Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

"Ah..."

Lee Han tried to stop her in alarm, but the Devil Hag had already returned.

"Keep it down! Young brat!"

"Grrrk. (Making noise while people are talking about magic, do you not even know basic manners)!"

"......"

Looking at the dark mages who had naturally occupied someone else's desk as though it were their own and were even losing their tempers, Lee Han wondered why he had tried to stop her.

'I must make sure to tell them after everything is over.'

Lee Han's scheme was wicked, but in truth, the dark mages were no less wicked.

While Lee Han was secretly plotting something despicable behind their backs, the dark mages were plotting something equally despicable against him.

"Good. Then I will remove <Ahrak's Eye> and put in <Obinnik's Wail>."

"Grrrk. (That is changing it completely)!"

"Magic can be changed while working on it. Do you always complete magic exactly as you first drew it?"

"Changing even completed magic just to raise the difficulty is cheating, is it not."

"Cheating, my foot. If you feel wronged, then you do it too! I guarantee that <Obinnik's Wail> is something that young brat will never be able to learn!"

"Grrrk. (You are already crawling on all fours, yet you still act proud)."

'Wait. Was the original goal not to explain the magic easily?'

The mage of the Obsidian Magic Tower suddenly began to question it.

Surely the reason for this instruction had been to teach Wardanaz so that this commission could proceed using their work...

...Since when had it become a competition where they brought out difficult magic against one another?

"Young brat, why are you quiet? Aha. I understand. You have no intention of changing it! Look. This young brat has accepted it!"

"Grrrk. (Is that really true)?!"

While thinking for a moment, the sparks immediately flew in that direction. The mage of the Obsidian Magic Tower shouted without even having time to think.

"We will change ours as well. Do not say such nonsense."

"Hmph. Fine, good. Let us see who wins!"

Caten, who had been listening to the mages' conversation with interest, saw his junior quietly escaping through the window and waved him off.

'Living as an outstanding mage must truly be no ordinary thing!'

***

"Hey. If the dark mages look for me, tell them I am not here."

Lee Han, who had taken refuge in the White Tiger Tower students' lodging, borrowed an unused desk.

Anglago quickly threw a magazine with <What Is This Year's Trend in Polo Tactics? We Determine the Empire's Greatest Polo Club!> written in red out the window.

Lee Han brought the magazine that had flown outside back with spatial movement magic and threw it to Anglago.

"I can see everything. You should have hidden it before I came."

"...Do not use difficult magic for something like that!"

Dergeu, at least still being a friend, changed the subject on his behalf.

"Lee Han. Why should we say you are not here if the dark mages ask?"

"They keep harassing me by trying to teach me magic that is difficult even to learn."

"?"

"?"

Anglago and Dergeu exchanged glances.

Dergeu sent a look that said 'Do not do it,' but Anglago could not endure it and opened his mouth.

"But is that not originally what you want, Wardanaz?"

"...Anglago. Have you had a lot of complaints about me recently?"

"N-No! I said it sincerely!"

When Lee Han rose from his seat, Anglago was horrified.

He really had asked because he sincerely wanted to know!

"...You White Tiger Tower people sometimes have strange misunderstandings about me, but it is not as though I deliberately learn difficult magic and enjoy it."

'But the Blue Dragon Tower people said this too...'

Anglago felt wronged.

A certain student whose name began with G, a certain student whose name began with A, and even a student from the Imperial Family had given similar testimony.

"It simply happened that way. Right, Dergeu?"

"Hm? Y-Yes. O-Of course I think so. Ha ha."

The muscular orc friend hurriedly spoke while feeling his conscience prick him. Sometimes friendship was more important than conscience.

"Look. Dergeu does not have that misunderstanding. I do not know why White Tiger Tower students are so vulnerable to false rumors."

"......"

"...Is the commission completely finished?!"

Dergeu changed the subject once again.

Looking at Anglago's expression, it felt highly likely that Anglago would seize on him.

"The commission? Ah. The first version is complete, but the dark mages keep making a fuss that it will not do and that we should keep making it more difficult... Do you want to see it?"

At Lee Han's words, the two nodded and accepted it.

The arrangement of complex magic circles and magic incantations was certainly viciously difficult.

"The dark mages are going too far. If there is an easy path, they should take that path. Why insist on taking such a difficult path? They should think about the people who have to build it too."

"It is too difficult. Lee Han. I understand why you cannot accept it."

"...That was not written by the dark mages. I wrote it. Is it very difficult?"

Lee Han's face darkened slightly.

He had thought he had made it sufficiently intuitive and efficient, so he had not expected this reaction.

"N-No! It is not to that extent!"

"Anglago is right, Lee Han! This is enough!"

His friends hurriedly comforted him, but it was already too late. Lee Han muttered with a dejected expression.

"Perhaps I should refine it to make it easier. Honestly, it will not be easy to make it any simpler from here... It may be faster simply to start over from the beginning."

Anglago looked at Dergeu with a gaze telling him to do something somehow. Of course, there was nothing even Dergeu could do in a situation like this.

"Do something, Choi! Wardanaz is about to work on it again!"

"C-Can anything there even be redone or improved?"

