Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 21

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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 21
EP8 – Professor Assassination: Proxy Assassination (3)

I had no intention of getting deeply involved.
Stopping the assassination and confiscating weapons would be enough.
But then, as I shrouded myself in mist, crossed traps with fake cars, and sent false students to sow confusion, I noticed something strange in the Scripts.
Thoughts that didn’t belong to the would-be assassins appeared in my mind.

【 First-year, Assassination Department, Bedin: ‘Why is this happening? You said he’s a professor who only evades! I never heard anything like this…!’ 】
【 First-year, Assassination Department, Parnan: ‘Damn it. I never wanted to do this from the start….’ 】
【 First-year, Assassination Department, Gaineri: ‘…But if I just go through the motions, maybe he’ll ease up a bit?’ 】

A Script that read like someone was giving them orders.
And then it was Forte’s thought that became the trigger.

【 First-year, Wol Yeong Academy, Forte: ‘……That bastard Hoakin, he’s trying to extract information this way. Wake up. You can never beat Professor Dante.’ 】

Hoakin’s orders.
Or perhaps, coercion.

‘…So it was a proxy assassination.’

The Assassination Department doesn’t even flag murder if it goes undetected.
But there are certain acts that they do condemn.
One of them is foisting your own assassination onto someone else.
This is called proxy assassination.

‘This place raises assassins as tools, not masters….’

If I was to survive long-term, I needed to eliminate long-term threats.
In a situation like this, if a student harboring ill will had commissioned a proxy assassination, I had to set things straight.

【 First-year, Wol Yeong Academy, Forte: ‘Damn it! Stop, you idiots!’ 】

The decisive moment came when the students’ clumsy fumbling with fire spread into an unexpected wildfire.
I had no choice but to step forward directly.

── .

As World Fabrication released, the time I’d held frozen in illusion flowed rapidly forward. The bird flew off in a blur, and all the students collapsed where they stood.
At their level, they couldn’t perceive anything amiss.

“Everyone. Lower your weapons and raise both hands.”

The students obeyed without question. They were all trembling—World Fabrication had worked perfectly on them.
Then Forte looked up at me with startled eyes.

“Professor….”
“Be quiet and stay down.”
“…….”

He had a blade in his back, but his breathing was shallow.
It meant his lungs were damaged.
Who had stabbed him?

“Huh… uh-uh…! Kah-hack…!”

There he was. The cadet Forte had been shielding from behind.
He too was trembling, as if paralyzed by shock.

“Adel. Call the Discipline Department. Tell them we have injured.”
“Yes, sir. Oh my, what should we—”

The Discipline Department was Hiaka’s police force.

“Is there a cadet trained in first aid?”
“I… I can do it…”
“Come here and tend to these two.”

For now, the immediate crisis was contained.
Both of them—their white cadet uniforms were streaked with blood.

……

I was beginning to feel genuinely angry.
Not just at the professor assassination itself.
But at whoever had entrusted such a dangerous operation to a group so utterly inept—like handing a scalpel to a child and asking them to perform open-heart surgery.
I was furious.

Soon the Assassination Department, the Discipline Department, and the medical staff would arrive and sort this out.
But before that.
I turned to Forte, who’d recovered some composure after drinking a potion.

“Who ordered this?”
“…I don’t understand, sir.”
“This group assassination. Who sent you?”
“We just… decided among ourselves…”

His words weren’t landing. I peeled off the Gloves on my right hand.
Bloodstained bandages underneath.
This wasn’t from tonight’s assassination.
I held up my hand so he could see it, and met his eyes.

“Did Hoakin do this to you?”
……

I already knew the answer, really.

“…Yes.”

I just needed him to say it.

“Understood.”

The Discipline Department vehicles arrived shortly after, and officers descended to take control of the scene. Adel had explained the Proxy Assassination situation well enough that things ran smoothly.

“No. I’m coming directly.”

But he was still trying to send a signal. What was it?

‘Is he running?’

Even if he fled, we were still in Zone 0.
There was no way out of Zone 0 without being affiliated with Jangryong Academy.

‘Or destroying evidence?’

That didn’t sit right either.
There were truckloads of witnesses to the Proxy Assassination here.

“Professor, shall we head out together right now?”
“Ah, yes. But….”

This wouldn’t do.

“You there.”
“Yes? Me?”
“Come with me.”

Hoakin’s subordinate followed along, blinking rapidly.
I had him loaded into the Discipline Department vehicle first, then headed to Wol Yeong Academy Hall alongside him.
On the way, I questioned the subordinate.

