Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 687

Chapter 687

"What was that just now?!"

Yi-Han and Ilendil were startled by Direth's shout.

"Did that crazy sen... I mean, did Senior Yukbeltire discover this place?"

"Did that bast... I mean, did Senior Yukbeltire discover this place?"

"...Yukbeltire left earlier. More importantly, didn't you just say you made the <Liberation from the Skull> potion?"

Yi-Han answered the question with puzzlement.

"Not yet."

"R-right?"

At her junior's answer, Direth was about to sit down again, thinking she might have misunderstood something.

"I just finished the concentrate and need to dilute it."

"..."

Direth was at a loss for words at her junior's ridiculous answer.

Isn't completing the concentrate just before dilution essentially almost finishing it?

"How did you make it? <Liberation from the Skull> should be quite a difficult potion, shouldn't it?"

"Thanks to love for spirits..."

Ilendil was about to speak warmly with a pleased heart, but Yi-Han answered first.

"There were parts similar to the process of <Dobruk's Soul Amplification Potion> that I helped make before, and many processes could be substituted with mana, so it was possible. Senior Ilendil also did the complex groundwork in advance."

Ilendil waved her hand slowly as if it was nothing.

"More importantly, <Dobruk's Soul Amplification Potion>... Where did you make that?"

Dobruk's Soul Amplification Potion was also quite high in difficulty and tricky to make, so a 1st year student shouldn't have had the chance to make it.

"I made it while helping with Miss Yoanen of the Maykin family's work."

Clang!

Ilendil dropped the enamel bowl she was holding.

And then she looked at Yi-Han with shocked eyes.

"You... worked under Miss Maykin...?"

'Does she have a grudge against Miss Yoanen too?'

Yi-Han was slightly taken aback by the senior's reaction.

He hadn't expected such an intense reaction.

"Yes. I worked there before."

"How did you endure...?"

"..."

Yi-Han couldn't answer immediately to Ilendil's muttering.

It was true that Yoanen's workshop made people work harshly.

"It, it wasn't as hard as you might think."

"That place is nicknamed 'where alchemists are ground up instead of reagents'..."

"Come to think of it, Miss Yoanen was a bit terrifying. I was scared too."

Yi-Han quickly abandoned Yoanen.

He felt he might be seen as a strange person too if he took her side unnecessarily.

Ilendil comforted Yi-Han as if feeling sorry for him.

"You must have had a hard time. Making potions in that workshop like that..."

"Well, that level isn't really a big problem for this junior. You don't need to worry that much."

Direth added from the side.

Considering what Yi-Han had done so far, making potions in a workshop would be on the easier side.

Of course, Ilendil, who didn't know the inside story, was inwardly disgusted.

'As expected, she's a scary person...!'

Leading the dark magic school with an iron fist without blood or tears was indeed not something just anyone could do.

***

The mages who had been wandering around like cultists had given up and disappeared, and dawn was beginning to break in the distance.

Yi-Han, who had been diligently making potions with Ilendil (carefully packing all the completed ones in his backpack), looked outside and said,

"I think we can go out now."

"Yeah. Thanks again. For welcoming us when we visited the workshop like this."

At Direth's words, Ilendil shyly acted as if it was nothing.

"You're also a junior from the same school..."

'Hmm.'

Direth looked at Yi-Han with complex eyes.

It was normal to take care of someone from the same school, but strictly speaking, Yi-Han was a junior from the same school to almost all seniors.

'I'd better not say anything.'

Direth held her tongue for Ilendil's sake.

No matter how eccentric a person was, they needed at least one capable junior.

"...Because you're taking care of the dark spirit."

"!"

Yi-Han paused.

'Oh no.'

Come to think of it, the promise he had made when parting with Ilendil last time was that he would take good care of the (forcibly contracted) dark spirit.

'I haven't summoned it since then...'

Usually, if one could summon a spirit, it was because there was a need for it.

The problem was that there had been no particular need for the dark spirit.

Although the dark element was among the trickiest and most abstruse of elements, often requiring the help of spirits when handling it, Yi-Han had just used it himself and succeeded.

While fire spirits or cold spirits were good for small tasks, even that was difficult with dark spirits...

From Yi-Han's perspective, not summoning it was unavoidable.

"Can I meet it once?"

Ilendil asked with sparkling eyes.

Yi-Han felt very burdened by that look.

'It seemed to dislike me already. Won't it attack right away if I summon it?'

Preparing to fight back if it attacked, Yi-Han carefully summoned the lesser dark spirit.

A dark element spirit clumped in a round ball shape revealed itself.

"Have you, have you been well...?"

When Ilendil called, the dark element spirit spun around.

Although it had been in a berserk state last time, it seemed quite friendly, perhaps remembering to some extent the master who had created it.

Moreover, as Ilendil was a dryad mixed-blood, she basically started with a favorable impression from spirits.

"Is there anything uncomfortable or... any problems in the spirit realm? How about your elemental power?"

Watching the two converse, Yi-Han tensed slightly.

He didn't know when the dark spirit might denounce him.

"Is the contract okay?"

