Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 1015

Chapter 1015

"He's a very vile and cunning fellow. Everyone be careful!"

Even without Yi-Han saying so, all the exploration team members were already on guard.

Deep underground waterways on the outskirts of the capital, visited to track a monster from another realm.

A stranger appearing in such a place could never be an ordinary person.

"I'll take the lead, support me."

"Yes."

The team member with knight background explosively poured mana into his sword. Surging aura flickered above the blade.

Other team members behind him quickly drew crossbows. They planned to check the enemy when their knight companion charged.

Faced with this fierce momentum, the evil god worshipper elf chose a response no one expected.

He knelt with both arms raised.

"I surrender. Having met the monster, we cannot win."

"..."

"..."

Though the team members were bewildered, they didn't stop. They immediately paralyzed and subdued him completely.

"Alcicle. Please handle the interrogation."

"Right. Understood. Frost, forbid intrusion."

Alcicle took over the paralyzed evil god worshipper and cast mental protection magic.

Though there wasn't much a completely subdued enemy could do, enemies with twisted and madness-filled souls like evil god worshippers could spread infection just by showing their inner nature.

Unless one was the type to directly taste acidic pools from other realms to check toxicity, casting protection magic was appropriate.

"You must be an evil god worshipper. Which god do you hide?"

"..."

Though they released the muscles around his vocal cords to allow speech, the elf said nothing.

Alcicle frowned.

Evil god worshippers usually fell into two categories.

One type babbled like madmen trying to spread their madness.

The other type sealed their lips with conviction and remained trapped in their own world.

This elf seemed to be the latter. He would be much harder to interrogate.

"Think he won't answer?"

"Yes. Interrogating here seems impossible. We should take him out first."

"You mean retreat?"

"Since things have gone wrong, retreating seems right."

The team member looked at Alcicle with dissatisfied eyes.

To retreat because of one intruder after spending so much time and resources to chase a monster from another realm.

"!"

The team member looking at Alcicle was startled. His friend's eyes were brimming with tears.

Tears of frustration and regret.

'...I was foolish. Alcicle must feel as regretful as I do!'

While the team member and Alcicle shared emotions, Yi-Han was dumbfounded.

"Ah, no. Is this worth crying over?"

"I'm not crying! It's just moisture condensing from the realm erosion!"

Alcicle angrily denied.

Though he felt frustrated and regretful about not even seeing the monster's tail, it couldn't be helped.

'Is he really crying over this?'

To think he would be like this over a monster that might not even be helpful.

Yi-Han, feeling somewhat sympathetic, wanted to help somehow and spoke to the evil god worshipper.

"At least tell us about any companions who came with you. We'll consider it a mitigating factor. If you end up in Einroguard's punishment room, food provisions..."

"Very well. The companions who came with me are as follows. Magic criminal Kitarenanoom. He is contracted with a powerful demon. That's why he's chasing the monster. Separatist Basirmack. He..."

"??!?"

"????!!!"

When the names of two major wanted criminals suddenly came out, the team members were startled.

"Kitarenanoom is here?!"

"That Basirmack, I thought he fled across the sea...!"

"Wait. Why is he suddenly talking?"

Alcicle was the first among the team members to sense something strange.

Why would someone who seemed like he would keep his mouth shut until the end of the world suddenly open up and speak so freely?

"I think..."

Yi-Han spoke with a serious expression. Alcicle focused, listening intently.

This boy had also made the evil god worshipper open his mouth. He must have noticed something.

"...Could it be because of Einroguard's punishment room's notoriety..."

"...Would an evil god worshipper care about that!!!"

Alcicle shouted with a voice full of exasperation.

Though ordinary criminals might fear Einroguard's punishment room, evil god worshippers were different. Weren't they properly mad?

"Why did you open your mouth? Speak!"

"..."

When the elf closed his mouth again at Alcicle's question, Yi-Han asked.

"If you want food provisions, answer properly."

"Very well. The reason I opened my mouth is to avoid stimulating the monster."

"???"

Yi-Han fell into confusion.

He couldn't understand either the content of the answer or the reason for answering.

"Could it be because I used honorifics? Like how Sir Alcicle eats one more sardine when we praise his cold magic."

"You, how did you...! No. That can't be it."

Though Alcicle wanted to question Wardanaz's observational skills, there were too many urgent matters now.

"Let's ask other things first. What monster are you talking about?"

"Obviously the monster from another realm. Why ask such a needless ques..."

Yi-Han was about to criticize Alcicle but paused.

The elf was pointing at him with his chin.

"..."

"...No! Is this cunning bastard trying to sow discord?!"

"C-calm down, Sir Mage."

The team members hurriedly stopped Yi-Han.

'Something's strange.'

Alcicle fell into thought.

Evil god worshippers weren't good at crafting elaborate schemes. Due to their madness-stained thought processes, some part would always break down or reveal oddities.

Such an evil god worshipper wouldn't attempt such low-level discord sowing.

