Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 900

Chapter 900

"...Don't joke around."

"I'm not. Please check."

Yi-Han held out the wooden box containing the incense. Professor Uregor cried out in disbelief.

"You didn't crudely destroy it with mana, did you?!"

"Oh, was that allowed? I thought the wooden box would break if I did that."

"...That's right."

Professor Uregor, knowing Yi-Han's mana well, had naturally set additional traps considering that.

If brute force was applied with mana, the wooden box itself would shatter. Purple sandalwood incense was a very delicate and complex scent.

If Yi-Han had come with a frustrated face saying "The wooden box broke", he was going to say with feigned sympathy, "This exam is about reversing incense, not destruction. Don't try to break it with mana forever"...

Snatch!

Professor Uregor snatched the wooden box and was about to open it but paused. Then he said to his disciple.

"Wait. Take three steps back."

"Okay. But why?"

"Just do it."

"Wait. You don't think I'm going to attack you now, do you?"

Yi-Han looked at the dwarf professor as if he couldn't believe it.

No matter how he thought about it, there was no other reason for Professor Uregor to tell him to step back now.

Professor Uregor stroked his beard with an embarrassed look. His disciple was truly amazing when it came to perception.

"There might be a bit of that."

"Isn't that too much?"

"Don't blame me. Blame your seniors."

"Were there seniors who tried to attack like this?"

"Of course there were."

Professor Uregor took out a ring embedded with tungsten and swept it over the wooden box. Fortunately, there was no danger of being caught.

"Oh, what a praiseworthy disciple. I believed in you!"

"..."

Despite the professor's praise, Yi-Han was disgruntled.

"Don't take it to heart too much. This kind of suspicion is a compliment in a way. I don't have this suspicion for other 2nd years, right?"

"Why don't you?"

"Because they usually start from 3rd year..."

"Hmm. I see."

Yi-Han nodded as if he had learned something.

At that sight, Professor Uregor realized his mistake.

Had he just taught the baby dragon how to use tricks?

'But Verduus will be the first victim anyway.'

Thinking that, Professor Uregor opened the wooden box. Gentle scents flowed out in order. They were the fully reversed components of the purple sandalwood incense.

"..."

Professor Uregor thought he would have been less surprised if his disciple had attacked him.

Of course, the Wardanaz family boy had a talent for surprising people, but this was the first time it was completely beyond his imagination.

How on earth did he reverse it so perfectly?

"By my lightning-struck beard... I can't believe this... How did you do this?? Did you reverse purple sandalwood incense during the break?"

"No."

"It's not just about reversing it! I thought you'd do it by this weekend at the earliest, even if you managed it."

Though Professor Uregor had made the exam targeting Yi-Han, he hadn't completely underestimated his disciple's abilities.

He had thought he might barely bring it within the time limit.

But to bring it right away as soon as the day changed.

Professor Uregor, shocked enough for his beard to stand on end, started rambling whatever came to mind.

"You didn't get a dragon stone from Princess Jourin, did you? No. I said it, but that's nonsense. No matter how much Her Highness follows you, she wouldn't give you her liver and gall."

The professor shook his head even as he said it.

Though Jourin was still a young and childish dragon, she was still a dragon.

They immediately sense those with ill will or greed towards them through the power of their bloodline.

If Yi-Han had said "I'll bake you a pie, so please give me a dragon stone", she would have swung her front paw mercilessly.

"She did give it to me."

"How on earth... What?"

"I said she gave it to me."

Yi-Han spoke with a gloomy face, like an eldest child frustrated by a young sibling causing trouble.

Why did Jourin keep acting recklessly?

  *

Yesterday dawn.

Yi-Han, having roughly finished his other studies, grabbed the wooden box to challenge Professor Uregor's exam.

Having seen several friends try this exam and get badly beaten, Yi-Han was quite tense too.

'Yonaire was cursing that the exam was really brutal.'

Thinking he might end up attacking Professor Uregor together after graduating, Yi-Han carefully opened the lid.

Though potions were the strong representative image, alchemy was actually a discipline related to the synthesis of all substances.

The subject could be potions, metals, or even chimeras.

And Professor Uregor was a master of perfumery. This purple sandalwood incense was so well-made that it gave him a headache just looking at it.

Yi-Han was fortunate that smelling the scent didn't affect him much, but other friends had to proceed while briefly experiencing their consciousness traveling to other realms.

'Black shadow sand.'

Yi-Han took out a handful of black sand from his reagent pouch and slowly sprinkled it over the purple sandalwood incense.

The sand left marks with a strange light.

'Geranium over the marks.'

Geranium petals fell one by one over the marks.

When one petal that missed accidentally touched the trajectory of the incense, the purple sandalwood incense in the wooden box surged and blew away the black shadow sand.

"..."

Yi-Han held back the urge to curse and approached again. He had to separate the scents one by one somehow.

'This won't do. I'll use blue-green stone, though it's a bit expensive.'

People tend to make emotional choices when angry.

Yi-Han set out to try separating the scents using an expensive reagent he wouldn't normally use. He didn't even need to open his reagent pouch to check.

He could take it out just by the sensation at his fingertips, knowing what was inside.

Tap-

Yi-Han grabbed the ore and carefully held it out over the wooden box.

