Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 1079

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1079

 

‘That’s too harsh.’

 

The cruel battle mage’s heart was slightly wounded.

 

Of course, people were buying poisons and curses they normally wouldn’t have purchased because of Lee Han, but wasn’t that just how business worked?

 

If they hadn’t bought poisons and curses here, they would have been purchasing useless things elsewhere.

 

“But Senior. Who is that dwarf senior?”

 

“Dirimpa? Ah. You wouldn’t have had a chance to meet her. She usually spends most of her time underground.”

 

“I see.”

 

Lee Han understood what that meant.

 

While there were active dwarves who enjoyed drinking, dancing, and adventures outside (mainly Eastern Dwarves like Professor Lightningstep), there were also dwarves who stayed inside, absorbed in mining and obsessed with minerals (Senior Jarun from the Gangsulgudu family, a Western Dwarf, was a good example).

 

Dirimpa was definitely a dwarf from the Western Region.

 

“The Dark Magic School shouldn’t need that many minerals or gems, so what’s her main major that she stays underground?”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

Diret tilted her head.

 

Minerals or gems?

 

“Uh… staying underground… isn’t it to save time coming out to look for minerals or gems?”

 

“No. She’s looking for buried bones.”

 

“…”

 

When Stedal Nago, or rather Lee Han’s expression became slightly subtle, Diret hurriedly explained.

 

She couldn’t stand to see her junior’s honor tarnished.

 

“Junior. For reference, finding bones buried underground at Einroguard and using them for dark magic is completely legal.”

 

“I don’t think it’s a matter of Imperial law…”

 

A mage who constantly searched for gems underground still had a relatively decent image, but a mage who constantly wandered around underground looking for usable bones was a bit…

 

Was this why the Dark Magic School was unpopular?

 

“Dirimpa does it for purely academic reasons.”

 

Worried that her junior, who was like a younger sister, might be misunderstood as an evil necromancer, Diret’s explanation grew longer.

 

“And there are so many rare ancient creature bones deposited underground at Einroguard. Just leaving them alone would be a magical loss too.”

 

Though it was still terrifying regardless of understanding, Lee Han decided to pretend he understood.

 

He felt sorry seeing his respected senior trying so hard to explain.

 

“I understand. Indeed. I’m ashamed of having such prejudices.”

 

“That’s a relief. Talk to Dirimpa sometime later. She sometimes just gives away good gems.”

 

“!”

 

Could she be a good person?

 

Lee Han couldn’t believe it. To think such a person existed in the world.

 

“She just gives them away? Even so, why would she do that?”

 

“Well, um, you see.”

 

Diret hesitated.

 

She could clearly predict how her junior would react if she said this.

 

“…Dirimpa is very interested in bones and not interested in gems, so when she finds them underground, she sometimes just throws them away due to space constraints. So if you’re lucky, you can get them before she throws them away…”

 

‘She’s crazy. I should avoid associating with her.’

 

Lee Han made a cold assessment.

 

Why was someone who should be in the Enchantment School in the Dark Magic School instead?

 

* * *

 

The commission work was finished.

 

The Dark Magic School students checked the reserved amounts and teared up.

 

“Sob sob. I can buy a new chimera corpse in the second semester.”

 

“The 2nd floor of the Dark Tower is leaking water, shouldn’t we repair that first?”

 

“…”

 

Diret felt her heart breaking at the sight.

 

‘I’m sorry…!’

 

While her juniors were living like this, she as a senior was only researching her own magic.

 

Even Professor Verdus wouldn’t do that.

 

“Senior. At Einroguard, everyone takes care of their own business. You’re not thinking something strange like ‘I’m inferior to Professor Verdus,’ are you?”

 

“…Do you use mind reading?”

 

Diret was slightly surprised by her junior’s sharp observation.

 

Come to think of it, wasn’t this junior also the top student in the Illusion Magic School?

 

“I’m not at that level yet.”

 

‘Yet?’

 

“And from what I heard earlier, when Senior Dirimpa finds gems, she spits on them and throws them on the ground, so strictly speaking, it’s that senior’s fault. Hmph.”

 

“…I never said she spits on them…!”

 

Diret shuddered at the malicious description.

 

‘Should I not have told him?’

 

Given her junior’s personality, a mage who threw away gems for lack of space would likely seem more heinous than a mage criminal.

 

She had told him in advance since he would find out eventually anyway…

 

“Ah. Senior. What were you talking about?”

 

Dirimpa happened to come looking for them. Diret sent her junior a look that said ‘don’t say anything unnecessary’ and explained.

 

“We were talking about the commission.”

 

“I was asking about curses to defeat an evil mage criminal.”

 

“…”

 

Diret looked back with eyes that said ‘I just told you not to say unnecessary things.’

 

Lee Han felt slightly wronged.

 

Wasn’t this much considered necessary?

 

“I see. But wouldn’t it be difficult to subdue a mage criminal with curses? No wait. If it’s you, Senior, you must have a method.”

 

Originally, when dealing with fellow mages, curses were difficult to use as main offensive means.

 

Since they were most easily blocked by magic resistance, there were many countermeasures.

 

But Dirimpa trusted Diret.

 

Surely this genius of the Dark Magic School must have found some secret method to bypass such conventional wisdom.

 

‘There’s no such thing…’

 

Diret was flustered.

 

She wasn’t even a battle mage to begin with, so how could she have devised such methods?

 

The dwarven mage with shoulder-length red bob hair looked around slightly.

 

She seemed to have something she wanted to say.

 

“Dirimpa. If you have something to say, go ahead. Ste… Mr. Stedal here is tight-lipped.”

