Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 18

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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 18
EP7 – Bone to Pick! (5)

My Relationship Rating with Elise had jumped a full fifteen points. The highest increase on record, and deeply satisfying.
Yet for all this goodwill, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.

【 Zamryong Academy First-Year Elise: ‘Mm.’ 】
【 Zamryong Academy First-Year Elise: ‘Professor smells nice.’ 】

By instinct alone, I knew the truth: the Relationship Rating was still far too low. It fell nowhere near the threshold needed to guarantee my safety during the Professor Assassination event.
I’d need at least a hundred, wouldn’t I?
By now, I doubted any of the students could kill me so easily, and yet I refused to loosen my grip on caution. This world was not constructed so simply.

【 Zamryong Academy First-Year Elise: ‘What about the scent of blood?’ 】
【 Zamryong Academy First-Year Elise: ‘I’m curious.’ 】
【 Zamryong Academy First-Year Elise: ‘I want to… assassinate.’ 】

See? She’s genuinely mad.

The inner tail of her consciousness seemed to be slowing, bit by bit.
Her gaze had grown correspondingly distant.

【 Zamryong Academy First-Year Elise: ‘Assassinate…?’ 】

Her eyes shifted. Those perked ears turned toward the infirmary door, listening.
Slowly, her lids began to droop.

【 Zamryong Academy First-Year Elise: ‘No witnesses here.’ 】

I cut off the thread of her thoughts at once.

“Elise Krshikos.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t even dream of it.”

【 Zamryong Academy First-Year Elise: ‘……!’ 】

Caught red-handed, her face betrayed shock.
Elise fumbled for words, then asked back:

“W-what do you… mean…?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying.”
“Me…?”

She averted her gaze, mumbling.

“I… ah, I don’t understand anything…”

I brought the File Folder down on her head.

Bonk!

“Kyah—”

In any case, my meeting with Elise ended there.

* * *

“Rest now.”
“See you again, Professor.”

She waved her hand briskly, a soft rustling sound.
After Professor Dante disappeared.
Elise sprawled across the middle of the bed.
Her pink hair fanned out like a flower bloom.
She sank into thought, staring up at nothing.

‘Hm?’

Now that she thought about it.
Something strange had happened.
There had been times before when she couldn’t control her own aggression—a handful of occasions in her life.
Several times even after losing her father. Because of that, Elise had to endure rather difficult stretches of living.

‘Hm?’

But this incident was different. Elise had definitely felt herself slipping beyond her own grasp, just like before, and as proof of it, her nose had bled. Yet—
Once she entered the Thornwood Forest walking path, Elise moved to kill her target. Utterly singleminded.
If something got in her way, she killed it first. So she nearly—very nearly—might have tried to kill Professor Dante.
Of course?
Professor Dante was strong, so he wouldn’t have died?
But still?
Everything around would have been drenched in blood, and Elise herself would have bled from her nose, then from her eyes, then vomited blood from her mouth before losing consciousness—that’s how it always ended.
That’s how it had always been.
But Professor Dante had stopped it. And that was the first time it had ever happened since her father.

How?

After that, Elise thought about several things, but soon enough the thoughts scattered and she forgot what she’d been thinking about. Her gaze simply drifted to the dumbbell-shaped pattern on the ceiling panel.

‘A bone…?’

It was always like this.

* * *

The same old routine from last year.
It’s not dead, and here it comes again.

┃ Event triggered: [Neutral Chief Professor Council Forum]
┃ Reward: Fragment of Star × 5

Damn it all—this is the fourth time.

I came here thinking I’d bail out if it got canceled again.
But when I arrived at the Seminar Hall, there was no cancellation notice—surprisingly.
Instead, sharp looks from several of the neutral professors shot my way. Some of them were ones I’d pushed aside before.

A profession born in back alleys, born among street rabble.
Assassin.
So in people’s minds, among the three great professions—warrior, mage, assassin—the assassin was the most contemptible.
Even so, a professor is still a professor.
They all work hard to maintain their dignity.
But I know how paper-thin the dignity of these assassination instructors really is.

【 Neutral Professor Gula: ‘Looks like the arrogant type who acts according to his looks. Thinks he’s something special.’ 】
【 Neutral Professor Bedrak: ‘Professor Dante…. Maybe he’s lost his mind being new, but I had guys like that back in my day too.’ 】

What pathetic fools. Their vision is so narrow.

– Professors, please rise. Chief Professor Batalion is entering.

In any case, at last, after four postponements, the Chief Professor finally graced the forum with his presence.

