Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 60

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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 60
EP18 – Over Snow-Buried Ruins, the Christmas Bell Tolls (5)

Four days until the verification deadline.

Dawn of the second day.

Professor Collider woke from two hours of fitful sleep on the Research Office sofa and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t sleep much—not when the problems remained unsolved.

Sleep is the best medicine, or so they say. After refreshing his mind over a morning coffee, he found that what had been invisible was still invisible, and he understood precisely nothing.

He bent his head back over the Exam Problem Sheet and endured until morning, but the result was hollow. Nothing made sense.

“No, damn it! What in the world did this bastard create…?!”

At this point, it seemed plausible that Professor Dante himself was deliberately sending him an absurd problem to make a fool of him.
Had they not been on decent terms?
Of course, there was the exam scandal, and he’d thought their relationship might have thawed after the faculty meeting back then.
But what if Dante was simply petty?
Unlike himself, who was magnanimous!!

“…Ah.”

No. That wasn’t it.
The three lines of formulas at the beginning were too elegant for that.
These were clearly formulas and circuit structures with both form and purpose.

“…Ah.”

Thud!

Collider slammed his head onto the desk and flinched so violently that several strands of hair fell loose.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been appalled. But this was not the time.
His pride as an elite senior professor was at stake.
A few dozen hairs were the least of his concerns.

“…I will solve this today, come hell or high water. These damned formulas…”

Collider clenched his teeth and locked the Research Office door.
Six hours later, he would have to open it himself.

“Professor? Are you all right?”
“……”
“Your complexion looks terrible……”
“……”

He was vacant. Lost in concentration.
Formulas and circuit structures drifted through his mind.
Yet still he made no progress, and it was driving him mad.

Ding!

“Damn, you scared me!”

What was this message?
He checked urgently. It was Dante.

—Dante: Haven’t you finished yet?

Damn it!
Why are you calling already? You said you had five days!
But he’d gone and told the man he could finish it in a day or two.

—Collider: Just be patient. It’s nearly complete.
—Dante: Very well.

He’d wanted to brush him off, but.

—Dante: If you spot any flaws during verification, do point them out without hesitation. Feel free to approach it as critically as you like. This problem sheet must be entirely sound.

Those words tore through Collider’s heart.
Flaws, hell—he didn’t even understand what the whole thing meant….

—Collider: Understood.

He ended the call and sat alone with his thoughts.

‘But why did he ask me specifically to verify this?’

Must be because he looked like the most competent professor, surely?
That thought was no comfort now.

‘No, this won’t do.’

If he went forward like this, humiliation was assured.
He had no choice. Collider sought help.
From the Illusion Magic faculty members themselves!

“You wanted to see me, senior professor?”
“Why does the research office smell of cigarette smoke? Did you smoke in here?”
“You say you have an interesting problem? What is it about?”

And so, thirty minutes later, five professors from the Assassination Department’s Illusion Magic division arrived at his research office.

Collider seated them all and handed out copies of the problem sheet, explaining that this was Professor Dante’s exam paper, and that he’d requested verification. From where Collider stood, it seemed flawless, but he wanted their opinions.

“Let’s see….”
“…….”

Because none of them understood it in the first place!

“No, no, that’s not it! It’s not about scope—it’s a formula concerning time, a formula about illusions that persist over long durations, that’s what it is!”
“You’re both wrong. This is a formula about scalability.”
“What are you talking about?! How is this a formula about scalability? You’re showing your thin education!”

I wasn’t alone in my ignorance.
And what these fools were muttering about amounted only to what I myself had grasped.

……

But then I grew despondent again.
In the end, all these professors didn’t know either, did they?

“So exactly what Illusory Arts does this formula concern?”
……

Finally, all eyes turned to Collider.
Collider let out a sigh.

“……I’ve no idea.”
“Pardon?”
“I said I’ve no idea. Blast it…. Shameful as it is, I’ll be honest with you. Professor Dante sent this to me for verification, but I can’t even figure out what Illusory Arts it pertains to.”
“Ah….”
“Hmm….”
“So I called you all here. Aren’t you the preeminent professors of Illusory Arts?”
“…Well, we also….”
……

Admitting it honestly brought a strange relief.

“Senior Professor, why not simply ask for the answer?”
“What? Have you gone mad?”
“S-sorry?”
“That’s absolutely out of the question!!”

Being candid with these people and lowering himself before Professor Dante were worlds apart!
Such a thing could never be allowed to happen.
Still, there were five days left, and with no recent classes, the professors had time to spare.

“Come on, everyone help me out. I can’t just stand here marveling at the problem sheet of someone who isn’t even an Illusory Arts professor!”
“Yes, understood!”

Collider relayed to Dante that he needed a bit more time, then threw himself into analyzing the problem sheet alongside the others.

And when the sun rose the next morning at last,
among the unwashed professors, disheveled as uncooked dough,

“Aha…!”

One professor suddenly sprang to his feet.
And broke into a wide grin.

“…Still have no clue, damn it!”

