Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 976

Chapter 976

Direth felt the greatest bewilderment among all the bewildering things she had felt today.

How could she utter that as words??

"W-well. I wonder why?"

"Hmm."

Yukbeltire fell into thought.

First of all, the two had many things in common.

They were both 5th year students and from the same school as the junior from the Wardanaz family.

'I don't know. Why?'

With this many commonalities, it wouldn't be strange for the junior to listen to them equally.

"...Think a bit more."

"There's the difference of Blue Dragon Tower and Black Tortoise Tower."

"That's not necessarily important... No. Go on."

"Could it be because I'm royalty? Was the junior's family part of the nobility faction..."

"..."

"Direth? Direth?"

When Yukbeltire, who had been pondering, raised her head again, her crow mixed-blood friend was already walking far away.

Yukbeltire lamented her friend's rude attitude.

It was fortunate that she was a generous person; if it had been another mage, they would surely have gotten angry at Direth.

'Such rude behavior won't be good for Direth either...'

  *

The 4th year, brass golem, looked at the professor with worried eyes along with the other divination magic school students.

Due to the nature of the school, Professor Parsellet was prone to frequent bouts of madness.

Divination magic was like a deadly poison acting on a mage's mind, making it easy to fall into madness the longer it was used. It wasn't for nothing that the professor's personality had split into several.

But today, it was particularly severe.

"It's cooooming! It's cooooming!"

"Did she have such a personality?"

"I'm not sure..."

"More importantly, Senior. Are you going to stay as a golem?"

"Huh? Yeah."

"Isn't it stuffy?"

The other juniors knew well why the senior had transformed into a golem.

It was to endure and avoid dangerous misfortunes.

The enemies of divination mages weren't just the approaching madness.

The future twisted by observation, the misfortunes that struck because of it, and even the bureaucrats who occasionally came whining for predictions of next year's imperial production were all enemies of divination mages.

The golem senior was a student who actively challenged divination magic as much as his outstanding skills allowed, and as a result, had to pay numerous misfortunes and prices.

It wasn't strange that he had transformed into a golem to block and avoid that.

...It was just that he had been like that for too long.

"It is stuffy. That's why I changed the material. From bronze to brass."

"...I-I see."

Even within the divination magic school, there was a hierarchy of madness.

The other juniors changed the subject instead of needlessly questioning the golem senior.

"But Senior. Why is the professor acting like that? Is it a new personality?"

"No... It seems she's seen a very ominous future."

"The end is cooooming!"

Professor Parsellet screamed while burying herself deep in an armchair.

No matter how one looked at it, it seemed she had fallen into a temporary state of frenzy after seeing an ominous future rather than a new personality.

"Could she have seen the future of the empire's destruction?"

"The professor wouldn't easily see such a future."

Even for a mage like Professor Parsellet, predicting the distant future required extensive preparation, work, and enormous budget.

She wouldn't suddenly perform such a divination at a time like this. At most, it would be a short future of a day or two.

"Is there anything so dangerous and ominous that could happen within 1-2 days?"

"I'm not sure. But you never know what might happen in the future..."

Even the golem senior couldn't guess.

Could something happen in the next day or two that would shock the professor like this?

"Could the support funds from the empire be cut?"

"Even if they were cut, it would be the dark magic school that gets cut, not us."

"Then could it be a problem with the professor's personal affairs? Like her Einroguard professor position being extended..."

"Our school has few mages to replace her, so the professor would have known from the start, right? There's no reason to be shocked now."

The students pondered reasons why the professor might be shocked in their own ways, but nothing particular came to mind.

Meanwhile, the brass golem senior clapped his hands.

"Everyone. Prepare for the lecture. I'll have to conduct it today."

"Can't we rest when even the professor has collapsed?"

"Oh. No. I peeked into the future and saw that if we don't have the lecture today, the juniors will fail."

At the strict senior's answer, the students grumbled and sat down.

Creak-

"I'm sorry for being late."

"It's okay. We haven't started yet. Sit down, junior."

The brass golem gestured that it was fine to the junior who hurriedly entered through the door.

"Today, I'll be conducting the lecture because the professor is unwell."

"Oh no. Is she alright?"

"She'll recover soon. She must have seen a strange future and keeps saying the end is coming... The end is cooooming!!!"

The golem senior shouted in horror seeing the person following Yi-Han.

The human form of the skull principal was entering!

"Wow. Senior. You imitate it well."

"Did she really shout like that?"

"Yeah. Almost exactly like that."

While the juniors were chattering without grasping the situation, the brass golem student screamed again.

"The end is cooooming!"

"Senior. You can stop now."

"Why twice...?"

"L-look behind!"

"?"

The divination magic school students turned their heads.

Most of them didn't grasp the situation even after seeing the mad doppelganger. The human form of the skull principal was a rarer sight than they thought.

Among them, a student who had coincidentally seen the human form of the skull principal before screamed the same way.

"The end is cooooming!"

"???"

"Wh-what magic is this? Why is everyone acting like this?"

"...I'm sorry."

