Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 736

Chapter 736

"Hey. This seems like a trap."

"Marcan. Come to your senses! It's a trap!"

At Alde's shout, students in other solitary cells felt suspicious and tried to stop him.

It was a strange situation no matter how they thought about it.

For someone calling Alde senior to be wandering around the punishment room.

It didn't make sense logically.

"It's not a trap! It's a junior who worked with me coming to see me!"

"..."

"...This bastard, he got drunk on his own lies!"

The other students sighed.

They should have slapped his cheeks to bring him to his senses when he was bragging about having smuggled goods outside, but because they left him alone, his symptoms had worsened.

As the punishment room was such a lonely and sad place, students imprisoned here often fell into madness.

"Marcan. I don't particularly like you from a different tower, but as a fellow punishment room comrade, let me advise you. The worst lie among lies is a lie that even you yourself believe."

"That's right. When I first came to the punishment room, I also lied that I came from robbing the principal's room. That lie led to another lie, and in the end, I really had to rob the principal's room."

"Which stupid bastards are treating who as a patient with madness?! He's really my junior!"

Of course, Alde flared up.

The kind junior from the Wardanaz family had come to see him, but these vile bastards were slandering him.

"Marcan. Put your hand on your chest and think. If you were a junior, would you really come all this way through this dangerous and complicated punishment room maze just to meet you? Seriously?"

"He's right. That's a trap. It might be the principal's new minion."

"..."

At his solitary cell friends' words, Alde started to waver slightly.

Come to think of it, no matter how capable, it was hard to believe that someone who had just become a 2nd year could break through the punishment room maze and come all the way here to find him.

Could it really be a minion sent by the principal?

"...But what are they trying to do by disguising like that? There's nothing they can do. We're already in the punishment room."

"He's just trying to enjoy watching you suffer. It's the principal's hobby."

At these plausible words, Alde wavered more and more.

At that moment, Yi-Han came down the stairs and arrived at the end of the corridor.

Seeing seniors filling the solitary cells on both sides of the corridor, Yi-Han let out a sigh of relief.

"You were all here."

"...!"

"!!"

Without anyone saying anything, the students quickly turned around and stood facing the wall.

If it was the skull principal's new minion, even dealing with them was dangerous.

"Senior Alde?"

"..."

"Are you perhaps angry because you're imprisoned?"

Alde held onto his wavering heart and pretended not to hear.

Yi-Han was puzzled but started taking out the things he had to do in order now that he had arrived.

"I brought some snacks here. I'll leave them, so eat them if you're bored."

The basket contained freshly baked white bread, honey to dip it in, jam made from strawberries, simple sandwiches with ham and eggs, canned pork and beef, and so on.

Outside, he would have to sell them for money, but Yi-Han wasn't cold-hearted enough to ask for money from seniors who had sacrificed for the success of their operation.

"Is there anyone who wants to eat? I brought plenty. I'll give them for free without gold coins."

"..."

The seniors' fear reached its peak.

A minion who tempted them by offering food without taking gold coins.

They couldn't even guess what kind of trick this was.

"Are you all angry? Then I'll be going now. Senior. I'll see you when you get out of the punishment room."

When no one answered, Yi-Han tilted his head and headed back to the stairs.

When a death knight coming down from above discovered Yi-Han, he shouted loudly.

-Wait!-

"!"

-This path is not it, the hidden path in that wall over there is faster.-

"Thank you."

'As expected!'

When the death knight gave directions instead of arresting him, the students' conviction deepened even more.

Only after the junior had completely disappeared did the punishment room students let out a big sigh.

"Whew. That was a vicious trap."

"I almost answered carelessly."

"Marcan. Don't eat it. I guarantee that's definitely poison!"

Alde also thought so at first and didn't even touch the basket.

However, it wasn't easy to maintain such patience in the punishment room.

After trying to check with all kinds of magic, Alde finally took a bite of bread.

"...It's delicious?"

"What? You didn't actually eat it?"

"This is fine too, and this is fine too... Hey, you stupid bastards!! He really was my junior!!!"

Alde belatedly realized it was really his junior and shouted.

However, the other students still couldn't believe Alde's claim.

"How does it make sense that a junior brought food for you?"

"It must be a slow-acting poison."

"Marcan. Then you explain. If that junior was really your junior, how did he get in here, and how was he on friendly terms with the death knight?"

Although he was frustrated, Alde couldn't refute.

It was too correct.

'Ugh. How on earth did he get in?'

  *

As he was coming out after finishing the lecture, Yi-Han discovered Senior Perse and his friends.

"Hello, Senior."

"..."

Perse couldn't answer with a blank gaze. His friends next to him explained instead.

"Sorry. Perse just mistakenly transformed into an invertebrate during the lecture, so he might still have aftereffects."

"I-I see."

But the seniors' expressions looked dark and tired even considering their friend's mistaken transformation.

Yi-Han spoke to cheer up the seniors.

"Everyone, cheer up. It's almost the weekend."

"...I have lectures on weekends too."

"!"

Yi-Han was flustered at the senior's gloomy answer.

To think there were lectures even on weekends?

'How does that make sense?'

"Why are there lectures on weekends?"

