Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 435
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 435
Meanwhile, the knights opened wine bottles and frantically poured alcohol into their glasses.
When servants appeared carrying plates of steaming whole roasted wild boar, the knights couldn’t wait any longer and stood up from their seats to snatch the plates.
“???”
Before Lee Han could even be surprised, the knights who had grabbed the plates drew their daggers and stabbed deep into the meat. The knight swallowed a chunk of meat dripping with grease in one bite.
‘Huh?’
Lee Han was bewildered.
The order was different from usual gatherings.
In normal gatherings, people who had just assembled would greet each other, chat, enjoy some entertainment, and then share the prepared meal together…
But here, they were diving straight into the food and drinks.
Looking to the side, he saw Angrago and Bartrek also hurriedly grabbing plates and piling food on top of them.
“Moradi. Please don’t get angry and just listen. I’m really asking because I don’t know… Are knight gatherings always like this?”
“…Yes. Why.”
“No. I was just surprised. They eat quite heartily.”
“…”
Though Giselle didn’t show it outwardly, she felt a wave of embarrassment washing over her.
The Hornbeam Knight Order usually acted like dignified nobles, but when mealtime came, their true nature as knights inevitably showed.
She had never been ashamed of being a knight, but the behavior of the Hornbeam Knight Order, who had been pretending to be nobles, made Giselle feel embarrassed.
‘If these people were going to eat so casually, why did they do all those troublesome things earlier?’
Lee Han thought to himself.
If the knights had acted this casually from the beginning, wouldn’t Lee Han have not needed to observe all those unnecessarily numerous etiquette rules outside?
“So you talk after eating and drinking?”
Giselle nodded.
“This is much better. It would have been nice if it had been like this from the start.”
“…?!?!?!!”
While Giselle stared at Lee Han with wide eyes, Jangcliff returned.
Having finished greeting the knights, Jangcliff came back holding a wine bottle in one hand and a glass in the other.
“I would like to offer you a drink! For the one who helped the knights of the Hornbeam Knight Order!”
“Ah. Thank you.”
Lee Han received the glass. The sparkling wine filled the glass to the brim.
Jangcliff’s glass and Giselle’s glass were also filled. The three raised their glasses together.
At that moment, Jangcliff’s face contorted and a shout burst out.
“It’s poison!!!!!”
Crash!
Giselle had the fastest reaction. As soon as she heard Jangcliff’s words, she threw the glass she was half-drinking to the floor.
‘This can’t be!’
Giselle’s eyes were filled with shock.
It was surprising that poison had been added to this gathering of knights, but what was even more surprising was that Giselle hadn’t detected the poison at all.
Unlike the knights here, weren’t Giselle and the White Tiger Tower students being educated as mages?
Considering the alien nature of poison, it should have been impossible not to notice.
How on earth?
‘What kind of poison is it?’
Giselle quickly turned her gaze. She could see Angrago and Bartrek, who had already gotten drunk and were shaking empty bottles, frozen in place. Giselle quickly gave up and turned her gaze to Lee Han.
‘Maybe Wardanaz noticed…!’
However, Lee Han’s glass was completely empty. Giselle was so dumbfounded that she let out a sharp scream.
“You drank all of that!!”
“I had no choice because of etiquette…”
“Are you joking right now? Did you get careless because we’re outside school?!”
Lee Han honestly felt wronged.
With poison, if the maker made it well and administered it properly, the one consuming it was at a much greater disadvantage.
“Everyone stop moving and put down your drinks! You there, put down that drink!”
Jangcliff threw a knife from the table to smash a wine bottle. The knight who was about to drink from the whole bottle was startled.
“Sir Jangcliff! What’s happening?”
“Aren’t you mistaken? Poison… we don’t feel anything wrong with our bodies.”
The drunk knights were bewildered by Jangcliff’s shouting.
They also knew something about poison.
But they had never heard of poison that had no effect on the body like this.
Wasn’t Sir Jangcliff mistaken?
“Damn it, I heard from an alchemist I met in the capital. Right now it’s fine, but when the reagent in the food mixes with the reagent in the alcohol and time passes…”
Well-connected Jangcliff had once been introduced to a recently created poison when he went to the capital.
It was a poison based on acid ring mushrooms, and the alchemist had excitedly introduced it as a very unusual poison.
-When the various reagent components are separate, they have no effect, but when they mix together and time passes, they become poison. Such a cunning poison is rare.
To detect this kind of poison that forms by mixing inside the body in advance, one would need to know all sorts of reagents or be aware of the poison combination.
Fortunately, Jangcliff had heard the story from the alchemist and remembered all the tastes of the reagents.
‘He remembered all of that?’
Lee Han was amazed by the knight’s crude method.
It would have been less surprising if he had felt something was off because he knew all about the reagents being used.
“I’ll call a healing mage!”
The knights, realizing the situation was no joke, turned pale and shouted.
Poison was a race against time.
If they were even a little late, there could be massive casualties.
However, Lee Han remained calm.
‘That kind of poison isn’t very potent.’
Poison made to avoid detection by knights or mages had to be composed of correspondingly weak components.
It was likely not a life-threatening poison.
“Sir Jangcliff. What is the effect of the poison?”
“It temporarily makes you unable to use mana.”
The knights momentarily breathed a sigh of relief.
If it was just mana dispersing, it wasn’t that dangerous.
“Who could have…?”
“Servants, don’t move! We’ll investigate one by one!”
“We’ll check the porters too.”
