Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 100

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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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Chapter 100
EP23 – Hand (10)

The results were announced.

▶ Year 502, January 21st — Monthly Assassination Daily News cover model Grey Habanero, Amulet Carolina 10-day sales figures
– 157,215 copies

A massive hit.
An absolutely colossal hit!

Fifty thousand copies counted as a solid success. One hundred thousand was a megahit. The Academy and Dante had been hoping for eighty thousand.
When Dante heard the good news from Toxin, he’d dared hope it might break past one hundred thousand—but one hundred fifty-seven thousand copies had actually sold.

The dormitory erupted into chaos.

Elise bounced up and down, threw her arms around Grey, and planted kisses on her cheeks, while Kendrick Drake—for reasons Dante couldn’t fathom—also let out a delighted yelp and jumped.
Quan and Valmond suddenly burst into howls and strange vocalizations, which baffled Dante entirely.
Valmond caught himself mid-motion, grabbed his head, and kept staring at the numbers projected above the Crystal Ball, as though unable to believe his eyes.
Rebecca, too, broke into a rare smile and nodded—her eye makeup lent her expression an almost innocent, radiant warmth.

And every moment of it was captured on the Camera.

There was a problem. Kendrick Drake had jumped far too high. Already standing at two meters twenty, when he began his bouncing, the floorboards began to buckle beneath him. Just as Dante noticed his air time was growing longer than it should—

Valmond shrieked. “Whoa! Whoa!”
A beat too late.

His head tore straight through the ceiling. The man weighed one hundred sixty-five kilograms of pure muscle according to his profile—he went through like a wild boar crashing into rafters.
The ceiling warped, twisted, and the chandelier began to collapse directly downward. Straight toward Rebecca.

Rebecca had been sitting there expressionless, watching the chandelier fall, legs crossed, when Cyan hurled himself forward and knocked it aside. The crash of shattering crystal rang through the dormitory as the chandelier smashed into the fireplace. From a moment of jubilation, everything had turned to wreckage in an instant.

After a beat of stunned silence, Grey suddenly burst into laughter.
……Because Kendrick Drake’s wig had flipped completely backward!
At that, everyone erupted in helpless laughter.
Elise, eyes wide with fascination, reached out and gently poked it.

“Your rooster comb was fake?”
“Ugh….”

Kendrick Drake, even as his sense of self grew thin, seemed to realize something had gone catastrophically wrong. He bolted from the dormitory in a panic.
Valmond shook his head slowly. He’d kept the secret so well, and yet this had happened. Still, he bore no responsibility. He’d guarded that secret faithfully to the end.

After that, the cadets pinned Grey down in the wreckage of the dormitory and hoisted her onto their shoulders in celebration.

The interview that followed was equally chaotic.

Q. Are you satisfied with the sales figures?
A. Yes, yes! Thank you so much. I’m just… so grateful….

Q. Do you have any words for the Amulet Carolina cadet who appeared in the photoshoot with you?
A. Acknowledge that it was all because of me…? (laughs)

Q. Did you feel nervous before the results were announced?
A. Not at all? (shows off her buck teeth)

Q. You seem to get a bit nervous at first, then suddenly calm down. You were the same way during the last Assassination Daily News shoot, and it looks like you’re the type who performs well under pressure. Do you have your own method of mental control, by chance?
A. …….

Grey glanced at Dante in the living room mirror and smiled.

A. There’s no special method or anything like that. I just endure and persevere on my own. Ha ha. (crooked smile)

Dante thought to himself.
I see.

⋮

After that came the party.

“157,000! Cheers—!”

At Elise’s words,
Clink—
everyone’s glasses clinked together.

How had he ended up here? Originally he’d planned to leave after the shoot wrapped, but as he stepped outside, Grey grabbed him and asked where he was going, and he was brought along.

Still, he was glad he’d come. The place was alive with energy. Grey was the one being celebrated, true enough, but everyone in the room shared in that sense of occasion. The conversation flowed boisterously. Drinks went down smoothly. Laughter and chatter continued on.

Elise kept delightedly touching Grey or trying to hoist her up for a shoulder ride, only to get swatted by Grey in return, bumps forming on her head.

“Professor. This is rough.”

After taking enough hits like that, she’d made her way to his side.
Clink!
She clinked her glass with his.

“I applied to a club as a second-year.”
“A club?”

Good grief.
For a moment he wondered if that was it.

“A travel club.”

A relief.

“But to start a club, you need an advisor professor, so they told me to find one. Can I put your name down?”
“Of course.”

