Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Jowrin looked at Lee Han triumphantly, her eyes clearly saying, See? I was right!

Lee Han wanted to explain that she wasn’t, but the senior standing in front of him took priority.

“Senior. What exactly is the meaning of this?”

“?”

Despite her junior’s firm protest, Princess Yukbeltire looked genuinely puzzled.

What did he mean, what is the meaning of this?

“I told you already. It’s the 【Mathematical Magic and Secret Geometry】 exam.”

“…No. That’s not what I meant. Why do I have to take the exam first in the first place?”

At Lee Han’s objection, Yukveltire frowned faintly.

She truly couldn’t understand why her junior was wasting time asking such pointless questions.

“I still don’t understand what you mean, but I’ll explain.”

“For the record, I’m not the kind of person who enjoys taking exams early.”

“What?”

“No… never mind.”

Seeing that she genuinely didn’t understand, Lee Han hurriedly shut his mouth.

Didn’t she come because of those rumors about me taking exams early?

Apparently not. Unlike Jowrin, she didn’t seem to have any strange misconceptions.

Yukveltire picked up one of the thick stacks of paper piled on the table and flipped through it. Written across the top was an ominous title:

【Proof of the Mana Emission Space Theorem Through the Mana Emission Plane Theorem】

Lee Han suddenly felt uneasy.

…Wasn’t this different from what we learned last time?

“Junior of House Wardanaz. Last year, during Professor Knighton’s lecture, you took a separate exam by yourself.”

“Yes.”

The memory immediately soured his expression.

Who could have guessed that Professor Alpen — whom he’d trusted simply because he came from outside Einroguard — would turn out to be capable of such madness?

Even now, thinking about it left him with a lingering sense of betrayal.

“Normally, when an exam contains different material, it’s proper to administer it separately. The required time is different, and the materials needed are different as well.”

“…??”

As the conversation drifted somewhere deeply concerning, Lee Han began to panic.

“A different exam? What do you mean by that? Don’t tell me I’m the only one taking a separate exam again this time too…”

Yukveltire silently stared at him.

From that cold expression alone, Lee Han understood the answer.

“…I’m the only one?!”

“That’s correct. Now take out 【Bivle’s Compass】.”

Yukveltire gestured calmly, assuming he now understood.

Naturally, Lee Han understood absolutely nothing.

“Senior, you don’t have the authority to make that decision on your own! I’ll take the exam designated by the Professor!”

No matter how much authority Yukveltire had as Professor Alpen’s assistant, this crossed the line.

She couldn’t just arbitrarily decide that he would take an entirely different exam.

At her junior’s fierce protest, Yukveltire tilted her head slightly.

“This is the exam Professor Knighton designated for you, Junior of House Wardanaz… What exactly are you talking about?”

“…”

Professor Alpen, despite being an Imperial bureaucrat through and through, was astonishingly diligent.

Even while rushing off to the Capital to assist the Skull Principal, he hadn’t forgotten about the disciple attending his lectures.

Deeply moved by such special treatment, Lee Han silently sat down.

“Shall we begin the exam?”

“Yes…”

***

Three hours later.

“Perfect score.”

Yukveltire said nothing more. She gathered the papers, turned around, and left.

Lee Han slumped back in his chair, his face filled with exhaustion, emptiness, and simmering resentment.

He was too tired to even curse the Professor anymore.

Jowrin stared at him worriedly.

Lee Han. Jowrin could have solved it for you…

“…No. No matter what, that wouldn’t be right.”

Tempted for a brief moment, Lee Han quickly regained his senses.

Einroguard’s exams might be a brutal survival-of-the-fittest arena where almost anything was acceptable as long as you weren’t caught, but having a member of the Imperial Family take the exam in his place crossed a line.

Lee Han still possessed at least a shred of conscience.

“Ah. I nearly forgot.”

Yukveltire, who had already left the common room, opened the door and stepped back inside.

Lee Han looked at her in confusion.

“Did you forget something?”

“Wait… ah. Here it is.”

Yukveltire unfolded a small note and read from it in a flat voice.

“You did well on the exam. Impressive, junior.”

Jowrin stared at Yukveltire in disbelief.

Who in the world praised someone like that?

Lee Han, however, wasn’t bothered at all.

Ordinarily, yes, it might sound rude. But if you imagined the speaker was Professor Verdus, the entire feeling changed.

Honestly, the fact that Professor Verdus had gone so far as to write it down and send someone to deliver it was practically heartwarming.

“Thank you, Senior. Please tell Senior Diret I’m very grateful as well.”

“Diret? Why? Diret wasn’t involved in this exam.”

“Haha. No reason. Here, take this with you. It’ll help while studying.”

Lee Han filled a bottle with coffee mixed with melted chocolate, packed several snacks into a basket, and handed them over.

After Yukveltire accepted them and left, Jowrin asked with visible confusion.

Lee Han. Jowrin has a question.

“What is it?”

Why is Lee Han taking care of Yukveltire when she’s a much older senior? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

“…!”

Lee Han was startled by the unexpectedly sharp question.

At this rate, if Jowrin spent just a few more months at Einroguard, she might genuinely become the next Emperor.

“That’s…”

That’s?

“It’s one of Einroguard’s great mysteries. No one knows the answer.”

???

