Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 334

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

Chapter 334

‘I absolutely must not let my guard down!’

Originally, the Imperial Family never trusted each other.

The Imperial Social Circle was a place where all kinds of conspiracies and schemes ran rampant.

And among them, the Imperial Family members were those with the most fierce and vicious cunning.

Yet to make such Imperial Family members let their guard down and deceive them, even if only briefly.

This wasn’t something just anyone could do. Bogajun rapidly heightened his wariness toward Gainando.

‘To use foolish acting to evade suspicion…’

It was called foolish acting, but it wasn’t something just anyone could do.

One needed steel-like persistence to endure all the infamy and harsh criticism poured upon oneself.

Thinking about this, Bogajun felt a chill run down his spine.

To avoid other Imperial Family members’ wariness with foolish acting for so long, while secretly gathering powerful nobles who could become his strength…

Perhaps this young brother might be the most dangerous competitor among the Imperial Family.

“After really long consideration, I made a new deck… huh?”

Gainando, who entered opening the door, was surprised to see Bogajun.

“Who are you?”

“…”

Lee Han was momentarily at a loss for words.

‘You crazy bastard, how long has it been since we met…’

While it was true that Imperial Family members enjoyed insulting each other when they met, that was only while maintaining proper etiquette.

One should mock by saying ‘I’m truly sorry your recent endeavor failed’ rather than ‘Who are you?’ which was far beyond the bounds of propriety.

Lee Han was grateful that there were no other nobles present.

‘Thank goodness there are only three of us.’

“Ku… kukuku!”

At the sight of Gainando revealing his true nature, Bogajun burst into laughter.

He thought the wicked and sinister brother had finally thrown off his mask.

Of course, Gainando was flustered by that laughter.

‘Is he insane?’

“Are you a professor?”

“…That’s Prince Gainando, isn’t it? Don’t joke around.”

Lee Han placed his hand on Gainando’s shoulder. Gainando’s brain cells activated from the pain of his shoulder blade twisting.

“Ah! Aack! I remembered! Prince! Your Highness the Prince!!”

“Right. I’m sorry, Your Highness. Gainando likes to joke around.”

“There’s no need to hide it anymore, Lord Wardanaz.”

Bogajun stood up from his seat as he spoke.

There wasn’t the slightest hint of contempt for Gainando in his eyes.

Rather, they were filled only with burning eagerness as toward a powerful competitor.

‘I don’t know what it is, but this isn’t good.’

Lee Han felt uneasy.

Prince Bogajun seemed to be having strange thoughts about Gainando’s visit, and there was nothing good about leaving it alone.

Gainando had the trait that the more opportunities he had to speak, the more his reputation fell.

-Gainando. Do it like you did last time.

Lee Han held up three fingers.

It meant to only answer with ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Huhu’. Gainando nodded while rubbing his shoulder.

“I’ve already noticed what grand ambitions Prince Gainando harbors.”

“No…”

Lee Han urgently sent him a look.

It meant to quickly deny it.

‘Quickly say no!’

“Huhu.”

“…”

Gainando interpreted Lee Han’s look differently.

Bogajun nodded as if he knew it would be so.

“Lord Wardanaz. As a fellow Einroguard graduate, it’s natural to support your friend.”

“I don’t support him.”

“But I know. Someone with excellent insight like Lord Wardanaz would support a more qualified Imperial Family member if one appeared.”

“No, support or whatever, I’m not really interested…”

“Please wait. I will soon prove that qualification.”

Bogajun declared confidently.

Of course, since Gainando didn’t understand what he was talking about and Lee Han was dumbfounded, it had no effect.

“Then let’s meet at the gathering. Prince Gainando.”

“Yes.”

“…”

Lee Han let out a deep sigh inwardly.

Even though he’d narrowed the responses to three options, it still backfired.

‘Should I just sew his mouth shut?’

“Um… Young master. Another guest has arrived.”

At the servant’s call, Lee Han thought he should put up a ‘No Visitors’ sign at the estate entrance.

“Who is it?”

“Princess Judrantes has…”

“Hmph. One step too late.”

Bogajun sneered at Judrantes.

Judrantes would probably be shocked when she came here too.

She might have been thinking only of Bogajun, but…

She would learn that the truly dangerous competitor was among those young Imperial Family members!

* * *

“!!!”

As expected, Judrantes was surprised exactly like Bogajun and acted exactly the same.

And even her words were the same.

“Someone with excellent insight like Lord Wardanaz…”

“…would support a more qualified Imperial Family member if one appeared?”

“Exactly!”

“It’s not that I agree with that…”

“Please wait. I will soon prove that qualification.”

‘Are those two actually close friends?’

Seeing the two Imperial Family members saying the exact same things, Lee Han was now too tired to even respond.

“I understand.”

“Then let’s meet at the gathering…”

After all the Imperial Family members left, Gainando cheerfully pulled out his deck.

“I made a new deck, want to play… Ack! Why are you hitting me!”

Lee Han picked up his staff and began beating Gainando’s back. Gainando screamed and ran around the room in circles.

One hour later.

Lee Han sighed and held the mage cards in his hand.

They say even a dead person’s wish would be granted, so he could at least grant the wish of a friend who got beaten dozens of times on the back.

“Huhu. This time will be different.”

“Shut your mouth and stay quiet.”

“Okay…”

Gainando quietly drew a card.

This game called Mage Cards had a victory condition of summoning minions each turn and using magic spells to reduce the opponent mage’s life to 0.

