Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

o take care of Tijiling, going so far as to gift him an extra basket of food.
Lying to someone like that didn’t seem fair.

If it had been a promise with Principal Skelly, he wouldn’t have hesitated to break it, but Priest Mehrid was a kind man.

While Yi-han was experiencing an inner conflict, Tijiling took out a wooden cup that was crudely made.
Then, she put in a tea leaf and poured hot water into it, causing steam to rise.

“Wait.”

“?”

“Mind if I pour you a cup of tea?”

After a moment, she nodded.

She had been feeling guilty about refusing the meal.
A cup of tea wouldn’t hurt anyone… right?

“No, not at all.
Thank you.”

“Promise you’ll drink it?”

“Yes.
Why do you ask?”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.”

Even the Order of Presinga enjoyed coffee and tea, though, of course, they didn’t add any sweetening agents.
Their drinks were made purely out of coffee powder or tea leaves.

It wasn’t only the Order of Presinga that was like this.
Other religious groups didn’t add anything to their drinks either.

Since coffee and tea were cognitive enhancers, they allowed priests and priestesses to pray for longer periods of time.

Hence, Tijiling naturally assumed that the tea Yi-han would brew for her would have a deep and bitter flavour, which would help her remain alert.

However, she was gravely mistaken.

‘I’ll make it nutritious as heck.’

Yi-han borrowed Tijiling’s kettle and began boiling water after adding some black tea leaves.

To improve the aroma, he grated the ginger and cinnamon which he had taken from Uregor’s hut and put them in the kettle.

He didn’t stop there.
While the black tea was boiling, he dunked in a generous amount of sugar, a sight which horrified Tijiling.

“What are you doing!?”

“…Do you have an issue with the tea that I’m brewing? A tea brewed following the recipe from my family?”

Yi-han feigned a hurt expression, which put Tijiling in an awkward position.

“N-no.
It’s not that I have an issue with it, but it feels a bit waste-”

“Surely, you aren’t implying that my family recipe is wasteful!?”

“…Never mind…”

Tijiling shut her mouth, afraid that she would say something that might hurt Yi-han’s feelings.

Seeing this, Yi-han nodded, feeling smug.

Tijiling, however, caught sight of this, and she became slightly suspicious.

‘Is he pretending to be hurt? … No, such blasphemous thoughts I’m having.’

Yi-han was a brother of the same faith, not to mention a member of the Wardanaz Family.
He wouldn’t try to trick her by bringing forth his family’s name.

Unlike her, who was a devil mixed-blood, Yi-han was a descendant of the Wardanaz Family, one of the most prestigious households in the Empire.

 

While she was justifying Yi-han’s behaviour, the man in question finished making the tea by pouring in milk as a finishing touch.

“Please have a taste of the milk tea.”

Tijiling carefully brought the cup near her lips and took a sip.
Immediately, she was overcome by a sweet flavor, one which she had never experienced before.

‘Seems like it’s a hit.’

Tijiling’s expression softened, indicating that she liked the tea.

All this time, she had only drank tea that was bitter, so it went without saying that she took delight in the sweetness of milk tea.

She very quickly finished drinking.
Yi-han poured her another cup.

Without questioning it, Tijiling began drinking again, only to pause midway through.

“Does the tea not suit your taste? The tea that I brewed following my family recipe-”

“I get it, so please stop doing that.”

The milk tea had worked better than he’d expected, so Yi-han started preparing the next drink.

He first added sugar, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and milk into boiling water.
Then, he mixed it with corn flour.
The end product was something more akin to a soup than a drink.

‘What an evil scheme, if I do say so myself.’

He was blown away by his own ingenuity.

He was going to start by serving drinks, gradually transitioning into soups and gaslighting Tijiling into thinking it was normal.

After finishing the chocolate soup, he put some biscuits on top of it.

By the time Tijiling noticed, she had already licked her bowl clean.

“Since you’ve had your fill today, you’re obligated to eat next time as well.
From now on, you shall come here regularly at a specified time.”

“…Do we really need to take this that seriously…?”

Though she felt grateful to Wardanaz for looking after her, she found it amusing how he was speaking like some villain.
Without context, an outsider would think he was force-feeding her.

***

Nighttime.

Most of the freshmen had either gone back to their rooms feeling sad and hungry or were playing chess in the resting lounge over a piece of bread.

Yi-han, on the other hand, was walking out of the dormitory’s door.

‘I’m a priest of the Order of Presinga.
I’m a priest of the Order of Presinga.’

He was wearing the priest uniform, and he looked no different from a student of the Immortal Phoenix that had come out for his prayers.

He had a simple goal in mind: to find the path that outside workers used to enter the academy!

As long as he could find it, he would be able to disguise himself as one of the workers and leave the academy.

‘Unless I have to, I should refrain from using invisibility magic.
There might be all sorts of traps lying ahead.’

This was why he acquired the priest uniform despite having his belt of invisibility.

The academy was probably littered with traps, and if he entered a zone that nullified invisibility magic, he would be put in a precarious situation.

In order to survive in this institution, he had to make backup plans for everything.

‘…I’m starting to wonder if this is really a school…’

Arriving at this thought, Yi-han became slightly depressed.

‘How did it come to this…’

The first floor of the academy’s main building, which was usually bustling with students, was empty by now.

Next to the large central stairways leading to the second floor and the basement, there were hallways connected to classrooms.

Though the building’s interior appeared grand and awe-inspiring in the morning, now that it was dark, there was something eerie about it all.

‘If it’s a location where outside workers often visit, it’s probably on the first floor.’

Yi-han’s gaze landed on the area behind the central stairways, which was where the banquet hall was located.

Since none of the classes were held there, the freshmen had never set foot in it after the entrance ceremony.

“…?!”

It was then.

Yi-han was shocked to notice another student silently creeping in the dark toward the area behind the stairways.