"Well. Because there's a lot to teach? Lack of training? The professor is crazy?"

"Even so, that seems too harsh..."

"You're taking all schools' magic. That's what's harsh."

"..."

Yi-Han was hurt by the senior's words. The friend next to him scolded him.

"Why are you cursing your lecture to the junior?"

"Hmph. It's true."

'I shouldn't have greeted them.'

Yi-Han thought he should avoid speaking first to seniors who looked tired from now on.

They weren't just sharp because they were tired.

'This must be Professor Bentozol's lecture?'

As he turned his gaze to the next lecture, the name <Terribly Beautiful Creatures> caught his eye.

This certainly seemed likely to be Professor Bentozol just looking at the name.

Moreover, the lecture location was the Western Nightmare Echo Forest, quite far from the main building.

This forest was notorious even among current 2nd years because last year, some White Tiger Tower and Black Tortoise Tower students had almost gone missing when they went to find food.

All kinds of evil spirits or spiritual monsters rampaged and tried to drive out intruders from the forest.

Although most of Einroguard's professors weren't normal, professors who would hold lectures in such a place were rare even among them.

Yi-Han walked along the trail. The path itself wasn't very difficult as he had been here several times.

Unless he went into the mountains, an Einroguard 2nd year student wouldn't get lost on flat ground.

'It's strangely quiet.'

Yi-Han became unnecessarily cautious, especially since he had recently stepped on a trap left by some crazy mage's doppelganger when he went to the Dark Forest with Direth.

"Sharakan."

Yi-Han summoned his summon and walked slowly while searching the surroundings.

Not stopping at summoning Sharakan, he floated a light orb above his staff and cast other enhancement magics.

However, despite doing all this, nothing particular happened.

'Was I being oversensitive?'

If there had been a threat or enemy, it would have come out already, but with no attacks and no enemies caught by his senses, Yi-Han thought he might have been mistaken.

How long had he walked like that?

A large clearing in the forest came into view. It was the destination, this lecture's location.

Sure enough, Professor Bentozol was waiting for students with his arms folded and a displeased face.

"Hello, Professor."

"...Gasp, what?! How did you arrive!"

The professor shouted in surprise at Yi-Han's greeting.

He hadn't expected there would be a student arriving this quickly.

At that reaction, Yi-Han was rather more flustered.

"The lecture is about to start, isn't it? Of course I arrived. But..."

Yi-Han looked around the clearing and belatedly realized there was no one else.

Something was strange.

If this were a dark magic lecture, it would be understandable to take it alone, but no matter how crazy Professor Bentozol was, lectures like <Terribly Beautiful Creatures> were bound to have some popularity.

So why was there no one in the clearing?

"Why is there no one?"

"Because they haven't arrived yet. Is that a question? More importantly, how did you arrive?"

"...Were there perhaps traps on the way?"

"What traps! Those can't even be called traps. They're tests at most!"

Yi-Han persistently questioned the shameless professor who was saying something he seemed to have heard recently somewhere.

As a result, he could understand a little about what kind of lecture this <Terribly Beautiful Creatures> was.

This lecture was originally held in dangerous places within Einroguard territory every time.

Originally, he could have brought those creatures directly to show, but Professor Bentozol was more thoughtful.

The rarer and more powerful creatures lived in more dangerous places, so it was helpful to go directly to those places to show them.

Of course, students weren't easily persuaded by Professor Bentozol's intentions. Many students always arrived late or dropped out.

Although his heart ached sometimes because of such insincere students, Professor Bentozol had steadfastly maintained his educational direction.

Right now, hadn't the professor chosen a date when the mana pooled in the forest was strong for this Nightmare Echo Forest, and stimulated the monsters to make them more ferocious?

Without one's own philosophy of education, it would be difficult to be this diligent.

'...This is bad. It's a crazier lecture than expected.'

Yi-Han felt his heart sink.

He had expected some madness from when he guessed it was Professor Bentozol's lecture, but this was surpassing that.

To think they had to visit a new dangerous area for every lecture.

"Why aren't you answering! How did you arrive!"

"I just walked here."

"You just walked? What about attacks? Evil spirits? Ghost swarms?"

"There were none."

"..."

Professor Bentozol looked at Yi-Han with eyes of shock and disbelief.

He couldn't believe that after preparing so hard, it had no effect on the student.

"Impossible! These evil spirit bastards. Surely they're not vilely choosing their targets to attack?"

While Professor Bentozol was jumping up and down analyzing what his mistake was, Yi-Han asked another question.

"Professor. I have a question."

"Griffin? Basilisk? Unicorn?"

"None of those."

"Then what are you curious about!"

"It's nothing else, but how do you proceed with the lecture if all the students come late?"

"If I can't teach everything, we do it on weekends too."

Professor Bentozol answered grumpily.

He didn't want to teach students on weekends, but according to Einroguard's rules, he had no choice.

It was truly a regrettable thing.

"I see."

"Come here for a moment! I need to check why the monsters didn't even appear..."

Professor Bentozol, who had started speaking, realized that the boy from the Wardanaz family had disappeared back into the forest.

Surprisingly, this boy was trying to bring the other students!