Elise grinned widely.
Then, suddenly curious, she asked.
What the club’s name was.

“The Walking Club!”

That was very typical of Elise’s naming sense.

“Walking, hm.”

Someone flinched then—it was Valmond.
The fellow had flinched himself, and seemed puzzled as to why he’d done so.
Soon enough, he seemed to shake off his train of thought and return to what he’d been doing.
What had he been up to?
Throughout the party, Valmond watched me with an intensity that was frankly unsettling, and my glass never went empty. The moment it dipped, he’d refill it with a practiced pour.
Without missing a beat, he peeled the shell from a shrimp with meticulous care and offered it to me.

“Hey, Valmond.”
“Yes?”
“Eat some yourself.”
“Yes, understood, Professor.”

The man approached meals with the same rigid precision he brought to everything else.
Kendrick Drake, meanwhile, looked decidedly morose.

“Ugh…”

His comb was intact. Valmond had performed repairs—of a sort—later on.
From Drake’s perspective, he wouldn’t have understood what Grey or the sale figures or anything else had to do with it; all that would linger was the exposure of his own shame.

I knew the feeling all too well. Now, thanks to Dante’s blessed genes, my hair had grown back fine, but I remembered the chemotherapy, remembered going bald, remembered how profoundly humiliating that had been.
So I gave him all my meat.

“Mm, yes.”

And just like that, Kendrick Drake became happy.

Don’t underestimate a man with muscle.
His weight was on par with Shaman’s, the Academy director.
His appetite outpaced Dominic’s.

“By the way, where’s Kwan? Didn’t he come?”

At my question, Elise nodded.

“Kwan doesn’t really join us for things like this.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not sure. He sometimes meets up with the guys, but…”

I glanced back at Valmond.

“He does hang around with us sometimes, but—how do I put it—it doesn’t feel like he was invited. It feels more like he just shows up on his own. And honestly, I have no idea what he does most of the time. He barely makes it to class.”

Now that I thought about it.
I had some connection to every member of Zamryong Academy. But strangely, I had no connection to Kwan.
I’d never even run into him on the street.
That’s why I hadn’t brought him into the Assassination Unit—it would’ve been strange to suggest it when I barely knew him.

‘Odd.’

With seven people, it’s possible one connection might slip through. But then I considered the fact that in this Hell Difficulty, the relationship between Zamryong Academy and its professor was being forced into the global current as a matter of world order, and something about it felt wrong.
Just then, Valmond sidled over and lowered his head.
When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.

‘No. It’s fine.’
‘If there’s anything you’d like to know, shall I bring him in? Leave it to me. I’ll have him here within ten minutes.’
‘No. It’s fine.’
‘Yes, sir.’

Then, just as quickly, he was back at my side.

‘I sneaked away some king crab shell earlier—would you like me to mix it into your rice?’

No…….

“Oh! Ah, it’s overflowing!”
“What? What? What a waste!”

Lucy had accidentally picked up a shaking beer bottle, and as it began to spray, Elise rushed forward and pressed her mouth to the opening.
She gulped it down, her cheeks puffing out, hovering at that precarious threshold.
All eyes were fixed on her.
Just as Elise was raising her thumb in triumph.
Grey jabbed her in the ribs.

“Pfffffwoop—!”
“Kyaa, aha ha ha!”
“Hey! Don’t spray it on the professor!”
“Huh.”

It was a complete mess.
That kind of evening.

* * *

After the drinking ended, I gathered the four of them separately.

It happened that, save for the maids, only my assassination unit members had been at the gathering.

I brought them to the living room.

All of them had taken a proper drink, their faces flushed.

The feeling was a little strange.

It feels like just yesterday when I first came here. I was caught by Grey by mistake, dragged in. I almost died.

Assassination—the art of the weak killing the strong. I’m still not entirely free from that threat. One wrong move and I could be injured or killed.

And yet things are different now than they were then. I’ve grown stronger. My relationship with these people has advanced in remarkable ways. In less than half a year, we’ve accomplished so much.

Survived countless assassination attempts from professors.
Opened relations with Zamryong Academy.
Met the princess.
……And then…….
Got caught up in the recruitment war between the Black Path and the White Path out of nowhere,
Killed Toxin, the horn-less demon.
Fought Zink Cite in the glitch space.
Overcame betrayal and collapse.
Created the Cain Tree.
Won a brilliant victory in the Assassination Daily News.
I’ve lived through all of it and returned to sit here once more.

