Surviving as a Mage in a Magic Academy

Chapter 673

"Professor. The griffin seems scared..."

At Nillia's words, Professor Bentozol exploded in anger.

"Griffins don't get scared! Don't say such insulting things!"

"Eek."

"Listen, all of you! Griffins like to play by swinging their tails. So if you ever have to take care of a griffin, stick your head out like this. So the griffin can hit you easily with its tail."

"Couldn't we get seriously injured if hit by a griffin's tail?"

Dolgyu cautiously raised his hand.

Griffins were among the most powerful monsters classified as beasts.

Naturally, even their casually swung tail had the power of a mace. If hit wrong, it wouldn't end as just play.

Professor Bentozol seemed to know this fact too, as he nodded and answered.

"Endure it!"

"..."

"..."

"...I'll raise Niffirg on my own."

"You stupid con artist! Are you gloating about receiving a griffin's love!"

Professor Bentozol barked while on all fours, but Yi-Han ignored him, pretending not to hear.

If he had met him when he first entered Einroguard, he might have been flustered, but Yi-Han had met too many crazy professors by now to be surprised by Professor Bentozol.

After ranting for a long time about 'how to raise a griffin', Professor Bentozol finally gave up and closed his mouth when Yi-Han ignored him.

"Basilisk!"

"Pardon?"

"Even if we put aside the griffin, I asked how you're raising the basilisk!"

"I'm raising it well, but..."

The basilisk's tail peeked out from Yi-Han's sleeve and waved.

It was greeting, having understood it was being called.

Seeing this, Professor Bentozol's mischievous face broke into a satisfied smile like a father.

"Looking at its playful behavior, it seems quite satisfied!"

"Thank you."

"Food? You should be feeding it premium minotaur shoulder meat, are you doing that!"

"..."

It was a diet that would lead to bankruptcy after feeding it a few meals.

Yi-Han answered with a disgruntled expression.

"I'm giving it the same food I eat."

"You... you... you... ignorant...!"

Professor Bentozol's face, still on all fours, turned bright red and foam rose from his mouth.

Seeing this, Siana whispered.

"Doesn't he have rabies or something?"

"Priestess Siana..."

"No. Think about it calmly. We shouldn't let him off just because he's a professor."

"%&%##%^#$!"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

After spewing curses in a hard-to-understand dialect, Professor Bentozol barely regained his composure.

Then he passionately lectured Yi-Han on how to raise a basilisk.

"Meat is important, but you should regularly mix dragon blood with arsenic and feed it."

Both were reagents that sounded very expensive just by name.

Yi-Han ignored it, pretending not to hear. The basilisk also didn't seem to want to eat it, shaking its head while wrapping its tail tightly around Yi-Han's forearm.

"Professor Bentozol. Stop being jealous that your disciple is loved by monsters. Let's finish talking about the unicorn."

"Ugh... Why such a young brat! He doesn't even realize his own luck! A stupid, foolish idiot who knows nothing..."

As he seemed like he would keep picking at Yi-Han's faults if left alone, Professor Bungaegor kicked him once. Professor Bentozol rolled sideways.

Yi-Han tried to comfort him, thinking he was still a professor after all.

"Professor. Other animals love you, don't they? What does it matter if creatures like basilisks or griffins don't love you?"

As far as Yi-Han knew, Professor Bentozol was quite a renowned animal expert in the empire.

The fact that he had actually taken care of an incredibly diverse range of animals showed that this was impossible without at least a certain level of affinity.

Professor Bentozol listened silently.

"Instead, I don't get along well with sensitive and timid creatures like spirits. I'm rather envious of you, Professor..."

"This bastard keeps bragging! Are you mocking me!"

Professor Bentozol, who seemed to be listening silently, exploded in anger and tried to throw dirt at Yi-Han.

Professor Bungaegor sighed and kicked Professor Bentozol sideways once again.

***

Professor Bentozol, having barely calmed down, explained about the unicorn.

The unicorn had been badly injured when the professor first met it. Professor Bentozol decided to take care of the unicorn instead of returning to Einroguard.

After all, saving a unicorn was a much more important task than teaching evil and vile students.

"Let's stop adding unnecessary stories, Professor Bentozol."

Anyway, he had only intended to heal the unicorn's injury, but it turned out the unicorn also had a young foal.

A double hardship of raising a young foal while injured.

It was natural that Professor Bentozol had resolved to take time off school and devote his time.

"Moreover, the injury wasn't an ordinary wound."

"I see... There aren't many enemies that could injure a unicorn."

Professor Bungaegor nodded and agreed with Professor Bentozol's words.

Unicorns were very powerful monsters, separate from their pure image, and weren't easy to injure.

In other words, if a unicorn was injured, it meant the injury was difficult to treat easily.

"What kind of enemy injured it?"

"Taotie. It's sleeping here in the Grief Mountains."

"!"

Professor Bungaegor was a veteran imperial adventurer, but her complexion changed upon hearing the monster name Taotie.

That's how powerful a monster it was.

The Taotie looked like a cow at first glance, but this monster's nature was the opposite of a cow's.

It was a greedy and cunning monster that avoided enemies stronger than itself and persistently clung to weaker enemies.

Of course, it couldn't become a powerful monster by nature alone. There were many animals with such natures among weak animals too.

What made the Taotie threatening was that its physical abilities were also tremendously strong.

Tough skin that deflected swords and magic, hooves that could split bedrock with one stomp, speed that wrinkled the earth when it spotted prey and ran...

