Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 36

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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 36
EP12 – Who’s Better at Illusion Magic? (1)

On rainy days, I trained. In the Mansion’s training room, I’d pull the Machine or do Free Weight. Sometimes I’d hang from the cliff face behind the Professor Building and practice rock climbing.

Today I was doing long-distance running for a change. I could do the other training anywhere—at home or the Professor Building—but long-distance running required borrowing the cadets’ track. That’s where the Growth Option was active.

【 First-Year Latent Dragon Scholar Forte : ‘Professor Dante….’ 】

Forte ran alongside me, but I fell behind first.
My stamina was still only at an athlete’s level in reality—I couldn’t keep up the pace for long.
But it was fine. I had an image to maintain.

【 First-Year Latent Dragon Scholar Forte : ‘Even that monster of a man gets tired…. Just how heavy is the Restraint Equipment he’s wearing anyway…?’ 】

Everyone around me naturally assumed just that.
But something felt off today.

‘…What are those?’

Nearly twenty cadets were watching me from a distance, whispering among themselves.
I scrolled through the Script carefully and found fragments—’Western Forest yesterday’, ‘pillar of light’, ‘rumor’, ‘intruder slain outside campus’—and finally understood.
These bastards.
They promised to keep it secret?
Didn’t Dominic say something about how loose his mouth was?

“Professor!”

Right as I finished training, Adel came running over with news.
The rumor had spread through the entire Assassination Department—that Professor Dante had assassinated a [Master]-grade intruder.

“Is that true!? That’s why you came home late!”

Adel asked in shock.
The college must have coordinated the story. Better to frame it as an ‘external intruder’ than to let word get out that the professor was a monster….

“It’s nothing to make a fuss over.”
“Nothing? You know how sensitive Zone 0 is to intruders…!”

The Assassination Department is an exclusive one. There’s frustration about the isolation, but that very isolation makes us hypersensitive to ‘our space’ being violated.
The continent’s academies, including Hiaka, often sent intruders into each other’s Assassination Departments to steal information and treasures.
So outsiders were fierce enemies—and word had spread that I’d killed one.

“What happened yesterday, Professor?”

I answered her simply. Forte, overhearing from beside us, gasped and interjected.

“…Wait. Dominic and Haru were both there, Professor? They’re my friends, but they have mouths like sieves. That mouth of theirs is so wide you could park a truck in it.”

So that was it….

From that day forward.
I faced an avalanche of attention wherever I went.

“Professor. Just how strong are you?”
“So that pillar of light in the Western Forest yesterday was your work, Professor….”

Whether cadets or faculty, everyone I encountered asked the same barrage: ‘Who was the intruder?’, ‘How did you kill them?’, ‘Surely you don’t use light magic too?’…… and I couldn’t answer any of it.

“……I can’t speak College Confidential information aloud myself.”

So I simply told the truth, and it seemed I’d made a slip of the tongue.

【 Professor Eugene, White Sword Faction: ‘College Confidential? So it really is true that there was at least a foreign assassin involved.’ 】
【 Fourth-year Obree, Assassination Department: ‘If it was Professor Dante…… weren’t you preventing an enemy nation’s assassination attempt?’ 】

The professors, at least, had misunderstood within reasonable bounds, but the cadets inflated their own understanding to its absolute maximum.
I had to grit my teeth and play dumb.

“…….”

Meanwhile, this useless notoriety was beginning to create an entirely different problem….
Adel showed it to me, chuckling all the while.

“Professor. Take a look at this.”

It was a post that had gone up on Assassin Town, the exclusive community for Hiaka Academy’s Assassination Department.

———
< think i finally get why ppl are so obsessed with prof dante >
what’s up with professors these days?
they act all “im an assassin” “im a killer” and then spend their time nervous wreck hiding in their research offices trying to squeeze grant money, and meanwhile when are students gonna attack them right?
but prof dante ← what about this guy?
thrashes student assassins. stops scholar fights. arrests proxy assassins. kills master-class assassins. assassinates external intruders…… and then keeps hiding all his accomplishments lol
———

“It has 450 upvotes. That’s a lot.”
“…….”

I’m going insane. How am I supposed to face the other professors?
How am I supposed to look them in the eye?

“Want to see something else?”
“That’s enough.”
“No, look at this one too.”

Adel thrust the next post at me.

———
< wow the top comment is actually real lmaooo >
student assassins : didn’t counter-attack
scholar fights : neutral profs all dropped it but he stepped in and stopped them and never revealed how
proxy assassinations : even if they were victims caught by Ha○kin, they were still assassination attempts but he didn’t punish them
Ha× assassination : killed them himself but absolutely refuses to take credit
external intruders assassination : honestly if he revealed it his prof rating would skyrocket but he absolutely won’t lmao genius

prof dante ← what even is this guy?
———

Good grief. How did my image end up like this?

“This one has 375 upvotes.”

The specifics are all wrong. I had no means to counter-attack the student assassins. I had no authority to punish the proxy assassins. As for the Hacon assassination…… I’m tired of explaining even now.
No.
At this point, it seemed easier to just assume I’d killed him myself.

‘Hacon was dead weight.’

……I kept thinking this the entire time. I couldn’t let my reputation grow any larger than this.
And sure enough, it happened—the number of assassins targeting me began to surge.

