Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 962

Chapter 962

"...I'll keep that in mind if there's an opportunity next time."

"Good. You'll be doing this many more times in the future, so remember it."

'It was just a joke.'

Yi-Han stared blankly at the back of his senior's large head, dumbfounded.

Where else would there be such a thing?

This bizarre incident of receiving promises of donations just for telling stories seemed like it would be the first and last time.

"Anyway, Senior. Is this enough to cover what we need?"

"Puhoo. Wardanaz. There's no set amount. In fact, we didn't even need to do this."

"That may be true, but..."

Though they could proceed with whatever amount they had, even if it was insufficient, wasn't that why they came out first to do this?

"Don't feel burdened, just do as much as you can. And Wardanaz, you've already done several times better than expected. Especially considering you must be busy with other club activities."

Yi-Han couldn't say that he ended up helping while trying to avoid Professor Garcia's pursuit. Instead, he deflected the praise.

"If we're talking about who's having a hard time, it's you, Senior. You're even in your 4th year now."

"Hahaha. Wardanaz. Don't fall for other seniors' exaggerations too much. Only those who didn't study in advance whine, if you prepare normally, there's nothing particularly difficult about 4th year."

"..."

Yi-Han felt two emotions at the sight of Falcrius speaking with a smile.

One was the feeling that 'If Senior wasn't that size, he would have been hit several times by now.'

And the other was déjà vu.

Why did Falcrius's words feel so familiar?

'I really can't figure out why.'

Because there was no mirror nearby, Yi-Han ultimately failed to realize the identity of his déjà vu.

"And I have a debt of gratitude to repay."

"A debt of gratitude?"

"It's an old story. From the time of the Great Spirit Famine in the South."

Falcrius said, patting his plump belly.

"Puhoo. Wardanaz. I may be like this now, but when I was young, I was so skinny I couldn't even eat a bowl of porridge."

Though farming is basically a battle between uncertain weather and farmers, unfortunately, the farmers of the continent had one more enemy.

It was the magical beings that grew by feeding on the continent's abundant mana.

To mages, spirits were convenient beings that could be negotiated with and sometimes even made to obey, but to most imperial people, spirits were fearsome and unpredictable beings.

And when these fearsome and unpredictable beings experienced chance and necessity and gathered into a massive storm, natural disasters struck the empire.

The Great Spirit Famine in the South was a famine so large in scale that even Yi-Han had heard of it.

He had heard that the fertile and mild granary region was devastated, and people from that area migrated en masse to other places...

"It was the priests of the Flameng Order who helped me when I was wandering alone. At that time, I swore inwardly. That I would bestow the grace I received onto others."

"Senior..."

"I also swore never to go hungry again, but that broke when I entered Einroguard. Hahaha."

"...Senior."

Yi-Han felt the emotion he had just felt disappearing.

"Puhoo. Wardanaz. You don't need to worry about my vow. My vow is for myself. You just need to worry about the vow for yourself. Like dedicating your life to the development of imperial magic..."

"I never made such a vow?!"

"Huh? Isn't that what everyone in the Wardanaz family vows?"

Falcrius was flustered.

There were so many rumors about the Wardanaz family that he still realized mistakes like this.

"Well, it must be something similar."

"It's not similar at all."

Despite his junior's protest, Falcrius paid little attention and moved on.

Their next destination was the house of a peddler belonging to the Western Imperial Union Merchant Association.

Knock knock knock-

"There's a person called Jongseonen who imports wheat on a large scale, and he agreed to donate this time too. Thanks to you, junior, we have some time left, so we should move it in advance."

"I see."

"We'll need to borrow some carts and carriages..."

"I'll just carry it myself."

"Hm? Won't your hands be full?"

"I can carry the rest with magic, it's enough."

"Puhoo. Wardanaz, you sometimes make crazy jokes."

"?!"

The person who appeared in front of the two waiting after knocking on the door was a pale-faced peddler.

Falcrius asked in surprise.

"What's the matter?"

"I-I'm sorry, Priest Falcrius. I won't be able to give you the promised wheat."

"That's alright. But is there some problem?"

"Well..."

  *

"That damned bastard!"

Falcrius walked, fuming. It was a rare sight of anger from the priest who always smiled.

Yi-Han's face was also hardened. The peddler's plea had made Yi-Han angry too.

The one who had taken the sacks of wheat that Jongseonen had secured was Bardan, a city noble of Granden City.

Bardan, a minor noble of the powerful Greenbel family, had recently lost a lot of face due to an attack by an evil mage.

He decided to hold a grand banquet to restore his reputation, and in the process of preparing for this, the peddler suffered damage.

Originally, while nobles might enjoy banquets with laughter, the people below them had to put in a lot of effort in preparation.

Even though he had lost a lot of property due to the evil mage's attack, the banquet had to be held on the same scale.

Bardan's servants went to Jongseonen and threatened him to buy ingredients at dirt-cheap prices.

Since he couldn't ignore Bardan's influence while working in Granden City, Jongseonen had no choice but to hand over the wheat set aside for donation.

"Wardanaz. There's something you need to do."

"Shall I cast invisibility and pick the lock? Or should I climb over the wall?"

"...No. If I get excited, Wardanaz, I want you to stop me..."

