Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

What kind of Gainando-style arithmetic is this?

There were clearly countless disciples already, and yet this thing kept insisting there were none.

There was not much difference between that and Gainando stubbornly claiming not to have eaten the chocolate Gainando had just swallowed.

“Please think about it again. Those disciples who tried to burn down the continent, or burn down Your Highness—”

The insane duplicate flicked a finger, sending a shockwave flying.

Rolling several times across the ground, Lee Han cursed inwardly.

Couldn’t you just say it instead of doing this every time?

Dealing with people from the old days was truly exhausting.

“There are limits to barbarism. Do you know nothing of manners?”

The insane duplicate looked at Lee Han with sincere contempt.

How could anyone answer royalty like that to its face?

It was the sort of vulgarity that was difficult to endure even knowing beforehand that the other party was uncivilized.

“…My apologies. I’m not very well versed in etiquette.”

Grinding his teeth, Lee Han vowed that one day, when he assassinated the Skull Principal, he would assassinate the insane duplicate too.

But for now, he had to endure it.

The other was, in practical terms, nothing more than a wand-wielding thug.

“Obviously, lowborn.”

…I think I see why Black Turtle Tower hates Blue Dragon Tower now.

Once he got back, Lee Han swore to himself that every time a Blue Dragon Tower student started talking about bloodlines or family, he would hit them once.

“Now that royalty considers it, you seem to have mistaken what a duplicate is.”

“…?”

Hearing the word duplicate come out of the insane duplicate’s mouth, Lee Han faltered.

“There are scraps that fled from this royalty. Being stupid and vulgar, you may confuse royalty with those scraps. I shall forgive it once, but never make such a mistake again. Do you understand, lowborn?”

Trying not to provoke the thing, Lee Han began gathering information by first asking whether it was permissible to ask questions.

No matter how he thought about it, the insane duplicate insisting, I am the original, and the others are the duplicates, felt bizarre.

Even so, after taking several more hits, Lee Han managed to extract the following exchange.

—The original body kept far more than you did. Doesn’t that usually make the one left with only ambition the duplicate?

—If you make butter from milk, much residue remains behind. Does that make the residue the butter? The essence is what matters.

—…Ah… yes… Then are you saying you do not count the disciples of the other duplicates?

—Yes. I understand. Please stop hitting me now.

—I only answered, so why are you hitting me aga—

Those last few hits were completely unnecessary.

Vowing to stop provoking it, Lee Han asked one last thing.

“But then… there is a mage named Antagondals, isn’t there? Is that person not a disciple?”

“That one is a servant.”

The insane duplicate glared at Lee Han with a frosty gaze.

To dare think of a lowly slave as royalty’s disciple.

If Lee Han had not been a barbaric lowborn who knew nothing of etiquette, such insolence would have deserved the harshest punishment.

“…?”

From Lee Han’s perspective, though, that was baffling.

He did not know Antagondals especially well, but he did know Antagondals was skilled enough to be regarded as a great mage even among magical criminals.

Naturally, Antagondals had to be many times the mage Lee Han was.

And yet it treated Antagondals as a servant while regarding Lee Han as disciple material.

That’s strange.

“Um… isn’t that servant better at magic than I am?”

With a disdainful gaze, the insane duplicate gave a shallow sigh, then shouted into the air.

“O fate, be cursed! Why do you refuse to grant royalty a worthy disciple and instead throw me a stupid lowborn?”

Then send me back, you son of a bitch.

Lee Han inwardly swore in disbelief.

He had not even been talking to the insane duplicate for a few hours yet, and already he was starting to miss the professors of Einroguard.

The bastard had kidnapped him and was still complaining.

Not even Professor Verdus said things like this.

Unbothered, the insane duplicate lamented its own wretched fate several more times, then placed a single caterpillar atop a finger.

In an instant, the caterpillar’s time rapidly unwound forward, and it transformed into a butterfly.

“Can this caterpillar fly, or can it not?”

“It can fly.”

“Why? It is a caterpillar.”

“It is a butterfly now.”

The insane duplicate released the butterfly into the air.

Then it halted a mouse creeping between distant rocks and asked,

“Can that mouse fly, or can it not?”

“It cannot.”

“Why not? If given time, perhaps it may grow wings.”

“Mice do not grow wings, no matter how much time passes.”

“Exactly. Lowborn. Since you know that, why ask useless questions?”

The insane duplicate struck Lee Han once more.

Enduring the pain, Lee Han thought,

So… this is about aptitude?

He could not tell exactly what the insane duplicate was thinking, but from what he could piece together, it seemed to want a disciple.

Not an ordinary disciple, but one who would complete its glory.

He did not know the exact standard, but aptitude seemed to matter more than current ability.

Honestly, he found it hard to believe a mage like Antagondals lacked aptitude…

“I understand now.”

“Hah! Astonishingly slow.”

“…What do I need to do to become that glorious disciple?”

Lee Han had now begun seriously thinking about escape.

The best outcome would be persuading this insane duplicate and getting out that way.

He had already confirmed that ordinary escape would be difficult, so persuasion actually seemed more promising.

Fortunately, insane or not, this duplicate was mad in a fairly consistent way, which meant there was at least a chance it could be talked into sending him back.

“Would learning that shield spell from earlier be enough?”

“That is something not only a disciple but even a stable hand could do.”

“……”

Apparently the stable hands of the ancient kingdoms had been formidable mages too.

“Then what do I need to learn?”

“The true teaching is not something that can be explained in such terms, lowborn. But taking your stupidity into °• N 𝑜 v l i g h t •° account, I shall spell it out for you.”

