Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

There were many ways for mages to borrow power from beings of other dimensions.

First, there was the coercive way.

You subdue the being from another dimension, then force it into submission so it can’t run away.

As long as you had the ability to subdue it and make it submit, it was the simplest and cleanest method. The lord of a certain magic school, or the head of a certain house, enjoyed using this method.

Next, there was deception.

You entered into a contract with a being from another dimension, but built all kinds of complicated tricks into the contract so the mage gained the advantage.

This method worked well on beings like devils—greedy creatures that preyed on people.

In the end, once they got greedy, they had no choice but to be fooled.

Just as there were many people who’d been tricked by devils, there were just as many devils who’d been tricked by mages.

Lastly, there was companionship.

A relationship where you built ties and camaraderie with a being from another dimension, helping each other out.

This was a method often seen with gentle, friendly beings like spirits.

And, surprisingly, Diret was attempting quasi-perpetual engine research using devil mana with that last method.

“Uh… that’s possible?”

Lee Han was even more shocked than he’d been a moment ago.

He didn’t exactly have prejudice against devils, but fundamentally, devils were beings who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

Even if the devils Lee Han had seen in House Wardanaz or at Einroguard looked kind and docile, that was only because they were bound by contracts—once the contract was broken, it wouldn’t be strange at all for them to bare their teeth immediately.

“It’s not impossible. I’m having some difficulties, but…”

“I think forcibly extracting mana would be a lot better.”

“…Hey, I told you to drag that person away!”

When Princess Yukbeltire offered advice from far away, Diret shouted back with an irritated voice.

It wasn’t until three hours later that Lee Han was able to leave the exchange gathering venue.

It wasn’t because his recovery took a long time. In fact, he recovered enough to move after about thirty minutes.

The next two and a half hours were spent talking with the mages who had attended the exchange gathering.

Our mage tower is researching the cultivation of extreme demonic whales, Steokul. Are you interested? I don’t know much about sea creatures. Haha. With that insane mana… no, with that immense mana alone, you’re more than enough. We’d love to have you! …… Our guild researches the Empire’s spirit forests and their influence. We absolutely want to bring in Lord Wardanaz. I’m not on very good terms with spirits. WHAHAHA! What a joke. How could someone who borrows a great spirit’s power not be on good terms with spirits? …… Of course, most of the offers ended with Lee Han feeling sad.

It was fortunate that there were at least a few tempting offers. Lee Han took diligent notes so he could refer to them later when he returned to Einroguard and started accepting requests.

Ignore those mages’ proposals. I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse. My research— No, why does this person keep slipping out? Drag this person out already! A troublesome upperclassman kept butting in and causing chaos along the way, but in the end, Lee Han managed to escape.

“Th-this is exhausting…”

Diret, who had finally managed to pull Lee Han out, muttered in a voice heavy with fatigue.

Come to think of it, this felt like the first time Diret had ever had to forcibly extract a popular underclassman from other mages.

By nature, students of the dark magic group tended to be far removed from this kind of attention.

To think it would be this tiring!

“Underclassman. This way.”

“Um, I’m fine now.”

“No.”

Diret said firmly.

He’d recovered his mana and even gotten help from healing magic, but the aftereffects of unifying with a great spirit weren’t something to brush aside lightly.

He might look fine now, but backlash could suddenly hit and drop him again.

“It’s not just a mana or stamina issue—information density in magic can damage a mage’s brain, too. When you unified with a great spirit, didn’t you ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ feel magic that wasn’t like what you normally feel?”

“!”

Lee Han realized what Diret meant.

The lightning power Perkuntra had used was completely different from the lightning magic Lee Han had used until now.

Starting from how you handled the lightning element, all the way to how far you could expand magic into higher realms.

Even now, after the unification was undone, that intense memory remained to some degree.

“Even forcing yourself to train magic beyond your level is dangerous, but stuffing it into your mind by force is even more dangerous. You’ll need to be careful for a while.”

“But Professor Bagreg forces people to train magic beyond their level. And the Principal even stuffs it into people’s minds by force…”

At the underclassman’s question, Diret pretended not to hear.

“Hm?”

“Professor Bagreg and the Principal…”

“What did you say?”

“…Nothing.”

Instead of pressing the point, Lee Han resolved to be careful for a while.

It seemed right not to recall the magic Perkuntra had shown him until he was ready, and to watch himself.

‘Still, isn’t this a bit too much worrying…?’

Lee Han stared fixedly at the back of the head of the summon—an upper-rank evil spirit—carrying him.

■■■? “Ah. It’s nothing. Thank you for carrying me.”

The upper-rank evil spirit nodded with a blunt expression. Watching that, Diret said,

“It says it’s surprised you’re actually kind, unlike your appearance.”

“I get that misunderstanding a lot. Honestly, beings that judge people by mana…”

Lee Han said indignantly. Diret wondered if it was really just because of mana.

‘Having a lot of mana wouldn’t be enough to contract with a great spirit, would it…?’

“More importantly, Upperclassman.”

“H-huh? I wasn’t thinking anything!”

“What? No, that’s not it—there are a lot of people gathered on the road over there. What’s going on?”

“!”

At the underclassman’s words, Diret tossed a glance that way and jumped in surprise.

The streets of Plaher City lay under darkness, since dawn still hadn’t come.

The glow of mana lamps faintly outlined the shapes of people.

