Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 14

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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 14
EP7 – Bone! (1)

┃ Quest Complete: [Class]
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 1

┃ Quest Complete: [Pop Quiz]
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 1

┃ Quest Complete: [Supplementary Lesson]
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 1

⋮

One. One. One….

Like a mouse crossing a desert, dying of thirst and seeing a mirage of an oasis—I get mere tears from that.
So when exactly will I gather 800 to 1,000 of these and master a new Level 9 ability?

‘I’ll need to collect Star Fragments to survive, that much is certain….’

I still lack the ability to conduct research or write papers.
I could write about Illusion Art, but if attention focuses on it, the Taboo could be exposed.

‘The problem is my level is too high.’

My current mastery of Illusion Art is extraordinary.
To what degree?
Let me explain in detail this time.
In this world, there exists something called the Warrior Rank System.
A Constellation named Systematic Star updates the rankings monthly.
The order of the ranks is as follows.

── Tier 3 ──
Iron – Bronze – Silver – Gold
────────

Up to this point are ordinary warriors.
Even a Gold-rank badge places you in the top 20% of warriors.
Wherever you go, you receive excellent treatment.

── Tier 2 ──
Platinum – Emerald – Diamond
────────

From here onward, you’re among the elite warriors.
The top 10%, 4%, and 1%—truly exceptional fighters.
Beyond receiving excellent treatment, they serve as core operatives in major organizations.
The minimum requirement to be a professor is even Diamond rank.

‘I fall far short.’

Judged purely on overall combat strength, I hover around Platinum.
Next.

── Tier 1 ──
Master (9,999) – Grandmaster (999) – Challenger (200)
– Constellation (33)
────────

From here onwards, rankings come into play.
The pinnacle that all warriors dream of reaching.
Among the fifteen million warriors across the continent, those ranked 9,999th and above earn gasps of awe wherever they go.
Among professors, they’re distinguished as “Senior Professors,” towering overwhelmingly above their peers.

For reference, there are three tiers of professor rank.

───
General Professor – Senior Professor – Chief Professor
───

By my estimate, Jamryong Academy is likely comprised of mostly Diamond-tier warriors.
Or perhaps slightly higher—clinging to the edge of Master-tier.
And they’re only in their teens or early twenties.

Let me explain once more.
My proficiency in Illusion Art, remarkably, reaches Challenger-tier.
Among the highest echelon at that.
Which means I’d rank within the top eighty globally.

Likely first or second in all of Hiaka Kingdom alone.
Which is precisely why I cannot publish a thesis on Illusion Art.

‘Without a safety net, caution is the better course. The proficiency itself would speak volumes—the entire continent would turn their gaze upon me.’

The moment my Forbidden Secret is exposed, it’s a bad ending.
So the only remaining path is to build Affinity with Jamryong Academy.
Though that wasn’t something to rush into either.
Not while I remained vulnerable to the threat of assassination by other professors.

* * *

It was a cool day.
While preparing a supplementary lesson in the Research Office as usual,
an announcement came through.

– Newly appointed Neutral Professors, we request your attendance at the Chief Professor’s forum today at five in the afternoon.

A forum.
Where Chief Professors typically lecture their junior colleagues.
Normally, there’d be no reason to attend.

┃ Quest Triggered: [Neutral Professor Forum]
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 5

Five, though, changed the calculus entirely.

“Adel. Postpone the supplementary lesson to tomorrow.”
“Okaaay~”

I canceled the lesson I’d already scheduled and prepared to head to the forum.
But the forum was abruptly canceled.

– We apologize. The forum has been canceled due to the Chief Professor’s absence.

┃ Quest Canceled: [Neutral Professor Forum]

At the same time, the quest was cancelled.

“Ugh, there it goes again…….”

Adel clicked his tongue.

“Does this happen often?”
“All the time, honestly. It’s not just a one or two-day thing. The Neutral Professors…. Forgive me for saying it, but many of them are quite apathetic.”
“…….”

I knew that much about the setting. The Neutral Professors, unlike the Black Faction and White Faction, were oddly lukewarm about everything.
Either way, the forum had been cancelled, and I was heading home when I noticed the weather was fine. I decided to venture out for once.

‘Why not visit the park.’

The park was dotted with cadets gathered in small groups, playing.
They threw shuriken at trees and sprinted about with guns strapped to their backs—an odd sight, perhaps, but they all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

There, I began practicing various World Fabrication techniques.

Training to blow up balloons using World Fabrication.

If I explained it like that, someone might ask: is blowing up a balloon really training?

Creating a balloon would be easy enough. I could materialize one through imagination alone.

But what I’m making now is a Semi-permanent Illusory Body—an illusory construct that forms as though tangible, unbreakable under impact. Specialists would be stunned to see it. This is the kind of World Fabrication that only reaches the realm of the divine.

