Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 812

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 812

‘I won.’

Lee Han let out a sigh of relief.

Bakwantalana and the Unbreakable One, who had only gotten cursed at for trying to tell the truth for no reason, quietly disappeared.

‘Sorry. When the truth comes out later, go ahead and curse at me.’

If the truth was revealed later and the two of them made a huge fuss shouting ‘Gonadaltes, come out!’, Lee Han resolved to quietly remain silent.

The reason Lee Han was able to win this time was because luck was on his side.

If the Baldrogard students hadn’t spread the rumor that they were 5th and 6th years…

‘Hmm. But they still wouldn’t have believed I did it, right? Since I’m still a 2nd year.’

In that regard, the Unbreakable One was a really peculiar fellow.

How could it suspect Lee Han himself in this situation?

Was its intuition sharp, or did it know something Lee Han didn’t…

‘Maybe I should have framed them as liars a bit more. I need to buy time for the rumors to spread.’

It didn’t matter if the truth came out later, but it should be after the rumors had spread somewhat.

Even just that much would make it much easier to make excuses, wouldn’t it?

“Junior. What are you doing here?”

“!”

Lee Han, who had entered an empty classroom to manipulate public opinion, was startled by the voice coming from in front of him.

Diret, who was passing through the corridor, had discovered his junior and asked a question.

“I was previewing next week’s magic!”

“…I, I see.”

‘Oops.’

From the pitying look his school senior was giving him, Lee Han realized he had made a slip of the tongue.

It was a weekend when a festival was going on, yet he was alone in a classroom previewing magic.

Anyone who saw this would think he was a person obsessed with magic.

“It was just for a moment. Just for a moment! I suddenly remembered something!”

“Well, people who suddenly remember something and study are rare… Right. Junior. Follow me for a moment. There’s something I want to show you.”

Diret gestured as if this was perfect timing.

The emotions usually visible on this crow beastkin student’s face were fatigue, exhaustion, irritation, and pity, but today, very rarely, joy and happiness had taken their place.

“??”

Lee Han was puzzled.

‘Did the Principal get locked up in the Empire’s prison or something?’

If not that, he couldn’t imagine seeing such a smile…

“Is something going on?”

“Huh? Right. Does it show that much? Hehe.”

‘Did he really get locked up??’

When Diret spoke in an excited voice, Lee Han became even more flustered.

Come to think of it, the Skeleton Principal hadn’t been seen around lately.

“Should I tell you? No. Junior. Wait a bit and see for yourself… No. Should I just tell you now?”

“…Are you alright?”

“Ah. I’m fine. I was rambling a bit, wasn’t I?”

Diret gave an embarrassed cough and collected his emotions.

No matter how excited he was, he had his dignity as a senior to maintain.

Once even his wings, which had been fluttering behind him, regained their composure, Diret began explaining again.

“Junior. Listen without being surprised. Got it? You can’t faint. Absolutely not.”

“…Did the Principal really get locked up?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing. Then what is it exactly?”

“…A donation came in for the dark magic school!!”

“Ah.”

Lee Han finally understood.

The news of Intarendals donating the Dalcard family’s gold coins must have just reached Diret.

“…Aren’t you happy?”

Diret stared at his junior with eyes mixed with disappointment and bewilderment.

He had definitely thought his junior would be crazy happy to hear this news.

His heart had already been breaking seeing his 2nd year junior earning gold coins with his small hands to fill the dark magic school’s treasury.

He had thought the dark magic school wouldn’t have to make him do such shabby things anymore…

“Wh-whoooooa! I’m so happy! What a miracle!”

Lee Han realized his mistake and boldly threw his body backward.

When he fell backward with a thud and shouted, the baby basilisk in his sleeve was startled and screamed.

“…You’re really bad at acting.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’m so surprised I can’t understand!”

“Hey. Cut it out. More importantly, did you already know?”

“Yes.”

“How?? I just heard about it too. You weren’t there, were you?”

