Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 792

“Next week is club week…”

“Ah. One moment, Professor. I think time just slowed down a little.”

“I told you, it does not work that quickly.”

“Hmm!”

I may really have to hit him.

Of course, if the blow landed badly, it could cause fatal injuries. But if this continued, the boy from House Wardanaz might burn to death from knowledge, like a mage who flew toward the sun on wings fastened with wax.

Would it not be better to break a few bones now and teach him a lesson than let his soul burn away from knowledge?

“It worked, Professor! I think it worked!”

“?!!!!”

Professor Garcia accidentally crushed the pocket watch being used to measure the time.

That was how startled Professor Garcia was.

“Uh, Professor. Did something happen to upset you?”

“I broke it because I was surprised, Student Lee Han. Don’t worry.”

“Professor, do you have trouble controlling your strength when you’re startled?”

Lee Han asked with perfect seriousness.

Since he would have to learn many things under Professor Garcia from now on, this was a matter of survival.

Maybe he should keep his distance from Professor Garcia on stormy days or in places where spirit monsters appeared…

“Stop asking useless questions and try the magic already.”

“Yes. From instant to moment; from moment to minute!”

With the incantation, Lee Han clearly felt his perceived time stretch.

In truth, this magic was not very effective by itself.

For one thing, it extended only the mage’s perceived time, not the mage’s entire time.

People often felt as though time slowed down when they fell into a crisis.

This magic created a phenomenon similar to that sensation.

Naturally, his hands, feet, and wand all moved sluggishly, unable to keep up with the speed of his thoughts.

This is hard to adjust to.

POP!

Professor Garcia quickly displayed a problem in the air.

Even if the body could not keep up with time, accelerated consciousness alone offered plenty of advantages.

A mage arrives at a village and is measuring the area of a field. In the following diagram, the number that minimizes the sum of the areas enclosed by the curves and straight lines is…

Did I make it too difficult?

Professor Garcia had thought it would be enough just to confirm whether Lee Han’s perceived time had expanded, but using accelerated thought was more important than expected as well.

This magic would be used more as a foundation or connection for time magic he would learn later than for its own direct application.

To train the technique of instantly accelerating thought, problems far more difficult than usual were ideal.

They had to be difficult enough that they could not be solved within the time limit, forcing the mage’s thoughts to keep moving continuously.

But when Lee Han stayed too still, Professor Garcia grew slightly worried.

If the problem felt so difficult that he could not even begin approaching it, then Garcia had chosen wrong…

“Professor.”

Lee Han spoke just as the magic ended.

“Was the problem too difficult?”

“No. That isn’t it. This is a problem Professor Knighton gave me last year.”

“What? Why did Professor Knighton give you this last year?”

Professor Garcia tilted in confusion.

This was not a first-year problem.

“Professor Knighton gave it to me separately, telling me to solve harder ones on my own.”

“…”

Shock and horror.

Faced with that unexpected truth, Professor Garcia was left speechless.

Not Professor Verdus. Not Professor Bagreg.

Even Professor Knighton!

I trusted Professor Knighton because of that bureaucratic background…!

Einroguard’s atmosphere must have the power to drive even normal outsiders mad.

*****

“Professor. Come to think of it, what were you saying earlier?”

Lee Han asked after training again with a different problem, this one requiring him to measure the position of a troll assault captain charging toward him.

“I said next week is club week, so many outsiders will come, and Student Lee Han will likely be called to many places.”

“Wh… why does such a week exist?”

Lee Han looked at Professor Garcia with eyes full of despair and betrayal.

The gaze was so earnest that Professor Garcia almost mistook Garcia themself for the one who had created club week.

“…I didn’t organize it, Student Lee Han!”

“The upperclassmen should be doing research. Why are they wasting their magical lives on such useless time?”

Pr… Principal?!

Professor Garcia felt a terrifying sense of familiarity at Lee Han’s grumbling expression.

That was the very image of the Skull Principal Professor Garcia had seen during school days.

“Student Lee Han. Of course you may dislike outsiders coming to Einroguard, but events like this are absolutely necessary. There were festivals last year too, weren’t there? Some things can only be learned when outsiders come in.”

The Skull Principal did not particularly enjoy outsiders coming in to play either, but objectively speaking, outsiders were absolutely necessary for Einroguard.

How else could one extract gold from someone carrying a fat purse?

The answer was to invite them to the school under suitable pretexts, then show them research with a shiny exterior.

People from the Empire who visited Einroguard after receiving invitations from various clubs would willingly invest in research through persuasion and excitement.

At times, through threats and fear.

“And Einroguard students need to meet more outsiders. When they only stay among themselves, they keep going mad.”

“…”

Professor Garcia’s words were harsh, but difficult to refute.

Even from Lee Han’s perspective, it did not seem good for Einroguard students to stay gathered together.

It was not for nothing that, when the dark magic school created poison-jar curses, they stuffed jars full of poisonous insects.

The insect that survived to the very end by fighting the others inside that confined space became the most vicious and powerful…

Wait. The Skull Principal didn’t get the idea for Einroguard from poison-jar curses, did he?

“I understand, Professor. But I can’t help worrying, since I’ve joined so many clubs.”

“Hmm. You could think about it differently.”

“Because I’ve joined so many clubs, I can receive lots of sponsorships and investments?”

