Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

“But will the Principal actually rescue him?”

Anglago asked with an anxious look on his face.

To begin with, the Skull Principal was about as far from a warm educator as it was possible to get.

Then again, most of the professors at Einroguard were pretty far from warm educators.

There had already been a few cases of students going missing, and even then, the Skull Principal had never stepped in.

—You got lost on your own, so find your own way back!

“…Still, maybe this time will be a little different, since it’s because of him.”

Giselle answered cautiously.

Honestly, even Giselle wasn’t sure.

Because it was the Skull Principal, it felt entirely possible that he would refuse to help. But Wardanaz was still his prized disciple, so maybe he might treat him a little differently. And this was something caused by one of his own duplicates…

—It does not seem likely that the Principal will help Lord Wardanaz…

—I agree. It seems more likely that the world will burn to ashes than that the Principal will help Lord Wardanaz.

Why are the priests the most negative ones here?

Irritated, Giselle lowered the sheet of paper.

It wasn’t as if nobody else was capable of thinking negatively. It was just that this was exactly the time when they needed to force themselves to think positively.

When she glanced to the side, Anglago already looked like the world had ended.

“Right? The Principal isn’t going to help, is he?”

“Wait a little.”

“But…”

Giselle drew her sword. Anglago immediately came to his senses.

“We should wait!”

“Right.”

How much time had passed?

Maybe because she was so worked up, Princess Yukbeltire’s handwriting came through trembling.

—The Principal says he understands!!!!

“!!!!”

“Really…?! Wait.”

Giselle felt a sense of unease. Wardanaz, trapped as he was, must have felt the same thing, because he asked the question Giselle had been about to ask first.

—Princess Yukbeltire, was that all he said?

—Pardon?

—I mean, did he say anything about when or how he would rescue me?

—…No…

Adenart must have caught the same unease, because she couldn’t continue writing either.

The students reading all arrived at the same thought at once.

…Is he really going to rescue him?

They would have had their doubts even if he had jumped up the instant he heard and shouted, Let’s go save him! Follow me! But all he had said was Understood.

—Anyone going to see the professors?

—I shall go with you.

—It seems safer to go see the professors instead.

—I’llcometoo…

The students accepted reality with remarkable speed.

Instead of trusting the Skull Principal, it seemed faster to ask the other professors for help.

*****

“But why professors, plural?”

“……”

At Anglago’s question, the others fell silent.

Now that they thought about it, aside from Professor Garcia, there was no one in particular they could really go to.

“What about Professor Verdus?”

—Kids. Not that I’m in any position to say this ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) after getting caught, but Professor Verdus is really not the answer.

Lee Han answered that one instantly.

“Professor Bagreg?”

—Kids. Again, not that I’m in any position to say this after getting caught, but you might end up getting attacked yourselves.

“Hey. Stop asking Wardanaz.”

Giselle shot Anglago a savage glare.

For a while now, he had kept asking the one who’d been kidnapped for escape strategies one by one.

“B-but Wardanaz knows the professors better than anyone.”

“Professor Garcia will explain things well enough to the others.”

Tiltiling spoke in a voice full of trust.

Given Professor Garcia’s personality, she would definitely know how to speak to the professors most likely to help.

“Professor Garcia looked extremely shocked. I wonder if she’s all right.”

“She’ll be fine. If it’s Professor Garcia, she could probably punch an insane duplicate to death.”

“……”

The others inwardly tilted their heads at Anglago’s baseless faith, but nobody said anything.

What they needed right now was hope, however flimsy.

“Then let’s go to the upperclassmen.”

“Do you think we can persuade them?”

“We’ll trick them. Don’t mention the insane duplicate. Just say he disappeared somewhere in the mountains.”

Several of the others reacted negatively to Giselle’s proposal.

“I think the story needs a little more flesh on it.”

“If we just say he disappeared, it sounds a bit awkward. What if we say he went in to tame a new animal and vanished?”

“That should work on the Jousting Club seniors.”

Even the priests put their heads together and started planning how exactly should we lie? Anglago clicked his tongue in amazement.

“Wow. I never knew even the priests could be that good at lying.”

WHACK!

“Wh-why did you hit me, Moradi?!”

*****

The insane duplicate attacked Lee Han every time he cast any spell below the third-circle, then lamented,

“O fate, accursed—”

“Your Highness. But don’t you need to practice these kinds of spells too if you want to learn higher-level magic?”

The old royal ambition left behind by some long-dead prince looked at Lee Han with utter contempt.

“Those petty little spells should have been thrown away within two or three years of starting magic.”

“I only learned them a year or two ago— Ghk.”

After striking the disciple who dared answer back, the insane duplicate began to explain.

The low-rank elemental spells Lee Han was currently casting, along with his enchantment, transformation, divination, and summoning magic and the rest, were, in the insane duplicate’s eyes, absurdly beginner-level spells.

That sort of magic was something you used to boil water or start fires, not something you cast in front of your master to demonstrate accomplishment.

Of all the spells this lowborn creature had shown, the only one remotely tolerable was the water-orb spell.

“Then are you telling me to practice fourth-circle spells?”

Another attack.

Lee Han went flying backward.

“…Fifth-circle?”

The insane duplicate started to attack again, then stopped with a sigh.

Lee Han couldn’t read the other’s mind, but he could feel that the other was cursing fate inside.

Probably something like, How did I end up with an idiot like this?

“Fine. Fifth-circle. We’ll compromise at fifth-circle, lowborn creature.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Then cast one.”

“…I haven’t learned any.”

