Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 25

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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 25
EP10 – Popular Professor (1)

Professor Hachon had made an assassination threat.
If he actually came looking for me, that day would surely become the anniversary of his death.
But even so, my mind found no peace.
Having become an assassination target, I found myself desperately wanting to bring the Cemetery Witch over to my side.
And so, today as well.
I was at the Public Cemetery on Byeolmatgi Mountain.

“…Well then, I should be getting back.”

I thought I’d leave as usual with nothing to show for it.
But today was different.

Clang—

We were parting ways and about to leave.
Suddenly, Eve turned her head.
She’d shown interest.
In what?
It seemed to be a sound.
The rifle slung across my back—the Liberator+—had struck against a metal holster bracket.
Was that really it? Did she react just to that sound?

“You can’t hear, though.”

I tilted my head quizzically.
So on a whim, I decided to try something.

『 World Forgery: Form Forgery [Bell] 』

I retrieved a model I’d created before.

Ding!

Then Eve showed even more interest.

“……?”

Over the past two weeks, I’d made many sounds, but this was the first time she’d reacted to any.

Ding! Ding!

A subtle hint of pleasure crossed her face.
She seemed completely deaf to other sounds, but the ringing of metal—that she could hear.

“Do you want it?”
“…….”

In that moment, I felt a genuine spark of elation.
Eve began slowly approaching me, even pulling back her hood slightly to reveal her face.
Descending from the burial mound, Eve crept toward me and cautiously reached out to grasp the bell.
I pulled it away slightly.

“You can’t ring it.”
“……?”
“You can’t ring it, I’m telling you. Like this—if you ring it. Do you know I paid to replace the Scope you broke? Of all things, you had to bring an expensive one.”

Round and round, I made motions of disassembling the Scope. Yet Eve merely tilted her head, still baffled.
Well, this time it’s Illusion Magic, so it shouldn’t matter anyway.
I handed it over.

“…….”

Ding—

A dull, flat sound rang out. Eve had grabbed the bell’s body and shaken it.

“You need to hold the top and shake it.”
“…….”

I took it back and demonstrated.
Eve, at least brighter than a snail, followed my lead.

Ding-aling….

At last, the sound came through.
Eve shook the bell with wonder in her eyes.

Ding-aling…. Ding-aling….

It was nothing like the time I’d twisted the Scope until it wouldn’t turn anymore, then kept twisting it past that point until it shattered completely.
Her motions with the bell were very deliberate.

Ding-aling…….

Was it because of that?
Today, when we parted, she mimicked my gesture for the first time.
A wave goodbye.
The gesture itself was awkward, but it was the first time she’d recognized me as a person. That’s genuine progress.

“Take care.”
“…….”

She still couldn’t speak.

* * *

The Nightwalker Building.
The office of the Hiaka Assassination Department White Path Division.
Ordinarily a quiet place, but today
it was in an uproar, as if fireworks had been set off.

“Hachon is dead? That Ghost of War from the Black Path during the 2nd Assassination War?”
“That’s what they’re saying?”
“I can’t believe it. You’re telling me that bastard is actually dead…?”

Smiles played across the professors’ faces.

The White Path professors remembered. Ten years ago, during the Assassination War, Hachon’s face as he ruthlessly slaughtered their colleagues.

The way he wielded twelve different curses with perfect command, how an entire assassination team would vomit blood in a single blow and collapse dead.

Now at the academy, they pretended it was water under the bridge, as if it were old history between them, but he was someone they’d gladly have killed any moment.

“That bastard really did die well. Ahahaha! Couldn’t have asked for better!”

Baekwa, the White Path Division chief and senior professor, laughed heartily.

“But here’s the thing—even if he’s been out of active service for a while now, it’s Hachon we’re talking about. The one called the Cursed Blade. Who in the world killed him?”
“Yes, Chairman. It was Professor Dante.”
“Dante? Who’s that?”
“The new professor in the Assassination Department.”
“Didn’t we say he’d die to Hachon?”
“He turned it around and assassinated him instead.”
“What?”
“The most surprising part is that Professor Dante came to work today without a single wound on him.”
“Is that so? Well, that fellow’s quite something…!”

Division Chief Baekwa stroked his snow-white beard and laughed.
How fascinating could this be!

