Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 692
As an upperclassman, he should have been happy that an outstanding junior had entered the tower, but even taking that into account, the junior in front of him was just too…
…not like a first-year.
What kind of bastard is this?
“Hey. Which house did you say you were from?”
“Don’t forget. If there’s something you want to eat, you have to give advice or information about smuggling.”
Instead of answering, Lee Han smoothly changed the subject.
Alde didn’t notice and got dragged along as-is.
“You’re telling me to betray my colleagues? Me, Alde of House Markang?”
“Didn’t you just try to run away after swearing on your house name?”
“Shh. Priestess Siana. Even so, that’s still an upperclassman.”
He could hear the other juniors whispering behind him, but Alde didn’t waver.
If you lost your composure out of shame over that kind of whispering, you weren’t qualified to be an Einroguard student.
“Tell me. Do you really think Alde of House Markang would betray colleagues?!”
“…Are you doing this to raise the terms right now?”
Lee Han asked just in case.
No matter how he looked at it, it felt like Alde was subtly sending the message, ‘If the terms are good enough, I’ll betray them.’
“What do you take me for?! More than that, my colleagues would know I betrayed them! Unless there’s some way to stop that, anyway!”
“After kidnapping you, we checked everything around us. No one followed separately. When you’re released later, tell them you were kidnapped by the Skull Principal’s Death Knights. The Skull Principal is always a good excuse. Your colleagues won’t even imagine you were kidnapped by juniors.”
“Hey, that’s a really good method!”
Without realizing it, Alde admired it.
The first-year junior in front of him had a charisma that made him forget what had just been done to him.
No wonder this kid was leading a gang of kidnappers for no reason.
He might become someone big!
“……”
“……”
Only belatedly noticing the juniors’ stares, Alde cleared his throat.
“I’m not betraying anyone. I’m just admiring it.”
“Yes…”
“Lee Han. Hurry and raise the terms. If you raise the terms, it feels like this one will accept.”
“Hey! What an insult!”
Alde only pretended to get angry and looked at Lee Han.
It meant: if you’re going to make an offer, make it fast.
Yonair thought to himself.
Are upperclassmen all like that…?
He’d adapted to Einroguard, but still. To think it would be that bad.
Lee Han looked at the upperclassman calmly.
He could have offered gold coins ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) or all kinds of artifacts, but Lee Han had no intention whatsoever of wasting the fortune he’d gathered through blood and sweat over break.
“Upperclassman. I only have one condition to offer.”
“What is it?”
“If you help us, then when we smuggle, we’ll smuggle your items along with ours.”
“…Hahahaha!”
Alde, who had been listening quietly, burst out laughing.
He laughed so hard he started panting, then stared at Lee Han like he couldn’t believe it.
“Are you serious? You were really planning to smuggle just among yourselves?”
“If not, why would we have any reason to lock you up like this?”
“You’re crazier bastards than I thought.”
Alde looked up at the ceiling as if lamenting.
He didn’t want to say this, but first-years these days were really too different from when he’d been a first-year.
So reckless, and so fearless!
“Fine. As a fellow member of Blue Dragon Tower, and to commemorate meeting a junior like you, I’ll give you advice for free. Give up on smuggling among yourselves. Find other trustworthy upperclassmen and join hands. If you can manage that, anyway.”
“I think I can.”
Lee Han said evenly.
It wasn’t swagger or a tall tale. He seriously felt it was possible.
But Alde, who had no idea what Lee Han had done during his first year, shook his head and answered negatively.
“Let me tell you what’ll happen. The new semester starts and you’ll gather at the main gate. When you gather at the main gate, there’ll be the Skull Principal’s lecture. Then the search will begin. What do you think happens?”
“Don’t they just search you?”
At Gainando’s question, Alde clicked his tongue.
“No. Those seasoned upperclassmen will spot the easiest target the moment they look. Someone has to be sacrificed so the surveillance and pressure ease up. First-years who are smuggling? If it were me, I’d expose them immediately and draw attention. Everyone there will be thinking the same thing.”
Students attempting smuggling would even risk their lives if it meant creating a brief opening and commotion.
There was no way people like that would show consideration just because they were first-year juniors. If you showed a weakness, they’d tear at it even more obsessively.
Arms folded, Alde stared at Lee Han.
No matter how bold this kid was, after hearing that, there was no way his spirit wouldn’t break—
“Thank you for the advice, upperclassman. If you change your mind, please tell me.”
“…?!!”
Alde was aghast.
What, was that bastard’s heart made of steel?
Even after hearing that, he was this calm—how…
“Wait!”
When Lee Han and the juniors tried to leave the annex, Alde shouted urgently.
But after calling out, he couldn’t think of what to say.
Alde shouted as if putting on airs.
Like this, he couldn’t keep any face in front of juniors.
“This isn’t really my place to say, but are you sure it’s fine to lock me up here like this? I might escape at any time.”
“Ah. That’s why I’ll place some summons.”
“You can’t keep watch with summons forever. Your mana—”
Lee Han only shrugged and left with friends.
A leopard-shaped summon, Sharkhan, yawned and sat down crouched in front of Alde.
When Alde stared at Sharkhan, Lee Han stuck his head out from outside the door and said.
“Upperclassman. If you so much as attack Sharkhan, I’ll stick a basilisk on you.”
“Alright, alright!”
If nothing else, Alde could tell that junior wasn’t good at jokes.