“Haman. You’re part of Hoakin’s gang, aren’t you?”
“……….”

The man sealed his lips tight.
He even turned his head away, feigning ignorance.
But I had the Script.

【 First-year, Assassination Department, Haman: ‘How did he find out?’ 】
【 First-year, Assassination Department, Haman: ‘No. I can’t answer.’ 】

His inner thoughts were transparent to me.
So I asked again.

“What’s Hoakin doing right now?”

【 First-year, Assassination Department, Haman: ‘No way. I absolutely can’t tell him!’ 】

The man remained silent.
At that, the security officer in the driver’s seat grew irritated.

“Hey, you vermin! The professor is speaking to you—are you going to keep this up with the silent treatment? Huh!?”

【 First-year, Assassination Department, Haman: ‘Tch. Curiosity won’t get you anywhere. You’ll never know that Hoakin went to find some easygoing third-year seniors.’ 】

Ah. So he was going to find some easygoing seniors.
I furrowed my brow.

‘Hoakin knows the escape route for Proxy Assassination.’

An assassin is a tool.
Proxy Assassination fundamentally applies only to those who act outside the tool’s intended use. In other words, if there is another “master,” the guilt shifts upward.
Hoakin was trying to make some easygoing senior into his master and become the tool himself, thus evading the situation.
So I understood Hoakin’s objective now. The only question left was his location.

“Where is Hoakin right now?”

【 Assassination Department, First Year, Haman: ‘Damn. He looks terrifyingly serious….’ 】
【 Assassination Department, First Year, Haman: ‘But I can’t show fear! If I tell him where Hoakin is, it’s all over!’ 】

“Haman. Answer me while you still can. Where is Hoakin?”

【 Assassination Department, First Year, Haman: ‘No. No. No no no no no. Don’t even think about it—mustn’t slip up…!’ 】

He answered well enough at first, but faltered at the end.
The boy began deliberately thinking of elephants, sheep, dinner menus—anything to turn his mind away from me.
At this rate, I’d miss the golden window to capture Hoakin, but I had my methods.

“I see.”
“Yes? Where is he, Professor?”

【 Assassination Department, First Year, Haman: ‘What!?’ 】

“Hoakin is in Building 20.”
“Building 20? Hmm, Professor… I don’t think that’s it at all….”

The patrol officer contradicts me.
That’s right.
It’s definitely not there.
Building 20 is the dormitory for students from Baek Do Hyeop, after all. But Hoakin comes from Heuk Do Ryeon.

“Why not? Building 20 is the right place.”
“No, Professor… well, Building 20 is…….”
“Enough. Officer, don’t argue. Turn the car toward Building 20. I’m certain. Hoakin is in the Building 20 dormitory right now.”
“……Yes, sir.”

Why I insist on the wrong answer.

【 Assassination Department, First Year, Haman: ‘What kind of professor is this guy? Why is he being so stubborn? He’s completely wrong.’ 】

When you need something, you have to scratch gently to get what you want.

【 Assassination Department, First Year, Haman: ‘This professor is completely insane. Go search Building 20 all you want! Hoakin will be in Building 31.’ 】

This is how it works.
Building 31. Confirmed.

“Officer.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“My apologies. Now that I think about it, I believe I misspoke.”
“Yes? Then….”
“Head to Building 31.”

【 Assassination Department, First Year, Haman: ‘Wha…!?’ 】

Haman’s eyes went wide, and he whirled to look at me.
The patrol officer also nodded, as if satisfied.

“Understood!”

And so we arrived at Building 31 dormitory not long after.
Seven patrol officers tumbled out of the three Discipline Department vehicles.

“Hoakin! Come out right now!”
“You’re under arrest for commissioning a Proxy Assassination!”

And then they began ransacking the dormitory.
During that process, cadets from Heuk Do Ryeon blocked our path.

“What’s the matter? Huh? Why aren’t you leaving right now?”
“Move aside! We’re here to arrest Hoakin!”
“He’s a first-year! Why are you looking for him here? Get out!”

Third-year cadets from Heuk Do Ryeon, determined to protect Hoakin, had even unfurled a Mana Field and blocked the staircase with their bodies.
Students resisting lawful authority with crude force.

“Stand aside.”
“Ah, Professor…”

The moment I pushed past the agent and stepped before the Mana Field, the cadets tensed and faltered.
I didn’t miss that opening.

