Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 705

As the basilisk struggled as if declaring it would never let go, Diret glanced around and said cautiously,

“How about letting it stay with you a little longer?”

“What?”

“Well, you know. Animals like staying beside their mothers when they’re young, don’t they?”

“Senior. I’m not a basilisk.”

When Lee Han looked at Diret as if that were absurd, Diret’s face reddened.

Because Diret was speaking in a rush, something ridiculous had come out.

“It was a figure of speech, a figure of speech!”

“But aren’t basiliskes violent and arrogant monsters? That’s what Professor Thunderstep taught me.”

By now the tail outside the sleeve was trembling so pitifully that it almost hurt to watch. Without realizing it, Diret found Diretself defending the baby basilisk.

“Of course monsters have traits they share. But they also each have their own different characteristics, don’t they? That basilisk might be timid and affectionate…”

“Hmm.”

Lee Han fell into thought after hearing Diret’s words.

“But even if that’s true, once it gets bigger, shouldn’t it still live separately?”

“…That’s true.”

-?!

Diret couldn’t argue with that.

No matter how timid and affectionate it might be, if it grew any bigger, there was no way it could keep hanging there physically.

At that rate, the junior’s arm might fall off…

Slowly peeling the basilisk off as it wrapped itself around his arm like a thick rope, Lee Han said,

“You don’t need to worry, senior. It’s like this now, but once it grows a little more, it’ll probably start finding the inside of my sleeve cramped and want to roam around outside.”

“Well. It’s a monster that shouldn’t be roaming around outside, but let’s leave that aside for now.”

Pretending not to notice the baby basilisk’s desperate tail-wagging plea, Diret changed the subject.

Sorry. I did what I could.

“Junior. There’s one last thing I want to tell you.”

“I’m listening.”

“After today’s work is done and you go back and rest, people from the Einroguard clubs will probably start coming by tomorrow.”

“Ah.”

Lee Han listened closely.

He had heard a lot about the clubs of Einroguard before.

A person could not live alone, and a mage could not pursue truth alone either.

…That was the usual creed of an ordinary social club, but Einroguard’s clubs had a slightly different feel from that.

They seemed a little insane about gold coins.

According to what the Duel Club senior he had met during break had said, the Einroguard Duel Club’s main source of income was duels by proxy.

They stepped into disputes between Einroguard students, fought the duel for them, and took gold coins in return.

And according to that senior, astonishingly enough, the Duel Club was not the strange one.

Every proper club in Einroguard, without exception, had a legitimate source of income as a necessary condition.

At that point, it was hard to tell whether they were social clubs or an Einroguard student guild.

“There are so many clubs, and there are a lot I don’t know either, but remember just one thing, junior.”

“Yes.”

“Act as stupid and incompetent as you possibly can.”

“…???”

*****

Morning.

Since he had spent the whole time from evening to late night moving contraband with his friends, a little fatigue still remained.

Yawning, Lee Han came down to the second-year lounge. Familiar friends were waiting there with faces full of anticipation.

Seeing that, Lee Han looked puzzled.

“Did I happen to say I’d make breakfast for everyone this morning?”

“…N-no. Wardanaz. We’re not happy just because we’re expecting a hearty breakfast!”

“That’s right. We’re not pigs obsessed with food!”

“Mm. I see.”

Wearing a skeptical expression at his friends’ unconvincing words, Lee Han opened one of the crates of smuggled goods.

Even if he was too busy to prepare a full meal, they couldn’t eat nothing, so he took out a few simple things.

When sliced bread, cheese, oil for dipping, salted ham, and a few cans came out, the Blue Dragon Tower students rushed over with blissful expressions.

Wait. Aren’t they curious how I even have this food?

Lee Han thought to himself.

Normally, shouldn’t the natural reaction be amazement, like, How do you already have this on the first day?

As they had a light meal, Lee Han asked his friends,

“Then why were you all waiting in the lounge this early in the morning?”

“Because starting today, we can join Einroguard clubs!”

“Ah. So that was it.”

Lee Han had briefly wondered whether there was some festival or whether classes had been canceled, but sadly it was neither of those.

“I don’t think clubs are going to be all that fun or exciting.”

He still didn’t fully understand everything Diret had said, but Lee Han had long since abandoned any romance or fantasy about Einroguard clubs.

They especially did not seem like the warm, cheerful social clubs his friends imagined.

But after hearing that, his friends stared at him as if to ask how he could possibly say something so cold and ruthless.

“Th-that’s ridiculous, Wardanaz. Social clubs are something every noble likes, aren’t they?”

“I was never very interested. I don’t think anyone in my house really joined social clubs either…”

“House Wardanaz is the exception!”

“Why is it the exception?”

The Blue Dragon Tower friend, left speechless, hurriedly changed the subject.

“Clubs are really wonderful places. Wardanaz. Of course, newly founded ones visited by vulgar drifters are noisy and feel like taverns. But established clubs are visited only by refined nobles, and there’s the pleasure of conversation.”

“And you play mage cards.”

Gainando, who had come down late, nodded and said that.

“Right. And you play mage cards. But I prefer chess.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Why would chess be better than mage cards? Does chess have the joy of collecting cards?”

“Chess is the true— Ah. Be quiet, Gainando! You derailed the conversation! Anyway, Lee Han, in clubs you talk about what happened today, debate the political situation of the Empire…”

“Isn’t that basically the same as the lounge?”

“It isn’t! I’m telling you, it’s different!”