● Chief Professor of Marksmanship: Batalion

Rank: Grandmaster. Standing: 415th place.
It would be no exaggeration to say he shoulders one of the pillars supporting not just the Academy, but our entire Kingdom of Hiaka. A monster of a professor.

‘…or perhaps not.’

He was certainly impressive, but the news stirred nothing in me. He was no one of consequence to my affairs.

– …First, as Chief Professor, I must apologize for the three forum cancellations. I regret having wasted your time.

Yet what came next from his mouth, before the forum proper could begin, carried with it something decidedly troubling. No—something gravely urgent.
It was far more than a simple postponement.

– The elite operatives of the Assassination Unit—mine and those of the other Neutral Chief Professors—have been assassinated at four-day intervals.

The neutral professors stirred. “What?” “How?” they murmured. Batalion continued.

– All three targets held critical positions within the Assassination Unit, and all three are dead. Among them was one of my own apprentices—a promising operative.

Batalion then warned them to exercise caution. For some reason, he noted, only the Neutral faction seemed to be targeted.

“Tsk. What in the world….”
“Then the forum postponements were due to the funerals?”

The neutral professors seemed to have heard nothing of this until now.

“Who could possibly…?”

While they whispered amongst themselves, I read into Chief Professor Batalion’s thoughts.
This situation…was far more serious than it appeared.

“Chief Professor Batalion! So who is this assassin?”
“Haven’t you found them yet?”

Several neutral professors posed the question.
Batalion exhaled heavily.

– We are still in the process of identifying them.

It was a lie.
Batalion knew.
And now, so did I.

“Who could possibly….”

The identity of the killer.

* * *

Princess Rebecca was a cadet at Zamryong Academy, though her own level of skill was not particularly high.
Perhaps the weakest student in the entire Academy.
Even though she trained to exhaustion every day, hidden from all eyes, still she remained so.
Yet despite this, she possessed one talent that overwhelmingly surpassed that of her peers.

Rebecca could see mana.

Why was that? From childhood, Rebecca had been able to perceive the gaps in a Barrier.
A Barrier was a defensive spell that formed a perfect hemisphere, sealing off all directions. The mana within circulated endlessly, replenishing what scattered outward.
It was like a roundabout in that sense. Cars moved in order, but at certain points they had to hesitate, reading each other’s intentions before proceeding.
Rebecca could observe the inevitable collisions of mana particles occurring in those intervals of circulation.

Just a fraction of a second. Just the smallest sliver of space.

Right at the heart of that gap—

“Fire.”

Balmung pulled the trigger.

Thwack—

It was Siegfried.
A shadow-wreathed sniper rifle of Legendary Grade I.
The darkness-cloaked bullet traveled three thousand meters.

In an instant, it crossed space, grazed a passing bird, penetrated a building’s window, pierced through the opposite window, cut across countless trees among the undergrowth, and at the end of its path, burrowed through the Barrier of the ‘target’ nestled within the crowd.

Thud—!

The middle-aged man crumpled where he stood.
In the same instant, assassins nearby gasped in shock.

“Confirmed hit.”
“Understood.”
“Let’s move, Your Highness.”

It had been such a quiet moment of murder.
As Balmung gathered his equipment and rose, he spoke.

“Though I must say, Your Highness, that’s rather twisted taste.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ordering the shot from the target’s own home—from his daughter’s bedroom, no less.”

Indeed. The vantage point had been the traitor’s family residence. Specifically, the bedroom of his twelve-year-old daughter.
And the girl was at school right now.

……

Looking around the room, dolls and shades of pink filled every corner.
Rebecca stood vacant-eyed, surveying the space, until she found what appeared to be a family portrait drawn by a child and approached it.
Inscribed there was a message that could only have been written by her father: “Our Princess, I love you!” The man who had just died.
The Princess stared blankly at the drawing.
Then she asked quietly.

“…Why did he commit treason?”

Her voice swept thin as a dried broom across the floor.

“My lady?”

Balmung tilted his head.

“For money, surely? The Kingdom of Kroitz offered those chief professors an astronomical sum, did they not?”
“Still.”
“Still? Still what?”
“I have to protect her. I love her.”
“…….”

Balmung fell silent.
Rebecca shifted her gaze to the girl in the portrait, studying her with unblinking eyes. Then, with something like a sigh, she murmured aloud.

“How pitiful….”

A cold smile spread across her face.
As if there were someone standing before the painting, the princess reached out and gently stroked the girl’s hair.

“I suppose he loved money more than you. Your father too.”

The sentiment ended there.

⋮

After erasing all traces of the assassination, Rebecca and Balmung fled the scene with swift strides.

