Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 840

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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 840

“Ah, that’s not it.”

Having been hit right on target, Lee Han’s lie came half a beat too late.

Professor Garcia grumbled as if she knew everything.

“You don’t need to cover for her, Lee Han. Lady Ragesa has always been like that. She’s the type who says it’s no fun if she doesn’t torment students.”

‘Good grief.’

Lee Han was dumbfounded.

If you excluded Professor Garcia, what value did Einroguard’s faculty even have?

It was truly dangerous to say, but they might even be worse than Baldrogard.

“Please ignore such nonsensical talk.”

“I am doing that, Lee Han. Now then, shall we have our test?”

“…Yes.”

“Just kidding. There’s no test.”

The lecture 【Understanding Very Difficult and Abstruse Secret Magic (Those Without Confidence Should Not Come)】 didn’t particularly give pop quizzes.

In Professor Garcia’s view, this lecture didn’t need to create separate pop quizzes to test students.

“Professor!”

“You’re happy, right?”

“Well, I am happy, but I’m worried about you, Professor. Won’t the Principal send you to the Punishment Room?”

“…”

Professor Garcia’s heart ached at the sight of her disciple who had already become too mature for a 2nd year.

“I won’t go, so don’t worry.”

“Really won’t go? Professor Verdus goes to the Punishment Room when he skips tests arbitrarily, doesn’t he?”

‘Damn it.’

Professor Garcia cursed Professor Verdus inwardly.

He was really teaching the student some great things.

“Professor Verdus, as you know, has his… um… purpose…”

“You mean that purpose of wanting to abandon students and only research his own magic?”

“…Thank you so much for being specific, Lee Han. Anyway, Professor Verdus goes to the Punishment Room often because he has many prior offenses. I have no prior offenses.”

No matter how much the Skeleton Principal enjoyed sending someone to the Punishment Room, he didn’t send them there without reason.

This was especially true for the faculty. If one was missing, there would immediately be a gap in lectures.

So the Skeleton Principal sent them to the Punishment Room based on cold judgment criteria.

Professor Verdus skipped a pop quiz -> Since it’s Professor Verdus, he must have done it with evil intentions, so off to the Punishment Room

Professor Garcia skipped a pop quiz -> Since it’s Professor Garcia, she must have done it with good intentions, so no problem

“It’s like this.”

‘No way. He’s unexpectedly fair?’

Lee Han was slightly impressed.

As befitting a Principal, he was quite impartial in such matters.

“And if I go to the Punishment Room, there will be many gaps in Einroguard’s affairs… For similar reasons, 5th Year Students rarely go either.”

“What about Professor Verdus?”

“The Professor doesn’t leave much of a trace even when he’s absent anyway.”

“…”

Lee Han was speechless.

Just how much was he slacking off…!

“Thank you, Professor.”

“Hey. There’s nothing for you to thank me for, Lee Han. I decided this because I thought a test wasn’t necessary. You’ll be busy this week anyway, so at least rest comfortably during today’s lecture.”

Professor Garcia offered freshly brewed coffee.

Today, rather than lecturing, she planned to ask a bit about how Lee Han had been doing.

“Come to think of it, Lee Han. I heard you all visited the Realm of the Spirit King together.”

“Cough.”

When Lee Han made a choking sound, Professor Garcia panicked greatly.

“Are you okay?! Was the coffee too hot?!”

“Ah, no. I was just surprised. Information spreads too quickly among the Professors…”

“Ah. Teaching students is important work, after all.”

‘That doesn’t seem like something that can just be brushed off with such words.’

Lee Han calmed his burning throat and put down his coffee cup.

“Is that the new staff you received?”

“Yes. It’s not completed yet. I need to process the obsidian and fit it here.”

“Lee Han. This looks too much like ancient magic style, doesn’t it? Did the Principal perhaps order it?”

Professor Garcia looked puzzled at the half-caduceus shaped staff.

Most staff forms in the current Empire consisted of special materials that served as the staff core and stable materials that wrapped around those materials.

This was because such structure enabled efficient and stable magic casting.

However, if you didn’t make a separate core like this and just intertwined two materials together, the stability would drop significantly.

The mage would have to be much more careful at the cost of output.

Moreover, using two ridiculous materials like obsidian and the Spirit King’s sacred wood…

“Yes.”

Lee Han immediately agreed since he had been blaming the Black Book. At that answer, Professor Garcia became very indignant and shouted.

“I don’t know why he’s even recommending old-style staffs! You’re already using sufficiently dangerous magic, and it’s not like he’s telling you to use even more dangerous magic!”

‘That seems right…’

Lee Han, who had been thinking inwardly, casually asked.

“Can I change the form of this?”

“It’s difficult if there’s a powerful high-ranking spirit inside, Lee Han. You’d have to wake it up again and subdue it…”

Waking it up would take considerable effort, and subduing it would be even more so.

Lee Han recalled how Tujeonsseungmogwang had rampaged at that time.

It had tucked its tail after being beaten, but it was the type that would attack Lee Han again once it recovered its strength.

‘I guess I’ll just give up and do it.’

“Well… if there are disadvantages, there are advantages too. I’ll try to be satisfied with the advantages.”

Lee Han spoke while trying not to grit his teeth. Professor Garcia nodded as if she understood.

“Then let’s ask Professor Verdus to… ahem… I mean, let’s request him.”

“For what?”

“Processing the obsidian. Professor Verdus is good at it.”

“Is that possible? Ah. Through exchange?”

Professor Verdus had a personality where he wouldn’t do things he didn’t want to do even if beaten to death, but he was surprisingly someone who readily accepted exchanges.

