Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 239
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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 239
“Why is everyone acting like this? Don’t tell me you don’t have any money?”
One merchant, feeling uneasy, threw out a joke to break the atmosphere.
“Yes…”
“Sorry… it’s a school rule…”
“…”
When the White Tiger Tower students answered hesitantly, the merchants were shocked.
What kind of school rule was that??
They had heard rumors about strict teaching, but this…
“How, how does that make sense? If you can’t bring money to school… how do you go out?”
‘That’s a very valid point.’
Lee Han nodded.
“That’s not what’s important right now.”
“Ri, right. But… hmm…”
As the merchants looked flustered, one White Tiger Tower student offered an opinion.
“Could we perhaps pay during vacation? On our family’s name…”
-How dare you attempt credit on the sacred grounds of Einroguard? Do you have no honor or pride? And you call yourself a mage?
“…”
The Death Knights nearby ruthlessly poured out criticism.
The White Tiger Tower student who had said the wrong thing and was suddenly branded as shameless just shrank down.
“No… no. Death Knight sir. We’re fine…”
-Nonsense! There’s nothing good about spoiling students. They must be taught strictly. Doesn’t it appear in old tales too? Dissolute children think the family fortune is their own and squander it.
“I don’t think buying some materials would make a fortune disappear…”
The merchants muttered, but the Death Knights ignored them, pretending not to hear.
‘No matter how I look at it, it seems like the Skeleton Principal sent them.’
Come to think of it, with merchants coming from outside, the Skeleton Principal’s personality wouldn’t easily allow it.
He probably let them in anticipating this situation.
Even having the Death Knights forbid credit!
“Um. Could I just buy mine first?”
As the conversation seemed like it would drag on, Lee Han spoke up.
The merchants were startled.
“You have money right now?”
“Yes.”
“How… no… it’s actually natural to have some… but that would be appreciated!”
The merchants brightened at the fact that at least one student had money.
“Huh? If Wardanaz has money… couldn’t we borrow from Wardanaz?”
-How dare you attempt money transactions between friends on the sacred grounds of Einroguard? Aren’t you afraid of ruining your friendship? And you call yourself a mage?
“I… I was wrong.”
‘What an idiot.’
Lee Han clicked his tongue looking at the White Tiger Tower student.
If he was going to borrow, he should have secretly borrowed where the Death Knights couldn’t see, not try to borrow so openly.
“Why are you all standing around?”
Professor Verdus approached curiously as the students stood around hesitating.
“…Professor. We don’t have money. In case you forgot.”
“Of course. Bringing silver coins into the school is prohibited.”
At Professor Verdus’s words, the students fell into even deeper suspicion.
Why would someone who knew do this?
Did he just want to see the students frustrated and suffering?
Thinking about the Principal, it might be a quite plausible hypothesis…
“Work to pay it off. Your upperclassmen did too.”
“Pardon?”
“Work, I said. Work. Don’t you know?”
“…”
“…”
Both merchants and students were flustered by the unexpected method.
It wasn’t completely unreasonable.
Mages were among the most skilled personnel in the Empire.
Capable mages could name their price, and couldn’t be hired just because you had money.
Even if they were 1st years, Einroguard students were much better than the riffraff wandering around…
“Is, is that really okay?”
“It’s fine. Give them anything to do.”
“No…”
The students’ voices trembled at the end, perhaps moved by Professor Verdus’s kindness in even answering for them.
Professor Verdus looked at Lee Han and was startled.
“Why do you have money?!”
‘That’s what we’d like to know.’
For the first time, the other students empathized with Professor Verdus’s feelings.
“Well…”
“Come to think of it, I’m not really curious. You pay and go. Hurry up and make the artifact. I’m looking forward to the floating steel shield.”
“Such an artifact already?!”
The merchants nearby were startled, but Lee Han no longer had the energy to explain.
And…
“I’ll also pay with work.”
“Huh? Why would you…?”
The merchants were puzzled.
The Death Knights kindly explained.
-It’s friendship.
-Honorable friendship.
“Ah…!”
“Wardanaz…!”
Both the merchants and other students were impressed.
Regardless, Lee Han did the calculations.
‘The material prices there are roughly…’
If he could pay with work, it was definitely profitable.
Why waste silver coins?
‘Why is this guy really trying to pay with work?’
Giselle stared at Lee Han incredulously.
It certainly wasn’t because of friendship (Giselle wasn’t a fool like the Death Knights), and someone from the Wardanaz family wouldn’t do that because money was precious…
What then?
“If I work more than the material cost, can I get a refund?”
“Pardon?”
“…”
* * *
“What?! Merchants came to the school!?”
Gainando jumped up from where he was lying on the sofa.
“They’re not the kind of merchants you’re thinking of, Gainando.”
“Right. They only sold reagents needed for magic.”
“Still, don’t you have at least some snacks?”
“There weren’t any. Oh. I did see some bait used to lure beasts.”
After a day passed, the merchants’ visit became quite a topic of conversation.
Given how closed off the environment was, it was inevitable that guests from outside would draw attention.
Of course, students who learned the truth quickly lost interest.
“There’s nothing useful.”
“It would be better to prepare in advance.”
Lee Han advised his friends.
“Soon other lectures will also give pre-final assignments. It would be good to prepare materials you think you’ll use a lot in advance.”
“…!”
It was certainly sound advice.
When professors assigned tasks telling them to bring something, they didn’t kindly provide the materials as well.
“Is… is that so?”
