Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 20
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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 20.
EP8 – Professor Assassination: Proxy Assassination (2)
“Professor! I’m sorry. Did I keep you waiting long?”
Three hours later, Adel returned with her arms full of shopping bags.
She’d clearly enjoyed herself.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, yes. Returning to the Mansion.”
So the first shopping trip ended with everyone happy.
If every day could be like this, living in this world might actually be quite a pleasant thought… but then.
That thought shattered the moment we entered Zone 0. The Professor Assassination had begun.
【 First-Year Student of the Assassination Department, Beiki: 】
Again?
But something felt wrong.
The minimap was dotted with red points. And a message had appeared on the Script.
Two. Four. Six. Eight… fourteen.
‘What is this?’
An abnormal number of students were targeting me.
“Adel. Watch out.”
“Huh?”
That’s when it happened.
Crack!
A tree at the roadside snapped and fell onto the car.
“Huh? What!?”
Adel frantically stepped on the accelerator, barely dodging the tree.
Crash! A massive tree trunk fell behind our car.
“…What was that?”
Her voice trembled with alarm.
But it wasn’t over.
Whoosh!
Clang-clang-clang!
A shuriken flew through the window and ricocheted off the protective barrier.
They were clearly trying to stop the car in earnest now.
Thump!
The car’s body suddenly sank.
Then it began to shake and lurch.
“What’s happening? Uh, uh…?”
Adel’s voice grew panicked as she slowed down.
The tire had driven over a Spike Trap and burst.
“What on earth is happening? Let me just step outside and take a look….”
“No. Stay inside.”
“Pardon?”
“Professor Assassination.”
She turned to me, eyes wide with shock.
“…Today?”
It was the weekend, after all.
Typically, even when assassinations occurred, they happened on weekdays.
First, I assessed the situation.
【 Assassination Department, First Year, Hadon: 】
Fourteen assassins, to be precise.
All of them clustered in the trees above.
【 Assassination Department, First Year, Kata: 】
Wearing masks.
Organized ones, naturally.
But what was their plan?
【 Assassination Department, First Year, Balison: ‘I’ll turn him into a pincushion.’ 】
【 Assassination Department, First Year, Kuel: ‘Come out already. Come out….’ 】
【 Assassination Department, First Year, Kai: ‘Hm…. Ready to fire…. We’ll definitely kill him….’ 】
Far rougher than I’d expected.
Less an organized strategy, more a simple desire to pulverize.
“What should I do? Is there anything I can help with?”
“No. Just stay still.”
The Assassination Department wasn’t entirely without rules.
Attempting to assassinate anyone outside the faculty could result in severe penalties—up to execution.
‘Let’s see.’
The vehicle had tinted windows.
Since I couldn’t tell who was inside, I couldn’t attack recklessly.
But the moment I stepped out, a barrage of arrows, bullets, and shuriken would pour down.
‘…Though something feels off.’
A group targeting me.
Their barely contained excitement.
Going to the trouble of wearing masks.
Up to this point, I’d suspect Marina and her crew—but then….
【 Wolgyeong Academy, First Year, Forte: ‘…….’ 】
What’s he doing here?
It was Forte, who’d attempted that first assassination on my first day of work.
‘…For now, I’ll crush their assassination.’
This was different from that first day.
Then, I’d been desperate just to escape the immediate danger. Today, I held the advantage in every aspect of this situation.
I closed my eyes and activated my Special Ability.
『 World Forgery: Spatial Forgery [Water Mist Veil] 』
『 World Forgery: Form Forgery [Mana Vehicle] 』
『 World Forgery: Form Forgery [Dante] 』
⋮
* * *
No ordinary student believed they could assassinate a professor in single combat.
That was something only Chamyong Academy students could manage.
Which was why most professor assassinations were structured as Assassination Squad raids.
Multiple attackers converging on one defenseless target.
That too was part of assassination.
‘Fourteen of them? That’s record-breaking….’
The foundation of group combat was numbers.
Morale rose with every additional body.
‘There’s even a sniper prodigy from some notable house—from Wolgyeong Academy….’
And the stronger your allies, the bolder your confidence grew.
‘…….’
‘…….’
