Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 54

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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 54
EP16 – “Professor,” Welcome

Rebecca Hiakium von Hiaka sits on the sofa in my living room, greeting me.

“Professor, it’s good to see you.”

A lifeless voice. Hollow as always—weary, worn down by something, the tone of someone exhausted.

I’m not surprised.
I’d always expected we would keep crossing paths, wherever and whenever.
The timing is simply a touch earlier than I’d anticipated.

“You two, step outside for a moment.”
“Yes.”
“And don’t eavesdrop once you’ve gone.”
“…Understood.”

She withdraws her protective knight Cheongru and her intelligence officer Leim.
I give Adel a meaningful nod as well—to step out for a time.
Only Rebecca and I remain in the living room.
I walk to the sofa across from her and sit.

What has she come to discuss?
But whatever she intends to say, I already find myself looking unfavorably upon Rebecca.

“Always the same. You trample and desecrate the established rules as you see fit.”
“Have I done such a thing?”
“You attempted assassination on your own side during wartime. You arrived unannounced at your professor’s residence uninvited, forced open a locked door, and walked in wearing shoes at a house with a proper entryway.”
“I—”
“Princess Rebecca.”
“Yes.”

There is something that must be made clear.
I am an external pressure. Always will be.

“In my home, you remove your shoes.”
……

Even to my own ears, the voice is stern.
Perhaps a tone Rebecca has never heard before in her life.
Yet something unexpected happens—Rebecca bows slightly and begins to remove her shoes.

“Is that better?”

Pale feet covered here and there with blisters and wounds, as if flowers had bloomed upon them.
She obeys without resistance.

“Your business.”
“…I’m told I can be cold, Professor. More so than I’d imagined.”
“Cold?”
“Your poor student’s feet are in this state. Surely you might have offered even a single word of concern?”

The reason Rebecca’s feet have come to this condition is clear.
There have been many funerals. Fighting has broken out in more districts than I can count—Zone 0, Zone 2, and elsewhere. She’s visited every condolence house, walking the rounds for days, offering prayers without rest.

This spectacle fills the pages of the Assassination Daily News, and on the community forum Assassin Town, messages of praise and gratitude for Rebecca continue to accumulate.

“I can’t deny that. Your efforts have been considerable.”
“…Thank you.”
“Did you punish Elise when she returned to the academy?”
“I didn’t. At first I was uncertain, but when an instructor of your standing gives an order, it becomes difficult to fault the circumstances behind it.”

Rebecca clearly knew about the Royal Mandate of the Xicos family.
It was only natural. The Royal Mandate was originally a privilege of the Royal Family.

“So the princess, who’s in so much pain she’d complain about her toes, didn’t rest and came to visit a mere instructor. Why?”
“To apologize.”
“Apologize?”
“For attacking my own troops during the exhibition. For speaking rudely and telling you there was no need for your assistance. For issuing assassination orders through Elise. I apologize for all of it. I’m truly sorry.”

There was no trace of a humble bow. Even in the act of apologizing, Rebecca remained dignified and arrogant.
Still, I found it unexpected.
It didn’t align with the image of Rebecca I’d seen until now.
Rebecca was not someone who apologized.

“I accept.”

But the apology was merely a setup.
Once I looked around a bit more, the real matter emerged.

“…The Assassination Department will soon be signing an agreement with the Empire. We plan to open the Assassination Department and conduct academic exchange with the Imperial Academy. Are you aware of this?”

This was about Main Story 2: the Betting Table.

“I am.”
“So you do know. I won’t ask how you learned of it—it’s hardly surprising anymore. But I want this agreement stopped.”
“…Why?”
“There’s a long-term risk of becoming a vassal state of the Empire.”

Then Rebecca began rattling off evidence supporting her position, but it was predictable enough that I didn’t really need to listen.
It was one of the Bad Ending scenarios, after all.

What mattered was this:
Why Rebecca was bringing this up now.
And that was probably…

‘…because it conflicts with the Zamryong Academy’s objectives.’

What was the Zamryong Academy’s ultimate goal?
‘To assassinate the Emperor.’
But if the Zamryong Academy’s identity, its intelligence, its constantly updated assassination and combat tactics were all revealed to the Empire in concrete detail?
The probability of assassinating the Emperor would plummet to nearly zero.

“From what I’ve heard, you’re being used as a crucial card in this agreement, Professor.”
“……”
“Did you know that?”

What?
That was the first I’d heard of it.

