Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 991

Chapter 991

"Master Yi-Han of the Wardanaz family. What on earth is going on here?"

At Intarendals' scream-like shout, Yi-Han answered as if he had come at just the right time.

"Welcome, Sir Intarendals. Please say something to Master."

"Wh-wh-what?"

The irreverent disciple's irreverent words gave an even greater shock to the head servant who was already about to faint.

"Master said he would teach us to prepare for the exam, but he's been lecturing all day on completely unrelated topics."

"I don't understand a single phrase of what you just said, Master Yi-Han..."

Intarendals' voice was pitiful. That's how unbelievable the current situation was to him.

What a waste, when every moment should be used to instill as much as possible into the disciple.

'Am I misunderstanding something?'

Perhaps his master had more time left than expected.

Otherwise, this leisure couldn't be explained.

"You've come. Did you bring it?"

"Yes, Lord Gonadaltes. But..."

Intarendals, who was about to ask a question, paused when he received a look from his master.

Befitting a loyal head servant, Intarendals could understand what orders his master was giving just by looking at his eyes.

The order his master gave now was silence.

"What did you bring?"

"Disciple, go teach the other mages. Finish the remaining content."

When Yi-Han showed interest, the mad doppelganger waved his hand as if annoyed.

Yi-Han, who had just been struggling to instill completely exam-irrelevant lectures into his friends, was naturally angry.

"No, you just made me teach other content because of you, Master, if you were going to do this, it would have been better if I had done it from the start...!"

Of course, it made no difference whether the disciple was angry or not. The mad doppelganger lightly blew his disciple away.

"Now we can talk."

"...Master. May I dare to speak frankly?"

"Intarendals. If a head servant like you cannot speak frankly, who could speak frankly to royalty? Speak freely."

The mad doppelganger spoke with an unpretentious attitude different from his usual public demeanor.

Rather than being moved by such an attitude from his master, Intarendals felt even stronger unease.

To think his master, who had always been flawless, was showing weakness.

It made him think that perhaps he was acting this way because not much time was left.

"Could it be that the world is rejecting you again, Master?"

"That's right."

"I apologize. I guess not after all. If it were true, you wouldn't... What??!"

Intarendals reacted belatedly.

Though he had asked the question, he hadn't expected to actually receive an affirmative answer.

"Has the kalpa of destruction or the flames of fear struck?! Or is it a realm rift..."

"Not yet. But looking at the future my disciple saw, it's almost certain."

The mad doppelganger spoke calmly.

An outstanding mage did not rely solely on his own magic. Moreover, a mage rejected by the world needed to be even more humble.

Even a great mage might not be able to foresee everything in advance.

However, fortunately, the mad doppelganger could make some guesses from the future his disciple had glimpsed.

"Seeing the reversal phenomenon that happened last time occurring again, and my disciple confronting royalty, it will happen soon."

"I will prepare ways to prevent it."

The head servant answered resolutely.

The magic set up around the mountain workshop wasn't just prepared to avoid and defend against the skull principal and his minions' gaze.

One rejected by the world had to prepare defenses against the constant anomalies that approached. Otherwise, even a great mage could be summoned back in one blow.

If it would reverse again soon, they just had to prepare ways to block it accordingly.

It would be tight, but if they plundered this area and took what was lacking from the Dargard family's vault...

"No. The cycle is too short."

However, the mad doppelganger shook his head.

The more one avoided such flames of fear with magic, the stronger their intensity became.

Given that madness had come twice so quickly, the third time would come even faster and stronger.

"You can prepare each time it comes."

"Enough. At this rate, it would be wiser to use the reverse summoning."

"However..."

Intarendals hesitated.

Though it was said one could descend again someday after being summoned back, that was unpredictable even with a great mage's abilities.

Wasn't it right to somehow block it now rather than hoping for such an uncertain future?

He couldn't understand why his wise master was making such a choice.

But Intarendals couldn't ask. His loyalty held back the head servant's feet.

"...Understood. Then how?"

"There's a fairly good alchemist. I've received a potion. If the reversal occurs, I plan to use this for reverse summoning. You..."

Though it was called a potion, a potion strong enough to reverse summon the mad doppelganger was essentially just a powerful poison.

Intarendals felt emotions welling up at his master's words.

"...Yes. I will complete the remaining tasks until you are reverse summoned."

"Yes. I'm counting on you. Pass on the remaining items and books to my disciple, discard what needs to be discarded..."

"What about the hamster?"

"That trash? Wouldn't it be better to throw it away?"

"Though it's worthless, it was originally an outstanding mage. It might be better to pass it on."

If Yi-Han had heard, he would have recoiled saying 'Please don't give me such a thing', but unfortunately this was a conversation happening without the disciple's knowledge.

The mad doppelganger, frowning at the head servant's words, pondered then nodded.

"Alright. Having one more small pet wouldn't hurt. My disciple seemed to like it quite a bit too."

"That's right. Master Yi-Han liked it enough to feed it personally."

Intarendals agreed on this point too.

Certainly, royalty's disciple liked the hamster.

Though the hamster was previously an evil magic criminal, that wasn't very important. Such pets were often trendy even in ancient times.

