Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

“Come to think of it, Anglago. I told you not to get involved with the festival, but you kept insisting on participating.”

Damn it.

Anglago realized he had put his foot in his mouth again and cursed himself.

Maybe his intelligence had dropped because the food had gotten so terrible after the semester started.

“So, like this…”

“It takes more mana than I expected.”

“It does. I’ll help recharge them whenever I get the chance.”

“That would take quite a bit of time. It’s fine.”

Salco refused Lee Han’s offer.

Just from the explanation alone, charging the artifact with mana sounded more troublesome than expected.

Wardanaz was already busy enough. Having him help with each one individually would be a waste of time.

“No. I meant I’d just charge them with my mana.”

“…I, I see.”

After temporarily charging everyone’s paper-bundle artifacts, Lee Han asked:

“So… what do you all think? About meeting regularly?”

“I agree. Moradi may not.”

“I agree too. Of course, Tutanta may fail to understand the situation and start internal conflict, but still.”

Lee Han made an exhausted expression.

Tiltiling, who had been listening from the front, nodded.

“Look at the two of you. Even Priest Tiltiling is sick of this.”

“…I was agreeing to the gathering.”

“Oh. I see. Fine. Then I’ll take that as agreement.”

“If it is cooperation, then it is always welcome, Wardanaz.”

“Indeed. Joining forces and burning the seniors together wouldn’t be so bad either.”

At Nigisor’s words, the other students quietly turned their eyes away as if they had heard nothing.

There were some extreme opinions mixed in, but the second-years needed to stand together now.

The fantasy of meeting reliable, dependable seniors and receiving helpful advice had long since vanished.

Lectures that had grown harder and more complicated, responsibilities heavier than in first year, seniors whose only thought was how to use the juniors…

To endure that kind of situation, unity was the only answer.

“But Wardanaz. Did you bring in a lot of food?”

Giselle asked, suddenly puzzled.

Lee Han had been talking as if he had secured a decent amount of food.

But there should not have been any chance to smuggle anything in during admission.

“A fair amount.”

“How?”

“Oh. It’s time to go listen to a lecture. Then I’ll see all of you at the next gathering. Hang in there, everyone.”

At Lee Han’s words, not just Giselle but everyone else reflexively answered, “Yeah, take care,” before they even thought about it.

It was only after Lee Han had disappeared completely that Giselle realized it was nighttime.

“Wait. It’s night right now.”

“…Remarkable. It was clearly nighttime, but when he said he was going to a lecture, it did not sound strange at all.”

*****

When morning came, Lee Han went up to the seventh floor and headed for the Kitchen Club.

Before lectures began, he wanted to check on what he had heard yesterday.

“Wahahaha, Wardanaz!”

Palcrius, who had been feeding fire into a cauldron as huge as his own body and prepping ingredients from dawn onward, brightened at the sight of Lee Han.

Since Lee Han was the junior he had already marked as future talent who would one day lead the Kitchen Club, there was no way his arrival would not be welcome.

“Good to see you, good to see you! Did you come to help with our Soup Club’s work?”

“Yes, Senior Palcrius.”

“Puhaha. But there’s no work for you to help with. One of our Soup Club’s rules is, ‘You boil your own cauldron yourself.’”

When Lee Han moved as if to help, Palcrius stretched out a hand and stopped him.

The Kitchen Club was one of the clubs people often misunderstood as having ironclad discipline.

Because its membership requirements were strict, because it managed club-owned buildings and land rigorously, and because its members moved in perfect order every mealtime, people got the wrong impression. But in truth, it was fairly free inside.

Even selling food to Einroguard students in the club dining hall was ultimately a matter of individual choice.

You just had to procure your own ingredients, cook them, and sell them.

The club simply helped its members.

“Then the rumor about a single dish costing one gold coin is false too?”

“That one’s true.”

“……”

“Wahahaha! That is the tradition and identity of this <Iactus Soup Club>, so we can’t raise it any further. Regrettable, but you’ll have to understand.”

“I wasn’t wondering whether it could be raised. I was wondering whether it could be lowered.”

“???”

Palcrius was flustered at receiving a question he had never expected.

Not a single junior or senior before this had ever asked such a thing.

There were plenty who wanted to raise prices. Someone wanting to lower them was unheard of.

“You mean lower it?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“…Uh, I was just curious?”

“Junior, have you ever wondered why there are no ballrooms near Einroguard?”

Normally, around Imperial schools, there would not only be social clubs but also ballrooms and banquet halls attached nearby so the members of those social clubs could dance and drink.

Students, by nature, enjoyed entertainment, and if they were entering a boarding school, their families were usually wealthy.

Naturally, the citizens of towns adjacent to the school welcomed such students as walking purses.

But Einroguard had none of that. To begin with, students rarely even left the grounds, and the nearest village was far away.

“I can’t say I’ve ever really wondered…”

“Think about it once. Why do you think that is?”

“Because the students don’t go out, and the townspeople couldn’t keep such a business running on the locals alone, could they?”

“Puh, exactly! You know well enough. It’s obvious once you think about it. That’s why nobody bothers asking.”

“??”

“That question of yours—whether prices can be lowered—sounds exactly the same to me!”

“……”

Watching the senior burst into laughter, Lee Han wore an unamused expression.

It was not that funny a question, was it?

After laughing for quite a while and wiping away tears from his eyes, Palcrius apologized.

“Sorry. You could be curious! Did I laugh too much?”

“So is it possible?”

“Hm! No, I don’t think so. The other members would lose out.”

