Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 578

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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 578

Fortunately, the Skeleton Principal showed no particular reaction to the Death Knights’ attempts at sowing discord.

He was probably deep in thought about what would happen when he faced the Emperor.

Hmm… This is troubling.

After thinking deeply for a while, the Skeleton Principal let out a groan.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t see a future where meeting His Imperial Majesty with Lee Han would end well.

“If we just talk to Student Wardanaz properly… wouldn’t that work?”

Iwunrade had been watching carefully before cautiously speaking up.

In truth, Iwunrade didn’t really understand why the Skeleton Principal was so worried.

“Of course, he did show excessive activity for a new student during the second semester, but His Majesty would understand that generously. And what happened during summer vacation really couldn’t be helped.”

-Um. Lord Iwunrade. You do know about him catching the Sea Serpent, right?

-By the way, there’s more besides that.

“Pardon?”

Iwunrade hesitated.

After thinking for a moment, Iwunrade immediately said:

“If we talk to Student Wardanaz properly and everyone keeps their mouths shut, how would His Imperial Majesty find out?”

-He’s not an Einroguard graduate for nothing.

-Look at that wicked thinking.

The Death Knights murmured, but Iwunrade paid them no mind.

This was all for survival, wasn’t it?

Those who were slow to react couldn’t survive at Einroguard.

He naturally planned to keep everyone’s mouths shut. There was no need to worry about slip-ups from that Wardanaz kid anyway…

Many types of geniuses had entered Einroguard over the years, but geniuses like Lee Han who were quick-witted, sociable, and versatile in all fields were extremely rare.

Most geniuses typically had their abilities concentrated sharply in just one field they liked, so Lee Han’s well-roundedness stood out even more.

“Then wouldn’t that make it even better?”

That’s why you couldn’t be valedictorian.

‘No…’

Iwunrade felt wronged.

Did he have to be tormented about grades even after graduation?

-Master. I’m curious what you’re worried about.

-That’s right. If it’s Wardanaz, he’ll cooperate well if we explain the situation.

You might be right.

The Skeleton Principal readily admitted it.

Others were even more surprised by his attitude.

But his madness has aspects that are difficult for a benevolent Archmage like myself to predict…

‘What nonsense slander.’

Iwunrade inwardly scoffed.

The Skeleton Principal talking about others’ madness.

Moreover, to an innocent new student like Student Wardanaz?

You’re probably cursing me in your mind right now, Iwunrade.

“N-no, I’m not!”

I understand. Someone like you who couldn’t even be valedictorian wouldn’t know such heights. But to me, his madness is…

BOOM!!!

An explosion sounded from the Main Building courtyard.

The Principal, Iwunrade, and the Death Knights approached the window and looked down.

A golem that looked like it was made by haphazardly patching together all sorts of scrap was making bizarre sounds as it advanced forward.

-Professor Verdus. Please help! We need to stop it!

-Why? It’s rolling along fine. If we stop it now, won’t that damage the golem?

-If it continues like this, it’ll smash everything in its path!

-Why are you saying that now? You knew this would happen.

-No, you said it would be fine, Professor! You told me to make it because it would be fine…

-Right. I said it’s fine, didn’t I? Ignore it and finish making the golem. Don’t stop.

“…That, that thing. Did he make a golem out of scrap??”

Iwunrade doubted his eyes.

He too had taken the exam during his first-year finals where they made improvised artifacts from discarded and broken items, but at most it was purification artifacts or location detection artifacts.

No matter how low-grade and temporary, for a mere first-year student to make a golem with a power source that could roll around.

And with scrap materials???!

See that?

The Skeleton Principal said without surprise.

That’s his madness.

Even though he seemed fine on the surface, Wardanaz’s problem was that he would do crazy things whenever the opportunity arose.

If they went to the Imperial Palace and some bureaucrat jokingly said, ‘Since you learned from Lord Gonadaltes, you could catch a demon duke too, haha,’ he might respond with ‘Understood, I’ll try to catch one’ and start sword dancing.

