Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 139

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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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Episode 139
DLC [The Hero Class Instructor] : Hotfix Ver2.3.2a(3)

Something was wrong.
About this situation, something was.

“…Friends?”

Bad news piled on bad news. At my words, Ezekiel’s expression stiffened subtly. According to the 【Script】, he was wondering whether I might have been ‘hypnotized’ by Adel.

“Golden Rat. You know as well as I do how many friends betray us in a lifetime.”
“There’s no reason for surprise. I was merely explaining the feelings Adel holds toward me.”
……

Ezekiel regarded me with those distinctive royal pink eyes. According to the 【Script】, half worry, half suspicion.
So I bowed and tried to leave the Office again. First, I had to resolve this sense of wrongness I felt deep within.
By meeting with Adel.

But the misfortunes continued a little longer.

As I was leaving the Office, Bugibugi—an assistant to Shaman, the head of the Assassination Department—arrived. “Director Ezekiel… oh!” He startled at the sight of me.

“What is it, little rat?”
“Ah, well… Headmaster has called for you urgently.”
“The Headmaster? Why would he want me?”

Then Bugibugi glanced at me carefully.

“There’s a meeting… about Assistant Instructor Adel.”

This too was an abrupt situation. Gathering all the department heads like this when they must be busy with their own schedules?

“…Also, Professor Dante has been called as well.”

The fact that I was being summoned confirmed it. This was surely a meeting to determine Adel’s punishment.

“Will you go?”
“Yes.”

Ezekiel and I headed to the Meeting Room. Balkan and Shaman were already seated, and at the head of the table sat Headmaster Hedwig in an Owl Mask.

“Mm. Welcome!”

A playful, bouncy voice. Yet the atmosphere was not so light. Shaman and Balkan’s expressions were quite grave.

“An emergency meeting! We’re here to discuss an unknown creature that has infiltrated the Assassination Department—or a spy, or something wearing the guise of a human!”
“I have a question, Headmaster.”
“Go ahead, Professor Dante.”
“Since this concerns my assistant instructor, may I ask why this meeting was called so abruptly?”
“We meant to hold it earlier, but everyone seemed so busy we postponed it. However, now everyone has gathered. Mm-mm!”

I took a seat as well.
As the meeting began, Balkan, Shaman, and Ezekiel—who had apparently known of this situation beforehand—exchanged opinions rapidly.

“The unauthorized use of the Registry of Souls alone seems sufficient grounds for capital punishment.”

Shaman—the old man who had spent a lifetime pointed at as a traitor—spoke for Adel’s death without mercy, and.

“We have no right to kill a young man when we don’t know what threat he poses, what his true nature is, or anything about him at all.”

Balkan, an old man who lived by justice and faith, sought to restrain such hasty judgment.

“At the very least, what about quarantining him?”

Ezekiel proposed a neutral stance.
The debate stretched on for some time. The position that there was no reason to leave a hostile element unattended—given tensions still ran high following the Croitz incident—clashed sharply against an ethical stance arguing that such logic would justify countless murders to come.
Throughout this exchange, I continued to chase that peculiar feeling I’d had before, turning it over in my mind. Something about my thinking felt… incomplete. This situation—there was definitely something wrong with it.

Then it happened. Another catastrophe piled on top. Mana particles flew through empty air, crossing the distance to brush past me and reach Ezekiel’s mind.

“…Wait. The signal from the curse I placed is transmitting.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“I once placed the Curse of Espionage on that instructor. It was rigged to alert me to any trace of massive mana usage.”

Then Adel had just used a tremendous amount of mana?
At that moment, Ezekiel gave me a meaningful glance. He was still according me respect, even as the situation unfolded this way.

“We should share it openly.”
“Understood.”

There was no excuse to hide it.
Adel, who had mentioned wanting to try cooking at home during the day, had suddenly unleashed some colossal surge of mana?
Ezekiel pressed his hand against the Crystal Orb and poured mana into it. A noisy, static-filled image began to materialize like a hologram.