None of them had come willingly. They were students who’d been tormented by Joaquin all semester, now gathered together.
At first, it was half dread, half reluctance.
But now, with the target right in front of them and the assassination underway, excitement surged through them.
‘……If we kill him here, we get the professor’s entire estate, 15 million Hika, and a Graduation Certificate.’
The professor’s wealth and 15 million Hika would be split equally, but the Graduation Certificate would not.
A Graduation Certificate from the Assassination Department was something magnificent.
For some, it was an accomplishment.
For others, the crowning achievement of their student years.
And for still others, it meant receiving a pension from the Hiakahpo Royal Family over twenty years.
In other words, you only had to succeed once.
Then you’d secure a comfortable pension for life.
‘There’s a real chance here.’
He hadn’t used any force in the recent incident with Marina.
‘A professor who doesn’t counterattack.’
A professor who couldn’t strike back and only evaded—that’s what they’d said.
Simple tools meant simple tactics to exploit.
‘Block his escape.’
Now, the car had stopped, traps were laid in every direction, and they surrounded the vehicle in a perfect circle. No matter which way he tried to exit, they’d have him cornered.
Right then, Mana crackled inside the car—*Fzzzt*.
The students never doubted it for a moment.
Soon, the professor would become a porcupine.
But as mist began to rise from all corners of the forest, doubt crept in, unraveling his confidence.
“What?”
The forest turned hazy in seconds, as if Smoke Grenades had been deployed in every direction.
“What—what is this?”
“Mist? A grenade? But when did…?”
The moment the surroundings thickened, confusion pierced through their steady preparations.
All the more so for cadets with minimal assassination experience.
The cadets listened intently. Then they heard the engine exhaust of a Mana Vehicle.
‘There!’
The vehicle began to flee through the mist. But with all four tires blown out, it couldn’t roll properly.
Was the professor going to hide in the car like a coward?
The cadets drew their blades and pursued the vehicle, leaping from tree to tree.
‘It’s futile!’
The reason they’d stopped the car on the Straight Road was simple.
They had laid a double trap ahead.
The vehicle couldn’t possibly avoid it.
‘Just a little further…’
It would plummet into the pit!
They had no doubt whatsoever.
Not until the car passed right over the trap.
The automobile ignored the trap as though it weighed nothing. Could this too be some trick of the professor’s?
Something was wrong.
The calls for calm did nothing.
As their triple-layered traps fell apart, the cadets felt it keenly—a sense that something had gone terribly wrong. It wasn’t just the immediate sense of misalignment, but an ominous certainty that even if they continued, they would not succeed. Yet through that murky judgment, they chased after the rattling vehicle.
The momentum was broken.
It was at that moment.
Strange words began crackling through the communications system.
In fact, it seemed there was a traitor among them.
One cadet was leaping between trees when someone charged at him wielding a short dagger, forcing him to hastily change direction mid-air.
And so two figures found themselves locked in a standoff atop the branches.
“…Hey! Why are you targeting me?”
“…….”
“What are you doing? Come to your senses, damn it!”
“…….”
His opponent gave no answer. He merely swayed with his blade raised, ready to strike at any moment. It seemed similar situations were unfolding in every direction.
The frenzy of group assassination transformed into raw aggression.
The mere fact that an opponent held a blade against them sparked frustration—an urge to thrust, to strike.
‘This is…!’
Yet while none of them grasped the truth, one cadet saw through it.
Forte ground his teeth hard.
This was Professor Dante’s stratagem.
‘With the uniform and masks, fooling appearances would’ve been simple.’
But mimicking individual faces was another matter entirely.
He wouldn’t even know what they looked like.
‘Professor Dante Hiakahpo……. I thought he was a Movement Technique or Throwing assassin, but he’s also mastered Illusion Magic……?’
Forte’s eyes swept the world with lethal precision.
By his estimate, roughly ten clones had rushed forward. From what he understood, clones demanded considerable mental focus to maintain.
Thirty seconds had passed since the assassination attempt began. In that span, the professor had conjured so many clones, projected them outward, and positioned them to block every last assassin’s path.
Professor Dante was…….
‘…a monster, damn it!’
