Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 108

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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 108
EP26 – The Betting Table, “Dungeon of Ascending Rivalry” (2)

But these patches are nothing more than game mechanics. Mere trifles of motivation.

To put it another way: I’m the team owner and they’re the pro gamers. If they train hard each day, I’ll buy them noodles—maybe throw in some fried rice for good measure. How significant could that really be?

For us, aiming to become the greatest assassination unit on the continent, such a device is far too trivial.

So I decided it was time to get to the main point.

“The academy will likely contact us today or tomorrow. Once they do, we’ll be deployed on our first real operation.”
“What sort of operation, sir?”
“We’re entering the Dungeon of Ascending Rivalry.”

The cadets’ expressions hardened as they grasped the meaning.

Here, “Ascending Rivalry” is a metaphor for competition, endless striving, and ruthless advancement toward survival—a symbol of the very structure where one must trample over opponents to climb higher.

The Dungeon of Ascending Rivalry.

It is a Starmark Dungeon that measures records.

What makes it unusual is that access is restricted by age brackets.

For example, as someone in my thirties, I can only log into the thirties server.

Angela, who is eighty, will enter the eighties server, and Shaman, the department head, who has just passed a hundred years old, will enter the hundreds server.

This structure exists because a warrior’s strength is heavily influenced by age.

The results of an ascent can be converted into time and points, which may be made public or kept private.

Currently, every member of the Dante Assassination Unit is nineteen years old. Since adulthood begins at eighteen, we’re all barely adults, and none of us have had birthdays yet this year—except Kendrick Drake’s is coming next month.

“A maximum of four people can enter as one party, but if even a single member is no longer in their teens, the entire group is barred from entering.”

In other words, the moment any one of these recruits has a birthday, we can’t all enter the teens server together.
Of course, we could drop Kendrick Drake and still enter, but since four is our baseline unit, we’d take a significant loss.

“So right now, I intend to etch our scores into that dungeon and, at the same time, measure your capabilities.”

The recruits nodded in agreement.
And since the Dungeon of Ascending Rivalry is a key metric for assessing individuals, it was also the perfect opportunity to announce the Dante Assassination Unit’s potential to the entire continent via the Betting Table.

If the Empire is a casino, then from the start, I want to receive an invitation to the VIP room.

“Let’s begin with some basic training, shall we.”
“Yes, sir!”

After that, we threw ourselves into fundamental assassin training. Running. Wall-climbing. Throwing technique. Stealth. Evasion. For about two hours, until every one of us was drenched in sweat.

Afterward, we headed to Zamryong Academy, where everyone bathed and waited for word from the department.

“Hehhh.”
“No, c’mon. Try again. Right!”
“Heh…ell…”
“O!”
“Mm… mmph….”
“Hello!”
“Ugh.”
“Damn it! Why won’t this work?!”

While Valmond was conducting Kendrick Drake’s social education, Elise and Grey were having a conversation about dungeons.

Right around the time I expected contact to arrive, the front door opened and the princess walked in.

“Professor. Look at me for a moment.”

The assassination unit glanced at me, sensing something amiss. I gathered the Crystal Orb I’d left loose and followed Rebecca.
As I did, I probed the thoughts of Laim, the secret guard detail.

【 Laim: ‘Please, Your Highness, calm down.’ 】
【 Laim: ‘Something feels dangerous about this.’ 】

The princess seemed anxious. Probing deeper, I grasped the broad strokes of what had happened.
And indeed, her excitement levels were quite high—anger and worry mingled together as her fingers trembled.

“Professor.”

The moment we reached the room, Rebecca spun around to face me.

“Let’s draw up a contract. Between us.”
“A contract?”
“Yes. A Starmark Contract.”

Rebecca thrust something toward me. The contents were a proposal to document the agreement we’d discussed before by binding it with a magical oath.

“So you’re saying I swear to give you one hundred million Hika, and you swear to do everything in your power to block the accord.”

I’d glossed over it vaguely before, but I’d sensed this moment was coming. Yet the terms of the oath were quite stark.

“Yes. Whoever breaks it dies.”

Extreme.

“You don’t want to? Then we can forget this ever happened.”
“No. I’ll do it.”
“…….”

A choice to completely remove Rebecca from Zamryong Academy and my surroundings.
As Dante’s advisor, my influence was still quite weak. If Rebecca pushed back, she could easily slip away. So I needed to bind her more securely.

It was fine. The contract’s governing principle was Eternity Infinity, and I knew how to safely dissolve contracts under this star.
Since this star symbolized eternity and infinity, it had a blind spot that humans found difficult to grasp intuitively.

After I pressed my blood seal to the document, Rebecca’s breathing began to settle gradually.

I paused to think.
Was this an opportunity?
A chance to play along?
For now, I decided to simply have a conversation with her.

“Something unpleasant happened?”
“…….”
“Your expression’s taken a turn for the worse. Your breathing’s rough.”

Rebecca turned her head away, only slightly — her face as expressionless as always.

“I’d rather not discuss it.”

The princess had hit a wall. Just as I kept hitting walls with Adel.
…Though to be honest, I wasn’t particularly curious either.
Rebecca’s demand for a contract meant she still didn’t trust me. Which would complicate my betrayal plans. If I was going to betray her when and where I chose, I needed to know her better first.
The one at a disadvantage has to do the coaxing. So there I was, deliberating on how best to charm her, when—
Zing. The Crystal Orb vibrated at my wrist.
I didn’t recognize the number, so I took the call.

I hadn’t saved the personal number.