“Ah, no…”
“Huh…”

When the three-dimensional image unfolded before them, both Balkan and Ezekiel swallowed hard.

“……”

I did as well.
Just now, one of the questions I’d long been turning over in my mind suddenly found its answer.
It was Adel’s ability.
Someone distant, wrapped in light and receding. And Adel, gesturing toward them. Her hands drawn together as if performing a motionless dance—and a person’s head bursting apart.

“Who are the deceased…?”
“Apparently foreign assassins.”
“Then… what in the world is that? It can’t be Telekinesis…”

Balkan muttered, but no answer came. Not even from three [Challengers].
No one knew. There were only three people in the world who could handle such a curse.
Yet I knew.

‘…That’s the Instant Death Curse.’

Curse Number 96. A curse that kills existence outright. The one that the buggy Jinxxytte had wielded in the past.
Each curse-caster leaves their own mark—like a fingerprint—and it typically manifests by rupturing the abdomen, chest, or head depending on the practitioner.

“Shocking, no matter how you look at it…”

Balkan clicked his tongue. Even if this were a military academy packed with weapons, the 90-series curses were a different class of instrument entirely. Adel was, in effect, a person with a gun in an elementary school.
In that moment, grasping at a fragile thread through the confusion, I asked Ezekiel:

“…Is this the first time?”

If it were the second time or more—
I would abandon Adel right now.
When Ran mentioned her death, she’d brought up her head splitting open before.

“This is the first time.”

First time?

“…I dare ask, but are you certain, Department Head?”
“Why. Is something bothering you? The Curse of Espionage I cast cannot be tampered with from the outside. It bears the Saint Mark.”

If that was true, then it wasn’t Adel who killed Ran.
For now, I’d set that aside.

“Professor Dante. May we discuss matters concerning someone from Croitz?”
“Of course.”

Ezekiel laid out the entire story about Adel Muang for everyone.
At that, the Director raised her hand.

“I’ll look into it!”
“But how would you investigate someone from Croitz?”
“It’s time for our connections in this industry to prove their worth!”

Soon the Director was making a phone call to someone.
Someone from the Croitz Order. She broached the subject of Adel Muang—a member of the clergy—and Doppelgangers indirectly.

“You don’t know?”
– Uh-huh! First I’m hearing of it!
“They don’t know? I see.”

In exactly the same tone as the Director, the other party denied any knowledge of Doppelgangers. No such thing existed, they said. Adel Muang was nothing more than a high-ranking member of the clergy raised in a devout, respected religious household. She had never been entangled with anything as suspicious as magical abominations.

“…….”
“…….”

After the noisy call ended, the atmosphere in the Meeting Room sank rapidly. We were going in circles, trapped in a labyrinth.

“Let’s kill it.”

The Director was the first to narrow her position. The unidentified monster wearing the mask.

“I agree.”

The Shaman, too, wanted to simply eliminate anything that bothered him.

“I will register my opposition.”

Balkan was against it. Ezekiel shook his head. ‘Neutral. I cannot form a judgment,’ he said. His answer had emerged from the space between respect for me and wariness toward a killing technique unknown even to an Archmage.

“…What do you think, Professor?”

Finally, when Ezekiel turned the arrow toward me, all eyes fell upon me.
Normally, the opinion of a mere professor would carry no weight, but at present I was treated as a key figure within the Academy.

“…….”

I fell silent for a moment.

【 Director Hedwig: ‘Why aren’t you saying anything?’ 】
【 Assassination Department Head Shaman: ‘Don’t indulge in useless sentiment, Professor Dante.’ 】
【 Warrior Department Head Balkan: ‘A difficult matter indeed…. But you’ve given good answers in such situations more than once.’ 】

Everyone wonders what I’ll decide.
There’s a red button in front of me right now.
The moment I press it, Adel dies.

