Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 789
Nillia dashed out at full speed, like a hunter from the Northern Mountains. She was in such a hurry that she even pulled a potion from her pocket and drank it.
She absolutely could not let that magical criminal spread false rumors.
“Wardanaz! Hurry!”
“Ugh…”
If we just stay still, probably no one will care, right?
Lee Han spread mana through his entire body, temporarily enhanced his physical abilities, and chased after his friend.
He could have layered a few more enhancement spells on top of that, but it did not seem necessary to go that far.
Honestly, if they simply stayed still, the Einroguard students would probably think, Who is that young hunter? and move on…
“This Antagondals, defeated by a mere young hunter…!”
“Hey, stop right there!”
Nillia gritted her teeth and chased the bat.
When they turned the corner, they saw third-year upperclassmen playing magic-stone throwing at the end of the corridor.
“Should I throw from here, or from over there…”
“Can’t you hurry up?”
“Hey. Be quiet. The timing of my throw is a right even the Skull Principal can’t interfere with…”
“This Antagondals, defeated by a mere young hunter…!”
“Sorry!”
“Coming through!”
“???”
The upperclassmen, who had been about to throw stones inscribed with magic circles, looked up in confusion.
“What was that just now?”
“Wait. Didn’t that just say Antagondals? That magical criminal?”
The upperclassmen watched the two underclassmen run off with admiration.
Underclassmen these days were something else!
Meanwhile, the bat turned another corner.
This time, they saw upperclassmen playing mage hopscotch. Nillia shouted in a voice full of frustration.
“Why are there so many upperclassmen in the corridors today?!”
“A poisonous swamp broke out on the sixth floor just now, so probably the upperclassmen who were there…”
“This Antagondals, defeated by a mere young hunter…!”
“?!”
An upperclassman who had stepped on square four and was staggering under a rotation curse flinched.
“Did that say Antagondals? What’s going on?”
“Judging by that hideous bat-transformed shape, it looks like Antagondals sent a clone body and got it destroyed.”
“Even if it was only a clone body, those underclassmen are really amazing!”
“…”
“…”
The two fell silent at the upperclassmen’s praise.
Lee Han thought to himself.
Should I slip away now?
Come to think of it, Nillia was the only one shouting Antagondals.
If Lee Han quietly stopped here…
“Wardanaz…!”
“I wasn’t thinking anything.”
“What are you talking about? You stopped!”
“!”
When Nillia pointed ahead, the weakened bat simply dropped and collapsed.
Nillia, who was breathing hard and panting, spoke in a relieved voice.
“At least no strange rumors spread. Right?”
“Huh? Uh… Yeah. Sure. That’s right.”
Not wanting to hurt his friend when she looked at him with such bright expectation, Lee Han told a white lie.
*****
“…So that’s the situation.”
“Isn’t that too dangerous?!”
“Well, yes. We need to be careful.”
“…”
Nillia was shocked to see her friend speak in the same tone he would use to say, “It might rain tomorrow, so I should bring an umbrella.”
Has his sense of danger gone numb…!?
After experiencing especially difficult situations at Einroguard, his sense of danger might have dulled.
No, the others didn’t go that far even after going through dangerous situations. Maybe Wardanaz was always like this…
Nillia made an extremely rude guess in her mind.
“By the way, Nillia. Are you taking <A Mage’s Life with Plants>?”
“Yeah, I am. Why?”
Lee Han cheered inwardly.
It’s a second-year lecture!
From the title alone, it seemed like a botany lecture, but he had been worried because he could not tell whether it was for second-years or third-years.
He was overjoyed to learn it was a second-year lecture.
“That’s a relief. A second-year lecture.”
“…”
Nillia stared at her friend with eyes filled with sympathy, pity, shock, and horror.
“What did you do in the last lecture?”
“Nothing much. Since it was the first lecture, the professor explained what kind of class it was and showed us rare and interesting plants. Oh, right. The professor was a willow-tree spirit.”
“I see.”
“Right. Wardanaz, you’re taking Professor Verdus’s lecture, aren’t you? How is it?”
Nillia asked curiously.
Although they were in the same enchantment magic school, Lee Han was taking a third-year lecture, so she wondered how different it might be.
“Uh… Right. <Wand Materials and Magical Amplification>. Yours is <Introduction to Enchantment Magic>, isn’t it?”
“Right. Senior Yukbeltire teaches it.”
“How is it? Is she as eccentric as Professor Verdus?”
“No? She teaches well.”
“…?”
Lee Han doubted his ears.
She taught well.
Had the meaning of “teaches well” changed into something else at Einroguard?
“She teaches well?”
“Yeah. She teaches well.”
Nillia briefly explained Yukbeltire’s lectures.
Though Yukbeltire was fundamentally someone who had no special interest in underclassmen, she was not the type to abandon her work and do only her own projects like Professor Verdus.
She precisely and systematically organized the material for each lecture in detail and distributed it to the underclassmen, so the second-year enchantment magic students had few complaints.
And compared to Professor Verdus’s lectures from last year, it was bound to feel better anyway.
“…”
After hearing the explanation, Lee Han felt wronged for no reason.
Of course, he did not want Senior Yukbeltire to torment his second-year friends, but this was still…
Why do mad people become normal when I’m not watching?
“What about you, Wardanaz?”
“We’re… studying by stealing the professor’s work.”
“Hey. Don’t joke around.”
“…”
“…You’re not joking?”
Nillia suddenly felt very sorry.
