Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 797
“I don’t think I can enjoy that.”
No matter how hard he tried to enjoy uncertainty and change, enjoying the fire element’s attempt to burn everything around it, including Lee Han himself, was too much to ask.
The pirate crone clicked her tongue at Lee Han’s answer, as if she pitied him.
“Kihihi… Still so stiff. Well, that’s understandable. You’ve been trapped inside Einroguard. What you need, lad, is sea breeze thick with salt! Then you’ll know what freedom is.”
“You mean becoming a pirate?”
“That’s right!”
Then I’ll never know freedom.
Lee Han felt a little sorry about that.
The profession of piracy was far too unstable for Lee Han to aim for.
Drifting across the sea while waiting for income that might never come.
Compared to being an Imperial official, it was a profession at the exact opposite end of the world.
“There’s no sea and no pirate ship here, but shall I teach you a little anyway?”
“That’s not neces—”
“Now. Close your eyes.”
“…”
Why do powerful mages ignore everything the other person says?
Lee Han wondered as he watched Ragesa command him while rattling the cutlass at her waist.
Did a person’s hearing get worse as their magic grew stronger?
“I’ve closed them.”
“You’re steering a ship at sea now. Understand? You’re the captain of a pirate ship.”
“Yes. I am the captain of a pirate ship.”
Lee Han repeated the words while feeling as if he were turning into an idiot.
“What do you want to do?”
“Excuse me?”
BANG!
Ragesa stamped her foot and snapped at him.
“I asked what you want to do! A pirate captain doesn’t say, ‘Excuse me?’ A pirate captain decides for himself!”
I want to stop doing this…
When Lee Han did not answer, Ragesa spoke in his place.
“What’s that? You want to smash all those brats from the Duel Club?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Quiet, Captain. Now. Those Duel Club brats are coming over the horizon on a sailing ship! Arrogantly spreading new sails and pulling the wind taut!”
“…”
Lee Han wondered what exactly was arrogant about spreading new sails and catching the wind properly at sea, but he listened quietly.
“Feel the sea breeze!”
“…?”
“Good. You’re not saying anything stupid like this isn’t the sea. The sea breeze is definitely there. Come on, come on, come on… You can feel it!”
Ragesa slapped Lee Han hard on the back and shouted.
Her eyes flashed even more fiercely beneath her deeply wrinkled brow.
The chained pirates following behind her looked at the pirate crone as if she had lost her mind.
They knew she had always been a pirate full of madness, but today’s display was especially incomprehensible.
What sea breeze was there in the hallway of a magic school?
However, instead of dismissing her mad talk, Lee Han calmly concentrated.
He thought there had to be some reason for this.
She says I can feel the sea breeze here. What does that mean?
There was not a single breeze in Einroguard’s bleak corridor.
All he could hear were footsteps and the rattling shackles around the chained pirates’ ankles.
And…
Ah.
Lee Han felt a strand of mana brush past his cheek.
Just as it was natural for mana to fill natural spaces, mana originally circulated through space. It was simply hard to notice unless one was conscious of it.
Mages who trained their senses to perceive mana knew how to catch that circulation and flow.
Among them, mages with especially sharp and sensitive senses could catch it even more accurately.
“I felt it.”
“A clever, cunning fellow really is easy to teach.”
Ragesa looked satisfied.
Even among mages, there were many who could not understand what it meant to feel the sea breeze.
What good was it to memorize and learn magic by rote if they could not understand what magic was?
“I’m not particularly cunning…”
“Shh! Feel that sea breeze even more strongly. Entrust yourself to it.”
“!”
Lee Han was slightly surprised by those words.
Usually, Imperial magic tried to control such flows of mana once they were recognized.
Only by gripping the flow firmly could one cast magic without unexpected variables and strengthen it.
Mages hated variables, yet she was telling him to entrust himself to those variables instead.
“…I’ve entrusted myself to it.”
“Make that sea breeze stronger.”
Ragesa said it abruptly.
It was a sudden instruction, without even telling him how to make it stronger.
Ordinary mages would panic at such an instruction and answer with things like, “How?” or “That’s impossible.”
But Lee Han simply accepted it.
After enduring so many unreasonable lessons, this level of absurdity no longer felt particularly unreasonable.
Make it stronger, huh.
After thinking briefly, Lee Han moved at once.
When he was unsure, he had to test things one by one and find the answer.
To make the flow of mana stronger…
Instead of controlling mana, he would conform to the flow of mana and synchronize with it.
Lee Han’s flowing mana merged precisely with the surrounding current.
“Keh!”
Ragesa made a startled sound.
She had not expected him to find the method and accomplish it this quickly.
It sounded simple, but pouring one’s own mana into a flow to strengthen it was no ordinary task.
First, one had to read the flow of mana down to its smallest details.
A rough reading would not work.
That would likely cause the flow to collide and stop instead of strengthening it.
Then one had to pour in one’s own mana with perfect precision, without a single error.
If the direction or attribute was wrong, it would immediately clash.
WHIIIIING—
The sound of fierce waves, audible only to experienced mages, began to fill the corridor.
The chained pirates looked around anxiously, sensing that something strange was happening.
Though they were not mages, they instinctively felt unease as the mana flow intensified.
“What’s wrong?”
When Ragesa made choking sounds, Lee Han stopped the process and asked.