“O-okay.”

Because his friend looked so desperate, Lee Han accepted it without resistance.

As other students woke up one by one and came down, Gainando, chewing bread dipped in olive oil beside him, asked,

“Lee Han, which club are you going to join?”

“Hmm. A club where the work is easy and it makes a lot of gold coins.”

I shouldn’t have asked.

Internally grumbling at his friend’s utterly unromantic answer, Gainando finished the rest of the bread.

When the morning sun had fully risen and all the students had gathered in the second-year lounge, a paper bird flew in through the window.

Then it burst into flame and turned into a voice.

Second-year students to the common lounge!

“!”

“Let’s go!”

The students, without exception, grew excited and started moving.

The common lounge, not the year lounge, where they could meet all the seniors.

What kind of place could it be?

“Hey. Everyone, get buffed before you go.”

“Drink this potion first.”

“Is there anyone here willing to go bravely in front? For your friends?”

“……”

But there were also people who stayed calm. Namely, Lee Han and his friends.

Lee Han and his friends grabbed the backs of the necks of the students trying to dash out, cast spells on them, and made them move in battle formation.

Because the moment they entered the common lounge, they might get ambushed.

“E-even so, they’re seniors…”

“You got played that badly during the smuggling mess and you’re still saying that? Once we go into the common lounge, don’t open just any door. Don’t go into a room alone. If a senior talks to you, stay on guard first.”

The second-year Blue Dragon Tower students moved out in a mood far calmer and gloomier than before.

Creak—

Perseda, who had been waiting in the common lounge, looked surprised to see the second-year students enter in an orderly formation.

“You really are remarkable. In our year, everyone got excited and fought to run in ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) first… Yes. This is noble dignity. I hope from next year onward the younger students can learn a little by watching you.”

At Perseda’s praise, the second-year students awkwardly averted their eyes. Some quietly lowered their wands and tucked their potions back into their clothes.

Lee Han and Yonair whispered in the back.

“Doesn’t look like a trap, right?”

“Yeah.”

The common lounge was wide and barren. It was the complete opposite of the year lounge, which was at least somewhat warm and comfortable.

If the year lounge felt like a cozy sitting room with a fireplace, the common lounge strongly gave off the feeling of a broad campsite clearing.

“Senior. Why is this place so empty?”

“Hm? Ah. Because it’s the common lounge. If you leave things here, students from the other years take them.”

Didn’t you just talk about noble dignity?

Apparently by the time they reached the level of third- or fourth-year students of Blue Dragon Tower, they no longer hesitated to steal, regardless of noble dignity.

“Normally, people rest in their own year lounge. They don’t come to the common lounge to rest like this. This place is used when there’s business for Blue Dragon Tower as a whole, or when people need to talk.”

Perseda pointed to a giant wooden signpost installed in the clearing. It held a bulletin board.

—Looking for mages to join a request from the Marca Guild. Third year or above, at least three self-defense spells, rank within top thirty.

—There was a recent White Tiger Tower raid, so stay alert.

ㄴ I recommend changing the tower crest and wearing a secret mark so we can recognize each other.

ㄴ Those White Tiger Tower bastards were wearing our tower crest too and asking if we were from the same tower…

—Looking for the grimoire Secrets of Wicked Transformation.

ㄴ Why not just request it from the Library Club?

ㄴ Those bastards charge too much.

ㄴ I know. I’m a member of the Library Club.

Lee Han read the papers the seniors had plastered all over the board with interest.

Aside from the bulletin board, there were a few tents and canopies left over from when the seniors had stayed there last year. And…

“What’s that?”

“I was just about to explain. Today we’ll be moving there.”

“!”

A giant door installed on one side of the common lounge.

At the words that they would be moving through that door, the second-year Blue Dragon Tower students immediately showed intense vigilance.

Just as Wardanaz had warned, at Einroguard they could never let their guard down.

Not even with seniors!

“Where does it go?”

“Follow me.”

Instead of answering, Perseda opened the door and passed through it. The wavering dimension beyond made it clear that the door had spatial magic cast on it.

FLASH!

Passing through the door connected to the common lounge, Perseda arrived on the seventh floor of Einroguard and waited for the juniors to come out.

Among all the areas inside Einroguard’s main building, which already possessed endless space, the seventh floor boasted the largest and most complicated section.

It would not even be an exaggeration to call it a village, or even a city, rather than a single floor.

Because of that, students in their second year and above spent much of their time on this seventh floor.

If first-years spent their time in the gardens or courtyards outside the main building, their seniors spent theirs in the spaces of the seventh floor.

Since each tower’s common lounge all had spatial transfer doors connected to the seventh floor, it could not help but be convenient.

“Why aren’t the Blue Dragon Tower students coming out?”

The students from the Einroguard clubs, who had been waiting to begin their explanations, asked Perseda.

“Wait a little.”

“Isn’t this taking too long? Should we go check?”

“They’re not children. There’s no need to fuss over them one by one—”

Before the sentence had even finished, the door connected to the common lounge opened, and the second-year juniors came pouring out.

With every possible spell already loaded and ready.

“……”

“……”

The club students who had been waiting were startled by the murderous atmosphere.

“W-what is this?”

“What happened? Why are they like this?”

Grasping the mood instantly, Lee Han quickly improvised an excuse.

“…We just saw one of the Skull Principal’s lackeys in the common lounge. We fled quickly and stayed cautious, just in case.”