Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy
chapter-526

"Is he really going to attack??"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Gainando."

Even at Gainando's question, Professor Garcia didn't give in.

"However, at Einroguard, when the season gets chilly, undead attacks do tend to increase a bit. I think you all need to be careful."

"Huh? I'm hearing this for the first time?"

"Hey. Be quiet."

His friends covered Gainando's mouth.

There was nothing good about interfering when Professor Garcia was giving dedicated advice for the students.

"Mmph, you guys don't even know dark magic... Mmph mmph!"

'It certainly seems plausible.'

Yi-Han pondered after hearing Professor Garcia's words.

Given the skull principal's personality, the more the year came to an end, the higher the possibility that he would actively engage in tormenting the students, thinking that he hadn't bothered them enough.

Perhaps Professor Garcia's words were a metaphorical expression of that.

"...It's not just undead, sometimes other types also attack, so don't just keep undead in mind, everyone."

"..."

"..."

A White Tiger Tower student who had a quill in his mouth dropped it in shock.

What in the world...?!

***

"Gainando. Help me."

"Yeah. Summon the undead quickly."

"No, you guys! My skeleton got angry!"

At his friends' resentful words, Gainando got angry and exploded.

These ungrateful friends were whining for him to summon the skeleton warrior again quickly after unsummoning the one he had painstakingly summoned.

"Summons are so picky! Didn't you learn that in summoning magic class!"

"Huh?"

"What?"

At the surprised reactions of his friends, Gainando looked at them with a gaze that said, 'You only realized now?'

"Undead were like that too?"

"...May you be itchy! May you be itchy!"

"Ack! This idiot is cursing!"

While Gainando was playing tag with another student, Asan said in amazement.

"Wow. Undead have emotions too, just like summons."

"..."

Yonaire inwardly sympathized with the students learning dark magic.

Even Gainando, who had once blabbered about alchemy, seemed pitiful to the point of feeling sorry for him.

"Of course they would? They are beings from another realm summoned through a contract."

"But Wardanaz uses undead recklessly?"

Asan pointed at Yi-Han with his finger.

Yi-Han had summoned skeleton warriors to help his friends and was explaining.

-Now. As you can see from these skeleton warriors, the connecting parts here are weak...-

Kwajik!

-Wa-Wardanaz. Can you treat summons so carelessly?-

-Huh? Oh. Don't worry about it.-

"...Don't mind Yi-Han, he has a unique way. Yi-Han is just unique."

Yonaire changed the subject, resenting Yi-Han for making the explanation difficult.

-Undead repel, undead repel... Huh? Wardanaz. The skeleton warrior is just ignoring it and coming in?-

-I forcibly made it do that. It's fine, so don't worry.-

-...If it works by forcing it, doesn't that mean it's not working? Don't you have to cast it again?-

-No. It originally works.-

-???-

Yi-Han, who had taught his friends how to deal with undead as hard as he could, sat down for a moment to catch his breath.

Professor Garcia looked at Yi-Han as if she was proud to death.

"You worked hard, Yi-Han."

"No. Professor. Compared to you who taught us..."

"I don't know what you're talking about?"

Silence.

For a moment, silence lingered between the teacher and disciple.

Professor Garcia glanced at the lake and muttered in a voice that was neither small nor loud.

"Box..."

"?"

"You may need to be careful of the inside of a food box someone gives you... There may be an enemy hiding inside."

"..."

The most intelligent disciple of Professor Garcia realized the hidden meaning in the muttering and was shocked.

The skull principal often scattered snacks to students when an important exam period approached.

Of course, they weren't ordinary snacks.

They were fatal snacks that made you sleepy as soon as you ate them.

Originally, once they knew that fact, they shouldn't have even touched them, but the students, being students of Einroguard, adapted to the environment and fought back.

They ate them after the exam was over, neutralized them and ate them, or like Gainando, just ate them and slept, and so on.

At Einroguard, delicious snacks were too hard to resist.

The skull principal must have set another trap, aiming for that.

Once the students received the boxes, they would bring them into the break room storage...

'Does he really need to go this far?'

Yi-Han answered gratefully.

"I will keep that in mind. But Professor, how do you know all this..."

"My friends were caught by it."

"..."

"Fortunately, I was fine even after eating it. Thank you for worrying."

"I-I see."

Although he didn't particularly worry, Yi-Han pretended to be worried.

Silence again.

Yi-Han quietly waited for Professor Garcia's monologue.

"When it starts to snow... you may need to be careful of the piled up snow..."

"..."

***

"Professor. I'm trying to raise chickens."

"Chickens?"

Professor Uregor, who was walking with a pipe in his mouth, was puzzled.

Yi-Han already had chickens.

Of course, strictly speaking, they were Professor Uregor's chickens, but while managing the vegetable garden next to the cabin, Yi-Han had the authority to take them as he saw fit.

That included the eggs laid by the chickens.

"You want to increase them more? Won't it be hard to manage?"

If it were any other student, it might be fine, but if Yi-Han increased his workload, it seemed like he would really be in danger.

"I'll be careful and take precautions. Anyway, I'm trying to raise chickens, and it's a ghost chicken."

"Cough."

Professor Uregor coughed. He had inhaled the smoke wrong.

"You caught a ghost chicken? It won't be an ordinarily picky one, so how did you do it?"

"Ah. Let's assume that's the case."

"What... You haven't caught it yet."

Professor Uregor showed a disappointed expression.

If he had caught it, he was going to tell him to sell some eggs...

