Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 772
Shock. Silence.
Diret understood the shock the junior had just suffered well enough, so Diret waited for Lee Han to recover from it.
“…H-how does that even make sense?”
“Which part? Fifth-year White Tiger Tower? Or zero schools?”
“None of it makes sense… If someone keeps failing, how can that person still move up to fifth year?”
The common joke low-year students at Einroguard liked to make—If I keep failing, am I going to wind up in fifth year?—was very different from reality.
Einroguard was not the kind, gentle place that would promote someone just because that person had failed.
If you failed, the place you usually went was the punishment cells.
If you stayed in the punishment cells instead of going outside during break, most failures got resolved one way or another.
For students aiming to graduate in their fourth year, even that was not enough, but that was a graduation issue. Normally, fail -> punishment cells -> overcome it was the standard route.
But this person had not only kept going while still failing, but had somehow made it all the way to fifth year?
“Well, first of all, that bastard from House Jahan… spent every break in the punishment cells.”
“……”
A chill ran down Lee Han’s spine.
To think someone had never gone outside even once and had been trapped inside Einroguard ever since enrolling.
That was enough hardship to turn even a normal person into a monster like the Skull Principal.
“I-isn’t that too cruel?”
“This sort of thing happens in Einroguard, Junior. I tried teaching Caten, of course. So did Princess Yukbeltire, and even the professors…”
Without realizing it, Lee Han swallowed.
This felt even more nerve-racking than meeting one of the Skull Principal’s insane duplicates.
“…and they failed. Caten genuinely couldn’t understand the calculations and laws magic required. It was like numbers themselves had cursed Caten.”
“I-I see.”
Lee Han nodded.
Magic was an advanced discipline that fundamentally required you to sense mana, move it, calculate in your head, and concentrate. It was not something you could do on instinct alone.
You might get lucky and pick up a few spells, but you could not go any farther than that.
If Caten of House Jahan really was, as Diret said, someone cursed by numbers, then a continuous string of failures was not surprising.
“Wait. Then how did Caten become a fifth-year?”
“Because Caten was outstanding at swordsmanship.”
Not just compared to students in the same year, but even compared with upperclassmen in the White Tiger Tower, Caten’s swordsmanship did not lose out.
Caten could produce aura through mana, use all kinds of secret sword techniques, and somehow make up for lacking magic that way.
But Caten had refused flatly.
Caten personally had aspirations in magic.
If Caten was going to talk that big, then Caten should produce a result through swordsmanship research.
…And so the monstrosity known as a fifth-year with zero schools was born.
“…Wouldn’t it be better to just join a knight order?”
“Junior, between me, Caten’s upperclassmen, and Caten’s underclassmen, we’ve said that about a hundred times.”
From the way Diret described it, Caten was a swordsmanship talent on par with Jiklin, Giselle’s older sister, so it was honestly hard to understand why Caten was still here in Einroguard.
Wouldn’t letting Caten devote Caten’s life to swordsmanship be a service to the Imperial swordsmanship world?
But no matter what other people said, what mattered in the end was the person’s own will, and Caten was convinced that if Caten kept digging deep enough into swordsmanship, Caten would someday arrive at an understanding of magic.
“I see. Hmm. Still, Caten isn’t a bad-tempered or weird senior, right?”
“After hearing all that, you’re still asking whether Caten is a weird senior?”
“…Still, not weird in the way Professor Verdus or Princess Yukbeltire are weird, right?”
“Not like that. But… hmm… no. I don’t think I need to tell you this in advance.”
“……”
Lee Han wanted to say, Senior, did you know there are two ways to make someone angry?
But Lee Han held it in.
The senior in front of Lee Han was too pitiable to get angry at.
“All right. Then I’ll go listen carefully.”
“Yeah. Good luck.”
“Oh. When should I come help with the quasi-sacrament research?”
“It’s still a long way off.”
“Then I’ll come this weekend.”
Lee Han said goodbye and walked out.
“Did you really not hear the part where I said it’s still a long way off?”
Diret grumbled at the back of Lee Han’s head.
When your junior was too smart, it even became hard to lie.
Right. I should put some gold in there.
After Lee Han left and Diret was alone in Dark Hall, Diret walked over to the vault.
The dark magic school was so poor that sometimes Diret secretly put in money from Diret’s own pocket.
Especially now, when it looked like this year’s incoming class might be zero students again, Diret really ought to pad the fund a little…
“!!!!!!”
A shrill scream burst out from Dark Hall.
*****
The lecture <Sword and Life> was held on the sixth floor, in the Hell’s Edge classroom.
Good thing it was only a poisonous swamp that burst open on the sixth floor.
Lee Han passed through the poison haze belching out from the swamp with his bare body and opened the door to the Hell’s Edge classroom.
Inside, oppressive heat washed over him, and lava flowed like a river.
“……”
The urge to shut the door again came over him hard, but Lee Han endured it.
Wait. The elemental magic lecture was like this too. Einroguard classrooms are all peculiar. You can’t judge a lecture too quickly by the character of the classroom alone.
Of course, the professor in charge of the elemental magic lecture had set Lee Han on fire, but Lee Han tried to stay as positive as possible.
…Why is no one here?