Falcrius, who was worried he might cause trouble if he got excited, wondered if he had brought the wrong junior.

This junior from the Wardanaz family seemed good at causing trouble but weak at stopping it.

"You want me to stop you, Senior?"

"Yes. I trust you."

'Is that possible?'

Yi-Han wondered if he should blast Falcrius with magic from behind if he got excited.

"Oh right. Senior. This alley is blocked, so we need to go around. The alley was blocked when Bardan's mansion collapsed last time."

"How do you know that, Wardanaz?"

Falcrius tilted his head, curious. Yi-Han managed his expression and answered.

"I came out earlier because of another club, remember? I heard rumors then. They said some crazy mage attacked Bardan's mansion."

"Ah. Setlad from the Anog family? I heard about that too."

"..."

Yi-Han closed his eyes tightly at the speed of rumors.

"Puhoo, he's not a disciple of the principal, is he?"

"Pardon???"

"Why are you so surprised? There have often been cases where mages who cause big trouble turn out to be the principal's disciples."

"Ah, I see."

Yi-Han inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

He thought Falcrius was suspecting him.

"The crazy one is that Bardan bastard who forcibly took donation wheat for his own luxury. Mages like Setlad aren't crazy, Wardanaz."

Yi-Han felt shy at his senior's praise. Falcrius, walking ahead, didn't notice.

"Hmm. Still, he's a dangerous mage."

"Huh? Why suddenly?"

At Yi-Han's question, Falcrius pointed his finger.

Bardan's mansion was still bearing the scars left by the rampaging water spirit.

Even though they had called mages and master craftsmen from the stonemason guild, broken parts were visible everywhere, showing how much it had rampaged.

"Look at that. He destroyed it very thoroughly."

"...Couldn't it be that this mage Setlad just peacefully visited the mansion, and the spirit guarding the mansion accidentally went berserk?"

"Hahaha. Wardanaz. Why on earth are you making such nonsensical jokes?"

'Ugh.'

Yi-Han inwardly groaned at his words that lacked persuasiveness even to himself.

If a mage invaded a mansion and terrible destruction occurred, it was easy for anyone to think 'Ah, that mage must have destroyed it.'

But he was really wronged.

Yi-Han had merely infiltrated and changed the location of the requested item.

Though he did knock out the mansion owner in the process...

'The spirit going berserk wasn't my fault, was it?'

"Is anyone there?"

Falcrius called out to the people inside in a loud voice.

The butler, who had been frantically rounding up servants for banquet preparations, came out with an irritated face.

"What is it?"

"We're here about Peddler Jongseonen's wheat."

"Who?"

"The mages from Einroguard and priests from the temples are trying to distribute food to poor people, but there seems to have been a misunderstanding."

Falcrius explained as nicely as possible with a smiling face.

It was wheat that was originally meant to be donated, and there was an agreement, but due to some mistake, the mansion's servants had taken it.

They would return the money, so they wanted the wheat returned too...

However, the butler was indifferent.

"Not possible."

"...Pardon?"

"Not possible. We're busy preparing for our master's banquet too."

"I said we'd return the silver coins."

"Then our servants would have to go around looking for and buying new wheat, wouldn't they? We can't waste time like that."

Yi-Han took a step forward.

The other person might be crazy about ball games.

However, the other party just snapped sharply.

"What?"

"It's nothing. Um, I'm from the Wardanaz family."

Even as he spoke, Yi-Han felt slightly self-loathing.

He had never used his family name like this in his life!

But to help his senior, this much shame was bearable.

If ball games didn't work, then family name...

"...Are you threatening me now? An Einroguard mage, from the Wardanaz family? Do you think our master doesn't have any backing?"

If the actual master Bardan had heard this, he might have reacted like 'I often threaten weak people, but messing with the Wardanaz family is a bit...', but people are usually brave when they don't know better.

The butler, accustomed only to arrogantly ordering around subordinates, failed to grasp how big the difference in power was.

Thanks to this, the shame was Yi-Han's to bear.

It was shameful just to bring it up, but for it not to work made the rebound twice as strong.

"Get lost. We don't have wheat to fill the bellies of beggar brats. They should be grateful we don't drive them out of the city."

For a moment, Yi-Han saw sparks fly from Falcrius's eyes.

Recalling the conversation he had with Falcrius earlier, Yi-Han hurriedly intervened.

"Senior! Let's calm down!"

"Th-thank you, Wardanaz."

Falcrius came to his senses at his junior's shout. He couldn't cause trouble in front of his junior.

"Did I stop you for nothing? Should we just attack?"

"Puhoo. No, Wardanaz. If we attacked everyone who acted so arrogantly, a whole year wouldn't be enough. Let's go back."

Though he wanted to break down the main gate, Falcrius gave up cleanly.

Originally, when doing this kind of work, one was bound to meet such rude people. Rather, this level wasn't that bad.

As the two retreated, the butler muttered behind the door.

"Really, these priests are indistinguishable from beggars."

"Let's go, Wardanaz. We don't have time to get tangled up with such bastards."

"You go ahead, Senior. I have somewhere to drop by for a moment."

Yi-Han spoke in a cold voice.

He had tried to let it go nicely, but with those last words, the other party had crossed the line.

...It seemed that Setlad Anog would have to appear once more to smash the mansion.