Just by looking, it wasn’t a normal number.

“We’re in trouble!”

“Suspicious people? Anti-magic extremists?”

“…They’re not that suspicious! Those are mages.”

“What mages?”

“Mages who heard rumors about the exchange gathering!”

Plaher City was a major city, so it had many mages—and among them, far more mages who hadn’t attended the exchange gathering.

Not every mage took an interest in an exchange gathering.

But sometimes, there were exceptions.

If a rumor spread that could make even the mages sitting in their estates leap to their feet, you got scenes like this, where mages came swarming in.

“Tch. You told me to land a hit on Princess Yukbeltire, so I did it…”

“…I didn’t think you’d land it this hard! How could anyone predict that?!”

Diret felt truly wronged, too.

No professor would have predicted something like this happening in that situation.

“Can’t we just push through?”

“There are too many. Even if we only trade one sentence each, it’ll take hours. Underclassman. If you want to be active as a mage for a long time, research matters, but…”

“You mean the ability to secure research funding matters too?”

“…N-no. Not that.”

Diret panicked when the underclassman gave an answer that was too realistic.

Diret still didn’t know that, during this break, the Skull Principal had praised this underclassman as a “bureaucrat exterminator.”

“That matters too, but the lesson I wanted to teach you was: don’t hang out with weird mages.”

“Ah.”

Lee Han nodded.

That was definitely true.

“You mean people like Professor Verdus or Princess Yukbeltire?”

“…No… people weirder than those two.”

For a moment, Diret almost answered “yes,” but shook his head and came to his senses.

It wasn’t something an Einroguard student should say, but among mages, there were truly a lot of strange people.

If they were simply mages obsessed with research, that was almost preferable.

Scammers who didn’t care about magic but tried to dazzle others and wring gold out of them, criminals trying to make a big score using magic, hagglers who introduced mages to other guilds or mage towers in exchange for a broker’s fee…

As harsh as the path of magic was, there were surprisingly few mages who were truly serious about walking it.

That was why mages who were serious about the path of magic had to avoid suspicious types.

If they got tangled up, they’d only waste their own time!

“Back then, there was one upperclassman who used to be popular like this.”

“In the dark magic group?”

“No. Another school… hey. What did you mean by that?”

“I was just asking to be sure.”

“Anyway, people like that used to come to that upperclassman a lot and make offers, and I think there was one tempting offer. That upperclassman accepted it and did something together with them.”

“What happened?”

“It made the Empire newspaper—‘Einroguard graduate mage caught committing magical fraud’…”

Diret said in a gloomy voice.

Even though time had passed, it was still a painful memory.

Diret still vividly remembered the Skull Principal flying into a rage and ordering a search and seizure on students back then.

‘Damn.’

Since it wasn’t someone else’s problem, Lee Han listened even more intently. He had dreams of business himself.

‘I definitely need to be careful.’

“If they’re mages serious enough to attend an exchange gathering, that’s still better, but you don’t need to mingle with those mages one by one.”

“Wait. Isn’t that Princess Yukbeltire over there?”

“What? Don’t be ridiculo—”

Diret narrowed his eyes and looked ahead at Lee Han’s words.

Princess Yukbeltire stood on the main street with escorts.

“Find them, explain my research, and propose it.”

“Yes. Understood.”

“These mages are in the way. If there are any you can buy off, buy them off.”

“……”

As an upperclassman, instead of dispersing the peddlers for the underclassman’s sake, she was bribing them so she could use them—Diret lowered his head.

A friend who was embarrassing anywhere you put her.

“Let’s go back… there’s an alley over there…”

“…Hang in there.”

“I’m fine…”

Even though Diret said that, today Diret’s wings felt unusually drooped.

*****

No, why are you mages doing this in the middle of the night? The citizens are afraid. We’re only trying to find someone right now— “This won’t work. Let’s go inside.”

Since there were more mages than expected, Diret chose to just go into a building.

Once daylight came, they’d give up and disperse.

“Do you know somewhere?”

“There’s a workshop nearby.”

Since the exchange gathering venue itself was located in Plaher City’s mage district, there were several guild and mage tower workshops nearby. The workshops built by Einroguard’s schools were no exception.

‘Hm?’

Lee Han brightened, then hesitated.

Thinking about it, could the dark magic group even have a workshop here?

No matter how much it was the mage district, shouldn’t it be farther out, somewhere secluded near a graveyard?

“Is it the dark magic group’s workshop?”

“Alchemy school.”

“Ah.”

“…Right, sure. The dark magic group shouldn’t have a workshop here.”

“No, Upperclassman. Why would you say that. I just thought the location wouldn’t be appropriate because of reagent supply. More importantly, it’s the alchemy school’s workshop—can we go in?”

“I’m relatively close with the alchemy kids… I’d even gotten permission to come and go from Professor Thunderwalk. And there won’t be anyone inside.”

Diret chanted a spell. With a clank, the workshop door opened. Inside, there was a sharp smell of mixed reagents.

Who? “…We’re screwed.”

Diret muttered low. As Lee Han climbed down from the upper-rank evil spirit’s back, Lee Han asked,

“Why?”

“There’s an underclassman in there I’m not close with. Ilendil… ah. Wait. Underclassman.”

Remembering belatedly, Diret looked at Lee Han with hopeful eyes.

Lee Han answered firmly.

“I’m not close either.”