Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 62

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 62
EP18 – Over the Snowy Ruins, the Christmas Bell Tolls (7)

Final exam week was drawing near.

Most professors had opted to replace the exams with reports or portfolio assignments, but there were a few obstinate instructors who insisted on holding tests regardless of the circumstances.
Take Dante Hiaka, for instance.

“Hwaru, did you hear the news?”
“Huh?”

But something peculiar had happened with this exam—all the cadets enrolled in Illusion Magic courses would now sit for a unified final exam.

“Dominic, what’s going on here?”
“From what I’ve heard, according to ‘This Industry’―”

Dominic suggested that perhaps headquarters—not just the Assassination Department—had been preparing an enormous Illusion Magic test.
Headquarters? Outside the Assassination Department?
What did that mean?
Astonishingly, cadets from the Magic Department’s Illusion Magic courses were also included—from first-year through fourth-year, every single cadet would gather in one place to take the exam.
Zone 9, the outermost region of Hiaka Academy. In the place called the Forest of Magic.
And Dominic’s words became reality.

“Wow… there are so many people here….”
“Is this real? Are all these cadets really taking the exam at the same time?”

On exam day, over 1,200 cadets had gathered in Zone 9. There were roughly 450 Assassination Department students, and a staggering 750 Magic Department students.
Though they kept a certain distance from one another, they couldn’t help but gawk at each other out of curiosity.

The magic student contingent was outfitted entirely in ridiculous pointed hats with wide brims.

Meanwhile, the assassination cadets were wearing harnesses across their chests in groups—like some sort of perverted gear.

It was, in a word, bookworms versus degenerates in a head-to-head showdown.

Then a professor appeared before the gathered cadets.

“Ahem, ahem! I ask you all to pay attention. I am Collider, Senior Professor Elite of Illusion Magic Assassination Studies!”

He was the type who looked perpetually dissatisfied with the world.
He bellowed at the top of his lungs without preamble.

“First! Regarding my accomplishments, I rank first in the Lemontree Barony Academy! First in the distinguished 475-year Hiaka Assassination Department graduate rankings! First in the Kingdom Academy’s Illusion Magic Evaluation Test ‘Blossom of Confinement’! First in the Imperial Exchange Student Program ranking!! Global ranking—6,001― So what are you doing?! Aren’t you going to applaud?!”

Clap, clap… scattered, desultory applause rippled through the crowd.
The Magic Department cadets couldn’t help but glance sideways at them.
The Assassination Department had to avert their gazes.

‘Damn it, why did he have to show up?’
‘This is so embarrassing, seriously.’

Assassination Department… down 0–1 from the start!

Yet given the current climate, there were quite a few sharp-eyed cadets present.
Magicians were ordinarily divided into four cadet ranks.

Etude → Toccata → Sonata → Symphonia

Among them, a fourth-year cadet from Zamryong Academy, ranked Symphonia, raised his hand sharply.

“What is it?”
“Professor, why are you up there?”
“I came out to explain the test problems.”
“Then just explain the problems.”

Snap. The courtyard fell silent.

…Did you see that bastard?
At that moment, every cadet in the Assassination Department felt a subtle irritation prickling beneath their skin.
Never mind that Collider was an idiot—
but for some outsider to curse him out like that…?
Still, it wasn’t wrong, and time was limited, so Collider raised his head with his fists clenched behind his back.

“Right then! I’ll explain this semester’s Illusion Magic final exam problems!”

Snap—!
As he flicked his fingers, a single point appeared in the empty air.

“The test is simple! From here on, you must grow this ‘first point.’ Layer your Illusion Magic onto it like skin! Of course, that doesn’t mean you can attach just anything!”

Snap—!
At Collider’s gesture, a small pebble materialized. He brought it toward the ‘point’—
Clang!
The pebble shattered immediately.

