Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 574

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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 574

-It wouldn’t be easy to become friends with a race as difficult as sirens.

Giants weren’t exactly a race advantaged in making friends with others either, but that was only due to their physical characteristics.

If one could just endure those physical traits, there were no beings as pure-hearted as giants.

However, sirens had very picky temperaments.

Among the various races living in Einroguard’s vast nature, the fact that extremely few races were friendly with sirens said it all.

-Well, he did become friends with giants too.

The boy before him was a boy with rare affinity who had a history of befriending giants.

Sometimes there were mages like this.

Instead of subduing nature with cold wisdom and powerful magic, mages who became friends with nature through warm hearts and kind souls.

Usually such mages were beloved by the essence of nature—that is, spirits.

-He’s probably loved by spirits too?

“Uh, well, um, that, sort of, I suppose.”

Lee Han slipped one hand into his sleeve and pushed the baby basilisk deeper inside. The basilisk that had been dozing made hissing sounds in protest.

-It’s good that you’re close with the sirens. Go and relay a request for me. The giants are trying to pass through the passage, so ask them to help prevent any unnecessary conflicts.

“Yes. I understand.”

Lee Han answered confidently.

His conscience pricked him a little when answering about spirits, but not about sirens.

Because he really was close with them.

Of course, their first meeting had involved a slight misunderstanding.

He had thought they were aquatic creatures he needed to catch for Professor Lightningstep’s test.

But after that, they had defeated Mac together and solved the Skeleton Principal’s stormy picnic together…

‘We’re definitely close at this point.’

Unlike with the spirits, this was genuinely being close.

Lee Han descended into the passage with confidence.

* * *

“Are you there?”

-♪↗♪↗↗!

-♬♩↗↗↗!

The sirens who had been singing while sitting on the cool bedrock of the underground passage screamed upon seeing Lee Han and dove into the water.

Splash!

Splash!!

“…Huh. I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else! I’m not a suspicious person. I’m that first-year student from before!”

Lee Han thought the sirens had made a mistake and called out loudly again.

“I’m the mage who defeated Mac with you before!”

The sirens in the water rapidly moved their fins, heading for deeper waters.

Their determination to escape from here as quickly as possible was palpable.

“You’ve got the wrong person! I’m the mage who joined forces with you during that stormy picnic! Don’t you remember? That time during Professor Lightningstep’s test when I grabbed you by the scruff of the neck…”

Lee Han paused mid-sentence.

This wasn’t exactly a story worth bringing up.

“Don’t you remember?”

Silence.

“Ah. Are the sirens I met not here? Then please relay a message for me.”

Silence.

Not a single siren answered, remaining silent and refusing to come out of the water.

After continuing to call out, Lee Han realized the sirens’ wariness was stronger than expected.

“Please just relay the message.”

Silence.

“…If you don’t relay the message immediately, I’ll fill this entire underground passage with lightning.”

Lee Han resorted to a show of force.

As Perkuntra’s sigil flashed with sparks on the back of his hand, the sirens trembled at the presence emanating from that sigil.

As beings of the same spiritual lineage, they instinctively sensed how powerful the spirit this mage had contracted with was.

Of course, Lee Han had no real intention of summoning Perkuntra.

‘If a siren who knows me comes, the misunderstanding will be cleared up.’

The sirens here didn’t know who Lee Han was, but surely if a siren who recognized his face appeared, the misunderstanding would be cleared…

Swoooosh!

“!”

How long had it been since he spoke? A siren suddenly poked her head out of the water.

She appeared so quickly that it seemed like she hadn’t heard the news from afar and come here, but had just been hiding underwater and emerged.

Her face looked familiar, so she must be the siren he had met before. Lee Han greeted her warmly.

“Good to see you. How have you been?”

-…

“I asked how you’ve been?”

-…

“You don’t need to answer verbally. I can understand if you just nod.”

Still, the siren didn’t respond.

Instead, she just glared at Lee Han with very displeased eyes.

‘Did I make a mistake?’

Lee Han was puzzled.

Perhaps the siren in front of him wasn’t the siren Lee Han had met.

Maybe he had mistaken her because she looked familiar, but she was actually a siren he had never met…

“I asked for the siren who met me to come. If you keep being this uncooperative, I have my own ideas. Stop fooling around and relay the message quickly!”

Lee Han pointed his staff threateningly.

Then the siren very slowly pointed to herself.

“You?”

Nod.

“Then why didn’t you answer?”

The siren shrugged her shoulders.

Lee Han didn’t understand but just let it go.

There were more pressing matters to deal with.

“Siren, wait. What should I call you? Last time I was underwater so I was too distracted.”

The siren crossed her arms and stared at Lee Han.

There was contempt mixed in her gaze.

It was contempt questioning whether a mere human could even pronounce a siren’s name.

“Ah. Your name must be hard to pronounce.”

When she didn’t respond, Lee Han came up with his own explanation.

Among the Empire’s rare or unusual races, there were those who had their own unique languages and communication methods.

After all, didn’t sirens communicate through song instead of common Imperial language?

Racial differences should be respected.

“Then would it be alright if I made up a human-friendly nickname? So I can call you from now on. Hmm. Gainando. How about Gainando?”

The siren looked disgusted and pulled out a slate.

Then she hurriedly wrote ‘Parthenope’ in crooked handwriting.

“Parthenope. I see. Anyway, Parthenope. Considering what happened before and how we’ve become quite close, I have a favor to ask, trusting in our friendship.”

-??????????????

Parthenope couldn’t understand what he was talking about and gaped her mouth.

