Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 703

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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 703

If it had been another student, they would have asked what kind of nonsense that was, but Diret understood quickly, befitting a 5th year student.

“Did the Principal perhaps not give it to you because you have too much mana?”

“Yes.”

“…”

An awkward silence lingered.

Diret deeply pondered how to comfort this already struggling junior, but nothing came to mind.

“I’m fine, Senior.”

“…Hey. You can’t be fine… What do you mean you’re fine with this?”

“I’ll be able to avoid it. …Probably. And Senior, you’re also in 5th year. I can do it too.”

“That’s not the same thing…”

Diret was about to say ‘How is my voluntarily chosen 5th year the same as the high difficulty forced upon you by the Skeleton Principal’s malice’ but gave up.

Pointing it out in detail would only make the junior feel worse.

“Sigh. Right. Let’s stop talking about this. Nothing will change anyway. The reason I came here is because I’m worried about you.”

“Um, exactly which part are you worried about?”

“…”

There were so many things to point out that even the junior couldn’t guess which one it was, so Diret pressed his fingertips to his forehead.

“…Let’s start with the lecture schedule first. I don’t know if we can finish everything today though.”

“Ah. But Senior, I have something urgent to do today.”

“Starting today? What is it? Research? A commission? Did some cra… insane professor call for you?”

Even as Diret asked, he felt an ominous feeling.

With this junior, it wouldn’t be strange if there was a professor calling for him from the first day.

“No. I’m going to move some smuggled goods I brought in.”

“…Are you serious?”

Diret looked at Lee Han as if he couldn’t believe it.

To think he had brought in smuggled goods when there was that ridiculously difficult inspection this time.

It was simply unbelievable.

“How did you bring them in?”

“I was lucky.”

“This inspection wasn’t at a level you could pass with just luck… Anyway, good job. Right. I’m glad you succeeded. I’ll help you move them.”

Since it wasn’t particularly difficult work, Diret readily agreed to help.

He planned to have the conversation he needed to have while helping.

“There’s quite a lot though?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll have my summoned creatures do it anyway.”

“Then I’ll gratefully accept. Oh right. Senior, you should take some too.”

“It’s fine.”

Diret waved his hand.

What would be the point of coveting a 2nd year’s amateur smuggled goods?

From 5th year onwards, students became about half-way close to being professors, so the need to desperately scramble for supplies was greatly reduced.

Besides, with the inspection difficulty being high this year, the amount brought in probably wasn’t much anyway…

* * *

“…Are you a mage?”

“Senior, you’re also a mage.”

Diret was so shocked that he blurted out a question no mage would ask.

Diret felt bewildered by the amount of smuggled goods that seemed like it had been brought in using several carts.

“How on earth did you…”

“I’ll explain it to you.”

“No. Later. I’m curious, but if I listen to that today, all our time will be gone.”

Diret shook his head and wings to focus.

Honestly, he was curious, but today he had come to help his worrisome junior, not to hear the legend of Einroguard smuggling.

Perhaps next time when he had time.

‘…Would I have time?’

For a moment, Diret felt the sorrow of a 5th year who couldn’t be confident about having leisure time, and his shoulders drooped.

It was perfectly normal for 5th years to not be able to come outside after today.

“Hide in the darkness and move the luggage.”

“Keep watch ahead.”

“Sense hostility.”

Diret summoned various undead summons to prepare for the work.

It was a simple evening stroll, but one could never let their guard down at Einroguard.

From hostility detection to vision expansion, stealth and camouflage were basic.

“Is there anything I can help you with?”

“It’s fine. I have my dignity as a senior. Did you prepare the lecture schedule?”

While the porter golems followed behind, Diret walked ahead down the corridor and asked a question.

“Yes.”

“As expected. You used Calendarium, right? That giant clock artifact Yukveltire made.”

“You know about it too, Senior?”

“Of course I know. It’s such a convenient artifact. There was even a classmate who tried to steal that artifact.”

“…”

It was a sordid history of the upperclassmen that he didn’t want to know about.

When Diret gestured for the lecture schedule, Lee Han took out the schedule he had written down.

“I received it like this for now.”

“Hmm… It’s almost identical. I was worried, but as expected, the artifact Yukveltire made is accurate.”

“It did malfunction a few times though.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I was taking too many lectures…”

“…”

Diret pretended not to hear and returned the topic to its original course.

“Still, what’s important is that it was completed accurately!”

“Yes. …Wait, Senior. What do you mean by almost identical?”

Lee Han felt puzzled.

Saying it was identical meant there had to be something to compare it to.

But Lee Han’s lecture schedule was made today while talking with Yukveltire, so what was it being compared to?

“Ah. The one the professors made.”

“…?”

Lee Han tilted his head.

He couldn’t understand what his senior was saying.

“The professors… made what?”

“Huh? Well, the professors consult with each other so your lecture schedules and content don’t overlap, right?”

“What?!?!?!”

For the first time in a long while, Lee Han felt the emotion of shock.

Where had such an evil conspiracy been secretly plotted?

“You, you didn’t know?”

“Of course I didn’t know!! Where on earth was such an evil conspiracy being plotted?”

Since his junior’s momentum was so fierce, Diret answered in a slightly flustered voice.

“In the faculty lounge?”

“…”

Come to think of it, there was no way the professors would have their conversations in some evil demon archduke’s castle.

Of course they would be having conversations in the faculty lounge.

