Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

“Because of you! Because of you, I—!”

“Are you actually insane?! I’m going to get revenge!!”

Gainando shouted in tears, but the world of mage duels was cold. Once you lost the initiative and started getting hit, counterattacking was not easy.

Adenart summoned a chakram-shaped artifact in midair.

As expected of a mage specializing in summoning magic and enchantment magic, Adenart skillfully fused the two and connected them into an attack.

The round, blade-shaped artifact gathered mana each time it spun in the air, then used that mana at the same time to fire magic missiles.

THUD THUD THUD!

“Your vision will waver— Gah!”

Gainando, who had been trying to fire off a curse spell to buy time, was struck midway through casting and lost focus.

Dark magic sucks!

Gainando blamed the unreasonableness of dark magic, which required him to recite a long spell before counterattacking.

Summoning mages only had to summon something once, and then they could do other things!

“Hff… hff!”

Gainando, scrambling down the snow-covered slope, quickly threw himself sideways. Then the prince’s figure slipped down out of sight.

…Damn!

When Gainando vanished from her field of view, Adenart realized her mistake.

As expected of an Einroguard student, he was clearly trying to get out of sight first, buy time, and then counterattack.

But instead of retreating in fear, Adenart calmly took out a potion.

She had been a little less noticeable because there was a strange genius in the same year, but Adenart herself was originally a genius who had chosen as many as three major schools.

She was a student who had even received the question, “Are you really going to be all right??” from Professor Garcia.

As an outstanding student of the alchemy school, Adenart took out and drank potions of <Sensory Enhancement> and <Mana Amplification> that she had made herself, then summoned another chakram.

…Come!

Adenart glared ahead with the clearest and most vivid hostility she had felt since entering school.

She would absolutely bring divine punishment down on this half-brother of hers!

“…??”

But no counterattack came. Adenart wondered if it could possibly be true and checked below the slope.

Instead of preparing a counterattack with dark magic, Gainando had dug into the snow and was fleeing far into the distance.

“!”

“Just you wait! I’m getting revenge!”

“Ha! Do you think you can escape!”

Gainando, believing he had already opened up enough distance, elegantly raised his middle finger and cursed his half-sister.

At that sight, Adenart ground her teeth, determined to chase him down and finish this.

And then Lee Han arrived.

“…What are you two doing?”

“……”

“……”

*****

The fog of war always easily reversed advantage and disadvantage.

A mage who had been in an advantageous position at one moment could become disadvantaged at another, and conversely, a mage who had been disadvantaged could gain the advantage.

And Gainando, who had been beaten and chased away, suddenly became extremely advantaged.

Because Lee Han appeared in the direction he was fleeing, he was able to tell on her first.

“$#@$%$#%! ■■■■■!”

The excited Gainando began rambling on with the content of “all members of the Imperial Family are cruel and tyrannical monsters!”

Of course, he tried to say too much at once, so it was hard to understand.

—Wow! That’s a language I’ve never heard before!

“That isn’t a new language. It’s just Imperial.”

When the baby basilisk showed interest, Lee Han quickly stopped it.

Only after his excitement settled did Gainando barely manage to convey what he had been trying to say.

“So you’re saying I gave you a sandwich as a gift, and then the princess got angry and started attacking you?”

“She must have attacked me so she could eat both of them!”

“……”

Lee Han looked at Gainando with deep suspicion.

No matter how he thought about it, it felt like there was some other secret Gainando had not mentioned.

“The princess does have quite an appetite, but isn’t she not the sort of person to attack a companion to steal food?”

“Lee Han. You said it yourself! When people get hungry, you never know what they’ll do!”

“Yes… I did say that. When you said you wanted to be put in charge of the provisions storehouse…”

Lee Han spoke in a cold voice.

Those were the words he had said when Gainando asked him to put him in charge of the provisions storehouse.

“Was that when it happened? Anyway! The point is that Adenart attacked me first! Even after I shared my sandwich!”

“W-Wardanaz.”

Adenart arrived from far away, panting.

After running through the snow, she was breathing hard.

Gainando looked at her as if she were detestable and whispered.

“She’s pretending to be exhausted! Don’t be fooled!”

“There… there is a reason for this.”

“She’s going to say she was hungry! She’s going to say she was really, really hungry! You can’t be fooled!”

“…Gainando. Step away for a moment.”

To hear Adenart out, Lee Han pushed Gainando away.

After barely catching her breath, Adenart explained as dignifiedly as possible why she had attacked her half-brother.

But Adenart was mistaken about one thing.

Some facts did not become dignified, no matter how dignifiedly one said them.

“…Ah. So you were so angry over the fact that the sandwiches had been switched that you attacked Gainando?”

“That is correct! Wardanaz.”

Adenart thought Lee Han had understood and shouted in a delighted voice.

—Um… is that person a glutton?

“She certainly tends that way.”

—Compared to that person over there?

“I think the two are about the same.”

“??”

Seeing Lee Han converse with his sleeve in an incomprehensible language, Adenart tilted her head.

Was he perhaps cursing her half-brother?

*****

The two barely managed to reconcile.

“……”

“Hmph.”

“It’s nice to see you make peace. Don’t attack each other, and if one of you is in danger of dying, help with noble dignity. Just do that much. I’m not even hoping for more.”

Lee Han was a realistic person.

