Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 925

What? If you’re trying to trick me right now, please stop! It won’t work!

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: This is seriously driving me insane.

Gonadaltes: Wait. Everyone calm down.

Lee Han first calmed the confused members.

Until Baquantalana arrived, there was no way to remove the newcomer anyway. It was better to carefully coax him and figure out how he had gotten in.

Iactus: Aha! Finally showing your true colors!

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Staying calm in a situation like this… honestly, even the pseudonym feels suspicious…

Gonadaltes: Should I cancel the commission I accepted?

The moment Lee Han turned cold, Beaver-Penguin-Fox flinched.

Come to think of it, the one who actually needed help here was himself, not the other party.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: What I meant was that it’s impressive how calm you are in this situation.

Iactus: Wow. I hate to admit it, but that’s pretty pathetic.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Shut up.

Gonadaltes: Now then. Everyone quiet down. Newly arrived Valdrogard mage. This is a secret gathering where students from the Empire’s magic academies engage in dignified conversation.

Wow!

The Valdrogard student sounded genuinely amazed.

A secret club where students from the Empire’s magic academies gathered together?

It was exactly the sort of place he had always imagined mages would have.

Valdrogard was a fine school, but honestly, it didn’t feel particularly mage-like.

What an honor to be allowed into a place like this! How many Valdrogard students are here?

Gonadaltes: Digging into each other’s identities isn’t very mage-like.

Ah. Sorry!

Iactus and Beaver-Penguin-Fox were inwardly dumbfounded.

What kind of ridiculous lie was that?

‘Well… technically it’s not completely false…’

Come to think of it, even if the gathering was mostly Einroguard students, it could still be called a gathering of students from the Empire’s magic academies.

Especially now that a Valdrogard student had joined.

‘Honestly, it’s probably better to fool him like this and send him away later.’

That was preferable to openly admitting this was an Einroguard-only gathering.

Then are the pseudonyms beside everyone’s names also for hiding identities?

Gonadaltes: Something like that.

Those are incredibly cool pseudonyms.

Gonadaltes: Thanks for the compliment.

Iactus: …

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: …

The existing members squeezed their eyes shut at the newcomer’s innocent admiration.

This was exactly why first-time members were a problem.

Gonadaltes: Anyway… how did you get in here? You’d need a linked artifact.

I have a blackboard I received from Senior Zandani… Ah. Senior Zandani is—

Iactus: Not curious.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Nobody asked.

‘Everyone’s so cold.’

Despite the icy responses, the newly arrived Valdrogard student remained completely excited.

I see. Everyone’s acting this way to conceal their identities and maintain secrecy! That’s amazing!

Gonadaltes: Well. It’s basic practice.

Iactus: Wow. Seriously, you…

Gonadaltes: What?

Iactus: Nothing…

Lee Han fell into thought.

Zandani was a Valdrogard student Lee Han also knew. Weren’t they involved before because of the backpack artifact incident?

‘Did he somehow realize the value of the artifact and pass it on to a junior?’

It seemed unlikely, but Lee Han asked just in case.

Gonadaltes: So that senior gave you the blackboard specifically so you could join this gathering?

Ah. No. The senior just told me to sell it. There’s a charity event coming up, and originally I planned to sell some spare furniture. We recently bought new ebony furniture, but there’s no room left for the display cabinet in the reception hall…

“…”

The silence from <Einroguard’s Watchers> felt terrifying.

Lee Han could practically feel the boiling resentment of the Einroguard students through the paper itself.

Gonadaltes: …I’ll say this again. Be careful not to reveal your identity.

Ah. Yes! Understood!

If this Valdrogard student’s identity was exposed, there was a very real chance someone would attack him.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: So you really got that blackboard by coincidence?

Yes. The senior said it had originally belonged to an upperclassman before him too. Senior Ipelldrem—

Iactus: I said I’m not curious.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: I said nobody asked.

Aha! Understood!

‘Wait?’

Unlike the others, Lee Han grew increasingly interested.

Ipelldrem was the creator of the 【Six-Way Backpack】 Lee Han possessed.

He was also famous for collaborating with an Einroguard student despite being from Valdrogard.

The fact that someone like that had once owned the blackboard was extremely interesting.

‘Did he use it to communicate with Einroguard students? Then maybe the Einroguard student he worked with was also part of this gathering.’

Then is there anything you’d like to ask me?

The newcomer sounded delighted to have joined such a dignified gathering of mages. No matter how coldly the others treated him, he remained enthusiastic.

Iactus: Which house are you from? Can you tell us where we should visit during vacation?

Ah! You’re testing me! Understood. It’s a secret!

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Do you happen to have any snow sulfur? I need some.

Snow sulfur powder was a reagent used to regulate moisture in the surrounding air, making it both rare and expensive.

The other members watched expectantly, assuming the newcomer would refuse.

I do. I bought an entire crate recently. If you need some, I’ll give you as much as you want!

“…”

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Wait. Let’s speak privately.

Iactus: Hey! You can’t scam and exploit a new member!

What are you talking about? I’m just giving it away as a gift.

There was one advantage Valdrogard students possessed that Lee Han hadn’t considered.

Their immense wealth, which they could freely spend outside the school.

The members who had desperately searched for Baquantalana just moments earlier were now competing to win the newcomer’s favor.

‘Oh no. This isn’t the time to sit back.’

Lee Han immediately grabbed his quill.

At this point, he needed to eliminate the competition and make the newcomer trust him instead. Lee Han immediately began compiling gossip about Iactus and Beaver-Penguin-Fox.

Baquantalana: …What exactly is happening here?

Unbreakable One: What happened while I was gone? Can someone explain??