Seeing no one between the lava and the volcanic rock, Lee Han once again felt the urge to back away.
No. Professor Verdus’s lecture was like this too. The upperclassmen are all overflowing with composure, so maybe they’re just arriving late.
Unlike a second-year at Einroguard like Lee Han, the third- and fourth-years were people with composure to spare.
Maybe that was all this was.
“Ah. Are you the junior? Come in, come in.”
After spotting Lee Han, a short cat beastkin student waved enthusiastically.
The student was male, and the animal blood ran strongly enough in the features that Lee Han instinctively flinched.
Animal beastkin with cute appearances have been dangerous, in my experience.
So far, in Lee Han’s experience, beastkin with cute appearances were often catastrophically broken as people.
Privately, Lee Han called this the Beastkin Personality-Cuteness Inverse Correlation Hypothesis.
The perfect example, of course, was Professor Verdus.
If Professor Verdus had not looked so heavily animal-blooded, so sympathy-inducing and cute, Professor Verdus would never have survived this long.
It’s the beastkin with wrecked personalities who survive only if the animal blood runs strong and they look cute. Honestly, it’s a pretty persuasive hypothesis.
“Are you perhaps Senior Caten of House Jahan?”
“That’s right, Junior!”
Damn it.
Lee Han lamented inwardly.
If Caten had just been another upperclassman taking the class, then maybe even a somewhat dangerous senior would have been manageable, but this senior was the one teaching the lecture.
“How did you know my name?”
“Um… the other seniors told me.”
“I see. I know your name too.”
Caten removed a long-brimmed fedora and smiled in satisfaction. Lee Han hesitated.
“Pardon? Why would that be?”
“You’re Lee Han of House Wardanaz, aren’t you? Ever since I heard the rumor that you were taking classes from every school, I’ve wanted to meet you. And now you’ve actually come to this lecture.”
“……”
Lee Han regretted not grabbing Diret by the ankle and forcing Diret to keep talking about this senior a little longer.
With the other person acting like this, Lee Han was genuinely afraid.
Surely this isn’t some sort of revenge just because I’m taking classes from every school.
It did not help that Lee Han was from the Blue Dragon Tower and the other person was from the White Tiger Tower.
If a bunch of his second-year friends had come whining and begging Caten for revenge…
“When will the others be arriving?”
“The others?”
“Yes.”
“There are no other students taking this lecture.”
Caten blinked at Lee Han.
“…How do you know that?”
“Well, because other than you, Junior, all the students who take swordsmanship lectures are from the White Tiger Tower, and I already asked them all.”
“……”
Lee Han swore to grab the White Tiger Tower students by the collars later.
If a crazy senior had been going around asking people about the lecture, they should have shared that information instead of letting it slide!
“Should I try persuading them again? It feels like a waste for me to take a lecture like this by myself.”
“No need for that, Junior. And I was the one who stopped them from taking it in the first place.”
“What?”
That answer took Lee Han by surprise.
A person teaching the class was allowed to go to students in advance and threaten them out of taking it?
That’s a fresh approach.
If Professor Verdus ever found out about it, the aftermath would be frightening.
Going around threatening students before class and telling them not to enroll…
“There are qualifications for taking this lecture, you see. So I asked them questions, and if I judged that they weren’t suited for it, I told them not to take it.”
“By qualifications, do you mean swordsmanship?”
Lee Han frowned.
Of course, Lee Han’s swordsmanship was excellent among students of the same year, but if even people like Giselle and Dergeu had given up on it, let alone upperclassmen, there was no reason only Lee Han would be taking it.
“Ah. Or have I simply not taken the test yet?”
Lee Han asked cautiously, wondering whether losing here would let him leave the classroom.
Caten shook Caten’s head.
“It is a test, yes, but not of swordsmanship. It’s something a bit closer to wisdom. Here, Junior. Take this book.”
Caten held out a book to Lee Han.
It was <Basic Fire Magic>, a book written quite a long time ago, but one with good explanations, so first-years had found it useful enough to pass around.
“?”
“The back section. The third-circle page. Do you know this spell, <Low-Grade Flame Barrier>?”
“Yes.”
“Could you explain it?”
“Pardon?”
Caten urged Lee Han on, as if to say, Go ahead.
Lee Han hesitated, wondering how best to explain it.
Hmm. Senior probably doesn’t know many spells to begin with.
According to Diret, aside from a few low-level spells Caten had picked up through instinct, Caten was compensating for everything else with swordsmanship.
Lee Han decided to explain it as if the other person were Gainando and knew nothing about numbers.
“So first, <Low-Grade Flame Barrier> is a spell that uses the fire element and form transformation. Since the fire element can produce backfire phenomena, precise calculation is essential, but when someone has too much mana or can’t do the calculations, there are other ways to approach it. I recommend casting a protective spell first and then using the magic. At first it looks reckless, but if you repeat it enough times, you find that ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) there are more parts than you’d expect that can be replaced with feel…”
“You pass, Junior.”
“??”
“I look forward to working with you.”
“W-working on what?”
“I teach swordsmanship to you, Junior. You teach magic to me. Hmm. Wouldn’t the two of us create an excellent synergy together?”
“……”
Lee Han felt like Lee Han finally understood a little of what Diret had almost said earlier, before stopping.
