Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

It was a ridiculous thing to say, but Caten, who viewed the punishment cells in a positive light, nodded.

“True enough. Something can be frightening and still positive, just like the punishment cells.”

“H-ha ha.”

“Then it seems I’ve explained the lecture well enough, so we should begin learning from each other, Junior!”

Caten smiled brightly and slapped Lee Han on the back.

It looked like a light pat, but Lee Han felt the shock rattle through his body.

Ghk.

Even the most ordinary motion concealed terrifying destructive force.

*****

That was how the lecture began in earnest.

“So you cast this fire-resistance spell first and then practice … Hmm. In my opinion, it would be more effective if you attempted it without the resistance spell.”

“What?”

“In the end, the purpose of a fire-resistance spell is to protect the mage, isn’t it? There’s no need to dull the mage’s instinctive senses.”

“But I could be seriously injured.”

“Hahaha! Junior, then all you have to do is dodge properly! Ah, right. I believe you said you also had trouble controlling your mana because you had too much of it? In that case, why don’t you remove your resistance spell too and try casting it that way?”

…There’s no way Professor Voladi # Nоvеlight # bribed him, right?

Lee Han was appalled by the sight of the cheerful cat beastkin upperclassman talking so innocently.

Make it more dangerous so you adapt faster?

Wasn’t that exactly the logic of a certain Professor V?

“I’d rather just practice with the resistance spell on.”

“No, Junior. If it becomes dangerous, I’ll help you. Trust me.”

“No… even if I just practice with the resistance spell on, I’ll learn it eventually.”

Lee Han’s case was not the same as Caten’s.

Caten was in a position where, without any calculations to rely on, he truly had no choice but to learn magic through sensation alone, so it made sense that he was obsessed with sharpened instincts. Lee Han, on the other hand, only needed to get his mana output under control.

Besides, this was not really a spell Lee Han didn’t know how to use. It was closer to a spell he did know how to use, but one where he had difficulty controlling the exact strength of the flames.

So why would he do something that reckless…

“Junior.”

Caten called to him in a serious voice.

“Unlike me, you are a brilliant genius.”

“…And?”

“For a genius like you to waste time while training magic could, in a sense, be an insult to a dullard like me.”

“No, what kind of—”

“So let us do it together! I may not be able to help with magic itself, but if it seems like you’re about to be hurt, I will absolutely step in. Now then, Junior, watch me first! O flame, rise as a barrier!”

Caten chanted in a voice full of confidence.

But contrary to that force of will, the mana was distributed completely at random. Far from forming a wall of flame, only sparks hissed pointlessly in all directions before it ended.

It was a complete failure, nowhere close, but Caten paid it no mind and immediately prepared to cast again.

“You too, Junior!”

“…O flame, rise as a barrier.”

Lee Han cast the spell carefully.

He could never help being cautious with fire magic.

The moment his concentration slipped, or the moment he fed in even a little too much mana, it would swell beyond his control and burn everything around him.

Unlike Caten’s result, a nearly perfect wall of flame rose up.

Lee Han grew even more focused, worried he might fail to control the amount of mana.

FWOOSH!

In an instant, the wall of flame thickened and looked ready to spit fire in every direction.

Before Lee Han could even react, Caten charged over, sent Lee Han flying, and cut down the wall of flame with his sword.

“Are you all right, Junior?!”

“…I think I was all right before you sent me flying, Senior.”

“That’s good. Let’s practice again, Junior.”

“I think I need to recover some mana first.”

“I heard your mana was infinite, Junior.”

“……”

Lee Han thought that once he got back, he truly needed to attack the White Tiger Tower students.

Caten hauled the seated Lee Han back to his feet and immediately prepared to challenge magic again.

When it came to magic, Caten possessed a spirit of inquiry that neither tired nor wavered.

“Now then! Again!”

“Ghk.”

