Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 827

Lee Han dragged Princess Yukbeltire into a corner of the lecture hall and lowered his voice.

“Why were you perfectly polite to the other upperclassmen, but the moment you spoke to Lady Ragesa you acted like that?”

“?”

Princess Yukbeltire tilted her head, as if she genuinely did not understand the question.

Polite to the other students?

What was this junior talking about?

“I’ve never shown any particular kindness to the others. I was only especially considerate toward you, a junior from House Wardanaz, because of Diret.”

“??”

Now it was Lee Han’s turn to stare blankly.

“When?”

“I gave you advice about your staff earlier, didn’t I?”

“…That’s normal. It’s a lecture.”

Lee Han briefly wanted to hit this upperclassman.

“If it had been another junior asking such a vague question, I wouldn’t even have listened. The questioner’s ability matters too.”

“How was I supposed to ask precisely? I’m only a second-year.”

He was trying to create a staff capable of handling everything from powerful spirits to multiple authority stones at once. Expecting a second-year to solve all of that alone from the beginning was absurd.

“And you said it sounded interesting too. If you weren’t interested, even Senior Diret mentioning it wouldn’t have made you react.”

“When did I say that?”

“You called adding black stone an interesting attempt. You also asked where I got the Echo Stone.”

“…”

For the first time in a long while, Princess Yukbeltire was speechless.

Interested in her junior’s research?

In the research of a mere second-year who had coldly rejected her artificial dimension research, no less?

Absolutely impossible.

“That’s not true.”

“It isn’t?”

“No. I’m not interested.”

“Fine. That’s not the important part right now anyway. Shouldn’t we focus on persuading Lady Ragesa?”

Lee Han did not particularly care whether Princess Yukbeltire found his research interesting, so he let the matter drop and moved on.

“At the very least, you should treat her the way you treat the other upperclassmen.”

“I don’t understand… I’m already being respectful toward Lady Ragesa.”

“???”

Princess Yukbeltire patiently explained to her clueless junior.

Unlike the nameless underclassmen she barely paid attention to, she was properly expressing her own thoughts to Ragesa out of respect for her as a mage…

“…You don’t even know their names?”

“Why would I memorize them?”

Maybe it would be better if she just stayed indifferent.

Lee Han thought to himself.

She answered questions properly when she had no interest in someone, but the moment she became interested, she constantly irritated them by saying whatever came to mind. Perhaps indifference really was safer.

Well, she irritates Senior Diret too.

“Anyway, I’ll do the talking. Just stand behind me quietly.”

“But with your level of understanding, you won’t explain it properly.”

“Keep talking like that and I’m telling Senior Diret.”

“…”

Princess Yukbeltire fell silent in shock at her junior’s brutality.

How could he be this rude?

***

“So this bronze golem is that useful, and this upperclassman is researching artificial dimensions too…”

“You mean the incident where the Pride Duke appeared?”

“How do you know about that, Lady Ragesa?!”

Lee Han was stunned.

Not only did this sponsor already know about the accidents during the artificial dimension research, but she even knew the details.

How did a pirate wandering the seas know about it?

“The mages who participated sent me letters.”

“…”

Lee Han shuddered as he realized Imperial mages maintained far tighter connections than he had expected.

I need to be more careful from now on.

At this rate, some mage from the far eastern frontier whom he had never met might suddenly blurt out, “Oh! The Skull Principal’s disciple is here!”

“But that incident was the fault of those mages.”

“A true archmage accounts for even things like that. Believing you can perfectly control an imperfect world is the arrogance of young mages.”

“But some kinds of magic fundamentally require delicate control…”

Lee Han stopped mid-excuse.

Wait. Why am I defending her?

All he had done was help them catch one duke-class devil, and now he was even trying to persuade Lady Ragesa on Princess Yukbeltire’s behalf.

Even if he succeeded, Princess Yukbeltire would probably just irritate everyone again afterward.

Still, since he had already started, Lee Han continued earnestly praising her.

She was highly respected even within the Blue Dragon Tower and offered all kinds of assistance to others. Considering the Calendarium, that was not entirely a lie.

She also maintained excellent relationships with her peers. Having Diret as a friend certainly counted for something.

And she was respected by her juniors as well.

Lee Han decided to respect her briefly for the sake of the argument.

Ragesa listened with an expression full of pity before clicking her tongue.

“That’s enough, kid. Still, your ability to polish up a fellow student’s image is almost artistic. If it were me, I’d have thrown her out a window long ago.”

“Haha. I’m not sure what you mean.”

Lee Han pretended not to understand.

Besides, if anyone was getting thrown, it would obviously be Professor Verdus first.

“Come here, disciple of Professor Bivle.”

At Ragesa’s call, Princess Yukbeltire strode over proudly.

“Your junior’s persuasion moved this old pirate’s heartstrings. Fine. The Empire’s people will probably mock ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) me as the fool who got tricked by Bivle and then got fooled again by Bivle’s disciple, but I’ll sponsor you.”

“!”

Princess Yukbeltire’s eyes widened slightly with excitement.

“Junior of House Wardanaz. I’ll commend you for this. You skillfully persuaded a stubborn and inflexible mage.”

“Senior… please lower your voice. Or stop talking entirely.”

“Lady Ragesa. There’s no need to concern yourself with the mockery of insignificant beings beneath notice.”

Princess Yukbeltire looked directly at Ragesa as she spoke. Ragesa snorted dismissively.

“You may spend your entire life buried alone in a mage tower without friends, but this daughter of Torgerd actually has a reputation to maintain. Anyway, I’ll provide the sponsorship, but I have one condition.”

