Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 927

“Hm. The professor was in the wrong.”

At Diret’s words, Professor Mortum looked deeply shocked and betrayed.

Diret, however, didn’t care. According to Einroguard student law, betraying and attacking one’s master was practically considered self-defense.

And if either a junior or a professor had to suffer, naturally it should be the professor.

“That’s right. You should’ve warned us beforehand.”

“Right, right. I agree too.”

“Cough. Ungrateful brats. I went out of my way to give you a chance to learn independently…”

Professor Mortum grumbled between coughs, but Diret ignored him as if nothing had been said.

“Professor. Couldn’t we negotiate with the main body?”

“The main body?”

Professor Mortum, who had been about to sip his warm lemon-honey tea — periodically brewed and left on the first floor of the Dark Tower by Lee Han — frowned.

Negotiating directly with the main body was an entirely different matter.

Using a projection as an undead monster, especially a fragmentary projection lacking self-awareness, wasn’t particularly dangerous.

Especially since they had obtained permission beforehand.

But directly negotiating with a powerful undead being’s true body…

“Cough. Do we really need to go that far?”

Beings from other dimensions were fundamentally unpredictable and eccentric. And those from the Undead Realm were even worse.

If it were weakened, that would be one thing. But if their current guess was correct and it had nearly recovered its original power, attempting negotiations could easily provoke hostility instead.

“We’ll obviously need to be careful. But we do have grounds for negotiation.”

Diret spoke calmly and without hesitation.

If this had been ordinary theft — no, negotiation — Diret wouldn’t have suggested it in the first place.

There would be little point in asking an unidentified high-ranking undead to return a projection.

But this case was different.

Her junior hadn’t merely used the projection. He had continuously interacted with it, built rapport with it, and helped it grow.

Not only that, he had also supplied it with massive amounts of mana, helping the main body recover its strength.

The contracts and laws of other dimensions were, in some respects, stricter than the Empire’s written laws. Even powerful beings couldn’t freely ignore debts of gratitude or grudges.

“If we emphasize those points, there’s a good chance the other side will acknowledge them and provide appropriate compensation.”

“Indeed…”

Professor Mortum sipped his tea and gave his disciple’s reasoning high marks.

As expected of the future professor of Einroguard’s dark magic school, Diret had immediately identified an opening even in this situation.

A true dark mage should be capable of thoroughly looting even a demon’s treasury before escaping captivity.

‘Excellent.’

Moved by his disciple’s growth, Professor Mortum decided he should send Diret to the next dark mage society meeting in his place.

Originally, he had postponed it out of concern that Diret might feel intimidated among so many renowned dark mages. But judging by today, his disciple was more than qualified.

Professor Mortum felt quietly pleased with himself for constantly challenging his trusted disciple. Unlike the Skull Principal, he truly was a respectable master.

“I’ll personally accompany my junior for the negotiations. I also—”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“?!”

Both stared at their second-year disciple in surprise.

“Huh? Why?”

“Senior is busy. I’ll go with the professor.”

“…”

“…”

So you’re saying I’m not busy?

***

“Junior. You shouldn’t say things like that in front of the professor.”

“Pardon?”

As they climbed the upper floors of the Dark Tower, Diret offered careful advice.

Professor Mortum had acted like it didn’t matter, but he still seemed a little hurt.

Of course, Diret appreciated how much his junior respected him, but occasionally he needed to show respect toward the professor as well.

Professors were surprisingly delicate creatures.

“I mean… saying you’d go with the professor instead. You didn’t intend it that way, but from the professor’s perspective, it might’ve sounded like you were saying he wasn’t busy…”

“Ah. That.”

“!?”

Diret’s wings flared in shock.

Wait. He knew?!

“You said it knowing that?!”

“Huh? Of course I realized it might sound that way.”

“Then why would you say it?!”

“Well… Senior, you’re busy.”

Faced with the choice between inconveniencing an overworked senior or hurting a mean professor’s feelings, Lee Han chose the latter without hesitation.

What was so important about the feelings of a professor who had handed a new student the projection of an evil, powerful undead without any warning?

Compared to that, making the hardest-working senior in Einroguard suffer even more would’ve been a genuine tragedy.

‘The hardest-working senior in Einroguard… who’s he talking about? Oh.’

Diret finally realized and nearly froze in horror.

‘D-do I really look that miserable…?!’

From now on, Diret resolved never to complain in front of his junior again.

How pitiful must he have looked for his junior to think such things?

“But Senior, are you really sure you’re okay? Even now, if we ask the professor—”

“No no no. Stop. The professor is busy too! It just might not look that way on the surface!”

“Hmm.”

Lee Han thought, No matter how busy a professor is, could he really be busier than his disciple? If that’s the case, shouldn’t he stop being a professor and go back to being a disciple instead?

But out of respect for his senior, he kept quiet.

“And I volunteered because it overlaps with the mission I’m currently handling, Junior.”

“A mission?”

“Yeah.”

Diret readily explained the work he was currently doing.

The junior of House Wardanaz would eventually learn this anyway, but Einroguard students typically took on all kinds of requests and missions alongside their normal coursework.

And Diret, as a fifth-year student of the dark magic school, handled everything from personal commissions to official requests directed to Einroguard’s dark magic school.