-Polynomials, polynomials! Are you pretending not to remember on purpose? Because I didn't let you play last time?-

-N-no! I really forgot, Wardanaz!-

-Wardanaz. By the way, that bastard didn't read the magic book he was supposed to read.-

-Thanks, Moradi! You bastard. This is why you forgot. Come forward!-

-Mo... Moradi! We're from the same tower! Why are you doing this!-

Intarendals turned his head to look at Yi-Han grabbing other mages like catching mice.

Then he spoke carefully.

"...Master. Please allow me to speak one more disloyal word since I've already given impertinent advice today. In my humble opinion, it seems you should teach Master Yi-Han more during the remaining time..."

Even if he yielded on everything else, he simply couldn't understand leaving the disciple so lax like this now.

At the head servant's words, the mad doppelganger was silent for a moment.

"It may seem that way. But royalty has a plan."

"!"

Intarendals' face brightened.

As expected, his wise master had a perfect plan.

"May I ask what it is?"

"You'll know when the time comes, head servant."

At the polite refusal, Intarendals bowed his head. Now it was time to stop being rude and show loyalty again.

-If you can't solve this magic equation, what on earth did you do last year? You come forward too!-

-Wardanaz. This bastard got it wrong too but just changed his answer!-

-You come forward too, you bastard!-

"..."

Intarendals wore a complicated expression.

...Surely there must be a plan.

A great and extraordinary plan that the head servant himself couldn't even guess...

  *

Tap tap-

"Mmm...?"

On the night at the end of the weekend.

Yonaire, who was about to fall asleep in bed, opened her eyes at the sound of a paper bird tapping on her private room window.

"...If it's Gainando, I'll put tongue-numbing poison in his meal..."

Fortunately, it wasn't sent by her cousin.

Night walk planned. Those wishing to participate, come to the lounge.

-Yi-Han

'Does he have something else to steal?'

Yonaire, who received her friend's paper bird, hurriedly dressed and gathered her equipment.

Unlike in her first year, she now had quite a lot of equipment.

A small bronze bell that detected hostile opponents, her newly changed staff, scales and spoons for quickly checking when potion ingredients were found, a potion belt that vaporized desired potions to create mist clouds...

After finishing her inspection, Yonaire came down the stairs.

As she did so, she kept thinking about the purpose of this outing but couldn't guess.

They still had plenty of supplies, and there weren't any particularly lacking reagents.

'Is it because of the exam?'

If he had found out information related to the exam, that would make sense.

Wasn't Yi-Han usually capable in such areas?

"Ah. Yonaire."

"What's going on?"

"Professor Uregor seems a bit suspicious, so I want to check."

Yi-Han explained what had happened before.

These days the mad doppelganger seemed to be subtly hiding something, and one of those things was his conversation with Professor Uregor.

The mad doppelganger was underestimating Einroguard students too much.

If something seemed suspicious, sneaking in to search workshops in the middle of the night was the very spirit of Einroguard.

"Yi-Han!"

Just then, Gainando could be seen coming down the stairs. He was still wearing his pajama hat on his head.

"Gainando. You're wearing your pajama hat."

"Huh? This is an artifact. I was going to try it out this time."

"..."

"..."

The two who thought their friend had carelessly come wearing his pajama hat reflected deeply.

Yi-Han asked Gainando.

"Do you know why we're going out this time?"

'It must be for snacks.'

Yonaire thought inwardly.

"Isn't it to investigate because Professor Uregor seems to be plotting something behind your back? You've been concerned about that, right?"

"...?!!!"

Yonaire was shocked at her cousin's answer.

No way?!

"You... you...!"

"??"

"N-nothing. I thought we were going out for snacks."

"I already got snacks earlier."

"Shh. Shut up."

Yi-Han stepped on Gainando's foot.

He had secretly given him one because he whined so much, but now he was blurting it out right away.

"Anyway, if everyone's here, let's go."

"What about the others?"

"I only called you two because I don't need many people. I called Yonaire because we need to enter Professor Uregor's workshop, and Gainando... well... because he's reliable."

'You called him because you knew he'd definitely come.'

Yonaire could sense her friend's true thoughts, but she didn't say anything.

The three quickly left the tower. They had been so good at sneaking out since their first year that they could now navigate the surroundings with their eyes closed.

"Wait. It's time for the Death Knights."

"Should we drive them away with sound or light?"

"We drove them away with sound last time, so let's use light this time."

When light flared in the distance, the approaching Death Knight moved to check another area.

Yi-Han and his friends nodded, then moved again.

"By the way, Yi-Han."

"What?"

"How do you plan to break into Professor Uregor's workshop?"

Gainando asked curiously.

Einroguard professors weren't fools and naturally had thorough magical defenses set up in their towers.

Looking at it now, it seemed they were trying to sneak in, but then the usual smashing method wouldn't work either...

Swish-

Yi-Han and Yonaire simultaneously held up a key each.

It was the key to the Gaksu Pavilion, Professor Uregor's workshop and tower.

"...Did you s-steal it!?"

"No. The professor gave it to us. To come manage reagents and take care of greenhouse herbs."

"Why hasn't Professor Mortum given me a key like that?"

When Gainando grumbled, Yi-Han quietly slipped the rest of his key bundle into his clothes.

In that bundle, the key to the Dark Shadow Hall, the dark magic school's workshop, was also gleaming black.

"...Professor Mortum is suspicious and stingy, you know."

"Well, that's true. He probably didn't give one to Senior Direth either!"