Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 479

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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 479

“Don’t worry.”

Lee Han soothed the basilisk egg.

At the master’s words, as reliable as his mana, the basilisk egg stopped vibrating.

“Objectively speaking, you’re still weaker than the wyvern. Even if he takes interest, he’d be more interested in the wyvern.”

-…

The egg made a sound full of wariness again.

“Wardanaz. Take these flags.”

Professor Thunderstep placed two flags on the wyvern.

One was a banner with Einroguard’s emblem, and the other was a banner with a sword drawn over the Empire’s emblem.

Lee Han asked with curiosity.

“The Einroguard flag is to show we belong to Einroguard… what’s this one?”

“It means we’re carrying out imperial duties in His Imperial Majesty’s name.”

“I see. But why is there a sword drawn on it?”

“It means anyone who blocks our path will be dealt with immediately.”

“…Uh, are you joking?”

“I’m not joking.”

Professor Thunderstep answered as if asking what he was talking about.

It was easy to forget while inside the school, but mages were always high-level personnel, and Einroguard’s mages were the most important personnel among them.

Since they didn’t know what dangers might approach from outside, it was natural to warn first with flags.

-If you approach recklessly, we’ll attack immediately!

Professor Boladi also nodded.

“Attack immediately if enemies approach.”

“…Me too?”

“Yes.”

“Professor. I’m also a student…”

Lee Han spoke with the meaning ‘You’re the one assigned as a guard, and I’m a student who came on a picnic following the professor’s guidance,’ but it didn’t get through to Professor Boladi.

“You’re a student?”

The professor’s voice conveyed the emotion ‘So what about it?’

Lee Han gave up and sat next to Professor Boladi.

Seeing Lee Han and Professor Boladi sitting not on the wide, flat back of the wyvern but around the narrow, shaking neck area, his friends were already whispering.

“Is that professor that professor?”

“I didn’t know there were students taking classes under that professor. Didn’t they all leave?”

“Originally, Wardanaz’s goal is to attend all lectures.”

“Ah. That’s right. So that’s why he’s taking it?”

‘No. You bastards.’

Lee Han inwardly cursed his friends who were spreading false rumors about him.

“Look ahead.”

“Yes…”

Professor Boladi immediately started a practical lecture for Lee Han on ‘How should a wyvern rider fight in the air?’

“…So the rider is most vulnerable to diagonal rear and lower blind spots. If you’re a mage, you can compensate with magic. Always secure your vision first. Fighting in the air starts with vision.”

“Uh, Professor Bagrek…”

Professor Thunderstep, who was passing by, noticed Lee Han being tormented and asked.

“Do you really need to make Wardanaz sit next to you?”

Anyway, once they arrived, the students would have to suffer through quite a lot of menial tasks, and even with simple calculation, the amount of labor that Wardanaz, who had a lot of mana, would have to take on was several times more.

Considering that, there was no need to torment Wardanaz from the start.

And in the first place, guarding was Professor Boladi’s job, not a student’s job.

Lee Han was slightly moved.

‘Indeed, Professor Thunderstep is truly the average of Einroguard!’

Even this much seemed like something.

Professor Boladi answered Professor Thunderstep’s question with an expressionless face, calmly.

“He seemed to want to learn.”

“Ah. Is that so?”

“…”

Lee Han was so dumbfounded he lost his words.

What kind of ridiculous lie was this without even wetting his lips?

He could even feel that the basilisk egg was dumbfounded too.

‘If I object here saying that’s not true, will Professor Bagrek push me off?’

“Then it can’t be helped. Wardanaz. Hang in there.”

Professor Thunderstep, true to being the Einroguard average, didn’t get further involved and left after giving encouragement.

Lee Han cursed Professor Thunderstep inwardly.

* * *

Screeeeeeech-!

The wyverns that had finished preparing and departed cut through the air like lightning.

The students screamed with joy.

“This is my first time riding a wyvern, Professor!”

“They’re precious creatures! Taming them is more troublesome than you’d think. You can’t even imagine how much trouble I went through to get these eggs!”

When Professor Lightningstep put on flight goggles and shouted cheerfully, the students let their imaginations soar.

The outskirts of the Empire, majestic peaks and canyons stretching as if to pierce the sky.

And Professor Lightningstep exploring that place alone and stealing away with wyvern eggs.

“That’s right! How angry was the count?”

“Crazy bastard! Getting angry when he bought it from the black market himself. I saved his life! If it had hatched as it was, the wyvern would have destroyed the manor!”

Professor Lightningstep explained about stealing wyvern eggs from the count’s manor.

The students looked at each other with bewildered gazes at that explanation.

“Lee Han. Lee Han. What do you think? Is it okay to do that?”

Lee Han couldn’t answer his friend’s question. Professor Boladi was continuing to torment him.

“What was that monster that just flew by below?”

“Ghost… wasn’t it a ghost eagle?”

“Wrong. It’s an eagle ghost. Remember the difference between the two. An eagle ghost is…”

“…”

Asan backed away with a disgusted expression.

When the students who had been reading books and playing cards on the wyvern’s back were getting bored, and Lee Han, who had to continuously watch the sky and accurately call out the monsters visible around them, was about to collapse from exhaustion, Professor Lightningstep gave a signal.

“That’s enough for today! We need to let the wyverns rest. Landing! ■■! ■■■!”

At Professor Lightningstep’s shout, the wyverns began descending.

Below, as it began to grow dim, several villages with sparse lights could be seen.

‘Is that the destination? We’ll arrive before lunch tomorrow.’

In the distance, a port city burning with brilliant lights could be seen where it met the sea.

It was Isran, a city beautiful enough to be counted among the southern coastal cities of the Empire.

Since it was a place one would normally visit as a resort, the students also whispered with voices full of anticipation.

