Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 899

Chapter 899

'But how do I draw his attention?'

Eandurde fell into thought.

Her mindset of 'I'll kill them first, kyaaak!' hadn't changed much from when she fought in illegal arenas before or when she fought other tower students now.

But her perspective on situations and thoughts had changed greatly after entering Einroguard.

The world was wide and there were many strong ones. In the narrow arena, she could defeat opponents with just her gorgon bloodline, but that was impossible outside.

The Wardanaz family boy who was currently bossing around his same-year friends was one of those strong ones.

"You bastard. Aren't you going to clean up your mess quickly?"

"I-I was going to clean it later. I was busy studying."

"Studying, my foot. I saw you playing mage cards with Gainando earlier."

"How on earth did you see that?! Wardanaz, you weren't even looking this way! I even laid down an illusion to cover it!"

As night fell, Yi-Han chased away friends who were playing and organized the lounge for friends who would study.

Friends who were about to play chess and marbles got smacked on the back and kicked in the butt by Yi-Han.

"Just study! Just study!"

"You bastard Wardanaz. What are you going to do if we do better than you on the exam!"

"...Hey. No matter how angry you are, don't say such nonsense."

Yi-Han brewed a large amount of coffee with the students taking the alchemy lecture. Hot water surged from the pot placed on the fireplace and flew into each cup.

"Amazing skill!"

"When I mentioned Wardanaz's coffee magic, the seniors didn't believe me. They said what madman would waste magic on such things..."

Yonaire checked the sugar on a balance scale before throwing it into the coffee of friends lined up.

Sugar was an important resource, so it shouldn't be wasted.

"I trust none of you are secretly taking more to eat at night like Gainando."

"...Hey!"

"Sorry. I should have said 'student' but I said 'Gainando'."

Usually, students would scatter for night walks or stay in their private rooms, but gathering in the year lounge like this when exams approached was a characteristic and tradition unique to 2nd years.

There were several reasons for this tradition, but the biggest reason was probably the nanny from the Wa-something family.

"Eandurde. You take coffee too."

"Thank you!"

"Are you preparing well for the midterms?"

"Uh... Yes."

Eandurde blinked at Yonaire's question and slightly averted her gaze.

In fact, Eandurde was normal. Most 1st year students only showed passion for a few lectures they liked and approached the rest with an 'ugh, I don't want to listen' attitude.

"Tell me your grades later during the break. I'm not sure if you're wasting time because of Princess Jourin."

"It's fine! I'm only studying what's necessary!"

"...Eandurde? Eandurde??"

Eandurde quickly escaped after receiving coffee. Yonaire had a strict side, so she probably wouldn't like hearing that her junior was studying efficiently.

'Hurry up!'

The baby basilisk on the windowsill wagged its tail at Eandurde as if pleading. Eandurde made a small gesture as if to say wait.

It was easy to forget from the sight of brewing coffee and bringing out snacks, but her senior was a formidable strong one.

To draw the attention of such a strong one, a very subtle and brilliant strategy would be needed...

"Eandurde. What are you doing there?"

"Eek!"

"?"

Yi-Han was puzzled when his junior jumped up and down.

"I'm worried you're staying here too long because of Her Highness. Want to head back soon? I'll pack you some snacks."

"I-I'll stay a bit longer."

"Why?"

"..."

Eandurde desperately racked her brains. At that moment, something brilliant occurred to her.

"Her Highness can't sleep if I'm not by her side!"

"Oh my. You must have it tough."

If the dragon by the fireplace had heard, she would have raged 'How dare you make Jourin out to be an idiot!!', but fortunately she didn't hear.

Eandurde felt no pangs of conscience.

After all, wasn't this all to help Jourin's plan? The baby basilisk seemed to think so too, as it sent a signal from the windowsill that she did well.

'A subtle and brilliant strategy. A subtle and brilliant strategy...'

As Eandurde pondered, Yi-Han asked another question.

"Do you have anything to ask about lectures? Like Professor Bagrak's lecture, or Professor Bagrak's exam, or Professor Bagrak's assignments..."

"???"

"Sorry. I should have mentioned other professors but momentarily."

As Yi-Han apologized, Eandurde had another flash of inspiration.

Come to think of it, there was nothing better than this to draw attention!

"I have a question!"

"Oh. Really? Go ahead."

Yi-Han brought a chair himself and told her to sit. Gainando approached from behind with a crying face, sniffling.

"Yi-Han..."

"Take out the ankle-grabbing poison, Gainando. Your skeleton won't be affected much by poison now, and it'll be hard to endure too."

"Thanks!"

'M-magic?!'

Eandurde was shocked as she sat in the chair.

How could he answer that without even looking back or asking about the situation?!

'The top student of the year... is really amazing...!'

Eandurde recalled the penguin mixed-blood student in the same year.

Unlike other Blue Dragon Tower students who wandered around during breaks, this student who focused only on magic even saving sleeping time was always mentioned when talk of the year's top student came up.

Would Pengerin be able to do this after just a year??

'I can't believe it...!'

"Now then, Eandurde. Professor Bagrak's magic is the most wicked and vicious..."

"...?"

Eandurde tilted her head at the strangely emotion-mixed teaching, but listened attentively for now.

Meanwhile, the baby basilisk began to move sluggishly.

The target was the reagent pouch Yi-Han was wearing at his waist.

'Here I go!'

