Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 796

Ragesa and the chained pirates drew their weapons and prepared to ambush him.

A solemn air settled over them, like hunters lying in wait for prey that was certain to appear along its usual path.

They almost look professional.

To Lee Han, whose eyes were already filled with respect, the sight looked all the more admirable.

Professor Bivle walked along at a leisurely pace, looking as nonchalant as ever, completely unaware that danger was stirring nearby.

“That fool Gonadaltes. Did I ask for so much? I only asked him for five boxes of diamonds to use as fuel, and he refused! Is he even a mage?”

“Attack! Crush that swindling debtor!”

At Ragesa’s shout, the pirates burst out of the corridor.

Professor Bivle started and cried out.

“What?! What is this?!”

“Give me back my gold coins, you scamming bastard!”

“F-failed investments are the investor’s responsibility!”

Even under attack by pirates of the Imperial archipelago, Professor Bivle did not panic.

He had experienced such attacks far too many times.

The belt and amulet he wore linked together and shone, creating a powerful force field.

In an instant, the distance between Professor Bivle and the pirates expanded greatly.

“You scamming bastard. What was that? You said you’d make me a flying pirate ship? Where is that pirate ship?”

“Great magic requires trial and error!”

“…”

Once Lee Han grasped the situation, his expression turned complicated.

Before his eyes was someone who ranked even lower than pirates in the Empire.

A scammer.

To scam pirates, of all people.

WHIIIK!

Professor Bivle’s skin went pale and began swelling bluish.

Ragesa had interfered with the professor’s blood and stopped its flow.

The professor gasped for breath and barely managed to move the tip of one boot.

Then <Wave of Curse Banishment> activated, and the interference vanished.

Meanwhile, the pirates wrapped in chains charged forward.

Ragesa shouted loudly.

“Whoever captures him first goes free!”

“!!”

At those words, the pirates’ eyes blazed even more fiercely.

To pirates who had been caught in the archipelago and forced into service, freedom was a blessing they dreamed of even in their sleep.

Items with magic resistance.

Lee Han realized it as he watched the pirates endure Professor Bivle’s magic bullets and advance.

Those chains protected the pirates from external magic while also restraining them.

It was a unique artifact, rarely seen even in Einroguard.

CLANG!

The pirates swung enchanted axes and cutlasses, trying to break through the force field.

Professor Bivle shouted urgently from inside.

“Inside Einroguard, I’m protected by territorial law, not Imperial law! You can’t do this!”

“I also received nominal permission from the lord, you scammer. Drop the force field! I’ll only beat you a few times ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) and take what you have!”

“Who called this pirate here?!”

Professor Bivle grumbled as he began summoning artifacts from subspace.

Fortunately, after recently experiencing betrayals and attacks from wicked fellow professors, his defenses were more thorough than usual.

Seeing that, Ragesa grew even more enraged.

“How much scamming have you been doing to walk around armed this heavily?!”

Someone unfamiliar with magic might think mages could produce spells easily.

That a mage could summon flying swords and shields with a single gesture.

But behind every flashy spell, an equivalent amount of effort was required.

Artifacts like those needed daily maintenance, charging, and inspection.

A mage had to wake up in the morning, examine artifacts one by one, prepare them for anything that might happen that day, and worry about combinations because artifacts could interfere with each other…

At the moment, Professor Bivle was better defended than most pirate captains.

Seeing him protect himself this thoroughly after taking her investment and failing to make so much as a single sail for the pirate ship made her fury burn even hotter.

“Mana, swirl and shake the magic!”

The pirate crone swung her sword while chanting a spell.

Lee Han’s eyes widened at the amazing sight.

The magic is being scrambled!

The mana flow of any given space was supposed to move according to certain rules.

Mages read that flow and drew upon it to cast magic on that premise.

But now Ragesa was deliberately making that flow irregular, turning the surroundings into chaos.

Then the spells that had been cast began tangling together and falling into confusion.

The sword Professor Bivle had summoned, which fired wedges of light to bind enemies, staggered and lost its direction before lodging in the ceiling.

The magic bullets he had been firing also bent into strange trajectories before burying themselves in the walls and floor.

That was not all.

The force fields protecting the professor collided with one another, creaking as gaps formed between them.

Professor Bivle was shocked and hurried to reinforce them.

I think I understand why Professor Voladi called her.

Ragesa’s magical combat was quite unique.

To put it positively, it was irregular and ingenious.

To put it negatively, it lacked structure and was completely haphazard.

If Yumidihus had attacked Professor Bivle, he would have cast counter-magic to temporarily neutralize the artifacts or engaged him head-on in a contest of power to break through them.

Ragesa, however, dragged her opponent into a chaotic brawl instead of such a frontal battle.

In situations like that, it could become disadvantageous for her as well.

The magic-scrambling just now could easily have backfired on her.

But like a seasoned pirate, this crone did not care about such things at all.

In fact, she seemed to enjoy them.

The more chaotic things became, the more advantageous she clearly believed it would be for her.

When fighting the Skull Principal, who’s stronger than me—no. Why did the Skull Principal’s name just come to mind? Anyway, when fighting a mage stronger than me, there are many points worth referencing.

When fighting someone stronger than oneself, winning through a frontal confrontation was impossible.

One had to shake up the situation somehow and create variables.

“…Damn it!”

