Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 923

Chapter 923

"Huh? Wardanaz. What are you doing?"

While Yi-Han was tormenting his junior, friends who had finished their exams came in one by one.

Even to his friends, Eandurde's current state didn't look very good.

With her face gloomy and groaning, whatever mistake she had made, wouldn't it be better to forgive her...

"I was explaining the mistakes she made on the exam."

"Ah!"

The friends quickly threw their backpacks on the floor and fled to the private rooms upstairs.

They realized that if they stayed long, arrows would fly at them too.

Eandurde glared at the cowardly seniors' backs with contemptuous eyes.

Such vile deserters!

"Eek."

"What?"

When his junior suddenly let out a death cry, Yi-Han turned his head in puzzlement.

Yonaire was coming in with friends from behind.

"Uuugh!"

"I understand."

Yi-Han noticed the meaning in his junior's urgent gaze and groans.

The heavy exam papers on the desk quickly disappeared and hid below. It was <Wardanaz's Telekinesis>.

Eandurde looked at her senior with eyes full of emotion and respect.

As expected, the magic of Einroguard seniors was extraordinarily remarkable.

"Ah. Eandurde, you're here?"

"Y-yes."

"How was the exam?"

"..."

Eandurde's face darkened again at Yonaire's question, immediately checking about the exam despite having hidden the papers.

"Well... um... uh..."

"She did her best. She didn't fail either."

Yi-Han unknowingly made excuses for his junior. Gainando admired it.

"Not failing. That's amazing, isn't it?"

"...Hey. You go over there."

"That's right. You go over there."

"Ah, no, why..."

When friends chased him away, worried about the junior being badly influenced, Gainando retreated dejectedly.

Wasn't praise necessary too?

"Can I see your exam paper?"

"Y-y-yes."

"Why is the exam paper hidden here?"

Yonaire was puzzled to see exam papers popping out from a hidden space under the lounge floor.

Yi-Han shrugged and made an excuse.

"Maybe she was afraid it would blow away in the wind."

"Is that...?"

Though she didn't quite understand, Yonaire didn't ask further and checked the grades first.

"Wow. You did well?"

Eandurde's face brightened.

"But this alchemy exam is a bit disappointing."

Eandurde's face darkened.

"Of course, your judgment in using Snow Fragrance grass was very good."

Eandurde's face brightened again.

"But if you had used Ice Cold Powder together here, it would have been even more effective."

"Yonaire."

"Yes?"

"Actually, I already said that earlier."

"Ah. Did you?"

The friends watching this scene from behind thought inwardly.

'So this is why first-years are protected separately.'

They had complained about why they were separated from seniors as freshmen, but now they understood the reason.

If this happened every exam...!

"Here, Eandurde."

When the painful review ended, Yi-Han gave his junior a food basket much fuller than usual.

Gainando, who was seeing her off together, noticed this and asked a question.

"Huh? Isn't the amount more than usual?"

"She might not come for a while."

Usually, students scolded for exams tended to avoid approaching for a while.

Just looking at Gainando, one could tell.

"I was fine, but Yonaire is strict."

"..."

Gainando gaped in shock at his shameless friend's words.

To Gainando, they both seemed equally strict in tormenting their junior.

'To, to say such nonsense so confidently without changing expression...!'

"What's wrong?"

"I-I'm in awe! Taking such good care of your junior! Yi-Han, you're the best!"

"Hehe. It's nothing."

Yi-Han turned his steps, pleased with his friend's praise. Gainando felt deep guilt.

To tell such an absurd lie to his friend over snacks!

  *

When the weekend of midterm exam week arrived, all the second-year students turned into lazy bums and stuck to the lounge.

"c4..."

"Then dxc4... pawn..."

"Then I'll... transform the queen into a dragon... and use breath..."

"Did you eat hallucination mushrooms or... no... okay, use breath... then I'll summon the principal..."

Even students who usually tried their best to play whenever they had even a little time became languid and just talked with their mouths.

Everyone was half-exhausted due to the much harder midterms than last year.

Teapots floated in the air. Yi-Han lightly moved his fingertips to fill his friends' cups with hot cocoa and coffee.

In fact, this was when mages felt the strongest sense of training.

When using magic to be lazy.

If Yi-Han's masters heard this, they would grab the back of their necks...

Looking to the side, even Gainando was lying on the floor with a blank expression, just looking at mage cards.

"Come to think of it, Wardanaz."

"?"

"I heard clubs start full-fledged external activities after exams end, have you heard anything?"

Einroguard students were basically busy and unhappy regardless of their year.

Even clubs gathered for social purposes couldn't escape this.

When busy with exams or research, club schedules were postponed, and they would do everything at once when free.

'That's right.'

Yi-Han recalled what he had heard from some seniors.

Surely after exams ended...

-Phew. Wardanaz. Just endure a little longer! After exams, we can go out and distribute meals to poor people!-

-...That's certainly a good thing, but is it something to be so excited about?-

-Ah. Of course! When we go out for activities, we receive lots of food ingredients as gifts!-

'Hmm. Other clubs...'

-Ah. Junior. Once exams are over, it's time for ball games in earnest.-

-Yes. I see.-

-But is there no way we could field Her Highness Jourin? I guess that's too much?-

Yi-Han shook his head.

