Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

“Senior. Senior.”

“Hm?”

The senior who had been preparing work in the meantime looked up at Lee Han’s call.

“I think something is strange. I’m a second-year, but this lecture is a third-year lecture.”

“What? Did the professor force the lecture into your schedule or something?!”

The senior asked in shock.

Lee Han did not fully understand the meaning of the question, but denied it anyway.

“That is not the case. I chose it myself. With the help of the Calendarium… Wait. Why did you ask whether it was forced into my schedule?”

“Ah. Don’t worry about it. It’s an old nonsense rumor I heard before, so I just asked in case.”

The senior waved a hand as if telling him not to mind it.

It was one of the legendary rumors about Einroguard that people heard when they enrolled.

If a student’s ability was too outstanding, then from that point on it was no longer the student choosing the lecture, but the lecture coming to find the student instead!

After hearing that rumor, the senior and the senior’s friends had worried, What if I’m so good that a professor forcibly invites me? But nothing like that had happened.

The professors of Einroguard had been colder than expected.

“……”

Not even noticing Lee Han’s expression hardening, the senior continued explaining.

“If you got help from the Calendarium, then that lecture must be the one that fits you best, right?”

“But I’m a second-year, and this is a third-year lecture.”

“It is strange. But sometimes exceptional people take one lecture from a year above them. Senior Yukbeltire did that too.”

“Is that so…”

Since the senior’s reaction seemed much milder than expected, Lee Han wondered if perhaps he had been overreacting.

“Then lectures like <Viciously Beautiful Creatures>, <Elemental Magic and Its Linkages>, and <Poison, Bone, Blood> are not especially strange either?”

When Lee Han pulled out a few lecture names from his schedule and asked, the senior hesitated.

There were far too many lectures that third-years took.

…Normally, even an outstanding genius only took one lecture from the year above, and only in a specialized field, did they not?

Another senior beside them, sharpening equipment on a whetstone with scraping sounds, cut in.

“It’s because he’s him.”

“Ah. I see. Good grief. I’m already a third-year, and I still have this kind of fixed idea.”

“……”

Repeating to himself that he must not attack his seniors, Lee Han asked again.

“So it is strange, right?”

There were still lectures remaining that Lee Han had not even mentioned just now.

No matter how he thought about it, these lecture names looked much closer to third-year than second-year.

“It is strange, but you’ll do well. Hang in there. The Calendarium must have handled it properly.”

“A mage is the master of an artifact, not its slave. What if I change the lectures now? If I put in lectures at a lower level?”

“Ah. That won’t work.”

The senior grinding equipment answered instead.

“I tried taking a second-year lecture this year, and the professor kicked me with a foot.”

“……”

The professors of Einroguard seemed indifferent, yet in certain matters they were thorough.

A student had to take lectures suitable to the student’s level, and they did not leave alone those who deliberately tried to take easier lectures.

There isn’t even a shred of freedom!

Lee Han fumed once again at Einroguard’s deception.

For a place that claimed to let students study magic freely, it did not have even a bit of freedom.

While Lee Han was getting angry, this time the seniors started asking questions. Just as Lee Han was curious, the seniors had plenty they were curious about too.

“Wardanaz. There’s something I’m curious about…”

“Ah. Yes. Please ask.”

“Why were you with Professor Verdus?”

“…?”

The question was so strange that Lee Han was flustered.

“Because it’s lecture time?”

“What? Wait. Did you perhaps come right at the start of the lecture?”

“???”

When the junior looked bewildered, the seniors kindly explained.

“You do not need to come at the start time for Professor Verdus’s lectures. Whether we are here or not, Professor Verdus does not care anyway.”

“But shouldn’t we hear the lecture content?”

“What lecture content?”

Lee Han turned around.

Certainly, there was nothing.

Come to think of it, Lee Han himself had come at the start of the lecture, and up until now he did not seem to have actually learned anything.

“You just come when you want and leave when you want.”

“You bring «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» something you need to work on, work on it, then leave. I was working somewhere else and came here too.”

The students of Einroguard were making good use of Professor Verdus’s indifference.

If the professor had no interest in the students, then the students could just study on their own.

“But still, don’t you get stuck on things?”

“You have to learn that yourself. Like this.”

Right then, one senior seemed to have hit a blockage while working, groaned, and rose from the seat.

Then the senior walked to the front and started loitering near Professor Verdus’s workbench. Naturally, in the middle of concentration, Professor Verdus did not notice.

Smack!

The senior snatched up Professor Verdus’s work and bolted out of the lecture hall like a lunatic.

Then Professor Verdus also sprang to the feet and ran after the senior.

“Stop right there, you vile, filthy thief!”

“I’ll learn from it and return it!”

Hearing the echoes coming from outside the lecture hall, the seniors nodded.

“That’s how you do it.”

“……”

Lee Han did not ask, Can’t you just ask questions? He himself already knew the answer was no.

Rather than asking questions, it would be much faster to steal Professor Verdus’s work and learn from it.

“Come on. Let’s go too.”

“Where?”

Shuffle—

The seniors crowded around Professor Verdus’s workbench and quickly copied and transcribed things.

“Ahh. So that’s how…”

“The skill really is outstanding.”

“That’s why Professor Verdus is still alive. Do you know there are assassins who came to kill Professor Verdus waiting in the cities near Einroguard? They say nobles whose gold was swindled away commissioned them.”

“Damn it. Isn’t there some way to help those people?”