‘And the Emperor and bureaucrats would hold me responsible.’

Thinking about how everyone from bureaucrats to the Emperor would say things like ‘What kind of education have you been giving?’ and ‘That shameless Archmage is abusing his disciple with ancient methods’ made his non-existent heart pound with injustice.

Why was it his fault when his disciple arbitrarily did crazy things?

“Shouldn’t you stop it? There’ll be an accident if that golem explodes!”

The reason golems were dangerous was because of their power source.

To move such a large body inevitably required more power, which naturally meant using quite powerful artifacts as power sources…

…If you made even the slightest mistake or touched something wrong, articles like 【Another Explosion Accident at Golem Guild!】 and 【City Council States Golem Guild Should Be Banished to City Outskirts…】 would just appear in the Empire newspaper.

Leave it alone. He’ll handle it well on his own.

“No… we have to meet His Majesty soon, so we should stop it!”

No matter how he thought about it, experiencing an explosion accident a few weeks before meeting His Imperial Majesty couldn’t be emotionally good.

How great would the atmosphere be if he faced the Emperor and said, ‘I experienced an explosion accident a few weeks ago’?

Creeeeak-!

However, the golem lost power and stopped precisely, making Iwunrade’s outcry meaningless.

In the distance, the new student from the Wardanaz family who had been standing on the golem that stopped in the Main Building courtyard landed with curses.

In his hand was the golem’s power source.

Amazingly, that new student had extracted the power source from the moving golem’s body!

It was an incredible feat that was hard to believe even seeing it directly.

-I’ll never trust Professor’s suggestions again!

-Huh? Why? Why are you angry? You made the golem thanks to me, didn’t you?

-You call this making it! We almost died together!

-But you stopped it well, didn’t you?

The conversation ended there.

It was because other friends hurriedly stopped Lee Han from rushing at Professor Verdus.

-You need to endure it! Wardanaz!

-It’s a professor! A professor!!

* * *

Lee Han had the same thought he’d had hundreds of times since entering Einroguard.

‘To trust a professor!’

“…Cheer up, Wardanaz.”

“At least the exam is over.”

“Right. The exam is over.”

It had been a mistake to accept Professor Verdus’s suggestion during the final exam.

-It’s finished, Professor.

-Huh? This is it?

-…Didn’t I make it well? It can defend and everything…

-Come on. Let’s make something more interesting. We can make it.

-Wait. You let other students pass just like that, so why only me…

-Look at this. See this? What do you think this is?

-I’m not sure?

-This is a part that was used as a wooden golem’s leg. And this? This is a bronze cleaning golem’s arm. Also… here it is. This is a close-combat golem’s helmet. Now. You get it?

-…I still don’t understand??

-Are you stupid? I’m telling you to combine these to make a golem!

-…What?? Is that even possible? I’ve never made a golem before, and isn’t a golem something you shouldn’t make like patchwork…

-It’s fine. It’s fine. Look. There are magic circles remaining here. Making something by combining parts like this is much easier than making it from scratch.

-Assembly would certainly be easier than creating something from nothing, but isn’t that only when they’re made from the same golem originally? I heard that combining parts from different golems could cause unknown adverse effects. No, it probably wouldn’t even work in the first place…

-No. It’s fine. I looked and it seemed fine.

-Is it really okay?

-Of course!

-…Well, I’ll try it once then…

Lee Han, swayed by Professor Verdus’s wicked and irresponsible whispers, somehow bound, combined, and connected parts from different golems.

The errors caused by different mana circuits and magic circle calculations were simply dealt with by forcing mana into those parts and crushing them together.

After somehow applying various repairs to the half-broken power source, he injected mana with the sole intention of just making it work…

-It’s moving! No, I really didn’t think it would actually move…

-I told you to make it.

-Wait. Professor. The golem is moving on its own, what about the activation words or command words?

When making a golem, inserting activation words or command words inside to operate and control the golem was basic common sense.

In the case of a chimera golem assembled from different parts like this time, Professor Verdus should have figured it out in advance.

-There’s nothing like that?