Every time Lee Han’s flame barrier slipped out of control or looked ready to run wild, Caten struck him and sent him flying.

At times, Lee Han got hit and sent flying even when the shape had done nothing more than wobble a little.

—Why did you throw me that time?!

—Wasn’t it running wild?

—The shape just shook a little!

—Oh… my apologies, Junior. I don’t really understand magic…

At this point, Lee Han found himself thinking Professor Voladi’s lectures had been better.

Professor Voladi at least knew what kind of spell was being taught while teaching it.

Caten, by contrast, knew nothing about the spell at all and therefore drove Lee Han mercilessly.

No matter how finicky a wall of flame might be, Caten believed only one thing: if it was his junior, then surely his junior could do it.

“Huff, huff. Junior, let’s rest a little.”

Fortunately, Caten’s mana was not infinite.

Since even repeated failed attempts at magic consumed at least a small amount of mana, Caten—after repeating the process many times—was now breathing hard.

“My, my. Senior. Mana doesn’t recover that easily. I think it would be better if you just took a full rest.”

“Hoo. In that case, I suppose you’re right, Junior.”

Caten agreed with Lee Han.

Lee Han felt it was a bit of a shame he couldn’t press this upperclassman and get his revenge, but he let it go.

It was better to get some rest this way than to provoke pointless stubbornness and end up with neither of them resting at all—

“Then draw your sword.”

“What?”

“Junior, while I can’t use magic, we can save time by training swordsmanship, can we not?”

“…Wouldn’t it be better to be careful with swordsmanship too when your mana is low…?”

“Hahaha. Junior, that much is no problem. Even when my mana is low, I can teach you perfectly well!”

Unfortunately for Lee Han, that was no empty boast.

Even with barely any mana left, Caten deftly diverted Lee Han’s attacks, turned them aside, and sometimes even used a limited Lesser World to block them like an iron wall.

Even without mana, if he altered reality through a Lesser World, he could compensate for what he lacked.

Caten was fairly pleased with Lee Han’s heavy, fierce swordsmanship, but he still judged that more intense concentration and resolve would be needed to complete aura.

“Hmm. The punishment cells really are an excellent place to concentrate.”

“If possible, I’d prefer some method other than the punishment cells…”

Lee Han shuddered with the sword in his hand.

Among his friends, he was certainly one of the best when it came to swordsmanship, but Caten’s swordsmanship went completely beyond that level.

He compensated for the disadvantages caused by low mana entirely through swordsmanship and met Lee Han head-on, evenly. Because of that, Lee Han—who had intended to crush his way through at once with overwhelming mana and powerful attacks—kept being dragged into prolonged exchanges.

“Hmm! I think my mana has recovered enough. Let’s prepare magic again.”

“……”

Lee Han no longer thought there was any need to look for hell in some other dimension.

This was hell.

“O flame, rise as a barrier.”

Fwoooosh—

Unlike before, a stable wall of flame rose up.

Lee Han was briefly taken aback at the spell’s completion, because even though he himself had cast it, it had formed too stably.

…Huh?

Watching from the side, Caten asked in puzzlement, “Oh. Junior. I think this one’s complete.”

“…That isn’t necessarily the right way to look at it, Senior. In truth, the standard for when a spell is perfectly complete can differ from person to person.”

“But generally speaking, this seems complete, doesn’t it? Look, Junior. There isn’t the slightest wobble.”

“It might start to wobble if more time passes—”

“No! I’m reading the mana in this barrier, and there’s no such instability! Junior, you learned another spell today! Congratulations!”

“……”

“Seeing this makes me believe in your methods even more! I, too, must train hard!”

*****

Anglago, on the way to attend the lecture , spotted Lee Han and waved.

“Wardanaz. Honestly, I envy you.”

“…Why?”

“Don’t play dumb. Senior Jahan picked only you, didn’t he? If you ask whether I’m jealous, then yes, I’m jealous. Everyone wanted to learn from Senior Jahan.”

