Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 322

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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 322

Mages were basically high-quality personnel in short supply who were treated well wherever they went, but…

Even among them, there were occasional exceptions.

Actually, there was no need to call them exceptions – they could just be called dark mages. Usually dark mages.

Dark magic was fundamentally unpopular.

‘Even I probably wouldn’t bother calling for a dark mage.’

When there were many excellent mages from other schools, there was no reason to specifically call for mages from the dark magic school.

But work that only dark mages could do?

It was very suspicious.

“Where did you hear about that?”

“Ratford told me!”

“Oh. If that’s the case.”

“…Wait. Something’s strange?”

Gainando seemed to sense something odd about Lee Han’s changed reaction upon hearing Ratford’s name.

“What’s strange about it? Let’s hurry and go check it out.”

“Right. I don’t know what we’ll end up doing, but it’ll be better than studying… Oh wait.”

“That’s your studying, not mine…”

* * *

Ratford wasn’t a dark mage, but he had a friend who was learning dark magic.

It was Ymirg from the same tower.

The Black Turtle Tower friends closely shared decent job opportunities with each other, which is how it reached Ratford’s ears.

‘Now that’s real friendship.’

Lee Han couldn’t help but envy the friendship of the Black Turtle Tower friends.

The best the Blue Dragon Tower friends did was throw parties at the manor and invite people…

“It’s been a while, Ymirg.”

“It’s been a while!”

“Nice, nice to see you.”

Since there weren’t many 1st year students learning dark magic, the students couldn’t help but be close to each other.

“Did you call Raphadael too?”

“Why would I call that guy?! He’s not needed!”

…Some students were close to each other.

“I told the White Tiger Tower too… but they said he needs to rest because of fatigue.”

“Oh no.”

“What kind of knight can’t even manage himself? Hmph.”

Having always bickered with Raphadael, Gainando kept grumbling.

“But he’s not seriously ill, right?”

“Probably not.”

Lee Han, who knew the truth, muttered.

It was definitely because his fatigue from the King of Ghouls subjugation last time hadn’t fully recovered.

‘But he’s less trained than I thought.’

With thoughts that would make Raphadael want to grab him by the collar if he heard them, Lee Han turned his gaze away.

“Since we can’t help Raphadael’s situation, let’s work harder in his place. So Ymirg, is it this way?”

“Yeah.”

The place Ymirg was guiding them to was the southern district of the city, the general district.

This southern district had a different kind of liveliness from the central district where nobles stayed or the western district where guilds were located. It was the kind of liveliness that only emerged when people from all sorts of places were mixed together.

A suspicious traveler with his entire body covered by a cloak, a merchant selling dubious potions labeled 【Duke Gonadaltes’ Secret Elixir】, and a mercenary carrying five swords and even wielding a spear – none of them looked strange here.

“You bastard! Carrying a spear around inside the city. Do you think Granden City is a joke! Follow me!”

“I, I was wrong!”

“…”

Of course, it wasn’t completely lawless.

As they went down the road toward the city’s outskirts, it gradually became less populated. Lee Han suddenly became curious and asked.

“But what kind of job is it?”

“Gua, guard work.”

“Guard work?”

Lee Han fell into thought at the unexpected answer.

‘Is there a reason to hire mages, especially dark mages, as guards?’

Mages were expensive. If guards were needed, it would be better to hire several experienced adventurers or mercenaries instead.

Even if they paid a high price to hire them, many mages weren’t actually familiar with combat.

If attacks or combat situations arose, there was a high chance they wouldn’t be worth their cost.

If he had to think of uses, there were applications like barriers or detection magic, but…

‘Why specifically dark mages?’

“Do you know where we’ll be guarding?”

“Yeah. The cemetery.”

“…Ah.”

Lee Han immediately understood.

If it was a place like that, dark mages might be needed…

“Cem, cemetery? We’re going to a cemetery right now???”

Of course, Gainando was different.

When he looked at Ymirg with betrayed eyes, Ymirg was also flustered.

“Why… why? Is there a problem?”

“Cemeteries are scary!”

“…”

“…”

Lee Han and Ymirg were momentarily dumbfounded and lost for words.

Was that something a dark mage should say?

“Weren’t there a few cemeteries around Professor Mortum’s Dark Tower too?”

“That’s why those were so scary too! Do we have to go to a place where they’re all gathered?!”

Gainando grimaced and tried to resist.

“You’ve summoned skeletons and you’ll be summoning more undead in the future, so it would be better to get used to it in advance.”

“I can meet undead separately, so why do I have to go to a cemetery!”

“Gainando.”

“?”

“Life is about doing work you don’t want to do and receiving silver coins for it. Shut up and follow me.”

“…”

Gainando dejectedly followed along. Ymirg asked worriedly.

“Is, is it okay to do that?”

“It’s fine. Just buy him some cotton candy after we finish the job.”

* * *

The gravedigger guarding the cemetery on the outskirts of Granden City was very pleased by the appearance of the three.

“Oh my! Mage sirs, please come in! I’m truly glad to see you. I was just worrying about many things.”

“What were you worried about?”

“I was worried about what to do if there were no Einroguard students learning dark magic this year. There aren’t many dark mages in the city as it is.”

“…”

The three students made uncomfortable expressions.

Even at Einroguard, there weren’t that many students learning dark magic.

The easiest way to hire skilled mages with solid fundamentals in Granden City was to employ Einroguard students who came out during vacation.