Then if he really saw Wardanaz as a monster...

"Are you from the Prahgal Order?"

Alcicle asked on the off chance.

Considering what happened to the Prahgal Order, it wouldn't be strange to see Wardanaz as a monster.

"..."

Of course, no answer came. Alcicle sighed deeply and spoke.

"Wardanaz. Ask him instead..."

"Are you from the Prahgal Order?"

"No. I serve the Great Prophet."

"If it's the Great Prophet..."

"The Ksaksarigol Order then."

The team members grimaced in disgust.

Among evil god worshippers were those who considered it blasphemous to even dare speak their god's true name.

The Great Prophet was the title Ksaksarigol Order worshippers used to refer to their god.

If Prahgal was the god of life (at least by worshipper standards), Ksaksarigol was the god of divination.

Those who worshipped this evil god were people who would do anything for perfect divination.

Those who chose divination as an end rather than means.

These madmen would even forcibly twist reality if their divination seemed likely to fail.

It was understandable why the team members detested them. Though there were no evil god worshippers one wanted to befriend, the Ksaksarigol Order's behavioral principles were particularly bizarre.

They would set fire to a peaceful city and insist 'These people were supposed to die anyway'...

"Great Prophet or not, why am I a monster?"

'Could it be because he licked the acidic liquid to check its toxicity?'

One team member thought inwardly.

However, the reason the elf revealed was completely unexpected.

"You are a monster that devours divination."

"...This bastard is still trying to sow discord!"

"C-calm down! Wardanaz! Calm down and ask!"

"...What do you mean by a monster that devours divination?"

The evil god worshipper elf explained calmly.

When divining the world, there were subjects easy to predict and subjects difficult to predict.

And among them were bizarre singularities that would distort all divination once they erupted.

The worshippers feared these as monsters that devoured divination.

"If I carelessly stimulate you, up to half a year's worth of divination will be completely tangled. I will answer all questions you want, so don't go berserk."

The reason the elf surrendered was simple.

If Yi-Han got stimulated and went berserk from fighting him, all divination would be tangled.

The reason he confessed everything about his companions was the same.

If Yi-Han got stimulated and went berserk from moving without information, all divination would be tangled!

"Isn't this discord sowing??"

When Yi-Han spoke in extreme anger, looking ready to throw him into the acidic pool immediately, Alcicle calmed him.

"There's some logic to it."

"What logic?! Are you taking his side too, Sir Alcicle!"

"Ah, no. That's not what I mean. It's actually an existing concept! And you do have many contracted beings..."

Though a cornered rat will bite a cat, no one knew what would happen when this Wardanaz family mage was cornered.

Just the transcendent beings from other realms that Alcicle knew of already...

"There's the spirit king and Lord Gonadaltes."

"The skeleton? He's not that strong though."

"...The principal. You madman."

Alcicle shuddered anew at Wardanaz's catastrophic naming sense.

"Ah. But the principal isn't a contract..."

"A master-disciple relationship is also a contract. Anyway, what I want to say is, it's not completely nonsense."

Yi-Han looked at the elf with eyes full of doubt.

Though somewhat convinced, he didn't completely believe it.

"If you were so afraid of stimulating me, why did you come here?"

"You had a higher possibility of not coming here originally."

"Ha! Look at this bastard making excuses!"

"Wardanaz. Let's calm down and extract some information...!"

"Fine."

Yi-Han finally gave up on tormenting or interrogating the other and switched to information gathering.

Magic criminal, separatist, even an apocalyptist.

It was such an enormous gathering that the vicious mercenaries who came together seemed like mere crumbs.

"Is the monster worth that much?"

"It is a monster from the void of realms. If it can be controlled, its value exceeds any monster in the empire."

"!!!"

Everyone including Yi-Han was surprised.

When mages study realm theory, they learn to distinguish between safe realms and dangerous realms.

However, there was also void that existed outside such realm classifications. This void was the outer sea of realms where exploration itself was impossible.

A monster that crossed over from such void would be on a different level from monsters that could be found in ordinary realms.

"This... Shouldn't we eliminate it rather than capture it alive?"

"The monster seems stronger than we expected. We must report immediately."

"They lost."

The elf suddenly opened his mouth. Yi-Han shouted as if he had expected this.

"He must mean this group will lose. Sir Alcicle. Did you see? This fellow is trying to deceive people with false prophecies and trick us again."

"Not you all. The other intruders underground lost."

"..."

The exploration team was shocked by the news that the major criminals mentioned earlier had already been defeated.

What???

"The monster will soon move upward. It must not go berserk."

"Ha. Didn't you predict your companions would be defeated?"

"That was within predicted possibilities. As long as this monster doesn't go berserk, it doesn't matter."

The elf spoke of Yi-Han going berserk as a more terrible disaster than the void realm monster sweeping through and rampaging in this underground.

Yi-Han nodded.

"Seems we've asked everything, can I make him shut up again?"

"Please endure a bit longer, Wardanaz."