On top of that, it also had several innate magical abilities, so it was understandable how it could wound a unicorn.

"Was it the Taotie's horn that wounded the unicorn?"

"That's right."

"No wonder the wound isn't healing quickly."

Professor Bungaegor clicked her tongue.

The Taotie's horn was an evil thing imbued with curses and resentment, so even creatures like unicorns would have difficulty healing easily once pierced.

"Of course, it was also quite injured by the unicorn. You can tell just by the fact that it's fallen into a long hibernation to recover its wounds. I was originally going to find it and end its life then..."

"You failed... Is that why the monsters are showing unusual behavior now?"

She had thought the monsters of the Grief Mountains were running here and there as if afraid of something, and it was clear they were sensing that the Taotie would soon wake up.

By nature, the Taotie enjoyed not just hunting what it would eat, but also slaughtering mercilessly. It was like a disaster for the surrounding monsters.

Professor Bungaegor put tobacco leaves in her pipe, lit it, and puffed.

It was to organize her thoughts.

"There's no need to fear just because the Taotie is waking up soon. We have enough people to subdue it. Isn't that right, Professor Bentozol."

Professor Bentozol didn't deny that much.

"Now that we know the situation, we need to change the plan once again. Students, stay with Professor Bentozol and guard the unicorn in case of emergency. I and the hunters will find the Taotie and end its life before it wakes up."

"Wait!"

When Professor Bentozol interrupted, Professor Bungaegor turned her gaze.

"You can't come along to find the Taotie, Professor Bentozol. We need someone to take care of and protect the unicorn too."

"That's not what I was going to say. I was just wondering if we couldn't take the students along too."

"..."

"..."

The students looked at Professor Bentozol in disbelief.

Professor Bungaegor didn't even answer and just called the hunters to depart.

***

"The unicorn is a noble and powerful creature."

Professor Bentozol began walking with the students on a narrow mountain path behind his campsite.

It was such a steep and narrow path that one couldn't have imagined there was a path here if the professor hadn't set foot on it.

Tap, tap tap, tap tap tap!

Thin rock pieces flew through the air and stuck. Then a new path appeared in the empty space.

"It's a thousand years too early for you young, clumsy, fierce, cowardly, and vulgar students to take care of a unicorn, but since it's an unavoidable situation, I'll teach you how to take care of it. Understand?"

"Wow! It's a unicorn!!"

Gainando excitedly chattered to his friends.

Professor Bentozol's eyebrows twitched as he saw Gainando imagining what he could do if he got unicorn hair.

His face looked like he wanted to pull out the stone slab under Gainando's feet and drop him down.

"...The most important thing when taking care of a unicorn is to receive at least minimal recognition from the unicorn. If you can't even receive minimal recognition from the unicorn, you can't take care of it. You'll be kicked by its hooves or pierced by its horn the moment you approach."

"How can we receive it?"

"You don't do anything to receive it! The unicorn sees and judges what kind of person you are."

Professor Bentozol admonished as he climbed the path that wrapped around the huge mountain peak.

"Those the unicorn dislikes will stand guard at the entrance here. Those the unicorn recognizes will go up and take care of it. Remember. Those the unicorn dislikes shouldn't even think about going inside and hanging around. I can't guarantee your life!"

With those words, the path ended. A flat land on top of the mountain peak revealed itself. It was a terrain that couldn't be seen from outside due to the thick fog surrounding it.

And in that space were two unicorns.

One was fully grown but had a dark red wound undulating like a curse on its body, while the other was still a foal, fast asleep.

"There are two types the unicorn likes. One is strong and righteous. This is similar to pegasi. The other is good and pure. This is an even harder condition than the first. Those who feel ambiguous, don't bother the unicorn and just step back."

"I'll just step back a bit."

Ratford didn't want to approach the unicorn due to his job characteristics.

No matter how he looked at it, a good ending wasn't expected between them.

In contrast, Dolgyu wanted to be evaluated by the unicorn on how knightly he had lived.

"I'll take one step forward."

As Dolgyu took one step closer, the unicorn raised its head and slowly shook it.

It meant he didn't have the qualification to approach.

Dolgyu was disappointed but gracefully accepted and stepped back. The unicorn faintly smiled as if telling him to come again someday.

"It's pickier than I thought..."

"We should send Nillia."

"Nillia's the only one left anyway."

"N-no, why me?? I'm a hunter! The unicorn will dislike me if it dislikes me...!"

Although Nillia protested in disgust, her friends pushed her back.

Surprisingly, instead of rejecting, the unicorn actually got up and walked right up to Nillia. Then it slowly looked her up and down.

Suddenly, the unicorn made a displeased sound. Then it turned around abruptly and went back to its place.

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

"Isn't that unicorn a weird one, Professor?"

At the students' complaints, Professor Bentozol kindly explained.

"Unicorns are very jealous. It seems you've made several contracts with spirits recently. It smelled that and is jealous."

"..."

"I see. So it thought Nillia was a player."

"What crazy talk is that?!"

When even Nillia didn't work, the students lost motivation.

"Let's just stand guard at the entrance."

"Yeah. Let's make a campsite."

As they all turned to leave, someone tugged on Yi-Han's sleeve.

Surprisingly, the unicorn was holding Yi-Han's sleeve as if telling him not to go!

"...Nnnngh..."

Professor Bentozol glared at Yi-Han with eyes full of jealousy.

Why on earth was that brat loved by such powerful monsters!

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