Surviving the Assassin Academy as a Genius Professor - Chapter 74

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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 74
EP19 – Glassy Butterfly (2)

“…Ugh, seriously.”

I hadn’t expected any particular reaction from Grey. Yet she stood frozen, her expression locked in confusion.

“This is maddening….”

After a moment, Grey laughed awkwardly.

“How did you do that…?”
“Why.”
“What do you mean, why….”
“Did I perform it well?”
“Ugh, what nonsense is this, really….”

Her eyes grew deeper, even as she feigned annoyance with playful sarcasm.

“How did you manage that…? It’s not even your family’s technique. You’ve never studied it before, have you? I was just genuinely startled….”
“Your expression didn’t show it.”
“I didn’t know what expression I was supposed to have…. But anyway, how did you pull it off immediately like that?”
“I’m not sure. For now, let me finish learning what’s left to learn.”
“What’s left?”
“You said there were several butterflies, and then one more after that, didn’t you? Only when I complete that does it count as true Embroidery.”
“Right. But hold on—I need to use the Laundry Room for a moment.”
“The Laundry Room? Why.”
“I was so startled just now that I had a little accident….”

And with that, Grey twisted her legs together.
A mischievous smile playing across her face.
Disgusting.
I absolutely hate unsanitary behavior.

“……That’s a crude joke.”

My face darkened in genuine discomfort.
It must have amused her.
I’m always so composed, after all.

“What?”

And then Grey burst into laughter, her eyes crinkling into arcs.

“A joke? I’m serious.”
“…Fine.”
“No, why don’t you believe me? It’s wet right now.”
“Enough.”

I furrowed my brow, and Grey laughed even louder.

“…I’ll wait.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back. But it might take a while. I need to wash up.”

This woman.

“Grey Habanero.”
“Kyahahaha…! Oh, sorry sorry~♡”
Keep the vulgar language to a minimum.
Yeah! But you should see Professor’s reaction—it’s hilarious, seriously. He looked so flustered. It’s adorable.
…….
All right, all right! Don’t give me that look. Okay? I’m going and coming back……!

And so I found myself teased by a child for a good while.

In any case, during the brief time Grey had stepped out of the Grand Hall, I sank into thought.

For a moment, I considered the Habanero family.

The cat-kin’s past, and that peculiar Illusion Magic called the Glassy Butterfly.

Originally, Illusion Magic was the exclusive domain of mages—but one exception existed: the Habanero family’s variant.

The foundational lore went like this.

Long ago.
There was a cat-kin who lived close to humans.
She once dwelt in a human’s home, cherished and adored.
But one day, she was abandoned.

Life continued even for the abandoned cat.
On a day when she was living quietly, alone.

She glimpsed a single blue butterfly, fluttering gently.
Seized by curiosity, the cat gave chase into the forest. But the butterfly vanished without trace, and the cat returned in dejection.

Then, in a cave where she fell asleep, the cat underwent an extraordinary experience: she became the butterfly.
Flying freely through the dream was profoundly joyful. As the butterfly, she could become anything, go anywhere.

She could become a flower, a tree, a beloved presence.
She could travel to rivers, to the tops of trees, to the edge of hellfire itself.

When she awoke, the cat, drawing on that vivid experience, began to craft an ability—and so was born the Habanero family’s unique Illusion Magic.

The Glassy Butterfly.

This magic differed greatly from other Illusion Magic in one crucial respect: despite being Illusion Magic, it possessed no circuits, formulae, or systematic structure whatsoever.

It manifested illusions through Mental Imagery and raw magical power alone.

The more concrete one’s Mental Imagery, the more refined the illusion formed.

Yet human memory is always imprecise, and even vivid Mental Imagery approaches something closer to pixel art.

Close your eyes right now and picture an apple.
Fifteen percent of humans cannot conjure it at all—no image forms in their mind’s eye.
Of the remaining eighty-five percent, roughly half summon only a vague impression.
About forty percent can picture a clear image.
A rare five percent can visualize an image as sharp as a photograph—
And even that is not enough for the Glassy Butterfly.

