Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 296
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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 296
“Let’s go! Time to show our abilities!”
The alchemist spoke with a face full of determination.
Lee Han asked, slightly flustered.
“Um. I’d like to meet Yoner from the Meikin Family…”
“Ah. That works out perfectly. The person evaluating today is none other than Yoner from the Meikin Family. Just follow me.”
Lee Han brightened at the alchemist’s words.
The people from the Meikin Family had been so busy that he felt bad about stopping their work to call them, but from what the alchemist said, it seemed he could meet Yoner just by going like this.
Ratford tilted his head.
“Wardanaz. There’s something I don’t understand… Isn’t Meikin also a 1st year like us? I know he’s excellent at alchemy, but can he evaluate newly created potions?”
“That’s certainly true. Maybe other family members are giving advice from the side?”
Noble families often concentrated achievements on their children for the sake of their reputation.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the family’s alchemists gave advice from the side while the evaluation was done under Yoner’s name.
“I see. Noble families are quite interesting.”
“Right? Learning about these things will be useful later too, Ratford.”
“Thank you… huh?”
Ratford was puzzled.
Useful where exactly?
‘Is he telling me to steal?’
* * *
“Basic materials are on the left, additional materials in front, if you want special materials leave a note on the right, and if you need any alchemy tools please let us know separately! If you cause a major accident inside, you’ll be held responsible, so if you’re worried please call a supervisor!”
The Meikin Family servant rattled off rapidly.
His face showed the desperation of needing to finish this work quickly and move on to the next task.
“Wait. Aren’t you nobles? Why are you here?”
The servant seemed flustered as he finally noticed Lee Han and Ratford’s attire.
If they were from noble families, there was no need to wait in line with the people lined up in front of the manor.
They could just send someone in the family’s name, make an appointment, and meet separately, right?
Then the alchemist spoke sternly instead.
“Even nobles have to wait if they need something.”
“What do you mean…? No, I understand. Please call if you need anything!”
The servant decided it was better to just leave them alone rather than interfere with the customers’ business and risk being rude.
Staying quiet always worked out moderately well.
“Well then, shall we begin?”
The alchemist looked at Lee Han and grinned.
Until just now they were colleagues with the same purpose, but now they were practically competitors.
“When will someone from the Meikin Family come?”
“Won’t they come once we finish making the potions?”
Lee Han pondered for a moment.
Things were getting complicated, and he wondered if he should just go out now, grab a servant, and explain the situation saying ‘there seems to have been some misunderstanding.’
‘Hmm. That would make me feel bad though.’
But if he did that, everyone from the gatekeeper to the servant who guided them could end up in an awkward situation.
Failing to properly receive a guest from another noble family was quite a serious mistake, and someone would have to take responsibility to save face.
“Ratford. I think we should have just revealed our identity at the main gate earlier.”
“…”
Ratford looked at Lee Han as if he couldn’t believe it.
No way…!
“That was the right thing to do? No, something felt strange! You’re from the Wardanaz Family…”
“Exactly. When everyone said to get in line, I naturally got in line.”
“If we had revealed it when we entered earlier…”
“That alchemist shouted first and I missed the opportunity. Though even if I had revealed it then, it would have caused a commotion.”
Lee Han scratched his cheek and made a decision.
“Let’s make a potion first and call Yoner. Once I meet Yoner, we can quietly sort this out.”
“Understood.”
“Hehe. Have you finally decided? What potion are you making?”
“A low-grade stamina recovery potion.”
“I’ll make a low-grade stamina recovery potion.”
“?!”
The alchemist, Kaljunin, was flustered by their words.
This was a precious opportunity to be evaluated by the Meikin Family.
Naturally, he should make an extraordinary potion he developed himself at 120% capacity, yet that still wouldn’t be enough?
“Will that really be okay?”
Ratford looked at Lee Han as if asking how he should respond.
But this kind of situation was as easy as breathing for Lee Han, who had been harshly trained at Einroguard.
“Sometimes the most basic thing can be the most magnificent.”
“The most basic thing is the most magnificent?”
“If there’s an alchemist who made one potion a thousand times, and an alchemist who made a thousand potions once each, which alchemist would truly be superior?”
“…!”
Kaljunin felt a shock as if lightning had penetrated through him at Lee Han’s words.
It certainly sounded plausible.
‘Is that so? Was I being too greedy for no reason?’
Kaljunin had been worrying about trying to show more than his actual abilities.
But thinking about it, that was overambition.
The excellent alchemists of the Meikin Family couldn’t fail to recognize such pretense.
“Indeed…!”
Kaljunin nodded deeply, having gained profound insight.
Rather than making a potion he wasn’t confident about, it might be better to make the potion he was most confident in and show that.
Ratford whispered with an impressed expression.
“That story you just told was moving.”
“Really? But I just threw it out there, so don’t take it too seriously.”
“…”
The three alchemists began moving busily to make their potions.
With cheerful sounds, they crushed materials, ground them in stone mortars, lit fires under cauldrons to boil water, waved staffs to cast incantations…
“The color seems a bit murky? Boil it for about one more minute.”
“Understood.”
Ratford answered like that, then suddenly felt something strange and asked.
“But this isn’t a test, is it?”
“Since we’re doing it anyway, it’s good to make it well. Studying doesn’t benefit others, right?”
“R-right.”
Feeling the quiet madness of the year’s top student, Ratford shuddered.
