Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

“Where did you get that?”

“Professor Verdus gave it to me.”

“What?!?”

An even more violent reaction burst out than before.

When the upperclassman looked at him as if treating him like a spy, Lee Han hurriedly explained.

“I can explain.”

“I don’t enjoy chatting during a relocation job, but I have to hear this before we go in.”

With stubborn resolve, Sebius folded Sebius’s arms and looked at the junior.

Sebius could not begin to imagine what kind of reason there could possibly have been for someone to receive a key like that from Professor Verdus.

Was Professor Verdus not that lunatic professor who would not hand even a fistful of reagents to Verdus’s own direct disciples?

For a junior who had only been a first-year last year, getting something like this was even more impossible.

“Well…”

Lee Han briefly explained what had happened last year.

Last year, Professor Verdus had worked him like a dog, and a graduated upperclassman in the punishment ward had seen that, flown into a rage, and secured at least a little bit of Lee Han’s rights for him…

What the hell am I listening to right now?

Sebius endured the haze overtaking Sebius’s mind and forced Sebius’s attention to stay sharp.

Sebius could no longer tell whether this was the story of a first-year student or the tale of some ancient upperclassman from the legends wandering around Einroguard.

“…That is how it happened. I received this key as payment for the work I did last year.”

“I see. Yes. That is truly astonishing.”

Sebius realized that if there were too many things to point out, a person eventually just gave up.

There was no time, and there were too many parts to ask about.

“You were lucky. To think you happened to have the key to this place.”

Isn’t the way Sebius is talking a little strange?

Lee Han found it odd that the upperclassman was replying so stiffly, like someone had been hit with a paralysis curse.

“I’m sorry. It would have been much easier if we had come here right away.”

“That is not true. We would have had to keep moving around anyway if we wanted to secure all the books. It would only have been a difference in entrance. The result would have been the same.”

“Thank you for saying that. Then shall we go in?”

Sebius checked the time briefly and decided to ask just the single thing Sebius was most curious about.

“…But what in the world did you do that sent you to the deep punishment ward?”

*****

The door opened, and Professor Verdus’s official underground storehouse revealed itself.

Unlike the disorderly earlier storehouses, it looked thoroughly maintained…

…No, it did not. It looked much like the other storehouses. Odds and ends were rolling around everywhere, and reagents were mixed together in crates in a total mess.

But there was definitely a difference.

This really is a place the professor uses.

The objects in the forgotten storehouses had been neglected so badly that they were full of broken junk or things whose effects had vanished, but everything in this official underground storehouse connected to the Hall of Sacred Engravings was usable immediately.

Sebius glanced at the junior and said,

“If you want to take things, you can.”

“!”

“I normally do not allow freelancing theft during a job… but we only got in here entirely thanks to you, didn’t we? If there’s something you want, take it.”

“That is all right.”

“…I can see why Ratford thinks highly of you. Restraining greed is an incredible talent. Don’t you think?”

“The truth is, I can come in here whenever I want, so I was thinking I would bring my friends later and sweep the place clean if I ever needed anything.”

“……”

Sebius grumbled inwardly.

Sebius had thought Sebius was fairly used to Einroguard by now, but after looking at this junior, that feeling vanished completely.

Einroguard was always an astonishing place. Sebius felt like Sebius would never adapt to it for the rest of Sebius’s life.

“I’m worried the members of the Teleportation Club are going to get soft because of you.”

“?”

“If you rely too much on someone else, you forget how to take care of yourself. You—how are things with the Blue Dragon Tower students?”

“Please do not worry. I always help them within appropriate limits.”

“I suppose someone like you would never just give things away without thinking.”

Sebius, not knowing that Lee Han really was giving to the Blue Dragon Tower students without restraint, failed to notice anything and let it pass.

If Sebius had known the truth, Sebius would have grabbed Lee Han by the collar and shouted, Is that what you call helping within appropriate limits?

“Do you know why I only take books?”