“Still, won’t we have some time to look around?”

“Can’t we escape? We’d just go to the punishment room, right? Wardanaz. What do you think? You know the most about the punishment room.”

“Don’t ask such questions…”

Lee Han, already exhausted by Professor Boladi, answered with a voice full of fatigue.

When the wyverns landed on the grassland of a hill near the village, the village people came running out with torches.

Then they saw Einroguard’s flag and the Empire’s flag and shouted in surprise.

“Mages! The honorable mages have come!”

“That’s right. Everyone.”

Professor Thunderstep politely greeted the village chief.

Inside Einroguard, even if you cursed at an imperial duke, the Skeleton Principal would handle the aftermath, but outside you had to act as gentlemanly as possible.

“We came rushing here on wyverns due to urgent official business. These wyverns are completely trained and won’t pose any threat at all, so please trust us. I promise this on the honor of Einroguard and its mages.”

Lee Han witnessed Professor Lightningstep throwing punches at the snout of a wyvern that had been grumbling since earlier and quietly moved to block the view.

“Of… of course! We trust the mages, sirs. Naturally!”

The village chief shouted in a tense voice, feeling both reverence and fear. And to hide the fact that he was feeling afraid, he bowed with exaggerated gestures.

“Please come into the village! We’ve prepared a place for you to rest! You, you, you can bring the wyverns along too!”

The students immediately prepared to move.

Often when Einroguard students went outside, they received misunderstandings like ‘Do Einroguard students enjoy sleeping outside in the cold dew?’ but of course that wasn’t true.

Inside a warm inn. On soft and smooth beds, naturally they would…

“No. We’ll stay outside.”

Professor Thunderstep firmly refused.

“We’ve already come fully prepared. We don’t want to cause trouble for the villagers.”

“Oh, no. It’s no trouble! More than anything…”

“No. With this many people, plus wyverns, it would be impossible not to worry.”

Professor Thunderstep had several reasons for this.

No matter how much Einroguard’s mages were respected by all the Empire’s people, unfamiliar villagers could still be frightened.

And wyverns were even more so. If they accidentally caused a disturbance, Professor Thunderstep would have to take responsibility.

Lastly…

-Don’t unnecessarily bother people on the way there and back. Don’t do things like calling villagers and saying ‘We’re from Einroguard, could you give us some warm bread and drinks…’

-Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m doing this for the first or second time.

The Skeleton Principal didn’t particularly like contact with ordinary Empire citizens along the way.

“Aww.”

“I thought we’d be staying in the village.”

The students sadly prepared to camp.

If it were right after enrollment, they would have said ‘How can people sleep outside?’ but now even the Blue Dragon Tower students weren’t particularly surprised by sleeping outside itself.

“Lay some more blankets here.”

“Wait. Clear away the bugs first.”

“Spray this potion. It should help keep bugs away.”

“Priest Siana…! Thank you. Wow. The effect is amazing! All the grass died at once too!”

“Wait. I gave you the wrong one. Spray this one here.”

“…”

Lee Han dumped the travel rations his friends had brought into a pot and boiled them.

Hard bread and cheese, salty jerky, and still-fresh carrots, onions, potatoes, etc. went in.

“Thanks.”

“You’ll have to pay back what you eat later.”

“…”

Professor Thunderstep was dumbfounded but nodded.

Well, how precious would such provisions be to an Einroguard student.

‘But the vegetable garden was washed away by the flood, so where did they get these vegetables?’

Professor Thunderstep wondered as he gulped down the mixed soup.

They looked quite fresh, so it didn’t seem like they brought them from outside…

Lee Han set aside soup with only vegetables for Professor Boladi and asked Professor Thunderstep.

“But Professor. The Meikin family invited us, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Couldn’t we have just gone together with the Meikin family’s procession?”

“That would be too slow. We have lectures to attend too.”

The students were very disappointed.

If they had moved together with the Meikin family, they might have been able to play for a generous week or two!

Lee Han tilted his head and asked again.

“Still, shouldn’t the Meikin family at least provide supplies needed for travel?”

“Hey, a family like the Meikin family doesn’t take care of such trivial details. They deduct it from the compensation they pay later.”

“I see. Do we receive compensation as soon as it’s finished?”

“Yes. But you’d better not expect too much.”

“Is the compensation small?”

“No. There are such requests, but the Meikin family is on the generous side. However, you won’t be able to live luxuriously with it. Even if you save and save, you’ll be short on experiment and research funds for next year.”

No matter how much Einroguard robbed the Emperor’s treasury for support and twisted the Empire treasurer’s beard to extract budget, they couldn’t satisfy the mages’ greed.

Mages were the kind of people who would demand more to experiment with even if all the Empire’s gold were offered to them.

In the end, to freely practice and experiment with the magic they wanted, they had to personally attract investment, extract sponsorship, and earn gold coins.

‘How terrible.’

Lee Han felt a heart-wrenching pain at the fact that the compensation from this job would become gems meaninglessly disappearing in experiments.

What kind of waste was that?

* * *

Morning.

As soon as they woke up and arrived at the port city on wyverns, people from the Meikin family came out to greet the group.

“I’m sorry for calling you so urgently. Students. Did you sleep well last night?”

“You don’t need to worry!”

“Camping is nothing…”

The students showed off in front of outsiders.

It was something all Einroguard students ended up doing.

“…You camped?”

“Yes? Yes.”

“…”

The Meikin family people looked at each other very bewildered.

Then they spoke up.

“Well, since you said you were coming on wyverns, we earnestly asked nearby villages with places suitable for wyvern landing, but didn’t they say anything?”

“We paid compensation and asked them to treat the students well if they happened to stop by…”

“…”

“…”

All the students turned their heads in unison and glared at Professor Thunderstep.

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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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