“Is that the end of it, then?”
“For now.”
“You’ve been hard at work these past few days.”

Over the past several days, they had eliminated a handful of traitors. Monsters who moved to betray their nation, to turn their backs on Hiaka Academy.

“Still, even if they call them core members of the conspiracy, is it enough?”
“You want me to kill the Chief Professors? I don’t have the skill for that. I’ve done what I can—better to avoid complications later.”
“Ah, yes. That makes sense.”

A vehicle approached in the distance.
The princess’s royal knights and escort unit appeared.
Cheongroo and Laim, if memory served.

“Your Highness!”
“Get in!”

Safety was assured at this point.
Those two could be trusted, after all.

‘Hmm. Though I must say, it was rather dull….’

The assassinations had been far too easy.
Even though the targets were elite assassins of the Emerald or Diamond rank.

‘…I thought this time would be different.’

There should be one lesson to draw from each assassination. Yet four assassinations had yielded nothing.

‘Killing weak opponents is unsatisfying. But if I took on someone strong, I’d end up dead.’

That was why an assassination sparring partner was needed, a professor to teach him—but….

The question surfaced again.
Just how strong was Professor Dante?
Upon returning to Zone 0, Balmung hurried toward Wol Young Hall.

“Huh? It’s Balmung….”
“What’s he up to…?”

The moment Balmung appeared in Wol Young Hall, the cadets looked up in surprise.
The elite of Zamryong Academy, forever admired.
Son of the Nibellung Family, the apex of Hiaka’s dark society.
Yet they gazed upon him now as a strange figure—cast down from such towering heights, stripped of everything.

Balmung paid no attention to any of those stares as he made his way to Marina’s room.

“Marina.”

She sat in her private quarters, covered in wounds, and let out a low scoff when she saw him.

“How pathetic. I chased you for years and couldn’t get you to look my way once.”
“It’s been a while. How’s your condition?”
“A blade was driven through my gut. How do you think I am? But why—did you come here to curse me too?”
“No. The conflict between you and Elise is none of my concern. But I am curious about something.”
“What?”
“How exactly did Professor Dante stop your fight?”

It was a question he’d been wondering about all along.
And many first-year cadets had wondered the same.

“Why are you asking me that too?”
“I’m curious.”
“I don’t want to tell you.”
“Please.”

Marina let out a sigh.

“I really don’t want to. I’m not going to say it.”

In the end, she kept her silence.
But when it came to Dante, she fidgeted, grew uncomfortable, and kept trying to change the subject. The smell of fear was overwhelming.
In that moment, Balmung felt a certain conviction settle within him.

‘He must be extraordinarily strong.’

His instinct had been right.
Kaiser’s words had been right too.
Peace of mind came with that realization.

Yet the question remained unanswered. Didn’t that mean he still didn’t know how strong Dante truly was?
He couldn’t wait any longer.
He decided to see for himself.

And so Balmung took up Siegfried and ascended to the Clock Tower in Zone 0, searching for Professor Dante.
He checked the professors’ schedules and spotted Dante emerging from the Seminar Hall three and a half kilometers away.
Thus he brought the professor’s figure into his scope.

……

For Balmung, the trigger was a button of trust.
Press it, and the person you see dies.

The targets he’d killed over the past few days flickered through his mind.
If he pressed this trigger, would that man die too?

For now, he simply continued watching.
Suddenly, Dante approached another professor and began asking him something.

‘……Ah, that person.’

Batalion, a Neutral Chief Professor.
Among the chief professors, one of the handful who was truly formidable.
He’d requested a sparring match several times, only to be turned down each instance as if it were a nuisance.
Moreover, Balmung had recently killed that man’s prized student.

‘……Should I take a shot at both of them?’

But that was merely a thought he’d entertained.

Still, he pulled the scope’s zoom to get a clearer look at Dante and Batalion.
What happened next shocked Balmung.

As the zoom was being pulled in.

The professor turned his head.

At the moment of maximum magnification.

Their eyes met.

‘……!!’

Balmung tore his gaze away in panic.
Three thousand five hundred meters. A distance where houses looked like dust.
It was far greater than any target he’d ever aimed at before.
Yet Professor Dante had detected this faint killing intent from such an enormous distance.

What was even more shocking was that Chief Professor Batalion had seen him a half-beat too late.
That great chief professor had been slower than Professor Dante!

‘…Heh!’

He quickly pressed himself against the wall.
And with that, certainty bloomed within him.

‘Professor Dante’s realm surpasses even that of the chief professors…….’

Had he possessed a tail, brief as it was, he would have wagged it.
Balmung felt extraordinarily pleased.
Laughter spilled from his lips.

