Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 927

Chapter 927

"Hmm. The professor was wrong."

At Direth's words, Professor Mortum's expression was full of shock and betrayal.

But Direth didn't care. According to Einroguard student law, it was basically self-defense even if a disciple betrayed and attacked their master.

And if one of the junior or the professor had to be hurt, shouldn't it be the latter?

"That's right. You should have told me in advance."

"That's right, that's right. I think so too."

"Cough. Such naughty kids. I gave you the opportunity to learn on your own..."

Professor Mortum grumbled along with his cough, but Direth pretended not to hear and ignored it.

"Professor. Can't we negotiate with the main body?"

"With the main body?"

Professor Mortum, who was about to sip warm lemon honey tea (Yi-Han regularly brewed and placed it on the first floor of the Dark Shadow Hall), frowned.

Attempting direct negotiation with the main body was a completely different story.

Controlling a doppelganger, especially one at the level of a fragment without a self, as an undead monster wasn't very dangerous.

Even more so since he had obtained the other's permission.

But directly negotiating with the powerful undead main body...

"Cough. Do we really need to go that far?"

Beings from other realms were basically unpredictable and eccentric. Especially those from the undead realm were even more so.

It might be understandable if they were weakened, but if the current guess was correct and they had almost recovered their power, attempting negotiation could only invite trouble.

"Of course we need to be careful. But we're not without grounds either."

Direth expressed her thoughts with an unwavering attitude.

If it had been ordinary theft, no, negotiation, Direth wouldn't have suggested negotiating either.

It would have been meaningless to ask an unidentified powerful undead being to return a doppelganger.

But the current situation was a bit different.

Her junior hadn't simply used the doppelganger, but had steadily built friendship and nurtured it.

Not only that, but by additionally gifting enormous mana, he had helped the main body recover its power.

Contracts and laws of other realms had aspects stricter than the empire's written laws. Even for powerful beings, it wasn't easy to arbitrarily forget gratitude and grudges.

"If we point out these aspects, there's a possibility the other party will acknowledge it and offer appropriate compensation."

"Indeed..."

Professor Mortum sipped his tea and gave high marks to his disciple's opinion.

Certainly, befitting the next professor of Einroguard's dark magic school, she had keenly grasped the loopholes even in this situation.

A true dark mage should be able to thoroughly loot the warehouse even when captured by demons.

'Excellent.'

Impressed by his disciple's growth, Professor Mortum thought he should send Direth to the next dark mage society meeting in his place.

He had been postponing it because there were only big-shot dark mages and he was worried his disciple would be nervous, but now he saw his disciple was more than qualified.

Professor Mortum felt intoxicated with himself for continuously throwing challenges at his trustworthy disciple. Unlike the skull principal, Professor Mortum himself was truly a good teacher.

"I'll go negotiate together with my junior. I also..."

"You can't."

"?!"

They were greatly surprised by the unexpected rejection from the second-year disciple.

"Huh? Why?"

"Aren't you busy, senior? I'll go with the professor."

"..."

"..."

Are you saying I'm not busy?

  *

"Junior. You shouldn't say such things in front of the professor."

"Pardon?"

Direth carefully advised as she walked up to the upper floor of the Dark Shadow Hall with Yi-Han.

Though Professor Mortum pretended not to mind, he seemed to have been slightly hurt.

Of course, it was grateful that the junior showed respect to his senior, but he needed to occasionally express respect to the professor too.

Professors were also beings with sensitive hearts.

"What?"

"That... saying you'll go with the professor. Though you didn't intend it, from the professor's perspective, it could sound like you're saying he's not busy..."

"Ah. You mean that."

"!?"

When her junior showed a reaction of knowing, Direth was so startled she raised the feathers on her wings.

He said it knowingly?!

"You said it knowingly?!"

"Huh? Of course I thought it could be felt that way."

"Then why say such a thing?"

"Well... aren't you busy, senior?"

If it was between troubling a busy senior vs. a nasty professor getting his feelings hurt, Yi-Han chose the latter without hesitation.

What was so great about a professor who entrusted an evil and powerful undead's doppelganger to a freshman without saying anything getting his feelings hurt?

Compared to that, the hardest-working senior at Einroguard becoming even more stressed was a terrible tragedy.

'Who's the hardest-working senior at Einroguard... Ah.'

Direth, who had been inwardly puzzled, belatedly realized and was shocked.

'D-do I look like that...?!'

Direth resolved to stop complaining in front of her junior from now on.

How pitiful and miserable must she have looked for her junior to think like that?

"But are you really alright, senior? If we ask the professor now..."

"No no no no. Stop it. The professor is busy too! Though he might not look it on the outside!"

"Hmm."

Yi-Han thought 'No matter how busy the professor is, he can't be busier than his disciple, if that's the case why be a professor, just keep being a disciple', but out of respect for his senior, he didn't say anything.

"And there's some overlap with the mission I'm currently in charge of, so I stepped up. Junior."

"A mission?"

"Yes."

Direth readily explained the work she was currently in charge of.

