Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 997

Chapter 997

As the mage who had summoned the world behind the mountains disappeared, the world dispersed like dawn chasing away the darkness of night.

The light of the star that had aided the mage's disciple also fulfilled its role and returned to the heavens.

As powerful forces disappeared one after another, the surroundings became quiet. The first to recover from the shock was the skull principal.

-...Well... It's resolved, I suppose.-

The skull principal's voice contained undisguisable displeasure.

It was certainly a much better ending for the doppelganger to ascend like that rather than being reverse summoned or eternally confined.

This was especially true for the skull principal, who held a bit of regretful emotion towards the doppelgangers.

But he couldn't help feeling bitter that the one who had caused such a ruckus, threatening to destroy the school if not kidnapping a disciple in someone else's territory, had just understood on his own and ascended.

And above all, if he was someone who could ascend through persuasion like this...

...Couldn't he have ascended before the skull principal prepared great magic using astronomical amounts of gold coins?

'It can't be helped.'

The skull principal decided not to think about it for now. What good would thinking about it do?

-You too, Bat-danaz, went through a lot. For all that stubbornness, luck was on your side. Don't do this again in the future.-

"..."

-Bat-danaz?-

Yi-Han didn't answer.

Belatedly realizing his disciple was protesting with silence, the skull principal spoke as if dumbfounded.

-Is this the time for you to be angry, Bat-danaz? If anyone should be angry, it's me! Besides, that level is celestialization. Why are you acting like this?-

If he had been eternally sealed, such a reaction would have been understandable.

In that case, the skull principal would have said, 'Go ahead and make a fuss as you please, I'll go my own way.'

He was already used to the petty tantrums of incompetent disciples.

However, Yi-Han's reason was a bit different from the skull principal's expectation.

"If only you hadn't interfered, he could have ascended in a much more stable situation at the very least. He could have left longer last words too. He could have left a word for each of the other friends..."

-Is ascension a joke?!-

The skull principal was even more dumbfounded by this emotional reason so different from the reasons for tantrums other disciples had shown until now.

Other disciples had climbed up complaining that they weren't taught magic, weren't given missions, were underestimated as mages, and so on, but this fellow was acting like this just because he wasn't given time to leave last words?

-It was heavenly timing, earthly timing, and human timing combined. I should be the one receiving thanks! If I hadn't pushed, you wouldn't have been able to bring out Arna's power, and then he would have been confined without even ascending!-

Regardless, Yi-Han protested with silence.

The skull principal seriously considered hitting him once, then gave up.

His disciple's condition wasn't good as it was, probably from overexertion, and he had become completely tattered from using Arna's power on top of that.

"What happened?"

-You're here, bat professor.-

When Professor Boladi, who had been momentarily banished to another realm just now, returned, the skull principal sneered.

Of course, Professor Boladi wasn't shaken by such words. Only a Baldurguard student would be shaken by such words.

The skull principal gave up sneering and explained the situation. At least the surprise spreading like wildfire across Professor Boladi's face was a small consolation.

"Then wasn't there no need for you to come on so strongly?"

-...Shut up.-

  *

The most unfortunate skull principal in the empire had no leisure to worry about the most petty disciple in Einroguard.

He immediately cleared away the curtain of dreams and had the mages waiting below return. Even now, gold equivalent to the weight of giants was being consumed every second.

-It's resolved well, so you may return.-

-Pardon? But Lord Gonadaltes, you invested so many gold coins for this magic...-

-...I said it's resolved well. Everyone return.-

-But... When we told you this magic was astronomically expensive and the preparation process was generally impossible, you said there was no other way. Yet you say it's resolved well without using this? Aren't you regretful?-

-...Get-out!-

-Aaaaah!-

The mages invited from across the empire for enormous sums returned in terror at the fiery Einroguard-style send-off.

Pushing away the flickering amount of gold coins invested in this magic, the skull principal focused on reality again.

-You knights. You knights who revere loyalty and honor and dedicate your swords to your master. It seems you've omitted many reports to me.-

-......-

-......-

The Death Knights, who had appropriately omitted matters related to Yi-Han while the skull principal was absent, nodded.

Then they turned around sharply.

-Where are you going?-

-To the punishment room.-

......

The skull principal was grateful for the absence of a physical body.

If he had had a physical body, he would surely have felt a stabbing headache.

Originally, the Death Knights didn't give in so easily even to disciples.

But somehow that Bat-danaz fellow had a strange knack for enticing people, and was now using those knights like his own minions.

-Report what you omitted before you go.-

-...Can't we just stay in the punishment room longer?-

......

The skull principal shuddered at those words.

...Could there be more that he hadn't grasped?

-...Before I demote you all to skeletons, report properly.-

The Death Knights, who had charged at evil dragons with swords gripped tight, opened their mouths while awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

-Her Highness Jourin... well...-

-Fortunately, I know about that. His Majesty knows too. It's not your fault.-

The skull principal sighed lightly.

Jourin's genius strategy had shocked both the skull principal and the emperor, who were contemplating ways to eternally confine the mad doppelganger.

It was a strategy chilling enough to make non-existent guts freeze.