“I suppose I grasped things too clumsily. I hadn’t fully realized just how remarkable you are.”
“…….”
“So, will you join forces with me? If we stop the agreement, I’ll give you 100 million Hika as compensation.”

She was proposing an enormous sum of money.
100 million Hika—an amount I could have obtained in an instant without spending four years shackled like a slave to the White Path.
It was truly staggering.

“…….”

But my position was already determined, and that large sum of money could not sway it.

Should I help Rebecca and sabotage the accord?

No.
That was an emphatic, resounding refusal.
Absolutely not—such a thing could never happen.

First, I had no reason to kill the Emperor.
For someone stagnant like me to obtain Star Fragments, the Betting Table was the optimal scenario.
And as a professor, I harbored personal ambitions of my own.
Consider it.
That moment in the future when Elise revealed herself to the world.
Yes, she lacked much now, but it was my role to educate and refine her.
In other words, the shockwave that Elise—honed beneath my hand—would send across the continent as an assassin was a source of tremendous anticipation for me.
And the Star Fragments that would pour down in that process? The wealth I would reap?
Stop the accord I forged for this purpose?
Had I lost my mind?
So my answer was already fixed.

“I understand.”

In an instant—
ripples spread across Rebecca’s crimson eyes.

“You understand, you say.”
“Yes.”
“So easily?”
“I don’t know why you’re questioning it. I intend to help you and work toward breaking the accord.”

Her scarlet lips twitched slightly.

“…….”

Rebecca tilted her head a fraction, furrowing her brow. As if she couldn’t comprehend it.
She’d apparently expected me to refuse—which is what always happened whenever we met.
At the end of that deliberation, her quiet question carried genuine emotion for the first time.

“Why?”

It was pure inquiry.

The answer was simple.
Because.

“I want to help you.”

A lie, of course.

“…….”

Rebecca crossed her arms, then crossed her legs as well.
Then she looked deep into me.
As if trying to discern what I’m thinking.

There are three reasons I’m lying to deceive Rebecca.

First, now that our relationship is locked in Hatred, I intend to deepen that antagonism further to collect Star Fragments.

Second, in the Betting Table, Zamryong Academy becomes strategically important, and this is my chance to excise Rebecca like a tumor.

Third, I simply didn’t like her.

Originally, “Hiaka Academy: Assassination Studies Department” is a game where each player finds their own answer amid urgent circumstances and multiple branching choices.

In short, my conclusion was this: the moment the Betting Table begins, Rebecca will be completely betrayed by me. I will expose all of Zamryong Academy to the Empire, and as their instructor, I will nurture them to prepare for the Demon King’s War.

The problem is, Rebecca could kill me—but by now I’ve grown quite strong myself, and if I secure a safety net through a deal with the department head, I can survive. So this is simply the best judgment from a player’s perspective.
That’s when Rebecca asked me.

“You want to help me.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand. What’s so appealing about me?”

Now it was time to perform. An act to make Rebecca trust me until the agreement is ratified.

Slowly, I lowered my gaze.

“Your feet are beautiful.”
“My feet?”
“Yes. Without exaggeration, the most beautiful feet I’ve ever seen.”
…….

I looked down at Rebecca’s crossed legs.
Those feet, mottled red with wounds, bruises, and blisters.

“I still don’t quite understand, Professor.”
“There was treason. There was collapse. Croitz struts about, mocking Hiaka. Everyone drowns in defeat. Do you know where the crowd looks at such a time?”
“Where?”
“The crowd always looks upward.”

I lifted my finger, pointing toward the ceiling.
Her crimson gaze followed it up.
In the fragments of the small chandelier, she would have seen her own reflection.

“That a crumbling battle line is reversed by a general’s return alone, that a war turning to rout is reversed by news of a ruler’s intervention alone—these are things written countless times throughout human history. But what of Hiaka? The Royal Family instead drastically cut the academy’s support.”
…….
“I understand the Royal Family’s position. The active assassins themselves have no problems whatsoever. An educational institution with sinking results and performance became instead a massive drain. But what has been the outcome? Right after the Royal Family’s announcement, countless students and faculty wished to leave the academy.”

At this juncture, only Princess Rebecca among all Royal Family members stepped forward for the academy’s sake.
I remember the recommendation posts that appeared on Assassin’s Town.

———

———

Quite a burden to bear, wasn’t it.

“What even the professors couldn’t do, you did.”
…….

Rebecca lifted her hand and brushed back her bright blonde hair.
Then she showed humility.

“I was only doing what needed to be done.”

I had only said what needed to be said.
Since I was already earning her trust, I decided to take just one more step forward.

