Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 33

Good grief.
They just mercilessly drove a blade through his neck without hesitation. These maniacs.

【 Assassination Department First-Year Derek: 】

How did they figure it out this time?
I didn’t even touch the trap.

【 Assassination Department 1st Year, John: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year, Derek: 】

Damn. I hadn’t thought of that.
The shoes weren’t even dirty, so the marks should’ve been barely visible. And they found it in twenty seconds flat while running?

‘I see. The Remote Control Ring must have a detection option as well….’

That’ll cost more, then….
But that’s beside the point.

‘……Getting away from them isn’t going to be easy.’

The real problem was that my Movement Technique lagged behind the cadets’. I was slower at running away than they were.

Still, I managed to flee, ducking in and out of two buildings in succession to disorient them.

From a distance, they attempted to manipulate my sense of balance with Illusion Magic, but I severed it with my mana.

I fired a dozen Illusion Bodies to hide a single Shuriken, only for them to nail my pre-made Clone.

They deployed Fantasy Entities and tracked me by scent, pursuing their assassinations relentlessly. (I ditched my outer coat and ran.)

‘By this point, just give up….…’

Sadly, this was my best. The problem was that my opponents were young cadets whose movements were unpredictable.

I was confident I could beat Hacon head-to-head, but the cadets’ assassinations weren’t a hundred percent safe to defend against.

If I burned through all my stored Fragments of Star, things might improve somewhat, but long-term survival against the Sleeper Dragon Academy’s assassinations would be difficult. Their growth rates matched or exceeded my own.

Only by being cultivated so precariously on that knife’s edge could I clear Hell Difficulty, and that was my current state.

In other words, Professor Assassination was unavoidable on Hell Difficulty.

【 Assassination Department 1st Year, Derek: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year, John: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year, Derek: 】

Oh no. Where did I slip up this time….
That’s what I thought.
Then a script appeared, even more heated than before.

【 Assassination Department 1st Year, John: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year, Derek: 】

What is he talking about? The marks are sloppy because I actually am sloppy….
But why does he sound like he’s about to cry? The man’s actually trembling.

【 Assassination Department 1st Year, John: 】

At that moment, the red dots on the Minimap stopped moving.
And so I stopped as well, catching my breath.

【 John slaps Derek across the face. 】

Huh?

【 Assassination Department 1st Year Derek: “Why’d you hit me?!” 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year John: “You really don’t get it?” 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year Derek: “Get what?!” 】

What is this? What kind of development is happening?
Is this a morning drama?

【 Assassination Department 1st Year John: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year Derek: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year Derek: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year John: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year Derek: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year John: 】

What’s that reason supposed to be?
A reason even I don’t know about.

【 Assassination Department 1st Year John: 】

They’re really interpreting it however they like…

【 Assassination Department 1st Year Derek: 】

What are they coming to understand. It’s wrong, but.
Still, if they’re willing to misunderstand it that way, I should be grateful.
Yet something about the unfolding dialogue made me wince.

【 Assassination Department 1st Year Haru: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year Derek: 】
【 Assassination Department 1st Year John: 】

That’s enough.
I can’t watch any more of this cringe…

In any case, while those kids were shooting their youth drama, I had successfully changed course and evaded pursuit.

‘Did I shake them off…?’

But after all that chasing back and forth in this Professor Assassination scenario, I’d ended up deep in the forest of Zone 0.
I was now inside an abandoned forest path.
Getting back to the Lecture Building would take a considerable walk.

* * *

“Damn… I lost him completely.”
“What about the White Fang?”
“Clean failure. The scent’s gone too. Professor Dante must have masked it with Illusion Magic at this point.”

John, who’d been thinking it over, let out a hollow laugh.

“Man… the Professor is seriously incredible.”
“What is?”
“Think about it. Has Professor Dante used anything other than Illusion Magic today?”
“Huh?”

Now that he mentioned it, that was true.
Hadn’t people said that Professor Dante was skilled with Magic as well, and proficient in Combat-type abilities too?
Master-class or Grandmaster-class monster assassins could handle nearly every type of ability to some degree.
Professor Dante was no different.

‘Insane. Didn’t use Movement Technique. Didn’t set traps. Didn’t summon anything… just Illusion Magic alone.’

Moreover, it was clear he’d deliberately let them pursue him, running in a way that kept them on his trail without ever truly pulling away.

Once more, the realization struck home—that Professor Dante had genuinely helped them review.

‘What kind of professor goes this far…?’

When cadets attempted assassination, they had no choice but to start with at least a tremor of fear. The cases of cadets who’d suffered counter-attacks were legion.
But Dante—he hadn’t merely refrained from striking back. He hadn’t even attempted anything that deviated from the lesson’s scope.
As if proving it the proper conduct of an Assassination Department professor.

“…we really made the right call taking his class.”
“Yeah. Really.”