“S-sorry. I didn’t know it was real.”
“Stealing professors’ work to study is actually pretty fun. It’s educational, too.”
“Really?”
“No. I was lying.”
“…”
“…”
An awkward silence settled between them.
Nillia suggested something to change the mood.
“T-then let’s go to the <A Mage’s Life with Plants> lecture hall first! I’ll show you around before today’s lecture starts!”
The lecture hall used for this botany class was a greenhouse filled with all sorts of plants.
Simply tending to and observing them was fairly entertaining, so several students could be seen visiting the lecture hall to study even when it was not class time.
Of course, she knew Lee Han attended so many lectures that he barely had any free time, but it was almost mealtime now…
“I promised to help with work at the Soup Club.”
“Then let’s go together after that’s done. I’ll help too.”
“After that, I have to stop by the Jousting Club and take care of the animals for a bit.”
“…Then let’s do that together too.”
“After that, I have to go to the Stonemason Club and…”
“Hey, cut it out!”
Nillia could not hold back and ended up getting angry at her friend.
*****
After hearing his friend’s sincere anger, Lee Han reflected on himself and canceled his club schedules.
He left only one in place.
“I really can’t cancel this Soup Club work. I heard the upperclassmen are on the verge of rioting.”
“…The food is pretty tasteless.”
Nillia had no choice but to admit it.
The meals from the Soup Club, which was responsible for filling the hungry stomachs of countless Einroguard students, were always precarious.
Since they had to somehow produce enough food with limited ingredients, taste inevitably had to take a back seat.
But those circumstances could not persuade Einroguard students who paid one gold coin each for their meals.
“Hey, you lunatics! Stop serving bread made from ground beans! You need to mix in at least half flour!”
“Get rid of the corn porridge!”
“If you’re going to keep serving this salted meat, just serve rocks instead. Rocks would be easier to break!”
“I’m curious. Where exactly do they get that salted meat?”
Nillia was puzzled.
Second-year mages and above could use all sorts of spells, so preserving meat was not difficult.
Then why did the Soup Club keep serving salted meat that was harder than stone?
“I was curious too, so I asked. Apparently, the Skull Principal usually buys it in bulk from outside.”
“…”
Nillia was shocked by Lee Han’s explanation.
What kind of…?
“When you wander around the school, there are kitchens that are relatively easy to get into, but a lot of those kitchens are fake. The Skull Principal deliberately buys tasteless food supplies and stocks them there.”
He really puts effort into the most pointless things!
Nillia shuddered once again at the Skull Principal’s obsession.
He could just leave no food supplies at all, yet he went to such lengths just to watch students suffer…
“Still, it’s better than nothing. If you cook it properly, it’s edible.”
No matter how hard the meat had become, if one pounded it, tore it apart, sliced it into small pieces, threw it into water, and boiled it thoroughly with bread, it at least became a salty meal.
Of course, whether the students eating it would be satisfied was another matter.
“Seniors. I’m here.”
“Wardanaz! We were waiting for you!”
The Soup Club members cheered and welcomed Lee Han.
More precisely, they welcomed the food supplies Lee Han would bring. To members who always suffered from limited ingredients, this junior was a miraculous big spender.
“What about flour?”
“We used it all yesterday. We tried to secure wheat, but poison spread on the sixth floor…”
“Rice?”
“We have a little left.”
“Meat…”
Lee Han took out the ingredients he had brought and carefully consulted with the upperclassmen.
Seeing that, Nillia felt ashamed for complaining about the Soup Club’s meals.
This costs one gold coin? If Wardanaz saw this, he’d be so shocked he’d collapse. Hmph!
How could I criticize them without considering other people’s circumstances?
“Let’s make oat porridge for now.”
“Oat porridge never gets a good reaction. Bowls might come flying.”
“Let’s add other ingredients to deceive the eye. Onions, carrots… Damn it. Let’s use cheese too.”
“Even cheese?! Isn’t that too luxurious?”
“We’ll slice it thinly. How about cutting up the salted meat and putting it in the porridge, then slicing the ham I brought and laying it on top?”
“That sounds good. We can fool them visually!”
“…”
Nillia forgot the shame she had felt only moments ago and glared at the upperclassmen.
As «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» expected, the Soup Club members were half con artists.
To drag her honest friend down the path of deception like this…
*****
“Nillia. Thanks for helping.”
“This wasn’t the kind of help I had in mind.”
Nillia muttered as she walked.
She had imagined skinning animals and preparing meat, not pounding meat to make it look like there was more of it.
“Three, two, one… There it is. Yggdrasil Greenhouse. Right?”
“Right. Just open the door and go in.”
Nillia hurriedly opened the door to show her friend the lecture hall before class began.
Helping with the Soup Club work had taken longer than expected. The students who had gathered for the meal had hesitated over whether to throw their plates, but ultimately set them down.
Whoosh—
The hot, humid air unique to greenhouses rushed out. Professor Willow, who was inside, looked at both of them in puzzlement.
“It isn’t class time yet?”
“Hello, Professor. We came early because I wanted to introduce him to the lecture hall.”
“Indeed… You are excellent mages. Look around as much as you like.”
Professor Willow, who had been pruning branches, smiled kindly.
Then paused upon seeing Lee Han.
“It’s been a while, Professor.”
“Wardanaz. …It really has been a long time since we met last year! I’ve heard many rumors… But why aren’t you using your wand? It looks full of complaints.”
“…”
Lee Han glared at his wand, feeling wronged.