“It’s nothing. Continue! Einroguard is a little dry compared to the sea.”
The great pirate took out a barrel and gulped from it while urging him on.
Lee Han tilted his head.
The weather doesn’t seem particularly dry.
In any case, since the method he had just used seemed to be correct, Lee Han continued.
Read the flow.
Read it, read it again, then time the moment and add his own mana.
Then the mana flow grew even stronger.
The flow has become rough.
As the flow intensified, its movement naturally became more violent and rough.
Lee Han concentrated so he would not lose track of it.
He focused even harder than before, read ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ the flow, timed the moment, and added his mana…
WHIIIIIIING!!
After repeating it several times, the mana flow rose to an alarming level.
At this point, even non-mages seemed likely to feel it, so Lee Han asked.
“Is this all right…?”
“Keep going, Captain! Let’s see how far you can go!”
“…”
Though anxious, Lee Han obeyed her for now.
Since she was an outstanding mage, surely she would not make him do something completely unreasonable.
While Lee Han closed his eyes and called up the storm, the chained pirates stared at the corridor with eyes full of terror.
A phenomenon similar to the time that mad spirit had appeared at sea was happening right here.
There was no wind, yet a sound like the heavens themselves tearing open could be heard. Their bodies moved on their own, suddenly pushed away or pulled in. Space was distorting, and even their sense of time…
Regardless, Ragesa stomped her feet and clapped excitedly.
“More, more! Let’s see how far you can go!”
The chained pirates shed tears of fear.
They were going to die here today.
True to being a madwoman who would steer her ship straight into storms and raging waves, she was encouraging this.
Please notice, you mage bastard!
The chained pirates could only pray that the mage boy would open his eyes and realize what was happening.
If this continued, truly…
Can I really keep going?
Whether the pirates’ tears behind him had worked a miracle, or whether Lee Han himself thought things were getting too intense, he slowly began to stop his mana.
“Captain, unfurl your sails toward the limits of your mana! Let’s see how much you can wring out today!”
Ragesa shouted with gleaming eyes.
Once or twice would have been one thing, but to keep standing while pouring out mana again and again like this…
She was incredibly curious how far he could go.
However, instead of unfurling his sails toward the limits of his mana, the boy of House Wardanaz answered rationally.
“I know my mana limits, Ragesa!”
“You know?”
“Yes! I could keep repeating this all day!”
“…”
A chill ran down Ragesa’s spine, as if cold water had been poured over her.
She wondered whether she had heard correctly.
If that was true…
Voladi, you bastard. What kind of monster are you raising?
“Ragesa. I think this is getting difficult now!”
Lee Han shouted urgently.
Though this was a mana flow he had strengthened himself, as that flow grew too powerful, entrusting himself to it was becoming difficult.
Whether it was his imagination or not, he thought he could hear the corridor ceiling and walls creaking…
“Got it, got it! Now. Send it off with a pirate’s cry!”
“FWEEEEET!”
Lee Han whistled sharply and pushed away the massive flow of mana.
Because the situation was so urgent, he focused only on safely ending this pirate magic, forgetting about purpose or anything else.
ROOOOOOOAR!
The most savage roar Lee Han had heard in recent days swept through the corridor.
Lee Han opened his eyes in shock.
The ceiling, floor, and walls had all been horribly destroyed.
It looked as if a giant beast had swung its claws and rampaged there.
Looking to the side, he saw Ragesa panting and letting out a sigh of relief.
“Torgerd’s daughter almost died here!”
“What??”
“It’s nothing, kid! Well done. You have magnificently set foot aboard pirate magic.”
“What on earth happened?”
“Nothing much. When using pirate magic, things like this happen sometimes.”
Mournful sobbing burst out from behind them.
The chained pirates had prostrated themselves on the floor and begun wailing loudly in relief at having survived.
Ragesa shouted in a fierce voice.
“Shut up, you prisoner bastards! Go back and cry! Before I extend your sentences!”
“It seems like something did happen…”
“I said nothing happened! Are you defying my words right now?”
“…Understood.”
“Kid, you are now a captain who has only just boarded a little sailboat. I understand that your heart is full, but you must be humble. You must learn how to handle the sails, how to feel the wind, and how to read the stars. As you learn each thing, you will come to feel how vast the sea is, and how small you are.”
Lee Han was slightly impressed by the wonderful metaphor for pirate magic.
It was a metaphor only a pirate who had lived on the sea for an entire lifetime could make.
It was impressive enough to make even Lee Han, who had no interest in pirate magic, admire it.
“Then what should I do next?”
“Next?”
Ragesa took out a handkerchief and pressed it to her wound.
The handkerchief absorbed the blood and healed the injury.
“Kid. What you need to do next…”
Lee Han listened intently.
Though he had initially been reluctant to learn from this pirate crone, since he had been lucky enough to succeed, it would be a loss not to learn more about how to handle it.
Moreover, even though he tried not to think about it, the destroyed ceiling, floor, and walls and the wailing pirates behind him bothered him.
Should I have kept my eyes open and watched?
What should he do to handle this uncertain magic?
“…For the next hundred years or so, absolutely never use this pirate magic!”
“…”
At Ragesa’s order to disembark immediately after boarding, Lee Han felt deeply disappointed.
