Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Ignoring her half-brother throwing a fit behind her, Princess Yukbeltire spoke to Lee Han.

“More importantly, junior. A commission proposal came in.”

Princess Yukbeltire held out the letter.

Looking over the contents written there, Lee Han saw that the conditions were extremely generous. It was a proposal from a magic workshop, and unusually, it was structured so that both Princess Yukbeltire and Lee Han had to participate.

Princess Yukbeltire would take the lead in the work, while Lee Han would assist.

Judging by the list of scheduled spells, the work would not take very long, nor did the difficulty seem particularly high...

The compensation is too generous for that kind of work, though.

Lee Han, who had been puzzled, realized the reason a moment later.

Ah. The real purpose is socializing, not the commission itself.

Having already received dozens of commission letters with similar purposes even before entering Einroguard, he recognized it immediately.

The commissions now pouring in for Lee Han could largely be divided into two types.

One type genuinely wanted to hire him for his high magical ability.

The commissions sent by Giselle’s father or Yonair’s sister belonged to that category.

The other type wanted to hire him for his high reputation.

His ability mattered, of course, but their stronger purpose was to meet a bloodline member of the currently famous House Wardanaz and build connections.

No matter how much Lee Han liked taking the easy way out, he could not readily accept commissions like that. If he was careless, they could become several times more troublesome than commissions where he simply had to work.

Rather than being dragged through social gatherings, balls, friendship meetings, exchange meetings, and tea parties one after another the moment I arrive, it might be better to just work...

This commission had surely chosen both people deliberately in order to build connections not only with Lee Han, but also with Princess Yukbeltire.

Her personality had many problems, but in magical skill alone, Princess Yukbeltire was the next successor of Einroguard’s divination magic school.

“The person who sent this commission is clever. Sending it to two people would have a higher success rate than sending it to each person separately.”

There was a high chance that the senior would cooperate for the sake of helping the junior, and the junior would cooperate out of respect for the senior’s dignity, even if neither of them felt like accepting.

But there was one thing the sender had misunderstood.

The dryness within the divination magic school.

The relationships between students of the divination magic school contained absolutely no sentiment whatsoever.

“I’ll decline for now, Senior.”

“Why?!”

Princess Yukbeltire was so shocked that her voice changed slightly.

If it had been Diret, who sometimes acted emotionally, perhaps. But this junior could not possibly be unaware of the value of this proposal, could he?

“The list of proposals I’ve received so far looks like this...”

Lee Han unrolled a scroll as though he was truly sorry. Even though only the titles of the commissions were written on it, the long scroll was packed from end to end.

If it had been a trash proposal, he would have simply told them to get lost, but this proposal was decent enough that he felt slightly sorry.

“...”

Princess Yukbeltire was overwhelmed by the list of commissions her junior had received.

Not being overwhelmed in front of that list was harder than one might think.

Princess Yukbeltire barely managed to nod, then walked away, staggering slightly. Adenart watched her retreating figure and muttered worriedly.

“She seems to have received quite a shock. I’m worried.”

“She’s probably just hungry.”

“...”

Adenart looked at her friend as though dumbfounded.

The person who treated his classmates as kindly as a nanny was treating Princess Yukbeltire like a Valdrogard student.

What on earth did she do...?

“Wardanaz. Isn’t there some way?”

After the senior left, his friends approached him with serious faces and asked for advice.

If the dragon possessed such a powerful scale artifact, lies would not work.

“It’s not that there’s no way.”

“!!!”

At Lee Han’s answer, his friends’ eyes trembled.

That was so like Wardanaz. To think he could come up with a countermeasure even in a situation like this.

“We tell the upperclassmen to pressure Prince Wuman. If we can just stop him from using those scales...”

“Indeed! I’ll go!”

Gainando and several students ran off to contact upperclassmen from other years.

Ten minutes later.

Gainando returned trudging back, his shoulders drooping.

“...They told me to get lost...”

“What? Just like that?”

Lee Han was shocked.