『 World Fabrication: Phenomenon Falsification [Mana Field Destruction] 』

I merely placed my hand against it.
In an instant, cracks spiderwebbed across the Mana Field, and arcs of electricity erupted in all directions before the whole thing shattered.

Crackle-crackle-crackle! Bang!!

“What—what the hell?! How did—!”
“Damn it! Scatter!!”

Human cognition relies on sight far more than most realize.
In truth, the Mana Field remained perfectly intact.
It still stood within the thick smoke.
Yet the moment they saw what they believed to be its shattering—even as they themselves poured mana into it—they panicked and dissolved the field entirely, bolting away.
The path opened before us.

“Advance.”
“Yes, sir!”

* * *

“Hoakin! The Discipline Department men are downstairs on the first floor!”
“I know, you bastard!”

Hoakin sprinted toward the rooftop of Building 31’s dormitory.
His feet pounded up the stairwell as he ran.
He swallowed curses with each step.

‘Damn it…! This wasn’t supposed to happen…!’

He’d assumed the assassination would fail, naturally.
After all, it was certain that Professor Dante was no ordinary man.

But he hadn’t expected to land no meaningful blow whatsoever.
Hadn’t expected to uncover no weakness.
And he absolutely hadn’t expected Dante to discover that he’d ordered a Proxy Assassination.
Not after pouring 100,000 Hika into equipment alone.
Yet somehow, Dante had seen through to the truth in an instant—that Hoakin himself had commissioned the hit.

‘Damn it……! How the hell did he figure it out……!?’

He’d tried, too late, to bribe the older students without money in Building 31’s dormitory, but Dante had arrived with the Discipline Department like some omniscient specter hovering above his head, watching his every move.

If he was caught here, it was finished.
His demerit count was still zero.
But if luck runs against him, he could be expelled in a single incident.
The world of assassins is cramped. If he were expelled, Heuk Do Ryeon would treat him as a cripple forever after. A label that would follow him to the grave.

“Hoakin! Come on, let’s go!”
“Hurry up, damn it!”

Still, there was somewhere to go.
The North Professor Building.
If he got there, the professors from Heuk Do Ryeon would help him.

There was no such thing as a pure teacher-student relationship in this cursed academy.
Baek Do Hyeop and Heuk Do Ryeon merely used the Hiaka royal school as a playground to expand their own power.
He would make full use of it as well.
Hoakin ground his teeth bitterly.

But the situation was precarious. From what Hoakin could sense of the mana, the Discipline Department patrol members were nearly on top of him.

“Freeze! Hoakin!”

Bang-bang-bang-bang!
The cadets who had been chasing him dropped flat at the gunfire.

“Urgh…!”

But it bought him time.
On the rooftop, Hoakin clung to the wall and closed his eyes.

Existence Concealment.

His body melted into the space, turning transparent.
Now he just had to climb back down.
Down the wall of the dormitory building.
To the ground.

‘…Done. Damn it.’

It was a success.
Running into the forest, leaving the Discipline Department patrol cars behind.
Laughter bubbled up from Hoakin’s throat.

‘Ah, I made it. Really almost died there.’

He glanced back, keeping watch on the situation.
Far off, he could see patrol members scrambling from the windows on the fourth and sixth floors.
They were in for a rough time. He was already outside.
He’d probably catch some flak from the Heuk Do Ryeon people.
But it wouldn’t last long. He had money and good connections.
If he kept his head down and stayed quiet for a while, it would all blow over….
Thud.
Then he hit something with his back.

“What the hell, you bastard. Where are your eyes…?”

He started to snap something irritable, but his body went rigid.
A man with black hair and pink eyes looked down at him.
The way a lion might regard a deer—a gaze that made him feel utterly insignificant.

“Seize him.”

Professor Dante Hiaka gave the order to the Discipline Department members.

“Yes!”

In an instant, he was bound and slammed face-first to the floor.
Hoakin couldn’t make sense of reality.

‘What…?’

They should still have been inside the dormitory.
Even if they’d emerged, wouldn’t they need to exit through that door and track him down?

“…How…how did you find me…?”

He asked, not to expose his shortcomings as an assassin, but simply because he couldn’t understand. He wanted the dissonance to vanish. And yet.

“What are you talking about?”

The reply delivered only defeat to Hoakin.

“A blind man could have found you.”

⋮

That day, all ten members of Hoakin’s group were arrested by the Discipline Department.

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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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