The other cadets nodded at Derek’s words. Though they’d never felt this way once during the first semester, these past few days they’d grown acutely aware of their own visible progress.
Thanks to Professor Dante’s instruction.

“By the way, where exactly are we?”
“Wait, really? This is somewhere new…”

When they looked around, darkness had settled. The sun hung low and crimson. Perhaps because they were deep in a forest with no paths and no people in sight—an odd sense of dread crept over them.

“Hmm. Let’s head back quickly.”
“Yeah… let’s go grab some pizza.”
“Pizza sounds good. Should we crack open that beer we stashed before?”

So they tried to force the conversation into lighter territory, but before they’d walked much farther, the forest plunged entirely into darkness.

“By the way, Haru. Wish Forte could’ve come too.”
“Huh? No way. Forte’s terrified of Professor Dante…”
“Yeah, that figures.”

Their murmured exchange died abruptly, for at that moment a stranger’s silhouette stood on the far side of the woods.

“……”
“……”

The cadets fell silent.
All of them stopped in their tracks.
The newcomer, too, held his tongue. An awkward silence hung between them.

“…Um, who are you?”

He wasn’t wearing cadet robes. At the question, the stranger’s mouth curled upward in the darkness.

“What are you kids doing out here?”

Unexpectedly, the voice that came was gentle—a man’s voice. Likely someone from the administrative office.
Derek felt a flutter of relief at that.

“Ah, we… were training from Professor, uh—I mean, we got lost during training.”
“I see. Still, you shouldn’t wander to a place this remote at this hour.”
“Of course… we’re sorry. We’ll head down right away.”

He’d seemed like a decent person, but then—
the man continued.

“It’s dangerous. This place is too dark. No path. Barely another soul.”
“Yes, well. We were just going to—”
“You could die. All of you. And if you do, no one will ever find you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“If you get hacked to pieces out here—limbs severed—how would anyone know who did it? How would they even find your bodies?”
“…Pardon?”

Derek wasn’t the only one who felt something deeply wrong in that moment.

A few seconds.

Silence pooled around them.

The man in the darkness remained utterly expressionless.

John, unable to bear it any longer, stepped in.

“We apologize. We’ll head down at once.”
“Good. Come with me. This way.”
“No, thank you. We can manage on our own.”
“No, no. Come along. You need an adult here.”
“We’ll be fine, truly—”
“Look, I said come with me. In a place like this. At an hour like this. What if someone tied your limbs to a tree and sawed through your ankles with a saw—head buried deep in the forest, feet left at the roots? What then?”

The man’s eyes began to focus strangely, unnaturally.
His words accelerated at the same time.

“All five of you chopped into pieces and scattered across Zone 0—they’d never find each piece. And since you’re from the Assassination Department, the investigation would just peter out anyway. You want me to just stand by and let that happen? No? Then why the hell are you refusing? Why are you rejecting me when I’m trying to grab your limbs and tie them up? When I’m offering to saw through your ankles? I’m just trying to take you pathetic bastards to the Lecture Building—why are you embarrassing me by saying no?”

Goosebumps crawled up Derek’s neck.
The blood drained from his face in an instant.

“Kids these days shouldn’t be beaten. They should be killed. Anyone who treats an adult like me like I’m garbage deserves to have their limbs hacked off and die.”

He wasn’t human. That instinct hit like a physical blow. Yet faced with this suffocating presence, the cadets had no recourse.

Derek, paralyzed with fear, glanced sideways at John—but John looked equally lost.

“But you’re good children who listen, aren’t you? So come along now. Or I can come to you. Let’s go together.”

The man’s voice had turned gentle, almost kind. He began to approach. Derek’s fingertips started to tremble.

“When an adult is speaking, you listen. Do you understand?”

The terror of moving even an inch—as if something would snap into motion the moment he did. A suffocating, lethal pressure that seemed to fill the air.

The terrifying figure drew closer, step by step. Frozen in place, the cadets could only watch as the man approached.

“Let’s go together.”

Then.
From behind.
A slow voice drifted out.

“For this, I should have killed you long ago.”

Derek’s head turned toward the voice almost of its own accord.
Goosebumps erupted across both his arms.

Deep in the darkness of the mountain path.
A man was walking toward them.

“Still, wouldn’t you say it suits a burial ground? Professor Toxin.”

The eyes that had always seemed so emotionless were nowhere to be found.

“As someone once said, you could dismember him and no one would know.”

The killing intent that gathered in those pink eyes, the composed expression that settled over his features—it was unmistakably the face of an assassin.

Yet Derek couldn’t begin to measure how much comfort he drew from his mere presence here, from the fact that he had come.

“This is… quite surprising. What brings you to this place? Ah, this is our first proper greeting, isn’t it?”

The monster uttered the man’s name with an astringent expression.

“…Professor Dante Hiacapo.”

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