Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy - Chapter 993

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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 993

“Wardanaz. It’s okay.”

“We don’t mind at all.”

Fortunately, the power of friendship was stronger than expected.

Lee Han was moved when his friends cheered him on, telling him not to worry about it.

“You guys…”

“Wardanaz, you’re originally that kind of guy. It’s not even surprising.”

“Right. Last time you mastered it as soon as you sat down.”

“…”

Lee Han was flustered by the reaction that was slightly different from the friendship he had imagined.

“It’s, it’s not that bad, is it?”

“What are you talking about. You’ve mastered things even before sitting down.”

“That’s right. Honestly, what I just said was a bit of an underestimation.”

Flustered by his grumbling friends’ reactions, Lee Han wanted to give examples saying ‘I also struggle while learning magic like you guys’ but it wasn’t easy.

Cornered, Lee Han unconsciously opened his mouth.

“Small wor…”

“Hm? What did you say?”

“…Nothing.”

No matter how he thought about it, saying ‘I’m also having a hard time learning small worlds these days’ would be crazy talk. Lee Han quickly regained his senses.

“Now. Let’s begin the lecture! Everyone give a round of applause to Gonadaltes who agreed to help with today’s lecture!”

“Stop.”

Clap…

Gainando, who was about to clap, looked around and quietly stopped his movement.

Despite the Insane Doppelganger’s cold attitude, Professor Rozine didn’t back down.

Professor Rozine was from the Empire’s bureaucracy, and those from the Empire’s bureaucracy were basically seasoned in dealing with insane mages.

“Still, you should accept words of gratitude.”

“That’s right. Master. This is what proper etiquette means these days.”

‘Are you insane?’

Professor Rozine, who had also rebelled herself, looked at her disciple with shocked eyes.

But this fox beastkin professor’s surprise was natural.

Professor Rozine had at least spoken carefully and tactfully, while the Wardanaz family boy was just…

…it seemed like he was being defiant…

“Hmph. Fine. Hurry up.”

Clap clap clap clap clap clap…

The most gloomy applause sound in Einroguard’s history filled the lecture hall. The Insane Doppelganger reproached Gainando, whose eyes met his.

“To think that’s all you can manage while clapping. Mage, is that all your gratitude amounts to?”

“Hik!”

Gainando made a tearful face and clapped more enthusiastically.

“Now! Let’s continue studying the ancient characters we covered during the last exam. Unlike mages of old, modern mages must learn even more characters and languages. It’s unfair, but what can we do?”

“That’s correct. And mages must not forget this fact. Characters and languages are lost and accumulated with the flow of time. In any era, there have always been many characters and languages that mages must learn.”

“Thank you for those wise words, Gonadaltes! Did everyone hear that? Don’t complain from now on.”

Professor Rozine was excited by the supporting fire from the ancient archmage.

Oripulas would disrupt lectures by saying things like ‘Why learn characters and languages when you can just make a contract with a demon who knows them and solve it in one go’, but the Principal’s doppelganger was definitely different in some way.

“Is there perhaps magic that can learn characters and languages all at once?”

Gainando asked, still not giving up hope.

Despite professors and friends scolding him that ‘magic isn’t that convenient’, he persistently stuck to it with the tenacity of a mage.

As if rewarding that courage, the Insane Doppelganger readily answered.

“There is.”

“…What!?”

“There really is such a thing!?”

Not only Gainando but other students were also shocked.

Such magic existed?

Lee Han asked as if he couldn’t understand.

“How can such magic exist? To replace with magic the enormous amount of information that an individual mage doesn’t know…”

“You’re still trying to put limits on magic. You can use a small world.”

“…Ah, yes.”

The students quickly cooled down.

No matter how lazy Einroguard students were, they weren’t stupid enough to learn a small world just because they didn’t want to study ancient languages.

Gainando didn’t give up and whispered to Yoner.

“Maybe Lee Han could learn it for us?”

“…Never say that in front of Lee Han…”

Of course, Lee Han had already heard everything.

While Lee Han mentally reduced snack rations by 30%, Professor Rozine continued the lecture with a satisfied voice.

“Did everyone hear that? There’s no royal road in magic. Now. Lee Han! As the student who got full marks on the last exam, would you tell your friends how you interpreted it and what references you used?”

The last midterm exam was a test where students had to interpret given ancient characters on their own.

Since it wasn’t something to be solved completely on the spot, naturally this test aimed for something other than quick thinking or memorization.

All sorts of old languages and characters that still abound in the Empire today.

Building experience in finding things from scratch without panicking when discovering such things, so they could decode them.

That was the true purpose of this exam.

Professor Rozine wanted the Wardanaz family boy to tell his friends the names of the books he had found. It would be very helpful for his friends too.

“Uh… well…”

“It was quite classical, wasn’t it? From what I can see, it seems you referenced old books rather than relatively recent ones. Am I right?”

“Well…”

Lee Han hesitated.

The Insane Doppelganger urged his disciple who was wasting time unnecessarily.

“Answer quickly.”

“…Actually, I asked a confined mage criminal…”

“…”

“…”

The atmosphere in the lecture hall instantly turned cold.

Even his friends, who would usually say ‘Wardanaz is always like that!’ no matter what Lee Han did, were left speechless.

“There, there was a confined mage criminal? Where?”

“Maybe Wardanaz locked one up in his personal room?”

When friends murmured things like ‘Wardanaz locked up a mage criminal in his personal room?’, Gainando got indignant.

“No! That’s not it! Lee Han has never locked up a mage criminal in his personal room! He’s just a little friendly with the mage criminal confined in the workshop!”