‘I can’t make anything on a larger scale semi-permanent yet…… but still.’

Complete.

A round, taut balloon materialized before me.

Creating several more World Fabrication balloons, I found myself drifting into thoughts about the world I now inhabited.

Where am I right now?

→ Hiaka Kingdom

A middling developed nation. The kind of place this world-system would rank somewhere between Korea or Italy—developed, yet aware of its neighbors’ watchful eyes.

→ Hiaka Academy

It’s like Seoul National University. The royal family operates it, after all. Though these days it’s falling behind Tokyo and Peking universities.

‘Truly an ambiguous place, this academy.’

Over the past few days, working as a professor here, I’d replayed Rebecca’s words in my head countless times.

– I don’t trust the professors.
– They all lack motivation, and they don’t care for us much.

As evidenced by the forum being cancelled just now.
The professors here lack drive. Especially the Neutral Professors like myself.
Particularly their passion for teaching students has withered away—there’s simply no pressing reason to invest in it.
Everyone here is focused on pocketing their salary and research funds. But since it’s the nation’s sole prestigious academy, they’ve grown complacent with the status quo.

There’s a significant problem with all this.

‘This background connects to a rather challenging Main Story.’

The game Hiaka Academy is famous for its remarkably varied progression paths.
Among them exists the Main Story with the highest difficulty—one where the academy’s standards and reputation plummet daily, and a traitor has already sold the academy’s secrets to foreign powers before the scenario even begins.

Normally, the appeal of that storyline would be watching a player overturn public opinion about the fallen academy and achieve real results……
Well, whatever the game company intended. I found it distasteful. The difficulty was too high.

But I held no ill will toward the professors.
In a place where they ranked first and faced less pressure over results, watching an assassin trail after you all day long—wouldn’t anyone guard themselves so carefully?
Just like this.

“Come out.”

Something in empty air startled violently.
Then a human form gradually began to reveal itself.

“You caught me, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Hehe.”

Pale pink hair. Pale pink eyes. A female student from Jamryong Academy, resembling a smiling golden retriever.

● Jamryong Academy First Year, Elizae

I’d been seeing her often in class lately and had grown somewhat familiar with her.
She approached with a bright smile.

“What were you doing, Professor?”
“Inflating a balloon, as you can see.”
“Why a balloon?”
“Felt like it. And what brings you here?”
“Oh, I was wandering and happened to run into you. I like walking around.”

Elizae smiled brightly and sat beside me on the bench.
Suddenly, I recalled Kaizer’s message from some time ago.

– Kaizer: At Jamryong Academy, Elizae is among the top two in terms of strength.

She watched me inflate the balloon intently.

“Are you planning to keep watching?”
“Yes.”
>”It seems you have nothing else to do.”
“That’s right.”

I continued inflating silently.
With an audience present, it felt like I should do something.
I twisted the long balloon into the shape of a dog.

“What is that?”
“A dog.”
“A dog? Hmm. That looks odd.”

Yet despite her words, Elizae seemed to like the balloon dog.
She seemed to find it amusing.

“Could you make me one too?”

So I created one using Illusion Art.

“Puff-puff….”

Elizae blew hard at the balloon, but it wouldn’t inflate.

“Puff-puff…. Hmm….”

I was doing my own training when
she kept doing this beside me, and I couldn’t concentrate.

“Doesn’t seem to be working.”
“It’s hard.”
“Try sealing your lips more and blowing again.”
“Like this? Oof…. Ooo-oof….”
“No, if you close it too much, no air gets in.”
“So then…. Huff-puff-puff-puff….”
“No, close it a bit more.”
“Hoo-oof-puff-puff-puff-puff….”
“No, stop—why are you biting it? Why would you bare your teeth while blowing a balloon—”

After wrestling with it for several minutes like that,
the Illusion Art balloon had developed several holes.
I shook my head.

“You really can’t do this.”
“What? That’s mean.”
“What’s mean is your mouth.”
“Honestly, it’s not that I can’t do it—it’s that balloon-blowing is just difficult.”
“It’s not.”
“It is.”

I blew one up in a single breath to show her.

“Is this hard? This?”
“It is.”
“What’s hard about it.”
“But you’re a professor, so it’s different.”

Ignoring her, I fashioned a flower and showed it to her.

“Well? It’s a flower.”
“It’s ugly.”
“It’s prettier than you.”
“That’s mean.”

There was a moment of playful bickering between us.
Still, when I made a sword, butterfly, and giraffe for her, Elizae was delighted. The way she held and waved the balloons was unmistakably dog-like. Her whole being radiated a sense of peace.

Of course, that was just an impression.
Not long ago, she might have slit someone’s throat with a blade.