Naturally, in the early game you had no mana so you could only use weak minions and spells, while in the late game you had abundant mana so you could use strong minions and spells.

In other words, you needed to balance both weak minions and spells for early game and strong minions and spells for late game to make a good deck!

Of course, Gainando had ignored all rules and principles, stuffing his deck full of only the strong cards he liked.

‘Hehe. But this time is different.’

Gainando placed down a card with a confident expression.

Lee Han looked at the card with confusion.

‘Wait. This couldn’t be…’

The victory conditions weren’t limited to just reducing the opponent mage’s life to 0.

You could also win if the opponent’s deck ran completely out of cards.

And the dark magic spell card Gainando just played was one that destroyed three cards from the opponent’s deck.

“Gainando. Did you make a deck destruction deck by any chance?”

“N-no, I didn’t?”

Caught off guard, Gainando averted his gaze and denied it.

“It’s better than that weird deck from before… but don’t people hate this kind?”

There were always unspoken rules in the world.

The Mage Cards game was no different.

Winning through deck destruction like this felt almost like cheating in a civilized, enjoyable gathering.

Of course, from Lee Han’s perspective, who cared…

“Who cares! I’m going to win!”

“S-sure you are.”

Lee Han prepared his cards along with his words.

He planned to end the game by unleashing spells that dealt direct damage to the mage as soon as Gainando finished his turn.

Unaware that he would die in a few seconds, Gainando pondered very seriously.

“Were you two playing?”

Yoner entered with Nilia, opening the door.

The two looked over the Mage Cards game and hesitated.

“Is this a dark magic curse deck by any chance?”

“So what if it is?”

“…Wow. Gainando. This isn’t right. Really not right.”

Yoner looked at Gainando with a horrified gaze.

No matter what Gainando had done before, he had taken his side as a relative, but this was going too far.

“N-no…! Winning is all that matters! Why!!”

“Of course winning is all that matters, but dark magic curse decks are a bit of an exception…”

When Yoner wouldn’t take his side, Gainando looked at Nilia and asked.

“Is this really such a big mistake!?”

“Dark magic curse decks are a bit…”

“…”

Gainando felt very wronged.

“Among hunters, if you use a deck like this, you’ll get an arrow in the back.”

“It’s not that bad!”

“It really is though.”

“So it seems.”

When his turn came, Lee Han unleashed spells and knocked down Gainando. Gainando opened his mouth wide and just blinked his eyes.

“So Yoner. What’s going on?”

“Ah. There’s a social gathering being held in Granden City this time, right?”

Holding a social gathering wasn’t that difficult. Even Lee Han could call a few friends, eat, drink, and play, and that would count as a social gathering.

As such, in a city the size of Granden City, dozens of social gatherings were held every day.

However, the social gathering Yoner was talking about was different from such small-scale socializing.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it was a gathering held in Granden City’s name, with participation from not only the city’s influential families but also imperial officials.

And the main participants of this gathering were first-year students from the magic school.

‘So the gathering the imperial family mentioned earlier was this gathering.’

Lee Han understood why the imperial family had come looking for him earlier.

Given such an occasion, it was natural they’d want to enter with a promising magic school student.

It was practically like declaring ‘we’re close’ to others…

“I don’t think it would be good to enter with Gainando.”

“Ah. I was thinking the same thing.”

Given the other imperial family members’ attitudes, entering with Gainando would likely cause unnecessary trouble for both of them.

“Why!? Because I brought a dark magic curse deck?!”

Gainando asked with a shocked expression.

“No. If we go together, we might be misunderstood as being in the same faction…”

“Just think it’s because of the cards.”

At Yoner’s cold words, Gainando grumbled.

“Everyone’s just jealous because my deck is strong.”

“But you lost…”

“Shut up!”

* * *

“…Since things have come to this, it can’t be helped.”

Lee Han spoke to Professor Verdus with a regretful tone.

While he didn’t like attending social gatherings, if he could use it as an excuse to avoid Professor Verdus, there was no reason not to.

As expected, Professor Verdus asked with an uncomprehending look.

“Why on earth are you attending such a useless gathering?”

“All first-year students are invited, they say. They seem to want to hear how magic school students are doing.”

“Why on earth are you attending such a useless gathering?”

‘Hmm. I shouldn’t have bothered explaining.’

Professor Verdus continued grumbling regardless of whether Lee Han explained or not.

“I don’t understand why there are lectures teaching how to dance at magic school. Instead of that, they should teach one more theory of enchantment magic.”

“I think so too… Wait. Will there be dancing at this social gathering?”

“At that scale, there definitely will be, right?”

Professor Verdus answered as if it were obvious.

A small social gathering might be different, but a gathering of that scale couldn’t possibly not have a ball.

Lee Han frowned.

‘I thought I’d never need dancing in my life.’

When other Blue Dragon Tower students took ballroom dancing lectures, Lee Han had taken an additional magic school course, so it couldn’t be helped.

Even when he was with the Wardanaz family, he hadn’t particularly practiced dancing…

‘I’ll have to practice just the basics as quickly as possible from now on.’

The goal was just enough to not embarrass himself.

Lee Han made up his mind and looked at Professor Verdus.

“Professor, are you good at dancing by any chance?”

“No?”

“I thought so. Then I’ll go find someone to teach me.”

“…??”

Left alone, Professor Verdus tilted his head.

Something about that felt bad.

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