Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Did I manage to fulfill my role as a senior, even just a little?

Lee Han felt a quiet sense of pride.

Just as he had once received help from Einroguard’s upperclassmen, being able to pass that help down to his underclassmen was more satisfying than he had expected.

Closing his eyes, Lee Han recalled the seniors who had helped him.

Senior Diret, and…

…Hmm. I can’t remember, but there must have been more.

He had simply been so busy lately that their names were not coming to mind. Lee Han decided to think of it that way.

“Then let’s see your exam.”

“Here it is.”

Professor Voladi placed a blank sheet of paper on the table, then pushed an ink bottle and quill pen toward him.

Lee Han tilted his head.

Is Professor Voladi telling me to fight with an ink bottle and quill pen?

They seemed rather inadequate as weapons, but not impossible to use. Lee Han immediately began calculating.

I could make the ink inside shoot up and complete it into a small water-orb projectile. If I had learned gasification properties, I could use it to block vision. Is the quill pen meant for transformation magic after all? Even if I transform it, it’s too small and light to become a threatening weapon. If I use telekinesis and treat it like a throwing weapon… then the balance becomes too focused on ranged attacks.

While Lee Han calculated the timing for launching an attack with the ink bottle and quill pen, Professor Voladi spoke calmly.

“Sign it.”

“?”

Lee Han checked whether the blank paper might contain transparent writing saying, I will not file a complaint against Einroguard even if I am seriously injured in this fight, but he felt no energy from the paper.

“What kind of signature do you mean?”

“A signature confirming that you took the final exam.”

“…Professor, you too?!”

Only then did Lee Han understand what Professor Voladi meant, and he was shocked. He was so surprised he nearly jumped.

He could understand Professor Garcia or Senior Diret. With their kind souls, they might pass Lee Han for his sake.

But even Professor Voladi was trying to let him pass just like this!

“Is it really all right to pass me like this?”

“There will be no exam, even if you beg for one.”

Professor Voladi spoke in a firm voice, slightly raising the tip of one eyebrow.

No matter how optimistically Professor Voladi calculated it, the disciple before him needed a bit more rest.

Professor Voladi himself might have wanted far more difficult magical combat, but as a master, he could not grant that now.

“…That is absolutely not what I meant… Ah, what does it matter? In any case, thank you.”

Lee Han gave up trying to persuade Professor Voladi.

Even if he tried now, Professor Voladi would only think, My disciple is being shy and pretending otherwise.

Rather, Lee Han was simply grateful for the consideration of being allowed to pass an exam like this.

I may be mistaken, but Professor Bagreg unexpectedly has some kind aspects.

“Oh. Professor. I need to help the Principal persuade his creditors. Do you have any advice?”

At Lee Han’s question, Professor Voladi fell into thought.

“Hmm.”

Then Professor Voladi fell into even deeper thought. Lee Han regretted asking.

“…I wasn’t asking that seriously. It’s fine if you don’t have any advice.”

“Wait.”

Professor Voladi made the impatient disciple wait, then fell into thought one last time.

Only after quite a long while—long enough that Lee Han, unable to endure the boredom, had taken Basil out to play—did the professor finally speak.

“Kidnapping influential figures of the Empire is not easy. But it is not impossible.”

“I asked about persuasion.”

Lee Han immediately understood why the Skull Principal had not taken Professor Voladi along to meet the creditors.

***

Princess Yukbeltire finally went in person to find the terrible friend who ignored paper birds.

“???”

Then she thrust a thick bundle of papers at the bewildered Diret. It was a petition densely packed with recent complaints.

Diret, accustomed to the friend’s eccentric behavior, responded calmly. Reading the petition, Diret tilted his head.

“Wait. A Lesser World? You never asked me about that.”

“…Did I not?”

Princess Yukbeltire hesitated.

The petition stated, Diret concealed the junior’s Lesser World magic from Princess Yukbeltire herself, but strictly speaking, Princess Yukbeltire had never asked about it.

However, as befitted Professor Verdus’s disciple, Princess Yukbeltire spoke shamelessly.

“Even if I didn’t ask, you should have told me.”

“No. You were called, weren’t you?”

“What?”

“You were called. Back then, when we came out of the underground area, you were called. The junior wanted to ask about Lesser Worlds, so I called you.”

—Princess Yukbeltire. The junior has something to ask about magic.

—You answer him. I have things to do.

—What are you so busy with? It’s just answering a question.

“…”

Come to think of it, she remembered ignoring their calls and watching from behind because she had wanted to secretly observe the Lesser World magic.

Princess Yukbeltire retrieved the petition with a far more dejected face and tore out the part about concealing Lesser World magic.

Diret spoke with a triumphant expression.

“That’s why I told you so many times to be good to the underclassmen.”

“Don’t take advantage of this opportunity to make illogical leaps. More importantly, where is the House Wardanaz junior?”

When the junior had come to her, she had been shocked by the misunderstanding that Diret had hidden the truth and had missed the chance, but if he had actually cast a Lesser World, she had no choice but to check it.

Especially now that Diret had not hidden the truth and the two of them had sought Princess Yukbeltire’s own wisdom.

Princess Yukbeltire was very generous.

Even more so when magic was involved.

Diret, who had been reading the section titled Why Diret Should Not Be Angry at Princess Yukbeltire, looked up.

“The junior? He’s probably not at school right now.”

“…What do you mean? There should still be a week left until vacation.”

Starting tomorrow, Einroguard students would go through a grueling final exam week, then enter the dull, tedious summer vacation period.