For some reason, only strange clubs kept coming to mind.

"I've heard of the kitchen club and the ball game club."

"Oh. Then what about the hunter club?"

"No. I'm not sure."

"The adventurer club? The mage card club?"

"The outing club? The statue-making club?"

As questions poured in, Yi-Han corrected his posture from lying askew to sitting up straight.

"Wait. Why are you asking me this? They're not clubs I've joined."

"Huh? You didn't join?!"

"..."

Yi-Han glared at his friends in disbelief. His friends coughed awkwardly and avoided his gaze.

"Ah, no. We heard everyone joined..."

"Come to think of it, I didn't join all the unofficial clubs. Ahem."

The Blue Dragon Tower students, who had naturally thought their Wardanaz family friend would have joined clubs too, were very embarrassed.

"How did you mistakenly think I joined when I wouldn't have even gone there in the first place?"

"Well, we thought you weren't visible because you were busy..."

"..."

Yi-Han couldn't refute.

Even for clubs he had actually joined, he only showed up sporadically because he was busy.

Yonaire, who was beside them, spoke.

"I heard our club is going out to watch a play."

Yonaire was a person invited by as many clubs as Nillia.

She had shown up at the kitchen club and several other clubs and pondered, but in the end, she joined the unofficial Einroguard Theater Club along with Nillia (in Yi-Han's opinion, it was certain that Nillia, who didn't want to join alone, had clung to her ankle and begged).

The Einroguard Theater Club was an unofficial club, but as the name suggested, it was a club that simply enjoyed various cultured activities.

By Yi-Han's standards, it didn't make any money so he didn't even remember the name, but thanks to that, the atmosphere inside the club was calm and friendly.

"No. It's normal?!"

"Of course it's normal..."

When Yi-Han was surprised, Yonaire was dumbfounded.

Was it so surprising that external activities were normal?

"Sorry. I naturally thought club activities should be followed by noticeable achievements and ample gold coins."

'He's my friend, but sometimes he seems crazy.'

"That's true too. Unofficial clubs have a hard time going out in the first place."

Hearing Yonaire's words, Yi-Han recalled the rules he had forgotten.

Come to think of it, only official clubs had the authority to go out.

How could an unofficial club like the theater club do it so easily?

"I see. You must have persuaded the professors with a plan to earn gold coins by reenacting Einroguard's miserable reality through plays."

"...N-no. We were just invited."

Students often forgot, but Einroguard was the top magic school in the empire.

There were overflowing numbers of imperial notables who wanted to invite students from such a place to show their art.

No matter how much the skull principal threw tantrums, he couldn't refuse all such invitations.

Yi-Han was shocked.

He hadn't paid attention because it was a culture and art club, but to think there was such a loophole!

"Such...! I should join immediately and smuggle...!"

"...Calm down! It's not to that extent."

Yonaire calmed her friend.

There was no way the skull principal would show kindness to such idle activities. When the theater club went out, they were followed by unprecedented surveillance.

A level of surveillance different from the usual 'Try to break through if you can' level.

"What level?"

Yi-Han still couldn't give up and asked.

"They say they block the city's main roads and alleys, clear people away, and empty all shops and stores under the pretext of protecting Einroguard mages. Death Knights surround and escort them."

"...I should cancel joining."

Yi-Han quickly gave up.

It seemed clear that the theater club was especially hated by the skull principal among Einroguard clubs.

Well, how could he not hate it when all the club members were happy and enjoying themselves?

"Hmph. Still, the theater club is lucky."

Gainando muttered in a gloomy voice.

"Why?"

"The club I belong to is having a hard time even going out, so we're thinking."

The Mage Card Club, no, the Mage Card Collection Club (they were strictly different clubs) was an unofficial club.

As even plans to go out immediately were unclear, they couldn't help but envy the theater club which received external invitations even if they just stayed still.

"An official club would be better..."

'There's no such thing as a perfect club.'

Yi-Han felt anew.

Official clubs could go out easily but had harsh tasks to do, while unofficial clubs had freedom in tasks but couldn't go out easily.

...There were mutants like the theater club, but those were exceptions...

'Wait. Then.'

Yi-Han did a simple calculation.

Among the clubs he had joined, the official clubs all seemed like they would go out, but the unofficial clubs?

First, the Einroguard Social Club was a ghost club created by Yukbeltire, who was furthest from socializing, so there was no way it would be active.

And the Change Location Club...

'...It would be impossible, right?'

No matter how plausible a plan they made, it seemed difficult for an unofficial club among unofficial clubs to go out.

What crazy professor would allow such a club to go out?

The Change Location Club would probably be active inside the school. Yi-Han resolved to tighten security on the outer warehouses for a while.

  *

"No. We're going out too."

"...What?! Are you talking about the library club?!"

Yi-Han was startled at the words of Sebius, the fourth-year hamster mixed-blood senior.

"...No. I'm talking about the Change Location Club."

"Ah. You mean escaping."

Yi-Han nodded as if he understood.

Of course, even Yi-Han expressed escaping as 'going out'. Who would say that literally?

"We're really going out. We submitted a plan and received special permission."

"...Wh-what kind of plan did you submit??"

"Retrieving magic items the professors want."

"..."

At this point, wasn't it just an official club?