Lee Han regained some composure and asked.

“Please tell me in detail. Senior. About the conspiracy those most wicked demons of hell are plotting.”

“Uh… it’s more like a conversation the professors had…”

Among the privileges Diret gained upon advancing to 5th year was the right to visit the faculty lounge.

In fact, it was closer to an obligation than a privilege. Since he had to visit professors to report on everything from research to lecture-related matters, it was even more so.

And this time when Diret visited the faculty lounge, he discovered one peculiar room.

Actually, it wasn’t so much that the room itself was peculiar, but rather what was inside it.

There was nothing but a single bulletin board made of carved wood, sitting alone in the room.

Monday

9:00~11:00

11:00~1:00

1:00~3:00

Everyone, it seems like nothing has changed from last year?

Really? My lecture order changed though?

…I was talking about break time. Professor Verdus.

We didn’t have any last year either and it was fine, wasn’t it?

I don’t usually want to take Bibble’s side, but this year I really have no choice. Even putting in only the absolutely necessary lectures, it’s like this. Didn’t Professor Garcia also remove a few easy lectures?

I removed those because student Lee Han told me to let him rest!

That would be the case. But you could have removed difficult lectures instead, yet you removed easy ones, didn’t you Professor Garcia. Admit it. You’re essentially similar to the other professors at heart.

Below that was a huge smashed mark where someone had punched it with their fist.

And below that…

…Everyone please refrain from provoking Professor Garcia.

“So there was this kind of bulletin board.”

‘…Strange? Why does this seem familiar?’

Lee Han felt an odd sense of familiarity, but now wasn’t the time to figure out what it was.

“So? What happened?”

“I asked the professor about it. Since the professors kept fighting each other to steal time slots, they changed to this method of reaching agreements from the beginning.”

It was quite a rational approach.

Instead of professors despicably extending their lecture times arbitrarily and interfering with the next professor’s time, they could prepare appropriate lectures within pre-agreed time slots.

…If only Lee Han’s free will wasn’t completely absent!

“But why are they making agreements among themselves?!”

“That… that’s true.”

Diret was left speechless by his junior’s all-too-valid point.

Come to think of it, he should have felt something was strange back then in the faculty lounge, but since his junior was such an unusual existence, he had just thought ‘Well, I guess they have to do it like that to match his school schedule’ and left.

“But junior, isn’t your lecture schedule almost predetermined anyway? Excluding easy lectures and focusing mainly on difficult ones…”

“I could remove difficult lectures too.”

“What nonsense are you talking about? You should take lectures that help you as much as possible.”

Diret dismissed it as if telling him not to say such ridiculous things.

Lee Han was newly reminded that the senior in front of him was also a 5th year student.

“So the schedule I received from the artifact matches the schedule the professors made.”

“Yeah…”

“…”

Lee Han became dejected, which was rare for him.

Of course, given his pursuit of efficiency, Lee Han wouldn’t have arbitrarily changed his lecture schedule anyway, but he hadn’t expected his fate to already be predetermined.

Diret panicked and flapped his wings when his usually spirited and confident junior became dejected.

“But, but. Here… there’s an empty corner here… ah, there’s no empty corner. But these lectures here weren’t chosen by the professors, so you should be able to swap them with other lectures you want!”

“…Thank you. Senior.”

Lee Han smiled bitterly and pulled himself together.

Though his chest ached with a sense of defeat, he couldn’t keep going like this.

‘Right. I can’t be discouraged.’

It might have been slightly better if he hadn’t known, but ultimately almost nothing would change.

He would just attend all the lectures he needed to and achieve the best grades possible.

“Are you feeling a bit better?”

“Yes. Senior. This way.”

Lee Han summoned a water orb in the air, grabbed it with his hand, and walked a few steps on the ceiling with his body inverted.

While Diret watched speechlessly, Lee Han continued walking. Then he recited an incantation.

“As an honorable Einroguard student, I swear that I will never trust professors, never be bribed, and never inform on others. Especially I will be even more suspicious of the Principal…”

“…”

At his junior’s resentful incantation, Diret blinked and then came to his senses, looking around.

‘Was there a hidden room here?’

It wasn’t surprising that Diret didn’t know about it. The hidden rooms in Einroguard were probably more numerous than the Skeleton Principal’s age.

“How did you find out about this room?”

“I met a graduated senior in the punishment room before, and he told me about it because he felt sorry for me.”

“Uh…”

At the unexpectedly tragic reason, Diret averted his gaze.

Well, if Diret had met his junior in the punishment room, he probably would have given him something too.

It was a level of pitifulness that most prisoners’ stories couldn’t even compete with.

Rumble!

‘This is pretty nice?’

Diret admired the neatly organized interior of the secret base.

Since it had been used by former graduates, it was quite a decent place. Complex traces of magic remained here and there.

“Could you put the smuggled goods you brought in this storage over here?”

“Sure.”

Diret had his summoned creatures organize the luggage. The smuggled goods were stacked neatly in the storage corner of the base.

‘This seems more abundant than some cooking club storage.’

“What’s this…?”

While examining the traces of magic, Diret discovered an empty notebook fixed on the table.

It was a type of notebook he had seen many times before.

“What is this? I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.”

“Ah. That’s the communication artifact that senior told me to use to find out if I’m taking black magic.”

“…”

Diret inwardly regretted bringing it up for no reason.

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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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