“Do you have others?”
“Others?”
“Yes yes. Something I haven’t seen anywhere.”

So this time I forged a white balloon using Illusion Art, shaping it this way and that.
It took a while.
It was my first attempt at something I’d never done before.
After staring blankly for several minutes, Elizae began chattering away.

“Lately, you know.”
“Mm.”
“The professors.”
“Mm.”
“They won’t spar with me in assassination practice anymore.”
“You’ve been winning, then.”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“All of them.”
“Impressive.”

Apparently she’d beaten not just general professors but even senior professors.
She wouldn’t stand a chance against the chief professors, but even so, it spoke to her talent.

“If you’re studying assassination, shouldn’t you learn it from your family? Why attend the academy at all?”

Her father, Wu Ying Constellation, ranked twenty-fourth, was the most formidable assassin in the Hiaka Kingdom.

“Well, our house fell into ruin, you see.”
……

Then the Synchronized information surfaced in my mind.
That’s right. House Csikoš had collapsed. Why?
I tried to piece it together.

“Even if your house is ruined, couldn’t you learn Concealment from your father, who excels at it?”

…Ah, it was because of Wu Ying Constellation’s disappearance.
Damn. Why did that only occur to me now?

“I’m sorry? My father went missing, though?”
“…My apologies.”
“No, it’s all right. Perhaps he just found home too suffocating.”

Elizae smiled as she spoke.

“My father was exceptionally skilled at Concealment. That’s why I still believe he’s on a long-term Concealment mission right now. He’s watching over me from somewhere.”
“…I was wrong.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I slip up too sometimes and talk about family things to Grey.”

Again, Synchronized information bloomed. Grey, too, came from a noble Black Faction assassin house, but had suffered grave troubles within the family.
Only then did Rebecca’s words strike home.

‘When painting a still life, one turns the rotten parts away.’

The talent and lineage themselves are magnificent.
But rotting in places.
That was the state of Jamryong Academy.

“There.”

In any case, it was finished.
Made from a white balloon.

“What is it?”
“Looks like something…”

Long, with blunt ends.
That thing puppies love.

“A bone…??”

Exactly right.
The moment I materialized the bone-shaped balloon—not particularly large—a flutter of urgency bloomed across Elizae’s pink eyes.

“Give it to me.”

Elizae reached both hands forward.
She really does want it.
A desire rooted in her bloodline.

But there’s still work to be done, so I was tidying it up—
when she suddenly pressed close and tried to snatch it away.

“Elizae. Wait a moment.”
“Hurry.”
“I said wait. Let me finish it properly first.”
“Please. The bone. Now….”

I pulled back since the work wasn’t complete.
At that, she clung to me and tried to wrest it away.

“Stay still.”

A reflexive command, spilled out without thought.
Her body stiffened.

【 Jamryong Academy, First Year: Elizae – ‘Stay still……??’ 】

Elizae blinked, then seemed to wrestle with the decision.
Whether to obey or not.
In the end, she quietly withdrew her hands and began waiting.
In a very, very good posture.

……I had my doubts, but it actually worked.

“Good girl.”

The moment I handed it over, Elizae’s expression brightened with delight.

“You seem to like it.”
“I love it. So much….”

I’m glad she likes it. Illusion Art training alone is tedious, but when she enjoys everything I make, there’s a real pleasure in the creation.
Then Elizae, still cradling the bone, spoke to me.

“It’s strange when you think about it.”
“What is?”
“I’ve always loved bones since I was little. Even when all the meat was gone, I hated to see them thrown away.”
“…….”
“Why is that? Why do I love bones so much…??”

It was an amusing question.
She probably didn’t know. That her family, Csikoš, descended from the ancient Canine Anthropomorphic clans.
Through generations the tails and ears had faded away—but that blood still ran thick in her veins.

That was precisely why I’d crafted the Bone.

These dog-like anthropomorphic beings obey the commands of humans they instinctively recognize. It was the reason that monstrous bloodline had remained loyal to the royal house.
In other words, the fact that “wait” had just worked on Elizae meant she’d instinctively acknowledged me.
This phenomenon is called Command.

‘Lucky me. Recognition from the Csikoš bloodline doesn’t come cheap.’

Only those who are strong, commanding, and yet possess a certain grace of spirit earn the anthropomorphic beings’ acknowledgment.
Ordinarily, one would need both high combat strength and close familiarity, or else royal blood itself. But it seemed they’d mistaken me for someone genuinely powerful.

“Make just a few more for me, please.”
“No.”
“That’s so mean…”

I was joking.
Still, I ended up crafting five Bones in total.

“Bones…♪”

Elizae was absolutely delighted.

⋮

┃ Relationship Status with Elizae increased [5] (▲5)
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 5

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