Anglago nodded to himself, humming thoughtfully.

Aside from being a little lacking in magical ability, Caten of House Jahan was more than worthy of the White Tiger Tower students’ respect.

To begin with, the fact that a student had completed aura was astonishing enough. But to have gone even beyond that stage and reached the point of using a Lesser World, even in a limited way?

Professor Ingledel was an even greater swordsman than Caten, of course, but as a student, it was only natural to admire an older student from your own tower who was closer to you than a professor was.

Anglago also wanted to learn swordsmanship from Caten.

“I’m thinking I’ll push myself harder this semester and ask for his instruction again in the second semester. Wardanaz, don’t let your guard down. You’re just holding that place for now. There’s no telling which one of us might steal your spot—agh! Aghhh!!!”

The students walking behind them stared in confusion at the sight of Lee Han furiously pounding Anglago on the back.

“What’s with Anglago?”

“Don’t tell me he used some pathetic excuse again like last time, saying he accidentally ate his assignment in his sleep? It’s not like there have even been that many assignments yet…”

“H-help me, you bastards!”

Anglago called out to his White Tiger Tower friends, but they ignored him and walked into the lecture hall.

If some outside enemy attacked White Tiger Tower, they would risk their lives for a friend from the same tower—but whenever Anglago and Lee Han ended up like this, it was usually far more likely that Anglago was the one at fault.

“Ghk, ghk! Slip away, from the enemy’s grasp!”

Even while getting pounded on the back, Anglago barely managed to cast a slipping spell and wriggle free from Lee Han’s grip.

His clothes, with their friction greatly reduced, slipped out of the enemy’s hand and let their owner escape.

“I-I didn’t even say anything… Just you wait, Wardanaz!”

Shouting that, Anglago ran into the lecture hall, only to freeze on the spot when he saw a gigantic wyvern blinking and staring at him.

“…Did I come to the wrong classroom?”

“Ah! No, no, this is the right one. Everyone, sit down! Sit down!”

Professor Rozine was one of the more normal professors among Einroguard’s legion of lunatics.

Maybe that was because the professor had once been an Imperial bureaucrat.

Which was why the students all wore miserable expressions, as though even Professor Rozine was finally revealing true colors now that they were second-years.

Though come to think of it, didn’t the professor go around with demons last year too?

Lee Han thought that to himself as he took his seat.

Maybe it wasn’t that Professor Rozine had ever been normal. Maybe the students had simply wanted to believe that.

Beside him, Gainando was lowering himself as much as possible, desperately trying to avoid the wyvern’s gaze.

“L-Lee Han. I think that thing is only looking at me.”

“Ah. Wyverns do tend to prefer blond hair a bit more.”

“W-what a rude monster…!”

Once all the students had sat down, Professor Rozine cleared the throat once and began.

“Now then! Some of you may have been startled by the wyvern today! But everyone, there’s no need to worry. You won’t have to ride a wyvern, and you won’t have to hunt one either. I brought a wyvern into the classroom because I wanted to show you how to converse with one.”

Having said that, Professor Rozine began conversing with the wyvern in a series of extremely complex and bizarre cries that none of the students could understand.

After several exchanges, Professor Rozine nodded.

“Would student Gainando mind moving all the way to the back?”

“……”

Gainando turned deathly pale and hurried to the rear.

“These kinds of monster languages are more useful to mages than you might think. If you master them well, they can be far more effective than powerful grand magic. I’ve listed the monster languages I’d recommend to each of you, so take a look!”

As the professor spoke, paper birds flew out to the students.

Lee Han accepted his sheet, read it, then asked in puzzlement, “Professor. I have a question.”

“Yes, yes. What is it?”

“Creatures like basilisks are rare monsters that people in the Empire almost never encounter. Is there really any need to learn their language? I would think it would be better to prioritize other monster languages first.”

—……

“…Th-the… student’s sleeve…”