“Hah hah….”

Weak? Him?

“That damned fool really doesn’t know shit….”

That idiot Kendrick.

* * *

┃ Relationship Rating increased: Balmung [14] (▲8)
┃ Reward: Fragment of Star × 8

What?
A sudden spike in the Relationship Rating.
In that instant, hostile intent toward me flashed on the Script, so I pinpointed the location on the Mini Map and scanned it, but since it was so far away I couldn’t see anything clearly—I was only confirming the direction when it suddenly vanished.

Just then, Batalion glanced up with a puzzled expression.

“…Hmm? There was a sniper a moment ago. Did you see them too?”
“I’m not entirely sure.”
“I see. Well, it is Zone 0, after all…. So what was it you wanted to ask me about, Professor?”

Back to the main point.
I had just posed a question to Batalion.

“It concerns those who attacked the Assassination Unit of the Neutral Chief Professor Council.”
“Ah, right.”
“Could they possibly be agents of the Kroitz Kingdom?”
“Hmm? What makes you think that?”

Kroitz Kingdom.
Hiaka’s rival nation.

“Well, you see…”

I carefully fed him the information I possessed as someone who’d lived through this world, spinning out the tale of Hiaka’s Assassination Department’s decline.
As I spoke, Batalion’s eyes began to narrow steadily.

【 Neutral Chief Professor Batalion: ‘Sharp intuition, this one has.’ 】

Then, as my words lengthened.

【 ‘What is this? How does he know in such detail…?’ 】

His expression grew progressively more grave.

【 ‘Does he know something? Or is he simply perceptive…?’ 】

I stopped before his suspicions could deepen further.
Then Batalion smiled brightly through his monocle.

“My apologies, Professor Dante. Your theory is plausible, but I’m afraid I don’t know much myself.”
“You don’t know?”
“Precisely—I don’t know. However, I doubt Kroitz attacked us directly. I suspect it was an inside job, rather.

A roundabout answer.
But the Script showed otherwise.

【 Neutral Chief Professor Batalion: ‘It was surely the doing of that shallow-minded vermin, Princess Rebecca.’ 】

“Don’t worry yourself too much. Well then, I’m off!”

Watching the chief professor retreat into the distance.
I narrowed my eyes.

【 Neutral Chief Professor Batalion: ‘I need to silence them. If even a new professor can get this close, the dean might already know. Not that it matters, though.’ 】

No matter how cunning a person is, they cannot deceive themselves.
And a person who cannot deceive themselves.

【 ‘Already finished preparing to leave Hiaka….’ 】
【 ‘Just need to hold on for another month or two. This vile nation.’ 】

Can absolutely never deceive me.

“…….”

After sending the Grandmaster off, I headed home as well.
My thoughts grew tangled as I walked.

‘The chief professors are betraying Hiaka. Rebecca, having grasped their treachery, is assassinating the traitors.’

This was a branching point.

The game “Hiaka Academy: Assassination Department” consisted of between seven and thirteen main story arcs leading to the final chapter.
As I’d anticipated, the first main story—the most difficult one of all—was about to unfold.

‘……The very first button has been fastened tight.’

An academy that had once ranked fifth among the continent’s most prestigious institutions, only to have declined sharply in recent years.
An event that drove a final nail into the coffin of Hiaka Academy’s collapse.
The collective betrayal and flight of the chief professors.

The story was called:

Main Story 1: Betrayal and Collapse

This story was difficult precisely because, unlike other narratives that race toward their conclusions, the ending—betrayal and collapse—was already locked in place before the story even began.
To use an analogy: Batalion had already spirited away everything—money, equipment, techniques, assassins—to foreign lands.
The conspirators were simply waiting for the appointed day. Any interference only hastened the collapse.

Moreover, from within and beyond this first main story, enemies appeared that threatened both the player and all of humanity.

The emergence of demons.

‘The difficulty is high, but not insurmountable.’

As long as I didn’t die.
I was certain I could revive the academy using the brilliant children designed to kill me, and I was certain I could overturn the entire world. Because I was a stagnant pool.

‘Still, the demons are something I need to be careful about.’

It was enough to be forewarned of this disaster.
The dean knew. The chief professors knew.
And besides, there was nothing to change about it.

I just had to go on living as I had been.
Growing stronger. Collecting Fragments of Stars. Raising my Relationship Ratings.

That was all there was to it—living my life as a professor.

⋮

Schedule Completed: Neutral Chief Professor Council
Reward: Fragment of Star × 5

Current Fragments of Star: 62

EP7

Boneheads!

END

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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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