I took a First Aid Kit from my Inventory and approached her, dropping to one knee beneath the feet of the radiant princess.

“What are you doing?”

Her feet shifted, as if to slip away.
I caught her ankle.

“Professor.”
“I’ll treat your wounds.”
“I’m fine.”
“Those feet are not fine.”
“No. It’s just… I don’t like having someone else’s hands on my body—”
“—The Assassination Department stands grateful for every step your feet have taken. What thanks have the faculty shown you?”
……
“Say nothing.”

It was basic first aid. A gentle cleansing. Removing blisters. Wiping away serum and blood. Applying salve. Wrapping lightly with gauze—
Had I gone to the Medical Ward instead of coming here, treatment would have been faster.
What struck me was how much callous had formed on Rebecca’s feet. I’d thought them merely pale, but wherever my fingers pressed, there was hardness.

“The other foot.”
……

This time I was the one giving the order.
Rebecca didn’t refuse.
She simply didn’t pull away.

……

The second dressing went more smoothly because of it.

Since this was all a calculated move, I used it to confirm what I’d suspected: Rebecca was a rather unstable princess.

Rebecca was never a legitimate princess of the Royal Family.
She was the daughter of King Hiaka III, born to a concubine.
She came from a rural backwater, not from the palace itself.
To the elder statesmen of the Royal Family, she was still called vermin’s blood.

—Did you think it too? Did you believe I was born from some street whore’s belly, a vulgar creature unfit to be called a princess, vermin’s blood? You too?

The words Rebecca had spat while seizing a maidservant’s hair at our first meeting stemmed from precisely this background.

And I knew that characters with such a setting in this game were highly susceptible to human warmth.

To later excise the tumor that was Rebecca,
this performance was perfect for winning trust.
Good enough to nominate myself for an Oscar.

Or so it should have been.
Up until then.

“…You’re not betraying me, are you?”

A single word.
In that instant, the air shifted.

“What?”

I lifted my head.
My stomach tightened at the sight of those crimson eyes.

“So you’re saying you won’t betray me, after all this?”

There was something strange about it.
Rebecca’s gaze, which had always been either razor-sharp or utterly hollow, had grown soft in a way that caught me off guard.
The intensity had drained from it entirely.

“Betray? A professor with no salary, and I’m offering a hundred million Hiaka. That’s hardly pocket change to turn down.”
“I heard you received an artifact on loan from the Royal Family. With that power, a hundred million Hiaka is nothing you couldn’t earn yourself.”
“And what would I gain by betraying you?”
“I don’t know. Who knows what people truly want.”
“Besides—who in this land would ever betray the Princess?”
“Not everyone, that’s true.”

Rebecca’s words faltered slightly.

“…But they do betray her.”

After hearing that, for a moment—
just a fraction of a second—
I wondered if I’d been thinking about this all wrong.
But no. I’d decided to betray for greater gain.
I’d performed sincerely to win trust.
I was in the process of earning it.
When I examined the logic, there was no flaw.

“If you have any doubts at all, tell me now. I can void this contract.”

Rebecca said only that much, then fell silent.

But in reviewing the situation, I understood something.
Rebecca, too, was performing—using me for her own purposes.
I couldn’t see her Thoughts clearly, so I couldn’t be certain, but—
wasn’t that plainly obvious?

Everything I’d just said was mere lip service.
Rebecca sacrificing herself for the Academy? Ridiculous.
The truth was different.

Rebecca hadn’t gone around offering condolences as some sort of saint for the Academy’s sake.
I had already determined that this monstrous woman had been feigning prayer for the dead while laying the Soul-Devouring Curse upon every single casualty.
Amid all these deaths,
among hundreds and thousands of the departed,
Rebecca had merely pretended to pray, pretended to be a saint, using their deaths, absorbing their souls—all for her own singular purpose.
I’m not condemning her for it. I’m not so different from Rebecca myself.
The point, simply, is this:
just as she would use the dead and me for her gain,

“Don’t worry. I won’t betray you.”

I, too, would use Rebecca.

“……”

Rebecca nodded.

* * *

As Rebecca rose to put on her shoes, she stumbled.
The bandaged foot wasn’t used to bearing weight yet.

“…Ah.”

She swayed, pitching forward.
Strong arms caught her naturally.

Thud!

Eve scrambled to her feet and bolted. Blood dripped from her knees and elbows where she’d skidded across the gravel field, but she ran anyway.

“There!”
“Catch her!”

The assassins were coming.

EP16

Welcome, “Professor”

END

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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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