Surviving As A Mage In A Magic Academy [EN]: Chapter 999

The old Yacha waved his arm, looking annoyed. Suddenly, the giants’ mouths snapped shut as if an invisible force had closed them.

“Come on,” the Yacha said. “I kept it safe for you.”

“What about the Head Butler…?” Leahan asked.

“He came from the earth, so he must have gone back to the earth,” the Yacha replied. “Don’t be sad. It’s not good for the dead to stay in this world.”

Leahan stared at the Death Knights flying above on their undead horses. *That sounds possible,* he thought, *but I’m not sure I believe it here in Einroguard.*

Maybe the old Yacha felt Leahan was looking at him strangely. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Like a child! You don’t listen even when I tell you things. Fine. Just take your things.”

The old Yacha opened the tree stump. It smelled like old wood and damp earth. Inside, nestled on soft moss, were the things he had mentioned: a potion pouch, a white book with no title, and a small cage.

Leahan reached for the potion and the book, feeling a little moved. But then he saw the hamster in the cage and froze. He made eye contact with the small creature.

“…No, why are *you* here?” Leahan asked, surprised.

“Do you think I *want* to be here!” the hamster yelled back angrily in a squeaky voice.

A giant nearby grumbled in a deep voice, “That rat is too picky. Normal rats eat bad food, but not that one.”

The hamster, who had been looked after by the giants while Leahan was asleep, was full of anger. “Stupid creatures! You are weak and should have died out a long time ago!”

It seems the giants weren’t very good at taking care of hamsters.

“I thought you would have changed back to normal when my master went away,” Leahan said.

“I thought so too!” the hamster agreed.

The hamster, once a magical criminal, took the grape Leahan tossed into the cage and mumbled, chewing sadly. “My stomach feels empty because of those giants.”

“But I was wrong,” the hamster continued. “That crazy man made sure that the magic wouldn’t be undone even if he disappeared.”

The hamster had underestimated how stubborn and perfect the old archmage was. He never imagined that even if he disappeared, he would have set up the magic to keep going on its own.

“If it wasn’t happening to me, I might even admire how perfect it is,” the hamster grumbled. “But sadly, this is the magic I’m stuck in!”

“Really… he is amazing, isn’t he?” Leahan said, sounding impressed.

The hamster choked back a frustrated noise. *This young kid has no idea what it’s like to suffer,* he thought. But he held back his angry words. The only person here he could trust was the boy in front of him.

“I will definitely pay you back if you help me!” the hamster squeaked. “Please, let me out!”

“Yes? I don’t know how to release it,” Leahan replied.

“…Oops,” the hamster said.

The hamster then realized that the other party was just a second-year student at Einroguard. He had momentarily forgotten, after starting from the small world and competing against Gonadal Tess, but normally he couldn’t expect to undo such magic.

‘Why did I wait for this guy?’ the hamster thought miserably. For a moment, he became confused as to whether his intelligence had been lowered due to the curse. All week long, he thought that he could be freed from this curse if only that guy returned, but now he couldn’t understand why he had thought that.

“Didn’t the others release you?” Leahan asked, tilting his head.

The hamster squeaked, rolling his eyes. “Would *you* have done it if you were them?”

“That’s too bad. Then good luck,” Leahan said.

“…Wait! Wait! Wait! Don’t leave me behind!” As Leahan was about to leave with only the potion and the book, the hamster tapped the cage wall and squeaked urgently. “I will definitely be helpful to you. Think about it. When the clone faced the world’s great challenge, how would you have overcome it without my help?”

“Wait. I think you were urging me to kill him?” Leahan asked.

As he recalled, Leahan’s voice became slightly chilly. The hamster became even more urgent. “…That was just one of the methods I suggested! When you refused, I came up with another method!”

“I know you helped, but I don’t have the confidence to release you. Just ask the Yacha elder over there,” Leahan said.

“Didn’t you inherit magic from the clone? Just look at that book!” the hamster exclaimed.

The hamster quickly recognized what kind of book the mad clone had left behind. The books were special. They were made with pieces of a magician’s soul. Such books could not be easily read or opened like ordinary books. They could not even be destroyed. They only passed on magic to their owners according to the meaning contained in the book.

“!” Leahan quickly understood the hamster’s explanation. He already had a similar book, the black book that the Skull Headmaster had given him.

“Does this book contain the secrets of release?” Leahan asked.

“That’s right,” the hamster replied.

“…But it takes quite a long time to learn that far, doesn’t it?” Leahan asked.

“Then you need to learn it even faster! Don’t waste time here!” the hamster urged.

Leahan frowned. He wasn’t sure about learning magic just because a hamster told him to. He wanted to do things his own way. Of course, the mad clone’s ascension left a strong impression and a new goal for Leahan. But that didn’t mean that Leahan was so easily swayed that he would say, ‘Okay! I have to go learn magic!’ just because a hamster was squeaking at him to learn magic quickly.

‘Should I leave him with the giants because he’s noisy?’ Leahan wondered.

‘This guy, he’s not thinking of abandoning me among the giants, is he?’ the hamster thought, worried.

The two magicians read each other’s thoughts. The hamster squeaked desperately. “…Come to think of it, you’re still a student, and it will take more time to learn how to release me. Take your time learning it. And won’t you please take me with you? Don’t leave me among these lunatics?”

‘Is that rat still not dead? The giants have better patience than I thought,’ Leahan mused.

“!” Leahan turned his head at the familiar telepathy coming from behind.

Rumble! The ground shook as the giants ran. Trees cracked and rocks tumbled as they crashed through the forest.