Come to think of it, if he had caught that picky one, it would have been even more surprising.

"If this guy is obedient, why would that be?"

"It would be better to ask my aunt..."

"Ah. I'm sorry. I thought of you first because I had something to ask. Really..."

Yi-Han spoke with an innocent face, as if he knew nothing.

He had dispersed his questions to avoid being suspected by continuously asking Professor Bungaegor.

However, whether the excuse was effective or not, Professor Uregor answered with a pleased expression.

"But I know about ghost chickens too. You say it's obedient? It's not a common occurrence... If its eye color is cloudy, it lacks energy, or its crest color is a bit different, it's sick."

"What if that's not the case?"

"Well. Then it's scared, but it doesn't get scared easily. It's a fierce and ill-tempered one."

"Hmm... I see. Oh. I know it's a clever and cunning one, so if I catch it, is there a way to prevent it from escaping?"

"Set simple but threatening traps. It's not the type to get caught in traps anyway, so if you block it, it will notice and give up on escaping."

"I see. Thank you, Professor."

Yi-Han got up with a basket filled with fresh vegetables and freshly caught fish.

Professor Uregor didn't even say anything out of annoyance now. It was commendable enough that he didn't touch the items in the cabin.

"Goodness. I can understand why Professor Willow is pleased."

After Yi-Han left, Professor Uregor looked around once and muttered.

It had recovered so quickly that it was hard to believe it was a place recently devastated by a flood.

To make the plants in the vegetable garden and flower bed grow this fast.

There were cases where mages with the blood of a related spirit flowing in their veins or those born with a special constitution were good at growing plants, but Yi-Han's speed was particularly fast and his power was strong.

He had heard that he received a blessing from the spirit in the mountains, but this...

'This guy isn't leaking mana while walking around, is he?'

Professor Uregor suddenly had that thought but shook his head.

It was impossible to influence on this scale by leaking enough mana, and there was no way Yi-Han himself wouldn't know if he was leaking that much mana.

What was more concerning was the story about the ghost chicken.

'It was strangely specific.'

Professor Uregor also had a sense.

There was no way he wouldn't find it strange that Yi-Han was asking such detailed questions.

'As expected...'

Professor Uregor, who had been pondering, gained conviction.

There was only one thing.

That fearless disciple was going to wander around the mountains to catch a ghost chicken just because he heard it was rare.

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Professor Uregor shook his head from side to side.

Catching a ghost chicken directly was too reckless.

That disciple was really fearless, perhaps because he had never experienced failure.

It would be better to steal it...

***

"Now. You understand? It's very dangerous if you come out from here."

Yi-Han showed the ghost chicken the traps he had set at the entrance and warned it.

To clearly show its power, he even summoned a skeleton warrior and put it in the trap.

Seeing that, the ghost chicken, who was eating feed inside the cabin, looked at Yi-Han with blank eyes.

As the other party didn't waver at all, Yi-Han grumbled.

"That guy is very cunning. I must never let my guard down."

The baby basilisk tilted its tail.

The ghost chicken wasn't particularly fierce or emitting murderous energy.

It just seemed tamed...?

Yi-Han checked the time, warned the ghost chicken one more time, and moved his steps.

He had to take charge of the tower's duty tonight.

Yi-Han passed through the barrier prohibiting entry to the cabin, dusted off his coat, and was about to take a step...

'Gasp.'

"..."

There were few things as heart-wrenching as encountering a professor after sunset.

Yi-Han, who encountered Professor Parsellet Krair, the divination magic professor, quickly rotated his mind.

'I have a reason to be out today. It would be more suspicious if I get flustered.'

"Hello. Professor."

"..."

Professor Parsellet didn't answer.

For a moment, he thought the professor was angry, but the professor was just blankly staring at the sky without much interest in Yi-Han.

'Ah. Is it something related to magic?'

Yi-Han knew well that Professor Parsellet had multiple personalities and was specializing in the most abstruse and eccentric divination magic among magic.

For such a person, it wouldn't be strange to be out in the evening and immersed in their own world.

There were even people who hid undead in boxes or snow to torment their disciples right away, and people who threw iron orbs...

'I should pass by without talking anymore.'

"Mr. Wardanaz?"

Yi-Han had to put strength into his body to avoid making a sound out of surprise.

Priestess Tijiling was standing behind him with a puzzled look.

"Priestess Tijiling. What brings you here?"

"I heard that rock violet is good for repelling lightning bats, so I came to pick some."

"Ah."

Yi-Han said, recalling today's duty.

"You came out for nothing. I was going to do it myself."

"If you're going to pick them, we should do it together, why alone...?"

"Ah, I wasn't going to pick them, I was going to wipe them out at once. I read in a book that if strong lightning strikes, they come out, so I was going to shoot lightning magic around the cave and annihilate them all at once..."

"..."

Priestess Tijiling was shocked by the absurd method and raised her eyebrows at Professor Parsellet.

"Professor?"

"Huh? Oh. The professor seems to be concentrating, so it's best not to disturb her."

As someone who also learned divination magic, Tijiling understood what Yi-Han was saying.

"I understand. I'll go back n..."

At that moment, Professor Parsellet finished concentrating and opened her eyes.

Seeing Yi-Han, the professor said,

"I saw the magic you gave me well tomorrow. Principal."

"I think you're mistaking me for someone el..."

"As expected of the one Lord Gonadaltes chose as his successor."

"...I think you're really mistaking me for someone else!"

Yi-Han instinctively shouted firmly.