“It might be better to go buy them in advance.”
The Blue Dragon Tower students, convinced by the persuasion, gathered their things and got up from their seats.
And they went to find the merchants.
One hour later.
“…We were tricked…”
“We were tricked by Wardanaz…”
“People might misunderstand if they heard that.”
Lee Han scolded his friends sitting beside him.
At first, the merchants had said ‘Oh my, how could we possibly make mages work for us,’ but they actually put them to work quite well.
As expected, professionals were thorough.
-These are potions that failed during production. We’d like you to separate these potions as much as possible to salvage the materials.
-Among these miscellaneous items, could you pick out any that still have mana remaining?
-We need someone to complete the preliminary work for scrolls. Could you help us? There are about several hundred sheets though…
The White Tiger Tower students who had been sitting there for a while now had haggard faces and were only moving their hands.
Just because it wasn’t difficult menial work didn’t mean it wasn’t tiring.
Separating potions consumed mana, finding items with mana among miscellaneous objects consumed concentration, and the preliminary work of drawing lines on scrolls went without saying.
“Were assignments this difficult…?”
‘Actually, we haven’t even started the assignments yet.’
While his friends staggered from fatigue and mana depletion, Lee Han alone was perfectly fine.
“I’m done.”
“What, already?!”
“Yes. Please give me the next one.”
“I think you should rest.”
The merchants tried to stop Lee Han.
Of course, Lee Han still looked perfectly fine, but when other students were staggering, they were still worried about continuing to make him work.
“No. I can do more.”
“Rather… you’ve worked enough to take some materials…?”
“No. I might fail, so I want to work more in preparation.”
And take the leftovers as silver coins!
Professor Verdus, who was passing by, asked.
“Looking at your skills, you could probably just do this level easily?”
“No.”
“You could probably just do it…”
“No. It’s insufficient.”
“I’m telling you it’s fine to just do it!”
“It’s insufficient!”
“…You, you two. Please don’t fight.”
The merchants were flustered by the sight of master and disciple fighting.
Why on earth were they fighting over something like that?
* * *
“Everyone seems to be having a hard time with pre-final assignments.”
Professor Ingoldel spoke with apparent sympathy at the sight of the corpse-like students.
“I should tell you some good news. There are no separate pre-final assignments in my lecture.”
“!!”
“Professor Ingoldel. You are a true educator!”
“I don’t feel particularly good about being praised for something like this… but now the final exams are right around the corner. Don’t all be too relaxed. They’ll come for you after a few assignments.”
Lee Han nodded.
After the storm of pre-final assignments currently hitting them one after another ended, there was a high possibility that final exams would arrive when they opened their eyes.
They couldn’t be complacent just because there were 2-3 weeks left.
“So I’m going to tell you the final exam content in advance.”
“!”
“Professor…! To go that far…!”
‘This isn’t a good thing.’
Unlike his moved friends, Lee Han was tense.
Even though Professor Ingoldel seemed slightly more reasonable than other mad professors, Professor Ingoldel was still a professor at Einroguard.
He was absolutely not someone lenient toward students.
“Do you see that mountain range?”
Professor Ingoldel pointed toward the mountain range behind the main building with his sword tip.
The students nodded.
Since they had all suffered there once or twice, there was no way they wouldn’t know the mountain range within the magic school.
“Hunting there in groups of three will be your final exam.”
“Oh…”
“What do we catch? Wild boars? Bulls?”
“Catch whatever you want. The stronger the prey you bring, the higher grade I’ll give you.”
“…”
“…”
The students’ expressions hardened.
What…?
‘Would collusion not work?’
Lee Han thought that and looked around, but immediately gave up.
Looking at the White Tiger Tower students’ expressions, they were absolutely not partners he could collude with.
If he joined hands with them, they would immediately stab him in the back and find stronger prey themselves.
Especially since swordsmanship lectures were the White Tiger Tower students’ pride.
Words like ‘let’s not overdo it and get good scores together’ wouldn’t work.
“Friends. Think about it carefully. We already have many pre-final assignments. We have final exams too, so if we recklessly ignite our competitive spirit here… Never mind. What’s the point of me saying anything. Do as you please.”
Lee Han gave up mid-sentence.
The White Tiger Tower students weren’t even pretending to listen.
* * *
The eventful weekdays were coming to an end, but the lectures wouldn’t leave the students alone.
When pre-final assignments began pouring out from required liberal arts lectures like 【Basic Imperial Language and Logic】 and 【Basic Imperial Geometry and Arithmetic】, students made queasy expressions.
“Oh right. Wardanaz. You’re making a floating steel shield?”
Professor Alpen Naiton looked at Lee Han with curious eyes.
“It just happened that way…”
“Even though it’s a simple artifact, the calculations won’t be easy. Once it’s completed, show it to me. I’m curious to see how well you’ll finish it.”
“…Yes.”
‘This school should prevent the professors from talking to each other.’
Starting with Professor Boladi, then Professor Verdus, and finally Professor Knighton all began showing interest in when he would make the floating steel shield, and Lee Han felt like he was slowly suffocating.
‘I really need to start right away.’
At this point, even if he wanted to change his assignment topic, there was a high chance he wouldn’t be able to.
Just imagining the professors saying things like ‘Why don’t you try again?’ ‘It’s a shame, why don’t you try again?’ ‘It seems like you could do it if you just try a little more…’ made him dizzy.
…I’ll make this the top priority and definitely finish it within this weekend!
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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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