D-3 until verification deadline.

* * *

D-2 until verification deadline.

“No damn it! That’s not how you approach it!”

Evening had fallen.

“What do you know, you fool! It’s about scalability, scalability!”

The fight finally broke out.

“What do you mean scalability?! Did your brain expand?! Think about it logically! Would you add scalability to a student final exam problem?! Are we building a car by slapping an engine on a wheel?! This is a test question, damn it! A test question that’s supposed to be solved!”
“You short-sighted fool! Did you lose all your common sense?! There’s only one problem, you idiot! If there’s only one problem, we need to expand it to create discriminative power!”

Crash! Unable to hold back any longer, the professors grabbed each other by the collar and started throwing punches.

“You bastard!”
“Right on the bone!”
“Don’t grab my hair!!”

Thud-thud-thud! Whack-whack!

Desks collapsing.
The Research Office being demolished.

Collider stroked his nose with a satisfied expression.

‘Huh. Damn. What a mess.’

At this point, he thought his patience might snap.
But instead, a stubborn curiosity began to kindle inside him.

‘What the hell is it?’

That youngster, that worthless Professor Dante.
What was he trying to show the cadets with this exam problem?
He decided to stop the fight first.

“Gentlemen, let’s stop fighting—”
“You bastard! Are you going to ask Dante right now?!”
“Now, if we could just cease this altercation—”
“Ask him! Ask the damn idiot!! Want to bet on it, you son of a bitch?! Five hundred million Hika? A billion?!”
“You’re on! Let’s do it, you bastard! A hundred billion Hika! Put up your house deeds, your land deeds—everything―!”
“.….”

Collider took a deep breath.
Then he roared.

“SILENCE!!!!!!!!! ”

Crash-crash-crash!!

All the windows in the Research Office shattered—an effect of Illusion Magic. The amplification of sound was the same. But the effect was certain; the fighting professors stopped.

“Enough!”
“My apologies, Senior Professor…”
“We got carried away….”
“Let’s just stop, shall we?”
“Are you giving up, then?”
“No. I won’t give up. But you’re all professors too, and professors have dignity. A reputation to uphold.”
“That’s true….”
“Yet even as professors, we mustn’t neglect learning. So let’s go to the 2nd District and ask.”
“The 2nd District, you say…?”

The Magic Department.

Illusion Magic differs between the Assassination-line Illusory Arts and the Magic-line Illusory Arts.
In practical terms—power, rapid application methods, and the like—the Assassination-line Illusory Arts maintains a higher standard.
The depth of research and scholarship in Magic-line Illusory Arts was considerably greater.

That is, the mages would surely know.

“But… it might not help at all.”
“Hmm?”
“The head professor of Illusory Arts in the Magic Department is just one person, and that old woman abandoned her post and fled because of this incident.”
“Ah.”

Tsk!
Collider clicked his tongue and furrowed his brow.
Glumi, the head professor of the Fantasy Magic Department.
Because of that traitor, there was talk that Hiaka’s Illusory Arts had collapsed entirely.

“…Let’s go anyway. Even a senior professor over there would be better than us.”
“Yes. Let’s go. We’re dying of frustration here—we’d gladly borrow even a cat’s paw at this point.”

Soon the faculty members climbed into a car and headed toward the 2nd District.
They sought counsel from several senior professors in the Fantasy Magic Department.

But the Fantasy Magic Department was in mourning at that time, and as expected, the department had collapsed under the weight of Glumi’s treachery.

“Equipment, research materials, classified magical formulae… everything of value, she took it all. Does that make any sense?”
“Ah, well… I see.”

They consoled the weeping professor.
Then, late as it was, they sought his advice.

“Wow, this is really difficult. Who created this problem?”

The senior professor of Fantasy Magic beamed.
But wait—a difficult problem?

“Well, that is…”
“No, no! Don’t tell me. Let me guess.”
“Yes?”

The senior professor’s eyes lit up.

“No matter how much I look at it, this has to be made by an Abraxas-line Illusory Arts assassin or mage, right? Ah! I’ve got it! Challenger Cruciel?”
“No, no…”
“Not them? Or is it Agion of the Luminous Starlight Seat? He loves this kind of difficult problem! Making something extremely simple into something extremely sophisticated by layering multiple formulas into an Illusory Art. That’s exactly his style!”
“Ah, no, it’s not that…”
“Not Agion either? Hmm. Then who made this problem?”
“…”

At this point, Collider and the other professors were stunned.

‘That’s all it is?’

That’s what began to dawn on them.

That’s all it is?
Formulae and circuit structures so hyperadvanced that they warranted mention of Challengers and Starlight Seats—martial masters of that caliber?
In other words, Professor Dante was only about thirty years old and yet at that level of mastery, and he was casually using circuits that looked like difficult problems as mere ‘final examination test questions’?

“…That bastard seems a bit crazy, honestly?”

That couldn’t possibly be true!
At least say something that makes sense!

