Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 760

Chapter 760

"It's just a minor ownership dispute!"

Who owns the things in Einroguard?

Perhaps this difficult question was one that Einroguard mages would have to carry forever.

An anonymous lich claimed "It belongs to the principal, who is the lord," an anonymous troll mixed-blood professor argued "Isn't it the caretaker's?", and radical students asserted "It belongs to whoever needs it," but no definitive answer had emerged yet.

And usually, the rules changed flexibly depending on the situation.

-Wait. I claimed this alley passage first. If you want to pass, pay the toll.-

-You're crazy. Are White Tiger Tower guys from bandit backgrounds instead of knights? Attack!-

-Wait. I claimed this alley passage first. I restored the collapsed passage and periodically remove traps that appear. If you want to pass, pay the toll.-

-Honorable White Tiger Tower student. I express gratitude for your efforts. I'll pay the toll here.-

Ownership was somewhat recognized depending on the student's contribution or justification.

However, this mushroom cultivation field was a place where ownership was quite complexly entangled.

Over ten years ago, a senior discovered this colony where mushrooms grew on their own by chance...

-Friends, I found a mushroom field!-

-Are there mist cloud mushrooms too?-

-Yes! Now we don't need to go into Mist Mountain anymore!-

-Wait. If it's such a field, someone else might try to take it.-

-Let's join forces to protect it. This mushroom field is ours!-

A few years later, when the seniors graduated, it was passed down and shared among juniors...

-I helped the senior the most. I should get the largest area!-

-You're talking nonsense. Who took care of the mushrooms the most?-

-They grow on their own even if left alone, what did you take care of! Stop talking nonsense and divide it equally!-

Even the inherited areas became complexly entangled and disputes arose.

-From here to here is my area!-

-What are you talking about? It says this isn't yours.-

-Forgery?! You bastard. You forged it!-

-Excuse me, I bought the rights to this mushroom cultivation field for twelve gold coins...-

After forgery, theft, stealing, and quarrels continued one after another, the mushroom cultivation field had now become a strange land with multiple owners.

"How can there be such a place?"

"I heard there are many such places in Einroguard?"

"..."

Yi-Han, who had returned to the embankment below where his friends were waiting, was dumbfounded at Yonaire's words.

"There's no choice. We'll have to steal."

"I knew you'd say that, Mr. Wardanaz."

Yi-Han wondered slightly if he should have a sincere conversation with Priestess Siana later.

'She's not thinking of me like the Change Location club seniors, is she?'

He was only moving things for survival purposes when absolutely necessary, not because he enjoyed it at all.

...Probably.

"It would be better to wait until night, right?"

"There's a problem with that."

"?"

"The alchemy lecture has started, right? Everyone's busy gathering materials for the semester."

"That's right."

"The seniors know that too, so they'll probably hold out there for a while."

"..."

Yi-Han poked his head over the embankment and checked again.

Various sleeping bags and traces of camping preparations were scattered around the seniors. It looked like preparations to stay for several more days.

"I didn't want to attack the seniors... I'm wondering how to avoid being caught."

"Don't people usually worry about whether they can win first?"

Yonaire was dumbfounded at her friend who was making plans assuming victory was a given.

  *

Professor Mortum coughed and gestured.

"You may open the door."

Creak-

The door of the bone carriage that had just landed at the spire stable opened, and a coughing mage walked out.

The mage was a person who looked sick and tired like Professor Mortum.

The difference was that Professor Mortum was short and this mage was tall.

"You still don't look well, Professor Taswhan. I'm worried that the curse of moderation research is too harsh on mages."

"Cough. It's alright. The curse of moderation research is almost finished. My poor condition is due to the curse I suffered from Lord Gonadaltes. The one I suffered when I said at the gathering that Kalaroguard was the empire's double-horse carriage along with Einroguard..."

"..."

Professor Taswhan was a professor at Kalaroguard, the magic school where the empire's dark mages gathered, and was also an outstanding dark mage himself.

And it was difficult for the empire's dark mages to have no connection with the skull principal.

The skull principal was the only mage who had inherited the orthodox lineage of dark magic passed down from ancient times, and as he had contributed to creating the current empire's magic system, they were bound to be influenced to some extent, large or small.

The time Professor Taswhan was hit by the skull principal was at a gathering of dark mages held in the Purple Mountains 7 years ago.

It was a pleasant festival-like gathering called <Night of Dark Mages>, where outstanding dark mages of the empire and even liches who often heard "You're still alive?" sometimes participated.

The Imperial Mage Administrator, who visited after a long time, made the festival even more exciting with various secret stories and mysteries of dark magic, and unrestrained evaluations of juniors' magic.

Professor Taswhan, despite his body weakened by long dark magic research, was so happy that he downed several cups of strong poison wine.

And then, drunk, he babbled such nonsense in front of the skull principal.

-Lord Gonadaltes! I'm truly happy. As a dark mage of Kalaroguard, one of the double-horse carriages driving the empire along with Einroguard...-

-What did you just say?-

The skull principal placed a curse as payment for the insult to Einroguard and stupidity (a mage should know to judge for themselves instead of believing false rumors).