“We’ll need to completely revise our assessment.”
“Assessment of what?”
“You know—there were rumors he was strong when he stopped that fight between Marina Elise before. And when he prevented Joaquin’s proxy assassination, word went around that he used Time Magic. But you said that was impossible, didn’t you, Chairman?”
“That’s right! What kind of nonsense is Time Magic!”
“But if he can assassinate Professor Hachon as easily as that, isn’t it possible?”
…….

Baekwa stroked his beard with a grave expression before speaking.

“No. Even so, Time Magic doesn’t make sense. Do you think children see illusions for days on end just from being frightened?”

But setting that aside.

“Just how strong is this Dante fellow?”
“We’re not entirely sure either.”

Interest kindled in him.
A professor with no past.
The Director brought him in.
That eccentric royal Director, who loved playing at mystique and never communicated with the faculty, was the sort who picked up strange assassins from who-knows-where. So that told them nothing.
When they looked into his background and identity, nothing came up.
Origin unknown. Family relations unknown. Martial Rank unknown.
What was certain: he had assassinated the Ghost of War, Professor Hachon. And he himself remained unscathed—strong enough for that.
In any case, if Professor Dante was such a powerhouse, the White Path Association’s stance was obvious.

“Should we bring Professor Dante into the White Path Association?”

At the professor’s question, the chairman’s brow furrowed.

“Hold on. Professor Gwangsun. What’s wrong with your questions?”
“Pardon? Shouldn’t we bring him in?”
“Of course we’re bringing him in! You should be asking what we should offer him, you fool!”

A powerhouse of that caliber had to be brought in.
To our White Path Association.

* * *

“Hachon is dead.”

In the Black Path Order division at Hiaka Academy, the professors spoke quietly in their dim office, breathing in the scent of incense.

“A worthless death. Did he really claw through the 2nd Assassination War just to die like that?”
“Watch your words, Professor Viper.”
“Watch them for what. I told that idiot Hachon three times—don’t attack professors whose full strength hasn’t been assessed. How did he even get involved with him anyway? Command said to avoid contact.”
“Professor Hachon tried to bring that man Dante over to the Black Path. But apparently Dante was disrespectful about it.”
“Disrespectful, my foot. He’s not even a student anymore—he’s a professor, and he goes around letting his emotions rule him. Tsk. I’m sure this festival business only benefits those White Path bastards.”

Viper, a professor who bore the look of a venomous snake, made no effort to hide his irritation.

“Sigh. First the Marina incident, now this. What in hell is going on? If you ask me, that bastard Hachon’s probably gone soft emotionally because of the Joaquin affair.”
“What do you mean?”
“Joaquin was someone he taught back in the day, so he got tangled up in nostalgia. If the kid was being an idiot, he should’ve disciplined him. But no—instead of that, the fool ended up dead trying to cover for him, didn’t he?”

That was when it happened.

“Perhaps we might observe a moment of quiet contemplation.”

At the single remark from the man who entered through the door, Professor Viper, who had been raising his voice, hastily lowered his head.

“…You’ve arrived, Division Head.”

The Hiaka Academy Black Path Division Head. Chief Professor Betelgeuse.
A massive frame. A decadent bearing. He settled onto the sofa with practiced elegance, placed a cigarette between his lips, and lit it.

“We grieve as well, Professor Viper. But is there any use in raising your voice over it?”
“I apologize. I overstepped my station.”

Division Head Betelgeuse exhaled smoke slowly, lost in thought.
Hachon had been a useful professor.
In strength. In influence.
After all, he was the Ghost of War itself.
There was an uncontrollable streak to him that made him awkward for critical operations, yet he remained a formidable instructor.
And now he was dead.

“The body?”
“We couldn’t locate it.”
“So we don’t know the method of assassination or the cause.”
“No.”
“It was definitely him who did it?”
“It would seem so. Recently, the only professor he’d had friction with was Professor Dante.”
“So there’s no solid evidence… What had Hachon prepared?”
“Traps, doping drugs, and an array of cursed weaponry in full complement.”
“The same gear he’d used in the war?”
“Yes.”

Heavy armor. He had come determined to kill Dante.
For someone in that state to be eliminated was an enormous matter.
Smoke drifted through the air in thick plumes.