“Right? No matter how I look at it, it has to be because of the Glumi top student incident….”
“Good grief, such a brilliant fellow broken like this….”

The Assassination Studies professors muttered among themselves.
Spinning their fingers at their temples as they spoke.

In any case.
They had ultimately come up empty-handed.

“Shall we grab something to eat? I heard the other Fantasy Magic Department professors are coming this afternoon.”
“Let’s do that. We haven’t eaten anything all night, after all….”
“What about you, Senior Professor?”

All eyes turned toward Collider.
He looked even more haggard than yesterday.
His mouth hung slack before he squeezed it shut, then let it relax again.

“…Yes, let’s do that.”

Everyone understood.
It was a kind of provisional surrender.

Collider had decided to tell Dante that he’d completed the verification but found no problems.
It was shameful, but it was the best he could do.
His spirit had been broken.

Sadly, it seemed true that Dante’s research prowess exceeded even his own elite standards. But how could he go before the man, bare his soul, and say “I simply can’t figure it out”?
If he did that, his heart might shatter entirely…….

“…Damn it.”

And so they tossed their copy of the Exam Problem Sheet onto the desk in the Fantasy Magic Department Office and went to get some food.

They couldn’t bear to look at it anymore.

* * *

– Collider: Verification is complete. I found no problems.
– Collider: It was far more difficult than expected, so it took considerable time and I had to seek advice.
– Collider: It appears to be a finished problem. Since I’m not the answer, if you have somewhere else to verify it, feel free to try.
– Dante: Much obliged.
– Dante: I’ll buy you a meal sometime.

So the verification was done.
I’d worried about it, truth be told.
What if it was too difficult?

So I reflected on myself.
I had underestimated the professors without realizing it.
They were brilliant men after all.

“…It works, I’m telling you. This thing.”

Now I could enter the Final Examination with an easy mind.
What was difficult was the mathematical formula that comprised the problem.
The problem itself was simple.
So everyone would solve it in their own way.

From the depths of my heart, I wished them well.
Many cadets hoping for good marks.

* * *

“……Hm? What is this?”

Fantasy Magic Department Office.
Senior Professor Galois had stopped in his tracks, staring at some sheet of paper.
He’d ducked into the office briefly, accompanied by a group of assistant professors in magic.

“Ah.”

It was a document he couldn’t simply pass by.
He read it with growing interest.

“Excuse me. Professor Yuha?”
“Yes, Senior?”
“What is this?”

Yuha, the senior professor of Fantasy Magic who had faced off against the Assassination Department faculty earlier, turned the question back on him.

“What do you mean, sir?”
“There’s an unusual exam problem sheet here with formulas in it?”
“Ah, ah! My apologies. That’s the one those Assassination Department professors brought — they must have left it behind. They said they were stepping out for lunch, so they’ll be back soon.”
“Assassins? Why would they have this here?”

As Yuha explained the situation, Senior Professor Galois broke into an intrigued smile. A difficult problem, was it?

“Would you care to take a look, Senior Galois?”
“Why not? We’re not busy at the moment, are we?”
“No, sir.”
“Well then, let’s see…….”

Galois settled onto the sofa, fitted a monocle to his eye, and bent over the problem sheet.

“…….”

For more than ten minutes afterward, he didn’t move. As if he’d been paused mid-motion.
Unlike the other senior professors of magic, who continued writing and analyzing something with paper and pen in hand.

He was approaching the problem sheet through mental arithmetic alone.

Senior Professor Yuha watched his expression carefully.
Given that the vain Assassination Department Professor Collider and several Illusory Arts instructors had been reduced to the state of pitiful beggars, it clearly wasn’t an ordinary difficult problem.

But then again, the man before him was Galois, was he not?

Galois Granlei.

He was among the most celebrated authorities in Magic across the continent, beyond even Hiaka itself.
While his grounding in Illusory Arts might be limited, his mastery of circuit structures and mathematical formulae was such that the empire itself would spend fortunes to obtain it—a genius professor coveted even there.
In fact, for nearly the past several years, he had been mentioned as a candidate for the Imperial Oberlis Prize in Magic, a monstrous scholar in his field.

“…….”

And so Senior Galois, that very man, engaged the problem sheet through mental calculation alone.
His eyes moving left and right, nothing else.
Then came a small reaction.

“…Heh.”

He curved his lips into a smile!

Why?
Why, though?
A subdued voice followed.

“It was a tree, then. A tree….”

A tree?
What tree?
At that moment, Galois spoke to his assistant professor.

“All right, everyone. Stay here and rest for a moment. I need to visit the department head.”
“Understood, Senior. Shall I make copies of the exam sheets?”
“No need. I’ve already memorized them.”

Already? In just ten minutes? Something that complicated??
When Galois rose from the sofa, the senior professor Yuha thought he was about to leave.
Fearing his curiosity would never be satisfied, he tried to grab him urgently—but by then Galois had already vanished with Spatial Transference!
Just before his form faded, Galois muttered under his breath.

“……That fellow’s up to something interesting.”

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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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