Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 487
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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 487
Lee Han grew serious for the first time in a while.
Priest Siana still seemed unaware of the strangeness, blinking her vertically-slitted pupils characteristic of snake beastkin and tilting her head in confusion.
“You didn’t threaten them?”
“How could I threaten a professor…”
Suddenly Lee Han recalled saying earlier, ‘If word about the Sea Serpent traces reaches Professor Boladi’s ears, the commission and everything will turn into a muddy mess.’
‘That wasn’t a threat. It was closer to a desperate plea.’
Having quickly rationalized it, Lee Han explained the situation.
“The task of persuading the other guilds ended quickly.”
“How?”
“…I helped?”
“…”
Priest Siana’s eyes briefly conveyed ‘That seems even less likely than threatening them…’
Lee Han noticed the suspicious aura in her gaze and asked back.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Aren’t you mistaken?”
“Just get ready to go out. Everyone stop what you’re doing and let’s go.”
At Lee Han’s words, the Imperial Princess, who had been taking out a new balance scale from the corner, nodded with a bright face.
“Huh? You didn’t go out?”
Lee Han asked Yoner in surprise. At that reaction, Yoner was rather bewildered.
“Then you thought I had gone out?”
“Yeah? Yeah.”
“…Why?”
The Imperial Princess was also one of the top students among the students.
Such a person wouldn’t go out on her own without permission, would she?
“Oh, they were selling lots of snacks outside?”
“…”
Yoner was shocked.
“Lee Han, do you perhaps think of the Imperial Princess the same as Gainando…”
Yoner couldn’t finish the question.
While asking the question, all the other friends had gathered.
“Shall we depart then? No one’s missing, right?”
“Wait. Wardanaz. Wouldn’t it be better to first check where the guys who went out earlier are before departing?”
Asan raised his hand and asked.
Then Lee Han asked back as if wondering what he was talking about.
“We should have fun first and then look for the guys who went out. We don’t have much time either.”
“Huh?”
When Asan was confused, the other students spoke up.
“That’s right.”
“I think so too.”
“Me too…”
“Is, is that so?”
At the firm answers from his formidable friends, Asan felt his common sense shake slightly.
* * *
Ratford pondered seriously before speaking.
“I think we should relocate some wallets at least once…”
“No, no!”
“We’ll be in big trouble if we get caught!”
His friends urgently stopped Ratford from attempting pickpocketing.
Of course, their silver coins were tight, but they couldn’t make their friend steal because of that.
“We can have fun even with little money.”
“But what if the professor gets angry?”
“It’s fine. Even if they get angry, they probably can’t do much.”
“But what if Wardanaz gets angry?”
“…”
“…You bastard, why are you saying such ominous things while we’re trying to have fun?”
The friends all scolded the White Tiger Tower students who had brought up the topic.
“Then let’s all look for ways to make money.”
“Good idea. Wardanaz always made money whenever he came outside.”
At Ratford’s words, the students stirred.
“With what exactly? Did he threaten people with his staff?”
“I think I heard he took on commissions…”
“While out on leave? In that short time?”
“That’s impossible for us… let’s look for something else.”
Rengid from Black Turtle Tower came up with a realistic idea.
“If we go around the shops, there will be places that need magic. When I helped at the chefs’ guild, they often called mages too. If we say we’re from Einroguard, they’ll gladly accept.”
Since most of those who claimed to be mages and acted arrogantly were suspicious and incompetent, there was no guarantee as solid as being from Einroguard.
The problem was…
“So Rengid. You’re saying we from Einroguard should go around the shops by the street saying ‘We’re from Einroguard, please give us some work’?”
When the Blue Dragon Tower students and White Tiger Tower students asked in sharp voices, Rengid felt slightly deflated.
“Is it, is it a bit much?”
“No. It’s a very good idea, isn’t it?”
“Let’s hurry up and do it.”
“…”
Seeing the Blue Dragon Tower students and White Tiger Tower students hurrying off in case they lost good spots, the Black Turtle Tower students murmured.
“Are those guys really from noble families?”
The main street starting from Isran City’s pride, the water statue, and leading to the harbor was so noisy from the long-established shops and buildings that you couldn’t even hear the person next to you talking.
The stalls connected in front of the shops were full of seafood brought in from the harbor and cookies baked with sugar sprinkled on them, characteristic of the south, and next to them, customers who had taken tables at cafes and tea houses sat basking in the sunlight while watching people.
These shops were bright enough for even the city’s children to come and go freely, but not all shops were like that.
The alleys connected to the taverns and inns were filled with everything from antique shops dealing in suspicious stolen goods to shops selling artifacts of questionable functionality.
The atmosphere was so gloomy that travelers entering such alleys were only a small minority among all those crowds.
“Why are you doing this kind of work when you’re from Einroguard? Uh… well… that’s… to improve our magical skills.”
“Right, right. Magical skill is something that comes from the trivial actions experienced in daily life…”
At the shop owner’s question, the students did their best to come up with excuses.
Fortunately, the shop owner was impressed by their words.
“My goodness…! Mages are truly amazing! To not mind such menial work. Will this silver really be enough? I feel so sorry…”
“Not at all. What’s important to us is training.”
After convincing the shop owner, Rengid asked Bartrek.
“Hey, you’re quick-witted. How did you come up with that?”
“I just copied what Wardanaz said.”
“…”
Anyway, having secured positions, the students worked diligently.
They cast fire resistance magic inside the furnace and repaired scrolls that could be fixed…
Clink!
“Thank you, mage sir.”
