower brat!’

“There’s no need for that. We have spirits,” Ilrendel said slowly.

The spirit who had initially given Ilrendel the information was still lingering near the mercenaries. The mercenaries weren’t fools, so they couldn’t act conspicuously, but it was still possible to track their general direction.

“More than that… we’ll need more escorts.”

“Escorts, you mean adventurers? Or knights?”

Ilrendel shook his head again. Then, he took out a glass bottle from his pocket and threw it on the floor.

With the sound of glass breaking, the liquid bubbled and transformed into the shape of a person.

“!”

“This is…!”

Everyone was surprised, but the students learning alchemy were especially astonished.

There were solutions that could imprint shapes or memorize specific commands, but to create something so elaborately in the form of a person…

“Is it a spirit?”

“It seems like he contracted with a spirit and used it as a soul, and the exterior is made up of some alchemical reagents to form the body.”

“Is that possible? How is he carrying that around?”

The students poked the alchemical soldier with curiosity.

Ilrendel smiled at his juniors’ cute actions and joked.

“I dissolved an adventurer in a shape-shifting solution… to make it remember.”

“”,

“”,

The expressions of the second-year students, who had been curious, hardened and turned cold.

Ilrendel, who had thrown a joke that he was quite proud of, was flustered and looked at Lee Han.

“Why, why? It’s a joke? Not funny…?”

“I laughed. But I think it would be better if you didn’t make jokes in the future, Senior,” following Ilrendel, who was looking slightly more tearful than before (the distance between the friends had increased), the group moved silently and quietly.

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The spirit says they’re hiding here…”

Lee Han realized the reason for Ilrendel’s hesitation.

Granden City Guard 2nd Barracks.

It was a somewhat awkward place for outsiders to enter arbitrarily.

“Let’s quietly get permission to enter. Shall we call the knights or mages?”

“No. If it’s the people of Granden City, the ownership of the artifact could become complicated. The Death Knights are the same. The headmaster could take it,” Ilrendel spoke with the fastest and most accurate pronunciation he had ever used.

As expected of an Einroguard mage, he never gave up in the face of desire.

“Then?”

“There’s no choice,” Ilrendel nodded with a determined expression. Lee Han wondered if the fourth-year senior had a good idea and asked.

“Do you have a good idea?”

“We have no choice but to set fire to the vacant lot to drive people out… and then forcibly invade…”

“…I’ll just persuade them,” Lee Han, horrified, stopped his senior.

Lee Han, who had met Dirette and then Yukbeltire and thought, ‘Wow, there are seniors like this,’ had now arrived in the realm of ‘Wow, are there really seniors like this’ after meeting Ilrendel.

Even Yukbeltire wouldn’t set fire and forcibly invade in this situation.

“B-but isn’t there no other way?”

“There seem to be hundreds of ways. Ah. Sir Diehall of the Dalcard family is working here as a special administrator. I’ll ask him for a favor,” at Lee Han’s words, Ilrendel said with a look of realization.

“There’s a Dalcard family?”

Asan raised his hand. Only then did Ilrendel nod as if he understood.

“I see. If that’s the case, I understand. If it’s someone from the same family, persuasion…”

“Ah. Wodanaz will go, not me. My brother likes Wodanaz more than me,” Asan said as if it were natural.

“Asan. It’s not that Sir Diehall doesn’t think about you. He praised you at the last chess meeting.”

“What?! There was a chess meeting!?”

“…Anyway, I’ll be back,” Lee Han left to ask Asan’s brother for a favor.

Ilrendel, who was blankly watching his back, asked quietly.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is strange…?”