Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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● Believers shall faithfully observe dormitory living regulations and shall not arbitrarily leave their groups or engage in personal activities.
● When moving between wings, a minimum of three people must move together, and in unavoidable circumstances, explicit permission from the group leader must be obtained.
● Believers shall attend all services and ceremonies without fail and shall apply themselves diligently to personal assignments.
● Believers shall not possess personal belongings and shall not monopolize issued supplies.
● Believers shall under no circumstances carry food. All meals must be completed in the dining hall, and leftovers or scraps may not be removed from the premises.
● Believers shall under no circumstances carry food on their persons when attending ceremonies.
● Believers shall under no circumstances privately conduct rituals or make food offerings. Any response to private offerings is to beasts, not gods, and such creatures shall absolutely never be fed.
● Whoever feeds a beast shall be immediately excommunicated, and the disposition of the excommunicated shall follow the guidelines below.
● These rules shall not be disclosed or revealed to outsiders.
● These rules shall not be disclosed or revealed to outsiders.
Who gave this to you?
* * *
Shortly after, I arrived at the Student Council Building. For once, the café next to it had its door open.
The café operating hours are Tuesday and Thursday, nine in the morning to two in the afternoon. The door stays unlocked at other times, though I’d been told I wouldn’t be able to communicate with the part-timer.
Today was Monday, ten twenty-seven in the morning.
The café had a large front window through which one could order without stepping inside.
Beyond it stood a part-timer in a yellow apron, his face obscured from the nose down by the shade of the window.
But I could tell without seeing his face that approaching would be a bad idea.
An enormous swarm of flies was seething around him.
“……I’m not hungry.”
The truth was, I was starving. The food I’d packed from Goldilocks yesterday had run out, and I’d eaten nothing since evening.
Once the semester began, I could sell information to Gwon Tae-hyeon and earn money.
But until then—or perhaps even after—I had to learn to live with hunger.
If I blew all the money I’d earned at the Fortress on food, there’d be no point to all this suffering.
Starve long enough, and your stomach shrinks. When your stomach shrinks, the hunger naturally fades.
They say one meal a day slows aging, don’t they?
“Sigh…….”
I took a wide detour around the café and stepped into the Student Council Building. Out of habit, I glanced at the bulletin board and noticed a torn scrap of memo paper on the floor.
After confirming no one was around, I approached and picked it up. Carefully, I tried to piece together the torn fragments.
Then I could make out the letters written in ballpoint pen, pressed firmly.
Dear fellow students, the day has finally come!
Make an offering to the professor of your choice!
“An offering……?”
Now that I looked closer, the corner of the note was slightly damp.
As I glanced around looking for a water leak, I spotted a suspicious trail behind the bulletin board.
Scattered black mud clumps trailing across the terrazzo floor.
Following the trail behind the board, I found three brass bowls lying on the ground.
Nearby were fish heads and peeled chestnuts scattered about.
What on earth is this? And more importantly—how did they get something like this from the Fortress? Gwon Tae-hyeon was bragging over a single sandwich.
What caught my attention most were the footprints. Wet footprints trailing across the wooden floor—they looked like those from thick rubber galoshes with rounded toes.
‘But it hasn’t even rained…….’
And where the traces spiraled around the offerings led was…….
‘The back door area……?’
All that should be over there is a storage closet.
“You seem relaxed.”
I spun around at the unfamiliar footstep to find a two-meter-fifty beauty gazing down at me.
It was So Hui, the student council president who’d been with Gwon Tae-hyeon. She wore a black suit, heavier makeup than before, and her hair pulled high.
“Oh……, Student Council President?”
The president fixed her gaze on me and frowned.
“Are you going to keep doing that?”
Unable to grasp her meaning, I just stared blankly, and she let out a deep sigh.
“Follow me.”
Her steps headed toward the elevator. With those impossibly long legs, I had to hurry to keep up.
“You’re not going to explain anything?”
The president asked as we waited for the elevator to arrive.
“Pardon? Explain what? Who——. Are you talking about Team Leader Gwon Tae-hyeon?”
The president let out a derisive laugh.
“That fox. Explain? I’m talking about the person who left you thoroughly coated in that scent.”
Again.
I recalled how, when she’d seen me with Gwon Tae-hyeon recently, she’d wrinkled her nose in visible displeasure. She’d said something smelled off about me.
I’d thought her just rude back then, but seeing her be so formal now suggested otherwise.
“I’m not sure what you mean…….”
Just as the president was about to speak, the elevator doors slid open with a chime. She stepped inside and pressed a button.
The elevator began to move. I couldn’t tell whether it was going up or down.
At least she seems like someone I can actually communicate with, I thought, glancing sideways at her.
“Strictly speaking, it might not be entirely fair…….”
“Yes?”
“Guiding you all the way to the Large Lecture Hall like this.”
“……Ah, so we’re heading to the Large Lecture Hall.”
“You’re the only first-timer. The rest are all veterans. And only the disagreeable ones remain.”
She rolled her eyes in disgust.
Chime.
The elevator stopped.
The ceiling lights crackled with an odd sound, and a strange vibration thrummed through the air.
The doors slid open with a soft hiss. A barren corridor with white panel walls and gray carpeting.
The air was dry, and the slightly greenish fluorescent lights cast a dim glow.
Stepping out of the elevator, I spotted a window at the far end of the corridor.
Beyond it lay another corridor, and through the window on the opposite side, I could see fluorescent lights flickering in yet another hallway.
I followed the student council president as she walked briskly ahead. Rounding the first corner, a large metal door appeared.
A pair of brown-painted push doors.
A plate was attached to the doorframe, and I was about to read it absently when I hastily averted my eyes.
A ringing sound pierced my ears, my vision wavered, and the bridge of my nose tingled sharply.
Whether the student council president noticed my condition or not, she opened the door. The Large Lecture Hall had the structure of a circular amphitheater.
In the center of the room sat a lecture podium, with desks and chairs arranged in tiered rows facing downward.
And around the podium stood seven people.
Were they all human? Or had more students lost their minds? Such doubts didn’t linger long.
Thwack.
“You goddamn bastard!”
A man in a hoodie swung a fist at a man in a baseball cap.
The cap went flying as the struck man fell, but he laughed as if it didn’t matter.
“Getting mad now won’t help. There’s less than an hour until course registration closes. What are you going to do about it?”
The man in the hoodie rushed at him again. The onlookers surrounding them simply watched, as indifferent as someone watching a distant fire.
Of course, I had no intention of intervening. With my own troubles piling up, I had no desire to get caught up in a grown man’s fight.
Bang. The man in the baseball cap, now gaining the upper hand, kicked the fallen hoodie-wearer’s shin with his boot. The other man yelped in pain.
“You crazy bastard, making a scene again?!”
“Making a scene?”
The baseball cap wiped the blood from his lips and smirked.
“It’s not my fault that he favors me.”
Favors? Did I hear that right?
But aside from me, no one seemed disturbed by the baseball cap’s words.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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