Jowrin narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“Anyway, I need to study. I’ll give you another book, so read that for now.”

Jowrin felt fairly certain Lee Han was avoiding the question, but the fairy-tale book he handed her was interesting enough that she let it slide.

The tale of the great dragon Azirmo never grew boring, no matter how many times she reread it.

Dragons were few in number to begin with, and most possessed extremely isolationist personalities. As a result, surprisingly few dragons had left their names in history.

Among them, Azirmo — who had succeeded in doing exactly that — was truly exceptional.

Jowrin silently vowed that she too would become a great dragon like Azirmo and leave her name in history.

That wicked Osyu kept spreading malicious lies about how dragons all became lazy once they grew older, but…

Thud—

Lee Han. Jowrin finished reading.

“Ah, give me a moment. Let me finish writing this, then I’ll find you another book.”

Jowrin wants something interesting!

“Gainando collected part of the Toberiz series. He said he got his hands on some rare out-of-print editions from the library. I’ll lend you those.”

Wow!

Jowrin brightened immediately and crawled over to look at what Lee Han was writing.

…Senior Ileg, I received your letter. Thank you sincerely for allowing me to pass the music magic exam. It was a tremendous help…

Mm. As expected, Lee Han taking the midterms first really is normal.

Jowrin nodded to herself.

Lee Han kept denying it for some strange reason — she still didn’t understand why — but objectively speaking, the evidence was overwhelming.

Wasn’t he literally discussing exam matters with the senior teaching the lecture right now?

…Regarding your question about what material should be included on the music magic exam, I believe the current level of difficulty is far too low…

???

Jowrin’s eyes widened.

Sensing her gaze, Lee Han turned his head.

“What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”

Uh… Lee Han… what… what kind of letter is that?

Startled, Jowrin forgot her usual formal speech.

If she hadn’t misread it, Lee Han was clearly helping determine exam content.

Not taking exams.

Designing them.

What in the world was happening here?

“Ah. Your Majesty probably doesn’t know. Senior Ileg is a fifth-year from Phoenix Tower.”

Lee Han explained about the bespectacled bear beastkin senior — someone incredibly powerful, deeply obsessed with books, and passionate enough about music magic to personally establish and teach lectures on the subject.

“I happened to achieve some decent results in music magic, so Senior Ileg let me pass the exam as well.”

Yes. Jowrin understood that part.

But wasn’t he helping create the exam itself?

“Haha. Nothing like that. Senior Ileg decides the exam content. I’m only giving my opinion because he asked.”

Lee Han laughed lightly, as though Jowrin were imagining something ridiculous.

But no matter how she looked at it, the situation still felt absurd.

Fine. Let’s say taking exams early was somehow normal.

Let’s even say asking a second-year student for input on exam content was acceptable — though that alone was difficult to accept.

…But why was Lee Han replying with such terrifying seriousness?

Jo-Jowrin is confused… Isn’t this supposed to be a professor’s job?

“Your Majesty. By fifth year, students are basically doing half the work of professors anyway.”

Since there were no fifth-years nearby to hear him, Lee Han casually said something outrageously disrespectful.

I’m talking about Lee Han, not the fifth-years!

“Your Majesty. This is only advice. Preparing and administering the actual exam is an entirely different matter.”

…Is Jowrin the strange one here?

Jowrin felt faintly dizzy.

She decided she would ask His Imperial Majesty whether this was actually normal once she returned to the Capital.

For now, though, she reluctantly ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) nodded.

I understand… But Lee Han still seems far too serious about this. Why does the difficulty need to be increased?

“Ah. That part is unavoidable. Music magic belongs to an exceptionally difficult category of magic — difficult enough that it nearly disappeared entirely at one point. On top of that, it’s heavily dependent on individual aptitude. To properly enter a field like this, we have no choice but to set high standards, even if they seem harsh. Otherwise, people only waste time.”

When Ileg first established the music magic lectures, he had prepared so thoroughly that he even built a dedicated magic tower for them.

That alone showed how difficult the field was.

The reason he distributed individual scores and assigned them as year-long goals was similar.

Lee Han’s quill moved smoothly across the page.

…The results produced from the scores you distributed last time are extremely interesting. While imbuing mana directly into words or sound itself remains difficult, the appearance of exceptional cases influenced by emotional immersion is highly promising. I believe students should be capable of performing their assigned scores with at least some degree of magical effect by the time of the exam. If they practice with those scores for an entire year and still produce no meaningful results, wouldn’t that be genuinely unfortunate? For the sake of the other seniors as well, I believe Senior Ileg should proceed strictly…

Although Lee Han himself still hadn’t mastered the 【Escape from Einroguard】 score he’d received before, he could already perform certain forms of music magic.

Which meant he could confidently insist that the standards should be raised — even if the other seniors suffered for it.

After writing continuously for quite some time, Lee Han finally paused.

…Am I being a little too harsh?

Now that he thought about it, the seniors were probably juggling plenty of other lectures too. They might not realistically have enough time to devote themselves entirely to music magic.

Maybe it would be better to ease the standards slightly—

No. This is correct. It’s for the seniors’ own good.

Firmly suppressing the fleeting hesitation, Lee Han finished the letter.

Watching from beside him, Jowrin silently came to a realization.

When it came to magic, Lee Han was strangely strict with other mages.

Just like Osyu.