Instead of attacking, the insane duplicate shuddered at the disciple’s horrifying stupidity.

Then it said,

“A shield spell.”

“?”

“Create the shield spell I mentioned before so that you can explain it to this prince.”

The insane duplicate’s voice carried the unmistakable exhaustion of someone saying, I’ll compromise this much and no further.

From Lee Han’s point of view, of course, it was nonsense.

What did it matter whether the other was disappointed or not? How was he supposed to do something he had never done before?

This was basically the same as telling him to create an entirely new spell…

“I’ve never done it.”

“Then do it now.”

With those words, the insane duplicate blasted Lee Han backward. Solid bedrock split open like a maw and swallowed him.

Then a workshop hidden inside the rocky mountain revealed itself.

“!”

Aside from being a bit old-fashioned, it looked broadly similar to the magic workshops at Einroguard.

There were all kinds of reagents and grimoires…

Other than the lack of an exit, it’s very similar.

“I’ll give you one day.”

Lee Han did not bother asking the insane duplicate, as it vanished beyond the wall, questions like What happens if I fail?

He could already guess.

Let’s try to figure out how that bastard thinks.

Sitting down in a chair, Lee Han sank into thought.

No matter how insane the other side was, grasping how it thought was still important.

What’s the connection between telling me to learn fifth-circle magic and then telling me to create a shield spell?

Creating magic sounded grand, but if you approached it simply, it could be made simple enough.

If Lee Han took the spell <Fire Generation> right now and reconstructed it in his own original incantation, motions, and mana flow, he could slap a name like <Wardanaz’s Fire Generation> on it if he wanted.

But that kind of spell development meant nothing.

A spell like <Fire Generation> had been refined over a long history. It was already nearly perfect in efficiency.

If you forced yourself to tamper with it for no reason, all you would get was a spell slower than the original and more wasteful of mana.

For it to have any value at all, it needed to improve on the existing spell in at least one respect.

Maybe it specified a form change. Maybe it dug more deeply into the nature of flame…

The shield spell Lee Han had unconsciously pieced together was one he had cast to block the insane duplicate’s attacks.

If he listed its characteristics…

It’s telekinesis-based. The casting speed is extremely fast. Incantationless? I cast it without an incantation? Can people really do anything when they’re on the verge of death?

As he organized his thoughts, Lee Han suddenly remembered Professor Voladi’s pet theory and felt a chill go through him.

No. You can’t turn a freak accident into a general educational doctrine.

He returned to the main point.

Will systematizing and constructing this shield spell help me learn fifth-circle magic?

That was the only possibility he could think of.

If not that, then why bring up fifth-circle magic and then make such a fuss about having him create a shield spell?

—juNior areyOu okaY???

“?”

Lee Han had been sketching out the telekinesis spell formulas and mana structures he had learned, trying to fit them into a shield form, when Diret’s sudden message startled him.

He had told his friends, but he hadn’t told Diret.

The last thing he wanted was to burden a fifth-year already living through a life full of brutal trials.

—What’s going on?

—That’s what I should be asking! Where are you?!

—In the Blue Dragon Tower dormitory.

—Junior, do you have a death wish???

—…I was kidnapped by the insane duplicate.

—Exactly! Rumors are flying through the clubs!

Ah.

Lee Han realized what had happened.

Apparently, his friends had gone around the clubs asking for help.

—The Jousting Club says you disappeared while trying to tame a new animal, the Kitchen Club says you disappeared trying to catch a mountain-range-destroying sheep, the Library Club says you disappeared while searching for a sleeping secretary hidden somewhere in the mountains, and the Stonemason Club—

—My friends seem to have lied. Moradi probably came up with it.

Lee Han assumed there was only one person who could have devised lies like that.

—Good strategy. So where are you?

—I’m not sure myself. It’s a workshop inside a rocky mountain, and I doubt tracking me will be easy. This insane duplicate isn’t an ordinary mage.

—Yeah. Got it.

—…Senior, you’re not writing an anonymous report, are you?

Far away in the main building, Diret jolted in surprise.

How did he know?!

—An anonymous report is a bit… You might get hurt for no reason, Senior.

—Is that really what matters right now?!

—No. The Principal also said he’d come look for me.

—And you believe that??

That’s a painful spot to hit.

Truthfully, even Lee Han had his doubts about whether the Skull Principal would really come help.

—Leaving that aside, if it’s the Principal’s duplicate, I doubt an anonymous report would solve anything easily.

—So what? You’re planning to stay trapped there forever?

—Absolutely not. For now, I’m going to endure it, wait, and look for an opening to escape.

“……”

Diret slowly let out a long breath and forced down the anger.

To be fair, Lee Han wasn’t wrong.

Diret had seen firsthand the magic left behind by the Skull Principal’s insane duplicate, and had felt with his entire body just how extraordinary a mage the thing was.

If a mage like that seriously intended to hide, finding it would not be easy. It might look ordinary on the surface, but inside there would be dozens of secret arts and hidden techniques layered together.

In the end, the most likely and fastest path was for the junior trapped inside to find an opening personally, break out, and send a call for rescue.

The fact that this is the best plan we’ve got…!

Diret clutched the quill and lamented anew that magic was a useless, worthless craft incapable of doing anything at all.

—All right. Do you have a plan for finding an opening?

—Yes. For now, I’m going to do what it says, create a new spell, and try learning a few fifth-circle spells too. Then I’ll wait for the moment it’s satisfied and lets its guard down.

“……”

Diret covered the face with both hands and let out a groan full of pain.