“I see. Then when do we make the oath?”

“What oath?”

“The oath not to sell cheaply…”

“Oh. Did you hear that from someone outside the club? Wahaha! Half the rumors in Einroguard are nonsense. Who would take an oath over something like that? What idiot would sell cheaply in the first place?”

It was merely a verbal agreement. The Kitchen Club was not affluent enough to spend costly reagents and materials making people swear an oath not to sell cheaply.

“Puh. Don’t believe rumors too easily. I once heard a rumor there was an iron-eater in Einroguard too. But I searched for over a year and never found one.”

“That is…”

“Senior. We’re back.”

With tired voices, other members appeared from behind.

It might still be morning, but their faces were already full of exhaustion.

When Lee Han lowered his gaze, he saw that in one hand they were carrying bronze geese, and in the other, baskets crammed full of screaming mushrooms.

“Wardanaz? You’re Wardanaz, right?”

“Hello.”

“Good to meet you! I’ve really wanted to meet you.”

“We had to give in a little because those bastards from the other clubs interfered, but you’ll end up liking our club the best too.”

The seniors smiled brightly.

THUD!

Then one of them suddenly collapsed sideways. Lee Han shouted in alarm.

“Are you all right!?”

“Ah, I’m fine. Don’t worry. I just heard too many screams at the farm.”

The sounds the screaming mushrooms let out were poisonous enough that if even a mage heard too many, there was a real chance of fainting or being badly hurt.

“Originally, we wanted to pick some crescent-honey fruit too, but there were too many monsters there today.”

“We seriously need to increase the number of mercenaries. At this rate, we won’t even be able to enter the eastern side of the farm and we’ll have to abandon it.”

“…Wait a moment, Senior.”

“Oh. Why? Is there something you’re curious about?”

“Why are there monsters in the club’s farm or ranch?”

“Hmm? Of course there are monsters in the farm or ranch…”

The senior, tilting his head, paused.

“…Come to think of it, do monsters not usually show up in farms and ranches outside?”

“That tends to be the case. Unless one wanders in from outside once in a while.”

“Ah. Right, that’s how it is. Sorry.”

The senior apologized and explained again.

The ranches and farms the Kitchen Club possessed were a bit different in concept from the ones outside.

How were you supposed to secure food efficiently in Einroguard?

Ordinarily, you would have to farm and raise livestock, but it was not easy for students who were already busy to secure the necessary amounts through that sort of hard labor.

But mana occasionally created miracles.

In places where mana pooled, unpredictable changes and strange phenomena occurred, and among them was the rapid growth ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ of crops and livestock.

Miraculous land where crops and animals flourished abundantly even if left alone.

The Kitchen Club students had identified several such places and were using them as farms and ranches.

I feel like I’ve experienced something similar.

Listening to the seniors, Lee Han fell into thought.

Come to think of it, he had gone through something similar himself.

When he had managed Professor Thunderstep’s garden patch, had the crops not grown far more luxuriantly than expected?

He had guessed it might be because of the staff the tree spirit had given him, but hearing the seniors speak, it seemed his own mana had also had a considerable effect.

“But monsters gather in places where mana pools too. It can’t be helped.”

“Once you get used to it, it’s nothing much. Ha ha.”

Because mana pooled there, the Kitchen Club’s farms and ranches had to be seen as monster dens, plain and simple.

Whenever the members wanted to secure ingredients, they formed parties, thoroughly prepared for battle, and went in.

I got my hopes up for nothing again.

Lee Han squeezed his eyes shut.

He had once again gotten his hopes up for no reason.

Looking over, he saw that the senior who had collapsed because of the screaming mushrooms was still unconscious.

“You’re late! Did you all go by yourselves already?!”

“Yeah, we did, you lazy bastard.”

“O-one time. Just for today, can’t you split some with me?”

A senior who had arrived late looked at the ingredients the other members had brought back and pleaded desperately.

But the members were cold. Bursting into laughter, Palcrius shouted:

“Wahahaha! That’s a pretty good joke!”

“S-senior. Please help me just this once.”

“If it’s helping you prepare the cooking, I’ll help!”

“I don’t have ingredients! If you’d lend me some ingredients—”

“Aren’t there ingredients over there?”

Palcrius stretched out a finger. The late senior turned his head.

There was a single stone on the ground.

“You can throw it in and boil it!”

“…Who’s going to eat that?!”

“Then you should have gotten up early and gone to fetch ingredients. Puh. Why do you think your friends have been getting attacked by bronze geese since dawn and fainting from screaming mushrooms!”

Palcrius laughed heartily, then slapped the late senior on the back.

“If you make no money today, just earn it tomorrow. Puhuhu.”

“I need to buy equipment today, Senior! Then please lend me some money!”

“Wahahahaha!”

“Senior!”

“Wahahahahaha!”

The late senior finally realized there was no point in saying anything more and lowered his head completely.

“Heh. One less competitor.”

“Today, I rule the dining hall.”

Seeing the seniors muttering in voices full of motivation, Lee Han failed to understand and asked:

“Is there some reason you need to compete?”

“Of course there is. Junior, everyone sells food for one gold coin. Then which food do you think the students will buy? Delicious, filling food? Or soup made by putting nothing but stones into water and boiling it? If you prepare carelessly, you won’t earn even a single coin.”

“…!”

Watching the seniors prepare while fiercely stoking their competitive spirit, Lee Han realized something.

The Kitchen Club was not a warm, harmonious social club in the slightest.

If anything, it was a savage battlefield that looked like Einroguard itself brought indoors.