“…….”

But here’s the thing.
Isn’t this a little strange?
At least, it strikes me as strange. So I’ve been turning over what the ‘source of this strangeness’ might be….

Then.

Then, suddenly.

Someone’s voice brushed past my ear.

‘Oh, really? Everyone thinks the same way~ ‘

Years ago.
Someone recited research notes identical to what I’d written in my notebook.
When I asked where they’d gotten it from, that same someone answered with shameless confidence—and now their voice echoes back to me.

“…….”

My eyes open slowly, wider and wider.

Ah.

I’ve finally understood.
What is strange about all of this.
Who created this situation!

* * *

It was years ago, during my graduate school days. Even then, I felt something similar to what I’m feeling now.

Excel modification dates that differed by a single day, fingerprints that weren’t mine left on my data, senior researchers exchanging glances behind my back, a professor avoiding my calls, a doctoral candidate suddenly requesting I refrain from entering the lab. All of it.

That peculiar sense of knowing, indirectly, that something rotten was happening in spaces where I wasn’t present…….

‘It’s the same as back then.’

All of these problems arise from the fact that I ‘don’t know’ about ‘Adel’.

But it wasn’t only I who didn’t know.

I don’t know, Ezekiel doesn’t know, the Croitz-affiliated personnel don’t know, the person involved herself—Adel Muang—doesn’t know, there’s no one connected to Adel who could tell me, and no one is teaching me anything.

……Does that make any sense?

‘No.’

It doesn’t.
In reality, it could happen. The old me would have experienced it. But this place can’t work that way.
Because this is ‘inside a game.’ And the game called 「Hiaka Academy」 is not the sort of game that hides information from the player in this manner.

‘Every game has its own grammar.’

The Zelda series uses cutscenes and flashbacks to convey information actively and generously to the player.

This game does the same.
Hiaka Academy’s narrative structure operates on two fundamental principles.

First: the game’s flow shifts with each main story arc.

For example, the “Professor Assassination” thread has grown increasingly muddled by now. That’s because the developers divided the game’s progression into distinct stages: [Professor’s survival – Professor’s influence spreads across the world – Preparations for the Demon King battle – The Demon King battle itself].

Second: every main story arc scatters countless hints before it even begins.

For instance, I knew Betrayal and Collapse and the Betting Table were coming long before they arrived. And now, even before Paradigm begins, I possess an overwhelming certainty that it will come.

Because I’m clever? Because I’m a veteran player? No.
The game itself revealed it to me.

This world, regardless of its difficulty level, must always be kind to the player.
That is the narrative law of this world.
An unbreakable framework of the game itself. Its fundamental flow.

‘And yet I know almost nothing about Adel.’

Adel’s very existence violates this narrative law. As if someone all-powerful had sealed her away with everything they had.

‘This isn’t merely Adel’s personal problem.’

If there are many things I don’t know, then Adel is merely one element that happened to surface among them.
At the end of this thread lies ‘something.’ Just as my past self, following fingerprints in the data that belonged to someone else, had reached my advisor’s true and sordid intentions.
So my instinct tells me this:

‘Someone is hiding something fatal from me.’

That directionless sensation I’ve felt all along—
it’s because this entire situation has been subtly manipulated by someone.
A weight like lead settles in my mind.

Then who is it?

Who rushed to erase the 【Script】 the moment I sensed something wrong with Adel, deliberately limiting my information?

Who, the instant they realized Adel was searching for someone using the Registry of Souls, pushed me from behind claiming that person was a priest of the Hero Party, commanding me to kill Adel immediately?

Who, after staying hidden all this time, suddenly called this impromptu meeting and forced me to choose Adel’s death?

Who manipulated the situation so that even after I conducted countless tests and convinced myself that Adel was safe, she continued to feel like a threat?

Remarkably, the agent behind all of these events
is but a single entity.

‘……Systematicity⧉.’

In short, this is it.