The shop owner politely bowed his head and offered a pouch of silver coins.
The students gracefully received the pouch, turned around, and shouted.
“Money!!”
“With this money, we don’t need Einroguard! We don’t have to go back! Let’s start a new school!”
“Great idea!!”
“…???”
The students, intoxicated by the charm of silver coins, ran out shouting crazy things.
“Gasp…!”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“Over there, Wardanaz! Next to the redhead!”
“Gasp!”
The students made gasping sounds.
They could see Lee Han and his friends walking from far away.
‘He’s come to catch us!’
They had barely managed to earn silver coins, and it couldn’t just end here.
The students gritted their teeth and lowered their posture.
“Oh. Shouldn’t we call Wardanaz…”
“Hey! Cover Ratford’s mouth!”
“Mmph! Mmph mmph!”
“The other way! The other way!”
The friends hurriedly fled. Thanks to the crowd of people, escaping wasn’t too difficult.
“We’re alive…!”
“We can’t get caught yet! We need to play more!”
“Right. We may be from different towers, but this time we’re joining forces.”
‘Is this really something to be so serious about?’
Ratford looked puzzled as he watched his friends making solemn vows to each other.
They only acted like this during school exams…
“You must be mages.”
“!”
The students were startled by a voice from deep in the alley.
A long robe that covered even the face. The voice from within was so strange that it was impossible to guess the race or gender.
In front of the stranger sitting on a chair was a table carved from paulownia wood, with strange patterns they had never seen before carved on top.
“Wouldn’t you like to see the future once?”
“…”
“A primitive mage?”
“Probably a quack. What else.”
In the borderlands of the Empire, there were still peculiar magics that hadn’t been explained by the Imperial magic system or whose existence wasn’t even known.
Such magics were called primitive magic by the Imperial magic community.
However, someone offering to read the future in a place like this was much more likely to be just a quack fraud than a primitive divination mage.
“Kuhuhuh… I understand your distrust. Then how about this? I won’t take any money. And if I can’t get it right? I’ll give you a silver coin instead.”
“Oh…!”
If it had been Lee Han, he would have warned them that ‘the most suspicious people in the world are those who do such things for free,’ but the students were currently parched with thirst for silver coins.
Bartrek stepped forward first and said.
“Let’s try it once. Which family am I from?”
“No need to be so hasty. Here. Please place your hand on top of this.”
The mage, Ianop, flashed his eyes from within the robe.
Right now, this ordinary-looking wooden table was an extraordinary artifact with eight spells cast on it.
Of course, just because eight spells were cast on it didn’t mean this artifact was powerful or expensive.
Surprisingly, this artifact with eight spells had absolutely no effect.
It simply had eight spells precisely overlapped with each other so it wouldn’t look like no magic was cast on it at all.
In a way, one might think ‘why use such ability for this kind of prank?’ but truly outstanding mages were different.
At the level of an ordinarily excellent mage, they wouldn’t notice anything even if they placed their hand on the table…
But if it were a mage with talent so extraordinary as to be counted among the Empire’s finest, they would first be surprised by the fact that magic was cast on this table, and then secondly surprised by the precision that left no trace despite that.
That’s right.
This table was an artifact made by Antagondals.
‘To think one can separate the wheat from the chaff with just a simple artifact.’
Ianop was once again amazed by the Archmage’s ability.
If they were an extraordinary and excellent mage, they couldn’t stop their curiosity the moment they realized this artifact.
Who made this artifact?
Why exactly was it made with such thinking?
What else does the mage who made this know?
Such curiosity was like an inevitable curse that came with natural talent, impossible to resist.
“I’ve placed it.”
“Have you placed it completely?”
“Yes. I placed it, but?”
Ianop made a disappointed expression from within the robe.
The dull dwarf in front of him seemed to have no idea what was what.
Ianop casually threw out an answer, planning to give him a silver coin and make him leave.
“You are… from a knight family.”
“Gasp! How did you know!”
“…”
“A little more! Please try a little more! Do I have any talent for magic?”
“…”
Ianop really found Bartrek annoying for not leaving when he wanted to quickly check the other students.
“I’m currently learning alchemy, but there are so many students excellent at alchemy that I’m worried. Plus, I’m from a knight family. I wonder if alchemy is the right path for me, but my family has considerable knowledge in alchemy, so it’s hard to give it up… It’s really difficult.”
“…Yes… But you see, this thing called the future, mage. It’s not something that can be predicted so accurately…”
Ianop’s evasive words seemed to give Bartrek even more trust.
Don’t fraudsters usually claim they can predict what can’t be predicted!
Ianop, who was the opposite…
“Omens! Please at least read the omens! What should I do?”
‘Why does this talentless bastard keep…’
Ianop held back his curses and casually threw out another answer.
“…I see a dragon, nobles, and an Archmage. Follow this omen.”
“…Gasp. Isn’t that Wardanaz?”
“It sounds like Wardanaz???”
The students murmured in shock.
With nobles and an Archmage, only Wardanaz came to mind.
Plus, he had as much mana as a dragon…
“Follow Wardanaz?”
“It definitely seems like it would help in the future…”
“But we’ll get beaten up.”
“Were you guys there?”
At the familiar voice, the students screamed in high-pitched voices.
Outside the alley, Lee Han and his friends were standing there, each holding cotton candy.
“War, Wardanaz…! Ple, please. Please have mercy! Please have mercy!”
‘What are these guys doing?’
Ianop was bewildered.
From what he could see, they seemed to be fellow students, but they were trembling as if escaped criminals had met an executioner.
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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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