A basilisk—what kind of chilling joke was that?
*****
What are they doing?
For the next few days, Alde sat in a private room on the annex’s upper floor and watched the front yard, the garden, and the storehouse.
While staying here, there were a few things he realized.
First, this gang of first-year kidnappers didn’t look like they’d only worked together once or twice. Their coordination was no joke.
They split people up crisply, went out of the villa and came back in, and divided roles—moves that were impossible without trust in each other.
They should have been juniors from different towers, so how were they that disciplined?
They went out and came back. Then went out and came back…
And each time, the leader of that gang brought something back and told friends, “I figured out the method.”
Surely it wasn’t that he’d figured out other upperclassmen’s smuggling methods… so what on earth was he talking about? Alde was truly curious.
Another thing was that changes began appearing in the carriages near the storehouse.
The decorations vanished, the inside space widened, and reinforcements were added to the floor and frame.
It looked like they were trying to use them as cargo wagons.
And they didn’t stop there. The first-year students painted a crest on top of the wagons. It was a crest he felt like he’d seen somewhere before.
Where have I seen… huh?
Come to think of it, among the merchant companies in Granden City, he thought there was one with a crest like that.
…Why are they making a merchant cargo wagon?
Alde thought about it for a long time, but no matter how he thought, an answer didn’t come.
Why in the world would they make a merchant cargo wagon?
“Hey.”
In the end, unable to stand it, Alde called for the junior.
“You called?”
“…What are you doing right now?”
“If you want to know, cooperate.”
“…Fine! Fine!”
Alde turned away, snapping in anger.
But Lee Han wasn’t someone who would be shaken by tricks like that.
When the junior showed no reaction at all, the dissatisfied one, Alde, ended up opening his mouth first.
“What exactly do you want from me? Let me say this first—smuggling isn’t that easy. Even if I help you, it won’t just magically happen.”
“I know. And I’ve already prepared the smuggling method, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
“…???”
How? With what?
“By what method?!”
“First, what I want to know is the methods the other upperclassmen attempting smuggling are using.”
“Mm.”
Alde nodded as if he’d expected it.
From the moment Lee Han told him to betray colleagues, he’d more or less guessed.
When attempting smuggling, figuring out other students’ methods in advance was more important than you’d think.
You could copy that method, or report that method and profit, and even if you did neither, you could at least prepare. Smuggling was also heavily affected by the accidents other people caused.
“First, there’ll be Dreumcha’s group. Those guys—”
“Ah. I know them. They’ll use <Low-Grade Crate Transformation>.”
“…How did you know that?!”
“Aren’t there any others?”
Lee Han spoke with an attitude like: don’t keep asking about things that aren’t important.
Alde was dumbfounded.
How did he figure it out…?
“There’s Ivanna’s group—”
“I know them too. They were going to use physical enhancement magic and racial transformation magic together to move it, but honestly, it looked dangerous. Turning into a large race and enduring the inspection doesn’t seem easy.”
“Hey! If you know everything, why are you asking?!”
Alde shouted, at a loss.
He couldn’t even guess what this first-year was thinking.
“What do you mean? Upperclassman. I’m asking because there’s a lot I don’t know.”
“There’s nobody who knows as much as you…! Start by telling me how you found out!”
As if he wouldn’t let it go any further unless Lee Han told him, Alde folded his arms and fixed him with a firm stare.
Lee Han answered with a face that said, Why does this upperclassman keep bothering me by asking the obvious?
“I contacted the upperclassmen and asked.”
“…What are you even saying? They wouldn’t just tell you.”
“After saying I wanted to smuggle together, I got it out of them.”
“……”
Alde dropped the cup he’d been holding.
So, he went up to each group, deceived all the upperclassmen in that group, and pried out every method they were preparing?
Is that… possible?!
“Anyway, upperclassman. Is there anyone else?”
“There’s my group and… one or two more teams, but I don’t really know what the upperclassmen above me are preparing. There’s no benefit to it being known.”
“I understand.”
Lee Han nodded, picked up his quill pen, and started organizing.
Even if it wasn’t all of them, identifying some would still help enormously on the day.
“So… what method are you planning to use to smuggle? Let’s hear it.”
“I was actually going to tell you. Among us, you’re the only one with inspection experience, upperclassman, so it seems like you’ll have to do it with us.”
Alde realized, startled, that he was looking forward to it.
Was he really looking forward to some clumsy smuggling plan from first-year juniors?!
No. No way.
But the junior in front of him had an atmosphere that gave persuasion to that impossible situation.
What if…?!
“We’re going to pull a merchant cargo wagon, enter through an underground passage, leave the contraband, and get out.”
“…What… what…?”
With a plan he hadn’t even imagined, Alde panicked, not knowing where to start criticizing it.
“What are you talking about? Do you even know where an underground passage is? Even if you find it, there’ll be guards, and it’s not like any merchant company can just go in—”
“We’ve identified where the underground passage is. There will be guards, but the storehouse keeper will be up top, so it’ll be relatively easier. The merchant company that delivers supplies is fixed. The crest we painted on the wagon is that merchant company’s crest.”
“……”
Alde closed his eyes and began muttering.
Lee Han asked, puzzled.
“What are you doing?”
“I… I’ve definitely been hit with illusion magic. This is… a dream that makes no sense. I have to wake up.”
“It’s reality.”