“Would there be anyone who would put such poison here? Wasn’t it mixed in by mistake?”
Access was sealed off and investigation began, but the situation was chaotic given the circumstances.
The anti-magic extremist hiding as a porter sneered inwardly.
‘No matter what they do, they won’t be able to find me.’
Their preparation had been truly meticulous and persistent.
They had checked the gathering’s ingredients and alcohol from weeks ago and injected the components of the acid ring mushroom-based poison separately.
It was fitting revenge for the knight bastards who had ruined their grand plan.
‘The signal has already been sent!’
The porter had sent the signal right when the knights started eating and drinking.
It was unexpected that the knight named Jangcliff had noticed, but it didn’t matter since they had already consumed it…
Besides the knights, there were a few invited students, but they were still green youngsters.
Moreover, weren’t they mages whose mana had dispersed from eating the poison together?
In a way, they were easier opponents than knights.
The plan could be considered about eighty percent successful.
“Rise up, emotions.”
“???”
One of the students suddenly waved his staff and cast magic on a servant.
The anti-magic extremist almost snorted in disbelief.
‘He’s digging his own grave!’
Since the most versatile talents in the Empire were mages, naturally such interrogations were possible.
But even such magic wasn’t omnipotent. The anti-magic extremist knew well what kind of spells those were.
They were magic that consumed extreme amounts of mana and drained mental strength, meant to be used on suspects narrowed down to one or two people.
And now he was casting them randomly just because he was in a hurry.
He really was just a student.
“Rise up, emotions.”
“Rise up, emotions.”
“Rise up, rise up, rise up…”
“????”
The anti-magic extremist was bewildered.
What?
‘Is it a trick? Ah. I get it! He’s bluffing! Trying to be clever…’
Pretending to chant fake spells while trying to gauge the opponent’s reaction.
He was quite clever for a student.
However, the anti-magic extremist wasn’t shaken.
‘Go ahead and try.’
Sneering inwardly, the anti-magic extremist managed his expression.
“Rise up, emotions… ??”
Lee Han looked at the porter. Then he spoke as if dumbfounded.
“It’s this person.”
“Seize him!!!”
The enraged knights rushed forward like lightning. The anti-magic extremist screamed.
How on earth!?!
* * *
The knights were masters of interrogation. The thoroughly beaten anti-magic extremist spilled everything about his gang waiting outside.
“What nonsense…!”
“To hold a grudge for fulfilling one’s duty as a knight! This is why mercenaries are!”
The Knights of the Hornbeam Knight Order, who didn’t know the detailed circumstances, were very angry.
If it were an understandable grudge, they would at least respect them as enemies, but this was taking out unrelated resentment on them.
“Anti-magic extremists are originally like that! Seeds of evil that defile the Empire!”
“…”
Lee Han broke out in cold sweat.
Not because of the poison, but because he grasped the situation.
‘…Did I make a mistake asking the knights for help?’
Who would have thought that seeking the knights’ help to make things easier would come back like this.
If the knights got hurt, Lee Han wouldn’t feel comfortable about it.
“This isn’t the time for this. We need to prepare for the attack.”
“I know.”
Jangcliff’s face became serious.
“It’s dangerous. The knights here aren’t used to this kind of chaotic battle.”
‘Did he know?’
Lee Han was surprised to see Jangcliff evaluate his own knight order quite coldly.
Since the Hornbeam Knight Order’s main purpose was friendship and socializing, they would be even more disadvantaged in such situations.
“Wardanaz. The mana…”
“Won’t gather.”
Angrago and Bartrek’s faces were also dark. The other knights were the same. The poison from the mountain ring mushroom was gradually completing and beginning to spread.
Jangcliff was also enduring by forcefully circulating his own mana, but his complexion wasn’t good.
“I see. Understood. Wait. I’ll make an antidote. I don’t know how many I can make before the attack begins, but…”
“…What?”
“What did you say?!”
Not only Jangcliff, who had been pondering how to prepare for battle, but even his friends were shocked.
He knew how to make an antidote?!
“H-how!? Did you know about this poison?”
“No… I don’t know. And it’s not a complete antidote either. Since I’m making it with divine magic, I’ll have to see how effective it is.”
Lee Han took up his staff and prepared divine magic.
He hadn’t thought that Priest Siana’s semi-coercion would be helpful in such a situation.
If the Afha Order’s divine magic that Lee Han had awakened was white flame conversion, then the Plemang Order’s divine magic was antidote creation.
“Divine magic… Were you a devout believer… no… wait… You’re from the Wardanaz family…? That’s not important right now… wait, wait. You shouldn’t force yourself to use it when you lack mana!”
Jangcliff, who had been muttering, panicked and stopped Lee Han.
No matter how urgent it was, it was dangerous to use magic with heavy consumption like divine magic when lacking mana.
However, before he could stop him, Lee Han had already created the antidote. The wine in the wine bottle turned transparent.
“Sir Jangcliff first!”
“U-understood.”
Sir Jangcliff gulped down the colorless, transparent antidote.
Then, amazingly, he felt his dispersing mana being maintained again.
“Then I’ll make the next antidote.”
Angrago stood beside him to drink the antidote as soon as it was completed.
Then Lee Han subtly pushed Angrago away and pulled Giselle over.
In such a situation, the vicious Moradi was much more reliable.
Angrago shouted in confusion.
“Moradi drank less so her condition is still fine?!”
“…No, Angrago. As the top student in alchemy, I think Moradi’s condition looks worse.”
“??!”
Is… is that so?
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————