‘Systematicity⧉ is trying to kill Adel.’

Without telling me anything.
Why?
Because there is something that must remain hidden.
What that is, I still cannot know,
One fact began to strike me differently.

‘Hundreds of [Hell Difficulty] players were all dead.’

No developer underestimates their players. How many young people are there whose only remaining sense of purpose in life is a game? And among those who’ve conquered [Hard Difficulty], access to [Hell Difficulty] was granted to them. All of them—dead?

What if, in fact.
The game was impossible to clear due to a bug from the start…?
What if Systematicity⧉ wanted to kill Adel—this bug-ridden thing near me—to hide that fact……?

That was when it came. A Telepathic Transmission. From Ezekiel.

Even in this situation, he was looking out for me. But it wasn’t mere affection.

—.

Then it cut off. The Telepathic Transmission.

“What are you two plotting without me? Hm? How lonely!”

…In the dean’s hands.

“Now!”

The owl suddenly cried out.

“Answer straight up. Professor Dante!”

The dean—Systematicity⧉’s subordinate—focused their gaze sharply. The owl, who always seemed vapid, no longer appeared so now.

“Will you die, assistant?”

A god was attempting to deceive me.

…….

But…….

“No.”
“No, you say?”

The owl’s eyes narrowed.
I lifted my head and met those eyes directly.

“No.”

It was the department heads who reacted.

【 Head of the Assassination Department Shaman: ‘Professor Dante, you bastard…!!’ 】
【 Head of the Warrior Department Balkan: ‘You’re saying you can handle it? That dean, whom even the king treats with deference?’ 】

Those who had lived oppressed beneath the dean’s silent pressure within his domain
were now astonished by my decision.

“Let’s do it. Yes?”
“No. I oppose the decision to eliminate Adel.”
“Why not? Let’s kill her. Yes? Or rather—don’t! It’s dangerous, isn’t it?”
“I do not consent.”

The owl’s face began to contort.

“Someone just died, didn’t they? A person? You saw it—head went pop, just like that!”
“A few deaths in the Assassination Department hardly matter. First, I will verify the identities of the deceased. If they were enemies and targeted our people, that would be cause for commendation rather than concern.”
“No, that won’t—” “Furthermore, I intend to speak with Adel separately. Given how far things have gone, I can prove her innocence. I will settle this matter directly before the department heads and the Director. In their presence.”
“No? No? No? I don’t like this—this won’t work—Professor Dante! Why are you suddenly being so stubborn—”
“Time is short. I’ll take my leave now.”
“Professor Dante!”

The owl mask twisted grotesquely—as if it belonged to a demon. The head stretched unnaturally outward, revealing three layers of vicious teeth, hundreds of fangs laid bare.

“Do I look like I’m joking to you?”

I looked up at that creature.
The bloodlust pressing down from above poured over me.

……

Truly, the irony was exquisite.
That was the nature of game administrators.
They operate the game for the player’s sake alone.
Yet they endlessly clash with the player, engage in constant power struggles.
Good and evil have no place there. Only the interplay between incompetence and stubbornness, with responses permitted by whatever ennui allows.

“Professor Dante. I’m giving you a final warning.”

And as a result of that.
A god now attempts to deceive me.

“Reverse your decision. Now. Immediately!”
……

……But even if this god rules this land, it cannot bend me to its will.
Because this world exists within a game.
A world exists for one player, and one player alone.

“…I will reverse my position.”

At my words, the owl tucked away its vicious fangs and beamed.

“Ah! Yes! That’s right! Now then… how will you reverse it?”

But here’s the thing.
No matter how hard an administrator tries to provoke a power struggle.
There is one law—one that governs the very foundation of the world—that they dare not touch.

“If Adel dies, I will leave Hiaka Academy.”

My words fell like a bomb.

“What—what did you say?!”
“Professor Dante! You’re saying that right now—!!”

Everyone in the meeting room gasped in shock.

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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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