Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Despite Professor Garcia’s protest, the Skull Principal answered without the slightest shame.

“If that brat put his mind to it, persuading Professor Voladi and bringing him back would be nothing. The fact that he hasn’t means he likes wandering around with Professor Voladi too.”

“...”

It was an absurd argument, yet for a moment, Professor Garcia couldn’t refute it.

Certainly, with that disciple’s eloquence, persuasion would be more than possible.

Professor Voladi was stern and blunt, but with that disciple, Professor Voladi was relatively lenient. If Lee Han had whined a little, there was a good chance Professor Voladi would have listened.

...No, wait. Am I being tricked by the principal?

While Professor Garcia was falling into confusion, two people were watching the whole exchange from the second-floor balcony of the villa.

They were Jowrin and Eandurde.

The golden-haired girl, licking the ice cream in her hand as she watched, asked Eandurde.

“Does Gonadaltes always treat Lee Han like that?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“That’s really too much!”

Jowrin angrily tapped the tiled floor again and again with the heel of her red shoe, as if it were happening to her personally.

Who would have thought that the outside world, which she hadn’t known about while staying in the mansion, was actually like this?

“I’ve decided. When Jowrin goes to Einroguard, I’ll stop things like that from happening!”

“...Uh... do you really have to...?”

Eandurde suddenly grew uneasy.

If Jowrin had been a dependable adult dragon, Eandurde might have been tempted by the thought, Gasp, a dragon is going to smash Einroguard apart?

But the Jowrin Eandurde had seen so far was still clumsy in many ways.

Even if she said she would change Einroguard, it seemed far more likely she would be tricked by the Skull Principal and toyed with instead...

“What were you two talking about?”

While they were chatting, the other second-year students heard Jowrin’s voice and came over.

Seeing the familiar students she had met last semester, Jowrin thought the timing was perfect and called out to them.

“Ah. Everyone’s here! Listen! Listen to Jowrin’s resolution!”

“Huh? What resolution?”

“When Jowrin goes to Einroguard...!”

Jowrin, in human form, began an impassioned speech.

Her intimidation was far weaker than when she was in dragon form—in fact, she looked as adorable as a bisque doll, so there was no intimidation at all—but her blazing sincerity moved the hearts of the second-year students.

By the time the speech ended, the number of students listening had multiplied several times over.

Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap—!

“Long live Her Majesty! Long live Her Majesty!”

“The future of the Empire is here!”

Eandurde, the only one still in a normal state of mind, looked around in a panic.

It seemed this dragon would cause fewer accidents if his senior returned soon.

***

“Wardanaz.”

“Yeah?”

“Tell me honestly.”

Giselle spoke in a cold voice.

Lee Han, who was gagging the third bounty target in front of them, flinched slightly.

“...I, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“What are you hiding?”

What happened when they caught the second bounty target had gone like this.

“Is this the place?”

“Judging by the noise coming from the underground tavern, it’s definitely an illegal gambling den. A place mercenaries gather often. Now. Both of you, listen carefully. When we create a disturbance at the entrance with magic, Professor Bagreg will be waiting on the opposite side to round them all up. Got it, Wardanaz?”

“I see. Got it, Moradi. ...Everyone throw down your weapons and get on the ground!”

“Hey! Wardanaz! Why are you charging in alone? Are you insane?!”

“You bastard. Are you an evil-god worshipper? Tell me right now! If it turns out later that you hid it, the retaliation of a great noble house will come down on you!”

“S-spare me! No! I have no connection to evil gods whatsoever!”

Ignoring the carefully prepared plan where the students would create a disturbance and Professor Bagreg would ambush from the opposite side, Wardanaz had acted on his own.

From Giselle’s perspective, it made absolutely no sense.

Maybe if it were Anglago, but there was no way someone like Wardanaz would rush in with blood going to his head.

The third target had been the same.

“...They say he’s hiding in the basement of this workshop. Wardanaz. If you really act on your own again this time... Wait. Where did Wardanaz go?”

“Lee Han? He cast invisibility magic and went in earlier.”

“...This is really—!”

Giselle, who had fallen for the words about getting snacks from a street stall—the freshly baked waffles had been tempting too—felt ashamed and quickly rushed into the workshop.

And what Giselle saw inside was Lee Han, after beating up all the criminal’s accomplices, interrogating the target with, “Are you an evil-god worshipper? If you are, tell me now!”

No matter how Giselle looked at it, this was definitely strange.

“...Sigh. I can’t help it. I thought it would be fine since Gainando doesn’t suspect anything, but I guess that was too much to hope for.”

At that rude answer from a friend, Giselle’s fingertips trembled faintly with anger.

Who is this bastard comparing me to right now?

Of all people, not some other friend!

Giselle closed both eyes and quickly meditated.

The experience built up at Einroguard wasn’t limited to magic alone. It applied to swordsmanship as well.

Without that experience, calming the mind this quickly would have been impossible.

“Fine. You acted carelessly. Shall I guess? You definitely heard something. You probably got information about bounty targets even the professor doesn’t know about. And you’re trying to monopolize it.”

Giselle, well aware of bounty hunters’ habits, made a sharp guess.

Lee Han readily admitted it.

“It’s something like that.”

“Right. You were always crazy about danger...”

“Professor Bagreg must not find out.”

Lee Han told Giselle the story he had heard from the Skull Principal.

It was better for Gainando not to know, but there was nothing good about deceiving Giselle, who was already suspicious.

The elf friend’s expression hardened upon hearing about the connection between the newly revived evil-god cult and Professor Bagreg.

This was far from what Giselle had expected.