If Lee Han asked him to process the obsidian in exchange for labor, he would probably do it.

“Exchange? What would you exchange for it, Lee Han?”

“Help him with work or…”

“There’s no need for that. I’ve helped Professor Verdus with something, so Professor Verdus should help me too.”

“…Professor…!”

Lee Han was moved by his master’s grace.

To make him repay the debt owed to Professor Garcia to Lee Han instead.

“After the lecture ends, let’s go together… no, it would be better if I went alone.”

“Shall we go together? I think it would be better to show him the staff directly.”

“Hmm.”

Professor Garcia hesitated.

If she went to find Professor Verdus, there would definitely be some harsh exchanges, and she didn’t want to take her disciple along.

-Professor. Last time I patrolled instead of you, graded tests instead of you, prepared assignments instead of you, made artifacts to fill for criminals instead of you, and managed materials instead of you, so could you please look at Lee Han’s staff?

-Huh? I don’t want to.

-Hey!

…he didn’t want a second-year student to hear this kind of conversation.

But Lee Han was no pushover either. He had naturally expected this.

‘Professor Garcia is excessively kind, so he could be deceived when meeting villains like Professor Verdus.’

If Professor Verdus went to collect his debt but came back having granted even more favors, Lee Han might clutch the back of his neck and collapse.

Lee Han suddenly remembered Diret, who used to jump around and get angry.

‘…Gasp. Was that why Senior Diret got angry every time he saw me?’

Lee Han, who had been pondering, shook his head.

He was different from Professor Garcia. Unlike the kind Professor Garcia, he was acting selfishly enough.

‘I’m definitely different.’

“Sigh. Alright. Student Lee Han. Let’s go together after the lecture. Was there anything else?”

“Hmm…”

Lee Han recalled the conversation he had just had with the Insane Doppelganger before coming here.

Besides the past story the Skeleton Principal had harbored long ago and the hour-long scolding, there had been several other topics.

-So you brat. You cast a miniature world?

-Yes. With Dendrobium and Basilios…

-Then you should be able to use it now.

-No?

-…

-I’m sorry. But I can’t even use 5th circle magic right now…

-Does saying sorry change impossible magic? Hurry up, you brat. When will you finally have at least the minimum honor as a disciple?

‘It would be difficult even when the world ends.’

The Insane Doppelganger recommended using the Black Book to try casting miniature worlds a few more times.

Whether he coughed up blood or not, forcibly cramming high-level magic into his brain and casting it often led to natural enlightenment.

With the talent the Wardanaz Family boy possessed, it was an even more likely scenario.

-But if I fail, won’t I go insane?

-You haven’t even cast it yet and you’re already worrying about madness?

-Ah, yes…

Lee Han, finishing his recollection, made a decision.

He shouldn’t tell Professor Garcia!

‘If I tell him, he might be shocked and collapse.’

“Student Lee Han. Are you perhaps contemplating cutting out dangerous matters so I won’t worry?”

‘Gasp.’

“No. Why would you think that?”

“I suddenly had that thought…”

“That’s not it, I was thinking about something else. Professor, do you know about the Principal’s past?”

“There’s too much, I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

“…Well, when he was alive. Did you know he was a prince of a small nation?”

“Of course I know that.”

“!”

Lee Han was surprised.

“Ah. Did you see it in history books?”

“No… the Principal talks about it whenever he’s bored, Student Lee Han.”

Come to think of it, that was true.

Students might not know, but professors had longer contact time so they would have heard much more bragging.

“Then have you heard about this too?”

Lee Han explained the goal the Insane Doppelganger was thinking about.

That goal of removing the world’s poison through the power of magic.

Professor Garcia listened seriously to his disciple’s words.

“No. I’ve never heard of it.”

“What do you think?”

“Usually those kinds of mages become mage criminals…”

“…”

“Ah, no. Sorry, Student Lee Han. I should have thought before speaking.”

“Thank you for speaking honestly…”

Professor Garcia’s impression wasn’t completely wrong either.

Wouldn’t mages who set unreachable goals either become eternal Sisyphus or go mad and become mage criminals?

“If it were another mage, I would have ignored it, but since it’s the Principal’s doppelganger acting like this, I’m a bit worried. It’s impossible, so what is he trying to do?”

“Is it really impossible?”

“Well, Student Lee Han. I don’t know everything about magic. The more I learn about magic, the more I feel that we know nothing about magic at all. It might really be possible. But rather than whether it’s possible or impossible, shouldn’t we consider whether that method is right or wrong, Student Lee Han?”

“You’re absolutely right.”

Lee Han agreed with Professor Garcia’s words.

It wasn’t a matter of possible or impossible, but whether that path was right or wrong?

“That doppelganger actually asked me to continue walking that path. I think he probably descended because he had lingering attachments in this regard.”

“…You should have said that first!”

Professor Garcia shouted angrily.

He was in a situation where he might have to bear that karma, so what kind of nonchalant conversation was this?

“Ah, no. It’s not confirmed yet. I think the doppelganger might give up out of frustration while teaching me.”

“That… doesn’t seem… likely…”

In the professor’s view, the least likely scenario was the Insane Doppelganger giving up and returning because he was dissatisfied with his disciple.

No matter how he thought about it, finding another disciple like Student Lee Han wouldn’t be easy.

“Sigh. Fine, Student Lee Han. You won’t listen even if I try to stop you. You’ll go learn magic from him again, won’t you.”

“That’s not… well, it’s not like that…”

When the professor he trusted and followed clearly showed disappointment, Lee Han was flustered.

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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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