Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 70

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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 70
DLC [The Hero’s Instructor]: Mid-Point Summary (3)

The street where the snow had ceased falling.
Crisp, cold air.
I’m heading to the Parking Lot with Adel right now.
Ever since I opened my eyes in Dante’s body, we’ve been walking this path together every day.

Tap, tap….

Adel’s footsteps are audible as she walks.
That’s uncommon in the Assassination Department.

I myself make almost no sound when I walk now.
It’s a habit born of being an assassin.

So I asked her once: “Why do you make noise when you walk?” At that, Adel laughed and suddenly began moving swiftly around the area, and her footsteps made no sound whatsoever.

“I do it on purpose. I don’t want to hide.”
“Not want to hide? But you’re an assassin.”
“Hmm, well, that’s true, but… I just don’t like it. I didn’t become an assassin because I wanted to, and… don’t you think people sound more like people when they make footstep noises as they walk?”

It was a statement I couldn’t comprehend.
Back then, that’s what I thought.

Tap, tap, tap, tap….

Now those footsteps sound oddly strange to me.
During our walk, my gaze drifted to the necklace around Adel’s neck.

「 Ω 」

An Omega symbol.
This is the emblem of the Star Cross Star Ω.

My connection to it: in the past, Senior Angela wielded the enormous Grim Reaper Ω against Jinksite — a weapon bearing the Saint Mark of the Cross Star — and just recently, the organization called the Reaper Society that Kaiser was elevated to lead was a cult devoted to the Cross Star Ω.

Adel turned to look at me then and asked:

“What are you looking at?”

Then she covered her chest with her hand.

“A pretty necklace.”
“Hm? Oh my.”

Adel unbuttoned the front of her shirt.

“Why are you hiding it?”
“Oh, I wasn’t hiding it—the button had just come undone. I usually keep all my buttons fastened.”

I stared at Adel’s eyes.

“…….”
“……?”

Then Adel smiled and blinked.

It was the second time I’d seen that necklace.
Now that I thought about it, the empire apparently regarded the Reaper Society as a fairly major religion.

Go World, I believe they called it.

I’d looked into it once because the doctrine intrigued me.
According to their teachings, there exists a god called Go in this world, and one must refine and cultivate one’s own spirit to approach this Go—such was their central doctrine.

It was an odd setting.
Originally, in this world’s framework, aside from the Holy Mother—the incarnation of the Cross Star—there didn’t exist a single being classified as a personal deity.
Clearly, this was a setting different from before the DLC.

“Adel. Do you worship the Reaper Society?”
“No? I just bought it because it’s pretty.”
“It is rather lovely.”
“Right? Would you like to see it, Professor?”

Adel then unclasped the necklace and showed it to me.
It was just an ordinary necklace—nothing particularly distinctive about it.

…….

I gazed at the necklace for a moment.
Then we resumed walking.

Beyond that, when I reflected on our life together, there were details that nagged at me.
For instance, there were strange habits Adel often displayed in her daily routine.

As I mentioned before, Adel and I were currently living together—I occupied the second floor, and she lived on the first.
The Academy Faculty sends a maid twice a week to handle all the housework, so there’s no real inconvenience.

Still, there were things we each had to manage ourselves from time to time.
I tended to look after my own laundry, for example.

Say, for instance, Adel spilled coffee on her clothes.
And suppose it happened to be an important outfit she needed to wear that day.
Normally, one would simply hand-wash the stain away.
But Adel would discard the garment entirely, leave the house, and return with a brand new one.

– Why did you buy that?
– Oh, this dress? Well, it got dirty, didn’t it?
– Can’t you simply wash it?
– Ugh, forget it. I’ll just get a new one.

She’d often wash dishes oddly too. (She was pouring soap directly onto the plates.)
And watering the potted plants every single day without fail. (One of the ornamental plants ended up dying.)
In such small, everyday moments, I got the distinct impression that something was fundamentally skewed.