Princess Yukbeltire looked at Diret with suspicious eyes, wondering whether another attempt at deception was underway.

“You’re not trying to trick me again, are you? Like last time.”

“…That was three years ago…”

Diret spoke as if this were unbelievable.

That had happened when they were both second-years.

Princess Yukbeltire had been holed up in a room, refusing food and drink while doing nothing but researching magic. Professor Garcia had been so worried that help was requested from Diret, and Diret, unable to stand it any longer, had lied.

Princess Yukbeltire, this week is the marshmallow candy festival period, so you should participate with dignity.

Kind upperclassmen had created a festival atmosphere with fake marshmallows and fake candy, causing Princess Yukbeltire’s research progress to be delayed by roughly a week.

It was a heinous crime Princess Yukbeltire would never have forgiven if she herself had not been generous.

“You ate the melted marshmallows pretty happily, though…”

“What?”

“Nothing. Anyway, the junior really did leave the school. He finished all his final exams and decided to help the Principal with work.”

“…”

Realizing that her friend was telling the truth, Princess Yukbeltire’s complexion became slightly paler than usual.

“Don’t worry too much. It’s not dangerous work, just assisting with persuasion… Ah. You’re worried about your research right now, not the junior.”

“Yes.”

Diret spoke with mischievous satisfaction.

“Well, what can you do? You can’t get help during vacation. You should complain to the Principal.”

“That’s right. Thank you for the advice.”

The fifth-year Blue Dragon Tower student, having quickly finished the calculations and reached a decision, turned around sharply.

Seeing this, Diret had a sudden oh no moment.

“…Wait! Princess Yukbeltire! I don’t know what plan you’re scheming, but calm down first! It’s probably a bad idea! Come back!”

***

Statistically, the dawn of the week when final exams began was the time when Einroguard students were most absorbed in their magical studies.

A single carriage quietly slipped out of the school.

“…”

The Skull Principal, in human form, was so focused that he did not even glance at Lee Han sitting across from him. Papers, stationery, sealing wax, quill pens, and ink bottles floated frantically through the air, stirring the inside of the carriage into chaos.

“Principal.”

“…”

“Principal!!!”

“I’m listening. I’m listening.”

The Skull Principal answered in a tone that suggested he was not listening at all. Meanwhile, he continued muttering the contents of his letters.

“That anger is entirely understandable… Professor Verdus is not intentionally avoiding completion of his works, but is merely too busy teaching the current disciples… I shall sternly reprimand the professor, so please understand… As for the gold coins you invested this time, if you wait a little longer, I will certainly…”

No way. Is it all right to lie that shamelessly?

Lee Han was flustered.

Even when lying, should there not be some kind of limit?

Professor Verdus being too busy with disciples to complete commissioned works was such an easily exposed lie.

After about thirty minutes, the Skull Principal’s mind finally returned.

The Principal looked at Lee Han and nodded slightly.

“Did you finish all your final exams?”

“Yes.”

“Personally, I wanted you to master more fifth-circle magic and strengthen your foundation before entering a proper Lesser World… but since you have already entered one, well done.”

Magic like the Lesser World Basilios was on an entirely different level from ordinary Lesser World magic.

Although it was ancient magic, the biggest difference was that it was inheritance-type magic that dealt strictly with masters, qualifications, and conditions.

The difference became starkly apparent when compared to the Lesser World Pentagramaton that Diret had learned.

Pentagramaton was a Lesser World any dark mage could learn by sealing five high-ranking demons, but Basilios could only be inherited by disciples of the projection.

Rather than taking such a side path, the Skull Principal had expected Lee Han to improve his overall magical abilities like other fifth-years before learning the Lesser World magic currently popular in the Empire.

That would have been much more stable and versatile.

But what could be done now that things had turned out this way?

“You can finish learning the fifth-circle magic during the second semester.”

“…”

Lee Han was dumbfounded, but agreed for now.

“I’ll work hard at it.”

“What is this? I expected you to grumble.”

“I made a promise to my master, so I should at least do this much.”

“…Go sit on the coachman’s seat.”

The Skull Principal chased Lee Han to the coachman’s seat with an annoyed expression. The Death Knight driving the horses looked at the disciple with pity.

—You have my sympathy.

“You actually leave when I tell you to leave? Get back in here quickly.”

At the voice from inside the carriage, Lee Han returned. The Skull Principal grumbled.

“This kid acts like he would rather die than do what I ask…”

Outside, the Death Knights whispered among themselves.

And so the Skull Principal banished the knights to the punishment cells.

“What did they say that made you reverse-summon them?”

“They joked that if I ascended too, wouldn’t Wardanaz work just as reluctantly on what I assigned him?”

Lee Han was impressed by the Death Knights’ audacity.

That truly was no ordinary boldness.

“What? Do you want to make jokes too?”

The Skull Principal in human form sent him a look that said, Go ahead and try if you want to.

Lee Han quickly changed the subject.

“What kind of people are the creditors you need to persuade?”

“…They fall into several categories.”

The Skull Principal let out a light sigh. The disgust could be felt just from thinking about them.

“First, there are the bureaucrats. These bureaucrats took the Empire’s gold and supported me.”

“Oh.”

“The problem is that I threatened those people rather roughly.”

“Oh…”

“Next are the noble families. Those families also provided support in every possible way.”

“Ah. Is that because they have several blood relatives enrolled in Einroguard?”

“No. I threatened them roughly.”

“…”

Lee Han began to feel uneasy.

…Had the Principal perhaps solved everything through threats?