As the Wardanaz family junior would probably soon learn too, Einroguard students often took on various requests or missions in addition to their basic curriculum.

And Direth, a fifth-year student in the dark magic school, was in charge of a wide range of tasks from personal requests to missions that came into Einroguard's dark magic school.

'Ugh. Poor thing.'

Direth had no idea that her junior was pitying her even more because of her explanation just now.

"The mission I've received now is assisting in tracking evil god worshippers. Dark mages are involved."

"That's unfortunate. For mages to fall into evil god worship."

Even for mages at the forefront of wisdom, it wasn't easy to escape from faith.

People like the skull principal or the Wardanaz family head were unusual; among mages, there were quite a number who relied on faith.

And illegal faiths in the empire tended to promise more powerful and destructive forces than legal ones.

Thinking of it that way, it was natural for evil god worshippers to appear among mages.

"...I meant dark mages are tracking evil god worshippers, not that dark mages are evil god worshippers. Junior..."

"..."

Yi-Han said nothing and remained silent. Direth was silent too.

"Haha! I misunderstood!"

"It happens!"

They didn't talk about 'Why did you think dark mages were evil god worshippers?' They knew they would both just become sad if they did.

"But isn't it dangerous? Evil god worshippers are..."

"It's just assistance."

Holy magic had capricious aspects like psychic powers, wild magic, or primitive magic.

At least the empire's legal orders had some theory built up over a long time, but evil god worshipper orders didn't even have that.

But this instability actually made evil god worshippers tricky to deal with.

They were enemies who boldly scattered strange and unique powers different from existing imperial magic.

But Direth wasn't too worried. Because her role was auxiliary, analyzing and interpreting received information rather than directly tracking.

The request she received this week was to track undead beings contracted by evil god worshippers.

Dark mages who saw the evil power they used noticed they had contracted with powerful undead and contacted her.

"What kind of undead?"

"They use the power of corruption and decay, but I don't know more than that. I'll have to look into it more. It'll take some time."

Direth hesitated as she spoke.

Come to think of it, if this work didn't finish over the weekend, it would affect next week's lectures too.

"Perhaps junior. Should I postpone the lecture... No. Forge..."

"I'm fine!"

Yi-Han shouted before his senior could finish speaking.

"If you're busy, it's fine to postpone the lecture. The progress is already quite fast, isn't it?"

'That's true.'

Certainly, her junior's words were correct.

The <Poison, Bone, Blood> lecture was progressing much faster than expected.

It was because of her junior's proactiveness in completing everything even without being told to do so.

But Direth felt pangs of conscience.

Was it right to arbitrarily postpone her junior's learning opportunity because of her own request?

If it had been her friend Yukbeltire, she would have said 'Let's see it the week after next' without a second of hesitation, but Direth still had a human heart.

"Still, that's a bit..."

"Next week is club activity week anyway. There will be several students going out, right?"

"Ah. Has time already passed like that?"

Direth opened her eyes wide at Yi-Han's words.

Even in her fourth year she had been busy, but she still felt time passing to some extent, but becoming a fifth-year, she really started acting separately from Einroguard students' time.

Direth spoke with a slightly bitter expression.

"I see. If that's the case... Alright. If you need to go out for club activities, it's fine to postpone the lecture. Which club..."

Direth was about to ask which club, but she canceled the question.

Come to think of it, such a question had little meaning for this junior.

"Do you have any advice?"

"Hmm. Well... First, don't cause too big an incident outside."

"And?"

"Don't get the club shut down."

"..."

At his senior's answer tinged with remorse, Yi-Han gradually became afraid to ask more.

  *

"We'll use this to explore the undead realm."

Direth, who had dusted off and entered a corner room of the Dark Shadow Hall, pointed to a purple door.

The old wooden door creaked as if it would break at any moment, but Yi-Han felt powerful mana waves from it.

Not only that. With his expanded vision after learning Decline, he could catch the realm flow connected to the door.

"Is it an artifact connected to the undead realm?"

"Wow. How did you know? That's right."

Direth was surprised that her junior noticed without even hearing an explanation.

Usually, it wasn't easy to notice its ability just by looking at this artifact's outward appearance.

"This is <Mortum's Wooden Door>. It allows exploration and negotiation without actually entering the undead realm."

"!"

Even for mages, directly visiting a realm for exploration or negotiation wasn't an easy task.

Especially for the dangerous undead realm, it was even more so.

This door was a powerful artifact that reduced such risks and made exploration possible instead.

'Amazing...!'

Direth was satisfied as her junior marveled.

"Impressive, right?"

"But did the professor hide and use such an artifact alone? I think there was clearly an opportunity to use this before..."

"Th-that's not it. There are some tricky conditions for using the artifact."

Direth hurriedly changed the subject.

It wasn't completely untrue. The reagents needed to activate such artifacts once weren't trivial, so they couldn't be used carelessly.

"Well, that makes sense too. There are costs, so not just anyone can use it... But you can use it freely, right senior?"

"Now. I'll show you how to use this."

"...You can use it freely, right??"