Other towers aside, treating a junior from the same tower so coldly was definitely strange, no matter how he looked at it.

“The upperclassmen all knew...”

As soon as Gainando arrived, [N O V E L I G H T] the upperclassmen had said this.

-Wait, junior! Did you come to ask us to resist together against the rule prohibiting people from making meals for other students or helping them with assignments?

-How did you know?!

-Haha! Then get lost!

-...

The upperclassmen had coldly chased Gainando away.

Lee Han squeezed his eyes shut and muttered.

“The principal spread it around.”

“!?”

In truth, the fact that Lee Han had been feeding his friends was not widely known.

Starting with the Kitchen Club, it was not good for others to know, so Lee Han had not deliberately revealed it either.

Earlier, too, most of the upperclassmen had failed to notice the hidden meaning behind the rule. For them to suddenly react like this...

“Even so, that’s too much. To ruin the tower’s affairs because of personal feelings!”

“Right! To think upperclassmen would act so emotionally. How disappointing!”

“If they’re upset, they should have enrolled a year later. They’re the ones who enrolled a year earlier!”

Hmm. Good thing there are no upperclassmen around.

Yonair thought to herself while watching her friends’ embarrassing behavior.

If upperclassmen had been present, they would have immediately cast attack spells even on juniors from the same tower.

And at the same time.

Similar things were happening in the other towers.

-Senior! If we all cooperate and somehow ease that rule...

-Did you people also mooch food last semester?

-That’s not important.

-Get lost!

***

No matter how much the second-years cried out, time flowed equally for everyone.

The next morning at dawn.

Lee Han came outside for class, looked at Professor Bendozol’s face, and thought.

Is there anyone else in Einroguard who’s as happy as that right now?

Even the Skull Principal, who was indulging in mischief to his heart’s content, was probably not actually that happy.

After all, the reality of an inspector coming to interfere had not changed.

Perhaps he was being even more mischievous because he was annoyed by that very reality.

In contrast, Professor Bendozol’s face was happiness itself. If satisfaction and joy were condensed and molded into a person, it would probably look like the current Professor Bendozol.

“Good morning, Professor.”

“Ah. Good morning, Wardanaz. Did you sleep well?”

“...”

Lee Han looked at the professor with eyes full of shock and horror.

Did I come to the wrong place?

No. This is definitely Professor Bendozol, not Professor Garcia, right?

Normally, Professor Bendozol’s greetings consisted of things like “You came,” “Why did you come,” “You came again,” or “Get lost.”

But now, such a kind greeting. Even a happy Professor Bendozol was hard to believe.

Lee Han, flustered, noticed that Professor Bendozol’s eyes were trembling slightly.

The professor was smiling happily, but at the same time, his expression showed that he was forcibly suppressing his emotions.

“...Professor, by any chance, are you forcing yourself to greet me cheerfully?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Wardanaz. Come in quickly. Don’t you have a lecture to attend?”

“If Prince Wuman ordered you to do this, you don’t need to force yourself...”

“Can’t you shut up? Get inside quickly.”

Professor Bendozol immediately revealed his true nature and growled.

He had been forcing himself to give greetings that did not suit his nature in order to make a good impression on the dragon, but this annoying brat was interfering.

“I’m saying this because I’m worried about you, Professor. If a person keeps forcing themselves to do things that don’t suit them, they can end up getting hurt.”

“I can’t hear you! Get in!”

Lee Han looked at Professor Bendozol with pity.

He had thought the professor was the happiest person here, but it turned out Professor Bendozol also had inner pain.

Just how much does he like dragons to flatter one like that...

Professor Bendozol’s second-semester lecture was 【Just Vicious Creatures】. Compared to the first-semester lecture, 【Viciously Beautiful Creatures】, it was a lecture title that clearly showed how things had changed.

Lee Han checked his outfit and inspected his magic. Not only Lee Han, but the other second-year students were also doing their utmost to maximize their defenses.

“Damn it. Who would have thought tree-bark skin magic would be useful?”

“Could you cast some magic on me?”