“Waaah! It’s Headmaster!”

“Run away! Run away! He’ll take our alcohol and meat!”

The Skull Headmaster cackled with satisfaction at the enthusiastic reaction.

The hamster, trapped in its cage, also wanted to escape. Instead, it hid in the sawdust.

Fortunately, the skeletal headmaster didn’t pay any attention to the hamster. He was too busy with more important things.

“Batnaz, I heard you’ve become important. I knew you would be here,” said an old Yaksha.

He looked curious. “Speaking of that, did you really put a Dream Veil over the whole land?”

“I know you must be surprised,” the skeletal headmaster said.

He pretended not to hear the Yaksha and looked away. But the old Yaksha kept talking.

“I heard even a small Dream Veil is hard to make. How did you cover the entire territory? Did you borrow a lot of gold? Because that would take a lot…”

Unable to take it anymore, the skeletal headmaster banished the old Yaksha far away.

It seemed the Yaksha race was always good at annoying people.

“Since I accepted you, Batnaz, as my student, I should have given you a proper explanation. I apologize.”

“…No, it’s alright. I was a bit harsh myself.”

Lee Han’s attitude softened after the skeletal headmaster’s polite apology.

Thinking about it calmly, the skeletal headmaster hadn’t acted out of bad feelings.

…Well, there was a little bad feeling, but that was because he was a person full of bad feelings to begin with. At least, he had tried his best to find a solution this time.

“I’m sorry for cursing you too. Saying you’d be headmaster until the end of the world was too much, I think.”

…That seemed worse than the curse he had said back then… or maybe not.

The skeletal headmaster felt the curse get stronger but ignored it.

What mattered now was something else.

“Yes. Let’s forget about our mistakes and move on.”

“Yes.”

“Then finish the exam as fast as you can and come to the headmaster’s office. I need your help to persuade the Empire’s creditors.”

After saying this, the skeletal headmaster turned and floated away.

Lee Han stared at the white, round back of the skull, completely confused.

“What is he…?!”

“Ah, right.”

The skeletal headmaster suddenly stopped and floated back.

“What is it?”

“Don’t send any complaints.”

“?!!”

“Wodanaz is in serious trouble, I tell you!”

“Don’t worry so much. Wodanaz isn’t weak like you. He’ll get up after he rests.”

“No, that’s not it! He woke up, but he didn’t even ask about the exam, I’m telling you?!”

“…What?!”

The White Tiger Tower students were skinning a wild boar they had hunted. They started to talk quietly in surprise.

They were so shocked that they even cut off good meat along with the skin.

“Then there’s no reason for us to have studied so hard, is there?”

“Damn it. I shouldn’t have bothered.”

Giselle was standing behind them with a pocketknife. She glared at her friends as if she wanted to kill them.

The White Tiger Tower students realized she was glaring at them and quickly changed their minds.

“Actually, studying is for your own good. Haha.”

“That’s right. Wodanaz said that in the story he told us last time. The real treasure in the vineyard was hard work.”

“I still don’t really understand that story…”

One of the White Tiger Tower students tilted his head.

The story Wodanaz had told them about the three brothers who inherited a vineyard from their old farmer father was hard to understand.

The old farmer left a will saying, ‘I’ve hidden a treasure in the vineyard.’ So, the three brothers worked hard to dig up the field.

But they didn’t find any treasure. Because they dug up the field, they had a very good grape harvest…

‘Does that mean even a wizard should doubt their parents?’

It seemed to mean that even if a great wizard left a magic book, it might not have treasure. So, you shouldn’t just believe it, but think about it carefully.

Of course, Wodanaz had gotten angry at this explanation, but Wodanaz was always angry anyway.

“Let’s pack some meat and go see Wodanaz. If he’s not even interested in the exam, he must be really hurt.”

This time, Giselle didn’t stop her friends.

The Blue Dragon Tower guys often made things sound worse than they were, but this sounded serious.

“What are you guys doing?”

Lee Han was walking by the seventh-floor common area and was confused to see his friends talking.

His friends were surprised.

“Wodanaz! Are you sure you should be walking around like that?!”

“I’ve rested enough to get better.”

Lee Han was holding a hamster cage in one hand and leaves for the hamster to eat in the other.

It was a sudden pet, but his friends didn’t seem to care much. Instead, they asked something else.

“The exam?!”

“What exam?”

“The Blue Dragon Tower guys said you lost interest in the exam and… went crazy…”

“I didn’t say he went crazy, you guys!”

The Blue Dragon Tower students spoke up in horror.

Where did they hear such nonsense?!

“Ah. I see what you mean. It’s not that I lost interest in the exam, but I had something important to check first. There are things more important than exams in this world, after all.”

“…!!”

His friends were shocked by Wodanaz’s new attitude.

Normally, if someone said, ‘Isn’t there anything more important than exams? Like fighting…’ they would be struck by lightning!

“A-are you sure you’re alright?”

“No. I like the new Wodanaz.”

The Blue Dragon Tower students were whispering in shock (Giselle was one of them), but the White Tiger Tower students easily accepted it.

A Wodanaz who wasn’t so obsessed with exams seemed much better.

“Wodanaz! We like your change! There are many things in the world more important than exams!”

“That’s right! What were you doing? Looking for food for your new pet?”

“No. I had to finish the exam quickly, so I went to take it first.”

Lee Han shook the exam paper he had put in the cage.

It was the [Magical Algebra and Advanced Math] exam, and he had gotten a perfect score without missing a single question.