Professor Bivle, realizing the situation was unfavorable, quickly thrust a hand into the air and into subspace.

Then he grabbed whatever was inside and threw it out indiscriminately.

CLATTER!

Imperial gold, jewels, various rare reagents, and artifacts scattered across the floor.

Like a lizard cutting off its own tail, Professor Bivle scattered treasure on the ground and frantically fled back the way he had come.

At that sight, Ragesa snorted.

“Hmph. No need to chase him. I’ll forgive him this much today.”

“Truly magnanimous.”

Lee Han quickly flattered her.

If he made a good impression, couldn’t he call her to the lecture hall for the next Professor Bivle lecture too?

I’d like to show this to the upperclassmen.

“Kihihi. You have a good eye. Wait. Why didn’t the necklace activate?”

The pirate crone was surprised when she realized Lee Han had not activated the necklace she had given him.

“You told me to wear it.”

“…Usually, you wear it and activate it. You brat! If I tell you to eat, are you going to stuff bread into your throat and not drink anything?”

Ragesa was dumbfounded by Lee Han’s answer.

When Ragesa had scrambled the magic in the surrounding space earlier, any mage would have felt considerable dizziness.

Few mages could remain unaffected when the surrounding mana changed so chaotically.

But this young boy stood there calmly without even activating the necklace.

“I’ll activate it next time.”

“…Yes! Good, good!”

Impressed by his talent, Ragesa burst into loud laughter and vigorously patted Lee Han on the back.

Lee Han swayed back and forth, thinking to himself.

What exactly is so good about this?

*****

“Um. There is something I’m curious about, Captain Ragesa.”

“I know. I know.”

The pirate crone nodded.

She had already noticed his intense interest in her magic, so after witnessing that magical combat, he would surely find it hard to restrain himself.

Ordinarily, she would have confirmed a challenger’s talent through trials and tests, but Ragesa decided to skip that this time.

She liked that he was Yumidihus’s and Voladi’s disciple, and she liked his clever, cunning nature as well.

“I have no choice! I’ll explain the magic I showed you today.”

“Huh? That’s not it. I was curious how much Professor Bivle scammed you out of…”

“…”

Ragesa looked at Lee Han as if dumbfounded.

The chained pirates following behind her wore equally bewildered expressions.

That is what he’s curious about right now?

“Ah. Sorry. I’ll just call him Bivle.”

“That isn’t why I’m surprised! Are you seriously curious about that? Hm. Bivle took roughly… twenty chests of Imperial gold, I suppose? Something like that.”

“!!”

Lee Han’s pupils trembled with shock and horror.

“B-but you let him live?”

“I didn’t know back then. I thought the flying pirate ship would be finished soon.”

Ragesa grumbled, the wrinkles on her face deepening.

She still seemed bitter about it.

“By the time I realized I’d been deceived, he had already fled into Einroguard!”

Do I need to search Einroguard instead of the Empire to catch magical criminals?

“Don’t invest carelessly either.”

“Yes. I’ll make sure I’m the one receiving investments.”

“Keheh. Right. You’re different from that Bivle, so you’ll probably do it faithfully.”

“…”

Lee Han momentarily averted his gaze.

Fortunately, this great pirate did not notice.

“So, about the magic you asked about. Let’s see… What should I tell you first?”

“?”

Lee Han tilted his head at Ragesa’s words.

Did I ask about that?

He did not think he had…

But Lee Han stayed quiet.

The pirate seemed to be in a good mood.

“Do you remember how I cast magic with just one or two syllables in the underground classroom earlier?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think that was?”

“Incantation shortening… wasn’t it?”

At Lee Han’s words, the pirate crone burst into laughter as if she had been waiting for that exact answer.

The old woman clapped her hands and stamped her feet, barely managing to stop cackling before she spoke.

“Yes, yes! I knew you’d think that! Every mage who sees it for the first time thinks the same. But no. This is pirate magic, the pride of our family.”

Incantation shortening, which compressed spells into short utterances, was fundamentally different from the magic Ragesa cast with sounds like “Liha” or “Aiya.”

Now that I hear it, that’s definitely true.

Even with incantation shortening, there would usually be words or abbreviations symbolizing the magic.

Since incantations were originally tools that helped mages concentrate, they could not be completely unrelated.

But sounds like “Liha” or “Aiya” seemed to have little connection to transforming chairs into flocks of parrots or turning back doors into walls.

“While Imperial mages rack their brains binding and weaving mana in all sorts of troublesome ways, my ancestors simply entrusted themselves to the flow of mana. Then they shouted like true pirates.”

“…?”

Lee Han’s expression began to turn strange as he listened.

So right now…

Don’t tell me it’s random magic?

Magic always required thorough calculation and control.

Otherwise, the magic could turn against the mage.

Yet Ragesa was, shockingly, denying the very foundation of Imperial magic.

Draw out mana casually, roughly, then throw it freely!

“…Uh, then doesn’t the magic come out somewhat randomly?”

“It tends to. Actually, earlier I was hoping for sea eagles, but parrots came out. Still, parrots are good birds, aren’t they? They’re pirates’ friends.”

“What if the magic flows in an unexpected direction?”

“You have to enjoy that flow! Even ordinary magic sometimes flows in unexpected directions, doesn’t it?”

“…”

Lee Han recalled all the times his fire magic had tried to flow in unexpected directions.

How can anyone enjoy that?