Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 148

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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 148
[Main Story] No.3 Holy Sword Seizure (1)

Dante the Heretic.
This madman.

‘Unbelievable.’

After reading the full interview, I felt my stomach drop. He hadn’t hesitated to call his competitors “garbage” and even insult the Starlight Seats.
But thinking it over carefully, this wasn’t Dante’s problem at all.

‘Trashi Fobtime. He’s the real problem here.’

That absolute madman!
He’s the one at fault.
He suddenly showed up out of nowhere and pulled this stunt, which was bad enough,
but then he fed Dante the perfect lines to say.

In film combat scenes, it’s not the one throwing the punch that creates impact.
It’s the one taking it.
In that sense, Royal Knight Kashan from the previous affair was the same way, and Trashi was absolutely perfect at absorbing a blow.

The fallout was spectacular.

< “Arrogant Professor” Dante Hiakium, Defense of Duke Vincent? >
< “The Starlight Seats really got ‘scratched’……” Professor Hiakium’s Candid Remarks >
< Unknown Professor’s Jab: “Starlight Seats’ Adventuring Parties Aren’t Martial Artists. The Ecology of Starlight Seats Transformed into Thugs” >

Articles blew up everywhere, stretching Dante’s words beyond their original meaning.

[You have 14,521 direct messages.]

Messages flooded into my StarField account, which I’d only used to hand out business cards when expanding into the Empire.

“Professor, professor, check this out. It’s actually insane, right…!?”

Perhaps because my own account had been dormant, Grey’s StarField followers surpassed two hundred thousand, and eventually reached three hundred thousand.

The Starlight Seats’ reactions poured in.
Mostly negative.
Here are a few examples.

Peaceful Starlight Seat☮ said, “Don’t needlessly stir up conflict among the Starlight Seats over such a minor accomplishment.”

Competitive Starlight Seat↑ uploaded a photo of himself partying on a yacht with twenty bikini-clad women, then posted that the Adventuring Party that lost to Dante was merely one among many he’d cultivated, that he himself was a top-tier Starlight Seat, the greatest martial artist, living a happier and more fulfilling life than anyone else, and his career and legacy were immortal—scratches like these could never affect a mountain—thoroughly revealing his wounded ego.

Struggle Starlight Seatж, Blaze Starlight Seat火, and several other Starlight Seats expressed their displeasure.

‘But honestly, isn’t that fair? Everyone knows they’re just preoccupied with playing thug games……’

Oops.
I shouldn’t be thinking like this.
That was something Dante said, and it has nothing to do with me.

Meanwhile,

Cross Star Starlight Seat† and Frozen Starlight Seat氷 subtly made an appeal: they posted that “as martial artists, we know how to take responsibility, and our battle against Vomiteca is proof of that”—and they were receiving much praise.

A certain Starlight Seat whose account creation date was marked as 3500 BC (presumably the Eternal Starlight Seat∞) had said, “The child’s words may be harsh, but his heart is kind…” but it gained little traction.

Finally, the Starlight Fellowship was deeply displeased.

I exhaled slowly.

‘A mess, then.’

I was burning bridges before I’d even shown my face.
But hadn’t the Eternal Starlight Seat∞ told me just the other day that several Starlight Seats had already harbored curiosity and hostility toward me?

‘This is an inevitable current.’

In a power structure cemented over at least decades.
I would soon be climbing the rankings rapidly and competing with them.
Of course enemies would emerge.

‘…The tide simply arrived a little sooner than expected.’

Fortunately, the fallout didn’t linger.
A massive incident erupted around that time.

‘What…??’

* * *

The incident began with the Vomittekka of Holanthe, recently dubbed the “Ultra Vomiteca.”

That enormous creature, which had spent time fleeing the Empire’s pursuit only to be found again and again, had finally caused an incident.

It attacked some kind of floating vessel.

A “floating ship” was an antiquated flying vessel—a boat that sailed through the sky.

The ship’s name was the Eternal Ship. A vessel of Holanthe that had vanished in the Empty Sky 120 years ago—a sky bound by Illusion Magic. The Eternal Ship had disappeared and reappeared repeatedly for 120 years since then.

‘The Eternal Ship?’

I knew that name well.
It was a tremendously important “Treasure Ship” in this world.
Which was why I found it strange.

‘Why is it appearing already?’

In [Hard Difficulty], it appeared as a vessel carrying the ultimate weapon capable of killing professors. It was a mechanism that should only appear in the latter half of the Main Story.