"How would I know! I did not understand even 30% of that! I did understand that if the knights try to escape, they get trapped in a spatial labyrinth!"

Anglago and Dergeu whispered anxiously.

Although they had not understood most of the design they had just received, they could at least guess that no ordinary amount of effort had gone into that design.

He was going to refine all of it again.

And even make it simpler?

Creak-

"Hey. Everyone stop playing and come out..."

Giselle, who had come to call out the friends who were obviously playing around, stopped.

One friend who had no reason to be there was looking over a design with a dejected expression.

"...It seems you were not playing. Fine. Work hard."

Giselle tried to retreat backward, but the two did not let her go.

"Moradi! Do something! Wardanaz is about to work on it again!"

"On what? Teaching you?"

"The commission! The commission!"

"Work on it again? Did he finish it in the meantime? There is no way..."

"I did, but I am thinking of doing it again."

At Lee Han's words, Giselle's head snapped around.

It was already finished?!

She knew this friend from Blue Dragon Tower was a genius, but she had not expected him to finish it in such a short time.

"Wait. Why are you trying to do it again?"

"The dark mages..."

"The dark mages helped you? Ah. Is that why it was finished sooner than expected?"

If that was the case, it made sense.

The dark mages had been incompetent during this incident(to be precise, the mage who came from Einroguard had been too competent), but even so, the magical ability of these dark mages was certainly not lacking.

If those dark mages had helped, it made sense that the design had been completed quickly...

"No. The other dark mages kept proposing that they make it difficult, so we thought it was a proposal made by the dark mages, but that was actually Wardanaz's proposal..."

"????"

Giselle fell into confusion. She could not understand Anglago's words at all.

In the end, Dergeu had to step forward and explain in his place.

"...Wait. Let me read it too."

Giselle took the design almost as though snatching it away and read through it with a frown.

Then she declared as though making a firm judgment.

"This is enough."

"...Do not lie! How could you understand this so quickly! You cannot do that while staking the honor of White Tiger Tower!"

Anglago became angry before Lee Han did.

Even among friends, there were things that could not simply be overlooked. Magic was especially like that.

He himself had not understood it, yet Moradi, who was from the same tower, had already understood everything!?

"There is no need to understand the magical parts. You only need to look at the result. Why are you trying to understand all of it?"

Giselle looked at Anglago as though she found him absurd instead.

When constructing a magical building according to a design like this, there was no need to understand everything in the design.

They merely had to arrange the materials as written and cast the magic.

If they could understand all of it, why would they entrust the commission to someone else? They could simply make it themselves.

"......"

"......"

That was true.

For a moment, Anglago and Dergeu wondered whether they had been bewitched. Perhaps because of Wardanaz's gaze, they had mistakenly thought that they absolutely had to understand everything.

"But Moradi. What if there is a part where I made a mistake and a problem occurs during the work?"

"Did the dark mages say there was a part where you made a mistake?"

"There was nothing like that, but..."

"Then there will not be one."

"...They may have to perform repair work later when I am not there."

"If you leave the design behind, they will compare it and repair it. They only have to do the work exactly the same way."

Having been refuted, Lee Han looked at Anglago and Dergeu. The two smiled awkwardly with anxious hearts.

Please do not work on it again!

"W-We also think Moradi is right."

"That is right. Lee Han. Think carefully. Working on it again is..."

"...Fine. I think you are right."

'Phew!'

When Lee Han finally accepted it, his friends sighed in relief.

However, the next words completely betrayed his friends' expectations.

"But while we were talking just now, I thought of a way to fix it, so I should at least fix that."

"Hey!"

***

Diret borrowed Rimpaksi, the fastest mount in the dark magic school and one Professor Mortum treasured like his own life, and raced quickly through the skies of the Empire.

When the northern fortress of House Moradi came into view, someone spoke from below.

"Cough, Diret! It seems there was a misunderstanding. You may go back!"

Diret ignored the person disguised as Professor Mortum and passed straight by. Stopping to find out who it was would itself be falling for the opponent's trick.

"I came from Einroguard!"

The knights managing the stable for flying mounts located atop the cliff recognized the flag and moved aside.

Diret immediately leaped down from Rimpaksi. Rimpaksi shook its pitch-black mane and made a displeased sound.

"Sorry! Wicked enemies are trying to abduct my junior right now!"

After promising to give it a snack later, Diret moved entirely with flight magic.

"Stop there! Flight is prohibited within the estate!"

A knight shouted, but Diret pretended not to hear and ignored it. When it was impossible to tell whether the other person was a disguised dark mage or a real knight, pretending not to hear was the correct answer.

'Is it this way!'

After hearing the location of the lodging where Wardanaz and Caten were staying, Diret kicked open the door and entered.

"Junior! Those lunatics did not do anything terrible to you, did they?!"

"?"

"......"

The dark mages from the Descendants of Ahrak, the Legion of Oondorgu, and the Obsidian Magic Tower, who had been packed tightly into this small lodging and noisily talking, turned their gazes.

In the middle of them, Caten, who had been sitting calmly, waved in welcome.

"Who are you calling lunatics?"

The dark mages gathered there asked as though genuinely curious.

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