The baby basilisk jumped from the windowsill onto the bookshelf. Then it jumped from the bookshelf and landed on Adenart's parchment.

Adenart carefully picked up the baby basilisk and returned it to Yi-Han. The baby basilisk, whose stealthy approach had failed, was utterly dejected.

'Pathetic bastard.'

Eandurde looked at the baby basilisk with contemptuous eyes. Even Jourin, pretending to doze near the fireplace, seemed to cast a contemptuous gaze, though it might have been her imagination.

'I-I was going to do this anyway.'

The baby basilisk rationalized to itself as it slowly crawled out of Yi-Han's sleeve again.

Then it went down to the waist and tapped the reagent pouch string with its tail...

"What are you doing?"

-...-

The baby basilisk froze at Yi-Han's call. It seemed like even if it witnessed his gaze directly and turned to stone, it couldn't have frozen more solidly.

"Do you need this? Want to play with it? Here."

Yi-Han untied the reagent pouch and held it out to the baby basilisk.

He usually kept important reagents separately anyway and only put reagents for urgent use in this pouch. It didn't matter if the baby basilisk played with it.

-W-wow!-

The baby basilisk naturally took the reagent pouch as if this had been its plan.

Yi-Han and the students watched fondly as the baby basilisk rolled around with the reagent pouch.

"It's still a baby after all."

"Though its actions are childish, it's cute."

-...-

Trembling with humiliation, the baby basilisk barely returned to Jourin.

-I'm never doing this again!!-

-You did well. Jourin will praise you!-

-I don't need it...-

While the baby basilisk grumbled, Jourin carefully took out the dragon stone.

As the golden substance with an icosahedral structure emerged from her mouth, suddenly brilliant sunlight poured into the lounge like waves.

"What the?!"

"Hey! Are you using the lounge alone?! Who is it?!"

"I don't know who it is, but my concentration is broken! Ah! I could have gotten a perfect score!"

Jourin moved the fastest in her life. As her front paws quickly covered the dragon stone, the sunlight disappeared.

"Wardanaz. We need to find the culprit!"

"Stop messing around and sit back down to study."

"...Okay..."

Fortunately, the students didn't set out to find the culprit. Yi-Han didn't seem very suspicious either, probably thinking someone had made a magic mistake.

It was natural in a way, since no student had actually seen a dragon stone.

-Phew.-

Jourin carefully lifted her front paw. The dragon stone, now with somewhat reduced light, revealed itself.

-Wow. It's really amazing.-

The baby basilisk inadvertently admired it. The power of dragons was truly amazing enough to command respect even from the king of snakes.

The powerful and complex force dwelling in that ore...!

-I put it all in. Now we just need to return it! Then Jourin will pretend to sleep.-

'I don't think it'll work.'

As he crawled pat-pat-pat to return the reagent pouch containing the dragon stone, the baby basilisk thought inwardly.

Now that it came to this, would he really fall for it?

  *

Professor Uregor yawned.

That sun rising in the morning symbolized the start of a new week, the start of midterms, the start of students' suffering.

"Professor."

"!"

Professor Uregor paused at the familiar voice of his disciple.

'Could it be an attack?'

Statistically, Einroguard students started attempting to attack professors from 3rd year. The success rate was close to 0, but it was usually hard to judge rationally at Einroguard anyway.

And considering the Wardanaz family boy's skills and guts, it wouldn't be strange if he attempted in 2nd year.

'High possibility. There's no reason for him to come now.'

The midterm exam could take up a whole week and still not be enough time. Even Wardanaz couldn't finish it in one day.

Professor Uregor put his hand in his pocket and loaded a potion. Then he slowly turned around.

'What? It's not an attack.'

The professor was relieved seeing his disciple's expression.

Not a cunning scheme, but a dark expression full of despair, anger, grief, and so on.

A normal Einroguard student facing an exam.

"What is it, Wardanaz? Did you come because you have something to ask?"

"It's not that..."

"Where's Her Highness?"

Professor Uregor was puzzled not to see the dragon princess who usually followed Yi-Han around like a baby bird.

Yi-Han's expression darkened further.

"Her Highness is grounded."

"...What? Grounded?"

"Yes."

"Did she do something wrong?"

"You could say that."

"But to ground Her Highness! That's amazing."

Professor Uregor honestly admired it.

Who else could deal so strictly with Jourin? It was something only the Wardanaz family boy could do.

'There's a reason for the old saying that it takes a monster to defeat a monster.'

"No. I think I didn't take care of her properly."

Yi-Han said with a big sigh. It was a rare bitter and weak appearance.

Professor Uregor was slightly flustered at that sight.

"W-why are you like this? Did something happen?"

"Just... Her Highness has been acting recklessly lately, and I wonder if it's because of me."

"Uahahahaha! What nonsense... No, do you really think that?"

Professor Uregor was really flustered.

"Her Highness is a growing dragon. It's natural for her to act recklessly! Don't you remember when she destroyed the classroom wall last time?"

At this rate, Jourin was growing very well.

She wasn't trying to eat people, wasn't interested in evil arcane magic, wasn't trying to steal others' property to hoard in her dwelling...

"That was because she came out looking for me, if you think about it."

"Shut up. So why did you come? Did you come to ask for a potion to reduce mischievousness?"

"Ah. No. I came to submit the exam."

"..."

Professor Uregor almost fell as his legs gave out.