“Did you identify it?”
– Yes, Professor. Confirmed. It’s a Bug.

At Laim’s words from beyond the Crystal Orb, I furrowed my brow. As expected.

– Additionally, we’ve also identified the Bug affecting the Hero just now.
“What is it? A reckless temperament?”
– No, sir. The Hero has something called a “Trial Dungeon,” and within it he must obtain the “Sacred Sword.” But the Trial Dungeon was created broken due to a Bug.
“Then what of the Sacred Sword?”
– The Sacred Sword leaked out from the beginning, and after much circulation, it now sits aboard the Eternal Ship.

The very ship the Ultra Vomiteca had attacked.

“It seems the creature realized the Holy Blade existed and attacked accordingly.”
– That appears to be the case.

A close call.
If that Ultra Vomiteca had vanished as things stood, humanity would have faced catastrophic ruin.

“For now, understood.”

I spent the next several days monitoring the situation.

The Ultra Vomiteca clamped the Eternal Ship between its jaws and began fleeing somewhere.

The one fortunate thing was that the Empire did not take the matter lightly.

The Empire dispatched seven Challengers, the Crown’s direct Starlight Seat of the Heavens, and dozens of martial experts, succeeding in destroying part of the Ultra Vomiteca’s jaw.

Having lost half its jaw, the Ultra Vomiteca tore open a rift and fled in haste, slipping through their grasp despite their efforts.

Yet the Eternal Ship fell.

And that was where the true problem began.

Everyone realized it was a treasure ship.

Hundreds of treasures were found—weapons, armor, ancient mechanical devices, totems, alchemical tools, artifacts, Constellation Mark items, androids, and more.

– This situation is unfolding rather strangely, isn’t it?

Laim found it intriguing.
And he was right.

Humans draw lines on the ground and buy and sell what lies between them. The moment a fortune in treasures surfaced, what people wanted to know was simple: “So who does it belong to?”

Thus began what is called an Ownership Dispute.

Similar things happened in the real world, and ownership law proved far more intricate than one might expect.

It was a convoluted mess, the kind of thing most wouldn’t care to understand,
but stripped to its essence, it came down to this:

───
Hiaka: the Southern Alliance.
Croitz: affiliated with the Northern Alliance.
The Empire: neutral.
Seven nations in all.

The Eternal Ship:

1. Since the registered owner was Holanthe Duchy, it was originally their vessel.

2. The problem was that the ship had been made 120 years ago by a military contractor from the Hitahita Kingdom, and it had vanished while remaining unpaid for all that time.
But who did the cargo inside belong to?

3. It was actually property of the Croitz Kingdom.
Treasures that Holanthe had plundered from Croitz 120 years ago!

4. But then it turned out that Croitz had itself plundered those same treasures from the Hiaka Kingdom just twenty years prior.
In other words, seventy percent of the treasure’s origin traced back to Hiaka.

5. Meanwhile, the Khan Federation saw its chance and claimed ownership as well.

6. And the Empire claimed ownership too.

7. Finally, the Sombania Duchy—the only one with no legitimate claim to anything—

muttered like a complete underdog.

And then everyone ignored them.
───

Estimated value: roughly thirty billion Hika.

It was expensive if you measured it that way.
But not absurdly so, either.
After all, Hiaka’s own traitor, Senior Professor Battalion, had demanded fifty billion Hika without hesitation, hadn’t he?

Still, among the contents were some “national treasure” stolen goods that money alone couldn’t restore, so the diplomats from each nation gathered to calculate their respective shares. For the record, Sombania’s share was zero percent.

In the end, each nation agreed: they would hold a massive auction and divide the sale proceeds according to their shares.

In the central auction house of Golden Field, the Empire’s greatest economic city.

“……So even a Holy Sword has turned up.”

I was scrolling through the registered items when I spotted one particular sword.

＊ 「Cross Star†」 Peace Guide [Normal, Constellation Mark]

“Is this it?”
– Yes, that’s the Holy Sword.

A sword embedded in stone, discovered along with the rock itself.
On the surface, it was astonishingly ordinary—a weathered, ancient blade.
It was merely [Common] grade.

The moment I confirmed this, a massive status window materialized before me.

「 ⧉ [Main Story] No.3 Holy Sword Contention 」

A narrative that had suddenly wedged itself in, displacing the previously predicted Main Story called “Paradigm”.
Whether due to the Bug’s aftermath, Systematicity had appended an explanation here.