“The Illusion Magic that can attach here is already determined, and you must find it through illusory sensation! The more you attach, the larger you build, the higher your score—and eventually it will take on a complete form!”
“Whatever. Boring.”
……

Again, that voice rang out distinctly louder than the rest.
The same Symphonia fourth-year from the Magic Department.

“It won’t be boring! This test is far more delicate than you think, difficult, and will take considerable time to complete!”
“I don’t see much point. If I just stick something on carelessly, won’t everyone else follow my lead?”
……

Collider closed his eyes.
It was fine.
After enduring the pestering of someone with grey hair for over three months, Collider’s patience had grown, and this time too he could grit his teeth and push through.

“That bastard talks like a fucking dog. Should I just kill him….”

Suddenly, a girl’s voice rang out sharply from somewhere in the Assassination Department section.
All the cadets spun around in alarm.
A cadet with protruding buck teeth, scowling.
It was Grey.

“Hey. You there. Were you just talking to me?”

Grey answered the Magic Department cadet’s question.

“No.”
“No? That was clearly meant for me to hear.”
“I said no. But is the professor your friend?”

Hmm.
So is he your friend…?
Someone thought silently.

“Hey. What’s your problem, talking back to me?”
“I’m your mother, that’s what. You’ve got some nerve mouthing off to a professor who came out here to explain things. You want to die?”
“Get out of here. You’re vulgar. Besides, Illusion Magic originated from magic in the first place—does it make sense for an Assassination Department professor to be explaining it?”
“If you’re not satisfied, go get your mother.”
“…Are you finished talking?”

As the tension between the two of them escalated, a subtle strain began rippling outward between the Magic Department and the Assassination Department alike.

One student glanced toward the platform, and without thinking, froze. That gaze proved contagious. As one by one the students turned to look at the podium, even Grey and the Magic Department student who’d been glaring at each other in their excitement had to look. All eyes converged on that single spot.
Silence descended slowly over the gathering. Standing at the lectern was a professor with pink eyes. An assassin wearing a Senior Professor Badge across her chest.

“…….”
“…….”

It was Professor Dante Hiaka. Yet even though the Magic Department students didn’t know who he was, something in the atmosphere made them feel compelled to hold their tongues. The mood demanded it.
Only after silencing all twelve hundred or so students, until even the sound of breathing faded, did the professor finally speak.

“From this point forward, anyone who disrupts the peace will have their examination eligibility revoked entirely.”

His voice rolled low across the entire plaza.

“Just try raising your voice one more time.”

Slow speech. A tone that bore down like a crushing weight. In response, the students each felt an indefinable pressure. As if they had become deer face-to-face with a tiger—a primal, instinctive oppression……. And within that hushed examination hall,

“Now then, allow me to explain the rest, students.”

Next to appear beside Collider was Chief Professor Galois.

“This examination was created by the genius of Illusion Magic, Chief Professor Cain, who was invited to Hiaka in secret—and you must not make light of it.”

Cain? Who’s that?
A wave of curiosity spread through the students. Because they all knew—just how dire the situation was for Hiaka’s Illusion Magic program.
It was then that Professor Dante opened his mouth.

“Copying by sight will be impossible. Once the examination begins, you’ll enter the Illusory Realm and solve the problems alone in your own private space. Does that answer your question?”
“……Yes.”

The student who had just talked back to Collider now simply nodded.
Galois continued.

“The examination period is forty-eight hours. Two nights and three days. How many hours you invest each day is entirely up to you. And depending on the results of this examination, the Magic Department will receive recommendation letters from the department head and myself, while the Assassination Department will be guaranteed several graduation certificates.”

At those words, the students’ expressions grew rigid.
They realized this was no ordinary final exam.
Murmuring began to break out.
Galois added a bit more.

“And there is a special prize for first place. I will grant you the opportunity to learn a Secret Technique from any professor of your choosing. One-on-one! Whoever it may be, whatever it may be! All our professors from every department have agreed to this.”

The murmuring swelled considerably.
Learn a professor’s secret ability or magic? From anyone, anything?
The students each began conjuring their own hopes in their minds.

