Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Strange.

Professor Voladi’s disciple did have a nature that enjoyed dangerous matches against formidable opponents, but persistently tracking an evil-god cult that had nothing to do with Lee Han certainly felt odd.

“It’s done! Professor! Hurry up and go in there to give them a stern talking-to!”

“!”

Professor Voladi, who had been lost in deep thought, looked up at Gainando’s shout.

And the professor showed a faintly surprised expression.

Before anyone had noticed, Gainando had dug out a side path leading down to the underground fortress.

Looking to the side, Professor Voladi saw Gainando’s pride and most frequently summoned creature, the Thorn Revenant, clearing dirt with one arm transformed into a bone shovel.

It couldn’t have been in that form originally, so Gainando must have modified the undead’s shape on the spot.

“You managed to break through.”

“Huh? What did?”

Gainando tilted his head, not understanding what Professor Voladi meant.

“This passage.”

The underground fortress here was by no means easy to deal with.

The thieves must have spent quite a bit of money, because the defenses of the passages and hideouts were solid and thick, yet Gainando had broken through it all in such a short time.

Simply transforming the undead’s shape wouldn’t have been enough...

“Ah. I used corrosive poison. It’s originally the poison I use when cleaning up trash... Gasp. Please don’t tell Lee Han about this!”

Gainando, who had been explaining, realized the problem too late and hurriedly changed the wording.

When disposing of trash from the tower, Gainando was supposed to go far away and handle it properly, but if laziness won out and the trash was melted with poison, Lee Han would beat his back black and blue.

“I usually do it properly! Professor? Professor?”

Gainando tried to make excuses somehow, but Professor Voladi had already entered the passage.

***

“Summoning a high-ranking spirit in an underground fortress like this might not have been a good idea.”

Lee Han said this while walking along the passage, which had gone quiet in an instant.

Actually, saying the fortress passage had simply “gone quiet” would have been an insult to the thieves.

The fortress passage had been completely devastated.

Perkuntra, summoned for a proper reason after a long time, was wielding joyful violence in every direction.

The Spirit King destroyed the passage’s mechanical devices, devoured traps, and sometimes tore apart barriers to stuff fleeing thieves into a single sealed room.

The lightning-formed apocalypse completely devastated the underground fortress that had been built up over so many years, but the thieves could do nothing about it.

The scrolls, potions, and magic items they had stockpiled in preparation for fighting mages couldn’t even be taken out. Perkuntra gave them no time and collapsed the passages.

They couldn’t scatter to their predetermined positions to buy time or wage persistent guerrilla warfare either. Whenever Perkuntra roughly sensed souls hiding, the Spirit King trapped them before they could even come out.

“...”

Giselle did not respond at all and tried to focus.

If Giselle got into a conversation with Wardanaz, concentration would crumble in an instant.

Don’t let your guard down. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t let your guard down...

Seeing the traces left by the Spirit King’s lightning-like claws made whispers rise in Giselle’s heart, asking, Isn’t it all over already? But Giselle ignored those whispers.

“Cra... Crazy mage bastards. What the hell did you come charging in here for?”

“!”

And surprisingly, that concentration was rewarded. A thief appeared at the end of the passage.

The thief looked disheveled, as if he had swum through the underground tunnels. His hair was completely wild, and clothes that must once have been quite expensive were covered in mud and holes.

Only his eyes shone vividly with shock, fear, and resentment.

“See! Wardanaz! There was a remaining thief!”

“...Moradi. I don’t think that’s something to be quite so happy about...”

Lee Han was slightly flustered.

If a thief appeared after Perkuntra had swept through everything, wasn’t that something to be alarmed about?

The excited Giselle belatedly lowered the voice and cleared the throat.

“I was only pointing it out in case you let your guard down.”

I don’t think that’s what it was.

“Still, we don’t have to leave everything to the Spirit King.”

Giselle clashed both swords together, creating frost.

