Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Startled, Lee Han apologized first.

“I’m sorry, Professor. Do you perhaps dislike pocket watches?”

If it had been Professor Verdus, he might have shouted something like, “So what if you’re good at magic?! Even if I die today, I’m blasting at least one spell into your face!” But since it was Professor Garcia, Lee Han assumed there must be some kind of reason.

After a few heavy breaths, Professor Garcia regained his composure. Covering his face with both hands, he spoke in despair.

“…Student Lee Han, where did you get that?”

“Pardon? I bought it cheaply from an antique shop outside the academy.”

“……”

Professor Garcia cursed Einroguard for allowing secretive objects like this to circulate and eventually surface again. He cursed the Einroguard students who sold any strange item they found without hesitation. And he cursed the Skull Principal who had driven those students mad with their obsession for gold coins.

Fwoosh—

With a weary flick of his wand, the professor summoned the pocket watch back. The shattered wall repaired itself as though nothing had happened.

“Student Lee Han. The truth is… I made that watch.”

“WHAT?!”

Lee Han was more shocked than when he had learned the Skull Principal was secretly of royal blood.

How could someone as diligent and kind as Professor Garcia engrave words like that on a pocket watch?

Congratulations, foolish and ignorant junior. If you’re reading this, you must have experienced a great magic.

If you master the magic engraved into this watch, come find me. I shall reveal the secret technique to you.

—From your great senior

Click!

“…There’s no need to read it again, you know.”

As Lee Han opened the watch and reread the inscription, Professor Garcia hurriedly snapped the lid shut.

“Ah. Did the Principal perhaps force you to engrave something like that?”

“To be honest, I’d love to answer yes… but no. No one forced me, Student Lee Han. I wrote it myself. And why would the Principal force someone to write something like that?”

“He forced me to do similar things…”

“……”

Professor Garcia decided that someday he should grab the Skull Principal and interrogate him about what exactly he said to Lee Han.

He couldn’t understand why the Principal seemed determined to push such a diligent and gentle student into some kind of turbulent rebellious phase.

“Student Lee Han… people change as they live their lives. It may be hard to imagine, but I was quite different in the past.”

“Was Professor Verdus also different in the past?”

“He was the same back then—…Student Lee Han.”

“I’m sorry. I was just curious.”

Clearing his throat, Professor Garcia continued.

“Student Lee Han. When I was a student… I was a bit rough.”

“!”

Lee Han was shocked.

Professor Garcia had once been rough?

It was as unimaginable as Gainando being intellectual or Professor Verdus being thoughtful.

How could someone like him be rough—

‘Hmm. Actually, now that I think about it… I can imagine it.’

Looking at Professor Garcia’s fists and the wall that had just been destroyed, it suddenly felt plausible.

In fact, Lee Han wondered why he hadn’t imagined it sooner.

“Especially when it came to magic. I used to get angry because I couldn’t understand why my friends couldn’t keep up with my magic.”

“Anyone would react that way.”

“Most people wouldn’t. Don’t force yourself to agree.”

Professor Garcia had already regained his calm. He shut down the forced flattery immediately.

Lee Han drooped slightly.

“I think it was because I was studying magic from every school.”

“Anyone would become strange under those circumstances.”

“Student Lee Han, please go look in a mirror after class. Anyway, at that time I was researching space-time magic on my own, and I managed to achieve some results. When I succeeded in embedding that magic into the watch, a thought occurred to me.”

“What kind of thought…?”

“If I leave this watch at Einroguard, maybe a junior with the right spirit will find it and become interested in space-time magic.”

That seems unlikely.

Lee Han’s expression turned awkward.

As the Black Magic school and the Music Magic school had proven, creating or reviving an unpopular magical discipline was extremely difficult.

You had to strategically recruit juniors and colleagues and paint a rosy future for the field.

Writing provocative messages on a strange artifact would not make people come looking for you.

Fortunately, even without Lee Han pointing it out, Professor Garcia seemed to have realized this himself.

“But no one came.”

“Perhaps because the magic is quite difficult…”

“That’s not the real issue.”

Professor Garcia sighed deeply.

“It’s surprising enough that you came to attend this lecture, Student Lee Han. But to think you’d obtain that watch during vacation… I never ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) imagined it in my wildest dreams. Perhaps this is what people call karma…”

“You are still someone I deeply respect, Professor!”

Lee Han’s flattery softened Professor Garcia’s troubled expression slightly.

“Thank you, Student Lee Han.”

“From now on, if anyone asks about this watch, I’ll say the Principal wrote the inscription.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Professor Garcia replied coldly.

*****

Once the embarrassing story about his past ended, Professor Garcia began explaining space-time magic.

“Time magic—when you study time magic, you inevitably learn space magic as well. The two are complementary in several ways. So if you want to study time magic, Student Lee Han, you would normally build foundations in both fields before advancing further…”

Professor Garcia hesitated mid-sentence.

“But Student Lee Han… are you really sure about this?”

“Pardon?”

“I heard you’re already studying magic from every school. Adding another one that isn’t even in your schedule…”

“It’s fine, Professor. I want to attend your lecture.”

Lee Han meant it sincerely.

Considering the bizarre lectures lurking on the schedule, Professor Garcia’s class felt far more trustworthy.

