Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 689

Chapter 689

As the small commotion at the mansion ended, Yi-Han's group quickly began their preparations.

Thanks to Lady Kraha's kindness, the time needed to obtain necessary supplies in Flaher City was greatly reduced.

At the same time, some unnecessary supplies were also added.

-Gainando, who put mage cards in this silver pot, come out here.-

-Why, why me? It could be someone else!-

"Is everything ready? Let's go! Depart!"

After finishing the final check, Yi-Han climbed onto the carriage and gave the signal.

Clop clop clop-

Inside the carriage, his friends were already discussing with serious expressions which items among the secured supplies should be prioritized for smuggling into Einroguard.

"Shouldn't food be the priority?"

"I think a bit differently. From 2nd year, we can meet seniors, right? Seniors will have more food than us, so food might not be as scarce as in 1st year. Rather, bringing in luxury items like coffee, tea leaves, or sugar might be more advantageous for trading."

"Won't the seniors share some food?"

"I don't... think they will."

"If I became a senior, I don't think I'd share food with juniors."

"Food and preferred items are important, but I'm worried about 2nd year lectures. I heard that from 2nd year, the lecture difficulty increases and club activities are added. Moreover, we have to do our own research and secure research funds, can we prepare without that?"

"Certainly, as Yonaire says, it might be good to bring in external magic books or artifacts, or at least reagents."

"But magazines and mage cards won't be good trading items for seniors starved for enjoyment..."

'These guys. They should concentrate like this when preparing for exams.'

Yi-Han glared slightly at his friends.

Of course, it was right for everyone to think hard together, but how nice would it have been if they had thought this hard during exams.

"Mr. Wardanaz. Do you have something on your mind? Why is your expression..."

"Haha. I'm suddenly feeling nervous because the new semester is starting soon."

Yi-Han sat down while subtly changing the subject.

Siana also laughed and said,

"Haha. There's no way Mr. Wardanaz would be nervous about that. What a joke."

"...No, I can be nervous too..."

"Yi-Han. What do you think?"

"Hm?"

Dolgyu called Yi-Han while talking with Ratford. Both had serious expressions.

"I hope it's not useless talk? Like which mage card is better."

"We wouldn't call you for something like that."

Both looked incredulous.

At that reaction, Gainando flinched. When arguments broke out with Blue Dragon Tower friends over such things, they often called Yi-Han.

"What we were talking about was seniors."

While determining which items to prioritize for smuggling was important, even more important was deciding which methods to use.

On this point, Yi-Han's friends thought they should borrow the power of seniors.

As they had tried more methods and knew how to use more magic, their perspective would be broader.

The problem was whose power to borrow.

Dolgyu wanted to borrow the power of White Tiger Tower seniors skilled in transformation and enhancement magic, while Ratford wanted to borrow the power of Black Tortoise Tower seniors who had excellent thieves.

"There probably aren't any good smugglers among our priest seniors... Sniff."

'Isn't that a good thing?'

Nillia thought inwardly, looking at the gloomy Siana.

"Wait a moment."

Yi-Han took out a rolled-up paper from his coat pocket. Yonaire asked curiously,

"What's that?"

"It's something a senior gave me to refer to when smuggling."

"Is it really written 'Hang in there with a reference book'? The Shadow Patrol often does that."

"...Well, it could be, but this senior isn't like that."

Yi-Han answered, trusting Direth.

Einroguard seniors might be like that, but Direth wasn't.

...Probably.

Precautions when smuggling (Burn after reading)

1. Don't trust seniors

2. Don't work with seniors

3. Don't trust or work with seniors

"..."

"..."

"Let's do it ourselves..."

"...That would be better."

The students deeply regretted their naive thinking.

Come to think of it, there was no way seniors would purely help juniors even if they paid a price.

An Einroguard senior could easily use juniors as bait and betray them!

***

The atmosphere in Granden City just before the start of Einroguard's new year was different from usual.

First, professors were waiting on top of the city gate.

"Professor Bungaegor. Hello."

"Yes. Ahem, Dhumcha, have you been well too?"

"Yes! I collected quite a bit during the winter break."

"Your practice will have paid off then. Go in. Don't cause trouble."

Professor Bungaegor yawned on top of the city gate.

Students who had spent their 1st and 2nd years at Einroguard usually came much earlier than the start of the first semester of the new year.

It was clearly intentional to prepare for smuggling, but the professors didn't care much.

The students' smuggling would only annoy the skull principal, not the professors.

Managing the magic of Granden City was more important.

If they let students loose in disorder and neglected incidents, even the generous people of Granden City might add 'No entry for Einroguard students' to the city law.

"Professor Bagrak. Hello. Did you have a good break?"

"I visited a new duel club."

"...Are there still duel clubs that haven't banned you?!"

Ignoring the professors' conversation behind him, Dhumcha headed to the meeting place.

He had a place to meet with other Black Tortoise Tower students.

"Dhumcha, over here!"

"You're all here already."

"Who would be late? We're not idiots."

The Black Tortoise Tower students who had finished 2nd year and were now moving up to 3rd year had firm and unwavering eyes.

The meaning in those eyes was as follows:

'We can't be the only ones to suffer.'

That's right.

They had the bitter experience of coming early to Granden City at the end of 1st year, only to be deceived by seniors and used as bait.