“I’ll allow you to be the second person to visit once the artificial dimension is complete.”

“…You can visit it yourself as much as you want. The condition is that you help this pitiful junior make his staff.”

“?”

Princess Yukbeltire looked confused.

Why would she need to do that?

“?”

Lee Han looked equally confused.

More importantly, he hated the idea immediately.

“I refuse.”

“No… why are you the one refusing?”

Ragesa stared at him in disbelief.

She had naturally assumed this poor junior would gratefully accept.

“I heard you’re planning to make a staff with black stone? That won’t be an easy task.”

“I’d rather remove the black stone than work together with Professor Verdus…”

“…”

Ragesa could not help admiring the flawless logic of that rebuttal.

Princess Yukbeltire frowned.

“She pointed at me, not Professor Verdus, Junior.”

“Haha. Then I must have misheard.”

“…Even so, this is too difficult to manage alone. It would also be a waste to miss the opportunity to create a truly excellent staff. And besides… Ah. Never mind. In any case, you need help, rookie.”

Ragesa started to say something else, then swallowed the words.

Lee Han became curious for no reason and asked anyway.

“What was the last reason?”

“I thought you might get hurt if I said it.”

“Haha. It’s fine.”

“All right, then. I was going to say that since you already associate with all kinds of strange people from every school, including Bivle, adding one more bizarre person beside you won’t change much…”

“…”

A deep sadness welled up in Lee Han’s eyes.

Seeing that, Ragesa immediately regretted speaking at all.

“Hey. That’s why I was trying not to say it.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m not hurt at all.”

“Sorry. Anyway, this is a good opportunity. Don’t waste the chance to make a better staff.”

Considering the hardships and disasters this boy from House Wardanaz would undoubtedly face in the future, learning to build and modify his own staff would surely become useful someday.

If he could adapt his staff according to whatever catastrophe came next, surviving would become much easier.

Princess Yukbeltire, who had been silently calculating things at the side, finally spoke as though she had reached a conclusion.

Comparing the time she would waste helping her junior against the time she would save through the sponsorship money from Ragesa, helping was more profitable overall.

“I’ll assist.”

“You stay quiet. Do you think your opinion matters right now?”

“…”

***

In truth, Lee Han might have been the person most familiar with the rare metal known as black stone.

Ordinary mages rarely had any reason to handle metals with mana-absorbing properties like this.

Naturally, most mages avoided carrying it around in the first place, since it interfered with spellcasting.

“I don’t remember having any particular problems with it.”

“You probably overpowered it through sheer mana output.”

Princess Yukbeltire began sketching on paper.

She drew arrows representing a mage’s mana flow, then added black stone disrupting the flow in every direction, and finally drew an overwhelming torrent of mana suppressing the interference through force alone.

“What is this?”

“A mage.”

“…”

The drawing was so terrible that Lee Han briefly wondered whether she had drawn a troll.

“Should I draw it instead?”

“Why?”

“Because this is impossible to recognize…”

“…I think it’s sufficiently clear.”

“I really don’t think it is.”

“What matters is the magical theory, not artistic skill. Understand? And since the drawing is recognizable enough, I made the most efficient choice. Diret understood it perfectly well.”

“Ah. Right.”

Lee Han was slightly taken aback when she suddenly started talking rapidly and at length.

“You’re not offended because of what I said earlier, are you?”

“Not at all. I have no idea what you mean.”

“That’s good. Now, regarding this black stone staff. I understand the disadvantages, but what are the advantages?”

If it absorbed surrounding mana and interfered with spellcasting, then there had to be equally significant strengths.

Lee Han intended to hear those first before making any decision.

“It stores mana efficiently and possesses excellent durability during spellcasting. Powerful magic sometimes destroys staffs that cannot withstand the output. It’s also extremely effective as a magical core.”

Since it continuously absorbed mana, high storage capacity was only natural.

Likewise, its durability was excellent because it constantly endured mana strain.

But the part about functioning as a magical core had never occurred to Lee Han before.

So that’s how it works.

A staff’s role resembled that of an incantation.

Magic could still be cast without either one, but both amplified and stabilized a mage’s abilities when present.

Magic was fundamentally unstable, since it involved forcibly altering reality itself, so mages developed various methods to control it.

Incantations helped stabilize concentration.

Staffs existed for the same reason.

The core, center, and focal point around which the phenomenon called magic revolved.

That was the role of a staff.

In the case of black stone, because it absorbed all surrounding mana, its presence would remain extraordinarily distinct even during unstable or highly complex spellcasting.

Put simply, even if the mage lost consciousness mid-cast, the black stone’s presence would still remain clearly perceptible…

“That definitely sounds worth trying.”

“It is. You want to learn high-circle magic as quickly as possible. It would make casting easier.”

“…I was talking about the staff’s durability.”

Princess Yukbeltire ignored her junior’s objection and continued speaking anyway.

“But you can’t build the entire thing out of black stone alone. You’ll need a powerful material capable of stabilizing everything else: extradimensional stones, magic stones, wood spirits…”

“Would Professor Verdus’s storehouse have something like that?”

“No. Materials of that level are used immediately the moment they arrive.”

“Why is the professor so wasteful?”

Princess Yukbeltire quietly changed the subject, despite the fact that she herself also stole materials and used them immediately whenever possible.

“The best possible core material for controlling black stone would be…”

Lee Han listened silently.

Please let it be something easy to obtain. Please.

“A branch from a king-class spirit would be ideal.”

“…Shouldn’t we just try a different approach?”

Lee Han immediately tried crumpling up the paper full of his notes.