Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

-More importantly, that brat may act smart, but he's still pretty sloppy.

The hamster squeaked as it gave its assessment.

On average, most magical criminals died, disappeared, or were dragged off to the Empire's underground prisons before they ever became major archmages.

That was how perilous the path of unauthorized magic was. Not only the Empire's knight orders, but other magical criminals as well were all potential enemies.

That mage named Enster was being fairly cautious, but now that the hamster had seen him, it seemed likely that he would disappear within a dozen or so years even if the hamster did not deceive him.

He had seen that much mana move right before his eyes, yet had failed to consider that the artifact might not work.

Of course, it was not easy for an ordinary mage to think of something like that, but that did not make it any less of a stupid mistake.

'By the way, do we really just need to go farther down?'

-Yes. Once we go down, we can deal with him as easily as twisting a child's wrist.

A wary opponent was difficult, but once they went down and approached the workshop's mana core, there were any number of tricks the hamster could use.

After identifying the various escape methods, it could calculate the counter-magic before the man even had time to react.

Enster was overconfident that even a magical criminal like Antagondals could not understand and reverse-calculate the workshop's complicated internal magical structure after a single visit.

But that was the sort of thought only a mage living at the bottom of a well would have.

The hamster was confident that a single visit would be enough to disable every means of escape.

-His level is obvious enough.

'Wait. But you can't use magic right now, can you?'

Lee Han felt puzzled.

Even if the hamster did the calculations, it would not be able to cast the magic, would it?

-What are you talking about? You're the one who has to cast the magic. I'll give you instructions, and you'll dismantle them.

"......"

Lee Han stared at the hamster on his shoulder in horror.

He had been relying entirely on the hamster, and now this?!

'Can I really do that?'

-You're starting again?

'What?'

-That tiresome... 'I can't do it' act you use to make other people lower their guard.

"......"

Lee Han was dumbfounded by the hamster's words.

When had he ever done that?

'When have I ever done that? I said I wasn't confident because I genuinely wasn't confident.'

-Has there ever been even a single thing you said you weren't confident about that you actually failed at?

'...Even if there hasn't been, that doesn't prove I was pretending it was harder than it was.'

Lee Han felt deeply wronged.

Every time he had to succeed at difficult magic, he felt an enormous amount of pressure, yet this hamster was packaging that as an act of false modesty.

Then you do it!

'Wait. Come to think of it, why didn't the professors point this out?'

-Those mages probably thought someone at your level could handle it easily enough.

"......"

Once again, Lee Han realized there was not a single person in the world he could trust.

To think they had hidden such a vicious intention while discussing the plan so seriously.

Of course, it was not actually the professors' fault. Lee Han had nodded and said he understood, so the professors had simply taken that as, 'Apparently he can do it.'

"I'm curious what you're talking about with that hamster for so long."

Enster asked in a voice tinged with curiosity.

Normally, magical criminals were not supposed to interfere with one another more than necessary.

But the sight of a powerful magical criminal talking with a hamster was enough to make even a mage like Enster unable to suppress his curiosity.

Just what kind of being was that hamster for Antagondals to keep talking to it?

Was it some powerful being from another dimension?

"I simply enjoy talking to hamsters. It's my only hobby."

"...Ah! I-is that so?"

Enster was so flustered that he forgot his pride and spoke politely.

To think a wicked magical criminal's hobby was talking to hamsters. Then again, mages who lived a long time did tend to go mad.

The hamster shouted furiously.

-You damned brat! What kind of ridiculous rumor are you spreading?!

'N-no. He's getting suspicious...'

-■■■■! ■■■■■!

'Please don't curse at me in an incomprehensible ancient language.'

***

Enster introduced the golems he intended to use for the commission.

Einroguard's golems usually did not pay that much attention to appearance. There was no one around to look at them, and if there was money to spend on something like that, it was far better to focus on performance.

But Enster's golems were indeed neat and polished, befitting a summoning mage who did business outside.

Precisely interlocking bronze and brass components. And small summoning magic circles and ancient characters engraved over them.

If not for one thing, they looked as though they would sell for a high price at an auction.

If only not for the real hearts pounding and pulsing in their chests.

"This golem is a masterpiece with the still-beating heart of an elf embedded inside it. And... I've also added a little secret magic."

As he spoke, Enster hesitated slightly. Lee Han sensed a familiar presence from the golem.

'Isn't this the Authority of the Sanguros Order?'

-Chilling. Yes. Looks like he stole a sacred relic from the Order when he left.

'It certainly is chilling.'

Using parts of a person's body for magic.

Lee Han shuddered at the sight of powerful, twisted mana pouring strength through the combat puppet's entire body.

-What I called chilling was your sense for recognizing the Sanguros Order's Authority from nothing but the nature of its mana when you don't even know the magic or its structure. Are you some kind of magic hound?

"......"

The hamster had recognized it because among the characters engraved over the elf's heart was a phrase used by the Sanguros Order.

If one used an Authority, traces or evidence like that were bound to remain.

By comparison, Lee Han did not know those characters and had identified where the magic came from purely through his sense of mana.

It was truly a chilling level of perception.

'Stop saying pointless things and analyze the magic. Do we need to go farther down?'

-No. I've found everything.

"!!!"

Lee Han was stunned.

The two of them were currently looking around the corridor where the golems were displayed, not the mana core located deep underground.

The corridor was filled with cool air, and the golems could be seen between the dim sources of light, but there did not appear to be any means of escape leading outside...