‘Ugh. How pitiful.’

Diret had no idea his explanation had only made Lee Han feel even sorrier for him.

“The mission I’m currently assisting with involves tracking evil god worshippers. Dark mages are involved.”

“How unfortunate. For mages to fall into evil god worship.”

Even mages, who stood at the forefront of wisdom, often found it difficult to completely detach themselves from faith.

People like the Skull Principal or the head of House Wardanaz were unusual. Among ordinary mages, many still relied on religion.

And illegal faiths within the Empire often promised power far more destructive and seductive than legitimate religions.

Seen that way, the appearance of evil god worshippers among mages wasn’t strange at all.

“…I didn’t mean the dark mages are evil god worshippers. I meant dark mages are tracking evil god worshippers, Junior…”

“…”

Lee Han silently looked away. Diret also fell silent.

“Haha! My mistake!”

“It happens!”

Neither of them addressed the question of why Lee Han had immediately assumed dark mages were the evil god worshippers.

They both knew it would only make the atmosphere depressing.

“But isn’t it dangerous? Evil god worshippers are…”

“I’m only assisting.”

Divine magic possessed unpredictable traits similar to psychic powers, wild magic, and primitive magic.

At least the Empire’s legitimate religious orders had accumulated centuries of theory and research. Evil god cults had nothing of the sort.

But ironically, that instability made them even more troublesome to deal with.

They wielded bizarre and unfamiliar powers completely unlike standard Imperial magic.

Still, Diret wasn’t overly worried. He wasn’t personally conducting the investigation — only supporting it by analyzing and interpreting the gathered information.

This week’s commission involved tracking beings from the Undead Realm contracted by evil god worshippers.

Dark mages who witnessed the cultists’ powers had concluded they were tied to powerful undead and contacted Diret for assistance.

“What kind of undead?”

“They use powers related to corruption and decay, but I don’t know the details yet. I’ll need to investigate further. It’ll take some time.”

Diret hesitated slightly.

Come to think of it, if the investigation dragged on through the weekend, it could interfere with next week’s lectures too.

“By any chance, Junior… should I postpone the lecture— no. Never mind…”

“I’m fine!”

Lee Han interrupted before Diret could finish.

“If you’re busy, postponing the lecture is completely fine. The pace is already fast enough.”

‘That’s true.’

His junior wasn’t wrong.

The current <Poison, Bone, Blood> lectures were progressing far faster than expected.

Mostly because Lee Han enthusiastically completed everything without needing to be told twice.

Still, Diret felt guilty.

Was it really acceptable to postpone his junior’s learning because of his own commission?

If it had been Princess Yukbeltire, he would’ve casually said, “Let’s meet again in two weeks,” without a second thought.

But Diret still possessed a human conscience.

“Still, I feel a little bad…”

“Next week is club activity week anyway. A lot of students will be leaving.”

“Ah. Has it already been that long?”

Diret widened his eyes.

Even during his fourth year, life had been busy, but he could still somewhat keep track of time. Now that he was in his fifth year, he practically lived outside the normal flow of student life.

With faint bitterness, Diret spoke.

“I see. In that case… alright. If you’re going out for club activities, postponing the lecture should be fine. Which club—”

Diret stopped himself halfway through the question.

Come to think of it, asking that had little meaning with this particular junior.

“Do you have any advice?”

“Hmm. Well… first, don’t cause too large an incident outside.”

“And?”

“Don’t get your club shut down.”

“…”

Hearing the regret mixed into Diret’s voice, Lee Han gradually became afraid to ask anything further.

***

“We’ll use this to explore the Undead Realm.”

After dusting off and entering a secluded room in the Dark Tower, Diret pointed toward a purple door.

The old wooden door creaked as though it might collapse at any moment, but Lee Han could feel powerful waves of mana radiating from it.

And that wasn’t all.

Thanks to his expanded perception after learning necromancy, he could also sense the dimensional flow connected to the door.

“Is this an artifact linked to the Undead Realm?”

“Wow. How did you figure that out? That’s right.”

Diret looked genuinely impressed.

Normally, people couldn’t identify the artifact’s function simply by looking at it.

“This is <Mortum’s /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ Wooden Door>. It allows exploration and negotiations through a substitute body without directly entering the Undead Realm.”

“!”

Even for mages, directly entering another dimension for exploration or negotiations wasn’t easy.

And that was especially true for the dangerous Undead Realm.

This artifact significantly reduced those dangers by enabling indirect exploration instead.

‘Amazing…!’

Seeing the amazement in his junior’s eyes, Diret felt satisfied.

“Amazing, right?”

“But Professor Mortum has been secretly hogging this artifact for personal use, hasn’t he? There must’ve been plenty of opportunities to use it before…”

“I-it’s not like that. Artifacts like this have difficult operating conditions.”

Diret hurriedly changed the subject.

To be fair, it wasn’t entirely wrong. Operating the artifact required expensive reagents every single time, so it couldn’t be used casually.

“That makes sense. There are costs involved, so obviously not everyone can use it… But you can use it freely, right, Senior?”

“Now then. Let me explain how it works.”

“…You can use it freely, right??”