Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

“If a baby bagest tries to bite you, just let it bite you. There’s poison in its teeth, but we can detoxify that later...”

Professor Bendozol, who had been imparting an extremely radical lesson to his students, suddenly paused.

The most enviable disciple in all of Einroguard was holding something.

What was that?

“...You! What are you holding?!”

—!

Startled by the shout, the baby bagest leapt down. Lee Han looked at Professor Bendozol as if the man had lost his mind.

“Why are you yelling? You scared the bagest.”

“How did you tame it already?! You haven’t even fed it the potion yet!”

“...!”

Only then did Lee Han belatedly realize what had happened.

Come to think of it, when Giselle had spoken to him earlier, it hadn’t been to pick a fight. It had been to point out that he was already holding the baby bagest.

“Why don’t you speak properly instead of making people misunderstand?”

Lee Han immediately scolded Giselle.

People were supposed to speak accurately and specifically, not communicate with vague body language like that.

“...”

Giselle, who had been minding business quietly only to get scolded for no reason, stared at her friend as though he had gone insane.

What is wrong with this bastard?

Giselle wanted to explode in anger, but Professor Bendozol moved first.

When he approached to check on the baby bagest that had just jumped down, the monster let out a low growl. It was clearly a warning.

“Damn it, it got scared!”

“That’s because of you, Professor.”

“I know that too! It can’t be helped. Here.”

Professor Bendozol pulled out a thick riding crop and held it out to his disciple.

Lee Han looked at the professor with an expression that said, What am I supposed to do with this?

“Why are you giving me this?”

“Take it and hit me!”

“What??”

At the sudden words, Lee Han wondered whether his inner thoughts had somehow been discovered.

Was this some kind of trap investigation?

However, Professor Bendozol was serious. When his disciple responded with nonsense, the professor shouted again, voice sharp with irritation.

“That creature needs to see you, the one it likes, subdue me so it can feel safe and come out again!”

“Ah.”

Lee Han finally understood and took the riding crop. Then he swung it lightly.

“There.”

“...Do you think bagests are idiots like you people? Do you think it would fall for something like that? Hit me properly!”

“But Professor, you might get hurt...”

“Hit me properly! I’m enduring it with magic anyway!”

“Fine. I understand.”

Professor Bendozol had forgotten that his opponent was a monster capable of subduing even White Tiger Tower students through swordsmanship alone, someone who would not be physically outmatched even if thrown into any knight order.

When Lee Han infused mana into the riding crop, it began to vibrate before he had even swung it.

Crack!

“Gah!”

Professor Bendozol had toughened his skin and given elasticity to his muscles in preparation for the impact, but he still screamed involuntarily as the blow sank all the way to his bones.

Lee Han did not stop and continued swinging the riding crop. Each strike landed with the sound of a blunt weapon smashing into something.

“Ugh, gah, cough, gah!”

The professor’s acting is surprisingly good.

Lee Han was impressed by the sight of Professor Bendozol rolling around.

Could his deep love for monsters have breathed soul into his performance?

The baby bagest, which had been hiding in fear, slowly came out again and climbed into Lee Han’s arms.

“Professor! Look! It came out again because it feels safe!”

“Good. Good work.”

Professor Bendozol rose unsteadily. His whole body felt like it was creaking.

He wanted to shout at his disciple, You crazy bastard, you’re disgustingly strong! but there was a dragon watching nearby.

When the professor’s eyes met Wuman’s, he forced a smile onto his face. It was to show that the lecture was proceeding perfectly.

Hmm. Professor Bendozol is an excellent mage, but at the same time, he is quite eccentric. I should keep my distance when dealing with him.

Wuman thought to himself.

He knew there were no ordinary lessons at Einroguard, but was this not too bizarre?

While the dragon was having thoughts that would have made the professor wail if he had heard them, Lee Han asked again.

“Is this one special?”

The moment he finished speaking, another baby bagest escaped from the pen and clung to Lee Han.

Professor Bendozol pursed his lips, eyes burning with jealousy.

“Professor Bendozol. May Wuman say something?”

Wuman carefully asked permission.

It would not be proper for an outsider to speak too much while a professor was teaching. No matter how eccentric the lesson was, courtesy still had to be maintained.

“By all means! What would you like to say?”

“Wuman thinks this baby bagest may have approached like this because it was overwhelmed by pure mana.”

As a dragon, Wuman was quite familiar with the phenomenon of certain monsters submitting or surrendering.

Pure mana often inspired awe.

“Certainly... that is quite likely.”

—Why, why are you looking at me?

The baby basilisk felt Lee Han looking at it from inside his sleeve and asked back.

Surely the relationship between itself and Lee Han was a close parent-child bond, regardless of mana?

“If Professor Bendozol brought baby bagests here to teach that, then he is quite meticulous. Had they been fully grown bagests, they would have attempted rebellion rather than submission.”

“Th-thank you!”

Professor Bendozol nearly burst into tears.

To think a lecture he had thought ruined could be revived like this.

“Then, Professor Bendozol. Would you now show the students how to tame baby bagests with potions and magic?”

“...Yes! Yes!”

The professor looked around at the gathered students. Now that things had come to this, he was determined to make the lesson succeed.

“Now. You bast...”

Professor Bendozol, who had been about to threaten to beat them all if they failed, hesitated.

Come to think of it, if the dragon heard such words, the dragon might dislike him.

“These... excellent... disciples... ugh. Wardanaz!”

Professor Bendozol finally called Lee Han.

He could not think of any suitable words to encourage the students.

***

Fortunately, the lecture ended successfully.

It was thanks to Professor Bendozol’s secret techniques and the hard work of one student who had run around throughout the entire class.

