Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 138

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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 138
DLC [The Professor of Hero Fiction]: Hotfix Ver 2.3.2a(2)

“Nobu hates humans.”
“…Why?”
“Why, you ask? Because they’re base creatures yet wield far too much power. And no species deceives each other as thoroughly as they do. So you should learn to hate them too.”
“Humans… I like them….”
“I said hate them.”
“…But they’re nice….”

An old man and a child were having this conversation in the living room corridor. They were the “new Phantom Bodies” that Professor Dante had begun summoning to his house recently.
In other words, Cain and Abeiltus.
No one knew why Professor Dante had manifested the two of them for a full twenty-four hours.

“I’m exhausted.”
“That sounds difficult.”

At that moment, Adel and Ran were in the kitchen, where Adel was preparing various ingredients to make soup.
Tap-tap-tap-tap…
The sound of the knife striking the cutting board. Onions being sliced away.
Adel and Ran were talking about papers and lucky omens from the Empire’s cookie divination—the significance of rolls 5 and 6.

“People call it superstition, but it seems to match rather well for us.”
“Both of our papers are making good progress.”
“Isn’t yours coming along a bit faster than mine? I think it’s because your roll was a six.”

Paper writing that normally took months, or years at the longest—both of them could finish within the break.

“And I heard the Empire and the royal family are pouring support into this research period. The timing is perfect too.”
“Ah, that’s right, that’s right. Aren’t we both hitting the jackpot~?”
“Five also carries an auspicious mark. It should go well for you.”

It was a warm conversation between researchers.
At least, until this moment.

“Come to think of it, our research topics are almost identical, aren’t they?”

Right after Ran spoke.

Tap-tap-tap…, tap-tap…, tap….

The hand chopping the ingredients slowed.

Stop.

The hand stilled.

“…What?”

Adel’s voice had changed slightly.

“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is… I’m studying Curses, and you’re studying the ‘Anomalous Aberrations,’ aren’t you?”
“I didn’t mention it. I began by researching the Anomalous Aberrations, but ended up researching their Curses instead. We’re both studying something related to the Sacred, after all.”
“…….”

Adel: Curses of the Demon Kind.
Ran: Curses, of the Demon Kind.

The papers’ subjects overlapped at a remarkably narrow point.

“……”

Adel turned her head to look at Ran.

Ran, sitting at the table, lifted her gaze as well.

When their eyes met, tension stretched taut between them like a rubber band.

“Sister.”
“Yes?”
“…Can’t you research something else?”

The question spilled out into the silence.
Yet Ran did not look away from Adel either.

“Why should I.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Why should I do that.”

Ran’s face remained expressionless as always. Her voice was hollow. Adel, murmuring “Why should I?” gripped her sword tightly as she spoke.

“……Are you curious?”

The air between them grew unnaturally heavy. Then it happened.
Tap-tap—
Something struck the window.
She turned to see a raven pecking at the glass with its beak.

“……”
“……”

Adel set down her sword and went outside.
The raven was a Messenger Raven. The Assassin had sent it. Around its neck hung a pendant bearing the Light Messenger insignia. “What is this?” Adel asked, and the raven opened its beak.

“Meet me.”

Then it spat out a piece of paper toward Adel.
It was paper bearing a time and location written upon it.

Two hours later, Adel met with a group of assassins at a bench near a remote stretch of Wild Mountain. From them she received a pastry box.

“We wished to present you with a gift.”
“Not our professor—to me?”
“That is correct.”

The pastry box felt substantial in her hands.

“Mm. Empire confectionery, I see. These look delicious.”
“Ah, if you’d prefer to go inside and taste them there…”
“No, I’m quite hungry. Besides, I’ve already ruined dinner anyway.”

So she opened the pastry box.
Wrapped confections lay inside.
And when she opened those,
bundles worth hundreds of thousands of Hika spilled out.

“My goodness?”

Adel turned to look back at them.

“…So it’s not pastries, then?”

* * *

Ezekiel and I found ourselves mired in thought. We decided to talk it through and sort out the situation.