To wield the Glassy Butterfly, one’s Mental Imagery must be far more concrete—vivid as if the object or phenomenon were standing directly before your eyes.

Something that does not exist.
Must exist.
This is the point where Creativity becomes necessary.

Yet Creativity is the forging of new connections between disparate, seemingly unrelated elements.

The element can be found in that drawer labeled ‘memory.’

In other words, Grey possesses a far sharper memory than most.

To such a degree that if she wanted to recall it, she could count the exact number of strands in my bangs the day we first met.

And she stores such memories like pages in a book, stacking them higher and higher into a towering archive.

That is the bloodline inheritance ability of House Habanero.

The Cat Tower Record.

Unfortunately, I possess no such ability now.

And yet I have manifested the third form of the Glassy Butterfly—Embroidery—with near-perfect precision.

So much so that Grey watching me was left utterly shocked.

But that was not pure truth.
I still cannot use the Glassy Butterfly.
And yet I manifested Embroidery with near-perfect precision because
I forged the Glassy Butterfly itself.

‘As expected.’

The World Forgery could forge even the Glassy Butterfly.

Though the mana efficiency was abysmal, passing one ability through another to manifest it, this was certainly an almost perfect Glassy Butterfly.

‘The sensation of stepping into a new field of study.’

Just as one must know everything about currency to forge banknotes, I had immersed myself thoroughly in an entirely different system of Illusion Magic, raising my comprehension.

I was truly learning Illusion Magic from Grey.

“Professor. I’m here.”
“Let’s finish it.”
“Sure. But wait a second~ Um.”

Grey rummaged through her Cross Bag for quite some time.

“Hmm. Where did it go? I brought it with me.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Oh, just—you wouldn’t believe me, so I was going to show you….”
“??”

Grey finished speaking and drew her legs together slightly.
Her expression brimming with mischief.

“…Hey, you.”

I don’t know what my face looks like.
But apparently it was amusing.
Grey burst out laughing.

“Kyaa, ahahaha!!”

It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have shown my distaste for such an unsanitary joke in the first place.
These cats, it seems, forever delight in toying with humans this way.

“Are you that embarrassed?”
“…….”
“Professor, you’re a total loner loser virgin, aren’t you? How pathetic♡”

This had to stop.

“That’s enough for today’s lesson.”
“Huh?”

The moment I stood up, Grey’s arms flailed about.

“Ah, okay, okay. I’m done joking around….”
“…….”

“Hey, are you really leaving? Really? It was all just a joke, I’m telling you…?”
“…….”

“No, wait. Stop going, please stop! It’s Grey’s fault…! I’ll stop teasing, I promise……!”

* * *

“So shall we try the Fourth Form today?”
“I’ll give it my best.”
“This one really took me three months to master….”

After I returned, I learned about the Fourth Form—Dream State. It involved transforming the butterfly I’d already created into a different shape.

“Simply put, the butterfly serves as the material for Illusion Magic.”

First, I released the butterfly.
Then I substituted it with Illusion Magic.

“If you follow my lead….”

The beauty of the Glassy Butterfly lay in how it defied conventional magical understanding.
Just as a coding expert cannot fathom how a magical mirror operates.
Only those who have mastered an ability that transcends the world’s rules, existing outside ordinary systems, can understand that ability—no one else.
Therefore, whether assassin or mage, no one could comprehend the Glassy Butterfly.

“The wings are sparkling, aren’t they?”
“Indeed.”
“Perfect. I can’t see it that way, so it’s a success.”

It was perhaps like how English speakers perceive Korean or Chinese characters.
The confusion someone accustomed only to alphabets feels when confronted with a wholly different writing system.

“The Glassy Butterfly also resists physical force somewhat. If someone tries to break it, it does this…. Did you see?”
“It shifted back to butterfly form.”
“Right. That way it can evade physical strikes. So if you keep rapidly switching between butterfly and Illusion Magic, to observers it looks like the form keeps stuttering. The blade passes through, but the Illusion remains unshattered.”