That curse still hadn't been fully neutralized, so Professor Taswhan was groaning.

"Professor Taswhan. I don't know if this will comfort you, but the principal is busy now. He probably won't be able to meet you."

"That's truly joyous news! Thank you, Professor Mortum. I feel somewhat invigorated."

As the still cold spring night wind licked past the spire stable, Professor Taswhan shivered. A chill came over him despite wearing a cloak with powerful cold resistance magic.

"Have a cup of warm honey tea here. My disciple made it."

"Ooh..."

Professor Taswhan carefully received the cup and drank the honey tea. The hot golden liquid flowed down his throat, warming his body.

That wasn't all. It even had an effect of recovering the body, perhaps using alchemy. Professor Taswhan asked curiously.

"Direth made this honey tea? I didn't know she was outstanding in alchemy too."

"No. It's a newly entered disciple."

"I'm envious, Professor Mortum. It seems another outstanding disciple has entered. As expected of Einroguard where the empire's best talents gather, outstanding talents in dark magic must be entering too... It's always difficult to gather disciples at Kalaroguard. My disciples are diligent and excellent, but there are so few new people entering."

Professor Taswhan shook his head, pouring out the woes of dark mages.

It seemed many talented people overflowing with talent entered the dark magic school at Einroguard, perhaps because it was the empire's top magic school.

In contrast, it was really difficult to find disciples at Kalaroguard.

People with talent in magic who were also devoted to dark magic were quite rare talents.

"..."

Professor Mortum hesitated, unable to tell the truth right away.

It was hard to say that even at Einroguard, less than five new students had entered the dark magic school.

"Congratulations on many disciples entering. Professor Mortum. Still, other dark mages would be happy to hear this news."

Professor Taswhan was sincerely happy. Seeing that, Professor Mortum closed his eyes tightly.

It was as good as completely missing the chance to speak now.

"...Where are your disciples?"

Professor Mortum changed the subject. Professor Taswhan pointed to the bone carriage.

"They're inside. They're all still in a state of not recovering from poisoning, so it will take some time before they recover enough to move."

"It seems you should go in and wait..."

"I can't go in first when my disciples are here, can I?"

At Professor Mortum's words, Professor Taswhan smiled good-naturedly.

No matter how cold and painful it was, he couldn't go in first leaving his disciples behind.

Seeing that, Professor Mortum grumbled inwardly.

'He's raising the average of professors too much.'

If someone raised the average personality of imperial professors too much, wouldn't it end up harming other professors too?

In a way, it was a selfish action.

"...Alright. The purpose of this visit is..."

"First, the mage card club exchange competition."

"That club again? I don't understand why mages are so into this."

Professor Mortum grumbled as if displeased.

He didn't understand why students from other magic schools would come all the way here to play mage cards.

Professor Taswhan smiled as if he understood.

"I don't quite understand either, but it's my disciples' hobby so I'm letting it be. Even the strongest horse would easily collapse if you only whip it."

"The principal says you should whip a running horse... It's nothing. What's the next purpose?"

"Purchasing reagents."

Einroguard was a place that bought massive amounts of reagents, and at the same time also sold them.

With that vast territory and bizarre main building, it was impossible for reagents not to be produced.

Of course, they didn't sell easily to the outside due to the massive consumption, but exchanges of necessary items were frequent among other imperial magic schools, so it was allowed.

"Purchasing reagents... What do you need?"

"The wooden barrels containing curses I mentioned before, poisonous insects, and mushrooms are needed too."

"You can take the wooden barrels right away. As for poisonous insects or mushrooms... There probably won't be any quantity now."

"I have a place whose location I confirmed 11 years ago! I plan to collect them myself."

"I see. Then I'll assign a disciple as a guide, so collect them."

Professor Mortum said while using his quill pen to organize the visit purposes instead.

Then Professor Taswhan showed a reluctant expression.

"Couldn't it be a student other than Direth? No matter what, asking a 5th year for such a task..."

"..."

This time, Professor Mortum reflected a little too.

Certainly, the other party was right about this.

'Then who to assign... It's a shame Koholti graduated. No, even if he hadn't graduated, I couldn't have assigned him because he wasn't trustworthy. Ogoldos lacks a bit of tact...'

Entertaining mages from outside was a much more difficult task than entertaining ordinary guests.

Ordinary guests usually just look around the safe parts of the school and leave, but mage guests visit deep inside.

To entertain such mages, one needed to be good at improvisation and able to subdue other rough Einroguard students.

"Hmm. I'll have to assign Wardanaz."

"Was there such a student? What year is he?"

"Um... Don't misunderstand."

"What misunderstanding!"

Professor Taswhan laughed at the other's words.

"He must be a 3rd year, right? It's fine. A 3rd year from Einroguard should be able to handle it sufficiently."

If he was an outstanding student even at the empire's top magic school, a 3rd year could sufficiently take on the role of guide.

That's what Professor Taswhan thought.

"Actually, he's a 2nd year..."

"????"