There were rumors circulating lately. That he had no past. That he never counterattacked. That Professor Dante might actually be weak.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Forte’s instincts screamed it to him.
Just like the first day. He was clumsily targeting an overwhelmingly monstrous opponent.
Still, because he didn’t know the full extent of the professor’s power, because he’d never fought him directly,
he’d thought
that trying might yield something unforeseen.
It was foolish thinking.
‘I never imagined the gap would be this vast.’
The assassination was already collapsing. Everything had unraveled in mere seconds.
‘But….’
If you draw the blade, you must see it through to the end.
An assassination cannot be allowed to fail halfway.
While this one and that one fell into confusion, their opinions refusing to coalesce.
Forte felt the weight of it—he had to lead them.
Whether they wanted it or not, the assassination had already begun.
“Everyone, look at me!!”
Forte removed his mask and stood atop the tallest tree.
“It’s fine! We can still do this! Take off your masks! Remove them and tell the fakes apart! These clones only imitate the surface—once you see their faces, you’ll know which is real!”
In truth, Forte’s judgment was sound. Even World Forgery cannot forge a face it has never seen.
But the cadets—green as spring grass by any assassin’s standard—did not take his words kindly.
As the situation spiraled, their excitement had scrambled their thinking entirely.
“…….”
“…….”
As silence settled over them, eyes behind masks darted and rolled with suspicion.
Someone had begun to suspect Forte.
“What? What kind of nonsense is that?!”
Forte shouted. But the suspicion spread like sparks among the cadets’ anxious minds, catching and spreading fast.
Each perspective spawned its own logic, each mind its own argument.
Too many voices, no unified thought.
“What are you idiots saying! Take off your masks!!”
Whirrrr!
As the cadets hurled shuriken, Forte threw himself aside to evade.
With the thrill of assassination bottled up, their violence was misdirecting itself in chaotic bursts. To Forte’s ear, it was the reasoning of fools.
‘You idiots won’t even take off your masks, and you don’t even know who’s who!’
But even amid the chaos that had already erupted, when the clones began to fall and truly disappear, frenzy took hold.
Someone’s scream was swallowed in the noise.
Everything was falling apart.
Forte was trying to shield an actual cadet, not a clone.
Forte tore off his mask in desperation and shouted.
“I’m Forte! Back off, you idiots!”
“What? How are you defending a clone?!”
“This isn’t a clone! This person is real!”
But the cadets who came rushing at the sound of the signal—nearly ten of them—were already lost in confusion and charged at Forte regardless.
A situation spiraling into chaos. Cadets rushing forward with blades drawn.
Ping-ping-ping!
Shuriken embedding themselves across his body.
“…You damned fools!”
He could have dodged. Forte chose not to.
Instead, he roared.
“Come to your senses—!!”
Just as the assassins were about to rush him again—
A command pierced every mind in that space.
“Stop.”
A voice that rang out like ripples spreading through silence.
Every cadet froze, turning to look.
There stood Professor Dante Hiakahpo.
‘When did he—!’
He walked forward slowly. His footsteps made no sound. The downward cast of his pink eyes held a terrible blankness. A gait and a gaze like death itself given human form.
The cadets instinctively stepped backward.
‘Surely not… if this is the moment…’
‘Yes. While he’s distracted now…!’
But a mob is bold. Some cadets still hadn’t regained their senses, and they saw this as an opportunity. As several of them gripped their blades and began to channel their Special Abilities, Dante’s brow furrowed.
Crack—!
As Mana rippled outward in all directions, something miraculous unfolded.
Within a sensation dreamlike and hazy.
Falling leaves hung suspended. Swirling dust stopped mid-air. A bird in flight froze. A cadet’s rushing body froze.
The entire world seemed pinned in place.
⋮
『 World Forgery: Spatial Forgery [Time Stop] 』
⋮
Only when everything froze did the truth become visible.
A mask fell from the face of a cadet crumpled in the middle of the crowd.
A cadet with a blade lodged between his shoulder blades, bleeding out. Forte.
“Why won’t you obey?”
In a world where all movement and sound had ceased,
Professor Dante spoke with a cold, furious voice.
“I distinctly told you to stop.”
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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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