Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy Chapter 686

Chapter 686

-I asked who's there...-

Creak.

With the sound of a sliding door opening from inside the workshop, a dryad mixed-blood senior appeared.

Ilendil, who walked out dropping leaves on the oak floor, was very pleased to see Yi-Han.

"From the Wardanaz family... Yi-Han!"

"Yes."

Ilendil, pointing at the junior and recalling her memory, continued in a slow manner of speaking.

"That's right! The one who helped and took care of the dark spirit last time..."

'That seems quite different from the truth.'

To be precise, it was closer to attacking and subduing the berserk dark spirit and then forcibly contracting with it.

And the contract wasn't because Yi-Han wanted to, but because Ilendil pressured him to do it forcibly...

"Ah. Yes. That's right."

"And the person next to you is... ugh."

Ilendil saw Direth's face and quickly stepped back.

"He-hello... Senior..."

"Y-yeah. Hello."

Direth waved awkwardly.

Ilendil also bowed her head with an awkward expression while hiding behind the workshop's bellows.

As the atmosphere suddenly became suffocating like Adenart's tea party with her followers, Yi-Han looked around.

Unfortunately, there was no junior here younger than Yi-Han.

'I need to hurry and move up to 2nd year,'

Yi-Han sighed deeply. Without a junior, Yi-Han would have to resolve the situation in the end.

"Senior Direth. What happened between you two?"

At her junior's whispered question, Direth answered in a low voice while eyeing Ilendil.

"I told you before, remember? That the dark magic school kids were attacked by Ilendil when they went into the forest to collect reagents."

"Ah."

Only then did Yi-Han recall the past between the dark magic school and Ilendil.

In fact, it wasn't limited to just the dark magic school.

There was no school among Einroguard's schools that didn't need reagents from the forest.

It was common for students who entered the forest to get greedy and damage the forest, and it was natural in a way for Ilendil, who was trying to protect the forest, to clash with them.

"Uh, but senior. Then I can understand other seniors being awkward, but why is Senior Direth awkward?"

"Well, since I'm from the same school, I went to rescue them..."

Direth brought up the aftermath of the incident she hadn't told last time.

When the dark magic school students attacked by Ilendil were captured, Direth naturally went to rescue them as a senior.

When she arrived, the dark magic school students were captured by forest golems...

...Direth had no choice but to destroy all the forest golems and rescue the students.

"Uh, doesn't it take quite a bit of effort to make golem-type summons? You destroyed them all?"

"I had no choice in that situation! The golems were quite violent."

'Senior is quite aggressive too.'

Thinking that Direth would grab his collar and say 'You're one to talk' if she heard, Yi-Han nodded.

Ilendil, who was hiding behind the workshop's bellows and staring at the two, asked softly.

"You seem... close with the dark magic school..."

"He also takes dark magic classes."

"Wh-what?! Why...!?"

"Well, he can take them if he wants."

Direth got slightly upset.

What's so surprising about taking dark magic?

...Although it was surprising...

At that reaction, Ilendil lowered her posture in alarm.

"Eek."

"...Ah, no. I'm not angry. Junior. Look. I'm not angry, right?"

"Don't people who are angry often say things like that?"

"Whose side are you on?"

"...Senior! Senior Direth is not angry! Look! You can come out!"

Ilendil hesitantly raised her body.

But her eyes still seemed full of wariness towards Direth.

"How on earth did you destroy the forest golems..."

"Hey. Junior. You're saying that because you didn't see it then! I didn't say it, but she's a pretty crazy junior too!"

Direth burst out.

As a senior, she didn't want to badmouth juniors from other schools, but Ilendil was also among the considerably crazy juniors.

She had tried to smash Direth's undead army with forest golems without a word of dialogue.

Direth wanted to resolve it peacefully too, but being ambushed, she had no choice but to explode her undead army and blow away the entire vicinity.

"What brings you here...?"

"Ah. About that."

Yi-Han pointed out the window at the group of mages wandering around ominously.

The sight of them still not giving up and searching for Yi-Han was reminiscent of a cult group.

Ilendil seemed to think so too and asked in alarm.

"A cult?!"

"No, not that."

Yi-Han explained, selecting only the less strange parts of what had happened today.

After performing well at the exchange meeting, all sorts of mages came chasing...

"Ah. I've been through that too."

Ilendil slowly mumbled and agreed with Yi-Han's words.

She had been quite annoyed by all sorts of scouting missions after attending an alchemists' conference before.

"That must have been tough... Wait."

Ilendil frowned as if she had spotted someone outside the window.

It was Yukbeltire.

Showing hostility that didn't match her usually indifferent and slow attitude, Ilendil asked.

"Did that evil mage come too?"

"..."

"..."

Yi-Han and Direth exchanged glances.

'We should probably hide that we're close, right?'

'Yeah...'

Ilendil spoke firmly.

"You came to the right place. Rest comfortably."

"Thank you, senior."

After finishing her conversation with Yi-Han, Ilendil looked at Direth.

Unlike the wariness from earlier, respect could be glimpsed in her eyes.

To think she would enter another school's workshop to protect her junior against someone like Yukbeltire.