There were other incidents as well.
Once, we went to the 5th District Commercial Zone to buy teaching materials, and I noticed a claw machine arcade.
Adel’s expression suddenly hardened, and she fell completely silent without saying a word.

– What’s wrong?
– Nothing. Just not in a good mood.

It was a tone I’d never heard from her before.
Adel despised claw machines.

Moreover, Adel had an abnormally strong aversion to anything sexual in nature. In particular, she flinched visibly at any depiction of women in suggestive states—which meant that my earlier observation about her always buttoning her shirt to the collar was merely the tip of the iceberg. If she spotted adult flyers on the street, she’d deliberately kick them far away. When adult films appeared on television, she’d switch channels with obvious irritation.

There was a time I recalled an incident like this. The Assassination Department had a place called the Costume Room. It was a space for assassination contracts.
Just as actors don in costumes suited to their roles in the dressing room, assassins too rented out various outfits tailored to each job.
Sometimes there were security guard uniforms, janitor’s clothes, noble attire, even party dresses for infiltrating galas, and event wear for underground gambling dens and the like.
When I’d stopped by for educational materials, Adel had once secretly torn a provocative dress in that very room.

– What are you doing right now?
– Oh, my apologies~ The fabric was just fraying, so I barely touched it…. How exactly do the Costume Room assistants manage these clothes?
– …….
– Ugh, I’ll pay for the damage.

At the time, I’d let it pass.
But thinking back on it later, Adel’s expression that day had been different from usual.
She’d been visibly furious.

Her awkward everyday demeanor.
Her revulsion toward claw machines.
Her hatred of anything sexual in nature.

Up to this point, there was no reason to think of Adel as anything more than an “unusual person.”

But then again…….

“Ah, would you perhaps like a quiet meat restaurant, Professor?”
“Sounds good.”
“Then let’s go. I know a great place~”

I watched Adel walk ahead of me in silence, then followed her lead.

* * *

Adel was likely a spy.
Probably Croitz’s.
In truth, I didn’t know where she’d come from, but it was certain that she was an alien presence who didn’t belong here.

Until “Rebellion and Collapse,” I had never harbored even a shred of suspicion about her within the Script.

But during “Rebellion and Collapse,” I noticed several irregularities.

The first was when I went Offline.
It was a spiritual message sent to me by people from another world.

The one closest to me.
I hadn’t missed that keyword.
The person closest to me was Adel.

Around that time, the meat arrived.

“Wow, this looks delicious. Thank you for the meal.”

The second irregularity was Adel’s disappearance during “Rebellion and Collapse.”
Adel vanished around the time Jinksite appeared at the Cat Cafe, remained unseen even after the crisis ended, and only reappeared when Elise was inside the trash bin.
When I investigated her movements during those several days separately, Adel was found nowhere.
Absolutely nowhere.
So what had she been doing then?
Before I could answer that.

And finally, the third matter: immediately after I began suspecting her like this, the System Principle itself also began to move “something.” I gained certainty when we toured the 9th District Tourist Area together that very afternoon.

“Adel.”

I spoke to Adel just as she was about to put meat in her mouth.

“Yes?”
“Think of a single number in your mind. I’ll guess what it is.”
“Oh. What’s this~? Hmm….”

【 Neutral Professor Dante : “Adel.” 】
【 Teaching Assistant Adel : “Yes?” 】
【 Neutral Professor Dante : “Think of a single number in your mind. I’ll guess what it is.” 】
【 Teaching Assistant Adel : “Oh. What’s this~? Hmm….” 】
【 Teaching Assistant Adel : “…….” 】
【 Teaching Assistant Adel : “I’ve thought of it. What number is it?” 】
【 Neutral Professor Dante : ‘Watch this.’ 】
【 Neutral Professor Dante : ‘I can’t sense her thoughts anymore.’ 】

“One.”
“Wrong! It was seven~”

Her 【thoughts】 had become impossible for me to perceive.
Since the System Principle⧉ governs the system, it was likely the System Principle⧉ that had blocked it.