If he tried to switch to something “less difficult,” he might end up encountering a second Professor Voladi.

“Student Lee Han…”

Professor Garcia stared at him.

Lee Han shifted awkwardly.

It seemed the professor was moved by the unwavering trust of his excellent student.

“During your first year I dismissed the idea, but lately I’ve started wondering whether someone should stop you, Student Lee Han…”

“……”

While Lee Han stared in disbelief, Professor Garcia changed the subject.

“Shall we begin with Time Perception and Spatial Perception?”

“Ah. I’ve already learned both.”

“…When? Did you perhaps learn them together with someone?”

Professor Garcia crossed his arms and looked suspicious.

Lee Han, too focused on magic to notice the look, answered honestly.

“I learned Time Perception during vacation with Lord Arsic.”

“Ah.”

Professor Garcia secretly scribbled a note in his grimoire:

Hang Arsic of the Pengerin family upside down.

“Wait.”

“What is it, Student Lee Han?”

Afraid he had been caught, Professor Garcia casually closed the grimoire.

Lee Han, completely unaware, continued.

“I learned Spatial Perception early last year with Senior Balpatan.”

“Ah!”

Professor Garcia added another note below the first.

Hang Balpatan as well.

Whether outside magicians or academy seniors, they all behaved the same way.

Smiling so Lee Han wouldn’t notice anything, Professor Garcia said,

“Then we can move on to the next spell, Student Lee Han!”

“Professor… are you angry?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not angry at all.”

Professor Garcia deflected the question, secretly stung by the sharp intuition of his student.

“The next spell is Minor Internal Time Extension. It’s a second-circle spell, but the difficulty is comparable to a third or fourth circle spell. Don’t rush it. Understood?”

“Yes.”

The extreme difficulty of time magic came from the fact that the very concept of the magic directly clashed with the laws of the world.

If a magician wanted to ignite a fire—

They only needed to trick the laws of the world slightly, making it appear as though a spark had landed on tinder.

Since fire naturally igniting on tinder was not an unusual phenomenon, deceiving the world into allowing it was relatively easy.

But if a magician wanted to slow time—

That itself was an act bordering on rebellion against the world itself.

To withstand that resistance required enormous power.

Before attempting such full-scale magic, there existed a more indirect method: Minor Internal Time Extension.

A spell that lengthened the magician’s internal time rather than the world’s time.

Veteran battle mages or swordsmen sometimes claimed that time seemed to slow during combat—this was the primitive form of the same phenomenon.

‘Since it only affects internal time, the difficulty should be lower.’

Lee Han sensed that Professor Garcia was trying to acclimate him using a relatively easier spell before introducing true time magic.

Of course, it was only “easier” within the category of time magic. In absolute terms, it was still extremely difficult.

“Thought from an instant to a moment, from a moment to a flash!”

Unlike other second-circle spells, Lee Han chanted a long and complicated incantation as he focused.

Fortunately, Lee Han had experienced moments where time seemed to slow before.

…Whether it was good to have experienced that many times was another question.

But at least now it helped.

“With this spell, the caster must confirm success or failure personally. Student Lee Han, judge it using Time Perception.”

“Thank you.”

Professor Garcia handed him a teacup, suggesting he take it easy.

After all, Lee Han would surely be overworked by professors from other schools. There was no need for him to push himself here as well.

Lee Han gulped down the hot tea in one go and immediately cast the spell again.

Looking at the empty cup, Professor Garcia thought to himself:

…Next time, should I make it hotter?

*****

‘Damn.’

Lee Han walked away regretfully.

In the end, he had failed to fully master the spell.

There had been several moments when time seemed to slow, but unless he could control it completely, it didn’t count as mastering it.

Professor Garcia had comforted him, saying he was already very fast.

But Lee Han didn’t believe it.

Professor Garcia is generous about these things.

Just as it was hard to believe Professor Verdus saying “You’re slow!”, it was equally hard to believe Professor Garcia saying “You’re already fast!”

“I think we should persuade that junior directly. The kid clearly has talent for the Masonry Club. We have to recruit him before the Library Club steals him.”

“I’ve heard many rumors about the Wardanaz family, but this is still surprising.”

‘Damn it.’

Hearing voices from down the corridor, Lee Han immediately cast an invisibility spell.

He hadn’t even met the juniors yet, but he was already being forced to hide from seniors.

‘I need a more reliable way to stay on guard.’

“—But I heard that junior studies magic from every school. Is that really true?”

“Hmm. I couldn’t believe it either, so I checked. It seems to be true. Those insane rumors surrounding the Wardanaz family didn’t appear for nothing. Truly terrifying…”

“Which is more frightening—moving an entire sea to create a reservoir, or studying magic from every school? I’d say the latter.”

“……”

Lee Han nearly blasted the seniors in the back with a spell.

They had no idea why he had ended up studying all those schools, yet they talked so casually.

Humm—

At that moment, Lee Han felt a change in mana that only he could sense.

It came from the artifact notebook Diret had made for him: Einroguard’s Whisper.

‘What?’

Lee Han wondered if his friends had already charged it with mana and started scribbling nonsense.

I have a proposal for you.

—Hmph. Get lost.

……

‘Ah. That was too harsh.’

When the other side fell silent, Lee Han felt a slight pang of regret.