“Hmm. You have to keep this secret.”

“I swear on my honor and heart. Now. Tell me.”

Lee Han briefly explained what had happened over the weekend.

The insane doppelganger revived an ancient subordinate, and the ancient subordinate used the family’s blood and wealth to gain entry…

Thud!

Diret fell backward in surprise.

“Uh, did you have a reason to act just now?”

“I really fell from surprise… You stupid junior!”

She grumbled and took Lee Han’s hand to get up from the corridor.

How long had it been since she’d seen him, and he’d already gone through such things.

“So I arrested him with the cooperation of the Death Knights. After that, we negotiated, and he agreed to learn remotely through this Echo Stone.”

“Wait. Then isn’t this the Dalcard family’s gold?”

“What nonsense are you saying, Senior? Are you ignoring the will of the honorable Lord Intarendals, a noble from the Margada Kingdom? If we arbitrarily return that to the Dalcard family… *sob*. I might face terrible retaliation.”

Lee Han covered his eyes and pretended to cry. Diret hurriedly comforted her junior.

“N-no. I was too insensitive. Right. You’re involved with crazy ancient beings.”

“Right?”

“…”

Diret glared at Lee Han, feeling like she’d been tricked, but Lee Han pretended not to notice and continued speaking.

“Anyway, the dark magic school legitimately received the gold coins. We were lucky.”

“Can this… really be called… lucky…?”

Diret agonized.

No matter how she thought about it, it felt like blood money received from selling out her junior.

The joy she had felt earlier upon hearing the donation news completely disappeared, leaving only a heavy heart.

“Wait. Junior. Did you show ancient magic to students from other schools?”

“…Pardon? I’m not sure. Perhaps Yuk…”

“Yukveltire came looking for me and kept bothering me, so I asked what was wrong. She said it was nothing, but that couldn’t be right, so I kept pressing her, and apparently there are rumors going around that she used forbidden ancient magic.”

“…Gasp!”

‘The rumors are spreading faster than I thought.’

Lee Han was slightly impressed.

The members of the Watchman Club seemed to have looser lips than expected. For it to already reach Yukveltire’s own ears.

“Isn’t that good? Isn’t her reputation spreading widely?”

“…Junior, you… that’s not the kind of thinking a normal 2nd year has…?”

“Actually, I heard it from Senior Falkrious.”

Lee Han didn’t hesitate to throw his senior under the bus.

He was gradually feeling like he was performing a precarious balancing act on a tightrope, but there was no choice.

“It wouldn’t be bad, but Yukveltire has stronger pride than you’d think. She gets really upset when she receives praise for something she didn’t do. Before, when she couldn’t finish an assignment within the time limit and collapsed, I secretly helped her, but she got so sulky that she didn’t talk to me for a whole week.”

“That’s completely trash behavior!”

“It’s, it’s not that bad… is it? Though she might do that to you…”

Diret wavered back and forth on whether he should defend what Yukveltire had done to his junior.

“…Anyway. You did it, right? The moment I heard it from Yukveltire, I thought of you, junior, but no matter what, I figured where would you have learned such ancient magic, so I just let it pass.”

“Yes. It’s true that I did it.”

Lee Han gave up and confessed.

Lee Han did his best to make excuses, saying the Insane Doppelganger had threatened him with a staff, so he had no choice.

The kind-hearted Diret felt heartbroken at his junior’s words.

“That damn doppelganger really…! I’m telling you we need to subjugate it quickly.”

“You’re absolutely right!”

“But junior. Could you explain in detail what kind of magic it was?”

Diret glanced at his junior with sparkling black eyes full of curiosity.

“…”

“Ah, no. Academic curiosity… ancient forbidden black magic… I was curious… No. Sorry. I made a mistake.”

* * *

Still, Lee Han eventually began explaining about the Dark Emperor.

About a third of the explanation consisted of cursing the Insane Doppelganger, Callarogard, and the Baldrogard students.