Paradoxically, this act sealed my certainty.
The role of the System Principle⧉ is to ensure the player enjoys the game.
If I had to guess, wasn’t it that the System Principle⧉ judged my inability to read Adel’s thoughts as ‘enjoyable’?

“This time, why don’t you think of a number too, Professor?”
“…….”

Based on these three pieces of evidence, I was certain.
Adel was a spy—or something very much like one.

Among other things, I gleaned from Ezekiel’s 【Script】 what Adel had been doing during those days when she’d disappeared.
She had laid hands on a ‘national treasure.’

National Designated Treasure Number Four: the Myeongbu⧉.

This was a 【Legend III】-grade artifact—coveted by the Empire and nations across the world.
When given the right conditions, it could precisely locate ‘a specific person.’

When the crisis erupted, Ezekiel had hastily borrowed it from the Royal House.
Thanks to it, we assassins had avenged ourselves by eliminating Croitz’s infrastructure and key personnel. That had been the Myeongbu⧉’s purpose.
But Ezekiel had discovered something amiss.

【 Arcane Faculty Dean Ezekiel : ‘Why are there nine more uses of the Myeongbu⧉ than I accounted for?’ 】

Ezekiel had used the Myeongbu⧉ two hundred and twelve times.
Yet the actual number logged in the Myeongbu⧉ was two hundred and twenty-one.
A genius among geniuses like Ezekiel would never overlook such a discrepancy.
Using that as leverage, she questioned the Myeongbu⧉ itself.

【 Arcane Faculty Dean Ezekiel : ‘User: Adel?’ 】

The vanished Adel
had, somehow, handled the Myeongbu⧉ in secret.
With it, she had located ‘someone.’
And afterward, she had returned to my side.
To play the part of a cheerful teaching assistant.

I am now.
Dining alone with such a person.

“Did you remember?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm…. How many days? Seven…!”
“Wrong.”
“Aw, come on. You said just one number! You’re such a liar…!”
“3,239.”
“What? Just one number, you said! This con artist…!”

Adel broke into a broad smile and popped the meat into her mouth. From this moment forward, even if she lies, I cannot tell. The Script is invisible to me. I must extract information from Adel purely through my own skill.
With that thought, I broached a subject.

“Adel.”
“Yes?”
“Are you familiar with Go World?”

Adel’s eyes widened.

“…Yes? Out of nowhere?”
“Just remembered it because of that necklace.”
“Oh, you mean Go World? No, no, I told you earlier—I just thought the pattern was pretty. I’m not particularly interested in Go World. What about you, Professor?”
“It’s fascinating. The Virgin Mother Religion leans too heavily on dependence upon the divine. But Go World, they say, focuses on the self and one’s inner nature.”
“Isn’t that because you have high self-esteem, Professor?”
“No. If anything, I’m the one who needs the Virgin Mother Religion’s god. I’m weak.”
“Really? Hmm…. But maybe because it’s fresh? The Empire’s been that way lately too—I hear Go World has gained a massive following.”
“Hasn’t it come into conflict with the Virgin Mother Religion?”
“Well, since I’m not interested, I haven’t really…”

Just then, Adel spotted something on the menu.

“Oh, by the way, Professor. Do you think I could have a drink?”

The conversation so far had yielded little of substance.
Would alcohol change things?

“Let’s have one. It’s the weekend.”
“Great~ This is our first drink together.”

A drinking engagement with an adversary. The fortunate thing was that Dante, having been an assassin originally, found this situation not at all uncomfortable.
It was simply what assassins did. Deceive or be deceived. Find the truth in that dance.
Just as running is recreation for a dog, I now felt an intense fascination.

Adel, who are you?

What is this “enormous threat” you carry?

Will I have to kill you?

* * *

Two hours later. Adel was touching my cheek.
Nestled against my chest.

“Who does this kind of thing between friends?”

Adel laughed softly, whispering close.

“…They say I get like this when I drink.”

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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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