“What does that teaching assistant want?”
“She desires to stand in a position of mastery as an Assassin. In other words, she wishes to become a professor.”

There were certain points that needed to be established clearly.

1. One of the two—my Adel—is a fake.
2. Adel Muang, the Croitz clergyman, is the priest of the Hero Party.
3. Adel intends to kill her.
4. The priest may not be quite as “irreplaceable” as the Hero, but if Adel Muang dies, humanity could face considerable trouble.

“Dean, do you happen to know why Magical Doppelgangers try to kill one another?”
“They don’t.”

They don’t?

“That’s pure fantasy. How many doppelgangers actually get along? Twins do, don’t they?”
“…Are those the same?”
“Essentially, yes. Identical genetics. Magical doppelgangers work the same way. Depending on personality, they might be close, distant, or even quarrel. But they rarely try to kill each other.”

Then why does Adel?

“My turn now. Can’t you send that teaching assistant somewhere else? The Curse Research Institute, perhaps?”
“That won’t work.”
“Why not?”
“Because Adel wants me. I’m a big piece.”

It was embarrassing to say aloud, but it seemed to be true.

“Would it help if I drove her out?”
“That won’t work either. An uncontrollable incident would unfold.”
“What happens?”
“….”

I still don’t know.
Only the fallout can be estimated.
The Eternal Starlight Seat described it as a “bomb.”
The players called it a “major threat.”
When I phrased it slightly more carefully, Ezekiel’s expression hardened.

“If a being of Starlight Seat caliber describes her as a bomb…it’s not something I can control at my level.”

Yes. Adel’s danger needed to be evaluated more highly.

“Golden Rat. Can’t you seduce her?”
“Seduce?”
“You’re still a rat, after all. Isn’t seduction a rat’s strong suit? There’s no recorded history of a renowned man breaking, nor of a pretty girl shattering. And with your face….”

In other words, he was suggesting I toy with her heart.

“….”

There’s nothing I couldn’t do.
Though I’ve never tried it before.
We’re already close to each other as people.

“…but there is a problem.”
“A problem?”
“With my support, Adel will grow over time and eventually go to Croitz to kill Adel Muang.”

And even if she weren’t part of the Hero Party, Adel Muang was already famous enough to be designated as a Sainthood Candidate.
She was Croitz’s pride, favored by the Mother Church itself.
Killing such a person could ignite the spark of war.
Ezekiel’s brow furrowed.

“…A dilemma, then.”

If I abandoned or rejected Adel, it would blow up.
If I cultivated her, she would kill the Hero Party.

“What if you obstructed her research while making her happy instead?”
“Pardon?”
“Think about it.”

Ezekiel swept back his regal blonde hair.

“A man’s success is simple. If he rises high, all problems solve themselves. But a woman’s success is far more complicated.”
“…….”
“You block Instructor Adel’s path to becoming a professor, and make her into a happy person instead. In the meantime, I’ll use my influence with the royal family to create a position of ‘master’ for her—something successful enough, but difficult for her to leave behind for Croitz. How does that sound?”
“…….”

I thought for a moment.

“…I’m not sure.”

All manner of objections collided inside me.

I had one sacred principle: never to interfere in another’s research. The resistance welling up from within was profound.

And growing closer to Adel beyond friendship would itself be a problem.

Main Story 3 was beginning now, and if we were lucky, the Demon Lord Battle would erupt by Chapter 7. In other words, the Demon Lord Battle drew nearer every single day.

Knowing that, I had no time to spare beyond the four hours I slept each night. There was no time for romance, and no energy even to simulate it.

Everything circled back to one fundamental question.

What danger does Adel carry?
Why does she want to kill Adel Muang?

Without understanding these two things, I couldn’t make any decision.

“For now, I’ll proceed as usual and tell you my answer later.”

I sent a message to Adel.

———
Me: Want to grab a bite outside for a bit? If you haven’t eaten.
Adel: Should I call Ran too?
Me: Just the two of us for now.
Adel: Oh my.
Adel: Just us friends?
Me: That’s right.
Adel: (A soft, amused squirrel-like laugh)
———

I was turning to leave when—
Ezekiel spoke up.