Then the purple sandalwood incense in the wooden box surged and suddenly started dividing into dozens of scents.

"?????"

Yi-Han was so flustered by the change in the wooden box that he didn't even notice the ore in his hand was golden, not blue-green.

Meanwhile, the purple sandalwood incense was completely reversed. Yi-Han thought he was dreaming at the utterly nonsensical sight.

'What's this?'

Yi-Han, pondering if he had discovered a new use for blue-green stone, belatedly realized the ore in his hand was a bit strange.

The energy felt inside was extraordinary beyond extraordinary.

First, the color was different (blue-green stone was even in a separate reagent pouch), inside it felt like the energies of hundreds or thousands of reagents were condensed in one place, ever-changing, and a soft light endlessly poured out.

For one reagent to contain such powerful energy that it could replace hundreds or thousands of reagents. It was like the Philosopher's Stone.

Of course, the real Philosopher's Stone couldn't be kept at room temperature like this and had to be stored with several layers of magic seals, so it wasn't the Philosopher's Stone, but if there was something similar, it would be the legendary dragon stone...

"...Jourin! Jourin!!"

Yi-Han, belatedly realizing, jumped up from his chair. The baby basilisk wrapped in his sleeve opened its eyes in surprise and then closed them again.

"You, Jourin!"

-What's the matter?-

Jourin, who had been pretending to sleep for a while, opened her eyes, acting as if she had just woken up.

Yi-Han glared at the young dragon with a very stern gaze. The title "Your Highness" had disappeared.

"There's a dragon stone in my reagent pouch. Do you know who did it?"

-Jourin doesn't know.-

Jourin answered, blinking innocently.

-More importantly, Jourin is curious if the purple sandalwood incense was solved! How did it go?-

"Be quiet. I'm asking now."

-...-

Jourin, slightly cowed by Yi-Han's angrier-than-expected appearance, folded her wings.

Still, Jourin wasn't completely scared yet. She had something she believed in.

"Jourin. Dragon stone is a very, very rare substance. It's a substance only dragons can make."

-Jourin knows that too.-

'Is she crazy?!'

Gainando trembled at Jourin's backtalk.

She was provoking Yi-Han's temper by insisting when she should be apologizing profusely.

As an experienced insister, Gainando knew well that such backtalk only brought miserable results.

It wasn't just Gainando who was scared.

Several students who had tried insisting things like 'I was training my intellect playing chess, not playing' or 'I came to learn magic, so I won't do chores for the dormitory' and been miserably subdued, watched the conversation while swallowing hard.

-...Wardanaz is the type to flick even a dragon's forehead...-

"But a dragon stone that wasn't in my reagent pouch until yesterday is suddenly in there today. And coincidentally, there's one dragon in the lounge who has mentioned dragon stones before. Now then, who could the culprit be?"

-Hehe. There's one thing Yi-Han is missing.-

"...What am I missing? Tell me."

-As Gonadaltes said, and Yi-Han said too, at Einroguard you're innocent without evidence! Even if Jourin is suspicious, she's innocent if not caught in the act!-

Jourin proudly brought up Einroguard's rules.

This was what the young dragon had been believing in.

Einroguard's proud school rules guaranteed students' freedom unless there was clear physical evidence or they were caught in the act.

It was one of the two great freedoms supporting Einroguard, along with the skull principal's freedom to torment students.

"I see."

-Hehe. Jourin is smart. Now, Yi-Han! How did the purple sandalwood incense go?-

Jourin cried out, spreading her wings wide again with a sense of victory.

"You're grounded from now on."

Yi-Han spoke in a cold voice and turned around sharply.

-Uh, uhhh?-

Jourin was flustered.

The logic was perfect, wasn't it??!

-Why?! Yi-Han! According to Einroguard's rules...-

"Y-Your Highness. That... It is Einroguard's rule... but you're missing one thing."

-What did Jourin miss?!-

Jourin was on the verge of crying. The students spoke hesitantly.

"You can just ignore it..."

-...-

Einroguard students didn't usually follow rules well.

Jourin, finally realizing the flaw in her logic, belatedly called out to Yi-Han.

-Yi-Han! Yi-Han! Jourin was wrong!-

But Yi-Han had already gone up the stairs.

Gainando shook his head.

"This is bad. It's level 5 anger."

"...Level 5 anger? This is bad..."

Though she didn't know what level 5 anger was exactly, Jourin could tell it wasn't good.

-Servant! What should Jourin do? How can Jourin make Yi-Han forgive her?-

"Uh... Well..."

Gainando was flustered.

If he knew that, he wouldn't be begging all the time.

"I think all you can do is beg as if your life depends on it..."

-Yi-Han! Jourin was wrong!-

At the expert's advice, Jourin kept shouting up the stairs.

Creak-

The sound of a private room door opening was heard from above.

The young dragon's face brightened.

-Servant! Yi-Han came out!-

'No way. He's forgiving her just for this?!'

Gainando felt unfairly upset.

Is she getting special treatment because she's really a dragon?!

However, Yi-Han didn't come down the stairs. Instead, another creature trudged down.

It was the baby basilisk.

-The master kicked me out saying to live with Your Highness... Waaah...!!!-

-Uwaaaah!-

The two young rare creatures wailed loud enough to shake the lounge.