“…This makes retaliation rather murky.”

The saying goes: if it goes undiscovered, murder is lawful.
It makes clear that the importance lies not in the “murder” but in the “concealment.”

‘Someone’s’ assassination had been exemplary in its fundamental execution.
Which was why revenge proved ambiguous. There was no legitimate cause for it.

“Do we even need justification or any such thing?”
“Just give the order. I’ll go and snap his neck the moment he’s careless—boil the whole thing down to broth if need be.”

Betelgeuse did not answer. He merely exhaled smoke, slowly and deliberately.
After the 2nd Assassination War ended, the Black Path and White Path had maintained reasonably stable peace.
After all, with tension running high between nations, what reason would there be for people of the same country to squabble among themselves?
Yet in recent times, the rate of mysterious professor assassinations had been climbing.

“…….”

The neutral faction had shown troubling signs of late, though they lacked the caliber to pose any real threat.
The White Path Division—masters of the Discipline Committee—had merely offered a shrug, suggesting it looked like a cadet-level assassination.
But was that really plausible? The execution was far too refined for anything students could accomplish.
And now, to complicate matters further, a skilled Black Path professor had been assassinated by some stray neutral instructor.
A chaotic era might well be dawning.
Betelgeuse felt it acutely. The question was: which side would he choose?

“If Professor Dante killed Hachon without faction affiliation, we have no grounds for retaliation while evidence remains absent.”

In fact, we should praise him—he has merely demonstrated exceptional ability as a peer instructor.

“But should it be revealed that Professor Dante is actually a White Path Association operative disguised as neutral, then the calculus shifts considerably.”

Smoke billowed thick.
Betelgeuse spoke softly into the haze.

“Haven’t we been at peace far too long, all of us?”

If Dante were indeed White Path’s man.
Then the Black Path would have no choice but to answer in kind.

* * *

“Professor. Last night—did you, perhaps…….”

Night had fallen. Adel had returned to the Residence and confronted me with an abrupt question.

“Did you happen to meet with Professor Hachon?”

What on earth was she talking about?
Hachon never came to assassinate me—how would I have met him?

“…….”

At a loss for words, I said nothing. Adel hugged herself, visibly unnerved.

“So the rumor was true?”
“What rumor?”
“What else! That you assassinated Professor Hachon!”

The claim was preposterous.
That I assassinated Professor Hachon?
In other words—Hachon was dead? Out of nowhere?

“The whole department’s buzzing about it now! When did you sneak out and kill him? I can’t believe it!”

Adel spoke truly.
When I checked the Assassin Town community on the Crystal Orb afterward, posts flooded the board: Hachon had been assassinated last night, and his body was missing entirely—presumed disappeared.

“Professor. It’s Kangkang.”

Thirty minutes later, someone arrived from the Discipline Committee—a delicate-featured male officer named Kangkang, asking me to visit the administrative building with him.

“I know nothing of this matter.”
“Yes, sir. We’re well aware.”

Kangkang smiled and offered a knowing wink.
Then he whispered.

“…The Discipline Committee and the Black Path Order kept digging, but they couldn’t find a shred of evidence…! You really are remarkable, Professor…!”

No.
I genuinely have no idea what he’s talking about.

“Your skill is truly extraordinary. Yes indeed.”

Kangkang was delighted, being one of my admirers, but I was bewildered.
Of course, if Hachon had come to me in the dead of night, I would have considered killing him. But still—I didn’t actually do it, did I?

“Regardless, protocol requires you to come in. Let’s go!”
“…….”

Apparently the rumor spreading through the department was true.
The moment I stepped out of the laboratory, despite the late hour, every cadet I encountered flinched. Their thoughts bloomed in sequence—shock, awe, and terror layering over one another.

【 Assassination Department 1st Year Kil: ‘Professor Dante Hiaka…!’ 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year Pehilia: ‘To assassinate the Ghost of War, Professor Hachon, without leaving a trace….’ 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year Orne: ‘Just how strong is he? That person? What was he doing in the past?’ 】

It wasn’t only the cadets I passed in the corridors.
As I went back and forth to the Discipline Committee the next day, I came to understand.

The entire department was in an uproar.

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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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