WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Surviving in the Magic Academy

Chapter 65

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“I would like to form a contract with you two.”

I sighed without thinking. The heavy air pressed down on me. Even the magical power around us had sunk deep into the floor beneath that weight.

Carefully, I looked across the room. Two people were watching me from where they leaned back in their chairs. The oppressive weight around me was coming from them.

It felt exactly like the advancement evaluation hall. Even the expressions they showed me were the same. Myra was smiling, and Miryeong’s eyes were wide and round.

“Except for those who belong to the tower, I will not distribute items like mirror bugs without your permission.”

The words I spoke rose up, carried by magical power. Then they became letters and began seeping into the paper I had prepared in advance.

When had I last formed a contract? About five years ago. It had been the one I made with Professor Irian. I never thought I would use this again.

“Very... good....”

Myra smiled and lightly clapped her hands. Then she stretched her magical power toward me, trying to take the paper.

I gently avoided that magical power and kept the paper in my hand. Myra looked at me with slight puzzlement. I swallowed and spoke.

“In exchange, I would like to reduce the number of mirror bugs I give you. Ten per month as the base amount, with the number adjusted through mutual agreement.”

“Ten, is it? Yes. If things are settled like this, there’s no need to pressure you at all, Evron-ssi.”

Miryeong said that with his chin resting on both hands, staring straight at me. His eyes were full of curiosity.

What I had just said also became magical power and seeped into the paper. When I carefully set the paper on the table, Miryeong’s magical power snatched it away in a flash. After looking it over, Miryeong laughed loudly.

“Good. There are a few parts I don’t quite like, but this is suitable enough.”

He passed the paper to Myra. She slowly looked it over as well, then nodded. They infused magical power into it. The paper tore apart and seeped into our wrists.

I rubbed my wrist, where the letters had surfaced. As one contract was engraved, I could clearly feel my tree being bound by it. This contract text was long too. I had added so many conditions, after all.

I smiled bitterly. I had agonized over so many things before reaching this point, but the situation ended more easily than I had expected.

The heaviness pressing on my chest felt a little lighter. With that, my body, which had gone stiff from tension, loosened up a bit. Watching me, Miryeong smiled.

“Still, how did you notice? I thought it would be difficult.”

He had every reason to say that. Everything up to now had felt quite natural. If I had stayed drunk on points the whole time, that was.

What made me start suspecting them was the wraith tree that appeared at the auction house. If I had not felt uneasy when I saw it, if I had not started questioning the points, I would not even have caught this chance.

And that was something Myra had put up. She glanced at me and smiled with her eyes. Whatever her reason had been, I had survived thanks to her. I lowered my head slightly to her as well.

“This bet... was my win....”

“That’s right. Then, as promised, let’s split the mirror bugs seven to three.”

Mirror bugs. Those things were the problem. At the advancement evaluation hall, they had offered me a large number of points in exchange for one hundred mirror bugs.

Five hundred points per month. A giant lump of points that would keep swelling like a snowball. At the time, I thought that was the end of it.

I thought they were selling off a possible future of mine and paying me those points as the price. That was all I had thought.

But that was not it.

They had no interest at all in spreading communication across the entire university. Because of that, I built up quite a few guesses. At the end of those guesses, I managed to come up with one story that at least sounded plausible.

Did they really need a massive communication network that covered the whole university?

When I thought about it, that made sense. Arcana General Trading Company ruled one section of the university with Stalactite City as its base. Other organizations were probably the same.

Everything inside those places flowed under their control. An innovation like communication could become a nuisance to them. That thought took root.

From that perspective, the reason they came looking for me was probably because they saw the potential of my mirror bugs. The potential to shake the system they had built so firmly.

Something like that had already happened in the tower. Jun had tried to change the tower’s structure by using the message board. And he had half succeeded, then started growing at a laughably fast pace after spending seven years on the first floor.

On the message board, information gradually lost value, and trades became more direct. Inside a structure where everyone supported each other, they built up power and knowledge faster than before.

If those mirror bugs spread across the entire university, more people would surely start dreaming of the same thing Jun had.

Would they really try to bring about that kind of chaos for a few points? To them, points were nothing more than tools they could always obtain easily.

It was a vague guess, but that was the most plausible answer I could think of.

And so, they came to me. Of course, I had almost no way to avoid them. It was an offer I simply could not refuse.

The dissatisfaction that came with it melted away when I saw the points coming in. I had thought they were going to scatter mirror bugs across the whole university.

Three hundred million points in a hundred years. Then how much would it be in two hundred years?

Yes, that was the first trap.

“As expected, dealing with someone sharp is the easiest. Everything gets wrapped up neatly like this. Isn’t it nice?”

Miryeong said that while examining his wrist. The contract text that had received his magical power surfaced clearly. As Miryeong slowly stroked it, he raised his magical power.

A card rose up on that magical power. I carefully examined the card as it came toward me. Miryeong’s name was written on the gold-glittering card.

“That is a reward for the contract. We always conduct our trades based on trust. Use that to pick something you like at the auction house.”

“Thank you.”

I made the clearest smile I could. In any case, the contract had been formed. There was no need to refuse a gift like this. I carefully placed the card inside my clothes.