The scheduled private lesson was three hours long.
But as we studied, my interest grew, and Grey and I both became absorbed, diving deeper into the Glassy Butterfly.

“Huh? What are you doing, Professor?”
“…Hmm.”
“Those butterflies over there are getting away?”
“They won’t obey my commands.”
“That’s strange. But all the other butterflies listen just fine.”

This was my first time learning from someone since entering this body.
But the reason those hours of learning were so enjoyable—
was partly because I picked things up quickly.

“Yes, good….”
“You watch the butterfly there and imagine it, Professor. Transform it into what you want to change. Mm-hmm. A bit more concrete….”
“That’s it. Exactly. Well done.”
“Professor, you’re quite good at this….”

Grey proved to be far kinder than I’d imagined.

“Mm-hmm. Shift it a little more this way….”
“Ah, that’s right.”
“You did well….”

⋮

Hours passed, and midnight arrived.
The phone rang several times.
They wanted to know what we were doing, why we hadn’t come back yet—Grey got scolded by Lucy, the academy’s head maid, and I got scolded by Adel. Yet the lesson did not end.

More hours drifted by until around four in the morning. From the Grand Hall floor where a single butterfly had landed, mountains and fields unfurled. In a manner of speaking, it resembled World Forgery.

The Glassy Butterfly’s fourth form, Dream State, was complete.

“Is this a success?”
“Ah, stop that already…. Why do you keep asking? You know all this yourself….”

Blunt as her words were, Grey’s eyes had grown hazy.

“You must be exhausted….”
“You’re the one who put in the effort.”
“I didn’t think you’d come this far in just a day…. Professor, you’re not actually Habanero, are you…?”
“Dante Habanero?”
“Exactly.”

Grey laughed emptily. I found it a little amusing too.
After that, Grey stood vacant-eyed, watching the mountains and fields I had created, the butterflies.
For a long while.

…….

Her family had been slaughtered in childhood, and the Glassy Butterfly that bloomed from another’s hands—it must have been ages since she’d seen it. I couldn’t know what Grey felt watching it.

But Grey turned back to me with an expressionless face.
And asked me this:

“…How is it? Now that you’ve learned…??”

A casual remark, tossed off in passing.
But it was a question laden with intention. And I knew what answer Grey was looking for.

“What?”
“…No, I’m asking. How does the Glassy Butterfly feel?”
“What?”
“No, come on. You know perfectly well you’re just messing with me…?”
“What about it?”
“……I’m going to die here.”

Disappointment crystallized within her expressionless mask.

“…Well, you already know so many powerful Illusion Magic techniques, Professor. It’s fine….”
“What of the Glassy Butterfly?”
“No? It’s just, you don’t have to answer….”
“I’ll give my answer somewhere else.”
“…Where?”
“The Laundry Room.”
“……?”

Grey lowered her head.
To hide the corner of her mouth that was twitching.

“Oh really, you old— you can’t just do that, you know? You’re supposed to at least pretend to be disappointed….”

That’s enough teasing.

“To be frank, I believe the Glassy Butterfly is a competitive Illusion Magic technique across the entire continent.”
“…What?”
“Among practitioners whose strength grows ever more refined, an Illusion Magic technique with such a high difficulty to see through holds tremendous value. Habanero’s founder even established a nine-tier system, after all. Should you reach that level, not even a Challenger could penetrate it.”
“…….”
“The Glassy Butterfly is an excellent ability. Moreover, you yourself have ample potential to contribute to Hiaka’s pure Illusion Magic.”

Grey propped her chin up, covering half her mouth with her hand.
Then she gazed toward some distant point and murmured softly.

“…Continent-wide, excellent…? Hmm, is that so…?”

She turned her head away with feigned nonchalance,
but she couldn’t hide the grin.

“…Is that really…?”

And at the same moment, her status window gave her away as well.

┃ Relationship Status increased: Grey [43] (▲13)
┃ Reward: Star Fragment × 13

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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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