“Is it because other valuable goods are highly likely to have separate alarm magic or defensive magic on them, and since dispelling that magic consumes time, mana, and concentration, it raises the risk of getting caught?”

When such a much-too-professional answer came back immediately, Sebius’s mouth fell open.

Is this bastard actually from a thieves’ guild or something?

“…That is also true, but there is another reason. It’s because of Ileg.”

At the mention of the name of the Library Club president, Lee Han was startled.

“Did Ileg threaten to kill you if you stole?”

“Hey. Just what kind of person do you think Ileg is?”

Sebius bristled a little.

Ileg certainly possessed overwhelming strength, but Ileg was not the kind of person who beat people up…

…Well, Ileg was also exactly the kind of person who beat people up, but anyway, not just anyone.

“I apologize. Then why?”

“It was when I was actively relocating things around Einroguard. By chance, I ended up entering the place where Ileg was staying.”

Sebius spoke while recalling the memory.

Ileg had discovered Sebius looting a storehouse, but instead of subduing Sebius with a fist, Ileg gifted Sebius a book.

“A book?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. Was it a grimoire with location tracking on it? To wipe out your companions too?”

“…It was just a book, you bastard. Ileg told me this: taking treasure is all well and good, but it seemed like I had forgotten what the real treasure here was.”

After leaving that place, Sebius had first thought Ileg was a strange one, just as expected from a priest of the Phoenix Tower.

No matter how kind someone was, gifting a book to a thief was absurd.

But then Sebius grew curious and opened the book once. Sebius had wondered what kind of book someone would go so far as to give away like that.

“What kind of book was it? A scripture? A fable?”

“It was just a cheap popular novel. A thief gets framed and trapped on a remote island in the middle of the vast sea, escapes, and takes revenge on the ones who framed him. For some reason, it brought tears to my eyes.”

I think I know the reason.

Lee Han thought he understood why Ileg had given Sebius that novel too.

It was clearly for a practical purpose.

Obviously, it had been so Sebius could use it as reference when escaping Einroguard…

“I stayed up all night and read it, then went to find Ileg. I returned the book and thanked Ileg. Then Ileg gave me the next book. After I read that one, Ileg gave me another… and after °• N 𝑜 v l i g h t •° that, I ended up joining the Library Club. That was when I stopped relocating other things.”

“That is impressive.”

Lee Han looked at Sebius with a trace of genuine respect.

If someone told Lee Han right now not to relocate the Skull Principal’s storehouses, he would immediately grab that person by the collar and shout, Who the hell are you to say that?

But the upperclassman in front of him had escaped that greed.

“What’s impressive about it… Damn it, I don’t even know why I’m telling all this to a junior who only just came in. Maybe it’s because you look like the kind who’ll keep making moves in either the Library Club or the Teleportation Club. I’ll be gone next year, but you’ll still be here.”

As Sebius kept emphasizing that Sebius would be gone next year, Lee Han felt a strangely ominous foreboding.

Surely Sebius won’t still be here next year, right?

“Relocation is fine, but don’t get swallowed by greed and forget what matters. I’ve seen plenty of people who kept going just because the jobs were going well and wound up in the punishment ward.”

“I will remember that.”

“There it is.”

Sebius spotted on a bookshelf and pointed.

The thick book, bound in purple, had several bookmarks stuck into it. It did not even have a speck of dust on it, as if it had been read recently.

“……”

“What is it?”

“It looks like Professor Verdus was reading it.”

“Then that makes it even better. Take it.”

If, at the end of the job, they could inflict pain on Professor Verdus, Lee Han intended to regard that as a small bonus.

“…No. If Professor Verdus was reading it, then we can’t.”

“Senior. Do you not remember the other books? There was even one trapped inside slime. This one may end up like that at any moment.”

“I know. I know, but damn it.”

Even with the junior’s logical persuasion, Sebius only let out heavy sighs and shook Sebius’s head.

“I’m really sorry. But I can’t take it.”

“No… it is your job, Senior, so it’s fine. You’re the one who decides.”

When the junior tried to comfort Sebius, Sebius felt even more sorry.

