Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 1166
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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 1166
“This is why Knights are! They don’t know what’s important at all!”
“Krrrk (I agree).”
“Please lower your voice. This is the Northern Region and it’s even the Knights’ den.”
Among the Dark Mages who came here, the most moderate faction was the Callarogard Dark Mages.
Of course, even they were thinking of participating while pretending to be helpless, saying ‘we have no choice’ if the Moradi family would blockade the Northern Region for them.
When the other side was offering to blockade the Northern Region, wouldn’t it be rude for mere Dark Mages like them to step forward? As mages, they should naturally respect the Knights of the Northern Region.
“How can we persuade the Family Head?”
“To blockade the Northern Region? That would be impossible, wouldn’t it…”
“This is why I said we shouldn’t have called those Callarogard bastards! These weak little brats!”
“Krrrrk (That’s right).”
The Empire’s Dark Mages were largely divided into two groups.
One was the relatively decent group – timid and antisocial, who would mutter ‘Why is the dark magic school unpopular and poor?’ but didn’t cause much harm.
Occasionally they would dig up graves to steal corpses or create illegal chimeras without permission, but considering the average of mages, that wasn’t too bad.
And the other group consisted of those who tried to carry on the tradition and spirit of ancient dark magic – timid and antisocial, who would mutter ‘Why is the dark magic school unpopular and poor?’ while also causing major incidents.
If we were to divide the Dark Mages in this place, Callarogard and the Obsidian Magic Tower belonged to the former, while the Descendants of Ahrak and Oondorgu’s Legion belonged to the latter.
Naturally, the Dark Mages belonging to the latter felt displeased with the moderate words of the former Dark Mages.
When they should unite and push more aggressively, it still wouldn’t be enough!
“Actually, the Callarogard Dark Mages are right. And please don’t forget that we’re the ones cleaning up the mess when you cause trouble.”
“Hmph. Who asked you to take responsibility?”
“Krrk (Exactly).”
“Ha. Someone who would cry and beg if told to rot in the Empire’s prison for life is putting on airs…”
“S-say that again! I may have apologized in front of Gonadaltes, but I never cried. That’s a false rumor! A false rumor spread by Gonadaltes!”
“Klklkl (It’s funny no matter how many times I hear it).”
“Stop! Please, everyone stop!”
Professor Taswan, who led the Callarogard Dark Mages, waved both arms and stepped forward to somehow stop the quarrel.
Taswan wasn’t someone who would be treated poorly at any Dark Mages’ gathering, but unfortunately his position wasn’t good.
All the Dark Mages here had much longer careers than Taswan.
Needless to say about Oondorgu’s Legion, which were all undead, and the Descendants of Ahrak were all monsters who had lived for over a hundred years…
“What stop? Is this young brat looking down on me? Even if Gonadaltes does that, you’re looking down on me too?”
“Krrk (How insolent).”
“Professor Taswan. They were unilaterally rude, so there’s no reason for us to stop.”
“…”
In the end, the Dark Mages quarreled for about 20 more minutes.
After cursing each other as much as they could and criticizing as much as they could, the Dark Mages regained their reason like proper mages and returned to the main topic.
“So, blockading the Northern Region is impossible? Really? Do you all know that we must contact that Demon Hag? For that, a blockade is essential!”
The third of the Descendants of Ahrak (they distinguished themselves by numbers instead of names) spoke in a calmed voice.
However, there was no wavering in that attitude. The will to find what they wanted even by blockading the Northern Region could still be felt.
The exact name of the being the Descendant of Ahrak just mentioned was ‘The Wisest and Most Eccentric Demon Hag.’
An extradimensional being that all the Dark Mages currently wanted to meet, and the most likely cause influencing the current chaotic situation in the Northern Region.
“Surely the Demon Hag’s item fell somewhere in the Northern Region. Otherwise, these monsters and phenomena can’t be explained.”
Monsters overflowing out of season and bizarre natural phenomena.
Just by looking at these results, excellent mages could analyze the cause.
These monsters and magical phenomena must be related to the Demon Hag who knows all the most mysterious and bizarre dark magic!
…Or an escaped Mage Criminal Dark Mage is causing trouble somewhere.
The Dark Mages at the gathering prayed it would be the former.
The former could answer the secrets and wisdom of dark magic they wanted, but the latter would likely result in getting rotten eggs thrown at them by Northern Region people for being fellow Dark Mages.
“What if some ignorant civilian finds that sign and goes to another part of the Empire? How much damage would that cause? And in the worst case, another mage might get their hands on it and ask the Demon Hag about other magic secrets instead of dark magic.”
“…”
“…”
The Dark Mages from the Obsidian Magic Tower and Callarogard decided to pretend they didn’t hear what was just said.
Every time they heard such words, they seemed to understand why Empire people disliked Dark Mages.
‘Damn! How unfair. I hate that person too.’
To somehow change the topic, Taswan forced himself to speak.
“But everyone. Have you prepared a way to ask questions to the Demon Hag?”
As mentioned, the Demon Hag’s exact title was ‘The Wisest and Most Eccentric Demon Hag.’
Among extradimensional beings who were basically eccentric and strange, to be specifically called eccentric meant they had to be truly eccentric in personality.
When dealing with such a being, returning a lost sign wouldn’t result in ‘How admirable, ask me what you’re curious about.’
Finding and returning the sign was merely the right to make contact.
After that, the Dark Mages had to cleverly persuade and appease her to ask what they were curious about.
Actually, just being able to make contact was a sufficiently amazing and rare privilege.
The Demon Hag generally didn’t allow audiences with mortals.
And if it wasn’t an amazing and rare privilege, the Empire’s Dark Mages wouldn’t have gathered here arguing about whether to blockade the Northern Region or not.