 

“Yes. I understand. Actually, I heard a story about demons. There’s supposedly one demon summoned to the surface without a contract.”

 

“!”

 

Not only Diret’s but even Lee Han’s eyes lit up.

 

A demon?

 

It was easy to forget since they often appeared as worthless slaves at Einroguard or certain family territories, but demons were fundamentally one of the Empire’s greatest threats.

 

Beings that crossed over from other dimensions to corrupt and torment the souls of mortals.

 

No matter how plausible a shell they used, they were ultimately existences close to natural disasters.

 

But separate from that, it was hard for mages to deny the usefulness of demons.

 

Secrets from other dimensions that had continued since ancient times.

 

Demons possessed knowledge of countless high magics and mysteries.

 

And separate from that, demons were excellent summoned creatures just as labor force. Among the summoned creatures that could be contracted from dimensions, few races were as capable as demons.

 

“If it’s a demon…”

 

“As the Dark Magic School of Einroguard, this is an opportunity we can’t miss. We must catch the demon and put it to work.”

 

“??”

 

Dirimpa was flustered by the other person’s rough way of speaking.

 

Apart from the fierce attitude, just looking at what he was saying, he seemed like someone who simply knew a lot about the Black Magic Academy.

 

“Are you perhaps a friend of the professor?”

 

“No. No. Don’t worry about it.”

 

Diret gave his junior’s heel a light kick with an invisible motion.

 

Cut it out!

 

‘Ugh.’

 

“It’s certainly as Nago said. It would be nice to have a useful demon. The demon I summoned last time went back after the contract ended.”

 

There were two main ways to control demons.

 

One was to summon them directly from another dimension through a strict magical contract.

 

Experienced and evil mages could easily trick and exploit demons in this process, but not just anyone could do it.

 

The other was to subdue and subjugate demons that had descended to the continent.

 

Unlike the former, this method had far fewer restrictions and allowed for more convenient exploitation.

 

“But if it’s a mid-level or lower demon, it’s not really that necessary. They can’t do much…”

 

“They said it’s higher than that.”

 

“What?”

 

Diret’s eyes widened slightly.

 

The demon his junior was talking about was more powerful than expected.

 

“If such a demon is wandering around, shouldn’t we report it to the knights?”

 

“It’s not exactly wandering around, they said.”

 

Dirimpa explained the story he heard from the noble he met in the hall.

 

-B-Black Magic Academy students. Could I perhaps consult with you about a demon for a moment…?

 

-??

 

-You see, I… bought an expensive ancient artifact… at a secret auction…

 

It was common for demons to hide in ancient artifacts.

 

There were few prey that demons liked more than people blinded by the prospect of striking it rich.

 

But there was one thing the demon hadn’t anticipated: as time passed, people’s response levels had also improved.

 

The noble mansions of the Empire were filled with protective magic and barrier spells cast by mages.

 

Especially nobles who frequently bought ancient artifacts would steadily install anti-demon magic.

 

That preparation saved the noble. Instead of the demon released from the artifact escaping outside the manor, it became trapped in the mirrors inside the manor.

 

Though it took a hit, the demon didn’t give up and continued to appear from mirror to mirror, trying to persuade its target.

 

-Don’t you want power? Hm?

 

-I said I don’t want it! What kind of power would someone working as an Imperial administrator need!

 

-Don’t you want authority? Hm?

 

-I’m retiring next year!

 

-Wealth? Don’t you want to expand this manor dozens of times? Youth? Revenge? Release me and make a formal contract!

 

“Wow. He handled it better than expected…”

 

Diret was slightly surprised.

 

Perhaps because he worked as an administrator, he was more thorough than expected.

 

Of course, it would have been best not to buy ancient artifacts from suspicious places like secret auctions…

 

But after that, completely ignoring the demon without saying a word to it was definitely a good response.

 

“He’s not calling the knights because he doesn’t want to make a big deal of it.”

 

Lee Han spoke as if he understood.

 

Since a demon was summoned because of an artifact bought from a suspicious place, he wouldn’t want to make it publicly known.

 

If trustworthy Einroguard dark mages handled it and even took the demon away, wouldn’t everyone be happy?

 

The noble would be happy because his worries disappeared, the Einroguard Black Magic Academy students would be happy because they got a demon, and the demon would be happy because it got a master…

 

“Hmm. It would be nice to get a demon. Should we go check it out? Whether it’s a demon we can subdue on our own or not.”

 

“That would be best, right?”

 

Dirimpa nodded at his senior’s response.

 

Such a demon might be more useful than expected. Especially the fact that it came from an ancient artifact sparked his curiosity.

 

If they were really lucky, they might catch a powerful high-ranking demon!

 

“That’s probably not the case. If it were such a demon, it would likely have escaped before getting caught in the restrictions.”

 

“That’s certainly true.”

 

“…?”

 

Dirimpa stared intently at the large combat mage.

 

Huh?

 

“…Are you perhaps coming with us?”

 

This was a request received by the Einroguard Black Magic Academy.

 

Even if he came along, there was no money to give him and no demon to share…

 

Stedal nodded.

 

It wasn’t because of money or the demon.

 

A much purer reason motivated Stedal.

 

“Yes. A fight with a demon. I absolutely cannot pass this up. I can already feel my blood boiling.”

 

At the other person’s attitude revealing the belligerence that matched the rumors, Dirimpa whispered to Diret in confusion.

 

“Is this really okay, senior? You know it’s more dangerous if someone relies only on strength and causes trouble when subduing demons.”

 

“…He’s not someone who would act recklessly…”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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