-What?

-I said there’s nothing like that. We connected different parts, so there’s no way such a thing would exist.

-Then how do we command it?

-We have to make it and put it in now.

-…But it’s moving right now?

-Make it from above and insert it.

-I’ve never learned that!

-Really? Here’s a book.

-Professor Verdus. Please help me! We need to stop that thing!

-Why? It’s rolling along fine. If we stop it now, the golem will be damaged?

…This is how he ended up experiencing such things.

It was fortunate that he could contact the golem’s mana circuit, inject mana, forcibly stop its movement, and barely remove the power source – otherwise either the forest would have been destroyed, Lee Han would have been destroyed, or Professor Verdus would have been destroyed.

“I should have just submitted it as is.”

‘Isn’t there something wrong with Wardanaz too?’

Salko thought seriously.

If it had been Salko, he would never have accepted it when Professor Verdus said such things.

Assembling scrap parts to operate a golem was an impossible request.

“Salko? What are you thinking about?”

“Oh, no. I was thinking that Professor Verdus is truly an evil person. If it were our stonemason guild, we would have made such a person kneel and placed a huge rock on top to subject them to crushing punishment!”

“Oh… such a good method?”

Lee Han showed an interested expression. Seeing that, Salko newly felt that there was deep hatred in his friend’s heart.

“Wardanaz. Let’s go prepare for Professor Lightningstep’s exam.”

“Right. Let’s forget about Professor Verdus.”

Lee Han’s expression softened a bit with his friends’ encouragement.

Then students who hadn’t heard about the enchantment magic appeared from afar.

“Hey. I heard you guys caused an accident during your exam?”

“What mistake did you make for a golem to crawl out? You should study enchantment magic properly… Aaah! Aah! Wardanaz! Why are you doing this! What did we do wrong!”

The students who had just tried to tease them lightly fled in terror from the menacingly flying water orbs.

They never even considered that it might be Wardanaz’s mistake.

* * *

“It’s a pegasus!!!!”

Even before arriving at the examination hall, they could hear other students’ excited voices.

The friends walking with Lee Han also widened their eyes at the mention of pegasus.

“Pegasus?!”

“That pegasus…!?”

The Empire had various rare magical beasts, but among them, pegasus was extremely popular.

Various flying mounts, like wyverns or griffins, were constantly rumored in the Imperial Newspaper to threaten and devour their masters…

…but pegasus had a relatively gentlemanly and courteous nature.

“How did Professor Lightningstep manage to borrow such pegasus?”

“The professor is one of the Empire’s leading explorers. She must have borrowed them through connections.”

The students looked at Professor Lightningstep with eyes full of respect.

Such pegasus were worth their weight in gold, making them hard to obtain even with money.

Yet she had prepared them just for the students.

“Don’t look at me like that. I was just lucky.”

“Professor… I respect you the most…!”

“It would be better not to say that in front of other professors? Now. The exam you need to take today is to persuade these pegasus. By the way, don’t be arrogantly mistaken. Pegasus may be kinder than wyverns, but they’re definitely not pushovers.”

Lee Han wasn’t surprised.

Pegasus might not directly devour their masters, but they weren’t easy enough to carry just anyone on their backs.

The Empire’s magical beasts always judged their master’s qualifications, and to gain recognition, one had to pass their test.

‘Pegasus… it was diligence and honor.’

How well had one cared for animals over the year, and how honorably had one behaved normally?

Pegasus could glimpse those traces in a qualified person’s soul.

Lee Han’s eyes met with one pegasus. Then it blinked very favorably and sent him a gaze. It was a look that showed it knew what Lee Han had been doing.

‘It recognizes me!’

Grateful for everything he had done so far, he was about to step forward when Professor Lightningstep called Lee Han.

“Wait. Wardanaz.”

“Yes?”

“You can’t go near them.”

“Why not!?”

“Well, because Ponrig would get jealous…?”

“…”

Lee Han was speechless at the unexpected words.

From inside his sleeve, the basilisk made a sound as if it strongly agreed.

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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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