-He'd have to be an idiot to let us go any farther down. What, you think he'd kindly tear out the mana core and show it to us? And mages tend to think in similar ways.

The hamster explained what it had discovered as though it were nothing special.

First, there appeared to be a spatial-movement scroll prepared.

There had been a section where the echoes of their footsteps changed as they walked down the corridor, which meant a separate space had been created underneath it.

When performing medium-range or longer spatial movement, the basic principle was to keep the surroundings as empty as possible to avoid unnecessary interference.

And the other one was a dimensional gate.

It seemed a dimension had been connected to a wall joined to the inner wall, because there were traces of the solid wall being strangely warped.

That was common evidence left when dimensional magic was cast over physical matter.

'Impressive!'

-Being praised for something like this only fills me with self-loathing, so stop.

The hamster squeaked curtly, but did not seem displeased.

-He's prepared one nonmagical method too. Looks like there's an underground passage, but we can just collapse that.

'How do we block the other two?'

-For the scroll, first find its exact location and then spatially move magic toward it.

The hamster said something outrageous with complete calm.

Was it not telling Lee Han to fire spatial magic at a scroll located somewhere he could not even see?

Lee Han looked troubled.

'I'm genuinely not pretending this is difficult. I'm not confident I can cast spatial magic at that level. I need at least something I can detect.'

Even reinforcing his senses with spatial-perception magic had its limits.

The scroll was this far away, with numerous obstacles interfering with magic, and the hamster wanted him to locate a scroll he had never even seen.

-Hmm. If that's difficult, there is another method.

'What is it?'

-A mage at that man's level couldn't possibly create a medium-range spatial-movement scroll. He's a summoning mage, on top of that. He probably obtained the scroll from some ancient ruins.

'What difference does that make?'

-You idiot... Things like that are usually on the verge of breaking. They're only preserved while they're still inside the ruins.

The hamster's instructions were simple.

Repeatedly spatially move enormous amounts of mana downward.

It was so simple that Lee Han was bewildered.

'Will that really break the scroll? Objects don't usually break just because the mana density gets higher.'

If objects broke easily whenever mana density rose, there would not be a single piece of furniture left in Lee Han's private room or the Blue Dragon Tower lounge.

-We're not raising the density to break the object. We're raising the mana density to make the magic inside malfunction.

'That doesn't sound easy either.'

If magic malfunctioned just because the mana density rose a little, the Empire's countless artifacts and magical structures would have collapsed long ago.

In the first place, when one cast or installed magic in a particular area, one prepared for all sorts of conditions...

-Then break it with spatial movement.

'All right. Why are you getting annoyed?'

When the hamster became irritated, Lee Han nodded as though he understood and sent mana downward.

The task was so quiet and simple that even as he repeatedly sent the mana down, he wondered whether this was really correct.

How many times had he done it?

Lee Han and the hamster felt a powerful wave of mana erupt from underground beneath the corridor.

-There! Something must have malfunctioned. At this point, the scroll should be broken.

Despite the hamster's confident declaration, Lee Han began giving it a suspicious look.

Come to think of it, it seemed to have been wrong fairly often even inside Einroguard...

'...What's next? How do we disable the dimensional gate?'

-Normally, it would be best to snipe the dimensional gate with spatial movement, but you said you couldn't do that earlier, so you probably can't this time either. Then do the same thing.

'Again?'

-If the mana density becomes excessively high, the coordinates of the connected dimension become distorted. The escape route will effectively be sealed.

"......"

Feeling himself becoming infinitely stupider, Lee Han once again spatially moved mana downward.

Enster, who had been explaining the golems' specifications one by one, watched Lee Han continue talking to the hamster and thought to himself.

'I had no idea Antagondals was this insane. His condition is worse than I expected. I may need to keep my distance once this commission is over.'

People often spoke of 'mad mages,' but there were fewer genuinely insane mages among them than one might think.

A truly insane mage was a threat to enemies and allies alike.

Watching him continue talking to the hamster like that, Enster felt as though the madness had seeped all the way into his bones.

"Are the golems satisfactory?"

"Ah. Quite good. Can I buy them?"

"You should know that isn't possible."

Enster spoke warily. Lee Han waved a hand with practiced ease.

"I was only asking. Don't be so wary."

"...Very well. Besides, if you had some ulterior motive, the brazier would have told me..."

Before Enster could even finish speaking, the dark corridor suddenly lit up, and the golems' eyes blazed red and blue.

For a moment, Lee Han tensed, thinking that his repeated injection of mana underground had been discovered.

'If I need to subdue him right now...!'

"I-intruder!"

Enster stared at Lee Han in alarm. Lee Han replied calmly.

"The brazier."

"...R-right. Perhaps you were followed... No. That can't be."

Enster did not think a magical criminal like Antagondals would have allowed anyone to follow him here.

It was more likely to be one of Enster's own enemies.

-Hey. Could someone from Einroguard have come looking because they were worried about you?

'Surely the professor wouldn't be unable to wait even that long and come down... Actually, that does sound like Professor Voladi, but probably not.'

-......

Ignoring the hamster's stare, Lee Han anxiously examined Enster.

Should he strike first now, or not?

"Sanguros! Sanguros assassin!"

When Enster screamed after recognizing the enemy's identity, Lee Han let out a delighted exclamation.

"What a relief!"

"...W-what?"

"I've always enjoyed taking down evil-god worshipers."

"......"

Once again, Enster shuddered at the madness of this magical {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} criminal.

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