They had come all the way here, and now Sebius was backing out.

“Damn it. For someone who never reads the books taken from here, what kind of whim made Verdus pick up that one…”

“With a book like that, getting caught would be too likely, so retreating is the right call. But instead, Senior, take these.”

Lee Han pointed to books shelved elsewhere. Dust had piled thickly over them, as if nobody had touched them in a long time.

The moment Sebius saw that, Sebius let out a crooked laugh.

“You’re better than I am. Yes. We should take those.”

The hamster beastkin upperclassman swept the remaining books into the backpack with practiced skill.

They had come in through the back entrance, but since they had the key, they only needed to leave through the main entrance.

The two headed toward the front entrance of the storehouse…

“Who’s there?”

With a rustling crash, the pile of junk behind them collapsed, and a mage rose from it.

It was Professor Verdus.

“……”

“……”

Lee Han could clearly see the color drain rapidly from the upperclassman’s face, turning it pale.

“It’s me, Professor.”

“Huh? What are you doing here? How did you get in?”

Professor Verdus recognized Lee Han and looked puzzled.

“You gave me this key last year.”

“How did you get that key?!”

Seeing Verdus shamelessly trying to erase anything inconvenient to Verdus personally from Verdus’s memory, Lee Han went expressionless and explained.

“Was it not the payment you gave me for helping you last year?”

“Would you return it?”

“Am I insane?”

Professor Verdus grumbled at the sight of the disciple.

Lee Han might have received it fairly, but still, to refuse to return the key to Verdus’s own storehouse because of Lee Han’s greed.

What an outrageously greedy disciple.

“But who’s the one next to you?”

“That is my senior.”

“Why are you together?”

“My senior came to help me carry reagents out of the storehouse.”

“…How much are you taking?”

Professor Verdus looked at Lee Han with pleading eyes.

The usual image of the professor squeezing Lee Han dry like a lunatic was nowhere to be seen. Verdus was instinctively making use of the natural appearance of a beaver beastkin to provoke sympathy.

Of course, ever since meeting Professor Verdus, Lee Han had long since lost any sense of cuteness toward every beaver in the world.

“I’ll take as much as I need.”

“What spell are you using them for? Tell me. I’ll help. If you build the magic properly, your reagent consumption drops too.”

“I’m planning to attack the Skull Principal…”

Lee Han gestured to Sebius. It meant: Get outside while there’s an opening.

Shuddering at the sight of the junior playing with Professor Verdus, Sebius headed out.

Nobody will believe what happened today.

That someone had actually persuaded Professor Verdus through conversation.

Even students who had broken through every mystery and ordeal in Einroguard would refuse to believe that!

*****

“Are you all right?!”

“Yes.”

Sebius, who had been waiting outside, hurried over the moment Lee Han came out.

Lee Han had taken far longer than Sebius had expected.

“What happened in there…?”

“Ah. Professor Verdus kept trying to recommend cheaper spells, so that delayed me. Nothing happened.”

“…Take this.”

Sebius pulled out a small pouch and held it out. Lee Han accepted it in puzzlement. It was heavy, and the moment he took it, it gave a clinking sound.

“Imperial gold coins. Twelve of them? Is that right?”

“…How do you know that?!”

“Why are you giving me this?”

“What do you mean, why? You worked, so I’m paying you. That’s how it works—when a relocation ends, you settle accounts. If we had brought out more expensive treasure, I might have paid you more… And also, don’t think too much about what I said earlier. Whether it’s the Library Club or the Teleportation Club, if you’re not interested, just say so comfortably. I can take responsibility and get you out of both clubs.”

At the very least, I should do this much.

Sebius thought that, considering the devotion the junior had shown today, even this was not enough of a reward.

Sebius might end up sentenced to the bookshelf sentence, or Teleportation Club members might cling to Sebius’s pant legs, but this still had to be done.

But the junior answered with a severe expression.

“What are you talking about? Let’s go recover the next book.”

“Do you perhaps never sleep?”