Diret, feeling guilty about extracting magic knowledge from a junior who had gone through hardships, made no corrections whatsoever.

“How does it make sense for fourth years to come here? These Baldro bastards! I heard before that Baldrogard fourth years were different, but I was completely deceived!”

“Ah. That’s… well. It’s not like there aren’t occasionally students in Baldrogard who come to their senses and seriously study magic…”

“Really?”

Lee Han showed a reaction as lukewarm as when he’d heard ‘there are kind professors in the Empire too.’

Do they really exist?

“…Those guys usually don’t come to play at Einroguard during festival periods like this.”

“…”

It was certainly true.

If there were Baldrogard students who came to their senses and seriously studied magic, they would treasure each day for studying, not hire people to come play at Einroguard.

“Anyway, this is how you summon it. From what I heard, a mage can also control a demigod’s authority. In the past, dark mages created a demigod that controlled water to build an underwater city…”

Diret scribbled down his junior’s words on paper with sparkling, bright eyes.

How many opportunities would there be to directly hear the lost secrets of ancient dark mages?

“Senior. Aren’t you enjoying this a bit too much?”

“…Kn, knowledge isn’t guilty.”

Clack!

At that moment, the Echo Stone glowed again and a vision flowed out.

The Insane Doppelganger glared at Lee Han as if finding it hard to believe and spoke.

You’ve managed to grasp the structure.

“My disciple accidentally touched this and that while exploring… I apologize.”

Is this a dark mages’ workshop?

Perhaps recognizing the atmosphere flowing from Professor Mortum’s tower, the Dark Tower, the Insane Doppelganger looked around.

It seems to have been made by a quite capable dark mage.

“!”

Lee Han was surprised by the Insane Doppelganger’s words.

It was rare to see the Insane Doppelganger speak so favorably of a mage.

‘Come to think of it, he’d be something like a distant disciple.’

Thinking about it, the doppelganger had separated from the Skeleton Principal long ago, and Professor Mortum was currently a disciple learning from the Skeleton Principal, so it wasn’t strange for the Insane Doppelganger to evaluate Professor Mortum’s magic favorably.

But there’s one strange thing.

“What would that be?”

It’s excessively impoverished. Has a band of thieves swept through here?

“…”

“…”

The two Black Magic Academy students fell silent simultaneously.

Lee Han didn’t have the confidence to explain directly, so he spoke indirectly.

“It seems that way.”

Those trash dare… Scoundrels. Find that band of thieves and make them pay the appropriate price.

“Yes! I’ll erase them from this world!”

Diret looked at his junior with pity.

Meanwhile, the Insane Doppelganger noticed Diret’s existence. After coldly examining him, he spoke icily.

Are you the workshop owner’s disciple? You’re quite capable too.

“No!”

Lee Han cried out in shock.

If the Insane Doppelganger took not only himself but also Diret as a disciple…

He was already sufficiently unfortunate as a fifth year student. That would be going too far.

What nonsense are you babbling?

“Weren’t you going to take him as a disciple?”

…Scoundrel. Babble nonsense one more time and I’ll turn your tongue to lead. Just because you see a useful stone on the roadside, would you take it as a disciple? That one is weak and lacks ruthless character to begin with. It’s a fatal flaw.

“That’s not really a compliment…”

Lee Han, who was about to object, hesitated.

‘Wait. Then what about me?’

While feeling displeased, the Insane Doppelganger asked again.

Who is the owner of this workshop?

“Professor Mortum.”

That one?

Diret answered instead.

Since this was an ancient being tormenting his junior, his voice was very blunt.

“A senior from the same academy.”

I see. I’ll defeat both of yo…

Pop!

Lee Han turned off the Echo Stone again.

“Hmph. Save your nonsense for the Antagondals.”

Seeing this, Diret, who had been watching, was actually flustered.

…Is it okay to do this to an ancient being?!

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————