“…No. I’m telling you to talk ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) to the upperclassmen now and say, ‘I want to reduce my workload a little.’”

“Professor. I say that every time.”

Lee Han spoke with a deep sense of injustice.

Anyone watching would think he was someone who dug his own grave.

But Lee Han had been rejecting all the unreasonable proposals from his upperclassmen.

Granted, he did accept some proposals and work on them, but that was unavoidable for a junior who had to stay on people’s good side.

And some of them were also beneficial to Lee Han himself.

“…Isn’t the problem that you keep making exceptions because they’re unavoidable, then end up doing well? Even with the magic just now, you could have learned it moderately and slowly, but you forced yourself to learn it quickly.”

“What? Did I do that?”

Professor Garcia’s fist tightened.

Fortunately, Lee Han did not notice. If he had, he would have put distance between himself and the lecture hall.

“You can forget about it. Haha. Student Lee Han. Shall we learn the next magic?”

“You seem a little angry, Professor…”

“That can’t be. Now!”

*****

The next spells Lee Han learned were third-circle magic: <Lesser Time Deceleration> and <Lesser Time Acceleration>.

Both were spells cast on external objects rather than on the mage, and both possessed the power to accelerate or decelerate an object’s time.

Even though they were cast on objects rather than directly on the mage, these spells involved several complex formulas and processes, and they required <Lesser Internal Time Extension>, which Lee Han had completed today, as a foundation.

The number of calculations was so vast that they could only be completed by extending the mage’s own thinking time.

Now that I’ve become a second-year, Professor Garcia seems to be pushing me a little harder too.

Lee Han thought that as he walked.

It felt a little strange that Professor Garcia kept asking, “Do you think you can complete this today too?” and “You are honestly trying to complete it, aren’t you?”

Could that have been indirect pressure?

YELP!

What was that sound?

Lee Han, who had come down to basement level one, was puzzled by the scream of pain that sounded from somewhere nearby.

It was a rather familiar voice.

YELP!!

“…”

Lee Han’s face hardened as he continued walking.

The screams were coming from inside Professor Voladi’s <Understanding Intermediate Combat Magic> lecture hall on basement level one.

Master. Why do we have to attend lectures?

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

Lee Han could not deny that Basil’s question cut to the heart of the matter.

Why did students have to attend lectures and suffer?

Perhaps it was a difficult question that might never be answered in a lifetime.

Maybe mages should explore this before other high-dimensional truths.

I don’t want to go in. Waaah…

Basil was truly afraid of Professor Voladi, and it made whimpering sounds as Lee Han tried to open the door.

Of course, Professor Voladi had done Basil the favor of bringing it here and making it a nest, but even taking that into account, the professor had done far too many things that destroyed any goodwill.

“Do you want to go back to the dormitory?”

However, Basil shook its head vigorously.

Being separated from its master was scarier than the mad professor.

Lee Han opened his mouth to comfort Basil.

“Hmm. Professor Voladi isn’t an incredibly bad person. Compared with Professor Verdus or the Skull Principal, Professor Voladi is practically virtuous.”

Isn’t there anyone else?

Basil was certainly clever. It immediately realized the comparison subjects were not exactly good examples.

But Lee Han could not delay any longer. He opened the door to attend the lecture.

“Cloak, swallow me.”

After casting the spell and entering, he found, as expected, a first-year struggling against an orb.

Professor Voladi spoke without even glancing over.

“You have permission, so you can dispel the invisibility.”

“Oh. Really?”

Lee Han asked in surprise as he dispelled the invisibility.

Originally, Einroguard upperclassmen were not supposed to make contact with first-year students, but there were exceptions to this rule.

They could be mobilized when help was needed for a professor’s education.

And then there was the unavoidable circumstance that Professor Voladi had no other disciples.

Naturally, there was no one but Lee Han to step forward…

Professor Voladi really got permission. The Skull Principal is surprisingly kind to Professor Voladi.

If Professor Verdus had said Verdus wanted to use Lee Han for extra work, the Skull Principal’s personality would likely have sent Verdus straight to the punishment cells.

Wouldn’t that wicked intention, trying to use even a second-year student when upperclassmen were not enough, be detestable?

But Professor Voladi…

I probably would have given permission too…

“Eandurde.”

“!”

The gorgon-blooded first-year looked at Lee Han in surprise, then lost control of the flying spirit-stone orb and got hit.

Eandurde rolled across the floor with a pitiful yelp.

“It seems a little early for you to be attacking him, Professor.”

Lee Han said it cautiously, after reading the situation.

Usually, Lee Han would not dare object to Professor Voladi’s actions, but somehow it felt different when a first-year was the one getting hit.

Professor Voladi answered with an expressionless face.

“I am not attacking.”

“…?!”

Only then did Lee Han realize that Eandurde was practicing telekinesis magic alone.

Eandurde had been moving the spirit-stone orb to draw a certain pattern, only to lose control by mistake and hit himself.

“Ah. My apologies. So you were still at that stage. Junior, the lecture is over.”

Despite Lee Han’s call, Eandurde shook his head and tried to control the orb again.

Seeing that, Professor Voladi spoke with a faint trace of concern on an otherwise expressionless face.

“I’m concerned that he seems to be overexerting himself.”

“…What???”