The late arrivals sounded completely bewildered by the chaos consuming the gathering.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Nothing important.

Gonadaltes: Right. You two are busy anyway, so just go back to what you were doing.

Baquantalana: A Valdrogard student joined? This is… highly unexpected.

Unbreakable One: Wait! You can’t deceive a Valdrogard student! Everyone stop immediately!!

I just wanted to give gifts…

Unbreakable One: If you’re fellow mages, there’s no reason to give gifts unless it’s part of a fair exchange! Stop right now! If this continues, I’ll shut the entire gathering down!

Baquantalana: What are you talking about, Unbreakable One? You don’t have administrator authority over this gather—

Before the sentence could finish, the paper suddenly turned black, as though drenched in ink. Every line written on it was rejected and bounced away.

The members panicked and tried to regain control of the artifact, but nothing worked.

Unbreakable One: See? Stop it.

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: What? What kind of magic is this?

Baquantalana: How did you interfere with it from the outside??

Unbreakable One: If you’re curious, figure it out yourselves. I refuse to tolerate tricking and extorting new members!

Once the gathering stabilized again, Unbreakable One issued a stern warning.

Don’t fight because of me! Fine. I won’t hand out gifts anymore.

‘Damn it!’

Even though he couldn’t hear them directly, Lee Han could practically hear the collective sighs of the other members.

And the sound of Unbreakable One’s popularity sinking even lower for interfering…

‘Though honestly, I doubt it had much lower to go. But who IS this person? Some upperclassman I don’t know?’

Even the older students seemed unable to identify the magic used to interfere with the /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ artifact.

Either it was a senior Lee Han had never met before…

‘No way it’s a professor. No professor has enough free time to hang around here.’

Baquantalana: Fine. We’ll deal with that later. The important matter comes first.

What’s happening?

Baquantalana: This concerns you. We need to vote on whether to officially accept you into the gathering.

Although Baquantalana acted as the administrator, decisions weren’t made unilaterally.

Even if the newcomer was a Valdrogard student, acceptance would still be decided by majority vote.

Whether he could keep secrets, behave honorably, and avoid becoming one of the Skull Principal’s lackeys…

Please trust me! I swear on my family name and honor that I’ll keep the secrets! I’ll protect the gathering’s honor too!

Beaver-Penguin-Fox: Agreed.

Unbreakable One: I agree as well.

Gonadaltes: Then I also—

Baquantalana: Some people seem motivated by greed… but rules are rules. Fine. Let’s welcome the new member.

Wow! Thank you so much!!!

Baquantalana: Now choose a pseudonym.

Wardanaz: How about this? It’s the name of someone I deeply respect—

Gonadaltes: That’s terrible. Pick something else.

Iactus: Hey. Do you really have the right to criticize other people’s pseudonyms?

***

‘Phew. Thank god.’

Lee Han let out a sigh of relief as he closed the book.

Fortunately, he had managed to wear down the newcomer’s stubbornness and convince him to use the pseudonym 【Ipelldrem】 instead.

Wardanaz: Terrible?! You don’t even know! It’s the name of an incredible mage from Einroguard—

Gonadaltes: Not THAT incredible. And if you’re from Valdrogard, you should use a Valdrogard name instead. How about Ipelldrem?

Ipelldrem: …Fine. I’ll compromise. But Gonadaltes, you’re unbelievably rude!

…Though Lee Han had unfortunately earned some resentment from the newcomer in the process.

Since Unbreakable One was already unpopular within the gathering, Lee Han found himself oddly worried.

‘I just hope they don’t leave me out later when gifts start circulating again.’

With the immediate crisis resolved, Lee Han headed toward the Dark Hall.

Now that exams were over, it was time to maintain the cemetery behind the building. The dark magic school students had already gathered with shovels in hand.

“Wardanaz is here.”

“Yes. Should I turn over the soil here?”

“Yeah. But be careful. Something’s been making noise underneath.”

The soil favored by dark mages was naturally saturated with dark and frigid energy, so twisted creatures frequently crawled out from underground.

Gainando whispered with visible disgust.

“It’s not a banshee, is it?”

“I’d be fine with a banshee.”

“…”

“I’m joking.”

“That doesn’t sound like a joke at all.”

A banshee’s greatest weapon was its horrifying scream, but it probably wouldn’t affect Lee Han much.

After already enduring several status effects far worse than that, he simply wasn’t very concerned.

“There’s a small hole down below. We’ll need to send a summoned creature inside.”

“What about spirits?”

“Spirits hate places like that too much. They refuse to go.”

Most places used by dark mages were environments spirits despised.

And a cramped tunnel buried beneath a graveyard was especially terrible.

“Gainando. Send in an undead.”

“My Thorn Revenant can’t fit. I enlarged it even more recently…”

“…Gainando… making your summoned creature bigger doesn’t solve every problem…”

Lee Han looked at his friend with pity.

Among dark mages, there were always people obsessed with increasing the size of their summoned creatures, but most regretted it eventually.

Summoned creatures needed versatility. If they could only do one thing, it became extremely inconvenient for the mage.

“Well. Fine then. I’ll summon Sharkhan.”

Lee Han called forth his leopard-type undead.

He had several other undead summons, but since the tunnel was narrow, Sharkhan’s flexible four-legged body seemed the most suitable.

However, Sharkhan failed to appear.

“…???”

Lee Han tried summoning it again. The result was the same.

Gainando immediately shouted as though he understood exactly what was happening.

“It’s sulking because you never call it! Just like the griffin!”

“Gainando. The griffin isn’t sulking. And Sharkhan isn’t like Basil.”

-?!

The baby basilisk, which had been quietly minding its own business until it was suddenly insulted, snapped its tail upright in outrage.