He thought you had to enjoy studying like that to be the year’s top student.
* * *
Yoanen Meikin carefully cleaned his amethyst glasses and put them back on.
Then he asked the servant.
“In the west wing now?”
“Yes. Three people.”
“How did they seem?”
“I dare not presume to evaluate them. Ah. Both of them seemed to be of noble birth.”
“Huh?”
Yoanen ran her hand through her red hair and asked again.
“What background did you say?”
“They seemed to be of noble birth…”
“But why were they waiting in the west wing?”
“…I’m not sure about that either.”
When the servant looked confused, Yoanen didn’t ask any further.
After all, if the other party had just waited, what could the servant say about it?
“Maybe they wanted to be evaluated based on skill rather than their family name?”
“Ah! That might be it.”
“Good attitude. Let’s go.”
“Are you sure? You should get some more sleep…”
“One hour of sleep per day is enough for a person.”
“…”
The servant followed behind Yoanen with a feeling of ‘is this really okay?’
Yoanen opened the door to the west wing and headed to the guest workshop.
As she entered the workshop, the alchemists inside stood up to greet her. Yoanen gestured that it was fine and checked the potions first.
“The reason you made this olivine potion instead of bringing a new potion is? This shouldn’t be that difficult a potion.”
Kaljunin answered with a tense expression.
“Originally, I was going to make my own unique potion to submit. But upon reflection, I felt it would be better to show you the potion I can make best, rather than forcibly showing you a potion I couldn’t make perfectly.”
“I see. I like that there’s no unnecessary pretense. You thought well.”
“Thank you!”
“Next is…”
When Yoanen saw the next potion, she was slightly bewildered.
“Even if it’s a potion you can make well, isn’t this one a bit too easy?”
“Well…”
Before Lee Han could speak, Yoanen opened the glass bottle’s lid and examined the potion.
Then she was surprised.
‘This is?’
The 【Low-Grade Stamina Recovery Potion】 was a potion so famous that there were dozens of different recipes for it.
Even people who hadn’t learned alchemy would try to make it based on rumors and knowledge they’d picked up.
But naturally, just because there were many recipes didn’t mean the quality was the same. With such variety, the quality varied tremendously.
And this 【Low-Grade Stamina Recovery Potion】 was truly excellent.
A well-refined recipe with an outstanding alchemist’s skill, and…
‘How much mana did they pour into this?’
Alchemy didn’t simply end with adding ingredients accurately. The higher the difficulty of the recipe, the more the mage’s magic was involved as well.
An excellent alchemist had to be an excellent mage.
But this potion had several times more mana than other potions.
The mage had clearly pushed mana input to the limit without disrupting the potion’s balance.
Mana control ability that was close to art.
“There’s no need to even think about this one. Pass. What do you want?”
Yoanen looked away from the potion and turned her head.
Then she noticed two still-young students looking at Yoanen with slightly bewildered expressions.
“Please, call Yoner for me.”
“…??!”
* * *
When someone who looked more like Yoner’s older sister rather than Yoner himself entered, Lee Han asked Kaljunin.
“You said Yoner of the Meikin Family would evaluate us?”
“Ah… sorry. I must have been confused due to nervousness. It was Lady Yoanen.”
“…”
If this were Einroguard, he would have thrown a punch immediately, but unfortunately this was outside the school.
Lee Han held back and waited for Yoanen’s potion evaluation.
“…There’s no need to even think about this one. Pass. What do you want?”
“Please, call Yoner for me.”
Yoanen was startled, then belatedly came to her senses.
“Are you perhaps Yoner’s friend? An Einroguard student?”
“Yes.”
“You are of noble birth… right?”
“That’s correct.”
“But you still wanted to receive a proper evaluation?”
Yoanen looked at Lee Han with eyes that found him very admirable.
Lee Han answered firmly.
“No.”
“No?”
Lee Han briefly explained what had happened from the manor’s main gate.
Yoanen replied with an apologetic expression.
“I’m really sorry. No matter how busy the manor’s affairs are, to treat my brother’s friend so poorly.”
“Not at all. It was my mistake.”
“Thank you for being considerate of the servants. They’re all people I care about.”
Yoanen was deeply impressed by Lee Han’s thoughtfulness.
It was rare to see someone from a noble family show such consideration for another family’s servants.
“Which family are you from?”
“My. Today seems to be a particularly busy day.”
Lee Han subtly changed the subject.
When he mentioned the Wardanaz family name, people’s reactions usually split into two.
One was respect as the Empire’s foremost magical family.
The other was fear as the Empire’s crazy magical family.
He hadn’t even met Yoner yet, so he didn’t want to gamble on fifty-fifty odds.
“Today? No. Today has relatively few customers.”
“Excuse me? There were people in front of the manor…”
“When there are many customers, you have to wait about a day just to get inside.”
Lee Han was amazed.
The Meikin Family was definitely richer than Lee Han had thought.
“It’s a family rule. Since we don’t know what kind of talent might visit, we must do our best to treat them well. And indeed, such outstanding people have come to visit, haven’t they?”
“Not at all.”
Yoanen was even more pleased with Lee Han’s modest display.
It seemed her brother had made good friends.
She had been worried that he might not be able to make decent friends because he had to take care of that stupid imperial family member who was his relative.
“By the way. So which family are you from? I didn’t get an answer.”
“…I’m from the Wardanaz Family.”
“Where?”
“The Wardanaz Family.”
“…”
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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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