“But what were you about to say just now? What did I do about danger?”

“I said you always take risks, Wardanaz. You’re from Blue Dragon Tower, but that part is admirable.”

Giselle hurriedly changed the wording.

Giselle had never expected that he was following Professor Voladi around for this reason.

Naturally, Giselle had assumed they were traveling together to catch bounty targets...!

“That doesn’t sound like what you were going to say.”

Lee Han was somewhat suspicious, but given the situation, he didn’t press further.

“Anyway, Moradi. Since one has already appeared, we need to be even more careful from now on. This must not reach Professor Bagreg’s ears.”

“Were there any evil-god worshippers after that?”

“No. There weren’t.”

Giselle inwardly offered condolences to the criminals caught during the second and third attempts.

They were ordinary petty criminals who would have been arrested normally, yet because of their bad luck, they had been forced to endure every kind of magic and threat.

Even more terrifying rumors about House Wardanaz are going to spread... Well, Wardanaz probably doesn’t care about that.

There were already several sinister rumors following House Wardanaz, and Wardanaz himself didn’t seem like the type to care much about such things.

Giselle simply brushed off the thought.

For Lee Han, who secretly cared quite a lot about those rumors, it would have been deeply lamentable.

“Then what do we do when catching the remaining targets? Do we absolutely have to catch them before Professor Bagreg does?”

“Right. We catch them first, then check whether they’re evil-god worshippers. If they are, we threaten them into keeping their mouths shut.”

“What if they’re not worshippers?”

“Then I still have to threaten them into keeping quiet. I can’t let them say something strange to Professor Bagreg and make Professor Bagreg suspicious.”

You already look suspicious enough...

Giselle thought that, but settled for shaking the head.

Still, Giselle felt a little sorry that Wardanaz was willingly taking on hardship for Professor Bagreg’s sake.

...Wait. But why is Wardanaz, a second-year, the one doing this... Ah. Professor Bagreg has no disciples.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. More importantly, what was that about retaliation from a great noble house? You kept saying that earlier.”

“I don’t know either. I just blurted out whatever came to mind.”

“...”

Giselle was dumbfounded.

What kind of person was this?

But the effect had been powerful. Even Giselle had flinched upon hearing it.

“Aren’t you going to tell the prince? By now, he’s probably starting to get suspicious.”

“Ah. Right.”

When Lee Han reacted as if he had only just remembered, Giselle nodded with an expression that said this was exactly what had been expected.

“I should bring him some waffles. Then he’ll forget he was suspicious.”

“...It’s not really my place to say this, but aren’t you looking down on the prince too much?”

***

The magical criminal Kitarenannum poured a sticky black liquid over the empty upper-left side of his body.

With a sizzling sound, the torn flesh slowly repeated the cycle of regenerating and being destroyed.

“Ugh. Damn spider bastard!”

The notorious reputation of a creature from the void outside dimensions was no false rumor.

The poison it spat was on an entirely different level from the venom of spider-type monsters on the continent. It burrowed into one’s very existence, leaving terrible aftereffects behind.

Kitarenannum had barely escaped with his life, but he had lost a considerable amount of stored magic and a portion of his body. It was truly a devastating blow.

Creak—

“Mage. The boss says to collect the lodging fee.”

“...Here it is.”

Kitarenannum threw a handful of gems to the mercenary who entered through the door.

The only place a magical criminal who had barely survived could entrust his body was to fellow criminals.

The place where Kitarenannum was currently staying was what mercenaries called the 【Capital Underground Fortress】.

Of course, it wasn’t actually a fortress.

Originally, it had been an abandoned village some distance from the capital’s walls.

The mercenaries who discovered the ruined village, where only traces remained, had remodeled its underground into something like a fortress.

As time, history, and rumors accumulated, the underground of this village came to possess defensive strength comparable to a decent fortress.

The Empire’s territory was vast, and there were many places beyond the reach of knights, so there were countless disguised bandit hideouts like this...

...But Kitarenannum rated this underground village quite highly.

That was because of the leader who ruled it.

Iron Cloak Ibinta, you bastard. Just wait. Once I recover from my injuries, I’ll take everything back.

Iron Cloak Ibinta.

He came from the notorious adventurer organization 【Kangle’s Shadow】 and was now the leader of the bandit group that had settled beneath this village.

His specialty lay precisely in his caution.

Usually, when bandits built hideouts like this, they gradually grew greedy and their confidence swelled, making them want to plunder nearby peddlers and passing carriages.

Ibinta, however, showed a degree of caution hard to believe from a bandit. Even when carrying out jobs far away, he never caused any incidents near this hideout.

Thanks to that, this underground village still hadn’t been discovered. That was how Kitarenannum had barely managed to arrive here and entrust his body to it.

“Oh, right. Mage. Don’t go outside for a while. There are some people hanging around near the village.”

“Did you confirm who they are?”

“Don’t know. What do I care? They’re probably looking for some escaped slave.”

The bandit showed no fear at all.

Beyond being confident that they wouldn’t discover the underground, he believed it wouldn’t matter even if they did.

Even if a subjugation force was organized and entered from above, with this fortress’s defensive power, they could easily escape through the tunnels.

“...”

Kitarenannum agreed with the bandit’s words to some extent. This underground fortress was certainly solid.

And yet, for some reason, his heart felt unsettled, and an ominous feeling crept over him.

Why?

I should check.

Kitarenannum activated the sight magic he had installed outside. It was magic he had set up on the surface just in case.

“...!!!!”

The moment he confirmed the mage lurking around the village, Kitarenannum leapt to his feet and packed his belongings.

He had to get as far away from here as quickly as possible.