“Ah, I’m giving this to you for free, so don’t misunderstand. There’s no longer any need to put you in our debt, Evron-ssi.”

Miryeong answered my smile as he said that. Yes, that was the second trap. They had predicted all my thoughts and led me to the auction house. They had told me to freely obtain the materials I needed for my puppets.

If not for the unease I felt during the auction, I would already have ended up millions of points in debt. If that had happened, I would not have had the chance to form a contract like this.

Even if the existing deal were adjusted, it would have been obvious that I would flounder in a swamp of debt. Then I would have had no choice but to accept whatever demands they made.

Thankfully, I was able to avoid that. But what did avoiding it change?

Since I had not gone into debt, they would continue the trade. The points would increase.

But while providing mirror bugs, my growth had stagnated. No matter how many points I piled up like that, rising to a higher realm was impossible. It was something I had only realized recently, because my eyes had been blinded by that huge number of points.

Even if I tried to raise my realm through things like elixirs, I would not be able to do anything with a foundation built so easily. It would collapse easily, and building up my realm would only become harder.

If I died when my lifespan ran out like that, the shadow tree would disappear as well. That would benefit them in its own way.

They themselves would suffer more inconvenience because they could no longer use the communication, but their goal would still be achieved.

Even if I had somehow avoided the second trap, the first trap already had its teeth sunk deep into me.

I had to break that trap. To do that, I had to give them absolute trust. This contract was for that.

“I will... take my leave now....”

Myra rose from her seat. She rode into the shadows and vanished. I carefully stood up and saw her off.

“Wow, still, this worked out well. If this had gone any further, I thought Professor Irian might say something. I’m glad you’re at least a little smart, Evron-ssi.”

Miryeong said that with a smile. He was also tidying up his clothes and preparing to leave. Professor Irian, was it? I let out a bitter laugh.

“I’ll be going too. Since the contract was handled nicely, please enjoy the auction comfortably from now on.”

He stood up and waved his hand. Then a light wind rose, and his figure vanished. I could not even catch the flow of that magical power.

I collapsed onto the table. Cold sweat drenched my back and soaked my clothes. I still felt dazed. Still, I had somehow gotten through it.

In truth, the traps they had prepared for me were not that deadly.

The first had a fair price attached. A huge number of points I could not gather at my realm. The second was left to my own choice. Like now, I simply had to avoid going into debt.

I let out a long sigh. This situation, where I ended up forming a contract, was probably one of the branches they had considered too. That thought came to me strongly.

A contract could not be formed through coercion. It could only be made when deep agreement existed between both sides.

Maybe that was why they had pressured me so gently. So that I could slowly notice the situation, and so that, amid all those shackles, I would say the words of the contract myself.

Just as they intended, I created restrictions with my own mouth. Now, mirror bugs could not be used by anyone except the tower’s students. Aside from those belonging to their organizations, that was.

Yes, this was still something. I sighed and got up from my seat. For some reason, the card inside my clothes felt terribly heavy.

“Sixty points.”

Professor Irian said.

I lay flat on the floor and kept listening to her. The magical power she released pressed my body down. This happened as soon as I returned to the tower after the auction ended.

“Sixty out of one hundred. You fell into a sloppy trap and hurriedly formed a contract. It’s not as if you profited greatly either. All you got was some junk worth a few million points.”

Junk, she said. I smiled bitterly. I had searched through the auction item list again and again and brought back what seemed best. But in her eyes, was that really nothing but junk?

“Still, you came back mostly intact, so I’ll call it a pass.”

“A pass... you mean?”

I had no idea what she was talking about. When I quietly looked up at her, she was wearing an unexpectedly satisfied smile.

“I’ve been wondering lately. How far should I treat you as? I brought you here as a servant, but you’re more capable than I expected. I started thinking it might be a little wasteful to use you for only a few hundred years.”

She lightly sat down on the floor. I could see her shining eyes.

“And then this happened at just the right time. So I decided to see how far you could go. You handled it more cleanly than I expected.”

“It is thanks to you, Professor.”

I said that with a bitter smile. What would have happened if she had not been there? The whole process would not have unfolded as kindly as it had now.

The reason I thought I could form a contract was because Professor Irian was behind me. Her very existence set a limit on how much pressure they could apply.

“Of course.”

She chuckled. Then she took a key from inside her clothes and threw it in front of me. I stared at the key that had fallen before my head. The key, filled with golden light, was giving off a strange magical power.

“Now then, from now on, you are the storehouse keeper. Manage the treasure vault too.”

I blinked.

The treasure vault, did she mean the sixth through ninth floors? It was a place I had never visited again after entering it once before and losing consciousness.

I remembered the eye I had completely forgotten all this time. That maddened gaze that had dug into my whole body. When I thought of that, everything that had happened until now felt trivial.

She was telling me to face that thing again. I looked at her with trembling eyes. Noticing my gaze, she gave a mischievous smile.

“In exchange, go inside and pick one thing. Choose something you can handle. I’m giving it to you so you don’t go around getting beaten up like this from now on.”

She was giving me a treasure. My mind went blank at the unexpected words.

Carefully, I reached out and took the key in my hand. Heavy magical power traveled through my palm.

It connected directly to my tree and created a kind of circulation. Within that circulation, it melted into my body.

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