They would have prepared offerings and gone to find the Demon Hag themselves…
“We’re prepared.”
“Krrk (Isn’t that obvious).”
“We’ve prepared as well.”
“…?!”
Taswan and the Callarogard mages were flustered.
Huh?
‘Are we the only ones who didn’t prepare?!’
The reason they didn’t prepare was simple.
Because of something they heard from the Skeleton Principal before.
-How can you ask questions to the Demon Hag?
-Yes.
-Don’t ask.
-…
-You prepared offerings diligently to make a good impression, right?
-Yes… we did.
-Don’t do that.
-…
-I’m being serious, don’t do that. She probably won’t meet with novices like you anyway. If you ever get involved, be polite and respectful, and don’t act arrogantly by throwing questions around. Only mages like me kindly answer stupid questions, not all Archmages do that.
-Ah. Yes. Yes.
-Say yes only once. I’ll cast a curse on your soul that makes you sneeze every time you speak.
-…I’m sorry.
Regardless of being annoying, the Skeleton Principal never gave wrong advice about magic or dimensional matters.
So the Callarogard mages came only thinking about returning the Demon Hag’s lost sign in this incident, not planning to negotiate…
When the disciples looked at him with confused eyes, Taswan shook his head.
“Don’t be swayed, everyone. There’s no need to prepare for negotiation when we haven’t even found the sign yet, and the Demon Hag isn’t someone you can easily get an audience with. We should focus on finding it first.”
“The young brat is lazy and weak too.”
“Krrk (I don’t know why he’s even a Dark Mage).”
“Wouldn’t it be better to prepare from now?”
“…”
Taswan wanted to just storm out and leave, forget about cooperation.
Dark Mages, really!
“Wait. Come to think of it, didn’t they say a guest came from Einroguard?”
“Guests can come. Why?”
The Second Heir of Ahrlak replied bluntly.
“Could it be Einroguard Dark Mages? Coming late…”
“No.”
“Why not? They could have received an invitation and changed their minds later.”
“Because the Einroguard dark mages didn’t receive an invitation.”
“…”
“…”
“Krrrk (What kind of bullshit is that)?”
At what the descendants of Ahrak were saying, the dark mages present couldn’t hide their bewilderment.
What on earth was this supposed to mean.
“Su-surely you said you sent an invitation…”
“That was a lie. We didn’t.”
“Why on earth would you tell such a lie?!”
Taswhan shouted with a serious expression.
This wasn’t something that could just be overlooked.
The Empire’s dark mages were poor, cursed, and sometimes fought among themselves, but compared to other schools, they cooperated quite well without deceiving each other, yet here they were breaking that harmony with such petty methods.
No matter how much they coveted the Demon Hag’s wisdom, this wasn’t right. What would the Einroguard dark mages think.
“That bastard Mortum keeps bragging about his disciple!”
The second heir of Ahrlak shouted in an extremely angry voice.
“I definitely tried to contact him to let him know. But he just kept going on about how great his disciple is, how comfortable he’s been living lately thanks to him – wouldn’t that annoy you? Tell him to learn dark magic with that amazing disciple of his at Einroguard! The Demon Hag will meet with us alone!”
The atmosphere in the room instantly became solemn.
Surprisingly, the others were somewhat sympathetic too.
“Krrk (Mortum has been a bit much lately).”
“We-well, even so, that’s still…”
“Be honest, young one. You’re also affiliated with a magic school. Haven’t you ever felt jealousy boiling up at Mortum’s words? Haven’t you ever wondered why you don’t have a disciple like that!”
“I haven’t… I haven’t! Everyone, don’t misunderstand!”
Taswhan quickly tried to appease his disciples. The disciples behind him looked at their master with suspicious eyes.
His answer seemed a bit delayed…?
* * *
“The Family Head will receive an audience soon, so everyone rest appropriately.”
Giselle said this and was about to leave first.
Then, as if remembering something, she turned around and spoke to Lee Han.
“Wardanaz, don’t wander around. I especially recommend not making contact with the knights.”
“It’s not my fault that the knights are getting stronger using Einroguard methods…”
“Moradi’s already gone, Wardanaz.”
Lee Han grumbled as he entered the lodging.
The Moradi family’s fortress, with facilities densely arranged on top of a towering jagged mountain, always presented a spectacular sight to those staying there.
However, this time there was no time to admire the northern scenery. Lee Han took out a stone tablet from his backpack.
Catten, who was sharing the double room, looked over with sparkling eyes.
“Are you planning to do magical research?”
“Ah. Yes. That’s right.”
“May I help?”
“That would be an honor.”
Lee Han had taken out the stone tablet partly to make use of his tight schedule, but also because he was curious.
If it was a mage of Bakwantalana’s caliber, he was a great mage that even Lee Han knew of, so why specifically dark magic?
‘Oh wait. That was too rude a thought. Senior Diret would be sad.’
Lee Han shook his head in reflection.
As someone from the Black Magic Academy himself, he needed to break free from the habit of naturally looking down on dark magic.
“Could you tell me what characters you can read here?”
“Bakwantalana’s, dark magic.”
“…Those are the letters I wrote.”
Standard Imperial script was a writing system that few people couldn’t read.
“I don’t think there’s anything else…”
When Catten’s ears drooped, Lee Han hastily exclaimed.
“It’s fine! I’ll interpret it, so please just watch from behind, Senior.”
Seeing Catten smile brightly again, Lee Han felt a sense of déjà vu.
‘Somehow this feels like when I was teaching Gainando his assignments…’
Hear…r…n…ya
“?”
Lee Han looked around. He felt like he had heard a faint hallucination.
Like an old woman’s voice…
‘Is it just my imagination?’
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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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