“…….”

Grey swallowed dryly.
This was truly an impossible opportunity.
She wanted to confirm it.
Grey raised her hand without thinking, unable to hold back.

“Anyone? Even the department head or the board chairman?”
“The board chairman is an exception.”

The cadets gasped, their eyes snapping to the department head. So they weren’t exceptions—not them!
A chance to learn abilities directly from a Challenger ranked within the top 200 in the world—instruction from the master herself!

…….

Grey, meanwhile, had eyes only for one professor: Professor Dante Hiaka.
She needed to meet with him separately. There was something she had to ask him.

…….

And among the Assassination Studies cadets, one other student was also watching Dante.
Elise, who had no interest in exams or anything else about them.

‘The bracelet….’

The question that consumed Elise was when she would meet with the professor and give it to him.

“Skill matters, certainly. But finding the answer to this problem through sheer skill alone will prove difficult. The true theme of this exam is not merely about mastery of Illusion Magic, but discovering your main power and whether you can transcend your limits.”

The words of Senior Professor Galois motivated many cadets, for if the test was about transcending one’s limits, then everyone stood on equal ground at the start.

“Then, let the exam begin.”

* * *

The exam had begun.

The cadets entered a pocket dimension called the Illusory Realm.

In a pristine white space, they began to shape the “points” that lay before them.

I opened the Aperture I had created. Mana swirled clockwise in the void, forming the shape of a mirror. Within it, multiple layers of the Illusory Realm revealed themselves.

‘Galois claimed talent bore little relevance to the task.’

Yet that was hardly the truth. There existed no field in the world where talent exerted no influence. In reality, it was often the most talented who possessed the most stubborn perseverance. Even transcending one’s limits was subject to talent’s sway. A bitter truth, that.

Sure enough, as predicted, the Symphonia-grade students from the Magic Department began to pull ahead, as did the Academy-ranked cadets from Assassination Studies.

Some were already unraveling the problem’s opening, attaching the form of a “tree” to the initial point. Their instinct was remarkable. The final form should indeed be a tree.
Yet within this process lay one intriguing fact.

‘Hmm.’

In truth, I already knew who would win this exam.
All too predictably, it should have been Grey.
Not merely because she came from House Habanero.
Her overwhelming latent potential—shaped for the assassination of professors—should have led her to victory. Yet something felt wrong about this.

“Hmm….”

Elise swept her hand across the space beneath the point, and the blank white floor suddenly carved deep, revealing the form of a tree beginning to emerge.

“Hm? Is that it…?”

She scratched her head as she began erasing everything in the vicinity, as if unaware of what madness she was committing.
Elise was wiping away the “background” of the Illusion Magic—like digging up the earth to expose a tree’s roots.
It was a fusion of Illusion Magic and Concealment…. A synthesis of abilities that could only be attempted after reaching at least Grand Master rank and undergoing lengthy mental intersections. A fusion-type Erasure.
Fusion-type Erasure.
Sheer madness of talent. Not some shoddy Illusion Magic, but erasing the Illusion Magic I created myself.

“Hmm, is this right…? I’m not sure….”

Elise continued hesitantly, recklessly erasing space after space, tracing the contours of tree and root.

“Oh? Points.”

Then she gained points and laughed with a childish giggle.
My mental landscape contained a scoreboard shared with the students, and her results were startling.

───
1st place, Elise 84
2nd place, Parhan 26
3rd place, Grey 21
───

Then something occurred to me.
Could it be because of that?

───
Elise Xicos [2.8]
Grey Habanero [2.7]
───

Surely not just because of that [0.1] difference…?

“What on earth….”

Meanwhile, Grey had her buck teeth practically bared, continuing to attempt various Illusion Magic techniques.

“Why won’t it take…?”

