Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

“Then I have no choice but to do my best too.”

Lee Han accepted reality quickly.

Come to think of it, there was no way a club inside Einroguard would be nothing but warm and kind.

Tap—

Fortunately, before coming to the Kitchen Club, he had packed some ingredients in his backpack just in case.

Butter from the eastern Empire, salt, pepper, cheese, salted chicken, oil, mushrooms, flour, and so on.

Lee Han was thinking of preparing two dishes, one with potatoes and one with chicken.

If he had had a lot of time and ingredients, and a lot of people to help, he would have prepared a wider variety of dishes, but this was not that kind of situation right now.

Lee Han boiled water in a pot, then boiled the potatoes and mashed them. After that, he seasoned them with salt and sprinkled pepper over them.

He spread butter on a pan, laid down cheese, then added potatoes and a little mushroom, then cheese again…

Most of the upperclassmen who were focused on preparing their own dishes did not notice, but one upperclassman next to Lee Han seemed to sense that something was off.

To begin with, the very fact that a second-year student had just pulled out that much food was an astonishing thing.

“…Wait. Junior. What kind of dish are you making right now?”

“Potato gratin?”

“Potato… gratin…?!”

“Do you perhaps not know it?”

“I know it, but… well. Isn’t potato gratin usually a dish like this?”

With a confused look on the face, the Kitchen Club upperclassman explained Einroguard-style potato gratin.

A dish where you boil and mash potatoes, then lay boiled and mashed potatoes on top of that, then add another layer of potatoes on top of that, and finally cover the top with potatoes and bake it in the oven.

“Isn’t that… just baked potatoes?”

“I-it is, but… it is, but. Isn’t this still gratin?”

“I do not think so…”

The upperclassman, plunged into shock, muttered to himself.

“Was it? Was that gratin? But if that is true, then what were the things I have been making until now? Who am I? What is Einroguard?”

The interruption did not end there.

After Lee Han finished the potato ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) dish and took out the chicken, an upperclassman nearby who had been struggling to pluck the hard bronze feathers from a bronze goose cut in.

“So it’s a rock chicken. You picked a pretty decent ingredient. It’s hard enough to shatter your teeth, but if you cook it well, you can at least make it chewable enough to swallow somehow!”

Wanting to show off knowledge to a junior, the upperclassman explained all kinds of methods for making rock chicken tender.

From starting by aging it for about a month in a jar mixed with five deadly poisons, to borrowing an alchemist’s acid.

It’s just an ordinary chicken I bought outside.

The more earnestly the upperclassman explained, the slightly guiltier Lee Han felt.

Because it was not actually rock chicken.

“Now then, junior. So how are you going to cook this?”

“First I’m going to season it with pepper, then pour oil over the pan and cook it.”

“?!”

The upperclassman was startled by the excessively luxurious dish.

Words like pepper and oil were hard to believe inside Einroguard.

But the junior did not notice the upperclassman’s shock and continued explaining.

“In another pot, I’m going to make a sauce to go with the chicken dish. I’ll boil down some stock with butter and flour. I have parsley I brought from the garden, so I’ll add that too. It would be nice if there were more spices, but it’s the start of the semester, after all… How would you cook it, Senior?”

As he explained, Lee Han asked because he was curious about the upperclassman’s advice.

For some reason, the upperclassman answered with a rather cowed face.

“I was just going to put it in water and boil it hard.”

“……”

*****

The Kitchen Club was one of the clubs in Einroguard that hired the most mercenaries on campus.

That was because it stored a lot of valuable food ingredients, but also because riots and raids sometimes broke out even during meals.

“Today, because of the spirit flood, the menu is a little simple. First, seaweed lasagna without noodles, cheese, or sauce, and seaweed soup, seaweed cookies…”

“…You crazy thieving bastards, and you’re saying you’ll take gold coins for this?!”

“You spoiled bastards. You should eat whatever you’re given instead of whining!”

“Ha! Flip the tables! Open the storehouse! Their storehouses are piled with meat like mountains!”

The students of Einroguard had a tendency to become sensitive and violent when they got excessively hungry.

And most of the students of Einroguard were usually hungry.

Because of that, whenever the quality of the Kitchen Club’s menu dropped below a certain point, the cafeteria would sometimes turn into a battlefield.

And even when it did not go that far, complaints always came out as a matter of course.

“This costs one gold coin?”

“Wahaha. If you don’t want to eat it, get ou—”

“I’d gladly pay ten gold coins for this!”

“?”

Palcrius froze at the student’s reaction.

The student’s friend next to him hurriedly stopped him.

“Shut up! What are you going to do if they really raise it to ten gold coins?!”

“???”

Palcrius grew wary, wondering if this conversation was some kind of trap or new scheme, but astonishingly, more students started showing that kind of reaction.

“So the Kitchen Club has finally come to its senses! Right, this is how the Saint Iactus Club ought to be!”

“This is the first food I’ve eaten that didn’t break my teeth while I was chewing it! Keep making it like this from now on!”

“??????”

Suspecting that maybe the juniors had put some kind of psychoactive substance into the food, Palcrius headed toward the back.

But astonishingly, a rich and delicious smell greeted him. All the Kitchen Club members gathered there were looking at the junior with eyes full of reverence.

“…Wh-what happened here?”

“Senior. Look at this!”

Following the members’ words, Palcrius received a bowl of each dish Lee Han had made.

Then Palcrius held out gold coins. Since Palcrius was an upperclassman from the same club, Lee Han declined.

“I’m fine.”

“Puh. I’m not fine. Right. All the ones who ate first, hand them over.”

“……”

“……”

The upperclassmen held out gold coins with sullen faces.