———
[Is Professor Dante’s class really open for auditing this semester?]
I’m gonna audit his next class lol

ㄴ What? Can second years go too?
ㄴ Nope lol Hiaka Academy uses a year-based system, didn’t you know.
ㄴ Ugh so frustrating.
ㄴ Wait, I’m a first year and I can go? That’s sick.
ㄴ (Dragon) Grey ♥
———

What? My class was open for auditing?
I had no idea.

‘……I didn’t even register the course myself.’

I’d already been possessing a game character with the class pre-registered.
But then something caught my eye—the notation “(Dragon)”.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Assassin Town is a community where everyone communicates anonymously. The (Dragon) mark means that person’s a Latent Dragon Scholar. Looks like one might be coming to audit your class too, Professor.”

This was troublesome.
It meant I had no way of identifying which student it was.

“Professor, it’s almost time for your next class~”

I left the office and headed toward the lecture hall. The corridor was already a mess.

“Oh? There’s Professor Dante!”
“Wow, he’s here…!”

Nearly a hundred students were crammed into the hallway, blocking the entire passage. I had to push through the crowd to reach the classroom.

“……Auditing is allowed, but I’ll expel anyone the moment they disrupt the class.”

I wished someone would give me an excuse. I needed grounds to throw them all out at once.
But the auditing students sat perfectly silent through my Illusion Magic lesson. The only silver lining was that there were no assassination attempts……so I just taught the class, and that was that. Yet during the session, I managed to figure out who’d posted ‘Grey ♥’ on the community.
It was the student sitting right next to Elise—the one who flashed me a grin and waved cheerfully the moment our eyes met.

【 Latent Dragon Scholar, First Year Grey: ‘Let’s see how well he actually teaches…….’ 】

From the look of it, he seemed about ready to commit murder.
I gritted my teeth and pushed through the class anyway.

“Wow, turning the entire lecture hall into space with Illusion Magic. So this realm of skill actually exists.”
“The gravity vanished too—it felt completely real……. Man, you guys are lucky. Getting to attend classes like this every day.”

The cadets responded well enough, but Grey’s reaction was difficult to pin down.

【 Latent Dragon Scholar First Year, Grey: ‘…….’ 】

Then, come evening, Adel came running up again with ‘Professor~’ and shoved the Crystal Orb into my hands.
Posts flooded the community forums praising Dante’s teaching, one after another.

‘……This is getting tedious.’

I was trapped in a vicious cycle.

* * *

And it seemed the commotion wasn’t finished yet.

Wherever an issue emerged, certain types always attached themselves to it—namely, the Assassination Daily News.
As I pushed through the cadets and headed for the exit after class, a man in an administrative staff uniform appeared and bowed his head.

“Good afternoon, Professor. I’m Trashy from the Assassination Daily News.”

The Assassination Daily News—a continental media outlet that broadcasts information about assassins internally once, and then to the outside world a month later.

“……What business would the press have with me?”
“Well, it’s just that you’ve become quite famous in the Assassination Department lately, haven’t you? I was hoping to have a few words with you for an interview.”
“…….”

But wasn’t it a rather contradictory concept—assassination, which hides information, and journalism, which exposes it?
There was a reason this was possible. It was thanks to the style of these Assassination Daily News hacks.
They transcended yellow journalism to reach black journalism.
They cared little for truth, the public’s right to know, or ethics.
What they wanted was purely entertainment.
Sensation.
Gossip.
Rumor-mongering.
Sales figures!
Inflating hearsay!
Stirring up conflict among easy targets!
That was one reason their headquarters remained intact even while openly publishing information about assassins—half of what they wrote was outright fabrication anyway.

“I’ll have to decline.”
“Ah, P-Professor…!”

I couldn’t afford to get entangled. So I turned away and ignored him, but the reporter diligently followed me and continued pestering for an interview.
Of course, I continued to ignore him.

“You have no comment on the recent intruder incident?”
“…….”
“May I ask why you’re refusing the interview?”
“…….”
“Is it because of the intruders? Because those bastards might come after you?”
“…….”
“Is it perhaps because the rumor about killing the intruder is false? Or maybe because the intruders weren’t actually a threat? There’s been talk among some faculty that you’re fabricating stories to create a star professor for the college. Don’t you have anything to say about that……?”
“…….”

I kept declining. Kept at it.
Let him scratch at me all he wanted.

“I see. So that’s how it’s going to be.”
“…….”
“You want to ignore me, Professor. And here I am, conducting my investigation with complete sincerity….”
“…….”
“These days, there are so many people like you, Professor…. We live constantly in cold indifference….”

Just before the interview collapsed entirely, the journalist’s condition began to deteriorate rapidly.
Even so, ignoring it, he laughed.

“It’s nothing. I’m Trashy, deputy editor of the Assassination Daily News. Six years tenure. Eleven Editor of the Month awards. One nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. Seven out of 488 subscribers’ votes for best journalist of the year. A man destined to become the strongest journalist in this world…. Such moments of contempt and oppression mean nothing to me.”

A strange murmur erupted suddenly. He fixed me with eyes burning with resolve.

“……I’ll show you.”

Show me what?
Is this lunatic?

* * *

“Dante gave an interview to the Assassination Daily News.”
“Oh, really?”

Kaiser’s eyes, fixed in concentration at the corner of the lecture hall, flashed open.
The moment class ended, he subscribed to the Assassination Daily News, received the paper, and checked the interview.
The moment he saw the headline, his heart sank.

— (Page 2) Professor Dante Loses Partial Language Function After Assault by Intruder

What???

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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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