“No way. What if the inspector checks later? If it were possible, I would have already asked Wardanaz. What do you think will come out?”

“I just hope it’s not a large monster.”

Even though only one day had passed since the new semester started, his friends’ faces already looked haggard somehow.

Gainando muttered in a mournful voice.

“It’ll be that again for breakfast today, right? That porridge made by crushing demons and chimeras together, mixing them up, and boiling them.”

“...I’m curious where you got that expression from, but anyway, cheer up, Gainando. There must be a way.”

“What way?!”

When his friend reacted far too intensely to his casual remark, Lee Han was slightly flustered.

He had not actually thought of one...

“For example... um. You could go out and get supplies yourself.”

“...”

“You could also wander around the school and raid the principal’s storage.”

“...”

When his dejected friend seemed about to sink into the floor, Lee Han hurriedly spoke again.

“Commissions! There are commissions too. If you take a commission and go outside, you’ll be able to catch your breath.”

“!”

That seemed somewhat plausible, and Gainando’s eyes lit up.

“Right. There were commissions?”

“That’s right, Gainando. It’s too early to despair.”

“...But I don’t think commissions will come to me. I’m from the dark magic school.”

Oops.

Lee Han belatedly realized his mistake.

For friends from other schools, it might be different, but for Gainando, it had the opposite effect.

“And I need to shake off surveillance, but if that lizard adds more surveillance, I won’t be able to shake it off...”

“Look over there, Gainando! The professor is bringing a new animal!”

It was an obvious ploy to change the subject, but Gainando fell for it.

Considering the lecture title, 【Just Vicious Creatures】, it was hard not to turn his attention.

“My goodness! It’s a barghest!”

A barghest.

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a large black dog or wolf, but any mage would have a hard time failing to recognize the dark magic dwelling over its fur.

There was a reason rumors spread that it was an ominous monster that brought death.

Touching it carelessly could drain one’s magic or life force and make one collapse, yet Professor Bendozol had brought such a monster.

As expected of Professor Bendozol...

“...Isn’t it a baby?”

“It’s a baby... barghest.”

The students, who had been frightened by the name barghest, became confused only after belatedly realizing its size.

It was adorably small. Perhaps because it was a baby, the amount of ominous magic wrapped around its fur was also extremely weak.

At that level, wouldn’t there be no problem even if someone touched it?

Lee Han was puzzled.

If they were going to learn how to handle barghests, the professor should have brought an adult barghest. Instead, he had brought a baby barghest that they could simply hug and roll around with.

He could not understand what the professor was thinking.

“Could there be some dangerous aspect of baby barghests that I don’t know about?”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that either...”

“Professor. Why did you choose a baby barghest?”

At Lee Han’s question, Professor Bendozol’s eyebrows twitched upward.

“What’s wrong with a baby barghest?”

“Well... this is the 【Just Vicious Creatures】 lecture.”

“This is vicious enough. Are you some official who defines the Empire’s vicious creatures or something?!”

“???”

While Lee Han was puzzled by the professor’s outburst, Wuman appeared from behind.

“Ah. A lecture was in progress! Professor Bendozol. It is truly an honor to audit your class.”

“I-I-I-I-I-I am more honored. Dragon sir!”

Professor Bendozol answered frantically like a boy in love. Wuman asked curiously.

“It seemed as though you were just angry at student Wardanaz. Is that correct?”

“...No! Absolutely not! We’re very close. That Wardanaz brat... I mean, Wardanaz also respects and cherishes me the most among his masters!”

“??”

When Lee Han looked at him as though asking what nonsense he was spouting, Professor Bendozol sent him a desperate look.

Please!

Please!!!

At the desperate, cornered-beast look in his eyes, Lee Han found himself opening his mouth before he realized it.

“...Yes... well... from certain perspectives, there may be such aspects, or there may not...”

“This is the first time I’m hearing this story!”

Wuman showed interest in what he had just heard and committed it to memory.

To think that, among his many masters, Lee Han liked Professor Bendozol the most...