-That's a relief! Then you must know about Her Highness Jourin giving the dragon stone to the disciple, getting confined to quarters, secretly escaping and carrying the disciple on her back to subjugate the doppelganger together?-

-...What?-

The skull principal, who was about to write a letter to the emperor saying 'It was resolved better than expected and one problem of the continent has disappeared, so please extend the repayment period', paused.

What did they just say?

What stone and what subjugation? Carried on her back? Did they mean she was chosen?

-......-

-...Actually, Professor Bagrak and Professor Kim were there too.-

The Death Knights desperately divided the responsibility, feeling like a second death was approaching.

The skull principal closed his eyes, recalling the utterly shameless face of the vampire professor.

'...I should have driven him out when he said he wanted power...'

He had no idea how he had become such a vile mage when he hadn't been so despicable in the past.

The skull principal recovered from the shock. As a transcendent mage, his recovery was fast.

-Right. I understand. Actually, if he rode on a dragon's back, it's Bat-danaz's loss. It's not my business.-

A contractor chosen by dragons needed as much responsibility in return for borrowing the power of that support.

It was an unreasonable contract passed down since ancient times, where if a dragon caused trouble, its contractor would be punished together by other dragon clans.

As the person involved more than anyone, the skull principal knew well how troublesome that contract was. It was a fitting punishment for his wicked disciple.

-Th-that's a relief!-

The Death Knights' voices brightened a little.

-Then is it alright that she gave him the dragon stone and subjugated the doppelganger?-

-Would it be alright?-

The skull principal spoke seriously.

The emperor might not care, but if imperial bureaucrats found out, they would surely foam at the mouth and have seizures.

He had already incurred the hatred of several people because of the preparations for confining this doppelganger...

-Wouldn't it have been better to persuade after all?-

-Shh, you agreed that threats would be faster back then, why are you saying this now?-

-But thinking about it now, hanging the finance officer upside down was a bit...-

-We apologized, didn't we? If we apologized, that's enough. The other side accepted the apology too.-

-Everyone shut up. Right. For now... for now let's overlook this. Her Highness isn't one to go around talking about it anyway.-

Jourin wasn't a socialite. Even for imperial bureaucrats, there was a high chance they wouldn't be able to find out about this matter.

The skull principal decided to think that way and moved on to the next topic.

-But what did that doppelganger do to warrant subjugation? Did he kidnap someone again in the meantime?-

-His state reversed and he declared he would subjugate the continent. The disciple resolved it by summoning the Yaksha King of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas...-

-Garcia!!! Boladi!!!-

The skull principal finally exploded.

-How could you professors cover all this up??-

Even if there was no immediate problem with the disciple, there was a limit to such shortsightedness.

Sometimes, if it seemed a disciple was falling into the abyss of evil, shouldn't they scold them harshly?

If they had done that, there wouldn't have been any whining over one doppelganger.

To think even Professor Garcia was like this, were there really no mages he could trust?

-Um... Master.-

-What?-

-While you were preparing magic with His Majesty, you said not to make unnecessary reports...-

The Death Knight who dared speak was immediately moved to the deep punishment room.

-Can't you distinguish what unnecessary reports are? That Yaksha fellow seems suspicious. He might have brazenly played tricks.-

The skull principal suspected there might have been the Yaksha King's schemes in the professors' omission of reports.

This Yaksha, skilled in reading heavenly secrets and the future, had often put people in dire straits with his subtle schemes in the past.

It wouldn't be strange at all if the two professors had been persuaded by the Yaksha King to delay their reports.

He probably whispered insidiously, "The doppelganger's state is quite alright now, he's teaching the disciple well, wouldn't it be better to watch over the disciple for his sake rather than needlessly reporting to the skull principal and creating conflict?"

-No wonder they seemed too friendly. For professors to not even stop it... Next!-

-W-well, about the clash with the evil god worshippers in Granden City...-

-I heard about that.-

-Then do you know about the contract with the body of the beast that rules death and darkness that Professor Mortum brought?-

-...I didn't know that, but I suppose it's possible.-

The skull principal spoke with a detached attitude.

It seemed he had visited the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas and socialized with the Yaksha King too, so this much wasn't very surprising anymore.

He had even become friends with Ferkuntra in the first place...

It was a belated thought, but Bat-danaz truly had an outstanding talent for enticing powerful transcendent beings. It was probably because of that vile cunning.

-If he met the body of that one Mortum brought, I suppose his wounds have healed.-

-Yes. It seems so.-

The Death Knights inwardly sighed in relief.

Judging by his words, it seemed he hadn't yet heard rumors about the incidents caused by the up-and-coming mage Setlad Anog rampaging around.

The skull principal felt puzzled.

This was sufficiently surprising news too, but he had already been surprised about it in the capital.

Why bring up the Granden City story then? Was there something he didn't know about there?

-No. Just to confirm... Oh. Do you know that Professor Bagrak used a relic?-

-I know. You must mean St. Eaktus's stone.-

The skull principal answered with a bored attitude.

At the start of the semester, Professor Boladi had borrowed a relic to rescue the disciple kidnapped by the mad doppelganger.

Of course, there was no way the skull principal would have kept such a relic carelessly. He had intentionally calculated and placed it.

-That's a relief! But I was surprised. I didn't expect you to lend even Anabadalda's Teardrop, let alone St. Eaktus's stone...-

-...He took and used Anabadalda's Teardrop too?-

-......-

-......-

The Death Knights realized they had made a mistake.