“…”

This explanation sounded equally strange. Lee Han sighed deeply.

“How can you be friendly with a mage criminal confined in a workshop? Prince, aren’t you mistaken?”

“Maybe he mistook Wardanaz beating him up for being friendly…”

“Well, those White Tiger Tower guys do get confused thinking they’re friends while getting beaten up all the time.”

“What did you say, you bastard?”

“Everyone stop it. I just transformed him into a hamster and confined him. I just asked while feeding him.”

It was a statement that would make even the student who loved hamsters the most flinch when seeing hamsters in the future.

The Insane Doppelganger spoke as if displeased.

“There was no need to ask such a lowly slave.”

“The question was too easy to bother asking Master about.”

In fact, the Insane Doppelganger had ignored even useless questions, but Lee Han flattered him like a skilled disciple.

Meanwhile, Professor Rozine, who had recovered from the shock, spoke again.

“A living mage would give better teachings than books or scrolls! Excellent, Lee Han!”

“Professor. But a hamster mage criminal is a bit…”

One of the students tried to ask if this was really okay, but Professor Rozine quickly pretended not to hear and moved on.

Honestly, Professor Rozine was also too shocked to think of anything to say.

-Cough!

When a coughing sound echoed from behind, Lee Han turned his head without much thought.

And then he was startled.

The one covering their mouth and coughing was none other than the Insane Doppelganger.

‘What?!’

Gainando might catch a cold from kicking off his blanket while sleeping, but the Insane Doppelganger wasn’t a being with such a physical body.

But such coughing?

Lee Han asked in a bewildered voice.

“Master. Are you alright?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You just coughed as if you were unwell.”

“I did no such thing. Focus on your lessons. Seeing you babble nonsense, you’ve become too lax lately.”

“…”

In the past he would have flinched, but Lee Han didn’t even blink an eye.

Instead, he looked at his master with eyes full of suspicion.

‘The reaction is even stranger?’

“Master. Did you perhaps drink or eat something?”

Professor Thunderstep was a cunning and vicious professor, and it wouldn’t be strange if he had finished poisoning Lee Han without his knowledge.

In front of Einroguard’s professors, Lee Han was always humble. The professors were beings capable of doing anything beyond Lee Han’s expectations.

“Your insolence has crossed the line. Do you think I won’t punish you just because you’re a royal disciple?”

After finishing his words, the Insane Doppelganger frowned and then coughed again. Lee Han was horrified.

“It’s poison!”

“What!? Where!?”

“Did that Prince bastard spill it?!”

“Hey! We should suspect the Alchemy Academy!”

“The Black Magic Academy is more suspicious…”

“Professor. Master seems to be poisoned. I’ll take him outside for a moment!”

“Student Lee Han! Wai-“

Professor Rozine felt something was strange and tried to stop her disciple.

It was too unlikely that an Archmage at the level of the Principal’s projection would be poisoned without anyone knowing.

However, before she could stop him, Lee Han quickly escorted his master outside. Then he sent a paper bird to Intarendals.

“Lord Intarendals! Over here!”

“Lord Lee Han. What is this…”

Intarendals, who had rushed over urgently after receiving the message, was startled by the sight before him.

Lee Han was running while floating the Insane Doppelganger above his head with telekinesis. It was truly a surreal and bizarre spectacle.

“Master seems to have been ambushed! Even though I did this to him, he didn’t fight back!”

“Ah, even so, lifting him up like this is…”

Intarendals quickly caught the Insane Doppelganger and respectfully lifted him with both hands.

Even though mages were creatures obsessed with efficiency, what just happened was a bit too much.

“Let’s move to the workshop. I actually had something to tell you, Lord Lee Han.”

* * *

Arriving at the workshop located in the mountain range, Intarendals escorted the Insane Doppelganger inside.

Lee Han, told to wait for a moment, felt his composure returning during the break.

‘…Maybe it’s not Professor Thunderstep?’

Come to think of it, the culprit might not be Professor Thunderstep.

No matter how he thought about it, Professor Thunderstep had weak motives and wasn’t in a favorable situation to do it.

Rather…

-What’s the matter?

“Master has collapsed.”

-Much faster than expected.

The hamster answered coldly from within the sawdust. Lee Han asked in surprise.

“Did you know?!”

-Of course I knew. Don’t tell me you didn’t?

The hamster was rather puzzled when Lee Han seemed genuinely unaware.

Of course, thought-forms weren’t common beings, but to think a formal disciple hadn’t heard about it.

“Don’t tell me…”

-Seems like you’re catching on. That’s exactly it.

“…Lord Intarendals is the culprit…!”

-Thought-forms have a hard time lasting long in the material world. If they could exist permanently, Gonadaltes’ projections would have established themselves throughout the Empire, playing lord.

“…Ah. Because it’s a thought-form.”

-What did you just say?

“Nothing at all. Indeed. I was expecting this too.”

Lee Han made up an excuse and organized his thoughts.

Listening to the hamster’s words, something clicked in his mind like puzzle pieces fitting together.

Certainly, the Insane Doppelganger’s behavior had been strange lately.

If that was because his lifespan was running out…

“Then what should I do?”

‘This bastard. Am I your master?’

The hamster felt frustrated inside but held back for now.

The other party was a mage holding grapes, and he was a hamster.

-You need to quickly cut off his lifeline.

Thwack!

A grape solidly smacked the hamster’s back. The hamster squeaked in pain.

-Why!?

“Do you call that advice right now?”

-It’s true, you blockhead rookie! Do you think a thought-form will quietly disappear if left alone? Until then, it’ll devastate the surroundings… Stop throwing grapes!

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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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