Yi-Han apologized instead.

In fact, it wasn't Yi-Han's fault that the mad doppelganger kept following, but someone had to apologize, right?

When the junior explained to the best of his ability (of course, with some dramatization), the seniors nodded.

It's not the skull principal, but something like the skull principal's doppelganger who's very interested in Einroguard's magic education and suddenly visited...

'I see why the professor became like that!'

The students felt like pretending to be crazy and shouting that the end was coming too.

What difference was there between the skull principal and the skull principal's doppelganger? Having a great mage sit beside and watch the lecture was equally burdensome.

"What are you doing? Start."

"...Ah, yes."

The brass golem senior was equally burdened.

He stiffly turned and walked towards the blackboard, then staggered and fell.

Thud!

"Is it because of misfortune?!"

"N-no. That was just my feet getting tangled because I'm nervous."

"..."

Yi-Han reflected deeply.

'I'm sorry!'

"More importantly, junior. How was the prophecy last time? Did it help you avoid misfortune?"

The golem senior asked, remembering the last time when he saw the junior.

Last time, this junior had received a strong prophecy to change the future.

'It was a prophecy not to contact royalty.'

The golem senior who recalled that prophecy eventually reached another thought.

Come to think of it, wasn't that prophecy received to escape and avoid the skull principal's mad doppelganger then too?

The fact that he was behind like that meant that prophecy had little effect...

"...I don't think I kept it well."

"I-I can see that."

The fleeting thoughts that quickly passed over the junior's expression revealed that many things had happened in the meantime.

Other juniors often went through difficult times too, but the emotions this junior in front of him was showing were on a different level.

What on earth had happened...

"Then I'll start the lecture... Last time we talked about celestial magic, right?"

This magic, called celestial or heavenly magic, was magic that borrowed and used the power of stars.

Divination mages inevitably had to be interested in celestial magic. If one tried to predict the future by borrowing the power of spirits or demons, a hundred bodies or souls wouldn't be enough.

"Stars move according to celestial laws. Thanks to this, outstanding mages can borrow the power of those movements to peek into the future. Such observations reduce the burden on mages and prevent madness. If one is even more greedy, one can directly contract with stars, but we don't need to talk about that today. Surely there's no greedy person here who wants to contract with stars right now?"

The students burst into laughter at the senior's joke.

However, two people couldn't laugh. They were Yi-Han and the mad doppelganger.

Yi-Han sat with a gloomy expression as if he had chewed something. The mad doppelganger, who was also showing displeasure, said to Yi-Han.

"They're cowards. To be satisfied with just observing movements."

"...Ah. Then how about you sternly admonish them, Master? Tell them to contract with stars too."

"There's no need to unnecessarily interfere with those who aren't disciples of royalty."

'Tch.'

Yi-Han clicked his tongue inwardly.

It seemed he couldn't push the seniors here to contract with stars after all.

"In today's lecture, we'll practice reading the movements of stars and peeking into the future. Even if you can't see, there's no need to push yourselves too hard."

Divination magic wasn't something that could be forced.

Especially when peeking into the future with celestial magic like this, aptitude was even more important.

Some mages might receive inspiration about the future while observing the movement of blue stars, while other mages might not receive any inspiration even after observing the same stars for years.

It was important to first find stars that matched one's spiritual nature. Omens, divinations, and rules came after that.

"Well... How was it..."

The brass golem senior stood politely in front of the mad doppelganger after finishing his explanation.

Whether it was the skull principal or the skull principal's doppelganger, wasn't the 'principal' the same?

Of course, he couldn't help but be mindful.

"It was adequate."

"Th-thank you!"

The brass golem senior was overjoyed, almost jumping.

"However, it's not without problems. Your attitude in teaching juniors is excessively complacent."

"...I'm sorry."

The senior became dejected again.

"But considering the level of the mages, there's room for excuse for such a complacent attitude. Not everyone can learn under royalty."

"Th-thank you?"

"Even so, continuing without change like that is something to reflect on as a mage."

"...Well... I'm sorry, but Great Mage. I'm not sure what I should do."

"I'll explain it simply."

The mad doppelganger answered readily.

"You can teach other mages complacently and lazily, but don't treat this disciple that way. Teach with strong enthusiasm, like the heat of a newly born star."

"I-I understand!"

The mad doppelganger presented the goal with a generous and magnanimous attitude.

Having contracted with the guest star Arna, this disciple would surely display outstanding talent in reading other wandering stars too.

If so, it wouldn't be bad to memorize the movements of one or two easy-to-read comets or novae now.

The more diverse divination magic a mage mastered, the easier it became to prepare for misfortunes and meticulously prepare for future events.

Of course, that was only by the mad doppelganger's standards, not Yi-Han's. Yi-Han just wanted to find the movements of the moon or blue stars, red stars together with the seniors.

"..."

Yi-Han, who had suddenly been hit while just standing still, remained silent.

Then, when the mad doppelganger wasn't looking, he quietly whispered to the golem senior.

"Is there any magic that can predict what Master will say in advance?"