Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 562

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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 562

I paid quite a lot for it though…

Despite deciding not to ask, the Skeleton Principal muttered in a voice lost in memories.

Your upperclassmen didn’t like it very much.

“…”

“…”

Lee Han and Asan hurriedly began putting things away.

They didn’t want to stay still and end up hearing other stories.

* * *

“You’re alive!”

The friends who spotted the two returning after roughly checking the storage condition shouted with joy.

Asan spoke as if dumbfounded.

“It hasn’t even been an hour since we left…”

“That’s enough time to disappear from here to the punishment room.”

“Well, that’s true.”

While his friend was convinced, Lee Han explained the tasks the Skeleton Principal had assigned.

The students reacted exactly like Asan as soon as they heard.

“Huh? We’re struggling to survive ourselves, but we have to think about the new students?”

“We haven’t received anything from the upperclassmen, so tell the new students to survive on their own!”

“Right, right!”

‘How heartwarming, really.’

Lee Han thought Einroguard’s future was truly bright at his friends’ heartwarming reaction.

“E-everyone. Please calm down. Still, we can’t completely ignore the underclassmen who will enter next.”

Still, Tijiling, being a priest, felt it was somewhat wrong and tried to persuade her friends.

When the friends hesitated, Gainando stepped forward.

“No. We can not do it! Let’s all focus together and forget about the underclassmen!”

“Didn’t Gainando receive the most help from Wardanaz?”

Tijiling unconsciously wielded the truth to strike Gainando. Gainando panicked and waved his hands in denial.

“N-no? It’s not that much!”

“It’s true though.”

“Honestly, you would have starved to death without Wardanaz.”

“Those guys from other towers don’t even know!”

When the Black Turtle Tower and White Tiger Tower students offered their commentary, Gainando jumped up and down.

How much bullying had he endured while studying in the common room, and these guys who knew nothing!

“Hmm. In Gainando’s case, it’s true.”

“!?”

But the Blue Dragon Tower friends didn’t particularly take Gainando’s side either.

“Come to think of it, the new students won’t have Wardanaz either?”

“It would be quite difficult…”

“Ah. Let’s do it. We haven’t received anything from upperclassmen, but this much is nothing.”

The students except Gainando talked among themselves and readily entered the storage.

Thanks to the large amount of supplies secured last weekend, the first-year students were now more generous than anyone.

“Lee Han. Isn’t there someone who received more help than me? There should be at least one person? There must be at least one guy below me!”

Gainando grabbed the hem of Lee Han’s coat and whined. Lee Han ignored him and entered the storage.

* * *

Broken potions or artifacts were separately placed in wooden crates and taken out, while still usable notebooks, quills, and ink bottles were sorted separately…

“Should we leave this for the underclassmen to eat?”

“Hey… you’re really kind. Good. Then I’ll also leave this jar with candy.”

The first-year students secretly hid items here and there for the underclassmen who would come.

If hidden between books or among writing materials, the underclassmen could receive and notice them next year.

“…”

Adenart was lost in serious contemplation.

She was wondering whether 【Mages Executed for Using Evil Magic】 among the books on the shelf would be a good book for the underclassmen.

‘Should I remove it?’

“Imperial Princess. If you don’t feel like it, you don’t have to leave snacks. Gainando didn’t leave any either.”

Lee Han showed consideration for the princess who had been contemplating for a long time.

Indeed, Gainando had inserted a note saying ‘True snacks are food you find with your own strength’ and was getting hit by his friends one by one.

“…”

The princess immediately found her bag and took out a can. Then she donated it for the underclassmen.

“Why on earth?”

The princess donated two more chocolates then walked to another place. The followers admired her and spoke to Lee Han.

“Isn’t she truly admirable?”

“Uh, she is admirable, but there’s no need to force herself to do something she doesn’t want to…”

“What are you saying? Of course it’s because she’s thinking of the underclassmen.”

“Is that so?”

Lee Han nodded for now.

The followers weren’t very reliable, but in cases like this, they would know better than Lee Han.

‘Well, unlike Gainando, she’s a proper member of the Imperial Family, so she might care about appearances too.’

After finishing the conversation, Lee Han focused on the work. He put the blood-stained rusty sword in a crate, dispelled the magic on damaged scrolls then burned them…

“?”

Lee Han discovered a letter stuck in a hidden space behind the shelf.

New student who reads this, come to the 4th floor Flamingo Room by midnight.

-Written by a kind upperclassman

“What is this?”

“Isn’t it the Principal’s trap?”

“Suspicion is good, but suspecting everything in the world as the Principal’s trap seems a bit excessive…”

Lee Han and his friends put their heads together to ponder the identity of this letter.

“You can’t easily enter the 4th floor anyway. Telling them to come to the 4th floor is like telling them to die, isn’t it?”

“Right. It seems mean-spirited.”

“Gasp…! Good. I’ll also write a note telling them to come to the 5th floor…”

Lee Han hit Gainando once and voiced his doubt.

“Isn’t the letter quite old? At this level, the upperclassman who left it might have graduated.”

“Ah. You’re right. Too bad. Why would an upperclassman leave something like this? They can’t even make contact anyway.”

“No. There are ways to temporarily neutralize the magic the Principal cast.”

“…?”

The friends nearby were about to ask ‘Wardanaz, how do you know that?’ but stopped.

‘Well, it’s Wardanaz, so of course he’d know.’

Salko tapped the letter to see if there were any hidden characters. After confirming there were no special devices, Salko whispered so only Lee Han could hear.

“But Wardanaz. It might not be an upperclassman but something left behind.”

“Well, that’s true…”

It was confusing because it said ‘by midnight’, but it could actually have been left this way because the room closes after midnight.