Her Illusion Magic was off somehow. Frantic, utterly lacking in focus.
As a result, the problem that arose was that she kept hacking away at work that demanded delicacy with crude, sweeping strokes.
In truth, each part of this “tree” had its assigned place. If Elise was the “roots,” then Grey was meant to be the “branches”—yet she kept trying to attach the “trunk” instead, didn’t she?
It would never hold. The Illusory Realm I created rejects any Illusion Magic that isn’t precise. No matter how refined, it must find the answer I intended.
Crack!
And that was why Grey’s Illusion Magic kept shattering.

“Huh…? Why is this happening? The answer is the tree. I made a tree. Why does it keep breaking….”

You have to be delicate about it.
Delicate.

Separate from my regret that Grey from Zamryong Academy was proving slower than expected,
there was a personal grievance at play.

“Your ace seems slower than you thought, doesn’t she?”

Chief Professor Galois approached and let out a snort.

“Large vessels are formed slowly.”
“That’s something you say when you’re molding a vessel, not when you’re digging up earth and gathering soil.”

And so a subtle war of words began between him and me.
Why? Because we made a wager from the start.

Assassination Studies Department versus Magic Department.

It was the extension of that earlier, subtle friction.
Especially pronounced in Illusion Magic, alchemy, and magic—assassination magic being a separate discipline—the rivalry ran deep.

“Our Parhan already has thirty-five points. He’s arrogant, but when it comes to Illusion Magic, the boy’s a prodigy. What score does Grey have?”

From his vantage, only the Magic Department’s scoreboard was visible.
And Parhan was that same cocky name from earlier.

“Our student stands at twenty-five points, I’m afraid.”
“Hmm. You think that’s acceptable? We’re already ten points ahead.”
“You don’t know until it plays out. We’re only beginning.”
“I don’t know. Just because you’re the Assassination Studies Department’s genius instructor doesn’t make your pupil one too. Besides, Illusion Magic has always belonged to the mages, hasn’t it?”
……

Elise didn’t mention the ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three points.
I wanted to settle this on Grey’s merits alone.
And naturally, Grey had to win. Parhan’s latent power topped out around 2.3 at best.

“Don’t forget the terms of our bet. For every ten-point difference, I give you one Elixir, and you work as my assistant professor for a day. You remember, yes?”

My hair stood on end.
Assistant professor.
That was the lucky graduate student’s station.
Such a thing absolutely could not come to pass.

“Ah, why like this… why…”

And yet Grey was still digging in.

As time wore on, the gap widened steadily. Galois, the senior professor—this old man was ninety years old and childish beyond imagination.

Hehehehe!

His laughter was peculiar enough to set anyone’s teeth on edge, and once the point difference climbed past a hundred, hadn’t he actually pulled up a chair beside me and sat down?

“Wait, we’re over a hundred points now? Why, that brilliant assistant professor’s loan period has already stretched to ten days! Hihihihi!”
“Senior Professor, perhaps you could move elsewhere.”
“Impossible! I can’t help myself—I’m constitutionally incapable of resisting what intrigues me! Hihihihi!”

But after nearly thirty minutes of that grating sound, I could no longer simply sit and listen.

“I see. So that’s why thirty years ago you couldn’t resist plagiarizing someone else’s research paper.”
……?

Galois, as if struck in the solar plexus, wiped the smile from his face and looked at me. The plagiarism scandal was his reverse scale—the one thing he could never bear.

“At least I’ve never killed a colleague professor.”
…….

My own sore spot—not that I’d done it, but people kept spreading that vile rumor everywhere.

…….
…….

And so I faced the old man directly. Between us, lightning flickered. One misstep, and it would be fatal.

“I didn’t kill anyone.”
“And I didn’t plagiarize my dissertation.”

“That’s what everyone says you did.”
“I didn’t, you bastard.”

“We’ll see about that.”
“What a third-rate assassin’s line. But you’d do well to remember this: I’m a man who never backs down.”
“Your dissertation sure did, though.”
“I—you—”

The old man began to tremble.
For now, it was a victory—but what came next mattered most.

I turned my gaze toward Grey in the Illusory Realm.
She had to pull through.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————