-Are you perhaps Einroguard 1st years?-

-Yes. Are you perhaps a senior...-

-That's right! By the way, do you know about smuggling?-

-Smuggling?-

-Oh my. There's such a tradition at Einroguard...-

-Gasp! We didn't prepare at all.-

-Don't worry. You can join our group. How about it?-

-Th-thank you!-

At first, they were moved by the kindly informing seniors and thought 'There's still trust and faith left even in Einroguard, which is like the skull principal's slaughterhouse', but that was a misunderstanding.

At Einroguard, seniors who speak kindly are the most dangerous.

As soon as they passed through the main gate, Dhumcha and his friends' pile of luggage suddenly transformed into gargoyles and attacked the principal and his minions.

Taking advantage of that chaos, the seniors quickly smuggled in the necessary items!

Dhumcha and his friends learned a very valuable lesson from that incident.

And they intended to pass on that lesson to this year's juniors.

"You know, right, Dhumcha? We need to approach before others."

"Yeah. I know."

Dhumcha nodded.

The evil seniors trying to use new students as bait weren't just them.

There would be at least two or three more groups around here.

To get ahead of them, they needed to approach quickly and gain favor.

Fortunately, Dhumcha had a weapon.

Being of dwarf race, Dhumcha had the typical face of a dwarf craftsman that looked somewhat stubborn and unlikely to lie.

So much so that one senior once entrusted a mission to Dhumcha thinking he was from the blacksmith guild and lost money.

This impression was especially effective when dealing with other races.

"Just watch. I'll..."

"Dhumcha, there! Over there!"

"!"

The students' eyes widened and sparkled.

Students were walking over from far away.

They were clearly Einroguard mage students, but their faces were somehow young and unfamiliar.

They were clearly 1st years about to move up to 2nd year.

'Huh?'

Dhumcha felt puzzled.

The composition of the 1st years was a bit strange.

They looked like Blue Dragon Tower, but also Immortal Phoenix Tower, and White Tiger Tower, and Black Tortoise Tower...

He wondered if they were all mixed together, but that couldn't be. Why would students from different towers walk together?

"Dhumcha! Hurry!"

"Alright. I'm going now!"

Dhumcha cleared his throat and ran out hurriedly.

And then he shouted.

"Wait, are you perhaps Einroguard students?"

"Are you perhaps a senior?"

"I'm not a suspicious person... Oh. Wait, how did you know I'm a senior?"

Dhumcha was slightly taken aback by the words of the noble-looking boy in front of him.

Usually, the typical response here was 'Who are you?' or 'Are you the skull principal's minion! Damn it!'

"You look like an Einroguard student, so you must be my senior."

"...Oh... Impressive. That's right."

Dhumcha introduced himself. Yi-Han also introduced himself accordingly.

"I'm Yi-Han of the Wardanaz family."

"What family?"

"The Wardanaz family."

Perhaps because it was noisy around, he couldn't hear well. Since the family name wasn't important anyway, Dhumcha nodded.

'A Blue Dragon Tower student, huh. Should be easier to deceive.'

"Follow me. I have important information."

"What kind of information..."

"A secret hidden in Einroguard!"

Dhumcha took Yi-Han to the <Inn of Ten Thousand Schemes>.

Located in a remote and gloomy place with windows blocked even in broad daylight, it was popular among Einroguard students.

"...So...smuggling...Einroguard's tradition..."

"...Gasp...we...nothing...how could...what should we do..."

"...Not too...late..."

"...Thank...you..."

After about an hour of conversation, Dhumcha was convinced that the junior in front of him had completely fallen for it.

"Thank you, Senior Dhumcha! Meeting Senior Dhumcha is the luckiest thing in my life!"

"It's nothing. It's your luck to accept advice. There are guys who can't believe even when given advice."

Dhumcha answered while maintaining his fake craftsman dignity.

"Then I'll see you at the meeting place on the day the school gates open!"

Yi-Han nodded and then stared at the pile of luggage stacked in the corner of the inn.

At that gaze, Dhumcha flinched.

Part of that luggage pile was transformed bone-catching parrots, which would return to parrot form at command and make noise around shouting <Skull Principal Idiot!>.

Of course, they couldn't be put in Dhumcha's group's luggage, but were items to be put in the juniors' luggage.

He couldn't help but flinch when the junior stared at it.

"...Why are you looking at that?"

"You seniors have already finished all your preparations. I admire you."

"Y-yes. You'll develop better preparation skills as time passes too."

"I'm truly amazed, moved, and impressed!"

"It's nothing much."

Dhumcha saw Yi-Han off with a satisfied feeling.

'...But is this guy really from Blue Dragon Tower?'

He seemed too polite for that...

***

"What's Yi-Han doing now?"

"He said he's analyzing the seniors' magic after memorizing it."

"I see."

Gainando stuffed his mage cards back in and turned around. Siana asked incredulously at that sight,

"Ah, no. Shouldn't you be a bit surprised?"

Siana had been shocked by the fact that Yi-Han was analyzing the magic he had seen on the spot after memorizing it.

How was that possible?

However, Gainando looked at Siana in bewilderment.

"Huh? Did he fail?"

"No, he didn't fail... It's just..."

"Then why should I be surprised?"

From inside, Yi-Han's voice shouting 'I'm done!' could be heard.