Lee Han quietly followed the seniors and copied out the work.

Professor Verdus’s workbench looked like a giant pile of trash because of all the clutter, but all kinds of wisdom were hidden inside it.

From the students’ standpoint, even salvaging just a few artifact blueprints or magic circles drawn on crumpled lumps of paper was a major advance.

Before long, Professor Verdus returned after reclaiming the stolen work. The senior who had stolen it was nowhere to be seen.

Professor Verdus snorted angrily and shouted,

“There are too many thieves in this school!”

The students all sat back down at once, pretending not to know anything.

“…Where did that senior go?”

“Professor Verdus may be insane, but Professor Verdus is not cruel. That senior was probably just subdued.”

Since all Professor Verdus cared about was recovering the work, Professor Verdus did not exact extra revenge on students or send them to the punishment ward.

The missing senior had probably just taken a few hits and would recover and come back on the own.

But even after some time passed, the senior still did not return.

“That senior is not coming back.”

“Then the beating must have been a bit severe. Don’t worry about it and do your own work, junior.”

As expected of people who take Professor Verdus’s lecture. Their personalities are like the professor’s too.

Inside his head, Lee Han spat out abuse so cold it would have made the seniors’ blood run chill.

*****

Professor Verdus called Lee Han again.

A work assistant was needed.

At the sight, even the seniors who had been focused only on their own work felt puzzled.

Come to think of it, we only asked why he came early. We never actually heard why he was with Professor Verdus.

Coming early and being in the lecture hall could be explained because he did not know the peculiar nature of Professor Verdus’s lecture, but being close to Professor Verdus’s workbench was something much more unusual.

Basically, Professor Verdus was not the sort of person who kept another mage beside the workbench.

Actually, that was not especially strange. For mages, the magic they researched was normally a secret domain, and workshops and workbenches were also places where intrusion by outsiders was forbidden.

Of course, once you became a professor, it was a bit of a problem if even students could not approach…

Is it really fine to go that close?

The seniors even stopped working and stared at Professor Verdus and Lee Han with curious eyes.

Since this was the lecture <Wand Materials and Magical Amplification>, there were also a few students from the enchantment magic school present, and they took it upon themselves to provide careful commentary.

“Very strange… very strange. For Professor Verdus to call him over like that.”

“Perhaps some hands-on menial work is needed?”

“Professor Verdus does not even assign menial work.”

Professor Verdus was already insane enough, but in areas related to the own magic, Professor Verdus became even more insane.

If some trimming work or simple task that could reasonably be let slide did not meet Verdus’s own standards, Verdus simply could not tolerate it.

Naturally, Verdus also never called students over just because simple chores were needed.

“Hey. Don’t we have to match material ratios today?”

“Let’s watch first.”

The students sat divided by tower and cast fascinated looks. One of them even sent a paper bird telling a friend who had not come to the lecture yet to hurry over.

“What is being sent to the Green Pyroxene Mage Tower ends today!”

“Oh. Then…”

“Let’s do the next one!”

“……”

Lee Han stared fixedly at the soft back of Professor Verdus’s head.

“I’m taking the lecture too. Shouldn’t I be doing my own work?”

“Do this first and then do it! Anyway, once you start, you’ll finish quickly!”

“What absurd nonsense are you talking about?”

When Lee Han tried to ignore that and turn around, Professor Verdus slapped the floor, opened a hidden door, and took out special wand materials from inside and held them out.

Lee Han nodded.

“I meant that I wanted to help even without Professor saying it like that. Let us begin the next task.”

“You remember the mana emission enchantment, right?”

Its exact name was <Bivle’s Mana Emission Enchantment>.

One of the spells Professor Verdus had forcibly taught last year.

“Yes.”

Crash, bang, clatter!

“?”

When Lee Han turned his head, the seniors hurriedly set their chairs upright and gestured for him to continue.

“Do not mind us.”

“The floor is slippery because of the mana in this lecture hall. Keep going!”

Lee Han found it odd, but Professor Verdus next to him whined for him to concentrate, so he turned his gaze back to the workbench.

“You need to learn a few more spells similar to that.”

“Oh. What kind of spells?”

“Absorption, amplification, increase, acceleration, explosion, curvature, conversion…”

“Do you perhaps not know the meaning of ‘a few’?”

Lee Han grumbled, but instead of stealing Professor Verdus’s work and fleeing, sat down obediently and began learning magic.

<Bivle’s Mana Emission Enchantment> was a spell that transformed the nature of mana so that the material imbued with that mana would emit mana.

What made this spell special was that it did not cast magic on the material itself, but on the mana itself.

Applying all kinds of processes to the mana inside the artifact and amplifying it.

Compared to casting spell after spell on a material to create linked effects, casting spell after spell on the mana inside a magic circle to create effects could produce more precise results.

It was a spell fitting for Professor Verdus, who made artifacts so exact and delicate that they were almost close to madness.

Lee Han also understood well the advantages this method had, which was why he had readily agreed to learn…

Learning all of them will be impossible, but it is best to learn whenever I get the chance. Every time I master one, preparing other enchantment spells becomes much easier.

Lee Han started by learning absorption.

Fortunately, since it was the complete opposite of emission, the theory itself was not that difficult.

“Are you still not done?”

“Please wait a moment.”

“Are you still not done?”

“Just a moment.”

“Are you still not done? Are you still not done? Are you still not done?”

“Just… I’m done.”

Crash, bang, clatter!