Wuman deducted points in several areas—the professor’s eccentric personality and the excessive overworking of a single disciple—but still praised the professor generously on the surface before leaving.

“...Come here.”

After the dragon left, Professor Bendozol called Lee Han over.

Lee Han, who had been playing with friends while holding the baby bagests, made an openly reluctant expression.

“Pretend you didn’t hear him, Wardanaz.”

“Pretend you’re talking with us. That guy wants revenge now that the inspector is gone.”

“Hey, Wardanaz. Didn’t you hit too hard earlier? It sounded like bones were breaking.”

Several White Tiger Tower students expressed bewilderment at Lee Han’s earlier strike.

No matter how they thought about it, that had been far too destructive for a practice exchange.

“But that’s what the professor told me to do.”

“But still, that sound was too...”

“Don’t talk nonsense. The professor was defending with magic too. There wouldn’t have been any damage at all.”

“Is that so?”

His friends tilted their heads, but accepted it for the moment.

In the field of magic, Wardanaz had far more accurate insight than they did.

Well, the person who actually hit him would know best.

“Hey! Come over here!”

Professor Bendozol, fuming, eventually walked over himself. Lee Han pretended to be startled and answered.

“Professor! I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you at all.”

“Do you think I’m some idiot like Professor Verdus? Just take this.”

The professor forcibly pressed a rolled-up paper into Lee Han’s hand.

Lee Han did not open it right away and looked at it warily.

“What is it? Just so you know, if it’s a curse scroll, it won’t work on me even if I open it.”

“...”

Professor Bendozol suppressed the urge to strike him once with the riding crop and took the paper back.

Then he opened it himself and handed it over. Surprisingly, a commission was written inside.

“It’s a commission sent to me from Canis Minor Ranch.”

Einroguard students regarded Professor Bendozol as a half-mad savage, which was partly true, but outside the school, Professor Bendozol was treated as an expert on all kinds of animals and monsters.

Of course, he did not care about such treatment at all and ignored most commissions.

If it was a commission to save injured or sick wild monsters, [N O V E L I G H T] he would rush over without taking a single coin, but how many such commissions could there be?

Most commissions came from breeders in the Empire saying things like, “I’m raising this creature and would like some advice.” With Professor Bendozol’s personality, there was no way he would look favorably upon other people raising animals.

“This commission... even your upperclassmen coveted it. Go in my place and complete it.”

Canis Minor Ranch was famous enough throughout the Empire that even Ka Mo, a student from White Tiger Tower, had coveted this commission.

Even if one had nothing to do with mounts, simply visiting the place, looking around, and encountering the animals there would bring plenty to gain.

Tsk. Now that I’m actually handing it over, I feel quite displeased.

Professor Bendozol felt a slight pang of regret.

Of course, he had never intended to go himself in the first place, but entrusting the opportunity to a student was an entirely different matter.

Even if that student was exceptionally talented, how could he simply hand over the chance to meet all kinds of rare animals from across the Empire?

Absolutely unacceptable.

Even if it made his stomach hurt, that was Professor Bendozol’s usual attitude.

And yet, here he was, changing it.

To the most enviable student among them, no less...

“Wow. Thank you, Professor.”

“...Is that all?”

Professor Bendozol was flustered by the lukewarm reaction.

He had not expected tears or overwhelming emotion like some close master-disciple relationship, but he had thought there would be more surprise.

“Actually, I do have something to tell you.”

“What?”

“I already have many commissions right now, so I can’t guarantee I’ll definitely complete this one...”

“...Get out of my sight!!!”

***

Was that really worth getting so angry about?

Lee Han shook his head at Professor Bendozol’s rude attitude, which he had just witnessed in class, and walked on.

What could he do about already having many commissions? That was not Lee Han’s fault.

Maybe that’s why the dragons don’t like him.

Holding such cruel thoughts, sharp as a dagger, Lee Han arrived at the lecture hall.

It was the first basement level, Professor Voladi’s lecture hall, a place he could now reach with his eyes closed.

“?”

Lee Han was puzzled as he opened the door and entered.

Usually, the lecture hall was always transformed in all sorts of ways to torment—no, train—Lee Han.

But today, the lecture hall was very...

Normal?

It looked like an ordinary lecture hall with desks and chairs.

Lee Han wondered whether there might be an ambush, a trap, or perhaps a mimic Professor Voladi had raised in the form of a desk, and heightened his senses.

“Sit.”

Professor Voladi gestured to his disciple. Lee Han slowly sat down without removing his suspicious, wary, doubtful gaze.

Is this perhaps a trap that activates when I sit?

“I heard you received several commissions this semester. It will be difficult to match the schedule.”

“Ah, yes.”

Basically, commissions were not the kind of thing that could always be finished quickly and briefly. This was especially true for Lee Han, who had received many invitations.

If someone had some flexibility in the class schedule, that person could manage free time well enough to handle them, but Lee Han was a student whose schedule had fewer gaps than the blank spaces on his usual answer sheets.

“I was planning to make up for missed lectures separately later, like last semester.”

Professor Voladi nodded. Then he said,

“I will conduct the 【Understanding and Application of Intermediate Combat Magic】 lectures intermittently, without setting aside separate time.”

“...Professor!”

Lee Han was startled.

He had never imagined Professor Voladi would show such thoughtful consideration.

“Wait. Did someone order you to do this by any chance?”

“I received a request from Professor Garcia.”

“Ah.”

Upon learning the truth, Lee Han immediately understood. He was a little disappointed, but still quite moved.

To think Professor Voladi would give up lecture time and yield his free time...

Wait. Does that mean I have to listen to lectures while going out on commissions?