After going through all the trouble of breaking in, leaving everything to the Spirit King hurt Giselle’s pride. No matter how much this was being done to help Wardanaz’s purpose, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) Giselle couldn’t simply stand and watch like that stupid prince.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Ibinta.”

“Ibinta? ...Ibinta? Iron Cloak Ibinta?!”

Giselle was shocked.

“Who is that?”

“About ten years ago... a wanted criminal who made a name for himself back then. I naturally thought he was dead.”

“I’ve been hiding like this. Without a soul knowing.”

Ibinta answered while grinding his teeth. The current situation still felt like an unrealistic nightmare.

One second after the floor of the ruined village broke.

“Intruder! There’s an intruder!”

“Is it those people who were loitering around earlier? Get rid of them!”

When the intruder alarm sounded, Ibinta gave orders indifferently.

Five seconds after the floor of the ruined village broke.

“The intruder seems stronger than expected! They look like battle mages!”

“Block the passage and activate the traps.”

Even after the subsequent report, Ibinta didn’t pay much attention. This was not a place that could be broken through by one or two battle mages.

Ten seconds after the floor of the ruined village broke.

“We’ve closed all paths and opened the walls! We’ll trap the newcomers and drain their strength!”

“Good. Let’s see what those newcomers are capable of.”

At the report that the passages commissioned from dwarves at great expense were worth their price, Ibinta chuckled. The trapped battle mages would have to face thieves swarming from every direction.

...Fifteen seconds after the floor of the ruined village broke.

“The fortress is collapsing!!!”

“What? What? What???”

Rumble!

Ibinta, who had been sipping wine in the luxurious room at the very bottom of the fortress, called for a subordinate, but no answer came.

Instead, what returned was the sound of the entire fortress shaking and being torn apart.

Still unwilling to give up, Ibinta shouted orders through the voice tubes connected throughout the fortress, but only chilling silence returned.

Feeling the drunkenness vanish in an instant, Ibinta immediately made a decision. Abandoning everything, Ibinta activated the magic imbued in the cloak and burrowed into the earth.

“Did that cloak let him avoid detection? Moradi. That looks like an ancient artifact. The magic is quite unique.”

Lee Han whispered.

He had been wondering how the thief had managed to come up here without being caught by Perkuntra, but Ibinta must have swum up through the earth using the cloak’s power.

Moreover, the magic he sensed was a type no longer seen in the Empire these days. If there was a chance, he wanted to analyze it directly.

“What are you whispering about? Sneak attacks won’t work!”

Ibinta growled.

Ibinta guessed that the two battle mages were planning a surprise attack.

However, as long as Ibinta had this cloak, sneak attacks wouldn’t work. Ibinta glared murderously at the mages.

...I probably shouldn’t mention that Wardanaz was analyzing magic in the middle of all this.

Giselle considered provoking the opponent, then gave up.

Provoking more than necessary might backfire.

Besides, the opponent was already sufficiently provoked. After all, wasn’t this the leader of a thief band whose fortress had been smashed in less than a minute?

“Is it because of that bastard after all? Kitarenannum? I should never have accepted that guy...”

“What!? Kitarenannum was here?!”

This time, Lee Han was the one shocked.

Who would have thought that the magical criminal he assumed had naturally died along with everyone else during the void monster incident last time was still alive?

How on earth did he survive?

“...You didn’t come here because of Kitarenannum?”

Ibinta was slightly more confused.

Ibinta had naturally assumed all this chaos had happened because of Kitarenannum.

“I did think it was strange that there was high-level magic outside. So that was Kitarenannum’s magic.”

“Then why the hell did you come here?”

“I came to check for evil-god worshippers.”

“...?”

Ibinta doubted his ears.

There were many criminals who had committed all sorts of crimes and fled to this underground fortress, but not a single one of them was an evil-god worshipper.

“There’s no one like that here. Who are you talking about? No, which order?”

“I see. There aren’t any. That’s fortunate, then.”

“...”