And the upperclassman would have known that such a letter wasn’t a good means to meet someone directly.

Since this was a storage used for new student lectures, they couldn’t know when someone would discover it.

“So is it really valuable?”

“I think there’s a high possibility.”

“Hmm. This is a dilemma. We have plenty of supplies and next week is the exam, so I don’t want to do anything dangerous. Wait. Salko. Why have you been talking in that voice since earlier?”

“So the White Tiger Tower students can’t hear us.”

“…Still, we should go together.”

As Lee Han had expected, his friends’ reaction wasn’t particularly enthusiastic.

Half of his friends questioned why they needed to enter the dangerous 4th floor when they already had plenty to eat, drink, and wear, while the other half argued that Einroguard’s items could disappear at any time, so they should secure them as quickly as possible when they had the chance.

“That’s why we need to go now! You know that a day’s difference can be fatal at Einroguard!”

“If it’s been fine so far, a few days’ difference should be okay too. You’re just doing this because you don’t want to study for exams!”

“How, how dare you insult me like that?!”

While his friends were bickering, Yoner asked Lee Han.

“Lee Han. What do you think?”

“I think this week will be tough for me anyway. I have something to do.”

“Besides preparing for final exams?”

“I took on a commission to design Pocketknife Fortress, so I need to complete that.”

“…”

Yoner looked at his friend with pity.

‘Will this guy ever have a happy day?’

* * *

Contrary to Yoner’s concern, Lee Han surprisingly had no complaints about the Pocketknife Fortress design commission.

Unlike other assignments, didn’t this one offer silver coins as compensation?

‘Hmm. It would be really nice if Einroguard’s assignments also gave silver coins as rewards.’

Having thoughts that would make the Skeleton Principal curse if he heard them, Lee Han moved his quill pen.

“Mr. Wardanaz.”

“Professor Naiton.”

When Professor Alpen Naiton called him, Lee Han put down his quill and stood up.

Today was the day to initially meet with those who had commissioned the Pocketknife Fortress.

“How is your preparation going? I’m worried you might be overexerting yourself having to prepare for final exams at the same time.”

“Thank you for your concern. I’m doing my best to prepare.”

Lee Han answered insincerely and then hesitated.

Come to think of it, it was this professor who had made him overexert himself.

Wait?

“Yes. Actually, I believe Mr. Wardanaz is fully capable of handling this. That’s why I suggested it.”

“…Ah. Yes.”

They say you can’t spit on a smiling face, but Lee Han was confident he could spit on professors’ smiling faces.

Following Professor Alpen who was smiling contentedly, Lee Han entered the room. A mirror-like artifact was already operating.

-Professor Naiton. Good day to you.

“Yes. Good to see you all. If you’re ready, may I send over the design?”

-Yes. We’re waiting.

Lee Han waited for the other party’s reaction with a tense expression.

He thought he had written it well enough, but that was only by Lee Han’s standards – he couldn’t know if the other party thought the same.

What kind of reaction would come?

* * *

The 【Kudrin】 Stonemason Guild and 【Ida】 Carpentry Guild were those who had received the contract from the Empire to construct this Pocketknife Fortress.

Architects always had one goal.

To efficiently achieve the client’s required objectives within the given budget to the maximum extent possible.

Overall construction and sculpting were the job of these professionals, and what the Einroguard first-year student needed to do this time was calculate the mana consumption of artifacts installed within the fortress, secure manageable mana sources, and arrange the artifacts in appropriate positions so they wouldn’t malfunction with each other.

“Oh. Better than expected…”

“Is it because they’re from Einroguard?”

The guild members were impressed by the well-organized and easy-to-understand explanations.

Thanks to this, the Einroguard students’ external administrative evaluation rose significantly without them even knowing.

Though they had been worried at first, seeing this put them at ease. This was much more trustworthy than suspicious mages who bragged about building some tower or constructing some castle walls.

“Excellent. The positioning of the artifacts is very good.”

“Thank you.”

Lee Han relaxed slightly.

How many times had he repeated calculations to ensure the artifacts wouldn’t malfunction with each other from appropriate positions?

Work like this should have this much reward.

“However…”

“!”

Suddenly, the guild members’ faces became serious.

Lee Han tensed up again, not knowing what mistake he had made.

‘Damn. Was there really a mistake? The time… No. Excuses are meaningless. This is paid work for both sides.’

Since the other party wasn’t a professor or student, making excuses about taking multiple schools would be meaningless.

Lee Han resolved to identify and fix the problem as quickly as possible.

“What kind of…”

“Let me take a look too.”

Professor Alpen frowned and checked the report.

The professor, who had been reading quickly, soon found the problem and his expression became as serious as the guild members’.

“This is indeed a bit strange.”

“You noticed it too, Professor. There seems to be an error here.”

“Let’s check to be sure. Didn’t you notice anything strange here, Mr. Wardanaz? I’m talking about the mana consumption of the artifacts.”

Hearing Professor Alpen’s question, Lee Han made his mind work as fast as possible.

To pursue efficiency, the artifacts currently installed in the fortress had their mana consumption reduced to the minimum.

By saving in that way, they could operate with relatively fewer mana sources supplying power.

So Lee Han had used every method he knew to reduce it…

‘Should I have reduced it even more?’

Thinking that the skills of real professional mages were amazing, Lee Han asked honestly.

“I’m sorry. Is the consumption still too high?”

“No… I meant it’s too low. The artifacts wouldn’t consume this little.”

“Excuse me?”

Lee Han checked with confusion. There didn’t seem to be any particular mistake.

“Simple artifacts can be reduced to this extent.”

“???”

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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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