Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 123

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

Chapter 123
DLC [The Hero’s Professor]: Mid-Point Summary (3)

I closed my eyes.
Irritation pooled in the pit of my stomach.

The problem stemmed from our distance from the Capital—this remote outpost had no use for the name Dante Hiaka. Had we come bearing royal credentials or capital authority, the Fortress Commander would have opened the gates without hesitation.

If the Count of Kahrula was the southern king, then this man seemed to consider himself the intimate counsel of royalty.

‘In the county, the magistrate is the sovereign.’

That truth settled over me once more.

“Nothing to see here. Move along.”

Fighting here would be dangerous.
If the sole problem-solver—me—became an enemy to the Count’s house, the Vomittekka campaign would sink into a quagmire.
Without another word, I turned and walked away.

“Let’s try the other entrance to the Step Fortress.”
“Yes.”

Somehow, I had to reach the topmost level and meet with the Count.
Then I could search for the Hero.

Scene # 6 – This Must Be Training! ◀

At that same moment, when the Dante Assassination Unit’s eyes opened, they found themselves in an unfamiliar mountain.

“…Where is this?”

Grey scratched her cheek.
Accustomed to navigating only spaces she had already mapped, Grey felt thoroughly unsettled in her current surroundings. Valmond and Elise, by contrast, were sniffing about the mountain’s various nooks and crannies. It was Valmond who understood first.

“…The Count’s?”

“…Why?”
“How should I know?”

“The Lewian region has many Roozten trees. Winter-moisture trees release scent more intensely.”
“Eh…? But the communication is cut off too.”
“Correct. A vexing situation. We couldn’t have come here on our own….”

Communication severed by the Meteor Shower’s impact, and unable to catch scents.
And there, in the distance, stretched a wall that reached toward the sky—semi-transparent, with vertical lines flickering.
Why are we here…?

Grey, Valmond, and Elise exchanged frustrated glances.

“Mm-huh.”

Kendrick suddenly started walking off in some direction.

“Where are you going, you bastard.”
“Mm-huh.”
“What the hell does ‘mm-huh’ even mean.”
“Mm-huh.”

The three exchanged meaningful glances and decided to follow him.
In situations like this—the kind you see in movies where nothing makes sense—
Isn’t it curious how men like Kendrick often stumble onto answers no one else can see?
The forest he led them into held a beehive.

“Mm-huh.”

Kendrick reached straight for it.
Dab!
It was honey.

Buzz-buzz-buzz!!

The hive’s owners were furious.
The bees descended on the Dante Assassination Unit in a frenzy.

“Aaaah…!”
“Why would you touch that, you lunatic!”
“You crazy bastard! Damn it!”

They fled in panic.
Kendrick’s eyes swollen shut from the stings, he closed them further and savored the honey’s sweetness and aroma with genuine deliberation.
Then he spoke gravely.

“Mm-huh (★★☆☆☆).”

Making sounds like that—what, are you a food critic or something, you bastard!?
Whack!
Valmond smacked him across the head.

“…Huh?”

It was as they sat resting at their refuge.
Something suddenly surfaced in Grey’s mind.

“What is it, Grey?”
“…Listen. Gather round, everyone. Do you remember what the Professor said before we suddenly came here?”
“What?”
“Hm?”

The three thought back.
To what Dante had said while pushing them relentlessly.

— You cannot begin to imagine how much training awaits you.

There was a peculiar “timing” to it all.

“Mm…?”

Elise shot to her feet.

“This must be a training exercise!”

Dante was an Illusion Magic professor, wasn’t he? If he was behind this, it would make a strange sort of sense—waking in an unfamiliar space, then watching a Communication Tower explode. Exactly the kind of thing he’d orchestrate.

“What? Hey, wait a minute.”

Valmond interjected.

“A training exercise? We weren’t told anything about this.”

Grey answered instead.

“The Communication Tower just got destroyed, right? So we’re supposed to be dealing with a terrorist attack. What else would Hiaka assassins be doing here?”

Hmm.
That actually made sense.
Valmond nodded.

“…We should probably wear masks. Make it feel like a real operation.”

And so the four of them donned the Dante Assassination Unit’s operational masks—Elephant Masks—and made their way toward the Step Fortress on Kahrula Mountain.
There, they confronted the Fortress Commander atop the rampart.

“Who in the hells are you?”
“We are the Dante Assassination Unit. We’ve come from the Capital to render aid in response to this crisis.”
“The Dante Assassination Unit? For God’s sake… a pair of lunatics.”

But the Fortress Commander’s reaction was strange.
He scoffed, then he and his officers broke into snickering laughter.
His next words set all four teeth on edge.

“What, did you decide to use children as cover?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The man has no pride at all, does he? Look at him, sending his own brats because he got run out of town.”
“Professor Dante came here?”
“Well, well. So assassins don’t even keep each other informed. That’s why you keep getting beaten by Croitz.”

The Fortress Commander clicked his tongue.

“And who designed those masks anyway? Whoever did must have had absolutely no taste.”
“…Pardon me?”

Valmond felt the blood drain from his face as he repeated the question.
The professor had made them himself.

“In any case, get out of here, you vermin. Insects keep nosing around in the south. You’re not entering our territory.”

The Elephant Masks turned to face one another.

“What do we do?”

Elise asked.
Grey was picking at her ear when she went, “Oh.”

“…Is this part of the training too?”

Oh? That made sense as well. Wasn’t that how real operations went? Assassins had to make good judgments on the fly—it was common enough for clients to welsh on their payment, to obstruct relief efforts, or even to use assassins as expendable pawns. In moments like these, an assassin’s personal wisdom was everything.