At the opposing mage’s response, a cold realization pierced Ibinta’s spine like an icicle.

So...

...this mage had caused all this chaos just to check whether any existed, without even knowing if they were here?

Ibinta’s face turned all the colors of the rainbow. It would have made more sense if this had been because of Ibinta’s old infamy or because they had come to subjugate the bandit group.

“You call that a reason?!”

“I didn’t know it was such a large-scale bandit group either. They attacked first, so I had no choice.”

Lee Han was confident.

Originally, he had only intended to quickly check whether they were evil-god worshippers while Professor Voladi was momentarily distracted, but the bandits here had escalated things.

Blood flowed from Ibinta’s mouth. Giselle thought the thief might simply collapse at this rate.

“...Then answer this too. Why do you think I’ve been talking with you here when I should be running away?”

There was a flash of cunning in the bandit leader’s voice. Giselle flinched slightly at that sign.

No... surely not...? It should be fine.

From Giselle’s perspective, Wardanaz was definitely not someone who would lose to anyone in terms of cunning.

And that prediction was exactly right.

Lee Han answered without much surprise.

“You were waiting for your cloak’s power to return, of course.”

Having recognized the cloak’s magic type from a distance, there was no way he wouldn’t know about its power recharging.

Ibinta was greatly flustered by that answer.

“You knew?”

“Yes.”

“...You think you can subdue me even after my power returns? Arrogant bastard. The price of that arrogance...”

“No. That’s not it.”

As soon as Lee Han finished speaking, Perkuntra burst up from beneath Ibinta, piercing through the earth.

Crackle!

As the lightning spirit’s body pierced through Ibinta, the thief collapsed on the spot.

The mage’s voice faintly reached Ibinta’s ears as he fell.

“I was also calling my spirit back.”

I apologize. I became too excited and went too far.

“Even so, what am I supposed to do if you go that far?”

The spirit... was still... summoned...?

Ibinta glanced at the battle mage with blurring vision.

Ibinta hadn’t noticed earlier due to the shock of the fortress being destroyed, but strangely, the man’s features looked familiar.

Why did it feel like they had been seen somewhere before?

“To summarize, the problems are as follows. Food shortage due to plague and famine. The threatening force created by the alliance of rebels and bandits. Monster armies that came down from the mountain range due to mana rampage. I can only remain manifested for two days, so I’ll have to solve them one by one. Send letters to each family and have them contribute food supplies. I’ll handle the threatening forces and monster armies myself.”

“?!!”

I remember...!

The incident that had caused Ibinta to leave 【Kangle’s Shadow】 in the past.

At that time, Ibinta had taken advantage of the southern volcanic chaos to accept a rebel commission and infiltrate the Imperial camp as a spy.

And that was when Ibinta witnessed an archmage for the first time in his life.

It was astonishing enough that the archmage had turned the southern families, notorious for their disobedience, into docile sheep, but what had been most surprising...

...was how the archmage swept away the allied forces of rebels and bandits and even subjugated the monster armies in just half a day.

“Distribute the remaining spoils to the families as recorded in the ledger. For families like Marsio and Bicale, they’ll show dissatisfaction, so provide only half at first and give them the original amount when they complain. The Laren family craves recognition from Lord Gonadaltes, so deliver a personal commendation letter from the lord. It’s fake, but they won’t notice...”

Seeing that chilling sight of the archmage returning as if nothing had happened and ordering the Imperial bureaucrats to handle the aftermath, Ibinta had made a decision.

Never again would Ibinta remain in an organization that might clash with an archmage!

The adventurers belonging to 【Kangle’s Shadow】 had babbled things like, “What’s so great about an archmage?” but Ibinta was completely demoralized.

As the memory of fleeing in panic returned, the archmage’s identity also came back to mind.

The person was definitely the eldest son and heir of a great noble house...

House Wardanaz...!!

Ibinta fainted with that memory as the last thought.

And then muttered.

“If it’s House Wardanaz... you should have said so earlier...!”

“??!”