“One last question before you go. This has nothing to do with bombs or anything of the sort—it’s simply the most important thing I need to ask you. It concerns the future of this academy.”
“I’m listening.”

He posed it with considerable weight behind his gaze.

“Is instructor Adel truly harmless to you?”

I met the dean’s eyes squarely.
There was truly a dangerous bomb in question here.
Whether it would detonate in my arms or not—that’s what he was wondering about.
I crafted my response from what I had verified multiple times over, then opened my mouth.

“She is harmless.”

Adel and I were…

* * *

“Friends?”

At Adel’s question, the Assassin’s eyes crinkled with mirth.

“Yes. We hope to become good ‘friends’ with one another. The pastry is merely a modest gift for someone of your standing.”

Adel’s expression shifted to one of surprise.

“The pastry is only the beginning. We have much to offer, and we can see to many things for you going forward.”
“Something like a friendship fee?”

The Assassins exchanged glances and laughed awkwardly.

“You could say that. So long as you maintain good relations with us, we’ll provide you with funds you couldn’t earn from your instructor’s salary.”
“Ahahaha. A friendship fee, no less.”
“Trust is built with money, after all. Don’t overthink it. Just accept it as a simple gift.”
“If it’s such a simple gift, would it be alright if I told the professor about it?”
“Ah, we’d prefer you refrain from that, if you don’t mind.”
“I thought as much.”

Adel asked with a smile.

“This is an attempt to gather leverage against Professor Dante, isn’t it~?”

The air twisted.

…….
…….

The corners of the Assassins’ eyes twitched.
Adel continued smiling, even as
the conversation’s atmosphere had grown subtly wrong.

“To be frank with you—not leverage, exactly, but we do intend to gather some information on him. He’s an excellent instructor, yet there’s almost nothing about him circulating beyond these walls.”
…….
“The thing is, we’ve heard rumors that you and the professor have a rather special relationship. So we arranged this meeting. We’d like to be friends with you.”
“…….”

At that, Adel laughed again.

“Well, I don’t accept just anyone as a friend.”

At the same time, she brought her hands together and interlaced her fingers.

“If the gift is insufficient, please tell me.”
“It’s not about the gift. My standards for friendship are quite exacting. They need to be wealthy. They need to have ability. And above all, they need to be handsome. But you all…….”
“…There are handsome men in our Assassination Group.”
“No. It’s not that sort of thing.”

Her interlaced hands opened, forming a seal. A gesture without meaning. Yet the assassins tensed and lowered their postures.

“……Professor Dante is my first friend. My only friend. The person who gave water to me as I was slowly withering away, and who stopped me from doing ‘very terrible things’ that I’m capable of.”

Adel’s voice grew progressively lower.

“I—ugly and filthy as I am—asked to be friends with him for selfish reasons. Even knowing that, he accepted me…….”

The smile vanished from her face.

“……You’re asking me to exploit the weakness of such a person.”

In the next instant, an assassin sensing the ominous presence hurriedly threw his body backward. But it was already too late.

Burst!

His comrade’s head exploded outward. “What!?” someone cried, and immediately the body below his neck crumbled away.

“Curse!”

The assassins were horrified. They couldn’t perceive the principle behind it, the harmony or mechanism at all.

“C-Curse! What the—!!”
“Run! Go! He’s already dead! Get out of here!!”

The two chose to flee. They felt the power gap instinctively. The bodies of the two assassins transformed into light and vanished in an instant, treading through the air like beams of radiance.
This was a Movement Technique of considerable sophistication, known as the Light Messenger.

“Mm.”

At that moment, Adel wiped the blood from her cheek and gazed up at the sky.

“Running away won’t help. I cursed light itself. And so my curse reaches wherever light touches.”

Adel brought her hands together once more, forming the seal. Then she extended her fingers toward the two points of light already hundreds of meters distant.

“…Die.”

Burst—two points of light exploded in midair.

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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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