‘So then….’
‘What do we need to do…?’

Four elephants turned their heads toward the fortress.

From this point forward, an assassin’s work was simple.

Whisht…

Elise drew her sword from her hip without a word.

Scene # 7 – Kaiser Survives ◀

There had been a peculiar confluence of timing.

Hours earlier, Kaiser had departed from the neighboring Lewian Barony and arrived here in Kahrula County.

His purpose: to recruit Moong, a reclusive eccentric and former chief professor, into the Jibaiseong. (Though truthfully, he hadn’t wanted to come…)

“Why should I grant your request?”

But the viscount who owned the recluse Moong carried himself with such airs before Kaiser. The man had immediately demanded money, then changed his terms twice, raising the sum each time.

“That price or nothing—you want me to just hand over our eccentric to a bunch of street thugs?”

This was a meeting between a gangster and a noble.
Kaiser lowered his head with a measured expression.

“I humbly ask your pardon. I promise it will be used for a righteous cause. As for the fee, perhaps we might negotiate—”
“I told you. Three hundred million Hika.”
“That sum is… rather excessive, if I may say so.”
“Excessive? Your Lewian fortress is thriving, isn’t it? You’ve been rounding up all those drug dealers over there—three hundred million Hika shouldn’t be hard to scrape together.”
“I have ceased my involvement with illicit narcotics.”
“So what? Start again. Bring me three hundred million Hika, and then I’ll give you our eccentric.”

The viscount’s retainers snickered at his words.

“…….”

The nobleman’s arrogance seemed to stem from contempt—Kaiser had recently unified the Black Path network across Lewian, and this viscount was savoring his own superior station, enjoying the chance to look down on him.
The Jibaiseong subordinates who had come with Kaiser felt their expressions harden. It was humiliating.

“…….”
“If you’ve got no money, get out.”

That is to say, the Southern King’s brother. Which was why he regarded gangsters with such disdain.
Kaiser knew exactly what he needed to do here.
He opened his mouth, his voice low.

“What.”
“You show the Jibaiseong no respect whatsoever.”
“Huh? So what. What about it?”

As he spoke, he adopted a more measured tone and lowered his gaze.

“Well then, I suppose there’s no help for it….”

‘Nothing for it but to accept.’ The notion of bringing Moong along had surfaced during an organization meeting, and Kaiser hadn’t been particularly interested in the first place. He wasn’t the type to dwell on what couldn’t be done.
Just as Kaiser was composing himself and about to say ‘I give up—’

the world suddenly blazed with light.

The nobles’ eyes—every last one of them—snapped toward the window.
A massive ball of fire was hurtling directly at them.

Screeeeeeech――

A vicious sound accompanied the rapidly approaching mass. The room flooded white-hot. Vision collapsed. And then―

BOOM!!!!!

An enormous impact obliterated the Communication Tower nearby.
Simultaneously, a vast Barrier Wall began rising across the sky and landscape outside the windows.
The area dissolved into chaos. ‘What—what is this?!’ ‘Is anyone out there?!’ Outside the conference room, nobles, retainers, and knights screamed and ran about.

“What—what is that?!”
“What exploded?!”

The nobles gasped in horror.
But it wasn’t merely an explosion. Seconds later, the glass shattered everywhere. The shockwave sent their bodies reeling. Tremors rippled across the floor.
Kaiser nearly fell; he steadied himself against his Cane as fear gripped him from within.
Then it happened.
The viscount he’d just been scorning opened his mouth wide.
His eyes, filled with terror, looked up at Kaiser.

“……Was… was it you…??”

What?

“……Did you… do this…??”

Kaiser’s mind reeled.
What nonsense was he spouting? How could he have possibly caused an explosion of that magnitude?
Yet the timing was uncanny—the moment he’d stood and said ‘there’s no help for it,’ the blast erupted.

“No….”

He started to deny it.
But something strange stirred within him.

“…No.”

Words hovered at the edge of his lips.
Was it enough to simply deny? There were more than ten pairs of eyes watching. All of them nobles and their retinue. All of them looking at him in shock.

“……That’s not it.”

In that moment, Kaiser’s brilliant dark-scheming mind began turning of its own accord, assembling incomprehensible fragments into a single, coherent logic.

“Foolish and blind ones. Do you still not understand?”

His mouth was moving before his mind had grasped the situation—a pure reflex of panic.

“My god,
Jibaiseong
has done this―”

‘Gasp…!’ Everyone recoiled in horror and dread. They had believed it was a false star, but it wasn’t?!

Meanwhile, Kaiser’s own legs trembled beneath him, but he’d already spoken without thinking, and now there was no taking it back.
He had no idea what possessed him to say such a thing. He understood nothing of that explosion—not what it was, why it had occurred, or who had caused it.
If his lie were exposed, he’d certainly be shot!

‘No, no—’

In that moment, his composure crumbled entirely.

‘…I’m finished…!!’

What do I do?
Jibaiseong—what kind of star is that? It’s nothing but a symbol of the professor I admire, which I recklessly incorporated as my own logo!
A crisis. A catastrophic crisis. He had fabricated an outrageous bluff in the territory of the Southern King!

“I… that is…”

Yet somehow, perhaps because he had spent his entire life sheltered in comfort, the fear struck him all the more acutely.
The Baron and his retainers rose from their seats. Then they began to kneel before Kaiser.

“P-please… do not kill us…”
“We beg your forgiveness…”

Kaiser felt the world tilting beneath him.

‘Kaiser… you’ve survived…!!’

DLC [The Professor of Heroes]

Interlude

END

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