“Um. But professor, that’s the princess’s seat.”
“It’s fine, professor. You can sit there.”

I sat down by accident again, but anyway.
I lean back and cross my legs.
What do you want from me, you young things.

I’ve walked a long road.
But up to here is only the beginning.

There are still many paths I must walk.
So many tasks yet to complete.

“Listen well.”

Every eye in the room turns toward me.

“As of this moment, you are officially inducted into my Dante Assassination Unit.”

I’d already secured signatures from Grey and Valmond in advance.
Their expressions harden with gravity.

“From this day forward, you will serve under my command and guidance. You will be deployed to countless training exercises, assassination contracts, commissions, dungeons, labyrinths, defensive and siege operations, and beyond.”

“As tools, you possess no right to refuse my orders. In return, as your master, I bear the responsibility of honing you into instruments of excellence.”

There is a ritual that an assassination unit must always observe.
A ceremony to renounce one’s humanity.
The Dream Renunciation Declaration.

“My dream, as Dante Hiaka, was happiness. As of today, I renounce it.”

Yet I see no need to overcommit to the assassin’s path.
Instead, I ask them to reveal their dreams.

Grey speaks first.

“My dream, as Grey Habanero, was to establish the Yuri Nabi as a school of Illusion Magic and gain recognition across the continent. As of today, I renounce it.”

This is far more than mere knowledge.
When quantum mechanics emerged in an age ruled by Newtonian classical mechanics, it inverted the paradigm of theoretical physics itself. That is the future Grey envisions.
And I believe such possibility exists at the very edge of the Yuri Nabi—something that rivals World Forgery.
Grey must discover it and unveil it to the world.

“My dream, as Valmond Nibelung, was to kill the Dark Starlight Seat. As of today, I renounce it.”

This dream runs far darker than I anticipated. Killing intent pools in the corners of Valmond’s eyes as he speaks.
A son who wishes to murder his mother. Has such a tale ever existed in human history? It feels foreign to me.
Yet if she becomes humanity’s enemy, if she threatens the Demon King War, then I too would consider taking the Great Mother’s life.

“…Should I?”
“Yes.”
“Well, um… My dream, as Elise Xicos, was to see my father again. As of today, I renounce it.”

This one is far softer than the rest. Though softness of words does not mean softness of heart.

Rebecca too must have once demanded such declarations. She would have persuaded them that with the skill to assassinate an emperor, establishing the Yuri Nabi as a school of magic would be simple—so too would slaying the Dark Starlight Seat, or locating the vanished Shadowless Starlight Seat.

After that, Kendrick Drake stood slack-jawed, muttering unintelligibly until I acknowledged him with a nod.

The Dream Renunciation Declaration is now complete.

“This year, let us all accomplish great things.”

At my words, various emotions flicker across every face.
Resolve, anticipation—feelings that could be either or both.

“Let us depart.”

The meeting ended here.
It was supposed to end here.

“Uh, wait a second, Professor.”
“What is it?”
“Aren’t you going to do a team cheer with us?”

Elise came out with that all at once.
Come on, since when do assassins do team cheers….

“Let’s do it. Yeah? Come on, everyone. Grey, come here.”
“Huh…? What’s with this….”
“Why not. Let’s do it, let’s do it. Valmond! Get over here, you…!”

When Elise planted her fists on her hips and commanded, Valmond shuffled forward with a grimace.
Though Valmond didn’t acknowledge it, Elise seemed to believe she outranked him.
He was still hesitant, flushed with embarrassment, so when I thrust my hand out with a what-the-hell shrug, he immediately placed his on top of mine—like pressing a button marked “Okay, here goes nothing.”

“Chicken!”
“Ugh.”

Kendrick Drake 2.0, who tends to just copy whatever everyone else is doing, made his entrance too. His hand was so large he had to put it at the very bottom. Though I wonder if that made him the egg.

“…Are we in kindergarten?”

Reluctantly, Grey placed her hand on the stack too, her buck teeth showing in disdain.

In the end, five hands came together in one place. Someone’s thumb dragged a nail across my hand. I glanced at Grey—she was looking right back at me with a smirk, even though she was the one doing it.
Regardless, apart from the fooling around, there was a sense that something was beginning, and the atmosphere wasn’t bad at all.

I looked at the hands stacked above and below mine.
From now on, these hands will turn the whole world upside down.

“Now then.”

Elise called out with a bright smile.

“Dante Assassination Unit! Come on, let’s go—!”

At that, the others echoed her cry.

“Fighting──!!” (Ugh)

EP23

Hands

END

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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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