"I didn't know you were such a warm person, senior."

"Hmm."

Direth felt awkward.

In fact, she was close with that evil mage outside too, but if she said that, she felt she would never be able to get close to this alchemy school junior.

"I... just did what I had to do."

"That's what's great."

Feeling she couldn't bear the pangs of conscience if she heard any more praise, Direth changed the subject.

"I'll keep watch over there to see if the evil mage comes or not."

"..."

Yi-Han watched Direth slipping away and felt dumbfounded.

Even so, what kind of excuse was that?

"What were you doing?"

"Making potions... I need to secure research funding for this year."

Regardless of her alchemy skills, Ilendil, who prioritized the forest, had limited missions she could accept.

As such, she had no choice but to focus more on potion-making missions like this.

"I want to research the races trolls prefer as food..."

"..."

Yi-Han was more shocked than when he met Garisaima today.

Was Senior Ilendil the one who had proposed that crazy research!?

"Wh... why?"

Ilendil's face brightened as her adorable junior showed interest in the research.

"Are you perhaps interested?"

"I-I was just curious what kind of research it was."

Yi-Han quickly changed his words in fear, but Ilendil had already interpreted it as she liked.

"Forest trolls are powerful monsters... but at the same time, they're monsters that maintain the forest ecosystem. They also play a role in dealing with intruders from outside..."

"...S-so you're trying to research the races they prefer as food to raise such forest trolls?"

Ilendil paused at Yi-Han's words. It was quite an interesting idea.

"I hadn't thought of it, but... maybe we could think about it that way."

"Ah, no. I think I misunderstood."

"Really? That seems like a good idea too..."

Ilendil slowly unfolded the research she had written.

As forest trolls were threatening monsters, there was a lot of damage caused by them.

In the midst of this, Ilendil had noticed that some races suffered particularly heavy damage.

Perhaps there were races that forest trolls preferred as food?

If that could be identified, adventurers or forest keepers entering areas where forest trolls appeared could approach a bit more safely.

If there were no preferred food races in the party, the forest trolls wouldn't react.

'It was a more sensible research than I thought?'

It was sensible research to analyze forest trolls more deeply to reduce the damage caused by them.

It's just that the title was a bit strange...

"It seems like interesting research."

"Really?!"

Ilendil was overjoyed.

Although it wasn't very noticeable because her movements were slow.

"Then do you want to participate in the research? It'll surely be fun."

Direth, who was standing by the window far away, waved her hands in alarm.

It was a signal to refuse unconditionally.

From the start, there was nothing good for an Einroguard 2nd year student to participate in seniors' research.

Of course, it wasn't that there was nothing to gain.

One could grow by helping with the magic of seniors more excellent than oneself.

But in Direth's view, Yi-Han already had too many opportunities to grow by helping with the magic of mages more excellent than himself.

Starting with the professors...

'He definitely can't handle helping seniors too!'

"I-I'll think about it."

"I knew you'd be interested...!"

"I said I'd think about it, not that I agreed."

Yi-Han suddenly noticed Yukbeltire walking along the main road in the distance.

And then he looked at Ilendil in front of him.

'...Wait. They don't seem that different?'

***

Feeling that talking more about research would only dig his own grave, Yi-Han changed the subject.

"By the way, what kind of potion did you receive a mission for?"

"Ah. This is... a potion I developed. I call it <Liberation from the Skull>."

"That's an unusual name. What effect does it have?"

"It has the effect of temporarily paralyzing the magic the principal has cast."

"..."

Yi-Han was taken aback by the unexpected effect of the potion.

Come to think of it, Ilendil had shown herself in front of juniors in the forest last time too.

She couldn't have done that if it wasn't a potion she had made herself.

"Wait, who buys this?"

"Other Einroguard students, I guess."

Direth answered instead, with her arms crossed.

Ilendil's potion was already famous among some students who knew about it.

"Is it that useful? I've never seen seniors using it..."

"It's not for meeting juniors, but for avoiding the principal's minions. Among the principal's minions, there are some that chase after the scent of magic the principal has cast."

'They're really formidable!'

Yi-Han regretted thinking 'I think I know a bit about Einroguard now' after finishing his 1st year.

It seemed he would never understand Einroguard. Even if he graduated.

'But I'm glad I found out about this now.'

"Can you teach me too?"

Learning this in advance would give him a chance to escape from the skull principal's clutches later.

Yi-Han asked politely. Fortunately, Ilendil readily agreed.

"Sure... It's not difficult."

'It must be very difficult...?'

Direth thought inwardly at Ilendil's words.

If it really wasn't difficult, Einroguard students wouldn't need to buy it from Ilendil for expensive prices.

Alchemy potions might seem simple on the surface, but when they became difficult, they became endlessly difficult, so even Direth, who had some knowledge, would entrust it to experts rather than try to make it herself when it became difficult.

"Do I do it like this?"

"Not bad..."

"Like this here?"

"Good... Keep going."

"Is this completed?"

"Wait. Let me check... Yes. It's complete."

"!?"

Direth, who had been listening to their conversation, stood up abruptly.

Who just completed what?!