But if there were no students learning dark magic among this year’s Einroguard students, it would become a serious problem.

“Still, to have three people here is truly wonderful!”

“Ah… yes.”

“But are dark mages really that scarce?”

Gainando asked because he couldn’t understand.

Even if Einroguard graduates were few, couldn’t they just call dark mages from other places…

“Oh my. You’re saying something that could cause big trouble. Dark mages need to have much more certain status and be trustworthy people than other mages.”

“Why?”

“Well…”

When the gravedigger hesitated, Lee Han answered instead.

“In case they steal corpses from the cemetery?”

“Cr… cough. I don’t think that way. I just feel sorry for the prejudice against dark mage sirs.”

“For that being the case, there seemed to be too many consistent accidents in the Empire newspapers…”

“Now! Let me guide you through the cemetery.”

The gravedigger quickly changed the subject.

He didn’t want to list the accidents caused by dark mages in front of students learning dark magic.

“The Empire periodically experiences times when negative energy becomes stronger. When negative energy fills all directions, the power of the dead also grows stronger. Then…”

“Strange phenomena could occur in places like cemeteries.”

“Correct. You’re truly worthy of being from Einroguard.”

The mana abundant in nature often caused all sorts of capricious phenomena.

Even if not as much as when a phoenix was suddenly summoned at Einroguard, it wasn’t very rare for the dead to rise and beings from other dimensions to cross over through rifts due to strengthened negative mana.

Dark mages were indeed the best at dealing with such problems. No matter how much negative perception there was, dark magic was one of the magics essential to the Empire.

“However, we haven’t yet learned about the complex mysteries of dark magic.”

“It’s fine. No matter what, we wouldn’t entrust everything to students visiting for the first time. There’s a senior dark mage here to help you. Sir Diret!”

“!”

Lee Han was surprised by the familiar name.

If it was Diret, surely…

“I knew juniors would come… but more came than I thought?”

A crow beastkin student with black wings fluttering behind his back waved his hand as he walked out from the cemetery tower.

It was Diret, a fourth year student at Einroguard majoring in the dark magic school.

“Senior! …Are you alright?”

Lee Han habitually scanned the surroundings. Diret nodded as if he understood.

“You don’t have to worry about going to the punishment room just for having a conversation here.”

“I see. That’s a relief.”

“And you don’t die from going to the punishment room. You guys will have to keep attending Einroguard from now on, so it would be good to learn how to get used to the punishment room.”

Gainando disliked it as if asking what he was talking about, but Lee Han took it seriously.

‘It would definitely be good to prepare for the punishment room in advance.’

From methods to escape when trapped, to Plan B for at least taking comfortable rest when escape was difficult.

Fortunately, he was friends with Perkuntra, one of the guards, but he couldn’t rely only on Perkuntra.

And in Lee Han’s view, Perkuntra was a bit…

‘…prone to mistakes at important times.’

“Anyway, why did you two come? Aren’t you from Blue Dragon Tower?”

Diret was puzzled by Lee Han and Gainando’s presence.

Usually Blue Dragon Tower students didn’t do this kind of work.

Gainando immediately answered.

“I’m earning the money I’ll use myself!”

“What? Why do such a thing? If you can receive it, you should go and receive it.”

“…”

Gainando, who expected praise, became dejected.

Lee Han didn’t say ‘I’m crazy about silver coins.’

From what he could see, there was a high possibility of being thought of as a strange person if he said that.

“I thought of it as an opportunity to train in dark magic.”

“…”

Diret looked at Lee Han with shocked eyes.

Come to think of it, this junior was a crazy genius who was taking magic from all schools.

“U, uh-huh. I see.”

‘Huh?’

Lee Han felt something strange.

The reaction was even more… than with Gainando.

“Still, it’s good that three came. There were many times when even fewer came. Originally, a third year, not me, should be explaining this work, but he went to the eastern region looking for useful corpses.”

“I, I see.”

This time it was Lee Han and his friends’ turn to stammer.

“He begged so earnestly that I couldn’t refuse.”

When the gravediggers shed tears and earnestly begged, it was also true that it was difficult to refuse as a dark mage.

Eventually Diret came to participate for explanation like this.

“That’s admirable. Well, if they offered several times the compensation, refusing would be a bit…”

“What? No. The compensation is the same.”

Lee Han was shocked by Diret’s words.

“The compensation is the same?”

“Huh? Uh…”

Diret was flustered by the pressure his junior was emitting.

“The gravediggers deceived you, senior. I’ll go and protest.”

“No, no… we already knew each other, so this much is…”

“That won’t do. Rather, the more you know each other, the more thoroughly you should handle money transactions!”

At the sight of his junior being suspiciously serious about silver coins, Diret momentarily had a strange thought.

‘This junior, he didn’t come to work because of silver coins, did he?’

* * *

“Basically, this work is more about prevention than dealing with aftermath.”

Diret said while tapping the ground with his staff.

“As such, you need to pay attention to the flow of mana. You juniors should be able to feel negative energy type mana a bit better since you’ve learned dark magic.”

While Diret was explaining, adventurers passing by on the path above the cemetery in the distance frowned as they passed.

“Ugh, aren’t those grave robbers?”

“Aren’t they trying to steal corpses again?”

“Don’t mind them. They’re guys who can’t even babble in front of us. Now. So… wait. Where did one of the juniors go?”

Diret was flustered by Lee Han’s disappeared figure.

When he turned his head, Lee Han was running up to that path above.

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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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