───
– Condition 1. Obtain the Holy Sword “Peace Guide†”.
– Condition 2. Place the Holy Sword “Peace Guide†” into the possession of the Hero.
– Upon failure, all of humanity will perish.
– Current Progress: 0%
───

Looking at it this far, it seemed like a simple affair.
I’d simply pay for it and be done.

But then, well……

.
.
.
.
.

From the darkness, multiple pairs of eyes gazed downward.

Upon the auction house in the center of Golden Field.

Many experts had calculated the value of the “Eternal Ship Treasure” at thirty billion. And from high nobility to royalty, to Starlight Seats and emperors, they’d harbored no particular doubts about that figure.

Yet for an infinitesimal few—those who saw through the world’s currents—it was different.

Its worth could not be calculated in a mere thirty billion Hika.

*

The first to raise his head was the Hero.

“Is there really something important in that auction house?”
“…Yes.”

He had stepped upon the Empire’s soil alongside Adel Moang, a new ally forged in the Croitz Kingdom.

In secret from the others.

*

Next to raise her head was the limping shadow-broker.

“……We must secure it, no matter what.”

It was Kaiser Truman.
He had slipped into the Empire with War General Eaimon, the former Chief Professor Moong, Count Kahrula’s personal retainers, and a promising new guardian knight in tow.
At his side walked a beautiful woman with black hair.

“Don’t worry yourself, Society Master.”
…….

Jet-black eyes, jet-black hair. And a face that resembled his friend more closely than anyone else’s could.
Kaiser was experiencing emotional turmoil, though he let none of it show on his face.
How on earth had he ended up coming to an auction house alongside the world’s ninth-ranked Dark Starlight Seat, of all people?
With Matriarch Valmond Nibelung and her personal guard, no less?!

‘Damn it all.’

If he’d tried to explain it aloud, he could have spent two hours near tears laying it all out, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.

‘I have to survive…….’

Auction be damned!

*

Rebecca Hiakium von Hiaka was also present. She had come alone, drawn by an intense instinct she couldn’t ignore. And so she’d told the organization she was taking a retreat, and made her way secretly into the Empire with Lord Laim.
There, by pure chance, she encountered someone.

…….
…….

A young girl with sky-blue hair, her hood flipped back, her eyes a soft, gentle blue.
Rebecca had never seen her before, and she was strikingly beautiful. Yet separate from that fact, Rebecca felt a hostility so intense its source eluded her.
Why did she dislike her so much? She couldn’t say.
So she spoke.

“Your outfit’s rather tasteless, isn’t it?”
“……?”
“If you came alone, would you like to come with me? I’ll buy you some decent clothes.”

At that, the girl—Eve—flinched and withdrew.
She didn’t understand the words that had come from Rebecca’s mouth.

…….

Eve made a gesture of some kind.
Slow. Deliberate.

“What are you doing? Can’t you speak?”

Then came another gesture.
Rebecca asked several times what it meant.
When only gestures kept coming back, Rebecca’s eyes narrowed.

“What are you trying to say? Are you trying to annoy me?”

Then Eve scratched her chin and
recalled what “the human” had said.

‘If. Someone. Suddenly angry. Then answer. Like this.’

Eve recalled the human’s gesture, and
blinked her eyes,
He held up his middle finger toward Rebecca.

“……I see. I understand that much.”

Rebecca’s brow furrowed.

*

There was another Starlight Seat who felt something odd.

“…Hmm.”

The other Starlight Seats seemed unaware.
But he sensed it instinctively.
Snow-white hair. Eyes sharp and slanted, set in a youthful face of massive build. Clouds wreathing his body glimmered with five-hued light.
He ranked twentieth in the world standings—the universally acknowledged god of Illusion Magic.
He was also the world’s tyrant, recently enraged by some bothersome insect of a professor.

“This should be amusing.”

Agion, Starlight Seat of the Starlight Fellowship.

*

Finally, Dante Hiakium surveyed the central auction house of Golden Field.
The whole expanse of that vast auction complex, composed of seven buildings.

“Everyone study the layout carefully—think of it as a preliminary reconnaissance of a client site. A single passage can save your life or end it.”
“Yes!”
“Understood.”
“Got it!”

He spoke alongside his assassination unit.
And then.

───
▷ Region 9 Forest of Magic “Cain’s Christmas Tree” Travel Settlement
– 2,027,521,990 Ħ
───

After waiting a full three months, at last came the settlement—a considerably fattened purse.

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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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