Today had already been a day with no income, and now there was additional spending on top of that.

Clatter, clatter!

Palcrius cleaned the bowls completely, then looked at Lee Han with tears glistening in moved eyes.

To make food like this inside Einroguard—

“The reincarnation of Saint Iactus has entered this place!”

“No.”

“Puh, it’s a metaphor, a metaphor! Come here, junior!”

Palcrius pulled Lee Han into a tight hug. A cracking noise came out.

Lee Han thought it was truly fortunate that he had learned swordsmanship and practiced how to extend mana through his body.

If not, he might really have died here.

“I’m happy! Should I just go fight those bastards from the other clubs again?”

“That seems a bit…”

“Wahahaha. I’m joking! A joke! Anyway, junior, it would be nice if you came often and cooked often. If we just had you, the number of dining hall raid incidents would drop by half!”

After smacking Lee Han on the back a few times, Palcrius left laughing.

The remaining upperclassmen looked at Lee Han with darkened faces. Lee Han immediately sensed the hardship that was about to come.

Just as I thought.

Lee Han had raised the Kitchen Club’s reputation, but at the same time, he had also monopolized all the other upperclassmen’s income by himself.

Unlike Palcrius, who did not have much greed, the other upperclassmen could not help but be dissatisfied.

Preparing himself for magical combat, Lee Han waited for the upperclassmen to open their mouths.

“…Junior Wardanaz.”

“Yes.”

“…Hire me!”

“Pardon?”

At the unexpected words, Lee Han was flustered.

Not a duel, not an ambush, not a threat, but a job offer?

“No. Hire me! You saw me secure that bronze goose today, right? That bastard collapsed while picking mushrooms!”

“You lunatic! All you did was pick one up!”

The magical battle Lee Han had prepared himself for began.

…Among the upperclassmen!

The Kitchen Club upperclassmen started swinging their wands at each other and brawling.

Lee Han calmly watched it for a moment, then immediately left the kitchen and ran to Palcrius.

“Senior!!!!”

“Hm?”

Palcrius, who had been walking some distance away, turned around in puzzlement when Lee Han came running.

“Do you have more questions?”

“The upperclassmen are fighting. Please stop them!”

“Why?”

“……”

Seeing Lee Han’s expression, Palcrius burst into laughter.

“I’m joking, I’m joking! Wahaha!”

“Haha. That was very funny. Are you going to stop them?”

“No?”

When Lee Han glared, Palcrius hurriedly explained.

“Originally, with fights like that, it’s better to wait a little before going in.”

“Ah. So their emotions can cool down a bit and they can reconcile…?”

“So they get tired and become easier to suppress.”

“……”

Palcrius really did wait, and once the noise inside died down a little, rushed in.

Along with a crash, several mournful screams rang out, and then Palcrius shouted:

“Wahaha. Come in!”

All the upperclassmen were kneeling with their wands confiscated. A few members muttered bitterly.

“Urgh. If I had known Senior Palcrius was coming, I would have prepared for it.”

“Puh. Yes, of course you would have. But the loser gets no words!”

Palcrius laughed and asked why the members had been fighting.

Lee Han tensed slightly at that question.

I’m not going to get dragged into this too, am I?

From the perspective of Palcrius, who led a club with tradition behind it, it might have been hard to tolerate that upperclassmen had gotten into a brawl over who would get to work under a junior.

And to begin with, Lee Han still did not fully understand why the upperclassmen had fought over working under a junior in the first place.

“They fought over who would get to work under a junior?”

“Yes.”

“So who won?”

“You arrived before a winner was decided, Senior.”

“What a pity. Then you didn’t get to decide who gets in!”

Palcrius sounded regretful.

It would have been neat if only the winner had been allowed in.

“…Senior. Senior.”

“Puh. Ask, ask. Why?”

“Well… that is… is it really fine for the other seniors to work under me?”

“Wahaha, when mages do research, they do not go around judging assistants by age!”

At Palcrius’s words, the upperclassmen nodded as if they agreed and put on hypocritical smiles.

It was not because they were afraid of competing to gather ingredients the hard way and wanted to crawl under a junior.

No, it was simply that, like true mages, they understood very well that skill was more important than age.

“Research and this are… not quite…?”

“It’s similar! There are plenty of members working together even now!”

It was not as if Kitchen Club members always made food alone.

Just gathering ingredients often meant forming parties and going out together, so there were also quite a few cases where they cooked together too.

Sometimes, if someone was preparing a large feast, it was even customary to hire several members and start the work that way.

And from the members’ perspective, being paid steadily was often better than bleeding to gather ingredients themselves…

“Puh. But this is troublesome. No winner came out.”

“Then how about just pretending it never happened?”

Since he did not want to give orders to upperclassman members, Lee Han cautiously suggested it.

But Palcrius shook his head broadly and said,

“No! I’ve decided.”

“How?”

“Everyone here gets in!”

“……”

While Lee Han stared in horror, the upperclassmen let out sighs of relief and clapped.

The new junior was no exaggeration to call a god of food ingredients.

If someone pulled out that much food without hesitation, then if that person was not a god of food ingredients, who was?

They had all been worrying that they might get hit a few times too many and fail to get in, but it really was a judgment worthy of the leader of the club.

“As expected of Senior Palcrius!”

“How fair, just like Phoenix Tower!”

Lee Han leaned in and whispered urgently to Palcrius.

“Isn’t it a bit much for me to give orders to the seniors?”

“Hmm… no! You can do it! Wahaha!”

It was fortunate that Lee Han had seen the wrecked state of the place Palcrius had smashed up earlier.

Otherwise, Lee Han would definitely have lost his reason and attacked the upperclassman.