She could have refuted one line of nonsense, but hearing multiple lines at once, she didn’t know where to start refuting.

“I’m trying to lead the giants through the passage, and I was wondering if you could help keep other races or monsters from the area from coming? If a fight breaks out, the passage could collapse.”

The Siren who was writing dropped her slate.

Lee Han kindly picked up the slate and returned it to her.

“Are you listening?”

Parthenope hurriedly tried to write that it wasn’t possible.

But suddenly she had doubts.

Was this mage in front of her the type of person who would quietly retreat when told no?

-…

Absolutely not.

If uncontrolled giants came rushing into the underground passage…

The image of the underground passage being destroyed and collapsing vividly appeared in the Siren’s mind.

I’ll help!!!

“Thank you.”

Lee Han was pleased with Parthenope’s answer.

As expected, now that they had become close, the Siren’s response didn’t disappoint Lee Han.

It was completely different from those spirits.

* * *

-Ugh. It’s a fishman.

-It’s not a fishman, it’s a type of mermaid. Ikurusha said so.

-What’s the difference between the two?

-Uh…

-It’s complicated. Let’s just call them fish.

The giants splashed through the flooded water of the underground passage.

The water was quite deep, but for the giants it was shallow enough to walk through.

The Sirens each took charge of one of the spider web-like side paths branching off from the underground passage to prevent any possible intrusion by others.

-♬♩♩♩♩…

-♩♪♪…

When the sorrowful singing voices of the Sirens were heard, the giants grimaced and covered their ears.

-Ugh! I hate it!

-Fish songs make me feel sick!

‘Do they feel it instinctively?’

Lee Han was amazed by the giants’ reaction.

Though not as much as Lee Han, the giants’ resistance was famous. That resistance was clearly making them react to the Sirens’ singing in this way.

Of course, the Sirens were just as displeased as the giants.

The descendants of spirits who took pride in their songs couldn’t possibly look favorably upon giants who covered their ears saying ‘Ugh! It makes me sick!’

The Sirens looked at the giants with contemptuous eyes.

“Can’t you make the singing inaudible?”

Parthenope, who was pulling Lee Han’s boat from the front, kindly gave advice.

Seeing the Siren pretend to strangle her own neck with both hands, Lee Han regretted asking.

‘She really hates the giants.’

Unlike Lee Han, the Siren truly hated the giants, and there was nothing Lee Han could do about it.

If he interfered carelessly, Lee Han might also earn their resentment.

“Um… would it be okay if I sang?”

-???

Parthenope looked at Lee Han with a gaze of shock.

She couldn’t understand what this mage was thinking.

She became afraid that he might drink a transformation potion and hide among the Sirens.

A crazy mage could do anything.

Lee Han, noticing the meaning in her gaze, made an excuse.

“It’s not just any song.”

Bard Ifadur and the Skeleton Principal.

Lee Han had worked hard to establish the basic structure of music magic while traveling with both of them.

Though the results were still too weak to be called ‘magic’, he could still sing a few songs that had some effect.

“Since it contains mana, I thought it might be able to block the Sirens’ songs at least a little.”

Parthenope didn’t stop him. She nodded as if to say ‘try it if you want to.’

Lee Han, interpreting that gesture as encouragement, cleared his throat and began to sing.

“Long, long ago there was an Orc with a hoe, the Orc’s field was flooded by heavy rain, go to the field, go to the field…”

-?!

Parthenope was startled.

Surprisingly, this young mage’s song was pushing back the Sirens’ songs!

The Sirens’ songs that had been affecting the giants around them were losing power and fading away as distant echoes.

Parthenope blinked several times and listened carefully, but the phenomenon didn’t change.

-Mage! Mage!

“Oh. Is it working?”

-The fish songs are better!

-The lyrics are too unpleasant!

“No…”

Lee Han was flustered by the giants’ reaction.

It was surprising that it worked, but to think they’d dislike it because of the lyrics even though it was effective.

Why on earth?

“Aren’t the lyrics good? Ah. Maybe it’s because you don’t know what kind of song this is. It’s a song about a legendary Orc Farmer, who kept plowing his field steadfastly despite all kinds of natural disasters until even demons gave up. It’s educational…”

-We hate work songs!

-If the mage keeps singing songs like that, we won’t walk!

The giants stopped walking and threw a tantrum.

Lee Han felt wronged.

‘It’s a good song though.’

But now that he knew it was effective, he just needed to change the song. Lee Han tried a few more songs he remembered.

A song about a Dwarven Stonemason who never stopped swinging his hammer even when his fingers were cut off (the giants booed), a song about a Librarian who collected so many books in his manor that even his bed disappeared and he ended up sleeping on books (only one giant liked it)…

“…Oh, there goes a knight, shot by an arrow and dies, struck by a mace and dies, stabbed by a sword and dies, pierced by a spear and dies…”

-Good song!

-This is what we wanted! The mage is the best!

-The knight dies! The knight dies!

-The knight gets trampled to death! The knight gets gored by a sheep and dies!

“…”

The giants liked it so much they changed the lyrics themselves and sang enthusiastically.

When the loud-voiced giants sang the song with completely wrong pitch and rhythm loud enough to echo through the passage, the Sirens monitoring the side paths covered their ears and squeezed their eyes shut.

Their expressions looked so agonized they seemed ready to end their own lives.

“…It would have been different with a different song.”

Lee Han made an excuse to Parthenope.

It was only because the giants liked strange songs; if it had been the song about the Orc Farmer from earlier, the Sirens might have found it tolerable.

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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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