Lee Han tensed.

What kind of magic, exactly, would satisfy this insane duplicate enough to let him go?

“…We shall begin with word-of-command magic.”

“……”

Lee Han changed plans immediately.

I’m escaping no matter what.

If he stayed and learned enough magic to satisfy this insane duplicate, Lee Han might still be stuck here while all his friends graduated from Einroguard.

*****

Anglago sat with a troubled expression, thinking hard.

Should I go out for jousting practice, or should I study ahead for next week?

To pull his own weight in the club, Anglago needed to train even harder than now. The seniors were no joke either.

That Wardanaz bastard was already being talked about as a possible striker, so Anglago could not afford to fall behind.

But preparing in advance for next week’s classes was also more important than expected.

Every student who had started second year could feel it.

This was different from last year!

As if determined to prove that last year’s classes had been kind and considerate lessons for first-years, the professors were now plowing through material with brutal aggression.

If the first week was already this bad, Anglago could not even imagine what the next week or the week after that would be like.

It was so bad that even the students in White Tiger Tower had started muttering, Shouldn’t we be studying ahead for this?

Flash—

“?”

Hearing a sound from inside the backpack, Anglago tilted his head and began rummaging through it.

What is it?

The source of the sound was the paper-bundle artifact shared among the top and second-ranked students of each tower.

Thinking some interesting conversation might have started, Anglago unrolled the papers.

—Everyone. I got kidnapped by the Skull Principal’s insane duplicate. You may need to help me.

—How in the world did that happen…?!

—Where were you taken?

“!!!”

Anglago jolted in shock.

Apparently one of the eight students had been abducted by the Skull Principal’s insane duplicate.

When Wardanaz had warned them, Be careful of the Skull Principal’s insane duplicate, it had not felt all that real.

But to think one of Anglago’s friends would actually be kidnapped. The thought sent a chill down Anglago’s spine.

—So what Wardanaz said was true! I thought it would stay in the outskirts, but it kidnaps students too?! As expected of the Skull Principal’s insane duplicate. Wardanaz, what are you planning to do? How do you intend to rescue that poor bastard?

—Anglago. The one who got kidnapped is Wardanaz.

—……

Anglago froze with a stupid expression, ink dripping from the pen.

It had genuinely never occurred to Anglago that out of the eight of them, Wardanaz would be the one kidnapped.

—Th-that’s impossible! Not Tutanta or Richmond?!

—I think I have learned who you usually wish would get kidnapped. Unfortunately, it was not them.

—…Sorry to interrupt everyone having such a good time, but could you perhaps think about ways for me to escape?

—Wardanaz,evenifyouhavebeenkidnappedbytheinsaneduplicate,youmustneverlosehope.Doyouhaveanyartifactsonyouthatmightbeuseful?Anythingthatcouldsendwordoutside…

What the—?

Anglago stared, thrown by the text racing across the page at insane speed.

Who was that?

—Princess Yukbeltire. You may type more slowly.

“……”

—And a few of my artifacts were taken. I had an artifact that could call the Skull Principal, but maybe because it was a duplicate, it recognized it as its own magic immediately.

—You had an artifact that could do what to whom??

—Anglago. Is that really the important part right now?

—Anglago. Are you perhaps a spy for the insane duplicate?

—N-no… Sorry. Damn it.

—Wardanaz. Your location?

—Somewhere in a mountain range, I think, but I’m not certain.

This is bad.

Anglago’s face darkened.

Friends at Einroguard did sometimes go missing for several days at a time, but most of them returned within a week.

But in Wardanaz’s case, there was no telling when he might come back.

The moment Anglago imagined not having Wardanaz around, this semester already felt bleak.

Could they really survive a year even harder than last year without him?

Click.

With the sound of a private-room door closing, Giselle came downstairs. Anglago called out in relief.

“Moradi! Did you see!?”

“Yes. This is bad.”

“Right? If Wardanaz is gone, asking about magic is going to get a lot harder.”

“It doesn’t stop there.”

Giselle pressed fingers to the forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

“The whole second-year system is going to collapse.”

“N-no. What do you mean collapse? Because he won’t be around for exams?”

“Wardanaz was the one who secured supplies, and Wardanaz was the one exchanging them too, Alpha. On top of that, our trade with the Black Turtle Tower bastards only worked because Wardanaz mediated between us, and now Wardanaz’s gone. Without that bastard in the middle, do you think you can trust the Black Turtle Tower bastards?”

“…No. That does sound difficult…”

“If we had been acting separately from the start, that would be one thing. But after getting this deeply entangled, if the connection is cut off now, both sides are finished. We need to bring Wardanaz back.”

“H-how, though? We don’t even know where Wardanaz is. Can we really find him?”

“This isn’t about whether we can. We have to find him. Though I suppose there are a few advantages over last year. We have seniors now.”

At Giselle’s words, Anglago brightened.

That was true. They had seniors with more experience and greater ability than they did.

“Of course, if it involves getting mixed up with the Skull Principal’s insane duplicate, they won’t agree easily.”

“Then let’s trick them!”

“……”

At the sight of Anglago blurting out, without even a second’s hesitation, that they should deceive fellow knights and seniors alike, Giselle made a complicated face.

Giselle had been thinking the same thing, but the problem was how much Anglago had changed.

“Yes. If we hide the real purpose and bring them along—”

—IamcurrentlyonthewaytoseetheSkullPrincipal.IfIgetthechance,IwillabsolutelyaskfortherescueofWardanaz…

“……”

“……”

The two White Tiger Tower students looked at each other in silence.

Come to think of it, there was also the option of simply telling the Skull Principal.