The dark spirit, receiving the question, spun around and then made a gesture of prostrating itself before Yi-Han.

It was clearly showing loyalty to anyone who saw.

"It seems fine!"

"It's rare for a spirit to show loyalty like that, you must have been together for a long time?"

Not only Ilendil but even Direth was amazed.

And Yi-Han was amazed too.

"???"

He couldn't understand why the dark spirit was acting like this when he had never summoned it.

Especially when it had shown full hostility the last time they met!

"Um. Senior."

"?"

Direth turned her gaze when Yi-Han called her whispering.

"About that dark spirit."

"Wow. That's amazing. It's hard to receive loyalty like that from spirits, let alone a dark spirit. How did you meet it?"

Yi-Han, feeling that telling what Ilendil had done might make their relationship more awkward, slightly changed the subject and answered.

"Why is it acting like this when I haven't summoned it even once since first contracting with it last time?"

"...What?"

Direth doubted her ears.

Usually, time was essential to become close with spirits.

The time a mage and spirit built together.

That time firmly bound two beings from different realms and completed their friendship.

But to have never summoned it.

"Why didn't you summon it?"

"Because there was no need to...?"

"Didn't you ever need the dark element? You even summon skeletons by combining the dark element, don't you?"

"I just cast that myself."

"..."

Direth realized that having too much talent could also be a problem.

To think he had done everything that should have required the spirit's help.

Perhaps this junior's inability to get along with spirits wasn't just because of mana.

"Usually, showing such submission without building closeness over time is..."

"Usually?"

"Because it's scared."

"...I didn't do anything."

"Even if you don't do anything directly to the spirit, spirits sensitively perceive a mage's past actions. Let's see, you junior..."

Direth recalled what Yi-Han had done recently.

From the Grief Mountains to what he did at the exchange meeting hall.

...There were too many things that came to mind.

"That's why it's scared."

"Ah, no. You said it was loyalty earlier."

"Loyalty from fear or loyalty from affection, they're pretty similar."

As expected of a dark magic school student, Direth had little hesitation about subduing summons through fear.

Basically, as summoned beings from the undead realm were often violent, dark mages had to subdue them by wielding fear like a whip.

Of course, as Yi-Han pursued a somewhat different direction from such seniors, he couldn't help but feel disgruntled.

"Maybe it was happy about that kindness of not summoning it..."

"I don't think spirits think like humans that much. Junior. Just accept it. Some people become friends with spirits, but some can only subdue spirits."

Yi-Han slightly glared at the dark magic school senior who only chose unhelpful things to say.

As expected of Yukbeltire's friend, she was truly annoying.

Not knowing the conversation between the two, Ilendil finished talking with the dark spirit and even said goodbye.

"Sniff. Seeing it so healthy makes me so happy..."

Seeing Ilendil rejoice with teary eyes, Yi-Han and Direth made complex expressions.

Direth quickly spoke to change the subject.

"Junior. When are you going to Granden City? It should be about time."

"Huh? There's still quite a bit of time left, isn't there?"

As the break was ending and the new semester approached, students usually gathered in Granden City, the largest city closest to Einroguard.

Yi-Han and his friends naturally planned to go to Granden City too, but not now when there were still about two weeks left.

Why stay near Einroguard for no reason?

"Ah. Right. This is your first time, so you wouldn't know."

Direth belatedly realized at Yi-Han's reaction and began to explain.

"Usually, it's not a good idea to stay in Granden City during winter break. Being close to Einroguard means a higher chance of meeting professors."

"I met one even though I came all the way to Flaher City."

"That's because you were born with a fate that draws in professors, junior."

Direth replied coldly. Yi-Han looked at his senior with a hurt expression.

How could she say such a thing?

"It's not a bad idea to delay as much as possible and arrive in Granden City, but from 2nd year on, everyone starts arriving early."

"Why is that?"

"To prepare things to bring into the school."

"!"

Yi-Han was surprised at Direth's words.

"Oh, is that allowed from 2nd year?"

Einroguard wasn't a school that particularly needed supplies.

Necessary books and equipment were all provided by the school... not, and students had to obtain them themselves.

But to bring in necessary items from 2nd year.

Does that mean the level of magic needed becomes higher?

"That's interesting. I didn't know the principal allows such things from 2nd year. I thought he would prohibit it."

"..."

"..."

Direth and Ilendil stared blankly at Yi-Han.

At those gazes, Yi-Han realized he had misjudged something.

"Wait, don't tell me..."

"Of course he doesn't allow it. What I just talked about was smuggling."

What Direth had mentioned was not about bringing things in officially, but smuggling.

The skull principal naturally prohibited students from bringing in outside items. That didn't change whether it was 1st year or 6th year.

But anyone who had spent more than a year at Einroguard felt the need for outside items.

Where there's a need, there's magic.

Einroguard students tried every means possible to bring in as many items as they could at the start of the new semester.

"Can't we slip out during the semester and bring in supplies?"

"...Junior. You know it's not common for students to go in and out like you, right?"

Direth looked pitifully at her junior who was calmly saying even more difficult things.