– Pardon? Ah, is someone there with you right—
“It’s nothing major—”
“Wait. The Starmark Dungeon?”
– Professor?
“Bugibuggi. I’ll call you back.”

I hadn’t kept it from her deliberately.
But I’d have preferred she didn’t find out.

“Don’t tell me it’s the Dungeon of Ascending Rivalry?”
“You’re right.”
“…….”

It was already an uncomfortable time; the Empire’s opening was becoming increasingly real.
If I performed well in the Dungeon of Ascending Rivalry, word would spread about the Dante Assassination Unit.
The Empire and the wider world would become even more curious — about the assassins of Hiaka.
In other words, it was one more step toward undermining Rebecca’s objectives.

“No. Don’t send him.”
“…….”
“Why won’t you answer? Don’t send him. You can’t send him! You know better than anyone what those people are capable of!”

“…Our children are geniuses of a kind rarely seen in history. They’ll definitely rank in the double digits at worst.”

For context, the Dungeon of Ascending Rivalry’s history spans over four hundred years.
The number of registered warriors exceeds several million.
Rebecca was confident her children would place in double digits among them.
And I’d shared that conviction.

“…….”
“…….”

While an enraged Rebecca caught her breath, I held my tongue for the moment.
Curiosity suddenly seized me.
Setting aside whether we should go through with this or not—I found myself genuinely puzzled. Why was Rebecca so furious?

“Rebecca. If Hiaka opens itself to the Empire, what evidence do you have that it will gradually become a vassal state?”
“You don’t know, Professor? How Hatengrajou and those mongrel dogs became part of the Empire in the first place?”
“I’m aware of that, but I don’t quite see why you should be so emotional about it.”
“It’s happening right now! The moment a talented man like Dante appeared, the Imperial Court assembled a team specifically to make him an Imperial citizen! How can you not understand the danger in that?”
“Even so, that alone isn’t sufficient grounds for vassalization.”

So I remained skeptical.
There was something more at work.

“Is it that ‘hunch’ you mentioned, perhaps?”

Unlikely. And besides, Rebecca didn’t strike me as the sort to rely on such intuitive feelings.

“What answer do you want from me? What difference does some hunch make one way or the other?”
“Rebecca.”
“In the first place, it was you who unilaterally decided to push the children into the Dungeon of Ascending Rivalry without consulting me beforehand. Frankly, if their names become known, do you really think the Empire will sit idle? If Agion decided tomorrow to come and kidnap Elise, do you have any way to stop him?”

I do. Because I can stop Agion.

In any case, Rebecca was evading the question once more.
As a seasoned observer, only one possibility came to mind.

“Calm yourself.”
“…….”
“And I have one more question.”

I hesitated briefly. This “star’s name” was something one ordinarily shouldn’t speak aloud. But now was the moment for a direct question.

“Have you perhaps been meddling with the Gambling of Fortune and Misfortune?”

Immediately after speaking, I checked the Script.

【 Dante: “Have you perhaps been meddling with the Gambling of Fortune and Misfortune?” 】

Ah. Fortunately, the dice showed a four. A moderately auspicious omen. Had it been a one, it could have meant extreme misfortune—a grave threat looming this very day.
The Gambling of Fortune and Misfortune is a star that symbolizes luck, ill fortune, and gambling itself. Only the player sees their fortune the moment they speak its name. This mechanic exists because I—the player—have poor compatibility with my guardian star, Systematicity.

Water and fire, light and darkness clash as natural opposites.

Just so, Systematicity—which seeks to reduce all things to deterministic systems—and the Gambling of Fortune and Misfortune—which treats all things as uncertain wagers—stand in symbolic opposition.
In any case, returning to the present moment.

“…….”

The bitter edge faded from Rebecca’s expression.
Yet she said nothing at all.
Was it the silence of assent? Or something else……?

“Yes.”

Then she admitted it.

“I did. Gambled.”

She folded her arms across her chest and tilted her chin upward.
As if to say: And what will you do about it?

I had no interest in a battle of wills with a child.
But my mind went cold.

“So the wager hinges on whether the academy opens its doors to undergraduates.”
“That’s right. Three years.”
“…….”

Three years.
The timing was too convenient.
Three years hence would mark the Zamryong Academy’s graduation ceremony—and the beginning of the Demon King Tournament.
In other words, this was a deliberately constructed Hell-difficulty mechanism designed to sabotage the Betting Table.

‘So that’s how it is.’

Now I understood the situation completely.
I had once calculated the number of souls Rebecca had accumulated through Laim.
The estimate came to roughly five thousand.
Enough to cast a curse in the nineties once.
Rebecca had bet every single one of them on the Gambling of Fortune and Misfortune.
Three years was a long time, and opening the academy was far too certain an event, so the odds were likely between five-to-one and ten-to-one.
At the lowest, if she succeeded, her souls would multiply to twenty-five thousand.
If she failed, she’d lose everything.

“……I see.”

I closed my eyes.
Now I understood why Rebecca had erupted into a rage.
She was about to lose every soul she’d gathered over years in a single stroke.

“Do you want to know more?”
“……More?”
“You’re digging into my shame right now. Do you want to know more? How much more of a wretch I am?”

Her breathing had steadied, but her emotions had not.

“…….”

But there were limits to what one could accept. Communication was becoming impossible.

“Rebecca.”

I had earned her favor until now.
Yet that did not obligate me to indulge her tantrums.

“May I ask you something?”
“Go ahead.”

I looked her in the eye and spoke.

“Don’t be rude.”

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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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