As it was, they had to explore an indeterminate dimension, so there was no time to dramatically improve the two’s relationship too.

It’s impossible even at Einroguard.

“There were a few disturbances, but the fact that the three of us gathered like this can be called luck. Let’s move to the central area as quickly as possible.”

“Lee Han. When and how are we resting and eating?”

“Wardanaz. Did you witness any beings from another dimension on your way here?”

Gainando and Adenart each asked the question they considered important.

And Gainando quickly changed his words.

“Actually, I was about to ask about beings from another dimension too!”

“……”

While Gainando’s half-sister sent him an extremely contemptuous look, Lee Han separated the two and spoke.

“I haven’t encountered any monsters on the way yet. There’s no way there aren’t any that can sense the presence of outside intruders, so don’t let your guard down.”

The established residents of a dimension usually did not like intruders coming in from outside.

Those intruders naturally included mages, and these active attackers were one of the main causes that raised the difficulty of exploring other dimensions.

—Master. You met spirits, remember?

“……”

—Master? Can’t you hear me? On the way here, we met a few frost spirits! They saw you and ran away!

Wanting to help Lee Han, the baby basilisk chattered away diligently.

Lee Han smiled and pressed down firmly on his sleeve. The baby basilisk, its mouth clamped shut, squirmed without understanding why.

“…Lee Han. Didn’t the basilisk just make a sound?”

“It says it’s hungry. Ha ha.”

“What a total glutton!”

Gainando mocked the baby basilisk.

How could it have such a huge appetite?

—Di… mmph… mmmph!

The baby basilisk tried to shoot back with furious hissing, but it did not go well.

“Wardanaz?”

“Yes?”

“There is a spirit over there.”

“Did you perhaps see wrong? There’s no way there would still be a spirit that hasn’t run away…”

Lee Han casually let the truth slip and turned his head in the direction Adenart pointed.

Surprisingly, several frost spirits shaped like hedgehogs were playing up on the slope.

“Could they perhaps be special spirits that do not run away even when they see me?”

“Th-that, I’m not sure either…”

Faced with a difficult question, Adenart ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) floundered, not knowing how to answer.

Honestly, it did not seem likely…

—Master. There are already so many beings that serve you, aren’t there? Why do you need spirits like that?

The baby basilisk tilted its head in puzzlement.

Starting with the baby basilisk itself, had powerful and evil beings like the griffin and Perkuntra not contracted with Lee Han?

“…Do you not feel anything strange as you say that?”

—???

The baby basilisk did not realize what was strange.

Was it not good for contracted summons to be strong and evil?

“For now, I would like to negotiate with those spirits and ask for directions.”

“That is a good method, Princess. I will cheer you on.”

“…Ah, yes. I will go…”

Neither Lee Han nor Gainando was a mage who could win spirits’ affection.

Feeling needlessly apologetic about it toward Lee Han alone, Adenart moved forward.

“Lee Han.”

“?”

“This is the first time I’ve seen ice that huge.”

While waiting for Adenart, Gainando looked around.

Because he had been beaten by Adenart right after arriving earlier, he had not even gotten to look properly.

“That’s an ice shelf. If you go around cold-aspect dimensions, you’ll probably see them often.”

Lee Han explained the terrain of the vast ice plain.

Mages who wandered other dimensions needed to grow accustomed to all sorts of natural geography like this too.

“What’s that crack over there?”

“Probably a crevasse.”

“Then what’s that huge lump?”

“That’s the head of a Frost Giant…”

Lee Han stopped in the middle of his explanation.

Something was strange.

“Wardanaz. They say Frost Giants appear here. It would be best to move east.”

Adenart, who had just finished negotiating and returned, explained.

When the two only stared in another direction instead of reacting, Adenart looked puzzled and turned her gaze.

“What is it…?!”

A Frost Giant was crawling up from beneath the glacier. Each time it drove its massive fingers into the glacier, the ice cracked and split.

THUD!

At last, the Frost Giant landed fully on top of the glacier.

Its size was similar to the giant race that appeared in the Einroguard mountain range, but in its eyes flashed a cunning and intelligence that could not be seen in those giants.

And hostility as well.

—Intruders?

“…We are mages.”

Lee Han carefully spoke while restraining his friends, who were about to flee at once.

Beings of other dimensions were relatively hostile, but running away or attacking without even trying to talk first could instead be like pouring oil on a fire.

If negotiation succeeded, it would not only reduce the danger but also be a great help in exploring the dimension.

What can I offer this opponent? Think. Frost Giants are…

—Wait. That is…?

The Frost Giant trailed off while pointing at the end of Lee Han’s wand.

Embedded there was the blue gemstone he had previously received from the Frost Giant King.

Ah!

Lee Han remembered a way to persuade the Frost Giant and shouted.

“That’s right. This is a gem I received from the Frost Giant King!”

—Then you are that honorable challenger! I have heard rumors of you!

“Oh my! What an incredible coincidence!”

At the other side’s reaction, Lee Han acted even more amazed and shouted.

“To think I would meet someone who knows of that matter here. It seems fate is watching over us. Since this is an opportunity, would you perhaps like to exchange what each of us needs?”

—Oh, there is something I need!

“What would that be?”

—Honor!

“…How would you gain that…?”

—The honor of defeating the honorable challenger acknowledged by the king!

Lee Han immediately gestured. His friends quickly ran.